01/22/2021 DAB Transcript

Genesis 44:1-45:28, Matthew 14:13-36, Psalms 18:37-50, Proverbs 4:11-13

Today is the 22nd day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we come in out of all that’s going on. Maybe this is…we’re starting our day right now. Nothing’s really happened yet. We’re orienting ourselves right here the beginning of the day. Maybe it’s lunch break. Maybe it’s commuting in the car. Maybe it’s commuting on the train. Maybe it’s commuting on a plane. Maybe it’s the end of the day. Maybe you’re on the other side of the world from Tennessee the rolling hills of Tennessee here. It doesn’t matter. We’re all together and no matter when we come in here and push play, we are not alone. Somebody…somebody else is many somebody else’s somewhere in the world is right on the same page. We are always in this together. And, so, it is a joy to be here with you at the Global Campfire for the next step forward, which will lead us back into the book of Genesis, back into the story of Joseph and his brothers who are having lunch Joseph’s house in Egypt. And it’s a very strange situation because the brothers who have bowed down to Joseph just like he dreamed have no idea that this is their brother. So, let’s continue. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Genesis chapters 44 and 45.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Genesis today we…we continue the story of Joseph and Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers after observing them, really putting them through some pretty significant tests where they would sense that they were in pretty deep trouble to say the least. Maybe life as they knew it was over. And Joseph is observing his brothers and testing them because it’s revealing their hearts. It’s forcing the story of Joseph, that has been maybe buried in their consciousness because he’s long gone and dead. It’s forcing it all back up to the surface. And they talk about how Joseph pleaded with them, begged them and how they were being judged. And you can only imagine what’s going on in Joseph’s heart, but in the end, he reveals himself and they are stunned. They are just speechless and stunned. And he tells them something pretty interesting when he sends them off to go get Israel, Jacob, their father, “don’t quarrel on the way.” Like, he just knows the blame game, like the regret of it all. Like the turn of fortunes and how this can all get nasty in the family. He’s just like, “go get dad and bring him back and you’re gonna be taken care of.” And we will continue that story. It was a beautiful moment to see Jacob speechless. Old man believing that his favorite son, his favorite son Joseph was long dead and he…it’s like a resurrection. And, so, you can imagine just how completely speechless this whole situation was. And we’ll continue the story as we continue forward tomorrow.

And then we get into the book of Matthew and let’s talk about faith for a second. Faith is one of these words that we use and it’s like an overarching thing, “like this is my faith. A lot of times when we say something like that what we’re talking about is this is…these are my religious practices, like this is how I have ordered my life around the truth that I believe in. But faith, what exactly are we talking about? When does that kick in? A little bit later in the Bible, we’re gonna here that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So, in other words, faith allows us to have access to something that we can’t prove. That is actually the point at which we step into faith. Like once we have all of the understanding that we can have, and wisdom challenges us to seek knowledge and to seek understanding. And, so, once we have achieved and sought out all that we can by way of understanding and insight, we still find that there are plenty of things that we cannot prove and there are plenty of things that remain in the realm of mystery. This isn’t just a religious thing. This is life itself. We can go in any direction trying to become a foremost authority on something, whether that be brain surgery or whether that be quantum mechanics or the way we fall in love. At some point we will reach the end of what is known and what can be known and then we will be at the threshold of faith. That’s where faith starts. Faith allows us to move forward with hope in what we cannot see. So, basically if you already have control over something, if you already have all of the understanding of something or if you already possess something you don’t need faith for it. You have it. Faith begins when we have stepped into mystery. So, in our reading from the book of Matthew today, Jesus has fed a large crowd and then He sent His disciples across the lake and he went to pray. He just found out John the Baptist was dead. So, He needed a minute. And He could tell that the winds were against the boat and so He walks on the water and He comes by them and He’s like, “take courage. It’s I. Don’t be afraid.” And they’re like, “it’s a ghost.” And then Peter’s like, “if it’s you tell me come to you on the water.” And Jesus is like, “awesome. Come. Come.” So, Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water toward Jesus and then he saw the wind and he was afraid and then he began to sink. He was believing in the impossible and achieving the impossible through faith until he looked around for certainties and then he began to sink. And it’s so beautiful. Peter starts to sink and he’s like, “save me Lord. Save me.” And Jesus reaches out and He says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” I…I love this. I love this because it’s not like a shaming thing here. It’s not like Jesus going like, “well…you could have done it, but you only got a taste. Shame on you. You should’ve had more faith.” And we read these things into the Bible. So, often it’s Jesus saying, “you were doing it. You were doing it. You were walking on the water. Why did you doubt. Why did you doubt?” Can we take that into our day today? Can we understand that all of our attempts to try to control things through facts and understanding are always going to leave us…lead us into the realm of mystery? And that is when faith begins. So, understand that if we pray a prayer like “Lord, increase my faith.” A lot of times what we’re asking for is “Lord, increase my certainty.” If we’re asking God to increase our faith then He will lead us until we have to step out of the boat and we will only ever be stepping out of the boat because that is how we will grow in faith. And when we have faith to step out of the boat and walk in…and walk on water as it were, once we’ve mastered that then we can ask for something even greater because nothing is impossible with God according to Jesus, who is God made flesh, who is the human God. So, let’s carry this into our day and into our weekend and into our life. Let’s just hear Jesus at every juncture when we have this opportunity to step into faith and we know, we know but we don’t know. And every time we start to sink because you start looking around and we start not being able to control the situation anymore. Let’s hear Jesus. “Why did you doubt. You were doing it. You were doing it. Why did you doubt?”

Prayer:

Jesus, we come into that because it's…it’s huge. We cannot please You without faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please You. The Scriptures tell us this. And, so, we need to get wise about faith and not just call our faith our religion, to actually live by faith, which means that we’re gonna have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Holy Spirit, come. We reach for You. We take Your hand. We walk by faith forward on this journey inviting You to show us what it’s all about helping us to realize the things we fear are things that we have…that…that we do not need to fear and the things that we see as limitations, they can be overcome. Show us Holy Spirit how to live as we were intended to live, true and by faith we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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Check out the resources that are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. They are made for this journey. For example, the God of Your Story, which is our latest written resource that we…that we released is basically…it took two full years to write that book. And I thought it was gonna take like six months at the most just because of the repetition of going through the Scriptures for 15 years. But trying to write down the gold of the kinds of commentary, the kinds of things that we talk about, trying to bring context and something that we can walk away from our time around the Global Campfire carrying in our pocket, like something that we can use in our day in the transformation process of our lives, that is always the goal. So, to try and write that down - a very very different process. So, it’s a very different experience. But the God of Your Story is the…the perfect companion to what we’re doing here at the Daily Audio Bible. Whether you’re ever disconnected from the Internet and just want to keep up or whether you, you know, you just want to take the journey deeper, the God of Your Story is a resource for going through the Bible in a year as we do and talking about it. So, check that out.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey guys it’s Bridget from New York City and I just wanted to call in to pray. I caught up on a few episodes and I listened to some of the prayer requests and, you know, some of some of your…your requests have just filled up my heart but in…with such an…I have such a grief with you and I'm…I’m with you and I just want you to know that, you know, we serve a God that is amazing , that He chose us, He chose us for this world. Whether we’re in a good place or not, you know, He still wrote our name and said, you know, this is the person that I want to be on earth during this time for such a time as this and He knows our names and although I can’t mention every single person’s name that I want to pray for I do want to tell you all that God hears your prayer requests He hears your heart he knows he knows he knows he knows what you’re feeling what you’re thinking. And I just pray that this year, you know, for 2021 you all will continue to draw near to the Father and draw close to Him and that your hearts will be laid bare before Him and that you would just let Him in completely to…to just ravage your heart and take over every area of your life and that your hope would be so deep in Him and your love so entrenched by His love that no man can take it away not even death not even sickness not even disease nothing and that we would pray in confidence knowing that He hears us. Lord I just lift you up on high Father and I thank you that we can come to you and let you hear our prayers Lord. Help us father to continue to draw near to you Father God as we continue to listen in Jesus’ name I pray. Love you guys.

Hey DABbers it’s your brother from Indiana and I just really wanna encourage people with what I’ve just heard on this podcast from January 16th. Just a prayer the requests. First sister Sharon from Southern California I believe and then somebody before her was crying and then she was trying to in the spirit of this just this empathy felt for one another between brother and sister and I just want to praise God in that. I just think that’s so beautiful. Honestly. She said in the name of Jesus. Okay. So, regarding the name of Jesus she said I know that you can do it because I know you’re gonna do it for me. It was in terms of a relationship struggle. She had that faith. And I want that faith. Don’t we all want that faith? I pray that God would give us more faith like that, that he would grant us more faith. She __ saying thank You for everyday and she…she has plans to be joyous when God answers her prayer. It was just so encouraging. And…and I’m trying to go a little clip further __ from Des Moines…Des Moines regarding Paul’s message, they will come back. And she knows this because she didn’t hear from her son for a decade and he came back. Like just this faith. Like come on. I really want that. I want that. I pray that over all of you. Honestly. And then the singer Candace from Oregon. That was amazing a beautiful prayer. __ on speaking terms. Come on Holy Spirit intercede for this prayer I pray this in Jesus’ name. Thanks God. Thank you.

Hey guys I got a couple prayer things. One, if you could pray for a family that’d be great. They need some help and some healing and some stuff. Also, if you could pray for me. I guess it’s a confession more than anything but like my heart has gotten really hard and really like inward focused since Covid and all this stuff. So I find myself being really angry and like reluctant to help people who really need it. And I know like we gotta be safe you know with Covid and all that. It’s just I’m having a really hard line…I’m like…I’m going way too far to one side and not like not willing to help because I’m so worried about it. I…I’m having a really hard time and I’m not loving as I should, loving people as I should. If you guys could please pray for me that would be great. I’m praying for all you guys I love you guys and alright well praying for us all.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for Francine from Tennessee her and her husband who has the Covid. I’m just calling to pray for them and all the people who are having problems with Covid. Gracious Father we just ask You to touch Francine and her husband and those who have the Covid. Lord You know all about it, Lord. You know more about it than anyone because You’re the great physician. We ask in You Lord that You heal. We ask in You that You intervene. That You be their breather Lord. As You breathe the breath of life into man You help them to breathe as only You can. Lord we ask that You heal. We ask that You be with them. Father we know…let them know that they’re more than a conqueror and You’re still working miracles. You haven’t changed although the world has changed. But thank You Lord that that that that You have not changed. Lord we give You the glory. We ask You to have Your way. You touch them Lord. You work Your miracles God as only You can, and we will give You the glory and the honor and praise. Lord we ask You to touch also Paul’s children and all of the children Lord that are going through even the children that we need we need You in our schools, we need You in the lives of our children. Lord we just ask You Lord to be their protector. O Lord to be their guide. O Lord to be there to be their strength Lord in the times of challenges. Lord with the bullying and the stocking and the __ of confusion. But we thank You Lord that You are a God of peace. You just spoken and the winds obey You. O Father we thank You Lord for the miracle. We thank You for somebody who needs who needs a __  from You today tonight Lord somebody who thinks they can’t make it let them know that You’re carrying them and You never leave them nor forsake them. That’s one thing You’ll never do is never leave us. You’ll be there before we even ask …

Hello, my name is Alyssa and I’m calling from Montana. I was introduced to the Daily Audio Bible just a couple weeks ago on January 6th to be exact. My brother-in-law showed it to my husband and my husband showed it to me and I cannot even tell you how thankful I am. Brian thank you so much. You have no idea how much you’re ministry has been an answer to some of my deepest prayers because I was born totally blind. I don’t read print. And, so, as you can imagine reading the Bible for me is really really challenging. I have to have somebody read it to me and my husband’s often at work. So, I’ve always wanted to do a daily plan and I’ve always wanted to do it on my own. And this app and this Daily Audio Bible is so accessible for me. I used to get envious of people that could just open their bibles and read whenever they wanted and now, I feel like able to just open my Bible every morning and read and listen and just on my own is so easy use. I’m just so thankful. I’m so sad I didn’t find it sooner, but you know what God’s timing is perfect. So, thank you Jesus. And I also want to say I’m thankful for all of you my fellow listeners because it kind of gets lonely sometimes cooped up in this apartment with my sweet 2 year old daughter while my husband is working full time. And it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one listening, that you guys are all in this with me. So, I’m thankful for you and I can’t wait to get to know you better, all of you and spending the rest of the year with you. God bless you. Bye.

Hi this is the blind man from Ohio…and I am really really encouraged. This is my first time calling in. I’ve only been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for a few months and I really love the…this podcast and everything that I listen to. I…I’m really encouraged. I like Brian and everything that he talks about. And God gives him…anoints his lips too let everyone know what God’s word should say and I follow along with him the best I can. I, of course, I’m the blind man. I can’t see. So, my encouragement is Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And my daily motto is walk through…walk with…walk with through faith and not through site. And God bless everyone. And I follow and I pray with everyone’s prayer requests also. God bless.