Refuge Audio Podcast

God’s promises are sure, faithful, and reliable—even if they aren’t fulfilled right away or on our preferred schedule. Consider the life of Abraham. He waited 25 years before the fulfillment of God’s promise to have a child. In Romans 4, the Apostle Paul points to Abraham’s faithfulness to remind us that God’s promises aren’t dependent on our obedience to God’s law. Instead, it’s by faith that we receive God’s promises. 

The Apostle Peter wrote 2 Peter to believers in order to prepare them for the difficulties that lay ahead—false teachers, persecutions, hardships, and other challenges they would face. But before he begins his warnings, he starts his letter by building up followers of Jesus with encouragement to grow and mature spiritually in specific virtues. In reminding those in the church what we've received from the Lord, we are reminded of what it is to follow the Lord. Watch our study from Sunday as guest teacher Allan Benson led our time of study in 2 Peter 1.

Have you ever faced a mountain of a problem & felt like a failure? When you come to the end of your limited human might & power and begin to rely solely upon God’s Holy Spirit that the mountains of problems begin to move. This was God’s encouragement to Zerubabbel in Zechariah 4. God is graciously willing to help when we truly humble ourselves & admit that God’s work must be done in God’s way—not by our might or by our power.

In Matthew 11, we read of Jesus addressing two vastly different groups. On one side were the arrogant, overfed, unconcerned, and self-righteous religious elites who either opposed Jesus or were indifferent to Him. On the other side were the seventy Jesus had sent out to minister to the surrounding cities. These were the foolish, the forgotten, the unworthy, and unimportant in the eyes of the religious elite. Jesus rebuked the first group with a warning and received the second group with rejoicing. But some of the self-righteous just needed a clear invitation for salvation. And so Jesus addresses them and invites them to come to Him.

As Jesus went to preach and teach in the cities in Judea, He encountered the religious elite who were either indifferent to Him or actively resisted Him. Even after witnessing all that Jesus did, they still did not believe. This prompted Jesus to call out to them with a broken heart, warning the hard-hearted and self-righteous. But even when the majority of people in cities or countries are indifferent to or resist Jesus, there is always a remnant of individuals that accept His invitation to come to Him and find salvation, forgiveness, and rest for their souls.

Which is worse in terms of someone coming to Christ and finding everlasting life in Him: resistance or indifference? At face value, it seems like a simple question to answer. Those who don’t really seem to care are usually easier to deal with than those who want to argue with you. The question is not who is the easiest to deal with, but what mentality is less open to the Gospel. Those who are consistently critical are actually closer to surrendering to Jesus than those who couldn’t care less. We encounter this more than we realize. And so did Jesus, as we see in Matthew 11:20-30.

It’s difficult to appreciate just how good the good news truly is without first working through the bad news. Part of that was the responsibility of John the Baptist. He prepared the way for the good news of Jesus Christ by preaching repentance, which meant bringing to the forefront the bad news of sin. Some readily receive the bad news that they are sinners, which prepare them to receive the good news of complete forgiveness and the gift of righteousness. But some reject the good news of Jesus Christ because they reject the reality that they are sinners. In their self-righteousness, they are unable to believe, receive, and respond.

There’s an interaction that Jesus has with two of His disciples in Luke 24 that shows us His heart after His resurrection. He wants to meet with His followers and walk with them in familiar intimacy. But we often tend to miss God in our midst, not because he's too extraordinary, but because he's too ordinary. When our hearts are tuned to His voice, we can experience an intimacy with Him that allows us to enjoy fellowship with Him.