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Episode 53: Acts and Jeremiah · North Bible Recap

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, good day, everybody in the podcast world.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am so glad that you've joined us for week two, that is two of North Bible Recap.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I am so thrilled.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We got one week done.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're moving forward.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are in this thing week after week.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you, um, if you want to grow in your faith, you want to deepen uh your roots spiritually in God's word, then make this a weekly thing that you do.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Participate in this with us, dive deeper with us, expand your horizon spiritually, learn more as we are learning, uh, think on, meditate on, study God's word.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is what North Bible Recap is about.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are taking our reading plan, reading one and reading two, and we are diving deeper each week.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: We won't be able to cover everything, but we're gonna dial in on some things.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Pastor Christian, good to have you.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Excited to be here today talking about continuing what we started last week.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: So if you didn't watch last week, after this one, just go back and listen to the first one.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, super excited.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna continue on the book of Acts.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna touch on Jeremiah and maybe even some Psalms today.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I heard you say something early this week in our after God's own heart um small group, North group, you said that uh our vision is to love God, love people, and follow Jesus.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you said that you added at the end the follow Jesus part because of he was the only one who loved God and loved people well.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Can you expand on that?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, when you look at the great command that Jesus gave um is to love the Lord your God with what?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: All your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, he doesn't stop there when he's given this.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and the second Let's like into it, love your neighbor as yourself.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he's drawing these from the Old Testament.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus, it was it was in the Torah, it would, it was there uh for the taking.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and of course, the Jewish audience would know that and they would say, Yeah, we we we see that, we agree with that.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing nobody up to that point had ever been able to actually do it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that doesn't mean they didn't try.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And even today, it doesn't mean that I don't try to love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't try to love my neighbor, hopefully, uh as myself, but I fall woefully short.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that anything you do in life, you have to have a standard.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you have to have someone or something you look to because if you just have a copy of a copy of a copy, it really doesn't matter.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And but if you have the actual standard of whatever that is that you're comparing to, then you can okay, now this is what you look at.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus is the only one that's ever walked the face of this earth that actually did it perfectly.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so therefore, if we're gonna love God, love people, then we need to look to Jesus and follow him.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now that doesn't mean that we're gonna be perfect, but it means we we know the standard, and this is where we're headed is to be more like him every day.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: The reason why I ask you that question and to explain it because I think you the way that you explain it, it's just it help us understand that we need Jesus in order.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: We need to follow him and follow his example.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about the book of Acts.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: The apostles are doing what they saw Jesus do.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the book of Acts is they saw him walk in this earth, perform miracles, preach the gospel.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now they are in the scripture that we're covering today, um, chapters 13 on is where we have this witness to the end of the earth.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and the disciples, the apostles are literally going out into the world, the the Greek world, to preach the gospel.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um, now in the book of Acts, chapters 13 through 16, here's where we see that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Now there's a big shift that happens in the book of Acts.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Chapters 1 through 12, we have the main character is Peter.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: We see Peter doing the same things that Jesus did.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: He cast out demons, he performed miracles.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: All the things that he saw Jesus do, Peter did.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now, chapter 13, there is a shift because now Paul becomes the main character, chapters 13 on.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: And what we see is Paul doing the same things that Peter did, that Peter saw Jesus do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna see Peter casting out demons, we're gonna see people uh being healed by the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul preaching the gospel with boldness, just as he saw Peter do, just as Peter saw Jesus do.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: And what we're doing today is doing the same thing that we saw our Savior do.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's why we have to be bold and preach the gospel.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: So we see this uh big shift now in the book of Acts, chapter 13, where Peter was the main character, now we have Paul as the main character in the in the story.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and when you talk about Peter, they're he's just acting out what Jesus did before them.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting in chapter number 11 of the book of Acts.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we covered this last week, but uh, it's the first time that they are called Christians.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Little cross-like people running around the world, bunches of them.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so what the devil meant to try to destroy this Christ, uh, now he has a bunch of little Christ running around doing the same things that Jesus was doing, which is a wonderful thing because that's what Jesus even said.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: He said, These things and greater shall you do.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And people have you know wrestled with that, and there's a lot of ideas around that theology, but ultimately what it means is that there is a multiplied effect now.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, it's not just Christ, now Christ's spirit is in all of us.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and so now you have at this point, I don't know exactly the numbers, I haven't added it up it, but going into chapter 13 of Acts, there's literally thousands of people who have professed Christ as Lord and Savior.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one time 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, and there's a 5,000, and then there's multiple, and it's spreading everywhere.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say if you have 20,000 people now that are fully devoted followers of Christ.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, the devil is like he he is messed up now.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, and we are we're gonna see uh Paul now going to Barnabas into a missionary journey.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: They get in a boat and they start going and preaching the gospel to the Greek world.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is very important because of the Jesus came uh to fulfill the prop the prophecies and to fulfill the promise.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: And because of that, now we all Gentiles, anybody who's not a Jew, we have salvation.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: We have we are part of the family.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna see Paul everywhere that he goes, the first place that he goes to is to preach the gospel in the synagogues.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, now they know that the Jews are gonna reject it.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: After they are rejected, they're gonna turn into the Gentiles and they're gonna preach the gospel, and the Gentiles are going to accept it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now we have a bunch of people who are non-Christian, non-Jews receiving Christ.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now, there's a lot of issues in the church because these Jews are trying to get the Gentiles to uh act like Jews, they're requiring circumcision.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: We see these issues in church that happens often when we're trying to put Jesus plus this, Jesus plus circumcision, Jesus plus following the law.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And when they're going into these places and preaching, a lot of Gentiles are receiving the gospel, and uh uh Jews are trying to make them like Jews, right?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: They need to become like like Moses said, and this brings a big issue in the church.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, chapter 15, they get to a place, uh they they they come back to Jerusalem to the Jerusalem Council.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: Can you explain a little bit what happens in uh Acts chapter uh 15 with the Jerusalem Council?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's going on is you you again you've pointed it out, is that there's somebody that comes from Jerusalem, some preachers, and they're Christians, they're followers of Christ.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they have uh been with the church there in Jerusalem, but they're kind of going out on their own.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then they begin to preach this gospel that is Jesus saves, but you got to be circumcised.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You you've got to, that was the key thing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: There was other things too that they were preaching along with this, and all of a sudden, these Gentiles are like, What?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: How does me being circumcised?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you're if you're listening to this and don't know what circumcision is, well then uh go go check it out.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Google it for for the for the man, not for the woman, but for the man, it's a big deal.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and um I'll uh you know, tradition, most Christian traditions today is still people are circumcised, not everybody around the world, but what is happening is these Gentiles, they wouldn't practice circumcision.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: This was something that God gave Abraham, and it was a mark for the children of Israel all over this time.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And now uh these Jews are saying, no, no, no, you if you're gonna be saved, yeah, you got to believe on Jesus Christ, but then you you gotta be circumcised of the flesh.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden they're like, What?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: We got to do this.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then when Paul and Barnabas hear about this, they're like, What?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are you what are you what have they been preaching to you?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is a heated argument uh in regards to all the way to Jerusalem, absolutely, yeah.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so then they literally took back Paul and Barnabas, and then you also took back some representatives from that congregation uh and that group of people all the way back uh to Jerusalem to openly debate this, and so therefore you have now this Jerusalem council, which is the first real kind of board meeting, spiritual gathering of the uh this was a big issue.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: This was a very, very big issue because now they are new believers who have been people have been telling them you have to do these things, and clearly what Paul and Barnabas are preaching is Christ alone, all you need is Christ alone.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: And in this meeting, which even though it was a big issue and a big problem, something good came out because here's where they decided to know in order to be you be a Christian, all you need is Christ.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now, out of that, unity came out, which it was a beautiful thing.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: They came together, they argue, they talked about this, but the whole purpose of this Jerusalem Council was to uh talk about salvation through faith, through grace only, uh, not plus something else.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they their main point was we want the church to be united.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a it was a good thing.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, because of this, we see the rise of the biggest and antagonist of the story of the Christian church, it was their own people.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: The Jews are the ones that are going against um uh against the Jews who are preaching Jesus.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: And this goes back into the old testament, you know, because the old testament talks about how the Jews kill their own prophets, and to be a prophet, to be a preacher, uh to be preaching the gospel like Peter, like Paul, it was um to be a martyr, meaning like this people we will see unfold how they lose their life because of preaching the gospel, and the people that are killing them is their own people.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not the outsiders, it's not the Roman government, it's the Jews.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and what you're talking about there is that uh I get ruggedly all the time uh from around the world people that um that they're martyrs for their faith, yeah, for standing up for Christ and making a bold proclamation.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens all the time.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it happens in our world today, even in our context.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to be very um aware that when I stand for Christ and stand for him alone, not tied to this world system, but tied to I'm going to preach Christ to him alone, it it is a threat to the devil, it is a threat to the uh darkness of this world, and they'll begin to push back.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even well-meaning people in this situation, you have people that are Jews that should be in line with what's going on with these other Jews, but yet they are beginning to push back uh because they don't want a change to their way of doing religion.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and this is rocking their world, and they don't like it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now we have Paul, a very smart man, and um, I want to talk about Paul, who Paul is, because it's important that we're we're reading how now he's gonna go into the new to the to the Greek world and plant churches everywhere and preach the gospel, and thousands of people are gonna come to Christ.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And in the next couple of months, we're gonna be right reading some of his letters that he wrote to this churches that we're gonna read in the next couple of weeks of the churches that he's planting in the book of Acts.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it's important to understand who Paul is.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: So now a few things about Paul that I think that we all need to understand is that Paul was a Roman citizen.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: This is why his name was Saul.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and he also his name was Paul, meaning Saul was his Hebrew name, Paul was his uh Greek name.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now, this is a huge advantage for Paul because him as a Roman citizen, now um he has some rights that other people don't don't have.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: For example, he cannot be crucified.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we see a lot of the the the apostles when they are they are killed, they're crucified, they're crucified upside down.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Paul cannot be crucified because he's a Roman citizen.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's why he's beheaded.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: So him being a Roman citizen, it's a huge advantage for the gospel.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: And kind of like put this into perspective: me speaking Spanish is a huge advantage to the gospel because I can speak the gospel, I can preach the gospel in English, and in every country that they speak Spanish, this is what's happening with Paul because he understands both languages, he can advance the kingdom of God at a rapid pace.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: He was um he was from the tribal Benjamin.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so he was a 10 maker.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: We know that that could have been that his uh this is how he earned his salary, how he worked in these places that he went to.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: This was probably a family trade.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the the family of Paul probably were ten makers as well.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: He was a Hebrew who spoke the language, yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: That was his first language through the scripture.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: We also know that he came to Jerusalem to be one of the disciples of Rabbi Gamileo, which he was a bright mind.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: When you think about Paul, he was taught by the best of the best, he was also a Pharisee, so the law was very important to him.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: He knew and understood the law probably better than anybody in his time.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: And another thing that we know uh about Paul is that he was unmarried.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, some people and scholars believe that he was probably at one point married, and he's probably wife died, and he never remarried.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: But someone who had his status most likely at some point got married.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but we don't have any any evidence, evidence of that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, this is the guy that is now about to go and plan and go out and plant this church.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: First goes with uh Barnabas and start planting churches um and preaching the gospel in his first missionary journey.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we read those in from chapter 13 on, yeah, places that he's going, and you're gonna notice that he first goes to the fair to the synagogue and then he goes into the Gentiles and preaches the gospel.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't only preach to one group of people, he preached to all people.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because Luke, this is a big theme for Luke.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the savior of everyone, Jews and Gentiles.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you you mentioned uh Paul and Hilm being so well versed in the Torah and all the Hebrew scriptures.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when I talk about the Torah, the Torah is going to be your first um, you know, five books of the Bible.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you got the Hebrew scriptures making up the rest of the prophets, minor prophets, major prophets, uh, all the poet um poetic writings.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the Hebrew text.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: He is so well versed, but yet he's blind to the truth.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he begins to kill kill Christians.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he begins to attack.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then so you have this image in Acts chapter 9, if we go back there, where he has the Damascus world experience and a blinding light hits him.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody else around him hears this voice speaking, uh, but he falls to the ground, but they don't see the light, they just hear the voice.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets up and he's blind.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have three days later when Ananias comes and prays for him, and it says, Scales fall off of his eyes.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's it's it's just a brilliant picture of all of us that we must ask.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You see, we can know the truth and still miss out on the truth.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that Jesus said, you know, you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, the verse before that it says, if you remain in my teachings and grounded and rooted in me, then you will know the truth.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: What the apostle Paul was doing is he he knew his idea of truth, but he needed a revelation of the power of the Holy Spirit in his life that would reveal Jesus in a way that he had never seen Jesus.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I just encourage people that are listening right now, when you open God's word, just ask God to take the blinders off.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, ask God to begin to open your eyes to what he's wanting to say to you right now.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Every single time you open, even right now, as you listen to the podcast, just let say, God, let me hear what you want me to hear right now, and then then be responsive to what God is doing.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But all of us, uh, and then even right now, even though I might be able to see truth, I have blind spots.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and I've got to be careful not to let these blind spots keep me from what God is wanting me to do.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's so good that you say that because we all look at the word of God through our own lenses to what we knew, what we know, our traditions, where we come from.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I heard um one of our good friends, uh Manny Orango in his Arma platform, he said something that really just have helped me understand when I read the word of God.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: He said, every time that you read the word of God, you have to get your passport and go into their country.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: So when you go into a different country, you grab your I went with Pastor Clean to Bolivia to someone's church recently.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: We grabbed this passport, we went over there, and we have to be immersed in their culture to understand how they do church so we can understand how to help them do ministry.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: When you're reading the word of God, you have to go into what does this mean to them?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: We have we have Paul here, a brilliant man, was understood the scripture probably better than anybody, but was blind.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I think something that we need to ask ourselves is like, Lord, in what ways do I read the word of God?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I looked at it with my American lenses.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and how do I uh and help me, Holy Spirit, to not just go with it, what what do I think that these things mean, but really what do they mean so I can love people how you want me to love people?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think that what you what you're saying there is being able to see the full picture of who God is is actually represented through the people of God.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we can know God's word, memorize God's word, have it up down, and uh, and then it's the Spirit of God, so it's the Word of God, the Spirit of God.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is our framework.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: But that third thing is of our framework is the people of God.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I I really feel strongly about uh diverse groups of people gives us a different understanding uh of who God is.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: The the backgrounds we come from, the experiences we come from, uh the nations we come from, uh poor versus wealthy, educated versus uneducated.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I think Paul emphasized so much later on in his writings that now there is no you know, June nor Gentile, there's no bond or bound or free, uh, there's no male or female, that we are all one in Christ.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Note that he's saying that there is a new humanity.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and the new humanity is that you're one in Christ.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and I think that when we begin to get involved in community with other people that are different from us, that think different from us, but yet are going back to God's word, going back to the spirit of God, all of a sudden I think we begin to see things differently than we saw them before.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we see Paul uh this is one of the things that he does as he goes and plant these churches.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's not trying to convert them into Jews.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: We know that because of that's why it's needed in chapter 15 that Jerusalem council need to come together.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: So they don't do that.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: But what we see, Paul is you are from this community, this is how you do world.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: But as a believer, as a Christian, there's no Jew nor Gentile.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we are now for one family, is the family of God, and the Bible describes us as alient.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: We're not part of this world, so we live in this culture, but we're not part of this culture.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: And Paul emphasized um a couple of the things that he emphasizes is sexual morality because in some of this, not necessarily in the in the Jewish culture, but in the Greek culture, um, sexual morality, there was not such a thing as sexual morality.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they were having, I mean, orgies, and and God Paul is calling them into sexual.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Sexual morality.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Christianity and what we see in the book of Acts is the first time that we see a multicultural, multi-ethnic, ethnic, ethnic, ethnic uh movement.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the first time.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and when you looked at every movement, it's probably one of those only ones who there is no uh barriers when it comes to rich and poor.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, where it comes to slavery.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is the first time in humanity that we have a group of people that it's not divided by social economics or what you know or don't know.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Paul is asking them to be to treat each other as brothers and sisters.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: First time that this happens.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Christianity is the first, um, if you want to call it a religion, uh, which it is, um, that it's encouraging and demanding, honestly, people to learn how to read.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it's making everyone to be well educated.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's why Paul is writing letters.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: We have the gospels, is the first religion that is calling people in to be literate.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So so you this is this is really very important.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: But when you when you talk about what now Paul has set a standard, the Jewish council comes out, they've set a standard, just gonna be kind of clear on that is one, they don't have to be circumcised.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then he calls them to, you talked about um sexual immorality to run from, flee from, not be a part of this world system.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that literally means that our sex lives is to be lived out in marriage.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: That is one man and one woman.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes uh one of the writers of the uh teaching would talk about that uh an elder, somebody must be the husband uh uh of one wife.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so very clear, very clear.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't that that that means to be an elder or whatever, you had to be married.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was an issue of like there was many of the men that had multiple wives, and like, no, no, you gotta have only one wife.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul is going to this culture's work, this is the norm.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely, and so basically he they're re-inventing the way things are done because that's what Christ does.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Christ transforms culture, the way we do things, and so now our sex lives to be lived out um in one man, in one woman in marriage covenant, yep, not before, not adding extra partners, uh, not adding porn, uh, not uh same sex, female, female, or male, male.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, one man, one woman in marriage.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: And we see that through his letters after he addresses this.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason why he's being addressed is because it was such a Christianity was counterculture.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: One, we have rich and poor, smart people, and people who are not educated together, and now we're adding people into the family of God who grew up with the beliefs, oh, this is what we do.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Paul has to be very, very uh clear on as a Christian, this in this new identity that you have.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: The world acts this way, you're not acting that way.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so uh very important that we surrender to the world.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: He often he also emphasizes there too, is that uh the worship of idols.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're not to do that.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to be very careful because I think that we for some reason think that idol worship is not a part of our culture.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that is not true.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or that we think it's only for Eastern religions, and you go into a place and you see a little Buddha there and stuff, it's just for that group of people.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, no, idol worship can happen with uh the idolization.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody say years ago that um I can't even remember who it was right now, but somebody can Google it and hear it and stuff, but that our hearts are idle factories.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're constantly producing, and we've got to every day remind ourselves, no, there's only one God.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's only one that we worship, and there's only one that we idolize, and that is God Yahweh, creator of all things.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so easy that we begin to idolize um pop culture individuals, whether that be uh music in the music industry, whether that be athletics, uh, football players, baseball players, basketball players.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then we begin to give so much of our time.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think the devil is so tricky because we just begin to invest more and more of our time and energy and reading and studying, looking at them, imagining, watching their stuff and seeing their performance and idolizing and wishing we could be that and they're rich and famous, and it becomes an idol.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's so easy in our culture to fall into idol worship that we don't even consider to be idol worship.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think when I hear you saying that, yeah, I was convicted because I'm I always say that I'm a person of when I when I get into a hobby, I'm like all in, and very quickly it can become my idol, idol.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm into running right now.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: I want to run a half marathon later this year, full marathon next year, and I can be consumed with running, watching videos, equipment that I need to buy.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to call that an idol, but if I'm not careful, it can become an idol very quickly.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you said that, and immediately I had that thought of running, and I was like, that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm not careful, this will be an idol in my life.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and thinking about what what what makes where does it cross the line?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we all have to just keep that before the Lord.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: God wants us to enjoy the things of the world.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's not that we don't enjoy, but when it becomes the worship of, when it becomes the priority of, above the things of God and the ways of God, and then it then it becomes an idol in our life.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when we begin to allow the people of God, the church of God, the reading of God's word, the spirit of take a backseat, and we say, I'm a good person.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there in the things of God take a backseat to the pleasures of this world, then it becomes idols in our life.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but one of the things that I always, you know, I I start my day, I know you do the same way.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I start the day with the word of God, and I can sense when there is an idol in my life whenever I'm doing my reading and I'm thinking about the one thing.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I can't wait to be done with this, so I can do that.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: That is a sign of like this is an idol in my life.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I I read the word of God daily.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't feel like reading the word of God daily.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I do it because if it's it's I am this is my my commitment, this is the habit that I have.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, good habit, but uh, if I'm not careful, I can replace good habits uh with instead of I can replace my reading with the word of God with good habits, and I convince myself, oh the Lord knows He knows my heart, and I think that's that's that's how the the enemy can whisper in our ears, the Lord knows your heart.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's okay if you do this, okay if you don't go to church, it's okay if you don't go to your group this week.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And before we know, we're like, how do we get here?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, ooh, you know, that is so true because it is it does doesn't happen overnight.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a process that the enemy takes us into.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to just kind of emphasize too, what you find in the book of Acts is people learning how to get along.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the devil comes to seek to divide.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Christ wants to unify.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you find that in uh Acts chapter six, with the Hebraic Jews and the Hellenistic Jews, which the Hellenic Jews are Jews that come from a culture that's outside of Jerusalem.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: They are Greek Greek speaking versus the Hebraic Jews or Hebrew-speaking Jews.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: There is this division, and then um the apostles say, Hey, you know, we got to give ourselves to the word and the preaching and teaching, and we need somebody else to serve tables.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it was more than just serving tables, they were, you know, dealing with divisive issues and mistreatment and negotiating people and working out and trying to figure out what was the best way to treat people.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: But then you find that continually throughout the book of Acts, there are these divisions because anytime you get people together and then diverse groups of people together, it's easy for us just to migrate to people who think like us, act like us, want to be like us.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to want to do that.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: But we have to be very careful.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be, yeah, very careful not to just go with the flow of what makes me feel good, but to open my life up to other groups of people that are different, but yet are still Christ followers that are still in God's word.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because, and then so you have this Gentiles and Jews.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now they're doing church together.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: This has never happened.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it creates great conflict, it creates great um, you know, the devil's trying to create division.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the word of God is showing us how to be able to work with people, how to get along with people, how to uh go back, look at God's word, invite God's spirit into this thing, and let's figure out what is the best solution for our situation that we have right now that's creating this friction among us.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yeah.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we see that through the book of Acts and all the letters that Paul is writing, and we see that today.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a it's it's it's it's not new, but I think this is why Paul, I believe it says, Um, you can speak in other tongues, but if you don't love, and and my question is like, do I really have the Holy Spirit if I do all of these things, but I don't love people?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is why Paul is big on it.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you can have all the gifts of the spirit.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: The most important one is love.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta love people, you have to uh treat people how Jesus treated people.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: I I go back to our vision love God, love people, follow Jesus.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: I just love how you break that, you broke that down in the beginning because he's the only one who did it perfectly.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know I'm not gonna be perfect, I'm gonna say things that will hurt you, I'm gonna say things that will hurt my wife.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: This is why I need the spirit of God that will convict me and that will tell me, Hey, apologize.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, you you were not correct in the in in in this matter.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think we need to be okay with giving each other grace.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that right there alone, somebody taught me when you get married.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I I actually speak this to young married couples.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Say, I'm sorry, yeah.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Forgive your, you know, just right now learn, learn to make it uh uh a regular part of what you do of apologizing, um, forgiving each other.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you're gonna stay together, it's not gonna be because you agree on everything and you always are in line with everything, it's gonna happen because you learn to forgive each other.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the same way in the church, but it's easier for us, like, oh, I don't want to have an do with them.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to do those Christians.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: We got to learn how to apologize, forgive, listen, understand, okay, seek to understand, not just to say what I want.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so you have this throughout the book of Acts.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, is there anything else in the book of Acts that you like want to just unpack just before we move on?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think one of the things that we see in this uh 13 to 16 is Paul goes into planting these churches, uh, and just to mention them, uh Antioch, yeah, Antioch.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to pronounce.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Can you say that?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lit Lystra, Derby, Cyprus, and Philip.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now here's the thing the audience has listened here.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody that's been around listening to me long enough, they know that it's getting pretty bad when you default to me.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not very good at all.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: But but I I I can at least say this is my first language, it is not yours.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: And one thing that I just want to mention in this, here we see how the gospel goes into the ends of the earth, how the gospel is for all people, for Jews and Gentiles.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: We see this theme that Paul goes first go to the synagogue because the gospel is first to the uh the Hebrews, yeah, the Jews, then to the Gentiles.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: We see this theme.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna see it as you're reading.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: When Paul goes anywhere, he goes first to the to the to the synagogue, then to the gentiles.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the uh it's all about the grace of God, not about keeping the law.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the law it's important, uh, things we we need to follow the order of God, but we are saved not by our works, we are saved by the grace of God.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: We do good works because we've been saved, because we have been changed.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: So um, as you are reading now, chapter 16 on in the next uh a week, uh, I want you to just pay attention to how Paul is starting these churches and how he is strengthening the church.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things that going back, and in your notes, uh notice that uh it's to go act.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're acting like Jesus.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder going all the way back to chapter one, verse number eight, is that Jesus said, Go and wait till you receive power.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: This Holy Spirit will come upon you.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what to expect, they didn't know they'd be speaking in tongues, they didn't know you know, clothing tongues of firewood set up on them.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: They had no idea, but they knew when that happened that that was their empowering moment to go out with the gospel.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so then that's throughout the book of Acts that you find them going and they're moving.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they were forced because of persecution.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last week, yeah, but they're moving out and they're going to take the good news of Jesus Christ everywhere, and that's what we're to do today.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are to live boldly, wisely, encouraged, and go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ every day.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get caught up in the world system, don't get caught up in materialism and politics and get caught up in all in traditions of men.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get focused on God's word and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: And showing people who Jesus is.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I might butcher this saying, I'm sure you have heard this before, that it says, you know, preach the gospel and if necessary, use words.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: Meaning preach the gospel with your action, how you treat people, where you work, where you're at.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you are on mission.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Wherever you are, God has placed you to share the gospel with people.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll we'll pick up next week again, continuing with uh the book of Acts.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: But let's also just take a moment to look a little bit, kind of a small dive into the book of Jeremiah.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, specifically chapters like 26 through 40 will kind of just I you have the the Israelites, the Jews, being taken captive, hauled off to Babylon.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting to me to note just the beautiful plan of God and how he actually is working all things for our good and for his glory.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what's going on here is that what how did the Babylonian exile actually help the Jewish people and eventually prepare for the Messiah to come?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me just give you a few things that we find is that first it called them back to the worship of the one true God because they kind of lost sight.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: I tell people this, you know, God never wants you to be in a place where you feel like you don't need him, or that you get distracted from him.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if it means him putting you on your back, in his love, he will bring discipline.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Bible says he disciplines those he loves.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so literally what's going on with the book of Jeremiah is that we talked about this last week, how that um, you know, they were just like going worse to worse to worse.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, you called him the crybaby last week, known as the crybaby, is just preaching the truth from God from the, but yet they're not listening.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so God just keeps ratcheting it up.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want to have to do this, but now okay, now they are being hauled off as exiles.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: It was one of the most loving things that God did.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: We don't see it that way, and when we are in our personal life living through something like that, we see that it's God is mad at us, God is against us.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times, what God is trying to do is to realign you with his word.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is why it's important that we're in the word of God.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if we know what his word says, we can apply it, allow his spirit to change us.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let's not be stubborn like Israel, and God has to take us into exile for us to understand that.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening first is that they are now their attention's back on God.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh their attention's back on him, like, okay, we need the one true God.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, surrounded by these idols, uh, now they are realizing we need God.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is uh they're forced to adapt and learn how to be in the world, but not of the world.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and that's what we are as Christians.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: And matter of fact, they he keeps emphasizing.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he said, hey, marry there, plant there, build there.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you want to do that?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, don't fight against, yeah, just just be prosperous where you're planted, is literally what Jeremiah is saying.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they didn't like that word.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of the false prophets were speaking otherwise.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, we got to get out of here, get back to Jerusalem.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, be patient.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: God will at some point uh, you know, tell you and show when it's time to go back.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: But for right now, you stay focused on the mission of just being successful and and flourishing where you're planted.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: I th when when I when I was reading that, especially in Jeremiah 29, when he's giving them the plan, and then he goes on and says that the famous scripture, you know, I have the plans that I have for you.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's prophesying that when they're in the exile.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: When he said, Hey, go do these things, don't fight it, plant.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_02: But what really blew my mind when I was reading is the amount of false prophets that were rising up saying, No, we gotta go back.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: And God is speaking through Jeremiah.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, these people are they don't have.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: We have to be aware of false prophets, we have to be aware of people who are adding to the word of God.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: And this is one of the things that it's it's it's we have to be careful who we watch and listen, especially on media.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: A big following doesn't mean that they have the authority because clearly Jeremiah had not a big following, yeah, because he's the one prophesying, judgment is coming.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so buckle up.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, that was good.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you know, in that past, you you pulled that up, yeah.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11, which we plaster on our walls, we you know put on our bodies and we put and there's nothing wrong with that.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't think, but I think it's also very important, just like you even mentioned uh in your sermon a few weeks back, is that we gotta know the context though.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the context is not what we oftentimes apply it to, okay?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's Jeremiah 11, 29, 11.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: If I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, there are plans for good and not disaster to give you a future and a hope.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: This word is given, but they would spend another 70 years in exile.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: 70.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there would be a whole generation that would never get to be able to experience coming back to Jerusalem.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is thinking beyond us.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to use us to be able to prepare another generation, and whether we want to, I mean, if we want to be used by him or not, but he's always thinking forward.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where he says, build homes, plan to stay, plant your gardens, eat the food they produce, marry, have children, do all of these things.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just encouraging them.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is here is what we're reminded of, what does it practically look like when we are held captive in a distant land, subject to their gods, knowing that you will be in the situation for many years, maybe the rest of your life.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: You go about the Christian way of life.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: You do every day by getting up, being a cross follower, loving God, loving people, following Jesus, and you seek to honor God in your marriage.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: You seek to honor Him by raising children that fear Yahweh.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you look toward peace and the prosperity of the country that you are placed in.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we be people that praise for the welfare of our country and for righteousness and holiness.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then we just operate in that and we realize that in my world, I can't change all the world, but I can change my world by the way I live.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jeremiah is trying to get them to do.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's good stuff.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then, and then even on in Jeremiah chapter 31, I wrote this down uh just yesterday.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: It says, this is what just as Jeremiah 31 and verse 2.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is my own personal writing every day.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is what the Lord says those who survey, uh survive the coming destruction will find blessings even in the barren land.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: For I will give rest to the people of Israel.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I wrote down here, find blessings, Christian.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean to me?
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I wrote: Blessings and bariness.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way of God.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: He works.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the whole principle of the tithe.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: How can I give money away and be fruitful?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't make sense.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, but that's how God works.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: He alone, it's I wrote down, can bring fruitfulness in seasons of drought.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one who makes water flow from the rock and rains down manna from heaven.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Even the most complicated and adverse situations can become abundant for those who believe.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I wrote, trust, obey, and watch Yahweh make a way.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what Jeremiah is telling them.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: So go and just do and know that in your barenness you will become fruitful.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: They literally multiplied as a people.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: They established the writings of the Torah during this time, which is very important to understand because that was the third thing that I was going to uh mention is that they began to focus on the Torah and the collection of the writings of the Hebrew Bible.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it was in the Babylonian exile where the Torah really began to come together.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then all the other Writings, they begin to see the value of recording God's word and putting it down.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was in this exile where they saw great fruit.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to, anybody who has listened to me, you may feel like you're in a time of exile.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: You may feel like it's barren, it's dry.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, you keep obeying God.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing what he's asking you to do.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: God will make fruit come out of your barrenness and out of the drought that you're in and out of he will.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: How does he do it?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he's God and we're not.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: We just keep obeying him.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's why we in a in our faith framework, the first thing that we talked about, and not that they're in a particular order, but you need the word of God in your life.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it is in the times of desperation, if you're going through a season of of hardship in your life, turn to the word of God.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: This is what we see with the people during Jeremiah's time.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: They are in exile, and what do they do?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: Go back to the one true God, they go back to the scripture, and that's what we need to do in our lives.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: This is why the scripture needs to be part of our daily life.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: This is not once a week, once in a while.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: We need the word of God in our life daily, every single day.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: So good.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's we we've obviously we've spent most of our time on the book of Acts.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: We touched a little bit on Jeremiah.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's look at Psalms a little bit, okay?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because in fact, this past weekend I actually preached from Psalms 114.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Psalms 114 is part of the Egyptian Halel, Halel, uh, which is a special collection of Psalms from 113 all the way through 118.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they were written as songs of worship unto God.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they were uh a part of the uh Passover um rituals.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: And tell us a little bit about the Passover.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: What what so the Passover?
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um it what they celebrate is the um how God delivered them from Egypt.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: So the Passover, um, it's back you can see it in the Old Testament, especially in the writings of Moses, how they started celebrating.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: And the Passover, what it simply means, and correct me if I'm wrong, is this it's the Passover is celebrated because it's one of the ten plagues that God was gonna uh pretty much kill the firstborn.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: And God said, you know, kill a lamb, put the blood over the over the door post, and he says, When I see the blood, I will pass over and I won't kill your firstborn.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a picture of what's gonna happen when Jesus comes.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's exactly right, and that's what's going on here is that these themes of the Hellel are basically in 113, it's saying, even the lowliest of people can praise God.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: 114 is about trusting his mighty presence, how that he moves mountains, he uh splits red seas, he stops a Jordan River, and that how in God's presence all of your problems bow, which is good to know.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: In 115, it's about trusting God, not idols.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the one true creator of everything, not what we create with our hands.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: And 116, it's about thanking God for salvation and being praising.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: And 117, it's about a call to all nations, all people from every corner of the world to praise God, uh, the creator of all things.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then 118 is a beautiful because it caps it off there as a psalm of victory.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a song of praise, and it comes with messianic overtones as it speaks to the coming Messiah that you mentioned, who they talked about the Passover, but there would be another Passover, and it would be the blood of Christ when applied to our lives in faith, believing that the death angel has no power, even though I may stop breathing someday.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yet to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, that there is no power that death has over me anymore because of what Christ Jesus has done.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: And even at that Passover, you know, most Psalms 113 and 114 were typically sung before the Passover.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: 115 through 118 were sung after.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: And just so you know in the audience that most people leave when Jesus and his disciples sung hymns, it was these.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: It had to have been.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: It had to be these hymns that they were singing uh when they finished their Passover on that night.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it great?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you for you know, this weekend as you were preaching this message, I was like, Oh my goodness, I've read the psalms for, I mean, many times, many years, and I didn't really understand when you were breaking it down.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh my, this is a collection of psalms that it that has uh um a rhythm of how you're supposed to, you know, for the Jews during that time, how they how they did it.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and these are psalms of praise.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to challenge everyone, just go back and read these psalms together.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, read them so you can hear uh the tone and the calling into that messiah that is coming.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it has already come, right?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna come again.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if you didn't listen to the sermon this weekend, we'll make sure it's in the show notes.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but go back and answer because it was great.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was blown away when you were explaining this, all these different psalms, and how they all have a purpose on how they were supposed to read it.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and even halal, that word is praise.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and what word comes out of that?
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's the universal term that we get?
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: I learned this this weekend.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah, hallelujah.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you're Spanish speaking, that was your first language.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Is was I was I right on that?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah means what?
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so you probably grew up saying that word hallelujah.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up saying that word hallelujah.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I spoke Spanish all along.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: In every language, every language, you're German, hallelujah, your Russian, hallelujah, your French, hallelujah.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: You go to any country in Africa, whatever language they're speaking, it's hallelujah.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: You go to India, you go to China, you go to wherever.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: That word is a universal term, which I think is just so beautiful.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we all share that word together, universally.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's how we praise the Lord together.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, beautiful.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I'm gonna just wrap up on this.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, you know, he's the one that said, Let my people go.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole point of what he was calling is that God made it very clear he wanted the people of Israel to leave and go on a journey to worship him.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: Worship is about relationship with God.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: We are designed to worship.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, what are we worshiping?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna worship someone or something, and we've got to stay focused on worshiping the one true God.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then um no one else can worship for me.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to worship God for myself.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I maybe I gave a definition and I'll give it to you again is that worship is the acknowledgement of attention to, affection for, and adoration of God's presence.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to us a little bit about how we worship with the word of God.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: So the word of God, we need it daily.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: We need the word of God, reading and not only reading the word of God, but meditating the word of God.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I love, you know, I think it's Joshua chapter one, verse eight.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_02: It says meditate on this word day and night.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, this word meditation is to to to utter, to utterly say, to to to think about it, to ponder about it.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: And when we are reading the word of God, we're meditating it, we worship by living it out.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: What does the word of God say?
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: When I'm leaving what the word of God says, it's a form of daily worship.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Worship is a lifestyle.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we need God's word every day in our lives.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Christian, I want to say thank you very much.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I've enjoyed week number two, sitting down and talking to you.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to week number three.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh just so you know, in the audience, we're gonna be having uh a number of our other of our pastors uh that are gonna be joining, sitting down with me in the weeks to come.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but for right now, we're starting off with uh Pastor Christian, who has helped put this material together.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about next week.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: But Christian, would you mind just praying for us based on kind of what we discussed today, that God would just help settle this in the hearts of people who are listening right now?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: Father, thank you for the opportunity that we have to open your word and dig in and discover how you want us to apply your word daily.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_02: God, as as in that Jerusalem Council, the whole point was to bring unity among the believers.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: God, I pray for unity within our church, within our country, within our world, Lord.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because your word is wants to unify your people.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that uh we only worship you.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: God, you don't want us to have any idols.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that as I'm praying right now, that if anybody who is listening, there is an idol in their life, God, just like you brought that to me about running, how can that become an idol in my life?
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray that you bring that to them.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_02: What are those things that if we're not careful, can take your place?
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: Help us, God, to read your word and apply it daily so we can worship you every single day with our actions, with our lifestyle in the name of Jesus.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Pastor Christian.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm so glad that you joined us uh for this number two episode of uh North Bible Recap.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we look forward to seeing you next time.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_00: Share this with somebody and go on this journey with us.