Abundant Life

Abundant Life Episode 30

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the topic of failure.

FA'ILURE, noun fa'ilyur.

A failing; deficience; cessation of supply, or total defect; as the failure of springs or streams; failure of rain; failure of crops.

Omission; non-performance; as the failure of a promise; a man's failure in the execution of a trust.

Key verse

Luke 16:9

January 17 is the typical day where New Year’s resolutions are broken. That is a total of 17 days after they have started. It does not take long for the ambition of yesterday to become the failure of today. We all come to a point in our lives where we do not add up to the standards of others and to the standards, we set for ourselves.

Have you ever failed at something in your life? Well, you are in good company.

If we are honest it’s not fun to fail and if we are honest sometimes it hurts. It’s like they say death and taxes are inevitable, but failure is also inevitable.

The bible also tells us to expect trouble.

Job 14:1

It’s not a matter if failure will happen, it’s a matter of when.

How do you look at failure?

Do you see failure as a negative thing?

Does failure define who you are?

Do you see failure as an opportunity to grow and learn?

Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on. -Dave Ramsey 

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. - Michael Jordan

For Christians, failure is a negative response to our trials and testing. Sometimes we call these sanctification tests. We get presented with a set of circumstances and then we must chose how to respond. At times we pass the test and other times we do not pass the test. As you mature as a Christian, we hope that there are more wins than losses.

The Christian life is about your sanctification and how over time you are changed into the image of Christ. It’s about the journey and what you learn, and how you mature as a Christian and it’s often times of testing and trial that we have opportunity to grow as Christians.

Interestingly, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. If you were to take a straight shot from Egypt to the promised land, they likely could have made it there in under 5 years. But God was trying to teach them to depend on Him, to trust Him to obey Him. Some learned and grew in that fashion and others did not.

Examples of failure from scripture

Numbers 20:10-12

Moses sister Miriam had died, the people talked of stoning him, the people were thirsty, and Moses the meek man, lost it and struck the rock. He was told to speak to it but out of frustration, he struck it twice. He failed in reaching the promised land, and he was told he would not see it with the people he had led for all those years. Moses, needless to say had a bad week.

How about David?

II Samuel 11:14-17

David saw Uriah’s wife and had to have her for herself. He tried to cover his sin which is impossible to do, and in his attempt to do so, he had Uriah killed in battle. David was entrusted as the king to protect and look out for the people, but here he was pursuing his own lusts and doing the opposite of protecting his people. David failed in being a righteous king, failed in self-control and failed in pleasing God.

Ever failed in these areas? Ever tried to hide your sin? How did that go?

Matthew 26:69-75

Have you done something to deny Christ in your life? Have you ever been ashamed of Him? How about in your witness of Him?

We all fail at some point in our Christian lives and many times it is several times throughout the day. God can only use people that have failed because that is all there is. A preacher once said, “Failure is not a person, but it is an event.” The mark is perfection but there is no such thing as perfection.

Romans 3:23

Abundant Life Episode 29

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the topic of self-control.

RESTRA'INT, noun

“The act or operation of holding back or hindering from motion, in any manner; hinderance of the will, or of any action, physical, moral or mental.”- Websters 1828

Freedom That Lasts definition of self-control: “Adding self-control means instantly obeying God’s Word in the power of God’s spirit.”

II Peter 1:6

We say this verse every Friday night in Freedom That Lasts and it is important in dealing with any type of sin that we show temperance or to say another way, self-control. 

Self-control is so difficult. But why? It’s simple, we like to indulge ourselves and pleasure ourselves because we are selfish. The problem with this is that the things we want to do often times are things that we ought not to do because they are sinful in nature. It’s like the diet thing, we all love to eat tacos, burgers and pizza, because they taste good but unfortunately those things are unhealthy when consumed without restrain and can lead to not only obesity but can cause serious health issues like heart disease, high blood pressure and so on.

How do we discipline ourselves to be obedient to God?

The first step to self-control is to be a born again believer. When you are born again the scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Ephesians 1:13

Since the Holy Spirit dwells within you, the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians is the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence in a believers life. Therefore if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for you to exercise self-control because you are a slave to sin.

Obedience requires that a believer to deny himself which isn’t always easy, but in reality to deny oneself is to be obedient to God.

Luke 9:23-24

Practicing instant obedience

Matthew 7:24-25

It takes self-control to not only hear the words of Jesus Christ but to do them and live them out in your own life. We all know how to lose weight and get in shape, but to live it out and do it is another issue altogether. Be in our spiritual lives what will we build our house on? Will we be foolish or wise in our obedience to the Word. 

Romans 6:19

Prior to salvation, we always obeyed and yielded to our flesh showing no self- control. Now that we have been redeemed, we should yield our bodies to purity and holiness. 

Psalms 119:33-34

David was asking God to give him understanding, so that he might exhibit self-control in obeying God’s Word. Delayed obedience is disobedience, and we can often reason within ourselves and rationalize sin if we choose not to obey immediately.

Examples of no self-control

Adam and Eve

We see Eve as she thought the fruit was nice looking and good for food. She also was tempted by the serpent to be like God knowing good and evil.  This one act of disobedience and lack of self-control has lead to the fall of mankind. Because of this we are born sinners and condemned because of of the sin nature we inherit going all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Samson

Married a philistine woman which was prohibited by his parents, he broke his nazarite vow  ate honey from a dead carcass, and divulged the secret to his strength to Delilah to his detriment. It’s as if Samson acted on impulse, and did whatever pleased himself with no regard for God.

David and Bathsheba

David was king, already had 6 wives, which was prohibited according to Deuteronomy 17:17, and by lack of self-control, he allowed his lust to take over and committed adultery with Bathsheba which eventually lead to the murder Uriah. His lack of self-control had repercussions for generations to come.

King Solomon

According to 1 Kings 11, King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Ecclesiastes 2:10

At the root of all these examples we see a disregard for self-control, and a regard for selfishness and pleasing ones self. In contrast we see direct disobedience to God which has u...

Abundant Life Episode 28

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss a name given to Jesus, Immanuel.

Key Verse

Matthew 1:23 - Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”

This was the angel speaking to Mary, giving her insight to God’s plan to save His people from their sin. I can’t imagine what was going through Mary’s mind. Was she thinking, why me? Who am I to have this happen? How can this be? I bet there were a million questions racing through her mind, yet she likely didn’t even see the big picture.

If we look back to the old testament, we see a prophecy that was given during the rain of Ahaz, king of Judah, an evil King. This prophecy was given as a sign to Ahaz, but it was actually a prophecy of the coming Messiah that we see fulfilled in Matthew chapter 1 which would be about 700 years later.

Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel - is a masculine Hebrew name meaning “God with us” or “God is with us.”

What about the name Jesus vs. Immanuel?

The name Jesus, given to Joseph in Matthew 1:21 and Mary in Luke 1:31, means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” In the Hebrew and Aramaic, the name is Yeshua. This name is a combination of Ya, an abbreviation for Yahweh, the name of Israel’s God; and the verb yasha, meaning “rescue,” “deliver,” or “save.”

Matthew 1:20-21

Luke 1:30-31

Evidence for God “with us” in the flesh

We see evidence of this truth in the book of 1 Timothy that Jesus was God in the flesh. This is a very gospel rich verse as well.

1 Timothy 1:16

John also gives testimony of Jesus, God in the flesh, dwelling among us.

John 1:14

Colossians 2:9

He dwelt among us and experienced life as a human being

Philippians 2:6-11

Jesus lowered Himself to become man yet He did not lay aside His deity. He was 100% man and 100% God.

It is truly amazing and also comforting that the God of the universe was tempted just like we are, experienced loss, and pain and sadness just like us and He did not sin as a result. We fail on a daily basis, and it’s just more plain to see that we need Jesus and can’t live a righteous life without him. Just like it talks about in John 15, we can do nothing unless we abide in the vine, which was our last podcast episode.

Hebrews 4:15

Why did Jesus come to be with us?

It’s quite simple. We are sinners on our way to eternity apart from God. Out of great love for a people who unlovely, Jesus stepped in to save us from eternal damnation.

In Matthew we see the angel speaking to Joseph stating the purpose for Jesus.

Matthew 1:21

In the book of Luke Jesus testifies of Himself and His mission.

Luke 19:10

This is what makes the name it claim it movement false. Jesus didn’t come to make your dreams come true. He came to rescue you from yourself. He came to give you new life, eternal life which is worth more than new cars, big houses, jewelry, and money.

Why did Jesus come in the flesh?

Couldn’t Jesus just speak forgiveness and forgive all humanity? Perhaps, but God is a God of order, and integrity and truth. He can’t go against His nature. We read in Hebrews that the only way sins can be forgiven is by the shedding of blood or a blood sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:22

Not just any sacrifice, the sacrifice must be without spot or blemish just as the lamb sacrifices in the old testament.

Hebrews 9:14

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice that fulfilled all the old testament sacrifices and covered any future sacrifice that would be necessary, literally the perfect sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:24-28

Why did God send Jesus, His only Son?

Psalm 50:10

In other words, God owns everything. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are poor in comparison because God owns all. But what could God give that would actually cost Him something? His Son is the only thing of value or worth, everything on this Earth including the Earth could be spoken into existence by God, but sending His Son was ultimately a sacrifice and He did it because He loves us.

Abundant Life Episode 27

In this episode Saso and Ben discuss what it means to abide in the Vine.

ABI'DE - to be, or exist, to continue; W. bod, to be; to dwell, rest, continue, stand firm, or be stationary for anytime indefinitely. 1. To rest, or dwell. Genesis 29:19. 2. To tarry or stay for a short time. Genesis 24:55. 3. To continue permanently or in the same state; to be firm and immovable. Psalms 119:90. 4. To remain, to continue. Acts 27:31. Ecclesiastes 8:15. Websters 1828

Key verse John 15:1-6  

Philippians 4:13

This is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible as it pertains to having the strength to do what God has commanded us to do.

We are helpless without His divine help; we are fools to think we can anything without the help of the Father

What is abiding in Christ?

John 15:5

As Christians we tend to say things like abide in Christ, or walk in the Spirit, but do we really understand what that means. When someone asks you, are you abidding in Christ, how do you respond? Are we talking about the act of abiding or the position of abiding.

When a person is saved the Bible describes the person as being “in Christ”.

Romans 8:1

2 Corinthians 5:17

If you were asked, are you in Christ or not, what would you say? How do you become "in Christ"?

In Christ

Galatians 3:26-27

According to this verse you are in Christ through faith. So now let’s move backward to find out what through faith means.

What is Faith?

Ephesians 2:8-9

According to Ephesians, you are saved by grace through faith and goes on to say that it is the gift of God and not of your own works. If we were saved by our good works, then we’d go around bragging about it according to this verse. And if we are honest, that would be true because we all have a this little thing called pride that loves to show it’s face when we think we’ve achieved something. Also, since this is a gift, then there wouldn’t be any works involved because I’ve never heard of working for a gift. Saso your love language is gifts. When was the last time you worked for a birthday gift?

This is likely them most profound verse that separates true Christians from all world religions. But why?

Romans 6:23

Now we know what the free gift or salvation is, it’s eternal life in Christ Jesus, but we still need to understand what through faith is talking about because that is the link to get the gift of eternal life.

Romans 9:1

Since the concept of belief is intangible, someone can simply say “I believe” and it won’t mean a hill of beans. According to James 2:19 even the demons believe and shudder but we know very well that the demons are not saved. The concept of believe is not just to have understanding and knowledge which causes to believe, but the key ingredient is dependence.

For example, if you ask a person, do you believe that you can get on a plane and fly to Florida. Most people will say that they believe. But the dependence comes when they actually get on the plain and fly to Florida.

Thats the kind of belief being spoken of. But why are you placing your dependence on Jesus? Romans 9:1 that we read earlier, that you are believing in the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus suffered and died and was raised on the third day all so that God could forgive your sins and give you this free gift of eternal life so long as you place your faith in Jesus. It’s so simple yet many will miss this. Please don’t miss this!

I was saved, not because I’m good but because God is good and God looked down at helpless me and sent His son to die for me. What a glorious truth brother! Ben

What does this have to do with abiding in Christ? Everything! From what we just went through it’s your position in Christ or your position not in Christ. The difference from being saved and not being saved.

What is the evidence for being saved?

In this special Thanksgiving Episode Saso and Ben give thanks to God for His many blessings.

THANK'FULNESS,noun Expression of gratitude; acknowledgment of a favor.1. Gratitude; a lively sense of good received.The celebration of these holy mysteries being ended, retire with all thankfulness of heart for having been admitted to that heavenly feast.

Websters 1828

Key Verse

Ephesians 5:20

1 Thessalonians 5:18

We are thankful to God for:

God’s grace John 1:16

God’s provision Genesis 22:14 & Psalm 107

God’s love Romans 8:38

Our wives Proverbs 18:22

Jaden Surgery / Recovery 1 Peter 1

Friends and fellowship Acts 2:42

Pastors and Church James 3:1

Missionaries Luke 10:2

Psalm 28:7

Psalm 100:1-5

Happy Thanksgiving and may God bless you. Remember to give thanks to our great God!

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In this episode Saso and Ben discuss the boss and employee relationship according to Ephesians 6:5-9.

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In this Episode Saso and Ben talk about children and how God requires obedience and honor toward parents.

Key Verse

Ephesians 6:1-3 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Websters 1828

Obey - To comply with the commands, orders or instructions of a superior, or with the requirements of law, moral, political or municipal; to do that which is commanded or required, or to forbear doing that which is prohibited.

Honor - The esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation.

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In this Episode Saso and Ben talk about men and their important role as a father.

Ephesians 6:4 - And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

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In this Episode Saso and Ben with special guest Rebekah Mendez talk about honor and respect and a woman's role as a wife.

Role of a wife and example of Sara

1 Peter 3:5-6

Ephesians 5:21

Ephesians 5:22-24

Wives do you come under your husband?

Do you treat him as fool?

Do you respect him?

Ephesians 5:33

Do you reverence (respect, honor) your husband or do you put him down and belittle him?

Currently we live in a culture where agendas are being pushed and it’s so wonder that we have corrupted God’s plan for marriage. It’s really just rebellion against God.

1 Samuel 15:23

Did you catch that? Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

Do you rebel?

What submission is not

Submission is not to men in general

Submission is not a depiction of lesser value

Galatians 3:28

Submission is not an excuse to sin

Submission is not an outward-only “check the box” activity

Submission is not a defeatist attitude

1 Peter 3:1

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