02/14/2023 DAB Transcript

Exodus 37:1-38:31, Matthew 28:1-20, Psalms 34:11-22, Proverbs 9:9-10

Today is the 14th day of February Happy St. Valentine’s Day today. It is great to be here with you. Once again coming from the Galilee. We will be leaving the Galilee today, but we did have a wonderful day yesterday in this region and around the Sea of Galilee. But we can talk about that more at the end. We are here at the beginning. And, so, let’s dive in. We’ll obviously pick up where we left off yesterday and we will see that the things that God instructed to be constructed, to be built are being made…are being made. Exodus chapters 37 and 38.

Commentary:

Okay. So, it’s Valentine’s Day and we celebrate love, right? We celebrate our partners and maybe flowers, maybe chocolate, maybe going out to eat, just a special day to commemorate the relationships that we have and to celebrate love and an appropriate passage to read in the Gospel of Matthew, because this is…this is the story of…of the greatest love bestowed upon humanity that has ever been. And, so, we read today the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He had trusted the Father. He had drunk from the cup that he had asked if it there was any it could pass. He had drunk it. He had trusted all the way into death and returned victorious to life. Obviously, we commemorate and greatly celebrate this story at Easter. This is the Easter story. And, so, if we’ve been around for a long time we know that and so we commemorate it and we know of the resurrection and it becomes part of the story of our faith, but we’re talking right now about the event that changed everything. It changed everyone who was following Jesus and it changed the world going forward all the way right up until this very day. And, so, Matthew tells us about the women both named Mary going to the tomb only to have an encounter they were not expecting, an angelic visitation, a rolling away of the stone, and instructions that Jesus was no longer there and that they should meet him in the Galilee, which ironically is where we’re at. And, so, it’s very poignant. But we also got to see the scene where Jesus has risen from the dead and the word has gotten into Jerusalem to the very people that were trying to stamp Jesus out, killing him, having him killed so that the story would just die away. And, so, they payoff the soldiers that were guarding the tomb and spread around the room or the Jesus disciples had come and stolen the body. Meanwhile, they’re in the Galilee meeting with Jesus. And we actually bring the gospel of Matthew to a close today. So, well done. We have now concluded our first full book in the New Testament. So, in both in Old and New Testaments. We have completed our first books. The gospel of Matthew ends with the words of Jesus. “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” And, so, a tremendous promise that we will never be abandoned, that Jesus is with us, that Jesus holds all authority in heaven and on…and on earth and has bestowed authority upon us to obey His instructions. It’s like Jesus is saying it is accomplished, which is what He said from the cross. It is finished. It has been done. Now go tell everybody. Go tell everybody the good news. And is there anything better, like on Valentine’s Day that we could receive as I note from Jesus from the Scriptures today then to be told, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let’s carry that in our hearts today.

Prayer:

Jesus we…we thank You for all love that is really beyond our full comprehension and a display of love that has changed the very landscape of the world and its people. We thank You for loving us enough to come here and be one of us and identify with us and experience what we experience in a way that we can see and so that we can never really say God doesn’t understand what I’m going through. You do. And You lived and You modeled, and You endured and You showed us what humanity can be even in a fallen world. Now we live our lives imitating You because this is the way to life, and You have provided it and You have loved us, and we love You and we are grateful. Lead us forward in our lives. Give us wisdom for our steps, lead us into all truth Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

Okay. So, as I mentioned at the beginning we’re leaving the Galilee today, which is always a little bittersweet. It’s a little sad. It's…it’s a remarkable place to visit and the serenity of the Galilee is…is beautiful. And, so, it’s hard to say goodbye even though I have to say goodbye to move forward into the next…the next regions that we need to visit before we can conclude our journey together. And, so, we’ll talk about where we’re going and how we got there and all that after it happens.

But we were able to spend a really beautiful, like near perfect day around the Sea of Galilee yesterday beginning on the Mount of Beatitudes where we just simply immersed ourselves in the sermon on the Mount, that the…that the place represents. And we just allowed ourselves to be people of the villages coming to hear this rabbi up on this hill, and just listened to His sermon and reflected upon His sermon on the Mount as we visited the site and enjoyed it. It’s a little different than the last time I was here. They…they had a fire and I remember reading about that in the news several months ago but realizing now like it…it was an intentionally set fire and thankfully it didn’t burn any buildings but it burned a whole section of the gardens. And it’s a serene place that’s really really beautiful and it really ruined a whole section that has to be kinda cleaned out and trees that can be salvaged…salvaged, and ones that can’t. And they have to be removed and the whole place will have to kind of re-grow in that area. That wasn’t a diminishment to the…to the experience. It’s having been there a lot of times it was…it was different, but we had a beautiful time there on a beautiful morning. And then coming down from the hill we went down right to the Sea of Galilee right to the shore right as…right as the glassy waves just, lapped up against the shore to a place that is a commemorative spot for Jesus cooking His disciples breakfast on the shore and asking them once again to cast their nets on the other side. And once again a hall of fish comes in and they are restored and they have breakfast together and Jesus presses into Peter - do you love me? And we just explored all of that passage of Scripture from that place and then spent some time just right on the shore, like right at the water’s edge on again like a beautiful day. It was so serene. And the Sea of Galilee when we got here the winds came in and it was really really windy but today very, very calm, very still, very beautiful. So, we moved from there to Capernaum, the kind of ground zero for Jesus’ ministry. The kind of adult hometown of Jesus and just explored that place, which is really remarkable. It’s remarkable to be there and think everything kind of started here, everything expanded from this place and thousands of years later we are drawn to this place like a big circle. We’ve come back to where it began and where so much ministry happen and where Jesus spent so much of His time and just considered that He ate there and that He drank there and that He laughed there and that He saw fires there and cooked there and just had a life there among the people. Quite remarkable. So, we spent a generous amount of time just being there, enjoying being there, learning about the place considering that we’re standing where Jesus stood. Pretty cool. In fact, more than pretty cool. It’s like it’s hard to say what the words are for the way that you feel in those moments. Remarkable! And, so, we spent a good amount of time there and Capernaum and then headed out to lunch really really close nearby really to just the other side of the Capernaum site. Had some lunch and then went around the other side of the lake and got on a boat and went sailing on the sea of Galilee for a while worshiping God, enjoying a few moments of silence. The boat drivers shut the engines down for us and we just floated freely on the Sea of Galilee for a few minutes. And it’s so interesting when that silence sets and when everybody stops talking when we just sit…just for a few minutes. It’s incredible how alive the silence is and how rejuvenating it feels. And then Jill, she stood up and sang over us and we sang along with her and entered back into worship and just enjoyed the serenity of the Sea of Galilee, knowing that Jesus calmed storms on this sea, Jesus walked on this water, everywhere that we’re looking Jesus, He gazed upon these hills. He gazed upon this like. He saw what we’re seeing. And yeah, it’s a couple thousand years later and so technology has changed everything, but…but not the landscape so much. And, so, just being there in those moments really really beautiful. And then we moved from there to our last stop around the Sea of Galilee. And that is the Valley of the doves. And so that is at the base of Mount Arbel. And Mount Arbel is a very distinct peak in the Galilee, very very noticeable. And those of you who have ever been here, you know what I’m talking about. So, there’s a pathway through there through the valley, the ancient pathway, the ancient traveling road between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. So, we walked just a bit up the valley, not too far and just looked around. It’s just strikingly gorgeous and it was. The sun was going down so it was kind of the golden hour and everything’s beautiful and just appreciated the time that we’ve had here in the Galilee and just took a deep breath and invited Jesus to be with us and appreciated once again that we are walking in the footsteps of Jesus. This was the way between Nazareth and the Galilee and so Jesus would’ve walked this road between the two. And, so, once again walking in the footsteps of Jesus and looking around and seeing what He saw and just appreciating the time that we’ve had in the Galilee, knowing that we have to leave it behind in order to move forward. And, so, just to drink it in and let it settle in and let this portion of our journey, our pilgrimage together settle in and settle into our hearts, become a part of who we are as we prepare to move forward. And, so, a really fantastic day. And today we’ll be moving back to the coast through the Jezreel Valley. That’s the plan and I’ll tell you all about it after it happens. But once again, thank you for your continued prayers over us as we continue this journey. It is like drinking from a fire hose. It’s a lot to take in. And, so, thank you for your prayers over us as we continue our journey. We love you and we thank you and we feel in your prayers and appreciate them deeply.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible then thank you, humbly, deeply, thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

And, of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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:

Hey fellow DABbers this is Right Where I Belong in Saint Louis and I just heard Webster from Middle Tennessee and he was crying out to God because he feels stuck, he feels like he doesn’t have a relationship with God in the same way it seems that he sees other people. And he’s saying that he’s a very logical person and nothing he seems to be doing is working. And I just set it out loud in my car on the way to work as I was listening to your call Webster, that you do. You do have faith. The fact that you keep trying and you keep trying in so many ways, you keep praying, you keep seeking fellowship, you are calling in to the DAB after not having ever called listening for two years. You keep reading your Bible. Brother that is faith. That’s what faith is, is you keep trying and you keep praying even though you don’t feel like it’s something. And it seems that you’re looking for a particular feeling or something that somebody else says or has or something. Brother your faith is your faith and God is gonna minister to you in the way that you are…the way He created you to be. And so I pray Lord Jesus open up Webster’s eyes to see the way that his faith is unique, that You love him and that You care for him and that however it is that his faith is developing that he sees that and he knows and has confidence in that. I hope you have a great day. All of you DABbers have a wonderful day.

Hey, DABbers it’s Winter on February 8th and I’ve gotta say God has moved me this morning. When I heard about the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. And as a child I always said mom, dad I don’t know what I can do because I’m never…I’m never gonna be able to really go on mission trips until I’m much older and I’m never gonna have time for service because of the amount of school that the public school system has been doing, you know, like all the work that goes into schooling. But…and I always thought I’m the least of all the Christians because the most I can offer is kindness and grace and love when I see a need for it. But I don’t have a lot of time to give. And, so, when I just heard Jesus words saying you’ve helped Me when you’ve helped your brothers and you’ve clothed Me when you’ve clothed your brothers and you’ve looked after Me when you’ve looked after your brothers I just…I started crying because I’ve always wanted to help the person who’s helped me the most and I’ve never been able to do so in the way that I thought was necessary. So, DABbers if you felt as inadequate as me when it comes to God, be loved today. Amen.

Hello DABber brothers and sisters this is Melanie from Arizona calling in and I would like to give a shout out to and ask a prayer and say a prayer for all the faithful Christians around the world who are single. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but I feel that the church in the US has a very strong focus on people who are married and want children because the family is super-duper important. And sometimes I as a single…I have been married and I’ve been single they’re both hard…but sometimes as a single it feels like a second class citizen, like if you’re having problems in your marriage everybody crowds around to support you and if you’re having problems when you’re single you kind of get a pat on the head and be told to, yeah just look to Jesus, which is true except sometimes it is…it’s very minimizing. And, you know, when you’re 50, 60 and you’re single and you’ve got you know issues you need prayer desperately just like marrieds do and your issues are less important. And, so, I want to say that to the singles, and I pray God’s mercy on you. And sometimes you might feel like a Sparrow, but God’s eyes are on the Sparrow. And I would ask for prayer for people who have not thought of this before that you would remember to pray for the single believers and remember that there are issues are just as important as the marriages in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hey DAB fam it’s Connie in Rhode Island I just wanna pray for Webster in Tennessee. It is the 8th of February today and I heard your request. I pray Lord that You help him to feel encouraged and help him to get past being stuck, that You give him the courage and strength to step out of sin and break the addiction and the cycle of mental…the things that maybe he’s choosing perhaps. I pray Lord that You light hip his path, light up where his feature go Lord and help him to have the strength and the willpower to make the choices that he needs to make. Lord, I just thank You so much that You hear our every prayer and You know our every thought. We love You in Jesus’ name. Amen. Webster, I pray for you. I…I can empathize. I obviously don’t know you and exactly what you’re going through, but I heard some of my past and what you were saying. And I had created this dark cloud for myself years ago that I would walk under, and I loved the Lord and I had so much faith in Him, and I know He could do anything. I didn’t know what He would do. And I learned in time that a lot of it had to do with my choices and I was creating almost this this block, this glass ceiling, something like these cinder blocks between me and him and it was about me and I had to work on me. And I love your heart that you are so open to that and wanting for that change and I pray for that for you. Love you brother.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is God’s tree for I have many branches, but I’m rooted in the word of God. I listened to the broadcast I think it was on January the 6th and the brother Webster from Tennessee who called saying that he did not know if he had faith, he did not know if he had a relationship with God but he said he participated in all kinds of church activities and retreats and he was seeking God and praying to God but he felt like he didn’t have a relationship. My brother understand this, the enemy comes to beguile you, to fool you into thinking that you don’t have a relationship with our Father but if you profess with your mouth that He was your Lord and savior, guess what? You have a relationship with Him. When you’re seeking Him, you’re having a relationship with Him. When you’re praying to Him, you’re having a relationship with Him. It’s about conversations with God and it’s about opening your eyes and seeing the blessings that are all around you. God gave you life health and strength. That’s a relationship with God. God gives you provision, that is your relationship with God. Don’t let the enemy trick you into thinking that you don’t have a relationship and that you don’t have faith. If you didn’t have faith, you wouldn’t be praying. If you didn’t have faith, you wouldn’t be on Daily Audio Bible. If you didn’t have faith, you wouldn’t be seeking answers wanting to have a relationship with God. You do have faith. Again, to you I say to you my brother don’t let the enemy fool you into thinking you don’t have a relationship with God. God hears you. He hears every word, and He sees every tear. Believe and trust. He loves you and He’s got you. In Jesus’ name I say Amen.