Latest / North Bible Recap / Episode 52: Acts and Jeremiah

Transcript

Episode 52: Acts and Jeremiah · North Bible Recap

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, welcome to North Bible Recap.
0:02
SPEAKER_02: I am so glad that you're joining me and Pastor Christian right now.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: And right now, we have actually finished a whole year of episodes.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
0:13
SPEAKER_02: This has been great.
0:14
SPEAKER_02: I have enjoyed it.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: It's been a wonderful journey.
0:17
SPEAKER_02: And let me just say, for the next three months, I will invite you to continue to watch as we are actually going to be sharing some of the content that we've actually produced already.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: But what's going to be coming new in January?
0:31
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: So we are redoing our scripture reading plan.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: So this doesn't happen till beginning of 2027.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be redoing the order of the books and the things that are happening.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: We have listened to your feedback.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: So we're always welcoming your feedback.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Let us know how we can continue to improve this podcast.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: So we have changed the scripture reading plan, and we're going to be recording and planning new episodes to help you understand the word of God.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay, now let's go into this episode.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: This is the first episode with Lord Come, and I am so excited to make a answer.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: What is this about?
1:28
SPEAKER_01: We're diving into our scripture reading plan here at North Church.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's gonna be something that's going to refresh you, build you up, strengthen you, give you information knowledge, and I will welcome you because I think that every week, as you begin to dive in with us, we're going to break down scriptures, we're gonna learn things maybe you haven't thought about or didn't realize uh from the word of God.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: And whether you're just getting started reading the Bible or you've been doing this for a long time, I believe it's going to be beneficial for you to join with us and actually maybe with other people, and let's learn God's word together because we are on a learning curve of learning more about what God wants to speak to us.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: And I have with me the guest today, and that is Christian Belez, who is actually the one that I said, hey, can you help form this, put this together?
2:20
SPEAKER_01: He has taken it, ran with it.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Christian, thank you for joining me.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited to be able to uh discuss the word of God with you, get inside, help our church family and anybody that is listening to.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm very excited to be able to be part of this project.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I we've been prepared for this for a few months.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: And here we are.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting here and talking about this.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: We've been excited about it, been praying about it and prepping for it.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: And now it's go time.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh, thank you.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for for having the heart for this.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I'm excited about this specifically is because here at North we have our faith framework.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: And the first thing that we tell people is you need the word of God in your life.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna be discussing is the word of God.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have a question before we go on.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: We have our scripture reading plan.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: We have reading one, which is the new testament, Proverbs and Psalms, and reading two, which is the old testament.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, our heart is that every believer reads the whole Bible in a year, but we know that if you're starting, reading the whole Bible might be difficult.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have reading one and reading two.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Can you give me a little bit of like why you broke broke it down to reading one and reading two?
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, I that's a very good question.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh, first, and you know, we just don't want to overwhelm everybody um for one, and we wanted to make it as simple, straightforward as possible.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: And so what what we have is reading one is basically the New Testament and solves the problems.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: So if you read reading one, which is really about five minutes a day, yep, very simple.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: So a chapter.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: Five minutes a day.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: And some days a little less, some days a little more.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, but really, I don't know if it's ever more than seven minutes, and probably around three minutes is kind of the least.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: Um that's doable for anybody.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: And we're not talking about speed readers, we're talking about somebody who's just methodically going through and reading.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: And what it does is it allows us to be able to take that passage in the New Testament, and we have the Psalms of Proverbs, and to be able to say at the end of the year, like, hey, you know what?
4:23
SPEAKER_01: I've accomplished this and um I've been overwhelmed.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, it for anyone, I would say start there.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: Start with reading one.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, reading two allows you to be able to expand more.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Now, I got some people that just focus on reading two, which is fine.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Just do reading two, and they're getting this Old Testament, except for the Psalms of Proverbs, which is beautiful because I think sometimes we want to kind of you know unhitch from the Old Testament.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: The truth of the matter is, no, no, no.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: Jesus quoted over and over and over again from Deuteronomy, from Psalms of Proverbs, from various of the prophets, and it is absolutely foundational, yeah, Old Testament to the New Testament.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we don't just throw it out.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: So if there, most people will listen and say, Hey, I want to start with the New Testament and Psalms of Proverbs, which is very palatable, and it's much more understandable.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: But I wouldn't stop there.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: I would then lean into the Old Testament and then really lay your foundation deeper in the things of God.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: I just encourage people, when you feel overwhelmed, keep staring at it.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: Yep, keep going back to it because it's like anything that we study in life.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the more you give yourself to it, the more you're gonna have revelation from it.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have done it both.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I have done one year.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I remember just doing, I do it with Blake Barnes, my accountability partner, where we have done just the New Testament, we have done just the Old Testament, and this year I'm doing both New Testament and Old Testament.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: It takes less than 15 minutes a day.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: People can read the entire Bible in a year with 15 minutes per day.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: I cannot, I wouldn't feel comfortable admitting how much time I spend on social media or on Netflix.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And this is why we say here, if you want to become who God creates you to be, our faith fragment starts with the word of God.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: You need to be in the word of God.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh thank you for developing the scripture reading plan and preaching from our scripture reading plan.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the beauty that we have in our church is we're reading the word of God every single week, whether it is you and your accountability partner or yourself, and then you come to the on the weekend and hear a message from either reading one or two or from both.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, I absolutely.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, I would encourage, you know, we talk about the word of God and the spirit of God, because when we sit down with the word of God, you're engaging with the spirit of God too.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of God is ever present, and actually you're opening yourself up to the word of God.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Spirit's gonna be speaking to you.
6:42
SPEAKER_01: And then I would tell people, invite others to join the journey with you.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: This is the people of God.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, engage in sharing what you're learning.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I have this with a number of people.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: I do this with the staff, but just on Facebook in general, but I do with my family, and I have uh four men that I text every morning, somewhere between when I wake up, when I'm putting stuff together, between 4 a.m.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: in the earliest usually to 7 a.m.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: in the morning.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm sending them and they're sending me what they're reading and and just a short synopsis of what God spoke to them.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: And it has been a blessing for me, it has helped grow me over the years, and I can tell you, and I would just encourage people to invite others into the conversation around God's word of what you're reading.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I mentioned this to someone yesterday in our staff.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: I said, the number one thing that I could point that what's helping me grow spiritually in the last four years have been my relationship with Blake, because every single day I am sending what God is speaking to me, but I'm also seeing what God is speaking to him.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And just that discipline has helped me grow spiritually tremendously in the last four years.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: You say you send it to your kids every single day.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: What would you say to a dad that it's fearful to send that to their kids?
8:03
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to have it all together.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to follow all the answers.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: All you're doing is just simply taking a verse.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: I just take one verse and I will like read the whole chapter, honestly, and think about it.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: But every single day I'll take one verse.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: And I will just write just a few sentences.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: Not much.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: It's not meant to be uh this interpretation of what really was behind everything.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: No, it's just allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to me and saying, okay, this is what I got from this today.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: It's this is what I got from this today.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just sharing what I feel like God has touched my heart with that day.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: And it is a blessing to me, and I think it's a blessing to know.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: People shouldn't overthink it.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: That's what I always tell people, hey, don't overthink it.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you feel like the Lord's speaking to you, put it down, send it.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the thing I do, is I just immediately write down whatever it is to come, my first thoughts that come to my mind.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Then I'll go back over and kind of fine-tune it so it sounds better or whatever, more grammatically.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'll put it in grammarly to be able to make sure I die right because hey, where I come from, grammar is not it's not it's not top of the list.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: I understand.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: So and well, yours is because of a different language barrier that you came from speaking only Spanish, yeah, speaking English, but that has its world race.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Spiral Oklahoma's our own for its grammar.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm excited to dig in and talk about the word of God.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Me too.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna let everybody know as you, you know, we've discussed this, we can't cover everything.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: And so uh week to week, we may lean into reading two a little bit more than reading one, or we may, you know, we might not be able to come cover the Psalms and Proverbs of that week.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: And some but some weeks we may just cover Psalms and Proverbs.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: That's right, lean into that.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh so today we're gonna really lean into um the book of Acts.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: And uh, because that's not what we're reading with now.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Now we're also in Jeremiah.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: Yep, and we'll try to touch in there on Jeremiah too, but maybe not spend quite as much time.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: But why don't you open us up?
10:09
SPEAKER_01: You take it and run with it.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the book of Acts, what a great book, the Acts of the Apostles.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And uh something very important that we need to understand when reading the book of Acts is that the book of Acts, the Gospel of Luke, it's one book, and it's not meant for you know, we have John in our Bibles in the middle of it, but this two books is it's one book with volume one, the teachings and life of Jesus, and then volume two, which is the Acts of the Apostles.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So the the writer of the gospel of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts is Luke, and Luke is the only Gentile in the whole Bible.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Think about this 66 books.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: God used many people, men, uh prophets, all types of things, and then only one gentile.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just it's it's incredible.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: One Luke wasn't just a gentile, like he was he was a doctor, so he was a very smart man.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Some people believe that he has some of the best Greek in the New Testament.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the opening of his books uh tell us what the books is about.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Luke.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, Luke is writing to a man named Theophilus, and the gospel in the in the Acts of the Apostles, again, he's writing to a man named Theophilus.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, why is he writing to this person?
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Because probably Luke is discipling this man.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, Theophilus was a person of influence.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: He probably is a very, very wealthy person who was funding the writings of Jesus.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: He was probably some scholars believe that he was probably someone who was uh fundraising funding Paul's missionary journeys, um, and many other things.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: So, this man is a very, very influential man that most likely is funding so we could have the writings of today.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And I love that because it just showed us that we all play a part in what God is doing.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, some people is preaching, other people is financing what God is doing.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but Luke is a doctor, he's a physician.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, he travels with Paul, which because we know that if he traveled with Paul, show us the access that he had.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Luke probably has had access to Peter, he probably had access to Mary because of who he was traveling with and who was around.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel of Luke, we know that it comes from eyewitnesses.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't an eyewitness, and by eyewitness is that they actually saw Jesus.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Look at someone who got the gospel, all his writings, from people who actually were with Jesus.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: He put it together to disciple Theophilus.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And now we have uh this beautiful, beautiful uh when you talk about that, you're laying out some things.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: It's very important to understand that you've got a financer behind this.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Yep, because for Luke to do what he does, it means he can't go work a job full-time.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: And many of these uh disciples that brought with this accounts are not just all in Jerusalem, they're all over Galilee, they're all over uh toward Damascus.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: And many of them, because of persecution, are now being having to be spread out.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: And so Luke is having to track them down.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: Like they got texts and text somebody.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: This is years and years and years and years of traveling and writing.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's we think sometimes of how easy it is for us.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that easy for them.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: And he makes it very clear that he went through the painstaking effort to make sure that he gives an accurate account of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: And that's beautiful.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: It's just that that is held up against scrutiny of uh you know stoppers and naysayers over the years, yeah.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Which isn't Bible is brilliant.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: It's not people all the time that the Bible's not boring, you're boring.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh but God's word is brilliant.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is just amazing, amazing gift.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So the reason why I bring all of that up about Luke, because it's important when we're reading the word of God, we need to understand what the audience of the author is.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So in the gospel of Luke, Luke is writing to a very gentile audience, he's portraying Jesus as the savior of all people.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: In his gospel, you can see a lot of the outsiders are mentioned in the book.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Acts, we're gonna see the same thing.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Him as a gentile, as an outsider, he is painting this picture of how Jesus died for everyone and he welcomes the outsider.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: We can see that in the in the gospel, uh in the gospels, and also in the book of Acts.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I want to mention too is when was this book written?
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Probably Luke is writing the Acts of the Apostles while Paul is in uh house arrest under house arrest.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: So he is getting all this information from the man because we see Luke entering the scene in Acts chapter 16, but before Acts chapter 16, all the other stories he had to get them from somewhere.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: So when Paul probably is in house arrest, Paul is reciting and telling Luke all of these things that he's putting this down.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: So the date of the book is very interesting because scholars believe it's between 60 AD and 70 AD, because of Paul is still alive and the fall of Jerusalem hasn't happened in 70 AD.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: So that's how we know where was this book written between the spans of those 10 years, but most people believe it was 62, 60 to 62 AD.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: So of the in the you talk about the fall of Jerusalem, that's when uh the uprisings were happening in Jerusalem, uh, and the role of government finally was set up with came in and destroyed.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: And matter of fact, fulfilled actually some of the prophecy prophecy of the cross of what would happen to the temple, yep.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Um how it would be torn stone by stone.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: And and really the issue that was so crucial to that was the destruction of the temple.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, so then we got so what we have is with the book of Luke, which is really amazing, that a lot of people don't consider is how much of the New Testament was written by Luke.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: It was Gentile.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: He key figure.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: Again, you go back to he's a Gentile, you've mentioned that, uh, but sometimes we just immediately default to um the Apostle Paul as being the one who writes uh the majority of the New Testament, which he's not.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: Now he wrote more books of the New Testament by far, without question.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: But the volume, it was written by Luke.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: And of course, the book of Luke has more words in it than any of the other gospels.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, the longest chapters were there, also the book of how it's written by him.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: So you take those, he read he wrote 27 and a half to 28 percent of the New Testament.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Apostle Paul wrote 25 percent.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: You know, then you got John who's written about 20%.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but we think of John Ed, he wrote more books than uh knew, but he did not have as much of volume of writing.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: And the beautiful thing is it's one continuous story, but you've already wanted that out, which I absolutely love.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: And you know, early on it was one book, one body.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times, unless you dive into the history of the Bible coming together, even the Old Testament, tons of books that are separated up were initially written as one book, and then it was broken into uh, you know, Chronicles Black Chronicles to various other books.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: And so what that's what you have here with Luke and with Acts, it really speaks to the life of Jesus, yep, and then the life of the church, yes.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a it's one story, it's a continuous story.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: He starts with the gospel talking about the life and teachings of Jesus, and once Jesus has died and ascended to heaven, the birth of the church, so it's like it's a one continuous story.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: So then you get into let's just kind of dive into um book of acts and kind of the structure, uh foundation of it.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: And right off the bat in chapter number one, he dives into it.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Yep, chapter one, verse eight.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: It's I would say this this tells us what the entire book is about.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: This this one chapter it says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It says, You will be my witness to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: So it's telling us where the gospel is gonna go from now on, telling us that when we receive the Holy Spirit, we'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit to be a witness.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of receiving the Holy Spirit.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That's the point of being a believer, is to be a witness of what Christ has done.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was just to speak in tongues all the time.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's awful too.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, and so we're obviously we're joking about that because I think that uh we can get so caught up in the gifts being personal for me, yeah, and I realize that everything that I have is to be used to be a witness to of Christ to the world.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: And so whether that the the gift of tongues, uh whether that be uh the very simply gifts of healing, of miracles, uh, discernment, uh, whatever that may be.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: And then also the the power of the Holy Spirit produces fruit in a lot.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: And that's very honest the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we witness to people.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: So the the interesting thing about you know this book, what we cannot look at it just in the book of Acts.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: We have to look at it together.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: That's why I keep referring back to the Gospel of Luke.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of Luke, we see how it goes from the outside, from the outsiders, from the Gentiles, how they go into uh Samaria, how they go to Judea, how they go to Jerusalem.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And now in the book of Acts, we're gonna see the opposite, how it goes from Jerusalem to Samaria, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the end of the world.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: So we see this beautiful image of how God, how Christ has come to save the Gentiles and everyone, and now how it's going from the moment of the birth of the church onto the outside of the world.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: So that's why it says you receive power when you um you'll be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the ends of the world.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: And so the structure of the book, chapter one through chapter seven, it's giving us how the decide the apostles are witnesses to Jerusalem.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: That's where you have the day of Pentecost, the birth and the growth of the church, and when Stephen is murdered, when he becomes a martyr, martyr.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: That's still important to emphasize there because you know, obviously, Jesus has told them to go.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: When you receive power, they were to wait until they got power, but then once they got power, then they were to go.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: And but it's not real evident that they immediately just expanded.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: They kind of stayed put.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: Years probably, yeah.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: And then, but then when the persecution reached that height, and it was namely with the uh, you know, the killing of Stephen, that all of a sudden they realized they weren't safe here.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: And God used what was a very tragic, um, difficult time for them to actually disperse them and push them out uh as light and have this up there.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: Don't you agree?
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: One one thing that is that is very and we can probably touch this in later on, but like when Stephen is uh killed, stoned, we know that Saul was there.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Stephen show us how we are supposed to be as Christians and as believers.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Why he's being killed, he's being stoned, and he says, Don't hold this against him.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: He prays to the father, Father, don't hold this against him.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Which who do we see say the same words?
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Jesus on the cross.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what is he doing?
21:48
SPEAKER_01: He is uh following Jesus' example, he is acting like Christ at the most difficult moment of his life.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Facing death, and people are killing him in like If I struggle with giving people when they look at me wrongly, uh, you know, and he's he's saying what he's referencing to what Jesus were he's playing off what Jesus said so father forgive them for they know not what they did.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: The worst possible death that you could experience you're being stoned, and all he's saying, Father, do not hold this and it's that is just show us like how much we need to be in the word of God, how much we need to experience the spirit of God, because we don't face persecution like they did, but we do face some different types of persecution.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: But we need to love people like Christ has shown us to love people.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, Stephen saying those words doesn't make any sense to me, but it is what God wants us to understand to be my disciple is to extend forgiveness to people who do not deserve forgiveness.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: So back to the structure.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 8 through chapter 12, they go and witness to Judea and Samaria.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: That's where uh Philip and Samaria, Saul's conversion.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, when God calls Saul into ministry and wreck his world, and because of that conversion, we we have, you know, Paul is probably one of the most important characters in the entire Bible.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's where we see the the disciples witnessing from Judea to Samaria, Peter and Cornelius, we have Antioch in the church, and then James's death and Peter's escape.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: So we see that they always move forward when somebody in the church died.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: They have to, okay, we gotta keep moving.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: We cannot stop because of somebody died.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: No, we're gonna move now into fulfill this mission that God gave us.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: And then we have uh chapters 13 through 28, which is the witness to the ends of the earth.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Here's where you see Paul going his missionary journeys, and he is going to Ephesus of all the churches that he planted, it was fulfilling that um what happened in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: You will be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and for the end of the world.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: We see the order that God had.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: So you know you're all of this has roots in the old testament.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and so just kind of enlighten us on that.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: I think again that sometimes we have struggles with the old testament.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Yep, we need the old testament.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Um absent to understand what God is trying to do, and to understand Jesus, to understand our calling, we have to understand the old testament.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: So Acts chapter 1, verse 8 talks about the you'll be my witness, and that goes all the way back to Isaiah chapter 32, verse 15, that it says that my spirit will be poured out, and that's you know, we see that in the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, which is another famous Joel chapter 2 that talks about how he will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Peter steps up and says, Hey, these people aren't drunk like you think they are.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Yep, this is what was actually prophesied many years ago, hundreds of years ago, yeah, uh by the prophet Joel, and he quotes him.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 43, verse 10.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of a lot of this uh prophecy of receiving the Holy Spirit, that it comes from Isaiah, chapter 43, verse 10, says that you will be my witness.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And now we see how um he sends his disciples to witness all throughout in Isaiah 49, verse 6 that it talks that salvation will come to the end of the earth.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: So when when when we receive that calling to be his witness and his disciple, what God is really doing, he is fulfilling the promises and the prophecies from the Old Testament.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: I bet that's very key to understand because from the very beginning of time, God's purpose and plan was not to exclude all of his creation and just go with this one group of people or this one person.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: No, it was to open up uh for all people, and that was his plan, and that's what was filled in that Pentecost all of a sudden.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: If it is like the people from a world were gathered, and here you go, they're speaking in tongues of all the people that are gathered from the known world of the time, and they were to go into all the world and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: And when you talk about Luke's gospel, you already mentioned this.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: I think it's embarrassed, uh it works bearing again to say that you know you have Jesus in the book of Luke.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, yeah, the book of Luke, Luke is telling how that he is going outside of Jerusalem where he did most of his ministry.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: I think he had to do that because he realized that when I go to Jerusalem, I'm gonna die.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and then he begins to move to toward Jerusalem for the cross and the resurrection.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then you have all of these events happen, uh, and then Jesus says, Stay in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: They go to the upper room, they wait ten days, they experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and now they're moving away from Jerusalem out into the world.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Which is a beautiful picture, you know.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes we think like the Bible was just written by a guy that, okay, sometimes I I even was taught this, you know, the disciples were writing these books because they were about to be killed and died.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: No, you can tell that Luke spent time that Luke had an agenda on why he's writing this way and portraying Jesus this way, and it's showing us just like Jesus went from the outside into Jerusalem, where he left off, you and meaning to pick up and go over outside.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: So it's beautiful.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: So do this for me.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: Take take take the book of Acts and just uh feel like throwing out some standout scriptures, some key scriptures, and little application.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I feel like the importance is us to be able not just to hear this story.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: We got a kind of a better framework of how all this came depends to what the purpose and path, but give us some uh scriptures that you follow is important to understand, and the other little application.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: So Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: I think is one of the most important because it tells us that we will be, you know, he says we'll be my witness.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So the application here is like God's mission starts where you are.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: You're called to be, we're called to be witnesses here in Oklahoma City before we go out anywhere else.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: We have to witness, we have to preach the gospel.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: So who is your Jerusalem?
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are, wherever your feet at, that's where your mission is.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that we we have taught our students when you're in Edmund Memorial or Santa Fe or whatever school, that is the mid you're there to fulfill the mission of God.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So taking taking and be a witness in your neighborhood.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: So uh witness begins when you've been a witness, it begins with the spirit empowerment, and when you're faithful every day, wherever God has sent you.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: So act chapter one, verse 8.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Then we have act chapter 2, which is Pentecost, received the Holy Spirit, and they are receiving um, you know, speaking in tongues and all the gifts.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: People from the outside were crazy, but it's also people sorry, people from the inside thought that they were crazy, the the the Hebrews, but then the people from the outside saying, No, no, they're speaking my language.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: God give us the power to witness and it shows us, give us everything that we need to fulfill his mission.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, it's God's mission that we have to do with.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: So uh question that we should ask is where do I need the spirit's power this week?
29:24
SPEAKER_00: Where in what areas of my life am I fearful that I need the spirit of God and give them boldness?
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Even when they are persecuted, and Stephen is being stoned with boldness.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: So uh Acts chapter seven, I believe, is one of those the one of those scriptures in the book of Acts that it's important because Stephen is a guy, he preaches a very last sermon, a very, very long sermon, but it ends with him showing us the picture of Jesus Father.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: You don't hold this against them, they don't know what they're doing.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus actually stands up.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Yep, it's which is amazing.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh I remember early on in life, you know, I was sort of preaching up to preach that message like when you stand up for Jesus, he'll stand up for you.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: And I but he has that image there, yes, he's being he sees Jesus standing.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and throughout the scripture, you always see you know the son seated by the father shows his power and authority.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Yep, but here he is the only if I'm not mistaken, it's the only time in scripture when Jesus is standing.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: It says, I see him standing in his glory.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: So when we when we're bold, so the question here is like, Am I willing to stand bold even when it's hard?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: Am I hiding because I don't want people to know that I'm a believer, that I'm a Christian, that I will be judged?
30:46
SPEAKER_00: Am I not?
30:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, I always give this example.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: If somebody in your workplace is going through a difficult situation and you know you have responsibility to pray about it, will you be bold enough to say, hey, I know what you're going through, it's hard.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you mind if I pray with you?
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Not I'll pray, I'll pray for you, because you know, that's an excuse to I'm telling you that I'm gonna pray, but I might not pray or not.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's something powerful.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: We experienced this when we were working out at the gym.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Before you leave, you say, Hey, let's take a moment to pray.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we want people to see that, right?
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they're bold that they're praying.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: No, the people that we work out with have needs in their life, and we want to take advantage of that moment.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: So anytime you have that opportunity, take advantage of it and pray for people.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: So act chapter seven uh will be another one where uh the Stephen it's killed.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Then Act Chapter 9, this is Saul's conversion.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing that I learned that I learned wrong in Sunday school.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you grew up going to Sunday school.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: I grew up going to Sunday school, and I remember when I was being taught about Saul and how Saul was converted and how God changed his name from Saul to Paul.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Well, that's not true.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Saul is his Hebrew name, Paul is his Latin name.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: When he's with the Hebrews, he's referring to Saul.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: When he is with the uh in the Greek world, he's referred as Paul, he is his Greek name, but that Acts chapter 9 is showing us that God has the power to transform everybody's life.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: There is no one person.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you think who was probably the worst human to the church, it was Paul.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is going to the religious leader, give me the authority to go and put them in prison, give me the authority to go kill them.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: He was a terrorist, and God changed his heart.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's a that's an it's an amazing story, and only God.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: And the guy who is killing Christians, imprisoning them, looking to do as much to destroy, you know, the this new fleshing church that is moving forward.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: And then he has met because I'm telling you, you resist God, you rub from God, you uh this streak got he's eventually going to get your attention.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: He'll be got his attention, and he humbly called out to God, and then life change happened.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: And you know, even for the even for the church, if you go and read there, they act suspicious.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: They didn't know why.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: We understand, but how would you want somebody who's killed somebody in your church now coming to preach to you?
33:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, Stephen, one of the you know, deacons, one of the leaders of the church, you mean that now we have to accept the one that killed one of us?
33:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: And so, but what happened there is you know, the beautiful the gospel is that he actually started off preaching, he felt the tension, all this stuff.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: Then he went away for three years.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: He'll try later on in his writings.
33:45
SPEAKER_01: He went away for three years, and then came back, came back with a deeper revelation.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: Understand, I think God had been downloaded some for him.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: He had to have some discipleship, he had to have some renewing of the mind because he had had one way of training all of his life, and now he had to re-look at the scriptures in a new light.
34:00
SPEAKER_01: And let me just tell somebody listening right now.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: If I know for me, is that I'm at to stop and relook at scriptures, uh, not from the light of my tradition or the way I wanted it to read.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's what Jesus was always asking.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: You know, what is the scripture?
34:18
SPEAKER_01: How do you read it?
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then Jesus would bring the light into it.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but we need that's why we need the word of God to ourselves, but we need the spirit of God, but we also need the people of God to help us understand the word.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: And we need to surrender to what the word of God says.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: So that I think that how do we apply this Acts chapter 9 to our life?
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Is like, do uh the way that I would look at it and challenge everyone is like, are there people in our life that we have already written off?
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, God, I don't think God can do anything.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: I can tell there's people in my life that I'm like, if God will have done something, he will already done it.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if He will.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: This is a reminder.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's too far, and God can change anybody's heart.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: So, who is it in your life that you need to continue to pray and ask God to change their life to soften their hearts?
35:08
SPEAKER_00: But the important thing is that we as Christians, we need to example Jesus to them, we have to model Jesus to them.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: We cannot pray for transformation and treat people wrong.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: We see it here in Ananias when he received the vision, he goes, he was fearful, but he obeyed what the low that what the Lord said, and because of that, Paul is converted, he's baptized, and he moves on chapter 13, which I will stop here because it's our scripture reading by the end of two.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh this week is chapter 13.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas go and begin their missionary journeys, which shows that God sets people apart to a specific work.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: And my question to you, listening or watching this, is what has God called you?
35:49
SPEAKER_00: What he set you apart for?
35:51
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know, go to God and prayer and ask them, go to a leader and ask them to pray with you for God to show you because God has a plan and a purpose for every single one of us.
36:03
SPEAKER_01: So good.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, we can just keep going on and on with this.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: There's so much that we could unpack, but we're not, but we're gonna we're gonna switch gears right now, and we're gonna lean into the book of Jeremiah for just a little bit.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're not gonna give quite as much information, but I I do feel like it's important.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then for the audience that's listening, realize we're gonna pick up with chapter 14 and move on through the book of Acts uh next week.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about Paul next week.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: And so looking at the book of Jeremiah is very important because he's known as the weeping prophet, he's known as this young kid that basically comes under the scene with a word from God.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: He was reluctant, as you pointed out this past weekend, and does not really and he's given and he has the role of the prophet that you point out, which is not a welcome thing.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like this is not a clamorous thing.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're you're going to be despised and hated, and because more times than not, the the prophet is pronouncing judgment.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he is proclaiming that if you don't repent and turn, judgment is coming, if not just already judgment is upon you.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: And judgment will come in the in the in the look of a another country, the will you will be slaves of them.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Nobody wanted to hear that.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: And so it in here is he just there there's some vivid imagery that's given in how he uses how God uses him and speaks to him to say, Hey, you know, I want you to use these illustrations.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: You talk about illustration sermon deluxe, he was that Mr.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: Yes sermons, and so he is given one after another after another that speak into, but they wouldn't listen.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even God told him, and he pointed out this weekend that they're not gonna listen, but yeah, I still want you to say that that would be so hard.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: And and just even this weekend of your message, and I don't know if there's anything else you want to back from that a little bit without revisiting everything, but you you did such a great job taking uh Jeremiah and speaking to speaking to his literally choosing to uh believe what God said about him, and that embrace his literally weaknesses and his inabilities and trust them with God, and then he boldly proclaimed.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah, very interesting prophet.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: He was a teenager when he was called, which it was hard already.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: People did not respect uh during those times, young people.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Um God is calling him to be uh a prophet to proclaim tough judgment that is coming.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: He's known as a weeping prophet, as you uh have you said earlier, and you see that time after time, how you know that he did not want to keep doing this.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: He's crying out to God, that's why we call him, you know, he's the crybaby, he's the crybaby of the prophets, but his task was difficult.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Not only you were prophesying terrible things, but now you're also I'm gonna show people how I see the nation through your life.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah is showing people how God sees them, not by showing an illustration, he is the illustration.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Very difficult.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if I would obey the Lord with that difficult task.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I would, yeah.
39:27
SPEAKER_01: I know I wouldn't want that job.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't want it, yes.
39:30
SPEAKER_01: I hope that I would say yes, but I'm telling you, it would not be easy.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, that's for sure.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: And you know, chapters one through ten is just really him proclaiming this judgment, yeah, all that's coming on, and then him dealing with all the persecution he's getting.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: And then chapters 11 through 25, which is kind of wrapping up, we're we're out in our beating.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: All it is is he's turning up the uh the pressure.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like it's like somebody twisting your arm and you don't give in and cry uncle.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all they do is push your arm more.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because then children of Israel are so hard-hearted, it's so prideful.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: And and you mentioned uh on Thursday the message about how that they bound him up and hauled him off.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: They said, Do not go to Egypt, he's old.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: Do not go to Egypt, stay here.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: But they felt like that they could find refuge in Egypt and protection.
40:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they literally tied him up and took him off too.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: And another time he's fell into a cistern and he is beat and he's thrown, and yep, he and and somebody rescues him out.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: It just ain't crazy story after story of his life, but yet his obedience to the call of God.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: It speaks volumes to us today.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jeremiah says, I don't I don't want to prophesy, I don't want to do those things, but your word is like fire into my bones.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: That's the like this gives us the image.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah did not want to do this, but the word of God has so much authority in his life that he knows even though I don't want to do it, it is like fire inside of me.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, very, very good.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think once we read we read this early this week, it talks about how when Jeremiah goes to the potter house and he's just showing this beautiful image of like you know, you Israel, people the Hebrews, you are like clay in my hands.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: If the potter does not like what they see, what it sees, what it does, breaks it and forms it again.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: And I I I mean that scripture has so many different applications today, right?
41:29
SPEAKER_00: But what it meant to them was, yeah, I'm gonna destroy you and I'm gonna shape you back up how I want it to do it.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: So um that's something that really spoke up to me when I was reading Jeremiah uh about the Pottered House.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: This is a famous verse that got one to tell us like he is in control, we're not.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: I I'm gonna dive into and take what you just said.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: I didn't plan on actually giving this, but I'm gonna read what I gave on that verse or one of the verses there uh on Potter's House.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Potter's shop.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh it it is found in Jeremiah chapter 18 at verse number two.
42:04
SPEAKER_01: And the the verse that spoke to me on this week, or I just yesterday, uh, is go to the potter's shop and I will speak to you.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: So you went to go watch this guy and these broken pots and various things and how you shape it.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: And I just wrote this potter's shop.
42:21
SPEAKER_01: This is how I basically I just wrote some questions.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize you are a lump of play for the master sheep?
42:29
SPEAKER_01: Who are you to tell your creator like he can or can I do with you?
42:34
SPEAKER_01: Are you surrendering to him?
42:37
SPEAKER_01: Are you willing to be formed into whatever he has for you?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: Will you obey him fully and wholeheartedly?
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Will you be content to serve his purpose and plan is for your art?
42:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and out of that also came a couple of other things that I wrote from Jeremiah chapter 13, uh, and verse number two.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: So I bought the rolling cloth as the Lord directed, and look up just something that goes around you to kind of cover your body, and just a simple thing, but he was asked to do some weird things very, and then he wore it for a little while, and then God said, Now take it off.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: Now you go bury it under a rod uh out by the river, and then just leave it there.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: And he left it, and it was a space of time, looking alongside if we just know it's probably months, maybe, or maybe even a year or whatever, but then he comes back and said, Now go get me close.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: He digs it up under the rock, replaced it, and now it's rotted out, it has holes in it, it's fasty, it's all the stuff.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: And then God speaks to him through that.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and basically, what I put down here is that God expects us to obey simply because he spoke, not because we're not gonna try to unravel all of his instructions or try to, you know, figure everything out.
43:49
SPEAKER_01: We're just to follow what God says.
43:51
SPEAKER_01: And that message of that Lulyckoff was about the pride of the nation of Israel and how then God said.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: This is like a rot when your souls have rotted out because of all your pride and hypocrisy, and they're calling you back to repentance, to a genuine faith, to yield yourself to me in obedience to me.
44:12
SPEAKER_01: That's what God was calling you to do.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: And also in Jeremiah chapter 16 and verse number one, this week.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: This is not one of my things I wrote down.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: The Lord gave me another message.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: So Jeremiah said, The Lord gave me another message.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: And it just dawned on me hearing God's voice.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: Because I hear people say, Hear God's voice.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: What do you know?
44:31
SPEAKER_01: And I just wrote this down another message.
44:33
SPEAKER_01: How do I keep getting words from God?
44:35
SPEAKER_01: And I wrote down, the more you obey God's voice, the more you will hear his voice.
44:41
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, if you want to hear his voice, go back and do the first thing he told you to do.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: And keep doing that.
44:47
SPEAKER_01: And then eventually he will speak again to you.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: And I wrote, it's like a spiritual muscle.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: The more you exercise it, the more it will grow.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: So many people are, as pastor, we talk to a lot of people who are trying to figure out the will of God in their life.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: And I understand where that comes from because it's they hear the word of God and they want to be obedient to the word of God.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: And many, I'm sure you have had this question being asked hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: You say, What do I need to do to do the will of God?
45:17
SPEAKER_00: We have to go back and do what He said already said.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're waiting on a new fresh word from God, and all that God is trying to do is like obey what I said first, and then I will show you the next step.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, yeah, that's very, very, very good.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for sharing that.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: Christian, I want to say thank you for uh joining me in this, and actually you'll be you will be out here many times.
45:41
SPEAKER_01: Listen.
45:42
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you for putting this together.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your hard work today uh in gathering you know information for our audience.
45:49
SPEAKER_01: I want you just to pray over your audience, okay?
45:51
SPEAKER_01: If you don't mind, just uh and let me just say to the audience, I hope that you will just probably have received this prayer.
45:57
SPEAKER_01: But you've heard uh some teaching, you've heard information, you've heard some inspiration.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but now I just hope that you will open uh to receive what Pastor Christian prays over you right now.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have to continue to read your word and learn from your word.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for everyone watching or listening that they apply what your word of God says.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: We need your word, we need your spirit, we need your people.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: God, but we also need to surrender and put everything in your feet.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for boldness to be your witness.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: We receive your Holy Spirit, not for our personal gain, but we receive your Holy Spirit so we can have boldness to be your witness wherever we are, God.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for you to show us what our next step is, for you to show us what we need to obey you with.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: God, we don't want to be like the nation of Israel, that you have to have prophet after prophet after prophet.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: God, we want to hear your word and obey it.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: Give us the strength to be able to obey what your word says.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, amen.
47:13
SPEAKER_01: Man, amen.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: Thank you again.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so glad that you joined us uh wherever you're joining us from, uh, whether you're watching this or you're listening to it.
47:20
SPEAKER_01: I hope that you will share it with somebody.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: North Gobble Recap.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: Come on, join.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: Join the journey with us as we look at God's word and we grow together.
47:31
SPEAKER_01: Until next time, God bless you.