03/27/2020 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 7:1-8:20, Luke 7:36-8:3, Psalms 69:1-18, Proverbs 12:1

Today is the 27th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we as we begin to close down another of our weeks together and move ourselves into the weekend. What a joy to take this journey with you. So, let’s get on that journey. We’re moving our way in the Old Testament through the book of Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah, the final three discourses of Moses to the children of Israel before he leaves them and this new generation that has emerged. Well we’ll see if they make it to the Promise Land. Right now, Moses is saying everything that he feels that can’t be left unsaid. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation. Deuteronomy 7 and 8.

Commentary:

Okay. I mean we could just take that proverb and say, “that’s enough.” Put that in your cup and steep it and let it sit all day. “To learn you must love discipline.” Not self-discipline or the discipline that life brings or the discipline of the Lord as a Father. It’s stupid to hate correction.” So, yeah, we could stop there, but the book of Deuteronomy is basically telling us the story of our lives today.

Moses is telling the children of Israel their story where they came from who God is what their identity is and where they’re going but all we have to do is just look at that story and understand, yeah that's…that’s kind of my story too. So, Moses is telling the people, “it’s not anything you did. You’re not rock star people. It’s not that you were somehow in some way special. The Lord did not set His heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations. You were the smallest. Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you and was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors.  And that’s why you have this opportunity for a land of promise.” That’s every one of us my friends. So, why do we so often think God owes us? We’ve been behaving really, really well. We’ve watched our tongues. We’ve been kind. He owes us. He doesn’t owe us anything. He loves us, which is very different. And then he tells them, when they go into the land, they have got to defeat these pagan nations. They’ve got to utterly defeat these pagan nations. And we can go like, that’s such violence…and now we’re gonna go into all this war and I don’t like war and I don’t like violence and any of this stuff. Why’s He…why is this happening?” As we will see in the Scriptures, the fullness of time has come for these people. They are being judged. They have had every opportunity, and there are things that God will say as we go through this process where He’s like, “they’re doing things that had never…like they’re doing evil had never even occurred to me.” That’s what God is saying. Like, “they’re inventing ways of evil that I…I can’t even imagine.” And some of those evils were the sacrifice of their children alive in the fire to their gods and the absolute brutality of the tribalism. I mean, it’s hard to understand the loss of humanity and the loss of the value of life in ways that have completely degenerated. God will tell us as we continue this journey like, “you think I want people to die? Like, is that what you think? “We…we go through these portions of Scripture and that’s what we think but then God comes out of the Bible and says, “is that what you think? You think that’s what I want? That’s not what I want. I want everyone to return to me.” But some aren’t going to. The choice has been made. Judgment has come. Then Moses encourages the people to not be afraid to not be intimidated. Yes, in fact, they will be going into a land where they are vastly outmaneuvered and outgunned and out-peopled but he’s just reminding them, “how has your story ever been different. Like, this is your story. It doesn’t matter the circumstances that you’re going into. You’re not doing anything. God is going before you. All you have to do is believe that.” Ahh…this is like…this is our story. And then he tells them. “this isn’t gonna happen in one day. Like, this is a process. Little by little I will give this to you because if you took it all out once you would not…you haven’t grown enough to grow into this. Like things will go wild. You’re not ready for all of this. It will be a process, little by little.” You see, this is our life. And then he gives them the most dire of the warnings. “When all this is done, when the stress is over and all is settled and you are living in bounty, that is your most dangerous time because it’s at that point that you will start maybe thinking, I did this. Look how awesome I am. I navigated all this. I navigated into this prosperity. I did this.” And Moses is just telling them, “no you didn’t and don’t ever forget that. When you forget that your heart is turning away. Don’t forget your story. You came out of the wilderness. You saw God move. He brought you into the desert. You had no food. He fed you. You had no water. He kept you alive. You got here somehow but you didn’t do it.” And, so, we kind of leave our reading today and I’ll just quote Moses here because he’s saying it is clear as possible. “Remember the Lord your God, He is the one who gives you power to be successful in order to fulfill the covenant He confirmed to your ancestors with an oath. But I assure you of this, if you ever forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed.”

Prayer:

So, Father we take that seriously. We take that to heart, and we bring back to mind right now the proverb, “to learn You must love discipline. It is stupid to hate correction.” Forgive us Father for the ways we’ve…we’ve taken Your glory and said we did this and all of the story that Moses is telling, so much mimics the pathways of our lives, we find ourselves there and we acknowledge that the most dangerous time isn’t in the battle. The most dangerous time is when blessings are heaped upon us. And unfortunately, we will see exactly how that road goes as we continue the path of the Scripture. But come holy spirit we want to choose the narrow path that leads to life, not the wide one that leads to destruction. So, come and lead us into all truth. How have we been interpreting our journey? What have we claimed the glory for that You did on our behalf? What have we blamed You for that You had nothing to do with? Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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

There is something going on around here right now. As you may have noticed, there’s like an additional program showing up every day along with the Daily Audio Bible in your feed in your app. And, so, you probably already kinda know what’s happening. But if you’re just kind of just noticing, we’ve been releasing one chapter per day for the last couple of days and we’ll continue this into you to the end of the book, but the book Sneezing Jesus, which is a book that I wrote a few years ago, but is really appropriate for the times that we are facing and that we are going through and the unrest that we’re seeing and just…yeah all the different fraying that…that is noticeable in our culture as we try to sort this all out. Sneezing Jesus is an exploration of Jesus humanity. It is a portrait of Jesus as told by the Gospels. It is “the” good news, but it is also an exploration of the fact that Jesus was a human being and went through all of the things that we go through and what that would’ve looked like with the conclusion that…that the gospel, the good news, that Jesus told us go into all the world and spread, spread like a virus from person-to-person from family to family, from community to community racing all over the world as it continues to do today. So, we can get obsessed and freaked out about something that could go around the world and infect us and hurt us or we can take an alternative view that this is an opportunity right now for life to infect the world. And this is a gift. This is a gift from NAV Press who published this book, a gift from the Daily Audio Bible. It’s free to listen to, which is a joy. And, so, the chapter that…well we’ve been releasing one chapter per day. So, the chapter that’s releasing today is called “weep” and it’s an exploration of our emotions and the way we try to suppress them and the way that we kind of frown on ourselves. Like we lose control if we gotta cry about something or whatever. It feels like we’re just apologizing for…for our emotions and to look at how Jesus handled these things. So, check that out in your…in your Daily Audio Bible feed, in the Daily Audio Bible app, in the web player, wherever you are listening to the Daily Audio Bible. And may you find deep, deep, deep encouragement as we do this chapter a day moving through…through Sneezing Jesus as we’re moving through the times that we’re moving through.

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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:

Hi, it’s Jennifer from Ohio and I just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude to the women who called in and prayed for me. Denise, when I heard your prayer and your empathy last week as it relates to my mom and what I’m experiencing right now it just…I mean I was just so overwhelmed. It…it was in a good way…I felt elevated like you ministered to my spirit, it lifted my soul, you just spoke right to my heart and also deeply, deeply appreciative in that moment and I was just thanking God. It was just what I needed for that day. And then a few days later I was listening, I don’t remember what day it was, but I was listening and then I heard Rachel. You know, like and I said God you really do love me. You know, you…you sent these two beautiful women to pray for me in the moment in the space that I needed it…that I needed the most. And I was just so taken aback, and I was so grateful in that moment too to be connected and to be a part of this community. You know, I haven’t been a part of my physical church for over a year now, my previous physical church for over a year now just because of, you know, some things that happened but I have been a faithful listener of the Daily Audio Bible, you know, for several years now. And, so, it was…just to be known in that way, to be heard, it was it was just everything that I needed, and it is everything that I need every day. And, so, I’m just grateful and I’m just thankful and I just appreciate you both. Love you family.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family my name Adai. I’m calling from the United States and I just wanted to call in and respond to Asia Chicago. Asia, I stopped to recording as I was listening because I wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget to respond and…and that other things didn’t take my attention away. I heard your call about how you’re dealing with kind of the…you’re…you’re encountering the spirit of racism and seeing racism in and around you as an Asian American. And girl, I’m black American. My parents are also immigrants from __ Africa and I just want to share that I’ve been through this. This is…your describing exactly how I felt after the last election with watching KKK marches in the state where I lived and things like that. Girl, I understand we are at and to a degree and I’m praying for you. It’s not easy. It’s really scary sometimes when you’ve encountered this, where in a place you felt safe for so long. But so many of us love you for exactly who you are. We love you because of your heritage not in spite of it and the Lord loves you because of your heritage not in spite of it. And this time will pass and I pray in Jesus’ name that our country will be stronger, that our communities will be stronger and that we’ll be able to continue soon to support each other in…in the fight against racism in whatever form it takes girl. So, I’m here for you, I’m praying for you and your call really resonated with me. I also want to shout out all the medical professionals. My sister is a doctor, my mom is a nurse and they are on the front lines of this fight. God I just pray that You’d be with them and all the other medical writers. And I also want to shout out to all the single people who are social distancing and self-isolating alone. God sees you. I know is not easy. For those of you who are with your families I know that’s a challenge but it’s really hard to be single and at home alone. So, I’m praying for all of you like myself. Thank you and have a good one.

Hello DABber family this is Walta the Burning Bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our God and King. If I sound out of breath, Harold this one’s for you. I’m spending this time of isolation trying to get back into running. So anyway, I digress. I think Sharon Kansas called in about her friend Denise. And you said she’s been fighting. Well I just want to give you some good news. And they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and shall mount up like with wings like eagles. And when you said that she’s been fighting, I just saw her at the point where she needs to stop fighting and…and wait on the Lord and allow her wings to be guided by the winds, by the Holy Spirit. I’m praying for peace over her now. She is indeed a warrior. I can tell. And, so, tell her I said that. I love her, that I said a prayer for her when you said that. Also, a sister called in and I’m so sorry, I was trying to run…I’m so out of shape guys. I was trying to run. And, so, I didn’t get her name, but she is half Caucasian half Chinese and she was talking about just going through dealing with racism and during this time. And sister I am praying for you. You are loved, you’re beautiful, you’re God’s creature and I’m praying for God to give you wisdom to deal with people that do stuff like that and I pray that God will show you how that there is purpose in your pain that you’re dealing with right now. I love you guys. Talk to you later. Love you. Bye.

Daily Audio Bible family I’m __ out of Ohio I just want to request prayers for everyone who is affected by the quarantine from the coronavirus and their living paycheck to paycheck and don’t really have any emergency funds to get food, you know for their family or household children. So, I ask that you guys keep them in mind, those who actually lost their job and who is affected by the current situation that we are actually in. I ask that you pray for them and that God carries them through this. And let’s just keep them in mind. I came across a young gentleman at Walmart and he just had so many questions. He’s young, still in high school. So, I would like to request prayers for him as well – sweet, sweet little boy. I like to lift him up, can’t remember his name. Also, I’m still able to work. I’m blessed. I thank God for that opportunity for work because it is, you know, hard to come by these days. So, I wanted to express my gratitude and I ask that you guys pray for me as well. God knows what I am in need of. And I’m praying for those who are lonely by themselves right now and I ask that God…God be a comforter. I love you guys. You guys stay safe. Brian, thank you always for this wonderful podcast. Everyone stay encouraged. Take care.

Asia from Chicago this is Cheryl also in Illinois but I’m in Elgin. I heard your call on the March 23rd podcast and I am so saddened to hear of what you and your precious family have been experiencing along with others in the Asian community. I just want to pray for you. Father in the name of Jesus I thsnk You right now Lord for Asia from Chicago. She’s such a blessing to this community. I know that I have been very touched by her calls and inspired by the things that she has shared in the past and…and things she’s pray over. So, I lift her up before Your throne of grace right now, she and her family Lord and all those in the community that she has been concerned for and just saddened and angered by seeing the hatefulness of racism propagated by the evil one. So, Lord I pray You would come Holy Spirit. Place a hedge of protection around them Lord and I pray that You….that You would bring people along the way who could show the best of being the light in the world Lord, that could lift her spirits, that she would see situations even in this time of social distancing be it on social media or other outlets Lord God that would lift her spirits. I pray that You would eradicate every bit of fear in Jesus’ name. Yes, Lord just lift her up, strengthen her and I pray that her heart would be encouraged in this time. In Jesus’ name. Take courage my dear sister. My ethnicity may be Caucasian, but I definitely have a global heart and I love You very much. God bless You and Your family. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi this is Melody from Canada calling. I wanted to call in and encourage Asia who called in yesterday, March 23rd and who is saying just the discrimination against Chinese people. My husband is from Shanghai and we have a beautiful half Chinese daughter named Elaina. And we are so proud of her heritage. And I just want to pray encouragement for you and for all the Asians that are experiencing discrimination and fear and __. And yeah, I pray for blessing and peace and strength in their identity as per the body of Christ and I pray for an end to this prejudice and discrimination and for people to come together in unity. Bless you Asia. We love you.