00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:06 Recap of Fall Fest

01:41 Purpose of Fall Fest

02:55 Engaging with the Community

04:30 Challenges and Opportunities

06:57 Daily Bible Reading: Luke 18

07:01 Parable of the Persistent Widow

08:46 Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

10:50 Faith Like a Child

12:44 The Rich Young Ruler

14:55 Jesus Predicts His Death and Heals the Blind

17:01 Conclusion and Prayer

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another episode

of the daily Bible podcast.

3

Oh, man.

4

I tell you what pastor, rod.

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Fall Fest was amazing.

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It was so good.

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It was so it wasn't.

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Yeah.

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And how many people did you talk to?

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I mean, I talked to several people that

told me it was really good about it.

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It was really good.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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For those of you on that, the unawares.

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Uh, pastor I've got sick this week.

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So, um, that was a bit of a bummer

and, uh, happened on Sunday.

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And yet it, it happens.

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It is, uh, unfortunately part of

the fall and part of the, the broken

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world that we find ourselves in.

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But, uh, fall Fest was amazing

surpassed expectations.

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I think everybody that, that was

there, uh, from our church at

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least can testify to the fact that

they were, um, just so encouraged.

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I was as y'all's pastor, I just.

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The turnout was amazing, but even

more than that, just watching

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you guys serve was so awesome.

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Um, stepping up to cook hot docs like

west, I knew it was in the cafeteria and

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he was microwaving hot dogs because, uh,

that the hot dog machines that we got from

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the people weren't working all that well.

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And we had people covered, Matt

Daniel was covered in cotton candy.

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Like there's.

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If you ever think cotton

candy and Matt, Matt, Daniel.

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I don't know if you've ever

quoted those two things.

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Not usually.

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Yeah, no.

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Um, but he was covered in it

because he was there and he was

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making cotton candy for the kids.

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Uh, the pumpkin patch was awesome.

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Allie, Trinidad, special shout out

to Allie Trinidad as the one who

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coordinated so much of this event.

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Uh, well done.

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Super job.

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Uh, you did such a great job

with organizing everything.

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All of our volunteers did, though.

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It was so good.

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God was so kind to us.

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There weren't any major injuries.

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There weren't any incidents.

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Um, yeah, it was awesome.

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So good job church.

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Great job team.

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It was such a win.

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I can't wait for the next one.

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Why do we do a fall Fest?

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Some people would ask that a lot of

money is a lot of time and energy

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that goes into something like that.

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What do we do this?

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Yeah.

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It's a way for us to seize upon,

even though it's not on Halloween

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night, it's still a way for us to

seize upon, um, That if I can use

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the term, I use it loosely in this.

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Event or in this context, holiday.

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Uh, T to do something that people are.

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Going to want to be at.

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Uh, those that are unchurched.

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And we had a lot of people

that were unchurched.

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We had 90 unique families, 89

unique families show up on the

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campus on, uh, on Sunday night who

had never been stepped foot there.

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And a lot of them.

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I think probably had never stepped foot

in a church before some of them maybe

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even not even around other Christians.

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Please save that.

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And, and so th they were there and

we got to interact with them and we

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got to have conversations with them.

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So, um, we're doing this because it's an

opportunity for us to engage with, uh,

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the culture, which is part of our vision.

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We want to be a church

that engages the culture.

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And so this is a time when

people expect events like this.

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And this is we're saying, Hey, we

don't want to be passed by just on

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the sideline and let an opportunity

go by for us to be the, be a light.

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For for people.

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And so that's what we, we did.

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We said let's, let's, let's put up

some booze and play some games and have

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some pumpkin's and, and it was awesome.

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Yeah, things like this, provide

an open door for conversations

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and for future events.

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I mean, I think people, people walk

away saying, I like these guys.

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Um, they're interacting

with our people there.

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They're talking to are

not talking to our people.

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And that really leaves them

feeling like, okay, I can.

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These are nice people.

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I can be around them again.

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That's not the whole job.

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Uh, that's not our end game, not our end

goal, but it certainly is part of our

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strategy to engage the culture around.

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So we're not waiting for them

to come to us as it were.

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Yeah, we're going to them by bringing

them something valuable, something

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that they can all enjoy and appreciate.

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And we're trusting that this is one way

for us to make inroads with our neighbors.

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Yeah.

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And I think what was eyeopening is

just who some of our neighbors are.

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I think we assume, well, people around

us know the gospel and their church.

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I met a guy there who's from Jerusalem.

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Who's a Palestinian Muslim.

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Um, had a 30 minute conversation with

the guy where we were talking about the

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differences between Islam and Christianity

and the gospel, and, uh, you know, met

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some other families there that, uh, A

couple of Indian families there that,

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that said we've never been to church

before, but we go to our temple and.

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We have the there's

there's in a lot of ways.

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This is increasingly becoming a, a place

where there's a lot of the world here.

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Uh, God has bringing people from

tongues tribes and nations to our

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own backyard here in north Texas.

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Um, and there's rich gospel

opportunities for us.

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And this is an event that is meant

to in, in geared towards allowing.

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Uh, some, some good gospel

conversations to take place.

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Yeah, people are moving here in, in

massive droves, all different kinds.

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It's not homogenous by any stretch, right?

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At least if it is, if it's still

largely Caucasian and various forms

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of white people, that's not going

to be the case for much longer.

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Right now we are importing a

lot of different people from

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a lot of different places.

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And this is going to change

dramatically in the next 10 years.

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Right.

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And in church, don't be mad about that.

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Right?

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Don't don't sit back and be like, well,

this doesn't feel like my city anymore or

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my America anymore, or my church anymore.

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We need to welcome this.

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We need to say, okay, God great.

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This is awesome.

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This is an opportunity for us to

be light for us to be salt and to

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too, is it going to be different?

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Is it going to feel different?

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Is it going to look the same way

it looked when you were growing up?

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Maybe not, but that's, that's

not necessarily a bad thing.

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And certainly if it leads to people

repenting and putting their trust in Jesus

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as their savior, that's a great thing.

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Uh, and so there's, there's things that

we should celebrate about that for sure.

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Are there any things that we

shouldn't celebrate about that?

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I mean, it does bring its own.

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It's own threats.

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The fact that there's a massive,

you know, temples Hindu temples that

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have gone up in Frisco and some other

places, these are competing religions,

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mosques, mosques are popping up all

over the place, too competing religions.

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That, that, in that sense,

it's a bad thing, right?

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Because we don't.

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It's a false gospel.

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It's it's not something

that's going to save.

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And it was interesting.

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This conversation that I got in with

this guy on Sunday, who's from Jerusalem.

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He said, you know, you believe

you're going to heaven and I

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believe that I'm going to heaven.

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So what does it matter?

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Can't we just be okay with that.

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And I told him, you know, kindly,

but I said no, because in the end,

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one of us is going to be wrong.

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And so it's not just that we can just

let each other think that we're going

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to get to heaven our own ways and

live out our lives that way he said,

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yeah, but who gets to decide that?

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I said, well, ultimately God knows.

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Um, And we agreed upon that part.

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We just did.

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Disagreed on which God,

which God decides that.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah.

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So we're going to do

more of this stuff, guys.

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This is what fall Fest is about.

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This is what extravaganza is about.

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This is what all the we've got Christmas

coming up, our Christmas Eve service.

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Uh, on December 24th.

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Uh, Christmas Eve, December 24th

this year, by the way, guys.

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Good.

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Um, this is another opportunity to

go out and invite people to be we've.

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We were talking during our staff meeting

on Tuesday about the fact that apparently

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Facebook is where you guys all hang out.

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And so, uh, jump on Facebook,

invite people to be part of

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our Christmas Eve services.

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Our Christmas.

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Or kids, Christmas choir, December 15th.

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That's a great thing to invite

your neighbors to come to there.

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They're going to want to come

and see your cute kids that

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they see running around outside.

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Hey, they're in our choir.

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You should come.

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December 15th are.

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Our churches is having it.

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We'd love for, for people to show up and,

and, uh, and be exposed to the gospel.

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Be exposed to other things that are

good, but we also need to be going

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to them and, uh, in taking the gospel

to them on a regular basis too.

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So.

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Great event.

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Good job church.

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It was a win for sure.

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File that in w.

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For victory.

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That's how I spell victory is.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yup.

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Yup.

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All right, guys, let's jump into

our daily Bible reading Luke 18.

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Luke 18, we've got the persistent

widow kicking us off here

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in verses one through eight.

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Um, and it says there that Jesus

tells this parable for the purpose.

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And it's always nice when Jesus gives us

the purpose right before we get into the

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text in verse one, that they all always

ought to pray and not lose heart, man.

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I wish this was true of

every single passage.

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That Jesus gives us the

punchline on the front end.

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It would make preaching way easier.

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Yeah.

211

If he was like, this is the point, because

then if I preached anything else that that

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would be missing the point completely.

213

But yeah, we ought always

to pray, not lose heart.

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Look at verse eight.

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Um, he says of this, this, uh,

this situation, he says, he's

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going to give justice to them

speedily and you might think, okay.

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Um, God, doesn't always give

justice to his elect in a way

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that we would say is speedy.

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Um, we, we suffer.

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We, we wonder God, why

aren't you acting here?

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And it's not so much that it's

going to be so fast as far as the

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timeframe of when the initial request

is made and when it will be brought.

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But more.

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So when justice comes in, when God brings

justice, it's going to be brought swiftly.

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It's going to be brought speedily.

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It's going to happen and

you're going to recognize it.

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And God is going to receive

the glory for doing it.

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Um, but then you ask this.

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It's an interesting question on the

tail end of this parable, he says,

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Hey, when he returns, what's going

to be the state of faith on earth.

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Uh, amongst those that are left, is

there going to be anybody even asking?

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Is there going to be anybody even seeking.

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Uh, for, for God's justice

to be done anymore, or will

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there be any, no one left.

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He's still faithful there.

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So our takeaway is it's good for

us to continue to go back to the

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Lord and pray for the same thing.

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It's not a bad thing to do that.

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Now, at some point we might say, okay,

God, you know the desire in my heart.

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So maybe I need to begin

to pray differently.

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Maybe I need to begin to pray.

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Okay.

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God make me content with my circumstances

until you see fit to answer this prayer.

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If it's part of your will.

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But it's okay for us to continue to

go back to the load with the same

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prayer request, time and time again.

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Versus nine through 15 or nine

through 14, then we get another, a

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parable that's told here at least.

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It seems to be a parable and it's of

the tax collector and the Pharisee.

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Um, and the message here is, Hey,

be aware of self-righteousness

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and, uh, and going before the

Lord and in trusting in your own.

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Uh, righteousness rather

than in remembering your.

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Uh, this sounds harsh, but, but our

unworthiness before him, which is

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where the tax collector is, he says,

Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.

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And Jesus says that that is the

one that, that goes home justified.

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That's the one that goes home forgiven

because he was aware of his unworthiness

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and his need for righteousness.

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And he didn't come presumptuously

before the Lord and said, Lord,

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do you need to do this for me?

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Because look at how great I am.

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I'm so much better than

these other people.

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He said, Lord, it's enough for you to

even allow me into your presence because

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of who I am, which is a sinful man.

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So we have to remember

our standard is holiness.

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Our standard is not being better

than the person next to us.

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Our standard is measuring

up to, to perfection, which

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is holiness, which is God's.

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Standard there.

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And if that's, if we're aware that

we're going to be like that, that tax

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collector saying, uh, what was me?

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I'm a, I'm a sinner.

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I just, I need your forgiveness.

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So he makes the punchline at the

end of this parable, everyone who

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exalts himself will be humbled.

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The one who humbles

himself will be exalted.

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So instead of this being on the

front end, like the last one.

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He's looking for the back end here,

or he's looking at the backend and

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telling us, look, if you really

want to know what it looks like to.

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Approach God like the widow, I guess.

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It is to have this mentality, this

awareness about yourself, that you are

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not able to come and God's presence.

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And I think that's an important feature.

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This is one of the reasons why.

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Uh, one of our doctrinal distinctives,

uh, that's true for our churches

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that we will always seek to

maintain a high view of God.

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The church begins to slip toes.

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Your says, and I'm loosely paraphrasing

when she loses her high opinion of God.

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That's how he says it.

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The church loses her position, her

opportunity to do well when she starts

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to think of herself differently.

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Um, or think of her Lord differently

than how he described himself.

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So it's important that your, your church,

whether it's compass Bible church, or some

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other, or really emphasize the Highness of

God and the consequent lowliness of man,

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when you get those flipped, you start to

have a whole different kind of church.

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Which ultimately will birth unhealthiness.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, from here in verses 15 through

17, then he turns to a faith, like

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a child, and they're bringing the

babies to him that he might touch

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them in the disciples, see it.

300

And they turned the crowds away or

they go to turn their crowds away and

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he says, you know what, let them come

to me and do not hinder them for, to

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such belongs to the kingdom of God.

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Now.

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It's an interesting statement, uh, in, in

what he's implying there, I think is the

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nature of faith, childlike, faith, fate.

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There is simple and trusting independent.

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Th that that's pure faith.

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That is, is really what is at

the root of true salvation.

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And so the, the childlike faith,

th the, the, uh, any, that's

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what he means in verse 17.

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He says, whoever does not

receive the kingdom of God.

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Like a child shall not enter it.

313

There's a simplicity.

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And just believing and saying, okay, yeah.

315

I mean my, when I teach my, my

boys, my seven year olds about the

316

gospel and things like that, they're

not sitting there questioning.

317

They're not going into Demuth,

apologized the Bible and try to

318

undermine the miracles of God.

319

They're going, wow.

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That's super cool.

321

God does that.

322

That's awesome.

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And they're trusting it.

324

They're believing it right.

325

And.

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That's how we need to be.

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With, with our trust

in our, our confidence.

328

Now it's not wrong for us to,

to do some digging and to study

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something apologetically or, or too.

330

To look at, at, at what might

be the justification or the

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reasons or something behind that.

332

But at the end of the day, we have to

come back and realize we're never going

333

to have all of our questions to answer

because then it's not faith anymore.

334

We're always going to have to, at

the end of the day, walk by faith and

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not by sight until we eventually are

with him in any eternity and the, and

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then we'll spend the rest of our time

and Aternity learning more and more.

337

Without over fully getting to

the place where we say we know

338

everything and can explain everything.

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Right.

340

And to reiterate the point here that

the point is childlike, not childish.

341

Uh, Paul's going to say in first

Corinthians chapter 10, chapter 13, he

342

says, when I became a, I became a man.

343

I gave up my childish ways.

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And that's what love does for us.

345

Love matures.

346

Us love grows us into a more

full picture of who Christ is.

347

So it's not, it's not that we're

saying you should be childish.

348

Christians are not going to

be childish by any stretch.

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We should not be now, but

we should be childlike.

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Childlike, not childish.

351

Yeah.

352

Helpful distinction there.

353

Uh, 18 through 30, then the rich

young ruler, um, the man comes

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up, he says, teacher, what must

I do to inherit eternal life?

355

There's an interesting interchange

when he says good and a teacher

356

and Jesus says, Hey, who's good.

357

Except God alone.

358

He's kind of saying.

359

Maybe you're out of something there.

360

Um, but then he tells him in response, you

know, one thing you lack, you need to take

361

all that you have and, and go sell it.

362

And then you can come and be my disciple.

363

And two things.

364

Number one, it's not that this

man was perfectly righteous in

365

that that was literally all that

he needed to have fellowship with

366

God was to sell his possessions.

367

Uh, but Jesus is saying, okay,

your, your crew, your, your

368

confidence is in your righteousness.

369

And it seems like you really are

trying to, to pursue these things.

370

But you have an idol in your

life and that is your wealth.

371

And so that's why Jesus presses

in with this man on his wealth.

372

And, and that's why he goes to

him and says, you need to sell

373

everything and then you can come

and follow me and be my disciple.

374

It's not that that's true of every

single person everywhere at all time.

375

Um, your idol may not be a wealth issue.

376

Your idol may be something else.

377

He may press on you and say, Hey.

378

You need to give up this and come and

follow me, or be willing to give this

379

up and come and follow me because that's

where, where Jesus is going to go.

380

He's going to go after that,

which we trust in that.

381

Uh, is, is taking his place,

which is what an idol does.

382

And so for this rich young,

young ruler here, he goes after

383

his wealth and the disciples say

mitten, then who can be saved.

384

Uh, and, and.

385

Jesus says, you know, with,

with man it's impossible with

386

God, all things are possible.

387

And they say, well, teacher, look,

we've left all of these things in Jesus.

388

In response to them since.

389

Hey, you're going to be rewarded for that.

390

Not only in eternity, but even now.

391

And that's, that's really cool.

392

And so I know in our church plant, you

guys are sacrificing a ton to help us

393

and to serve and to do so much things.

394

So much for us, like fall

Fest and other events.

395

And you may be saying, look, Jesus, we've.

396

We've left everything.

397

Um, God's going to reward you church.

398

He's going to reward you in eternity, but

even now there's going to be a comfort.

399

There's going to be a satisfaction.

400

There's going to be a joy, a blessedness

that comes with, uh, with serving him and.

401

Proper just talks about length of life for

following the Lord and serving the Lord.

402

And sometimes there is financial.

403

Um, reward and blessings

that come from serving him.

404

That's never our motivation, but

God is a God who is going to reward

405

you, not only in the eternity,

but also presently as well.

406

And it's, it's okay to, to

look for those things too.

407

In verses 31 through 34, then we get

Jesus third prediction of his death.

408

And this is picked up in Matthew

20 in mark 10, which we'll talk

409

about at least mark 10 tomorrow.

410

Um, as well, but on the says here

on the third day, he will rise.

411

So notice this is not just a

prediction of his death, but

412

also his, of his resurrection.

413

And so they, they didn't understand these

things, including this promise about his

414

resurrection until after his resurrection.

415

And it's one of those difficult situations

for us because we know the rest of the

416

story, but for them they didn't know.

417

And so this is why Peter earlier.

418

Uh, rebukes him after his

second prediction of his death.

419

And in they're still not going

to be able to track with him yet.

420

And then Luke eight, uh, 35 to 43,

it eight ends with these, uh, The

421

blind men who Jesus encounters there.

422

This is picked up in

Matthew 20 and mark 10.

423

We're going to see in mark 10,

this guy's name is Bartimaeus.

424

The main speaker here is Bartimaeus.

425

And I love that.

426

The response, when she

says, what do you want?

427

And he says, rabbi, I wish to see.

428

Um, and that's that's salvation.

429

This is a paradigm for salvation that you.

430

And I find that so often in the blind.

431

Uh, being given site in the Bible, but

it's, it's an example of what salvation

432

is because we were all spiritually

blind and needed sight from the only

433

person you could grant it to us.

434

And that is Jesus.

435

And we see that here.

436

Blind Bartimaeus and his friend,

his companion, whom Jesus happens

437

upon and gives sight to hear.

438

So you'll start noticing here that Jesus

is now on his way toward Jerusalem.

439

This is now for the final stage

and event of his ministry life.

440

He's passing through Jericho at this point

in time, he's about to approach Jerusalem.

441

And this is when you start to

approach holy week or what we

442

typically call us holy book, or

sometimes called passion week.

443

So notice the movement is now

crescendoing and moving towards Jerusalem.

444

That's your, that's your

earmarking here to let you know.

445

Things are about to come to an end and

the gospel of Matthew and the other

446

gospels as we read them together.

447

So I think in Matthew, excuse me, Luke

19, we're going to see the triumphal

448

entry, although we might see it

beforehand in the next reading, I can't

449

quite remember, but just know we're

starting to enter and approach holy week.

450

Yeah.

451

In fact, he's going to be in a region

called Perea in our reading tomorrow.

452

And that is the region where

Bethany was where Lazarus was.

453

And so it's a lot of what we've been

studying in John on Sundays is a,

454

is kind of right around that time

that we're coming into right now.

455

All right.

456

Well, let's pray.

457

And then we'll be done with this episode.

458

Yeah, we thank you for, um, your, your

faithfulness to, to hear us, we, as the

459

persistent would, or we can come to you,

we can pray and we can seek these things

460

and you will respond and you will respond.

461

Um, is UC fit answer.

462

Got it.

463

Even there.

464

I just asked that we would trust

you in that even as we're desiring

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for in, in situations where

we've been wronged or offended.

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Uh, justice or your vengeance in

that we would be willing to trust

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you and trust that it will come

swiftly when you see fit to bring it.

468

And that we can rest in that and not

desire to take it into our own hands.

469

God, I pray also that we would

be like the tax collector more

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often than not, than not that we

would be were aware of our own.

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On worthiness and, and balance that with

your love and your grace and your mercy.

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That is.

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Made us worthy through Christ

that has brought us in as sons and

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daughters to be, uh, to belong to you.

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And so God give us that, that right

balance as we approach you, guard us

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from idols like the rich young ruler.

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Uh, loading in, remind us of the

fact that all of us were like blind.

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Bartimaeus needing the site,

uh, so much from the only one

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that can provide it for us.

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So we thank you for this reading.

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We pray for, uh, just the ability to

take these things and live them out.

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And we ask that you'd

be pleased with that.

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We pray in Jesus name.

484

Amen.

485

Amen.

486

Keeping your Bibles tune in

tomorrow for another episode.

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Of the daily Bible podcasts.

488

Yep.

489

Bye.