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Daily Transcripts

09/11/2015
Isaiah 8:1-9:21 ~ 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 ~ Psalm 55:1-23 ~ Proverbs 23:4-5
Today is the 11th of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today and I'm honored that we are all together, coming together, centering ourselves on higher things, deeper things, the things that matter, orienting ourselves to God through his Word and, of course, orienting ourselves to God with us through his Word. So this week we’ve been reading from the Good News Translation which is what we will continue to do and we are working our way through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.

Commentary:

So Paul is continuing to just boast, as he calls it, where he is just trying to show his validation in what it is he's doing without actually doing it. We were talking about this yesterday. He's pouring his heart out. There is rich humanity in what he is saying. Often we can just mythologize these stories, these figures, these people and make it glossy and sepia-toned and just really lovely, like they really didn’t have a bunch of struggles, and long for a time that was simpler like theirs when actually they had a pretty rough go of it and had very human experiences and struggles in it. So we can look at a person like the apostle Paul who is a giant figure in the New Testament without doubt and think he was just above it all. We can look at Jesus the same way, just above it all, aloof a little bit, just above it all. That is just not the case, though. These men and women who are our spiritual ancestors, for sure, had a very difficult time of it. So that should put some of the things that we go through in our lives into perspective. I don’t think anybody listening to me today (I don’t think) has been shipwrecked and out at sea for 24 hours. I'm sure nobody whose listening to me today was martyred. But that's Paul's story and that's only a fragment of it.

Paul talks about a vision that he had, that he was swept away into Paradise. He doesn’t know if he was actually there like in his body, like he went, or this was a vision, but he knows it happened and the things that he has seen aren’t able to even be articulated and it is a driving force and his passion to pursue the spreading of the gospel, the spread of the Kingdom. But then he brings it back to his humanity where we encounter one of the great promise verses, the kind of verse that we will use as a word of encouragement to somebody who is going through something. “In your weakness, God is strong.” That is true, but it is also true to the point of cliché. It is like a lot of times we’ll say it to somebody because we don’t have anything else to say, we don’t know what else to say, we don’t know how to be with them in what they’re going through, so we’ll go to scripture and kind of give this as a pat on the back or even a hug, even sincerely because we don’t know what to say.

When you're on the receiving end of that, it is a little different because it can be a little bit of a balm, but it doesn’t take everything away. That is until we stop and consider. And sometimes when we are in hardship or difficulty or struggle, stopping and contemplating is counter-intuitive because we’re thrashing around, flailing in our lives, trying to figure out how we’re going to change this struggle, how to change this hardship, how it is we’re going to get out of it. A lot of times what we really do need to do is stop. Stop flailing.

It is like the drowning person who is being rescued and they’re flailing and they can’t be rescued because they won't stop, they won't be still. So they’ll drown in their flailing because the rescuer can’t really get to them or he or she may be drowned as well because of the panic. When actually stopping, contemplating and being rescued is our fastest way to survive and live.

Paul is like, “yeah, I had this vision, but then I had this thorn in the flesh,’ as other translations put it, this painful physical thing going on and Satan used that as a messenger. It was like constantly coming against him, beating him down, keeping him from being proud. But Paul even saw God using that, he even saw him in that. He asked God three times to take it away. This is the apostle Paul. So we’d say he is a giant in the faith, one of the pillars, one of the fathers of the faith. This is Paul asking God three times ‘take this away.’ God's response is ‘my grace is all you need. My power in you is greatest through you, through your weakness.

I used to read that and think ‘man, really? Is that how this works?’ Until I stopped and began to reflect over the most difficult seasons of my life, the things that were the most traumatic to me, most painful to me, whether in body or in mind and spirit, only to realize in retrospect those are the times that I knew I was holding onto God for dear life because there was nothing else to hold onto. Those were the richest intimate moments.

I'm sure you can relate to that. I'm sure that is true of all of us. We know that our closest times to God are the times that we hold onto him for dear life because there is nothing else to hold onto, but then when things do get better, we very easily find what we think is our footing and then just kind of move on until the next struggle when the reality is all of that is an illusion. We are only ever holding onto God for dear life. So I began to just ask God ‘how do I do this when things are seemingly well, this intimacy? I don’t want this to be gone. I don’t want this to be clouded over.’ And as I examined my own life, it was like it is not that I'm departing from God, it is that all of that focus and all of that energy has been cluttered now with other things.

If we want to take a lesson from the apostle Paul, it is how he sums this up. “I am most happy”…isn’t that the state of mind that we’re trying to live in, happy, content, or as my friend Mike would say, shalomy? This is a state of being that we strive for, to try to find that balance. Paul is saying “I found that balance then to be proud of my weaknesses.”

Now we just stop there for a second. Hang on a second. To be proud of my weaknesses? That is the last thing we do. We try to hide our weaknesses. We try to pretend for everybody else that they are not there and then struggle against them in every conceivable way in our lives. Paul is saying, “I'm most happy to just recognize what is going on here. I'm proud of my weakness because I cannot navigate on my own when I am in that place. I feel the protection of Christ's power over me in that place, so I'm content with my weaknesses, the insults, the hardships, the persecutions, and the difficulties. I'm content for Christ's sake, because when I am weak, then counter-intuitively that is when I am my most strong.”

This is important to apply to our own lives because we can apply it in many ways to our own lives, but this is also a central message of the gospel of Jesus Christ because this is the kind of thing Jesus was constantly saying. The way you are trying to navigate your life, it won't work that way. The kingdom that you are looking for isn’t coming that way. It's different than that. It's almost the opposite of that. If we want to find contentment and happiness, we will have to at some point finally and totally understand our utter dependence on God for life. Not just life like oxygen in our lungs that keeps our hearts beating and our brains functioning and blood flowing through our veins, but life, the state of being, happy, content life that can’t be manufactured on our own. We aren’t capable of sustaining it. We’ll run to all kinds of illusions and we’ll construct anything that kind of looks like it, but it all comes down like a cardboard box, like the plastic that it is. We know this. How many more times do we have to do this?

The reality is much more simple – it is the absolute humbling of ourselves. It is literally we stepping down off the sovereign throne of our lives, truly. It is we taking off the royal robes that say we are our own god and we are managing our own lives and getting down upon our knees and putting our heads to the ground and bowing before the sovereign Lord and inviting him onto the throne of our lives. I know that is an old cliché, but it is a great picture. Literally, it is not we who have a right to our lives anymore. It is Christ who lives within us. It is that simple. It is that hard. Because man, do we kick him off the throne! Do we not do it most every day in some way or another? Throw him down, get up on the throne, ask him to bow before us and go do our bidding? When it is the other way around and that is the only way to happiness and contentment. In this way we become proud of our weakness because we know exactly what and who we are in our own strength and we know what and who we are because of his strength. So I read you this passage again with this in mind:

My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak. I am most happy then to be proud of my weaknesses in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake for when I am weak then I am strong.

Prayer:

So Father, yes, we are more than conquerors. We are more than conquerors because you are the sovereign Lord within us. We embrace our weakness right now. We embrace it. We are proud of it because what shines through is your great strength that overcomes all things, that overcomes the things we can’t navigate, that overcomes the things that we can’t process, that defeats the forces of darkness within us and outside of us, all around us, the things that we flail and thrash and try to manage that we can’t. As we fall to our knees declaring our own weakness and inability to be our own sovereign, we find pride in that weakness because you come bursting forth. You come running to us as a Father would, scooping us up, holding us in your arms. When we are securely there, those things set against us cower in fear, not of us, but of you. You are the all-powerful, sovereign Lord and in our weakness we are made strong. So come, be the absolute Lord of our lives. Be our strength for we are weak. Be our Lord for we cannot be our own. Come Holy Spirit and reframe this entire paradigm. You are strong. We are weak. But with you we are strong. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Announcements:

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is home, is the website. It is where you find out what is going on around here and several things are going on. Just getting ready to be on the road for Reframe. Looking forward to that. Just looking at the calendar and going, okay, it is going to be busy later this month.

So on the 27th of September, a few weeks from now I will be in Fort Smith, AR. Looking forward to that. First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith. You can get more information at www.1Pres.org. I'm sure there is a phone number there and information where you can get more details.

October 1st I will be here in Nashville speaking at the Story Conference. And then, man, if we look through October, Reframe will be here in Nashville on the 11th, be in Charleston, SC on the 18th, we’ll be in Richland, WA on the 25th, Louisville, KY on November 1st, Chattanooga, TN on November 8th, and then San Diego, CA on November 15th. Then we will take a little break. I'm just stretching right now here because that made me tired. Oh, but I am beyond excited. So as these dates come a little closer, we’ll get more specific, but looking forward to being out on the road this fall with Reframe.

We’ve been talking about Reframe all year but we’ve been talking about the Reframe book for the last month. Www.ReframeBook.com is where you can go and grab a copy and we have some beautiful things that we’re trying to give you in exchange. Reframe is an important work by itself, but in an effort to say, hey, get Reframe, we’ll give you more than the value of Reframe. We’ve got some great things going on at www.ReframeBook.com: $10 off the new Promised Land film which is, the best word is epic. It is a master class in biblical geography and archeology and history. But also my first book Passages, this month we’re giving that to you, the full unabridged audio edition when you grab a copy of Reframe which is coming out in like two weeks. So www.ReframeBook.com. Thank you for your support of that work. I believe that work will support you.

Alright, if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com. Thank you deeply for allowing this community to exist at all. There is a link on the home page in the upper right-hand corner. If you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian. I love you. I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It's Gloria from Tennessee. I haven’t called in a while, so I was just calling to just ask for prayer. I am struggling a lot with a lot of just sin and lack of contentment with God and I feel like I am so stuck in a vicious cycle of sin that I couldn’t hear the Lord clearly if I tried. So I'm just asking for prayer that God would be merciful and just open my eyes and deal with me the way that I need to be dealt with and will just give me clarity and just that he will touch my heart and make it known to me and give me a heart of humility toward him and then just return to me the joy of my salvation. Thank you, guys. Love you.

Hey Daily Audio Bible. This is Christy from Ohio. I just wanted to call in and kind of give an update. But first off, I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who called in and said they were praying or prayed for me on the phone. I'm sure there are so many more that are praying who didn’t call in and I just want to say that I was really blown away by all the love on this community and I even played some of the recordings for my mom and she was blown away that people could be so loving and caring on here. So I just want to say thank you and I definitely feel God's power working in me and like moving me toward the right direction. Not like a big change, at least with my circumstances, but definitely feeling less depressed and I don’t really know the direction I need to go in life yet, but I feel closer to God. He's in control and leading me. So, yeah, continued prayer for direction and all that would be great, but I just wanted to say that your prayers are definitely working and thank you so much. And also, another quick praise report. I quickly, briefly mentioned in my first call my sister was looking for a job. Well, a week ago or last weekend or something she got accepted to a job, so she starts I think next week or something. So, yeah, big praise for that. I guess prayer, too, that she does well and that be able to work out, but I think it will. Alright, well, thanks guys. Bye.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family. This is Dan from Phoenix. It's been a while since I’ve called in. It's been a while since I’ve listened. So, actually Dan from Phoenix will soon be Dan from New Hampshire. The last update you probably heard about my dad was having brain cancer. Well, things have kind of gotten worse quickly, but we still believe very strongly in the power of prayer. We ask for your prayers for him. We are moving back to New England to be there to help support my mom and my brother and ultimately continue to need your prayers for finances, for the trip. We leave October 10th. Just lots of prayer around this time. We are just very unsure and very emotional about the things that have been taking place. My dad is really struggling to keep it together. The cancer is really affecting him. So if you can just lift him up in your prayers. I was there this past week. He had another brain surgery and I was able to be with him and talk with him and spend time with him, but it was very hard, had a huge effect on his body. Hope to be calling in a little more frequently. Love you guys. Thank you for your prayers. God bless.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Caleb from Ohio. A few days ago I called in for the first time to pray for Michelle in Cleveland. I did not mention that I was a first-time caller but now I'm mentioning that I was then. So anyway, right now I want to pray for Melanie who called in about her son Elijah who is not learning to walk yet. So, God, Heavenly Father, I pray for Elijah right now and just give him strength and put all his muscles and bones and ligaments and joints together and working in the right place so it all fuses together and he can walk normally like anybody else his age. And also, God, please just put a supernatural peace around that family and comfort them all. Give Elijah use of his legs, please Lord, and just I pray peace for them. In your mighty name, in the name of Jesus, amen.

Hi DAB family. This is Walta from Charlotte, NC. I'm indeed a burning bush for the glory of our Lord and King, a burning bush that will not be devoured. Today I'm just calling. I am going to commit this day just to go through all the prayers from the last two weeks because sometimes you're listening and you miss something and you hear someone call in and you're like “I never heard that” then you go back and listen…well, maybe not everybody. It happens to me sometimes. But anyway, while listening I just realized we have an awesome family of listeners and I just wanted to say from my heart thank you so much, Brian and Jill. Thank you so much to every listener, every caller, every prayer warrior, those who don’t call in especially because it is like you are holding up the fort without even being recognized. I just love you guys for that. May God continue to bless your homes, bless your families, bless your jobs, bless your finances and may God continue to sustain us all as we go through the year listening to his Word. Before I leave, I just want to issue a prayer request. There is a lady in my office. Her name is Mildred. She is actually from my country and I just met her when I got here. Just a week ago there was an announcement in the office that they found out she had cancer and noted that within a week or two weeks she had lost a lot of weight. Please pray for Mildred. She is a woman of God. She just got ordained at her church. Please pray for miraculous healing. Pray for her family as she goes through this. Also want to pray for my sister. I have six sisters. One of my older sisters is going through a lot of stress, depression, and marital issues. Please pray that God will relieve her of all her stresses and pray for her son, for his salvation, and…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family. It's James, the teacher in LA. I just wanted to respond to Kimberly in northeastern Nevada. You personally started off your call apologizing for being a “Debby Downer” in your words. You know, you don’t have to apologize for being in pain, whether it is physical or emotional or spiritual and you said that you're known for being an encourager. Well, if you're in this place of pain right now, unless you are enjoying it or reveling in it or wallowing in it, you don’t have anything to apologize for, okay? King David was an amazing man after God's own heart and the psalms are full of his pain far more often, I think, than even his joy. But even in his pain he could praise God. I believe you can too. When you're in that place of pain, you're not always yourself. You don’t need to beat yourself up about feeling irritated with your kids. I know. I’ve been a teacher for coming up on, I think, 13 years and there are times where I have had some great classes, great students, and I can get upset. It's not them. It's me. But that doesn’t mean that you’re permanently going to be that way. I pray for your husband to __________ that the persecution will not be permanent and that God will get all the glory out of it and that you will get to praise God and enjoy the benefits of what he is doing through it. I pray that he will be strengthened in the meantime. Love you. Love you family. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Tamarie 09/11/2015 11:01

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