1 Corinthians 6:19-20

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

We don’t actually own ourselves, our life, or even our body. This is true for all humans; it’s doubly true for us as followers of Jesus because we have been bought by God and belong to him. We are not our own. This is just a fundamental fact of becoming a Christian. 

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Matthew 16:24-27

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every person according to his deeds.

Mark 8:34-38

34 And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what could a person give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

“Christ says, "Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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What makes the Bible authoritative? 

The Bible is so old and out of date….why would anyone listen to it?!

Why should it have any authority in our lives?

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The fear of God ... we don't talk about it much any more, and yet according to the Bible it's one of the best things for us. It's the source of wisdom and leads us into life! It's good for us. So in this episode we explore what it means to fear the Lord, how it provides wisdom, and sets us free from being self-willed. 

Key Texts:

Titus 1:7

Proverbs 9:10

2 Corinthians 5:10-11

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I've been doing a lot of reflecting on the authority of God, the fear of God, and the rise of the autonomous self. I'm concerned that all too often, people who say they are followers of Jesus still live as if they have autonomy and authority over their own life ... not God. Even though they say Jesus is Lord, when push comes to shove, they are the ultimate authority in their life. And that's not good for them or anyone else. 

In this episode, we reflect on the fact that the fundamental starting point of following Jesus is surrendering the leadership of our life to Jesus. He's in charge, because he's the King of the universe. As he himself said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me..." (Matthew 28:18). 

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The Holy Spirit is central to our Christian life. His presence with us is one of the new things of age of Messiah. He is now God with us, knitting us together into one people of God (1 Cor 12:13) and transforming us. 

Galatians 5:14-17

14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want. 

Ephesians 5:18

18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

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The Holy Spirit is God with us now, and walking by the Spirit is the solution to the dominance of the flesh. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? Walking by the Spirit means going about life with the Spirit as your walking partner. You have the opportunity to have God be your closest companion in life!

Romans 8:5-14 goes on to instruct us that walking by the Spirit involves our mind, specifically what we fill our mind with and what we focus our attention on. And the result of this is that we can put to death the sinful deeds of the body. 

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The Christian life is life in the Spirit. He empowers us to live the way God has called and created us to live. One of the key ways that's expressed in the New Testament is "walking by the Spirit." 

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? 

How do we do that? 

In this episode, we look at Romans 8:1-4 and reflect on what it means to walk by the Spirit. 

Book: Walking in the Spirit, by Ken Berding.

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Since he’s the Spirit of God, that means the Holy Spirit has been around all throughout the biblical story. He was clearly active and involved in God’s work of redemption in the OT:

• You see him right at the beginning hovering over the waters of creation 

But it seems like it’s a pretty spectacular thing - big deal - when he comes on the Day of Pentecost. So what’s the difference between the Spirit’s role in the OT versus now? 

The OT prophets promised there’d come a day when God’s spirit would come in a fuller, grander, more widespread way: 

• Joel 2:28-32

And the New Testament describes the Christian life is life in the Spirit:

• The Holy Spirit renews us--Titus 3:5

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