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Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
Sunday May 08, 2016
Sunday May 08, 2016
Today is Mother’s Day. It is a special day for everyone, because no matter who you are, you had a Mother. You may not know who your Mother was. You may not have had a very good Mother, but if you are like most people, your Mother is very special to you. Your Mom was there when you fell. She was there when you cried out in fear of the darkness. She was there when you hit a home run, or when you struck out for the third time that day, and she was there when you walked across the stage as a graduate. She loved you no matter what. She loved you when you didn’t call her, when you didn’t come by to see her, and even when you forgot her on Mother’s Day. She just loved you. How do you respond to that kind of love, to that kind of grace?
Do you tell other people how great she was? Do you tell your children what a great mom you had? Do you do your best to make her proud of you, of what you have become? Not everyone’s Mom is still with us. In fact, in a class with people of our age, some of our mom’s passed away some time ago. I firmly believe that my Mother is looking down from heaven on me and my sister and brother, and she is checking up on us to make sure we are doing what she taught us to do. My guess is that she has a conversation with Jesus every once in a while telling Him what she thinks of us.
How do you respond to that kind of love and grace?
Our lesson today is about several things, we are going to finish up our discussion on our position before God, about the mercy and grace that God has shown us, but we are also going to talk about how we are to respond to our God who has loved us so much, and has shared His grace upon us.
How do you respond to that kind of love and grace? Pretty amazing isn’t it? Listen to this podcast to learn how to respond to God’s grace.
Sunday May 01, 2016
Sunday May 01, 2016
If I were to ask you what your position in this world was, what would you say? What is it that you are identified by?
Are you one of the social elite? Not many of us would say yes to that, even if we were. It would not be politically correct to be so crass. If you are such a person, you just know it, and live it, you don’t have to brag about it, and people just identify you as such.
Are you a victim of something? That is the popular position to be in today, because if you are a victim of some type of injustice, then society owes you something. You have the supposed right to take away something from your victimizer, and declare it as yours, whether you earned it or not. If you can get the government to do it for you, even better. You can usually be identified as a victim by the anger in your actions and your words, your intolerance of others, and the chip on your shoulder.
Are you a proud member of the middle class? Hard working, providing for your family. You are a blue collar worker with a strong back and calloused hands to prove it. You are identified by your work.
Are you a parent? Which means you are a provider, a cook, a teacher, a caregiver, a protector, among a hundred other things. This is what you are identified by, the family that you raise.
Do you have a position in a religion? Are you a priest, a preacher, a bishop, a cardinal, a deacon, a deaconess, a choir member, a Bible teacher, a back row Baptist, or a member of the amen pew? Are you identified by the collar you wear, the cross around your neck, the ring on your finger, or the religious book that you carry around with you, be it the Bible, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, or the New Testament that you have in your pocket?
What is your position in this world? What are you identified by? When someone introduces you, how do they describe you?
Our lesson today is about the position that we have before God, both the believer and the non-believer.
Last week we discussed Christ as the Living Stone, the foundation stone of the church today. Christ was rejected as not fitting in with the ideas of the Messiah that the Jews had, so He was killed, but God raised Him from the grave, and now He is our Royal High Priest serving in the Holy Tabernacle of Heaven. He is the rock that our faith is built upon.
As believers we are members of the family of God, joint-heirs with Christ, and royal priests, in the same manner of Christ. That is our position before God. But, what about the person who rejects Christ? What is their position before the Living Stone that is Christ?
Listen to this podcast to learn your position before God.
Sunday Apr 24, 2016
Sunday Apr 24, 2016
When we think of building a home, we spend a lot of time thinking about how many rooms we want to have, how big they should be, should we use carpets on the floor or some kind of tile or wood; what kind of countertops, marble, Formica, tile, or even solid wood; what color the outside of the house should be, do you want a deck or a fence in the backyard. Everything we spend the most time on is generally on the appearance of the home, and the functionality of the rooms, and that is understandable because that is what we see and use the most.
I would hazard a guess that, other than deciding on whether or not to have a basement, most of us will not even spend 5 minutes making sure the house has a solid foundation to be built on. As Jesus said in His parable of the two builders, there are wise builders and there are foolish builders.
Matt 7:24-27
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
KJV
The foundation of our home may not be the thing we think about the most, but the truth is, if the foundation of your home is not solid, the winds and storms of Kansas will blow all of that nice exterior and interior beauty away in just a brief moment. In fact, after a tornado, often the only thing left is the foundation of the home.
The spiritual house of our church and our own spiritual life, depend on having a solid foundation. You can have the best music program, the most entertaining sermons, even the best youth programs, but if your spiritual house is not built on a faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God, then, you will have nothing but disappointment when the storms of tragedy come blowing into your life.
1 Cor 3:11
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
KJV
This is what our lesson is about today. Jesus Christ as the Living Stone that is to be the foundation that our spiritual house is built upon.
Sunday Apr 10, 2016
Sunday Apr 10, 2016
Have you ever been told by someone in authority that you are to go do something that you don’t believe is within your capability to do? At my workplace, we move people around to different roles a lot. With a large part of the employees, they are moving to a different role about every two years. This means that they have to quickly learn how to do a particular role, and then just when they get a basic understanding of how to do it, they move on to another role.
Quite often they will move a very young, inexperienced, person into a position of greater responsibility and expect them to sink or swim. I often hear people say that they were intimidated by the responsibility of the new role, and that they did not feel capable of doing it. However, the company philosophy is one of if you have the right virtues, talents, and philosophies, then they can put you just about anywhere, and you will succeed. It can be a bit daunting at times.
The one thing the company does do is provide the right tools to help a person who is humble enough to ask for the help. I have watched as a person will try to succeed by his own wit and knowledge, and almost always, you will see them fail, many times quite miserably. I have watched others who were humble enough to ask for help and they can often succeed. The corporate world can be a real meat grinder of people. The proud can rise, but they can also fall quite hard.
The demand that God puts on us as believers is very similar to this. You take a brand new Christian, and you immediately give them the elevated standing of an ambassador to the almighty Creator of all things. You then tell them all of the things that God has done for them to provide them with eternal life and redemption, much as Peter has been doing over the last several weeks, and then you tell them all of the things that this new standing, or position, requires of them.
They are to hate sin, they are to live a life that is uniquely different from the life they led before, and the life of the lost people all around them. They are to tell people about the gospel message of Christ, but more than that because words can be hollow, they are to live a life that is a testimony to the Christ they serve. They are to be a light in the darkness drawing people to them so that they can lead them to the cross of Jesus.
It is easy to be intimidated by this requirement of a holy life. Yet, God formed His plan of redemption for us from the foundation of time. That plan included the tools and resources that the new-born Christian could depend on to accomplish the task that God had given them. They just have to be humble enough to ask for the help. It is absolutely impossible to live a holy life that is acceptable to God under your own wit and knowledge. You simply cannot do it on your own. You must use the power and tools that God is offering you, or you will fail, and fail miserably.
Those tools and resources are the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, and the living, indestructible, incorruptible, and eternal, Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God who are the true source of power in a Christian life. God has provided them as part of His plan of redemption, you just have to be humble enough to seek them out and use them. This is what our lesson is about today. Listen to this podcast to learn the true source of power for the Christian to live a holy life.
Sunday Apr 03, 2016
Sunday Apr 03, 2016
God has a plan for your redemption. God was not taken by surprise by the fall of man. It was foreknown by God. If God acted in creation, He knew He would eventually have to act in redemption. He also knew that all three persons of the Godhead would have to be involved.
So, before God ever spoke the words that began creation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit conceived the plan to redeem Adam's ruined race. It was foreordained before the foundation of the world that, when the fullness of the time was come, God the Son would enter into human life. He would become the Babe of Bethlehem and then, in due time, the Lamb of Calvary. Our redemption was no afterthought with God. It was part of a plan.
Christ was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world because God knew that you and I would need a Savior, and He loved us enough to provide that Savior. The Biblical concept of foreordination is just that simple, we only needed a God with a great big heart of love who provided redemption by His grace.
John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
KJV
This is God’s plan of redemption. God loves you enough to offer salvation by grace.
Revelation 13:8
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
KJV
Whether man wants to acknowledge the existence of God or not. Whether man wants to accept God’s plan of redemption, or not. God’s plan states that from the foundation of the world, God planned for all mankind, saved or not, to worship Him. If you want to find God’s salvation, then the object of your faith must be in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God very reasonably declares…
1 John 5:9-12
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
KJV
Our redemption has been a part of God’s eternal plan. Our response to that plan demands that we accept the redemption offered by God, to live a holy life as set out by the Scripture, and to do the work that God has sent us here to do.
Listen to this podcast to learn about God’s plan for your redemption.
Sunday Jan 10, 2016
Sunday Jan 10, 2016
The Bible emphatically teaches the doctrine of election, and this is a doctrine that has caused endless debates and disputes throughout the ages. People will either go off the deep end into hyper-Calvinism with this doctrine, or they avoid it like the plague because they don’t understand it. When it really is quite simple to understand. Man complicates it by assuming that God cannot know anything that man does not know. That really is the heart of the problem for man in understanding this doctrine.
However, the truth is that man’s mind is limited, and God’s mind is unlimited. Man’s capacity to know things is finite, and God’s knowledge is infinite. Man’s knowledge is bounded by the constraints of time, it encompasses what has happened in the past and what is happening right now. Man can only guess at the future.
God created the concept of time so His knowledge is unconstrained by time. He knows all things from before time began until well past the day when eternity makes time irrelevant, and He knows it all at the same time. God cannot learn anything, since by definition He already knows it all.
In today’s lesson, Peter gives us his own inspired insight into the subject. He bluntly declares that our election is based on God’s foreknowledge. Without hesitation, or qualification, Peter says that God has elected a certain company to become members of the royal family of heaven. However, God does this and never violates our own volition, or our own right to choose. God woos, He does not ravage. He does not endow His creations with wills of their own, with the power of choice and personal accountability for their behavior, and then act as though they had no such thing.
God’s election of certain members of the human family to become members of the royal family takes into account the response of each individual when confronted by the Holy Spirit with the offer of salvation. While this may sound difficult to understand, the simple truth of it is that if you want to be a part of the elect of God, then choose Christ when the Holy Spirit presents salvation to you.
Salvation boils down to one question, will you accept or reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.
If you say yes, then you will become part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity in heaven with Christ.
If you say no, then you will not be part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell, forever without the light of God.
Listen to this powerful Biblical doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and how it can bless you because God knows who you are, where you are, what you are going through, and He has a plan for you. If you are believer, then God will empower you to deal with any persecution or trial that you may be going through. He knew about this before it ever occurred and He has prepared you for it, and He is with you every step of the way.
Sunday Dec 13, 2015
Sunday Dec 13, 2015
One of the great Biblical promises that we have as believers is that God’s plan will be done. No matter what man does to mess things up in this world, no matter what schemes and plots that Satan has for this world, God’s plan will be done. It will be done just like He set it up to be done before He created the universe and everything in it. Nothing has changed in this plan, and nothing will change. God’s plan will be done, period.
The fact that I know this promise of God to be true is comforting to me, and that is why God gave us this promise, so that we could be comforted knowing that God was in control. Paul closes out this epistle with a declaration of this promise. The almighty God of the Bible is the everlasting God, and His purposes and His goals are pursued by Him from age to age. Christians may be feeble and frail, but God is strong. The church may look like it is weak and divided, but it is the body of Christ and therefore it is linked to Omnipotence. Whatever else may fail, the work of God cannot.
Paul draws our thoughts to Him whose loving counsels foresaw the fall of man, provided for it before the foundation of the world, foreknew us, foreknew you and me, loved us into the kingdom, and who arranges for all things to work together for our good and His eternal glory. Paul also draws our thoughts to the Son of His love, our blessed and glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And having filled our hearts and mind with these thoughts, Paul says a final Amen to this great epistle.
Sunday Aug 23, 2015
Sunday Aug 23, 2015
When you think of what the government is responsible for doing, what is it that comes to mind?
Certainly our world today has come to believe that the government is responsible for the success of every citizen. The government is to assure that all of our needs are met from cradle to grave. If you are hungry, don’t worry about working or finding a job, any job, to feed yourself or your family, the government will feed you.
If you don’t have a home, don’t worry, the government will make sure you have the money to buy that home. The government will even make sure you have a cell phone, a college education, transportation to get where you need to go, and all of your medical bills are paid. No job required, in fact, if you do get a job, the government will stop paying you and take money away from you to give to those that don’t have a job. Kind of makes you wonder why people go to work at all, doesn’t it?
The people of our nation have come to believe that the government is to cover your losses if your business fails, or if you can’t pay back your student loans. The government chooses to do this because it knows that it is the most efficient and cost effective agency that can meet everyone’s needs. Right? Every social welfare program we have is run effectively by the government. There is no waste, or fraud, or people taking advantage of the system.
If this is not true, then why do we keep asking the government to do more of it? If every time you went to the doctor, he failed to treat you, wouldn’t you stop going to that doctor?
But is any of this part of the role that God wants the government to do for its citizens? That is what our lesson is about today, what the government’s responsibilities are, as intended by God.
Sunday Aug 16, 2015
Sunday Aug 16, 2015
Now, I have to admit that this is an interesting question as we see the political races begin to escalate. Without question, our current government, including the democrats and most republicans, have rejected the role that God has played, is currently playing, and will play in our nation and our world.
So, the question is, should a Christian submit to a government that rejects God?
What role should the believer play in fighting against this type of lawlessness?
Do we stand by and do nothing, or actively fight against it?
Paul is going to tell us in our lesson today that human government derives its authority from God, and that governments are appointed by God. Evil men may be elected to power or they may seize power. They may have no thought of God at all, but the very fact that God permits them to seize the reins of power means that God has a purpose to fulfill even in their cruel and evil ruling.
It is a saying well worth considering that people get the kind of government they deserve. If you vote in a socialist tyrant, then you are going to get a socialist tyrant as your leader. If you reject God’s truths about right and wrong in your lives, then you are going to have a government that rejects God’s truths about right and wrong, and that means the concepts of greed, corruption, dishonesty, cruelty, and lawlessness will control your government.
Governments may be weak or strong, just or oppressive, benevolent or cruel, wise or foolish, but in each case God has His way and moves His own plans forward. We may not see God’s plan and purposes in an evil government, but God has a plan nonetheless, for God is in control.
Paul is going to tell us in our lesson today that disobedience to governmental authority is disobedience to God and will be judged accordingly. We are going to see that the believer has their citizenship in heaven, but they are also a resident in the world down here, which gives them a twofold responsibility. If there is a conflict between the two, then our first responsibility is always to our Lord in heaven. We have a responsibility to human government, but our first responsibility is to always obey the law of God.
I don’t believe that the Word of God declares the role of the believer is to fundamentally change our nation. It is to preach a gospel that is the power of God unto salvation which will bring into existence individuals like the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and gave us a government of laws. If there is to be a fundamental change in this country, then it will be God that will bring it about by working in the hearts of man.
The truth is that there is nothing is wrong with our form of government; there is something wrong with the individuals who are in positions of power. We need to remember this as we choose the people who will fill these positions in the next election.
Should we as believers run for political office? Absolutely, we need people in these offices that understand the spiritual heritage of our founders.
Should we as believers support those candidates that respect the Word of God and the role that God plays in our society? Absolutely, we need to discern what the true beliefs of a candidate are and support those who respect the will of God.
Should we as believers, lawfully, and actively, stand against the murder of innocent children, and the corruption of the God instituted concept of marriage? Absolutely, we need to stand against lawlessness in the world.
Should we as believers submit to a government that is corrupt and rejects God? The Bible says that we must, and my prayer is that God will grant us the power and the wisdom to do as the Word of God demands that we do.
Wednesday Jul 29, 2015
Wednesday Jul 29, 2015
WHY CAN’T CHRISTIANS GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER?
To be honest, this is a question that at first you might say, well of course we can. We believe in the same God, and we all have Jesus as our Lord and Master, at least this is the case if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ. The problems begin when you start talking about how you go about being saved, who can be saved, and then once you are saved whether or not you can lose your salvation, or even what the word saved really means.
But let’s make it simpler than trying to make all of the various Christian religions get along, because that hasn’t happened in over a thousand years, and it is not likely to happen any time soon. Let’s ask the question of whether or not members of the same church should be able to get along? Now it is even more obvious that we should be able to get along with those who attend the same church that we do, but if you look at the statistics of how many churches split, we would have to say that getting along is not happening the way that it should.
So the question is why? Why can’t members of the same church get along?
The answer is really simple, but hard for people to do. The reason people fail to get along is that they take their eyes off of what God wants them to do, and how God wants them to behave, and they begin to act as the world around them behaves, and they do the things that they think is right.
Paul has given us the basic first steps for members to get along with each other in the first two verses of this chapter, surrender to God, and then let God transform you into the image of Christ. It really is that basic, that simple, but so hard to do. If we are all allowing Christ to show through us, then we will get along with each other.
Listen to this podcast to learn the way Christians are supposed to relate to each other to complete the kingdom work of God.