09/13/2021 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 12:1-14:32, 2 Corinthians 13:1-14, Psalms 57:1-11, Proverbs 23:9-11

Today is the 13th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we approach the middle…well…I mean we’ll get to the middle of the week, and we’ll be in the middle of the month. We’re working our way through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. We’re working our way through the second letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament and we will conclude that letter with today’s reading. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week. Isaiah chapters 12, 13, and 14 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the second letter to the Corinthians today. And as letters go, it's…it’s a good-sized letter, but we probably noticed that a bunch of this letter is Paul defending himself in part, and we’ve already gone over this. Other people were coming and visiting these churches and nuancing what Paul was teaching. He did not like that a bit. And they were associated with, you know, like some kind of pedigree, some kind of association to the actual disciples of Jesus in some form or another. And, so, they’re super apostles. And, so, he has to defend himself and spends a bunch of the letter doing that. Let’s just pause though and remember that Jesus Christ, the Savior, dealt with the same kinds of scenarios where he’s constantly being asked, “by what authority are you doing these things?” And all kinds of assumptions about Jesus were flying around. And we’ve explored that we went to the Gospels. So, let’s just notice here in this letter that these kinds of things were going on in the early church. They continue to go on until this day where we pick our favorites and then we defend our favorites and we’re always looking for a certain kind of pedigree or a certain kind of proof. And there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s in some ways called discernment. Paul essentially was saying, can’t you just…like…do I have to brag? Do I have to boast? Do I have to show how I have done more for God than these other people? Can’t you just look at what my life is? Can’t you look at the consistency of the message of the gospel? Can’t you see what we’ve been through to bring it to you? Can’t that matter? Do we have to actually get into a bragging contest? Is this what we’re doing here? And that’s fair. Jesus had the same kind of thing going on. Remember Jesus being accused of getting His…the source of His power to heal from the devil? And Jesus is like, what are we…what are we doing here? What are we talking about here? How can that even be? A house divided against itself can’t stand. So, we’ve had the opportunity to explore the ways in which we judge and what we’re looking for. But Paul ends this letter actually in a really pointed but very helpful way. And, so, if we think about the way that we discern or we judge, if we look at the way that Jesus was judged, if we look at the way that Paul was judged then we see how we do the things that we do and we might begin to realize that it’s mostly outward. Like, we are mostly outwardly judging without looking in the mirror and including ourselves in the equation. And that is how Paul rounds things out. And I quote. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test.” So, we can watch the super apostle’s brag. We can watch Paul brag back and defend himself. And we can sit there and go okay well here’s my choice, I judge for Paul, or I judge for Apollos, or I judge for Cephas, right? Because we’ve seen all this going on in the early church. Paul is just suggesting as he closes this letter that maybe we just look at ourselves for a while, maybe we examine ourselves realizing that Christ Jesus is within us, and we don’t have to be the judge. We have the Spirit of truth. We should keep our eyes on our own lives and what God is doing in our beautiful wild life that we’ve been given, and then live that out into the world not worrying about the rest.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come into that. We…we walk into so much distraction. We walk into so much stuff that just entangles us in one way or another, big or small. When we are given permission to become aware of Your presence in our very lives and to examine ourselves. So, come Holy Spirit with the light of truth and help us do that, examine ourselves. And lead us into all truth, we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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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:

Good morning DAB I’m going to go by His Farmer. This is the first time I’ve called in. I’ve been listening to DAB for a couple years now. I was inspired by Marked as His and I want you to know that we’re praying for you. I’m a farmer also and it is a struggle right now trying to find help to…to get all the work that we need to be done. I just want to encourage you that…keep praying, keep listening to the DAB. I’ve been listening to the DAB for about two years now since I was being treated for cancer about two years ago and I’ve never stopped listening since I…since I was in the bed listening…being treated for cancer and here we are today in remission, and I praise God give him all the glory and really love listening to the prayer requests and…and God’s scripture. It’s 6:00 o'clock in the morning here and I’m feeding my cows too. I understand the struggle. It’s tough. It is not easy this year. It’s never been harder I don’t think to be a dairy farmer that I can remember in my 40 years of working on our family farm. So, I just wanted to let you know that we’re…we’re definitely praying for you here and understand the struggle. It is tough.

Heidi Abby this is Amy and I just have a praise report and testimony, and everything wrapped up in one. Tonight, I was just about to have my shower tonight and I stepped out of the bathroom for less than a minute. And as I stepped out and was about to go back in the entire ceiling caved in. And, you know, I’m still kind of in shock right now because it just happened a few hours ago. But I’m just so thankful to God for my life because if I had stayed there a minute longer or had gotten into the shower already, I don’t know where I would be right now. So, I just want everybody to, you know, really praise God with me and for me because I’m just, you know, my life was just…I’ve just been thinking about this since it happened, that I am so thankful to God for my life but it’s just, you know, it’s just given me a new way of looking at God and that He actually is with me is with me because I stepped out into the hall in the middle of brushing my teeth. That never happens because I know needed me to get out of that bathroom before the ceiling caved in. I just want everyone to please thank God for me and just, you know, be encouraged. Keep praying even when it doesn’t look like anything is happening because God is truly working for you, and He will protect you. Thank you very much everybody and have a good day. Bye.

This is Jamie in New Jersey standing on the word of God. Dear Father in heaven we come to You in humility and prayer. We want to recognize our shortcomings to You and ask that You would help us. Your word tells us that we should take heed lest we fall. We confess that so many times we have given our promise to You Lord that we would do something only to regret it later when we lack the strength or courage to carry it out. When we think about our Christian life and how many things that we have pledged to do but have failed to do we realize that without Your Holy Spirit we have no strength to sustain any of it. Some of us have pledged to be bolder in our evangelism but when the moment came to be bold, we have lacked the courage we needed to speak out boldly. We have preached many things that we ourselves have failed to do. Our prayer lives are not what we have pledged to You that they would be. Prayer has easily been squeezed out of our schedules and the busyness of the day. Lord for these and so many more failings we confess. Create in us a new heart. Write Your commandments on the tablets of our hearts. We surrender our wills to You again and again. Lord write Your word on the palms of our hands. Remind us that You will do…that it will do us good to diligently devour and pay attention to it daily. It will bring light into the darkest places of our hearts like the dawning of the day and the rising of the morning star. Help us seek and wait on You every day. Father You know each and every one of us and You know our desire to walk in Your ways and bring glory to You and draw others out of darkness into Your loving Kingdom. Please take our frailties and turn them into power for Your purposes. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank You, my brothers, and sisters. I love You all dearly. God bless the…

Hi DAB family I’m a long-time listener, been seven years now and I wanted to thank Brian for all that he’s done for me and my family. My wife has also been listening for a couple years now. Listening to the Bible every day has truly been a life changing experience and it’s gotten me through some of the most difficult times of my life. But I’m not calling for myself today I’m calling for a close family friend. I’ve known him since he was a young boy and now, he’s grown up to be a very devoted and committed man. He’s traveled to India civil times to share the gospel and his family is committed to planting churches all across that country. He’s going to undergoing heart valve replacement surgery on the 21st and I’m just asking anyone who feels compelled to just pray for a smooth recovery and a smooth operation. His name is Prasanth. He lives in New York and I just hope that you would all keep him in your prayers. I’m also listening to your prayers and my wife, and I pray for all of you guys regularly. God bless.

Good morning DAB family this is Terry in Prattbull I just heard Lisa on September 9th. Lisa’s ill. She’s been ill since January and she’s struggling. She’s struggling with feelings of being a burden and…and fear. And I just want to lift her up to God in prayer. Heavenly Father I lift Lisa up to You and…and Father let her know how love she is by her family by her DAB family, by everyone around her. And Lord God help her to know that the brokenness of this world, through disease and all of the bad things in life, that’s Your will for our lives. Your will for our lives is how we respond to that. And heavenly Father I give You all the glory in the world for the help she’s receiving, the care and the love that she’s getting, the skill from the doctors. And Lord I…I just lift her up and I ask her Holy Spirit to fill her heart with joy and help her to realize Your love for her. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Good morning this is Tina from Texas coming on here to pray for miss Lisa who called in on September 9th…well I heard her on September 9th. And she says she’s been feeling sick from kind of like a chronic viral inflammation. And hearing her voice and hearing her say that she feels like a burden to her family because of her sickness, I just wanna say first and foremost you’re not a burden, you’re never a burden. With Christ on your side, you’re never a burden. I just want to pray that father God that you just heal her and keep her and let her know that you're…you’re never alone. Lisa…miss Lisa is never alone with in her sickness, within her burdens, that she casts all her burdens and her worries and her sorrows onto you and that you comfort her and take them over for her and that you surround her with people that you know love her and truly care for her, to banish those thoughts those negative thoughts out of her mind, to keep up the fight for her health and for the faith and for the Kingdom. I thank you for bringing her to Daily Audio Bible to ask for prayer and I just ask that we all continue to pray for her in the name of Jesus and bring a miraculous healing to her, so she feels no pain and only joy and peace and comfort. Lisa, we love you. God loves you more than ever and Christ and Jesus loves you just as much. Thank you for calling. Will be praying for you. These blessings I ask in your son’s holy name Jesus. Amen. Thank you. By miss Lisa.