07/29/2020 DAB Transcript

2 Chronicles 24:1-25:28, Romans 12:1-21, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 20:8-10

Today is the 29th day of July welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is great to be here with you in the waning days of the month of July as we continue our journey and cross through the center of the week together. It is a joy and it is an honor to be just be in your presence and let God’s word be in all of our presence and His Holy Spirit to hover among us. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Today, second Chronicles chapters 24 and 25.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’ve been working our way through the book of Romans and I would say we are probably two thirds of the way through now and this is the longest of Paul’s letters. And, so, we began, and…and listened as he kind of laid out his arguments and then we were able to kinda move into the implications, which are stunning and give us an understanding of why the good news is good news. But now we’re kind of turning into this…this portion where it’s like, “okay. So, now I understand what you’re saying, and I understand the implications of what you’re saying. But how do I live into this? How do I aim my life? How…how should I shape things?” And Paul is unpacking that by saying, “first and foremost understand that you died, and then you were raised up again, a new creation in Christ. And, so, you’re not your own anymore. Now you live as Christ. And you are to be a living sacrifice available to Christ.” And we’ve kind of heard this “living sacrifice” language may…maybe often and we’re like, “okay. Give my body as a living sacrifice”, and then…then we’re kind of…equate that to things that we should refrain from”, right? Like…lust…lust things, and…and stuff like that when, although that is part of what’s being said here, it’s far more comprehensive than that. We’re to live available to Christ to live through us physically in this world, to be available to His will and His ways and His works in this world by using our bodies to get things done. And according to the apostle Paul, this is how we live into God’s good and pleasing and perfect will for our lives, that living this way is…is…is actually true worship to God. And, so, even like intellectually if we understand what’s being said here, it’s like how do you know, like how will we know that if we’re doing that correctly? And it’s funny because we’re people that…just like we want to know when so much of faith is faith. Like we’re reaching and believing in things that we cannot tangibly put all our minds or our hands on, but we know they are true by faith. But Paul did offer some words, like some characteristics, some things that we should have to be able to examine ourselves in our reading today. And if we look at those then we do have a gauge of whether we are living into this life of a new creature. So, Paul says, “don’t think you are better than you really are. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection. Take delight in honoring each other. Don’t be lazy. Work hard. Serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble. Keep on praying. When God’s people are in need be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them, bless them. Pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company people you think are below you, ordinary people. Don’t think you know it all. Never pay back evil with additional evil. Do things in such a way that everybody can see that you’re doing it honorably. Do all that you can to live in peace with everybody and don’t take revenge. Leave that to God. And, if you’re enemies are hungry, then feed them. And if they’re thirsty then give them something to drink.” This is what Paul suggests is what it’s like to live your life as a living sacrifice to God, Holy and acceptable. This is the essence of what a godly life looks like. This is how we are supposed to be in this world. So, I mean just like reading back what we read in the 12th chapter of Romans day as a list, like we just did we could go like, “okay. You know, some of those, like I am living into. Some of those I am not living into. And I see that I’ve got some work to do. But let’s just imagine for a second that that we found a place in our heart…like we fully surrendered completely to the point that this…this was sort of normal. This was the normal. Like this isn’t something that we’re aiming toward. This is this normal. Because that’s what Paul is describing here. This is what your normal life as a new creation as a living sacrifice is supposed to look like. This is supposed to be totally normal. So, let’s just imagine that all of the ways that we react to things and all of the way that we initiate things and all of our thoughts and words and deeds align with this, imagine the freedom of that. And now imagine that the entire body of Christ in the world is all living into that. Imagine the shift in the entire atmosphere of the world. Like, imagine the change that would happen if we lived into this. This is the good news. This is how things are supposed to be. So, when we flip on the news or we just look around us and we see the brokenness of the world and we get frustrated and we become overwhelmed and full of anxiety and hopeless, the one thing that we could do is come back here and go, “am I even living into this? Like, do I have anything to comment on? Am I living as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God living into that freedom myself or am I just broken and looking around at all the other brokenness and obsessing about what is broken instead of reinforcing what is whole?” Yeah, some things to think about today for sure.

Prayer:

Father, as we do contemplate this, we invite Your Holy Spirit to continually bring it to mind today as we just observe ourselves as we watch the way that we are in the world. Are we a living sacrifice totally available to You and living into wholeness or do we keep waiting for You to do some kind of magic wand over the world and just change us? You have invited us to participate in collaboration with You in our own restoration, in our own healing, in our own sanctification. And certainly, we…we will not achieve it. We certainly cannot get there on our own and demand that You see us as righteousness…as righteous, because we…we are. That is a gift. We can’t achieve these things on our own. But we aren’t on our own. And the person that we were, who was on their own is dead. You have…You’ve made us new creatures. And, so, this is possible. This is what godliness looks like. And, so, help us to, first of all simply understand that and second…second of all, with all of our hearts aimed in that direction. And truly aiming in that direction is to truly surrender to You. And, so, come Holy Spirit into this. Well up from within and lead us into all truth we ask. In Jesu’s name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s happening. And, so, there’s something happening.

We have a new product in the Daily Audio Bible Shop today as we watch this…this phenomenon that takes shape is…especially this year…the double DABber. those who are listening to Daily Audio Bible and Daily Audio Bible Chronological with China, my daughter, who is indeed a gift, and is indeed a wise…a wise young lady and…and has informed her life with the Scriptures. I mean, every day…every day of her childhood she read the Bible. And, so, she knows the Bible way better than…like I grew up as a pastor’s kid, but she knows the Bible way better…way better at her age than I could have dreamed of. And I’m proud of her. But anyway, so double DABber this year have really, really…thinking there’s a ton of double DABbers listening to Chronological and Daily Audio Bible. And, so, she and I were talking a couple months ago thinking, “we should make double Dabber shirts. And, so, she kind of spearheaded that, got some designs, and picked some stuff, and we got em’ made and they are available today. So, all you double Dabbers, we have double DABber shirts in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Lifestyle section. You’ll find them there. I think I don’t think they’re gonna to last long, but they are there now. And we’re just so excited. So, excited that there is a hunger…a hunger for the Scriptures and a hunger to apply those scriptures to our lives and let them do what they do. Like, they shift things inside, they change the way we look at things, they change our attitudes, they change our convictions, they reorient us to God. And, so, yeah, that’s the mission of our lives. And, so, anything…anything that can move the needle on that is…is what we’re here for. So, it’s exciting…it’s super exciting to have our double DABber shirts in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. So, check them out in the Lifestyle section. You can get to the Daily Audio Bible Shop at dailyaudiobible.com. Just click n Shop or, if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can just click the little drawer icon that’s in the upper left-hand corner and that will open a Drawer and then you can find the Shop from there, but that’s where they are.

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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.