11/10/2017 DAB Transcript

Ezekiel 21:1-22:31; Hebrews 10:1-17; Psalms 108:1-13; Proverbs 27:12

Today is the 10th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. And both of those things are totally true. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in the adventure that we’re on through the Bible this year. And our journey leads us back into the book of Ezekiel and back into the book of Hebrews when we get to the New Testament. So, first, Ezekiel chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 31. We’re reading from the New Living translation this week.

Commentary:

Okay. In the book of Hebrews today, things continue to unfold and blossom like a flower before us as the greater context materializes, the greater story emerges. It’s been emerging all along, but it’s like we’re at this vista now. And it’s disruptive because it’s a true paradigm shift and we’ve been talking about it all along, but it’s explicit. The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. On the other hand, Jesus came and His one sacrifice is for all time and sacrificial offerings are no longer required. We kind of talked about how this is like a paradigm shift. So, kind of, controversial and troubling on the one hand, but if it were true, what an utter relief it would be. And we talked about this yesterday. And today we see this is explicitly what’s being said. So, you have to imagine how Hebrew people, who had the Mosaic law baked into their culture, who were trying to live right in devout, would have difficulty embracing this because their whole lives have been taught a different way. And now they kind of to open up their eyes and wake up to something new that God is doing in the world and realize that their the first ones in. So, it’s not like this group mentality, where something is, over time, been brought into culture like we experience now in our faith. They’re, like, the first ones. So, this is a big step of faith forward. So, like, if someone came along and started saying, okay, all of you Gentile believers, you now need to practice animal sacrifice. God is doing a new thing and we’re going back to the old way. But it’s a new thing and you need to offer these sacrifices. Right? It would be hard for us to get our minds around in the same way that would be difficult for them to make that step forward, even though, even though this was supposed to happen, even though there was precedent for this new thing to come. All kinds of new things are coming down the pipe, just like they are now. And, so, we can see the tension in this that we don’t normally see without context because this is just a doctrinal statement about our faith. Like, we understand these things, that like, that Jesus was the sacrifice once and for all. His blood covers all sins for all time. We no longer need to sacrifice. Like, that’s the normal way of thinking. But if it weren’t. Right? We’d have to take some time to be able to move in that direction prayerfully. And yet, the writer of Hebrews is skilled enough to continually look back into the sacred Hebrew Scriptures. So, when we were talking about Melchizedek, we were talking about Psalm 110, but all throughout there’s these references back to prophetic utterances that are revealing that this is what’s happening and it’s happening right now. So, Psalm 40 is quoted today as a prophetic utterance supporting what they’re saying. Jeremiah chapter 31 is quoted today as a prophetic utterance to show - this is what’s happening. And for we, who are so far removed from this time, like, we can get the book of Romans and we get the book of Hebrews together and read them and go like, there, there’s the complete doctrine of the Christian faith. But what’s really going on historically is that Paul is out moving among the Gentiles, the gospel is spreading like wildfire among the Gentiles, the Jewish people, Hebrew people, are having a much more difficult time embracing this, and for the most part they’re not embracing this, but this letter to the Hebrews is intended to be circulated, and wrestled with, and talked about among those people. This is the document to those people to explain all of this in a very Hebrew centric context. So, it’s not just a book of theological understandings and doctrines. It’s a very missional letter, offering language to explain the good news to a people who had rejected Jesus at face value, but because of all that came afterward were considering. So, we have the book of Hebrews as the basis for so much Christian doctrine, but the story that kind of lingers here, behind the story, is the tension that arises when God begins to do a new thing. So, if we go back to the time when the book of Hebrews was written, God is doing a new thing and the writer of Hebrews is using the Scriptures to show how that works. And in the process, it’s setting aside old things. In this case, the whole sacrificial system. But God does new things when He chooses to do new things. And we see the ways in which we struggle to move forward as God does new things inside of us or around us or among us. And we’ll start telling each other our doctrine stories to explain away what God might be doing when it starts to mess with a little tidy box of theology. And all the sudden we become just like the Hebrew people that this was written to. And, so there’s attention in a disruption exposed there behind the story. So, ultimately, we have to learn to hold onto our theology and doctrine loosely and hold onto the Father and the guidance of his Holy Spirit tightly when believe God is beginning to do a new thing. And that is our prayer.

Prayer:

Father, like our brothers and sisters of old, we struggle. We try to put You in a box. We try to explain You in every way that we can. We try to make doctrine around it and these are our best efforts from finite minds and hearts to explain the infinite and Almighty. And yet, it is this infinite and Almighty Spirit that is within us, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. And, so, we live within that tension and that mystery. And often we’ll hang on to what we think that we know more tightly than we’ll hold onto You and we’ll trust what we think we know more than will trust You. And the same invitation given to the Hebrew people in the book of Hebrews at that time is still given to us - the opportunity to be in a personal, first-hand, first person relationship with You. And, so, what can we do but what we do most every day? Invite You. Come Holy Spirit. Well up within us. Spill out from us. Illuminate our path. Lead us into all truth. It is not information about You that we seek. It is to You, Your heart, Your essence, that we seek. And You have sought out the same thing in us from the moment of our birth – union, collaboration, relationship. So, come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And there has been a lot going on around here lately.

So, let’s talk about an update, a date, and a new resource announcement.

First, the update on the Global Campfire Initiative. So, almost a week ago now, we deployed the first beta version of the new app to 500 people that were part of the Global Campfire Initiative. And that feedback has been invaluable. Throwing this out into the wild, even a limited wild, out into the world of multiple phones and platforms has been really helpful. So, those of you who are participating have helped us identify a couple of really key things and those are being worked on as we speak. And we’ll be pushing out an update, but you’ll be getting an email, but we’ll be pushing out an update as soon as we can, fairly shortly. And our goal is to kind of get this into the wide open world so everybody, anybody, can listen by mid-December. So, thank you, everyone, everyone. Thank you for your prayers as we keep taking steps forward and moving toward this.

And then the date, the date is November 19th. And it will be the last travel date for us for the year as we move around the country and speak the Sneezing Jesus message. We’ll be in Louisiana, in the Shreveport area, Bossier City, at River Valley church and that will be Sunday the 19th of November. So, you can get all the details at dailyaudiobible.com. And if you’re in the area, love nothing more than to see your face and hug your neck. And, so, come, say hello.

And then the resource announcement [clapping and rubbing hands], that’s me clapping my hands and  rubbing them together because I’m excited about this. So, several years ago, I mean we’ve been doing coffee, our own Windfarm coffee, for many, many years. And several years ago, I was on a quest to find the best possible thing I could find to drink my coffee out of and I ended up finding it in Oregon at a local coffee roaster. And, so, I bought this tumbler, kind of mug thermosee thing. Abd I wasn’t sure, it was kind of expensive, I wasn’t sure, but I bought it and then it became a favorite thing because it would keep my coffee, like I could pour a cup coffee early in the morning and still have hot coffee at lunchtime. And so, I looked at the brand. The brand was Clean Canteen. And I was like, oh, I know this brand, like, I see this brand around. And just started wondering, can we do this? And, so, a couple years ago, called Clean Canteen and yup, we could do this, and we made our first batch of Clean Canteen’s and offered them and they were gone in like two days. But because they’re kind of expensive to get and we don’t hold onto inventory like that, we didn’t have them again for a while. And then we got them again later in the year and then they were gone in two days. So, we get them a couple of times a year. And that’s the point. And, so, we got them earlier this year and they were gone, like usual. And now we’re getting to the end of the year and we have them back, but, but these are a little different. We’ve created a special edition. So, in the past, we’ve used the silver, the food grade stainless steel that these are made out of, they are double-walled and insulated. So, we’ve always kept that stainless look with the Daily Audio Bible logo imprinted on the side. This special edition Clean Canteen is a beautiful deep red color. Roasted pepper is the name of the color, which is one of the primary colors that we use a Daily Audio Bible. So, it’s this roasted pepper color with the Daily Audio Bible logo in white. And it’s a gorgeous. I’m literally looking at it right now. Like, I always have my coffee to my left every time I’m doing the Daily Audio Bible and I’ve been drinking out of this new one and I love it. It’s got their 2.0 version of their café lid so that it’s much more spill proof than in the past and it just works. It is the it’s best thing I found to drink out of. It will keep your coffee hot for like six hours. It’ll keep your, like, your iced tea cold for like 24 hours. I’ve actually tested that. I put ice water in mine before and come back a day later, 24 hours later and there was still ice in it. So, anyway, we have these. They are in stock on the Daily Audio Bible shop. This is a special edition and when they’re gone they’re gone. And we won’t be getting anymore Clean Canteens until next year. So, those of you who been writing in and saying when are you going to have them, I want to get some for gifts for Christmas, this your chance. And those of you who have just been waiting for them to be back in stock for yourself, they are in stock right now but they won’t last but a couple of days. So, you can check them out and see what they look like at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link, it’s on the homepage. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi this is Elaine from Victoria. I love you so much Daily Audio Bible. And God is so faithful. First of all, I want to thank God for all my Christian brothers and sisters that are with the Daily Audio Bible. And this is what really caught me at church yesterday. In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. This is from Jonah 2:2. And he did answer. He gave me Ephesians 6, putting on the full armor of God. He stands when the enemy attacks. And Ephesians 6:10, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take a stand against the devil’s schemes. So, Daily Audio Bible Family, we are covered.  We are covered by the blood of the Lamb. God bless you, all of you. I love you. I thank you for your prayers. Thank you, Brian for your love of family, God’s family. And Praise You Jesus for this. In Jesus precious and Holy name, cover all my Daily Audio Bible family. Amen.

Hi this is Tony and I am calling because today is my one year anniversary and I didn’t know exactly when it was until I heard the reading today, November 6th. Basically, Ezekiel 16. And it resonates with me so much. And that is because I feel that I am attacked a lot. And those of you who are walking closely with the Lord know. And when we are walking with Him and trying to, you know, be that light, we are going to encounter a counter force, a negative counterforce. So…that’s…I know what this is about. And, so, I know also too, when we do it well then we will also find joy amidst the suffering. So, I just say that just to encourage people on. I just wanted to call…today is my anniversary. The other thing is, I think I have a name, and it’s Facilitator. I think I’m a facilitator for the Lord for health, primarily in mind, body, and soul. The other thing is, I’m praying for people, but I wanted to call out Rayna in California with fibromyalgia. There is hope. And I’m going to tell you’ve got health. You may email me if you wish at toni.m.08@gmail.com…and I can give you…but there is hope. I know people whose pain has gone away. So, God bless everyone. And Brian, we will be supporting you with…growing that 2% number…and supporting the enterprise…the global enterprise. Bye-bye.

When the Jews went into exile someone left the tended lamb
They mingled with the Canaanites and that went against God’s plan
The other Jews looked down on them and despised them very much
They even called them filthy dogs who were unworthy of Your touch
These people were called Samaritans, they were ostracized and kept away
In much the way the Ku Klux Klan treats all nonwhites today
Can you imagine telling the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan the parable about the good black man
things would quickly deteriorate, you’d have a situation out of hand
But Jesus is the master and when He tells it, it gets told
Even in the things you don’t want to hear would be worth their weight in gold
There’s the legal and the illegal
There’s honor and there are thieves
Some are Godly and are moral but a true minister believes what’s thine is mine and what’s mine is thine
In Jesus’ parable both are clearly there
But people in His ministry should always make time to care
Robbers by the wayside
Robbers in the church
Begging in the name of God
Like vultures on a perch
Caveat emptor
let the buyer be ware
The IRS and con men too
Thieves are everywhere
Fleeced like sheep and tossed about, Gods people need to know
That the ones you think who will help you most are the first to tell you no
Pious and self-righteous, too good to soil their hands
But once they’ve seen light from the ditch they’ll clearly see God’s plans
We need to be good neighbors and help those who are in need
Freely giving of ourselves, true ministers in deed
And not be so caught up in our own rituals that our lives contain no power
To bind the wounds of those in need which should be our finest hour
Jesus loves all the same
He plainly made that true
His life He gave as a sacrifice
A pattern for me and you

Hello my DAB family this is Mark S. from Sydney Australia. Today’s Tuesday the 7th of November and I’m calling in for a praise report and prayer request. The praise report is that this family is so wonderful. There’s quite a few members in Sydney…if there’s more members in Sydney…and Chris in the background had organized myself and Ruby get together, which we got together a few weeks ago and we were able to talk about the DAB and talk about the Christian life. And the other prayer request I was going to put in was, Ruby’s been sick. She’s been in the hospital. And she’s come out. She’s still in pain. So, family if you could kindly pray for her that she fully recovers. And she did give me permission to talk to other DAB people about it. And can you also pray, she’s a wonderful Christian lady, and pray that she can find a lovely Christian man for herself. She’s a young, lovely, Christian lady and she’s trying to find the right Christian man. So, let’s keep praying for her for recovery and for her to find a love partner with God. Alright. Thank you. Bye-bye. Love Mark S. from Sydney Australia. Bye.