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He never left. He did everything right. And he’s the one standing outside the party.

In the final week of The Ghost of Diotrephes, Pastor David goes to the brother in Luke 15 that almost nobody preaches, the son who stayed, and walks through three things his story shows us:

You can be in the house and never be home. The older brother was standing on his own father’s land, and he was just as lost as the one in the pigpen. Because a house is a place. Home is a relationship.

You can’t earn what’s already yours. “All these years I’ve been slaving for you.” That’s not a son talking to his dad, that’s an employee in an exit interview. The calf was in the barn the whole time. All he had to do was ask. Grace isn’t opposed to effort. It’s opposed to earning.

Religion says “servant.” The Father says “son.” Both sons tried to talk their father down to hiring them as staff. He overruled both of them with the same word. God has never once hired anybody. He has only ever had children.

Jesus never tells us if the brother went in. That’s because he’s asking you. The music is already playing. Come inside.

Scriptures: Luke 15:1-2, Luke 15:11-32, John 13:5-9

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#BelieverChurch #ProdigalSon #Grace #FathersLove

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Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

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Nobody has ever sat across from a pastor and said, “My problem is I love to be first.” It doesn’t feel like a spiritual problem. It feels normal. That’s what makes it dangerous.

In week one of The Ghost of Diotrephes, Pastor David opens the shortest book in the Bible to meet a man remembered for a single sentence, and walks through three truths about who gets to tell you who you are.

You can’t tell yourself who you are. You’ve never once seen your own face, and you can’t judge your own qualities either. We all need a word from the outside, and we all have our places we go looking for it: work, kids, a parent’s approval that never comes.

Attention is not love. King Saul had the crowd’s song until somebody else got a louder one, and the comparison poisoned him for life. The approval of people is great candy and terrible food. Build a life on it and you’ll starve with your mouth full.

You are who the Father says you are. The Father has already spoken over you, lavished his love on you, and he sings over you. Your obedience can please the Father, but it can never produce the Father’s love.

The message ends where Jesus lived: secure in the Father’s “This is my son,” with no need to be first.

Scriptures: 3 John 1:9, Philippians 2:3, James 3:16, 1 Samuel 18:7, 1 John 3:1, Hebrews 13:16, Zephaniah 3:17

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#BelieverChurch #Identity #FathersLove #TheGhostOfDiotrephes

Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
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Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
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Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
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Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
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Most of us got our picture of hell from a movie, a cartoon, or an angry preacher, not from the Bible. So this week Pastor David opens the Bible on hell and reads it honestly, as much and as little as it actually says.

“Hell” is one word in English, but four words in the Bible. Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna got flattened into one, and a thousand years of medieval imagery got poured in behind it.

Jesus describes Gehenna in pictures, not floor plans. Whatever else hell is, he keeps calling it a place of real and terrible loss.

Hell was made for the devil and his angels, not for people. The devil isn’t hell’s manager, he’s hell’s first inmate.

Jesus defeated hell, so you don’t have to go. The keys of death and Hades are in nail-scarred hands.

Every warning Jesus gave about hell, he gave on his way to a cross to make sure you’d never go there.

Scriptures: Matthew 25:31-41; Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31; Luke 16:22-23; Mark 9:47-48; Revelation 1:17-18; Revelation 20:12-15; Luke 23:42-43; John 3:16-17

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#BelieversCenter #Hell #Grace #Jesus

Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
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To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com​​
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Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
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Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)

Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com​​
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme

Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
Sundays at 10AM (online + in-person)
Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)

Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com​​
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme

Thanks so much for listening to the Believers Center podcast!

Service Times:   
Sundays at 10AM (online + in-person)
Tuesdays at 7PM (in-person only)

Follow us on Instagram @believerscenter
To learn more about Believers Center, visit https://www.believerscenter.com​​
To submit a prayer request, or to get connected with a pastor, visit https://www.believerscenter.com/prayforme