Genesis 11:1-13:4, Matthew 5:1-26, Psalms 5:1-12, Proverbs 1:24-28
Today is the 5th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we reach the center of our first full calendar week of this brand-new year. So, our journey is underway, we have left the harbor we are sailing out into the deep. We’re not so far that we can’t turn around and see land, but before long we’ll be out in the deep together sailing across this year. And we’ve been getting moved into all the different books that we’re reading and just kinda getting locked into the rhythm a few more days. Getting through this week we will have established the rhythm for the year. And, so, let’s take the next step forward together. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Today Genesis chapter 11 verse 1 through 13 verse 4.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the Gospel of Matthew in our reading today we have reached the beginning of a very central, if not the central teaching of Jesus. This is known as the sermon on the Mount and its in this message that Jesus is laying out His central message, the lay of the land as it were. Here’s how things are. And we are in the section known as the…well…we read through the section known as the Beatitudes. And, so, think about it for a second, blessed are the poor in spirit? Blessed are those who mourn? out. How could that be true? So, if Jesus is laying this out as a central message then one of the things that He’s saying is, things have gotten backward. Things have gotten twisted. They’re upside down. The things that you are going after that you think are the things that you should pursue will not keep you from mourning, will not keep you from being poor in spirit. The pathway in that direction is what Jesus said, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So, at face value, if you’re being actually persecuted it’s hard to think that’s a blessing. The things that Jesus says are blessings or the postures that don’t like their blessed are actually blessed. How could a person even perceive it to be that way? The person who has open hands and has let go of all the striving, all of the competition, all of the trying to leach an identity off of each other by being better and one…one upping each other, all of the kind of human things that we do and interact. What we find out here in these statements from Jesus is this is the result of what we read in Genesis 3. And we saw some of those repercussions in our reading today from the Tower of Babel, people getting together without God deciding to elevate themselves and build a tower to heaven, become their own God. That is absolutely backward to the way humanity was intended to be, according to the Bible. We were created in the image of God, image bearers of God upon the earth. The breath of life was breathed into humanity from the breath of God. We are not made to be separated. And all of our attempts…attempts to be our own sovereign Lord, our own self-sufficiency, all we gotta do is look out into the world today, look deep into our own hearts today. We can see what our self-sufficiency and our own sovereignty brings us. This is what we get. But no matter what we accumulate, no matter what we dominate, no matter what we control it can’t keep us from morning, it can keep us from being poor in spirit. That kind of comfort comes from knowing there is no others source of hope but God. That everything else we try to put our hope in or everything else we try to arrange for so that we feel insulated, it can all go away. What cannot go away, what will not go away is the persistent love of God for us. We begin to realize how blessed we are to just freefall into the love of God. We begin to realize that that’s the only safe place there is. But that requires us to come to the end of ourselves and let go and complete faith and trust, that when we wake up in the morning we are on assignment to reveal God’s kingdom in this world, to be what Jesus said, to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. So, often we aspire to those things, but we have so many obligations and pressures that, you know you, we have to work so hard at our responsibilities that getting around to being the salt of the earth, is just hard in the world to be among people doing our job or accomplishing tasks while being aware and cognizant of the fact that we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. And that’s something we’ve gotta get our minds around. And that begins to happen as we begin to work ourselves out of the ruts and holes that we’ve dug for ourselves systematically day by day step-by-step moving forward in the right direction consistently making right decisions because we’re seeking wisdom consistently so that we can get a steady ground and then begin to just release, understanding and becoming more aware that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world than we are people hustling and bustling accumulating things and moving things around. Because if we just look at our lives outside God, we’re like busy little ants moving things from here. Like it’s moving the furniture around in our lives all the time so that we can keep think…thinking that all things are being made new. When if we would truly surrender and let go all things are being made new within us, And, so, we begin here in Matthew as Jesus is beginning to lay out His ministry with the sermon on the Mount to get glimpses at what is so compelling about Jesus, what is so compelling about the gospel.
And to begin to drive this home all we have to do is turn over into our reading from Proverbs today, “but since she refused to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you.” The voice that is speaking here is the voice that introduced itself as the voice of wisdom. If we listen and heed the voice of wisdom, if we slow down enough to seek the counsel of wisdom, then she will protect us. But if we disregard…if we just below the by her at every crossroads because we’re moving so fast that we have to make decisions so reactionary that we don’t even think about wisdom as a category and just blow right by and crash into the ditch or into one wall, well then it’s like wisdom is there saying, “I was right here trying to tell you which way to go and once again you’re not where you want to be but you are right where you were going. And, so, our job is to listen to wisdom, listen to Jesus speak about an upside-down world and wonder what true and complete freedom might look like for us. Because true and complete freedom won’t be several million dollars. True and complete freedom will come as we realize our utter dependence on God and the total safety in that place of complete vulnerability, naked and unashamed before God, holding on to nothing, having nothing between us and any other person. True freedom comes from within. We can’t arrange our exterior…our exterior world in such a way that we have inner peace. And we begin to realize that what Jesus is talking about is what’s going on in the truest part of who we are at the level of our identity within us.
Prayer:
Jesus, we thank You for the Scriptures and we thank You for what we’re learning from the Gospel of Matthew as we enter the sermon on the mountain. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to come, snap us awake, shake us awake. We’ve come here to…to engage in a rhythm where we’re interacting with the Scriptures each and every day looking to them for what they say, what they actually say but looking into them and applying them into our own lives, so that it’s not just a thick book that we hear a couple verses from when we attend church, that we are actually being shaped and we’re learning how to live. Come Holy Spirit into this, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
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And in the Daily Audio Bible app there’s a Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner that allows you to access things like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check that out. There are resources available there that are for this community around the Global Campfire all intended to enhance the experience of moving through the Bible in a year. So, for example, there is a relatively new resource, Promised Land photographs from the land of the Bible. When had been sold out of those for a bit, just supply chain issues, but we have them back in stock and it’s a beautiful coffee table book just by itself it’s beautiful, but within its pages is a glimpse, an open window into some of the places that we’ve been talking about. So this wilderness that we are in with the children of Israel, we can see what that looks like. Or the Galilee region where Jesus did His ministry that we’ve been kind of traveling along with Him around the countryside, you can see what that looks like. And that really really kind of snaps some things into place, So, check out that resource. You’ll find it in the books and audiobooks category. Or the daily Bible Journal. This is our 3.0 version of the journal and it’s beautiful, a beautiful size, beautiful to carry around, it’s beautiful to write in. And yeah, you can get a journal anywhere but journaling your way through the Bible…like when God speaks something to you, and it awakens something in you, we should probably take notes. Like it’s a good idea. And journaling our way through the Bible in a year, kind of being consistent in that, it commits us to telling our story in our own hand with our own pen or pencil. And I…I use a pencil. I didn’t…I mean…it’s been like five years that I’ve done that. I found these pencils, I love them, best pencils you can get and rediscovered what I had lost since elementary school. Like the joy of sharpening a really good pencil and writing in my own hand. And, so, all those resources are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And when we journal our way through the Bible in a year we are writing a testament, something that can be, something that can be read a hundred years from now, something that can be read in the future by our grandchildren or great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren, some that we may not be able to me about but we can still leave a testimony about God’s faithfulness in our lives and remembering, remembering what God did here in this place. We see that all throughout the Bible. And, so, check out the resources in the Daily…the Daily Audio Bible Shop.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian and I love you not be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Bhankier from India. I just want to send this prayer request for me because lately I feel…I’ve been feeling so down, and I’ve been battling suicidal thoughts. I try…I try to focus more on God but…and on Jesus, but sometimes it’s really hard to. I pray a lot. I’ve been praying a lot more lately, but I guess I need a lot more prayers. So, I’d really appreciate if you pray for me. Thank you family. In Jesus’ name.
Good morning DAB family it’s 2:20 on December 31st and I just listened to the Bible reading. I finished the Old Testament and the New Testament then the Psalms and then the Proverbs and then Brian talked about the end of the year and how there’s a feeling of emptiness and it reminded me of how far I’ve come. I started about five or six years ago kind of hit and miss listening to some days and some not and then about four years ago I got consistent with it. And I remember getting to the end of the year and hearing him finish every section and feeling like I was saying goodbye to it old friend. So, I understand that…that emptiness and finality of the last day. But when I started, I started just reading or listening to the Bible reading and then I added the commentary and then eventually added all the prayers and everything at the end. And this past year I started writing down all the prayer requests and going back over them and praying over one. And I just wanted to tell you guys how…how grateful I am for this community. It’s been a blessing to me, and I’ve called in requests but…or encouragement but not many requests. But today I have a request. My dad is 83 and he has COVID and some other health issues and I talked to him last night and he was not doing well. So, I’m asking you to pray for Howard. Thank you. Love…
Hello Daily Audio Bible my name is People on the Water from Indiana and I’m calling in today to ask for prayer. At the coming of this new year and as we’re going into this next year, which is just a few hours away I’m not in a good spot. And it's…it’s hard for me to talk about it because I often don’t express this part of me. I go to therapy, and we are talking about this and that. And it’s hard for me even in therapy to discuss this stuff because right now I am so entrenched with viewing X rated material and it’s taken a toll on me. And then even in that it’s just it’s just hurting me. So, I pray that you would pray for me, and I ask that humbly that in…that…that through the blood of Jesus Christ that I might recognize that I am healed, and I can stand healed, echoing that message to the brothers and sisters around me. So, thank you. I love you. And it’s in Jesus name that I pray, and I ask.
Good morning DAB family this is Shirl in southeastern Washington, Princess Warrior of God. It is December 31st 2021, very last day of this year and I am so grateful to have completed the Bible once again. This is my…oh…12th year, or is it 13th year, 14th year of doing this and I am so grateful. And I just want to say thank you to the Hardin family, every one of you for putting this together for us to come and join with each and every person in this family to read the Bible through in one year. Thank you, Jesus for everyone here. And I pray that 2022 will be an awesome year for many of us. Many have lost family and friends. And I’m quite emotional right now. I’m like Brian, thinking about feeling a little empty but yet very grateful. I love you all. God bless you all. And happy new year to my DAB family. Signing out for the last time in 2021. Shirl in southeastern Washington Princess Warrior of God. Bye.
Hello dab family this is God’s Rree for I have many branches, but I’m rooted in every word of God. Praise God. We have made it through another year. I have a special praise because I’ve been with Daily Audio Bible for more than 10 years but I’ve got…honestly and ashamedly say this is my first year I’ve been able to go through the entire year and finish on time. Life happens sometimes and you get behind and you play catch up. Usually sometimes I don’t get caught up until February of the next year. But I praise God that I was determined to make it on time this year. And I praise God for that New Year’s last year because it was such a difficult year, every burden that I had, every trouble that I had, I wrote them down and I prayed over them. And my family had a bon fire and I burned every one of those last problems. And God was able to take them away this year. And then I wrote down every blessing that I needed from God this year and stuck it in my Bible and prayed over it. And praise God. God has met every one of them. I just want to admonish to each and every one of you to trust and believe in God as we go forward into this year. Let’s go in with this spirit of praise and a spirit of expectation that God’s gonna bless and He’s gonna keep us and He’s gonna cover us and He’s gonna show himself to be an awesome God. Love one another. And do kind things for one another. But most of all love your Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I love you DAB I love you Brian and the Hardin family. Continue to do what you are called to do. We’re gonna go into this year with victory. I praise God and I bless Him. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Happy new year Daily Audio Bible family. I am so excited. This is Rox from Greenville NC also go by Roxanne. I just wanted to say happy new year to everyone and so excited for what’s coming next year. I am going to be doing the chronological side. So, I’m still torn if I’m gonna do both and be a double DABber because I really just love this family. But whatever I choose I just wanted to let you all know it’s been exciting to complete this first year. I started on January 8th and had to do a catch up and this year, this coming year I get to start with everyone on the first day of the new year and it’s just…it’s just wonderful. And yeah, I got super emotional too because one, it’s just so good how God is and that, you know, I have this app, you know, I always thought reading the Bible was gonna be so overwhelming but He has blessed Brian and Jill with this gift of ministry and this platform to make it easier and lighter for us but also heavy to convict us, to grow us, to have a better appreciation for God’s holiness and just how much He loves us. And I’m thankful. I love you all. Blessings in the new year. And I just look forward to seeing all of you or listening to all of you. Thank you. God bless. Bye.