Chronicles of the End Times
Occasionally, people say, are we really in the last days? How do we know? Does it matter one way or another? We will try to answer these questions and many others in this study. But the most important question may be, how can we reach others with hope in these changing times? One part of prophecy is often emphasized over another, causing us to lose perspective and miss the blessing and beauty of prophecy in scripture. I have taken the information in this study from many authors and teachers who have their lives studying God's word. I have added some insight that the Holy Spirit taught me. With God's help, I have endeavored to keep the whole counsel of the word of God in full view to give us an accurate picture of Christ and His great love for a lost world. I pray that this will challenge you and cause you to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it has me preparing it. Let's begin!
Chronicles of the End Times
The Price of Taking a Stand:
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What happens when you choose to speak out, and what are the consequences of staying silent? Join us as we listen to a clip of psychologist and author Jacob Peterson's take on speaking out. Russ talks about Jonah’s reluctance to follow God's command and how its repercussions offer us a powerful narrative on the courage it takes to stand firm in our beliefs. Listen on how Jonah's personal journey from fear to faith not only led to his own growth but also the redemption of an entire city.
00:08
Welcome everyone. This is Russ Galzo. Chronicles of the End Times. Thank you for being with me today. Today we're going to talk about taking a stand, the price for it and the price for not doing it. I'm going to play a brief clip from Jacob Peterson. He has a real good take on this. He's a psychologist and author, very successful in his podcast, and has millions following him. He's a Christian. He loves the Lord. But the way he breaks things down, he puts them in perspective. He talks about the price that we pay for speaking out or not speaking out. It's very, very interesting. We're going to chat about that today. I'd love to get your opinion on that.
00:51
The Scripture clearly states that we need to be ready in season and out of season, which means in good times, bad times and at all times, to give an account of why we love Jesus. Why are we following Jesus Christ? What's that all about? And we need to be able to do it intelligently. Sometimes it appears to me there's not a lot of that going on on either side of the argument, but it is to God's glory that we declare his word and do it properly and with love. So let's listen to a little piece of this, as Jacob Peterson is talking about Jonah. This is just one piece of it. I wholly recommend that you check it out on YouTube and listen to the whole thing.
01:35
Well, if you don't speak up, you may avert the punishment that would be due you for speaking up at that point. You may avert that or delay it, and maybe it will come at you in magnified form later, as is likely, because problems not dealt with promptly tend to multiply, as we all understand, if we have any sense at all. But there's somehow another price to pay, too. You know, Jonah was called upon by his conscience to be the prophetic voice of redemption, even for his enemies. It's like, well, do you want to do something with your life? It's a difficult life, you know. You might want something along with it that impels you to rise to the occasion, and being a prophetic voice that could redeem even your enemies, that's not such a bad destiny, and you're gonna perish anyways. So you might as well do something noble along the way, at least to justify it. And so you think, well, I'll pay a price for speaking.
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02:38
It's like well, the price you pay for not speaking is that you're not even there, but you'll still have the suffering.
02:44
So that's not a good price to pay.
02:45
And then you might say too well, if you did have the wise courage to speak when you have something to say and that did disrupt your life, and you had the faith and courage to tolerate that disruption.
02:58
It could well be that you would thereby embark on the greatest romantic adventure of your life, because you've now thrown yourself out of the domain of foolish security and into the domain of courageous chaos, and God only knows what you might encounter there. But if you do that voluntarily and you call upon yourself to abide by the dictates of your conscience, the best of you will have the opportunity to reveal itself, and then you'll be the light on the hill that illuminates the world, that invites people up Jacob's ladder. And whatever price you pay momentarily for speaking when you're told not to, will be what would you say? The rewards that you'll obtain by abiding by the dictates of your conscience when you're true to it, will be so much greater than whatever punishment you accrue momentarily for speaking that they're not even in the same conceptual category, and that's actually the definition of a sophisticated faith, precisely that.
04:00
I love the way he puts that. It's very challenging. You know, Jonah faced exactly what we're facing today. As we know, he was commissioned to go to Nineveh and to speak to them about their sinful ways and telling them to repent or there would be judgment. And today we face a world that has lost its way, and they are justifying their sin they don't call it that, but justifying their lifestyle, let's say and dismissing the authority of the Word of God, because once you dismiss it, you no longer have to pay attention to it.
04:36
But Jonah didn't want to go right. That's how he ended up on the ship. That's how he ended up in the water. That's how he ended up in the big fish's mouth. But that experience turned Jonah around. It wasn't just like God was twisting his arm and said I'm going to make you go, I'll get you there one way or another. He was changing Jonah. That was part of the process as well. It always is.
04:57
God is always doing multiple things at the same time, never just one thing. Sometimes we focus on the one thing, but he's doing multiple things. So he's going to fulfill what he wants done in Nineveh, but he's also going to fulfill what is going on in Jonah. So Jonah spent three days in hell. Pretty much he put the entire ship and all the crew in peril because of his attitude. And we can do the same thing. We can put those around us, families or whatever. We can put them in peril by not speaking out and being who we need to be. We can speak out and be firm and be confident without being obnoxious.
05:36
When we are confident in our God, when we are confident in the Word of God and when we know the Word of God in our hearts and in our minds and we've been transformed and we're in the process of being transformed, then that confidence is contagious. People aren't confident about anything today. They try to convince themselves they are, but they're not. And if you're confident and I'm confident in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit If we are confident in what the Word says, if we're confident that it is absolutely true, that is contagious and it will rub off on people and it will get them asking questions how can you be so confident?
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06:19
And that's what we need to project, not arrogance or I'm better than you kind of aura that comes off some people, but just be confident and be knowledgeable. The truth is the truth and we need to be confident in that. If Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, we need to truly believe that it needs to saturate our being. We cannot doubt it. But when we doubt, the enemy will rush in and take advantage of that and try to destroy us. Let's listen to this last like 20 seconds of this clip.
06:52
Do you believe in the truth? Does the truth set you free? Well, that doesn't mean there won't be a price paid for it. There's a sacrificial price paid for everything. You don't get to pick whether there's a price. You get to pick what you're willing to pay the price for.
07:08
That's an amazing statement. Everything has a price. We see an athlete who's doing really well and we say, man; I wish I was like that. Or how does he or she do that? There's a price to be paid for that. Jesus paid the price for us. I wonder sometimes if we really get it.
07:25
I need to keep focusing on that myself. Do I really understand what it would be like to leave heaven and come down to earth and go through everything Jesus did, just growing up in this world, and then having his life abruptly end in a horrific way, all because he loves you and me? That doesn't even make sense, does it? But that's what he did. He decided to pay the price for our fellowship. If you think of it that way, it's crazy. Why would he do that? I'm not that great to hang around with. But he decided, yes, I'm going. I want them to be with me. I want to be with them. So let's think about that today. Meditate on that. Jesus paid the price for us and that there is a price to be paid for everything. There's a price to be paid for not speaking out, and there's a price to be paid for speaking out, and the choice is ours.
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08:20
Thank you for listening today. If you're blessed by the show and it's helping you along the way, please go to https://www.russscalzo.com. Click on support for the show. $5 or $10 a month means an awful lot to us. So, thank you for listening. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. Keep looking up. The King is coming.
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