Embrace Your Inadequacies

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Well, welcome back, everybody. Thank you for tuning in and listening in with The Bread of Life with JJ. Wow, today our message is going to be embracing your inadequacies. Embracing your inadequacies. Embracing the inadequacies of life, but embracing yours. So I hope this spiritual message today fills your temple with godly satisfaction that the Lord has led me today for you to prepare for you. And it is his bread of life, his bread of life that he prepares with extreme passion and love. So today it's time, definitely, for those tuning in to drink from the well of the living water, the living water that only he can provide. For once you drink from this well and eat from this bread of life that he provides, you will no longer thirst or hunger anymore. You will be filled with his spiritual morsels by his grace. And I also want you to remember: hey, listen, it's about faith in God. As I said before, faith comes by hearing and reading the true word of God. Because the just shall live by faith. By faith alone. And that is the true word of God. So please bow your heads and join me in prayer today. Those that are listening, thank you. Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment. I pray for those listening that you guide their hearts and minds to the message that you have for them. I thank you for using me. Putting your Holy Spirit of knowledge and truth in me to speak for you in your behalf. And I pray that I do with authority and conviction and love, though. And I pray those that are listening are are, their heart is receptive, their ears are open, their mind is focused on who you are and what you want for them, and the growth that you have for them in their life, their spiritual life. This spiritual bread. Praise you and thank you for that, Lord. And it's in Jesus' almighty name. I pray these things. Amen. All right. So I want you guys to know something though. When it comes to family life, also, I want you to realize this. The things that I'm doing, I'm so grateful that I'm I have this uh ministry that the Lord has provided for me. Um, it's sometimes it gets hard to juggle things of life. So I do feel inadequate, right? And this is one of those topics we're talking about today. But I do also understand this that I I don't stop I don't step over the broken, bleeding bodies of my family to go out and save the world. My home ministry is priority, most definitely. But when you do feel compelled to speak, you must do so. And the Holy Spirit leads you. Right. Um, and a good friend of mine told me that. And what I just said about you don't do those things to broken, bleeding bodies on your families. You don't go out and save the world and step over your family. He was telling me about a great author that did something like that, made lots of money in his writings, but yet left his family high and dry. And he said he was doing that for the Lord. And I don't believe that's the right thing or okay, you know, in my life, anyways. That's how I feel, and that's my conviction. I want to start off on this, though. I want to start off on Colossians 3 12, and then I'm gonna get into the word and what we're gonna read. And then another delight about today is gonna be we're gonna talk about not only the word of the inadequacies and the embracing the inadequacies, but also the victory that you have through these inadequacies, but also the books. I'm gonna read the word, but I'm gonna give you a little brief summary, so to speak, of these books and what they entail and how that correlates to us today. It's really important because it's it's very fascinating to me how the Lord uses these moments of life to show us things and to also see his glory behind it. It's pretty cool. But for right now, I want to talk about Colossians 3, Galesia, another city, right? That Paul went to to speak in the church that he helped. But it says this in this word put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, loneliness, meekness, and patience. So understand this in the verse that Paul, Paul, the apostle, he urges believers who have been raised with Christ and renewed in him to actively clothe themselves with these Christ-like virtues. The virtues that I just mentioned: compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, fruits of the spirit, more likely, right? And think about clothing yourself. You're putting on something, Christ-like virtues. So as God's elect, chosen, set apart as holy, deeply loved, they are called to reflect God's character and their daily interactions by cultivating heart-like, heartfelt compassion, kindness, and humility, lowliness, gentleness, meekness, and patience, endurance towards one another. This is putting on a deliberate choice, like the clothing, a deliberate choice you're putting on to live out their identity, their new identity in Christ, replacing old sinful ways with qualities that foster unity and love within the Christian community. Or how about Christian life? Period. Clothe yourselves. That's something that we must do and work on daily. Swalk is not easy, but it's something that we must do. The Holy Spirit empowers believers to accomplish these things in God's will. All right, so I want to talk about inadequacies, and we're gonna read, and the books are gonna talk about later, but I'm gonna give you a quick synopsis of them. They're gonna be from the book of Judges and talk about that. Then we're gonna talk about the book of Acts, the book of Corinthians, the letters actually to Corinthians, the Corinth, and the letter to Timothy. But these are all books that are in the Bible, and we'll discuss those back meetings and summaries, but right now I'm gonna read this word to you. Inadequacy can be a roadblock to doing God's will, deterring us from stepping out in faith. It's not a sin to feel insufficient, but we can make and miss the mark by complacently accepting that attitude. Even Paul felt inadequate, but he didn't allow his feelings to prevent his sharing the gospel. And that's in 1 Timothy 1.15. Instead, he allowed his limitations to drive him closer to God. For believers, the correct reaction is prayer and biblical meditation, so that our ability can rely on the Lord as our strength. And he will strengthen us, right? And the ability to rely on the Lord, it's strengthened. God's Spirit enables us to achieve whatever he calls us to do. The disciples followed Jesus for years, but his final instructions left no doubt concerning their need for divine help. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. That's from Acts 1, verse 8. Our inadequacies like that of the disciples showcase God's ability to do great things with so little. Remember Moses and David, they were shepherds. Remember Gideon, he was at least among Israel's men, and that's in Judges 6. Yet the Lord accomplished amazing feats through all these three men. Our inadequacies can turn out to be a blessing by driving us to greater dependence upon God. Like Paul, we are able to say, I rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. When I am weak, he is strong. Which is so very true. And then we take a look at how how do I turn these inadequacies into victory? How do I live joyfully and confidently? Shifting your gaze from your limitations to Jesus and his sufficiency. That's important to do that. Think about that. Shifting your gaze from your limitations to who Christ is and what he can do. That's Philippians 2, 12 through 13, and in Philippians, that book, another time, that's in Philippi, right, in a Roman city. That's when Paul was in jail writing to those in that place, in the city with the church. Very important. So we'll talk about that at another time in my next podcast, and even the book of Matthew, when that comes down to that book of Matthew, we'll also talk about the tax collector Matthew and his accounts of Jesus and what he went through. But from now, we'll talk about this. So the time of this word, it says from time to time, a sense of efficiency, insufficiency will surface in all of us. But through the Holy Spirit, we have the power to combat it. Here are three steps to take. Listen here. Are you real with me? Three steps. One. Step one, acknowledge your weakness. Suppose a neighbor tells you about his sister's life-threatening illness. He's scared, wondering what comes after death. You sense God urging you to share your hope in Christ. But inadequacy nearly drowns out the prompting. Feeling unsure is a normal reaction, and following God's directive requires acknowledging our fear. For example, we can pray, Lord, I don't feel capable. Help me witness to my neighbor. Pray for strength, say. Father, I know this is what you want me to do. So I'm trusting you to be true to your word. You said you'd made me adequate in Christ Jesus. The Lord assumes responsibility for enabling you to know what he says, how to say it, and deliver his message in the appropriate spirit. When, right? How? That's in Matthew 10 20. Step out in faith. Do something that propels you and prompts you into the God-given opportunity, allowing him to prove his power and your ability when relying on him. Let God turn inadequacy into victory. He delights in proving himself in his children's lives. When you look beyond your limitations to Jesus' total sufficiency, you'll find joy and confidence. Let me say that again. Let God turn inadequacy into victory. He delights in proving himself and his children's lives. When you look beyond your limitations to Jesus's and total sufficiency, you'll find joy and confidence. Think about that. Highly important. So we're talking about Judges. That was the book that we talked about. And that was what I was going to explain to you about this book of Judges. So I want you to remember after Joshua led the tribes of Israel into the promised land, he called them to be faithful to their covenant with God by obeying the commands of the Torah. And if they did this, they they will show all the nations what God is like. So Judges begins with the death of Joshua and basically tells the story of Israel's total failure. The book's name comes from the type of leaders Israel had in this time. Before they had any kings, the tribes were all governed by these judges. Now, don't think of it like a courtroom, but these were like regional political, military type leaders, tribal chieftains. And then you need to be warned about this. The book of Judges also, if those that read that in depth, it's very disturbing and violent. It tells tragic tales of Israel's moral corruption and bad leadership, basically how they became no different than the Canaanites. It's a sad story, also meant to generate hope for the future. And you can see how the book is designed. Their large introductions set the stage for Israel's failure, as they don't drive out the remaining Canaanites, which I know God told them to. They didn't obey. So then the large main section of the book has stories about the growing corruption of Israel's judges. And the progression here shows how Israel's leaders go from pretty good and then from bad to worse. The concluding section, the concluding section is really disturbing and it shows the corruption, the people of Israel as a whole. So we'll dive into the historical morsels and explore each part and bit a little bit more, okay? So with the book of Judges, the opening section, the opening section of this, um we'll talk about chapter one. It gives a long list of Canaanite groups and towns that the Israels just failed to drive out from the land. Remember, the whole point of driving out the Canaanites was to avoid their moral corruption and their way of worshiping gods through child sacrifice. God had called Israel to be a holy people, and that does not happen. Chapter 2 describes how Israel just moved into alongside Canaanites and adopted all their cultures and religious practices. And it's right here that the story stops. For nearly a whole chapter, the writer of Judges gives us an overview of everything that happens or about to happen in the body of the book. The part of Israel history, the writer says, was a series of cycles, soothing in a damn roll spiral. Israel became like the Canaanites, so they would sin against God. God would allow them to be conquered and oppressed by the Canaanites, and eventually the Israelites would see the error of their ways and repent. God would raise up a deliverer of a judge from among Israel, who would defeat the enemy and bring about an era of peace. But eventually Israel would sin again and it would start all over. The cycle provides a literally design of flow from the next main section of the book. It gets repeated to each of the six main judges of those stories, and they're told here. The first three judges, you guys want you to know, pretty cool. Oathnail, Ehud, Ehud, and Deborah. They're epic adventures. They're also extreme, bloody stories, very extreme. Either the judge themselves or the people who helped the judge defeat their enemies and deliver the people of Israel. And they did it in a pretty bad way or violent way. The stories about the next three judges are longer. They focus on the chapter of flaws of the judges, which increasingly gets worse. Gideon, as you guys know or have heard about, I'm sure, and you guys just gotta check him out. Gideon, he begins pretty well. He's a coward of a man, but he eventually comes to trust God, and God uses him to save Israel through him. And so he defeats a huge army of Midianites with only 300 men carrying torches and clay pots. But Gideon has a nasty temper. He murders a bunch of his fellow Israelites that didn't help him in battle, and it just goes downhill from there. He makes an idol from gold that he won in the battles, makes it, sets it up, and worships it. And then he dies, and all, and after that, like all of Israel started worshiping that idol as God. And so the cycle begins again. The next main judge is Jetha, who's something of a mafia thug living up in the hills. And when things get really bad for Israel, the elders come down to him, begging for his help. And Jetha, that was a very he was a very effective leader, won lots of battles against the Ammonites, but was very unfamiliar with God, the true God of Israel. He treats him like a Canaanite god. So he vows to sacrifice his daughter if he wins the battle. So this is a tragic story. It just shows how far Israel has fallen. They no longer know the character of their own God, which leads to murder and false worship. The last judge, Samson, is far by worse, promiscuous, violent, and arrogant. He won brutally strategic victories over the Philistines, but only at the expense of his own integrity. His life ends in a violent rush of mass murder. Now, a quick note here, you'll notice a repeated theme in the main section of the book that key moments. God's Spirit will empower each of these judges to accomplish. These are great acts of deliverance. The fact that God uses these really messed up people doesn't mean that he endorses all or even any of their decisions whatsoever. God is committed first and foremost to saving his people, but all he has to work with is these corrupt leaders. And so work them, he does. This whole section is designed to just show you how bad things have gotten, and you can't even tell the Israelites and the Canaanites apart anymore. And that's just the leaders. The final section shows how Israel as a whole hitting bottom. They have tragic stories, and it's not from the faint of heart. They're structured by this key line that repeated four times in the book. In those days, Israel had no king, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The fourth story, the first story is about an Israelite named Micah who builds a private temple to an idol, and it gets plundered by private armies that's sent by the tribe of Dan. So they come and steal everything, and they go down burning down the peaceful city of Laish and murder all the inhabitants. It's a horrifying story when Israel forgets about God, and God's might makes right. The final story of the book is even worse, its shocking tale of sexual abuse and violence, which all leads to Israel's first civil war. It's very disturbing, and at that point the stories are meant to serve as a warning. Israel's descent into self-destruction is a result of turning away from God, who loves him, and to save them out of slavery in Egypt. And now Israel needs to be delivered again amongst, or again for themselves. The only glimmer of hope in the story is found in this repeated line in the last book, but actually forms a sentence of the story. Israel has no king, so the stage is set for the following books to tell the origin of King David's family, the book of Ruth, and also the origin of the kingship itself in Israel. The first book of Samuel, but the first story of Judges he values as a tragedy. It's a sobering explanation of the human condition, and ultimately it points to the need of God's grace to send the king who will rescue his people. And that book is Judges. The next book we will discuss and the importance of it is the book of Acts. It's a second volume of a unified two-part work that today we call Luke Acts. So, you know, the Bible has the first sections like Matthew, Mark, John, Luke. So Luke was a physician, physician that was with Jesus at the time. But when he comes to Acts, it's the second part of the book of Acts, of Luke, in the book of Acts, written by the same author. He was a traveling co-worker with Paul. And it's a clear book of introduction where Luke says and produces first volume. That's the gospel about the thing about Jesus began to do and to teach. Now Luke gave a clear um point about this. Volume one was about Jesus and what to do and how to teach. The volume then to Will would be about how would Jesus do in the traditions, but not original name, the Acts of the Apostles. While different apostles do appear in most of these stories, the only single character who unifies the whole story from the beginning to the end is Jesus himself, acting directly or through the Spirit. And so the book would more accurately be named the Acts of Jesus as it should in the Spirit. But the book's introduction recounts how the risen Jesus spent more than 40 days with the disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God. This connects back to the story of Luke's gospel, where Jesus claimed that he was restoring God's kingdom over the world, beginning with Israel. So he called Israel to live under God's reign by following him. And he was enthroned as a king when he gave up his life. And then he conquered death with his love. So the book of Acts begins with the risen King Jesus instructing his disciples about life in the kingdom. He promises the Spirit will come upon them and immense them in the personal presence. And this fulfills one of the key hopes for. From the Old Testament prophets, that the Messiah, the Messianic kingdom, God's presence, his spirit, will come upon residence among his people in a new temple and transform their hearts. So Jesus says, when this happens, the Spirit will empower his disciples to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. For here Jesus is taken up to the sight into the clouds. It's an image gone from the book of Daniel, chapter 7. It shows how Jesus is now being enthroned as the Son of Man, who was vindicated after his suffering and now shares God's rule over the world. And so he promises that he will return one day. And so the main themes in the design of the book of Acts flows right out of the opening chapter. This is a story about Jesus leading his people by the Spirit to go out into the world and invite all nations to live under his reign. And so the story will begin with a message spreading in Jerusalem and then into the neighboring regions of Judea, Samaria, which are full of non-Jewish people. And then from out of there, they go to all nations to the end of the earth. The writer is just going to focus on the first half of the book, and that's what we're going to do. You can read the other part, chapters 13 and 28, another time. But for this time, we'll focus on this. So again, get back to the story. Jerusalem focus begins with Jesus' followers on this section. Begins with Jesus' followers waiting until the feast of Pentecost, when all these Jewish pilgrims from all over the ancient world were in the city. And then the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples as a great wind, something like flames, if you can imagine that, like a wind, but flames. And it appears over each person's head. And together they start announcing and telling stories of God's mighty deeds. And this is in the upper room. And they're speaking in all these languages that they don't even know before. But all the people gathered there understand perfectly. Those that are in the market. Interesting, right? How God does that. Now, in order to see what Luke's emphasizing the story, it's crucial to see that the Old Testament roots of all these images. So, first, the wind and the fire is a direct allusion that the story about God's glorious fiery presence filling the tabernacle in the temple. It also connects to the prophetic promises that God will come and live by his spirit in the new temple of the Messianic kingdom. And so here in Acts, God's fiery presence comes to dwell, not in a building, but in his people. Luke is saying that the new temple promised by the prophets is Jesus' new covenant family, the people of Jesus, which connects to the second thing Luke is trying to say here. The prophets promised that when God comes to dwell in his new temple, he would reunify all the tribes of Israel under the Messianic king. And the good news of God's reign will go out to the announce of all the nations. Luke describes in detail the international multi-tribe makeup of all the Israelites who were there at the Pentecost and who responded to Peter's message. And so the apostles kept calling Israelites to acknowledge Jesus and their Messiah, and thousands upon thousands respond, forming a new community of generosity and worship and celebration. But remember this, as always, not everybody is celebrating. Also, Luke shows how Jesus' new family quickly face hostility from the Jerusalem leaders with a really beautiful symmetrical design. Luke tells a tale of two temples. So God's new temple, the community of Jesus, his followers. They're gathering every day in the temple courts and from house to house. And now in between those notices are two stories about Peter and the other apostles healing people, temple courts going out, only to get arrested by the temple leaders when they go there, followed each time by speech of Peter claiming that Jesus is the true King of Israel. And at the center of all this is the story about Jesus' followers donating property and possessions to a common fund to help the poor. Wow. This is the book of Acts. This is when the Bishop began. This is how it starts, people. Those that are listening, hear me out. Look, Jesus' followers, those that follow the Lord, were donating property, possessions, to a common fund to help the poor. That's really cool, right? It seems kind, a random for Luke to mention it here until you realize that it was a practice described in the laws of the Torah and was supposed to be happening throughout Jerusalem's temple and its leaders. People didn't know that. Or the ones that did, they hid that. So Luke's point here is clear: the new temple of Jesus community is fulfilling the purpose that God always intended for the Jerusalem temple to be a place for heaven and earth. So state where people encounter God's generosity and healing presence. And this conflict between the two temples that culminates in Acts chapter 6 and 7. It's the first wave of persecution. So Jesus' followers, they continue to multiply, requiring more leaders. And one of them is Stephen. He's a bold witness of Jesus in Jerusalem and ends up getting arrested. He's accused of speaking against and threatening the temple. And so as he gives a long speech showing how Israel's leaders have rejected the message that God sent them, and Jesus and his disciples, and Stephen made sure he showed them that. Jerusalem's leaders got enraged. They murdered Stephen. Then after that, they launched a wave of persecution against Jesus' followers. And have an effect, which is crazy because the paradoxical effect that Luke shows, how this tragedy actually became the means by which Jesus' people are now sent into Judea and Samara in Samaria. So it was something that was meant to be a diverse group of people and stories that show how mostly Jewish Jerusalem-based community of Jesus became a multi-ethnic international movement. It's the first mission of Philip into Samaria. It's the land of Israel's hated enemies, and many of them come to follow Jesus. And next we have the conversion of Saul to Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul. And he wrote like the third of the Bible, the New Testament. He was a sworn enemy and persecutor of Jesus. He persecuted the followers until he personally met Jesus. And then he became a passionate advocate on behalf of Jesus. And next is the story of Peter having a vision about how God doesn't consider non-Jewish people ritually impure or unworthy of joining Jesus' family. Because then remember, you had to be Jewish, right? They wanted you to be in that. But no, that changes. That changes. So Peter, he's led by the Spirit into a house of a Roman soldier full of non-Jewish people. And they all respond to Jesus. And what about Jesus? In fact, the Spirit shows up so powerfully upon them, just as he did to the Jewish disciples back in chapter 2, and how these things come together in the founding church of Antioch, the largest, most cosmopolitan city in the part of the Roman Empire. Wow. So Luke tells us that, and Barnabas, a Jewish leader from the Jerusalem church, went along with Paul to help lead his church in the community. And so it became the first large multi-ethnic church in history. It was where Jesus' followers were called Christians for the first time. And it's where the first international missionaries were sent out. Interesting. And it takes us to the rest of Luke's story. And that's the first half. So this, like again, I said the second half, you can finish reading. And that's chapters 13 to 28 and see how that finalizes. And then after this, we're talking about Paul's letter. And before I get even going further in this, I want you to see everyone that's listening, do you understand like how the Lord will use anything and anyone to accomplish a purpose? And when things don't seem as though they're going to add up correctly, or how you think they will, all of a sudden something turns and changes, or something's thrown, or a wrench is put into the plan or the what you think is going to be what it should be. That wrench is like the Holy Spirit, or that wrench is like God telling you something, or making a change, or making you change and see things. Everybody has a lesson through the whole process. Everyone. And understand this how it it forms today in the dynamics of today of being a Christian. If this religion and this belief of Jesus Christ was not true, then why are they so persecuted all over the world? What is the reason behind it? That's telling me there's something's there. There must be some power that we have no clue about truly. We just know what we know from here. And the word says, blessed are those who believe in me who not seen. Blessed are those who believe in me and seen, but man, blessed are those who believe in me, who have not seen me. His spirit is real and true. And to know that you must study his word. And you, when people do, like I'm telling you, there's like a change in their life, their heart, their mind. There's some power there. And that's something that others fear. And they want to shut it down. As you can see, as I'm reading to you this, getting mad like Paul or Peter when he's speaking about Jesus Christ, who who the who the Pharisees and the religious leaders thought they killed. But they're like, man, why are we hearing this racket noise of Jesus, Jesus? Yeah, Peter just healed someone that was that was lame in the temple. Because the power of Jesus in his name. They didn't like that. They were hating. Like he wouldn't believe. Very interesting. And then we're talking about Paul, as I'm talking about these two letters, Paul and then Corinth and then to Timothy. Paul was Saul of Tarsus, but now Paul. Interesting to me, he was killing, murdering Christians and riling them up and putting them in jail. Now all of a sudden he's sold out, going everywhere speaking about the Lord Jesus. What does that tell you? It's real. We have to believe, and that's what I've talked about with faith. You don't see it. It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You must know that it is. Because I know in life, everyone that's listening, I know in life that we've been taught certain things. I know that in school we were taught certain things in life, and we gotta believe it because that's what the teacher said. Oh, yep, and Christopher Columbus, he sailed to Ocean Blue in 1492. Yeah, that I gotta believe that. And he he founded everything. Well, that's not necessarily always true. Partial, right? We got to find your own facts and dig in and pray about it. Pray about it. Go to a secret, quiet place and ask the Lord to show you truth and what it is and to reveal it to you. And he will, he is, he does, he doesn't hold things back. He will more than happy be telling you what truth is if you ask him. That's a problem. A lot of people don't want to ask, or they want to believe what other people are saying them, and they don't want to find out for themselves. You have to find out for yourself. Find out for yourself. As we go further on with Paul, his first letter to Corinth, the Corinthians is written to a church that Paul knew very well. And Corinth was a major port in the ancient world, had lots of temples. Um, there were a lot of Greek and Roman gods as a big economic center. So Paul strategically came here as a missionary. He spent a year and a half there getting to know the people, talking to them about Jesus, and a whole bunch of people became followers of Jesus and formed a church community. You read about this in Acts chapter 18. But we're now in Corinthians. So after a while, Paul moved on to start churches in other cities. He started getting reports of things that were not going well back at the church in Corinth. He was plagued with all types of problems. All types of problems that we can even see today. And that's why he wrote this letter. It's broken up into five main parts along with the final greeting. And these five sections correspond to five main problems that Paul is addressing. And so the letter reads like a collection of short essays on different topics. But these are the core ideas that unify all the pieces together. So here's what he does in each section. He describes a problem, and then he responds to the problem with some subtype of story. The gospel, which the good news about Jesus, and he shows how they're actually not living out what they say they believe. And so this letter is about learning to think about every area of life through the lens of the gospel. So goes to chapter one through four. The problem is that there is division in the church. There's some other teachers who come through and to the town when Paul left, a guy named Apollos, and then Peter. And people had picked their favorite teacher and then became groupies around the leaders and started talking bad and disrespecting people who favored other teachers and leaders. Kind of interesting how that coincides today with certain things. And so, Paul, his response to this kind of sarcastic and sharp way, he says, You have to be kidding me. The church is not a popularity contest. The church is a community of people who are centered around Jesus. Its leaders and its teachers are simply servants of Jesus. So while you might prefer one leader more than the other, it's not worth dividing over, and certainly not speaking poorly about each other. The center of the church is Jesus and the good news about who he is and what he has done. In chapter 5 through 7, Paul addresses some problems related to sex. There were a number of people sleeping around in the church, one guy with a stepmother, and a number of other people still worshiping at the local temple to greet gods, and then sleeping with the prostitutes who worked there. Not only that, there were people in the church who were saying that this was just fine. Just fine behavior, right? They said, hey, we're free in Christ. God's grace is bottomless, right? It's fine. But Paul says, no, it's not fine. And with the gospel in hand, he shows just how wrong-headed this kind of thinking is. He says, remember, first of all, Jesus died for your sins, including the ruin of broken relationships that's caused by sexual misconduct. Sexual integrity. If you're a Christian, sexual integrity is one of the main ways that we respond to Jesus' love and grace. I'm gonna say that again. Paul also reminds them that Jesus was physically raised from the dead, so our bodies will be raised from the dead. Which means this: if your body is being redeemed by Jesus now and in the future, then what you do with your body matters. It matters a lot. And it's not yours to do whatever you want with it. Paul's being super clear, being a follower of Jesus involves no compromise when it comes to sexual integrity. Being a follower of Jesus involves no compromise when it comes to sexual integrity. And I know as men, those that are listening, and there's some women too, I know. But it's every man's battle. Sexual immorality. Plain and clear, and that's what pornea is. In the Greek, pornea. You translate that, it's called sexual immorality, and that's where we get pornography from. And I know that is every man's struggle and battle. And I know it's hard. It's hard to be you're you think you're winning one day, and then all of a sudden you give into something. You gotta understand, I know Jesus knows our struggles. I know he does, but clearly we have to really be strong in this because there's no compromise when it comes to sexual integrity. That's what he said. If we're a follower, and if we're doing wrong in these areas, man, and we're weak in these areas, and we need to ask ourselves, help us. Help me, Lord. I repent of my ways and my sins, strengthen me to be better, to not look upon anyone, whether it's woman or man, in any lustful way that I shouldn't be looking at them. And that's something that we got to be intentional about with the armor of God upon us. So I understand. I pray for you that are listening, and please pray for me. It's a real thing. Chapters 8 through 10, the issue is about food, but not just food preferences, like, do you like or dislike certain food? The issue with Corinthians were divided over meat that comes from animal sacrifice in local temples to Greek and Roman gods. And there was a split between the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians about how to respond to this issue. And once again, Paul appeals to some core ideas from the gospel. He says, our allegiance first and foremost is to Jesus our Lord, not to any other gods. And so if you're in a situation that there's meat that has been dedicated to another God, and there are people around it who might watch you and conclude, oh, look, he's Christian, worship Jesus, but hey, then hey, they can worship other gods too. Paul says, if that's a scenario, don't eat the meat. Your loyalty is to Jesus, then you should love those people more than yourself and not mislead them. So Paul quickly qualifies this and says, Listen, as Christians, we believe God is the creator of all things, including that animal. And the temple idols, we believe, are just pieces of wood and stone. And if there's no one around who's going to misunderstand your actions and you're hungry, eat up. You're free as a new human in Christ to follow your conscience in these kind of deliberate matters. So what makes it okay is one situation to eat, but not in the other. The core principle is love. Love will deny itself and look out for the well-being of other people. And love, God's love, is the core of the gospel. It's what Jesus did when he died for us. And so Paul says it what Christians should do for the other person and for other people. In chapter 11 and 14, Paul moves on and addresses problems in weekly worship gathering. There were some people who were having really powerful spiritual experiences and gathering, and they would start praying out loud in other unknown languages. And there are other people who might start sharing, teaching a word from God, and then someone would get up and interrupt them because they wanted to share. It was really chaotic. And so it was distracting people, and especially visitors, from hearing the gospel. So these chapters, Paul helps them think of first of all, about the purpose of this gathering, and to help them see what kind of behaviors are appropriate. He says that the gathering in a place where God's spirit should be through, it should be working through everybody and it should happen in a unified way. So he develops this cool metaphor about the church. It's a human body. Think about this. It's a human body. It's one, but it has different parts. And each part serves a unique and important role. So he goes on to name a whole bunch of these vital parts of the spirit that, you know, the spirit does through all the different people throughout the building of the church. That's a key phrase in these chapters. And Paul concludes that the highest value in the gathering should concept central to the gospel, God's love. And love is a key word in these chapters. Love will compel each person in the gathering to use their role to serve and seek the well being of others. Paul applies all this to the Corinthian problems. Some people think the purpose of the gathering is to have intense spiritual experiences. Or to get a chance to speak their mind. And Paul says, listen, I'm a big fan of powerful experiences of prayer, but if it distracts other people or freaks them out, I should stop it because I'm loving myself more than I'm loving those people. The gathering around Jesus should be orderly so everyone can learn. Being saying and worship and hearing God speaking to them. The last problem Paul addresses is the issue of Jesus' resurrection and the future hope of Jesus' followers. There were some people in the church who were saying that the idea of resurrection is ridiculous and doesn't really matter to being a Christian. And if Paul reacts to this, he begins by saying the resurrection is an indispensable part of the gospel. We believe in it because the hundreds of eyewitnesses that saw Jesus alive in a physical body after being publicly executed by the Romans. It's kind of important. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, Paul says, then his death was meaningless. We are still lost in our sin and selfishness. Then we should stop just being Christians then. Who Paul then shows in detail how the resurrection was Jesus' victory over death and evil. How it's a source of life and power for us now and in the present and in the future. And how it's promise of a future hope for the whole world. It's because of the resurrection that we have no reason to be unified around Jesus. It's the reason we have motivation for sexual integrity. It's a source of power for loving other people more than ourselves. And ultimately, it's a hope of victory over death. And so Paul concludes that we do believe Jesus was raised from the dead, which means that this gospel is not just moral advice or a recipe for private spirituality. It's an announcement about Jesus that opens up a whole new reality. And that's what First Corinthians is all about, seeing every part of life through the lens of the gospel. So those that want more in-depth foresight of this, then you can read the second letter, God's spoken word of Corinthians. Lastly, we will be discussing Paul's first letter to Timothy. Paul spent many years traveling about and starting new churches and developing a large team of co-workers on its mission. Timothy was one of them. Paul was once in the city of Lystra, and he met Timothy, his faithful mother and grandmother, and he was impressed by Timothy's passion and devotion to Jesus. And so Paul mentored him for years and eventually started sending him on missions to different churches. So when Paul got worried about a group of leaders who infiltrated the influential church in Ephesus, they were spreading correct views and gospel and doctrine about Jesus and what it meant to follow him. He sent Timothy to confront these leaders and restore order to the church. So after Timothy arrived there, Paul sent this letter to follow up and instruct him on how to fulfill the mission. The letter was cool, good design, and the opening and closing commission to Timothy to go confront these leaders and their bad theologies. And then these surround two large central sections that are fully practical instructions and the problems that Timothy faced in an Ephesian church. And then finally, all these sections are linked together, concluded by a series of three poems that each exalt the risen Jesus as the king of the world. You'll see how it works. Paul opens by recalling how he sent Timothy to Ephesus to confront these leaders who were spreading their strange, demonic ideology and teachings and doctrines. He described how these guys are obsessed with speculating about the Torah, specifically the early stories and genealogies in the book of Genesis. And we'll see then that they developed a kind of weird teaching about food and marriage and sex that they weren't consistent with the teachings of Jesus or the apostles and their names. Some of these people, Alexander, Hamenius, and then they describe how their teachings had divided the church and generated controversy. And Paul says that's actually the first clear sign that their teachings is distorted. When genuine Christian teaching is done, it's faithful to the way of Jesus, and it results in love and genuine faith. Christian teaching is that way. It's faithful to the way of Jesus. And he says the purpose of the Torah isn't to fuel speculation. Rather, it's purpose to expose the truth about the human condition, as it did for Paul. Correct teachings about the Torah will lead people to see the grace of God revealed in the Messiah who came to save sinful, broken people. And so Paul closes here with a poem that honors King Jesus over all. And he calls Timothy to shut these men and their false, fault teaching down. He then addresses very specific problems in the church caused by the false teachers. First of all, he calls Timothy to hold regular church gathering prayer, to pray to the governing leaders of Loman and peace, because peace in the land creates an ideal setting for Jesus' followers to keep spreading their message about God, God of peace, who wants all people to be saved. The God who sent Jesus as the only mediator to give his life as a ransom for all. In contrast to false teachers, Paul reminds Timothy that God wants to rescue the whole world in prayer. It's going to keep this at the forefront of their minds. Paul then addresses problems related to the men and women who are influenced by these corrupt leaders in Ephesus. So he first shuts down a group of men who were getting drawn into angry theological disputes, starting by their teachers. He says these guys should learn how to pray. Then he confronts a group of wealthy women in the church who were treating the Sunday gathering like a fashion so. They were dressed so upscale that they would shame most all the people who couldn't afford such wardrobes. And not only that, but some of these women were also usurping leadership positions in the church, and they were teaching others a bad theology of corrupt teachers. And so Paul shuts them down. He says they should not teach or lead in the church. And then he goes on to explore the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent from Genesis 3. And this is one of the sections of Paul's letter to Light Peter said, he's kind of hard to understand. There are many different views what Paul meant here. Some think that Paul is prohibiting women from preaching, but whatever the teaching or leading in men in any church, and there's comments about Adam and Eve and how God ordained only the men should be leaders in church. There are others who think Paul is prohibiting women from having leadership authority over men in the church. But that once educated woman should and can teach its leaders in church under male leadership. And there are still others that Paul thinks only prohibiting these women in Ephesus and the comments about Adam and Eve. So it goes further down on that. But we want to make sure that people lead correctly and do ministries of the church, and they have the same character as the elders. And altogether, these people should know the healthy relationship of their families and demonstrate their abilities to lead in church, which is God's family and the way of life that they should live together. It's consistent with the story about Jesus, which is explores in the closing poem about his incarnation and his death, his resurrection, his exaltation of King. And it spreads to new family throughout the world. So the second instructions of Timothy are very specific in problems caused by these bad leaders. He corrects their theology. He even talks about their bad theology about telling people not to get married and eat certain foods, just ridiculous things. He has to remind them about things of Genesis. Genesis, the first chapter. Christians should be known. I'm going to close with this too. I want you guys to know, and I'm going to also read 2 Timothy 3 because I want you to see how all these things correlate in how they were back then, how they are today, and the issues that we deal with today. It's very important. You got to understand a holistic vision of the nature and the mission of the church. It's Jesus' community of believers. And they directly shape how communities live and behave, just like they did back in the day when Timothy was talking about in the city and the theology. They don't need to be constantly critiqued. They need to know the scripture and the truth of the scripture and the good news and what Jesus perceives and what he wants. Christians should be known as people who are full of integrity, known for good works, known for serving the poor and the most vulnerable. And all out of devotion they have is a devotion to the risen King, Jesus. That's what it's about. That's how it should be, anyways. Again, with the fashion shows, with the things that we deal with at church from day to day. I've seen it, you've all seen it. You should never make anyone feel less than when they come to church. That is a gathering where the Lord will fulfill his promises to people and his healing needs. I know when I went to church at times, there was a moment where the pastor asked us, if anyone was hurting financially, looking for work, whatever that may be, please come in front so we can pray for you. And at first it's like, oh, this is kind of embarrassing because I don't want people to know that I'm hurting. That's pride. But understand this when we came up there, the Lord met our needs, myself and my wife, my newlywed wife at the time. I was waiting for work and money to come in. And I kid you not, when we went up there to get prayed for, the pastor, along with other people in the congregation that felt compelled, got up and gave us a total of$400. And that helped us through the week until I started to work. The Lord knows your needs. And my wife got a job. She ended up becoming a, what was it, operations manager at a business because of that? My wife, it was such an amazing time. My wife took a test. Out of 110 interviews, she was picked. Took a test, passed high percentile, got interviewed out of 110 people. I believe like 250 applied, but the ones that didn't pass a test didn't, the only ones that did were 110. Out of the 110 that were interviewed, my wife got the job. She was so happy, and it was on her birthday when she found out the job. And my wife found out she was pregnant that time. But that was a time that she got our first baby that died from early childbirth. But it was such a great moment to see my beautiful young wife. I think she was like 29 at the time, and she was like, I'm I'm pregnant. I got this job, and it's my birthday. I was like, Whoa! I was like, what a beautiful moment. Like, this is I'm so happy for you. Like this, what a great day for you and birthday, and you know, and then yeah. But when we lost our first child, Elijah, uh, my wife was close to five months pregnant. When we lost Elijah, um the Lord put a lot of things in my heart to do. Uh things I couldn't even understand where I'm at today. And what he wanted me to master, which I am. But let me tell you, man, double portion came because I got a son that was born on my birthday, which is my oldest son, Josiah, and then another beautiful son of mine, Jonah. And then another daughter of mine, beautiful daughter. Because I have another beautiful daughter in New York, Savannah. But I have this other daughter, uh, Jezreel. I'm so blessed. Two boys and two girls. The Lord is good. But let me close out with 2 Timothy 3, and we'll pray. And I want you guys to see about these things. I know I talked a little bit about history and about how things correlate with the church and with Christ, but I want you to see how people were broken then and the issues that they had then still resonates today. And what's the answer? The answer is Christ, as it always has been, as it always should be. Second Timothy three. Turn there with me if you have your Bibles. Second Timothy three. And I'm reading for the New International Version. But mark this there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, they have, right? But denying the true power, which is surrender, right? Have nothing to do with these people. They are the kind who worm, picture worm, worm their way into homes and gain control or snake like a snake. They they gain control over gullible women who are loaded down with sins and swayed by every kind of evil desire, never learning, never able to come to the knowledge of truth. They're teachers, they oppose a truth from teachers. They are men of and women of depraved minds. They rejected the faith. They will never get far because the case of these men, their father, will be clear to everyone. And when you read, it talks about Janus and Jambrams who oppose Moses. A quick story about them. Uh man and woman. This is during the time of the exile when they came from Egypt, and uh it was lust. Like this man would look at this woman that was married, and they were both married, and they would they would go to an area where they would bathe. There was a bathing area, like a hot springs. And so women would go at a certain time and do their hot spring thing and cleanse, and then men would go. Well, this dude happened to go a little early, saw this man's wife, and lusted after her. She lusted after him, and then he started having an affair. Had an affair over time and time again. They would meet up and meet up, and then the husband of the woman felt something was weird, went to find where she was at in the springs, found her, caught her, was going to go back and tell the tribe what had happened, and they ended up killing the husband and trying to bury him so no one could find him. But God knows, and God told Moses, Hey, Moses, you have an adulterer in your presence. Your tribe is with sin. And Moses is like, Who is that? They got convicted, they rose their hand, and they told on themselves they were stoned to death as a result of their disobedience. Thank God we don't have that same God today, right? Finally, you, however, Timothy, he's talking to, because remember, we talked about Timothy. This is a second letter. Timothy, however, you know all about my teachings, my way of life, faith, patience, love, and endurance, persecution, sufferings, what kind of things are happening to me, the persecutions I endured. Wow. And this is Paul writing it while he's in jail. Okay. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. While evil doer evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue what you've learned and have become convinced, because you know that those who you learned it, even from your infancy in the Holy Scriptures, they're able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. And I want you all that are listening to remember this. This from verse 16 to 17, very important. All scripture, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. All scripture. Scripture was written by forty different authors, sixty-six books, thirteen different continents, countries, written by forty different authors over more than two thousand years, and it all correlates together. All scripture from the Lord God is good for training, correcting, and teaching in righteousness, so that we be equipped for every good work. So there'd be no excuse while you have none. So if there are things on your life that are hindering you, stopping you, keeping you from moving forward, take it to the Lord. Those that are listening, draw to him as he draws to you because he is close and he loves you. Understand this though, too, as I said before in my other podcast, when you pray, and if you have a rebellious heart, the Lord will not hear from you. He's not going to fulfill desires of prayer and pleasures if you are living a deadful, sinful life. You cannot be the devil and think you're gonna go to heaven. You can't be acting like the devil and go to heaven. That's just not gonna work. And I definitely, me, whether I fall short, I repent, I have to, and I want to change my ways and stay and keep moving forward and not turn back to not turn back to those ways. Just keep moving, keep moving. Fail, get back up, fall, get back up, try, fail, try, fail, try, succeed. It's it's you have to it's a progression, progression, but a genuine, faithful progression. Because I I want to be on the other side of the gate, everybody. In Revelation, you'll read that there's gonna be other people on the other side of the gate that can't get in to the party. And there's gonna be a bunch of dogs and wolves and all sorts of people, murderers and all those of the world on the other side of the gate, hoping to be let in, and they're not gonna be let in. They won't be coming to the banquet. The true banquet of eternal life that we don't even know about. It's not some fantasy, it's real. The words and the and the stories and the summaries and the things that I read to you today are from things that have happened thousands of years ago. Things that have happened that are happening today. And these books were written over 2,000 years ago, and yet it's telling us last days what it's gonna be like. And if you pull up social media today in the news, what I just read you is happening. We need to get right with our souls, everyone. Time is coming, it's falling short. Whether you die tomorrow, the next minute, or whether Jesus comes back, I hope soon, right? But if not, hey, listen, you gotta get some spiritual fitness going and get your soul right. So I pray, whoever's listening, if you don't know what to say, ask the Lord, Lord Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I have wronged you. I want to be made right. Cleanse me of all unrighteousness, as Psalm 51 says, as it is written. Cleanse me of all unrighteousness. Renew in me a steadfast spirit. Renew my mind. And I pray it is focused on you. When I fall short, forgive me. I pray genuinely to be with you and to do your will. Like pray those things, whoever's listening, and it's in his precious name we ask. And declare it. Declare it. When you pray, we are having a communion, relationship with him. When we declare, it's already done. We are speaking what the word and this promises say. We're not going to speak anything against God's word, and it does not contradict what he says. We're going to speak what this promises say against our situations. And when we decree it, it's already done, like a king would decree something. It's written, it's done, it's authority, it's sealed, it's finished. We must believe these things to be. So those that are listening, thank you for tuning in again to this episode. And we'll get even deeper and deeper as more time progresses in different episodes. But if you have questions and you need answers or prayer, my way is not the way, but it's a way, right? And I know it's led by the Holy Spirit, and I pray that always. Reach out at Bread of Life with JJ at gmail.com.

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Again,

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The bread of life with JJ at gmail.com. I'll be more than happy to pray for you and pray with you and go to battle until our next time of meeting and joining this meal of the bread of life. Know that Jesus loves you. Be thinking about you, praying for you. May God bless you. May He keep you. May His face shine upon you. And may He give you peace. Jesus loves you. Thank you for tuning in.