Transcription

Chris
So, Jeff, you know how you and I sort of grew up in the same background, same denomination kind of thing. And, uh, in the conservative denomination, uh, there are just certain things in that culture where people would say things, right, like, you know, people shout Amen! And yeah, those kind of things. Well, one of the things that people always would say that I used to laugh at is whenever you were talking, they go, hmm, that’ll preach, that’ll preach, that’ll preach. You’re like, hey, man, this glass is half full. And they go, hmm, that’ll preach. Yeah, well, that’s what we’re talking about. We’re talking about today. Jesus goes and preaches all throughout Galilee and everything.

Jeff
He says that’ll preach, that’ll preach. Yep. That’s right. He’s Chris and I’m Jeff and we’re the Bible guys.

Chris
Which, by the way, uh, did you ever notice that people say Amen differently? Uh, I had one guy. I could almost imitate him at my Youngstown Baptist church. He’d go, Amen. Right. And then I had one. I had one lady who used to go, Amen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. And people used to, you know, we had.

Jeff
A guy go, yep, man. Right. It always sounded like he’s at, like a like a, uh, like an auction. Yeah, man.

Chris
It’s so funny. It’s like, uh, it’s it’s, uh. Did I ever tell you, uh.

Jeff
Those are fun days, by the way.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah, those are fun days. Uh, did I ever tell you that, uh. Uh, Andy Stanley one time talked, and he said that, uh, he invited, like, a brand new believer into a prayer circle. And at the end of the prayer circle, uh, the guy said, hey, Andy, I got a question for you. He goes, do all Christians mu. And he said, what are you talking about? And he goes in the prayer circle, guy next to me is like, mhm. Then the other guy is like, mhm, mhm. And he’s like he’s like I’m standing around and these guys are mooing. And it was hilarious because this guy from the outside just, just it’s the Christian culture right. Yeah. Where he’s just like Christians. Moo. It’s goofy I think that that’s really funny.

Jeff
Yeah. Okay. Well hey let’s get into this segment. It wouldn’t be the end of the week without our favorite segment. Oh yeah. Right, right.

Chris
So this is today.

Jeff
Yeah. So what made Chris mad this week?

Chris
That’s right, that’s right. I found this out just a few minutes ago. And as soon as I found out I said I have one. Yeah, exactly. Because it was.

Jeff
Yesterday. It was it was literally so. Hey, Chris. Uh, it’s, um, what makes Chris mad this week? I’ve got one. It was that fast?

Chris
Yeah, it was that fast.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Chris
And the reason why. Excuse me. Uh. Me too. Excuse me? The reason why is because yesterday, when it happened, I had my staff with me and they said, that’ll make Chris mad. And I said, yeah, I said, I go that that is true. And so I immediately came to mind. So we were in a restaurant and there’s a restaurant called BJ’s that we always go to. And uh, when I had parked, I had pulled in and Trey, one of my staff members, was in the passenger seat. Well, when I pulled in, I have this camera in the back, right of, you know, the whole screen becomes a camera. Yes. And the new technology allows you to see the lines of your parking space. Right. And so you are quite literally able to perfectly center your car. That’s correct. Right. And so it’s like you were able to just put it. Exactly. And, and so I know that there’s this much space on the right side of me, and there’s this much space on the left side of me. And I am perfectly in the middle of that parking space. That’s right. And a lot of times people will put like a, like a, you know, two lines in between a car. That’s those are the kind of parking lots we all love. Yes.

Jeff
Right. That’s correct.

Chris
But most of the time it’s it’s not. But anyway, I pulled in my space perfectly. And, uh, because of the technology and because.

Jeff
You’re such a good driver.

Chris
Well, I made sure to include the technology part. And then Trey goes to open the door and says, you are incredibly close to this car next to me. And I said, well, actually, no, he’s incredibly close to the line. Right? I parked perfectly.

Jeff
That’s right. Right.

Chris
That’s right, that’s right. And I don’t want to cheat this way because that car right on this side of me will be mad at me. Yeah. So I said, you can squeeze out. So he opens the door and squeezes out. Right. And I’m hoping that he’s not going, that guy’s not going to knock my car, right? Because he’s in the wrong right? Right. Because by the way, he had room on his side. So we go in and we we have a meal, we come back out and wouldn’t you know it, the car on my driver’s side had pulled in obnoxiously close. Wow. Because apparently he didn’t have anybody in his passenger, because it would have been literally impossible for that passenger to get out. And by the way, not only was he not perfectly in the center of that space, he was crooked. Oh, so much so. To where his front tire was on the white line. Oh, it was on the line.

Jeff
So did you kill him?

Chris
Uh, well, no. No. Okay. But I had thoughts of leaving him a note. A note because it was that bad. So literally, I came out and I go, I go, you have got to be kidding me, right? So this guy is too close on this side, and this guy’s made it almost impossible for me to get in, right? Which means I almost considered having to go into Trey side and squeeze myself in and cross over. But instead, what did I do? I squeeze myself through, and I was so angry and I was like, I’m going to leave a note on that guy’s car.

Jeff
You should, you should. Did you leave a note? Chris
Well what was I going to do? Sign it like.

Jeff
Pastor Chris.

Chris
Pastor Chris so I’m thinking, no, I didn’t leave it. But we pulled out. I was tempted to even take a picture to show my wife. I was like, look at this guy. And by the way, he had a small little car, like a teeny teeny tiny.

Jeff
I know, I’ve seen that so many times. Little tiny car. You could park two of them in that parking spot. Why did you park right up against my door, man?

Chris
He whizzed in. And so he was crooked because he had done some sort of like a turn. Yeah. And anyway, so. So that makes me mad. So not only so center.

Jeff
Up your car, people.

Chris
Not only for me, but on behalf of all on.

Jeff
Behalf. Right. It’s not just about, you know.

Chris
It’s everybody who experiences there are people listening who are going, hey, that’s man.

Jeff
That’ll preach.

Chris
That’ll preach.

Jeff
Well good. Thank you for for being irate on behalf of all of us little people. Yes. So thank.

Chris
You. And people. Come on, man, you need to.

Jeff
Straighten this stuff up.

Chris
Already. Challenging enough. That’s right. Right.

Jeff
So, uh, today we’re going to move on because this will preach to.

Chris
Hey, don’t give me don’t even get me started about the people who take up two spaces on purpose. Right? Because your car is not that nice, bro. Okay. All right. Go ahead.

Jeff
Okay, so this one is all in three of the four Matthew, Mark and Luke. And notice there’s a trend there. They tend to do that. So uh, Matthew chapter four this is Jesus goes preaching throughout Galilee. It says Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick and whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed, he healed them all. Large crowds followed him wherever he went. People from Galilee, the ten towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from the east of the Jordan River.

Chris
Um.

Jeff
And then in Mark chapter one, we’re still not out of the chapter one in the book of.

Chris
Mark covers so much ground.

Jeff
It’s just a few sentences. But here he goes in chapter one, verse 35, before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later, Simon and the others went out to find him, and when they found him, they said, everyone’s looking for you. But Jesus replied, we must go on to other towns as well, and I’ll preach to them too. That is why I came. So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. Um. Then in Luke chapter four it says, early the next morning, Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowd searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave them. But he replied, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent. So he continued to travel around preaching in synagogues throughout Judea. Yeah. Isn’t that great?

Chris
Yes. Um, by the way, I was reading a note here, um, uh, in Matthew chapter four, verse 25, where it mentions the ten towns. It says wherever he went, people from Galilee, the ten towns, Jerusalem, all over Judea, and from the east of the Jordan River, it says the Ten towns, uh, is was a league of ten gentile cities east of the Sea of Galilee, joined together for better trade and mutual defense. The word about Jesus was out, and the Jews and Gentiles were coming along long distances to hear him. Yeah. So east of the Sea of Galilee. Yeah. Right. So that that means. And because Capernaum sits on the Upper West Side. Yeah. Right.

Jeff
Northwest side.

Chris
The northwest side. Uh, they were coming a pretty good ways. Yeah. Ten of those towns.

Jeff
Yeah. So that was called Decapolis, that that area was called Decapolis. And the Jews, good Jews typically didn’t go over in that area much. There wasn’t anything there. Uh, remember the story when Jesus cast out the pigs or cast out the demons, they go in the pigs? Yeah. It was there. Yeah. You know, so that region, they were the they were the pig eaters over there. It was the gentile towns. And good Jews stayed on the West side. They didn’t go over to the East Side.

Chris
When you were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, did your tour guide show you the cliff that they believed? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn’t that cool.

Jeff
In any so. And it totally makes sense. Right. So there’s one difference that really stands out. And that is Mark says Jesus got up, uh, before daybreak the next morning. Jesus got up, went to an isolated place to pray. Yep. Right. You’ll find out through the Gospels. The Bible said that was his habit, right? To get up early in the morning and go pray. And it’s really interesting to realize that even Jesus prayed. And this is one of those things. Remember, uh, we we’ve we’ve referenced this a few times. I really believe that the things that Jesus did, Jesus wasn’t doing as God, although he said that they often proved that he was God, but Jesus was doing them full of the Holy Spirit. That’s what the Bible says. That happened when he came up out of the, uh, out of the water after baptism, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit led him out into the desert. He was ministered after after his temptation, he was ministered to by the angels. And then the Bible says he was full of the Holy Spirit. And he goes in and does his ministry. And so I believe that that’s why later on, Jesus is going to tell his disciples, you guys are going to do even greater things than me. How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so this is one of the reasons why Jesus needed to pray was because the ministry he was doing was so great. People were taking from him all the time. He needed to be filled by the Holy Spirit. Who’s who’s going to feed Jesus? Who’s going to fill Jesus? Who’s going to minister to Jesus? Right, right. And and that’s true. If you’re ever going to have meaningful ministry, you need to learn to be fed and filled by God’s Spirit.

Jeff
Yeah. And and through God’s Word. And that’s the importance of having a daily time. Uh, we commend our listeners for taking time. You’re you’re taking some time. You let us read what, 20 verses, 15 verses to you. Now we’re going to talk about it. You’re starting your day or you’re spending a part of your day contemplating God’s words. Before you’re done with this moment, spend a little bit of time, talk to God, ask him to fill you and to minister to you in a way that us and our words and other people can’t.

Chris
Yeah. And so, uh, by the time this podcast. Errors. Uh, it will have already been passed it, but we’re coming up to a couple Sundays from now. We’re bringing in a Hollywood producer. Yeah, a big Hollywood producer. And, uh, he was a guy who had a lot of success, lost it all, became a Christian. Uh, I didn’t know this until yesterday. I talked to him on the phone, but he was responsible for spearheading when The Passion of the Christ came out. Yeah, he actually traveled around with Mel Gibson and actually, uh, spearheaded all of the stops were Mel and Jim Caviezel and all those other guys were wanting to go from church to large church to promote the big tour. And this guy traveled with Mel doing that. Well, anyway, all that to say, he has been led and his passion and his mission in life is to spread the word. And he wrote a book called The First Hour, specifically geared for men. And it’s really designed to challenge men to say specifically women, too, of course, but but this book in particular is for men. Uh, when you get up in the mornings to spend your first hour and give it to God. Yeah. And he actually talks about tithing your first hour. Yeah. And which is really, really cool. And I think it’s going to be a big blessing to bring people in. We’re doing a movie series, so it really is a good time to bring him in. Yeah. Uh, because it fits thematically.

Jeff
And he’s something.

Chris
Else.

Jeff
Oh, he walks into a room and explodes. You just watch it for an hour and then he leaves. Yeah, I’ll tell you what. He’s amazing. Yeah.

Chris
And and he’s. And you know how they always say, well, Zabach could be a bit much. Yeah. This guy is.

Jeff
You are tame compared to

Chris
I’m tame compared to him.

Chris
Yeah. That’s so great.

Jeff
So, um, there is there’s something powerful to learn. So one of God’s goals, matter of fact, we’ve read this with with Paul. Paul talks about God’s goal is for you to grow up, to become more and more like Christ. He says literally to grow up into Christ, right? We’re supposed to grow up to become more and more like him. That’s one of God’s goals. So if we’re going to be like, Jesus, uh, there are some things I can’t do. I’m probably not going to walk on water in my lifetime.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
Probably not. I may or may not raise the dead right. Although people do fall asleep when I’m preaching. They look like they’re dead. Then they come back, get up and walk out. It’s a miracle. It seems like everybody.

Chris
That’s after you’re done.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s after I’m done. Um, but, you know, so there’s some of those things I may or may never do. It depends if God wants to do those things in me. But I know I can do this. I can choose to spend time with God every day. Right. And that is you want to know the source of Jesus power. I believe that was the source of Jesus power. Yeah.

Chris
And for our listeners who listened and have been following since last week, uh, that’s remember the woman at the well last week where Jesus said, I have food that you know, not of? Yeah, yeah. He said, Jesus, are you hungry? And he says, I have food. And then and then one of the disciples is like, when did we eat?

Jeff
Yeah. Wait, did I miss lunch?

Chris
Did I miss lunch?

Chris
Like like, who fed Jesus?

Chris
Like, he literally did not understand. But Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit ministering to him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is amazing. So.

Jeff
Um, I I’ll tell you, I think one of my favorite. Phrases about Jesus in the Bible is Matthew 423. Jesus traveled through the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom, and he healed every kind of disease and illness. I love that right. He did it all. He just he he traveled. He went sharing the gospel with people. He’s announcing good news. Isn’t that interesting? If you were God, if you were the creator, um, and you showed up down here. If it were me, I’d be like, stop it, stop that, stop that, stop that. That’s what I’ve been doing. You people are a bunch of losers. You’re ruining your lives. Why are you doing that? That’s what I’ve been doing all the time. I’m serious. It would be. And instead, he’s in here telling good news. Guess what? The kingdom of God is here. Yeah. Turn from your sin. So he’s honest about sin. He’s. He’s being honest in terms of sin. And turn to God. You can have a relationship with him. So Jesus was was so focused on the fact that the good news is you can have your sins forgiven and a relationship with the creator. And and I think sometimes we forget how good the good news is. And we want to go around and just, you know, how many Christians just go around slapping everybody on Facebook or on social media? Just slap it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop. Is it wrong? No. Hey, you’re calling out sin, right? But the Bible says Jesus goes around and sure, he’s telling people to repent of their sin, but he’s declaring the good news. Jesus was famous for the good news. Yeah, right.

Jeff
And then he solved the problems. He didn’t just yell about the problems. Yeah, he was in he was engaged in solving the problems. Uh, he healed every kind of disease. And I love that description of Jesus. It’s probably my favorite in the whole Bible. My favorite description of what Jesus did.

Chris
That’s awesome. Yeah. And by the way, if I were the creator, I would probably take away free will. And I would just make everybody love me like a robot. Right? Because you know why? Because it’s easier. It’s less messy, way less messy.

Jeff
But of course, there’s no real love, right?

Chris
Because, you know, true love cannot exist without free will. Yeah, yeah. Which is one of the big answers, I believe, to, you know, the mysteries of why is there evil in the world? Why is everything still broken? And it’s because, really, men choose evil, men choose evil things. That’s right. And the reason why it stems back to the fact that God created everybody with a free will. Why? Because true love cannot exist without free will. Yeah. So you have to have somebody choose to love somebody. That’s right. And so if I choose to love you and I change my behavior and I, I respond out of gratitude, I respond because, uh, you know, I care about the relationship. I care about you. Uh, that is a choice. That is true love expressed. And that’s when it’s meaningful at the end of our lives. That’s really the only thing besides our relationship with God. That’s right. The relationship with people is the only thing that matters. Yeah, right. And so we know how valuable it is. And so yeah, free, free will I joke. But free will is the reason why.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Chris
We find ourselves in the in the mess we’re in.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Jeff
There’s one other thing that I always get out of these three passages. So we already talked about it earlier in Matthew where Jesus went around and he preached, turn from your sin, turn to God. The kingdom of heaven is here, right? So so those are the three elements. There’s a sin issue that’s keeping you from God. Stop it. Turn. Turn away from that. Turn to God. You can have relationship with him. And then God has a mission for you in his kingdom, right? Those are the three things he did. He gave them purpose. And then he invites Peter and Andrew and James and John and the others to follow him, and he’ll make them fishers of men. And what he’s going to do is he’s going to give them that same mission. A matter of fact, eventually he sends them out to go do what he does, go preach and turn, you know, repent all those kinds of things. And this is good news. But then the crowd comes to Jesus and they’re like, would you stay? Please stay? And he’s like, nope, I’ve got to go on. Right. Think about it. This is his home base. Now. This is, you know, uh, this is where he lives. He’s done a bunch of miracles here already. He’s going to come back and do some more. Uh, so many great things. A lot of friends are here. Uh, he loves teaching in the synagogue. He’s there all the time in the synagogue. He’s been there quite some time. And then he goes. He gets up and he goes, no, I have to keep going. And there’s some real power in knowing your purpose. Right. So it could have gotten I think as Christians, sometimes we’re tempted to move the target.

Jeff
To whatever it is we’re hitting. So his goal was to go preach to everybody and tell everybody that to repent of their sins, turn to God because the kingdom of heaven is here. But then he hangs up in Capernaum for a while, builds a base, and it would have been really easy to go, oh, I’m having such a big impact here. I’m just going to stay here. I’m comfortable here. I’ve got everything I need here. Peter’s got a good business he’s able to provide for us. And the other guys are here. Uh, things are good. Peter’s mom’s a good cook. I got everything I need. Um, I’m going to stay here and just let ministry come from here. But that wasn’t what he said he was there for. He was here to go everywhere. So he. He went everywhere around. All around the Sea of Galilee. He’s pushing. And knowing your purpose will keep you on track of the most important thing. And if you ever forget what your purpose is. Go tell everybody. He told us that everywhere. Repent of your sins. Turn to God. The kingdom of heaven is here.

Chris
Yeah, because he said that’s why I’m here.

Jeff
That’s why he’s here.

Chris
I love how Jesus wasn’t shy about saying, this is why I have a mission. I have a purpose. In fact, even when he was healing and people said, you know, uh, why are you healing? He announced. And we’ll probably cover it later. But he says, I am doing this so that people may know that I’m the Son of God, right? So so his. So he had a purpose behind everything that he did. And and if you think about it, it’s for the care and love and concern and salvation of all people.

Jeff
That’s correct. That’s correct. So it turns out you and I, the kingdom of heaven is near, right? That’s so you and I are part of the kingdom. Every kingdom has a king. You and I have a king. So we are the sons and daughters of the king. So we have all the benefits of being the family members of the king. But we’re also the subjects of the king, right? So then we have to do what the king says. And the king, we don’t have to, so we don’t have to figure out our own mission. I don’t have to figure out my my purpose. I don’t have to invent my mission. Instead, I understand he gave me a book that has his mission. Love God. That’s the most important commandment love people. It’s the second most important commandment. Go tell everybody. Tell everybody what? Repent of your sins. Turn to God and you can be part of God’s kingdom. You have a mission too, right? That’s it. Baptize them, bring them into the family, all those things so we don’t have to invent this thing. If you’re trying to figure out what you should be doing for God, do those things and then he’ll help you find your niche, right? So most of the time, what we’re trying to do is figure out how do I what is my niche? What is my little angle in the kingdom? How about we just get doing the generic things the, the, all the skills that we all need and then we, we do those things and then he’ll move us into our specialty area once we’re being faithful with those common things that are very clear to understand. So, um, I love the fact that he knew what he was about and he said, okay, I can’t stay here where it’s comfortable.

Jeff
I got to keep pushing.

Chris
Yeah, well, that sounds like a great place to end. And, uh, hopefully we will see you on Monday next time on The Bible Guys.