02/08/2018 DAB Transcript

Exodus 28:1-43, Matthew 25:31-26:13, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 8:12-13

Today is the 8th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today from the West Coast, from California. I’ll be heading back to the rolling hills of Tennessee today. What a great time last night. Thanks to everyone who came out to say hello at new life Church in Bakersfield. What a wonderful time being in and among community, seeing old friends, and meeting new. It was a joy. So, yeah, we have another travel day getting back to the rolling hills of Tennessee, but first we need to take the next step forward in our journey through the adventure that is the Scripture in our lives each and every day. So, we’re reading from the Good News Translation this week. And today we will read Exodus chapter 28 from our Old Testament reading.

Commentary:

Okay. Let’s just take a second, just catching ourselves up to where we are in the grand scheme of things in the Bible. In the book of Exodus, we are at Mount Sinai. The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Right? The Egyptians have been pretty much crushed by the hand of God in order to set His people free. So, they’re in the wilderness. We’ve wandered around with them for a while, they’ve grumbled a bunch. We’ve talked about all that. But they’re in the wilderness being reshaped and reformed. Now there at Mount Sinai and God is beginning to give language to the expectations of this culture that is being formed. This is known as the law and we’re beginning to move through some of that. And we can find moving through the law to be tedious, in part, because were back reading our own culture in. And we’ve talked about that. And we’ve talked about not doing that. It can also be tedious because it’s very, very detailed. Not many people go to the library to get law books and just read laws for pleasure. But these are the laws that will shape the culture of the chosen people of God and lead them forward into the promise land and govern them in the promise land. So, it’s very important for them. It’s very important for us to follow along with the story. And we’ll find that, as we move through the law, so much of the cultures that we live in find their foundation here. So, yes, we’re reading about how to make priestly garments today and we may not find that mesmerizing, but we see that God is setting apart now, a section of the people to be priests. And their role will be to tell the story to the people, continually, of who God is, how they got where they are, and where they’re going. They will lead the people in the worship of God and they will also minister before the Lord. This is a new distinction for these people. They’ve only ever been slaves. So, this is all new for them and it will serve to shape and transform them.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus is now in Jerusalem and He’s not getting out. Like, He’s there for the final time. So, He’s sharing the good news of the kingdom, but we’re about to turn the corner and enter into the first account of the passion of Jesus, His betrayal, His arrest, His trial, conviction, execution, burial, resurrection. So, you know, we may know this story backward and forward and sideways, but we’re about to turn the corner in the book of Matthew and head into the story that changed the human race. So, let’s not lose our place in the story or skip ahead and say, yeah, I already know this. We’re about to move into the territory that changed everything.

In the Psalms, we have to notice that so many of these are heart cries and we can hold onto them. And we can notice and understand that they are serious and they are honest. And we can see in the Psalms that nothing’s been glossed over. Like, the Bible hasn’t been edited to be all nice and pretty and clean. The Bible contains all of the grit and dirt of life on this planet, all of the motivations of the heart, all of the emotions that we experience. So, right? I mean, if we read the Psalm again today, ‘Be merciful to me. Lord, I’m in trouble. My eyes are tired from crying so much. I’m completely worn out. I’m exhausted by sorrow. Weeping has shortened my life. I’m week from all my troubles. My bones even are wasting away. People close to me are treating me with contempt. Those who know me are afraid of me. When they see me in the street they will walk the other direction. Everyone has forgotten me as if I were dead. It’s like I’m something that has been thrown away.’ Right? That’s honest. The Bible isn’t inviting us to be fakers. We invite each other to be fakers. God’s not inviting us to do that. We’re doing that to each other. What God is inviting is our honesty, which means we have to be honest with ourselves and stop presenting to the world something that’s false. We have to get to the bedrock of who we are. We’re invited to be who we are. God is revealing who we really are. And part of that comes through being honest. And we find that desperate honesty in the Psalms, but it’s not just always an outpouring of pain. Often, when we see an outpouring of pain like we did in today’s Psalm, we’ll see the whole thing turn because there’s only one way to move away from those kinds of emotions, and that is to throw ourselves on God’s mercy, all in, risking everything. So, the psalmist turns. ‘My trust is in you Lord. You’re my God. I’m always in Your care. Save me from my enemies. Save me from those who want to persecute me. Look on me with kindness. Save me with Your constant love. I’m calling You Lord. Don’t let me be disgraced.’ So, the Psalms can speak out what we’re not really able to articulate. But we’ll also find some of the most beautiful outpourings of joy and worship and hope known to man in the Psalms.

And, of course, Proverbs. I mean, where we are now, wisdom is speaking for herself. And we’re going to find that one sentence from the voice of wisdom speaks volumes. So, for example, in today’s reading, wisdom speaking, ‘to honor the Lord is to hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.’ In that one sentence we see things that we have got to stay away from if we want to walk in the path of wisdom. If we are going to walk the path of evil, then we will not honor the Lord. If we’re going to be proud and arrogant then we are not going to be walking in wisdom. If we’re going to try to walk in evil ways and speak falsely, if we’re going to be a liar, we will not be walking in wisdom. It’s clear, it’s concise, it’s one sentence. And it just leaves it there. It’s just the truth. We get to choose what we’re going to do with it. The truth has come into our lives. We get to choose whether were going to walk in wisdom or not. So, every day there’s something to feed us. Every day there’s something to challenge us. Every day there’s something there that we can reach out and grab that will pull us forward. This is how the Bible transforms us. It comes at us from every angle of life and touches everything as we make it a rhythm in our lives.

Prayer:

Father, we are so grateful for Your word. We are so amazed by what You can speak and what You have been speaking for thousands of years and our eyes and our ears and our hearts are open. We want to walk the path of wisdom. We have chosen to slow down and consultant wisdom. We have invited Your Holy Spirit, and we continue to invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth now. And now Lord, we’re asking for this to be more than just a devotional time. We’re asking for this to begin spilling out into our lives. We want to not be able to get You off our minds. These distractions, we’re starting to notice them now, these patterns, these things that we run to, these things that we run from, we’re beginning to see what we’re doing here, trying to find a way to make life work. But it’s not going to work without You. So, we acknowledge that. We don’t want to have You off of our minds. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit into everything that happens today, every conversation, every thought, every word, every deed, everything. We want You on our mind and in our hearts. Come, Holy Spirit, plant the words from Your word in our lives, bringing up a crop of the fruit of the Spirit and transforming us utterly and irreversibly. Come Jesus. We pray in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

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

So, like I was saying, travel day back to the rolling hills of Tennessee today. Had a wonderful, but brief time here in California. So good to see you all. Thank you for coming out. And looking forward to the time that we can be together again someday.

I guess the next the next thing on the calendar for travel is Israel. We’ll be heading into the land of the Bible in about a week and a half. So, you definitely want to probably, at least, follow the Daily Audio Bible Facebook page. We’ll be posting every day, multiple times a day as we’re there. Of course, we’ll be talking about it on the Daily Audio Bible. We’ll be taking a group, of course, but we try to make this is interactive and virtual as we can. When we go there, we’re going there to immerse ourselves in the territory, the land of the Bible. And, so, we’ll be broadcasting the Daily Audio Bible from there, talking about what we’re seeing, what we’re feeling, what we’re doing so that, in every way possible, because this is like one of the things we’re trying to do every day, is make the Bible come alive. So, we’ll be posting pictures and videos and all kinds of stuff on social media so you can see what we’re seeing. So, facebook.com/dailyaudiobible will be the place to go for that.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if all of the rhythm that’s being established, if what it is that we do as a community together is bringing life and good news into your life, then thank you for your partnership. We can’t do this any other way. If we don’t do this together we can’t do it. And, so, thank you for your partnership, humbly. There is a link on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. If you prefer, the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 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 Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers. I am a Burning Bush that will not be Devoured for the Glory of God and King. I’m calling into say a prayer for a few of our callers. Father God, we thank You and embrace You for Your holy and righteous. There is no like unto You God. We thank You God that You said we can go boldly before Your throne of grace and whatever we ask we will receive it. You will give it to us Lord. I pray for Blind Tony today God. I thank You for the gift that You have given to him, the gift of psalm, and just wisdom Father. God, I pray for his body right now. I pray that You will heal him in the name of Jesus from the inside out God. I pray that Father God whatsoever may be ailing him right now Lord that You will take it away in the name of Jesus Father and touch Him oh Lord with Your healing hands Father. I thank You Lord because You…Your word would not return to You God without accomplishing the purpose which You were sent. And, so, we just pray for divine healing his body. I pray that You continue to bless his ministry. God, I pray also for pastor Gene. God, You know what she’s been going through these past months and years. I pray that You bless her ministry. I pray that You cover her family Lord. I pray a hedge of protection around her God. I pray for our sister Viola. I praise You for her business. I thank You oh God for her family. Lord I pray that in the name of Jesus that no weapon formed against them will prosper in the name of Jesus. And God, I thank You Lord for Brian and his family. Thank you so much for China. God, I pray that you continue to protect their ministry. God, give them wisdom, give them courage. Lord I pray for healing in their family God. I pray that You will continue to strengthen them. Those parts that are strong, strengthen oh God, and those parts that are week, God I pray that You would just bring Your healing and revival in those parts of their lives. I thank You Lord in Jesus name. Amen. I love you guys.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Sheila from Massachusetts calling. When I was listening today I heard Jim from Southern New Hampshire. Jim, you are such an inspiration. To hear you start your call with, God invited you and your wife to embark on a journey. I was expecting something…you know…positive to come out of your mouth. And to hear you say that Kim was diagnosed with cancer, and that’s your journey, it just reminded me that God calls us into many things, not just happy things, but he calls us into trials as well. And He does so to grow our faith. And when He steps out of the way and things like this enter into our life, that they have a purpose and He knits all things for good. Brother, to hear you praise Him and to understand that your first response would be to fall back and rely on Him, that just…it really brought home to me that our God is so powerful and that if we live our lives with Him in our sites at all times, we can not only endure things, but, you said, that He showed His glory through this situation with you. He already has in your phone call and your sharing of that heart. I bless you and Kim, in Jesus name. And I’ll be praying for you. But brother, He did show His glory in the way that you honored Him with your phone call. Bye family.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible, sisters and brothers, my name is Linda and I’m a first-time caller. And I wanted to just reach out and ask the DABbers for their prayer for my daughter. She has been suspended from her job for drinking on the job. She’s an alcoholic and she doesn’t want to admit that she’s an alcoholic. This has been going on for two years now. She’s gone into one rehab and it hasn’t worked and I’m trying to get her into another rehab now. She’s not willing to go to rehab because she doesn’t like the studying and…but anyway DABbers I just need your prayer, that God could soften her hardened heart. She hasn’t been to church. She will sometimes listen online, but she hasn’t been to church. She’s just been trying to do everything on her own and I’ve told her multiple times she can’t do this on her own without the help of God. She has to bow down and be open and she’s just not willing to do that. So, I just asking for your prayer for my daughter, that she will accept this, this offer to go to counseling again, because at this point now I’ve been supporting her and I can’t do it anymore. And within the next 30 days, if she doesn’t have a job she’s also going to be homeless. And I’m…I need your prayers. Thank you so much. I pray each and every day for all the prayers that come in. And thank you DABbers.

Good morning everyone this is Salvation is Mine in San Angelo California. Today is the last day of January, January 31st. God bless you all. I continue to ask for your prayers for my emotional and physical and financial health. Today, I’m just asking for God to, please be with me, please be with me, to help me emotionally because I do feel so broken and invisible to everyone around me and gone at this point. So, family would you please pray for me. I really need some help right now. I need help always, but I definitely need help right now. I’m just having a really hard time emotionally and it’s hard to get up and go to work and keep things together and put a fake smile on my face when all I’m doing inside is screaming. So, if you would please pray for me, I would really appreciate that. Thank you, family. This is salvation is mine in San Angelo California.

Hi this is Melody from Canada. I had to pause the January 31st podcast at the place about being a friend of God, just like Brian did. And God really hit my heart because He is calling me to that and there are a lot of things in my life not happening right now. Like, I’m not getting called to teach, my clearance isn’t happening, my pregnancy is not happening. The other things that I want to happen are not happening and I have this time in my life and space where God is calling me to be intimate with Him and I am saying, nope, I want to be like everyone else and have a successful career and have children and just be busy with that. And like I’m running in every other direction possible. And I know that I said I really want to be a friend of God, but it’s hard for me to trust him, it’s hard for me to desire that. So, thank you for your prayers as He continues to work in my heart. And I really pray that I would be in awe of Him and desire to spend ___ and treasure this time of not being really busy. Thanks.

Happy New Year Daily Audio Bible family. This is Chardra calling from Maryland. Like I said, I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year. And Brian, Jill, I thank you guys so much for the time, the energy, and the sacrifice. I have to admit, every time that I call, when I hear the introductory message, I just feel like whatever I’m carrying is about to be dropped off and about to be laid down at the feet so I can just release every burden and every care that I have. But I also wanted to say that I’m praying for prayers that I hear on the Daily Audio Bible. I’m kind of playing catch up right now. As well as, I wish that you all would keep me in prayer as well. It seems like this multiple sclerosis is trying to give me a run for my money, but I do know who my Redeemer is. I know who I Healer is. And I’m just encouraged. And I just ask that you all will please just continue to pray for me because I know that the devil is already defeated and no weapon formed against me will be able to prosper. I love you guys. And please know, like I said, that I’m praying for the requests that are coming in, even those that don’t come over the air. Thank you. Bye.