01/14/2018 DAB Transcript

Genesis 30:1-31:16, Matthew 10:1-26, Psalms 12:1-8, Proverbs 3:13-15

Today is the 14th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today in the frozen, rolling hills of Tennessee. So, we, most literally, have a shiny, sparkly, brand-new week out in front of us as we approach the center of the first month of the year. So, this week we’ll read from the New Living Translation and pick up where we left off last week. Genesis chapter 30, verse 1 through 31:16 today. And we’re picking up with the drama of Jacob and his growing family.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis, more children are born between Leah and Rachel, who are Jacob’s wives. And because they’re sisters and they’re married to the same man, you know, this causes a number of issues inside of the relationships. And they each give Jacob their maidservants as wives as well and more children are born there. And we’ll notice that every single one of those names of children that are born are to become tribes of Israel. So, God gave a promise to Abraham. That promise was carried through his son Isaac. And now that promise is being carried through his son, Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. But can we notice that, although there is a promise of God, one that takes a long view, one that’s going to take many generations to fulfill. It’s not all roses. It’s full of challenges. Jacob dealt cunningly with his mother Rebekah against Jacob’s brother, Esau, which forced him to be on the run and fleeing back into a different land, the former land of his family, which is where he has spent the last couple decades. And he’s been dealt with very shrewdly by his uncle Laban. He’s made his uncle Laban rich, but he doesn’t have much for his own household. And, so, he makes a deal that does make him rich, but it’s fraught with all kinds of challenges.

And then we get into the New Testament, into the book of Matthew, and Jesus is sending his 12 disciples out without Him. He’s telling them that they have authority to go and be like He is being in the world. And, so, they go out, including Judas Iscariot, he goes out too, even though he will later betray Jesus. And they are warned of the challenges that they will face. And as we continue to take this journey through the Bible, both old and new Testaments, we will see that at every turn there are obstacles and challenges. Some of these obstacles and challenges are simply circumstantial. They’re just what’s going on that has to be overcome. And some of them are self-made and they never had to happen. But in our lives of faith, so often we think is that our faith is supposed to smooth things out to make them unchallenging. But the life of faith doesn’t remove life’s challenges, it changes how we look at them. The Bible will continually bring us back to what is true of us, our identity, what is happening in our heart. And when we are irreversibly and first connected to God in our relationship with Him, then we don’t find ourselves shaking our fist at the sky when we find obstacles in our lives, or finding ourselves turning around and walking away in anger because God didn’t come through in the way that we asked Him to. And we begin to realize that were not God in the scenario. We’re not leading the charge, we’re not leading the way in this scenario. We’re connected to God and we are following Him. He is leading us on the narrow path that leads to life, on the path of wisdom.

And we see from the book of Proverbs today, ‘joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding.’ And, so, there’s work involved here, but it tells us the payoff – ‘wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her.’ So, wisdom has an outstretched hand saying, I will go on this journey with you and I will help guide you in all of your decisions. And sometimes being wise is simply pausing before you make an erratic decision, a decision in the moment, in the heat of the moment. Sometimes, it’s simply taking a pause, reconnecting, re-centering ourselves in our relationship with God, and allowing the next step to become apparent. Sometimes that’s the wisest thing we can do because life is going to be full of challenges. It’s full of challenges for the people in the Bible and it’s full of challenges in our own life.  

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into our interpretation of what is difficult, because as we see in the Scriptures, difficulties have been around for a very, very long time. Obstacles, challenges, dangers, things that make us anxious, things that overwhelm us, this has been going on a very, very long time. We’re not the first people to ever experience this and this certainly is in Your first time leading anyone through it. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to remind us that we can slow down, that we can take a beat, that we can consult wisdom, and we can invite You into everything that we do and say and think, that our connection, that our relationship with You is first and foremost, the most important, primary thing in our lives. And when we re-center ourselves in You, then the chaos of the world may not go away, but it has been put into its proper perspective. We are Your children, You are our God, and You have promised to help us navigate. So, come Holy Spirit. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

And, we were supposed to be up in Kentucky right now, but we got some winter weather that passed through here. And it wouldn’t be anything to some of you up north of here. You would laugh at us. But we don’t have all the snow removal tactics down here in the South that you do. And, so, it’s icy. Sorry we’re going to reschedule that.

Looking a little further down the calendar, February 7th, which is just a few weeks from now, I’ll be speaking at New Life Church in Bakersfield California. So, if you are in the area, mark that on your calendar. You can get all the details of dailyaudiobible.com in the Events section. And I’m very much looking forward to being back with you in California. So, see you soon.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here next week, which happens to be tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family. This is Dan in New Hampshire. It is early in the morning Wednesday, January 10th. And I want to present the question that was posed to me in a group that I am involved with. They were asking, what is your morning routine loom like. And I realized that for the last four years that my routine is just so important and revolves around listening to the daily Audio Bible. And as part of my morning routine, I can’t go a day without having it and listening to it and it’s just…devouring the word. And I’m so, I was so like kind of, it just really popped out to me, like that has become so intertwined with my life. And that’s what it needs to be, that’s what it needs to be. The Bible needs to be daily in our lives and I think that was just incredible to think on that and dwell on that. I also wanted to pray for Eunice in Jersey and just reach out to you and send some love and prayers. I know that…I wanted to pass this on to you that…Eunice I’m just praying…like my father…when he was battling cancer, that he had the gift of cancer and that’s an opportunity to shine God’s love wherever he went. And I pray that God would shine for you in this moment. Praying for you and listening for updates. We love you. We support you.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Julia in Des Moines. This is my first time calling, but I’ve been listening for a couple of years. I am calling today on behalf of the little girl in Des Moines we need your prayer. Her name is Sammy and her parents are faithful believers. And they’re struggling right now because Sammy is in the hospital fighting for her life with a bacterial infection. If you could just add Sammy to your prayers and lift her up to God. We know that He has a plan for her life. We just pray that is not over yet. Thank you so much.

Hello community. This is Pastor Chris from the Live Free or Die state. Lately we’ve entrusted with several people’s confessions. I want to reach out especially to Jay from New Jersey, from Kerry, I believe you’re from Texas, and Mark S. From the land down under. What you’ve done by giving your confession is you have released the power of the sin over you. When you name the name of an enemy you have a certain degree of power over them. But going forward I would like to give you a warning, an assurance, a suggestion, and a gift. The warning, you are forgiven. If our enemy wonders about seeking who he may devour, he may try to hit you with a condemnation trip that is not yours. Don’t take it. Because your assurance is, that if you confess your sins the Lord is faithful to forgive your sins and he doesn’t throw the back in your face. He drops them into the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. The suggestion is to get into accountability with other people who have suffered and are plagued by the same sins you that have been. And the gift is a verse of Scripture, which has become my life verse. Romans 8:1- there is therefore no condemnation, I do repeat, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Brothers, I’m praying for you as you go forward. May God bless you. Bye-bye. This is Pastor Chris in the Live Free or Die state.

What’s up everybody. It’s Miguel from Santa Rosa. And I know it’s been a while since I’ve called in but listening to the January 6th broadcast and hearing Psalm 6, I heard a word that I wanted to share in hopes that it would encourage somebody out there. I was just such in awe at Psalm 6 here. You read through the Psalm, especially verses 1 through 7 and you just see this anguish, you see this tiredness from the writer, this is David that wrote the Psalm. And you just can tell that he’s been praying against something for so long, that he’s been in the middle of something for so long and he’s tired he’s groaning. And look at what happens in verse 8. ’Away from me all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard by weeping, the Lord has heard my cry for mercy, and the Lord accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish. They will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.’ And man, these verses, these are fighting’ words. I hope you see that, but the way this was written, these are fighting words against whatever David is praying against here. So, the way that you pray, I guess whatever you pray or are praying for something, for whatever is happening, pray fighting words because your praying to a God that lives and moves in breaths and answers prayer. And whether your prayer is going to be answered today or tomorrow or as you cross into eternity, the Lord has heard your prayer and your enemies will be put to absolute shame. So pray fighting words because your God is with you and for you and against all of your enemies, against Satan. So, may it be so. May that encourage somebody out there and may the Lord be with you.

Good morning daily audio Bible family. My name is Chuck. I live in Tennessee and I have a prayer request. My brother, John, who has had three brain surgeries over the last 15 years, this last surgery he had was in April, and it is caused him not to be able to walk very well. He can walk a little but not much. And plus there’s some other issues to that I will keep private because God is what they are. But I just wanted to put that prayer request before you today and wanted to tell you that I do enjoy the Daily Audio Bible reading. I just downloaded it Monday. And I really like the teachings that are being taught. Hope you all have a great day and may the Lord bless you throughout the year 2018. Thank you.