Read the word. DO THE WORD!

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis. Welcome back, Saints. It is a new day and I am excited to get into another chapter of Luke. We're heading into Luke 9 today. I'm pretty pumped about that. Before we get going here, guys, though, I do just want to say thank you to all of you guys that are listening. I am absolutely blown away with how quickly the podcast is growing. We have broken through the 5,000 download mark in the first 30 episodes, which It's kind of nuts. It's kind of crazy to see where you guys all over the world are listening to this. It is a huge blessing, and it was my heart's desire that this be the case, and the providence of the Lord in making this happen is an answered prayer for sure and a huge blessing. So I hope these episodes are bringing some value to you guys in your daily devotions and reconnecting with the Word or connecting deeper in the Word, as well as connecting in a community of prayer. Speaking of community, there are at the bottom of every episode a list of the different social media networks that I'm on, guys. Twitter, Facebook, etc. So if you guys are looking to connect more, you'd like to provide feedback, prayer requests, anything of that nature, all of the social media channels are down at the bottom. Feel free to click in, engage, just say hi, follow along. Down the road, I hope to be able to find some Christian brands like Crosswalk or Logos or Caruso that will offer some products for you guys that you can get off of those places at a reduced rate. I know for me, typically I like to grab a new Bible once every year or so. So there's a couple of guys that I like to go for that and get specific Bibles. So I'd love to be able to offer you guys the ability to do that with some discounts, but that's down the road. So thank you for listening. Let's get down to it. Luke 9. So we had just finished going through the power trio, looking at the different examples of Christ's power and authority over the Over demons and over the body. So now here we are, we're heading into Luke 9. We're going to take a look at what comes next for Jesus. As always, guys, I will be reading from the ESV. So if you don't have a Bible handy, don't worry. I am going to read the passage in its entirety. But if you do have a Bible handy, I always encourage you to crack it open, take notes, read. There's just something about having a physical copy of the Bible in your hand that changes the experience. So if you've got your Bible handy, go ahead and grab it. Pause the episode. If you got to go grab it, but just, uh, take that time now. Uh, but we're going to move into Jesus 9. We're going to do 9:1-6. Okay. And he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey— no staff, no bag, no bread, no money. Do not have 2 tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the villages preaching the gospel and healing everyone. All right, this is one of the reasons I really love the book of Luke. It reads for me very much like an instruction manual. It totally makes sense to me how you see one part of the process leads to another, leads to another, leads to another. So we just spent 3 days going through the power of Christ where he's showing them, look, this is my authority. I have authority over all things, all of nature. I have authority. Have faith. I have authority over the demons, over powers and principalities. Here, let me show you. Bam. Here it is. Have faith. Then he moves on and heals sick and dead, and he says, bam, here you go. Have faith. Now, when you're looking at these, and we were looking at them over the last 3 days, we thought, okay, well, this was for us to recognize the power and authority of Jesus, right? Great. Ah, ah, ah. We don't get off that easy. Jesus isn't about just academic learning. This is practical, folks. This is hands-on. He calls us to be in the world. And so now we see as he's sending out his 12 together to go and do things, the things that he sends them out to do, he gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. So Christ, having led with the example of, look, this is legitimately what my power is capable of, right? This is what as Christ, I am capable of doing. Now, he also understands that these guys are fairly young to some of these things. They're blown away by some of the things like people being raised from the dead or telling storms to stop. And Jesus knows where their faith is. He knows where they are right now, and he knows that they're getting stronger. They're getting conviction. They're drawing closer to the Lord. But here he doesn't send them out to move mountains. He doesn't send them out to raise the dead, but he does send them out with the authority over casting out demons and curing diseases. So we see 2 of the 4 things that did in the previous chapter being given to the apostles to go do. Go do these things. Go do these things. What's interesting as well is when he sends them on their way, he's saying, go with nothing. Essentially, go with nothing. Go with the clothes on your back. That's all you're going to need. I have given you everything else that you need. Wherever you go, do the things that I have asked you to do and understand that the Lord will provide. Now, this is not for everybody. This is not a, everybody today should just go out into the world with the clothes on their back and God will provide no matter what. That's not the lesson here. This is specifically an incident for this time because we see other instances where he sends the apostles out to go prepare rooms with food and he gives them money. So there are other instances in scripture where we see that this isn't the case. But in this moment, he wants them to realize as they go out to do this work, all that they have done and accomplished is only through the authority of Christ. He wants them to witness firsthand and know what it feels like to be a part of Christ's power and authority over the world. This is a really, really special teaching, guys. And our takeaway from this today for me is what confidence do you have? How do you practically use your Bible day to day? The word is absolutely, without a doubt, infallible and practical. It is there for us to use. But if we don't use it, if we don't rely on it, we don't pull close, we don't appreciate that power and authority that Christ has. At the start of this podcast episode, I was telling you guys that I'm just Absolutely blown away with the work that's being done here, with how men are just drawn to the word when it's spoken, that people from all over the world want to hear this message. I'm blown away with how quickly and how powerfully that's happening, and I shouldn't be. But now I'm aware that it really is just that, and it had nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the word being spoken out loud into the void, and people hear it. Those that have ears to hear perk up. They listen, they hear it. The next step, guys, is, and I want to encourage you today, if you haven't listened to the past few episodes, so please go back, take a listen, understand what it is that Christ has done and accomplished. If you understand the authority of Christ, go do something from the Bible today. Now, please be cautious of that caveat disclaimer. I'm not asking you to go, you know, raze the cities like in the Old Testament. I'm not asking you to slaughter men, women, and children and all the atrocities of the Old Testament. I'm not asking you to do that, but I am asking you to take some practical things from what we have read in the book of Luke. We're now 9 chapters in. Take some of those practical lessons and go apply them today, just in some small way. Even if you can only do it in some small way, pray for somebody, offer a compassionate ear, speak the word, speak, talk to them about scripture, whatever it may be. Do something today. Take something from the word and practically use it in your family, in your workplace, in your marriage, whatever it may be, and witness what God We'll do with that. All right, man, before we leave today, I do want to pray for you guys. Uh, there were several prayer requests that came in yesterday, and there is a running theme throughout them, and it is pretty staggering for me, guys, to see how many prayer requests are coming in for marriages that are struggling. So I'd like to take the time today and really dial in on that, to pray for that. Um, I'm not going to name specific names. As always, when the prayer requests come in, for the most part, they are asking to be anonymous, and I am going to honor that. I think that's important that those that do ask for prayer or submit prayer requests, you guys can do that knowing in full faith that your names are never going to be shared with the public in any way. I don't keep a spreadsheet of them. I know where to find them, where the requests were made. Once they're done and prayed for in an episode, I delete them. They're gone. They don't stick around. I don't keep an omnibus of them. They're not here. Prayer is a special thing that's near and dear to our heart, especially as men when we're willing to be open about things that we are struggling with in our lives. And I want to respect that, that you guys have the courage to put forth those prayer requests, and they will always be guarded to every ounce of my ability. So if you do have prayer requests, again, the social media networks, don't hesitate to reach out to me. There's also an email that you can send your prayer request to directly. So let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you for a new day and a new opportunity. And I'm excited to see and hear how men go out into the world today and use your word. Your word is It is a beautiful story of your love for us and how you moved us from sin into Christ's redeeming grace. At the same time, Lord, there's so much in there that isn't just meant to be read, it's meant to be done. You can't fully understand it until you do it. So I pray that you would give conviction to the men that are listening to this podcast wherever they may be and encourage them to do the word today, to take that step, to take a leap of faith, to do something that they have been— Thinking about. hesitant to do or scared to do. Break that down, Lord, and give them the courage to just go out there and get it done and to draw closer to you in doing that, to get to know you better. Lord, there are an awful lot of marriages that seem to be struggling in strife. There's conflict, there's pain, there's anguish, and that's not the model that you set for us. When we look at scripture, you lay out very clearly what your desire is for marriage, what it should look like. You give us the Song of Solomon to show us this passion that should be in our marriage, this joy, this love. You show us how Christ loves on his bride. And I just pray, Lord, that the men that are going through hardship in their marriage, where it's difficult, there are struggles, there's strife, there's pain, there's anguish, there's agony. I pray that there would be healing. I pray that those men would be slow to speak, quick to listen, and let anger fall to the rear. I pray that they would be the godly heads that you call them to be, not authoritative patriarchs like the world would have them be, but instead the loving husbands that love like Christ loved, that love the church the way that Christ loved the church, that they would be servant leaders, lovers, that they would lay down their life for their bride. I pray for the brides out there as well, Lord. It's never one-sided. We look to Hosea in the scriptures and how he loves endlessly on his bride, and it's just never reciprocated properly, Lord. And I pray that in the hearts of those women, the Holy Spirit is working, that they would come to see the passion and effort that the husbands are putting in to love on them and to build their marriage, to strengthen their marriage so that they can both pull closer to you, Lord. Amen. I pray over those marriages. I pray blessing on them. In your name we pray. That's it for today, guys. Have an amazing day. I can't wait to see what you guys do, and I will be back again tomorrow with another episode. Take it easy. 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.