2 Samuel 19:10b-20:13, John 21:1-25, Psalms 120:1-7, Proverbs 16:16-17
Today is the 2nd day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s wonderful to be here with you today, still moving into this brand-new month. And today we will finish a book. We’ll complete the book of John, which will also complete the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So we’re kind of finishing a whole section of the Scriptures today. And that is the section that covers the life and ministry of Jesus. But before we get to that, we need to take the next step forward in this drama that has been happening in the life of King David. So from the Common English Bible we’ll read 2 Samuel 19:11-20:12 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so in the book of 2 Samuel, the drama with Absalom is now complete. David is back on his throne in Jerusalem and is the king of Israel again. But this has certainly upset a lot of things and so there’s some settling back in. But David is back on the throne in Jerusalem.
And then in the book of John, as I said at the beginning, as I’ve been saying, we’re coming to the end and we have. We have concluded the gospels. And in John, we conclude them in the Galilee region. Jesus is cooking his friends breakfast on the shore of the sea of Galilee. There is a site, a memorial site that’s been there for I think seventeen hundred years right at the shore of the Sea of Galilee to commemorate this event. And you walk right into the water from there. It’s one of the places you can get right down to the shore. And we always spend a few minutes there. It’s known as Peter’s primacy. It’s a place that commemorates what we just read and what has become a central and important teaching in the book of John, and that is when Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him and tells him to feed his sheep and this is a very very famous story. What I find interesting is that the last paragraph of the book of John contains within it to me one of the most poignant and important teachings of Jesus to apply to our own lives. A pretty serious game changer. And it comes in the form of a small question followed by a small request. But neither of them are small. Both of them touch everything. So Jesus asks Peter if he loves him three times. This restores Peter. Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. And then he tells him, basically, that he will die in this pursuit. Peter’s response to this is to look around and then ask Jesus, Lord, what about him? So Peter responds to Jesus by immediately trying to make a comparison. What about him? Which brings us to the very last words of Jesus quoted in the gospels, right? This is it. Jesus asks Peter a question and through Peter he’s asking us the same question because this applies to us just as much. Jesus said, If I want him to remain until I come, what difference does that make to you? Literally, if we can remember that question, we will have a lot more clarity in our lives because we spend so much of our lives trying to figure out how well we’re doing based on how someone else is doing, which causes us to get into all kinds of trouble because we’re living our lives like it’s a competition. So every time we feel that pull, right? Every time we feel that sense that we are falling further behind, every time we look around and think so many are doing so much better, we have these words of Jesus cutting through the fog like he always did, like he continues to do. Cutting right to the heart of the matter. What difference does that make to you? Just answering that question and naming it immediately allows us to see that we’re trying to get an identity in a way that isn’t gonna work. This life is not a competition with one another. In fact, Jesus prayed just a couple of chapters ago in the same book of John that we would all be made one. This is not a competition. So hearing Jesus words and having them locked in our mind, every moment that we find ourselves toward comparison, what difference does that make to you, is so incredibly helpful. And then we get to the final four words that Jesus speaks in the New Testament, in the gospels. You must follow me. There’s so much there in that little question and the little request that will guide us throughout our days. Every time we come to something that is interrupting our peace, we are can ask, what difference does that make to me? And it might make a difference, but rather than it being this nebulous cloud of anxiety inside, it’s something that has been named so that we can see it and then see it for what it is. What difference does that make? I must follow Jesus. This immediately shifts us back and orients us to the narrow path that leads to life. Very very small words, seemingly insignificant in the very very last paragraph of the very very last book of the gospels, but it’s one of the most immediately and poignant lessons that we can take on board in our lives and live into. What difference does that make to me? I’m not going to find an identity in comparing how well I’m doing to somebody else or what someone else has that I don’t or what’s going to happen to someone else that’s not going to happen to me. I must follow Jesus.
Prayer:
So Jesus, we’ve reached the end of the gospels for this year. We’ve journeyed with You since the very very beginning of the year up until right now, listening to You, sitting at Your feet, watching You operate in this world, watching You show us what our lives can, should and must look like. Showing us what our lives indeed can become as we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us after the same fashion that You were lead in this world. You have given us all of the same resources, all of the same tools and told us to go into all the world. So come, Holy Spirit. Show us how to live into this today. What difference does that make to You? You must follow me. Come Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements:
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And I made a big announcement yesterday, so if you missed yesterday, go back and listen so you can hear the whole story. But I announced the Daily Audio Bible Family Reunion where the global camp fire comes together coming up this September 1 and 2, 2018, which is Labor Day weekend for those of you in the United States. We’re going to come together as a community. And I told the whole story yesterday about how we went out. We took an 18-month tour called a Family Gathering tour. And we went all over the world in 2012, 13 and part of 14, simply bringing the community together in different cities. People could make connections and it was a monumental thing inside the community. It was really, really beautiful, really, really exhausting time. And we’re just bringing that full circle and inviting you to the rolling hills of Tennessee for a family reunion. And you can get all of the details at dailyaudiobible.com just by scrolling down into the initiatives or clicking the initiatives button at the top. All the details that you would want to know are there and it is gonna be a lot of fun, so I hope you can come. Very very much looking forward to this. Just the opportunity to hear those voices and finally know people beyond voice. Know them in life. So make plans. Come to the rolling hills of Tennessee September 1 and 2. You can find out all about it at dailyaudiobible.com.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for next month, which is tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey DAB family this is Byron out in Florida. I wanted to call to Jaime. Jaime you called in recently and entrusted us with the burden of marriage and what was going on there with her husband about where you could move on because you didn’t feel that you were loving him in the way that he needed and you also expressed that you didn’t feel like you were loving God properly. And that really touched my heart because I’ve been there. I’ve been through that and I kept thinking about what I could say to encourage you and I kept just thinking through different thoughts and different things in my head and I just kind of just kept rattling in my head. And, ultimately, I just decided I want to tell you what I told somebody else once and it seemed to help them. God loves you Jaime. God loves you. He loves you independent of whether you think you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing as a wife. He loves you independent for what you think you’re supposed to be doing as his child. His love is completely unrelated to our fickle attempts to love him back. So, in our relationship with Him it is far more important for us to forget about what it is we’re supposed to do and think about what He has done for us. __ not him and not anybody. We can only learn about love by concentrating on His love for us. God loves you. Stop there. Bath in that and feel in your heart what he’s telling you to do next. He’s going to take care of the situation. It will unfold in a way differently than what you would have hoped or planned. But He is there and He will take care of it. He’s done it for me. He’s done for millions of others. He’ll do it for you. Love you. Praying for you.
Hi there. I wanted to pray for Jamie, a first-time caller, on the May 30th one. Lord, I am so impressed that Jamie reached out to a group of strangers, skeptical, but desperate. And, to me, that is such a perfect picture of her heart toward You and I just wanted to pray for her, her marriage, and for herself, and for her husband. Lord, I pray that you would first, that You’d give her hope, that she would know Your presence and Your nearness and that You have a good plan for her. Second, I would ask that You would grow a love in her heart for her husband, something that only You can do. And, her effort is there, she’s been trying, but would You bring it to life? Like Ezekiel saw with the dry bones? Just bring that to light Lord. And then, third Lord, I want to pray for her husband. She said he’s a good man and that he’s been patiently waiting and I just would pray that You would create a love in his heart to accept Jamie as she is, to receive her love for him even if it’s not the style or the way that he might prefer, but that they would learn each other’s love languages, that there would be a measure of love and respect that’s well given and well received. And Lord, would You just do this because You just love Jamie, just because You care for Your child and that You just want to show her good things. Lord, we lift her up and we lift up the situation and trust that You will move forward in it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible. It’s May the 30th. Sorry, Brian, for the multiple calls. This is the one I hope I will not screw up. I have a prayer request for my wife’s aunt Nita. Passed away at 7:15 this morning. I ask you to keep her family in prayer as well as mine and my wife’s. Praise report, I am 30 days…past the 30-day mark of being drug free but I have a confession. I did stumble. I had a few beers the other day. It felt horrible. It tasted nasty. Don’t know why I continued it. Afterwards, I went back and was listening to more readings and I started listening to the prayers, the community prayer, and a man called in and stated I was going to go back, I wasn’t gonna like it, it wouldn’t be the same. I came across that after I stumbled. And he’d given his email and I reached out to him and I confessed to him, yes, you’re right, you were right. And I wished I’d heard of before but I’m not going to get discouraged. I know were going to stumble. I don’t want to but I know we do in some way or another. But I ask for continued prayers and just want everyone to know that I continue to pray for all those that call in and for those that don’t because I know there’s many. I listened for a long time before I ever called in but I lift you up to the Lord in Christ name. You all have a blessed day.
Hi my DAB family. I’m your sister Julie, third-year, who hasn’t called for a while but I’ve been with you all in prayer and I deeply love you all and look forward to hugging every one of you at our reunion in heaven with our Abba father and in our glorified bodies. My sweet little sister Jamie, we aren’t strangers. God can take the most broken of marriages on their last breath and revive them the way Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. There’s always hope my lovely sister. God can plant the most profound deep love for your husband in your heart. He did it for me after my unfaithfulness to my own husband. He resurrected our marriage and has made all things new. It didn’t happen overnight but I’m grateful it didn’t because God, in his infinite wisdom and wonderful timing, taught us both many profound lessons. Our God is faithful to forgive and very capable of restoring all things. Look what He’s done for David. It’s not a coincidence that this, that Brian is reading David right now, it just convicts my heart, well, actually, it comforts my heart now. It used to convict my heart but it comforts me greatly. So, please don’t give up. I know you probably didn’t create any kind of infidelity in your marriage but God can plant His deepest love in your heart. Please don’t give up. You have many people here that are not strangers that love you. I think all of us that are on here love you. So please take that the heart and don’t give up. He can make all things new. Please believe that. I love you all. Brian, thank you so much. I love you brother. I love every time I hear you say, I love you. It just brings, it just makes my morning, and be able to walk out the door. All glory be to God. I love you in Jesus’ name. Have a great day everyone. Bye-bye.