God comes first...Right?

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, Saints. Sorry about no episode yesterday. It is unfortunate, but technical difficulties are going to happen as we head into this podcasting. Unfortunately, I had a corrupted file yesterday, tried to upload it, and I just did not have time to rerecord the episode and edit it. So I am sorry about that. But we are back today continuing in Luke. Excited to get going here. Huge shout out to all of you that are sharing it out. We're almost to 100 downloads on the, uh, first 8 episodes alone, uh, so we're very, very excited about that. Thank you so much to all of you guys that are listening and sharing this out. It means the world. I really hope the Lord is reaching you in daily devotions as we continue on through Luke. But without further ado, let's get down to it. So, uh, when last we spoke, we were looking at the childhood of Jesus. Uh, we are now moving forward into the actual works of Christ, and today is not going to be about Christ specifically. It's going to be about John the Baptist preparing So I'm excited to get into that, break that down, take a look at it, look at that, its meaning and its importance. As always, guys, I will be reading from the ESV, but you are welcome to follow along in whatever translation you prefer. If you're listening at the office or on the road, I'll read the passage out loud so you guys have that. But we will be reading starting in Luke 3 today. So let's get down to it. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, His brother Philip, tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went into all the region around Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall become straight, the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into The crowds asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, whoever has 2 tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him, and we, what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages. As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire coming and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all. Then he locked John up in prison. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son, and with you I am well pleased. That's it for the reading for today, guys. So what I really love about this passage, what stands out for me, is this warning. So often we see evangelism and it's talked about as being seeker-friendly. You've got to build relationships. You can't share hard truths and honest truths. You have to speak softly and gently. Meanwhile, here's John standing in the wilderness with a big stick and walking tall. He does not pull any punches here. He lays it out as simple as it is. If your heart has changed and the Holy Spirit has changed you, it should have a reflection. Your, your deeds, your, your, your actions are not self— are not saving in and of themselves. But because of your salvation, your deeds should change, your heart should change, your desires should change. We see people from all different walks, and it's not by coincidence that we see this, but we've got somebody who's a tax collector. These are the denizens of society, right? These are, these are the people that are hated by the Jews because they work for Rome and they extort their own people, right? And he speaks to them directly and says, just do your job honestly. Do your job honestly. Do well. To the soldiers who are persecuting the people, don't do that. Don't take money that's unnecessary. Do your job well. Do what's required of you, but don't be maniacal in, in your position and/or in your authority. It's amazing to see here the call for simple changes in your life, but those changes aren't going to happen unless you have a heart. Now, it's no coincidence either that the sacrifice that you need to make is often going to affect Your personal walk in some way, shape, or form. Believe me, if you were a soldier or a tax collector back then and you stop extorting money, people are going to start looking at you sideways like, what's wrong with you? It's going to stand out. Obviously, it's going to hit your bottom line here, right? The dollars aren't going to flow in like they once did if you were extorting people, if you were extortioning people for their income on top of their taxes, on top of their protection. It's just this really Huge thing of you will have to sacrifice things of this world— money, relationships, time, maybe even your position. Those things are going to come under serious siege in following Christ. But John says your heart is going to take Christ over those things if the Holy Spirit has baptized you and changed you. So I challenge you today, and this is a big struggle for myself. I, I do not have this one under control in a huge way. I challenge you men as well. Take a look at your life. Where is Christ not first? What aren't you willing to sacrifice? What aren't you willing to put up for Christ? That's a big problem. Wrestle with that. Rip it apart. Don't, don't sit on that. Wrestle with it. I'm going to leave you guys with that for the weekend. I really hope you have an amazing weekend, but struggle with that today. Wrestle with that today like Jacob did. Lord, what is it that's in my life? What is it that I put before you? What is it that I would not be willing to sacrifice in order to pursue you? All right, I'm gonna pray for you here, men. Uh, I do want to let you guys know I do continue to lift up everybody in prayer who has reached out on social media, who has sent me emails asking for prayer. So we're going to continue to do that this morning. If you guys do have a request for prayer, please make sure all the social media channels are in the description for the podcast. My email is there as well if you want to send me an email. It's a little more private and personal. All the prayers that are done are done under pseudonym or first name only, so you don't have to worry about that. But let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the men, the saints that are listening to this. I pray that they do wrestle today, that they do challenge themselves. What comes first? What, what would they put before you? Wealth, title, relationships? What is it that comes before you? Help us all to wrestle with this, Lord. Help us to really challenge ourselves. What do we put before you? What comes first? You, and then what? Should be the question, not then what, then you. Lord, I, I lift up, uh, Tom to you. I pray that, uh, you continue to be with his wife. I do lift up John to you, who continues to be in the hospital. Lord, I pray for, um, The musician who has a serious pain and medical ailment in his arm that could cause him to sacrifice his worship, his time with you, and also leading a church in worship. Lord, please, please, please be with him in that. I lift up a gentleman who lost his wife yesterday. Lord, that pain and that sorrow as he looks forward to being a father of two children alone as a result of that. I just pray that you're with him, comfort him, bless him during this time of mourning. Allow him to mourn, but also to be there for his children and care for them in a serious way. Lord, I lift up all of these prayers to you. And I pray that these men have an amazing weekend with their families as they come to worship you on Sunday. I pray that they would cling to you, love on you, and love on their families. In your name we pray. That's it for this week, guys. I look forward to getting back to Luke on Monday. I hope you have an amazing day, and thank you so much to all of you who are taking the time to leave reviews, to comment, to like, and to share the podcast episodes. Have a great day.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.