39 Burst results for "Moses"
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Reaching Out / Great Ideas for Evangelism
"We talked about survival last night. You know there's a saying I've always thought, don't wait until you're thirsty to dig a well. A lot of times we wait until the 15th round before we've been knocked down, before we go for help. Isn't that true? Sometimes we have to hit that bottom bottom, I guess. Just don't take things for granted. Good lives, lives that are together are not my accident. They're my right choices. The world just says you're lucky, but we know it's not luck. We know it's not luck. You don't order godly kids in the catalog. I'm a godly kid, respectful. You don't order me, you have to build lives. And I tell you what, we live in a day that, I tell you what, it's kind of sad. God doesn't give you wisdom. To see things how he sees them, and actually to see through things. To see through the deception of Satan. Look, two things I begged for in my life. I begged to be a solider, and I begged to raise my kids. He used to beg God for wisdom, because I knew his past was going to be greater than me. He used to say, if you want to mess up your life, that's your choice, but you're not messing your kids' lives up. And I don't know, I guess God, I just begged God for wisdom, and then James, he says he'll give it to you liberally if you ask. And I do believe he has. I got a lady in my church, my secretary, I'm going to be the secretary. She said, I think there is certainly something about raising kids. And if I really even know what I said, I just need to ask her. I think she wrote down everything I've ever said. And it's nice to have people listen. You know, it's ironic, people in my church now are more like me than my own kids. That's just the way it is. They're more like their pastor. They've been influenced by their pastor. My people have been influenced by me. They've been sitting under my preaching group, some of them, for 29 years. So, you know, they actually thank and remind me of how my kids would be. I see my kids, and they've kind of sometimes drifted away from different ways. And it kind of hurts me, but they become like their pastor. And, you know, so we just need to try to encourage each other, you know, hold together. You know, we're one body of many members. Amen. I think I heard one time that a car has about 30 ,000 parts. You know, it takes all of them to put together. It only takes one of them to miss malfunctions before you're in trouble. Isn't that the truth? You know, when one malfunction, you know, you have maybe eight cylinders on your car. You know, when one of them malfunctions, you lose a lot more than one -eighth of your power. Anyone in those cars knows if one plug or one wire is misfiring, it's like you lose 70 % of your power. And, you know, we got to make sure we don't malfunction on starry again. Mm -hmm. Joe, Steve will bring her own water tonight, because I'm not falling for that one yet. You know, we just need to work together as a body. You know, hey, I always tell my people, the devil only needs one heart to work out of. Don't let your heart be that one he works out of. It's a dangerous place to be, too. And, well, I think we have enough work out here. We have enough people that I think God's work, besides having Christians, amen, but Ezekiel, if you're Ezekiel 33 now, verse, I just thought we'd start at verse 31. It says, and they came unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear my words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness, passions, desires, things like that. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. They were too powerful at first, aren't they? Man, I just read that. They point that verse, so many people are, they sit in church, and, you know, they may say, oh, it's a good message, whatever, but they just don't do them. God says, happier little do these things, amen, you know? And just knowing them and not doing them actually just makes you miserable, probably, right? Some people just have enough religion to bug them instead of bless them. Isn't that the truth? Yeah, just enough to just make them miserable without making them joyful. One guy I've told, and I've heard this all the time, but he's going to tell me in church, he says, the pastor's job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, you know? So I'm here to try to disturb you where you're comfortable and comfort you where you're hurting. Amen? And so we come here tonight and turn with me now to Mark, Matthew, Mark, I think, with the gospel, where Christ is portrayed as his servant. You know, the four gospels in Matthew, God is portrayed as a king, as a king, and Mark as a servant, and Mark and Luke as a son of man, and John, the son of God. And we find here one of my passages I love, and I don't know, anyone have favorite, I love, I have so many favorite passages, I guess, but I like this one because it's about four men, I guess, a four, but I guess I can't even say for sure, I'm sure there were probably men that took a man of palsy that was paralyzed through the Peter's house roof to get him to Jesus to be healed. It says there in chapter two, no, actually this just follows where I talked about it the other day about the leper that was healed, and Jesus said in verse 44, right before that in chapter one, see thou say nothing to any man that would go thy way and show thyself to the priests and offer for like cleanliness these things which Moses commanded for a testimony to them. But he went out and began to publicize it much, to blaze abroad the matter, and so much that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city. I mean, God, Jesus at the end is so well known now, it's hard for him to even, you know, move and around stuff, and set him up in the desert places, and they came to him from every quarter. So we come here now, it says here, and again, he entered into Capernaum, you know, that's kind of where he kind of made his home, where Peter was after some days, and it was noise that he was in the house. And straightway, many were gathered together in so much that there was no room for them, no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto them, and they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was born of four, and when they could not come nigh unto him from the press, in other words, the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken a nub, they let down a bad brim the sick of the palsy lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he sent unto the sick of the palsy, saying, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, you know, isn't that amazing? Here in this crowd, there are some hearts that were very, very ungodly. Here they are just looking for a reason to cause trouble, looking for a reason, observing just with a critical spirit, you know, and sadly, they can be in a church, someone comes just to be a critic, but there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man thus speak blaspheming? Who can forgive sins but God only? See, they knew exactly what Jesus was saying he was. Jesus said, I am God, you know, and that made them angry because they didn't want to receive it except that, and immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye of these sayings in your hearts? Whether it is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the sick of palsy, I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy bed and go thy way unto thy house, and immediately he arose, took up his bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this faction. Isn't that amazing? You know, I love that. You know how exciting when God's moving in the hearts of people. When you have a revival, you know, it's not about one person. It's about what God is doing in the hearts of people. And your testimony has brought tears to my eyes. You know, man, isn't that great? Somebody cared enough to go out and make that extra effort, and here he is in church today, almost waiting ahead on the sight of somebody who cared for his soul. You know, I had one psalmist who said, There's no way I cared for my soul. You know, tonight, that's why we're here. We're one beggar telling another beggar before we found bread telling people. I thank God I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home. And I tell you, I didn't have to make us go to church. We loved church. We loved revival meetings. Loved evangelists. You know, that was just kind of the highlight of the year, really. It was like the Super Bowl, you know? And I just thank God. We were poor. It was just like church mice. There were six kids we were poor so we could get out. But I tell you what, I remember I was a little boy. I had my own little horn, you know? I won't tell you. Because there was an evangelist. He blew up. He had a horn. And I would not get out in the middle. I wanted to be like him. I tell you what, that's the kind of heros you ought to be wanting your kids to have. My friend today, if you don't get them in church, if you don't build up the man of God, if you don't build up authority in your life, it will come back to bite you like you've never seen. Go ahead and teach your children disrespect to pastors, to the president, to police.
Dennis Prager Podcasts
Fresh update on "moses" discussed on Dennis Prager Podcasts
"See that? I do it again. There's no noise. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I feel bad for my guest. He's probably wondering, is this what I signed up for? To go on this guy's show? Actually, I know my guest pretty well. I think it's fair to say we're good friends. He's a very, very important Christian leader in the United States, Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at the 16,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas and a Fox News contributor. He has a daily radio show, Pathway to Victory. It's on more than 1,000 stations. Wow. And we've been together quite a number of times, Pastor and I. He has a book out. As soon as I tell you the name, you will know why I'm having him on. The Ten Commandments. It's actually called The Ten. It's a good way. How to live and love in a world that has lost its way. Pastor Jeffress Dennis Prager here. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me, Dennis. And yes, we are good friends. It's great to be with you. Thank you. Thank you. So, you know, I assume you know, but it doesn't matter. It's okay if you don't. But I believe that just this is the antidote to evil. If everybody lived by the Ten Commandments, my line is we could defund the police. Absolutely. And you know, I feel a little bit inferior here. This is a third version of the Ten Commandments. The first one was given by Moses and the second one by Dennis Prager. I know you've written on these. In fact, I've quoted from you in my book, The Ten. But I think you're exactly right. That subtitle, How to Live and Love in a World That's Lost Its Way, really describes the culture in which we're living. And I think about Abraham Lincoln back in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. He issued the first declaration for repentance and prayer. And he asked the question in that proclamation, what is it that is tearing our nation apart? And then he answered his own question by saying, we have forgotten God. And Dennis, I think 160 years later, that's true in America. The chaos you see politically, morally, spiritually in our country is a result of our thinking we can be good without God. We don't need God. But the fact is, he's our creator. He knows how we operate best. And these Ten Commandments were given not for God's benefit, but for our benefit. I want to stress something to my listeners. The pastor is a living example of why I always use or regularly use the term Judeo-Christian values. We have different theologies, obviously. I'm a Jew. I'm a believing Jew. He's a believing Christian. But in terms of values, every word that Pastor Jeffress just said could have come from my mouth, this Jew's mouth, this Christian's mouth. And it was so perfectly stated. By the way, I did not know that Lincoln said that. It is so illustrative of the difference in America then and today. If a president said that today, the New York Times would lampoon the man. That's exactly right. And yet, look at what we're going through as a nation right now. You know, I use one example in my book, The Ten. You know, there was an effort starting about 60 years ago by secularists to remove any expression of God from the public square. We can be good without God, they told us. And so 1962, prayers taken out, Bible reading, 1963. But the culminating decision was 1980, Stone versus Graham, which the Supreme Court said in a Kentucky school, you cannot only not talk about the Ten Commandments, you can't even display them, because if they are displayed and have their desired effect, they might cause school children to read, venerate, and perhaps even obey the commandments. And this is not an acceptable objective under the establishment. Was that actually their wording? Yes, yes, yes. I give it in my book, Stone versus Graham, 1980. Oh my God. So we don't want it displayed lest they obey them. Yeah. You know what this reminds you? You will love this. I testified in the US Senate a few years ago because PragerU videos had been suppressed in many ways by YouTube, Google owning YouTube. And so we were testifying at a Senate committee, we meaning myself, and a couple of others, and a representative of Google. And the Senator Cruz asks the Google person, may I ask, why did you put Mr. PragerU video on the Ten Commandments on the restricted list? And he said with a straight face, because it mentions murder. Yeah. So that's exactly the Kentucky thing. Why would we want to teach kids not to murder? And what's interesting, Dennis, the ultimate irony is that 17 years after that ruling, at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, a 14-year-old who had had an handgun approached a group of students praying before school, opened fire on them, killing two seriously wounded three, all in schools where 17 years earlier, the Supreme Court said, you cannot post the words, thou shalt not kill. You know, this is just what Hosea talked about in the Old Testament. God said to Hosea in chapter four, verse six, because you have forgotten me and my law, I will forget your children. And Dennis, I believe with all of my heart that if we would start, not finish, but just start displaying the Ten Commandments, we need to remind children, there is a God. There is a God that we're all accountable. I'm not saying that's going to solve the problem of school shootings. There are other things we may need to do, but it all begins with an acknowledgement of our creator and that he has given laws that govern our behavior. The book is The Ten, Dr. Robert Jeffress, J-E-F-F-R-E-S-S. It is up at dennisprager.com. It's only order it any way you want, but you can see it on my website. In light of what you just said, I'm curious what you think and feel totally free to say, you know, it's not one of the best ideas you ever heard. I'm fine with that. But I really am very serious about this, about putting up billboards on various highways around the country, something to the effect, yes, God does love you, but he also judges you. What do you think of that? Well, that is completely politically incorrect, but it is absolutely true. And, you know, people, even whether it's the Old Testament view of God, or the New Testament, you know, a lot of people think Jesus was this little wimpy rabbi who walked from around the countryside eating bird seed and saying nice things to people. But Jesus was very strict when it came to God's laws, and what God said about the Ten Commandments even extended them further. You know, he said, you've heard it said, you shall not murder. I say to you to hate somebody who's tantamount to committing murder, but I think your idea is right. We need to know, even as uncomfortable as it makes us, that God is a God who judges us. He's always watching us. My ways are ever before the Lord, Job said, and we need to live with that constant knowledge that he is watching, evaluating, and eventually judging. You said that it'll make people uncomfortable. I'm reminded of a saying, it's not mine, I wish it were, but I heard this many years ago, that the purpose of religion is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the uncomfortable. Yeah, I think Van Tabner originated that, and it is so true. And Dennis, if there's one thing I want people to know about the Ten Commandments is, God gave us these commandments not to repress us, but to bless us. When my daughter was little, we drove up to Pikes Peak, and she was about five years old, and we got out and there were no guardrails around the edge, and all of a sudden she started running toward the edge, and I instinctively yelled out, stop! Now why did I yell stop? I wasn't trying to rob her of some wonderful experience, I was trying to keep her from going over the cliff. And there's reasoning, God says, stop committing adultery, stop stealing, stop murdering. He's doing that for our benefit. He made us, he knows how we best operate, and the Ten Commandments are kind of God's operating manual for our lives.
The Bill Simmons Podcast
A highlight from A Dame Trade Deep Dive With Ben Thompson, Plus Seth Meyers and Million-Dollar Picks
"Coming up, Dame gets traded. Million dollar pick Seth Meyers, it's all next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Get in on the football action right from the opening kickoff with America's number one sports book. The app is safe, secure, easy to use. FanDuel always has exclusive offers. When you win, you'll get paid instantly. FanDuel has lots of ways to play, like the spread, money line, over -unders, team totals, player props, so much more. Jump into the action at any time during the game with live betting. Combine multiple bets from the same game in a same game parlay. Download the FanDuel sports book app today. Make every moment more of this football season. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit TheRinger .com slash RG to learn more about the resources and help lines available and listen to the end of this episode for additional details. You must be 21 plus and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1 -800 -GAMBLER or visit TheRinger .com slash RG. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. I just use this. Here's something every football fan should know. You can get everything you need for game day delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything because you can't get the dream flex for your fantasy team delivered with Uber Eats. But Tex -Mex, yeah, great pass protection, can't get it. Great pizza selection, oh yeah. While they can't help on the field, you can get pretty much everything else you need to watch the game delivered with Uber Eats. So this season, get anything, almost, almost anything for game day by ordering on the Uber Eats app. Uber Eats, official on -demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. I'll call in select markets and 21 plus to order. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. We're also brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network where I put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did the big chill. It was very, very exciting. I have Kyle Brandt coming on Monday's podcast. I'm just gonna tell you the movie now because it is gonna be the best moment of your weekend if you spent two hours watching this classic. We're doing Toy Soldiers. It really brings everything possible to the table. So if you wanna watch it ahead of time, there it is. That podcast is going up Monday night. If you wanna hear stuff about the debate, we have Tara Paul and Mary's podcast, Somebody's Gotta Win. That reacted to it as well as the press box with Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker. So there you go. Our debate coverage has been on point. Also, higher learning. Van and Rachel had Larry Elder on this weekend. It made a lot of noise, man. That podcast is great. I hope you check that out as well. Hope you're checking out theringer .com. And on this podcast, gonna talk about the dame trade at the top. We're gonna bring in Ben Thompson from the Techery newsletter, which he's been on this podcast I think four weeks ago. And he's a huge Bucks fan. He's gonna give the Bucks fan side of things. We're gonna do million dollar picks. And then old friend Seth Meyers talking about a whole bunch of stuff. So really good podcast. It's all next. First, our friends from Pro Jam. What's up? All right, I'm taping this on Thursday afternoon. Normally when there's a big MBA trade, I always do the emergency trade reaction right after the podcast. But we just put up a podcast on Tuesday. So I decided to play it a little differently this time. I wanted a little distance, I wanted to listen to stuff, read stuff, and try to form some big picture opinions coming out of this. So I have four smaller ones, then one big one. First one, I thought Portland did an incredible job with this trade. I really liked this trade, especially everyone was trying to bully them in June and July about, oh, you got to take Miami's offer. You just got to. It's where he wants to go. It's the only offer you're going to get. And guess what? They waited. They played it perfectly. They stared Miami down, and they got a much better deal. First of all, they get the Drew Holiday piece that they can flip into a bunch out of their stuff, which we'll talk about in one second. I love the DeAndre Ayton gamble. As you know, on this podcast, I am a big DeAndre Ayton guy. Not in the sense of I'm the biggest fan of his in the world, but I'm a fan of the asset. I just think I love the valued assets, no matter what it is. Whatever market we're talking about, DeAndre Ayton, 18 and 10 for his career, 60 % field goals percentage, 25 years old. He's played in 45 playoff games. He played four rounds in the 2021 finals. Last year, he got his ass kicked by Jokic. Oh, sorry. Like, that never happens. And Phoenix just sold on him, which I can't wait to talk about. But just from a Portland standpoint, they not only get Ayton in whatever they get for holiday, they get the 29 first, they get the two swaps, and they dump Nurkic. Nurkic hasn't had a healthy start to finish all the way through the playoffs here since 2018, which I'm positive was a long time ago. He's basically 12 and 8. He's, you know, a 50 % shooter. I made a list of the top 30 centers. I encourage you to do this at home, because what's more fun than making lists of NBA centers? I can't imagine anything. I made a list of who I thought were the best assets of the center position for talent, contract, everything. He was 29th on my list. The only person I had ahead of him who's technically a starter, unless you start talking about the Detroit or Charlotte guys, was Zubats on the Clippers. I thought he was the 29th best center asset in the league. And Phoenix, you know, just quickly to go to them, they're trying to win this year. They got worse. They turned Ayton's money into Nurkic and Grayson Allen and Nasir Little. Grayson Allen, we already know with him, he can't play in playoff series. We saw him 22. We saw it last year. I heard and read in some places like that, I got two rotation players. Did they? Is Nurkic a playoff rotation player? Is Grayson Allen a playoff rotation player? Because I'm positive he's not. So for the same money that they were spending on Ayton, they got three guys that I don't think are going to help them. In 25, the money comes down a little bit to 23 million just for Nurkic and Little, which is 7 million less than Ayton. And then in 26, that money goes up to 25 .5. But I don't understand what Phoenix was doing. Why not wait to see if Ayton clicks with Vogel? Vogel has such a good history with centers. He rejuvenated Dwight Howard on the 2020 Lakers. He basically created Roy Hibbert's career in 2013 with the defense verticality thing. I thought he was going to do a good job with Ayton. I'm stunned that they gave up on him. I'm almost waiting for one of those, now they tell us stories when, you know, that's where Brian Curtis calls them, where like a week after something happens, there's this kind of notebook dump where it's like, here's seven terrible DeAndre Ayton stories. So maybe that'll happen. But for Phoenix just to be like, cool, we locked this down, man. We got Nurkic. You're trying to win the title. You have KD and Booker and Beal. And like, what are you guys doing? Anyway, from Portland's standpoint, I love the Ayton thing. I love that they didn't get bullied. And I know they're going to turn Drew Holliday into something. So this to me was at least an A minus for them, for where they were two months ago, where Dave's like, I want to go to Miami. That's it. And if you don't trade me there, that's kind of fucked up. And they made this work as it got reported that, uh, I think in the athletic, that he expanded his list to Brooklyn and to Milwaukee in the last two weeks. And that's what Portland was waiting on. You know, they were banking on the fact that he's a competitive dude. He's one of the best 75 pairs ever. He wanted a situation settled. So, you know, you wait, you wait, you wait, they expand the list and then you go. Uh, there's a Drew Holliday piece to this. That's awesome. He becomes a contender prize. I wouldn't call this a Drew Holliday sweepstakes. I reserved sweepstakes for the superstars, but it's a mini sweepstakes. This is somebody that could have a huge impact on the playoff race. You know, not only the usual suspects, everybody's talking about Boston, ironically, Miami is a really good fit for him. And in some ways, um, I'm a little more scared of them with Miami than Dame in some ways, especially at a much cheaper contract with giving up less and keeping some of their assets. Philly, if they could pull it off, they have to be in there in Golden State, Minnesota. I think I have to mention Sacramento, I think is a team that if they could figure out how to get Drew without giving up their core, which is basically Keegan Murray and Sabonis and Fox, like that's, you know, could Davion Mitchell be in that trade with some, with a salary and some picks, who knows. The team that I love for Drew Holliday is OKC. I have OKC, you know, I started doing my MBA research for the over -under spot and I haven't landed on a number for them yet, but to me, they feel like a high forties team with Chet and with the growth of their young guys. And if you just like, let's say they traded Lou Dort and a bunch of their picks, maybe two firsts and two of their lesser picks or three firsts and a second, whatever it is. And they just say, fuck it. And they get Drew and you put him with Giddy and SGA and Jalen fucking awesome Williams and Chet Holmgren and all these other dudes they have, that might be a top three team in the West. I mean, that, that's starting to give me some early 2010s OKC vibes. So where he goes is going to be important. I just feel like there was so much Drew Holliday slander the last couple of days. You know, he's one of my favorite players. Even Haralabob, who was the chairman of the board of the Drew Holliday fan club for years and would have the benefit dinners there and, you know, just did a lot of yeoman's work on that front. And even he was like, yeah, yeah, Dame's better than Drew. That trade makes sense for Milwaukee. I was hurt, Haralabob. I was 100 % hurt by that. But you know, Drew got his ass kicked by Jimmy Butler in the playoffs last year. I get it. It happens. Jimmy was unbelievable. I feel like he would have kicked anybody's ass. By the way, why is Drew Holliday guarding Jimmy Butler? That speaks more to some of the issues with Milwaukee. He was never supposed to be a point guard and a creator. I think he was always better as an off -the -ball guy. We saw that with Rondo and New Orleans and just in general. I want to see him with a point guard. I want to see him just being unleashed, not having the ball a lot, just worrying about hitting threes, being an occasional, you know, make -shit -happen guy and being like the third or fourth best guy on a team without having the offensive responsibility to have. All their half court issues got blamed on him for the last couple of years. And I get it. They weren't like an awesome half -court team, even the other one in the finals, but I really value that dude. I had him, even I did the trade value list in August and I had him 37th and I had Dame 23rd. I think he's one of the best 30 players in the league still. He's 33 years old, which, you know, I'm going to talk in a second about when guards hit their mid -30s, but just in general, I think he's a real asset. If he goes to a team like the Celtics and they can keep Derek White and Tatum and Brown in the center, it's like, look out, man. So little mini sweepstakes, rarely do we get the trade, but then we still get another asset to talk about. Thank you for everyone involved in the trade. And then the fourth small point is just that, you know, not rocket science, Milwaukee bought some Giannis time here. They have one of the best 20 players of all time. They were staring down the barrel of a situation that was not good. I was talking about it on this podcast in late June and early July. I thought he was going to put them on the clock. I thought Mark Lasry selling his stake was a really bad sign for all of this because that dude is smart. As I laid out in June, that guy is really smart. And if he's feeling like, you know what, it's time for me to sell my buck stock, that makes me nervous. And then all the stuff that Giannis said and did, which I thought he did really fairly and really smartly. And I think that dude's about titles and that's it. And I know we say that about players, but I think in his case, I don't think he cares about, you know, what's my legacy, how do I compare against Dirk DeWhisky, any of that stuff. I just think he wants more rings. I mean, think about the guys who have won two rings out of the best 35 guys on my list of my pyramid. Those are all guys in my top 35 that won multiple wings. You go to the one -ring side, Jerry West, Oscar, Moses, Dirk, Jokic, Giannis, Pettit, Garnett, Kawhi, Rick Barry. That's the list he's on now. I certainly don't think he's looking at that list going, I got to get away from these guys, but it's a slightly different list. I think when you win multiple rings in multiple situations, it elevates you in a certain way. I think he fundamentally understands that at least a little bit. I want to be the best player since LeBron James. I think that's a thing that he wants. How am I going to do that? I need more rings. I need more finals trips. He knew from last year and maybe even the Boston series that they just weren't good enough. Whether this trade is going to be the thing that propels them, we'll find out, but he's been in the league 10 years, two MVPs, five first teams, two second teams, and now we have this little two -year window. Kawhi and the Raptors was a one -year window. This is a two -year window, I feel like. With Giannis, he's got two years left in his deals. So does Lopez. Middleton has two in a player option. Dame's got two, and then this crazy $120 million player option extension thingy that he has that just keeps going and going. It's probably two years. There's a world where this could go terribly this season, at least for what the expectations are, and then maybe it becomes Kawhi, Raptors. Maybe Giannis is like, you know what? That didn't work. Trade me. And the Bucks, who have no picks left and no future, they look at it next summer, and they go, all right. We tried it. Giannis, what can we get for you? Dame, what can we get? And they just do a reboot, rehaul. Remember, they won in 2021, which just takes so much pressure out of this. It's so much different than the Clippers situation, where they went all in on Kawhi and Paul George. They give up all those picks and SGA, and they've gotten nothing out of it. They haven't even made the finals. So it's got to happen. I think they at least probably have to make the finals. If they get bounced in round two, do I think Giannis is going to stay because they made this Dame -Mower trade? Probably not. So that leads to the big question, is how good of a trade was this? So there's a big picture angle on Dame, and it's going to sound negative, but I really don't want it to sound negative because I think Dame, I voted for him for NBA Top 75. I think he's been one of the best guards in the last 15 years. I think there's a ton of great things you can say, and there's a chance that he goes to Milwaukee, and this thing is fucking awesome. I know any Celtic fan I've talked to, including Isaiah, who's helping produce this podcast today, the Giannis -Dame pick and roll is just terrifying. Other than Jokic and Murray, it's going to be the single most unstoppable offensive play in the league. It is. We are conceding that point. The spot Dame is in right now, big picture -wise, it's weird. He's a superstar, but he's not, and we've seen guys like this before. I judge superstars by, do you have the resume statistically, and is your team succeeding consistently at a certain level? You can't totally say that about Dame. He's never been on a 55 -win team. He's missed the playoffs completely four times in 11 years. He said three first -round exits. He made the Final Four once in 2019, which was really lucky because Golden State and Houston were the two best teams, and then they got smoked. He's never been on a true contender ever. Instinctively, you go, well, that's not his fault. Who's he played with? Well, he played with LaMarcus Aldridge and CJ McCollum and a couple other guys, but not really anybody. The reason I'm putting this up is there's a success element that he has not had yet that for somebody with his resume is actually kind of unusual. I went and I looked up how many guards in the history of the league averaged 22 points a game for their career and played at least 700 games. I thought the list would be like 20. I didn't know. I didn't know what I was walking into. Only I think 75 guys have averaged 22 a game. So I went and I looked up the list, and it was 10 guys, 700 games, 22 a game for their career. There were some guys who came close like David Thompson, who I think is one of the best guards I've seen in the last 45 years, but had a short career and had some drug issues. He didn't make it. He didn't play enough games. Pete Maravich, 24 .2 points a game, but he didn't play enough games. Kyrie hasn't played enough games yet. Bradley Beale is five games away. I'm actually kind of glad the cutoff's at 700 so we don't have to talk about him. And then Mitchell and Trey Young aren't there yet. There's only 10 guys that made it, and the 10 guys are all fucking awesome. And again, I mentioned this in the context of Dame, who we think he is versus the success he's had. So the 10 guys, Michael Jordan, 30 .1, Jerry West, 27 .1, Allen Averson, 26 .7, George Gervin, 26 .2, Oscar Robertson, 25 .7, Kobe, 25 .0, Harden, 24 .7, Curry, 24 .6, Wade, 22, barely made it, and Russ, 22 .4, and then Dame is at 25 again. All right, what does he not have that those other guys have? Well, MJ, don't need to talk about him. Don't need to talk about Jerry West, who's the freaking logo. Allen Averson, pretty good comparison, right? Big stats, really memorable player, but not a ton of success. Here's the difference. Averson made the finals once. He won an MVP. Dame has done neither of those things. George Gervin was the best scoring guard of the 70s. He made two final fours. He had some bad luck. He really, in 79, really should have came close. And some of it's on him, right? He could have come through. Bobby Dandridge is the one that ended up coming through for the Bullets. They lose. But two final fours, he had four top five MVP finishes, five first teams, four second teams. He was just unassailably the best guard in the league until MJ. Oscar Robertson, don't need to go through him, but he won a ring and an MVP. Kobe, five rings and an MVP. Eleven first teams for Kobe, by the way. James Harden, three final fours, an MVP, six top five MVP finishes, six first team MBAs. And even though Harden has never made the finals as the best guy, he made it with OKC as the sixth man, you could build a contender around Harden. We saw it. We haven't really seen it with Dame. I think that's a fair thing to bring up. Curry, four rings, two MVPs, you know, the Curry thing. Dwayne Wade, three rings, two top five MVPs, two first teams, three second teams. He's more in the Dame waters a little bit, but he had the 2006 finals and he was the second best guy with LeBron on those heat teams. And then Westbrook, who you would say, well, Dame had a better career than Westbrook. Did he? Westbrook made the finals in 2012. He was second best guy on that team. Almost made the finals in 2016. He won an MVP. He had two first teams and five second teams. It's at least like a real argument. And I think when you look at Dame, he only had that one 2019 round three, got bounced. He's only had one top five MVP finish. He's only had one first team MBA and four second team MBAs. Really, really good top 75 career. But the piece that's missing is, have you been on a really good team? Have you made a real run at it? Which is why, you know, I think this Milwaukee trade is so much fun. This is his real chance. I get nervous about a couple things with this trade. One is that, you know, if you look at the 33 and older guards who average 22 points a game in a season. Jordan did it twice. Curry did it twice. Still going. Kobe did it three times. Jerry West twice. Sam Jones once. Hal Greer once. That's the entire list. Now the NBA is different. We have more three -pointers now. It's easier to score. Scoring is the easiest it's ever been. Guys can play at a longer age. So I'm not ruling out Dane being good for the next three years. But just pointing out, history is saying, be a little nervous. In general with guards, like Chris Paul, we saw from age 35 to 36 to 37, like it just dropped. But that's two years older than Dane. Maybe it's fine. I just worry about guards. We have not a lot of instances with guards in their mid -30s of them either peaking as players or being able to sustain whatever success they had during their prime. It always starts to go down with really no exceptions, except for Steph Curry. He's the only non -exception. So if your case is Dane's as good as Steph Curry, or Dane can be as potent as Steph Curry on a winning team, like, you know, Steph Curry is better than Dane, but I'm not going to argue that he couldn't do a lot of the stuff that Curry did in Golden State. The bigger issue for me, the age I'm definitely worried about. Dane has not been healthy the last couple of years, and we have not seen him play nine straight months at playoff basketball with a big bullseye on his back. Everybody coming after you, you're the best team. We haven't seen him do that ever, much less than the last couple of seasons. So can he stay up? Can he stay healthy? That's one thing. The defense with Dane just got kind of swept under the rug the last couple days, and I don't really understand it because there's five categories of defensive player I feel like. There's excellent, there's good, there's average, there's not so good, and then there's bad. And I think Dane's a bad defender. I think the stats back it up. Like, his defensive rating last year was 245 out of the guards. He's the 245th guard for defensive rating. You know, 117 .4 individual defensive rating is 483 overall. Portland's team's always defensively, it was the Achilles heel for them. Partly because of Dane, because he couldn't guard anybody. He's too small. And, you know, think about what we saw from the playoffs the last couple years. I think about the 2020 bubble Celtics playoffs, not infrequently, because I think that team had a chance to potentially win a title. What happened? Everyone hunted Kemba Walker. It was hunting season. It's like, where is he? Got to get a switch. Got to get Kemba Walker guarding somebody who's bigger, or got to beat him off the dribble, and it just became a hunt session with him. And basically, he got played out of the league. He's not in the league anymore. You know, we had this with Isaiah Thomas, too, in the mid -2010s. I think it's been an issue with Kyrie Irving. The Celtics certainly went at him in the playoff series with Brooklyn a couple years ago. Curry, you saw, who I think is a better defender than people give him credit for, but the And he's a much better defender than Dame is. Jordan Poole is somebody that got hunted in playoff series recently. Chris Paul, obviously, is a big one. Jalen Brunson, remember what the Heat did to him? Mitchell, when he was on Utah, this was a huge issue. And then Trae Young, obviously. My fear with Dame is he's a DH, and I think in Portland, part of the reasons he was able to put up the stats he did was because he wasn't playing defense, right? It was just, how many points can I score? My team isn't very good, and I'm just going to do my thing. He's an incredible offensive player. But how much of a trade -off is the defense, right? Well, you think, all right, well, Milwaukee, they're really good defensively. They'll be able to protect him. Here's the team. Giannis, Dame, Lopez, Portis, Middleton, Conaton, Beauchamp, Crowder. Who's guarding Trae Young on this team? Who's guarding Jason Tatum? Here's a partial list of guys that I don't think this team will be able to guard this season. Devin Booker, Tatum, Butler, Trae Young, Kyrie, Curry. Who's going to be chasing Curry around the screens? Dame lowered? Good luck. SGA, Luca, Mitchell, Murray, Edwards, Brunson, Ja, Garland, Fox, Halburn. Are they going to be able to cover Derek White? I don't know. The way this team is constructed, they are not going to have the ability to guard other guards at all, which means they're just going to have to be in a shooting match with them, right? It's going to be not much different than what's going to happen with Phoenix, where they're just literally going to have to outscore the other team. I've just watched too much playoff basketball over the last couple years, where it's like, if you have that weak link on defense, and you're playing a team that's smart enough, they're going to go after that weak link. Like, think about them against the Lakers, right? The Lakers figure their crunch time. Let's say they make the finals. It's Milwaukee and the Lakers, and Lakers crunch time. They're going to have LeBron and Davis and Austin Reeves and, I don't know, a shooter and a point guard, whatever. All they're going to be doing is trying to find where Dame is on the court and going after him. What about when they play Boston? Boston puts out White and Brogdon and Tatum and Brown and a center, and all they're going to be doing is trying to make sure Dame is covering somebody who has the ball who's now torturing him. I think it's a real problem for them. And what's funny is they gave up Drew's defense and, you know, they, what they gave up on defense, which is significant, and they gained an offense, it might end up just being a wash and they might just be a different version of the same team where they still have a huge flaw. It's just on the other end of the court. I'm just shocked that nobody brought up the defense. I agree he's an amazing offensive player and what's cool about this trade and what I'm excited about as a basketball fan is, can he go up a level? Right? A lot of these stats he put up, especially the last couple years. They didn't mean anything. They were, he was on bad teams. Like, who cares? Ultimately, Bradley Beal scored 30 points a game on the Wizards. Who cares? I think most really good offensive players, if they're on a bad team, can get between 25 and 30 a night. Can you do it nine months in a row? Can you do it when you're getting hunted on defense all over the place? How much can Milwaukee protect him? And what does he have in the tank at age 33 with 900 plus games on the O 'Dominor already? I'm still afraid of the Bucks, but people have, like, FanDuel had them as best odds in basketball and I think most people feel like they're the favorite now. I don't feel like there's a favorite. I think you can go through every team. Boston, I could, I'm scared of Porzingis. What's going to happen with Jalen Brown out there? He has contracts. Can Peyton Pritchard, all these different things. Philly, God only knows. Miami, they're unquestionably worse. Yeah, Milwaukee is going to be really good, but depending where Holiday lands and how this all plays out, I just think it's still wide open. And the other piece, so if you're just talking Boston, Miami, Tatum kills Milwaukee. I have no idea why. Boston is kind of built to at least stay with Dame and, you know, Derek White is about as good of a person you're going to have to try to keep Dame in check, at least. And Boston's done a really good job of guarding Giannis over the years. They don't have Grant Williams this year, but I just don't think, I think there's as many ways this goes wrong as it goes right, I guess would be my final thought on this because for what they gave up, especially with that 29 unprotected and the two swaps and, you know, they are all in on this team. And you know my theory, when you go all in on a team, you better think you can win. Not positive, but it's an awesome trade. It really is. It makes the league so much more fun. Dame and Giannis together. I'm going to enjoy watching Portland. I still have my eating stock. Watching Phoenix fans slowly realize that Derkiszna isn't the answer is going to be fun and then we'll see where Drew Holliday goes. So really fun trade. We're going to talk about it a little bit more with Die Hard Bucks fan, Ben Thompson in one second. Let's take a break.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
Fresh update on "moses" discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Here on this earth, mortal men received tithes, speaking about the tithes paid to Levi. But there he retains them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. So there's a couple of contrasts here that are worth paying attention to. And the first one is the contrast of a mortal man and somebody else. So that's the first contrast that we see. And then we see this idea that here in the continuation, we have the payment of tithes being given to these mortal men, but both there being elsewhere in heaven and also there in the encounter between Abram and Melchizedek. It says he receives them and then it gives this statement of whom it is witnessed that he lives forever. That he lives. So who is it that the testimony of the church is that he is alive? Who receives that testimony? Who is the focus of that testimony? It's Christ. And the language here is so specifically given so many other places in scripture that the testimony of the church is that he lives. It can't be speaking of anybody else. And so when I look at this and I take all of these things together, I am convinced without any question that Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate Christ. And it's Abraham's response to Melchizedek that is most interesting. Because here's Abraham, the father of the nation, the leader of the people that will come, the one who has received the promises, blessed of God, chosen by God, called out of his land by God, all of these things that are unique to Abraham and Abraham alone. And he comes to this man who is a priest and he submits to him without any question. He receives that blessing. He receives that gift of that blessing and he paid tribute. And in doing so, he recognized him. He's acknowledging who he is in some fashion. Now, this is kind of a strange thing to consider, but I want to change gears with you. So hold some things that I said right there in your thought and turn it into John chapter eight. Let's see if I can unpack this for us with at least a little bit of clarity. So John chapter eight, starting at verse 50, I'm not going to read the whole chapter. I was tempted, but we're just going to read the tail end of it. Jesus has been having a tussle with the Pharisees, shockingly, and he's been talking to them about their inheritance from Abraham. They brought it up and he's been telling him, you guys have this all wrong. So at verse 50, we're going to come into the heat of it. He says, I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. Then the Jews said to him, now we know you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets. And you say, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who's dead and the prophets who are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? And Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say, I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Verse 56, your father Abraham saw my day. I'm sorry, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was glad. And the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham. And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. And they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them and so passed by. So what Jesus is saying here is some testimony about himself. Let's start with that. And he gives them this basic testimony and he says, I have in me the power of life. I have in me the power to sustain beyond death all who believe in me. You guys have trusted in Abraham. You guys have cast your lot with him. You have said that Abraham is the end all be all of everything that you are. And yet Abraham himself is dead. And your fathers have all died and the prophets have all died. And death is a real part of your life. So your Abraham is less than me. Your Abraham is less than my God. Your Abraham is less than I know it to be. And then he goes on to say that God himself honors him. That God himself gives honor to Christ and is not arguing with him about what he's saying. So that's either a really bold lie or a really plain truth. Because in the end, the things that Jesus said about God and the things that Jesus said about himself and the things that Jesus said about the world and the way that it functioned were incredibly controversial, even to the point of calling him father, even to the point of praying to God as father and presuming to declare that he had a relationship with God that was far more than anybody around him. This is what angered the Pharisees. They were the gatekeepers to God. They were the ones who had the righteousness in check. They were the ones who understood what God required. And as they walked in their ways, the mere fact that Jesus told them, okay, you guys can have that, but you're completely wrong about who God is and what God does and how God loves us and everything else in your life, but you just go your way and have your peace. They couldn't live with this. And it drove them mad and it drove them to the point of murder. But then Jesus said something absolutely over the top. He said, your father Abraham saw my day. He rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. And they challenged him, oh, what are you trying to say? You're not even 50 years old and you've seen Abraham. He's been dead for thousands of years. And Jesus said this before Abraham was Yahweh. He declared the name of God, applying it to himself. So first of all, let me just throw this in for free for you. Anybody who tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God has never read the Bible, okay? Jesus very clearly declares himself to be God and Jesus has done so on several occasions in various forms in various ways, but this one is absolutely painfully explicit. And if you say, I'm reading something into it, do not miss the fact that their immediate response was, find a rock and kill this dude. They were incensed and they were not incensed because Jesus claimed to be older than he looked. He didn't say to them, look, man, I'm actually 2000 years old or whatever he might've said. He was declaring himself to be God and they understood it. And if Jesus was not God, then he deserved to be put to death for it. Clear? But understand that God himself had a hand on Christ and was shielding him and protecting him. It was not yet his time. Soon enough, he will die for the people. But in this moment, it's not his time. And so they have no power to hurt him. They have no power to touch him. But let's go back to what Jesus said about Abraham. Abraham saw my day and rejoiced in it. Does that mean that Abraham understood when he saw Jesus to some degree who he was? Clearly not in the fullness of it, but that he had some sort of understanding about who Jesus was. I think that when Abraham encountered Melchizedek, he recognized that he was dealing with God. So let's talk about Abraham's habit of talking to God, because really there's quite a few places where it talks about Abraham was doing his thing and God appeared to him. Now, before we can get too far into this, we need to understand what the scripture tells us. So in John chapter one, verse 18, John says this plainly and explicitly, no one has seen God at any time, period. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him, okay? This is the statement of scripture, and there's more, and we'll look at some more in a few minutes, but so this has to kind of shape our thinking. The plain explicit statement of scripture is that no one has ever seen God, and yet we have encounters. Jacob wrestled with God, right? Wrestled with the father, and we have all these different things. So who were people seeing when they saw God? Was it God the father? No, it was God the son in a pre-incarnate form. So when we look at Abraham's encounters with God, there's a couple of them that sort of stand out. There's a lot of times where it says God appeared, and then God proceeds to talk to Abraham. There's in chapter 15, God appeared to Abram in a vision, but most of the time it just says God appeared to Abraham, and then occasionally it was just the voice of God. So when God appeared, it doesn't always necessarily mean that he was seeing a human form. Maybe it was the Shekinah glory shining as Moses saw that the glory of God. It doesn't give us anything explicit except in two specific occasions, and I'm gonna put forth the idea that Melchizedek is one of them, but I'm gonna start with the second one first. So in Genesis chapter 18, we find Abraham hanging out by the tree and chilling and sitting in the evening of the day, and three men approach him, but I want you to see how this reads in Genesis chapter 18. So Genesis chapter 18, and we'll start at the first of it. Now the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes, and behold, three men were standing by him, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground, and he started off treating them as if they were merely strangers, but through the course of his encounter with them, it became evident to him that these were divine messengers, and one of them in particular, he refers to later on as Lord, a name reserved for God. So this encounter is when the timestamp comes for in a year, you're gonna have a son. Genesis chapter 18 is when God came and told Abraham, the clock has started. This is when Sarah heard him say it, and she laughs, and the Lord says, why did you laugh? And she says, I didn't laugh. And he says, yeah, you did, but don't worry about it. It's okay. What's interesting to me is I was reading through all of the life of Abram this week, preparing for this, is that when God first told Abraham he was gonna have a son, Abraham also laughed, but we don't hear any big deal about it because Abraham wasn't ashamed of his laughter. He just sort of did it. Sarah tried to hide it, and so there's a little nod for us to understand that immediate repentance is always best. Honesty before God is always the way to go. Instead of trying to hide your stuff and pretend like it didn't happen, that's never the right thing to do because God always knows, amen? So what we see is that Abraham is here, hanging out by the trees. These guys approach. They give him the timestamp of any year. You're gonna have a son. It's gonna come from your wife, Sarah. This is Isaac. This is the promised son. The line is gonna begin. This is where the descent of kings truly starts. Abraham's son, Isaac, is the line of promise. This is where the kings come from. This is ultimately the thread that leads to Christ. But when Abraham encountered these men, they also had another mission. What else was going on in Genesis chapter 18? Yeah, Sodom and Gomorrah is getting ready to get cooked, right? So as they're done telling him about Isaac and done telling him about what they've came for primarily, the two men get up to leave, the third remains, and the Lord says to himself, Abraham is my chosen servant. Shall I not share with him what I'm going to do? And Abraham tells, or the Lord tells Abraham that he's about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, that the stench of its sin has risen up to him. And then Abraham engages in his famous bargaining session with God, and the Lord promises that if he can find even 10 men in Sodom and Gomorrah, he will not destroy it. But what we see is that in both instances, the instance of Melchizedek and the instance of the three men coming to give a promise, the appearance of a pre-incarnate Christ, because this has to be a pre-incarnate Christ. This is a man in physical form, okay? This is somebody that Abraham has shared bread with now. He's prepared a meal. This is not a glowing Shekinah glory. This is not a disembodied voice from heaven. This is a person. This is Christ pre-incarnate and two angels. In both of these instances, when Abraham encounters Christ, it's around Sodom, right? When Melchizedek came, it was right after Abraham had delivered lot from the kings who had gone to war and sacked Sodom and carried him off as part of their chattel. But here, it's around the destruction of Sodom. In both instances, when Christ appeared to Abraham, it's about Sodom, it's about the sin, and it's also about his purpose to redeem. You see that? It's about the fact that when Christ comes to us, he is coming for redemption. When Christ comes to us, he is coming to help us out of the messes that we have put ourselves into. He is coming to deliver us. Now, I wanna get back to the idea that this is not simply one verse in scripture that says nobody's ever seen God, because the strength of this whole reasoning sort of rests on that point. So listen to how God put it in Exodus chapter 33. He said, you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live. When Moses asked him, I wanna see you. And God said, nope, ain't gonna happen. Or in Matthew chapter 11, verse 27, Jesus said, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except for the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except for the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. So not only can we not see him, we can't even know him apart from Christ. We cannot encounter God in any way that is real or purposeful apart from Christ. And in 1 Timothy chapter six, verse 16, Paul writes, speaking of Christ, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, I'm sorry, speaking of God, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power, amen. Now, let's talk about the timing of his coming. If he came with the idea that there is problems that need to be resolved, so we have the issue of sin, which is represented by Sodom and Gomorrah. We have the issue of his nephew Lot, who we'll talk about in just a moment, and we have the issue of the kings carrying him off, and we have the issue of God bringing judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, both of these things, and we have the pre-incarnate Christ having revealed himself to Abraham so that he can intervene in these circumstances. Now, the timing of all of this is not accidental. God doesn't do anything on accident. He doesn't do anything by, oh, look how convenient that was. That's not how God works. Everything is according to his plan. Everything is according to his perfect will. And the fullness of what God is doing here is a demonstration of his purpose in redemption. He is coming to give this statement about Isaac, and he is coming to demonstrate the reason for the coming of Messiah. This is coupled together for a purpose. When Isaac is announced, he is announced in the context of an impending statement of judgment. He is announced in the context of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God had come and talked to Abraham several times about Isaac, right? At the beginning, he had told him, you're gonna have a son. I'm gonna give you a promise. And then Abraham didn't trust God, and we have the whole issue with Hagar and Ishmael, and God came to Abraham again, and Abraham said, can't my son Ishmael live before you? Clearly, there's not gonna be any child through Sarah. She's barren, I'm old, it's not gonna happen, but we have this boy. Can you give us the promise through him? And God said, no, I'm gonna send you a son by Sarah. It's gonna be the child that I've promised. Your working trying to fix it is not going to fix it. It's only gonna break things. And so on and on and on, God has spoken about Isaac, but he's never spoken about Isaac in person until now. And when he shows up to say, okay, the clock is starting, one year, it's in the context of, I am about to pronounce judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. It's in the context of judgment. It's in the context of God's wrath for sin. Let me ask you this question. Why do we need a savior? Because of God's wrath for sin. Because of the fact that we are all damned apart from his mercy. We are all condemned, we are all under judgment. We enter into this world condemned already. Three beautiful little babies wandering around in this church earlier this morning and every single one of them enters into this life condemned until God saves them. And that's all of us, that is every single one of us. And we have to recognize that truth. This is the problem of mankind. This is the heart and soul of everything that we do as followers of Christ. It is to recognize the truth that the gospel of Christ is the only hope of anybody. And there is no compromising on that fact. There is no compromising on the reality that if Christ does not save, they will not be saved. So the beginning of the line that produced Christ, accepting Abraham, of course, we have to recognize that, you know, you can trace that line all the way back to Adam. But the truth is that with Abraham's child, Isaac, we have the statement of the promise finding its core, finding its beginning at this moment. And in that context, what do we see? We see that the savior is promised and the clock starts in that context of judgment. Why has Christ come? Well, the purpose of his coming is important for us to recognize as well. What did Jesus say? What was his reason for coming? Came to save. He came to redeem. Mark chapter one, verse 38, speaking to his disciples, he said, let us go into the next town that I may preach there also, because for this purpose, I have come also. I have come forth. So both times that Abraham saw Jesus, it was in connection with sin and salvation. You say, wait a minute, how does Melchizedek fit in with sin and salvation? Well, let's think about that for a minute. When Melchizedek blessed him, it was when Lot got captured by the kings who had sacked Sodom, okay? When Lot and Abram were together and the Lord had blessed them and their herds grew so much so that they could no longer stay together, Abram and Lot went to the top of a mountain and Abram told Lot, look in your direction, pick whichever way you want to go, choose your place. You go one way, I'll go the other. I don't want the contention between us. I love you. You're my family, but clearly we can't hang out together. So choose your direction. You go yours and I'll go mine. And the scripture tells us that Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw the Valley of the Jordan and it was a well-watered plain and it's likened to the Garden of Eden at that time. And it says all the way to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he saw that it was beautiful. It was well-watered, it was green, it was verdant. It was a beautiful place. And he said to himself, that's the place I want to be. Now somebody is going to say to me, you know, he just didn't know what he was getting into, but here's what the scripture says. In Genesis chapter 13, verse 11, Lot chose for himself all the plains of Jordan and Lot journeyed east and they separated from each other. And Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. Verse 13 says, but the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Now it's a stretch of the imagination to believe that Lot was unaware. The truth is, I don't think he cared. He saw what he wanted. The external beauty of the land enticed him. And he said, you know what? I can put up with hanging out with these evil men as long as I can have the good things that they're living by. And immediately we have to recognize the very simple truth that is evident here, that hanging out with evil men can get you caught in their judgments. So when the kings contested and Lot's land, the city in which he was dwelling near, or was it in, I guess it was in, the scripture tells us, because Lot had a progressive movement towards Sodom. So here he pitched his tents near Sodom, which was a very wicked place. But before Melchizedek appears on the scene, there's been this battle of the five kings against the two, and the kings of Sax, Sodom, and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities. And the scripture tells us in Genesis chapter 14, in verse 12, that they carried off Lot as well, who dwelt in Sodom. So Lot has moved closer to sin. He has moved closer to wickedness. He has moved closer into rebellion against God. And again, I'm going to say, if you hang out with wicked men, you just might get caught up in their judgments. There is a principle of separation that God gives us in his word that is something we should pay attention to. And it's something that's very unpopular in the church today because it sounds unfriendly to the world. When we say to them, you know what, I love you. I want you to be saved, but I'm not going to be your friend. I'm not going to hang out with you. I'm not going to do the things you do. I'm not going to go to the places you go. I'm not going to think the things that you think, and I'm not going to imbibe the things that you drink down. I'm not going to live my life like you live yours. And I'm going to draw very hard, very clear, very steadfast lines, because I'm aware that the scripture is not lying when it says, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good character. When God says that, it's a warning to his people. And we have that warning fleshed out here in the life of Lot, who started out pitching his tents towards Sodom, and then he gets caught up in a war that is not his own. He's just an innocent bystander, but he's living in the wrong place, and he gets carried off. So here's Lot being captured in his sin, and what does Abram do? Well, Abram rallies his troops, and him and 300 of his servants go out and whoop up on the five kings, and they rescue Lot. And they bring him back, and it's at that moment that Melchizedek comes upon the scene. So again, we have this issue of judgment, and we have this issue of salvation having been fleshed out. Lot has been rescued from his sin. He has been rescued from his own destruction. But the scripture goes on to tell us something else about Lot. And that is that in Genesis chapter 19, when the messengers of God appear in the city, they find Lot in the city gate. Now, you think to yourself, what's the big deal about that? Well, in ancient times, the city gate was where the council of elders sat, and they would hold court, and they would cast judgment, and they would speak for the city. So where we find Lot is not living towards Sodom, not living in Sodom, but we find Lot as one of the leaders of Sodom. Now, this is not to say that Lot was wrapped up in all the sin that was going on in Sodom. The scripture later on says he's a righteous man. We'll talk about that in a minute. But this is to say that in the midst of what Lot was pursuing with his life, he was progressively making any hope of having a life that was blessed be farther and farther away. And there's a whole lot of misery that comes into Lot's life because of these decisions. There's a whole lot of really bad things that come into Lot's family because of these decisions, not the least of which is that his daughters thought they were the last people on the earth and engaged in incestuous relationships with Lot so that they could have children. This is all drawn out of the fact that Lot did not do what he was supposed to do. Instead, he set himself to pursue wickedness, not wicked sin, not actively pursuing sin, but he pursued the fruits of wickedness. He wanted the good things that came with people who had a wicked life. And beloved, this is something we need to be aware of because how often do we find ourselves crying out for mercy to God because of the circumstances that our really crummy choices brought into our lives? Now, both times, both times, Lot is saved by God's merciful intervention. You say, well, Abraham rescued him the first time. Come on, I told you how many men he took. 300 servants, and they trounced the armies of five kings. What, were they all Rambo? Every last one of them? Probably not. Now, God was with him. Over and over and over throughout the history of Israel, we find God empowering Israel to overcome tremendous odds and to overcome huge armies, not by their strength, but by his. So the deliverance that had just been rendered to Lot when Melchizedek appeared may be credited to Abraham, but in truth, we can recognize the simple reality that it was God who delivered Lot. And I want us to understand that though we may find ourselves eyeballs deep in circumstances that we did not actively participate in, but they are the result of the sin that we were willing to let live around us, there is still mercy and hope in God. There is still the promise of deliverance. There is still the reality that God still delivers his people. There may be consequences. Lot lost a lot. Lot lost a lot, that's funny. There may be consequences. In fact, there probably will be, but God still delivers his people. He still comes alongside and is gracious unto us. Now, God's working is never limited by our own failings, not limited by our own actions or anything else, which is why one of the most perplexing verses in all of scripture can be found in 2 Peter. 2 Peter 2, verses seven and eight. God delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. So there he's called righteous. He was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. For that righteous man, speaking of Lot, dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. I got to tell you the truth. I don't understand that at all. I'm confused by that verse of scripture. To call Lot righteous? This is willful disobedience that took him to Sodom. It's willful disobedience that brought him into Sodom. It's willful disobedience that had him posted in the gates as one of the leaders of Sodom. And yet God calls him righteous three times. I may not understand that verse, but I'll tell you the truth. I'm grateful for it because, pardon? Jesus is righteousness, right? He is our righteousness. And more than that, it is the reality that that righteousness is given to us in spite of our failures, in spite of our own refusal to do what God says. I may not completely understand what God is telling us here, but I'm grateful that he doesn't abandon us when we mess up. And the fact that Lot can be counted in scripture as righteous gives me just a little bit of hope. This truth is something that we dare not miss because it's connected to the coming of Christ and it's connected to the promise that has been made to Abraham. And all of it is wrapped around not only the timing of his coming, but the acknowledgement that Abraham was encountering God who said, through his coming and through the timing of his coming, why he came. Why has Christ come? To save. Christ has come to deliver the people of God. He has come that we might have life. He has come that we might have life abundantly. Luke chapter 19 verse 10 says, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Above everything else that Jesus came to do is this overarching truth of salvation being the work of the Lord. Now, hear me carefully. We sometimes can be very guilty of looking down our long and sanctimonious noses at those who make poor choices. And while they need to hear the truth and they need to hear the gospel, they do not need to hear our criticism because we would be doing the exact same things if it weren't for the grace of God. Jared points that out to me a lot. I appreciate it. We would be doing the exact same things if it weren't for the grace of God. So we have to somehow navigate these waters to say, look, this requires us to be gracious. When Abraham was contending for Sodom, do you think Lot was in his mind? You bet he was. Abraham knew where Lot was and he knew what Lot was doing. He understood that Lot wasn't just near Sodom. He was in the city. He was a leader in the city. Abraham could not have been unaware of this. He was contending for his nephew. He was contending for somebody that he loved. And when he rescued Lot, is there any hint in scripture that there was some sort of condemnation poured out on Lot because, oh, I had to come rescue you, you miserable slug? No. And neither does God deal with us in that same vein. He's gracious and he's merciful. And scripture again and again and again attests to the greatness of God's love for his people and for his determination to save us and to deliver us from the ruin of our own bad choices. Yes, he wants us to be sanctified and yes, he's working at sanctifying us and yes, he calls us to righteousness and he holds us accountable when we're not. But God never casts aspersions on us. He's gracious and kind and he's gentle. And the people of God, we need to take that lesson. Yes, we need to speak the truth and we need to speak it plainly and we need to speak it powerfully. But remember why Jesus came. To seek and to save that which was lost. He came to seek and to save and he also came to reveal the Father and to reveal the truth. In John chapter 18, verse 37, Jesus is having a conversation with Pilate. This is actually the last words that Pilate will say to him. And Pilate, Jesus has said, if I was a king in this world, then my people would fight for me. And Pilate says, oh, are you a king then? And Jesus answered in verse 37 and said, you say rightly that I'm a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate then immediately demonstrates that he is not of the truth and says, what is truth? But what did Jesus say he came to do? In that he came to die. He's standing before Pilate. He's about to be condemned to death. I came for this purpose. And in that coming, in that sacrificial coming, in that surrender of himself to redeem his people is the truth of God. What is it that most people who are not followers of Christ take offense at when the gospel is presented? The statement that they are sinners and the statement that they need rescued and the statement that there is somebody who is greater and truer and stronger and wiser and holier than they who will reach into their circumstances and at no cost and with no help from them will deliver them out of their sin. And that offends our pride. It offends our humanity. It offends our own self-worth. All of which should not only be offended but should be crushed. Because it is the mercy of God that saves us. And Christ was demonstrating that truth. Did he have the power to call off the crucifixion? Absolutely. And a word from him, legions of angels would have come and laid waste to Rome. Not just the city of Jerusalem, not just the centurions who were there, but everything. The whole earth would have been destroyed. But instead he submitted to the will of the father and yielded his life, dying as an atonement for our sin. It's his grace that has given us this. And in the end, he comes to lavish that mercy upon God's chosen people. John 10 10 says, the thief does not come except to steal and kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. Now listen, there will be a day of reckoning. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. And Abraham's encounter with God and Abraham's reasoning with God and bargaining with God and doing what he did, that's kind of where we are right now. If we can take the picture given to us by that encounter and apply it to the world today, we are the ones who are seeking out righteous men, men who will bend the knee to Christ and who will yield to the father. And we are the ones who are contending on their behalf. And we are the ones who should be contending with the father in prayer. And we are the ones who are carrying the message of the gospel. Had Abraham not interceded, we don't know. God willed Abraham's intercession. It wasn't that Abraham convinced God of something he wasn't going to do, but carry the logic for a moment. God said, I'm going to destroy it. And if Abraham had just been silent, what would have happened? God would have just destroyed it. And that would have been the end of it. Now it's God's mercy that he provoked in Abraham something that rose up and argued and had this whole conversation and went through all of that. And again, remember that God is the chief cause of all of our actions. But that doesn't change the fact that we're in that place right now. We've been entrusted with the gospel and we have been entrusted with the message that Christ Jesus comes to save. And wherever we find ourselves, wherever we see the world around us being what it is, there is a call incumbent upon us to deliver the message of the truth. Abraham saw a lot in his misery and what did he do? He rescued him. Abraham knew of the impending destruction and what did he do? He pled with God. So both halves of this are in our hands. We need to do actively what is in front of us to do, faithfully to our God. We need to be active servants of righteousness and fight the fights that are in front of us. But we need to do it on our knees, seeking the face of God and begging his mercy and seeking his favor in everything that we do. This is the heart and soul of this. So when Christ came to Abraham, he demonstrated for us the reality that there will be a day of judgment and there will be a day of reckoning. And that day is coming. But if that day is not yet, our job remains undone and we need to be faithfully doing what God has put in front of us to do. Until the day that he returns, until the day of that final end, we are called to fulfill what Christ has done because his chief purpose to seek and to save that which was lost involves him being lifted up and drawing all men to himself. So let me ask you the question. Are you calling men to Christ? Are you speaking the truth of the gospel? Are you living out the command that has been put upon you to stand in the place of Abram and to both fight for what is righteous and to contend with God for those who are trapped? Because that's our calling. Yes, the motive power to save comes from God. Yes, the reality of God's mercy comes from him. Please do not mishear me. You are not going to convince God of doing anything that he does not want to do already. You're not gonna change his mind about anything. But what I'm asking is are you willing to be faithful to what God is calling you to do? Because that's the part that's in front of you. That's the place where we stand. And Abraham, with all of his mistakes, and there were plenty, still fulfilled his calling. And Lot, with all of his mistakes, and there were more, is still called a righteous man. Love it, hear me. This is the glory of God. It is the glory of God to save a people. And I can tell you this for absolute certainty. He's not done yet. Do you know how I know that? Because we're still here. He's not done saving a people. There are still people in your reach who need to come into the kingdom. There's still people that are in your life. There's still people that you have influence over that need to hear the gospel. Speak it, live it. Show them the fullness of who God is so that his glory might be made manifest to the nations. Who gets the glory in all of this? It's God and nobody else. It's God who gets the glory. It's God who stepped into humanity and God who stepped into the life of Abraham. And when he did it, things changed and people were delivered. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you give to us grace and I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be found faithful to do the part that's in front of us. Help us carry the gospel. Help us carry the message of the cross. Let us live this out in such a way that Jesus would receive the fullness of his praise and glory. God, he deserves all praise. He deserves to be worshiped by all men and all women in all places and at all times. So let us participate in the accumulation of the glory that Christ deserves, that we might lay it at his feet. We want the king to be honored. For it's in the name of Jesus we pray all things. Amen.
Animal Radio
A highlight from 1243. Should You Trust Pet DNA Tests?
"Celebrating the connection with our pets, this is Animal Radio featuring your dream team, veterinarian Dr. Debbie White and groomer, Joey Vellani. And here are your hosts, Hal Abrams and Judy Francis. Do you know what kind of pet you have? Well, certainly if it's a cat or dog, you probably know the difference. But do you know what kind of breed? Is it a mutt? What is making up the DNA of your dog or your cat? And do you care? A lot of people do. There's about 10 different tests on the market right now where you can send in saliva or cheek spittle, I guess? Yeah, cheek swab. It's actually the epithelial. So it's the cells that you're getting off the cheek, not necessarily the spit. Epithelial? Is that what you said there? I learned so much from you. And they'll tell you if it's what kind of breed it is or if it's made up of several different breeds. You did this, Judy. I think your results came back like lion and elephant. They weren't even dogs. It was so bizarre. She's full grown now. She weighs nine pounds. And it came back all these St. Bernard's, German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois. I thought, really? So that was a cheek swab. And then when I did the blood... Oh, you did a blood test too? I did a blood. It came back Jack Russell, miniature pincher and Maltese. And are you going with that? Oh, definitely. She's definitely Jack Russell. It came out 50 % Jack Russell. And that's what she is. Now, why did you want to know this information? Well, first of all, I didn't want a Jack Russell because I did my research and I know how hyper they are. And I'm not that hyper person. I want a more laid back dog. And so I did my research and got her from a rescue when she was eight weeks old. They said she was a Chihuahua, but there was no Chihuahua in this girl. And I questioned that as she got a little bit older. And I thought, okay, I got to find out. And I wanted to know what she was because people ask, people look at her, and everybody had their guesses. And it's like, I don't know. And I wanted to know what my dog was. But would it be safe to say you didn't want a Jack Russell, but you love your dog? Oh, I would not trade her for the world. I'll keep that little 50 % Jack. So the blood test really made little difference in anything, really, except telling people. Just what it was. It was kind of like bragging rights to know what my dog is and be able to say when people ask. That's basically why I did it. But then again, still, at least I know if there's anything I should look at, you know, with the breeds that she may be predisposed to down the line. You mean like a sickness or a disease? Health? Yeah. If she starts doing something or something happens and I can say, well, that's typical of this breed. So what kind of diseases and sicknesses are typical of, what did you say? Was it Jack Russell? Jack Russell, 50%. And a Min Pin? Well, we can see a lot of things with knees, so we can see patellar luxations. She's had two knee surgeries, two back legs. But that also fits with a lot of other small breeds. But, you know, there can be some host of skin diseases, allergies that we may not have like a specific test for. You know, but there are some conditions in some breeds, like say golden retrievers have a genetic linked with seizures. So if you had a yellow large breed dog and you didn't know what it was and it started developing seizures. And if I knew this dog was a golden retriever, I'd say, wow, you know, sometimes golden retrievers can be very challenging to manage with seizures. And we really have to use every means at our disposal to try to get those seizures under control. So it wouldn't change necessarily, you know, would I treat or not treat, but it might make us say, okay, our expectations are this is going to be a more challenging patient to try to manage. So that's one example. But there's a whole tons of things, you know, cataracts are inherited, heart diseases with certain breeds can be inherited, and kidney problems with cats. There's a type of polycystic kidney disease, a kidney disease in Himalayans and Persian type cats that can cause different problems. So, you know, there's all sorts of things that there are genetic tests for. It doesn't mean your dog or cat will get them. It just may mean they have some genetic tendency or genetic marker for that. So I see these online tests and but you do it in your office there? Do veterinarians offer these tests? Yeah, I mean, not everyone is going to do that. But we we do like that. And it's one is it's kind of the ooh, cool factor, you know, so you can, you know, have a party and people will ask and you can actually have some answer that sounds, you know, like you didn't just make this up. That's one important thing. But I do think it can help guide some decisions on awareness and potentially your pet's health down the road. So I wouldn't say it will make me do something different for a patient as far as putting them to sleep. But I do think it's important information to be armed with to know what you need to worry about to watch for in your pet's life. I agree. And if you can't afford it and somebody asks what kind of dog you have, say snuffle up against it really will throw the middle. It'll be different. So we're going to talk to a lady today, a doctor, Dr. Lisa Moses. She practices pain and palliative care at the Angel Animal Medical Center in Boston. And she says you may not want to bet the farm when you do one of these tests, as sometimes the information may not be accurate. And I wanted to find out about this. How important is it? Are people making decisions with bad information? So we'll have her on the show in just a few minutes to talk about that. Also today, we're going to be talking to the folks over at Smoke Alarm Monitoring. What's this guy's name? It's spelled really weird. Z -S -O -L -T. Zolt. Is that Hungarian? What is that? Sounds like it could be. He says our pets are starting fires. He sells smoke alarms for a living. And he says that our pets are actually, while they're unattended, starting fires in our house. See, I hide the matches. You do? Little delinquents. Oh my goodness. Yes. What do you expect? But first, your calls toll free from the free animal radio app for iPhone and Android. Let's go to Gary. Hey, Gary. How are you? I'm very good, sir. How are you? Very good. Where are you calling from today? You have kind of that southern twang. North Carolina. North Carolina. How is North Carolina today? It's kind of warm. It's not unbearably hot, but it's a warm day. What's going on with the animals? I have the whole team here for you. Okay. Well, I've been listening to your program lately over the last several weeks and was interested in the discussion that I've heard about yeast infections, skin conditions, and the treatments. And then also, there was also somewhat of a separate discussion about the use of human products on animals and how effective they can be, or harmful, or whatever the case may be. And I wanted to tell you about my little guy. I'll give you a little background on him, a little of the tale of the tape. He's approximately eight years old, as far as we know. He's a Yorkie mix, he's a small guy, just a shade under eight pounds, and I found him abandoned out in the country. And he was in pretty bad shape. He was missing hair and had a lot of parasites and skin infections, yeast, and all that. And we've been battling it for nearly three years now, but he's made much improvement, just great improvement. I kind of took it upon myself to use a product that's designed for human females, actually, who might have that kind of affliction, and rubbed it liberally on the elephant skin areas of my dog. And after doing that for three or four days in a row, it really seemed to help clear it up. What do you think of that, Doc? Well, we have to be precise when we talk about different products, because there's some products that actually can have harmful ingredients in them, and some won't hurt, and actually have active ingredients that might be appropriate. So I'm going to back up, because when we talk about elephant skin, and kind of that thickened skin, like for anybody who's not seen this in dogs, it typically is when their skin gets real thick, leathery, they lose the hair in the area, and it actually, from a distance, looks like elephant skin. And that's a combination of what we call hyperpigmentation, so the skin turns dark, and lichenification, which is where the skin becomes thick, and there's extra layers, if you will, that kind of are put on top of the skin. Those things happen from a couple possibilities, and we can see it with allergies, but really with things like yeast and bacterial infections. So it sounds like you're certainly barking up the right tree there, but the cautions I have with some of the female yeast products that are used for vaginal yeast infections, there are some that actually contain anesthetics. A vagus cell, for example, contains an ingredient called benzocaine. And this can be highly - Well, that's actually what I used. I used the generic, but yeah, you're on the right tree there. Okay. Yeah, so actually, benzocaine can cause toxicities in both dogs and cats. So just licking it off their skin, it can actually be toxic to the red blood cells, causes what we call hemoglobinemia. So if it contains that ingredient, I would say, put it back on the shelf and save it for your wife in the household. But there are certainly, say, athlete's foot creams that contain chlorotrimazole, which is an antifungal. In that, we've used that on surface yeast infections. But the reality is, if we've got that kind of change in the skin, most of those pets actually need kind of a two -pronged approach. So the topicals only get you so far, and they really need to be on some kind of oral or systemic therapy. So most of the pets that I have with that kind of skin can take a course of maybe three months to get them improved, controlling the itch, controlling the infection. If they've got yeast or bacteria, then we put them on either an antibiotic or an oral yeast form, like ketoconazole, per se.
Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
Fresh update on "moses" discussed on Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
"Hi friends, welcome back to the Hearing Jesus podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Grool. Today we're continuing our study of Matthew and we're going to be in Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 through 12. Now if you've been following along with us, you know that we've been steadily making our way through what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, which is a scene where Jesus is sitting on a hillside outside of Galilee, discipling his disciples. And so if you've ever had that thought like, man, I wish I could just be discipled by Jesus himself. I have some good news for you because that's essentially what we've been reading as we're reading through the Sermon on the Mount. It is essentially a discipleship where Jesus is interpreting the rules of the law and helping them to understand the heart behind the law. So I'm picking up verse 7, I'm going to read verses 7 through 12. I'm reading from the New American Standard Version. It says, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you, for everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and the one who knocks it will be opened. Or what person is there among you when his son asks for a loaf of bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the law and the prophets. Now there's two sections in this passage that are probably pretty familiar to you, but I wanted to spend some time just unpacking that a little bit. And so this idea of ask, seek and knock, I think this is a teaching that sometimes gets twisted and manipulated, so I wanted to break it down to what those individual concepts mean. So ask, seek and knock. What we're seeing here is Jesus encouraging a persistence in prayer. Ask means to pray and use humility in that prayer and being conscious of the need. Seek means to pray and to be active in pursuing God's will in that need. And knock points towards this persistence in prayer. In the Greek, the way that these verbs are written is it's done so to mean an action that's going to keep going on. So you're going to keep seeking, you're going to keep asking, you're going to keep knocking. You know, I remember a time in my life where I was doing a children's outreach ministry and we had been doing it for the better part of two years. We were working at two different locations in our community and these are some of the poorest neighborhoods in our area. And we were going down and we were doing the same program I would do on a Sunday morning with the kids. I would do that. We had a truck with a stage door that folded down and all sorts of fun things. We would do meals, we would do backpacks full of school supplies, we would do shoes and boots for the winter, all sorts of things like that. And after the better part of two years, we had somebody that lived in that neighborhood that was not happy about the gospel message that we were sharing. And he called it, he reported us to the housing projects. Now, mind you, the housing projects knew we were there. They were happy we were there. In fact, the police had told us that they were even happy that we were there because it was two hours a week that they didn't have to patrol quite as heavily because these were some dangerous areas that God was changing with the hope of the gospel. We were reaching entire families, not just children, but adults as well. And so with this individual that was unhappy with the message we were sharing, he reported to the housing community and of course the housing community reached out to us and said, we can recognize that what you're doing is good, but this guy's a problem and we don't want to be accused of doing something we're not supposed to be doing. So you can still come, but you can't say the name of Jesus or God or the Bible or anything like that. And so we fought that because not only is that discrimination, but it's viewpoint discrimination and freedom of religion gives us freedom to express religion. It's not freedom from religion, meaning we can't say it. And so, because this was government owned property, we fought this and I feel like this was the biggest season in my life where I was doing this act of asking and seeking and knocking and we kept at it. And of course the entire time we're trying to surrender this program to the Lord and say, okay, Lord, if this is the time that you want the door on this to be closed, we surrender this to you, but in case it's not, we're going to keep seeking you. We're going to keep asking, we're going to keep knocking. Long story short, what ended up happening is we ended up working with Alliance Defending Freedom, which you may have heard of those guys are the ones that were working with the baker that had to do a wedding cake for somebody that he didn't want to do. It was against his religious belief system. ADF is a legal group that helps churches and Christians fight for their rights. And so ADF worked with us with the state of Pennsylvania and they helped us win back the right to get back in the door. And that whole process took quite a number of months. In the meantime, we still had families that were needing our help. We still had children that needed the help of the gospel. So we continued to go and we continued to knock on that door. We continued to do things like talk about my friend Mo instead of Moses. We continued to feed them. We continued to offer them the things that we have been doing all along. And at that point, the kids did know the reasons why we were there. But I remember there was one individual on a Friday night and this was after a lot of people told us we should shut down and not keep going. And he came up to us on a Friday night. He got a peanut butter jelly sandwich and he said to me, you know, I've been watching you and I've been listening and I know that you're not saying everything that you want to say right now, but I want you to know that I hear you. And again, long story short, we ended up praying for him and he gave his life to the Lord. And that was on a Friday night. The following Monday, he passed away. And I remember just thinking, what would have happened if we had not continued to go? What would have happened if we didn't continue to ask and seek and not? And eventually what end up happening is it was the classic tale of what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good because that news clipping got picked up on Family Life Radio and people around the country started calling and asking me to help them start programs of their own. And that's actually where my first book came from. I started teaching and in training across the country and eventually across the globe, helping people start similar programs. But I think for me, that is such a clear example of asking and seeking and knocking.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Soul Winning 101 - The 5 W's of Evangelism
"All right, hey folks, good evening. This is Daniel Karzewski coming to you live from Washington, D .C. again. Here on tonight's episode, we're gonna talk about soul winning 101, or also known as evangelism 101. And so, first of all, there's five basic questions that you have to answer, and that's the five Ws, the who, what, where, when, why. And what are we doing this for? So, number one, what is evangelism or what is soul winning? It is going out and snatching the souls out of the gates of hell, or out of the pits of hell. But furthermore, what is evangelism specifically? And it comes from the root of the Greek word angel, which also means messenger, or also known as the act of sharing the message of God's word. And that's where we get our commission and our commandment from in Matthew 28. And we're supposed to go forth and share the gospel, which means the good news with everybody, because sinners need to have their sins forgiven, and lost people need to know that they're lost, and they need to know that they can get a savior, and they know that they can get out of their wicked, wretched lives that they're living that's not taking them anywhere, especially not in eternity's sake. And then number two, why do we evangelize? Well, number one, we're commanded by God there in Matthew 28, like I just mentioned, and then also for the glory of God and the good of man, and 2 Peter 2, 9 tells us. Then where are we to go, and where are we to share it? Well, everywhere, near and far, indeed, the whole entire world, just like Acts says in chapter one, verse eight. And then, when are we supposed to do it? Anytime, anytime the Lord leads us and tells us. I think it's almost always that we've got tracks on us, and we're handing them out to everybody that we meet. We don't even know these people, but God knows them, God sees their heart, and God wants to save them. In 2 Timothy 4, verses two, that's where it tells us, anytime. And then who are we supposed to do it with, and who are we supposed to share it with? To everyone, to all, to all people in the whole entire world Mark 16, verse 15 commands us. And then, of course, there we've got some different tools in the toolbox, we've got spiritual warfare, we've got different equipment, different weaponry, and Ephesians 6 that we see putting on the whole armor of God, using prayer as a weapon, as a sword. Then we've got apologetics in 1 Peter 3 .15, be ready to answer every single man. And then we've got different techniques, we've got Jesus's example, we've got different ways to relate and create and convict and reveal to people. Then we've got one -on -one situations, we've got tracks, we've got door -to -door, we have different events and signs, public proclamation that goes out, we've got people that go out and play music and dramas and do skits on the street, in churches, whatever the case may be, there's all different types of ways to do it. And then, what's the biblical method of the gospel presentation? Well, I mean, it's just like, what would Jesus do? Ray Comfort has a great ministry called the Way of the Master, and he goes out every single Saturday, matter of fact, I've been out there with him on occasion and seen him and got to pray with him and got to watch him, and it's really just such a blessing to be able to see that man's ministry the way that he does it, and that's the same way that we're trying to do it. And if you're looking for a good example of a way to evangelize, follow Ray Comfort's way, the Way of the Master, and it's the biblical way, and it's the law in the evangelism, because you've got to get the sinner lost, oftentimes, before they can realize their need for a savior. And that's just like John 4, verses three through 30 tells us, it tells us we need to use the law in the evangelism, as opposed to some type of life enhancement where it's Christianity and getting saved and Jesus Christ on the cross, it's some good luck charm that we wear on our necklace, and that gets us saved, that couldn't be farther from the truth, and so we need to get people out of that thinking, and we need to use the law to convict people that they are sinners and that they are in need of a savior from hell and eternal damnation and hell fire and brimstone and get them to realize that heaven is so much better. I mean, we shouldn't have to scare people into heaven, but it says, just like in Jude, verses 21 through 23, that there are some that are saved by fire and some that are saved by compassion. And God tells us unto the proud man, he's gonna receive judgment and rebuke and reproof and condemnation and judgment. He's gonna receive the word of God because he's not understanding the spiritual things. He can only understand the natural things of man. But then under the humble, he receives grace and mercy, love and kindness, forgiveness, and he's willing and ready to receive, you know? And I've seen people like that on the street before. And then who is to evangelize? Who is qualified? What are the qualifications? Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 through 12, and then we've got the examples in all of scripture, Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, Peter, James, John, Paul, and the list could go on. We could go on all night listing every single person in the Bible who was somebody that was out there evangelizing and witnessing and using God's word as a message to reach the loss for their generation. And that's what we're called to do. We're called to reach our generation for the loss. However many years that may be, I don't wanna go another day without telling somebody about Jesus. I mean, life is a vapor, and what are you gonna do? You gonna get to 80 and, oh, well now I'm gonna start working. And matter of fact, I've seen that. I've seen a 72 -year -old woman get saved, and she said, wow, I wasted 72 years of my life, and nobody wants to be like that. I sure don't wanna be like that, you know? In the 30s, thinking about, man, okay, well, what should I do for the next 40 years? Should I just waste them and see as much gain as I can get? Well, I mean, Solomon told us that all is vanity. He was chasing after the wind his whole entire life. He strived after every pleasure he could possibly get his hands on. And he said all was vanity. And the end of the preacher is to do God's word, obey his law, be righteous, and worship God and serve man. That's the end of the law. That's the end of God's word for man, is to obey him and worship him and serve others. And that's the 10 commandments. That's the whole entire word of God summed up. It'd be Jesus said it too. He said, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, body, spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. And if we do those things, we've done all the law and the prophets, praise the Lord. And then finally, evangelism and you. There's different styles of evangelism. Everybody can evangelize in some way, shape, or form. You don't have to talk, but I remind you that Moses and Jeremiah and many other preachers and prophets said, Lord, I can't speak, I'm a small person. I mean, David started out small too and we all start out somewhere, but there's different types of serving. You can just give somebody a bottle of water and a track, whatever the case may be. Anytime we give food to the homeless, we always give them a track with it because you never know. We don't give money unless we're given to specific charity or we're given our time or we're given to a local New Testament church that's gonna gain, gather food and we're gonna go out and serve the food ourselves. And I really don't give to a lot of big charities out there because unless I know that they're extremely reputable and they're serving the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, I know my friend Matt, he's down in Malawi, South Africa. He's doing the Lord's work there. He takes 12 disciples every three years and disciples them and sends them out as pastors. It's a perfect biblical ministry and I love it and I love supporting him because every time I send them 50 or $100, I know that's gonna feed one of their students for a month or two on end. It's gonna be wonderful. And so there's a great need for evangelists and the urgency of evangelism in today's day and age. And so that is Soul Winning 101 wrapped up. I love y 'all, God bless. Like, comment, subscribe, send us a note. We love you all, take care and God bless. We'll see you next time.
WTOP 24 Hour News
Fresh "Moses" from WTOP 24 Hour News
"Without the middleman mark up. You get high -quality windows at an affordable price direct from our local factory. Call today for our biggest sale of the year. For a limited time get 25 % off all Thompson Creek windows and doors plus no interest 2025 get new windows and doors before the cold weather hits call 855 57 Creek now home sweet home sweet Thompson Creek everything you need every time you listen WTOP News 645 I'm Michelle Bash and I'm John Aaron there is new attention for the woman called the Moses of the abolitionist movement now a local group is taking college students to walk the steps of the great abolitionist Harriet was fearless to have made these tracks by herself in the woods at night trying to hide from slave catchers Sharon Robinson goods executive director of the wisdom walkers a nonprofit organization says they're taking group a of three dozen people including six college students on the Harriet Tubman museum tour and historic walk in Dorchester County Maryland this coming Saturday and Sunday we want students to know how important it is to have a goal and that you can achieve these goals you are worthy Stephanie Gaines Bryant WTOP news this story is part of our continuing coverage bridge of people making a difference in our community to find out more go to w t o p dot com at the southern border immigration agents processed more than 200 ,000 migrants who crossed illegally last month that is the highest this level of the year in addition to more than two hundred thousand apprehensions tens of thousands of additional migrants processed were by order of border officials at ports of entry last month the biden administration has been allowing roughly perspective 1500 asylum seekers to enter the country each day at those official crossings if they secure an appointment through a smartphone app not all those apprehended are allowed to stay in the u s some migrant adults are given the option to voluntarily returned to mexico or placed in a fast track deportation process if they don't claim asylum or fail initial initial humanitarian screenings an international force may be heading to haiti to help bring an end to a surgeon gang violence so that elections can be held the u .n. security council is expected to vote on a resolution today authorizing a one -year deployment kenya has offered to multinational security force u s drafted resolution says this would be a non u n force funded by voluntary contributions if adopted it would mark the first time a force has been deployed to haiti since the u n approved a stabilization mission in two thousand four admission ended in twenty seventeen most feds are expecting bigger paycheck starting in january but that's not the case for everyone at the national science foundation federal news networks through friedman explains nsf announced upcoming salary cuts for more than three hundred senior staff members agency officials recently learned that nsf has been in violation of legal pay limits for the past six years some of the agency's top -level scientists and engineers who currently make upwards of two hundred thousand dollars in salary will will take on cuts of most likely a few thousand dollars starting honor after january fourteenth the cuts will bring have staff back below the government's legal pay caps drew friedman federal news network the top stories were working on here at w t o p shut down is avoided for now but just the threat of a shutdown was costly former president trump may be back in court today and late -night talk shows return to tv this week keep it here for full details on the stories traffic forty eight and whether on the eighties let's go back to read a castle or for the latest well well a big problem right now remains the emergency work crew on the beltway in prince georges county this is the interloop near st barnabas miss road two right lanes get you by the emergency pothole patching you are solid from branch avenue to the scene but then it is good toward 210 295 and the woodrow wilson bridge outer loop volume delays from 95 and office southbound 95 headed toward 29 coalsville road inner loop starting to get a little heavy between braddock road at annandale but nothing major at the moment now northbound 95 slows from dale city into woodbridge and in lawton northbound 395 starting to fill in a bit from duke street towards seminary and as you approach the inbound 14th street bridge it is southbound on the fairfax county parkway the ramp to braddock road the left side is is blocked with the broken down vehicle springhill road near lewinsville road you're under police direction for the crash while braddock road near back lick road was a report of a wreck in maryland northbound route 3 after evergreen road and johns hopkins road was a report of a wreck southbound 270 has the volume delays approaching and passing 80 in urbana but then not a bad trip all the way to the lane divide onto either loop of the beltway in the district capital street near d g street a report of a wreck and pennsylvania avenue at 17th street in northwest a a report of a crash jiffy lube service centers keep you moving from oil changes and tire rotations to filters and wipers send your papers to a full range of services visit jiffy lube dc dot w t o p traffic seven news first alert meteorologist brian vandagraf we endured all those miserable days but now we have hit pay dirt it looks like exactly john you know you're a fast week was uh... not the
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Jay Brock (Encore)
"Ladies and gentlemen, looking for something new and original, something unique and without equal, look no further. Here comes the one and only Eric Mataxas. Folks, welcome. I've spoken previously on this program to our friend Rabbi Jason Sobol, who has certain many books. The new one is called Signs and Secrets of the Messiah. And last time, Rabbi, you were telling us some of these amazing correlations between the Old and the New Testament and the Jewishness of the New Testament, which people should know, but sometimes they forget how profoundly the New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament and points us back and how the Old Testament points us forward over and over. And last time you talked about the paralytic or the man who was unable to walk for 38 years. And you said that that relates to the Israelites wandering in the desert for 38 years, and you explained about how they had been prepared by God for two years, but then they wandered for 38 years. I just find that kind of stuff so fascinating. So I know the new book is called Signs and Secrets of the Messiah. What other things like that do you mention in Signs and Secrets of the Messiah? I mean, we get into so many miracles and, you know, God is in the details, right? So if there's a detail in the Bible, it's there for a reason. So, you know, again, the first miracle we talked about last time I was with you is the first miracle we talked about in Signs and Secrets, which is the water into wine. Well, there's a detail there. It says that he said fill six stone pots to the brim. Well, the question is, if it says six stone pots, what's the significance that there's six stone pots? Why not seven? Why not eight? Well, some of the significance there is that we have to understand there's a lot. Man was created on the sixth day. In Jewish thought, we fell on the sixth day. When Jesus comes and he gives his life for us on the cross, OK, he dies on Friday, which is the sixth day of the week. He dies on a cross. Why? Because the first man and woman stole from the tree. So God puts Jesus, who Paul calls the second Adam, back on the tree for you and me with the crown of thorns on his head. Why? What's the sign of the curse of creation? The ground produced thorns and thistle. He takes the curse on his head to break it and restore the blessing. And so when Jesus dies on the same day man was created and fell and he does his first miracle with six stone pots, he's saying, I am restoring the fruitfulness that was lost at creation. And I don't want you to any more live out of the lack, but to live out of the overflow. And by the way, the number six in Hebrew is written with the letter Bob. It's the conjunction and it's a letter that connects heaven and earth. When we sin, we broke the connection. Jesus comes back to restore it, that we might experience his blessing. That is some heavy stuff that is absolutely amazing. Say that again about the letter when you write the number six in Hebrew, talk about that again, because I want to make sure I catch that. Yeah, absolutely. So Hebrew is alphanumeric. So there's no Roman numerals in the Bible. Both Hebrew and Greek have an alphanumeric component, meaning that if I say open up the chapter one in your Bible, I'll say open up to chapter Aleph, because it's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a numerical value of one. The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the Hebrew letter of love. It's the most used letter in the five books of Moses, and it's the conjunction. And the first place the letter of love occurs in the Bible is in the first verse of the Bible, Genesis one, one. And in Hebrew, there are seven words in Genesis one, one corresponding to the seven days of creation. The sixth word of Genesis one begins with the sixth letter. God created the heavens. That's the fifth. And that's the sixth. And Earth is seven. When we sin, we broke the vow, the letter, the number six, the letter Bob that connects heaven and earth. When Jesus dies on Friday and does the miracle with the six stones pots, he's restoring the connection and the blessing that was lost in the beginning.
Elevation with Steven Furtick
A highlight from A New Point Of View (The Basin)
"I'm coming to you now from the basin This is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just for you to break it down a little more Take it a little deeper. I hope you enjoy this overflow message. Let me know. Let's go Since I'm saying there's so much more to the story I just want to point out that so much more to the story May not just mean that it isn't finished yet like that. There's more to come but it also as a phrase could mean The story as it has been so far is much different Than what you've been told about it because in storytelling point of view is everything so I want to talk about that point of view is everything Point of view is everything Have you ever had a situation that felt really big to you in one moment and really small in the next what was different? You know the situation obviously can change but let's say it didn't have you ever had a situation That felt in the moment like the biggest thing in the world later you saw That kept me up at night that Okay, it's probably That the point of view changed the point of view changes sometimes because of you changing sometimes the point of view changes because of you as You change the way you see things changes as you mature as you grow as you get tools You should be able to look back over your life and go oh Wow, I was a jerk there and you don't even have to necessarily Call the person and say I was a jerk four and a half years ago But at least to know it moving forward and sometimes you make Repairs in relationships and sometimes it would do more harm to open an old wound But see the point of view changes Because of you changing and if you don't let God change you that's where you get stuck in a story you go Man this always happens to me and never gets my way and everybody always picks on me What is the Why is everybody always picking on me character, maybe you can put it in the comments for me, I don't remember but you know point of view is everything when it comes to I A friend was telling somebody the other day About working with a certain individual and I was like it was awesome. They came in they gave their all it was incredible Person sitting in the room didn't look like they were on the same page as me this person who had come in and worked with Me I had seen right they were they were all in they were going hard The the person in the room had been involved in the lead -up to the person coming in to work with me And in the lead -up the person was really difficult Non -committal indecisive I put a lot of extra strain on my team who was helping to arrange all of the details and so You know in that particular situation The person that was sitting in the room with me had information that changed the way that I saw the story There will be times in your life We're either an outside Observer or an inward witness Will call to your mind something that you just know happened this way. I know they took advantage of me I know I did 97 % of the work and got 3 % of the credit And then Time shifts the story Because of you changing growing evaluating Experiencing life gaining ability for empathy because of you changes your point of view changes now I'm gonna bring this to the gospel real quick because we could do Joshua and Moses, but we could also do Jesus and the disciples Moses disciple Joshua Jesus discipled Peter Imagine the difference of Peter telling the story about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before and after the resurrection Imagine he's telling the story they came up to get Jesus. He was praying we were sleeping Maybe he leaves that part out of the story he was praying we were sleeping and I was trying to help Cuz when Barabbas came to get him I cut his ear off and Jesus didn't even appreciate what I did for him He put his ear back on he undid the work I did and then all of a sudden You know at the cross when when when he denies Jesus in the courtyard and then isn't there at the cross and then he's out fishing and Jesus comes to get him and talks about feeding my sheep and he goes on in his ministry in the Light of the empty tomb rather than in the shadow of the cross. I believe he told a different story After He had lived through a few stages of life and you will too you will too maybe at the At the time he wrote first Peter because he was older than he's saying humble yourself Like you don't know What you don't know point of view is everything. I was young and now I'm old, but I never seen the righteous forsake him and You know, we are not always on the same page with God. We're not always on the same page with God's Spirit It may be helpful for us today sometimes to Find those points of communion in contact with God so we can get on the same page so that we can have His point of view You you know that God has a purpose in the earth And he's working that purpose in your life and there is a bigger picture Than any particular incidents or preference there's a bigger picture than your past up to this point or your present pain and To get into that place with God where you can say, all right Lord, I want you to be my new point of view and that means Allowing him to speak things about you how he sees you because God sees you different than you see you your situation your struggle The injustices that have been done to you the mistakes that you've made and what you need to do next and what you can do next Point of view is everything The same Peter that was saying never Lord telling Jesus what to do was saying humble yourself because of you changing because of view because of you changing as you change your point of view changes point of view is everything and In the story, so little exercise that I was introduced to recently It was saying how would somebody Who admires you describe you Try seeing yourself through the eyes of Someone who admires you now that's hard for me because I am very self -critical. I have a hard time Giving credit myself and because of that I probably don't encourage others as much as I should but I'm working on this and The advice see yourself through the eyes of someone who admires you Sounded good to me and a little fluffy if I'm honest, but in the process of considering it I realized that my wife Holly Sees me through eyes of admiration and it's not the kind of admiration that's based on a lack of information Where she she doesn't know me really well, and she only sees a certain side of me So she admires me she sees everything She sees the days in the past where I couldn't get out of bed because I was depressed she sees the days where I go hideout in my man cave mind and Barely engage with the family. She sees the days that I'm irritated. She sees the days that I'm short -tempered She sees the days that I doubt myself You Know on an even more practical level she sees the messes that I make she sees the slob that I can be and Yet even today as I was waking up. I Opened this letter that she had written me she gave me a stack of letters for Christmas and there were only about four or five of them, but I was on the fourth one and She put a picture of me with a little note about me and it was a picture that she took of me getting ready to preach in Los Angeles last year and in the picture, I'm kind of like sitting there with my head in my hands with my Bible in my hand and I know how I felt in that moment, which was like I'm not the man for this Who do I think I am going out to preach to 12 ,000 people at the forum in LA? You Know I feel all this self -doubt and I can almost see the self -doubt when I'm looking at the picture, but she wrote me a note Saying thank you for working hard. Thank you for not just relying on your gift strictly, but seeking God to preach to us And she said I hope you forgive me for taking this picture without asking your permission And I thought Man I need to see myself sometimes through her eyes because All I see in those moments is what I don't have what I'm afraid I can't do but she saw a man who was trying to seek God and Lean into him Point of view is everything Point of you the point of You the point of your life is Not just to be self -serving the point of you The point of your life is to not just be a consumer who eats all the messages that professional marketers Send to you every day the point of you is to glorify God and to know him and to make him known and The land which I promised Their ancestors Joshua is getting God's point of you point of view What is the point of you being in this Marriage, what is the point of you being in this family? What's point of you being on that job? What is point of you being in that city, Toronto? Wichita Houston Charlotte What is the point of you being there? It's so the glory of God can be revealed he told Joshua you are leading these people into the promise and God is Fulfilling his purpose and from God's point of view it didn't start with you So don't start with you. How could it stop with you? He began a good work and you'll be faithful to complete it God sees The end from the beginning that's his point of view point of view It's everything I Believe That God can take you Into the future. Do you remember? The Apostle John he said after this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven John revelation for one Yeah Yeah, that was different point of view, right? The voice say come up here. I'll show you the things that much must take place after this God said I'll show you Get with me Get around people Who not Will flatter you not just gas you and Not only admire you in an empty way people who God can put in your life to see the things that God put inside of you a view point of view Kingdom of heaven is in you And living from the inside out looks like trusting God Even when you can't see what he's going to do Getting his point of view his promise and walking in it Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast And if you did Make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of elevation whether you support us Financially or serve with us or just share these messages It's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world and if you want more information On how to be a part of elevation click the link in the description Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review share the message and subscribe.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Wonderful and Wretched Response to The Gospel
"And open your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. I'll read for us verses 42 through 52. We will get a few verses into this tonight. Again, let's listen now to the Lord's Word. Remember this is all coming right after the sermon has been preached and so the sermon which began in verse 16 and concludes in verse 41 and now we come to verse 42. As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God -fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the Word of God be spoken to you first. Since you repudiated and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we are turning to the Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us. I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing in glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region, but the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium and the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. This is the Lord's word. Would you bow with me and let's pray. Again our Lord we thank you for this day and thank you for this word and pray now that your blessing will be upon it and upon your servant and upon these your people who sit here in this building and for those upon those who may be joining from afar. Lord would you grant us understanding and would you please Oh Father edify us now in these weak efforts we ask in Jesus name. Amen. So we have spent a couple of Sunday evenings going over the sermon that the Apostle Paul preached in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. This is his first missionary journey and I want you to recall that the gospel my friends is not about you. I think that's one of the most freeing and wonderful things to realize. Charlie was talking about that as we before the service tonight. It is not about you. It's not about your decision -making skills or your moral choices or even your intellect. The gospel is all about the Lord. That's why it's good news. It affects you but it's about the Lord. It's about his promise to Jesus Christ whom he raised from the dead. The prophets of old foretold the truth concerning Jesus Christ. He is the descendant of David who sits and is sitting currently on the throne of Israel never again to die. He is the promised Messiah the only Savior of the world and Paul would conclude his his sermon with these words. Therefore let it be known to you brethren that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and through him everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses. Therefore take heed so that the things spoken of in the prophets may not come upon you. Now is the time of salvation in essence is what Paul is saying. Believe upon the Lord and be saved or else be judged in your sin and condemned to an eternity in hell. He does not give. I want you to notice an altar call. I thought that was it was really missing in this passage.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from With All Confidence
"Let's turn together to the triumphal ending of the book of Acts this morning chapter 28 verse number 11 to begin with Not feeling so triumphant so the Lord's wants us to learn today that despite our feelings this this stuff is true. Amen so acts chapter 28 verse number 11 After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the islands remember they were on the island of Malta a ship of Alexandria with the twin gods Castor and Pollux. These are the gods the patron gods of sailors with the twin gods as a figurehead putting in at Syracuse we stayed there for three days and From there. We made a circuits and arrived at Regium and after one day a south wind Sprang up and on the second day. We came to Puteoli there. We found brothers believers and were invited to stay with them for seven days and so we came to Rome and the brothers there when they Heard about us came as far as the forum of Appius and three taverns to meet us on seeing them Paul thanked God and took courage and When we came into Rome? Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews and when they had gathered he said to them brothers Though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers Yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans When they had examined me they wished to set me at liberty Because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case But because the Jews objected I was compelled to appeal to Caesar though. I had no charge to bring against my nation For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you since it is because of the hope of Israel That I am we're that I'm wearing this chain and They said to him we have received no letters from Judea about you And none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you But we desire to hear from you what your views are For with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against When they had appointed a day for him they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers From morning till evening he expounded to them Testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets and some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved and Disagreeing among themselves. They departed after Paul had made one statement The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet Go to this people and say you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull and with their eyes they can barely With their ears, they can barely hear and their eyes their eye and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear their ears and Understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles They will listen He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him Proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without Hindrance and to all these words God's people say Well Here at the end of acts we have moved from a huddled mass in Jerusalem back in chapter number one To the masses of Rome the capital city of the Roman Empire the center of the world as they saw it so from a little huddled group of 120 in that upper room in Jerusalem the day of Pentecost all the way to Rome where millions upon millions of people lived Let alone pilgrimage every single year and this is all just as Jesus promised Remember back in chapter 23 if you will when Jesus was Testifying before the Sanhedrin before the Jewish Council sometimes called the Jewish Supreme Court chapter 23 verse 11 The Apostles said the following night the Lord stood by here our looks at the following night The Lord stood by him Paul and said quote take courage for you for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem So you must testify also? where in Rome So Jesus has promised To Paul that he was going to go to Rome to testify of the gospel so he's Moved from the center of the Israelite religion in Jerusalem The temple was and now he's moved to the center of as the Romans described it the center of the world And in fact, this is this is in fulfillment of what we saw the very very beginning Of the book of Acts in chapter number one if you go back there all week the beginning verse number eight Remember Jesus promise and his call and his commission To the earliest church and he told them that they would receive power the power of the Holy Spirit who would come upon them to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea that's the larger region Samaria.
Audio
A highlight from Msgr. Esseff voice sample
"The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart is really the work, and what I really believe God in a very special way has called us to do, to enthrone Jesus in the hearts of every human being, to enthrone Jesus in every family, and specifically since the family is one of the most battered institutions in the world today, that this family can come together and He promises so much to the families. So the purpose of these videos and the purpose of our coming together is to present Jesus as the head of every family, and He wants to be, He desires to be, and He is calling to be and wanting to become the head of a father and a mother and a family. If there's a single parent or a widow or whatever your family unit is, the desire of God and His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit through Mary's Immaculate Heart is being offered to us. Why the heart of Jesus? It's because what has been failed to be communicated by the Father in our day. When God the Father appeared to humankind, how did He appear? He appeared as fire. He appeared to Moses as fire. God is fire. Who are you? I am God. You are standing on holy ground. God, fire? God is love. It was very much revealed to us through St. John especially, that revelation of John. God is love. The greatest definition ever given for God is God is love, and when He appeared and came in our flesh into the world and His name is Jesus. So much so did He want to come in the first century, in the second and the third, fourth and fifth, and when it came, and so many people were just not getting the message. Every person who is listening, God loves you so much that He gave you His Son. The Son of God is the revelation of God's love, and when He came to you, He came and He showed His love by dying on the cross. When we see the cross, so many people again, God's love, I'm going to be crucified like Jesus, and that's what's going to happen. No, the cross is not suffering. The cross is love. So much did He love us, He's telling us, I would die for you. That's what love is. Love is laying down His entire life for us because the failure to communicate through the cross, through the teaching, so many people. I remember I used to go to Mass, and when I was a little boy, very few people went to communion because they somehow was reverent. You had to be perfect, and so what did the devil do? The devil so insinuated himself as God is so holy you can't approach Him. Then after a while, some people now just come to communion and they aren't aware of who they're receiving, and they may be very much in sin, but they still don't know how much God loves them. We just don't seem to get it right. We don't see the awesome love that we're receiving, or this awesome fear that we may have. Anyway, what did God do in the 17th century? He came to a woman. Her name was Margaret Mary. If you look at the image of the Sacred Heart, and I have one in every room of my home, I am inviting you. That's the purpose, to look at the image of the Sacred Heart. We become so familiar with it, but what was the revelation of the Sacred Heart? It's totally and completely love. Jesus came to Margaret Mary, and He said to her how much He loved us, and how He wanted her to tell the people about the love of His Sacred Heart. How did He appear to her? Look at the image. This is what happened. He not only rolled back His robe, but He actually rolled back His flesh. Can you imagine that? You're standing with Jesus, and He's standing there, and He wants to show you how much He loves you, and He rolls back the flesh on His side.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Acts 025 - The Spirit's Power
"Okay, well come on in. The water's fine. Good to see you all this evening. And welcome back to our Wednesday night Bible study. We took a summer break. And in the last quarter, we started a study on the book of Acts. Made it all the way through chapter 3. And this morning, not this morning, this evening, if you could locate Acts chapter 4 and verse 1. Sort of to get the cobwebs out. The book of Acts is about the birth and the growth of the church. So in Acts chapter 1, Jesus ascended. In Acts chapter 2, the church is born. Day of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John heal a lame man. I think he was born lame. He was about 38 years old. And his legs were miraculously restored in Acts 3. Which gave Peter a chance to preach to a crowd. And Peter there condemns 1st century Israel for their rejection of the Messiah. And chapter 3, as you surely could imagine, flows right into chapter 4. Where Peter and John get arrested. So here's an outline of Acts 4. Even going into Acts 5, the Ananias and Sapphira incident. But you have the apostles arrested, verses 1 through 4. The apostles examined by the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is the existing Jewish legal authority, religious authority in 1st century Israel. That's in verses 5 through 12. Then the Sanhedrin makes a decision, verses 13 through 22. And then the apostles go to prayer. And this is a very powerful prayer that they pray in verses 23 through 31. And then the chapter kind of ends with them, the church that is living in their communal arrangement. Which we saw develop in Acts at the end of Acts 2. And that sets the stage very nicely for the first 11 chapters in chapter 5. Because in that communal arrangement, it involved selling your property and giving the proceeds to the church. And there was a couple there, Ananias and Sapphira, who publicly misrepresented their generosity. And they were slain in the Holy Spirit. And when I say slain in the Holy Spirit, that's not a good thing. Okay. And God brought upon them maximum divine discipline. And that had, as we're going to see, a purifying effect on the early church. So anyway, that's kind of the lay of the land that we're moving into this evening. I don't think we'll be able to cover all of this this evening, but we can make a healthy start. First of all, the apostles are arrested. We have an interruption. The reasons for the arrest. The arrest and the results of the arrest. So notice, if you will, Acts chapter 4, verse 1. It says, as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them. So when it says they were speaking to the people, this is in reference to the sermon that Peter primarily was giving in Acts 3. Where they healed a man who was lame, born lame. He knew nothing but the lack of use of his legs for, I think it says, 38 years. And he's miraculously healed, not by Peter and John, but by Jesus through Peter and John. It's just Jesus is exercising his ministry now from the Father's right hand. Through the church, through the apostles. And a big crowd gathers and Peter uses the opportunity to condemn first century Israel. Their decision nationally to reject their own Messiah. So that's what it means there when it says as they were speaking to the people. So as they were speaking to the people, they're now interrupted by the religious authorities. Who are the religious authorities? It says it right there in verse 1 of chapter 4. The priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees. So these are religious officials or workers. We have priests, the captain of the temple guard, and another group here called the Sadducees. And easy to remember the Sadducees is the Sadducees were always sad, you see. Sadducees. Basically, the Sadducees were people that if we were to try to parallel them today with somebody, we would call them theological liberals. A theological liberal denies what the Bible says. You know, it denies prophecy, denies miracles, and that kind of thing. And that's who these Sadducees were. The Sadducees only believed in the first five books of Moses. That's all they believed in. They didn't accept the rest of the Old Testament. So that's why when Jesus is talking to them about resurrection, the Sadducees, and the Gospels, he does not quote from Daniel chapter 12, verse 2 to prove resurrection to them. I mean, why didn't he quote Daniel 12, verse 2? Daniel 12, verse 2 is a great verse on future resurrection. It says, many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but others to everlasting disgrace, to disgrace and everlasting contempt. So why didn't Jesus, when he is arguing with the Sadducees and the Gospels about resurrection, why doesn't he quote that passage? That's a beautiful passage to quote from. Well, the answer is the Sadducees did not accept Daniel as authoritatively coming from God. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible. So it wouldn't do any good to prove resurrection from the Book of Daniel to the Sadducees. So instead, Jesus quotes the Book of Exodus. And I'm getting this from Matthew 22, 32 and 31. Here he's speaking to the Sadducees and it says, but regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God? And now he's quoting Exodus. the I am God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but the living. In other words, he points out that based on the Book of Exodus, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive right now. And he uses that to prove future resurrection. So why would he quote that passage? Because that's one of the books they would accept. He doesn't quote the more obvious passage because the Sadducees did not accept anything other than the Pentateuch, the Torah, the first five books of Hebrew Bible. The Sadducees were also sad, you see, not only because they denied all other scripture outside of Moses, but they denied resurrection. That's why Jesus is debating them about resurrection. They did not believe in angels. Acts 23 and verse 8 says, for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor an angel. Matthew 22 and verse 30 indicates that the Sadducees didn't believe in resurrection. So you're dealing with people that only believed in the first five books of Moses. They didn't believe in angels. They didn't believe in resurrection. So Sadducee is a pretty good name for these people, right? I mean, I would be sad too if I had a limited acceptance of the authority of the totality of what God has revealed. The Sadducees are a little bit different than the Pharisees. In fact, they're a lot different. In the Sadducees, we can analogize them to modern day theological liberals. Pharisees were conservatives, but they were hyper legalists. They brought in, and this goes back to the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish rejection of the Sabbath sent the nation of Israel into the Babylonian captivity for 70 years. And when the nation of Israel came out of that captivity and came back into their homeland, they said to themselves, we're never going to let that happen again. And so they built what we call a fence around the law. Meaning we're going to pass so many laws against breaking the Sabbath that no one will ever think about breaking the Sabbath. So they had all these rules about how you couldn't eat on the Sabbath. You know, you couldn't rescue a man on the Sabbath. All of these things come into the life of Israel through something called Mishnah, and then Talmud, and there were two Talmuds. There was one in the land of Israel. There was a later one developed in what's called the Babylonian Talmud. And this is why Jesus said of the Pharisees, you make null the word of God through your traditions. Because what happened is the tale started to wag the dog. They started to read the law superimposed over the law were a bunch of man -made regulations and restrictions. So when Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees, he's always dealing with this issue. You know, he's feeding his disciples on the Sabbath. Pharisees are upset about that. He's healing people on the Sabbath. Pharisees are upset about that. And what are they upset about? They're upset about the fact that he's not respecting their rules. Where Jesus' point is the tale's wagging the dog. Your rules are being superimposed over God's actual law to the point where you're burying the original intent of the law under layer after layer after layer of man -made regulation. So Jesus, as the Lord of the Sabbath, was always trying to get back to what the Sabbath meant. It was supposed to be a blessing for man. Pharisees are saying, nope, you can't do anything on the Sabbath. You can't heal someone on the Sabbath, even though that's a blessing for man. You can't feed your disciples on the Sabbath, you know, pick crops and that kind of thing on the Sabbath. Even though that's a blessing for man, you're ruining our rules. So that's a little bit of who the Pharisees were. Pharisees are conservative, but they're beyond conservative. They're hyper legalists. Sadducees are just deniers of what the totality of God's word says. The Pharisees are going to be dominant in the synagogue. They had a higher sphere of influence in the synagogue. What was the synagogue? The synagogue were these places that Jews would gather, you know, all over the Greco -Roman world. And they gathered there during a time when there was no temple to go to. Remember the temple, the first temple that Solomon built was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and wasn't rebuilt until the days of Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah. So what did the Jews do? They would gather in the Greco -Roman world in these places called the synagogue. And the Pharisees were dominant in the synagogue. The Sadducees, as I'm trying to describe it, were dominant in the temple area. So that's why the people that are harassing the apostles in early Acts, really all the way up through Acts chapter 12, are the Sadducees and not the Pharisees. Because the Sadducees had ascendancy in the temple area. In Acts 1 through 12, the early church hadn't spread out yet. And it had a very strong sphere of influence in Jerusalem. So that's why the early church is dealing with the Sadducees, the Sadducees, the Sadducees, the Sadducees, until the Apostle Paul in Acts 13 and 14 goes out on missionary journey number one into southern Galatia. And then you'll start seeing him going to the various synagogues outside the land of Israel. And now the people coming against Paul are not the Sadducees, but now they're the Pharisees. So Sadducees, liberals, Pharisees, legalists. Sadducees dominant in the temple area, Pharisees dominant in the synagogue. Sadducees will be dominant as long as the church has a place of influence in Jerusalem. But the Pharisees as opponents of the church will become dominant as the church spreads out and moves outside the land of Israel. So verse one says, as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them. That's a little bit about who the Sadducees are and why they are the primary detractors of the church at this particular point. So Peter and John, Peter's conversation that he was having in Acts three, a very effective conversation is interrupted. The reasons for the interruption are given in verse two. It says being, now notice this, not just disturbed, but greatly disturbed. Being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and in proclaiming Jesus the resurrection from the dead. So here are these apostles and if you drop over to verse 13 for a minute, you see the way that the religious authorities looked at the apostles. It says, now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. So what is upsetting to the Sadducees is number one, these apostles are teaching the people and they never went to our Sadducee school. I mean, they don't have a Sadducee degree. In other words, they don't think like we do. I mean, if these apostles thought the way we thought, then they would only accept Moses. They would reject angels. They would reject resurrection. And here are these men who are untrained fishermen teaching the masses there in Acts chapter three. In other words, they don't have the authority to be teaching anybody is how the Sadducees were thinking about the apostles. And what really upset them is they kept talking about Christ's, but starts it with an R, resurrection, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Now that was really upsetting to the Sadducees because the Sadducees didn't believe in resurrection. And here they're claiming that the man that the nation of Israel just turned over to Rome for execution has risen from the dead and his tomb is empty. That doesn't fit our doctrine. The Sadducees would say to themselves. And this puts the apostles on a collision course with the Sadducees. The moment Peter in Acts 2 24, which is a wonderful sermon, said these words, he became, I think at that point, a marked man by the Sadducees. Peter said, but God, speaking of Jesus, raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of defeat, since it was impossible for him to be held by its power. Peter continues the subject matter in Acts chapter three and that sermon there in verse 15. And it says, but put to death, speaking of Israel, the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead. And he says a fact to which we are witnesses. Remember what Paul would say to the Corinthians. Now there's 500 eyewitnesses, 1 Corinthians 15. Check it out for yourself. They've all seen the resurrected Christ. So what they were saying is Israel rejected her own Messiah. That made the Sadducees angry enough. So then they said this Messiah rose from the dead and the Sadducees were upset even more because they didn't believe in future resurrection or any kind of resurrection. That's why when you look at verse two, it says they were being greatly disturbed, not just disturbed, but greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people. Here are these unqualified fishermen teaching doctrines that we, the religious authorities, oppose. Now you put all of this in motion and you can see why they're arrested. And their arrest is described in verse three. So they laid hands on them, that would be Peter and John, put them in jail until the next day for it was already evening. Now, why didn't they put them on trial right then and there? It's part of Jewish law. Jewish law says no trial in the evening hours. The only one that they violated that rule for was who? Jesus, because they couldn't wait to rush him through the judicial system to get him dead as quickly as they could. So they violated everything in their rule book. But here at least they're respecting the rule book and they're not having a trial in the evening hours because that is forbidden by the Mosaic law. And what is the results of all of this thing, all of this? Because we're kind of in the mindset that, oh no, if the mandates come back, which they could, they're talking about it, you know. And Sugar Land Bible Church stays open, which is at least my intention. I mean, I would like to stay open. I don't think a pastor or an elder board has a right to shut down a church because whose church is it? It's God's church. If God wants to shut down a church, it's his church, he's more than capable of doing it. A pastor doesn't have an authority to close down a church. So if all these mandates come back and hypothetically, let's say we stay open, my goodness, what if they come in here and they fine us? What if they come in here and they arrest us? What if they do like they did to that pastor of that Baptist church in Northern California where they actually chained the doors and keep assessing fine after fine after fine against him with an attempt to completely drive the church that he was pastoring, you know, under? You know, what do we do then? Well, this is where Acts chapter four is so instructive.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism in Light of Election
"Please bow with me in prayer. Our Father in heaven. As we consider your holy word. We ask God that you would give us a teachable spirit. That you would open our eyes so that we can behold the wonderful truth that you have revealed to us. Help us, oh God, to focus, to think clearly. And help us, Father, to be truly thankful that you have given us your truth. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. This evening I would like to begin with a reading of Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9, beginning at verse 6, and we'll read through verse 21. Romans chapter 9, beginning at verse 6. But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called, that is, those who are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed, for this is the word of promise. At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, having done not anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. It was said to her the older shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show you my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? Amen. If someone were to ask you for one or two words that best describes the book of Acts, what would you say? Some might say Holy Spirit, others Apostolic Church, and still others miracles. Certainly the effects of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is very important to the book of Acts. No doubt Acts gives much information about the nature and the activities of the Apostolic Church. Furthermore, possibly there are more accounts of miracles in Acts than any other book of the Bible. However, I suggest to you the best one word description of the Acts of the Apostles is evangelism. Luke gives us the most comprehensive account of evangelism in the New Testament Church. Generally speaking, Acts is the record of the disciples being witnesses to Christ from Jerusalem to locations throughout the Roman Empire. Therefore, any serious biblical study of evangelism must include a careful reading of Acts. Now, we've been going through the book of Acts. We're not very far, but we've considered a number of preaching situations that are definitely evangelistic in their nature. And tonight, what I would like to do is I would like to sort of survey a few of the things that we find about evangelism in the book of Acts and compare that to the biblical doctrine of election. And I would like to ask and answer the question, is it biblically consistent to believe in the duty of evangelism and believe that the Bible teaches election? So that will be the goal this evening. The duty to evangelize the world, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the last thing Jesus said to his disciples directly personally while on Earth was verse eight of chapter one, which reads, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth. Again, this is Acts chapter one at verse eight. For this to be the last thing Jesus said, it must have been very important and something that Jesus did not want his disciples to forget. I mean, just think about it. If you were given an opportunity to make a final statement to friends or important people like family members, surely you would want to say something that you considered very important and that you wanted to be remembered. And this I believe is exactly what Jesus did. And so when he finished giving these words, he was taken up in a cloud out of their sight. Acts chapter one at verse nine. Now what Jesus told his disciples in Acts chapter one verse eight was not something entirely new for Jesus told his disciples basically the same thing in the gospels. For example, in Matthew chapter 28 beginning at verse 18, we read, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Lord, to observe all things I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. So much of what we read after Acts chapter one verse eight is the record of evangelism in the apostolic church. From Jerusalem, the gospel is to be taken more and more into the Roman empire. However, we have other important information about the daily activities of the church. For example, the church was devoted to the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. We read this in Acts 2 42. We also learn about how the Jerusalem church had all things in common. The tragedy of lying to the Holy Spirit, the rise of church persecution from the Jews, the rise of doctrinal controversy and the attempt to settle it in the council of Jerusalem. Yet some people see these things as secondary matters because they believe that the fundamental most basic and important job of the apostolic church was evangelism. Furthermore, some Christians today believe evangelism is still the number one duty of the church. For those who see evangelism as the number one duty of the church, the core activity in witnessing for Jesus Christ is door to door home evangelism that is knocking on doors looking for the opportunity to witness. In addition to this, passing out tracks wherever allowed by law, public preaching on street corners, along with radio, television and internet evangelism are essential. In fact, some see the ultimate measure of the faithfulness of a local church in terms of an organized, consistent evangelism program designed to outreach into the community. And this is going to be reflected by increases in membership of the local church.
Abundant Encounters
What If Your Problems Disappeared?: A Valuable Shift in Perspective
"It's tempting to believe that the only way to solve our problems is to get rid of them. And we don't know if this is like a learning moment for our God, you know, just experiencing humanity and learning how to be a good father. God is eternal, so we know he knows the beginning from the end. But he also allowed himself to share in some of these human traits. And the Lord even repents. We see that in the story of Moses. And it happens more than once. Some translations use the word relent. It still means repent, though. It means he changed the way he thought about what was happening, and he acted differently because of that change of thought. So, what if your problem was no longer there? What would it feel like to start over for you? It's a perspective thing, right? So, when we're in the midst of our situation, the harsh realities, everything we're so familiar with, it just can get so overwhelming. We've made these efforts, they created this, and there's good and bad fruit. I'm confused. I don't know exactly how to move forward. But sometimes we need the perspective of what it would feel like if that problem really wasn't there anymore, and we can sort out some of our emotions because of that, and some of the ways we understand things. Our current experience can overwhelm our ability to make wise choices. And so it's helpful sometimes to imagine the reality of not having the problem and what it would feel like in the current world that we're in. Sometimes this is the kind of rescue that we need. We need the perspective to be different.
Mark Levin
David Friedman: Previewing New Film 'Route 60: The Biblical Highway'
"Self -imposed ignorance by the State Department about this crucial area that somehow we would offend people if we traveled there and spoke to the 500 ,000 Israelis that lived there or the Palestinians that lived there. And so I broke that mold pretty early early on and I traveled there. When Mike Pompeo became Secretary of State he endorsed that policy and we traveled there together. And what we found there was so compelling and so important and we wanted to to bring it a much larger audience. We wanted to bring it to the world because most people think of this strip of land 6 ,000 miles away called the West Bank and they think it's just a street fight between Israelis and Palestinians that's been going on for 100 years. Well, it's not. It's a land where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David, Jesus, where they walked, where they preached, where they ruled, where all of the biblical wisdom comes from, you where know, truths that are enduring, values that are enduring and authentic that have animated the founders of our country to write the Declaration of Independence. It's all there in this area that nobody wants to look at, nobody wants to talk about except just consider it some real estate dispute and it's so much more. Mike and I, we call it Route 60 because it's the biblical spine of Israel. Route 60 is the road from Nazareth to Beersheba and it is the road which is the road from Nazareth to Jerusalem and we went from place to place to place. Against the advice of all the great pundits, we went there from place to place and we brought it to a larger audience, hopefully to a very large audience and it's not political. We're not looking to tell people how to resolve the Israeli -Palestinian conflict. What we're asking them to do is just to care
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The True Creation-Care of the Children of God
"Romans 8, verse 19 through 22. These are God's words. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now. So far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. Originally man was supposed to be a picture of God and the creation. Everything that God made showed His wisdom, His love, various things about His power, His orderliness, His truthfulness, faithfulness, etc. There are many of God's attributes put on display in the created thing, but there was one creature that was made in His image in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and that was us. That was Adam and those who came from Adam, including his wife who was made from him and all of us who are descended from them. And the creation then was to become more and more a display of the goodness and glory of God by man's imaging God in the way that we exercised our dominion in the creation, in the way that was set under us. And so we were supposed to take dominion over the creatures and this was supposed to be something that was blessed and the creation would be seen as it were to rejoice under our wise and righteous and diligent and good management. Of course this means that everything would be done unto the glory of God and that everything would be done especially for the good of man, serving man himself as above all the rest of the creatures being made in God's image, something that many who claim to be for what they call the environment – what a dreadful term that is as opposed to creation – that they do not prize God's glory, they do not do it under His glory and therefore they do not prize man as being made in God's image and all such creation care is perverted. Sadly however, we sinned in Adam and we fell with him and the ground, the earth that he was taken from, the dust, was cursed on account of him, but not just on account of him. The word very specifically in Genesis 3 verse 17 means for his sake. The earth was cursed, the creation that was supposed to be under him was cursed for his sake and we see in our passage the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly – it wasn't the creation's fault – but because of him who subjected it in hope, verse 20. And what is that hope? That hope is that one day God redeeming many of the children of Adam from their sin, they would be children of God in Jesus Christ, united to Christ, adopted by the Father, heirs of God, joint heirs of Christ, destined to be glorified together with Christ after suffering for a little while like we have just been hearing. And so the apostle by the same spirit who had carried Moses when he wrote Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 gives us the true creation care, the thing that the creation is eagerly awaiting and expecting, that there would be a new race of renewed image bearers, now not the children of Adam made in the image of God but the children of God in Jesus Christ, united to him who is not made in God's image but who is himself the image of God, the exact imprint of his nature, the brilliance of his glory and this only begotten son who is God from everlasting to everlasting is the one that we, having been loved, having been foreknown by God, were predestined to be conformed to the Son of God as we are about to hear when we get to verse 29, and having been predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, therefore we must at last, end of verse 30, be glorified with that glory which will be revealed in us. This is what the creation wants. And so the true environmentalist or rather the true creation care should understand what the creation is for, to bring glory to God especially as managed by his image bearers in a way that prioritizes showing his glory and therefore prioritizes the good and the dignity and the superiority over all the rest of the creations of those creatures who are made in his image. That is what the creation is groaning for, eagerly expecting, desiring. And so yes, as we are conformed to Christ and renewed in God's image, we do want to take better care of the creation. We want to show wisdom and kindness and orderliness and faithfulness and diligence, joy in the to exercise the great creation care, what are we going to do? We ourselves are going to worship God. We ourselves are going to use his means and we are going to call sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ because this is what the day is waiting for. The revealing of the sons of God and the glorious liberty of the children of God, that revealing the sons of God is coming, the creation eagerly waits for it, verse 19, it is the day when we have the glorious liberty as children of God now, not just the perfection of our souls that happens at death, but resurrected bodies so that we with our new creation bodies in a new heavens and a new earth can finally be doing with our bodies what we should have been doing the whole time and more and better, for we will have glorious bodies conformed to Christ and not merely restored original bodies conformed to Adam's original body.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Necessity of God's Word (Part 2)
"Do you understand the magnitude and significance of the effort that we are part of when we engage in taking the Gospel to unbelievers? Find out much more on today's edition of Encounter God's Truth. We go back to Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia to hear the closing portion of a lesson on The Necessity of God's Word and our series on biblical apologetics. I'm Wayne Shepard and our Bible teacher is Dr. John Whitcomb. We've been learning together from this classic series on apologetics and today's program brings us to the finish. As fall approaches and so many head back to school, how appropriate it is that we focus on the energy that scripture has to impact our hearts and minds with God's eternal truth. As Dr. Whitcomb demonstrates, it's more formidable than the greatest human intellect and even more powerful than seeing a miracle. Let's go back to Appalachian Bible College now and hear the conclusion of this message, The Necessity of God's Word. We begin by reviewing 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Who is sufficient for these things? My friends, we're in an infinite operation here that determines the eternal destiny of human beings in heaven or hell. Who's sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Now friends, we can just begin to realize the magnitude of God's plan here in form of a little chart. I hope this will be of some help to you as it has to me from time to time. Over here we have symbolized the unbeliever with a darkened heart that doesn't have cleansing and purifying and forgiveness and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever. And notice that he is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier to any outside finite pressure. It's called his sinful nature. And over here we've tried to depict the believer whose heart has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit based on the merits of Jesus Christ. And the believer may fall into the serious temptation of trying to win the unbeliever on a horizontal basis, namely just provide Christian evidences to penetrate that heart through logic and philosophy and history and science. And by the way, all these arguments that we've talked about through archaeology and history and logic, I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of evidences that show that the Bible has got to be supernatural in origin. But the amazing thing we discover is that no matter how powerful the arguments are in the realm of creation and prophecy and so forth, they cannot penetrate that heart. They cannot get through to that heart. Well then what's the answer? What's the approach? God says you have... Now this is very illogical from a human standpoint. God says you have to approach the unbeliever through the third heaven. You have to go this way, through prayer, faith and obedience in relation to God on the basis of Hebrews 4 -12, the word of God, not my word or your word. The word of God is living, powerful, sharper than a two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing center of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and neither is any creature that is not naked and open before the eyes of him with whom he have to... God knows that person infinitely. He knows what can reach that person, namely his precious word alone. That's one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn. Well all the things, Lord, that I've learned about how we know the Bible is true, why can't I use those arguments, those evidences? Well friends, let's stop and think for a moment. As the word of God penetrates into that unbeliever, something of infinite power has reached his heart. Now just think of the evidences Jesus If provided. you think our evidences can be effective, and they can be, and that's a whole subject of its own, think of the evidences Jesus himself gave. Stupendous sign miracles, hundreds of them. In fact, someone has suggested that every sick, crippled, leprous person in Israel, by the time Jesus' ministry was finished, was healed. Thousands of people, it says that over and over, year after year, thousands of people can heal them all, heal them all. And I say, well Lord, I should think that the whole nation then would have turned to him. Why, on one occasion, friends with a boy's lunch, he fed 5 ,000 men plus their families with food left over. And they said, they all agreed, this is John 6, let's make him king. I mean, anyone who can feed everybody for nothing supernaturally is our candidate for king. Then he began telling them about himself and who he was and that they had to believe in him on the basis of his substitutionary atoning death. And guess what happened at the end of chapter 6? They all left him. You say, that's absurd. Haven't they seen sign miracles? Yes. Miracles like the like of which had never been seen before in the history of the world? Yes. And Jesus turned to the twelve and said, are you going to believe me too? And one of them finally spoke up, of course, Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Right. That's the difference. But even one of them was a doubter, Thomas, and another one was demon possessed, namely Judas. That helps me to understand what the miracles were for. Why Jesus, friends, said, an evil, adulterous nation demands signs and no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah, namely, as he was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words, his bodily resurrection is his final proof to the whole human race of who he is. The sign miracles, may I say it this way, were almost totally ineffective and worthless to convert anybody ever in Israel. That wasn't their function. It was simply to do what? To attract attention to himself as the God appointed Messiah and King of Israel so that they could then hear his message and then their response to the message would determine their eternal destiny. This is an awesome thing to think about. Now, I almost hate to read this chapter. With fear and trembling, I ask you to turn to Luke 16. This is absolutely awesome. The rich man in Hades. Luke 16, beginning with verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. Would you kindly agree with me he was in desperate condition. He had nothing of this world's goods. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. That means the place of blessing, the place of the faithful in what at that time was called paradise, the upper Sheol Hades where believers went when they died. And the rich man also died and was buried and in hell or Hades, the lower Sheol Hades, he lifted up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom in close fellowship with him. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. That is the situation now of every unbeliever who's ever died. I just, I'm staggered by this. And Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented and besides all this between us and you there's a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, Lazarus can't get to you, sorry, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence and other you can't come here either. And then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that rich man in Hades and torment said to Abraham, Father, that thou would ascend into my brother's house. I have a plan. I want you to reach my living brothers by sign miracles. Now this would impress some people today because we are harassed in every direction by people who are committed to sign miracle ministries to change the hearts of people by spectacular things that they can see. Now watch the response of God through Abraham. I have five brethren that he may testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. In other words, would you please send Lazarus, the beggar, back to the realm of the living because my five brothers often came to my mansion and saw this beggar by the door and they'd recognize him when they see him. Please send him back to the realm of the living. And I mean, think of this as an evangelistic program. He could go from house to house, knock on the doors of my brothers and say, I am back from the dead. I saw your dead brother in Hades in torment. Do you think that would get their attention? How do you like that for a sign miracle Look ministry? at God's response through Abraham. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. They have the Bible. They have the Old Testament scripture. They have the infallible and errant self -authenticating word of God. In other words, that's what they need is Now, this is why he was where he was. Listen to how he despises God's word. Do you catch this? He said, nay, Father Abraham. In other words, who cares about the Bible? Old wives fabled stories for children maybe, but not for my brothers. You don't understand, sir, they're intellectuals. They're scientists. They don't accept stories supposedly from God. They want to see something that's empirical, tangible, self -evident and thus convincing. Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. That's what they need, a sign miracle. Hmm. And here's how it ends, folks. And he said unto him, Abraham said to the rich man, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Really? Well, that's what happened when Jesus arose from the dead. The whole story of the book of Acts is that in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ fulfilled his promise, he said, you destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again. And he did and rose from the dead. And the apostles preached the resurrection of Jesus and the scribes and the Pharisees hated the message and threatened and tormented God's servants for mentioning resurrection, even of Jesus. Oh yes, friends, even if one rises from the dead, they will not repent. You know what Jesus did for his friend Lazarus one day in Bethany? He raised him from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. I'm very impressed by what happened, aren't you? Immediately, the corpse stood at the entrance of the tomb and he said, loose him and let him go. He's fine. He's alive. Probably felt better than he had in his previous life. He didn't have to be dragged out half dead for recuperation. Don't you think all the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees would have just swamped the whole, I mean, that settles it. We believe. Read what happened next. The enemies of Jesus got together and made a decision. Just for that, we're going to kill Lazarus and Jesus. Hmm, that doesn't sound intelligent. Well, that's the problem because the mind of man, which is an aspect of the soul, heart, spirit of man in his sinfulness, his darkness cannot function intelligently. Only the spirit of God can bring us reason to see God's realities as they really are. And I say, well, Lord, I just didn't know it was this bad. I just desperately need your help then to accomplish what is otherwise impossible. Help me to preach the word faithfully, clearly, completely, without compromise, graciously, patiently, in season, out of season, love people, whether they receive me, accept me, appreciate me or not, because the word of God has infinite power. I don't. He has it. He alone has it. Now, friends, there is a way in which Christian evidences can be used. I just want to be very careful here not to disparage the things that God has given us in the way of evidences. Let's take a look. The low value of Christian evidences, among other methods, shall by this all men, unsaved men who lack spiritual discernment to understand scripture, by this, Jesus said, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another, John 13, 35. So the ultimate models for mutual Christian love in a godless world must be the Christian home and the local church. Now, think carefully of that statement, Jesus, that's the greatest of Christian evidences. When you go forth to a mission field, whether it's New Zealand or wherever, something you can do under God is undeniable and irresistible. And here it is. Demonstrate to the people to whom God sends you that you know what Christian love is in your relationship, husband and wife and parents and children and children to parents and hopefully other Christians and a little tiny microcosm of the Holy Spirit called a local church that God will plant there and the godless surrounding population sooner or later will have to see something they have never seen before and can't explain and can't duplicate. Christian love. Why, there are all kinds of evidences, friends, that are helpful, like maybe, you know, medical missions, helping people physically, that'll get their attention. Maybe hospitality, maybe English language courses in China or wherever, people almost do anything to learn English and you get them there and you demonstrate, you know, the things that they're interested in and show friendship. But you see, Jesus said, the greatest evidence we have that will really get people's attention is Christian love, one for another in the home and in a local church that God will plant here and there around the world. You see, friends, Jesus never said miracles will do the trick. He said to the apostles, you remember in John 14, the miracles that I've done you'll do also. And they did, they raised the dead, I mean Peter and Paul, I mean amazing sign miracles they did in the early church, book of Acts. But do you know what else he said, friends? Greater works than these shall you do because I go to my Father. And what are the greater works? Preaching the gospel, which when believed brings eternal life instantly. But the sign miracles Jesus performed never saved anybody. Did you know that? They were spectacular, they were undeniable. But every person Jesus healed got sick again anyway and died, every one of them. He didn't permanently solve anybody's problem physically. He fed 5 ,000 the next day they were all hungry again. Didn't solve their hunger problem. But Jesus said, because I'm going to my Father in heaven and send the Holy Spirit and create the church and grant unto you the scriptures, you will have the capacity under God to mastermind this book and make it known to people and you'll see greater works. I mean Peter the apostle, folks, preached one sermon and 3 ,000 men were saved in one day and saved forever. Vastly greater miracle than healing the sick and walking on water, which Peter also did. Don't try that, by the way, unless Jesus does to you what he did to him, namely says come. Don't try that. I have been fascinated, obsessed I guess is the word, with the mentality today that you have to have intellectual brilliance and you have to have spectacular miracles to attract anybody and to have any credibility as a member, as a representative of God. I've done a little booklet in fact that's out there and maybe have helped you. Does God want Christians to perform miracles today? No. In fact, you know what would happen? It'd be a regression. It'd be a step, giant step backwards because we'd be going back to the lower foundation of the church in the apostolic era before the superstructure was built on a completed scripture. In those days it was a unique way for God to give the apostles opportunity to attract attention, but now friends we have something they didn't have, the completed Bible. God says you master this book and sooner or later one way or another you follow my guidelines and instruction and you mastermind the basics of evangelism and church planning and missions and witness and you will have infinite power from above through this book that pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And I say Lord, I desperately need your help. This book friend is so powerful that even when you preach it without love it'll change people forever. Did you know that? Paul tells us in Philippians 1 there are other people here in Rome that are offended by my being here and they don't like me and they don't appreciate me but they are preaching the truth and I will rejoice in it and I will continue to rejoice because even without love which is often the way we preach like on a radio station you never even see the people or hand out a tract and you see the people disappear you never see them again. Even under those situations the word of God has infinite power. Let me tell you a man who preached the word without love, Jonah. He hated every minute of his ministry. He said God why didn't you destroy these people? That wasn't a loving approach to missions. But you know what he did? He preached the word and the whole city repented and Jesus said it wasn't fakie either. He said Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and will rise up in the last generation and condemn this generation. I mean he must have preached more than just judgment. He must have said something about God. It's my opinion. The whole city repented even though he hated every one of them in Nineveh. But that's why God says preach the truth as we were reminded this morning. Preach the truth in love and you'll have even more effect. Yes, but whatever you do folks, hold on, preach the truth. That's the point. That's the power, the truth and hopefully it's done in love and graciously and prayerfully and patiently but whatever you do and whatever your motive and whatever the circumstances, preach the word. And I say thank you Lord, that settles it. I think I'll be a Bible believing Christian and a Bible believing teacher and I want to honor Jesus Christ and the blessed Holy Spirit who presented this book to us because that's an irresistible force. Even in a world dominated by what? Satan, millions of demons, billions of depraved people and even mice in nature. God says watch me. I have a special weapon, an instrument I'm putting into your hand and your mind and heart. Watch what I can do almost in spite of you for my glory through my word. Father in heaven, I just stand amazed at how you operate. Everything sooner or later will be for your glory or it will disappear. Help me to examine there for my own ministry. The church could be raptured to heaven and I and all of us will be confronted by the Lord Jesus with eyes like a flame of fire searching us, examining us to see whether we really have done the work of God in a godly way, in obedience, in faithfulness for his glory. Help me to be ready at any moment to give an account to you dear Father because that's why you sent me not to gain glory for myself or any of us as teachers and proclaimers of the truth but to glorify the Savior apart from whom we're lost forever and the blessed Holy Spirit who gave us this precious book. May ABC father stand brightly in a darkening world as a true reflector of the light of Jesus Christ until he comes I pray in his glorious name for his sake. Amen. If God's word has made an impact on you today we'd love to hear about it. Just leave us a comment at facebook .com slash Whitcomb Ministries where there's always something to encourage you. You can also find lots more on the subject of apologetics at sermonaudio .com slash Whitcomb. Find that page from our website WhitcombMinistries .org. You're listening to Encounter God's Truth from Whitcomb Ministries and we're grateful for the opportunity to emphasize week after week that God's word is true from the beginning to the end offering timeless truths for changing times. I'd like to close with a reading from Psalm 103. Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquity who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. For everyone here at Encounter God's Truth I'm Wayne Shepherd praying for the Lord to fill this week ahead with much meaning and many blessings. Thanks for listening.
Abundant Encounters
Relating to the Rescuer: Imagine Modern-Day Noah
"Story of Noah is, you know, it shouldn't get past us, that it has something to do with baptism, right? There's this idea of drowning this old civilization, this man, this old man, and preserving the righteousness, which there was righteousness present because Noah was present. And I think I've said this before, but it's important for us, especially as we go through this story, to humanize Moses. We have to bring him down to our level on purpose so that we can relationally connect to him. Maybe you're like, how can I do that? That's someone that's been dead for a long time. And yeah, it's not, it's in the same way that you would read just a good novel in today and you would relate to the characters because they reminded you of themselves. Sometimes we fail to do that in the Bible because we just think of these grand stories that are told in here and we just think, wow, I could never be as righteous as Noah. And it's true, maybe we all have flaws and there are, but Noah also has flaws. What God likes about Noah is his faith. His faith in God creates his desire to be obedient to a voice that he's hearing. We don't know if he's hearing it inside or outside. But he is being obedient and sometimes you've heard that voice inside, outside, maybe it was a feeling. We all have history with God. So it's important for us to relate to Noah in this story and connect to his humanity. Now let's imagine a modernized version of Noah, you know, likely someone that is wildly full of faith, but not untouchable. He would want to share it. He would want us to understand it. At the time there's nobody for him to share with, so we don't get a real big picture of who he is in community, but we can imagine that this would be an influencer, a person who would share his faith because of how strongly he felt about it. You know, he's a guy that's brilliant when it comes to following instructions about architecture. His faith led him to hear and design and build and move in this amazing, never before seen. I mean, he is a tip of the spear kind of guy. He loves animals. If he didn't before, you know, God puts it on him to bring in these pairs. He's a man of the land, very observant. And so in so many ways, you know, given the circumstances, this is someone we could get to know, right? And we could have known and we could know.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Great Commission: Our Calling & Promise
"I just want to say welcome to all of our visitors. We're so glad that the Lord has led you this way. We hope something will be said to encourage you, and we're so glad to have you with us. As we gather today, let's remember we're not just a group of people meeting in a building. We are the church, the bride of Christ, the called -out ones, given a glorious mission by our risen Savior. That said, I want to draw your attention to a familiar passage that, while often cited, it never loses its gravity or significance. So in your copy of God's Word, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 28, and we're going to pick up at verse 16. Today we are pulling away from John. As you know, we've been kind of working through John, and we are going to pick that up on next time. But considering we have several baptisms today, the elders thought that it would be helpful if we look at baptism and the Lord's Supper. And so we've chosen a portion of Scripture here to kind of allow us to think through. Maybe you are comfortable with knowing what it means to be baptized. Maybe you don't understand. Maybe it's not quite that clear. And today we hope to bring some clarity. And in this passage we find the risen Lord standing at the top of a mountain in Galilee, proclaiming His authority over heaven and earth. And with that unmatched authority, He gives the church her enduring mission. It's a mission that reaches the very heart of our identity as Reformed Baptists and our love for evangelism. It's fitting then that we examine this passage today not merely as a call to evangelize but to understand the profound connection between the Great Commission and the two sacred ordinances the Lord entrusted to His church, baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are not mere rituals or empty traditions, but they hold the weight and symbolism of our covenant relationship with God and our shared journey as believers. In we baptism witness an outward confession of an inward change. Today we're going to hear, we're going to witness that. And those who are among us who are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're going to hear them today testify about how God has saved them. And so, baptism is an outward confession of an inward change. It is an affirmation of faith, a burial of the old life, and a resurrection of the new. It is the beginning of the journey, a first step in obedience to the command of the risen Savior. Today we will see this take place in our presence. Then, as we regularly gather at the Lord's table, we are reminded of the immense importance of His sacrifice and the hope of His return. The bread and the cup are a tangible reminder of the gospel message and our union with Christ. We are the only ones who are able to identify with Christ through the bread and the wine. It makes us who we are because the Lord Himself passed it down, instituted it to His church. And so we have the great privilege of being reminded of that unity we have with Christ. So, let us now look at the Word of God. Follow along with me as I read. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you behold, and I am with you always to the end of the age. This is the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank You for Your Word. We pray that You would help us to be able to understand what Your Word says, what it means. Speak to us where we are. Help us to know Your truth. Lead us and guide us and direct us as we understand Your Word, as we come and we're reminded of what Your Word says, as Your Spirit teaches us. We pray that we would be helped in such a way that we would leave here a changed people. Lord God, we pray also for the one who do not know You, that today might be the day of salvation. We pray, Lord, that You would cause Your Word to come alive in us, that we might go away and say, did not our hearts burn within as You visited with us? Lord, we ask all these prayers in Jesus' name, amen. Today's sermon is entitled, The Great Commission, Our Calling and Promise. I have four points. The first point, setting the stage. The second point is the authority of Christ. The third point is the command to discipleship. And our final point is the promise of His presence. So let's begin. Point number one, setting the stage. The text says, now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. At this point in the narrative, there are only eleven disciples because Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, is no longer among them. After Jesus' resurrection, they found, they followed His instructions to go to Galilee. The choice of Galilee is significant because it was here that Jesus conducted much of His earthly ministry. And it's away from the religious and political pressures of Jerusalem also. The specific mountain is not named, but the fact that Jesus gives them a specific location shows intentionality on His part. Mountains are often, we said before, have spiritual significance in biblical narratives. They are places of revelation, teaching, prayer, and encounter with God. For example, Moses on Mount Sinai, the transfiguration of Jesus on a mountain. Seeing the resurrected Jesus prompts an act of worship from the disciples. Worship indicates their reverence, their awe, and recognition of Jesus and His divinity. This is especially significant considering the Jewish context of the disciples. Worship was reserved for God alone. Their act of worshiping Jesus underscores their understanding of Him as the Son of God, despite witnessing the resurrected Jesus, seeing Him in the flesh. Some of the disciples harbored down. This is a fascinating and a very human moment in the narrative. It reveals that even those who walked closely with Jesus and witnessed His miracles still experience uncertainty or hesitation. Excuse me. Now, this could be due to the sheer astonishment of the resurrection event, or perhaps they were grappling with trying to reconcile the crucified Jesus with the now resurrected Jesus. And so this leads us to our next point. We're going to consider point number two, the authority of Christ. You see this in verse 18. In Matthew 28, 18, it states, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The Lord Jesus declares that all authority both in heaven and on earth has been granted to Him. This is a profound statement that shows and underscores His divine nature and the completion of His earthly ministry. He's making sure that they know that He has supreme authority throughout the universe. In other words, what applied before don't exist now. It's as if the Lord is saying, My deity does not have restraints anymore. He says, I am sovereign, I am supreme ruler. In other words, He's saying, I have no limits, listen to me. He's speaking with His divine authority. If Jesus possesses all authority both in heaven and on earth, then His teachings, His commands and guidelines are of utmost importance. It's as if the captain walks on the deck, the general enters the building, we stand at attention when the King of Kings speak. And so the authority gives Him weight to His words and His directions. This requires a response in obedience. For believers, this means living in accordance with Jesus' teachings and as recorded in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament. So obedience becomes not just a duty, but a joyful response to the one who has the ultimate authority and has the best intentions for all humanity. Trust often arises from knowing that someone has the power and authority to bring about their promises. With Jesus having all authority, His promises become immensely trustworthy. In other words, it helps our faith amidst our uncertainties. Trusting in Jesus means believing even when circumstances seem contrary. But since He has authority over all things, believers can trust that He is in control. Even in chaotic or unpredictable situations. In other words, we aren't to be moved because we understand what our God has said and with the authority He meant it. Knowing Jesus has all authority provides comfort in times of difficulty. If He has authority over everything, then even the toughest situations fall under His sovereign control. But we must believe that. We must live it out. We must rely upon it. We must seek it out because we know that God is the one who's purposely holding all things together and He is working all things out. Can rest in that reality. He has it in control. He has the future in control. It doesn't matter what's in the bank accounts, how much we have saved up. It doesn't matter how loose our finances are. What matters is we understand that despite our shortcomings, Christ is still on the throne, still in control. And so He's speaking with that authority. Remember He's the sovereign one, the one who has just recently defeated death. And now He says, everything is under My control. And He's our God. He's our hope. He's our confidence. And so knowing Jesus has all authority provides the comfort we need in times of difficulty. He's in control. Challenges when viewed from the perspective of Christ's authority can be seen as opportunities for growth. We can consider it as growing pains, right? We can look forward to growing because we know that God doesn't waste anything. So anything that's happening in our life, we can look forward to it because He's in control. And if we see it that way, then we can see it as opportunities. Then we can wonder with anticipation, I wonder what He's going to do now, what He's going to do next because nothing can move the Master. He's my rock. So this is an opportunity to draw closer to God so our experiences aren't random or purposeless, but they are used by God for a greater purpose in our lives. And that's why we're here today. We're here to hear from God. In other words, there's hope in despair. Even in the face of overwhelming odds or despairing situations, there's hope with Christ. Christ's authority rules and ensures that no situation is beyond His reach. No person is beyond Him where He cannot pull you up out of the maury and clay out of our sins and reach you and touch you where you are with redemption. He can do it. He is the Redeemer. He is the greatest when it comes to comebacks. Who loves a good comeback? When it feels like you've lost in life, God can sustain you, lift you up, and lead you out to victory. What a great privilege we have in knowing Him. In other words, we can continue to be reminded that God is sovereign overall. The perspective can continue in providing us peace and resilience over and over again. And He's telling us that His authority extends beyond this life to eternity. He has it all in His hand. The little children used to say, they used to sing, that God has the whole world in His hand, in His hand. He has mother and father in His hand, in His hands. It's a song that keeps reminding us of the sovereignty of God. And even the little children can sing together with the adults and sing, God, our God, has the whole world in His hand so that when they grow up, when they're faced with challenges and trials, they can remember what mama used to sing, what daddy used to say. They can remember seeing their parents go down on their knees and praying to their God. And for you know it, they would bend their own knees just as well, and they would know that there is someone who understands. There is someone who listens. Believers can approach life's challenges with an eternal perspective, knowing that our current struggles are temporary in comparison to the eternal joy and the glory that is coming with Christ. It's coming with Christ. This takes us to our third point. Number three, we will consider the command to discipleship. You can see this in verses 19 and 20. Jesus states, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. I'm going to stop there and just say a little bit about disciples. As disciples of Christ ourselves, we understand the command to make disciples as a call to spread the gospel to the world from San Diego County beyond. We have the opportunity to be disciples in the sense we ourselves are continuous learners. We've come into the knowledge of Christ, and we continue to learn. We also have the obligation of spreading the gospel to the world, spreading the gospel in San Diego County, spreading the gospel beyond us to India. We're connecting with our brothers and sisters there through our missionaries. On the missionary playing fields, we have the opportunity to share the burdens and the load of the gospel going forward by coming alongside of our missionaries. We're able to come alongside our brothers and sisters in Barbados, brothers and sisters in Spain, over on the Indian reservation. What a privilege we have in sharing this opportunity that the gospel may go forward. We hold to the belief that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, which means the emphasis is on preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to all people. This is the active nature of our faith. In other words, when we become disciples, it doesn't mean that we stand on the sidelines. But to be a disciple is taking action. It's taking the responsibility to learn and to grow and to then apply what we have learned. It is active. It is the active nature of our faith. Discipleship is more than a mere conversion. It's a journey. It's a growing journey of faith. So to be reminded of that, as we consider this thought, this idea, going therefore, making disciples of all nations. So there's much more that could be said about discipleship, but I won't be spending any more time here because I want to say much more about the lion's share of our time on baptism and the Lord's Supper. Jesus moves on from discipleship to speak about baptism. In Matthew 28 and 19 He says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. So bringing them the gospel, teaching them the word of God, then after they become believers, He says baptizing them, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But what is baptism? Baptism according to the Bible and as understood as Reformed Baptists is an outward sign of an inward grace. It is a symbolic act where a believer is immersed in water, representing the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, raised up, pointing to the resurrection of Christ. It states it in Romans 6 .4, we were therefore buried with Him through baptism into debt in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Mark Levin
Caller: Playing the Worst Hand Possible the Best Way
"Not asking it's whatever it's what everybody just so you know i will be on a number of fox programs and a number of our wonderful affiliates all across the web westward one family but in any event go ahead ahead moses what did you have for us and thank you by the way so now i got a couple of points i'd love to your thoughts on mark so with regard to the 2020 election the way that the messaging and the framing of the election irregularities is being put out there i think it's wrong it's not about fraudulent ballots that's a separate category it's about the process and the illegal collection of legal ballots and the one thing that i would love to see because i'm a poker player so even though i hate what's happening to the former president this is about playing the worst hand possible the best way so in all cases these that were presented back in 2020 in which the former president lost because of latches because of merit because of he now has the proper forum to present everything and now there actually are a few cases in which the actual the republic is actually one in the supreme of the state supreme court of Wisconsin over there that court ruled that the manner in which the democrat county clerks administered the election in respect to ballot boxes that was unconstitutional same thing happened in Michigan with the secretary of state with respect to signature verification guidance that was also ruled unconstitutional another thing that should happen too is that every witness that actually testified before the senate homeland security committee back in 2020 it was chaired by Ron Johnson I believe it was attorney troopers you actually back a few years ago played a segment of his opening testimony he actually presented the case in the state supreme court of Wisconsin in which the Democrats violated and circumvented voter ID laws with being indefinitely confined and I believe that your wife was involved with the case that Patricia McCulloch in Pennsylvania I believe
Evangelism on SermonAudio
"moses" Discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Welcome to the podcast of First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport, Mississippi. To learn more about our church, our beliefs, and our pastor, please visit fpcgulfport.org. Outside of Jesus Christ, there is no one that has had more of an impact than the man we call Moses. Moses was used to deliver God's people, to bring them the law, and to build the tabernacle. However, in God's time, Moses died. In today's study of Deuteronomy 34, we'll consider the final days of this great man of God. Over the years, Moses had gone up mountains multiple times to meet with God. On a number of different occasions, Moses had ascended a mountain in order to meet with God there. The time we're most familiar with is when he received the Ten Commandments. In today's text, Moses would do what he had done multiple times before. He would go up the mountain, but this time, he would not return. This time, Moses would die upon the mountaintop. Now, what do you think the last thing that Moses saw was? What do you think the last thing he heard was? The last vision that we're going to see as we jump into today's study, the last vision that graced Moses' eyes, it was a look into the Promised Land. God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he renewed those promises across the years. Moses himself had looked forward to this great day, and here on the mountaintop, he beholds that which was promised centuries ago, he beholds the Promised Land. And he sees in that moment that the promises of God are not void, that God can and will do everything that he has said he would do. So Moses looks out, and as he looks out at the Promised Land, dear heavens, it's so much better than where he just came from. Moses had just come out of the wilderness. Moses had just spent 40 years wandering around with the people in the wilderness, and now he looks out and he sees the Promised Land, and it's every bit as good, every bit as great as God had told him. This is truly a land flowing with milk and honey. I don't know what that looks like, but it sounded pretty good, especially in contrast to the wilderness that they came out of. This is a land that was green. We see palm trees in here. This was lush. This was desirable. There was any manner of things about this land that was far superior than that which he had come. So Moses' life, in a sense, had been building to this moment. Moses' ministry had been building to this moment. At one point, God had commissioned Moses to deliver his people from bondage to Pharaoh, to deliver his people. Now, here's the thing. It's true of them, and it's true of us. When God delivers you from something, when God delivers you from one circumstance, he also delivers you to another. You understand that? When God delivers us from one thing, he delivers us to another thing. In the case of the Israelites, the wilderness was not the end game. God delivered them from Pharaoh, and they spent time in the wilderness. But ultimately, he was delivering them to the promised land. So this was the day, this was the moment, this was the time that Moses' entire life and ministry had been building towards. And it all culminated in his own eyes and his own ears as God whispered, This is the land. This is the land. So Moses saw this. Now, as we look at today's text, I want us to be encouraged. You and I too live in the wilderness. We might not recognize that at times, because at times it's fairly nice, at least here locally. And yet this is the wilderness, and God has trained our eyes just as he has trained Moses' eyes to look towards a promised land that awaits, and to have our entire trajectory, our entire life's course, to head towards that day and that location. So in today's text, on the one hand, we're seeing a story of one man beholding the promised land. On the other hand, today's text is a call for us to look forward to that day when we will behold an even greater promised land yet to come. All right, if you would, let's look now, verses one through four. We'll reread these verses and work our way through the balance. Verse one. Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab, which were no great shakes, the plains of Moab, to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is a cross from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, which is up towards the north, all of Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the south and the plains of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, this is the land. This is the land of which I swore, which I promised, which I covenanted with you, to give to Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. And I have caused you, caused you, Moses, to see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over there. All right, before I unpack these verses, I want us to recall that if you've read through the book of Deuteronomy, you'll see a few chapters earlier in chapter 31, that God had already told Moses what was about to go down. In other words, nothing that's happening here in chapter 34 is a surprise to Moses. He didn't go up to chapter 34 and all of a sudden realize that this was the end. God had told them way back in 31, also in Numbers, he had told them this is what's going to happen. This is the time frame. This is what to expect. So in chapter 31, God told Moses that the end is near and even told them when and where it was going to occur. But he said, go and get your house in order. And so Moses did and he offered all the people a series of blessings and of course a series of warnings as well. And of course he taught the individuals, he spoke to individuals about the things that they needed to do and the time to come and yet he blessed all of those that he had loved and led for all of these years. And when that was complete, when those actions were done, it was time to go up the mountain. And that final action, that ascending, is what we see in verses one through four. Now in verses one through four, the descriptions we have of going from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho, if you're a cartography sort of person, you understand that this meant he literally went to the tallest mountain range and to the tallest peak in that mountain range in order to look out. And from that vantage point, he beheld something he'd wanted to see really his entire life. He looked out and he saw it to the north and the east and the south and to the west, this breathtaking landscape which was greater than anything that he had expected into the distance of the land that God had promised. And as his old eyes took this in, as he took this in, as he filtered this experience, this sensory experience that he was seeing, he hears the word of God whisper to him and said, this is the land. Moses, this is the land. This is the land that I swore to Jacob. You know, there is something cool about those moments in life, however rare they may be, when faith becomes sight, when that which we have believed may be for decades only to find out that God, God has fulfilled it in our time and in our sight. For decades, Moses had been leading by faith. I mean, he'd been in the wilderness. That's all he really had to work with. He'd been leading by faith. Now God had blessed the people. He'd given them the quail and the man and all these different things. God had protected the people and put a hedge around them. Their sandals hadn't worn out despite being in the wilderness. God had protected the people and yet it was just a miserable time. It was miserable for Moses in particular because the people were grumbling all the time. Man alive, if you read anything that the people of Israel did during the book of Exodus or Deuteronomy, what you'll see is that this was a rebellious house. They grumbled and they complained. There was even a point when Moses basically said, God, kill me now because the people, they're just too much for me. I can't take this anymore. I can't take this anymore. So Moses had had this very difficult, very challenging time when he'd been out in the wilderness and yet at this moment, the faith that he'd had for decades, the faith he'd had across all these travels, the faith he'd had even as things were going miserable, the faith he had after day after day of things just being so difficult for him, the faith that he had had that God had sowed in his heart is fully realized and validated in this moment. Moses, this is the land. Everything you've done, all your ministry, it's paid off. You have done what I've asked you to do. You delivered the people from Egypt and you've delivered them to the door of the promised land. Moses had believed for decades that God could and would do exactly this. Moses had believed and had faith even when this world gave him faith, having a faith tested and even critiqued by others. They had critiqued him. They critiqued his faith. They critiqued his leadership. After all this time, he realized that everything God had told them had been true. That's exciting to think that there's a day for you too that'll come when your faith will become sight. There's things right now that you take by faith. Well, here's the good news. God's intention in his time is to validate every ounce of faith you have ever placed in him. There will become a time when faith will become sight just as it was for Moses. Now before we look at verses five through seven, I'll ask us, the promised land of Canaan, that no longer holds as much appeal to us per se. And yet Christ himself, Christ said, hey church, hey new covenant community, there is a promised land that's even better than that one. There's a promised land that awaits. And he introduced that promised land when he was talking to his disciples on the night he was betrayed. He gathers them close when they're anxious and he says, hey, let me tell you a little bit about that promised land. He said this, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also. Moses worked all his life toward the promised land and toward being the recipient of the promises that God had long made to his forefathers. Well, the promise that Jesus made to the disciples in the church is even greater and it's on our horizon as well. Let's look at verses five through seven. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no one knows his grave to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. And his eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. There has never been, never, never, never, never been a man like Moses. Outside of Christ himself, who had the advantage of being fully God and fully man, outside of Jesus Christ, there's never been a man utilized on this entire planet to do the things that Moses did, to accomplish all that he accomplished. To the degree he's considered the great intercessor, the giver of the old covenant. He delivered God's people. He brought them the law. He helped construct the tabernacle. He led them to the promised land. This is one of the greatest profiles any leader could ever desire. And yet, interestingly, in verse five, he dies. What does that tell you? This is the most important man in the era of his day. In all of the cosmos, there was no man born of woman, no man of flesh and blood that was as critical, you could say, to the kingdom of God and to the working of God's purposes than Moses. And yet, in verse five, Moses died. What does that tell you? It tells me we're all replaceable. It tells me that we all minister for a season, however long that season may or may not be. It's a season. And in God's time, he will raise up others, like Joshua, to continue the work. And therefore, as he continues that work, the glory goes to God and not to man. Scripture refers to Moses as the servant of the Lord. Don't miss that. The greatest character in Moses' story is not Moses. It's God. In God's time, as wonderful and amazing and as just tremendous a human being as Moses was, in God's time, he called him home. Now, did he call him because he looked at Moses and said, oh, Moses, you're looking kinda creaky. Moses, I'm just feeling so bad for you. The arthritis is kicking in. You're just shuffling. Moses, let me do you a favor. Let me call you on back. Enter into your rest. Did you do that? Was Moses in that sort of condition? Well, at 120, I would think he would be, but interestingly, Scripture says that wasn't the case. Scripture says that his eyes had not grown dim. His natural vigor was not diminished. Moses was still at 120 years old at the powerhouse. I hope to be at 50, at 60. He was a powerhouse, and we know he was a powerhouse because he did something that I couldn't do and I don't think we all could do. He went up this mountain at 120 years old. We know that he was capable. We know he wasn't shuffling. We know he wasn't near death because he climbed a mountain in the very text we're looking at. This is a man that God didn't call home because he just couldn't bear to see him falling apart this way. He called him home. Because his time was done and his utility in the eyes of God was complete. That'll be true of us as well. There will come a time when God calls us home and rest assured, he will not do so until he is convinced that our utility, our kingdom utility is complete. Now, here's the thing. We might question that timing. We might say, I could do more. I'd grow more, experience more, what have you. And yet God knows what he's doing and he knew when it was time to call Moses. He knew the time to call Moses was different than the time to call McShane. He knew the time to call Moses was different than the time to call Aaron, which was much earlier. You and I, we have a challenge when it comes to mortality. You know one of the things that's developed and I think it's a 21st century North American sort of thing, the bucket list. You know, I looked across theologians and I said, surely this concept of a bucket list, surely a Turretin, surely Spurgeon, surely Calvin wrote about the bucket list, surely. Not so much. It's something we've developed because we have this idea that with the time we have, we should experience everything we possibly can and do everything we can. And I get that impulse. There's a lot of stuff I wanna do. I just mentioned Bob Ross and violins. There's things we all wanna do. And yet, in God's time, he will call us home. Moses never went water skiing. Moses never ate a chocolate bar. Some things we take for granted. Moses never had a po' boy. There was a lot Moses didn't do. But in God's time, when Moses' season was done, God called him home. And that's okay. We don't understand when God calls our loved ones home. We don't get it, we don't like it. And yet, if we look at what they've meant to us, if we look at how they poured their lives into our own, we rejoice that not only did we know them and experience those benefits then, but we continued to reap the benefits of having known them in the first place. There's the old saying that people don't really die, that they live within us. Well, in this sense, they do. The experiences we've had with them continue to infect and inform us in the most positive sense in the time they had to come. And as an aside, our reunion's not that far off. Our reunion's just around the corner. If we have faith, we'll soon have sight. All right, one last thought in verses five through seven before we look at verses eight through 12. One thing I do not want us to miss. So Moses, he dies. God calls him home. God says your utility is complete. Now enter into your rest. So God calls Moses home. Now with that said, Moses dies. I don't know if he's sitting, standing, what have you, but Moses, he's done. Now, who's up there with him? Anyone? Bueller? God is with him, right? So who buries Moses? God. Look at the text again. Look at verses five through seven. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no one knows his grave to this day. Do you see this? Moses dies, and then God cradles his body. God cradles his body and takes him to his rest. And he takes him to a place where no one will know where the grave site is because people can be weird about relics and the like and go rushing and touching and receiving the blessing. God says, no, no, no, we're not doing that. So God takes him, cradles his body, and he buries him in a location known only to God. There's no more tender picture, at least not many more tender pictures, that I can see with regards to everyone's passing than to see this. See this picture of God cradling the body of Moses. Doing him this service, even in death, to see that he is buried. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. This text bears witness to that. Let's look at verses eight through 12. Verse eight. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for 30 days. And so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him. And so the children of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. But, but since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. And all the signs and wonders which the Lord had sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all his land, by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. You know one of the cruelest ironies of that text? For 30 days they mourned and they grieved, and actually this is a customary thing. We don't know that they were actually mourning and grieving like right there on day 29 and then just stopped on day 30 or what have you. We don't know exactly how this works, but we know this much. While he was alive, the people didn't care for Moses. While he was alive, the people really, really went at Moses. They routinely rebelled and rejected and said who put you in charge? They routinely critiqued his decisions, they critiqued his leadership, they critiqued everything about him. They grumbled and they complained. As we said in Numbers 11, Moses even went to God and he says just take me home, take me home already. I've had my fill of these people. And yet, and yet here's the thing, no one in the camp, no one in the camp of Israel that day remembered a time without his leadership, without Moses being in charge. Moses had been a constant stabilizing force in their presence amidst all their difficulties. And now, now he's gone. That can be challenging for us when we lose those who mean so much to us. We have individuals who have been a constant stabilizing force for so long, they've meant so much to us and in God's time he takes them. And yet, even as God took Moses, even as he cradled his body into the grave, God was not unconcerned with what happened to the people. And so God had raised up for the people a means of leadership, specifically Joshua, who would be no slouch for what it's worth, who would be no slouch. Whatever the case is, even as the people wept, which is a little ironic because they didn't love Moses too much while he was with them, we see that even as they're weeping, God has prepared a new leader. In verse nine, we see that he's raised up Joshua. In his providence, God uses different human instrumentation to do his will. At a certain point, all of us will be called home to glory and God willing, God will have raised up other people, whether it's for this pulpit, for this church, or in Gulfport in the community around us. God is busy, as we've seen in the baptism this morning, building his kingdom and plugging and playing different individuals in at different times. Moses, my servant is dead, I'll raise up Joshua. There was still good news for the people, God had not left them even if Moses had. All right, with our remaining time this morning, I want to briefly reread the eulogy that we see in verses 10 through 12. We talked earlier about Moses with regards to who he was and the powerhouse he was and no one was like Moses. Let me read these verses because they're somewhat unique. God doesn't do this for every prophet or individual in his word. Verse 10 says this, but since then, since that time, there's not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face and all the signs and wonders which the Lord had sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, before all his servants and in all his land and by all that mighty power and all that great terror which Moses performed in the sight of Israel. All right, thinking question, who wrote Deuteronomy? Let me ask you a harder question. Who wrote those verses? Ah, we know that Moses wrote the Torah. What's the first book in the Torah? Genesis, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. We know Moses wrote these books. He celebrated as the author of these books. Moses wrote Deuteronomy and yet who wrote that? But since then, there's not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face and then goes on to say about all that he did in the time of Pharaoh. Who wrote these words? Well, many, just as an aside, many believe that Joshua wrote these words. And the reason for that's twofold. Number one, Joshua was used to being Moses' assistant, for lack of a better word. He was used to basically being the guy, the number one, the Spock to his Kirk. He was used to being the guy who would come alongside and help and assist Moses across these years. And it makes some sense that Joshua was the one who wrote this passage given that he was eyewitness to this stuff. He would have certainly been the best, most qualified candidate to write it. Others believe that possibly Ezra, which is a unique thought, but Ezra or other prophets may have been the ones to record them. Well, regardless of who it was that wrote these words, this epitaph, this eulogy here at the end of this book, regardless of who it was that wrote them, we do believe that they're inspired and inerrant and infallible, and their message is this. Moses was one of a kind. The Israelites could not have asked for a better leader even if they didn't recognize it in the time that he was leading them. The Israelites could not have asked for a better intercessor on their behalf, a better deliverer. And yet, just as they would kill the prophets in the years thereafter, they routinely rejected and despised, just hated the very man that God had raised up to bless them. Now, over the centuries, the Israelites would come to see differently. It's funny how that works. Over the centuries, they would come to see differently. Over time, they would come to see Moses as the God-ordained instrument that he was, the great intercessor, the great deliverer, the mediator of the old covenant. In time, they would come to see it, and to prove that they would see it in time, in synagogues, in the synagogues of Christ's time. You know what there was, one of the features of the synagogues? There was a seat. You know what it was called? The seat of Moses, the seat of Moses. In the synagogues, even in Christ's time, they would talk about the seat of Moses, and the point is this, that over the years, they began to understand Moses in ways that they didn't at the time he was leading. They began to revere him. They began to revere him to the point of even in their synagogues, saying that the place, the seat where someone sits in order to read scripture from, the seat where the law is given, we'll call the seat of Moses. Now before I pray this morning, let me ask you, I think a very fascinating, very relevant question. It's actually a question that R.C. Sproul used to ask his students. Here's the question. This really is a thinking cap sort of question. Do you think Moses ever entered into the Promised Land? Now, I'm not using this as a euphemism. I'm not talking about heaven. I'm not talking about that final rest. I mean the literal Promised Land with the dirt and the soil in Canaan. Do you think that Moses ever entered into the Promised Land? Did the feet of Moses ever stand in Canaan? What do you think? All right, hearing both. All right, so here's the answer. Here's the answer. Do you remember in Matthew 17, the event that we call the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus Christ goes up a mountain. It's during his public ministry. He goes up this mountain. And when he gets to the top of the mountain, who does Jesus encounter there? Moses and Elijah. In the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus goes up and he encounters the two titanic men of Israel's history. Elijah, on the one hand, the greatest of the prophets. You could say he typified all of the prophets. But Jesus also encounters Moses there in Canaan on the Mount of Transfiguration, standing amongst him. I think it's kind of fascinating. I think it's awesome that God in Deuteronomy 34 allowed Moses to see the Promised Land just as he'd said. And he said he would die, and he did. And yet how good is God that all those centuries later Moses got to stand there? I think it's interesting to see how God fulfills his promises, sometimes in ways that we don't expect, and sometimes fulfills the desires of our hearts in ways that we don't expect. God had told Moses he would not lead the people in the Canaan. He told him he would die before ever setting foot there. But in time, he gave him the privilege to stand where his eyes once beheld. In God's time, Moses' faith became sight. And I like that that's true in Deuteronomy 34. I also like that it's true in Matthew 17. And I like that it's true of us. Whatever you're clinging to this day, whatever faith is sustaining you to wake up tomorrow and get back at it, whatever faith is sustaining you to go about your jobs, your vocation, your family life in the midst of all the reasons just to stay in bed, know this, your faith will be validated in God's time. There is a day when your faith will become sight. Let's pray. To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us at fpcgolfport.org, or you can look us up at sermonaudio.com.
Tony Evans' Sermons on Oneplace.com
"moses" Discussed on Tony Evans' Sermons on Oneplace.com
"You will know God is showing up to turn things around when he shows up in a way you can't explain. Doctor Tony Evans says God is way too powerful to be predictable. He will invade your ordinary with something extraordinary. This is the alternative with doctor Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of oak cliff Bible fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the urban alternative. Many people believe the mistakes of their past have wiped out their spiritual future, but today doctor Evans reminds us, it's not too late for anyone, as he begins a powerful series of messages about imperfect people who went on to do great things for the lord. Let's join him. I want to start off with one of the most recognized characters in the Bible, a man named Moses. Moses is the author of the pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible. He is one of the revered names in Jewish history. He's also a man who had to rebound. Let's not off reviewing very succinctly the life of Moses. He was born at a time when babies were being killed. Pharaoh had issued an order that all the children under the age of two were to be killed and his parents who had a lot of faith and knew that their child had been favored by God. Put them in a little wicker basket. And sent them down the Nile River. Trusting God to deliver their baby boy. It just so happened that pharaoh's daughter was bathing in the river. When the wicker basket came her way, she saw the basket and saw the beautiful child and decided to take the child into her house pharaoh's house and raise the child as her own. Miriam Moses a sister saw what happened went home and told mama that pharaoh's daughter had picked up her brother, your son, out of the river, go apply for the nurse made job. Pharaoh's daughter needed a nurse made to raise the child and wouldn't you know it? Moses mother, Jacob, was hired to raise her son in pharaoh's house. Don't tell me God can't change things. And turn things around. Here, one minute he getting ready to get killed, the next minute he growing up in pharaoh's house and his mama is being paid to raise it. Because God can turn things around on a dime. He's now according to acts chapter 7, a whole bunch in that chapter is written about Moses. It's a whole summary of his life, at chapter 7, says, and he grew in all the learning of Egypt. In other words, he was living large. He went to the best schools. He had the best education. He had the best opportunities. He's pharaoh's son, so there's no financial worries. You know, he is, he's the best dressed. He's got the best ride. He's well known. He would know about egyptology and all the pyramids and all the great things of how advanced a culture it was. He was a man who was on the up and up next in line. To run Egypt. But the Bible says, at about 40 years of age, chapter 7 says about 40 years of age, he made a spiritual decision. And that is to suffer hardship with the people of God. Then to enjoy the pleasures of pharaoh and his kingdom, he made a spiritual decision and I know why he made the decision 'cause mama is whispering in his ear. See, mama is raised him. So mom is telling you ain't Egyptian. You were born with the people of God. And so he comes to this spiritual decision to be associated even though he had the opportunity to live large with the people of God rather than pharaoh and the culture and all of the evil associated with Egypt. But that's when he missed his shot. He missed this shot at the same age, he was committed. So we're not talking about a person who wasn't committed in mister shot, not in this situation. We're talking about somebody who had made the commitment to suffer ill treatment with the people of God and at the time of his commitment had a miscalculation. The story is told for us an accident chapter two, and so let me look at it real quick with you. Exodus chapter two verse 11. Now it came about in those days when Moses had grown up that he went out to his brother and then looked out on their hard labors. He went out to his wife, his brother and he goes, mama had told him those are your brothers. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. One of his what? Brethren's he want you to know twice. Moses knew who he belonged to. Moses made a miscalculation. He saw an Egyptian messing up one of his brothers, and he said, I'm not going to let you get away with that because I have decided to associate with the people of God and I'm supposed to be the one who's going to deliver Israel from Egypt so let me start my delivering work right now. I'm going to deliver one right now. And he killed the Egyptian. He did what a lot of us do. Use human understanding to accomplish a divine goal. And his whole world changes in two days. He kills the Egyptian one day, he's rejected by his brothers the next day, so in two days, 40 years has gone down the tubes. When pharaoh heard of this man, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of pharaoh and settled in the land of midian, that's in African tribe and he sat down by a well. Life as he had known it for 40 years. Is now over. It's over. No longer is he driving a Mercedes chariot. The long is he wearing designer clothes, all that's over. Because he missed a shot, he made a mistake. He committed a sin and now he's enduring consequences. Of his choice. Action after 7 says when he killed the Egyptian he was 40 and when he has this encounter with God, it's 40 years later. So there has now been 40 years of repercussion for decision 40 years ago. Maybe your thing hasn't lasted for 40 years, but there are plenty of us who have extended repercussions. Emotional repercussions or physical repercussions or attitudinal repercussions or relationship repercussions that we're still trying to work ourselves out of. Because of a decision a long time ago, we miss shot, we miscalculated, but that's Moses is predicament. His whole life has changed. And now, guess what he's doing? Yeah, but three verse one. Now Moses was pastoring the flock of jethro his father in law. Moses is a
The Bible in a Year
"moses" Discussed on The Bible in a Year
"That's why this has son of Levi. Remember there were the four families in the tribe of Levi. There is Erin, the family sons of Aaron, those of the priests, then we had the mura writes and the gershonites, and now we have also the coefficient. Remember those other two families as the mera rights and the coefficients. Nope. We got a lot of names, you guys. Got a ton of names. That their responsibility was to care for the tent to care for the polls of the tent to care for almost you wouldn't say the structure. They're at the service of the tentative meeting that the service of the tabernacle, the service of what ultimately will be the temple. But the co a fights were those who were responsible for caring for the holy objects. In fact, you might say, second to the sons of Aaron, the co authorites were closest to you might say the presence of the lord and serving the lord directly, meaning worshiping the lord directly. But as you can see, that wasn't enough. And so they said, well, why does it have to be the sons of Aaron who are the only ones who are able to offer sacrifice before God? Why can't we be priests too? And then we have this throwdown. And I love this because in chapter 16, in verse four, when the co fights assemble against Moses and against Aaron, and they say that why do you exalt yourselves above everyone else? First force says when Moses heard it, he fell on his face. Which means that he went to prayer. The Moses is a response to this rebellion essentially. And this rebellion of saying, you exalt yourselves over us. That's what they're going to say later on to you made a prince of yourself over us. The Moses response is to pray. Now he gets mad. He is a person without emotion. But his first response is, okay, this person's attacking me.
Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
"moses" Discussed on Hearing Jesus: Daily Bible Study
"It be, have compassion on your servants, satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor, to their children, be the favor of the lord or God rest upon us, establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. God, that's our prayer as well as we look to this prayer for Moses, establish the work of our hands for us, help us to take seriously the fact that this world, this life is just a fleeting moment in light of eternity, God help us to be wise as we invest in things that will last an impact that kingdom got help us to recognize that perhaps it's time for us to have different kinds of conversations to spend our time differently. Got as we lean into this season that you're calling us to reveal to us the things that you would have us do. Burden our hearts for the things that burden yours. Lord, I pray for my Friends today that they would just be overwhelmed with your love and direction for their lives. It's in the name of Jesus we ask these things. Amen. Hey Friends real quick before we go, I want to let you know that I'm doing a super fun giveaway. We are just about at a million downloads. Woohoo. And so as celebration, I'm going to do a million thanks giveaway. You can find that on either Instagram or Facebook and you can enter to win. It's super easy and I have a bunch of things I'm giving away. And I'm doing that just as a way to say thank you, the support that has come in for this show in the last 11 months. We're not even at the one year mark and we're hitting that 1 million mark. The support just blows me away and all the emails and all the direct messages and all the testimonies of what God is doing in your life and the way that he is using the podcast to draw you closer to him. I'm so thankful it is a privilege to be part of that and I love hearing about what God is doing in your life. So if you want to be a part of that giveaway, don't miss it. We're going to probably go through Friday. We're going to probably hit 1 million. Sometime this week, but we're going to probably go through Friday and make a drawing on Friday. So you want to get that in before we draw it because I think it's really going to bless you the stuff that we're giving away this time. Hey friend, do you feel like you need a little one on one? My goal for the she hears ministry, the hearing Jesus podcast, all the resources that we have is to really help you learn how to hear God's voice so that you can be confident in your relationship with him. And if you're struggling to learn how to identify or even overcome the barriers that you have in your life to growth, I want to be able to walk through that with you. Did you know that I'm a Christian life coach? Maybe you're struggling with something and you need some objective biblical insider opinions, or maybe you need to work through something that feels just a little bit too heavy to do on your own. I would love to walk through that with you and land on some practical ways to achieve that goal. And so I have some limited coaching opportunities. If you go to she hears dot org, there's a section where you can schedule some one on one time with me. I have Mondays and Fridays open right now going into the new year. So I pray that if that is something that you need that you've been praying about, that it would be an opportunity for you to take advantage of some one on one time with me. And again, my heart is really to help you lean into whatever it is that God is calling you to do. I pray that that's a blessing for you. I want to take just a second to thank the team at life audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. If you go to life audio dot com, you'll find dozens of other face centered podcasts in their network. They have got shows about prayer, but I will study parenting
Revision Path
"moses" Discussed on Revision Path
"And i mean eventually they have gotten someone into a black woman like you mentioned about black women kind of coming into to clean up these messes and i don't know her so i'm not gonna speak ill of her. They've historically had black women in that position to kind of help out with diversity with the chapter. I wish them. Well be yeah. You know. I don't know who this individual is. I'll just speak from the perspective. That i was a black woman who was brought in to help. Clean up this mess. A diversity inclusion and it's not something that is our responsibility to clean up and i also what bothers me when you were talking about the groups that aig caters to it's like we. As black people had to navigate white spaces since we were children. And i cannot just irks the crap outta me win. Why people say that they don't know any black people or that like how can we network with some of these people organization. I'm just like the privilege. Do like the the to have people come and work for your organization. But you don't know a single black person in your network is that should make you feel gross. That should make you disappointed in yourself that you don't have any other substantial relationships with people of color on your city like i just find that to be discussing in you or had like you are like the top of privilege to be able to do that because let me tell you. I know a ton of white people. Because i have to know a ton of white people. And it's like y'all can't even bother yourselves with like being able to name five black people that are not maurice jerry and who are not antoinette. Carol like a black. I'm saying it's so lazy and that just it just succumbing because we are the ones with the stereotype laziness right. Ooh they'll get talking of it here. You have this very unique. And i think it's of course very informed perspective around the design community and everything. I just wanted know to you like what does it mean to be a designer today. You know i think because my perspective is really been shifted to to black liberation. Like i think that being a designer we should be striving to use our talents in our creative abilities to provide opportunity means and to right wrongs of that have been shown to assist orrick in. I think understanding that as a designer in itself that title has so much power. We are the ones to set out. What experiences are people walking through. Airports like that is a whole lot of power and if we can make it so that people are starting to see black people in airports more somehow using some creative exhibition like that's just a very tiny little thing. But i think that we as a designer like we have to be able to recognize problems. Be able to talk about those problems without being on nervous uncomfortable. Because you're white and you don't wanna talk about race understand that problem be able to say okay. What am i doing to perpetuate that issue. What am i. What can i do to change the ways that i am to help. Bring healing ted issue or closure to the issue. Whatever it is. So i think that as designers it really is about..
Revision Path
"moses" Discussed on Revision Path
"At some point you gotta say what i've been saying which is like when is it supposed to win is helping my by black joy my black liberation and if it's not we got to cut it off like their life is really. It really is too short for us to be sitting here. Exhausting ourselves trying to teach people why racism is wrong. And so with the lacey. Ep there is definitely some movement that happened. I will say the legalism of naacp is what will stop progress from the naacp. I think that the naacp is hesitant to change especially liked progressive inclusive. Change therefore black people but not all black people. I mean you can't really talk about clearness in those spaces. You can't really talk about sexism in those spaces can't even really talk about being an atheist or not being christian in those spaces and so while there is some good that some of these organizations have done. I would say if. I have my choice which i do to be in organizations or not. Do i want to continue to be hated on for just existing. Absolutely not so. I don't think i'm going to be a part of some of those spaces anymore. If i don't have to so while i did amazing work because my ancestors and because you know i got that black magic i would say that there are still some things that i think internally they need to work on it. I can't necessarily saw those. That's not is not something. I had the power to adjust for them. Yeah i mean. I think what you're also volunteering for two organizations like that at the time aside from just the actual time and energy takes is feels like you're going back and forth between aig which seems to be more of a predominantly white space and end up lacey pe- predominantly black space but then them each having their own issues that are isolated from that if that makes any sense absolutely. Yeah so i'm looking at aig. A is dealing with racism as a whole right and anti as a whole. And then i go into this. Nbc piece space and it's like they are also dealing with anti blackness like within our own internalized. Racism that's happening within that community and so it's just showing up because we have all been socialized under the same exact system it shows differently depending on what community ran. But yeah you're dealing with just a different side you're just talking with a different side of the oppression and still oppression you know cut and dry. I don't wanna get on here and bash. Aig i mean. I'll bash my local chapter because they've committed that about the diversity thing. I remember this was years and years ago. i had. I think they want me to do something with the chapter around diversity but they didn't want to give me a director level. They wanted to be like a chair. Level or co chair. Or something. Like that and i was like you know. Diversity affects the chapter at all levels like it affects membership. It affects our student groups. And things like that. Secondly i kind of told him this flat out like we live in atlanta. And i'm not about to be your negro whisperer because you don't wanna talk to black students and black design professionals like i'm not going to be that person you've been around in the city long enough and folks that are affiliated with the chapter here know that like it caters to scattered students art institute of atlanta students. Maybe if you're an art major at georgia tech and georgia state or something like that. Don't go to one of these. spca us learning. And then for you. Sorry for you and i was just because you don't want to talk to the black people that live past highway twenty then he. That's not going to be me. I'm not going to be the translator. Yeah yeah..
Revision Path
"moses" Discussed on Revision Path
"I'm going to have deep conversations about life and it really still didn't understand what the by at that time i still wasn't like an organizer like i am now i wasn't i was in community but it was through like religious sways and so not really in the equitable way that i would say now so i went back to school. Got my mfa. Because i realized that this is what i need to get my degree. I was getting my degree. I started to realize what my degree was. It was a degree in design research. And to be honest i started it in did not know a thing about it and design. Research is still pretty. New fi started that degree. Figured out what it was started doing research on black women. Black hair started project. Natural aunts graduated in was looking for jobs across the country. And that's what. I ended up in minnesota talked to me about project natural. Okay so pretty. Natural was really like a self introspective projects. I did it during one semester. I can't remember what the class was called. But i think we were learning about like design research methods and i was like okay. I'm anne use natural hair and an interview. The black woman in my family interview some of my black friends and talk about natural hair ethnographic stance like i did video interviews and things like that and it really became this really cool project that it was like okay as you're looking for like thesis topics you're in even dissertation topics. You're trying to fill a whole fill a gap in academia that that isn't filled yet with that information. And so how many had there been at the time that i did my thesis project on natural hair zero in design for sure but very very few in like even the social sciences. So i continued on with this project as my thesis project which. I didn't even think. I know that my professors who were white men thought was serious enough to continue but fortunately as well as they could be an was like. You know you need to do this. Like they were very encouraging a means like really dive into this and so i continued on with the project and it turned out to be like this huge exhibition. It turned out to me to be mean making creating space for black women to come together to learn from each other to edge be educated about their natural hair about natural hair processes. How we can make our own products you know how we can sell our hair because it was something that was a practices that were stolen from us in slavery and so being able to kind of reunite you know the practices with the people is a really really awesome. I hope to do with this project as continues ghana kind of pause again because of the pandemic but i wanna to take a trip to west african visit. Some countries really studied natural hair practices. And then come back. And be able to disseminate that in a really beautiful educational but fulfilling communicative community building way. So that's what i hope to do. And to continue with the project and really holds some larger symposiums to have folks learn to do hair tutorials and learn from you know the workbooks out create and build community with one another and now. Will you try to weave this into some your educational work or do you want to keep this as a separate project from all that i would say that. This is part of my educational work like i was saying like all that overlap. So we're not doing the symposiums and natural hair symposiums. I'll do a new release of of illustrations of natural hair and mean if you're interested in looking at what those look like a project natural dot.
Revision Path
"moses" Discussed on Revision Path
"Yeah i mean it did. It did pop out. But like i'm one of the people who actually really appreciate it because black people. Our experience is so much different from other. Pse and there's so much anti blackness in other pse communities. And so i appreciate that. We get to differentiate those experiences in addition folks who have been here from the star n have really been harmed by white supremacy so i really appreciate the differentiation for sure. Now let's talk about teaching. You mentioned being assistant. Professor graphic sign at the university of minnesota. And you're the director of design justice there talk to me more about those roles particularly about the director of design justice. Because i feel like. That's the first time i've heard about that college sure. So i'm a assistant professor tenure track. You know kind of same running the mill position. But i was hired on in this sort of partial position. So kind of like. I want to half-and-half type of thing. So i'm a professor in one in some areas and then i am the director of design justice and what i was originally hired for was to be the director of the diversity network. That's what it was called. And when they were like negotiating with me. I was like you know when i actually get in this position. Like kenai change some of these names. 'cause i absolutely hate the word diversity. I think it is a like. I don't know coddling term to like help folks not talk about the fact that white supremacy allows there to be no black people in your whole college like. I think that that's wild so i hate that word. Can i come in and change that and so in doing my research looking for okay. I really liked this word justice in looking for other terms and other ways folks talk about just especially in the realm of design. I was like this him. Expenses justice so in this role. I kind of work on issues. Particularly related to how can make our campus climate more equitable more inclusive those types of language those types of words. And so some things that i'm working on right now that are great but also very stressful and exhausting is the first thing being the cluster higher. We are working. I'm leading this initiative with our head of hr to hire on four faculty members that are focused on design justice with a preferred off occasion in anti-racism and this'll be in four areas architecture product.
Dumb, Gay Politics
"moses" Discussed on Dumb, Gay Politics
"She's you know what she's better than this. Yes she really can be better than this and we always say about megan mccain and why we why we're addicted to meghan mccain o'clock because in there in there is there is a heart in their on you know. She's constantly conflicted between like gay rights and abortion. And i'm conservative. But everyone should have freedom and yet she is constantly Straddling the line and living in an sullivan. Hypocrisy that she can't get out of yes and that's ox and we do feel for her on that and we would like to get drunk with her blackout drunk in vegas and just like talk shit about bravo people but she also tweeted a a clip of a cop. Not the lester holt. It was a comma harris during an interview in the actual northern try triangle. And she wrote that. Nervous joker laugh. It's not funny vice president and none of this is now. You're getting now. You're not only saying like to call it. A joker laugh is so gross and it is very beneath her to say that. Let's just like when you start like you're now. Having to resort to just like trump is orange insults. You know what you got it you got it except that's not what it's about before we go. I do want to say for the record. Security is listening to him now. We love you. Megan mccain and we thoroughly enjoy meghan mccain o'clock if we didn't we wouldn't show up for it every day right that's true. There are times that she's absolutely right and there are rare times when we do agree with her there. Are we even agree. With some of her tragic bugger tweets. But we don't talk about that stuff here because even broken mccain clock is right twice a day. How good has the magic screen been on the diet. It's been delicious. An awesome and amazing and hydrating. Yeah i know you're really fixated on the on the hydration material which is why it's amazing. I am now in my opioid withdrawal. Yes your knee surgery. And it i think takes the form of wanting to eat sweet things yet. Yes is very high and the thing about magic spoon cereal. The cereal period is just triggering. It's like you want something tasty on some things. We eat are dehydrated. 'cause you don't drink a ton so but the thing about magic spoon cereal is that it's good for you. It's and even though. I crave sugar in my withdrawals in my sobriety. It has actually zero grams of sugar right. But it just gives you sweetness. Yeah i don't know. Apparently they're using a magic spoon. They take a spoon and they put it in magic and sprinkle it on the magic spoon. Cereal and it's so good it is magic. It has thirteen to fourteen grams of protein and only four grams of carbs in each serving. If you're counting carbs tell you. But that's what they do. Only a hundred and forty calories disturbing. I need to say full disclosure. I eat at least three and a half servings per time you know still it's like you're on to die but that's still not very many calories. It's not that many calories and it is really feeling it just really filling. Its kito friendly gluten free grain free soy free low carb and gmo free. We're not trying to fox with the gmo's. i mean. i can tell you when. I found out one night here late night when we were just like totally like cracked out that i looked at beer after i drink entire twelve pack and i found out that a lot of local beers are made with corn. And you know you know. The corn is jim. I just can't with gmo's i really can't. I'm that is a huge selling point for me. The thing that this has zero sugar taste like sugar and has no. Gmo's yes. i mean obviously s tastes like every childhood cereal. That you were obsessed with in your mom wouldn't let you. Have you know what i mean. That's what keeps me in this relationship and you have to be eating protein after you work out or it's like if you do a workout of any kind even cardio and you don't eat protein right after it's just kind of a waste it's like your muscles are just you want your muscles to build up. And that's that's the way you burn fat and it's just how it works and this is easy to have starve yourself till you work out and then be like the minute. I'm done with the stupid workout. I'm going and eating a full bowl of magic spoon. And then you just treat yourself right after but it's not a tree it's healthy for you right when you're done working out which is so so great in fact is making me wanna work out. That's the only reason. I'm working on now because i get to eat magic spoon after and you can do it too and all you need to do is go to magic spoon dot com slash dumb gay and remember. Use the promo code dumb gas checkout and you'll save five dollars off of your order now. I wanna say really quick that they do deliver to canada. Just leave this in. I don't know if our promo code will work for canada but it used to and sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't you just you gotta order a bundle but i wanna shout out. Hernan romero okay. He emailed us on our patriotic podcast. In twenty twenty he said while. I love.
Donuts and Devos
"moses" Discussed on Donuts and Devos
"All these things that god showed moses in our bible reading today. Do you remember what they were called. Saturday exactly signs our faith word of the day. Moses was struggling to accept what god wanted him to do which was returned to egypt and set the israelites. free from their slavery. Exodus is full of signs from god. God chose to use signs for very special purposes and regions in this conversation with moses through the burning bush god us the signs of turning the staff into a snake and moses his hand to show moses his power these signs would also be used to prove to the israelites that moses had been sent by god. He's god you signs in the bible for various reasons. Sometimes signs were used to send a message or a warning or in fulfillment of promise for example when jesus was born. What did the angels day to the shepherds. This'll be a sign on to you. You will find the baby wrapped in swelling close in line in the major rides. See jesus's birth fulfill the promise. God made with abraham only god himself chose when he gave signs to his people in our lives. We shouldn't ask god to give us a sign to show us his will for us. His will is revealed through his word. That by bill. Right to us through the bible which is why it's so important to read mark learning take to heart. What scripture says is that why we memories bob versus. Yes so we can remember. God's word for our daily lives wage. Speaking of our.
Donuts and Devos
"moses" Discussed on Donuts and Devos
"Thought he was nobody indefinitely definitely not someone to go free the people in israel who should i say sent me he asked god and god said hi am who i am. That's right. I am was sending moses but still wasn't enough for moses. The lord needed to do a few more things to finally convince reluctant moses. So let's find out what those signs were that react to play. Of course we do so. Let's fold our hands and bow. Our heads worked on saturday daily archer sizes as forget. Those us.
Life Together
"moses" Discussed on Life Together
"But i know that it's going to happen because delay is not denial. So moses seized this burning bush which actually would not have been a strange sight to see. The desert was very try. The desert was very hot so it would have been normal for him to see something that had set on fire. What was abnormal is that bush was not burning up that the branches were not being consumed and this is what caught his attention as he moves closer and as he hears the voice of god call him and god says five hundred years of silence after an excruciating long wait. He says it's time now. I have a plan to fulfil my promises. I am going to do what i told jacob. Jacob i'm going to bring you back up into a new land and you are going to be the one to lead the way you are going to be the one to do that in our series here in god give instructions to someone with specific directions for who they would be or where they should go are two things that we have become familiar with the things that we've seen kind of a pattern in the different people that we have looked at but there is something extremely unique that god is about to do with his name. That is a fascinating thing that he has not done before. I need to remind you again. If mandy said last week mandy told the story of how jacob wrestled with god shink urged us to be to struggle with god to be god strugglers in that moment when he struggling jacobs says. Will you tell me your name. And he's not given an answer. So i want to remind you what had happened before i need to remind you. We are in a time period where they don't have the bible yet where the ten commandments had not happened yet. The god that they know they know that is the god. Of abraham isaac and jacob. But that's about all they know they have no other point of reference and up until this point they have not received a name. Let's keep reading here in chapter three. I'm jumping down to verse. Thirteen and fourteen. Moses said to god suppose i go to the israelites and say to them the god of your fathers has sent me to you and they asked me what is his name..
Life Together
"moses" Discussed on Life Together
"That four hundred years a lot of things change so jacobs family grows and grows and grows and expands but as it expands as it increases in number it decreases in status and the power and influence that they once had in egypt is lost. A new pharaoh comes to power and they slowly strip away the rights of the hebrew people and they become a bonded people. People that are enslaved their food. Their housing in their work is all controlled by the egyptian people and the fear of that time sees them as a threat and one of the things that he does to control them is to limit the amount of hebrew men because he thinks they are growing so quickly if they outnumber us certainly overpower us. And so we need to control. How many men they have. There's this amazing. Little moment of testimony that celebrates these women called midwives who were given the assignment to kill all of the baby boys and yet the bible says these midwives feared the god of the hebrews and so they chose not to kill these baby boys and yet they would help them hide them so famously. There was a woman by the name of jock. Abed who hid her son in a very creative way and so she took her son and placed her son in a basket and put him on the bank of the nile river not floating out into the nile but the big locked in the tall reeds. There were on the shoreline and she put him into. This basket sat him there and then stood back away and waited to see what would happen next. The pharaoh's daughter walks up the pharaoh's daughter takes in this hebrew boy to be raised as a son of the palace as a son of authority. And this boy grows up. This boy becomes a man and everything is good until about age forty at age. Forty this boy. Who is now. A man walks into the streets and he sees egyptian man. A man of power abusing one of the hebrew slaves the oppressor over the oppressed and when he sees this. The injustice of the moment makes him burst forth with anger. And moses goes and he kills this egyptian man who is mistreating this hebrew slave in in that moment he is caught between two cultures and cannot find his place he neither belongs here or there and is only choice. Left is to run out into the desert. And that's where we're going to start out today. This man's name was moses and for the sake of our story. We're going to call him. Moses moses job. let's start an exodus chapter three is we're going to start tonight. Verse one exodus chapter three one day. Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law just throw the priest of million. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to sinai the mountain of god their the angel of the lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement though the bush was engulfed in flames. It didn't burn up. This is amazing. Moses said to himself. why isn't that. Bush burning up. I must go see it. When the lord saw moses coming to take a closer look. God called to him from the middle of the bush moses most of. Let's pray tonight. Father we thank you for your word. We pray that as we study your word that it would breathe life into us that we would be shaped by your character and that you would allow us to see you and the name of jesus. We pray amen. God has been silent for a very long time..
Donuts and Devos
"moses" Discussed on Donuts and Devos
"Hello kids and welcome back to donuts and divas where we get connected to jesus through god's word i'm mary faith and each week we spend some time together learning about god and what happened in the bible. We are reading the book of exodus and learning about moses life. He was rescued from the nile river. Plum batch get right. Faeroes daughter found him and decided to raise him as her own today in our story. We are jumping way ahead. Moses has grown up now and he did something really wrong and get scared Yeah do you want to find out what it was. Yes thank.
Donuts and Devos
"moses" Discussed on Donuts and Devos
"Hear what toon we're going to sing with. This won miss baker sheen. Because she say i do. I do now bill. She named him. She named him because she said because i knew him him album to altogether she named is she's she league. God.
Donuts and Devos
"moses" Discussed on Donuts and Devos
"I use my study bible to learn a little bit more about the significance of our faith word of the day. Do you remember what moses has. Mother put him in to save him basket exactly a basket. She took great care to make us safe vessel for her baby to write in on the water. Basho vessel is a container for holding something as small as a cop or as large as ship. An interestingly enough the hebrew word that is used for basket is the same word used for noah's ark cool so it's like a boat just like the art carry noah and his family and the animals to safety. This basket carried moses to safety to his mother loved him so much and she took great care to make sure this basket was made with strong reads and sealed to keep the water out even though it may have seemed like the baby was left all alone. God's plan to save. His people was taking shape.
The "What's Your Revolution?" Show with Dr. Charles Corprew"
"moses" Discussed on The "What's Your Revolution?" Show with Dr. Charles Corprew"
"That they charge thousands of dollars because their service. Today's away this connection amp. I'm pretty persistent too. So call you one more time. Do you mind and can help out for fractions of costs if not pro bono. So just at at at. I really think that the experience was amazing and Last last part. I'll say about emigre ventures when you're trying to get something off the ground and i worked a full-time job some juggling both and have a family some juggling all three and have some other commitments and i'm juggling four five or six and still trying to get this work off the ground. I just remember when the investment check touched my hands. And i opened it up. Everybody left the room in new orleans for context purposes acquire like maybe once or twice a year. I just broke down i broke down. It was like. I cannot believe that i'm sitting here looking at someone who said nah. Believe in your work because people will reject you. You just can't give up so it was an amazing experience. Absolutely ms experts it moses. I appreciate that in people understand. Why didn't you say. His name was elisa moses. Yes but he goes by moses and chairman moses. But we'll get into that on. We'll get into that later. You know the interesting thing that i want to pull out of here of moses. Is that the fact that you said that. Entrepreneurship is lonely and being in the room with thirteen other entrepreneurs who probably at the time hadn't been in a room with women and people of color and that's something things about about camelback is that we want to create community. We have our five cs. And i don't wanna go through all of that. You know we everybody should know our seas. I should know five archdiocese. But i probably will mess it up here so not even a try but being in the room and not feeling lonely not feeling knowing that there are other people who've gone through these roads who are traveling the same way or you know at least a path looks the same provides for some solidarity for some community and as someone said to me the other day. Is that community is actually the new capital where you have the ability to sit down and be vulnerable the open about the challenges that you have as an entrepreneur that provides social capito that provides opportunity for you to to be vulnerable about your successes and challenges your trials your toys whatever. It is a room full of people who understand like you know. I'm going through the same thing. I don't have that one point nine million dollar budget right. I got a three hundred thousand. Three hundred thousand dollars. I got a two hundred thousand dollar budget. This is actually the first time anybody has ever invested in anything in me. So i got a forty thousand dollar budget right now. And it's what is the bunch. People entrepreneurs can be entrepreneurs in very different basis right right. It's interesting because all of those plays are interesting a couple of weeks ago and i got. I got a chance to sit down with my good. Frat brother james center for se begins to think about what it looks like to build a nonprofit what it looks like to build an organization is interesting that we say this Moses is that we that lean canvas if you've got to be able to solve a problem right and you gotta understand who your customer segments. Are you really gotta know who your customer segments. And then build an avatar around there and then understand. What are their pain points. And can you provide something that is unique and has a value to them. That solves that pain point. So that's a little bit of a lesson but understanding that being in that room right and not feeling lonely. But i also appreciate what you said moses that when you got that i investment that you allow yourself to cry allowed yourself to have that moment of emotion. I think that as we build you know as we build our ventures you wanna give yourself the opportunity to celebrate everyone at every step and sometimes the win is as you said just getting the application out because those rejections calm and common come but oftentimes if we don't celebrate the process right we'll get left behind thinking that the rejection was just about us. It's not known. So it's it. Means so much moses to have been able to fund you and then to continue to support you are no one of our board members rise things very highly of you and your work. He's an amazing man and the work that he's doing up in new york as well love. I talked to rise like a couple of weeks ago. I just call. People are coffee for so yeah you know. And that's the thing. The the the one thing. I want people to know about moses is that he is not a recluse he travels he planes too much he likes. He likes to get in cars and drive. Which is the antithesis of dr corporal. Because i like to get on a plane. Weren't you going out to what you're gonna drive onto. No yeah no i was. I love planes right But i was willing like i have. I have Have a bucket list. Right buckle column missions visions certain things that you want to accomplish goals But one of them is to travel across the united states in vehicle right. And i wanna take a road trip that out bandages than to do it right. This is perfect My wife didn't wanna do it. She said look you know now. No no no so You know the plane was the medium. But i would definitely have done that trip Left six days seven days ahead took time and just saying things that i wanna see. You know i've never been iowa. I talked to brown or black person from iowa the other day. I'm like we are here. We go here. We are everywhere you so yeah because some things i would just want to see and make that trip so yes tell melissa things i gotcha brother. I when when you told me we were talking. I'm gonna drive up. Like what if i have to be in a car more than six hours. Dear brother i'm done. i'm gone. I i remember. I ran a promotion company. Caught are no question. Promotions showed to my guy camp glover. Who eventually kind of gave its last soda to in charlotte north carolina. He did some great things with it. but What i was running promotion company was a company who paid me to go to essence fest and drove from new york. Ill burma my filled market execution team. Where my street team that. We went and did our thing in new orleans and Drove all the way there enjoyed the trip very much so i i do really appreciate driving. Won't drive everywhere. But i really enjoy the music. You know some snacks. Conversations driving is important. I'm not mad at that by the. Ceo wysong builders. What's the revolution dear brother revolution. So i have to always conceptualize you know because we will use where differently. When i think the word revolution i think revolt and evolve right so for me. My revolt is. I want freedom right. And and to be coupled with freedom. I want our and after contextualising explaining definitions right so power to me is the ability to get things done. I want that right. I want the ability to get things done so i voted in decided to leave my job. I was getting paid close to six figures. I was working in government and people that listen are you crazy. I mean i have friends who like. Why would.