Jesus is Real Radio with Daniel Fusco

How many of us have jaywalked at some point and thought nothing of it? There were no cars coming, standing on the corner seemed pointless, we were smart enough to know it was safe…we can come up with all kinds of ways to justify a small transgression…but we still broke the rule. Today, Pastor Daniel teaches about why we find it hard to submit to authority, and why we should consider how God chooses leaders to rule over us.

In the Bible, we tend to find judgment difficult to swallow. We want God to just be nice all the time, even though when we are personally wronged, our attitudes change. The Father is deeply hurt and offended by sin. As Pastor Daniel teaches about the penalty of sin for Korah and his followers, it’s uncomfortable. We don’t want to accept that God’s judgment can be harsh, but yet…we still value justice. Listen and understand how God is always love.

Authority is God’s to give. That’s the attitude of Moses, as Pastor Daniel describes how the leader reacted as the children of Israel began to show discontent about where God had them. Instead of being faithful to what God had given, the people showed their discontent. Don’t we do that sometimes as well? We complain about our circumstances, we think we could do a better job of running things. Today, we’ll find out how to find contentment under leadership.

If you’ve ever sinned intentionally in your life, then that’s reason number one for accepting Jesus. Without Him, sin has devastating eternal consequences….and, today, Pastor Daniel will take us through the laws about unintentional and intentional sin. It’s a messy issue, but one that will be dragged into the light, just as our own sin should be. As we deal directly with the garbage in our lives, Jesus is there to lift the burden and forgive.

God asks all His children to present themselves as living sacrifices…and, given what Jesus sacrificed for us, it’s a reasonable expectation. As Pastor Daniel reminds us today, everything we have belongs to the Father. As we hear about the sacrifices offered by the children of Israel, it will be clear how the purpose is the same: to give back to God what He’s given to us. The Word gives us the standard we should live up to, for His glory.

Sin has consequences. We know that…but do we really believe it? Even when we’ve asked forgiveness, the fallout from our mistakes doesn’t disappear. As Pastor Daniel continues to follow the children of Israel as they dwell in the wilderness, we’ll find out why God’s character is sometimes hard to discern. We interpret consequences as harsh, but God isn’t cruel. He’s just and loving, even as His people experience judgment for sin.

Hindsight may be 20/20, but it’s also selective. When we look at our pasts, it’s natural to want to cling to the good. As Pastor Daniel explains about the children of Israel, they were a people who forgot to consider everything God had done for them as they fretted about their circumstances. We wonder why we’re experiencing difficulty and why God would allow us to go through hardships. We have to remember the true character of God.

When you have a goal, it’s full speed ahead…until you run into turbulence. We’re gung ho for God’s leading right up until we get scared. Today, Pastor Daniel will help us to understand why our reactions are not so different than the children of Israel. As they approached the promised land, the land of milk and honey that was given to them…they also saw the giants. Scary. We’ll consider those moments in our own lives, and how we can overcome those fears.

No matter how determined we are to reach perfection, we can’t even get through one day perfectly. More than perfection, God wants us to be growing. As Pastor Daniel assures us today, grace is what saves us. We can’t save ourselves because of anything we do, so instead we have the freedom to hear from the Lord and focus on His leading. Today, we’ll hear how the children of Israel get off track when they forget God’s promise.

There’s always someone who has more of something we wish we had….and we envy them. We might even wish some misfortune would fall on that person because we’re so bitter about our own circumstances. It’s a problem within the children of Israel as they question why Moses is the one who gets to have the special relationship with God. Today, Pastor Daniel teaches about how a seed of envy can grow into a tangle of inescapable bitterness.