June 27, 2025 • 45 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello there, pray dot com listener. I'm Terry and it's
great to have you here with us on Ccpodcasts. We're
here to share the truth of God's word and proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please visit our profile and
click that follow button to keep up with us right
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website Ccpodcasts dot com to download our freemobile app. There
(00:27):
you can access thousands of episodes of our Christ centered
Bible based content. On today's episode, you'll be hearing a
selection from each of our three types of content. First,
you'll hear Matt Research share one of our brief daily
dose emotions where we're working through an overview of the
entire Bible. Second, Pastor Tim Budger will share a sixteen
(00:47):
to eighteen minute sermon from the CC Broadcast, which has
been airing on the radio weekly since nineteen thirty six.
And Third, you'll hear an inspiring interview with an interesting
Christian from our ccpodcast Conversation. Before we get going, why
don't I say a quick prayer, God, thank you for
loving us enough to send your son Jesus Christ to
(01:08):
save us. I pray that you would speak through the
content wind up for today so that people would be
encouraged and inspired by you and your word.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, here's Matt Reeser, Executive director of CC Podcasts, with
our daily Dose devotion.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Today.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We're going to be a John chapter eighty, verses thirty
nine forty seven. This is following the previous text where
Jesus kind of alluded to the fact that the Pharisees
who he's talking with are sons of the Devil rather
than sons of Abraham. But he's going to expand on
that point big time in this text. We're going to
learn some things about the devil and we're going to
learn about what sons and daughters of Abraham truly are.
(01:48):
But before we get into that, I want to thank
the Family Leader for being our twenty twenty three Daily
Dose Devotion sponsor. You can learn more about the Family
Leader and the announcements at the end of this devotion,
and as always, thank you to the Family.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Leader for their support.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Previous texts, the Pharisees have pointed out that they are
offspring of Abraham, and Jesus agrees with them that they
are Abraham's offspring. And here's what follows. They answered him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.
But now you seek to kill me, a man who
has told you the truth that I heard from God.
This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the
(02:22):
works your father did. They said to him, we were
not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God.
What they mean here is that they're not fornicators. They're
not born of sexual immorality in a spiritual sense, the
way that people from other nations, other peoples are people
who are idolaters or who believe in many gods, but
instead they have one father, the one true and pure God.
(02:45):
Jesus continues, if God were your father, you would love me,
for I came from God, and I am here. I
came not on my own accord, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand what I say? It is
because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are
of your father, the devil, and your will is to
do your father's desires. So this is obviously scathing. This
is another example of what we've talked about several times,
(03:08):
that Jesus is not one who shies away from controversy
or conflict or confrontation, particularly with the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders,
the scribes. And one of the reasons he pursues this
conflict is because it gives him an opportunity to clarify
the truth about who he is and the truth of
the Gospel, and one of the big truth is one
of the main themes of the Gospel and of understanding
(03:30):
the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible,
includes the idea that to be an offspring of Abraham
is different than to be a child of Abraham. These
Pharisees and anybody who is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, a descendant of one of the twelve tribes
of Israel, there's no question that they are physically descended
from Abraham.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
They have Abraham's DNA in them.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
But according to Jesus and later on according to Paul
in the Book of Romans and elsewhere, just because you
have Abraham's DNA and you fity doesn't mean that you
were Abraham's children spiritually. Jesus points out that they're not
doing the things that Abraham would do, and The primary
thing that Abraham did was trust the One True God.
(04:12):
And as Jesus pointed out in previous texts, to trust
the One True God is equal to trusting Jesus Christ,
because Jesus Christ is from the One True God. In fact,
when we understand the Trinity, Jesus is part of the
One True God. So because the Pharisees, the teachers of
the Law, the Jewish leaders are unwilling to trust Jesus Christ,
(04:33):
it shows that they are also unwilling to trust the
One True God, despite the fact that they think that
they are trusting the One True God. So there's an
interesting implication in this for anybody today who trusts Jesus
Christ for salvation, and that is this, we are Abraham's children.
Most of us don't have Abraham's DNA in our bodies
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because we're not physical descendants. We're not physically Jewish, physically Israelite.
But to be abraham children in a spiritual sense doesn't
require that. All that's required to be a son or
a daughter of Abraham is to put faith in the
One True God, who we now know as Jesus Christ,
the Messiah. Elsewhere, scripture says that those of us who
(05:14):
have faith in Christ are grafted into the tree of
Abraham's family. We're adopted into the family of God's people.
Really cool stuff and critical for our understanding of what's
going on with God's redemptive plan, what's going on with
the relationship that modern Christians have to God's chosen people
and Father Abraham. There'll be a lot more of that
(05:34):
as we get into Romans and other books of the
Bible going forward. Let's continue here as Jesus gives us
a little bit of a glimpse of who the devil is.
He's told the Pharisees that their father is the devil. Now,
let's see what he says about the devil. He was
a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do
with the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,
(05:55):
for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But because I tell you the truth, you do not
believe me. By the way, don't miss the obvious implication
of what Jesus is saying about the devil.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That is that.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Jesus believes the devil is real. We've got quote unquote
Christian scholars and theologians and authors and pastors and ministry
leaders these days who are trying to tell us that
maybe the Devil's not real. Well, anyone is free to
think whatever they want, but if that's going to be
our position, we need to just know up front that
we are clearly out of step with Jesus himself. In
(06:25):
verse forty six, Jesus asks a rhetorical question. I think
there was a long pause after this which one of
you convicts me of sin, and he kind of looks around, Okay,
hearing none because no one could convict him of sin.
He says this, if I tell the truth, why do
you not believe me? Whoever is of God? Here's the
words of God. The reason you do not hear them
is that you are not of God. Wow, Jesus is
(06:48):
laying it on thick with these guys. If anyone took
a poll about who are the most religious people in
the community, who are the people who are most likely
to know God to be the closest to God, these
guys are the guy. Not only is Jesus saying that
they're not, but he's saying it's worse than that. Actually,
their father is the devil, and the reason that they
don't hear his truth. The reason they don't believe in
(07:10):
him is because they are not of God. And friends,
don't make the mistake of looking back at this and
thinking this only happened back in Jesus' day.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This happens today.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
There are people who do all the religious stuff and
who check all the religious boxes, who do not know God.
It pains me to suggest, but I am convinced it's
true that there are people in churches all across this
country on a regular basis who would call themselves Christians,
who we might look at as experts of the faith.
But because they're putting all their eggs in the basket
(07:41):
of doing good works, being good people, checking religious boxes,
rather than personally putting their faith and trust in Jesus
Christ and carrying on a relationship with him, many of
these people, like the Pharisees who Jesus is castigating in
this text, don't know God. First of all, we need
to do some introspection our lives to make sure we're
not in that category. And then secondly, we need to
(08:03):
help promote the truth of this concept, the truth of
what Jesus is saying to people in our family and
in our circles and in our churches, so that there's
less and less of a likelihood that they missed the
boat on this thing, because the stakes could not be hired.
If you think what Jesus said in this text was audacious,
wait until the next week, come back for more. Thanks
for tuning in and have a great day.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I'm Andrew Nordstrom, technical director for the CC podcast. Thanks
for listening here on pray dot com. Please visit our
profile and follow us right here, or head over to
a ccpodcast dot com, where we've archived thousands of episodes
worth of content and you can access our free mobile app. Next,
we're going to hear a sermon from Pastor Tim Buker,
(08:50):
who preaches on our weekly radio program, the CCED Broadcast,
which has been on the air since nineteen thirty six.
Thanks for tuning in and make God richly.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
As we work our way through Paul's Letter to the
Believers in Rome, we experience a great amount of angst
as we listen to the first three chapters and we
see the sinfulness of humanity, the rebellious sinfulness of humanity,
the pompous sinfulness of humanity, the religious pride, the religious
superiority that can take hold in humanity, and all of
(09:29):
this sinfulness can be overwhelming, and I think really Paul
intends it to be that way for us, so that
we will look outside of ourselves for help for the
rescue that we need. And that's exactly where Paul goes
as he unfolds the bad news in contrast to the
coming good news that he's now turning the corner towards
(09:50):
in Romans chapter three. And of course the summary of
all this beginning description of sin is in the statement
Romans three twenty three, when he says, for all have sin.
All everyone, that's you, that's me, every human being who's
ever lived from Adam forward, whether they're a political leader,
a religious leader, a pope, a pastor, a priest, every
(10:14):
one of us have sinned and missed the mark, fallen
short of the glory of God. And he says, then
are justified, freely, made right, freely by God's grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. He's turned in
the corner to the good news God presented Christ as
(10:38):
a sacrifice of atonement. The wage of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. Through Christ
Jesus our Lord. In Romans three, he says God presented
Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of
his blood to be received by faith. He did this
(10:59):
to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had
left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. And he did it
to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as
to be just and the one who justifies those who
have faith in Jesus. As we're heading towards the Easter
(11:21):
celebration in the entirety of Christendom around the world, we
remind ourselves at this time of the passion of the Christ,
the mission of Christ. And in our text today we
also see not only was he on mission and intentionality,
but there was resistance to this mission, this purpose of
(11:41):
redemptive work in the world. There's resistance, and then there's
also a calling in it, and we see this clearly
in our gospel. So let's look at Mark chapter eight,
verse thirty one, where it says he began to teach
them that the son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
(12:02):
and the scribes, and be killed there he is. Jesus
plainly sang to his disciples, his followers, before he was crucified,
exactly what was going to happen. He was describing to
them his mission, his purpose, the intentionality of what he
was doing. He was going to suffer many things, be
(12:25):
rejected by the elders and the chief priest, the religious
leaders of the day. He knew exactly what was going
to happen the scribes, and he was going to be killed.
And after three days he said rise again. And the
scripture says Mark pens it this way. He said this
to them plainly so they could understand it, so they
(12:47):
could grasp it. When I was younger, a song came
out and was written by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith,
and it was called Secret Ambition. And part of the
lyrics in that song and go like this. Nobody knew
his secret ambition. Nobody knew his claim to fane. He
broke the old rules steeped in tradition. He tore the
(13:10):
holy veil away, questioning those in powerful position, running to
those who called his name. But nobody knew his secret
ambition was to give his life away. And even when
he told his closest followers exactly what was going to happen.
His purpose for being here, the surrendering of his life,
(13:33):
and then the demonstration of his power over the grave.
Even they didn't believe him, they didn't like the news,
but he honestly didn't always keep it a secret. In Matthew,
Chapter twenty, verse twenty eight, we see Matthew recording for
us that Jesus said this, the son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to
(13:54):
give his life as a ransom, a payment for many.
The wage of sin is death, and he came to
pay that wage for you and I. Luke records it
this way, the mission of Christ, why he came among us,
why he was sent here Luke nine p. Fifty one.
As the time approached for him, Jesus to be taken
(14:14):
up to Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Some
versions say he set his face like flint towards Jerusalem.
He turned towards Jerusalem, where he knew he was going
to be rejected, despised, whipped, beaten, crushed, and crucified. And
(14:35):
that's why he came. That was his mission, to give
his life as a ransom for many. I am just
wanting to remind you today about this great mission of
God in the world, the redemptive work of God in
the world, and so our gospel reading says. He began
to teach them, his followers, what was going to happen
and how he was going to be killed and then
(14:57):
rise again. And Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him. I wonder, have you ever rebuked God for
something he's doing or something you can see unfolding around
you in the world. Have you ever tried to tell
God that what he's doing may be wrong. That's what
Peter's doing here. He's telling the Great I Am, the Messiah,
(15:19):
the King of Kings, the one who came among us
to service. He's telling him he shouldn't do it. He's
rebuking him. You're wrong, Jesus, that shouldn't happen. You should
stay away from Jerusalem. And as Jesus was paying attention
to what was happening here, Mark says, he turned and
he saw his other disciples there, and what did he do?
The Great I Am corrected a human being, Peter, a
(15:41):
follower of his. He rebuked him, and he did it
quite sternly, he said to him, get behind me, Satan.
Now what's happening here is we're getting a glimpse into
the unseen. Friends, I want to remind you when we're
talking about Jesus and his work in the world, it's
a spiritual work. It's an unseen work. Now, if we
(16:04):
were there in the flesh, we could have seen Jesus
like they did. We could have seen him go to
the cross. We could have seen him absorb the lashes. Physically,
he was here and he did this, But the work
behind the scenes going on, Jesus is paying for the
spiritual debt of humanity that has been racked up by
our sins against Holy God. And as he went to
(16:27):
that cross, he not only physically died, he absorbed the
punishment or the wrath of God. For all those who
would believe, the wrath was put on him, and he
absorbed it. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
the scripture said. And on his way there there was resistance.
(16:47):
The scripture says Peter tried to stop him. But inside
Peter there was a spiritual work going on, and Jesus
knew it. And so he said to Peter he didn't
even address Peter. He rebuked Peter and said to him,
get behind me, Satan. And why because Peter did not
have his mind on the things of God, but on
(17:07):
the things of man. There's a couple observation. We're in
a spiritual war between good and evil and God's purposes
and the devil's desire to not have God's purposes for
creation accomplished. There's a spiritual war going on behind the scenes.
But it's not just between God and the devil, good
and evil. It's also between our human flesh, the sinfulness
(17:31):
that we have as human beings, and the Holy Spirit's
work in us. And Peter right here, he has his
mind set not on the things of God, but on
the things of man, the things of flesh. If you
get into Romans eight, you'll see that the mind controlled
by the spirit is life and peace. But the mind
controlled by the flesh is a mind controlled by selfishness
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and greed, and it leads us down the pathway of
greater and greater disappointment life. And so Jesus is correcting
one of his closest followers, Peter here, who's been influenced
by Satan in his flesh and he doesn't even know it.
We're in a season of Lent in Christianity around the world.
(18:14):
It's a forty day period leading up to Easter, and
in this period, it's a time when we're working to
emphasize God's purposes and his plans in the world and
de emphasize our temptations to the things of this world,
the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the
lust of the eyes. And it's a season where we
(18:37):
work to limit the luring power of the things of
this world in our flesh, in our hearts, and accentuate
the spiritual, the unseen work of God. It's known as
a season of fasting or self denial. It's a time
when believers around the world engage in the spiritual discipline
(18:59):
of restrain themselves from certain normal even fleshly desires, to
emphasize the spirit within us. It's a spiritual discipline of disengagement,
and they're both kinds of disciplines. Disengaging disciplines and then
engaging disciplines engaging in prayer, engaging in reading God's word
(19:20):
and listening to teaching about, engaging in fellowship and worship,
or disengaging fasting from almost anything, and people can fast
from anything that seems to have mastery over them or
control over them. A lot of times people say, oh,
that doesn't have any control over me, until they try
to stop doing it, and then they see the power
(19:40):
of the flesh. And what's happening here is Jesus is
restraining himself to head to the cross to accomplish his
mission and the salvation in the world, and Peter's flesh
gets in the way, tempted by the evil one. And
so now Jesus begins to do some teaching around this
to emphasize the spirit. So it's a prob at this
(20:00):
time of lent. Calling the crowd to himself and his disciples,
he said to them, now here it is friends, the mission,
the resistance, there's resistance to God's work in the world,
and now here it is the calling. If we want
to walk with Jesus. Now he's called the crowds to
himself and the disciples to him, and he says to them,
if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves
(20:25):
and take up their cross and follow me. I want
you to see the three stages of the calling. The
first one is deny yourself Anyone who says Christianity doesn't
involve dying to yourself is missing the mark. It's the
very first thing Jesus says to us about following him.
(20:46):
This is self denial. This is restraint, not in some
legalistic way to punish ourselves. This is denying ourselves the
lust of the flesh, the desires of the heart, so
that we can focus on the greater, unseen work going
on in the world. All of the temptations of the
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world can be such a distraction from the true purposes
of God. I mean, you see this all through the scriptures.
God said very clearly. The wealthier you are, the more
money you have, the harder it is because of all
the distractions and the pleasures and the comforts and all this,
the harder it is to get into the work of
the Kingdom of God. This world has so much canaizing
(21:31):
luring effects on us, and we have to separate ourselves
from it somehow. And the season of Lent is the
time for us to evaluate ourselves, deny ourselves in honor
of the forty days that Jesus spend in the desert,
denying himself and being engaged in prayer. And obviously meditating
on God's word, God's revelation to us, Jesus doing this
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in honor of him doing this, He calls us to
do it. Deny ourselves, take up our cross, be willing
to go through the suffering of denying ourselves to follow him.
And then he continues, for whoever would save his life
will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my
sake and for the Gospels, they'll save it somehow mysteriously
(22:17):
in God's economy. This is the pathway to our real selves,
our real life, vibrant living, true inspiration, true passion, being
caught up in the supernatural, de emphasizing the natural, and
then the spirit of God stirring in us, the supernatural
life in us, so we reflect in our unique ways
(22:38):
the very light of God. And so, calling to the
crowd and with his disciples, he said, if anyone would
come after me them, deny themselves, take up their cross,
and follow me. Whoever will save their life will lose it.
Whoever loses it for my sake will find it. And
now a few questions, for what does it profit a
man if they get all this in this world, gain
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the whole world, all the luxury, all the pleasures anything
this world has to offer, and yet forfeit their soul.
What does a prophet a man? What can a man
give in exchange for their soul? Nothing? See, this is
the pathway to eternal life. Friends, through Jesus. Salvation is
(23:19):
found in no one else. There's no other name under
Heaven given among men by which we can be saved.
You can have the whole world and enjoy it in
this life, and it'll be ripped away from you in
the end. And if you don't have him, if you
don't know his redemptive work, the forgiveness of sins through
his shed blood, which Romans clearly tells us is received
(23:42):
by faith in Jesus Christ, what have you profited? Nothing?
And then he goes even farther. Not only can you
get lost in this world and miss out on eternal riches,
but he says this, whoever is ashamed of me and
of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of
(24:03):
that person of him, will the son of man also
be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his
Father with the Holy angels. Friends, this whole life is
a preparation for eternity. And as we come towards Easter
in the Lenten season, it's a time to remind ourselves
of this deny ourselves. Do these spiritual disciplines not to
(24:29):
harm ourselves, but to accentuate the spiritual life inside of us.
So I ask you today, are you, personally, by your
own choice, restraining the lusts of your flesh in any way,
the desires of your flesh in any way, to draw
closer to God, to be able to hear him better,
(24:49):
to find more of His life in your life. In
the end, He's told us so clearly, this is where
life is found. I mean, He is our life. In him,
we live and move and have our being. He had
a mission, there's resistance against it, and he gave us
a calling in this mission. I hope you're hearing him
(25:10):
calling you today. Let's pray together, Father in heaven, thank
you for recording these words for us. Thank you for
sending your son. And even as Paul wrote to the
believers in Rome, there's a redemption that came by Christ
Jesus when God presented him as a sacrifice or atonement
to the shedding of his blood. And he's to be
(25:31):
received by faith. If anyone is listening, out there today,
and they haven't opened their heart to you by faith
received Jesus help them to do that. Now. Thank you
for this time. Lord, give us a greater hunger for
You and less hunger for the things of this world,
that we could shine more brightly for you. In Jesus' name,
we pray. Amen.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
That was Pastor Tim Buker, the radio preacher for the
CC Broadcast, one of our four podcasts. You enjoy Pastor
Tim's message, you might want to check out our newest podcast,
Homer Larsen Live. This new podcast features a series of
passionate biblically based messages delivered by Pastor Homer Larsen between
nineteen fifty three and two thousand and six live from
(26:14):
the pulpit at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Bestor Larson also preached until twenty fourteen here at the
CC Broadcast, and you can hear many of those episodes
on our website or wherever you listen to podcasts by
searching for the CC Broadcast Before it gets you to
more great content. I want to remind you about our
profile here on pray dot com. If you haven't already,
(26:35):
go check it out and follow us. You can also
visit our website Ccpodcasts dot com, where we've archived thousands
of episodes of content, and where you can find a
link to our free mobile app. That's Ccpodcasts dot com,
C C P O, D C A S T s
dot com. Next, we'll be listening to our executive director,
Matt Rester as he conducts an interview on another of
(26:58):
our podcasts, the ccpodcast As Conversations inspiring interviews with interesting Christians.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Having not been on the receiving end of that kind
of support, I still don't really understand what somebody just
being there.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Okay seems So I can give you a couple of examples.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Great, that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So one is there is like a fog. That's the
only way that I know to describe it. En I've
talked to other people too. It's like a mental fog
that I believe is.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
A God given gift to protect you.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, to kind of protect you from just feeling like
you're going crazy. And so you're already having a hard
time putting coherent thoughts together anyway. So sometimes people will
say something and they mean well, but like and it's
it's not even bad. They could be saying something totally biblical.
But I honestly can't remember any of those conversation unfortunately.
(28:03):
The ones that I do remember is when they said
something that you're like really yeah, like that is not
what I needed yep to hear right now, yep. You know.
So it's almost like, Okay, I'm not really going to
be able to remember much of what you say right
now because of the state that my mind is in.
So it's almost like better not to say anything than
(28:25):
to say something that they're just gonna I'm telling you
because some of the stuff and I know people meant
well yep.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
But let me give you an example of some friends
of ours, And there's no way for me to like
hide their identity completely, because if you know us and
you know the people we know, you'll be able to
figure this out. But a couple lost a child and
in the accident, and the child was adopted, and a
(28:54):
lot of support from the community, and we were kind
of close around their home for a few days, and
they went through the funeral visitation and a lot of
people coming through the line kept saying, you gave him
such a good.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Life, And.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
I don't think I ever said that, but one of
the parents in particular was very upset by that and.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Just kind of mad about it.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And as the parent described it, it was like, we
didn't adopt him to give him a good life. We
adopted and so that he could be in our family
and be our son. And to them it felt like
people were cheapening what they had done with this kid.
(29:46):
It wasn't just to give him a good life because
they have charity for a kid from another part of
the world.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It's because they want to put a.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Family member in their family, and it was way more
to them than just.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Helping a kid.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Now, as I was able to have a conversation with
that parents said, wait a minute, no one means that,
you know what I mean, like, no one's thinking about
that the way that you're receiving it. Of course, that's
not a good time to try to straighten them out
on how to think.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
About it the right way.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
But I think that's an example of what you mean
when you say I know people mean well, now, I
know of other examples that are even more egregious than that.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
They're just ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Stuff that people say that is not helpful and it's
borderlines not cruel, I mean just because they're not thinking.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
And I don't think the example I just gave is
cruel in any way.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
No, I think their intention was well, you know, but.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
You can speak from your experience about how because of
this fog and this emotion and this deep pain, there
are things that are meant well, that get said with
the best of intentions that you don't receive the way
that they were said exactly, and so better to just
(30:59):
be quiet mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
And I remember those and cherish those more than more
than the words.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Is the presence and just knowing, I mean, can you don't.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Have to give any identity or any specifics, but can
you remember specifically again without saying a situation or two
where like that meant the world to us. These are
people who came and were there and didn't say a
word and left.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Mm hm oh yeah, yeah yeah. And before I talk
about that directly, I will say that one of the
things my husband says he tells people is that he
learned through this that he will never again say to
somebody I know what you're feeling, yeah, because you don't,
because we got that and he was like, no, you
(31:49):
don't right. You don't unless you have gone through this
exact thing. You don't right, And and that can go
for somebody, even if they've lost a child total. It
could be a different circumstance. I still don't know what
you're feeling, right, So he's like, I just wipe that
out of my vocabulary. I don't even say I know
what you're feeling anymore, because that was one of the
things that people would say.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
And we're in a situation where a family we know
somewhat closely lost his son, and another family that lost
a child.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Ministering to them.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
And in watching this one family that lost the child
ministering to and being with this other family that lost
the son from a distance, you'd say they're two peas
in a pot.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
It's the exact same thing.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
They can totally identify with each other, but the circumstances
of it were so different. The way that these people
responded and reacted and the way that they're wired is
very different.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Than these people.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
And so these guys are looking over here going, I
don't know what they're doing. In essence, they were saying,
this is not like we did it, and there can't
be another way.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Ken Kenner, You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, it can be the same within a marriage. A
husband and a wife grief totally differently, and that's tough, right,
And then they can be like, did you guys have that?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, I think we know lots of married couples that
have lost children now, and every single one of them,
the husband and wife grieve differently. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I think there's a lot of divorce that happens, there
is in the wake of children die.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yet there is I tell people that if you had
cracks in your relationship, if you had like communication problems,
financial problem whatever, those can become chasms.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
That can wreck a marriage and totally bring such division
that you can't come back from.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So the title of your book or the subtitle is
finding evidence of God in the shattered pieces of life.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
What's that all about?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So when I sat down to really write our story,
I looked back because my husband's a pastor and he preaches.
He has he said since then after we lost Jacob,
he said, you know what, God was faithful when you
had cancer. He brought us through that, He's going to
(34:07):
bring us through this, and so I kind of turn.
He also preached a sermon years ago on recognizing the
footprints of Satan in your life.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And so after we lost Jacob, I like to flip
that on its head and say, you know what, I
want to look for God's hand. And when I started
writing this that was one of the things I was
blown away. How many things in our lives God was
using to teach us lessons that we were going to
(34:38):
need when we lost Jacob that we didn't even know
that they were going to be lessons that we needed.
And it was God's hand in our life, which is
where the title comes from. His fingerprints were all over it.
And when I look back, I can see how he
wove it together and plan things and prepare things that
when you're just going through day to day life you're
(34:58):
just like, you know, Yeah, but as believers he is.
He's redeeming all those things and bringing good out of them. Yeah,
even when it can seem like hope was gone, like
there is no home.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I think the most evil thing done ever in the
history of humanity.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Is the crucse fiction of Jesus.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, perfect man, perfect son of God, crucified for sin.
He didn't commit for doing nothing except telling the absolute truth.
And I always tell people if we'd have been there
on Good Friday, which we wouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Called it Good Friday.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
You make the case that this is the worst Friday.
This is the worst day in history. This is the
worst event that's ever happened. Today we call it Good
Friday because God, in the most spectacular way of anything
that he's ever redeemed.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Redeemed the cruci frixtion of Jesus. What does that do.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Theologically in your head as you think about bad and good.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I mean, obviously losing your son is bad.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
So one of the things that this is not. This
has been just a in the last couple of years
saying that God has showed me about that. You know,
on Good Friday, how Jesus feels forsaken when he says father, Father, Yeah,
so I you know you we know that we hear that, right.
(36:34):
So after losing Jacob, the thought struck me one time.
I I think part of the reason why God the
Father had to turn is because his son was being
brutally murdered. And I, as a parent who's lost a child,
now I'm like, oh my gosh, our our father was
(36:57):
experiencing this pain. You know, the that I've experienced. It
cost him greatly to let his son go through that.
And so when you're talking about like what does it
do with my theology of good and evil? Our father
experienced the worst pain imaginable, because I can tell you
(37:17):
that this is the worst pain, and any parent that
I've talked to that's lost a child the worst pain
imaginable to correct our sin. It wasn't even anything he
did to eradicate the evil that we allowed rain in
(37:37):
this world. But yet our God gets such a bad rap.
That's one thing that really irks me when people get
so mad at God for allowing this stuff to happen,
and I'm like, he's not the one who brought this
into the world. He's actually the one that took the
greatest pain possible to fix our mistake.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Up here in a couple minutes, but can you give
me a couple specific or are you willing to or
is that a spoiler for your book of specific pieces
of evidence of God?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Yeah? Yeah, like a story or two.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Or yes, absolutely, I'm guessing that's what's in the book.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there's I don't mind. I'm not
sharing at all. The one that comes to mind first
and foremost is so Jacob was a very fun loving kid.
He was a big boy. He was a little over
six feet tall, football player, so he was big. And
he was the kind that if you were a new
(38:35):
kid to the school sitting by yourself, he would go
sit by you. He was that kind of kid, you know.
And he was very good with his hands, very artistic.
Not a writer, yep. So three or four days after
he passed away, the church was helping us put together
his memorial tables and stuff. And so I'm going through
his stuff trying to find stuff to give them, and
(38:55):
I come across this poem who his youth leaders still
swears it's a rap. It's not a poem, it is
a rap. So but I come across this poem and
I almost put it aside because he wasn't a writer,
but he loved his name and he had like signed
his name with a flourish you know, Jacob Levitt, February
twenty fifteen. So I was like, oh, so I read it,
(39:17):
and he titled it holding Me. And in the poem
he's talking about I know I'm a sinful man, like
he's wrestling with his just like his biblical namesake. Really
he's wrestling through how could you use me? I know
I'm a sinful man. And then he's like, comes to
the the really to the cross. He says he's crossed
(39:39):
the Rubicon and real and receives God's forgiveness. And the
last two verses he talks about dancing on the streets
of Gold in the Heavenly City, meeting his Savior face
to face. And I'm sitting there just three days after
he stepped into eternity and met his Savior face to face,
(39:59):
and I'm just like, oh my God, what a gift.
And he dated it February twenty fifteen. He's not a writer,
so I still believe that God prompted him, you know,
to write that down and record that so you'd have it,
so I would have that, because this mom needed that
reassurance that my son was not playing church games. Pastors
(40:22):
kids know the thing. Go ye, they know that I
needed that assurance that I'm going to see him again
and that he had that moment with God and he
he's okay.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
I think two things are really cool about that. One
is that you are willing to admit that, apart from
knowing that from what he left behind, there's a chance
that your son was playing church games.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
I think a lot of parents are just naive to that.
My kids grew up in the church, they've heard the
Gospel a million times. Of course, they're believers, and we
don't know that.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
And then the other thing it's way cool that I've
never even thought of it before, is that would the Lord.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Prompt somebody to do something.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Before they pass away for the express purpose of helping
comfort the people that are left behind.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
That is amazing, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah? And you know, since we've lost him, I have
heard so many other stories like that though.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, even Stephen Curage Chapman his wife. His wife wrote
a book about it. She found a she calls it
Choosing to See. She found a piece of artwork from
her daughter that and her daughter was young, really young.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
And she found a piece of artwork that obviously God
had been inspired. Yeah, I had some sugnificance for them.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
So you have heard a lot of stories like that,
where I do. I think God does that for the grieving,
for the people that are that are left behind.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
So just how can people get your book? Who's it for?
Who would you encourage to read it.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I mean, we're gonna promote this obviously as an interview
with somebody who's walked through the loss of a child,
be anybody who's walked that road, But what else would
you say about that?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
So part of the reason why I wrote it is
because there is such a need. We've met a lot
of people one on one and as God brings them,
we love to do that, but there is just too
much of a need. I can't meet with everyone one
on one. So it's a way of sharing our story.
I also have created a free study guide that's with it,
(42:30):
that is on my website. They can download it for free.
So it's really designed to help people that are experiencing
any kind of tragedy or loss to find healing and hope.
But honestly, it's I think it could benefit anybody who.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
I mean, this has benefited me. I haven't lost a
child this conversation. Yeah, in terms of just even expanding
my view of God, yeah, you know, and seeing the
faithfulness of God. Meet somebody who goes through the worst
life has to offer and still be able to sit
here and be solid in the faith, and yeah, with
(43:10):
the Kingdom minded vision.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, you know, and I love our families. Jacob was
very fun loving and our family has always been kind
of sarcastic, witty humor. And we went through a time
when that was not the case because we were grieving. Yeah,
but I love that now we are back and like
our son got married and life is good. There is hope.
(43:36):
We can get through it. God can help.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Us, He can have fun, you can laugh.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
He is still faithful. You know, life will never be
the same. And somebody told me a long time ago,
you know you're not going to get over it. You'll
just learn to live differently. And that's true. Yeah, you know,
you learn a new normal, a new way of going forward.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
God Prince, finding evidence of God and shattered pieces of life.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
What's your website Jenny Levitt dot com.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
My name, that's j E N Y L E A
v I T T dot com. And they can get
the book there, I'm.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Sure, yeah, and they can get it anywhere. It's available everywhere,
and the audio version is also available everywhere.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Awesome. Yeah, God, bless you for coming on here and
sharing your story. Jetting you for writing that book.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Thank you so much for having me, you bet doing.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
This has been Ccpodcasts on prey dot com. Thanks for listening.
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Please visit ccpodcasts dot com for a link to download
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(44:48):
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(45:10):
richly bless you
Hello there, pray dot com listener. I'm Terry and it's
great to have you here with us on Ccpodcasts. We're
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click that follow button to keep up with us right
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(00:27):
you can access thousands of episodes of our Christ centered
Bible based content. On today's episode, you'll be hearing a
selection from each of our three types of content. First,
you'll hear Matt Research share one of our brief daily
dose emotions where we're working through an overview of the
entire Bible. Second, Pastor Tim Budger will share a sixteen
(00:47):
to eighteen minute sermon from the CC Broadcast, which has
been airing on the radio weekly since nineteen thirty six.
And Third, you'll hear an inspiring interview with an interesting
Christian from our ccpodcast Conversation. Before we get going, why
don't I say a quick prayer, God, thank you for
loving us enough to send your son Jesus Christ to
(01:08):
save us. I pray that you would speak through the
content wind up for today so that people would be
encouraged and inspired by you and your word.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, here's Matt Reeser, Executive director of CC Podcasts, with
our daily Dose devotion.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Today.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We're going to be a John chapter eighty, verses thirty
nine forty seven. This is following the previous text where
Jesus kind of alluded to the fact that the Pharisees
who he's talking with are sons of the Devil rather
than sons of Abraham. But he's going to expand on
that point big time in this text. We're going to
learn some things about the devil and we're going to
learn about what sons and daughters of Abraham truly are.
(01:48):
But before we get into that, I want to thank
the Family Leader for being our twenty twenty three Daily
Dose Devotion sponsor. You can learn more about the Family
Leader and the announcements at the end of this devotion,
and as always, thank you to the Family.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Leader for their support.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Previous texts, the Pharisees have pointed out that they are
offspring of Abraham, and Jesus agrees with them that they
are Abraham's offspring. And here's what follows. They answered him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.
But now you seek to kill me, a man who
has told you the truth that I heard from God.
This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the
(02:22):
works your father did. They said to him, we were
not born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God.
What they mean here is that they're not fornicators. They're
not born of sexual immorality in a spiritual sense, the
way that people from other nations, other peoples are people
who are idolaters or who believe in many gods, but
instead they have one father, the one true and pure God.
(02:45):
Jesus continues, if God were your father, you would love me,
for I came from God, and I am here. I
came not on my own accord, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand what I say? It is
because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are
of your father, the devil, and your will is to
do your father's desires. So this is obviously scathing. This
is another example of what we've talked about several times,
(03:08):
that Jesus is not one who shies away from controversy
or conflict or confrontation, particularly with the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders,
the scribes. And one of the reasons he pursues this
conflict is because it gives him an opportunity to clarify
the truth about who he is and the truth of
the Gospel, and one of the big truth is one
of the main themes of the Gospel and of understanding
(03:30):
the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible,
includes the idea that to be an offspring of Abraham
is different than to be a child of Abraham. These
Pharisees and anybody who is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, a descendant of one of the twelve tribes
of Israel, there's no question that they are physically descended
from Abraham.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
They have Abraham's DNA in them.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
But according to Jesus and later on according to Paul
in the Book of Romans and elsewhere, just because you
have Abraham's DNA and you fity doesn't mean that you
were Abraham's children spiritually. Jesus points out that they're not
doing the things that Abraham would do, and The primary
thing that Abraham did was trust the One True God.
(04:12):
And as Jesus pointed out in previous texts, to trust
the One True God is equal to trusting Jesus Christ,
because Jesus Christ is from the One True God. In fact,
when we understand the Trinity, Jesus is part of the
One True God. So because the Pharisees, the teachers of
the Law, the Jewish leaders are unwilling to trust Jesus Christ,
(04:33):
it shows that they are also unwilling to trust the
One True God, despite the fact that they think that
they are trusting the One True God. So there's an
interesting implication in this for anybody today who trusts Jesus
Christ for salvation, and that is this, we are Abraham's children.
Most of us don't have Abraham's DNA in our bodies
(04:53):
because we're not physical descendants. We're not physically Jewish, physically Israelite.
But to be abraham children in a spiritual sense doesn't
require that. All that's required to be a son or
a daughter of Abraham is to put faith in the
One True God, who we now know as Jesus Christ,
the Messiah. Elsewhere, scripture says that those of us who
(05:14):
have faith in Christ are grafted into the tree of
Abraham's family. We're adopted into the family of God's people.
Really cool stuff and critical for our understanding of what's
going on with God's redemptive plan, what's going on with
the relationship that modern Christians have to God's chosen people
and Father Abraham. There'll be a lot more of that
(05:34):
as we get into Romans and other books of the
Bible going forward. Let's continue here as Jesus gives us
a little bit of a glimpse of who the devil is.
He's told the Pharisees that their father is the devil. Now,
let's see what he says about the devil. He was
a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do
with the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,
(05:55):
for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But because I tell you the truth, you do not
believe me. By the way, don't miss the obvious implication
of what Jesus is saying about the devil.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
That is that.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Jesus believes the devil is real. We've got quote unquote
Christian scholars and theologians and authors and pastors and ministry
leaders these days who are trying to tell us that
maybe the Devil's not real. Well, anyone is free to
think whatever they want, but if that's going to be
our position, we need to just know up front that
we are clearly out of step with Jesus himself. In
(06:25):
verse forty six, Jesus asks a rhetorical question. I think
there was a long pause after this which one of
you convicts me of sin, and he kind of looks around, Okay,
hearing none because no one could convict him of sin.
He says this, if I tell the truth, why do
you not believe me? Whoever is of God? Here's the
words of God. The reason you do not hear them
is that you are not of God. Wow, Jesus is
(06:48):
laying it on thick with these guys. If anyone took
a poll about who are the most religious people in
the community, who are the people who are most likely
to know God to be the closest to God, these
guys are the guy. Not only is Jesus saying that
they're not, but he's saying it's worse than that. Actually,
their father is the devil, and the reason that they
don't hear his truth. The reason they don't believe in
(07:10):
him is because they are not of God. And friends,
don't make the mistake of looking back at this and
thinking this only happened back in Jesus' day.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
This happens today.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
There are people who do all the religious stuff and
who check all the religious boxes, who do not know God.
It pains me to suggest, but I am convinced it's
true that there are people in churches all across this
country on a regular basis who would call themselves Christians,
who we might look at as experts of the faith.
But because they're putting all their eggs in the basket
(07:41):
of doing good works, being good people, checking religious boxes,
rather than personally putting their faith and trust in Jesus
Christ and carrying on a relationship with him, many of
these people, like the Pharisees who Jesus is castigating in
this text, don't know God. First of all, we need
to do some introspection our lives to make sure we're
not in that category. And then secondly, we need to
(08:03):
help promote the truth of this concept, the truth of
what Jesus is saying to people in our family and
in our circles and in our churches, so that there's
less and less of a likelihood that they missed the
boat on this thing, because the stakes could not be hired.
If you think what Jesus said in this text was audacious,
wait until the next week, come back for more. Thanks
for tuning in and have a great day.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
I'm Andrew Nordstrom, technical director for the CC podcast. Thanks
for listening here on pray dot com. Please visit our
profile and follow us right here, or head over to
a ccpodcast dot com, where we've archived thousands of episodes
worth of content and you can access our free mobile app. Next,
we're going to hear a sermon from Pastor Tim Buker,
(08:50):
who preaches on our weekly radio program, the CCED Broadcast,
which has been on the air since nineteen thirty six.
Thanks for tuning in and make God richly.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
As we work our way through Paul's Letter to the
Believers in Rome, we experience a great amount of angst
as we listen to the first three chapters and we
see the sinfulness of humanity, the rebellious sinfulness of humanity,
the pompous sinfulness of humanity, the religious pride, the religious
superiority that can take hold in humanity, and all of
(09:29):
this sinfulness can be overwhelming, and I think really Paul
intends it to be that way for us, so that
we will look outside of ourselves for help for the
rescue that we need. And that's exactly where Paul goes
as he unfolds the bad news in contrast to the
coming good news that he's now turning the corner towards
(09:50):
in Romans chapter three. And of course the summary of
all this beginning description of sin is in the statement
Romans three twenty three, when he says, for all have sin.
All everyone, that's you, that's me, every human being who's
ever lived from Adam forward, whether they're a political leader,
a religious leader, a pope, a pastor, a priest, every
(10:14):
one of us have sinned and missed the mark, fallen
short of the glory of God. And he says, then
are justified, freely, made right, freely by God's grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. He's turned in
the corner to the good news God presented Christ as
(10:38):
a sacrifice of atonement. The wage of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. Through Christ
Jesus our Lord. In Romans three, he says God presented
Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of
his blood to be received by faith. He did this
(10:59):
to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had
left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. And he did it
to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as
to be just and the one who justifies those who
have faith in Jesus. As we're heading towards the Easter
(11:21):
celebration in the entirety of Christendom around the world, we
remind ourselves at this time of the passion of the Christ,
the mission of Christ. And in our text today we
also see not only was he on mission and intentionality,
but there was resistance to this mission, this purpose of
(11:41):
redemptive work in the world. There's resistance, and then there's
also a calling in it, and we see this clearly
in our gospel. So let's look at Mark chapter eight,
verse thirty one, where it says he began to teach
them that the son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
(12:02):
and the scribes, and be killed there he is. Jesus
plainly sang to his disciples, his followers, before he was crucified,
exactly what was going to happen. He was describing to
them his mission, his purpose, the intentionality of what he
was doing. He was going to suffer many things, be
(12:25):
rejected by the elders and the chief priest, the religious
leaders of the day. He knew exactly what was going
to happen the scribes, and he was going to be killed.
And after three days he said rise again. And the
scripture says Mark pens it this way. He said this
to them plainly so they could understand it, so they
(12:47):
could grasp it. When I was younger, a song came
out and was written by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith,
and it was called Secret Ambition. And part of the
lyrics in that song and go like this. Nobody knew
his secret ambition. Nobody knew his claim to fane. He
broke the old rules steeped in tradition. He tore the
(13:10):
holy veil away, questioning those in powerful position, running to
those who called his name. But nobody knew his secret
ambition was to give his life away. And even when
he told his closest followers exactly what was going to happen.
His purpose for being here, the surrendering of his life,
(13:33):
and then the demonstration of his power over the grave.
Even they didn't believe him, they didn't like the news,
but he honestly didn't always keep it a secret. In Matthew,
Chapter twenty, verse twenty eight, we see Matthew recording for
us that Jesus said this, the son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to
(13:54):
give his life as a ransom, a payment for many.
The wage of sin is death, and he came to
pay that wage for you and I. Luke records it
this way, the mission of Christ, why he came among us,
why he was sent here Luke nine p. Fifty one.
As the time approached for him, Jesus to be taken
(14:14):
up to Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Some
versions say he set his face like flint towards Jerusalem.
He turned towards Jerusalem, where he knew he was going
to be rejected, despised, whipped, beaten, crushed, and crucified. And
(14:35):
that's why he came. That was his mission, to give
his life as a ransom for many. I am just
wanting to remind you today about this great mission of
God in the world, the redemptive work of God in
the world, and so our gospel reading says. He began
to teach them, his followers, what was going to happen
and how he was going to be killed and then
(14:57):
rise again. And Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him. I wonder, have you ever rebuked God for
something he's doing or something you can see unfolding around
you in the world. Have you ever tried to tell
God that what he's doing may be wrong. That's what
Peter's doing here. He's telling the Great I Am, the Messiah,
(15:19):
the King of Kings, the one who came among us
to service. He's telling him he shouldn't do it. He's
rebuking him. You're wrong, Jesus, that shouldn't happen. You should
stay away from Jerusalem. And as Jesus was paying attention
to what was happening here, Mark says, he turned and
he saw his other disciples there, and what did he do?
The Great I Am corrected a human being, Peter, a
(15:41):
follower of his. He rebuked him, and he did it
quite sternly, he said to him, get behind me, Satan.
Now what's happening here is we're getting a glimpse into
the unseen. Friends, I want to remind you when we're
talking about Jesus and his work in the world, it's
a spiritual work. It's an unseen work. Now, if we
(16:04):
were there in the flesh, we could have seen Jesus
like they did. We could have seen him go to
the cross. We could have seen him absorb the lashes. Physically,
he was here and he did this, But the work
behind the scenes going on, Jesus is paying for the
spiritual debt of humanity that has been racked up by
our sins against Holy God. And as he went to
(16:27):
that cross, he not only physically died, he absorbed the
punishment or the wrath of God. For all those who
would believe, the wrath was put on him, and he
absorbed it. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
the scripture said. And on his way there there was resistance.
(16:47):
The scripture says Peter tried to stop him. But inside
Peter there was a spiritual work going on, and Jesus
knew it. And so he said to Peter he didn't
even address Peter. He rebuked Peter and said to him,
get behind me, Satan. And why because Peter did not
have his mind on the things of God, but on
(17:07):
the things of man. There's a couple observation. We're in
a spiritual war between good and evil and God's purposes
and the devil's desire to not have God's purposes for
creation accomplished. There's a spiritual war going on behind the scenes.
But it's not just between God and the devil, good
and evil. It's also between our human flesh, the sinfulness
(17:31):
that we have as human beings, and the Holy Spirit's
work in us. And Peter right here, he has his
mind set not on the things of God, but on
the things of man, the things of flesh. If you
get into Romans eight, you'll see that the mind controlled
by the spirit is life and peace. But the mind
controlled by the flesh is a mind controlled by selfishness
(17:54):
and greed, and it leads us down the pathway of
greater and greater disappointment life. And so Jesus is correcting
one of his closest followers, Peter here, who's been influenced
by Satan in his flesh and he doesn't even know it.
We're in a season of Lent in Christianity around the world.
(18:14):
It's a forty day period leading up to Easter, and
in this period, it's a time when we're working to
emphasize God's purposes and his plans in the world and
de emphasize our temptations to the things of this world,
the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the
lust of the eyes. And it's a season where we
(18:37):
work to limit the luring power of the things of
this world in our flesh, in our hearts, and accentuate
the spiritual, the unseen work of God. It's known as
a season of fasting or self denial. It's a time
when believers around the world engage in the spiritual discipline
(18:59):
of restrain themselves from certain normal even fleshly desires, to
emphasize the spirit within us. It's a spiritual discipline of disengagement,
and they're both kinds of disciplines. Disengaging disciplines and then
engaging disciplines engaging in prayer, engaging in reading God's word
(19:20):
and listening to teaching about, engaging in fellowship and worship,
or disengaging fasting from almost anything, and people can fast
from anything that seems to have mastery over them or
control over them. A lot of times people say, oh,
that doesn't have any control over me, until they try
to stop doing it, and then they see the power
(19:40):
of the flesh. And what's happening here is Jesus is
restraining himself to head to the cross to accomplish his
mission and the salvation in the world, and Peter's flesh
gets in the way, tempted by the evil one. And
so now Jesus begins to do some teaching around this
to emphasize the spirit. So it's a prob at this
(20:00):
time of lent. Calling the crowd to himself and his disciples,
he said to them, now here it is friends, the mission,
the resistance, there's resistance to God's work in the world,
and now here it is the calling. If we want
to walk with Jesus. Now he's called the crowds to
himself and the disciples to him, and he says to them,
if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves
(20:25):
and take up their cross and follow me. I want
you to see the three stages of the calling. The
first one is deny yourself Anyone who says Christianity doesn't
involve dying to yourself is missing the mark. It's the
very first thing Jesus says to us about following him.
(20:46):
This is self denial. This is restraint, not in some
legalistic way to punish ourselves. This is denying ourselves the
lust of the flesh, the desires of the heart, so
that we can focus on the greater, unseen work going
on in the world. All of the temptations of the
(21:07):
world can be such a distraction from the true purposes
of God. I mean, you see this all through the scriptures.
God said very clearly. The wealthier you are, the more
money you have, the harder it is because of all
the distractions and the pleasures and the comforts and all this,
the harder it is to get into the work of
the Kingdom of God. This world has so much canaizing
(21:31):
luring effects on us, and we have to separate ourselves
from it somehow. And the season of Lent is the
time for us to evaluate ourselves, deny ourselves in honor
of the forty days that Jesus spend in the desert,
denying himself and being engaged in prayer. And obviously meditating
on God's word, God's revelation to us, Jesus doing this
(21:55):
in honor of him doing this, He calls us to
do it. Deny ourselves, take up our cross, be willing
to go through the suffering of denying ourselves to follow him.
And then he continues, for whoever would save his life
will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my
sake and for the Gospels, they'll save it somehow mysteriously
(22:17):
in God's economy. This is the pathway to our real selves,
our real life, vibrant living, true inspiration, true passion, being
caught up in the supernatural, de emphasizing the natural, and
then the spirit of God stirring in us, the supernatural
life in us, so we reflect in our unique ways
(22:38):
the very light of God. And so, calling to the
crowd and with his disciples, he said, if anyone would
come after me them, deny themselves, take up their cross,
and follow me. Whoever will save their life will lose it.
Whoever loses it for my sake will find it. And
now a few questions, for what does it profit a
man if they get all this in this world, gain
(22:59):
the whole world, all the luxury, all the pleasures anything
this world has to offer, and yet forfeit their soul.
What does a prophet a man? What can a man
give in exchange for their soul? Nothing? See, this is
the pathway to eternal life. Friends, through Jesus. Salvation is
(23:19):
found in no one else. There's no other name under
Heaven given among men by which we can be saved.
You can have the whole world and enjoy it in
this life, and it'll be ripped away from you in
the end. And if you don't have him, if you
don't know his redemptive work, the forgiveness of sins through
his shed blood, which Romans clearly tells us is received
(23:42):
by faith in Jesus Christ, what have you profited? Nothing?
And then he goes even farther. Not only can you
get lost in this world and miss out on eternal riches,
but he says this, whoever is ashamed of me and
of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of
(24:03):
that person of him, will the son of man also
be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his
Father with the Holy angels. Friends, this whole life is
a preparation for eternity. And as we come towards Easter
in the Lenten season, it's a time to remind ourselves
of this deny ourselves. Do these spiritual disciplines not to
(24:29):
harm ourselves, but to accentuate the spiritual life inside of us.
So I ask you today, are you, personally, by your
own choice, restraining the lusts of your flesh in any way,
the desires of your flesh in any way, to draw
closer to God, to be able to hear him better,
(24:49):
to find more of His life in your life. In
the end, He's told us so clearly, this is where
life is found. I mean, He is our life. In him,
we live and move and have our being. He had
a mission, there's resistance against it, and he gave us
a calling in this mission. I hope you're hearing him
(25:10):
calling you today. Let's pray together, Father in heaven, thank
you for recording these words for us. Thank you for
sending your son. And even as Paul wrote to the
believers in Rome, there's a redemption that came by Christ
Jesus when God presented him as a sacrifice or atonement
to the shedding of his blood. And he's to be
(25:31):
received by faith. If anyone is listening, out there today,
and they haven't opened their heart to you by faith
received Jesus help them to do that. Now. Thank you
for this time. Lord, give us a greater hunger for
You and less hunger for the things of this world,
that we could shine more brightly for you. In Jesus' name,
we pray. Amen.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
That was Pastor Tim Buker, the radio preacher for the
CC Broadcast, one of our four podcasts. You enjoy Pastor
Tim's message, you might want to check out our newest podcast,
Homer Larsen Live. This new podcast features a series of
passionate biblically based messages delivered by Pastor Homer Larsen between
nineteen fifty three and two thousand and six live from
(26:14):
the pulpit at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Bestor Larson also preached until twenty fourteen here at the
CC Broadcast, and you can hear many of those episodes
on our website or wherever you listen to podcasts by
searching for the CC Broadcast Before it gets you to
more great content. I want to remind you about our
profile here on pray dot com. If you haven't already,
(26:35):
go check it out and follow us. You can also
visit our website Ccpodcasts dot com, where we've archived thousands
of episodes of content, and where you can find a
link to our free mobile app. That's Ccpodcasts dot com,
C C P O, D C A S T s
dot com. Next, we'll be listening to our executive director,
Matt Rester as he conducts an interview on another of
(26:58):
our podcasts, the ccpodcast As Conversations inspiring interviews with interesting Christians.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Having not been on the receiving end of that kind
of support, I still don't really understand what somebody just
being there.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Okay seems So I can give you a couple of examples.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Great, that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So one is there is like a fog. That's the
only way that I know to describe it. En I've
talked to other people too. It's like a mental fog
that I believe is.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
A God given gift to protect you.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Yeah, to kind of protect you from just feeling like
you're going crazy. And so you're already having a hard
time putting coherent thoughts together anyway. So sometimes people will
say something and they mean well, but like and it's
it's not even bad. They could be saying something totally biblical.
But I honestly can't remember any of those conversation unfortunately.
(28:03):
The ones that I do remember is when they said
something that you're like really yeah, like that is not
what I needed yep to hear right now, yep. You know.
So it's almost like, Okay, I'm not really going to
be able to remember much of what you say right
now because of the state that my mind is in.
So it's almost like better not to say anything than
(28:25):
to say something that they're just gonna I'm telling you
because some of the stuff and I know people meant
well yep.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
But let me give you an example of some friends
of ours, And there's no way for me to like
hide their identity completely, because if you know us and
you know the people we know, you'll be able to
figure this out. But a couple lost a child and
in the accident, and the child was adopted, and a
(28:54):
lot of support from the community, and we were kind
of close around their home for a few days, and
they went through the funeral visitation and a lot of
people coming through the line kept saying, you gave him
such a good.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Life, And.
Speaker 4 (29:14):
I don't think I ever said that, but one of
the parents in particular was very upset by that and.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Just kind of mad about it.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
And as the parent described it, it was like, we
didn't adopt him to give him a good life. We
adopted and so that he could be in our family
and be our son. And to them it felt like
people were cheapening what they had done with this kid.
(29:46):
It wasn't just to give him a good life because
they have charity for a kid from another part of
the world.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
It's because they want to put a.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Family member in their family, and it was way more
to them than just.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Helping a kid.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Now, as I was able to have a conversation with
that parents said, wait a minute, no one means that,
you know what I mean, like, no one's thinking about
that the way that you're receiving it. Of course, that's
not a good time to try to straighten them out
on how to think.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
About it the right way.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
But I think that's an example of what you mean
when you say I know people mean well, now, I
know of other examples that are even more egregious than that.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
They're just ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Stuff that people say that is not helpful and it's
borderlines not cruel, I mean just because they're not thinking.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
And I don't think the example I just gave is
cruel in any way.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
No, I think their intention was well, you know, but.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
You can speak from your experience about how because of
this fog and this emotion and this deep pain, there
are things that are meant well, that get said with
the best of intentions that you don't receive the way
that they were said exactly, and so better to just
(30:59):
be quiet mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
And I remember those and cherish those more than more
than the words.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Is the presence and just knowing, I mean, can you don't.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Have to give any identity or any specifics, but can
you remember specifically again without saying a situation or two
where like that meant the world to us. These are
people who came and were there and didn't say a
word and left.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Mm hm oh yeah, yeah yeah. And before I talk
about that directly, I will say that one of the
things my husband says he tells people is that he
learned through this that he will never again say to
somebody I know what you're feeling, yeah, because you don't,
because we got that and he was like, no, you
(31:49):
don't right. You don't unless you have gone through this
exact thing. You don't right, And and that can go
for somebody, even if they've lost a child total. It
could be a different circumstance. I still don't know what
you're feeling, right, So he's like, I just wipe that
out of my vocabulary. I don't even say I know
what you're feeling anymore, because that was one of the
things that people would say.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
And we're in a situation where a family we know
somewhat closely lost his son, and another family that lost
a child.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Ministering to them.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
And in watching this one family that lost the child
ministering to and being with this other family that lost
the son from a distance, you'd say they're two peas
in a pot.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
It's the exact same thing.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
They can totally identify with each other, but the circumstances
of it were so different. The way that these people
responded and reacted and the way that they're wired is
very different.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Than these people.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
And so these guys are looking over here going, I
don't know what they're doing. In essence, they were saying,
this is not like we did it, and there can't
be another way.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Ken Kenner, You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yeah, it can be the same within a marriage. A
husband and a wife grief totally differently, and that's tough, right,
And then they can be like, did you guys have that?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, I think we know lots of married couples that
have lost children now, and every single one of them,
the husband and wife grieve differently. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
I think there's a lot of divorce that happens, there
is in the wake of children die.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Yet there is I tell people that if you had
cracks in your relationship, if you had like communication problems,
financial problem whatever, those can become chasms.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
That can wreck a marriage and totally bring such division
that you can't come back from.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
So the title of your book or the subtitle is
finding evidence of God in the shattered pieces of life.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
What's that all about?
Speaker 2 (33:46):
So when I sat down to really write our story,
I looked back because my husband's a pastor and he preaches.
He has he said since then after we lost Jacob,
he said, you know what, God was faithful when you
had cancer. He brought us through that, He's going to
(34:07):
bring us through this, and so I kind of turn.
He also preached a sermon years ago on recognizing the
footprints of Satan in your life.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And so after we lost Jacob, I like to flip
that on its head and say, you know what, I
want to look for God's hand. And when I started
writing this that was one of the things I was
blown away. How many things in our lives God was
using to teach us lessons that we were going to
(34:38):
need when we lost Jacob that we didn't even know
that they were going to be lessons that we needed.
And it was God's hand in our life, which is
where the title comes from. His fingerprints were all over it.
And when I look back, I can see how he
wove it together and plan things and prepare things that
when you're just going through day to day life you're
(34:58):
just like, you know, Yeah, but as believers he is.
He's redeeming all those things and bringing good out of them. Yeah,
even when it can seem like hope was gone, like
there is no home.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
I think the most evil thing done ever in the
history of humanity.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Is the crucse fiction of Jesus.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, perfect man, perfect son of God, crucified for sin.
He didn't commit for doing nothing except telling the absolute truth.
And I always tell people if we'd have been there
on Good Friday, which we wouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Called it Good Friday.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
You make the case that this is the worst Friday.
This is the worst day in history. This is the
worst event that's ever happened. Today we call it Good
Friday because God, in the most spectacular way of anything
that he's ever redeemed.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Redeemed the cruci frixtion of Jesus. What does that do.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
Theologically in your head as you think about bad and good.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I mean, obviously losing your son is bad.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
So one of the things that this is not. This
has been just a in the last couple of years
saying that God has showed me about that. You know,
on Good Friday, how Jesus feels forsaken when he says father, Father, Yeah,
so I you know you we know that we hear that, right.
(36:34):
So after losing Jacob, the thought struck me one time.
I I think part of the reason why God the
Father had to turn is because his son was being
brutally murdered. And I, as a parent who's lost a child,
now I'm like, oh my gosh, our our father was
(36:57):
experiencing this pain. You know, the that I've experienced. It
cost him greatly to let his son go through that.
And so when you're talking about like what does it
do with my theology of good and evil? Our father
experienced the worst pain imaginable, because I can tell you
(37:17):
that this is the worst pain, and any parent that
I've talked to that's lost a child the worst pain
imaginable to correct our sin. It wasn't even anything he
did to eradicate the evil that we allowed rain in
(37:37):
this world. But yet our God gets such a bad rap.
That's one thing that really irks me when people get
so mad at God for allowing this stuff to happen,
and I'm like, he's not the one who brought this
into the world. He's actually the one that took the
greatest pain possible to fix our mistake.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Up here in a couple minutes, but can you give
me a couple specific or are you willing to or
is that a spoiler for your book of specific pieces
of evidence of God?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Yeah? Yeah, like a story or two.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Or yes, absolutely, I'm guessing that's what's in the book.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there's I don't mind. I'm not
sharing at all. The one that comes to mind first
and foremost is so Jacob was a very fun loving kid.
He was a big boy. He was a little over
six feet tall, football player, so he was big. And
he was the kind that if you were a new
(38:35):
kid to the school sitting by yourself, he would go
sit by you. He was that kind of kid, you know.
And he was very good with his hands, very artistic.
Not a writer, yep. So three or four days after
he passed away, the church was helping us put together
his memorial tables and stuff. And so I'm going through
his stuff trying to find stuff to give them, and
(38:55):
I come across this poem who his youth leaders still
swears it's a rap. It's not a poem, it is
a rap. So but I come across this poem and
I almost put it aside because he wasn't a writer,
but he loved his name and he had like signed
his name with a flourish you know, Jacob Levitt, February
twenty fifteen. So I was like, oh, so I read it,
(39:17):
and he titled it holding Me. And in the poem
he's talking about I know I'm a sinful man, like
he's wrestling with his just like his biblical namesake. Really
he's wrestling through how could you use me? I know
I'm a sinful man. And then he's like, comes to
the the really to the cross. He says he's crossed
(39:39):
the Rubicon and real and receives God's forgiveness. And the
last two verses he talks about dancing on the streets
of Gold in the Heavenly City, meeting his Savior face
to face. And I'm sitting there just three days after
he stepped into eternity and met his Savior face to face,
(39:59):
and I'm just like, oh my God, what a gift.
And he dated it February twenty fifteen. He's not a writer,
so I still believe that God prompted him, you know,
to write that down and record that so you'd have it,
so I would have that, because this mom needed that
reassurance that my son was not playing church games. Pastors
(40:22):
kids know the thing. Go ye, they know that I
needed that assurance that I'm going to see him again
and that he had that moment with God and he
he's okay.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
I think two things are really cool about that. One
is that you are willing to admit that, apart from
knowing that from what he left behind, there's a chance
that your son was playing church games.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
I think a lot of parents are just naive to that.
My kids grew up in the church, they've heard the
Gospel a million times. Of course, they're believers, and we
don't know that.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
And then the other thing it's way cool that I've
never even thought of it before, is that would the Lord.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Prompt somebody to do something.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Before they pass away for the express purpose of helping
comfort the people that are left behind.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
That is amazing, isn't that?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Yeah? And you know, since we've lost him, I have
heard so many other stories like that though.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, even Stephen Curage Chapman his wife. His wife wrote
a book about it. She found a she calls it
Choosing to See. She found a piece of artwork from
her daughter that and her daughter was young, really young.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
And she found a piece of artwork that obviously God
had been inspired. Yeah, I had some sugnificance for them.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
So you have heard a lot of stories like that,
where I do. I think God does that for the grieving,
for the people that are that are left behind.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
So just how can people get your book? Who's it for?
Who would you encourage to read it.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I mean, we're gonna promote this obviously as an interview
with somebody who's walked through the loss of a child,
be anybody who's walked that road, But what else would
you say about that?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
So part of the reason why I wrote it is
because there is such a need. We've met a lot
of people one on one and as God brings them,
we love to do that, but there is just too
much of a need. I can't meet with everyone one
on one. So it's a way of sharing our story.
I also have created a free study guide that's with it,
(42:30):
that is on my website. They can download it for free.
So it's really designed to help people that are experiencing
any kind of tragedy or loss to find healing and hope.
But honestly, it's I think it could benefit anybody who.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
I mean, this has benefited me. I haven't lost a
child this conversation. Yeah, in terms of just even expanding
my view of God, yeah, you know, and seeing the
faithfulness of God. Meet somebody who goes through the worst
life has to offer and still be able to sit
here and be solid in the faith, and yeah, with
(43:10):
the Kingdom minded vision.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah, you know, and I love our families. Jacob was
very fun loving and our family has always been kind
of sarcastic, witty humor. And we went through a time
when that was not the case because we were grieving. Yeah,
but I love that now we are back and like
our son got married and life is good. There is hope.
(43:36):
We can get through it. God can help.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Us, He can have fun, you can laugh.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
He is still faithful. You know, life will never be
the same. And somebody told me a long time ago,
you know you're not going to get over it. You'll
just learn to live differently. And that's true. Yeah, you know,
you learn a new normal, a new way of going forward.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
God Prince, finding evidence of God and shattered pieces of life.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
What's your website Jenny Levitt dot com.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
My name, that's j E N Y L E A
v I T T dot com. And they can get
the book there, I'm.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Sure, yeah, and they can get it anywhere. It's available everywhere,
and the audio version is also available everywhere.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Awesome. Yeah, God, bless you for coming on here and
sharing your story. Jetting you for writing that book.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Thank you so much for having me, you bet doing.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
This has been Ccpodcasts on prey dot com. Thanks for listening.
To hear more of our thousands of pieces of content,
Please visit ccpodcasts dot com for a link to download
our free mobile app. All of our ccpodcasts are initiatives
of Christian Crusader's Radio and Internet Ministry, which has been
in existence since nineteen thirty six. We are one hundred
(44:48):
percent donor funded, so if today's program has been meaningful
to you in any way, please consider making a taxeductable
donation online by clicking the give button on our profile,
or by mailing a donation to Christian Crusaders seventy four
oh one University Avenue, Cedar Falls, Iowa five zero six
one three USA. Thanks again for listening, and may God
(45:10):
richly bless you
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