Everybody welcome back to another edition, Friday's edition, the Friday before the storm hits edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It's a it's gonna be an interesting weekend here for those of us in North Texas, at least. If you've been paying attention to the weather, which I assume most of you have, it is supposed to be some are saying. The storm of the century. Some are even hearkening back to 2021, which granted we weren't here in 2021, but I do remember my dad was here in 2021 and, and I remember seeing some pictures from him and, and finding out what was going on. There were down power lines. There was trees that were, were covered in ice. The power was out for so many people for such a long time. And from what I, I. Have heard the shelves at a EB in our grocery stores in the area completely barren because people are thinking that this could be another generational storm, which I don't know how you have multiple generational storms within the, the span of a single generation, but. I guess that's, that's part of the new, the new vernacular with these big storms. So we're weighing things. I know some of you are probably wondering, Hey, what are we doing this weekend as a church? We're watching, we're watching not only what what we're doing, we're watching what some of the other churches in our area are doing and decisions that they're making as well. 'cause we wanna make the best informed decision that is going to honor the Lord and also. Protect our people and protect our community. So, we're making some decisions. Pay attention to your email inbox because we're gonna communicate primarily through email to you. And also, I guess pay attention to our, our social media accounts as well. But primarily your email inbox. That's gonna be the best place to find the most up-to-date communication from us as far as what's going on. So if you're sitting there with. Thinking to yourself, are they paying attention? Have they made any decisions yet? We are deciding things on the fly. We are are monitoring the situation and we're trying to, to make the best possible decision for all of us involved. And make no mistake, we're not going to put you in any mortal danger. There are times that put yourself in harm's way. Scripture gives us plenty of. Times and occasions where Paul, the apostle, puts himself in harm's way. Jesus himself puts himself in harm's way. I mean, and we don't, we talk about harm like it's an entity and Jesus knows all things. From the end to the beginning, God knows all things, and yet he tells us that we are to be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. That's Matthew 10. So he knows that we're, we're, we're living in a fallen world, a broken world where sin reigns. Safety is important. But we don't subscribe to safety is I, I like that terminology. Someone's coined that idea probably back in 2020 when our governing officials were making safety the highest priority. And while it's a priority, I, I would be, I, I would not say it would go to be the highest priority. Safety is the idea that safety is the most important thing and Christians don't believe that. We believe that there are things worth risking for. But not needless, not senseless, and not foolish risk. So make no mistake, as we're planning for the weekend, we're thinking about what needs to happen. We're, we're considering your needs and we're considering what's helpful and what's pro prudent given the circumstances and given what we're seeing, the writing seems pretty clear. It's on the wall. We're dragging our heels, not because we're being lazy, but we're just trying to be cautious and say we don't want to do anything that we don't have to do. And because Texas weather is so erratic Yep. Would not be surprised if tomorrow we wake up and it's like, Hey, it's actually not happening. Yeah. We, we made a mistake. The, the, the models were wrong and so it's gonna be sunny and 70 degrees all weekend long and we would like that. So we're gonna wait just a little longer, maybe a little longer than you might prefer before we make any final conclusions. Although I do know that there's a couple things on the dock at the immediate future that we're saying we're going to ax those or at least postpone those. Yeah. Yeah. So check your email, inboxes, all that to say, and we will get communication to you out that way. Hey, we did a, unless we don't have electricity, in which case we will send smoke signals. Yeah. And carrier pigeons. Yeah. Hopefully our cell signals will still work. We could send an email out. If you don't have electricity, maybe your phone dies. Because, because what else are you gonna do? You're gonna be on TikTok and YouTube? Yeah, I have battery backups. Good Lord. Yeah. You got, I, I don't know anybody. I'll send email those I, anybody that has more battery backups than you do. I, I, could you plug into your car? You could probably, could your car power your house? Actually it can. There you go. Yes. Make sure that things' topped off at a hundred. It? Yes I do. There you go, man. I'll charge that up tonight. You should. Anyways, if you guys lose power you can probably assume go to PJ's house 'cause he'll have power. You can probably assume that we're probably not gonna be showing up at church on Sunday. But anyways, we'll communicate to you guys. We had a question written in and this came back in the beginning of January and we just are now getting around to it. So, I apologize for that, Christina. That's on me. But we do wanna address it because it's a good question. And Christina, is she. Practices law. So she asks a question about how we approach the interpretation of the text of scripture, and this came out of what Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, you've heard it said you shall not commit murder. But I say to you this, you've heard it said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you this, and she applies this to what? Is known as, as the originalist interpretation of, for example, the Constitution where we would say, well, we wanna go back to what did the original authors intend? And that's what the meaning is. We don't want to go beyond that because we would say that that's a rather liberal interpretation of things. And so she asks the question twofold, number one about Jesus, what was Jesus doing there? And then number two, how do we approach this in, she says this, are we interpreting scripture past the plain language of the text to capture the spirit of the text? Or is it that Christ is providing simply a New Testament? Explanation of an Old Testament law. In other words, do we have the parameters to do what Jesus does here? And I think on the one hand I'll say this, Jesus has the right to do what he does because he's the son of God. And so he is the word incarnate. And so as Jesus takes the Old Testament and says, you've heard it said this, but I say to you one of the, the points that he's making there, by saying that, because no Jewish rabbi would've ever said that before the point that Jesus is making is that he's more than man. That he is in fact God. And so he has the right to take that commandment from the Old Testament, from the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, and, and to apply that in a broader context to say, this is really what this entails. It's not just the literal meaning, but there is a spirit of the law behind this. That applies beyond that. Jesus had the unique authority to be able to do that. Which I guess then brings us to pastors. Do pastors have the authority to do that? Do you have the authority to do the same thing as you read the Bible? And I would say this yes, with the caveat of, of wanting to be very careful in that our authority is not the same authority as the authority of the Lord. Our authority is not the same authority as the authority of Jesus. So if we're going to broaden the application of a passage of scripture, we need to be careful that we're doing that governed by the broader context of the. Entire corpus of scripture. And that's one of the benefits to interpreting an exe scripture in the passage that we're studying in the context of the full Bible and not just ripping it out and making it say what we want it to say. We need to be sure that any interpretation that we bring to the text matches up what the rest of what we need to be know to be true in scripture. There's gonna be a spectrum on this. You're gonna find pastors that are more comfortable than others in going beyond what is the originalist reading. Reading, if we wanna put it that way. And pastors who are less comfortable with that. Pastors who are more comfortable with pressing the spirit of the, the law or the spirit of the application into realms that are, are beyond. Paul could have been thinking about at the time, or, or Peter could have been thinking at at the time and, and other pastors, they're gonna say, no, we're not gonna press it that far. I, I think we have to come back to say, is our interpretation biblical? Does it, does it hold water with the corpus of scripture? And how many hoops do we have to jump to through to get there from the original reading to where we want the application to go? So brass tack. Then let's try to apply this to, I don't know anything. Let's pick a, let's pick a modern day subject where people would say, okay, letter versus spirit. I guess one of those things we talk about the speed limit, the letter versus the spirit of the law. We've used that one as an example before. I think it is important, let me, before I have you answer that. I think it's important to say both. Both are necessary. Now we're all doing this to some extent, but we look at what the letter says. And this is the, this is the art and science of hermeneutics. This is learning how to exe what's in the scripture. To exe has Latin roots. It means to take out of something, to pull it out of, and not to put it in there and say, well, here's what I think, and let me try to find a a, a Bible verse, shoe it in so that I can justify my sinful activities or my desires. It's not what we're talking about here. Taking the Bible at his word is saying, what does God's word say? And what are the necessary consequences of that application? So if the Bible says, to honor your mother and your father can, can you do that in a legalistic way that is following the letter of the law, honoring them without. Obeying the spirit of the law, doing so in a respectful way. I, I, I don't even know how you would do that, but I suppose you could say mother and father, sir. Ma'am? Yes ma'am. No ma'am. You could say yes, ma'am, with your voice and with your mouth, but have a no ma'am attitude, which violates the spirit of the law. If not the letter, you could argue that, of course. But let's try to flesh this out. So, I don't know, we talked about the speed limit. Let's take an easier one. A woman's right, so-called to choose to discard the life of a, of a young one. Mm-hmm. That's not in the scriptures. You can't find that Bible verse anywhere. Don't do that. Let's talk about that one. Yeah. And in there we would go to a passage like Psalm 1 39 in God's act of work, in the creation of the the baby, in the mother's womb. We would go to passages where we see examples in the Old Testament of the, even the spirit of God resting upon a baby while in the womb. And, and we wouldn't necessarily apply that across the board to say, everybody has the spirit of God resting on them the same way, but. Still, this is life. We would even go to the law when the law talks about if a pregnant woman is struck such that the baby is, is born prematurely, and that baby dies it's life for life. And so we can look at things like that, even though you're right. It doesn't say, do not do that thing. We would say the principle is there and we can draw that out of the spirit of these Old Testament laws that are present there. All. The scamming scamming is a big deal now, especially today. And with AI being so helpful it, the Bible doesn't say that you can't trick someone into giving you money. You can't deceive them into mm-hmm. Into doing that. Bible never says anything about ai, never says anything about crypto or anything like that. How do we jump from here to there? Yeah. And in there we would go to passages like what we find in, in one Timothy six, or even as, as James talks about it, the first Timothy six there though with. Paul, the, the love of money, right? We would say if, if you're doing something to scheme to gain more money because you love money, you've got a problem there. So what we could bring that in there. We could also talk about truthfulness, that God is a god of truth and not a God of lies. That God doesn't honor lies or deception. And so we need to be as believers, men and women of truth and not men, men and women of deceased. So you can expand it and, and get there that way as well. I think we, we all experienced this back in 2020, right? We had to wrestle at, at least we did in California with spirit of the law, letter of the law when it came to submitting to our governing authorities. Mm-hmm. And trying to really understand, okay, when has our governing authorities, when have they asked us to sin? What does that look like? When can we now say I have to obey God rather than men? That's a great example there, because that's a, that's a very broad statement. That's not. Really clearly defined biblically, and so we kind of had to step back. Yeah. When how Totally. To what extent. Right. And that's, that's where I think it gets more complicated when we're dealing with things like, is it wrong to lie and, and to scam someone. I think we can say, yeah, that that's pretty black, white. Those are easy. Yeah. But when we get there, then it's a matter of Okay. It does require the work. We were talking offline, you were talking about Paul's charge to Timothy, to to, to be a workman, to not be ashamed that you do your best. Do your best, do your best. Yeah. Which leaves no room for Halfheartedness. Right. Right, and, and, and as one who probably favors more of the originalist approach. I, I'm with you. I, I think there is a way that we can be half-hearted and lazy with that, and I don't, I'm not there. I just am, am careful to press my understanding into realms that I, I find it more difficult. It's once, twice, three times removed from the text to get to that application. Yeah, I, I get to, to our point, I think what we're trying to say is that you, you, you really do need an, an eye for both. Yeah. And there are fatal errors on either extreme being too literalistic, where you can't see what the text is actually saying and being so sophisticated that you only see the spirit of the text and you don't see what's actually there either. Right. So it requires a tender hand and a careful touch. This is the kind of surgical precision that every Christian needs to develop. You don't, you're not gonna get this overnight. You're not gonna build this after reading your Bible one time through. This is the kind of thing that happens only after years of long term careful study and understanding of the text. This is the practice of exegesis, the art and science of interpreting the scriptures according to how God wants us to do that. And I, I stand with the idea. I stand behind the idea that Jesus is modeling for us how to understand scripture. Not only that, he is identifying himself as the Lord. He is certainly doing that, but he's also showing us how to understand the word of God, so it's not. A liberal idea. It's not farfetched to say we don't, we wanna understand what the scripture says and understand what the spirit of it, what's God trying to get at with what he's saying. The Pharisees are a great example in Matthew 23. He's gonna excoriate them. He's gonna say to them, look, you guys tithe mint and cumin and di and yet you neglect the weight of your matters of the law. You're, you're obeying these letters down here, but you're forgetting these massive ones over here. And the same thing can happen to us, even if we're not intending to do that, if we hyperfocus on one part of the text to the neglect of the rest, we can do that with our exegesis hyper focusing on one applicational point or one interpretational point to the neglect of the rest. And you're not, again, you're not gonna get this overnight. You're not gonna get this after going to church for one year. This is the kind of faithfulness and intentionality in the text that develops over the course of your life. Yeah. Alright, well, hey, we are. Great question, Christina. It. Great question. And we took the time to answer it because it's such a, an important question. We're 14 minutes into this podcast though, so alright. 10 minutes, we're gonna be done, we're gonna roll through. Hey, e Exodus four through six though as we jump back in here with the life of Moses chapter four, you, you get more of just Moses's stubbornness here in, in before we. Condemn him too quickly. I, I can't say that, that I would've been different than, than he was saying, God, I, I, I don't know if I'm ready for this, looking for outs, looking for reasons that he might send anyone else to the most powerful man in the entire universe. Moses knew who Pharaoh is and, and even though it's a different Pharaoh, he, he knew the type of cruelty that existed in Egypt. He also knows that last time he was there, he was not really high on the list of people that, that they wanted around. And so I'm sure there's some of these fears in the back of his mind as well. But he's bargaining with God and God keeps saying, Moses, I will be with you. And even showing him these signs of what he is going to do and, and how he's gonna be able to make this happen. But still, Moses is, is resistant until the Lord calls out to him and says, look, here's Aaron then, and, and Aaron can be your mouthpiece. Then I'll speak to you. You will speak. To Aaron in the rest of chapter four, Moses is gonna go back to Egypt and there's this interesting scene when he's on his way back. He, God meets him and, and opposes him and, and moves to put him to death, is what it says. Now the question is, who's the hymn? And my conviction after last year and then this year, again, looking at this, I, I tend to believe that this is Moses' son. That this is not Moses that the Lord is seeking to put to death because the Lord has been just been talking about you're gonna deliver, you're, I'm gonna use you, you and Aaron. And I think God would've done business with him prior to that about his own crc, circumcision or state. And we, we know that, that he would've at this point, but rather this seems to be from the context Moses' son, who Moses had not circumcised and God is saying, this is wrong. And so he goes to oppose him. Zipporah then goes and does this for her son, and that's why she cast it down at the feet of Moses and says, you are now a bridegroom of blood. To me, almost implying Moses, this was, this was your failure of leadership in the family and you should have done this, but instead I had to do this. So Moses doesn't look good either way on this, but I don't think God is seeking to put Moses to death, but rather Moses' son to death. In this situation, one of the things that I wanna point out to you is that Moses is called the most meek man. He's, he is the most humble, and yet what he does here may seem like humility to you. Like, isn't it right to say, oh man, Lord, who, who, who am I? What am I? I can't do this. You know, I'm just little old me kind of thing. Aw, shucks. This is the opposite of humility. This is straight up rebellion. And so make no mistake when you tell God no, you're not doing it because you're humble. You're doing it because you are afraid, you're doing it because you're selfish. You're doing it because of something else besides humility. So don't let yourself do what Moses does here in saying, well, Lord, you know, who am I? I can't speak well, and who cares? And that's essentially what the Lord says. Who cares? I, I got you. I'm, if I'm telling you I'm gonna, I'm gonna provide for you, bro. Do what I say and know that I'm a come, I'm a come through. So Moses is not being humble here. This is not humility. This is pseudo humility. It looks like humility just at the surface. But when you scratch just a layer Jeep, you find out Moses' excuses are, are pretty lame. Secondly, I think it's actually Moses for the very same reasons that you brought up, because Moses should have done this. Moses is accountable. Yeah. Yeah. That's, and that's, that's valid too. Yeah. End of the chapter Moses and Aaron go to the people, and initially it starts, well, they, they're, they're there. It says the people believed and, and they're excited about this. They bow their heads and they worship in that last verse of chapter four. But then in chapter five, Pharaoh catches wind of the people getting kind of excited about all of this, and, and that they're slacking. They're, they're letting up in their production. So, pharaoh is going to go after them. Pharaoh is going to reject the initial plea there from Moses and Pharaoh to let the, or from Moses and Aaron to let the people go. And he's gonna say, who is the Lord that I should obey him? And, and your people are getting lazy. And so then he's going to take away the straw and yet still require the same number of bricks from the people. So the, the people who start out so strong, believing in the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Man, it's not very long until they are rebelling here, and at the end of the chapter of chapter five, here, they say, the Lord look on you and judge, because you've made us stink in the side of Pharaoh and his servants. And so there goes the faith that they had at the beginning there they are grumbling, and this is an indicator of what Moses' relationship with the people is gonna be. In Egypt and then even outside of Egypt during the wilderness time. So much so that Moses even wants to give up at this point. He says, why have you done evil to people? Why did you ever send me? So it's not just the faith of the people wavering, it's the faith of Moses wavering as well, which goes to show that doing what God wants you to do doesn't mean that things are gonna go well. At least not initially, right? It is no guarantee that God makes to, to you or anyone else to say, look, when you obey me, things are always gonna go the way that you think that they should go. In this case, God is setting up the, the chess pieces, as it were to showcase his strength, which in the short term is devastating because then you start to ask yourself, well, is this, was this the right thing? After all? If, if you're behind this, God, why would you let this take place? And so that makes perfect sense that he would challenge that and question it. But just know your obedience doesn't always mean good outcomes or good results or immediately in view. Yeah. Chapter six, then the, the Lord moves to, to comfort Moses because the Lord is patient. That's something we see time and time again, not just with Moses, but also with the Israelites. And so he is patient and he reveals himself to Moses again, says, I am the Lord. And just as I appeared to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob, he's saying, I established my covenant with them and I have a future for my people, is basically what he's doing. He's appealing back to this covenant saying, I've remembered my covenant and I'm going to fulfill the covenant. And he says in verse six, I'm gonna bring you out. He says, I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to redeem you from the people of Egypt there. And so this is going to be the salvation from. That he's gonna work because God has this covenant future for his people. Verse seven, I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. So even though Israel is wavering in their faith, Moses is wavering in his faith. God is going to persist and all of this is part of his plan to bring them out. God could've worked it out so that at the very beginning, Moses and Aaron walk into Pharaoh and say, Hey, let my people go if says the Lord. And Moses and Pharaoh could have said. Okay, go ahead and go. And yet all of this is part of God's plan to get glory over Pharaoh, as he's gonna make clear in the, the text as it unfolds. And also I think to, to teach his people about his power as they're going to teach not only themselves, but also future generations about what he does here in the deliverance so that people from Egypt, in verse nine, he says here, Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses. Notice here it says, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. Now, this doesn't. Excuse them from listening to what Moses says. He's after all God's spokesman. But it does explain at least one of the stumbling blocks to people hearing God's word appropriately, to hearing it accurately. Even. If there's discouragement and despair in the heart of a person, it's often hard to hear what God says. And so I think at the very minimum, and not that again, it doesn't excuse anything, but it does explain, and that kind of explanation should at least register on your, on your radar as you think about serving others for counseling. Others, I know we just had a biblical counseling intensive. As you think about caring for other people, you have to take more. Take data in to understand how do I best love and serve these people. The rest of that chapter there in chapter six, you get some of the, the key names here that should stand out to you as it's the descendants of, of Moses and Aaron. You've got names in there that are both good and bad. One of the, the best names in there, I think is Phineas. Phineas is just one of those guys that is, is a stalwart and a bold priest for the Lord. And so we'll read more about Phineas in the future, but there's also some, some. Guys that aren't so good there NAAB and Abai, who that things are not gonna go well there. But some of the genealogy of the, the mosaic line there, or the Levitical line, I guess that Moses is a part of. Let's turn over to Matthew chapter 16 for our New Testament reading. In this interaction, Jesus is continuing, at least initially here with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and going back and forth with them. He then warns the disciples about the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and he uses the idea of leaven because we're just feeding the 4,000. So bread is is on their minds and he's warning them, saying, Hey, that the. The leaven here is the teaching of the Pharisees. And you need to understand this. You need to be aware of it because it is dangerous and it can be pervasive. If you let it in a little bit, it'll pervade, it'll leak its way into everything. But probably the, the high point of this chapter and the high point in certainly Peter's life to, to this state is what happens next. They retreat to an area called Caesarea Philippi, which is north. In the region of Israel there. And it would've been a, a kind of a break for Jesus and his disciples. And as they're together, Jesus asked the question, who do people say that I am? And this is where Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus commences him, says, blessed are you Simon Barr? Jonah now Bar Jonah. Last name sort of Barr, meaning son of Jonah. So. Simon's dad is is a guy named Jonah, and so that's why he's Simon Barona, but this is Peter and Jesus says It's been revealed this to you by God. And then he says this, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. One of the most encouraging verses for us as the church, but we have to wonder and ask ourselves the question, who's the rock? The Catholic Church has said, this is Peter, and Peter is the, the first Pope, and, and it's upon the, the papacy, the apostolic succession of Peter that that Christ has built his church. And so we can always go back to Peter. It seems better to understand this though, as the fact that this is, is Peter's confession on this rock that Jesus is the. Christ, the son of the living God. That's the confession of the church. That means everything. That's the foundation of the identity of the church. And so it seems to me at least Jesus is saying on that rock, you're Peter and, and on the rock of your confession, I'm gonna build this church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Then he goes on to, to speak more about the authority of the church, though right after that, in the immediate context. After this, we get another prediction of the death of Jesus. And again, Peter is gonna take center stage E except not in a good way this time. He goes from a high point to a, a pretty low point here in verse 22. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him after Jesus says he's gonna die. And Jesus turns and looks at Peter and says, get behind me, Satan. Now the word Satan means. Adversary and that's why he says, you're a hindrance to me. You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So Peter goes from this high point to this low point in opposing Jesus which is ironic because as Peter confessed him to be the Christ, it's the death of Jesus that is going to be the, the pinnacle of in his resurrection then of of. Who he is as the Christ. And so Peter doesn't fully understand it yet. None of the disciples do at this point. And then Jesus concludes by this note on what true discipleship looks like. And as Peter is anticipating victory, he's saying what really it's gonna look like is you taking up your cross and follow me. Not only am I gonna go to the cross, but you're gonna take up your cross and follow me and be my disciple in this world. And so it's not gonna mean glory right away, even as you were just talking about. Just because we're following God's plan doesn't mean that it's gonna be easy for us. Think we see the New Testament concept of that here at the end of chapter 16. Yeah. Verse 21 says, from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests inscribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. The key, the key point in this verse, I think is starting at verse 21 from that time. And the question is from what time? Well, from the time. After Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ and they all say, yep, that's right. We believe that. And Jesus says That's correct, and on this rock, I'm gonna build my church. I think one of the things that we could take away from here is that further clear revelation begins with the acceptance of foundational revelation. If you wanna know God more, there's certain foundational truths that you have to embrace and believe for him to allow you to. See and understand more. It's one thing to read your Bible. It's another thing to understand it and to appreciate and enjoy the complexity of it all. It's beautiful. It's this, it's singular, it's simple in some sense, but it's also wonderfully complex and glorious, and for someone to understand what God's trying to do, it takes you understanding the basics, the foundational things, and including here at this point, Jesus being the Messiah who would live and die on behalf of his disciples. Anything else In chapter 16, I love the way he closes it. Taking up your cross and following Jesus. This is, this is one of these passages that we don't often preach on, but one that we should remind ourselves of constantly. You did talk about it. It's not just Jesus taking his cross. It's us taking our cross. But this is, this is normative Christian life. Mm-hmm. This is the way Christian, a Christian lives, and Jesus points out here. Verse 27, when Jesus comes, he will repay each person according to what he has done. How does that fit with justification? By, by grace through faith. In the sense of, of repaying in the positive sense or the negative? Yeah, I guess, you know, he, he re repayment period. How does that fit in the picture? Well, we think about it for, for believers as the, the bema seat where our life is assessed and it says, we'll receive what is due for what we've done in the body, whether good or evil. That's second Corinthians chapter five. And so there is going to be not a salvific judgment as far as repayment, but a, a, an evaluation of our life of, of the works, of our life, of did we take up our cross and follow him? Did did we follow him in in that and did we obey him in that? And then certainly, yeah. If. We didn't do that. If we, if we didn't trust him in faith and repentance, that repayment is gonna be an eternity apart from him under his wrath in, in hell. But this is, there's, there's something at stake for both believers and unbelievers in this, in, in how we follow Christ and what that looks like for us. And I think Jesus is offering this as a means to motivate us. This is not a bad thing to say. I, I want spiritual rewards. I want to get all that Jesus has from me, right. Including more of him. I want to see more. I don't know if there's gonna be a VIP section in heaven. And I don't have any delusions that I'm gonna be there, but I'm gonna try, I wanna be hanging out next to Paul and Moses and Jesus. I wanna be there in that circle if I can make it. Yeah. Yeah. And it, this is what Peter said when he says he suffered force as an example, that we might follow in his steps. Is that concept of us following after taking up our cross and and pursuing that VIP section into heaven. I mean, when the two asked, Hey, Jesus, can we sit at your right hand or your left? He didn't say, no one's gonna be there. He just said, that's not mine to give. So maybe there will be. Maybe there will be. All right. Let's pray. God, we pray that all of us would live such a way that, that we would live, that we. Would be qualified to be in that position that we would be qualified to be with Paul and Moses and those, and, and really ultimately that, that we would be as close to you as we possibly can be. We know heaven is gonna be amazing for all of us no matter what, but we wanna live in such a way as to run the race well and have those rewards and heaven when we stand before Christ and we hear well done, good and faithful servant, that we won't be saved as, as though through fire, but that we will be saved and, and have much. Reward to show for ultimately your glory as our lives are assessed before you. So help us to, to do what we're being called to here to take. Take up a cross and follow you as faithful disciples. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's keep doing that together as we continue to read God's word together and keep pressing on and we'll be back again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See you then folks. Bye.

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