hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Hello? Hello, end. Hello. Okay, just to lock. All right. Hey, it's Sunday. Uh, and we have a unique Sunday this week. In fact, last week, this week, next week, we've been going through the type of church that we envision ourselves being. Our mission is reaching teaching training. We want to do that as a fulfillment of the great commission. We take that from that passage there. Uh, and we believe that that's going to produce a church that is three things, Christ, exalting, church equipping, and a culture engaging. And so today at church, if you've already been with us, you already know this. If you're on your way, then this is what's coming up, but you're going to hear a message on being a church that's well equipped and. You may think right away. Okay. We're going to talk about serving in the church and that's true. We are going to talk about serving in the church, but. Even more than that. Uh, we're going to talk about being committed to our church, being all in with our church. In fact, the point of the sermon is this a church it's all in is the church that's going to win. Um, as we think about wanting to be a winning church in we're going to define that differently than probably some other churches will, but we want to be a winning church when it comes to the great commission to doing what we're after to, to fulfilling our mission. Uh, then we need to be all in. We need to be committed. And a lot of that looks like that first step that we're gonna talk about this weekend is, uh, being committed in community, in relationship with one another in the church. So. Um, PR. They're going to hear from me. As, or if they've already heard from me on this, probably by the time they're listening to this, or maybe they're getting ready to on their way into church, but some of your thoughts on the importance of community groups. Uh, for our people, as in why that relates to such a big part of what it looks for us to be a church that's well equipped because. Uh, again, we think service, but we're going to start by talking about community before we even get the service. There is

no such thing as a Christian. That's thriving by himself. There are times of necessity where we can't have the kind of relationships with others that we would want were in prison, or there's some kind of isolation that replaced into because of circumstances. I think of a hospital visit where you're primarily by herself, hopefully with lots of visitors, but there are situations where we can't be with other people. In fact, one of the ways that you can successfully torture somebody is by putting them in isolation. You can. And in fact, I think that's illegal now. I don't think you're allowed to do that at the national level when it comes to federal prison. I could be wrong on that. I haven't gone to prison lately, so I'm not sure. But I do know that it's one of the things that God has designed us for. We cannot thrive apart from the community that God has placed us with. In fact, most of the scriptures that were, we enjoy. Are written to a plural audience. The letters themselves are written to the church at Ephesus or a circular letter. To the church, starting at emphasis, perhaps, and meant to be sent to the other churches in the areas, the, the letters, primarily the tenor and flavor of the church has communal. And so from the very beginning, we have this assumption that scripture says, we're a body of believers. We're not solo. And I think that's a very different mindset from what we have here in contemporary Western culture. We're primarily. Individualistic. We don't think in terms of community, we don't think in terms of the plural, but we're supposed to, we need to, and it's for the good of our own lives and it's for the good of others. Even for those of us who would consider ourselves. Introverted. And maybe a lot more introspective and it feels like sometimes we don't need that community aspect. I think God still does a great work and people like myself who would call themselves introverted. In the midst of community, we need people who can shape us and sharpen us. And we can't do that by herself. Even if you have a really good Bible on great Bible study software, we are meant to live in community and to do anything else is to commit spiritual. Well, let's be less aggressive than the S word, but to commit some kind of. Self-destruction let's call it that.

Yeah. That's exactly right in. That's part of what we're talking about tomorrow or today, I guess. Um, And then also the other component of it too is, and this is, it goes hand in hand. Yeah, for, for you and I to do our job well with this church and with this body we need. This body to be all in with us. We need this body to be committed to us, and that's going to make us better at, at shepherding, better at shepherding the flock better at being able to, to know what's going on with the lives of the people that are a part of our church. Um, If we're dealing with people that show up on Sunday and then leave. And that's the only interaction that they have, and they're never plugging into community groups and putting themselves under the care of some of the under shepherds in the church as well. It's hard for us to feel like we can really truly give an account for them. Um, as far as how they're doing spiritually. So there's a measure of your commitment to the church that, that allows us as pastors. Uh, to, to do our job more effectively. And in, in the long run, that's going to help you as well. That's going to be beneficial to you because you're going to have pastors that are able to truly care for your souls.

Absolutely. And in fact, you can make our jobs are really hard and maybe even impossible by being part of the church without being a part of the church in a true, sincere sense. So if you hear about us, this is one way for you to showcase your commitment to our body believers. You don't need a paper, you don't need to have some kind of ceremony at the front of the stage. All we need is your commitment. And that commitment makes a big difference when it comes to the effectiveness of the local church, it does,

it does a hundred percent. We've got a question texted in. So let's deal with that. Uh, Genesis chapter 15, which we've been in recently. The question is this, the sun is going down. It says 15, 12, the sun was going down. A deep sleep, fell on Abraham and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. The question is basically. Why is this a dreadful darkness? What is the fear that is seizing Abraham here or Abraham at this time? Um, my best thought is he's overwhelmed by the, the significance of this event, the presence of God in, in a way that he had never experienced before with this covenant blessing that God has given to him. And so. Um, as he is in a deep sleep, even in this. I don't want to call it an unconscious state, but there is a, an awareness of the significance and the weightiness of God's presence here that is causing Abraham to feel. Uh, the, the dread and the fear of God that really, this is, I think the only place that it talks about Abraham being in dread or fear of, uh, of Yahweh in any way, shape or form. But that's my take on a pastor out of your thoughts.

Yeah, I would agree with that. I think of Isaiah chapter six, where you have the foundations of the thresholds shaking their smoke. There's terror in the holiness of God. And so I can't help, but see an element of God's holiness being displayed here. And I think that's, what's driving this. It is not Abraham's goodness. It is God's holiness. It is his sense of rightness that will accomplish the covenant. The covenant. Requirements. And so I think there's something about the holiness of God being displayed toward Abraham. And I think it makes its mark. I think Abraham does have a slightly different view of God after the fact. So I think it's a relation to his holiness. That's my best guess

on that. Yep. Yep. I think so. Good question though. Glad it was written in and, uh, glad we were able to answered on the podcast. Y Genesis 22, 23 and 24 is our text for the day. Uh, 22 is a familiar section. It, it never gets easier year after year. It never gets easier to read what takes place in chapter 22. This is the, the offering of Isaac. Um, since the sacrifice of Isaac on the top of the Bible and ESV here, but. Really isn't. Spoiler alert. He's not actually sacrificed. Um, but Abraham does go forward with offering him to the Lord, to the point of having tied and bound and laid on top of the wood for the. The burning or the burn offering and picks up his knife. Um, Before God stops him. And it, what, what struck me a new this time and I've seen it before, but just again, this, the significance of this. Uh, yes, this was going to be a burnt offering, but before the burnt offering would be able to be rendered, Abraham had to first kill his son. Uh, this was not passive that the flames were going to do the work or the smoke was going to do the work of extinguishing the life of Isaac Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son. Um, Before offering him then as a burnt offering to the Lord. And so this is, this is, uh, the, the, the tension, the weightiness, the darkness of so much of this chapter before Don intervenes and provides the Ram in the thicket, which. You know, is just Laden with the symbolism of substitutionary atonement and what ultimately God provided for us through Christ, through Christ on the cross, on our behalf. But, um, this is a difficult passage for us to read and as Christians to walk away and be like, man, Okay. I understand exactly why get God did what he did. I, I understand it, theologically that God wanted Abraham to say, I'm willing to give you everything. It's just a difficult way to go about the object lesson, but we've just come off with joke too. So I guess it's appropriate for us to be looking at this on the heels of Joe, your thoughts. We are.

Yeah, I think this is one of the best texts to support penal substitutionary atonement. For that very reason. God gives us a glimpse, a preview. If you will, a trailer to the movie that tells us what his relationship to us is going to be like. So he says here in verse 14, Abraham called the name of that place. The Lord will provide. As it, as it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. And of course, this is the same place where God does provide his one and true sacrifice, uh, atoning for our sin. So I love this chapter. It's a hard one to read. And I think if I were Abraham, I would really struggle with this, but I really do love the way that it paints the picture of the gospel before the gospel took place.

Yeah. Yeah. Now you guys may remember, uh, A little while ago, we had, uh, a younger listener of the podcast. Let us know about the y'all Bible that was on a youth version or something like that. Well, I ordered a copy of it. I have it in my hands right now. Leather

goat skin. Yes. The pages are. Element

preaching from it. Right. I expect that. No, it's a, it's actually a really bad text block. It's paperback. But. The translation is based off. I think you looked at it, the ASP yeah. American standard version, which is the predecessor of the ESV. The RSV. Yeah. So there's a lot of similarities there. Anyways. I thought you might get a, a little bit of a kick out of some of the language that he brings in here. The translator the editor does here. So. The writer of Hebrews implies that Abraham here. Trusted that even if God had him kill Isaac, that Isaac was going to be resurrected. He says by faith, Abraham believed that he would receive a son back. Right. And so, and I think we see a little bit of that. Here in, uh, in Genesis 22. And I'll just read the, the y'all Bible to give you the flare there. It says on the third day, verse four, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place far off. And Abraham said to his young man, the servants that came with him, he said, y'all stay here with the donkey, the boy. And I will go over there and we will worship and come back to y'all. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and went up from that point. So. He's telling us servants there and, and the y'all comes in in the y'all Bible here, Hey, we're going up here to, to worship and we will come back to you. And so that may be some of what the writer of Hebrews picks up on and shed some light via the divine commentary of the word of God to let us know that Abraham thought, man, even if I do have to kill my son because of God's promise that he is the son of the promise. I believe that God is going to resurrect them and get them back to me. Um, and then wouldn't have made it any easier, right? No, I mean, yeah. It's it's not hard. And we don't want to spend a lot of time ruminating there mentally, but it's not hard to think, man, if he, even if God told you, you. Your son will, we'll come back to life, but you you've got to kill them for me that still don't make that any easier at all. Uh, and there would need to be some family counseling probably after that. I think it'd be a running joke.

Dad, can I have a new camel? Remember when you killed me, dad. You know, one of those things. Yeah. I think it might go a long way.

Yeah. Yeah, but I think, you know, your, your, your point of emphasis on substitutionary penal atonement here is well taken. I think that's a lot of what we're, we're seeing here.

Uh, okay. One thing to not miss and we brought it up last year. I just wanna make sure we bring it up again this year. And I think I alluded to it is that this location where this takes place. Mount Moran is Mount Moriah is typically associated with Jerusalem that this is where. Jesus is crucified essentially, and where he atones for our sin. So the second Chronicles three one is where we get those connections. Genesis 2 22 Mount Moriah, second Chronicles. 31 is where we make those connections. Some people ask, where's the mountain. What specific mountain are we talking about here? Um, and really Jerusalem is kind of elevated. So the whole thing serves as a mountain of sorts. So we're going to take it at face value and say, okay, God intended for this to be a foreshadowing of what he would eventually do.

Yeah. I mean, if you go there today that the connection is made actually to the temple Mount. Um, that this becomes the threshing floor of, of a runner, the Gebbie site and right. That that's the police that David purchases that becomes the temple Mount in that is today. Under the current dome of the rock was it, which is an Islamic shrine. They believe is the rock where, and we've talked about this before. In one of the most recent episodes where the Muslim people will say, this is where Abraham offered Ishmael on this rock. And we, as Christians would say, no, that's the historic place, the traditional place of where Abraham offered Isaac. So, um, The traditional lease holds that this became the same mountain that the temple was built upon. And you can still go there today and underneath the dome of the rock, find the rock. Uh, which is why it's called the dome of the rock, the rock where Abraham bounded Laden. Isaac as Christians, we would say. Genesis 23. Uh, This is another blow. Sarah dies. And Abraham. In this chapter, acquires a field and Canaan with a cave in it there to bury his wife. And it's significant that he wants to own it and purchase the cave. I think really because of the fact that, that this is. Uh, not only his wife and he wants to honor her in the sacrifices worthy in, in worth the honor, but also because it's it's, he wants to own the land. This is significant. This is going to become a significant place for him. This is where he's going to be buried as well. So. Um, that's what's going on in this interchange here, but this is, uh, the, the death of the matriarch, this the death of Sarah. Uh, and, uh, Abraham Barry's heard there in Canaan. Chapter 24 then. Abraham towards the end of his life now. Uh, commission's a servant to go back to his Homeland to take away for Isaac, because he did not want Isaac to marry from the foreigners there. And so through divinely ordained circumstances, the servant prays and says, Hey God. Make it be this way and God answers that prayer. Uh, and Rebecca is the one that is identified and comes back with the servant to become Isaac's wife. Uh, the. There's a, an interchange here where they say, Hey, let her stay for a little while. And he says, no, no, no, no. I need to go back. This is pressing. And, um, they let her go back. And, uh, one name to note here, cause he's going to be significant is Rebecca's brother. Whose name is Laban? We're going to pick up on Laban with the story of Jacob later on, but right now, This is that family and Rebecca is taken back now. No, it says that she went back with her nurse, uh, that, that jumped out to me this time. I kind of did a little digging there. This nurse's name we're going to find out later on is, is Debra. And during this time in history, a nurse was considered as almost a second mother in the family. Ed. Uh, a dear member of the family. So that's why the nurse goes back with Rebecca. It was, uh, as though she was a mentor, a. I'd stop short of calling her discipler, but, but somebody significant for Rebecca. So she goes back with Rebecca. Uh, with, uh, this servant to go back as Rebecca goes to become Isaac's wife. There you have it. Genesis 22, 23, 24. Any other points on, on either of those last two chapters BR one thing I noticed about Isaac that

struck me is that he's meditating. When Rebecca meets him for the first time he's out in the field meditating, which I thought was interesting because you don't see this about anybody. I don't think you find anyone in the book of Genesis who's meditating, but he is. And that's a really great start for him. I don't think that his godliness extends all the way through his life. There's certainly flaws in Isaac's life, but this is really cool. He's meditating in the field toward the evening. And then she sees him. I think that's really a really special first meet. That's what you would call a meet. Cute. He's meditating. She's levitating. They're both seeing each other and just, I dunno, it seems like a really sweet. First experience with of one another,

and then they got married and then they got up early in the morning and the Instagram, their first DBR time. We're still there with a cup of coffee. Yup. Yup. All right. Well, Hey, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode. God, we thank you for the reality that Genesis 22 pointed towards that, that we now know as believers that you provided, not a Ram, but your son, the lamb of God to be. Our substitutionary atoning sacrifice. And so through faith in him, we can know that our payment has been made. Uh, that we don't have to offer ourselves on the altar or anything else that we have Christ that satisfied your wrath. And so we are so grateful for that and help us to be increasingly. So as each day, Uh, passes as we draw closer to the time of meeting him face to face. We thank you for this and pray this in Jesus name. Amen. And then, Hey, keeping your Bibles guys and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Yep. Bye.