00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:12 Church Community and Volunteer Appreciation

03:23 Growth and Attendance Updates

04:55 Ezekiel 16: Israel's Faithlessness

12:39 Ezekiel 17: The Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine

14:40 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Happy Sunday.

2

Welcome back to another edition

at the Daily Bible Podcast.

3

Let's do it.

4

We are two chapters today, big chapters,

and it's Ezekiel, so it's big meaty

5

chapters and so that's the way I like it.

6

Yeah.

7

It should be good.

8

But yeah, happy Sunday.

9

We're back at church today and

hopefully you're excited to be there

10

with us or you have already been there

with us, but church is so good, man.

11

I, I love our church.

12

In fact, yesterday, we had a team of

men show up down at our old storage

13

facility down in Frisco to pack up a

lot of our kids men's stuff and load

14

it onto a truck and drive it up here

to prosper to our new storage facility.

15

And not only did they do that,

man, they did it in the rain.

16

They did it in the rain,

in the pouring rain.

17

Yeah.

18

Abe Ramin, Dan Mayer.

19

I'm looking here on the video.

20

Oh, the video ended.

21

I see, I saw those three at least.

22

I think Jacob Sealander was there too.

23

Okay.

24

Yeah.

25

Jacob Sealander.

26

Yeah, that makes sense.

27

That tracks.

28

Yeah.

29

So man, just Paul Paone.

30

I think I see Paul there.

31

He was there.

32

Yeah.

33

Jared, I think I see Jared Bradley.

34

Yeah.

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If I'm not calling your

name out I'm looking.

36

Don't worry.

37

I'm looking, but man, thank you.

38

Yeah, you're right.

39

What an incredible team of men.

40

We appreciate you guys so

much for the work that you do.

41

We are so thankful.

42

We are so thankful for the

kind of guys that you are.

43

Totally.

44

And not just that we were,

we've been talking a lot about.

45

Our volunteers in our church and those

that, that are already doing so much

46

because we realize how dependent we are

on you guys for so much of what we do.

47

And and we couldn't do it.

48

We're just talking about

our worship team, right?

49

We've got so many selfless servants there.

50

They all are right there.

51

Yeah.

52

Got a picture of 'em all.

53

Right on the screen there.

54

I, I think I'll put this

picture in the podcast.

55

We should do that.

56

I might make it the photo for the podcast.

57

I could do that.

58

You could do that.

59

I have the power, the

whole team right up there.

60

I could do that.

61

You should have Bernard read

off their names that would be

62

specifically honoring to them.

63

That'd be fun.

64

But man we just, yeah, our worship

team they're volunteers outside of you.

65

We, everybody else up there pretty

much is not somebody that's paid to

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be there and they're given to their

time and we are dependent upon them.

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Same with our hospitality team.

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So many volunteers, so many of you.

69

Serve the church.

70

So faith faithfully and selflessly.

71

I al I almost said faith faithless.

72

Don't wanna confuse

though, not the same thing.

73

Yeah.

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Selflessly.

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And and we are, we're so thankful for you.

76

You guys do such a great job.

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So we don't say it enough.

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But thank you.

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You are imperative to what we do.

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And you should notice too, that

God is rewarding your labor.

81

God is adding to our number, which

is has been a wonderful problem that

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it's been a nut we've been trying

to crack for the past few weeks.

83

We've been noticing people coming

in so you can help us with that as

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you continue praying for our church

and as you continue serving both of

85

those things critical, it would be

practically helpful for us if you would

86

move closer to the front of the stage.

87

Yes, I can assure you most of the

time, pastor PG is not biting people.

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It's true.

89

Only ever.

90

Rarely do we see that we

settled that outta court.

91

That's fine forward.

92

Yeah.

93

It worked out really well for us.

94

They think that guy's gonna make

a full recovery yet to be seen,

95

but you could sit closer to him.

96

And Amanda's awesome too.

97

She That's great.

98

She, there's space next to

her and the kids are normally

99

not sitting right next to her.

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So there's space next to her.

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There's plenty of space up front.

102

We'd love to have you sit there

and one more ask if you can

103

scoot in closer to the middle.

104

Yep.

105

I know those end seats are so delectable.

106

They're the best place to sit.

107

'cause you can make an easy escape if.

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In case Pastor P starts biting people.

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Yep.

110

Understand that.

111

Yep.

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But if you can scoot in closer, that would

help us figure out really how much space

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we have in there and how much space we

can make for people that are coming in.

114

Yeah.

115

Which is again, a great problem to have.

116

Thank you guys for

doing what you're doing.

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Inviting people, encouraging

people, connecting with people,

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talking to new families and faces.

119

You guys are crushing it.

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Thank you for what you do.

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Keep doing that.

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And let's see what.

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Where the Lord leads us in this.

124

Yeah.

125

And in fact, we had a meeting with

some of our, just our core team

126

leaders on, on Friday night, and we

were talking with them and about a

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year ago we started meeting with them.

128

And one of the things that we

laid out there for them is,

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Hey, this is where we're at.

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This, these are what our average

attendance numbers go look like.

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And this was Churchwide.

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We were at 253 at that one Churchwide.

133

At that time, and we threw some

numbers up on the screen and it

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was throwing pickles at a window.

135

It was like, Hey we're looking at

trying, throwing tamale's at the crowd.

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Some might say, we're Bob's your uncle.

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We're trusting the Lord that if it's his

will we love to hit numbers like this.

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And one of the numbers that we

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an average attendance of 300 people.

140

Yeah.

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300, that's what you said?

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Yeah.

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10,000.

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No, 300 people.

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So to go up from 2 53 to, to 300 people.

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And we just met on Friday and I

updated our numbers with them.

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And since January of this year.

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So going back to January of this calendar

year, we're up to two 70 on average.

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And over the last five weeks,

we're hitting 2 91 On average.

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The last month we're hitting

over 300 on average, that's fun.

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It's awesome.

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It's so great to see how God

is bringing people into the

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church and growing the church.

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And so that number, that 300 number

that we threw out there saying,

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okay maybe this would happen.

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We, it looks like it's gonna happen and

there's nothing magical about that number.

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But we want to be a church that's growing.

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We believe that a healthy

organism is growing.

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We believe that if we're doing our job

to reach, teach and train people, that

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that's gonna result in people showing

up in growth happening in the church.

161

And we're seeing that.

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And like you said, pr a, a

lot of that has to do with you

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guys listening to this podcast.

164

You're the ones that are doing so much

of the work and the labor behind the

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scenes, helping us see people show up,

stick around, and be a part of our church.

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That's right.

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So good job.

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Let's keep at it, folks.

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Yep.

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Speaking of keeping at

it, let's keep at Ezekiel.

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Ezekiel 16 and 17 this is chapter 16,

is one of those chapters that moms

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and dads might wanna preview before.

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Rolling it out there to their kiddos.

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It's graphic and it's God depicting

Israel in birth and then growing up and

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developing and betroth her to himself.

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This is God's relationship with

Israel and it's a history of

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that relationship in chapter 16.

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And it also includes Israel's

faithlessness to the Lord and how

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she took all of the good things that

God had done for her and despised him

180

by honoring herself instead of him.

181

In fact, she, he writes in verse

15 through Ezekiel, you trusted

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in your beauty and you played the

immoral woman because of that.

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In other words, the beauty that God had.

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Given to her the beauty that God had

cultivated in her, taking her from

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being a cast off and raising her up,

so to speak, in, in this metaphor.

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She had been raised to be a

beautiful woman and then she

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trusted in her own beauty rather

than in God who is behind that.

188

And that's just that picture of Israel

spurning their creator and going after

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the idols and going after the nations.

190

They were heart sick.

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In verse 30, how sick is your heart?

192

This is more than the surface.

193

This is more than.

194

Just a matter of actions.

195

This is something that's internal,

that is the problem here.

196

And God is upset.

197

God is enraged God.

198

This is what is drawing the

wrath of God against the people.

199

He says in verse 42.

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So I will satisfy my wrath on you.

201

My jealousy shall depart from you.

202

I will be calm and have no more be angry.

203

But that's only after the wrath is going

to be satisfied against the Israelites.

204

The implications as he goes on is

that they have committed sins that are

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worse than Sodom and Gomorrah even had.

206

And and she was gonna be judged and

she was gonna be punished for that.

207

And yet still the chapter ends

with a reminder that God is not

208

going to completely abandon her.

209

He will at that at one point.

210

And this is the new covenant.

211

Remember my covenant with you

that Abraham at Covenant, that.

212

In the future, he's gonna establish

the ever not everlasting covenant.

213

That's the new covenant there in verse 60.

214

There's probably two questions I

can think of that others might have

215

as they read through this text.

216

So let's quickly address,

address one of those.

217

And the first one has to do with verse 25.

218

Verse 25 in the ESV does

this a favor By not.

219

Saying it as graphically as

you might otherwise put it.

220

In fact, if you have an ESV, you'll

notice that there's a little number

221

there that tells you what the literal

wording is behind offering yourself

222

to any passerby in case it was

unclear what was being conveyed there.

223

So why does God through Ezekiel, and

we're not even at some of the more, some

224

of the other things that we're gonna

read soon enough where God uses even more

225

graphical depictions of these things.

226

Why is God so graphic?

227

And trying to convey to Israel

the nature of their relationship.

228

Why does he have to use something that

in our minds, it's like we wouldn't

229

want our kids to necessarily read that.

230

That's it's a little spicy.

231

Why does God do this?

232

What's the point?

233

What are we supposed to get from that?

234

Yeah.

235

I would say it's sin is

grotesque in the eyes of God,

236

and I think we domesticate it.

237

We don't think of it as, as evil and

wicked and heinous as it really is

238

because it's something that is, is

commonplace or it's something that we.

239

Just practice and we think

that God's not paying attention

240

because he hasn't done anything.

241

He hasn't struck us with lightning

even though there have been

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some pretty bad storms recently.

243

So I wouldn't, trust in that I haven't

purchased the shock collar yet.

244

But if you want me to, you can zap me.

245

You let me know.

246

Yeah, sorry.

247

Go ahead.

248

So I think God is doing this for

the shock value of saying, this

249

is how bad sin is in my eyes.

250

This is how grotesque is the eighties?

251

An awful, hideous, grotesque,

disgusting, filthy thing.

252

And he wants the people to understand

that and to feel that, because that

253

helps us hate sin when we see sin for

what it really is in the eyes of God.

254

That's really helpful for you to say

that someone's gonna naturally say then.

255

Then it's appropriate on occasion,

perhaps at least for me to use

256

words that are as shocking and as.

257

And as illustrative, let's just

use that as what Ezekiel is using.

258

In fact, lots of people have used Ezekiel.

259

Remember we had this

conversation on the last year.

260

Yeah, we did.

261

There was a certain pastor on

the news for something like that.

262

Is Ezekiel a good basis for us to say?

263

There are times when using strong

language and language that is

264

highly evocative to make my point.

265

I, we, we talk a lot about

when the New Testament helps

266

us understand something or.

267

Modifies our understanding of something

compared to the Old Testament.

268

Now the Apostle Paul uses strong

language in Philippians when he

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says, I count all things to be dung.

270

It's a stronger word than that he uses.

271

But the Apostle Paul and Ephesians

also says that we should let no

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unwholesome talk come out of our

mouth, but only that we should give

273

for the building up of other people.

274

So I do think that there's a New

Testament principle that maybe overrides

275

our temptation to say God does this,

so I should be able to do this as well.

276

I think is it normalizing or overriding?

277

Because, yeah.

278

To let, to clarify what I mean by that

I think I know where you're going.

279

Yeah.

280

And that's a helpful idea.

281

There's a certain sense in which

the clear text, like Ephesians four,

282

normalizes for us what everyday

conversation should sound like.

283

The way that we approach talking to

people, is there then a place where you

284

could say maybe conceivably, there are

times when using Ezekiel style language

285

or even Pauline language in your mind

would be appropriate at some place, at

286

some time, or would you say more strongly?

287

No.

288

No, there's no, there's not a time.

289

Yeah.

290

I think it's a very dangerous.

291

Territory to step into.

292

We talked about this back then.

293

This is God speaking

through Ezekiel, right?

294

And even with Paul, this is the spirit

inspiring the words that Paul is writing.

295

When I'm preaching, the

spirit's not inspiring my words.

296

I'm not preaching God's

word with my words.

297

So I have to be careful that it's

not my own flesh that's coming

298

through or my own anger or my own.

299

Commentary that's coming through as I'm

saying these things if I were to ever go

300

there and say anything like that, I would

have to be very careful to not cross the

301

line in, into a territory that's, that I

would say I, I can't say for certain that

302

God is behind what I'm saying right now.

303

And I think when we're dealing with

words like that and consulates get

304

like that, I think it's really hard

for us to be certain that we could say,

305

man, God is pleased with me using this

language, especially from the pulpit.

306

That's helpful and clarifying.

307

Thank you for that.

308

The second one is on, it's the next page.

309

It's my next page.

310

I don't know if it's your

next page, but it's mine.

311

So in Ezekiel 16, he talks about the

sin of Sodom, and it seems like he

312

tells us what the sin of Sodom was.

313

He says in verse 49, behold, this

was the guilt of your sister Sodom.

314

She and her daughters had

pride, excess of food.

315

And prosperous ease, but did

not aid the poor and the needy.

316

They were haughty and did an abomination

before me, so I removed them.

317

So it seems and others have argued that

what Ezekiel is doing here is identifying

318

for us what the real sin of Sodom was.

319

And it isn't what we think it is, as

some would suggest it's actually this.

320

There was social injustice and

that was the real sin of Sodo.

321

What say you about that?

322

Yeah, I think that's selective reading.

323

Number one if we want to argue

this isn't, they're not condemning

324

homosexuality here, which was the

sin that most people are saying.

325

That's what the judgment with Sodom was.

326

We can go to the New Testament, we can

go to other passages in the Old Testament

327

and find that God did condemn that sin.

328

And so because it's not specifically

named here, doesn't mean that it's

329

not named anywhere in the Bible.

330

Second is.

331

It goes on and says that they were

haughty and did an abomination before me.

332

We have to ask ourselves,

what is the abomination?

333

And we're gonna make a judgment.

334

Those that don't wanna see that

sin here, they're gonna say the

335

abomination is social injustice.

336

The scripture also calls those things

that, that we know that Sodom was punished

337

for abominations in other contexts.

338

Yep.

339

So I think we can easily see where,

even though Ezekiel doesn't name the

340

sin, I think the word abomination there.

341

Envelops that sin in and of itself.

342

All right.

343

Clarifying.

344

We've answered all the questions Perfect.

345

That anyone could have for chapter 16.

346

Ding.

347

You're welcome.

348

Yep.

349

Let's move on Chapter 17.

350

Then we get another parable as God is

prone to do and had been prone to do here.

351

And this is a parable of

these two eagles and a vine.

352

The eagle comes to Lebanon here, takes

some of the choice bows back to its land.

353

And and then the remaining

branches spread out in this vine.

354

And it's a little bit confusing as

to what's going on here until we.

355

Go to commentaries in a chapter like

Ezekiel 17 is one that I would say,

356

this is where we need commentary help.

357

Because otherwise it's really difficult

to understand here what's going on.

358

But we see that these branches that

are broken off and the, some of

359

the other players here basically

result in, these are the kings of

360

Israel the remaining kings of Judah.

361

Some of them are.

362

Zeca is gonna be involved here.

363

Babylon is gonna be involved here, and

then it wraps up Chapter 17 does by

364

looking forward to the Messiah because

God himself now is gonna come and take

365

a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar

and set it out and break off from the top

366

most of the young twigs, a tender one,

and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

367

And this is talking about the Messiah.

368

This is the future kingdom of God

that he's going to establish here.

369

But the initial here is this is the end.

370

This is the downfall.

371

This is what's happening in the near

future for Ezekiel and his audience

372

there of what God's depicting as

the eagle being Babylon, coming in,

373

taking captive one of the kings.

374

And then you've got another king.

375

You've got Zedekiah staying

behind, rebelling, going to Egypt.

376

There's a lot of that in the background

of what's going on in chapter 17.

377

Yet another reminder of God's care

for Israel because he does promise,

378

even though I'm going to judge

you, I'm also gonna restore you.

379

It's almost like God is saying,

love's gonna keep this thing

380

alive, and I can't tell you why.

381

God is reminding them in these

ways, but let's not take it easy.

382

Let's take it to the limit.

383

And let's make sure that God

doesn't call us desperado.

384

You know what I'm saying?

385

Seems, it seems like maybe there's a

song at work here you should write.

386

I don't know, man.

387

This seems catchy.

388

I think I got several songs

that These are good lyrics.

389

They could be number one hits.

390

Who knows?

391

There you go.

392

I might call my band The Twigs.

393

The Twigs.

394

Okay.

395

Okay.

396

Or the Vines.

397

Okay.

398

Or how about the Eagles?

399

The Eagles.

400

Oh, the Eagle.

401

There you go.

402

That's a bad one.

403

That one's got something to it.

404

Yeah.

405

Yeah.

406

Wait, let's let's pray and then

we'll be done with this episode.

407

Lord God, we are, as we talked

about at the very beginning of this

408

episode, so thankful for our church.

409

Lord we depend on so many different

people that if they were to not be

410

there we couldn't do what we do.

411

And so we're grateful for the selflessness

of our people and their willingness

412

to serve and to go above and beyond.

413

We know that so much of their

payoff is gonna come into

414

eternity when they hear their.

415

They're condemnation, not

condemnation, commendation from you.

416

When you say, well done, good and

faithful servants, and they get to

417

step into eternity in your presence.

418

And Lord, we just want to be a church.

419

That honors the people worthy of honor.

420

And so when our people serve

well, we wanna recognize that.

421

So we thank you for the servants that

make up our body and the joy it is

422

to be able to, to labor with them.

423

We thank you for your word and for

the ability to read through it and

424

to understand it as best we can.

425

We pray that you'd increase our

understanding all the more day by day.

426

We pray this in Jesus' name.

427

Amen.

428

Keep your Bibles tuned in again

tomorrow for another edition

429

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

430

Bye.

431

Bernard: Well, thank you for

listening to another episode of

432

the Daily Bible Podcast, folks!

433

We're honored to have you join us.

434

This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

435

You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

436

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

437

podcast on whatever platform you're

listening on, and we hope to see

438

you again tomorrow for another

episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

439

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

440

PJ: Yeah.

441

I would agree with

everything that you said