03/22/2019 DAB Transcript

Numbers 33:40-35:34, Luke 5:12-28, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 11:23

Today is the 22nd day of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it’s always a pleasure, always a joy, always exciting to come around the global campfire, be together in community and let God’s word speak on its own behalf. So, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week and we’ll go back into the book of Numbers and we’ll be concluding the book of Numbers tomorrow, but that is tomorrow and today is today. And the book of numbers has been telling us the path, basically the way that the children of Israel moved around in the wilderness and we began that yesterday and we’ll conclude that today. Numbers chapter 33 verse 40 through 35 verse 34.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we end our work and prepare to move into the weekend our reading from Numbers completed the recap of the different locations that the Israelites had moved around and camped within during their wilderness journey. And then we saw preparations being made for when they did go into the promised land. So, tribal leaders were appointed to distribute the land grants that would be bestowed on the tribes. And the priestly class of the Levites, they were told they wouldn’t inherit any land, but they would reside in the communities and care for the spiritual health of the people. So, Levitical towns would be established and this concept of manslaughter basically, cities of refuge, were also established. This is a dramatic move forward in human governance where a distinction is being made between accidental death and like premeditated murder.

And then in the gospel of Luke, Jesus continued to do exactly what He said He was going to do, what He said He came to do and in the process, He continued to call together the disciples, right? So, we talked about the disciples along with you Galilee leaving everything yesterday, but in today’s reading we come across Matthew who’s sitting basically in his tax office collecting taxes. He leaves everything as well. So, it’s really interesting because you have people who are seeing Jesus say and do what He’s doing, who are willing to leave everything in their life behind to follow this man and yet at the same time we have the religious establishment listening to Jesus say the same words, watching Him do the same things and have a completely different interpretation of it, which exasperates Jesus on a number of occasions. And in today’s reading, you know, He’s like, “what’s easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk?” Like this guy is crippled ad he’s paralyzed. So, if he gets up and starts walking, who are we going to praise and who are we going to condemn? Like, what is there can to condemn here? This is a work of God, but the religious leaders were much more interested in the letter of the law than the spirit of the law, right? So, they could watch God in the flesh perform a miraculous sign and still deny it. And these are the keepers of the religion. Now, before we do what we usually do and look at them as the antagonists we gotta understand we do this kind of stuff too and it usually happens when it appears that God might be doing something that is out of our comfort zone or that we do not understand either in our own wisdom and experience or theologically. Like something is happening that we can’t explain and so we turn back to what we think we can control and start quoting versus and all this kind of stuff when if we would read the Bible and understand the context of the Bible, God has never ever ever ever had a problem blowing that stuff up. God, according to Him, according to His own word. God is who he is. Like, there’s not a whole lot more to say and what we think we know of Him is not even the tip of the iceberg, not even scratching the surface. He is so far beyond us. He will do what He wills. He will use whoever He chooses. And He will accomplish His will today and ultimately. And whether we can understand how or why or what makes no difference. We don’t get stand in judgment of God. How scary would that be? And yet how often do we try to do it? How often are our prayers full of things that He is or is not going to do? Like how often are our prayers full of us telling God who He is as if He’s forgotten and what He will do as if He’s forgotten. So, here’s Jesus just doing exactly what He announced He was sent to do and then we see the religious establishment coming to check Jesus out and interpret what He’s doing. Rather then looking at the miraculous right in front of their eyes, they look at stuff like, “well He associates with sinners. He doesn’t make his disciples fast. He claims to forgive sins.” So, they can’t get their mind around Jesus, even though the presence of God is obviously among them, people are being set free, people are being healed, God is doing a new thing, but they cannot formulate it, they cannot get their minds around it theologically. And, so, so they decide to kill him. And we can be like, yea, yeah, yeah, that’s in the Bible, I’ve heard that my whole life, like I know this story until we realize that the seeds of this are in us because we are notorious for cursing and trying to destroy things that we do not understand, especially as believers. Read your church history. There have been long, long seasons where we have been every bit as pharisaical as the Pharisees and a lot of times we still are. And, so we have to challenge ourselves if we are praying for God to do a new thing in us. If we are rejoicing and worshiping that God is doing a new thing in the world in our church services. If we are using this kind of language and asking this of God, then we better not find ourselves fighting Him when He does. This is what we’re gonna watch play out in the rest of the Gospels. This is what we’re gonna watch play out in the rest of the New Testament because this is what’s still playing out today. It’s gonna be the religious people that want to destroy Jesus. And so often it’s we, the religious people who want to destroy each other because God certainly couldn’t do a new thing that we don’t understand and if we don’t get it, if it’s different, if it’s stretching us, then a lot of times our first reaction is to start quoting Bible verses that would disprove. Friends, that is what the Pharisees are doing in the gospel of Luke. They’re saying, “this guy can’t forgive sins. Who does He think he is?” So, some things to think about as we move into the weekend.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we come in Your presence because we need Your Holy Spirit to help us think these things through rightly. Obviously, we want to defend the truth, we want to defend the gospel, we want to live into the truth of the gospel, we want to share the unadulterated good news with the world. And yet, just like the Pharisees, so often we’re trying to defend the walls, we’re trying to defend the fences, we’re trying to defend the territory even as we ask You to do something new. So, help us Holy Spirit, help us realize when we are turning to judgment in an unhealthy way. Forgive us when we’re judging others and their journey with You simply because we don’t understand. Come Holy Spirit, help us keep our eyes on our own lives in our own relationship with You and offer grace in our differences. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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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 this is James from Oshawa. First-time caller. I began listening to the Daily Audio Bible this year and I want to say thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m calling specifically to pray for Troy who called in on Saturday about…he stated that there was things in his life that were so horrible about drug use and alcohol and I just called to pray. And dear Lord God I give thanks, I give thanks for this opportunity to share, I give thanks for this opportunity to let Troy know that there’s other people who have gone down that road. And God by His grace and by His glory has brought myself out of that path of drugs alcohol debauchery and I give thanks for the global campfire in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hi this is Toni from Germany and I’m calling in because…just with a thought that I had. You know how we are all…we have all our trials and there’ll always be those people who are going to be pushing our buttons and so forth and it can be so easy for those, you know, negative thoughts that we may have about other people, just kinda disturb us and pull us away from the path, basically. And one of the things that I do is I do is I listen to the community prayer line and that can be, you know, two hours or three hours and I just put it on. And it’s amazing that when I do that, when I do that it’s those negative thoughts just dissipate. So, I’m just gonna encourage people to…who are not listening to the community prayer line to consider that as a resource. Also I want to reach out to Tony Carpenter…Tony the Carpenter from England. I know you’ve gone through some tough times. We haven’t been hearing from you that much but I want you to know I’m praying for you. And the other thing I would like to say is for those people with the unspoken requests. One of the things I try to do when somebody calls in with a particular prayer request, I do remember them, but I also try to remember anybody else in our community that may be dealing with the same. So, I just…because I know there’s a lot of people who are not calling in. So, that’s all I have for now except for to say, “hi mom and dad.” Take care everyone. Love you.

Hey DAB family this is Dash from Indiana again. I’ve been meaning to call in for a while now, but today’s been really tough on me. I’ve struggled with feelings of worthlessness and thoughts of suicide for almost half my life now. I know I’ll never go through with it but it’s no less miserable being stuck with the thoughts. I’ve been in a pretty awful place of work but until now it’s been paying the bills while my wife and I are expecting a little girl in July and then I definitely won’t be making enough to support our family. I’ve been trying to find better employment but no matter how hard I look or how much we pray I can’t seem to…can’t seem to find a position that pays enough. So, I feel like a failure and today the depression has been really bad and just happens to be my baby boys first birthday. I should be with my family enjoying it and instead I locked myself away because daddy hates himself and feels like a failure and I’m just mad at myself that I can’t be happy on my son’s birthday and I can’t be excited, I can’t be as excited as a want to be about the little one that we’ve got on the way. I don’t even know what prayers to really ask for, but I do know I need prayers. So, I just ask you guys just pray for me. I love you all. Thanks for listening. Dash from Indiana.

Hello DAB family community, this is Michael from Texas, Fort Worth Texas and it is March the 19th and I just wanted to call in for…I heard a sister Amica, it was on the weekend prayer, it wasn’t this past weekend but weekend before, I’m a little behind probably, I’m almost caught up, about four or five days behind now but I was gonna call in a couple days ago and just didn’t. But anyway, I just want to call and lift her up. She is…every time she calls in she sounds like she’s really got a lot going on and she needs… she needs…she needs prayer family, she needs us praying for. She sounds a little broken and things aren’t…aren’t going…going the way that she wants them to go or whatever. Anyways, things, you know, things happen and I just want to pray for her Lord and lift her up to You and Lord I just pray that You give Amica strength and courage and wisdom and You wrap Your arms around her Lord and just…just to guide her and direct her just where she needs to be Lord and that she have the Holy Spirit, that she’d feel the love of You Father, Father God that she would be so full of Your love that she wouldn’t feel alone or she wouldn’t be accused, she would know that You are there with her at all times Lord. I just pray for Christian fellowship, that she would maybe find a good church to be in or Christian friends or even a group or something that she could be involved with and that people would come around to help support her Lord. I just pray for that in Lord and I lift all this up in Jesus’ name with Amica. Love You sister. We’re praying for ya. Talk to You again Fam.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible today is the 19th of March and I was listening to the 16th of March. I’m a little bit behind. I heard a gentleman call in, his name was Scotty. I just connected with him because Scotty, your struggles are the same as mine. I struggle with mental health and I struggle with compulsive eating. And, so, I just understand and just to hear your voice I know how…how deep the struggles go. So, I just wanted to pray for you, for me, for anyone else that’s having trouble with their mental health who feels like they need something to cope with it. I pray for freedom. So, I’ll do that now. Lord, thank You for this community. It’s one of many gifts that You give us in this life Lord, that we could come and be healed, that we could come and take another step and transform just a little bit more each day. Lord I pray that You would give light in darkness, that we would see Your light Lord, that we wouldn’t be just afraid and worried as it’s so easy to be in this world. Lord I pray that we would be satisfied by You and Your word Lord, that it would just fill up that emptiness we might feel sometimes. God, I thank You, I pray again for healing, that You would come in our minds and Lord if it’s an a…