2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17 ~ Romans 6:1-23 ~ Psalm 16:1-11 ~ Proverbs 19:20-21
Today is the 20th day of July. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in this week in the scriptures and in our lives. In the Old Testament we’re beginning the book of second Chronicles today and there isn’t really an overview to give about second chronicles that isn’t the same as when we talked about first Chronicles. We’re just kind of moving forward. First and second Chronicles were all one text and they we’re just broken apart for the ease of locating things at a time where we didn’t have word processors and search engines and stuff like that when we needed to go to the right scroll to locate what we were looking for. But, generally speaking, first Chronicles ends with the end of David’s reign and second Chronicles begins with the beginning of Solomon’s reign. We saw this same kind of pattern in the books of the Kings and so we begin. Second Chronicles chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 verse 17 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so, Paul is laying out
his argument and his argument is reframing their understanding of their faith
as they’ve traditionally known it. Paul is bringing Jesus into the mix and
saying, look, this revelation, what Jesus did, that God came here in the flesh
and dwelt among us, this is a big deal. And, so, we have to reframe what we
think we know because we know more now and here’s how this works. And that’s
basically what Romans is doing. And it can get tedious. Paul is packing, like,
every sentence with theological understandings and it’s like, wow, slow down a
second. I need to process this. So, a few days ago, Paul begins with Abraham. He’s
like, let’s go back to the beginning and work our way forward. And let’s
remember, because this was his first reframe, let’s remember that it was
Abraham’s belief that was counted as righteousness in God’s eyes, not his
following of a recipe, because there was no recipe. It was his belief. Let’s
start there. It was his belief in what God said that was counted as
righteousness to him. All the other stuff that we’ve been kind of stuck in
under this law came later.
And then, yesterday, he talks
about the law and he talks about mercy. Right? He talks about Grace that
overcomes the deficiencies that we find in the law because the law shows, it
reveals, our hopelessness and powerlessness to achieve righteousness in our own
strength. We cannot get there on our own but God is merciful. He is a Father. He
has grace that He extends to us through Jesus and that changes everything.
And, so, what Paul is going
into today, and you can sort of see this build. It’s the entire faith that we
ascribe to. What he is saying today is, so, now that we know this that we have
a merciful kind graceful God that would come and, while we were still enemies,
while we were still sinners, He would die to offer freedom to us. Now that we
know that he’s that kind and now that we know that that kind of Grace exists and
is extended toward us, does that mean we can just do whatever we want? Because
every time we do something wrong there is grace and it multiplies and
multiplies. So, should we intentionally just do what we know isn’t right so
that we can receive this grace even more and more? Absolutely not, he says. Because
when you become a slave to something you are obeying it and you have died to
who you were. The waters of baptism are a representation of this. You go into
the water declaring that who you were without Christ is dead, is going to be
left behind in those waters, and you will come back out a new creature.
But the whole thing that we’ve come to this far is beautifully summarized today at the end of our reading. And the very last verse that we read is one of the very famous verses in the Bible, right? For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Absolutely astounding, the truth in that verse. But it’s even more powerful when we just go back a couple verses and understand the entire paragraph, the narrative that he was saying that led to that statement, because it applies to us all. So, what fruit was produced from the things that you are now ashamed of? Right? So, you can look back over your life and go like, man, college was not so good of a season for me, or man, you know, some of those things that I did to and against my spouse, or some of those things that I did to against my parents and my friends, or the way I betrayed, the way I did those things that I knew were wrong, I’m ashamed of those things. So, Paul’s just simply saying, where was the fruit in that, did you get what you were looking for, was there a bunch of fruit produced from the things that you are now ashamed of? Right! Because the end of those things leads to death. But that’s not you anymore. You’ve been liberated from those things. You can let them go. That was an earlier version of you. That was the version of you separated from God. That’s not your story anymore. You are intertwined with God now. You are a new creation. Those things that you were enslaved to before that we’re leading you toward death. That’s gone. You’ve now changed yourself. You are now slaves to God and as you obey your master that will only lead to fruit, which will result in your sanctification. And the end of that story is eternal life because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer:
So, Father, we thank You for
the book of Romans. We thank You for your word. We thank You for this truth
washing into our lives. We thank You for this opportunity to remember what it
was like without You. It’s nothing we really want to relish in but it’s good to
remember that that old person is gone now and it was leading nowhere and You
intervened and came and rescued us. And now every day, we march forward deeper
into sanctification. Every day we are being made set apart and holy. Every day
we are being transformed into Your likeness. We are looking more and more like
You, Jesus, every day. And the end of this story is the beginning of forever
and ever and ever and ever with You, Eternal Life. So, we thank You, God, for
the gift of mercy and grace and, like Abraham, we believe. That’s what we bring
to the table because that’s all we have to bring to the table. And You supply
us with everything we need. You indwell us and fill us. It’s no longer us. The person
that we were without You is gone. Now it’s a new creature intertwined with You.
It’s a collaboration in life, moving us deeper into restoration and wholeness
and sanctification and eternal life. What do we even say to that? Thank You…is…is…it’s
flat…it’s not enough. This is the point where our vocabulary fails us. This is
too good to articulate. And, so, we just simply worship You, walk with You,
enjoy this life with You, and share the light and good news of it everywhere we
can in every way we know how. So, come Holy Spirit, show us what that looks
like as we walk with You today. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the web site. It’s
home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.
Couple things are going on around here.
Tonight at 7 p.m. we’re going
to do a Facebook Live inside the Sneezing Jesus discussion group and I’m just
going to share some thoughts. And it’s great forum for us to get together, like,
to be together, all in one place at one time when we can kind of fellowship.
Even though we are all over the place and maybe even spread out in all kinds of
different time zones, we can be together in the same place at the same time, a
little bit. So, that’s going to happen at 7 p.m. tonight. That’s Central
Standard Time, which is the time zone for the rolling hills of Tennessee. And
you’ll just have to, maybe, look up wherever you are in the world, the
difference. I know what it’s like here in the United States. I know that that’s
8 p.m. on the east coast and I know that’s 5 p.m. on the west coast and I know
that it’s 6 p.m. mountain time. But I don’t know where it is all over the world.
So, you can just Google that. I hope to see you there. You’ll need to be in the
Sneezing Jesus group, discussion group, to see that. So, you can find a pretty
easily facebook.com/groups/sneezingjesus. So, we’ll see you there
tonight.
Other thing that I’ve been
telling you about this week is that all the formats of Sneezing Jesus have been
released, including the audio addition, so, you can get it at Audible or iTunes
or wherever else you get audiobooks. So, it’s out there. It’s out there in all
kinds of formats. And if you haven’t had a chance, be we sure to check that out.
We’ll be doing the Sneezing
Jesus tour beginning this autumn and into the new year. If you would like to
see that come to your area, there’s a form you can fill out - small one, just a
couple things, just a way to get in touch. Go to sneezingjesus.com, scroll to the bottom
of the page and you’ll find it. Boom! Piece of cake. You’ll find it in 1 minute.
And we’ll see if that can happen.
If you want to partner with
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to anyone who will listen to it, anywhere on this planet, anytime of day or
night and to continue to build community around that rhythm that we share each
day - so that we know, that no matter what, we’re not alone. There’s somebody, no
matter what, we’re not alone. If that has brought light and life and good news
into your life, then thank you for your partnership. There is a link on the
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lower right-hand corner or if you prefer the mailing address is PO Box 1996
Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And as always, if you have a
prayer request for comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.
And that’s it for today. I’m
Brian, I love you, and I’ll certainly be waiting for you here tomorrow. But
I’ll also be waiting for you here, tonight, at the Sneezing Jesus page. So, I’ll
see you there or I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayers and Praise Reports:
Hello. Good morning Daily
Audio Bible family. This is Jay calling from New Jersey. It has been a little
while since I’ve called in. Well, allot has happened this while that I haven’t
called in. I am now married and I’m enjoying the honeymoon phase of life. So,
let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much God for life. We thank you
for health. We thank you for strength to call in to the DAB and listen to our
brothers and sisters and to pray with them. God, we love You so much, there’s
no possible way that I could even begin to fathom. You’re awesome. So, we
praise You now. We lift You up. We glorify Your mighty name. In that God, thank
You for the many blessings that we’ve been able to experience the last month, getting
married. Many people have had children, others are getting engaged, some are even
having birthdays, and celebrating anniversaries, so, God, we thank You for that.
Father, we thank You for the new jobs,
and we thank You for the new cars, and we thank You for our homes. God, we
thank You for being able to satisfied with what we have, because I know it’s so
easy sometimes to get caught up in what others have and what we don’t have and
where we want to be and how we want to get there and then we can forget to be
satisfied with what we have. So, thank You Father. In the mighty name of Jesus
Christ, we pray. Amen.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible.
This is Lauralee and I have received my 10 Sneezing Jesus books and that was Saturday,
and its Monday and oh boy…I had…anyway…I’m just going to lift up the names of
the people to our heavenly Father with this community. Thank you, Brian and
Jill and the Hardin family for your faithfulness. Lord Jesus, your word says
draw near to you and you will draw near to us. So, I pray for pastor Dwayne,
Joanne, Robert, Cheryl, and Matthew, that those small little books will draw
their eyes to you, draw them by your spirit to you, and open new days and new
ways to live your life out in and through you. We come to you in Jesus’s name
Lord, God, our Father and mention His righteousness only to call on Your
obedience and Your sufferings. You magnify the law in its construction and its
cost and made it faithful. May we be secured by your blood, saved by your
light, joined by your spirit. Let us pick up your cross and follow you. May
your grace prepare us for your appointment and make us willing that we should
choose your inheritance for us and a point that we will keep or loose, suffer
or enjoy. If blessed by prosperity, let us be free from its snares and use, not
abuse, its advantages. And may we cheerfully and patiently submit to those
afflictions, which are necessary…
Hello DAB family this is
Marsha from Colorado. I’m a member of the Sneezing Jesus Facebook group and I
feel so compelled to share a post I made this morning, July 17th,
for those of you who are not on Facebook. So, here’s my post. Something very
powerful is happening deep within me today. I have power read Brian Hardin’s
new book, Sneezing Jesus, and now I am going back through, slowly listening on
audio and taking notes. It is obvious to me that God has placed a powerful
anointing on this book and I feel God’s presence as I listen and read. It’s
deep, it’s wide and it’s having the effect the author desired and prayed for. Thank
you, Brian. All the sudden I find myself navigating through some very troubled
waters that God brought to my attention just yesterday. If I handle this
through the knowledge of good and evil without God’s guidance, it has the
potential for great destruction. Had I not received this book last week and
devoured it, and made the decision to wake up and see what’s it’s like to be
fully human, intertwined with God, I know I would not be sharing this post
today. God’s timing is impeccable. I was literally on my knees in prayer last
night about this and awake all night in turmoil, but today God specifically
showed me how to proceed, which was opposite of how I was going to handle it. I
am tremendously thankful for His intervention. I went from turmoil to peace in
a short amount of time and I can’t wait to see the restoration God has in mind
for this. I am almost giddy in anticipation. Now that’s powerful, and I think
this is the stuff that sneezes are made of.
Hi, this is Nadene from Michigan and I want to
say first of all, that I have never been much of a reader of the Bible or even
very spiritual. And, so, I was trying to get rid of some fears that I have of
death and a lot of…I have panic attacks. And I asked my dad and he suggested this.
And on my breaks, at work, because I work at a factory, I’ve been listening to
it. And now, for at least 2 weeks, they’re letting us listen to music at the
factory and I’ve just been listening to this on my own personal speakers. And
I’ve become quite addicted to listening and it’s changed my life a lot, in the
fact that I actually feel like I want to learn more and I’m asking questions.
And I wanted a prayer request because my husband is not a believer because of a
church we went to. And I want to be firm in my faith so he can see what
Christianity is supposed to look like. And I’m not feeling like I’m doing a
very good job. With two young kids, two full-time jobs, and college split
between the both of us, it’s pretty hectic to even get out the door to go to
church. But I wanted to thank you all for being such a wonderful community. Thank
you very much. Bye.