Episode Transcript
I pray, as Paul prays for his congregates, that these truths will transform your mind, in essence will transform your actions, and in turn, you actually receive the joy of why you're here. You oppose Christ, you'll never have joy. You embrace Christ, you will have, as he said, endless joy. Because he is all in all, for all, in all things. So hopefully prayer is no longer that awkward, weird thing that you know you're supposed to do.
Hopefully prayer becomes the very hope of your life and relationship with your Father. That every day, a time to say, "Father, I don't fully understand how I'm going to do this today; how I'm going to glorify you. I don't understand how the kingdom is going to be coming in my life. I don't understand how exactly I'm going to fulfill your will, but I know for a fact you will provide for me what I need.
I know for a fact you will forgive me. Please forgive me, and Father direct me today." He will answer. It's his promise. You, by faith, pray and trust him, and he will answer. Let me ask you this question. What do you have to lose? You've already lost everything. It's all going to burn: your- your body, if you haven't figured this out yet.
I had a nice five year old tell me yesterday that I got a lot of gray hair. I said thanks, I appreciate that. I really needed to know that- the indication that I'm decaying, I'm dying- or growing smarter, one of the two. So, the design of our church is to hear these truths, and then we need to confront each other on them.
We need to call each other to repentance. We need to confront each other. You're trapped in the selfishness of your own kingdom. The way in which you treat each other, the way in which you treat your spouse and your children, the way in which you treat your coworkers and your neighbors- if it is not with grace and meekness and mercy and kindness, you need to repent.
That's not how we as kingdom dwellers live. We don't, we don't live like that. We don't talk to each other this way. And what do we point to? Fear? No, we point to joy. We point to what we've been liberated from, and we point to our future hope. And so don't just take this truth. I want you to be warned. I want all of us to be trained on how to encourage and strengthen one another, to use this language of the kingdom, to remind each other, "Hey, you're not seeking the kingdom of God right now.
You're seeking your own kingdom by that comment, by those actions, by you refusing your time, by you refusing your emotions, by you refusing your money, what are you putting in? What trust do you have that is outside of Christ?" We don't say this because we want to manipulate you. We want to say - we say this because we want to free you.
Everyday Grace 060
