Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 20 - True Value Over False Glory

Transcript

May 20 - True Value Over False Glory · Bible Chat Devotional

• 0:02
  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
• 0:06
  rooted in Scripture and relevant for today, May 20th.
• 0:11
  True value over false glory. Scroll through any social media
• 0:15
  feed for 5 minutes and you'll start to feel it.
• 0:18
  That quiet comparison that creeps in someone else's
• 0:22
  highlight reel, making your ordinary life feel not quite
• 0:25
  enough. Someone getting recognition for
• 0:27
  something you worked just as hard for.
• 0:30
  The temptation to cut corners, to play a role, to do whatever
• 0:34
  it takes to get ahead or fit in. Because the pressure to measure
• 0:37
  up is constant and loud. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 8
• 0:42
  offers a perspective that runs completely counter to that
• 0:45
  pressure. Better is a little with
• 0:47
  righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
• 0:51
  In other words, a small life lived with integrity is worth
• 0:55
  more than a big life built on dishonesty.
• 0:59
  That might not sound exciting, but sit with it for a second.
• 1:02
  God is saying that the quality of how you live matters
• 1:05
  infinitely more than the quantity of what you accumulate.
• 1:09
  The likes, the status, the achievements, none of it means
• 1:13
  much of the way you got there compromised who you are.
• 1:16
  Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 and 4 remind us that
• 1:21
  the battles we face aren't primarily external.
• 1:23
  They're spiritual. For though we walk in the flesh,
• 1:27
  we are not waging war according to the flesh.
• 1:31
  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have
• 1:34
  divine power to destroy strongholds.
• 1:37
  The real fight isn't about who's more popular or who has more.
• 1:41
  It's about what's happening inside you.
• 1:43
  The fear, the comparison, the pride, the need for approval.
• 1:47
  Those are strongholds, and they don't crumble through willpower
• 1:50
  alone. They crumble through the power
• 1:53
  of God access through prayer, truth, and genuine faith.
• 1:58
  And then Paul says something in Second Corinthians Chapter 11,
• 2:01
  verse 30 that flips the whole idea of success on its head.
• 2:05
  I will boast in what pertains to my weakness, not his
• 2:08
  accomplishments, not his influence, his weakness.
• 2:13
  Because that's where God's power showed up most clearly in his
• 2:16
  life. He wasn't performing for an
• 2:18
  audience or building a personal brand.
• 2:21
  He was living as a channel for something much greater than
• 2:24
  himself, and the proof of that was most visible in his
• 2:27
  limitations, not his strengths. That's deeply freeing if you let
• 2:31
  it be. You don't have to have the most,
• 2:34
  be the best, or look the most impressive.
• 2:37
  You just have to be willing to let God work through who you
• 2:40
  actually are, including the parts you'd rather hide.
• 2:43
  Your real story, your real struggles, your real character.
• 2:47
  These are not obstacles to being used by God.
• 2:50
  They're often the very things he works through most powerfully.
• 2:54
  True success, the kind that actually satisfies, the kind
• 2:58
  that lasts, the kind that God honors, isn't measured by what
• 3:01
  the world applauds. It's measured by faithfulness,
• 3:05
  by integrity in the small moments, by choosing what's
• 3:08
  right when it costs you something.
• 3:10
  That's the life God calls us to, and it's a life worth living.
• 3:14
  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
• 3:17
  reminding me that my worth and my success are found in You, not
• 3:21
  in what I own, how I look, or what people think of me.
• 3:25
  Help me to resist the pull of comparison and the temptation to
• 3:29
  cut corners just to get ahead. Teach me to live with integrity,
• 3:34
  to embrace my weaknesses as places where your power can
• 3:37
  shine, and to trust You in the battles that feel bigger than
• 3:40
  me. Let my life reflect your
• 3:43
  righteousness, not for applause, but because you are worth it.
• 3:46
  In Jesus name, Amen. What if the battles hitting your
• 3:50
  family are not random and your home can become a place where
• 3:53
  darkness loses every right to stay?
• 3:56
  The Secured Home is a powerful six book prayer series for
• 3:59
  believers who want to guard their households with biblical
• 4:02
  authority, peace and confidence in Jesus Christ.
• 4:05
  Book 1, Guarded Thresholds, fortifies every doorway, room,
• 4:10
  and entry point with prayerful protection.
• 4:13
  Book 2, Cleansed Rooms, helps reclaim spaces marked by fear,
• 4:17
  unrest, and spiritual defilement.
• 4:20
  Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes hidden access points and severs
• 4:25
  every agreement with darkness. Book 4, Broken Assignments,
• 4:29
  confronts oppression, torment, and attacks against your family.
• 4:34
  Book 5, Consecrated Walls, dedicates every space and rhythm
• 4:39
  of the home to God. Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how
• 4:43
  to maintain spiritual order, rest, and holy presence every
• 4:46
  day. Order now on Amazon or visit
• 4:49
  prayerscripts.org. Now I invite you to spend time
• 4:53
  with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
• 4:58
  Proverbs chapter 16, verse 8 World English Bible Better is a
• 5:02
  little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
• 5:06
  Second Corinthians chapters 10 to 11 World English Bible Now I,
• 5:12
  Paul myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of
• 5:15
  Christ, I, who in your presence am lowly among you, but being
• 5:19
  absent and bold toward you. Yes, I beg you, that I may not,
• 5:23
  when present, show courage with the confidence with which I
• 5:27
  intend to be bold against some who consider us to be walking
• 5:30
  according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh,
• 5:34
  we don't wage war according to the flesh.
• 5:36
  For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty
• 5:40
  before God. To the throwing down of
• 5:41
  strongholds, throwing down imaginations, and every high
• 5:46
  thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and
• 5:49
  bringing every thought into captivity.
• 5:51
  To the obedience of Christ, and being in readiness to avenge all
• 5:56
  disobedience. When your obedience is made
• 5:58
  full, do you look at things only as they appear in front of your
• 6:02
  face? If anyone trusts in himself that
• 6:05
  he is Christ, S, let him consider this again with
• 6:08
  himself, that even as he is Christ S so we also are
• 6:12
  Christ's. For even if I boast somewhat
• 6:15
  abundantly concerning our authority which the Lord gave
• 6:18
  for building you up and not for casting you down, I will not be
• 6:22
  ashamed that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my
• 6:26
  letters. For his letters, they say, are
• 6:30
  weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his
• 6:33
  speech is despised. Let such a person consider this,
• 6:38
  that what we are in Word by letters when we are absent, such
• 6:41
  are we also indeed when we are present.
• 6:44
  For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of
• 6:48
  those who commend themselves, but they themselves, measuring
• 6:52
  themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with
• 6:55
  themselves, are without understanding.
• 6:58
  But we will not boast beyond proper limits, but within the
• 7:01
  boundaries with which God appointed to us, which reach
• 7:04
  even to you. For we don't stretch ourselves
• 7:07
  too much, as though we didn't reach to you.
• 7:10
  For we came even as far as to you with the good news of
• 7:13
  Christ, not boasting beyond proper limits in other men's
• 7:17
  laborers, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be
• 7:21
  abundantly enlarged by you in our sphere of influence, so as
• 7:25
  to preach the good news even to the parts beyond you.
• 7:28
  Not to boast in what someone else has already done.
• 7:32
  But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
• 7:35
  For it isn't he who commends himself who is approved, but
• 7:38
  whom the Lord commends. I wish that you would bear with
• 7:41
  me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me, for
• 7:45
  I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy.
• 7:49
  For I married you to one husband, that I might present
• 7:52
  you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that somehow, as
• 7:57
  the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might
• 8:01
  be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
• 8:04
  For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn't
• 8:07
  preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you
• 8:11
  didn't receive, or a different good news which you didn't
• 8:14
  accept, you put up with that well enough.
• 8:18
  For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best
• 8:21
  apostles. But though I am unskilled in
• 8:23
  speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge.
• 8:27
  No, in every way. We have been revealed to you in
• 8:29
  all things. Or did I commit a sin in
• 8:32
  humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached to
• 8:36
  you God's good news free of charge?
• 8:38
  I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I
• 8:42
  might serve you. When I was present with you and
• 8:45
  was in need, I wasn't a burden on anyone, for the brothers,
• 8:49
  when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need.
• 8:53
  In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I
• 8:57
  will continue to do so as the truth of Christ is in me.
• 9:01
  No one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of
• 9:03
  Achea. Why?
• 9:06
  Because I don't love you. God knows but what I do that I
• 9:09
  will do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire
• 9:12
  an occasion that in which they boast they may be found, even as
• 9:16
  we. For such men are false apostles,
• 9:19
  deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ's apostles.
• 9:23
  And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an Angel of
• 9:26
  light. It is no great thing, therefore,
• 9:29
  if His servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness,
• 9:33
  whose end will be according to their works.
• 9:36
  I say again, Let no one think me foolish, but if so, yet receive
• 9:40
  me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
• 9:44
  That which I speak. I don't speak according to the
• 9:46
  Lord, but as in foolishness. In this confidence of boasting,
• 9:50
  seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast for
• 9:54
  you. Bear with the foolish, gladly
• 9:56
  being wise for you. Bear with a man if he brings you
• 10:00
  into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he
• 10:03
  exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
• 10:07
  I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak.
• 10:11
  Yet in whatever way anyone is bold, I speak in foolishness.
• 10:14
  I am bold also. Are they Hebrews?
• 10:16
  So am I. Are they Israelites?
• 10:18
  So am I. Are they the offspring of
• 10:21
  Abraham? So am I.
• 10:22
  Are they servants of Christ? I speak as one beside himself.
• 10:27
  I am more so in laborers, more abundantly in prisons more
• 10:31
  abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths.
• 10:34
  Often five times I received 40 stripes -1 from the Jews.
• 10:39
  Three times I was beaten with rods.
• 10:41
  Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered
• 10:44
  shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in
• 10:46
  the deep. I have been in travels often,
• 10:50
  perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my
• 10:53
  countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city,
• 10:56
  perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false
• 11:01
  brothers, in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger
• 11:04
  and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
• 11:09
  Besides those things that are outside, there is that which
• 11:12
  presses on me daily. Anxiety for all the assemblies.
• 11:16
  Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble?
• 11:20
  And I don't burn with indignation.
• 11:22
  If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my
• 11:25
  weakness. The God and Father of the Lord
• 11:29
  Jesus Christ, He who is blessed forevermore, knows that I don't
• 11:32
  lie. In Damascus, the governor under
• 11:35
  King Aretas guarded the Damascene city, desiring to
• 11:38
  arrest me. I was let down in a basket
• 11:42
  through a window by the wall and escaped his hands.
• 11:46
  Thanks for. Joining us on Bible Chat, where
• 11:49
  Scripture meets everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
• 11:53
  you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
• 11:56
  you won't miss the next conversation.
• 11:59
  Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope and
• 12:02
  walking. Daily with Jesus.