Episode 429 - Show Notes

• In John chapter one we find the story of Jesus walking on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. He finds four young men, four fishermen. They are two sets of brothers: Peter and Andrew and James and John. As the story unfolds we learn that Peter and Andrew are casting their nets into the sea from the shore. James and John were sitting in their boat mending and repairing their fishing nets. All four men were busy at work with their nets. It was an ordinary day at work.
• But something happens here that changes the lives of these four men forever. Jesus simply calls for them to follow him. He would be their rabbi. They would be his students. There was something so compelling about Jesus that these four young men make a life-changing decision.
• We see here that the act of leaving their nets behind was no small decision. They consciously left their old life behind and embraced a new one as a Christ-follower. They left behind their identity, their security, their comfort zone, and the expectations of their family and friends. They fully embraced their future with Jesus. That’s what disciples do.
• Today as you and I hear and embrace the call of Jesus to become his followers, we too are compelled to leave some old things behind. God will call you to leave behind old values, old patterns of behavior, and old ways of living that conflict with the values of a Christ-follower.
• One last thing…In John chapter one, when Jesus calls these four men to follow him. The Bible says they left their nets immediately. They didn’t need a few weeks to think about it. They didn’t make a pros and cons list. They recognized that Jesus was worth following, so they immediately left their nets behind to become his disciples.

John 1:18 - “They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”

In Matthew 16:24-25 - “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Hebrews 12:1 says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

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Episode 428 - Show Notes

• When you have been hurt by others, it’s easy to build walls around you and keep people at a distance. After all, you don’t want to experience the pain again. You might think it’s just easier to not get too close to people because they can’t be trusted.
• It’s also possible to bring this same mistrust to God. You might wonder, “Can God be trusted? Does He keep His word? Does He keep His promises? Will he actually do what He says He will do?
• God is not like humans. He does not lie. He does not change his mind. He keeps his word and fulfills his promises. He is a faithful God. You can be assured today that the God we serve is trustworthy.
• God cannot lie because his nature is perfect. He is holy and cannot sin. Scripture says God cannot be tempted with evil. 
• The Bible says God has given you and I great and precious promises. Which promises are you holding onto? Whatever they may be, if it is in His Word, you can believe it. What He has said, He will perform. 
• Be encouraged by this truth: God always keeps His Word. He does not lie. 

Numbers 23:19 - “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.  Does he speak and then not act?  Does he promise and not fulfill?”

Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

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Episode 427 - Show Notes

• So, what do you do when you need wisdom? Where do you turn when you don’t know what to do? Do you reach out to family and friends? Do you turn to social media? Do you google your problems? Where do you turn?
• I want to encourage you today. If you are facing a situation in which you need wisdom, pray this prayer. “Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on you.”
• So, how do we keep our eyes on God? We can’t see him with your physical eyes, so this prayer is about our spiritual life. How do we keep our hearts and minds on God. There is only one way. We do so through the Word of God. There is no other way.
• The Scripture is filled with everyday, practical wisdom. It is God’s wisdom book and he intends for us to use this wisdom to make decisions.
• How foolish it would be for you and I to neglect the Word of God. What a precious gift we have in book form and now in an app on our phones. The wisdom you and I need for our everyday lives is found in the pages of scripture.
• Making God’s Word a priority in our lives doesn’t mean we will never face a situation in which we won’t know what to do, but it does mean that we will be in the right place to keep our eyes on God and receive his wisdom.
• There is wisdom available for you today. If you are facing a situation in which you don’t know what to do, let God know, and then keep your eyes on him.

2 Chronicles 20:12 - "“Our God, we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

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Episode 426 - Show Notes

• What an interesting statement! He announces Jesus as the lamb of God, that in itself was strange, but he goes on to make this bold claim: he is the one who takes away the sin of the world.  John, of course, was prophesying Jesus’ death on our behalf that would come three years later.
• To understand John’s announcement of Jesus we have to go back to the Old Testament, in fact, we need to go all the way back to the Book of Genesis. In chapter three we see that when Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover their sin themselves by sewing leaves together to wear.  But God had to kill an animal Himself and shed its blood in order to provide an acceptable covering for Adam and Eve.  This led to the sacrificial system throughout the Old Testament by which the wrath of God against sin could be satisfied. 
• Each year, Israelites sacrificed a lamb as payment for their sins. The sacrifice did not completely forgive and remove their sins, but it did push it forward one year. Hebrews 10:4 says, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
• The Old Testament sacrificial system was one of always looking forward. The people lived with anticipation of a Messiah. They lived in anticipation of complete forgiveness of their sins by God.
• And then came the day when John the Baptist announces Jesus as the lamb of God. He is boldly saying, “Everyone, this is what we have been waiting for. Our salvation has finally come.”'
• On the cross, John’s words come to prove to be true. Jesus, the sinless lamb of God, would be slain. He would become our sacrifice. He would be our substitute. Jesus would die in our place. The justice of a righteous and holy God would be satisfied. Sin would be accounted for. The payment had been paid.

John 1:29 - “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

1 John 2:2 says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Revelation 5:9 says, “By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

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Episode 425 - Show Notes

• This week I read an article by a pastor who was getting ready to go to India to do missionary work.   He said that he had been praying what he called a “frightening” prayer: “Lord, do things I’m not used to.” That strikes me as an excellent prayer for all of us. It’s easy to pray for our own agenda to come to pass: “Lord, make all my dreams come true.” But you move into a different realm when you say, “Lord, I want to move beyond the normal, the ordinary, and the expected. My agenda represents my own understanding of the future, but you may have other things in mind. So please do things I am not used to.” 
• God will take situations that seem bad and use them for his good. A scattered, persecuted church doesn’t seem good at all, but the result was the scattered church preached the gospel wherever they went and the God’s church and his kingdom expanded.
• Today I believe God is at work in your life and mine. Let’s work with God. Let’s surrender to his plans. Let’s go with God even when we don’t understand and even when he does things we are not used to. In the end, God’s will and his plan are fulfilled.
• Would you be willing to pray this prayer? “Lord, do things I’m not used to.” 

Acts 8:4 - “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

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Episode 424 - Show Notes

• Giants come in all shapes and sizes. I’ve never met a person who didn’t battle their own giants, and for most of us, this giant has a name. His name is fear.
• When we focus our attention on the obstacles rather than the objective, fear will overcome our faith. This can easily happen to us, can’t it? We focus our eyes on the problem, the difficulty, the obstacle, or the giant. Suddenly, we become convinced we cannot move forward.
• When we keep our eyes on Jesus, our giants lose their size and their power in comparison to our great God. I’ve discovered that fear, anxiety, worry, and despair all melt away in the presence of God.
• Knowing the victory has been promised, you and I have a choice to make. Will we let fear keep us from what God has given us or will we step out in faith to possess it?
• Let’s conquer the giants of fear and live in the victory Jesus provides.
  
  

Numbers 12:32-33 - “All the people we saw there are of great size. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Hebrews 12:2 says, “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

1 Corinthians 15:57 - “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Episode 423 - Show Notes

• There is a God-given desire in the hearts of mankind to know God. Many are searching in all the wrong places seeking to fill a desire that can only be met by God.
• Jesus left the glory of heaven and stepped into our world and into our lives. Humanity longed for a real encounter with God, so he stepped out of the heavens, out of the realms of glory and became real. 
• God was no longer just speculation or a voice from the sky or someone you read about in a book. He was a God you could touch, you could feel, you could hear, you could see. He had flesh and bones, he suffered, became tired, he grieved, he got hungry, he was frustrated, disappointed. He was just like you and me.  
• The New Testament often refers to Jesus by two terms: the Son of God and the Son of man. Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time. 
• So, what does this mean to us. Why does the humanity of Jesus matter to you and I? Here’s why: In order to purchase our salvation, the justice of God had to be satisfied. If God overlooked our sins, he would not be just and holy. Our sin had to be accounted for. 
• In the Old Testament, God temporarily instituted a system of sacrificing animals as a foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice for us. The book of Hebrews says “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, sacrificed His human life and shed His human blood to cover the sins of all who would ever believe in Him. If He were not human, this would have been impossible.
• In addition to our salvation, the humanity of Jesus enables Him to relate to us on a personal level. He experienced what we experience. Only a human could sympathize with our weaknesses and temptations. In His humanity, Jesus was subjected to all the same kinds of trials that we are, and He is able to sympathize with us and to help us in our times of need.

John 1:14 - “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Colossians 1:15 - “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Verse 19 says, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”

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Episode 422 - Show Notes

• You see, weakness is actually an advantage. I know this seems wrong and counter-cultural to most in our world, but as long as you think you are strong, independent, and can do it without God, you won’t have his strength.
• It’s when we run to God in our weakness that we gain his strength. Isaiah 40:29 says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
• Pride keeps us from being used by God. The Word of God tells us God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. We need a healthy dependence on God and a realization of how much we need his power in our lives.
• If we could only see this and believe it. When we are weak, then we are strong. So often, like Gideon, when we feel weak, inferior, and insignificant, we think we can’t do anything for God. We look around and others seem so strong and more capable. But remember, God has all the strength we need. He’s looking for men and women who will make themselves available to him, even in their weakness. God takes us and uses us for his glory.
• God intentionally works with the most unlikely material so that everyone can see the glory belongs to Him. Are you feeling weak today? You might just hear God say, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
• Where will God take you, where will he lead you, what will he ask of you, and what will he empower you to do?  Give the control of your life to God.  Make him your LORD.  He will use your weakness as an advantage.

Judges 6:14-16 - “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

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Episode 421 - Show Notes

• If we were to go out to a local street corner and ask people what their questions of God would be, there is no doubt the question of suffering is at the top of everyone’s list. You’ve struggled with this haven’t you? I mean, why would a good God allow suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people?
• We have to start with the recognition that we there are some things we don’t know. We have finite minds. We can’t see what God sees, know what God knows, or understand what He understands. This is why we have faith. If we knew it all, we wouldn’t need faith. We would simply know it all. But with faith, we trust a God who sees and knows what we can’t.
• The question of suffering is a huge question and one we can’t completely answer in only five minutes, but let me give you a few things to think about. First, suffering is universal. While it may seem like some people have it easier than others, the truth is everyone suffers in one way or another. It comes to all of us because of our fallen, sinful world.
• While we all experience some kind of human suffering, we need to recognize that God is not immune to our suffering. Some people think of God is distant and immune to suffering. But the God of the Bible is not above suffering Himself.
• So, God understands suffering from our perspective because he experienced it. When we suffer God has empathy. As a loving Heavenly Father he cares when his children are suffering.
• No matter what happens to us in this life, God will use it all to help us grow to be more like Jesus. Sometimes it’s true that we grow more in the hard times than the good times.

Romans 5:12 - “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”

Psalms 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 

Romans 8:29 says, (God) “predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son.” 

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Episode 420 - Show Notes

• The Scripture teaches us that we were separated from God. There was brokenness in our relationship because of our sin. It would take a death to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. God took the initiative. He made the first move. Jesus stepped into our world and gave his life as a sacrifice for us. The precious blood of Jesus reconciled us to God. You and I must see that this is the gospel message. We were lost and needed a savior. It is through Jesus that we are reconciled to the Father.
• God initiated this ministry of reconciliation, even though He is the innocent party in the estranged relationship. He reconciled us to Himself; we did not reconcile ourselves to Him.
• Now that we have been reconciled to our Heavenly Father, and now that the relationship has been restored, you and I are called to be “ministers of reconciliation.” 
• God has committed this ministry to us. He has called us. We have been given this assignment. You and I have been given a task by our Heavenly Father. God has committed it to us. This means he is trusting you and I to carry out this ministry.

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Romans 10:14 - “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

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