Hey everybody. Welcome back to a Christmas Eve edition of the Daily Bible Podcast and let me be the first to say Merry Mery Christmas. You see, but when you've been the first to say it like seven times already, Hey, don't hate, don't, don't hate the play. Hate the game. Hey, let me be the first to say no. I'm not gonna wish everybody a happy New Year yet because it's not there yet, but I'm okay with waiting on that one. This is the one that matters. Christmas, yes, Eve. That's right. Yeah. We're gathering tonight 4:00 PM Well, this EI guess this evening would be an appropriate category. Late afternoon. Yeah, it's a late afternoon. I dunno if it's evening. I think it has to be at least five o'clock, maybe six to be evening. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're gathering at 4:00 PM up at the church and hey, we could have a full house. So if you're planning on joining us tonight it'd be great to be there early everywhere. You look everywhere. There it is. Full house. And it would be great to be there early because you'll be ready to go as soon as we start. And so we're only doing an hour, hour long service for the sermon. Yes. Hour long sermon. Yeah. For the intro to the sermon front Forge, but buckle up. Yeah. Be there early. We've got kids activity kits that Allie Trinidad has put together for your ones that are five years up and older as far as elementary goes. That's right. There's boxes, coloring activities, some Xboxes mm-hmm. And PlayStation portables in there. Yeah. All kinds of stuff like that. And they, the switch, they'll be entertained during it, but we will have a great time and with some candles, some real fire being lit in the building. That's scary. Terrifying. It's a little bit scary. Yeah. And then, we don't have a Christmas Day service. Some churches have Christmas Day services. That's cool. And that is cool. We don't. So you don't like Christmas? Yes, that's what I said. Yes. I only like Christmas Eve. Well, okay, so Christmas Eve, Christmas day. How did you decide to do Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas day? 'cause churches do this. They do. I think the more common, the one I always grew up with was Christmas Eve. And I grew up actually in the modal liturgical churches. I was born in actually an episcopal church of all things. Oh, a conservative Episcopal church, but still in the Episcopal church. And I was raised in the Episcopal church until, that explains a lot. Actually. I think I was seven or eight ish. And then we were in the Presbyterian church for a little while. Wow. And then eventually we went non-denominational. So I grew up even gonna midnight Christmas Eve services. That's pretty intense. Where they would end the service by saying Merry Christmas. Then it's Christmas morning. That's cool. And I remember, go home and open your presents. Well, falling asleep in the car on the way home, my parents would carry me to my bed. And then I'd wake up the next morning and it was Christmas day, which is no way, man. Really cool. Christmas Eve. I'm staying awake. I remember that was my Christmas tradition with my family. We'd stay up. As late, I don't know how late it was. It had to have been at least 11 o'clock, maybe 12. And my parents would always let us open at least one present. Yeah. And that was always kind of a fun, sweet tradition. Yeah. But we have not carried on, we don't do that anymore. My kids are ling so they're at the age now where Ang Angling. Angling, yeah. I know the kids. Did you let them stay home from that that Friday? I did not. I I did not. I made them festival. I did not. You made them go. I did. Did you make them listen to the podcast? And see how I fought for them. They did listen, I think I fought for them. They did? Yeah. And multiple people said to them, Hey, pastor Rod was trying to get your dad to let you stay home. And and you still made him go? I did. I made 'em go unabashedly. I said, you're gonna go. But they're of the age where we're having them do gifts for each other, just great. Trying to keep them generosity and stuff. I love that. So they're angling to get. To open the presents from one another on Christmas. Oh. So we'll probably let them do that. That's sweet. Yeah. Right. We did have a couple of questions written in to the podcast. One of them was written in by somebody who had a question actually, about our time in First Peter. Oh. And cool. It was the question about the anthropomorphic. Attributes of God that we talked about there. Oh yeah. God's arm, God's hand, exactly. God's face. All those things. And he said there, I just listened to the podcast and heard it mentioned that God doesn't have hands. And so he brings up Exodus 33 and he said God would place Moses in the cleft of a rock and cover him with his hand until he passed by. Oh, so he had an interesting question here. He said, that's a good question, is Moses talking to God the father. And Jesus, I always just assumed he was just talking to God the father. But in Exodus 33 19, it says the Lord. I now, he quotes this in Exodus 33 19 for all of us just to remind us of that Ana verse that we all have memorized There it says, and he said, I will make all my goodness passed before you and will proclaim my name before you, the name the Lord. And he goes on and says, and I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. He's making ex comment there, could it be the Lord and I rather than the Lord, period. And I will do this. So he's wondering, could this be the Father and Jesus in view here when Moses is being covered by the hand? And is that what's going on here in Exodus 33? What do you think about that? I think it's a great observation. I love the attention to detail there, and hold on, thinking creatively and thinking outside the box. I do think the punctuation is correct. I think Moses is using again, anthropomorphic language. He's ascribing to God. What God doesn't actually possess. God doesn't have a physical hand. So, what did it mean that God placed Moses in the cleft of the rock? i think it was that God instructed him on where he was to be. Where he was to stand and perhaps said, turn your face away as I pass by you. And the way Moses is describing that poetically is by saying he covered him with his hand. He goes on though to bring up. When it says that the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face and he said, was Moses speaking to Jesus? Because, how else do we understand face-to face again, great observation. So good. What's really, and a great question. Yeah. I think what's actually happening here is the face-to-face is, it's more reference of the intimacy of communication than it is the physicality of communication. Mm. So this is about Moses' closeness and intimacy with the Lord, rather than it is him actually beholding the face of the Lord. 'cause no one can behold his face and live. Right. And I think the implication would be was he beholding the face of Jesus and living. Yeah. But even there, Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah sees Jesus sitting on the throne and he is immediately left to say, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live in a people of unclean lips. So even there, I don't think Moses could've seen Jesus in continued to be okay in that situation if Jesus was in his full glory at that point. Let me ask a, an ancillary question to this, because it does bring up an interesting point. Did. Jesus. Then since we do talk about a theophany or a Christoph, when Jesus appears as an angel, something like this, does Jesus then have a form before he's incarnated? I think he has to. He has to have a form. So if God is Spirit, right, John chapter four, and those who worship him have to worship in spirit and truth. Okay? So God is himself. Spiritual. And I would expect that's true for all three members, although no longer for Jesus, because he is now incarnated and he is ascended to the right hand of God. So now he permanently possesses a human body. Right. So he's no longer just spirit, right? He is spirit and flesh, but that's not true for the Father, and that's not true for the Holy Spirit. Correct. So Jesus then had a form prior to his incarnation, is what you're saying? I guess I, I spoke too soon. Anytime we see. A form taken. We attribute this to being Jesus, the pre-incarnate Christ. Anytime we see God that is appear in a physical form, we attribute that to being the pre-incarnate Christ. Does that mean that he had a physical form? Well, he didn't have a human body. We know that because that's the incarnation, that's what is unique about the conception as we talked about this last weekend. So did he have a form, I guess. Yeah. Men we're playing the minefields of extra levels of Trinitarian theology here. Scripture is silent on that. I don't know what the form would be. Right. I don't know that I can point to anything that said that would describe that form, and so I think we gotta be careful in saying he did. Yeah. But I do think when we see him, when we see God incarnate in any form, it's Christ, it's Jesus. I think I'm comfortable with that. I think by and large we do see and the reason why is because a second member of the Trinity does incarnate himself, right? He adds a form to himself. And so we are okay with that, but I would say under the old covenant I don't know that he had a permanent form that he was carrying around until he had the incarnation. I think he was God, the Spirit. Yeah. Not God, the Holy Spirit. So don't blend him. And the Holy Spirit, the third person or the Trinity, which this does bring up a different question that I'm sure people are asking. Okay. Is God the Father, is Spirit and God, the Spirit is. Why aren't they both the same? And that's where we get into the Trinitarian roles, the main distinction amongst the members of the Trinity is their roles, at least as in our understanding of them. Yeah. You've got their relationship. So it's not like what they're made of. Right. Right. Because you've got their relationship with one another. And the distinction in the Godhead proper, just the father, son, holy Spirit from eternity past that's. We're swimming in deep, deep levels there, but as far as the, what's known as the economic trinity, which is our relationship to God as Trinity, the main distinction that we know them by is the roles. And the father is the one who is the one who, well, yeah, we could go into to more in depth. I was about to wait into realms that I don't wanna go into right now in the podcast. So, okay. To summarize, yes, there are three persons in the Trinity. Yes. And they're all equal, all co-eternal. Yes. They're all God, they're all, they all share the same substance, but they all have different roles. Yes. And those roles are are the manifestation of their activity among humankind. Yes. And we have the father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three of them are spiritual. But Jesus himself took on. Flesh, and that's what we celebrate this Christmas. Mike, great question. Great question. Thanks for getting us here. You got us in some deep theological waters, but we would still stand behind. What we're saying here is that God himself does not have appendage, appendages the father does not have a hand, a face, a body. The son does. And when you do see. A physical manifestation of something in the Old Testament. We often is gonna say it's, we think a Christoph of some sort. Yes. At minimum a theophany God becoming some kind of form in, in the form of an angel. But probably we think the son, because he's the one who in the New Testament, as you know, becomes a baby, becomes a person, and now he's fully and forever a human and God and the same. So all that to say, great question. Well done in asking it. Well done in thinking that we stand behind what we say. Yeah. If you got follow up questions. Send 'em in, ask him. We'd be happy to address more. That's right. Alright, well let's get into our reading for today. We do have another question that was written in. We'll hit that one in tomorrow's episode, but from now we are gonna get to second Timothy. So second Timothy, written by the apostle Paul again to his young protege to Timothy. And this is a letter that Paul is writing in a much different situation. He is no longer, the young sprightly individual that he may have been when he and Timothy were doing ministry together. He's no longer even the man that he was when he wrote the first letter of of pastoral encouragement and instruction to Timothy. Now what we do is we find Paul facing the end of his life, and Paul is writing to Timothy some final encouragement and instructions. And encouraging and exhorting and when you understand that as you read this, you really do see really the passion and the things that he's saying as kind of a final word to Timothy. Again, they didn't have the access to communication that we have today. And so Paul didn't know if he was going to be able to communicate with Timothy beyond this at all. And so he's writing to him. He's imploring him. He's charging him with various things throughout this epistle and encouraging him to, to really, as Paul himself will say that he did in chapter four to, to fight the good fight and to finish the race. And this is what he's concerned with is Timothy's, his work, his labor, his faithfulness to his ministry, equipping others to do the work of the ministry. That he would be the man who is going to be approved by God, that he's going to be useful to the Lord. We talked about that one verse on Sunday, even about being an honorable vessel. Paul is setting Timothy up as well as warning him about the challenges that he's gonna continue to face as he continues on in the ministry. And really kinda wraps up the letter with a charge to preach God's word to, to rely on the word. This is the ultimate resource that Timothy was gonna have. You might know this as one of the pastoral epistles in that it is. It's because Pastor Paul is talking to Pastor Timothy and is giving him instructions about what it looks like to lead the church, to love the church, and to serve the church in his. Now, I don't want you to discourage yourself from taking application from this. In fact, quite the opposite. My whole point in bringing this up is that his words to Timothy, even though some of them are specific to Timothy's function as pastor, are still very applicable to you and I, even if we're not pastors, right, if we're housewives or just husbands who have the nine to five, this is still applicable, and that's because Paul wanted the pastors to be examples to the flock. In fact, that's something that Peter says. He says, don't be domineering over the flock. Mm-hmm. Over those in your charge, but being examples to them, the whole purpose of your pastor. Is to be a self-aware example to you so that you can follow him as he follows Christ. So second Timothy is for you housewife and even as he says in Second Timothy two, two, we see some of that when he says what you've heard from me, in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also the pastors. Role and goal is to multiply, is to create disciples who will go out and make disciples. And so that's one. An another reason why this is for you is to understand that that's the goal here is not just that it stops with the pastor, that the pastor's, the repository of all the information that could possibly be known and he's just gonna hold onto it, but rather that the information is gonna be conveyed to others who will then go out and convey it to others. In turn. Yeah. It's so necessary that if the pastor doesn't do this, the church dies. Yes, everybody needs to be part of this, which is why we have things like partners. It helps us. It's our one-on-one discipleship program, and it's just a help, it's one tool in our tool belt to help us do this. We're called to love and serve one another by the means of discipleship and walking with each other through the word and through the questions that life brings. So if you haven't done that yet, that's, this is a good reminder to do that because we need this. Yeah. In fact, in 20 26, 1 of my goals is to make sure that I've got all my doctor's appointments in order. 'cause that's something that I'm like, oh man, I gotta do that. Right? Because I wanna make sure that I'm healthy. I wanna make sure that I'm here for the church, for my family, for everybody else. Are you okay, man? Yeah. I got something on my nose. Yeah, apparently. Allergies tearing up. It's doing good. I'm not dying. I'm here. I'm good. Okay. It's all right. You talk about these doctor's appointments. It got moved, but. All that to say partners would be something like that. It's one of those things to say, man, this is a good thing for me to do. It's gonna help me in my faith, it's gonna help me make sure that I'm tracking with where the church is at and where my pastors are at as well. It'd be a great thing for you to get on the calendar for 2026. Yeah. Some of the things that stand out to me in Timothy's second letter, I get, this is the last letter that we believe Paul wrote before he died. Right? This is the last word. So it's weightier than what some of his other words are. Although given that they're all the word of God, I You get what we're saying here? Yeah. It's just one of those urgent letters that he's saying, this is maybe the last thing that I write. And in fact, we have every reason to believe that that's what happened. I like verse 15. In chapter two, he says, do your. Best to present yourself to God as one approved worker who has no need to be ashamed because you're rightly handling the word of truth. And I like it here because he says, here, do your best. Don't just skip by. He won't. Just don't just be okay about it. Do your best. Do the absolute most you can do. And opening up God's word, understanding it and then teaching it. And again, this is not just for the pastor. It is first and foremost for the pastor who's doing this for the flock, but it's certainly for the mom and the dad who are taking care of the kids. It's for the grandparents who are talking about the Bible to their grandkids. It's for the guy who goes to the office and is opening up SCR scripture with his coworkers. It's for the guy who goes to the marketplace and is handing out gospel tracks. This is for all of us. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved your very best to know God's word, to love it, and to rightly handle it, not to mishandle it. In fact, part of Paul's warnings in the pastoral epistles. And be careful for these nutcases that are teaching it wrong. They're misleading people and they're preying on people. Don't let that be you. And this is one way that our church can really step up to the plate, do our best to present ourselves to God as one approve worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. And for those of you on this podcast who have been with us this whole year, way to go. Good job, you're doing it. Yep. Keep at it. Don't grow slow, keep going this year. Yep. I also like at the end of chapter two, how he informs us on the way we should engage in disagreements with those that are our quote unquote opponents. When he says The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patiently and during evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance. I think that's such a good reminder to us. Similar to Paul, in the end of. Ephesians when he says, our battle is not against flesh and blood. And so when the Mormon missionaries knock on your door, or when you encounter somebody who's a Jehovah's Witness or your Hindu neighbor or your Muslim, checkout cashier at the grocery store. If you have an occasion to get into a conversation about the gospel with somebody who doesn't hold to our faith. Remember passages like this that is not helpful for you to get all riled up and defensive and angry in your tone, in your approach. Or Carlson are looking to pick unnecessary fights because you want to present the truth in such a way that God may grant them repentance if that's part of his will, and that's Paul's instructions to Timothy here, which I think are a good reminder to us to stay humble as we approach those that disagree with us. Yeah. In chapter three, you got some really powerful and famous words that Paul says, verse 16. He says, all scriptures breathe out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness. This is why we open it up. Every day, every year we want to go through it because we believe that all parts of it are helpful for us and they're edifying. Even the parts that are prickly and difficult every. Peace of scripture is productive in God's eyes to produce. Verse 17, the man of God who can be, or woman of God, can be complete and equipped for every good work. And that's application right there equipped for every good work. The word of God should be utilized for the purposes of applying it so that you can do the good works that God is designed for you. Chapter three he warns against some of these people that have the appearance of godliness, but deny the power because they're saying one thing, they have all the right lingo, but their lives. Showcase a very different story. And so Paul is calling us to be people of the book, people whose lives are invested in the book, and then they're also. I don't know, digested. We're living it out. Our lives showcase that we are people of the book. And that's why, well, I mean, I love our church, compass Bible Church. We're all about God's word. We don't idolize the Bible. We're not biblios. We adore and worship God. And this is the word that he's given to us to live out, to honor and obey him. And what a better way to do that than. Doing it again with us next year because the Bible is central. It's right, the Bible is central. Finally in chapter four, he, Paul does he, he makes a plain that he understands what's coming for him. In verse six, and follow me, he says, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I've fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. And hence for there's a laid up for me, the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all. Who have loved his appearing. I love Paul's confidence here towards the end of his life. He's not afraid of what's in front of him. He's not nervous about dying. He's ready for it, and he's prepared, and he's even eager for the reward that he's gonna hear from the Lord and saying, well done. Good and faithful servant, but also the reward of. The crown of righteousness that the Lord is going to award. Notice that Jesus himself is going to present this to Paul, and not only to Paul, but to all who have loved his appearing. All those believers who can't wait to be with Christ. All those that are yearning for him to come back, that's his confidence. That can be our confidence as well whatever this next year holds for us. Right? And we pray that, we're not gonna see any tragedies befall our church over the next year. But we don't know. We do want everybody to live ready for this moment as far as those that are part of our church ready to meet the Lord, ready to go, to be with him, and eager for that day when the Lord does call us home. Yeah. And to notice here passive language that he uses, I am being poured out as a drink offering. In other words, I'm not doing it. This is God directing Paul's life. And he knows he can read the writing on the wall. It's about time for him to go. So answer this question then in verse 18, he says, the Lord will res rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. From what we know in church history, Paul was beheaded. Yep. Likely by Nero. That seems like an evil deed to me. Yeah. Did Paul misspeak here? Is this a mistake? No, I think what comes to mind is Shadrach Micha and ab Bendigo when they're before Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar says, you need to fall down and worship me, or you're going in the fiery furnace. And they tell Nebuchadnezzar, look, king, our God is able to save us from that furnace, but he will deliver us from your hand. And so the certainty that they have is they're going to be delivered. They're gonna be saved. From Nebuchadnezzar. Now, Nebuchadnezzar was gonna throw them in the furnace and did throw them in the furnace just like Paul was gonna be beheaded. And yet God was going to save him from every evil deed because that evil deed meant to silence Paul and to end Paul was really simply ushering Paul into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so in that sense, the Lord did rescue him from the sword that beheaded him, even though he had to go through the action itself. Okay, so he's talking more about his confidence that in an ultimate sense, God's gonna care for him no matter what happens to him, him physically, for sure. What a good thing for us to be reminded about here. He says here, as he closes his letter, he's talking about some people, Demis. He's in love with the present world. He deserts me. He's gone at Thessalonika and he talks about these other people. But notice here, verse 11, Luke alone is with me. Go get Mark. Yeah. Mark. Yeah. There's reconciliation that happened there. Sweet. We don't know how it happened. We don't know who came to who first, but Mark and Paul, they reconciled you. You might remember Mark abandoned them as he and Barnabas his uncle were traveling along with Paul in the next missionary journey, and then he departs and goes back. Yep. Paul didn't like it. Barnabas was okay with it. Barnabas wanted to give him a second shot, and that's what actually provoked the breakup between Barnabas and Paul. Paul took Silas, Barnabas went by himself another direction, and then eventually, somehow or another, mark and Paul reconcile what a good reminder for us to pursue reconciliation in our relationships. That's a beautiful image if you ask me. It is. It is. Well, let's pray and we'll be done with this episode. Lord, we. Pray for the confidence that Paul had. Lord, not only at the end of our lives, whenever that may come, but right now we don't know when the end of our life's life is gonna happen. Some of us may be given that knowledge at some point in time, but for most of us, we may be caught off guard by that, or it's sometime in the distant future. But right now we want to still live ready for that day. And so we pray that we would have that confidence that you will award the crown of righteousness to us because we love Christ, because we love his appearing. And so we look forward to that day. We anticipate that. Day. In the meantime, we wanna be like Paul and be faithful to the task at hand, like Paul charged Timothy. We wanna be a good soldier as he charged Timothy even in this letter, and work hard for you as you have equipped us to do that through the gift of the Spirit. And so we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep your Bibles tune in against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast and we'll see you then. Bye y'all.

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said