Latest / The Rhett Palmer Show / Sermon on the Mountain, Part 3

Transcript

Sermon on the Mountain, Part 3 · The Rhett Palmer Show

• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, Rhett.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, Mike Vibe.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: How are you, sir?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: Are you what uh coffee are you drinking this morning?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I don't have our coffee up here in Vermont, so I'm drinking some reasonable facsimile.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, the folks about our ghosts.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Rhett, you know, you can go on uh www.cupoffriendship.com and you can order some of the most delicious coffees available on the world wide web that's roasted right here in Vero Beach, Florida, by yours truly and my friend Olivia and my son Lucas.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're the roasting team at the Rio Coco Cafe Roastery.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: These are uh three blends that uh you and I came up with of some Sumatran, Honduran, Colombian, Nicaraguan, and Ethiopian coffees.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: All of them are high altitude, hand-picked, specially grade and um premium grade coffees.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we roast them in small batches here.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you go to cupofriendship.com, uh we have Bridge Builder, uh Hearty Handshake, and um Kindred Spirit, those are our three blends of which is the which which is the light roast, which is the medium, which is the strong?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well the Kendred Spirit, I think, is our light uh Honduras, light Nicaraguan and Colombian.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: The hearty handshake is our Sumatran, Colombian, and um uh Honduras.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: And the bridge builder is our Ethiopian Nicaraguan Colombian blend.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So these are all blends that have been tried and tested and approved by our uh uh tasting team.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh no, it's true.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: We have we have a we have some informal tasters at the cafe that I say, hey, what do you think of this?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So uh anyway, if you all enjoy a cup of good off uh coffee and you want to contribute to our uh humanic projects that we have at the Rio Coco Cafe and Seek the Lamb Ministries, uh please uh go online and order a cup of friendship.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you order today, we will have it in the mail to you by what is today, Wednesday, probably Friday, and it'll be at your home no later than probably Tuesday, Wednesday.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in Hawaii, it may take a couple days longer.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: We send a lot of guaranteed to arrive within a month, still fresh.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: By the way, do tell Dylan though, he's got the camera set up, so I'm looking over this way, and you're looking the other way.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: It looks like we're both looking away from each other.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when you put two kids in the corner, you look that way, he's gonna look that way.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, there's so many things I could say in response to that, Red.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: But let's move on to our topic of discussion today, because we we have a good one.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, right now in our world, there is a lot of turmoil that's happening.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have this conflict going on in the Middle East.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: We have conflicts going on here in our own country regarding issues, and it seems like uh young adults and us uh older adults, we have a lot of choice of how we're going to uh make our decisions, what our goals are gonna be in life, uh what we're gonna be doing on a day-to-day basis, where our thoughts are gonna uh reside.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um, we have a lot of choices.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the ret uh, the uh our world and our society tells us that we should be all about uh pleasuring ourselves, making ourselves secure, accumulating more possessions, and that the more that we have, the better off we will be.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I think our society is seeing that that is kind of a dead end road, and often we're we're traveling down that road, and we come to the bridge is out and we fall into a chasm, and we find ourselves uh in a place in life where we're not surrounded by people who love us.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when it comes down to it, uh those are the things that really matter in life.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's I there's not one person who has uh been uh at his final stages of life that's uh thinking about his past and saying, Boy, I wish I had worked more.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I would have spent more time away from my family.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Or made more money, made more money, you know.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so along comes this character, this historical character, Jesus.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing was, he was a historical character.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: He was a guy that actually Roman historians uh talked about.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: He left an impact on this world uh like no other.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, um uh so many of the historians that I've read, uh Will Durant Durant, for example, the author of the uh uh Age of Civilization won the Pulitzer Prize for this 11-volume uh set.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_03: And on Yeah, that's the that's the set that very few people remember.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: Do you remember David Walsh?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: He had read that in its entirety.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I read a lot of Will and Ariel Durant, they're a husband-wife team that came up that basically uh wrote these uh volumes.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I was walking past a bookstore one day and I looked on the uh sale tape uh table, and by golly, there was uh volume five, Caesar and Christ.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I picked it up and I took it home.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Will's a very uh renowned historian.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I am trained in history, I have a degree uh in European history from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I just say that as I I read a lot of Will Durant when I was in the in those years, and I was amazed that when he got to the part about uh the higher criticism of Jesus and the uh tests that modern uh scholars and theologians apply to the Bible, the tests are so rigid that he says, and uh many ancient uh uh worthies such as Hammurabi and uh Socrates and Plato would not survive their criticism.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: But he said, all in all, when you look at the life of Jesus, uh, that he is the most fascinating feature of Western civilization.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's a statement, okay?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: He is the most fascinating feature.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: There is nobody that has left a greater impact on the world than Jesus of Nazareth.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Of all the armies that ever marched and all the uh navies that sailed, no one has affected the life of mankind like that.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: One solitary life.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he didn't own anything, he didn't uh leave any uh wealth, but he said profound things, he did miracles, he pointed people to his heavenly father, and he said, I and my father are one.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: When you see me, you've seen him.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I I heard my friend Joe Davis, who's a professor of apologetics at Southeastern University uh over in Lakeland, uh, I Joseph had been a dear friend uh uh for years, and we got talking about quantum mechanics, and he actually gave a message at church on the whole uh uh uh concept that in quantum mechanics, and this was Einstein's discovery, and he kept the more he dug into it, the more he considered it was wrong.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: But two particles separated by miles or light years can influence each other, and they actually spin in opposite directions, but they react the same, they're one in the same, but they're miles, light years apart, but they're still affected.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Nobody understands how this is happening.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus says, I and the Father are one, I don't do anything unless I see him do anything, and you can see these two uh particles spinning in opposite directions, separated but yet connected.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly the understanding of quantum physics uh helps us understand things like God the Father, God the Son, and the God the Holy Spirit all being one but different and distinct.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um we know so little about what's going on in this universe.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: We have a friend on the island of Utilla where we have a cafe.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh just off the north coast of Honduras, place for uh people come for free diving and scuba diving.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: But one of our friends uh at the beginning of the year that we met there was Marcos, who's a uh physics uh uh instructor, a teacher at the University of Milano.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And Marco showed up at our uh Sunday morning study, and Marco, I've never seen him with a shirt on.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And he walks in, he's got no shirt on, and he sat down and I said, Marco, do you read the Bible?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, I read, but I don't understand.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that started a conversation that lasted for weeks.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And Marco started telling me about quantum mechanics and particles that are able to go through barriers and just quantum tunneling, as he calls it, uh just come out on the other side.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we got talking about angels suddenly appearing in a room and Jesus suddenly appearing and then disappearing.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and Marcos uh was explaining that there's some quantum physical properties that explain these things.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's fascinating to me, you know.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: He said he said something very interesting that he says, uh as a physicist, we only know about 10% of what's going on in the universe.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Only 10%.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Probably a lot less than that, actually.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, and then he said, but 5% of that we call dark physics because we know it exists, but we can't really explain it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So here we are, smart, educated, intelligent human beings who've been around for thousands of years, and still we can only understand about 5% of what's going on around us.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have uh this character, Jesus of Nazareth, who came and claimed that he was God in the flesh and came here to explain things to us and tell us in a manner that we would understand.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh when I think of the manner of understanding, I think of trying to explain to my four-year-old daughter when she said, uh, Poppy, uh, why does that light uh how does that light turn on in my bedroom?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought about that for a moment.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, uh, Michaela, I could say that the electrons going across that filament uh produce a resistance which creates an emission of uh light rays in a particular spectrum and that are visible to the human eye, and it fills the room and you can see.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I looked at my four-year-old daughter and I said, Well, Michaela, the light comes on when you flip the switch here on the wall.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And she looked at me and said, Okay.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I think when it comes to Jesus, sometimes we have to accept that explanation.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: The light comes on when you flip the switch.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus gave his most famous teaching on a hillside uh on the northwest corner of the Lake Kenner at the Sea of Galilee.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And this is an area of basaltic rock, which has great sound attenuating properties.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it was probably in the 70s a company went there and placed microphones around this bowl-shaped area.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And they discovered that a person standing down by the shore could be plainly heard by someone 600 yards up the hill.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine the creator as he's designing this earth says, I'm gonna need some good sound equipment down here on this uh particular spot.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna make it happen.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: What's a good thing?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: He decided not to call dueling.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: He was gonna call duel and have it set up.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So so now Jesus has gathered a crowd because he is so far he's known as a guy who does miracles.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: He he encounters uh demonic spirits and chases them away, commands them to go.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: He says profound things that people say, man, we've never heard anything like this.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's got a crowd that includes the Pharisees, who are a very religious uh group.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: He's got the Sadducees in the crowd.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: These are the religious elite that don't really believe in an afterlife.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that control the temple.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: You got the Essenes in the crowd.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is a sect that's uh their uh center is down by the Dead Sea in Qumran.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: They they are not in agreement with the Pharisees or the Sadducees.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: They even have their own calendar, but they do copy scripture, and that's where we found the Dead Sea scrolls.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: We have the Herodians who are the ruling class, the ones that are uh the administration of King Herod, and they're aligned with the Romans.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the zealots who are anti-Roman, anti-Herodian who are assassins and want to kill them.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've got fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors, and wandering business people, because this area is on the main trade route from the coast from, say, Egypt.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you're going from Egypt up to Damascus, you're going to come uh up the coast, pass through the pass by uh one of the pat three passes by Mount Carmel.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: The one of them is Megiddo, go through the Jezreel Valley, and then come down into this bowl that's 600 feet below sea level and walk along the north uh west shore of the Sea of Galilee and then head up the hills, the Golan Heights, and you're at Damascus.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of commerce.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, the the most dangerous guys there, of course, are the religious guys.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: I just want people to know that because people go, well, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I go, I hope I'm not religious because it was the religious people that killed Jesus.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus didn't come to establish a religion, he came to establish relationships.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so those guys are the most pernicious and dangerous, you know.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: I just want people to know that.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, Jesus uh starts out his teaching by uh what we call the Beatitudes.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who are meek or uh blessed are those who are hungry and thirsting for righteousness, blessed are those who uh are merciful, blessed are those who are the uh pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Normally we've read those in individual uh um as individual virtues, but many of my sources, particularly Juan Spiros Zodiades, the author of the key words of the Bible and over 200 books, half of them in the Greek language.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Spiros from uh Cyprus, he knows Greek grammar, he's a doctor of theology and uh linguistics.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: But Spiros says that we must read those in a progressive sense.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And if we do, we suddenly realize that what Jesus is talking about is our own process of really coming to know him.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: That poor in spirit means brokenness, that we don't have any resources, we're desperately in need of God.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are we mourning?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're mourning the effects of sin in our life.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that next word, uh, blessed are the meek or the gentle, is the word pratis, which Aristotle says is the mean point between someone who is uh never gets angry or gets angry at the drop of the hat.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's someone who gets angry for the right reason.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're mourning the effects of our sin and we get angry at our sin and we decide to do something, and now we're hungering and thirsting for God's righteous living, and we're making choices.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that causes us to look around and at the people around us who we realize they're in the same boat that we are, the same situation.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we can't be judgmental toward them anymore.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're just like us.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we become merciful.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: And while all this is happening, there's a transformation that's going on in our heart.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's a purification that's happening, and we're being transformed.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the great theme of the Bible: transformation, going from this old natural self that we inherited from our ancestors, uh from Adam and Eve, to now being a conosquistis, a new previously unseen biological creation from God Himself.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And now we are taking on the attributes and becoming the children of God.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: But but that's why Jesus said, You must be born again.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's a man up here in uh Vermont where I am in Stowe, and apparently he's a pretty well-to-do guy, because uh what happened a couple of years ago, they were putting in a uh a Starbucks.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: They were building a building and putting in a Starbucks.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I I would I got myself on the front page of the local paper here because I was protesting against them opening the Starbucks.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: And um because I felt that franchises didn't belong in this nice little town.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's kind of almost like a um like a uh a Debbie Macomber movie.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh, what's what's the name of that the company which you made those movies anyway?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like uh Hallmark.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Hallmark, like a Hallmark movie, you know.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, so this guy sees me out in front of his his uh where they're building the coffee shop, and he's obviously I would realize, I mean, he never told me, but the owner of that building, and he came up real nasty and said, Well, Starbucks will be here long after you're gone.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, he was real like nasty.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_03: And then I found it this year that he's building a big bank building in in town, and this guy obviously is very successful.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, sometimes folks, you just know things.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: I have a I have a I have an ability to know certain things, and I just realized I would never be hard on that guy because you know what?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't even know, but he's miserable.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: That guy's not happy at all, and he's deceived by thinking, accumulating more.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's got to be about my age.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: So you get more and more and more.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: I heard the other day about somebody that knows a billionaire and that they still want more.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, what is enough enough?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of breaking it down and realizing that be in the moment only, and it doesn't include having numbers in a bank account that offer you nothing in the end.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you can't, uh you certainly can't take it with you, but us Christians, no, we can send it ahead.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: But I but I do know this, I I I did fall into judgment and I opened up the Bible one time and I was really admonished by the Lord when he said, You I he didn't mean literally, but he said, You who have seen God, you've seen God.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: In other words, I forget the exact word I opened it up to, but it was like, don't judge them because you've seen God.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: They haven't.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, in other words, me, because I've had this born-again experience, I'm to be in service of every human being that I encounter.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: Less me, more them.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think Jesus is starting off telling us a more a very important thing that if you're going to be my follower, then basically die to yourself.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Understand your desperate need of me in your life.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Know that I'm gonna be the one that's gonna provide all the things that you actually need and desire.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: And now the last attribute is uh peacemaker.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, once we've understood our desperate need of God, mourning our sin, getting angry at it, and now we're wanting to do things God's way, we're not judgmental or merciful.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: This transformation process is happening in our heart.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have peace with God.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have peace.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, blessed are the peacemakers.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think I think in the progressive sense of reading the Beatitudes, we come to a place where we we have peace with God, where everything is in order.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: That word peace, the word uh Hebrew word shalom, mean it means when everything is level and in God's order, okay?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: When it's level.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Then we want to bring this peace to the naturally to the people around us.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: We very naturally want to tell people, it's like us, right?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like me.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a coffee drinker before I went to Honduras back in uh 1984 and started working with uh refugees, and I found myself uh living in this refugee community with one other person that spoke English, and I was living with Myrna and Truna Truman Cunningham, and Myrna was fixing uh me rice and beans and boiled bananas, sometimes three days a week, but she had coffee on the table, and I wasn't a coffee drinker, and one day I realized this is my fourth flavor option.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I started drinking it, and uh that prompted me the next time I went to Tegucigalpa, I went into a store and I saw this export quality coffee, and it was a whole different animal, and that started my uh uh coffee journey, and eventually we started buying coffee and selling it to make money to pay our teachers in our school project.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: But the coffee that we're drinking that we do uh we roast at the uh Rio Coco Cafe roastery is a completely different animal than what most people are drinking.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I get excited.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: About encouraging people to drink good coffee because it's very healthy.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: It has more antioxidants than anything else you can put in your body.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you drink uh two cups of coffee or more a day, you're gonna have a lower chance of uh liver or pancreatic cancer.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's no uh these are all documented university medical studies.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no link to hypertension.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And recently, Rhett, there's two studies that came out a couple months ago, independent of each other.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you drink two cups of coffee before noontime, your chances of dying that day are 70% less than if you don't.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: 70%, golly.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: We're only gonna sell a lot of this coffee now.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, but uh that's such a funny statistic.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever I'm talking to someone that's our age, they go, Where do I sign up for your coffee club?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: So so we very naturally want to pass on the good things that we have learned in life to the people around us.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what happens as we go through this process of becoming a disciple of Jesus.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: He has everything that we need and desire.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And what's coming up next for us after this life is huge.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus goes from this it's huge.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes from this to the next aspect of how we're we are to interact with the people around us, and he says, You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh salt in biblical culture has a relational meaning because God makes salt covenants with the Levites, with David.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: These are covenants that last forever.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: He says in Leviticus 2, put salt on the offerings as a sign of our relationship.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: It lasts forever.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jesus says, uh, let there be salt among you and have peace with one another.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let your speech be seasoned with salt so that you'll know how to respond properly, says Paul to his friends in Colossius.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: So there's this relational issue.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And in biblical culture, salt means loyal and faithful friends.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're talking to a Middle Easterner and your friends, you could say there's salt between us, and they would understand there's friendship.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think what Jesus is calling us to be as salt of the world is loyal, unoffendable, faithful friends.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Rhett, imagine if the body of Christ here in Indian River County, if every person that attended church was known as a loyal and faithful friend in our community, would that change things?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: An unoffendable.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And unoffendable.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to let you get on our show again.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Or my wife, who's a very peaceful person, gets flies off the handle with offense and has to catch herself and, you know, be the gentle person in her spirit.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's so funny how we often react and we catch ourselves.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm at least I'm starting to catch myself, and I think uh we all are catching ourselves.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: But God is calling us to be unoffendable, loyal, faithful friends, and light is defined as random acts of kindness and service to the people around us.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: So imagine if we were friendly people that were listeners more than we were talkers, that we weren't judgmental, that we were sympathetic, empathetic, and compassionate, and that we took opportunity to serve the needs of the people around us.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Would that change our world?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Rodney Rodney Stark in his book, The Rise of Christianity, documents the growth of Christianity from the first century in the Roman Empire.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Rodney says there's about 10,000 Christians at the end of the first century in a very remote corner of the empire, but by the middle of the fourth century, there's 33 million of us, compromising 53% of the population.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: How did it happen?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: He documents caring for uh widows, caring for orphans, treating women with dignity, uh taking in strangers, being generous, caring then the two plagues, the first one in 160, the second in 250, uh, caring for the people that sometimes 30% of the population died in these plagues, but the Christians cared for them.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And as a result of that, we grew in numbers.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the way we faced death in the arenas when we were forced to give homage to the gods, and we said, Nope, we're not doing that.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And people going, Who are these guys?
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so imagine if we were salt and light to our community.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I would encourage all of you who are considered, you consider yourself to be followers of Jesus, be known as loyal, faithful, unoffendable friends.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Pause in traffic when someone cuts you off, realizing maybe he's in a little more of a hurry than you are.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Don't don't kick them off your radio show because they say something that offends you.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's something that happened last week, folks.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we had a uh very polite discussion going on, and things took a turn, and uh comments were made, and we're laughing about it now at the reactions that we had.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: But imagine if we were loyal and faithful friends.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_03: Then the next thing well, that's that's with David.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's with David, the the former diplomat.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_03: But we did we we he was on with me for eight years, and and he tends to raise his voice.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: I noticed last week I purposely kept very gentle, and you were perfect for me with him because you he never got a rise out of you.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: You're very and so he caught me right now.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: But one point he said something, and I said, you know, don't let John my show anymore.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna talk that way.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I was ringing the bell.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, we're just uh normal uh guys, we have our issues, folks.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're not anybody special, we're just like you.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so the next thing Jesus uh addresses is how we are to read the scriptures.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't think I came to abolish the law and the prophets, I came to fulfill them.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I say, anyone who uh says we should not teach these is going to be the least in the kingdom, but one who teaches and obeys uh these will be called the greatest in the kingdom.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, hold hold on, hold on now.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_03: What he means by that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, let me tell you what the word is.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: The key word here is pleroo.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I did not come to abolish the scriptures, the law and the prophets, but to pleo.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's a Greek word that can mean complete, it can mean fulfill, but all of my dictionaries say in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17, it means explain them more fully.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: But he says that unless your righteousness is greater than, you know, because that means when you learn that the only righteousness that will get you into heaven is the one that he paid for, the free gift.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: Unlike other uh self-earned, self-earned, self-earned, righteousness, self-righteous, self-earned in other religions, they say you must die for this guy or die for this guy with Jesus.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: I died for you.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: All you have to do is accept it.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: But that way we I can't boast against Mike, uh Mike Bagby and say, well, he helped more old ladies across the street than me, so he's better than me, or vice versa.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: It's that our only righteousness comes from the Lord, and that way we're all even at the foot of the cross, everybody.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it's a great way to start off.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_03: And others, actually, in God's eyes, even though you're a dad, a husband, you have four children, you've been a missionary for over 40 years, you would think a guy like you probably has a whole lot more gold stars than Rhett Palmer.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but in and God, but but but God's capable of loving me just as much as he is loving you, even though you've acquired and done all these things.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: But this is not a contest to see who can have any more gold stars.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh just uh a daily daily walk.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we hope so.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: The uh so Jesus is explaining that we should look at the Hebrew scriptures as something that's going to teach us.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh in uh normal theological studies and exegesis uh techniques, there's three ways to look at the Hebrew scriptures.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: One is called the theonomic way, which means let's try and obey the laws as best we can.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a lot of Jewish uh messianic uh Christians that are trying to, because they're Jews, uh those laws that say uh do these for all your generations, they're trying to do that.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I respect that.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: The second approach is the uh uh cultural approach, which says these things are old and out of date, they're of their time, we can move on.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that seems to be the approach that many of these progressive churches uh are taking today.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: I heard uh lady pastor a couple days ago quote Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13 about uh these things are old and obsolete and sh and have uh now passed away.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: She said, My Jesus tells me that I don't have to uh obey or even think about these Old Testament laws because they're old or out of date.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, she's missing the entire context of the book of Hebrews, which is written to Hebrews who are followers of Jesus, who are still going up to the temple and offering sacrifices for their sins, and the writer says, You don't need to do that anymore.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And probably within 20 years of that book being written, uh Titus came with the 13 le legion and destroyed the temple.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: So there hasn't been a sacrifice since.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: The final way uh to understand the Hebrew scriptures is the principal approach, and this says behind every cultural practice, there's a everlasting truth and principle that works for you and me and all of us followers of Jesus in our world today.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one example of this is um Leviticus chapter one.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Verse one says, God called out to Moses at the tabernacle.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Tell the people of Israel to bring me an offering.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And verse three, let the offering be a male without defect.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's kind of an obscure verse, verses that none of us would really uh maybe read and meditate on, but from those three verses, I get three principles that help my life.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, God called out to Moses.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know from that that God will sometimes take the initiative to talk to me.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And when I'm feeling separate, lonely, and depressed, I am encouraged that when God wants to speak to me, he will speak to me.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Verse two says, Bring me an offering.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a big part of God's economy that we're to bring something back as an acknowledgement of he's the giver of all the things that we have.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the third principle is we're to bring him our very best.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: We're not to just bring him something, we're to bring our best.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So so behind the Hebrew scriptures are these principles.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the cultural practice and the principle coincide, like the Ten Commandments.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Don't murder, don't steal, don't don't lie, don't uh uh covet your neighbors' um uh property and wives and things.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: These are cultural principles that that uh are in the practice itself.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Leviticus uh 19, talking about the uh sexual morality.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Don't have sex with your mother-in-law, with your sister, with your brother, wife, uh, with your cousin, with your aunt.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh men don't have sex with men, women don't have sex with women, uh, don't have sex with animals.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's really gross.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: You see, God's plan for humanity is the family unit, husband, wife, father, mother, children.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: In a committed marriage relationship, sex is given as an ultimate expression of intimacy uh as well as procreation.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: And anything that uh is uh outside of that is really something uh that sort of attacks that institution, and and God says, don't do that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the principle and the cultural practice coincide there.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Finally, uh after Jesus says, I've come to explain more fully the scriptures, he goes through five instances of saying, You heard the ancient say, don't commit adultery, but I say to you, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery in your heart, and that's just as bad as the physical act.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, don't murder.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you've heard the ancient say, don't murder, but I say if you call somebody a fool, you're murdering him with your words.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's just as grievous as murdering him physically, okay?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh don't make oaths by saying, I'm swearing by the great temple.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Just let your yes be yes and your no be no.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh anything other than that comes from the wicked one.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so Jesus is explaining now more fully.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: That word playroo is also used by a playroo.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Pleroo.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh if you went to the doctor and you had a broken bone in your arm and he put the bone back in its place, he would say, I play rooed your bone.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: I put it back in your pl in its place.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus is doing with the law.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he finally finishes chapter five by saying, You must be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh well, that word perfect is a tough one for me because I know I can't be perfect.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, first John says, uh, if you think you uh uh don't have sin and you're a follower of Jesus and you don't sin, you're crazy.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: We all sin.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna be perfect.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: So what is Jesus saying?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where a good dictionary is super helpful, a good Greek dictionary, and I have a few of them on my phone and in my computer, but uh the word is teleos, and it means fully mature in uh this particular verse of chapter five, I think it's verse 47, 48.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we are to grow up and be mature.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: So now Jesus has opened up this great teaching on discipleship by telling us about our desperate need for him, how we're to interact with the people around us, how we're to read and understand the Hebrew scriptures, because remember, Paul told his disciple Timothy, all scriptures inspired by God profitable to teach us, correct us, to reprove us, and train us in righteousness that the man, parentheses, and woman of God might be adequate and equipped for every good work.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the Hebrew scriptures is the one are the scriptures that Paul's referring to when he's talking to Timothy, because the Christian scriptures hadn't been written or they're being written.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I my challenge as I read the Hebrew scriptures is what is God saying to me?
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: What's this interaction is going on between him and David, between him and Moses?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: What's Moses?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: How is Moses responding?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: What should my response be?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because we see a lot of responses by guys just like us that are not very godly, that are very self-centered.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, as Paul told his friends in Corinth, these stories are for you to see examples of how God interacted with men and what their responses were so that we could learn from them.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a plethora of uh valuable uh personal application and information in the Hebrew scriptures for me.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage all of you, start reading them with an understanding that God is going to teach you a lot about himself and his ways, and give you some application for your life as you walk it out in a manner pleasing to him and worthy of your calling.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay finally, we come to chapter six, and that's where we're gonna begin today, Rhett.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, chapter six.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, Jesus is gonna teach us now how we are to relate and communicate with our heavenly father.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: So go ahead.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh do good to please God.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: This is Matthew six.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_03: Otherwise, you have no reward from your father in heaven.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not hold on just for a second there.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just pause there for a moment, okay?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you'll have no reward with your father who is in heaven.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: And this new American standard that might be uh an easier understanding.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus talking to the scribes and the Pharisees in uh in uh his audience here, because they were well known to pray aloud in public and give alms in a noticeable manner.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so he's speaking directly to them.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, go ahead, Rhett, verse two.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, verse two.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your your do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Rhett, did you notice that Jesus says when you give to the poor?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't say not if you give, but when you give to the poor.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: So here's the reality that I've discovered is that as followers of Jesus, we are very often going to be presented with somebody who has a need.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: So what should we do?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_03: What should we do?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: If when someone comes and starts telling us, you know, my car broke down, I can't pay my rent, I can't all the issues financial.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: You should say, uh no, I'm sorry, but I I have to go give this to the church.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's perhaps what some people would say, but uh uh but but I had this happen to me recently, Rhett.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what happened?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: What one of my dear friends uh told me about his daughter who was having some medical issues, told me about some financial issues uh that he was having in his business.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is a longtime dear personal friend, and I I felt like the Lord said, send him a check.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so you know what my first thought was?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, how much money do I have in my account?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: And uh let's see, what did I give for my tithing this month?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is this going to be part of my tithe?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or is this uh uh going to be uh like a free will offering or something?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course I remembered what you just read.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: We should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing, right?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: We we can't be calculating this.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: If the Lord says give, we give.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and because here's the reality, Rhett, is God owns it all.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't have anything of my own.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, people say, Are you the owner of the Rio Coco Cafe?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I look at him and I say, Well, how can I explain?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: I go, No, I'm just the responsible party.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just the guy that God has put in charge.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: The steward.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: The steward, okay.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is we're under the ownership of the king.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what it looks like.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's a uh there's a parable in Matthew 13.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, years ago, I read a book uh by an Argentinian pastor named Juan Carlos Ortiz.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh uh a book called Disciple.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: And Juan Carlos is a pastor in Buenos Aires, and he was involved in a quite a uh a move of God that took place in that area in the 70s.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh pastors were getting together, they were uh uh actually renting the stadium and having multiple pools uh set up.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: So many people were getting saved and baptized that they were just uh, you know, all denominations were gathering and baptizing together.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was a it was an incredible move of God.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: But he wrote this, and I thought this would be worthy to share this morning.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: He says, uh Jesus says in Matthew 13, the kingdom of God was like a merchant looking for fine pearls, and when he found it, he sold everything, found that pearl, he had to buy it.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, some Christians think this story means we are the pearl of great price, and Christ had to give up everything to redeem us.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: But now we understand that he is the pearl of great price.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: We are the merchant seeking for happiness, for security, for fame, for eternity.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: And when we find Jesus, it costs us everything because he has happiness, joy, peace, healing, security, eternity, everything.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we say, I want this pearl, how much is it?
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the seller says it's very expensive.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: But how much, we ask.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a very large amount.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, do you think I can buy it?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, of course, everyone can buy it.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: But didn't you say it was expensive?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how much is it?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Everything you have, says the seller.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: We make up our minds.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I'll buy it, we say.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you have?
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to know.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: Let's write it down.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Good, ten thousand dollars.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's all I have.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing more?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how much do you have?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we start digging.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see, thirty, forty, sixty.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I got a hundred and twenty dollars.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: What else do you have?
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, nothing, that's all.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you live?
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's probing.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I live in my house.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have a house.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: The house too, then, he writes it down.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: You mean I'm gonna have to live in my camper?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: You have a camper?
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: That too.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll have to sleep in my car.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: You have a car?
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Two of them.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Both become mine, both cars.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: What more do you want?
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: Are you alone in this world?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: He asks.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, I have a wife and children.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Ah yes, your wife and your children too.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: I have nothing left.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm left alone now.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly the seller exclaims, Oh, I almost forgot.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: You yourself, you too, everything, everything becomes mine.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Wife, children, house, money, cars, and you too.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I will allow you to use all these things for the time being, but don't forget they are mine, just as you are.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever I need any of them, you must give them up because I am now the owner.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it is when you're under the ownership of Jesus Christ.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_03: Let me ask you this.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus did say, He said, if you love mother, father, children, aunt, uncle, f whatever, more than me, you're not worthy of me.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, um, I personally have lost uh all most of my loved ones in life, are all gone.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: And I wonder if he's brought me down to the bone.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it has brought me down to the marrow on the bone, going, okay, so even though I loved my mother exceedingly and still do, uh, he is the one that gave breath to my mother.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: He is the one who gave breath to me.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: I say, well, I knew my mother better than you, but uh but uh intellectually I'm attempting to make sure that I understand that my allegiance above all human flesh has got to be pleasing to the Lord.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: But what when you see that, when he says, you know, anyone who loves, like you have four children, you're a rich, rich man in the in the spirit realm, you have a beautiful wife, you have a ministry 42 years down in South America, you've got all these accoutrements of success and of what real success.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, how do you like your children?
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_03: So you're supposed to love Jesus even if you love your children more than you love the Lord, you're not worthy of him.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Red.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Red, okay, so um the point that uh I think I think we want to make here is first of all, that yes, not only our family uh we have to give up to the Lord, but all of our possessions, that He's really the owner of it all, okay?
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: And my children, I changed their diapers, I fed them, I educated them, and uh at some point I'm gonna depart and go uh on and leave them.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna be there waiting for me.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna uh seat me next to him uh wherever it is, they're not gonna give me the things that in uh this next realm that uh I'm supposed to have.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they're just along for the ride just like I am.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh our greater allegiance uh should be toward our Creator rather than the the family that he's given us.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the point that Jesus is making here is when you give to the poor, is to understand that God owns it all.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever possessions we have, we really don't own them.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that this we're just stewards of what he's given us.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'd I can tell a story here, a short one.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just finish the the thought and then uh that that we're just the managers of these resources.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so the principle I get from this particular passage is that helping others, especially those in need, is a top priority for God's people.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: And this should be considered just normal, continual behavior.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: We should be free to give the things that he has given us.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so I'll uh once again, of course, I'll lose a reward here, but that's okay.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I had given, it was around Christmas time, I'd given this waitress who looked very poor, you know, a gift.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_03: And uh she started to cry, I started to cry.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I went back out to uh uh Barbara was in the ladies' room, and I went back out to the car and I had tears in my eyes, and you know, it felt good to do some good and what I thought was good.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and all of a sudden I swear I felt the Lord say, give it now, because where you're going, they will not need your money or your gold.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_03: Give it now.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, wow, what if this is a little window in time of all eternity where we have the chance to give?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: Because when you get there, we we don't need it then.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine being a billionaire and you're rising up out of your body and you look down and go, I needed security, so I have all these big numbers in a bank account, but I could have fed those people, I could have given to that camp for kids, I could have, I could have fed the hungry, all the things they could have done.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_03: And now you know what?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: The door is forever shut.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's no longer your dough.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I I said a little earlier uh that we you can't take it with you from this life into the next.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I think we can actually send it ahead.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think I think God I think God wants to uh first of all, he's looking to see who he can trust with greater wealth.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: So he gives us opportunity to give to people that have needs.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Proverbs says, when you lend to the poor, uh you're lending to God and he's gonna repay you.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: So okay, this is uh this is one of the principles of God's uh creation.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's how his uh creation works.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: So us freely giving of something that was given to us, I mean, why would we think we would have ownership of it, you know?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, it's like even our very bones.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I sold a house.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_03: I I lost a house when I was a kid, and I had another house in Vero Beach, and I had it for 23 years, but I understood I didn't own it.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_03: I was out in uh out in uh it starts with an H.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's outside of Las Vegas because I don't gamble, I don't like any of that stuff.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_03: But I was visiting there a couple of years ago to somebody in the in the family, and uh and I was going into I bar an old car.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_03: Henderson, yes, Henderson.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I was went into I was going into the Walmart.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there's a guy standing there, and he did look like Jesus had a beard and long hair.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it was Jesus, I don't know.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_03: But I looked at him and I said, I'm 70 years of age.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: You're asking me for money.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_03: I still have to work on my radio show and her magazine order to pay the rent.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, You want me to give you look able body with his legs and hands?
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_03: I thought, I'm not gonna give to him, but here's what happened.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_03: I start to go under the frame of the door, and then I leaned back and I said, Hey, are you hungry?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, Yeah.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, come on in.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_03: And we ended up sharing a Miami Subs uh cheesesteak sandwich.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_03: And all of a sudden I realized, well, this is great because I don't like eating alone.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_03: I said, You know, I invited him in.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_03: I never have to eat alone again.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_03: I get to help him eat and I get companionship.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_03: We had a great conversation, and then of course, I needed something done to the car that I was borrowing with the headlights to screw.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: They had gotten foggy.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so I uh I decided, well, I won't take away his dignity.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: I said, can I hire you for a few minutes to help scrub this because you're young and strong?
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so he cleaned the lights and I was able to give him something, but I I gave him the also gave him the dignity of having earned it, you know.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was a it was really a great moment.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there was a great moment because you suddenly stopped and you set aside your own self-centered behavior.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I gotta work.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: I got you know, wait, wait, wait, wait.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_01: The only person that gives you the ability to work and the opportunities to work is the king himself.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you suddenly realize that and you said, Well, okay, now I'm going to uh invite this person into my life and share the things that God has given.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: And look how it turned out.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um you never know.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's because we've entertained angels unaware.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean, you never know.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, you know, when some creepy person comes up to you, you know, they say Jesus was not handsome that we should take notice.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great scriptures, he was not handsome that we should take notice of him.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, he wasn't this beautiful blue-eyed blonde-haired guy.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, he had dark skin.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody can you've been to Israel, you've seen the Nazarenes.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_03: They're like they're not black, black, but they're not white, white either.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_03: They're kind of like in the middle.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's kind of uh, you know, I I I don't try to look at Jesus in any particular racial profile.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: I just think I think he came to be uh inconspicuous among the people group he decided to be with.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: So Rhett, so Rhett, let's let's move on here to the next verse five.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Can you read verse five, six, and seven?
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_03: No, verse five.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_03: Let's see.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yes, the model prayer.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_03: And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_03: Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_03: But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_03: And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: For they think that the heard for their many words.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, therefore, pray.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this is uh now Jesus is talking to us.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_01: How do we communicate with our heavenly father?
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, first of all, don't be like the hypocrites.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know what that Greek word means, hypocrites, right?
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: Actors.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: The actors, the the guys at the amphitheater doing the dramas, Aeschyles, uh, Eripides, Sophocles, Hippocrates.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Hippocrates.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_01: No, hypocrites are actors.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: These are they're acting, they're not really genuine, okay?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's why they stand uh pray in the synagogues, they're on the street corners, they're letting people know they pray, they're very loud, using meaningless reputation.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: Prayers are not a magical formula that will cause God to do things that he doesn't want to do, first of all.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_01: And our conversations with him really should be mostly private.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's also very helpful when uh I'm praying with my uh other friends, like yesterday at our Tuesday morning uh men's group, we had some really nice prayers for the wives, for other people.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's important to pray with your friends, okay?
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: But you see, our chats with God should really reflect reflect the relationship that we have with him as our heavenly father.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_01: And because he already knows our needs before we begin talking.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: God is not some uh heavenly butler there to do the things that we think we need him to do.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the next line, Jesus says, pray then in this way.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now he's gonna give us an outline.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't say pray these words, he said pray in this way.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the first line is our Father who is in heaven.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it seems we're to the first thing we're to do is to acknowledge our parental and intimate relationship with Yahweh.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_01: You see, because the Bible declares that the only right that we have, and John lists this in his first chapter.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: Remember uh Rhett when he wrote, As many as received them, he gave them the right to become children of God.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only right that we have that's listed in the Bible to be children of God.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_01: Think about that for a moment.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: You can think of nothing better than that.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: A father and his children.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is the prescribed relationship between us and God.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now, according to Jesus, we must adopt this attitude in our relationship uh with our Heavenly Father.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: And Matthew 18 records this.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: And he called a child to himself and sat before him and said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think what is where is that written?
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is in Matthew chapter 18, verse 1 through 4.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_03: He humbles himself.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_01: So it appears that Jesus saying, uh, unless we change from an adult mindset to that of a child, we're not going to be welcome into the kingdom of heaven.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this has been such a good meditation point for me, Brett, because I'm constantly examining myself to see if I'm walking as a child of God or as a r rebellious adult.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm constantly uh finding myself being the rebellious adult, doing whatever the heck I want to do and saying whatever the heck I want to say, but I'm not walking as a child of God.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now imagine if all of us followers of Jesus became very active and following him as with this attitude of a child, okay?
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_01: That we trust him to lead us daily uh as he gives us things to accomplish.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_01: That we allow him to teach us all the vital things about this life, that we trust him to provide what we need even when it's risky and goes against all of our logic.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that we wouldn't allow any offenses or anger to affect our relationships that we have with friends and family.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: That we actually talk to him and be honest with him, and we talk to him about our issues as children do talk with their parents.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that we walk in obedience in the small decisions of our lives, and we follow him in the big decisions, going where he tells us to go, doing what he calls us to do, and most importantly, that we allow him to correct us when we don't, okay?
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna send you a wife, and the wife will definitely admonish you when have this capacity for reflecting, you know, what we're supposed to be.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_01: But imagine if we did take the attitude of a child in our relationship with our hair, teachable, pliable, humble, uh loving.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: What would happen in our communities?
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what would happen in our governments and our business uh institutions?
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it would be a transformation of our society.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_03: You know what's amazing, Michael, is this is that everybody wants power, but the it's the it's inverted.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_03: God's kingdom is inverted.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: If you want power, and you and you maintain your uh service to another by not getting upset by what they say, by listening to them a soft answer turneth away wrath.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_03: And just by being that, you win.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, somebody gets out of the car, like the other day I made a mistake.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_03: I pulled out, I was in the wrong lane.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so I rolled down my window, I put up two fingers like this, not like this, but like this.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_03: And two fingers making a V and I waved.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just making sense.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_03: I know I did wrong and I apologize.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_03: I knew immediately the guy was okay.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_03: Now, had I resisted, you know, uh, and so we have the power when we put other people, uh when we put them first, they're like uh it just takes the wind right out of the next time somebody folks try this, next time somebody's yelling at you.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I've had this happen to me.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_03: I read in Proverbs a soft answer turns away around.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: I just let them go on, I don't say anything.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_03: I listen, I nod my head, and okay.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then sooner or later they have to stop yelling because you're not blowing any, you're not allowing any wind to gather in their sails.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this is just this whole attitude of us being correctable by our Heavenly Father, of us providing uh or rely on Him to provide, of us talking to Him in a manner, allowing Him to teach us.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this whole attitude uh I think is transforming uh and societally it will be transforming.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the next thing that Jesus says, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, or some translations say, Great is your name.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now the word hallow is uh comes from the word uh hagoz hagioso, which means holy or to to make holy or to sanctify, to regard and venerate.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this word holy uh is translated set apart, but it's set apart in a manner of God is so high above us that he there is no comparison between him and between us, that he's that far.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_01: This this word holy has that connotation that and also that we are to be set apart from the society that we're living in and be dedicated unto him.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_01: A holy uh thing is like, for example, in the book of Leviticus, in the tabernacle, there was a table, and it was a consecrated holy table.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever God needs a table, there's this table, no one else is using that table.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's another uh meaning of this word.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what we're supposed to be, is that kind of people.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the next line, verse 10 says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what are we actually saying here, Rhett, when we utter these words, okay?
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're saying, God, take control of my life today, because the only place God's will is going to be done on earth that I have control on is the 24 hours of the day that He's given me.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this is us saying, God, you have my day.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_01: This, my resources are what you've given me, my time is yours.
• 1:02:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now you take control.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes, uh, when I am uh driving to the cafe in the morning uh and I'm in traffic on 43rd Avenue, I'll say, Okay, Lord, today is your day.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your man.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever you have.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_03: But but but also some could misconstrue that, and I have in my youth, and that is I go, okay, I'm just gonna sit here and wait for you to give me the next instructions.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_03: No, because he can only direct feet that are moving, so we need to take action and then and then trust that he'll direct us.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he's already directed us in our jobs and our family relationships and the things that we the responsibility of the things he's given us.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we hope we already have that going on.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_01: But when we when I say this morning, as I did, uh Lord, today's your day, you take charge.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now I know that there might be something called an interruption.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because Proverbs 16 9 says, the m the mind of Mike plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm open to interruptions.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we see interruptions happening to Jesus all the time.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_01: For example, he's on the lake going across to the uh northeast side of the lake, and suddenly a storm comes up, and he has to get up and tell the storm to be quiet.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: He uh lands uh on the beach, and now this demon-possessed guy uh comes out, and his pronouns are they and them.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_01: His name is Legion.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_01: How about the lady that touches his temple?
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, it's an interruption, okay?
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh the demons go out into the pigs, the pigs run down in the water, the formerly demon-possessed man says, Take me with you back to Capernaum, the other side of the lake.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: The disciples are going, No, no, no, no.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus commissions his first missionary.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Go and tell your people what God has done for you.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_01: Then they get in the boat and they go back.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_01: So far, it's been in a very uh full day.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_01: As soon as they get ashore, there's another interruption.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's Jairus.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter, she is sick.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: Can you come to the house?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_01: So they now, I mean, the disciples, they're ready to go home, uh, put their feet up, uh, chill out, have something uh refreshing.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but no, now they're on their way to Jairus's house, and they're in a crowd.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, there's another interruption.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: This woman comes up and grabs the talit, the uh the fringe of Jesus' garment.
• 1:04:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the rabbis always had certain knots in their uh the end of their uh little vest they were wearing.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_01: They, of course, had a blue thread in there because that's what the law said, and she touched that, and power went out of Jesus.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we see Jesus being interrupted constantly this day.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what happens to us.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_01: When we give God permission to take charge of our life, there will be phone calls.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_01: There will be people that suddenly are knocking on your door.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and suddenly we have to decide, are we going to respond?
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, don't bother me, I'm busy, or do we go, okay, Lord, what do you want me to say?
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want me to do?
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_03: And just Well, for instance, I know you'll relate to this.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm driving along and there's somebody poking in front of me.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_03: Damn it, this person, all of a sudden we pass by the cop who's taking pictures on the side.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_03: If he hadn't put that slowpoke in front of me, old Rett would have had a ticket for speeding.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, just the just you being in Henderson uh and uh pausing and getting interrupted by the guy that was out in front and asking for money, you had an incredible day, didn't you?
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_01: He made my whole day that day.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_01: So expect and anticipate interruptions when you give God permission to take charge of your day.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then verse 11.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_01: Give us this day our daily bread.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is such an interesting word.
• 1:06:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is the only time in the Greek New Testament that this word epiosiosis is being used.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's a hard word.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's got we got about five vowels altogether.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_03: Epiosiosis.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_01: I said that wrongly, but it literally means daily substance.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's a supernatural substance that we need to sustain our life.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_03: And not yesterday's and not tomorrow's, just today.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is something, yes.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the egg sandwich that you had this morning and the watermelon that you were eating.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is something supernatural.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_01: And after all, remember Jesus said, I am the bread of life, okay?
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we're to ask God freely to provide all that we need to do the things He's leading us to do for our personal needs as well as resources to help others.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now the next line is important.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_01: And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we need forgiveness and why do we need to forgive?
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_03: As we forgive, so shall you be forgiven.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_03: The measure you use to measure shall be metered unto you.
• 1:07:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: And in first John, uh we read that we Christians are going to sin.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: And John says that we have a faithful uh Savior that we go to who is freely free to forgive our sins.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_01: So if we think that we don't have need of forgiveness, we're crazy.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're delusional, we're we're not being realistic about life, okay?
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: If we confess our sins, uh John says he's faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_01: If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us, all right?
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we need forgiveness on a regular basis.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_01: This it's important.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is part of Jesus has told us what the first steps are in being a disciple.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_01: He's told us how we're to be uh with the people around us, how do we understand the scriptures, how we're to talk now to our heavenly fathers, and that daily we need this divine substance to good get us through the day, and that we need to forgive others and not hold on to any offenses.
• 1:08:27
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 He says, And do not lead us in temptation, but deliver us from evil.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_01: Now, God is not a person who tempts us, but he does allow temptation.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, as soon as Jesus was filled with the Spirit, the Spirit did what?
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_01: Led him out into the wilderness where he had an encounter with Satan, and Satan tempted him.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, you hungry?
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_01: Turn this rock into bread.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus responded with scripture: men shall not eat by uh uh live by bread alone, but from every word that comes out of God's mouth.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_01: So so God is allowing us to be in situations where the enemy comes at us, where our natural instincts and the world comes at us, but God wants to give us victory in these moments.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_03: A little aside here, just a little aside.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_03: This will take us.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna go down a little rabbit hole in the in the song, We Are We Are the World, we are the it says, just as God turned a stone into a rock, it lies in the song.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_03: So you know the seed where that's what it says.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_03: It says, as he turned a rock into stone, the very opposite of what the scriptures say.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, I think the point for us is to remember that God is the one who uh allows temptation, but he really wants us to have victory in these moments, and because we should become experienced spiritual warriors.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_01: The God uh Lord never uh led temptation for the purpose of causing us to fail, but I think it's the purpose of proving the souph uh sufficiency of his presence and of his power.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_03: And then I say rock into stone, or did I say the stone into bread?
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not sure, Rick.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_03: And we are the world that says he turned the stone into bread, which is a which is a lie.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I just wanted people to know that.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then verse 14, for if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_01: But if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive your transgressions.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So there's something that connects our forgiveness with the grace that we receive from the Lord, because forgiving others seems to be the mandatory first step in us receiving forgiveness from God.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, Red, in your life and the people that you're around and talk to, there are few things that create problems in the lives of uh the disciples of Jesus and in people like unforgiveness.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And if you talk to any psychologists about the root of behavioral issues, many will point to the practice of holding on to offenses as the source of so many emotional and health issues.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Unforgiveness.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_03: They say cause of cancer, etc.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so that's why the writer of Hebrews in verse uh fifteen of chapter twelve he says, See to know that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: So when we hold on to an offense, it causes a deep root to go into our soul, and we meet people that are holding on to unforgiveness, and they're people that they have become bitter about life and about relationships.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_03: And also, you said relationships.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_03: So God's it's written that God created man for fellowship.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_03: You have your children.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_03: Let's say you you had your four children and they were perfect.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what makes the relationship build is that you don't have perfect children, so they have to come to Poppy, and then you can explain to it.
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this builds relationships.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_03: So too.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like I have somebody right now that I was irritated with, and uh, my tone last time I met this person was rather abrasive because he did lie and did not do what he said he was going to do.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_03: But now I realize after a couple of weeks here, I'm going to call him or I'm going to text him and say, I realized this will give an opportunity now to even be better friends, because I'm going to say, exactly, okay, I I was wrong, I handled my tone was wrong.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_03: I still believe that this is what noise should have gone down.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_03: But you know what?
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_03: More important is that I had the wrong tone and we all make mistakes.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_03: So let's move forward.
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, it's just like in the business world, I say, when you get a complaint from a customer and you get irritated with them, call them up, rectify, because now you're you have an and now you have a really deeper relationship with that client.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_03: Now you have a better client than you did before.
• 1:13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's so counter uh intuitive that we would do this because I've noticed that when I have a situation come up that if I address that in a very humble way and maybe think, well, maybe I'm the fault of this.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Possibly could I make a mistake?
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's what part did you play in this?
• 1:13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if I if I have that attitude going into it, Rhett, what I have found is exactly what you've said.
• 1:13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I come out of that situation actually with a friendship with this person.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_01: And some of my dear friends in my life now are people that I've had deep, troubling problems with, that I've actually been the culprit, and that uh now we've come to an agreement and we have become uh better friends as a result.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, I remember years ago, I will always remember this.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_03: You may not, and you might.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_03: I was in your class where we have a met group of men, and I got offended by somebody, and I was rather sharp of tongue.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_01: What amazed me.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_03: What amazed me is that you turned to me in the most loving, kind way and said, Well, first we we don't want to talk that way.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_03: We want to do this and that.
• 1:14:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it was like it's like you melted all of that because what you did is you instead of giving anger for anger, you gave me love and forgiveness.
• 1:14:30
  SPEAKER_03: And all of a sudden I was like, Oh, yes, you know, and actually that person who had ought against, now he and I are talking again, and everything's fine.
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_03: But I do want you to know that when you did that, it was like, wow, so loving and kind.
• 1:14:44
  SPEAKER_03: You did not let me get under your skin or my anger determined the the moment.
• 1:14:50
  SPEAKER_03: You took control of it with God's world, which is inverted, and it was love.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the just the result of me uh not doing that in so many situations with your children, and finding myself in hotter water than I was in and uh unable to resolve situations.
• 1:15:07
  SPEAKER_01: So uh some of us learn uh these lessons the hard way.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_01: So uh and so I think just kind of the summation of this teaching on communication with our Heavenly Father, I think what Jesus is telling us is that that God wants us to have regular conversations with Him.
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um So He's letting us know what the important elements of these conversations are.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're not just to recite memorized words hoping that they're gonna have some magical effect on the situation.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I really think, like our friends and our family, we God wants to have genuine conversations with us.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I really think he wants to hear what's going on in our heart, and and I think it's so important that we acknowledge this father-son, uh father-daughter relationship.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I know when I say I love you to my wife or to my children, it's acknowledging what the depth of the relationship is.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I think our Heavenly Father also desires to uh hear this invitation from us to allow him to control our day, allow him to direct uh because it creates relationship with him.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_03: He wants involvement in our life, he created man for fellowship.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right, and when we invite him in, it's like my wife saying, I fixed a really nice meal.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Would you sit down and have a meal?
• 1:16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Would you take me dancing afterwards, you know?
• 1:16:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I go, Yeah.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_01: So uh the other thing that we have to realize is that God knows our needs even before we ask, you know.
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love my children to come and talk to me about what's going on in their life, and when they have needs to just to ask me, I love helping them.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think God wants us to keep our slate clean uh between them.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_01: If if I've said things or done things that are out of his character, I need to acknowledge that.
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um there should be no offenses that hinder his and my relationship as well as the relationship uh with the people around me.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I think finally he wants us to know that the enemy is gonna come after us, that our culture is gonna come after us, that even our own uh human nature will often be contrary to uh what God wants us to say and do.
• 1:17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and this is these are spiritual battles, but he's there to assist us.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And like any good coach that says, go up and take your swings, he wants us to hit the ball out of the park.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want us to strike out.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I gotta tell you, Red, as a young uh fourth grade baseball player, I went through the whole season and I never got a hit.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Foul balls, but no hits that whole season.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_01: That taking those swings, I learned.
• 1:17:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the next year when I was in the fifth grade and we were living on an Air Force base in Turkey, I became one of the best leading hitters in our league.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I learned it through all the missed uh swings of the year before.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_03: So uh I think Dave Ruth had more home runs than anybody else, but he had more strikeouts than anybody else, too.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think I think God wants us to learn through our mistakes, and uh, but he wants us to have victories.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now the next thing that Jesus says is verse 16 whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance, so they will be noticed by men when they're fasting.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
• 1:18:37
  SPEAKER_03: But by the way, hold on, hold on just a second.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't say if you fast.
• 1:18:41
  SPEAKER_03: What does he say when?
• 1:18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:18:44
  SPEAKER_01: The next line, verse 17, but you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees you what is done in secret will reward you.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, fasting is beneficial for taking our minds off of our earthly needs and placing our focus on God and receiving our needs from Him.
• 1:19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And as you point out, the key word is not if you fast, but when you fast, okay?
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been meditating on this, and there's situations that have come up in my life, and I've asked the Lord for solutions to that.
• 1:19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what happened?
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_01: After me actually teaching on this verse in uh a church in Hawaii last month, yeah, he he said, Not if but when you fast, okay?
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I've had to uh take this one uh for uh personal application.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now he goes on.
• 1:19:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's going to now give us our attitude toward material possessions.
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You want to read verse 19, 20, and 21, please?
• 1:19:55
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, 19, 20, and 21.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Lay up treasures.
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_03: We have only about uh three and a half minutes left.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Lay up your treasures in heaven.
• 1:20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth destroy, for where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_03: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so what do we think about in our idle time?
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're sitting in traffic, we're waiting in office, we're on the beach.
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_01: What do we think about?
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Our job, our wealth, our last vacation, the next vacation, our lover, our disappointments, because where our thoughts originate is from right here.
• 1:20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that indicates what our source of satisfaction is.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus goes on to say, the eye of the lamp of the body, the eye is the lamp of the body, so when your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.
• 1:20:49
  SPEAKER_01: But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
• 1:20:54
  SPEAKER_01: If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_01: So this word clear, if your eye is clear, is the word hoplos.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's translated using the eye is not seeing double when it's uh diseased.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is when the eye is seeing perfectly, it's seeing single, healthy, perfectly.
• 1:21:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is haploos.
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_01: The word bad is poneros.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's of things of an evil eye referring to evil thoughts.
• 1:21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So it whatever your filter is on viewing the events of life, you're going to come to certain conclusions.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're not seeing double, you're seeing as things are, you're going to come out with a better conclusion than if you're thinking things of evil as you view the uh events in front of you.
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says no one can serve two masters.
• 1:21:43
  SPEAKER_01: He either hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.
• 1:21:48
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve God and wealth, all right?
• 1:21:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think what we have to realize is wealth is a good thing that it comes from God.
• 1:21:57
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes the pursuit of wealth is what controls us, and it literally enslaves us.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_01: And as Paul writes to his Timothy, true godliness is contentment with itself, is great wealth, okay?
• 1:22:11
  SPEAKER_01: But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_01: For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Not money, but love of money.
• 1:22:23
  SPEAKER_01: The love of money.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So some people craving money have wandered from the true faith.
• 1:22:28
  SPEAKER_03: So pierce themselves with many sorrows.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_01: So the principle I think here is getting our focus off of God and onto our personal material possessions produces pride and fear and also anxiety.
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_01: But what the Bible teaches us is God is the one who will give us enough for our families, and that true wealth really comes from the Lord.
• 1:22:51
  SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 22 says, Reward of humility and fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life.
• 1:22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 1:22:58
  SPEAKER_03: All right, listen.
• 1:23:00
  SPEAKER_03: We're about out of time.
• 1:23:02
  SPEAKER_01: We're almost finished with this section.
• 1:23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Can we go on?
• 1:23:05
  SPEAKER_03: We're really we have like one minute left.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I think God gives wealth to those who are can handle it.
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he says in Timothy to instruct them to do good, that's the rich, be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the principle here is we are to be good stewards of what God has given us and be ready to share.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what we'll do is we'll pick up in verse 25 in our next session how we are to avoid anxiety.
• 1:23:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think of people today, everybody's out there on the internet and everybody wants to be the next billionaire.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_03: What happened to the honor of a man owning a little ice cream shop and being able to feed his family and have a nice family and live a modest life and go home at five o'clock and love his family?
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_03: You know, uh the deceitfulness of riches, watch out, uh, because it can really rob people of their lives.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, listen, I want to thank you very much, Mike Bagby, biblical historian, for being with us today.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to support us, go to www.cupoffriendship.com, order one of our three coffees.
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they are well, what's it?
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_01: What's the uh one of the three Kendridge Spirit and a hearty handshake?
• 1:24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Go to cupofriendship.com.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_03: We'd appreciate your support.
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, Mike Bagby.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
• 1:24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Nice conversation.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the coolness of the mountains of Vermont today.
• 1:24:31
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, sir.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_03: And God bless you and your family and friends.
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Bye.
• 1:24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Aloha.
• 1:24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Aloha.
• 1:24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Aloha.
• 1:24:37
  unknown: There we go.