Redemption Calvary Podcast

The Bible says that you can only see through a glass dimly while you are here on earth. You may think that you have a crystal clear perception of a person or situation, but really it's like looking through dirty sunglasses in a dimly lit room. Humans can never judge perfectly. But Pastor Cody has good news today! There is one who judges perfectly, fairly, and rightly: God. His judgment isn't skewed by sin and he's not subject to the biases we inherently have. We can trust that his judgments are perfect.

A caterpillar can't halfway transform into a butterfly. It can't hold onto its old life as a caterpillar and expect to fly. It has gone through the transformation and come out of the cocoon as a new creature. Today, Pastor Cody shows us that when we give our lives to Christ, we undergo a transformation as well. We can't bring about this transformation on our own by words or good deeds. We have to be transformed by the Spirit dwelling inside us. The good news is that the Spirit is promised to us, we only need to ask.

Bad news that doesn't affect you doesn't seem too bad, right? The same is true with good news. If you find out a certain stock is doing really well, but you don't own any of it, it's not really good news...it's just news. If someone shares the gospel with you, but you don't know that you need Jesus, then it's not really good news to you...it's just news. Today Pastor Cody shows us how good the good news of the gospel is by telling us the bad news: we all deserve the wrath of God because of sin in our lives.

When something is wrong, it needs to be made right. When a crime is committed, the criminal should serve a punishment. It's easy to see that justice should be served when we look at things that happen every day around us. But what about spiritual matters? Today, Pastor Cody shows us that our sin puts us in opposition to God. The problem of our sin can only be made right through God's wrath. Jesus taking on God's wrath isn't just an option for us, we need it in order to be reconciled to God.

Can you remember a situation when your emotions tricked you into believing something false? Emotions are real, but they rarely reflect the truth. When emotions lead, chaos is close behind. But the truth has the power to change a life. In today's teaching, Pastor Cody shows us how Paul's life was changed by the truth of who Jesus is. When he was being led by emotion, Paul tried everything to destroy Christianity. But when he chose to trust in the truth about Jesus, his feelings had to follow the reality he believed.

Do you fellowship with other believers, or do you settle for mere friendship? Finding a common hobby and spending time around that hobby is fun and fairly simple. But there's something deeper that can only be found in a spiritual connection with others. Today, Pastor Cody explores the difference between fellowship and friendship in the book of Romans. In order to go beyond surface-level friendships, you have to humble yourself and open yourself up to the other person by serving and sharing your faith.

Have you ever renovated your house? There are different levels of renovation: you could just paint one room, or you could gut your house and completely renovate everything. No matter what level of renovation you do, the goal is always the same: to have your house look different than it did before the renovation. Today, Pastor Cody shows us that Jesus is in the renovation business. Our lives should look totally different after Jesus takes residence. He's not just painting one room, he's changing everything.

What makes the good news of the Gospel so good? If you could save yourself with good works, the Gospel wouldn't mean anything. If you simply had to give a certain amount to church in order to be saved, then the news that Jesus died for you would seem strange. Today, Pastor Cody tells us what's so good about the Gospel: we can't be in the right relationship with God by anything we can do. We can only be called God's beloved because of the good news that Jesus was born, died, and rose again.

While it is true that the Bible was written for us, it was not written about us. We are not the main character! Jesus is. We might think that only the gospels or only the New Testament are about Jesus, but that's not the case either. Today, Pastor Cody shows us that every book of the Bible is about Jesus, from the Old Testament to the Gospels, through the Epistles, and all the way to Revelation. Every page points to him. Every story aims to teach us about Jesus and his birth, death, and resurrection.

Even the most complex concepts have, at their core, simple truths they are built on. Every math problem relies on the foundational truths of arithmetic. The same is true spiritually. It's easy to focus on deep, complex, spiritual concepts and leave behind the foundation of it all: the gospel story. Today, Pastor Cody reminds us that we cannot ever think that the gospel is beneath us. We can't leave behind the gospel for deeper truths. The gospel is the deepest truth we can ever comprehend.