Be With Me is a daily 7 minute chronological walk through the New Testament hosted by Michael Smith. It is for everyone who is curious about what Jesus actually said and did in the gospels. Most episodes will leave you with at least one good thought to chew on for the rest of the day. We start with the Bible and hopefully end with Awe. We are walking through the chronological events of Jesus' life and then thoughtfully considering them. It is meant to spur the devotional life of the Christian and the not-yet-Christian. We occasionally venture into the Old Testament when it helps our understanding of the New Testament events. Everybody has 7 minutes. Everybody needs to wonder. Be With Me is hosted by Michael Smith who has absolutely no special qualifications to do a podcast. He is not a pastor. He has not been to seminary. He does not lead a mega-church. He is not a professional and he has no more credentials than you do. He does, however, follow a great God with an observant eye and a curious heart. Each day, he starts with a study bible and aims for astonishment. ‘be with him’ for 7 minutes as he sets out daily to discover the God who invites us to ‘Be With Me.’
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Sometimes junior officers ask senior officers, "Permission to speak freely, sir?" ie: "Do you really want to hear what I have to say?" Similarly, we ask that same question of God. Fortunately, He answers YES.
We are to have a confidence in the willing ear of God. He's given us access and knowledge so that we can be doing something: plainly, even boldly, speaking before Him.
If you knew that God really heard you today, what would you ask for? Does your conversations with God in quantity and quality demonstrate that you are heard by God?
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Michael Smith:
Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Welcome to episode number 21. In the book of First, John, we're in chapter five nearing the end. Here's the image I want to leave with you today after this title. The title is permission to speak freely, sir. And we're going to find that God's answer is yes. So here's the image I want to leave, that'll explain the title. So imagine, here's the scene, you have a commanding officer officer behind a big desk, and maybe two junior officers in front of the desk standing at attention, everybody's sweating. And they're standing at attention in this tense moment. And the officers, ask them a question about, you know, maybe something that's happened to the barracks or whatever. And the, the junior officers don't answer the senior officers, because the junior officer thinking, well, he really doesn't want to know what happened. And so finally, this goes back and forth a little bit with the senior officer asking again, and then the junior officers ask a question of the senior officer. And that's what we're going to kind of do today. And they asked this question, which is permission to speak freely, sir. In other words, do you really want to know? And the senior officer which in our picture today is going to be God is going to say yes, yes, I want to know, yes, you have permission to speak freely, yes, you can have confidence to speak freely. So that's what our passage is about today is knowing and being confident, and having permission to speak freely, it it bodes their launches from our security in Christ, our security in the father, insecurity in the promises, insecurity in the person of God. Alright, so let me read this is three verses from First John, chapter five, verses 13 through 15, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That's the first thing, no, no knowledge. Second thing, and this is the confidence we have toward him. So this confidence we're going to talk about, this is the confidence that we have towards him, that if we ask anything, according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, and whatever we as we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. Alright, so there are those who have eternal life with God and those who have eternal life with God without God, excuse me. Everybody has eternal life. And to say that you have eternal life without the sun makes God a liar. We talked about that yesterday. But also, the flip side of that is to say that you don't have eternal life with the sun also makes God a liar. So as a Bible reader, as a Christian, you don't want to promise more than the Bible says. But the flip side is you also don't want to promise less than the Bible said. So the Christian life is active, it's alive. It's born again. It's growing. It's correcting, it's doing it with other people. And one of the things that the Christian life involves is asking and being heard by God, and responding. So here's the question is, if you knew that God really heard you today, what would you ask him for? And let me ask the question in a different way, does your prayer life in both quantity of prayer and quality of prayer, asking, demonstrate that you believe that you're being heard by God? So the question is, Do you have confidence in this eternal life? And do you have Have you told your temporal life about your confidence in eternal life? And is that means is your eternal life reflected and affecting your earthly life? And in the way that we're talking about today is, first with your belief. So there's knowing and being and then in your prayer, which is the doing the asking, it's this relational confidence that we have. So qualifying that that that confidence, as believers is a one who is confident toward him. So what is confidence? Confidence is this freedom of speech? It's the permission to speak, it's answering the question, may I speak freely, sir? And the answer is yes. So it's a Frank speaking, a bold speaking, plain speaking, maybe a little bit courageous speaking. It's the hat. It's having the posture of fear of God, respect for God respect for the office, while speaking fearlessly. So, if you start from the position of awe and have respect for God and honor for God and reverence for God and maybe occasionally terror for God, that those are all definitions of the fear of God. Then what do you do with that? Well, what he's asking us to do today is to lean in to lean toward his direction towards his presence, and take advantage of the access. So, as we finish here today, let me assess or help me assess with you our confidence in speaking freely with before this, this big, powerful God. So let's say you don't have the confidence, I see three different scenarios. The first is you're not a believer, you're not part of the family. You've never sat on his lap lap and whispered in his ear. And if not, then today's the day, it's eternal life. It's the good stuff. And when is when does he turn to life start eternal life. This was the total title from yesterday only starts today, in that this is the only day that we have. So the context of the passage is everybody's eternal. Eternal life starts today. And it only starts today. And God wants you to be a part of that. So it's that the answer is that you may be a part of us that he's given you access. So maybe you need that. Second thing is a person could say, Hey, I'm not speaking freely to God, I didn't know this about God, wait, I'm supposed to be leaning in and having confidence in this familiar relationship. If that's you, then God has given you knowledge today that you mean know this. And then the third thing, which is probably most of us, as I've heard about this, but I've had only been doing maybe there's 10%, and here God has given us permission to speak freely, that is that we may do do what do what the passage says lean in towards God have competence. Bring your requests, bring your pains, bring your Joy's have competence toward him. So you have confidence and permission to speak freely. The point is act like it. So you have permission to be and to know, and for most of us to do to ask and lean in. So when we ask the big question, the junior officers asked to the senior officers to God Himself. Do we have permission to speak freely, sir, God's answer is yes. Let's have confidence today. Thanks for listening.
