It is January 9th, and you're back for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Well, Louis, the reviews are in from our last two episodes. They're extremely good. Just, unbelievably good. We must, does that surprise you? No I think we're the most humble podcasters out there, and I think much like the most humble man to walk the earth, Moses. If it's true, then you can still say it and be humble, right? Yes. Although we did get criticism, we did get a criticism, which is that what is the term that was used? We failed to do any. Oh, googly. People were asking for the googly. Yeah, we just jumped straight in yesterday. I just told them, we are really excited to talk about the Bible. That was what I said, but not that if there is googly that you're not excited talking about the Bible. Well, so should we try some of that? Should we try some? We can as the young people say Googley. I'm pretty sure it was not a young person that came up with that term. Oh, well. Yikes. What did notice, what does that mean about me? Does it make me young or old then? I don't know. I don't know. Well, what I did remember from yesterday's episode though, is that we didn't introduce ourselves at all. So if you missed Tuesday's episode and started listening on Wednesday, you would have no clue who we were. That's right. I'm not sure you would even know who we were from Tuesday, other than I think we said our names at least on Tuesday. Well, we said we were Pastor PJ and Pastor Rod. That's right. So, well, Lewis, tell us about yourself. Tell us about yourself then. Yeah, well, my name's Lewis in case you didn't notice. But I am the student ministry director here at Compass Bible Church, and it's such a joy. I love doing. What God has me here for right now, I'm married to my wife Shay. We've been married for a year and a half. And that's pretty awesome 'cause she's amazing. And where'd you come from? Where'd you come from? We came, so I most immediately came from Kansas City. I was at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary there. Actually at a church that Pastor PJ used to be at as well. So that was kind of fun. And then before that was in Southern California. I was in the college ministry with Pastor PJ at our sending church. Pastor Rod was my youth pastor, so that's really fun to be doing ministry with them. And hopefully it's fun for them too to be doing ministry here with me as well. That's a little bit about me. That's great. That's great. And that's where we first met. Yes. Uhhuh was back in, in California. Kind of similar paths. Although I'm a few years older than you, I. I came most recently with my wife Julia, and the kids from Louisville, Kentucky, from THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Nothing mid, you know, nothing, nothing mid about it. Nothing mid about it. we came from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I kid, both are great schools. Both are great schools. I do remember visiting you when, yeah. When you were deciding and they wouldn't let you come. And I think, right. That's how it went. They didn't want me to go to Southern. That's very, so I was at Midwestern. I was doing two visits that week. I visited Midwestern first and then I was gonna go to Southern to visit and the Midwestern people didn't want me to leave to go to Southern 'cause they were scared that I wouldn't come back. But you did, but also, so there's another Pastor Mark in California and he sent me on a super secret spy mission when I was at Southern Seminary. It was actually really funny. So there was this book that he needed for his dissertation, and it was in German and it was only at the southern. A Baptist seminary library in Louisville. In Louisville, and he couldn't get it anywhere else, and he wasn't a student there, so he didn't have access to their library. But Pastor Mark Kogan was a student there. So he texts Pastor Mark Kogan and says, Hey. Can you check out this book I'm sending Lewis while he's on his college visit to go take a picture of this specific page of the book that I need. I remember that. And so it's a covert mission. Yeah. So you check the book out. I go and take a picture of this book. I have no idea what this book's called. I just, he just says, Hey, this guy in Louisville has a book for you. You need to take a picture of this page, like page 17 or whatever. Anyway, that was the closest I've ever been to being in some sort of FBI operation. Yeah. Well, anyways, the time in Louisville was great for me. I got to finish up my Master's of Divinity there. My undergraduate is not in divinity. It is in accounting. I went to Cal Poly Sim. Similar field, not, not quite, but I'm a accountant, A CPA, no longer CPA, former CPA. Yeah. I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in Central California for my undergraduate degree. And you got a trophy instead of a diploma? I got both. Oh, you got both. I see the trophy on your desk. I'm like, that's kind of cool that you got that instead of a diploma. It's not supposed to be called a trophy though. It's called a diploma, but So that's why I thought it was your diploma. It's called a diploma. Yeah. Anyways, that's how I ended up in Southern California. 'cause I got a job in accounting in Southern California. I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico by the way. And then that's how I stumbled across Compass. And then at my time there at Compass, the sending church in Elisa Viejo, the. Lord put it on my heart and through several people who influenced me. Most importantly, my wife put it on my heart and pulled me into ministry and that was the decision then to go to. Kentucky to go to Louisville, and now I'm here. Now I'm here. Pastor Rod called me up and said, this is what we're doing, and I was like, I'm in. I'm in. So well, we have been introduced. The googly has been done, so let's, let's jump into our, so don't complain anymore. No, but we were gonna change things up today. We'll back again for the next couple days. So we'll do our best to do some. To do some googly Yes. In the next couple days. So, alright, we're gonna jump into our Bible reading that today. I'm gonna propose that we actually go to the New Testament first. Wow. If that's all right with you, Louis. Well, regardless we're doing it, so, so is that opposition then? It's. Passive aggressive, subtle. Well, we are in Matthew eight. Matthew eight. You want to give us a kind of a overview of what's going on here in Matthew eight? Yeah, so Matthew is a genius. Matthew is such a great author and I think what Matthew's doing is he is having Jesus follow the pattern of the Old Testament. He starts with a genealogy, just like your favorite parts of the book of Genesis. You know where in Matthew eight, not in Matthew one? Yes. We'll get there, just gimme seven chapters. We'll get there. So he starts with a genealogy, and then Jesus goes into the wilderness and you have Herod killing all the kids. Just like, you have Pharaoh and Herod. There's parallels there. Got Jesus goes into the wilderness out of Egypt. I called my son. He comes back and he's in the wilderness. After leaving, he's tempted. And he follows. Then he goes. To the Sermon on the Mount. And he gives, instead of the law, he gives the true intention of the law which is all about the heart. And then now he comes down the mountain and he shows us what type of king he is. Much like the Old Testament moves, we come down the mountain from Deuteronomy, we conquer the promised land. Israel does that, not me. And then we see the king. Aspect of what God's plan for his people is through David. So that's, I think where we're at in Matthews. We're gonna see what type of King Jesus is in chapters eight and nine. Yeah. And we've gotten the introduction to that in yesterday's daily Bible reading in the very last verses of chapter seven, right where it says that when Jesus finished these sayings, finished the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had. Authority. Yes, he has one who has authority. And so Matthew is going to begin to help us see what this authority looks like. And it's not exactly the sort of authority that the people of Israel expected. In fact, it's very much not. And in fact, I think we should even be surprised by this not in the sense that we've never read this before, but we should. Join in the surprise of what kind of king this Jesus is, and be amazed at the sort of authority that is presented here in Matthew eight. So we're gonna see a number of miracles. We're gonna see a number of miracles, and I'm gonna suggest that this chapter demonstrates that Jesus has authority. To save. And specifically we're gonna see salvation from sin queued up, but specifically in chapter eight, we're seeing the salvation of the body and his authority over creation. And then towards the end, we're gonna see his very much specific authority over creation that is outside the body, right. Through the storm, through the demons, through the pigs. And so that is, I'm gonna contend the overview of chapter eight. What else is going on in chapter eight though, Lewis? Yeah, so the, what's happening here is the Messiah is in his saving power is almost showing that he. Defeat sin. Mm-hmm. Right. He's gonna defeat the effects of sin. Mm-hmm. By healing, sickness and disease, by casting out demons, by having authority over nature. But most importantly, he's gonna. Defeat the main problem of sin, which is that we are guilty before God, and that's where the forgiveness aspect comes in as well. And also the authority over death that we'll see in chapter nine. Before we get there, starting in chapter eight, there's three miracles that happen. There's the healing of a leper. There's the healing of the century and servant, and then there is the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. So what do you see here, pastor Mark? Well, one of the things that I think is fascinating is that there is touch involved with the first and the third, right? He is. Touching the lepers, which is a stunning thing. Yes. You do not touch lepers. Right. These people maybe had never been touched in decades. Maybe by other lepers. Yes, that's true. But, they are the lowest in society. Mm-hmm. They're the lowest in society because of their disease, and they haven't been touched by anybody in. In any sort of meaningful sense I'm gonna suggest for a long time. But Jesus, who does not have leprosy, is willing to touch them, and in fact he does. And then with the Centurion, just in case you think that Jesus has to touch in order to have authority. Mm-hmm. It's very clear that he does not, and the centurion recognizes that Jesus has. Universal authority, right? Mm-hmm. He has authority that is not dependent on his direct presence there. And then we're back to Jesus and Peter's mother-in-law, who in verse 15, he touches her hand. And that again, I think reflects Jesus' willingness to step down, right? He's in a state of humiliation, not. Humiliated is in the sense of embarrassed, but in the sense of he's a human. Mm-hmm. But he's willing in love to touch the leper, to touch the sick mother-in-law of Peter. And through that he demonstrates his authority over the sickness, over the disease, and over the human body. Yeah. And Matthew highlights that aspect of Jesus. Entering into the effects of sin with that quotation. In verse 17, he says, it's fulfilling what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah about the Messiah. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. So Jesus is entering into the effects of sin, entering into the curse of sin, and doing something about it by becoming right, by taking on flesh, and I love that opening. Miracle he does, because the leper comes and he says, Lord, if you want to, if you can, if you're able to please, make me clean. And Jesus is so willing to. Yeah. And it reminds me of that hymn Comey Sinners. Mm-hmm. And it says that. Basically this, it's a song about coming to Jesus and he'll take away your sin. And it's, it shows how willing and ready Jesus is to forgive anyone who comes with humble faith. Yeah. Jesus is coming though not as the Israelites expected, not as the Pharisees. Hoped as a one to crush the Romans to set Israel free in this particular moment in history. And verse 18 through 22 helps us through a question that's posed to Jesus. See what kind of king he is. It also prompts us to the right sort of response to him. But we see here, right, that in this particular point, Jesus is making it clear that he has no place to rest his head, right? He is a king that is not. On a throne. Mm-hmm. He will one day be on a throne, but at this moment in redemptive history, he does not have a place to lay his head. And that is also paired with a call for the people who follow him to. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. Does that mean you shouldn't have a funeral? Is this instruction to not have a funeral? Of course not. But what it is saying is that if you're gonna follow this king Jesus, who has this true authority, you cannot have one foot in the world and one foot with him. You can't be one who is hoping in a temporal. Redemption of Israel from the Romans. You have to be with this king who is willing to touch, lepers, willing to touch the sick. And that's true for us today, right? We can't be people who are of this world desiring money and wealth and power of this world. And also of Jesus, right? Right. We need to be fully submissive and eager to follow this king Jesus who might not be exactly who we would ultimately desire in our hearts, at least at this moment for him to be. Yeah. And we can't have Jesus on our terms. Right. This disciple in verse 21, he wants to have Jesus. Fit into his life, into his schedule, into his priorities. And Jesus says, that's not how following me works. Following me is not about fitting me into your life. It's about leaving everything to put it at my feet and to follow me. And a lot of times, these responses to Jesus in the gospels. Specifically in Matthew, but I think of it happens a lot in John as well. The responses show us a lot about who Jesus is and about how we ought to respond to him. So we just had three miracles and then a response. And then we're gonna have another three miracles in a response. And the first two take us to the end of chapter eight. Yeah. And those two miracles are, again, Jesus demonstrating his authority first over creation in the sense of the sea and the storm. Right. He's able to control that. That's not something. The people are able to do. Mm-hmm. That requires the God man that requires the creator of the world, who is the one who has authority over the world and very much Jesus is that creator and demonstrating that he has that authority. And in a similar way, he then has control over another part of creation, which is the demons. And you also see him controlling the pigs. And interesting to your point about the response, the very end of chapter eight. After the people have seen specifically Jesus healing the two men with the demons, the verse 34 says, and behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. You would think, this guy is getting rid of demons. Let's keep him here. Yeah. Why are they. Responding like this, Lewis. Well, that's really interesting. I think there's a couple reasons they could be, right. One reason we see it elsewhere in the gospels is they realize, this is God, were sinful. Get away from me. Mm-hmm. Right. They recognize that this is the son of God, much like the demons called him the son of God, which also is in the gospels. The demons know exactly who Jesus is. The people are confused, the people aren't sure, but the demons know exactly who he is. And they're scared of him. Mm-hmm. They're under his authority. Mm-hmm. But these people, they might be saying much like I think Peter does depart from me. I'm a sinful man, right? Mm-hmm. Or Samson's parents in the book of judges. They say, we've seen God, we're gonna die. So that might be one reason. The other reason might be they don't want Jesus. They don't want God to come with his authority and mess up their lives. Right. They don't want to give up their own authority, their own way of life, and they don't want King Jesus to come in and run the show for them. Yeah. And I'm inclined to that second understanding of this because of the other responses that we see from the people here in Matthew eight, but also in other places in Matthew I do think it's a matter of this authority of Jesus is scary. It's a new type of authority that they don't expect and it's frightening to them. And they would, to your point. Rather have things just go as they were. Even if that means, even if that means having somebody with a demon possession in their midst, right. They would rather have that that's gonna be my read, but I think to your point, there are other faithful interpretations of that. Alright. We didn't. The New Testament. First, let's go to our Old Testament reading. Today we are in Genesis chapter 23 and chapter 24. In Chapter 23, we see Sarah's death and the account of her burial. I think. There's many things you could pull from this, but I think one of the most interesting things is the response from the Hittites that we see in verse six, verse six. The Hittites respond to Abraham who is looking for a bearing place, and they say this to him. They say, hear us, my Lord. You are a prince of God. Among us, and then they say, bury your dead in the choices of our tombs, I think this is perhaps the very first place where we see the F initial little inklings of God fulfilling his promise that through Abraham, the nations are gonna be blessed. I don't know all the details of this, but the Hittites clearly think, well, first of all, they know that he's a prince of God, but they clearly hold him in high esteem. They clearly think that he is worthy of them giving. A small plot of land for Sarah to be buried. So I think this is an initial fulfillment of what God promised that through Abraham, the nations would be blessed. I think the other thing you see here is that Sarah dies. What is the implication of that? It's just a statement of fact. It's a historical account of that, but why does it matter that Sarah dies here, Louis? Yeah. I think there's two potential reasons. One of them is. Sarah is the last tie to Abraham's old land. Sarah is, they got married before Abraham left. He left er or Babylon or Harran. There's a bunch of different names for it. But he left there with Sarah. And so Sarah is almost his last tie to his old life. And so it's almost like Abraham is, there's no going back. He's all in. Yeah. His last connection to his old life is gone. But I think another thing that. Is that Moses, the author of Genesis, is trying to point out here is that the, just because you are part of God's people doesn't mean that you're gonna experience all of God's blessings here and now. Mm-hmm. Right. Hebrews 11 talks about how, I think it's in verse 13. Yeah. All of these people, specifically Abraham and Sarah died. In faith not having received the things that were promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and so they, right. Sarah particularly doesn't get to see all of the fulfillment of the promises. Abraham, neither does Abraham. But their death. Shows that they are still looking forward to God fulfilling his promises even beyond death. That's right. Death cannot. That's right. Stop the fulfillment of God's promises. Especially coming off chapter 22. We talked a lot about the resurrection in chapter 22 and also I think that's why they. Care so much about being buried in the Promised Land. Yeah. You see that a lot in Genesis. And what other characters do we see in the Bible that care a lot about being buried in the promised land? Many Joseph, there's many, many who are deeply concerned with that. Yeah, and I think the other thing too is, if you are reading Genesis for the first time, you kinda have to put yourself in those shoes, right? Mm-hmm. If you're reading Genesis for the first time, hypothetically, you see the promise of the one who's gonna crush the head of the snake, and you're looking for that, right? Mm-hmm. And we should be looking for that, right? Yeah. In this kind of hypothetical reading of the Bible. If we come here, we might think Isaac is the one to do that, right? To undo the curse. Right. To undo the problem of death and he's not right. Mm-hmm. He's not the one to undo that. And so Sarah dies, right? We, there's clear evidence that Isaac is not the one because death is still very much part of the equation. Yeah. And that's a big theme throughout the rest of the Bible, right? That. Whoever this Israelite leader is, he's not the Messiah, right? Yeah. David's not the Messiah. Solomon is not the Messiah. Hezekiah, Josiah, all of these guys are not the Messiah. Yeah. The problem of death continues until the one and only Jesus Christ, right? Mm-hmm. And that's a very evident here with the death of Sarah. 24 is. An amazing chapter. It's an amazing chapter because it demonstrates the gods and he does this obviously all the time, but it is a clear, evident demonstration of God's working to protect and to fulfill his promises to Abraham, I think one of the most. Interesting things that you see here is that Abraham is really concerned with who Isaac marries. In my reading of the story of Abraham, I see him growing in faith throughout his life. Mm-hmm. I see him maturing and yes, he continues to stumble, he continues to sin, but I think we see less and less of it. And the culmination, and as Moses presents it, the kind of culminating thing that he does is he's deeply concerned with who. Isaac marries in verse seven, right? Abraham says, the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred and who spoke to me and swore to me, your to your offspring, I will give this land, right? He's concerned with this God and obeying this God. I think in our Christian life we should expect. We should be hopeful and we should expect that we become more and more faithful and I think at the end of our lives we should be able to look back and see. Yeah, we have made mistakes, we have sinned. We have not trusted, we have not believed in the promises of God as we should have, but we should be able to look back at our lives and see market growth. And I think we can see that even here with Abraham. Alright. Definitely. I, one thing about that, I think it's really important that when we look at Genesis, Abraham's spiritual growth isn't linear. Right? If you're looking at a graph, it's not just a diagonal line up. Right. And when you're evaluating your own spiritual growth, I would encourage you not to just be like, how did I do last month? And then make your assumption about whether you're a Christian or not based on that. Yeah. Right. When you're looking at your spiritual growth, try to get as big of a, this is a sports word, but sample size as you can. Right. It's not even a sports word. That's a statistics word. I just think of it with like basketball and shooting luck and all that. Anyway, but don't look at your, your spiritual growth in, the past few days. Right. Think about it as, okay, what about the past year? What about the past five years? Right. Because we see that even in Genesis, Abraham there's some. Times he makes mistakes it seems like he shouldn't make. Right. If he's throwing a linear growth path, right. He shouldn't have gone back and tried the the Sarah's my sister, not my wife. Right. A linear spiritual growth wouldn't do that. But over the story of Abraham's life, you see that growth over time. Yep. That's right. And. We see God's consistent faithfulness to Abraham and to God's promises. He's we're, we won't dig into all the details of the story. I trust that you're reading this yourself, but he specifically picks a wife for. Isaac very clearly, very intentionally, very much. It is very much evident that God is in control of this situation, and let me just observe that this is such a crucial decision, the very DNA of Jesus himself. Is determined by this interaction, right? It's very much determined by this servant and his faithfulness to go and find Isaac's wife. Mm-hmm. Which is amazing to think about, and it just shows of the course. That's true for every marriage that happens after this, that continues to be true. But here is just such a pointed example of God's faithfulness to Abraham and to the people of Israel, and ultimately to us by bringing about Jesus himself through. Even these things that happened long ago. Yeah. And later on in the Bible, when you come across genealogies, that reference moments like this, like I think of Matthew one, right? There's all of these names and it gets really boring and you have to start January 1st. We're reading Matthew One and this big genealogy. What do I do? Part of that is for us to almost double click on the names and the genealogy and see God's faithfulness in bringing about his plan of salvation. That's exactly right. So when you read the genealogy and you see. Isaac and Rebecca in the genealogy you're supposed to double click on Rebecca's name and see Genesis 24 and see man. God is so faithful. He answered the servant's prayer to find her and he provided a wife who would buy into God's promise to Abraham and Isaac. And so I hope that you're doing that in your own life as well, that you are keeping a record of God's faithfulness. Thinking back, maybe it's your photos, maybe it's your memories, maybe it's a journal, but something that you do where you think back, man, look at all the ways that God is keeping his promises to me. Yeah. We see through this narrative. That God is indeed working to fulfill his promises to Abraham and he does the same thing for us today. It's a different New Testament context, but God is working to fulfill his promises to you, and you should be encouraged by that, even this very day that God loves you and cares for you in such a remarkable way. Alright, let me pray for us as we wrap up our episode for January 9th. We're glad that you joined us. Lord. Thank you that you are, that God that I just said. You are a God who is able to fulfill his promises that cares about fulfilling his promises. Lord, we are people who want to glorify you for what you did. Through Abraham, through the people of Israel, but we wanna also glorify you through what you're doing in our lives. Please help us to be a people. Help us to be a church that loves you and loves the type of God you are. The type of God who is indeed able to fulfill his promises. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right. Amen. See you all tomorrow. Whether you like it or not.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. We’re grateful you chose to spend time with us today. This podcast is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in North Texas. You can learn more about our church at compassntx.org. If this podcast has been helpful, we’d appreciate it if you’d consider leaving a review, rating the show, or sharing it with someone else. We hope you’ll join us again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.