Is Faith Just About Heaven?

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Unknown

if he's the king and he's at the center, then the gospel doesn't just change where you're going to go when you die. The gospel changes how you live in his kingdom while you're still here on earth, right? Changes everything, right? And that's where we step out of being tiny Christians into being that full force soldiers of Christ that he made us to be.

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Unknown

You

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Unknown

Hey, Chris. Hey, Jeff. We're back. We are finally back. Oh, man. It's been a while. It's been actually, I think close

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Unknown

to nine months. Nine months. I thought about that. So how's the new baby? You. Are you guys happy? Well, as soon as he was this maternity leave. Susie's going away for nine months to be with family on the other side of the state.

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Unknown

And she'll be back. Yeah. Yeah. So we birthed a brand new podcast format. Yes. We did. Look at this. A new studio in nine months. So cool. Very appropriate. Yeah, yeah. The nine month mark. I'm super excited about it. It took way longer than I thought it was going to take. Yes. And I think that all of our listeners would probably agree with that.

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Unknown

So let's just go for all of our long time listeners. Yes. We're back. What made Chris mad? That made Chris. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Right. It did. Oh my goodness. It was crazy. So we we wound up redoing. We have the new studio, we have a new format. We're going to go with a longer format so we can really linger.

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Unknown

And we were just talking about it. I'm super excited because it's more minutes. Yes. More minutes. Give me more minutes. I got lots of stuff I want to say. For those of you who attend Heritage Church, giving Jeff more minutes and no stop time necessarily is a dangerous thing. Yeah, well, no, it's not dangerous. It's just all bonus material.

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Unknown

Do you imagine how wonderful this is going to be? Danger, danger. Yeah, yeah. So I'm excited about it. So what did you do for nine months? You know, same old, same old, same old. No no no no. I would say, you know, a lot has happened in my personal life. My daughter's preparing for a wedding.

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Unknown

Wow. All that stuff's happening behind the scenes. Yeah. Right. Which basically means going broke to go broke. I was going to say. Which basically means. Hey, dad, can you give me the wedding credit card? Right. And so we're going to build up those points on that thing. So my daughter got married. Oh, yes. Yes. Months and months a month ago.

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Unknown

And now my, my middle son and his wife are expecting our fourth grandbaby. Wow. And then my daughter and her husband, they got right to it. And they're expecting our fifth grandbaby a month apart. Got right to it. Yeah. They did. I wonder what causes that. Hey, I'm six weeks older than you, and I'm waiting on my first grandbaby, so you know it'll come.

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Unknown

Hey, tell your kids chop chop, chop chop. That's right. Yeah. Maybe they. Maybe they don't know what that causes. That I don't know. Yeah. Hey, I have them come over, and I'll. I'll explain it to them, I guess. Yeah. With crayons? Yeah. That's crazy. So, Hey, I'm just glad to be back. It's been so long. Yes.

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Unknown

Our listeners have been patient, and that's been great. And let's not forget, hopefully we have some new listeners. Yes. Right. All the new ones. Yes. And so if you're brave. You. Both of you. Thank you for joining us today, the new listeners. That's great. If you if you are brand new. My name is Chris. This is Jeff.

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Unknown

And we are the Bible guys. And we're just a couple of friends who like to talk about the Bible and fun and practical ways. So while we're both pastors, we really don't think of this show as a or this podcast as a, you know, pastor to pastor kind of thing. It's just we talk about the Bible in practical ways.

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Unknown

Well, to be honest with you, it's the one thing that, convinced me to do what I do for a living, which was when I was growing up, I, I was, I was a part of church where the Bible didn't make sense. It wasn't relevant. It was distant. And it was not explained in a practical way. And then I went to a church where all of that happened in such an unbelievably captive way.

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Unknown

And I realized only then and there that the Bible is meant for life application. Yeah. And so, you know, every time God's Word is delivered, it's supposed to be for life change and life application. And so unless it's practically explained and there's a practical application you thought you'd think, well, okay, what good does that do? You know, like so what does that mean on Monday morning.

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Unknown

Right. And so anyway, that's legitimately the reason why I decided to become a pastor. Well, I think that's a perfect segue into the conversation that we're having today. That was brilliant, because I don't think you planned it that way. No, I didn't. But we're talking about the gospel. And I think sometimes with the churchy words and the churchy way, we we all tend to approach these kinds of things.

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Unknown

We can kind of make the gospel convoluted a little bit. So let me start off asking you this. When Jesus and the apostles talked about the gospel. What did they actually mean? And how do you think that's different from how a lot of us talk about the gospel today? Well, I think I think the answer to this question is very much based on how you were raised.

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Unknown

Oh, yeah. If you were raised number one in church, there's probably listeners right now that don't even know what the word gospel means. Right. So the gospel literally means good news. Good news. That's what it means. Right. And so but in the traditional church sense. You know, depending again on how you were raised, what does the gospel mean?

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Unknown

Well, you know, when I was younger and I was going, I was bobbing around to different denominations. Yes. My my my wife or not? My wife. My my mother. And and then also my friend's mom. They would take us to different I mean, I, I jumped in and out of all sorts of denominations. I wouldn't have I wouldn't have even known what the gospel was.

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Unknown

But then when I got saved and when I became a Christian for the first time in my particular denomination, you were trained to share the gospel very much. Trains. Have you ever remembered David Wood? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That that's that was us. Share the gospel. Yeah. Yes. And in that version, that's kind of what I grew up with.

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Unknown

That version was right. You're a sinner. Jesus died for your sins. Yes. Ask him into your heart and you get to go to heaven when you die. That's it. And I thought that was the whole gospel. That's it. And you could all be summarized and attract. Yeah. Right. And you and you would leave a track on a, on a, on a in a bathroom stall or on a, on a table when you ate dinner.

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Unknown

Yeah. Right. So that's that's, that that was that's what I believe most people believe. What the gospel is, is, is sharing those things. You're a sinner. Jesus died. Accept him into your heart and you'll go to heaven. Right. Those things. And and and I think that's certainly part of the Christian message is certainly part of the gospel, but it's not what the it's not the whole totality of the gospel.

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Unknown

Right. I don't even know that in the this episode we'll be able to cover it all. But I do want to expand. Maybe. Yeah. What have you learned more about the gospel now compared to where it was at the very beginning when you first came to faith in Jesus? Yeah. So so before we tackle into it, it'd be helpful to identify what we believe the problem is.

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Unknown

And the problem is we think when people think of the word gospel, they think of it as just that. Yeah. And it's and it's bigger than that. What we're saying is in the scriptures, when they were talking about the gospel, they weren't just meaning those four facts. Right, right. So so I always had this sense, honestly, I had the sense of when I was younger.

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Unknown

You're sinner. Trust Jesus, you get to go to heaven. One, two, three. Pray after me to da. You're on your way to heaven. You got some fire insurance. Now just keep going and doing whatever you want to do. Right? Right. And that's not exactly what Jesus brought to us. Is it right? No, not at all. No. Because the gospel was the good news was the promise of the Messiah.

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Unknown

So John the Baptist comes along. And what does he say? Hey, the Messiah is coming. You know, the kingdom of heaven is almost here, but it's not quite here yet. But it's coming. And John the Baptist is the forerunner of Christ. That was his job description, right? Right. He was Jesus's cousin. He was born six months before Jesus was.

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Unknown

And so, you know, we're assuming that maybe he preached the message for six months. I don't know, maybe maybe they maybe they had a start time six months apart. On your mark, get set. Go. When you reach this age, I do know that that John the Baptist was way more famous than Jesus at the beginning. Oh for sure, he was the only one famous.

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Unknown

And he was like a wild man, man. He's wearing like, leather and and camel hair, and he's eating locusts and he's honey Turner burn kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Out in the out in the desert. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. And by the way, I think that that's fascinating because it says that people showed up in droves.

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Unknown

Yeah. And who is this man in the wilderness who's baptizing everybody? And by the way, did you know that John Baptist, John the Baptist was the first person to baptize somebody else? The Bible in the in the Bible? Sure. Because the history of baptism was a self-cleaning ritual. So if you were in the Old Testament and you decided to become a Christian, there were several things you had to do.

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Unknown

Or if you decided to follow Yahweh, if you decided to believe in the God of the Old Testament, you know, and Israelite become an Israelite. You know, you had to have surgery if you were a man. Yes. Yeah. That's a hard sell. Hey, hey. And that's all I have to say about that. Okay. And then, you know, you had to do all these different things.

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Unknown

And one of the things that was required was a self cleaning ritual. Right. And that's really where baptism stems from. And it was really a symbol, symbol of saying, I wash off my old beliefs and I wash off the person I used to be. And I now have cleansed myself of those things because I now adhere to this new set of beliefs and devotion.

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Unknown

Right? Right. Well, John the Baptist comes along and he is the first person recorded to ever baptize somebody else. So he's out there. Turn from your sins. Yeah. To God. And then he was baptizing them, and people were coming out in droves to get baptized by John. Well, and that's the reason why it's so interesting. Because the Bible describes him as this wild man.

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Unknown

Right. And so he's living in the woods. You know, he's only got a couple. You know, he's got, like a one cloak, probably, you know, one garment. Right. And he's. And he's living off the land. And it says that he's scruffy and and he's got this message, but everybody. I believe, felt the power in his words. You know, there's power and truth.

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Unknown

Right? Right. He was he was ordained by God. Commissioned by God. Right. And, and, I'm trying to remember his dad's name. Z. Z? What is it? Zachary. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, Zechariah, you know, he he he didn't believe that his name should be called John. And so he was struck. He couldn't speak dumb, I guess.

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Unknown

I guess dumb is I didn't want to say the word dumb because I always thought that was weird. Right? But, but but yeah, he couldn't. The technical term, I think so. Yeah, I think you're right. But but but he couldn't speak. And and there's power in the fact that God says no, no, no, this is ordained by him.

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Unknown

He's the forerunner. That was his mission. That was his job description. So anyway, all that to say, I think it's I think John the Baptist is one of the most overlooked and fascinating characters in the Bible, and he's the one that's pointing to Jesus. When Jesus comes by, he tells John, tells his own disciples, behold the Lamb of God, who's going to take away the sin of the world?

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Unknown

Later on, Jesus comes and gets baptized by John, and John goes, oh, I don't deserve even to unlatch your sandals. And Jesus says, no, do it. We're going to fulfill all righteousness. And then you start finding some of John's disciples start to follow Jesus. They leave. John. Thanks, John. We're going to follow that guy. If he's a Lamb of God, we want to follow him.

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Unknown

And don't forget, they were probably convinced by the voice of heaven. Yeah, there's that during the human world. Please. That's pretty convincing, isn't it? That's a spirit descending like a dove. I mean, I would, I would guess if I were there for that experience on this crazy, scruffy guy wearing camel hair and eating locusts. He's got locusts in his teeth.

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Unknown

And I look over at this guy, and Jesus come out of the water and a dove is descending from heaven, and God goes, that's my boy. Yeah. Thanks, John. I'm going to follow that guy, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. There is a little bit of that. Yeah. And, and, and I love the fact that Jesus humbled himself to be baptized by John.

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Unknown

And that really was the first part of his public ministry. Yeah. And he went straight into the temptation in the wilderness, by the way, which was pretty crazy way to start your ministry. But I was always fascinated by that as well. The fact that Jesus said, I want to get baptized by you, and and John's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?

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Unknown

Like like I the whole message I've been preaching is, I mean, if you think about the weight of John's words, you know, everybody had been waiting for the Messiah for hundreds of years. Thousands of years. Thousands but hundreds of prophecies. Right? Right. That's what I should say. And and so John saying he's here and and and then and then Jesus says, oh, I have to be baptized by you.

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Unknown

Wow. That's it's it's crazy. Yeah. It's so powerful. Then, like you mentioned, he goes out to be tempted. He fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. And during that time. So he's preparing to launch his ministry. He's 30. Give or take? Yeah, give or take. About 30 years old. He's a legitimate adult in in the Jewish world. In doesn't tradition state that you weren't you weren't a man until you were 30 back then?

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Unknown

Yeah. 30 is usually usually the beginning of you being able to take over. Your dad's business was kind of at 30. So then, he he he's tempted by the devil. And then we get to a, there's a couple of passages where, you know, you get the same event in different passages in the Gospels. Mark chapter one.

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Unknown

It says 14. Yeah. Verse 14. Later on, after John was arrested, John gets busted by Herod because he's preaching. Hey, quit living in sin. Herod the king. Right. Right. So he gets arrested. Jesus went into Galilee. That's the northern part of Israel where he preached God's good news. That's the gospel. Capital G capital and capital G. Capital and good news in the Greek.

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Unknown

That's you and Leon. That's it's it's a it's a good news proclamation from the king is usually what that would mean. And then here's here's what he preached. The time promised by God has come. At last he announced, the kingdom of God is near. Repent of your sins and believe the good news. That's it. Yeah, that's what a powerful moment, right?

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Unknown

That this is Jesus stepping in after his baptism where he, God puts his seal on Jesus. This is my son. After his fasting and his temptation and overcoming temptation with Satan, this power that he has, he steps out, goes to his hometown area and says, hey everybody, the good news is here. And and I love this whole repent and believe right.

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Unknown

Repent is to turn the other way. And so the actual word repent means like a 180 degree turn. Yeah. So it isn't just, you know, Jesus here, he's not died on the cross. He's not resurrected yet. He's not done any of those things. And yet he mentions good news, which is one of the first indications that the good news, of course, includes that.

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Unknown

Right? The time of the time of the good news is near. The time of heaven is near. In other words, I'm the Messiah I've come to fulfill, save humanity, reconciled to God, all the promises. But at the same time, it's much bigger than that, right? Right. Because it's repent and then believe. It's not just believe in what's about to happen.

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Unknown

It's believe that that that he holds the key to life, right? Right. That Jesus Christ is Lord and should be Lord of our lives. This goes way beyond just good advice on how to go to heaven, right? Right. It's it's the announcement that God is here and what he's going to do through Jesus Christ for all of humanity, right?

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Unknown

And that's what he's doing. So I love this because this is the first time Jesus announces, I'm here and it's all good news, the gospel. But before Jesus makes the public announcement, we can go back 30 years before 30 years plus nine months, when the angel shows up to Mary and says, we bring you good tidings, you know, glad tidings.

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Unknown

Good was a good tidings, good tidings, great joy. Joy. Yeah, right. And and then he says, his name will be Jesus, right? Emmanuel. God is with us, right? Right. And that is. That's like the first proclamation. It doesn't call it the gospel, but that's the proclamation of this is good news, and God is with us. And then Jesus says, hey, everybody, I'm here to proclaim the good news.

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Unknown

The kingdom of God is near. God is with us. Right. That's the beginning of it for us. And so basically, God's kingdom is breaking into human history in a very definitive, clear, physical way in the person of Jesus Christ. It would it be fair to say that salvation is just the beginning of the gospel, but it's one of the purposes of the gospel, right?

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Unknown

Yeah. So the good news is that God loves you, that God forgives you of your sin. And even though that you, you and I are imperfect and broken and struggle, and we live in a broken world. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins. God proved that he had power over sin and death by raising from the grave and sacrificing for since we might have a home in heaven.

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Unknown

But then beyond that, he is the Lord of our lives. Right? So so so that so that in, in, in God, in the truth of who Jesus is, then is the answer to peace. It's the answer to joy. It's the answer to contentment. It's the answer to identity. It's the answer to, you know. Blessing. It's a it's the answer to abundant life.

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Unknown

It's the answer to anything that matters. Eternal significance. It's all those things. Yeah. So it's it's so the gospel itself starts with the fact that God's invitation is to reconcile with him. And then once we are reconciled with God the Father, then we then find the key to life, not just in this life, but then in the afterlife.

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Unknown

Right? Right. Because. Because after all, eternity begins the moment you become a Christian. Eternity begins now. For for us who are eternal beings. Right. Everybody lives forever. Somewhere. And so I should say, eternity with God begins now. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So. Well, I'm looking forward to this because we're going to unpack all of that. Yeah. Because you said, like, a ton.

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Unknown

Yes. We'll unpack that over the next few minutes. You know, I love the Life Application Study Bible, and they don't sponsor us or anything like that. But they should. Tyndale should? They should. But I love it. Hey, Mr. Tyndale. And we. And we're always recommending it. And I love the note for this. Right. So if you don't know how a study Bible works, you should get one.

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Unknown

And it basically you have scriptures all up on the top and there'll be a little note. Hey, you really like verse 14. Here's some thoughts about verse 14. Right. And so they're in 14 and 15. It says what is the good news. These first words spoken by Jesus in the book of Mark give the core of his teaching.

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Unknown

And then it's this that the long awaited Messiah, the Promised One, has come to begin God's personal reign on earth. Many of the people who've heard this message since Jesus came have been oppressed and poor and struggling to make ends meet and without hope. And Jesus words are good news because they offer freedom and spiritual blessings, and most importantly, the promise of eternal life.

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Unknown

In a perfect world where justice and peace prevail. Which is a great way to say what you just said. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hey you could have written that note Chris. I could have. Yes. We don't need this one. Which by the way the, the people who've, who write these notes are way smarter than us. Yeah. Right.

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Unknown

We don't pretend to be theologians. No no, no. They they they really do. They go. They go through. I mean, this is this doesn't just come from one author. Right. Right. When they when they make a life application study Bible, it is a painstaking process of theologians all coming together to. I mean, I bet you took years to come up with this, right?

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Unknown

Sure. Probably so it's fantastic. Yeah. You know, like I mentioned earlier, this idea of Jesus showing up and announcing the good news happens in multiple books. Yes. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four gospels in the New Testament. Each of those guys, they very creative titles, they named them after themselves. John goes, this is my gospel.

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Unknown

Luke writes, this is my gospel, Matthew. That's my gospel, Mark. That's my gospel. So they're named after the authors. And, so Mark is the shortest gospel. All four gospels tell the history of Jesus. They tell the story. It is about 16, 16 chapters. Yeah, it's pretty short. And he goes, and then this happened, and then this happened.

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Unknown

And then I loved The Book of Mark because I there's not any wasted time at all. He just goes bang! Not there's any wasted verses in the Bible, but you know what I mean. He just goes, this happened and this happened and this happened and this happened. What do you think is my favorite gospel? John, it's all feelings.

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Unknown

It's all feelings. No, but he says things nobody else will. Yeah. He does. He writes stuff. Nobody else. He's like. He's like, I won the race. Yeah, but John's all love, love, love, love love love. Yeah, yeah. Which one do you think is my favorite? I would say Matthew. Luke. Is it Luke? Yeah, yeah. Oh, because he's the doctor.

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Unknown

I love his precision. Yes, he's the doctor. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. That's right. So the next one that shows up is in Jesus does the same announcement. You know, I was thinking Luke and I said, Matthew. Yeah, that's okay because because Matthew wrote you had a 25% chance. No. Matthew wrote to the Jews. Right? Right. And Luke wrote to the Greeks.

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Unknown

Right? Right. He wrote to the the, the Gentiles, the intellects. Yeah. And and he was a doctor. So he had great precision, really intellect with anybody writing to the intellects. That's that's that's how it works. Well. Come on. Hey. Let me. Can I read another passage? Oh, yeah. I was going to go to chapter four of Luke. Oh, is that what you're going?

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Unknown

No no no no no no. I was just going to go on the notes here. There's a bunch of passages. Oh, sure. I just I just picked one. But what I wanted to do is do the parallel, because in Luke chapter four he expands. You're saying, man quite a bit. Okay. So, you remember in In Market said that right after John gets arrested, Jesus goes back to Galilee.

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Unknown

Yep. And then I said, Jesus went back to his hometown. Remember that? That's what I said. And it's because of this. It says in verse 14 of Luke chapter four. Same timeline, same event. It says, Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

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Unknown

And when he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read the scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

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Unknown

He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released. That the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. And he rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, sat down. All eyes in the synagogue, looked at him intently, and then he began to speak to them.

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Unknown

The scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day. Yeah. The Bible says everyone spoke well of him, was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. How can this be? They asked, isn't this Joseph's son? Yeah, yeah. Isn't that great? And then it goes on to say that they got so angry at him that they pushed him toward a cliff.

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Unknown

Yeah. And they were going to throw him off a cliff. Yeah. So first of all, like, man, that was great. And they go, hey, wait a minute. Yeah. He just was claiming to be God there. Right. And they decided they wanted to kill him. And he actually says that a prophet receives no honor in his hometown. That's right.

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Unknown

He goes on to say that that's also this this passage as well. And you know, what's so interesting about this is I try to imagine the circumstances surrounding how this came about. Like in other words, Jesus is gaining momentum. He is causing a buzz, and he comes back to his hometown and they're like, hey, he's sort of become a celebrity.

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Unknown

They grew up with him. You know, this is this is Jesus who played hide and seek or something. I'm sure, with people literally in that very room. Yeah. And so they honor him by saying, read the scrolls, read the scriptures. Right. Read any in that scripture that you wrote was actually from Isaiah chapter 61. Right. So he reads Isaiah.

Isaiah 61 · chapter mention

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Unknown

So think about this 700 something plus years ago, Isaiah was written before this time. Right. And Jesus reads it and then says, guess what? The fulfillment is here right now in he's the fulfillment. I'm the fulfillment. Yeah. And they're like, isn't this Joseph's son? What are you talking about? And and and so then they seek to kill him because, again, they're not ready for the gospel, right?

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Unknown

That's right. They're not ready for the good news. And the good news is he's like, no, I'm here. And so he makes the statement and says, the prophet has no honor his hometown. Hey, let me ask you this. Have you ever experienced that? The prophet has no honor. Oh, yeah. His hometown? Absolutely. So? So, you know. So here you're, you know, you passed your heritage church.

00;25;07;23 - 00;25;25;28

Unknown

So you are a lead pastor. Sure. So people here recognize you as Jeff Forrester or lead pastor, but you go home in your hometown and you're just Jeffy. Well, so I was I was not an easy student in school. Okay. Is it a polite way to say boys and girls? You should. You should be nice to your teachers.

00;25;26;04 - 00;25;50;26

Unknown

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So I had a third grade teacher who couldn't stand me. Like, she. She verbalized third grade quite early. Yeah, yeah. Way to go. She had verbalized that. Well, then years later, I'm pastoring heritage. And, you know, it turned into a big church and all these things. And I was at an airport and I was flying out, and I ran into her and she had retired, but she recognized I didn't recognize her, but she recognized me.

00;25;50;26 - 00;26;12;15

Unknown

She goes, excuse me, are you Jeff Foster? And I said, yes, I miss Tucker. And she said, yeah. And I immediately said, listen, I am so sorry for how I treated you, right? I was a terrible kid and in school, and most of it was just my ADHD. It wasn't that I meant to be bad, it was that all the other kids would take an hour.

00;26;12;17 - 00;26;25;14

Unknown

Blame it on science. It would take all the other kids, you know, 30 minutes to do seat work. And I get it on a five minutes and I get up. Want to go help everybody else around? Yeah. Yeah. Problem. Right. But I was always in trouble because she had strict rules. Anyway, she says, so what are you doing now?

00;26;25;17 - 00;26;45;15

Unknown

And I said, oh, I'm a pastor. And she looked like she's going to swallow her dentures. I promise you, she's like, what? You're a what? What did you say? I said, I'm a pastor. I pastor church in Southeast Michigan. Yeah. She goes of all the people. Right, right, right. A prophet has no honor. There is no way you're a pastor, right?

00;26;45;16 - 00;27;00;27

Unknown

Like she said of a Christian church, when I. When I listen, when I experienced the same thing, I've written a childhood friends. I explained to them that our church was large and and, you know, at the time, my campus had like 4500 people on a Sunday or something. And I and I was, you know, they were asking about it.

00;27;00;27 - 00;27;21;13

Unknown

So I told them and and then he looked at me, this kid who was a childhood friend. And here's here's his next question. He goes, so on Sunday morning, like, who gets up and talks? And I said, me. And he goes, and people still come about the Bible. Yeah it's right. People still come right. Like like I like he just could not believe.

00;27;21;15 - 00;27;42;28

Unknown

Do they know who you are? Right. Right. So, yeah, it's a universal truth, isn't it? I think that every person experiences this in one way, shape or form. Right. Like, you don't have any honor in your hometown. You have more honor when you go to a place where nobody knows you, and they see you for who you truly are in that moment because you've sort of evolved, grown up.

00;27;43;00 - 00;28;00;12

Unknown

You've grown up, you've you've changed all those things, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, they they would have watched Jesus if it was modern times. They would have watched him, you know, learned how to walk and learn how to ride his bike. Right. Right. See him on the middle school football team if they had bikes? Yeah. Learn how to shoot free throws.

00;28;00;14 - 00;28;25;10

Unknown

You know, all that stuff. It would have been. That's how they think of him as is. You know, they thought of me as little Jeffy. Right. Right. Right. So anyways. But there is a difference here. So this is the same story. It's just. Mark says it in two sentences and Luke says it in 20 sentences. So Mark gets up and says that Jesus gets up in in town and goes, hey, I'm here to declare the good news.

00;28;25;10 - 00;28;45;21

Unknown

The kingdom of God is near. Repent of your sins and turn to God. Right? That's the core. Jesus says it in Luke. It says even more. He reads, so he's ruining it in God's word. Right. And and he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And that's kind of a declaration, because they weren't always talking about the Holy Spirit back then.

00;28;45;22 - 00;29;03;23

Unknown

They didn't think about the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. No, not a lot. So when he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he he they're hearing, God has come down on to me. Right. That's what they're hearing. And that was the surprise. They're like, wait a minute. That's only the Messiah. That's that's God himself on the planet.

00;29;03;24 - 00;29;27;10

Unknown

What are you talking about? That was a surprise to them. And then he says he's anointed me, anointed me, is chosen me. That that's. You know, they would anoint a king, right? Right. He's chosen me to bring the good news. To who? To whom? Right. The poor. He sent me to. To proclaim. The captives will be released. The blind will see that the oppressed will be set free.

00;29;27;16 - 00;29;50;23

Unknown

That the time of the Lord's favor has come. That's the kingdom of God is near. The time of the Lord's favor has come. Kingdom of God is near. And so all those things the, the, the poor are going to be addressed. The captives will be released. The blind will see. The oppressed will be set free. How they believe God in repent of their sins, turn to him because the kingdom of heaven is here.

00;29;50;24 - 00;30;11;27

Unknown

Right. So. And and by their faith and a lot of cases, they're healed, right? A lot of cases the blind will see. That's that's an indication that something miraculous will happen. Right. You know, the captives be released. That that sounds like it's symbolic for sin, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. It's not just people will be released from jail.

00;30;11;29 - 00;30;30;13

Unknown

Right? Right. Right. It's it's it's it's. We're all bound. The Bible says we're bound in our sin. We're dead in our sin. He came to set the. He set the captives free. He came to bring us back to life again. That's. That's what he's talking about, which goes beyond just salvation. Yeah. Which which is. And you and I exchanged some texts this morning about this topic.

00;30;30;14 - 00;30;49;04

Unknown

Yes. The fact that this is before the crucifixion and resurrection, he's already declaring the gospel. But you and I had rooted early on in our life. The gospel is. You're a sinner. Jesus paid the price for your sins. Asking one, two three. Pray after me. Ask him to come into your heart and you get to go to heaven.

00;30;49;06 - 00;31;11;12

Unknown

And Jesus is declaring the gospel before the crucifixion, before the resurrection. And that's pretty profound. Hey, do you remember going to bigger than just that? For sure it is. Do you remember going to Cuba when we led people to Christ? Door to door? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was great. Yeah. So one of the first trips, in fact, it was sort of the trip where you first mentioned, hey, we should probably work together.

00;31;11;15 - 00;31;24;26

Unknown

Remember? Yeah. That was like we were in Havana, and I was like. I was like, over 20 years ago. Yeah, it was a long time ago. Yeah. And, and, But anyway, I remember, I remember how many people were on that first trip. Maybe a dozen. Yeah, maybe. Maybe more at the most. Okay. Okay. It doesn't.

00;31;24;28 - 00;31;45;15

Unknown

And it would end up happening. Was the island of Cuba is like 12 million people, and the gospel was allowed to be shared. But only in homes. Not right, only in homes. So, so the the church is there, which were house churches. They did like preliminary work of saying like, hey, some Americans are coming. Would you allow them to come visit your home?

00;31;45;16 - 00;32;02;03

Unknown

And of course, you know, the history of Cuba is like Americans right there. Like they're like the, you know, shiny nickel. It's like, wow. And Americans come. Yeah. They were very curious about how we felt about Cuba. Yes. Our life was. Yes. And, of course, I was very curious about them. How did they feel about. Yes. And so it's really cool.

00;32;02;03 - 00;32;19;14

Unknown

They would invite us into their homes. Yes. And so that was, that was sort of like it was sort of like their way of saying like, yeah, we're going to have somebody, of course, this American coming to my home. So what we would do then is we'd have all these home invitations and we would go into these homes, and then we would give the gospel, well, tell me your training didn't kick in.

00;32;19;15 - 00;32;36;22

Unknown

Right. So it's just like it's your training growing up. It's like, this is how you share the gospel. Yeah. Right. So, so so, you know, if they ask the question I remember David would taught me to say, that's a great question. But instead of going off on a tangent, let's take that question. Let's say let's side. Yeah. And how about when we're done.

00;32;36;24 - 00;32;52;10

Unknown

How about we address that question if your mind me later. If you remind me later I'll try to address. And then David would said, nine times out of ten that question won't even come up again. Yeah. Right. It's usually just a distraction. It's a distraction. So so it's like. So all that training of sharing the good news was there in.

00;32;52;13 - 00;33;15;00

Unknown

So so consequently at the end of the day they would say, man, you know, these people led ten people to Christ. Jeff led 23 people to Christ. And then Chris led usually 24. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just you mean me? You mean you see the difference? Yeah. No, I'm pretty sure it was like 34 and 24, but that's okay.

00;33;15;01 - 00;33;35;07

Unknown

Yeah. That's okay. But yeah, there is this. And there's value. Man alive. We are not minimizing the value of learning how to explain to somebody. No, not at all. How how do you have your sins forgiven? How do you go to heaven when you die? As a matter of fact, multiple times in the book of acts, they would come to the preachers, whether it was Paul or Peter, and say, what must I do to be saved?

00;33;35;09 - 00;33;54;19

Unknown

Right. So, man, you need to have an answer. Be ready with an answer for the the hope that you have. Right. First Peter 315. That's right. So those are incredibly important. Learning how to explain the finished work of the cross is important. Now we're talking here right now. Jesus is talking about the good news, the gospel before the finished work.

00;33;54;21 - 00;34;24;11

Unknown

Now, what is he doing? Is he's establishing. God is with us. And that begins this kingdom of God on earth kind of thing. Right. And this is why he teaches us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right? He it's it's that God is here with us. And so whatever the gospel means, Jesus apparently believed it could be proclaimed before anyone knew about the substitutionary atonement or the or the Romans.

00;34;24;11 - 00;34;49;00

Unknown

Road, right? The resurrection or the Romans Road. Or an altar call. It's bigger than that. It's beyond that, although all of those pieces are important. So we can start off on a on a simple level, understanding there's good news and it's in Jesus. And that's the beginning. And then for the rest of our Christian life, we grow into all the theological pieces of it.

00;34;49;01 - 00;35;08;27

Unknown

Right. And and that's what I love about the fact that Jesus introduces it before it's finished rather than after it's finished. And that's pretty cool. So anyways, you were going you were going to take us somewhere on that? Yeah, I was going to ten minutes ago. I was going to read from first Corinthians 15. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

00;35;08;28 - 00;35;34;03

Unknown

Okay, great. First Corinthians 15. Yeah. First Corinthians 15 is probably one of the scriptures clearest gospel summaries explaining the gospel. Paul writing, I'm having a hard time seeing. I'm so old. Oh, so old I am. Why are you so old? Why are you so old? Okay, here it is. So it says. Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters of the good news.

00;35;34;03 - 00;35;52;12

Unknown

Capital G, capital N I preached to you before. Now, this is Paul, by the way, writing about the good news of the gospel to the church of Corinth. Okay. Yes. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is the good news that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you.

00;35;52;12 - 00;36;13;22

Unknown

Unless, of course, you believe something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scripture said. He was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the scriptures said, he was seen by Peter and then by the 12.

00;36;13;22 - 00;36;34;08

Unknown

And then after that he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. Then he was seen by James, and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him, for I am the least of all the apostles.

00;36;34;09 - 00;36;55;25

Unknown

In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I was persecuted, after the way I persecuted God's church, then. Oh, that's it. That's that's where I wanted to read to. So, So, yeah. So he very clearly mentions the good news, which means gospel, right? Twice. And then what does he do? He talks about Jesus death, burial and resurrection.

00;36;55;27 - 00;37;19;07

Unknown

And then and then he is seen by his followers, meaning he is risen and he has changed lives. That's right. Yep. Which, which? This is the basic summary of the salvation side of the gospel. Yes. Right. How do you have your sins forgiven? It was incredibly complex for God to work all this out, but it's extraordinarily simple for you and me to be able to approach it.

00;37;19;07 - 00;37;41;19

Unknown

This is why it's good news, right? God did all the heavy lifting with regard to how to solve the sin problem. But and so we're establishing sin like everybody understands and believes that. So we're going to talk in our next episode actually we're going to talk about how little preview Jeff. We're going to talk about how it all went sideways.

00;37;41;21 - 00;37;59;10

Unknown

Right. Right. God made everything perfect where it's come from. Why is it all broken? Why do I is it that when I look at the world today, it doesn't look perfect? And God said it. It. And it was that sin moment. The sin broke everything and it broke us. And we died in our sin and we were separated from our God spiritually.

00;37;59;11 - 00;38;13;27

Unknown

Wow. In this moment, you're really hooking people for the next episode. So? So I'm excited about that. That's what we're gonna talk about. Well, then which which, by the way, remind me to tell you what made Chris mad about hooks. Yeah. Okay. Keep going. Okay. Oh, man, I want to know. All right, I'll just. You want me just break and tell you?

00;38;14;02 - 00;38;31;22

Unknown

Just tell me now, okay? So, so listen, I you want to know what made Chris mad? Which, by the way, if you were a long time, faithful listener of the Bible guys. Yeah. You know that this was sort of a segment that we did, right? Yeah. In our archives, there's like 800 episodes. Yes, yes. And every once in a while we would do the segment on this.

00;38;31;23 - 00;38;53;21

Unknown

Right, Chris mad. This would make Chris man. Well, anyway, I, I, you and I talked about this this morning, but you were you were hooking people for the next, you know, podcast, right? I just recently came across this thing and I've just made a conscious decision. First of all, a couple things. Number one, I, I don't want to use the word hate.

00;38;53;21 - 00;39;16;09

Unknown

I'm hesitating because I despise, despise. Thank you guys. Thank you. I despise when somebody tries to hook me by insulting me and making a bad assumption. Yes. Yeah. So it says like, six things you never knew about the movie. Marvel's endgame. Six things you never knew. I'm like, number one, you're you're swimming. Number two, you're insulting me, right?

00;39;16;10 - 00;39;31;11

Unknown

Because chances are, if I take the time to listen to this, I knew five out of six. That's right. Right. So don't tell me what I. They don't know. Don't know. You don't know what I know and don't know. That's right. So why are you insulting me? Well, I would never insult you when I'm setting the hook. But there's more.

00;39;31;15 - 00;39;51;25

Unknown

There's more. Yeah. So here's here's here's what I've decided. Okay. I literally was interested because I was going through, I don't know what it was Instagram Reels or something. And it actually said six Secrets to Marriage. Now we're we're in a family series right now that's of interest. And that is of interest, right? And I thought, oh, I want to know these six secrets of marriage.

00;39;51;25 - 00;40;09;05

Unknown

Right. And then it paused the skies on the beach. You know, he's like reflecting it's a six secretive marriage and it's a guy something like, okay, this must be from a guy's point of view. And then after, like, a second too long. Another thing comes up and it says. And number six will blow you away. I hate that, too.

00;40;09;10 - 00;40;24;04

Unknown

And I thought to myself. So guess what? Guess what? I, I scroll past and I said, I guess I'll never know because I'm never I'm not going to do it right. Number six will blow you away. Now all of a sudden, you're revealing to me why you're creating this list. You want me to go all the way to the end?

00;40;24;05 - 00;40;38;19

Unknown

Oh, the way to the end. The clicks. And chances are you're going to drag it out. Yeah. You're not going to give me six things. You're going to. You're going to expand and participate to get views. And I don't want it. I do not want it. So I will never know those six things ever. Okay. So on purpose.

00;40;38;20 - 00;40;54;25

Unknown

Well, I hope you didn't feel like that's what I did. All I was saying is no, no, no, not at all. In next week's. You gave a good hook in next week's podcast. Thank you Jeff. Talk about how it all went sideways, hooking us well. But Jesus came to solve our sin problem because our sin separates us from our God.

00;40;54;27 - 00;41;17;21

Unknown

Not that God pushed us away. The book of Isaiah says that we pushed him away. You know what? You had me. Hello. I did it right. So because of that, then Paul is saying, if sin is the problem. Yes. God's primary goal in restoring our relationship is he has to solve the sin problem. And our problem is we can't do it.

00;41;17;22 - 00;41;46;01

Unknown

We can't solve our sin problem. Right? But he can. You know what I think? I think the best, greatest gifts that we have in the Bible is the book of Hebrews. Hebrews? Don't you? Don't you agree? Oh, yeah. Big fan. I'm a big fan of the book of Hebrews. That's one of my favorites, by the way, for those of you, for those of you who are new listeners, perhaps on our very first inaugural, a new format launch episode of The Bible guys, you must know that Jeff's go to saying is big fan.

00;41;46;01 - 00;42;05;09

Unknown

I'm a big fan. Yeah. And anything in the Bible and in other words and another go to saying of his is, oh, this is my favorite, one of my favorite. Yeah, this is one of my favorites. And I, we actually just said this Sunday, didn't we? This past Sunday, if you're listening in real time. Just on Sunday, we're on the stage and we're reading from what, first Kings 19 or something.

00;42;05;10 - 00;42;20;12

Unknown

And Jessica goes, oh, this is one of my favorites. And I started laughing because I, I remember when I first met you, you said, oh, this is my favorite. I thought, oh, I took note of it. And I said, oh, this, you know, Psalm, whatever it is, whatever it is, is his favorite. And then then you said, oh, this is one of my favorites.

00;42;20;12 - 00;42;37;00

Unknown

And I thought, oh, he also likes this. Wow. We've come across two things that are his favorites. And then after like the ninth time, I'm like, oh, everything's his favorite. My favorite. I love the Bible. Yeah, I like it. Which means. Which means nothing is your favorite. It's all my favorite. Yeah. So if it's all your favorite, there's millions of books and there's nothing.

00;42;37;01 - 00;42;53;25

Unknown

Save this one a lot. Yeah. That's it. Okay. So if it's all your favorite, then. Then you don't have a favorite. You have a favorite food. I do. Yeah. What is it? Barbecue. Yeah. Barbecue. I like right. So. So I knew that. So that is your favorite. And I knew if I have three pieces of, well, whatever, three meals.

00;42;53;27 - 00;43;06;21

Unknown

And I know that you will probably choose the barbecue. Yeah, sure. Right. Sure. But but you're going to choose any part of there's, there's if there's, there's three books on the, on the table and the Bible sitting there, that's going to be my favorite. I could say, let's read from Zechariah and you go, oh, that's one of my favorites.

00;43;06;22 - 00;43;29;11

Unknown

Oh, it's one of my favorites. So let me get back to this, because this is what I wanted to to really highlight today. Jesus gets up and announces, hey everybody. The good news is here. And it's my job to tell you the Kingdom of God has arrived, right? Is arriving. And in the end, you're going to need to repent of your sins and believe in God.

00;43;29;16 - 00;43;46;09

Unknown

Yeah. In Luke, he expands that and says, man, this is for not just the elites. It's not just the super religious. This is for the poor. This is for the ones that feel like they're imprisoned. This is the ones that feel like there's no hope for them. I'm here to tell you the Spirit of God is on me to set you free.

00;43;46;12 - 00;44;04;14

Unknown

Right. That's what it is. So how do I get set free? By repenting in my sins and believing in God. But what I love about Paul. So Paul comes in in first Corinthians 15 and he goes, let me clarify for you how it all wraps up. This is after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. And he's pointing out.

00;44;04;15 - 00;44;26;17

Unknown

Listen, Jesus, and we know this in first Corinthians 11, that his blood paid the price for our sin on the cross. That's right. His body took the punishment for our sin on the cross. All of God's justice is resolved on that day. And then three days later, he rose again, defeating death and sin and hell in the grave.

00;44;26;17 - 00;44;46;29

Unknown

First Corinthians 15 talks about that later on, right at the end of the chapter and in the middle. Here he goes. Listen, it's all rooted in history, in a time and a place. Jesus did arrive. He did die, and he paid the price for sin. And he was buried, and he rose again. And all these witnesses saw him.

00;44;47;04 - 00;45;12;18

Unknown

Right. So. So this isn't just an argument. About over 500 eye witnesses saw him. Peter saw him. James saw him. 500 more saw him, I saw him. Paul says. And so the gospel is rooted in events, not just ideas or religious fuzzy religious feelings. The sin happened in an event. You and I were born in an event. We were born in our sin.

00;45;12;20 - 00;45;31;13

Unknown

Jesus showed up on this earth. God himself in the flesh. That was an event. The angel said, I'm bringing you good news. That's going to be for all the people. And then in an event, Jesus says, I'm here to introduce the good news of the gospel. And then he paid the price for our sin. He took the punishment for our sin.

00;45;31;14 - 00;45;50;03

Unknown

He rose again, defeating death and sin and Helen the grave. And then he proved it by appearing to all the people before he sent it back to heaven. And so Paul is saying, listen, this is something you can you can really sink your teeth into because it's all real. It actually happened. It's not just some kind of ethereal religious thing people talk about.

00;45;50;04 - 00;46;10;05

Unknown

It's rooted in the history. And so this is one of the things I love about the gospel is it's not just a religious belief system. Right. About here's if you think these things, you get to go to heaven. It's God came establishing his kingdom. And here's how it happened. Yeah. So the heart of the gospel are events in the heart of Christianity.

00;46;10;06 - 00;46;31;25

Unknown

Are events grounded in history? Right. And what's important to understand is those events were the answer to the entire Old Testament. That's right. Right. So ever since first half of the Bible, first two thirds of the Bible, first two thirds of the Bible, ever. So ever since humanity caused its own problem, which again is next week. Oh, here's Chris now.

00;46;31;26 - 00;46;56;06

Unknown

Give it a little little hook next week, a good hook. But, But yeah. So what what what God did was he set into motion? What's that fancy word? Proto. Proto? Evangel. I don't know, I'm not a theologian, I don't know. Come on. I'm letting a fancy word. A fancy word. It's. It's actually in our notes. You guys wrote it.

00;46;56;09 - 00;47;23;17

Unknown

Somebody wrote it. Hang on. Give me. Give me a second. This may be worth it, everybody. Oh, may be worth it. Well, you know, there's there's like, 18 pages of here. There's a lot of stuff that it. Anyway, I'll think of it later. But anyway. Oh, here it is. Rhoda. Evangel. Oh. Proto evangelism. Proto meaning first. First and then evangelism.

00;47;23;19 - 00;47;46;16

Unknown

Meaning the gospel. Yeah, right. And then Proto Evangelium was actually when God put into motion killing the animals and covering Adam. That's right. That that was the first. That was the first hint. Right. And so anyway, the point is, is that ever since that time up until now, the events of Christianity, it was the answer to all of it.

00;47;46;18 - 00;48;09;26

Unknown

Right. So all of the all the sacrifice, you know, I mean, Hebrews nine says, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. Right. That was that was thousands of years of of promises and and rituals and laws and Moses giving his 613 precepts. All of that, all of that was pointing to these events that Paula summarizing right here.

00;48;09;26 - 00;48;28;15

Unknown

And that's why it's so profound in Mark one and in Luke chapter four, when Jesus uses Scripture to say, it's starting right, right now. Right. Remember all that stuff we've been talking about for 2000 years? It's starting now. God is the King. God is keeping his. Which is why he says the kingdom. That's right. Of heaven is near.

00;48;28;16 - 00;48;49;14

Unknown

Right. So? So when these these Jews heard this for the first time, they're not hearing it from a Christian perspective. Oh, good. The gospel is starting. They they didn't understand that. Oh, good. The gospel. They sing a song about gospel stuff. Right. Yeah. What they heard was Jesus is declaring God is the king. He's keeping his promises.

00;48;49;19 - 00;49;19;01

Unknown

The Messiah of Israel has arrived. The kingdom of God is invading our present world where we live today. And people are going to begin changing their allegiance. Right. They're going to move away from their religious system to placing their allegiance to the person of Jesus Christ. And and so when, when these first century Jews heard Jesus announcing the kingdom of God, they weren't hearing.

00;49;19;03 - 00;49;40;28

Unknown

Someday your soul is going to leave this earth and go to heaven. Right? Most of the Jews wouldn't have even believed that then. Right, right. Instead, what they were hearing is God's finally acting after all this time. 700 years before is when Isaiah had written that passage. Right. And God is finally acting. And so then this is good news.

00;49;40;28 - 00;49;57;07

Unknown

It's not it's not just good advice. Most Christians look at it as good advice. Right. Hey, this is how you get to go to heaven. Isn't that great? If you want. Yeah. The the gospel. When they hear the gospel, they they view it as that word. They hear that word as fire insurance. Yes. Or, you know, fire escape.

00;49;57;08 - 00;50;18;05

Unknown

Yeah. Most people that come from some kind of a Christian religious background but aren't like, totally, you know, surrendered to Christ. That what they're hearing is and we use is advice for what you need to do in order to be able to go to heaven. And we do as preachers frame it that way. Sure. Because we say it's your job to learn how to share the gospel with others.

00;50;18;06 - 00;50;37;22

Unknown

Right. And when we give the gospel at the end of every, well, just about every message. We we give it that way as well. Yeah, absolutely. Well, there is a there is a what must I do to be saved component to it. Right. But it's that's if if you just leave the gospel at that point that's like the shallowest approach.

00;50;37;25 - 00;50;52;15

Unknown

That's right to it. Right. Right. So advice tells you because what about all the promises of Jesus saying, oh, you got to pick up your cross and follow me. You got to give up your life, right? Right. If they hated me, they're going to hate you. Right? Right. All that comes with it. Go everywhere. But we don't. We don't.

00;50;52;16 - 00;51;07;05

Unknown

We don't have time to explain that in the Sunday morning star. My ambassadors going to be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes on. Right. Right. Okay. Come out from among them and be separate. And don't touch the unclean thing. Right. Hey, I don't want much from you. I just want everything to be holy, even as I am holy.

00;51;07;07 - 00;51;29;24

Unknown

Yeah. Yeah. Just. Just surrender your will. All your plans, all your desires, all your human instincts from you. Yeah. Just everything. So let me go back and finish. This advice tells you that there's something you need to do. Right. And that that does answer the question. What must I do to be saved? Good news tells you something good happened, which is different.

00;51;29;25 - 00;51;53;12

Unknown

It's bigger. It's bigger than. Just go do this. And it's unpacking. Unpacking it. So Christianity certainly tells us how to live well. But the foundation of the announcement is something happened. Jesus came. Jesus died. He rose and he reigns. He's the king. And that's what Paul is trying to expand on in that First Corinthians 15 thing, which I think is super important.

00;51;53;12 - 00;52;24;23

Unknown

And so then what that means to me is that the gospel has a king at its center, which changes everything, because Christianity often gets presented primarily around us. It's my sin. Yes. My salvation. Yes. My feelings. People. I yes. My eternal destination in heaven. My relationship with God. And what we miss is that the gospel, the New Testament places Jesus at the center, not me at the center.

00;52;24;26 - 00;52;43;21

Unknown

And that's hard. He invites me to him in the center. But is him in the center? He's the king. There's a king at the center of the gospel. So there's a very big difference with with realizing that the gospel, meaning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was for you. It's just not necessarily all about you. Yeah. Which is weird.

00;52;43;23 - 00;52;50;07

Unknown

That's right. Because we're all narcissists. Right. You know, my favorite person on the planet as well. Me me me.

00;52;50;10 - 00;53;07;08

Unknown

So the gospel isn't primarily. Here's how Jeff can get saved. The gospel is primarily. Jesus is Lord and he will save you. Yeah. That that's that's great right. That's actually very profound.

00;53;07;09 - 00;53;29;01

Unknown

Right. But you just said yeah. So somebody else must have wrote it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's important I want to know how can I be saved? I just have to understand. The main point of the story is there is a king that loves me. He's the king of the universe, the creator of everything that exists. The Bible says while we were still sinners, Christ died.

00;53;29;01 - 00;53;46;21

Unknown

For he knew exactly who I was. He knew exactly what I've done. He knew exactly all the mess I make of my own life. And he loved me anyways. And he proved it by saying, I'll pay the price you can't pay. And by the way, I'm planting my stake in the ground. I am the king at the end.

00;53;46;23 - 00;54;11;26

Unknown

When it's all done we get to revelation. We find out he's the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is the triumphant winner. I read the back of the book. Jesus wins and then we live in perfect communion with him forever. Right. We live in this perfect relationship with him. And so salvation is bigger, or the gospel is bigger than just me, and the gospel is bigger than just escaping hell.

00;54;11;28 - 00;54;29;17

Unknown

And I mentioned that for a lot of us, you know, we kind of approach it from the perspective of, hey, this is fire insurance, you get out of hell. What a great deal that is. And one, two, three pray after me. And and but the Bible goes way beyond that. And so it gets so significant. And this is what I was talking about at the beginning.

00;54;29;19 - 00;54;57;24

Unknown

It's very simple on the front end. And Jesus says, just turn from your sins and turn to God. Be safe. That's super simple. Be saved. And then for the rest of my journey, there's all this discovery. It's I'm constantly here. I am 45 years after I trusted Christ. And I'm constantly discovering more forgiveness and reconciliation and adoption and justification and redemption and liberation and regeneration.

00;54;57;26 - 00;55;19;16

Unknown

All these big theological words. Right. You just get to resurrection, restoration. It just keeps going and going and going and going. And then to find out all of that was the was the difficult part that he had to do. And then he invites you and me to participate in his kingdom. He gives us a purpose. There's purpose in it, right?

00;55;19;17 - 00;55;37;13

Unknown

You will be my witnesses. And you're going to go everywhere and tell everybody, and you're going to live out. You're going to be the hands and feet of Jesus on this planet while you're alive, and then you're going to hand it off to the next generation. So, I, I was here's what I was thinking about when you were saying that, I just experienced this.

00;55;37;13 - 00;55;59;15

Unknown

So here am I, you know, I got I got saved when I was 15. So 40 years later. Right. So I became a Christian, I was 15. So 40 years later, I'm still learning to trust God and have his power, rule my life. You know, for him to be the king. Right. Right. I share with you on Sunday.

00;55;59;17 - 00;56;18;22

Unknown

I discovered something about something I was a part of in doing. And I was a little upset about it. Remember on Sunday? Yeah. And I was. I was discouraged and, you know, depressed about it, and I was, like, beating myself up over it. But then what happens is I sit down and I read from the scriptures, and essentially, God reminds me basically of this exact thing.

00;56;18;24 - 00;56;40;24

Unknown

And it was it was just yesterday. And I woke up completely at peace. Completely at peace, which is essentially what I heard from God was, did you do you think that you have any control over anything? Like you don't have any control, as if you've done any of this, right? Right. I'm the one who's, you know, trying to do what I feel like God's asking me to do.

00;56;40;29 - 00;56;54;19

Unknown

But in the end, God is in control, not me. Yeah. Right. And you were talking about is a project you were working on? Yes. That you felt, like, tripped up. We're not talking about, you know, you fell off the wagon or you had an affair or something. Yes. No no no no no no no no no. You're talking about a project that you were working on.

00;56;54;20 - 00;57;10;19

Unknown

I was beating myself up over not doing a good enough job. You felt like you missed an opportunity. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And God saying, hey, you do your best. The best you can do. Yes. And I'm the one that goes ahead and gives you my favor. Yeah. So. So God is going to do what God is going to do because I'm not in charge.

00;57;10;23 - 00;57;30;28

Unknown

Listen, we can just obey God, but we can't manufacture God's results, right? It's not. It's not my abilities. It's. It's his abilities. So anyway. So I. So anyway, all that to say, I know I'm being very generic and you're not. You know, maybe people aren't necessarily understanding exactly what I'm hearing from God, but here's what I'm basically trying to say.

00;57;31;01 - 00;57;53;17

Unknown

What I'm trying to say is I was anxious and I'm 100% apiece. That's what I'm that's what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say that the gospel is more than just fire escape insurance. That's right. I'm saying that God is with me and reminds me that he is the King. And one of the things I heard a long time ago that really helped me is when he says, the kingdom of God is near.

00;57;53;19 - 00;58;12;19

Unknown

Think of the word kingdom, and the word kingdom actually means King of your dome. Did you know that? It means dome. Like like like like like a like a structure. Like a like a Roman. Think of a Roman. What's that called? The Roman amphitheater. Like an amphitheater, right. Or Colosseum or something like this. Right. So it is.

00;58;12;19 - 00;58;32;27

Unknown

It is the king of your dome. And if you think about your dome, your your dominion. Right. It is. It is the king of it. So think about your world and think about your your house and your life. And just ask yourself the question, is he the king of your your domain, domain or dome or dominion? And so and so that's really it.

00;58;32;27 - 00;58;51;24

Unknown

It's it's in every little thing that you struggle with, every little worry that you have, every little thing that you're anxious about or everything that you're sad about or everything that you're concerned about or everything that you're trying to control, you know, not just for yourself, but for your kids and and for other people obsessed that way because you think you think it's all about you.

00;58;51;25 - 00;59;12;04

Unknown

Yes. And then what we find out is the gospel tells us there's a king at the center. That's right. We're we're. That's right. Right. It's not him for us. Or life is just for us, right? It's. We're here for him. And then Jesus tells us, remember in in Mark chapter one. And this is why I wanted to start in, in Mark one, because it's the simplest explanation.

00;59;12;06 - 00;59;35;13

Unknown

He seems to say that the doorway into the kingdom is repent, repentance, that the Greek word there is metanoia, right? Repentance isn't just feeling bad. Metanoia, right. It's not just feeling bad about, oh man, I did bad things and I feel really guilty about it that that's not it. I think, you know, our conscience is a part of repentance.

00;59;35;13 - 01;00;00;25

Unknown

Certainly there should be regret about our sin, but that's not where it ends. Oh, I'm just sorry I did it instead. The word metanoia means I changed my mind about it. My orientation is resetting, my direction is turning in. So it's not just I feel terrible about what I did, but instead it's it's closer to. I was going this way.

01;00;01;01 - 01;00;25;09

Unknown

Yep. Oh, the gospel reminds me. Jesus's king. I should go his way, right? Right. That's repentance. And so if if that's the key. Metanoia, I'm resetting my orientation. I'm resetting my direction to the fact that he's the king, not what I is going to make me feel better. A lot of us, what we want is I just want to feel better about the bad thing I did.

01;00;25;11 - 01;00;43;23

Unknown

I just want to feel better. I want more peace in my life. I want, and instead it's really there's a king and he is the path to forgiveness, to to repentance. He's the path that I have to take if I want to find the peace that I need. Hey, this is an interesting, fun thing. It's exactly what you're talking about.

01;00;43;25 - 01;01;16;07

Unknown

I had a college professor try to convince me that he took that exact phrase that. That we started with Mark 14 or Mark 14, whatever it is. Mark 141 through four. Yes. And where Jesus says, repent and believe. For the kingdom of Mark one or Mark one, Mark one. Yes. Mark one okay, so repent and believe. So I said something out loud in class in, you know, Bible college and I said, repent is external.

01;01;16;07 - 01;01;39;03

Unknown

It's your actions and believe is internal, right? So repent and believe. And he said, well then why didn't he say believe and repent? Because you have to believe first and then repent. Because if repent is action, then why did he say repent and believe? And he tried to prove. And by the way, he made a very compelling argument that actually repent is internal and believe is the external.

01;01;39;05 - 01;02;02;03

Unknown

Here's what he said. He said, you don't believe something until you do it. Like you may believe that church is going to hold you. Repentance is the belief. That's right. Whoa. That's good. Yeah. So he said so he said, thanks, professor. Right. He said repent. Changing your mind, changing your heart, changing your direction, changing your decisions. He goes, all of that is eternal, internal.

01;02;02;05 - 01;02;20;00

Unknown

He said belief. Belief is only when you decide to act upon what you truly believe, because you do not believe it. You could say you believe it, but until you sit down, you don't believe that charitable trust you until you trust God with your money. You don't believe that God is going to take care of you until you decide to do this.

01;02;20;00 - 01;02;37;15

Unknown

You don't believe anything. Right? Right. So he says belief is action. Believe it's external. Because it's proven because he says. He says no love because you do what you believe. Right. Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah. Wow. That's great. Isn't that. Isn't that amazing? So let me let me drop as we're starting to kind of wrap up a little bit here, I think we have just a few more minutes.

01;02;37;15 - 01;03;06;14

Unknown

But here's why. We have no hard stop. Yes, that's true. We just go forever. We're just going to go on and on and on and on and on. But, here's what I was thinking about this A tiny gospel creates tiny Christians, there's no doubt about that, right? So if Christianity is just about getting forgiven so you can go to heaven someday, then discipleship and following Jesus and making him the king at the center of your life can feel optional, because you already got what you wanted out of him.

01;03;06;15 - 01;03;25;10

Unknown

How many tiny Christians do you think exist in churches today? Most of them. You think so? I think so. I think so. And it's because we haven't been called to to let the gospel saturate every area of our life. And so we wind up living tiny Christian lives, which is exactly what the devil wants. Great. You got some fire insurance now, don't do anything with it.

01;03;25;12 - 01;03;47;06

Unknown

Don't actually work to move God's kingdom forward. Right? So, are you a Christian? Yeah. I responded to the gospel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I said the prayer. Yep. I said the prayer and I'm in it. But if Jesus is really king, this is where it becomes so powerful. Then money matters and relationships matter, and sexuality matters, and justice matters, and forgiveness matters, and generosity matters and missions matter.

01;03;47;09 - 01;03;51;04

Unknown

And how you treat your enemies matters, right? If he's

01;03;51;07 - 01;04;10;07

Unknown

if he's the king and he's at the center, then the gospel doesn't just change where you're going to go when you die. The gospel changes how you live in his kingdom while you're still here on earth, right? Changes everything, right? And that's where we step out of being tiny Christians into being that full force soldiers of Christ that he made us to be.

01;04;10;09 - 01;04;29;20

Unknown

You know what that reminded me of is when remember when Jesus taught us to pray and he said, hallowed be your name. Remember? Yeah. So it's it's I always I heard a preacher say this one time and I've never forgotten it. So he said, you know, that's the reason why we believe that the Lord's Prayer is not necessarily something to be recited like Jesus didn't give us for the purpose of reciting.

01;04;29;20 - 01;04;48;19

Unknown

Although reciting it is a fine thing, it's there's not anything wrong with that, right? But but I believe that, you know, I mean, think about it. I mean, there's nothing mystical or magical about saying those same exact words over and over, right? And it's not required. Right. Because because after all, Jesus prayed in two different gospels and he didn't say it the exact same way.

01;04;48;20 - 01;05;03;14

Unknown

It was almost the same. But if it was to be recited and you could say, hey, Jesus, don't you know the Lord's Prayer? Yeah, right. Yeah. That's not he didn't recite. That's not the Our Father. Right. You missed a line. Yes. Right. So so that's. But but Jesus was giving us a model. This is how then you should pray.

01;05;03;18 - 01;05;24;21

Unknown

This is what he said. And then he in the end, he delivers a model and he says, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I heard a preacher say one time that the reason why, most likely that Jesus started it that way is because he wants us to acknowledge, at the onset of approaching God, just who it is that we're talking to.

01;05;24;23 - 01;05;43;15

Unknown

So hallowed be your name means great is your name, which is the king aspect of things. You're the king. You're the king. And so it's like when you approach God, this is, this is this is the breadth of the gospel. This is the this is the the weightiness of what it means to understand that Jesus should be Lord of our lives.

01;05;43;19 - 01;06;05;18

Unknown

Because after all, the tiny Christians, right? The ones who just get fire insurance when they pray, what do they probably do? They go straight to their needs, wants and wishes. Yeah, right. Okay. Differently. Father. Could you please do these six things? Amen. Right. Make all my wildest dreams come true sometimes, right? And sometimes they're genuine. But, but but even if they're genuine, we're still missing the lordship of Christ there.

01;06;05;23 - 01;06;23;01

Unknown

We're missing the capital K, king of our kingdom. Yeah. And I'm not saying that I think that all other Christians are little, tiny Christians, and I'm a big Christian. I spend a lot of my time living a tiny Christian life. Yes, yes. So we're not above. And none of this above naturally slipped back into being a tiny Christian, right?

01;06;23;03 - 01;06;44;06

Unknown

Because. Because we're on narcissists. All about me. Right. He loved me, man. Have you met me, Chris? I'm incredible. Have you met me? Hey, I'm not sure you've heard, but I'm kind of a big deal. Kind of. Yeah, yeah. So so so so if we spend our time even approaching God, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

01;06;44;07 - 01;07;03;25

Unknown

I think the reason why God wants us to acknowledge who he is is because if we just rest in that and acknowledge that, that will probably take care of a lot of our needs, wants and wishes. Absolutely right. We won't be. We won't be so anxious about him even by the time we get to those those requests, because now we've rested and reminded ourselves.

01;07;03;27 - 01;07;23;14

Unknown

Which, by the way, is exactly what I did. Last night when I said to you I was anxious, but now I'm completely at peace. I acknowledge the fact that he is king. He is Lord. I make sense about these things. But God reminded me I'm taking care of all things. And it's like it's not your job to do any of those things, right?

01;07;23;15 - 01;07;43;17

Unknown

I'm using you as a vessel, but you're not going. You're ultimately not in control of anything, Chris. I control all things, and I'm like, oh, well, that took the weight off me, didn't it? So I think sometimes our problem is not that we have rejected the gospel, right? We've just shrunk it. Yes. Right. That's a it's a great summary.

01;07;43;18 - 01;08;18;22

Unknown

And that's where we we get to. And we forget that Jesus didn't just come to improve people and to make our lives better. Jesus came to raise dead people, spiritually dead people, back to life, bring them into his kingdom, set them on a mission not just so they can go to heaven when they die, but it changes who's in charge while we're alive, and it changes our entire purpose and our entire mission, and we will only truly be fulfilled and satisfied and at peace when we're running his mission, rather than running our own shadow mission, we'll always be frustrated on our side.

01;08;18;23 - 01;08;37;25

Unknown

Shadow mission I like that that John introduced that term. Right. And what does the shadow mission mean? It. We we know the mission. And then we always have our personal version of it that'll better our life, a personal agenda. Yeah, it's our own personal agenda. Yeah, yeah. So Shadow Mission sometimes hides in the regular mission, right? Yeah, it's a great phrase.

01;08;37;25 - 01;09;02;03

Unknown

And so to wrap it all up, Jesus invitation is astonishingly simple from our perspective. Like I said, we'll unpack as we get into we're going to do several different like playlists or big ideas. We'll spend some time in theology. We'll spend some time in biblical literature literacy. We'll spend some time in Bible characters. Right? All kinds of different things like that and which I'm super excited about, will do.

01;09;02;04 - 01;09;28;01

Unknown

David, I think is going to be our first big character into we'll do whole books of the Bible, stuff like that. But so we will spend some time unpacking the complexity, theological complexity of what Jesus did in order to make salvation possible. But his invitation, I think, is astonishingly simple and extremely comprehensive. When he says, repent and believe the good news.

01;09;28;07 - 01;09;51;23

Unknown

He's not just saying believe something about Jesus, but he's saying, trust me. Follow me as your king and then build your life around the reality that the crucified and risen Jesus really is the king of everything in your life and everything in the universe. That's the invite. Yeah. And and to go back to the very beginning full circle because you said to summarize.

01;09;51;23 - 01;10;12;07

Unknown

So Jeff, actually I'm going to summarize. Please do. Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to do it. No, I'm just kidding. The to go back full circle to the baptism moment. Yeah. That's what baptism should be. Right. So just just as a self washing ritual declared that I no longer believe these things, but I believe these other things.

01;10;12;09 - 01;10;42;17

Unknown

You know, baptism is a what is it? It is a it's a declaration of of a brand new association. Right. So that we so that baptism shouldn't just say, Now I'm going to heaven. Baptism is now Jesus as king of my life, right? Right. Because I accept him not only for my salvation. He's rescued me because a king can do all sorts of things, and King is going to save me in this area, but he's also going to be my source of life, my source of, you know, every command he gives, I'm going to trust.

01;10;42;22 - 01;11;00;14

Unknown

Just like an earthly king. If he's a good king, that's a good thing, right? That's right. If he's a bad king, that's a bad thing. But a good king is worth following. We serve a good king. We serve a great king. That's right. And so that's. Yeah. So that's that baptism thing means the old life is gone and brand new life has come, is what Paul has said.

01;11;00;16 - 01;11;21;25

Unknown

And it's all because of this king. So hey, that's been a fun conversation. It has. Yeah. I hope our listeners liked it. Yeah, I do too. So and so. Hey, let let God be the king of your life. Let him be the Lord of your life. And if you have perceive the word gospel as something small, like, like just your way into heaven, think of it as the good news is bigger than that, right?

01;11;21;26 - 01;11;29;03

Unknown

God has all sorts of things planned and all sorts of things that he wants us to learn and live. That's great. All right.

01;11;29;07 - 01;11;38;22

Unknown

Well, hey, that is our first episode and our new format of the Bible, guys. Good job Chris. Good job. You read me the whole time. You. Good job. Thank you man. You. Good job. Thank you.

01;11;38;23 - 01;11;44;08

Unknown

And we'll see you next time hopefully on the Bible guys.

01;11;44;10 - 01;12;03;02

Unknown

Well. Hey Chris, sometimes people ask. Man, I really love the Bible. I'd love to know more about the Bible. I just don't even know where to start. Yeah, and people instinctively treat it like a book. They'll start in Genesis. They'll try to read through the Old Testament, which, by the way, isn't a bad thing. But I believe that there's probably a better introduction for new beginners, especially.

01;12;03;04 - 01;12;18;04

Unknown

Yeah. So what we did is we put together this little guide to say, hey, if you're new to the Bible. Yep, I'm a big fan of the whole Bible. I don't know if you heard about that. I like it all, but if you're brand new to the Bible, I always like to encourage. First of all, spend some time with Jesus.

01;12;18;04 - 01;12;37;24

Unknown

Just get to know Jesus and then spend some time discovering what does it mean to follow Jesus? And so we put together this little study guide, and it's 30 days with Jesus and then 30 days of next steps. Yeah. And then 30 days to the entire New Testament. And our goal of saying this is we want to give this to you.

01;12;37;24 - 01;12;54;19

Unknown

We want to put this in your hands free. So all you have to do, go to the Bible com and you can sign up. Just drop in your email address there and we'll send you a PDF that'll help you get started. It also includes just a little explanation of how to get started and praying. If you've never talked to God before, that can be kind of weird.

01;12;54;20 - 01;13;10;25

Unknown

And then on the back, it actually uses the Soap method that you and I use most of the time in our heads. When we talk about the Bible, we ask ourselves these questions and it helps us understand what it is. We're. Yeah, it's an instinctive and great way to just approach any passage. And so this is extremely helpful.

01;13;10;25 - 01;48;38;06

Unknown

It's free. And if you just like like he said, put your email in there. We would love to get this to you. And we we appreciate you. And you can get started the next 30 days, the next 60 days, the next 90 days. It'd be great.

01;48;38;09 - 02;52;01;28

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02;52;20;29 - 02;59;53;12