312. How to Make 2025 Great

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Transcript for "How to make 2025 great"  New Years is a great time to remember time is passing, another year is gone.  We are getting closer to seeing God every year. 11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.  Romans 13:11-14 ·        Paul says our salvation is nearer now ·        We should be “clothing ourselves with Christ.”  Living as Jesus did.  Representing him to our friends and family. ·        We need to use this time to review, repent and resolve to become the people God has called us to be.    1.      Review:  5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?   2 Corinthians 13:5 a.     Examine yourself, test yourself.  This is a great time to do it right now. b.    List out all the good you did this year                                                  i.      What did you do well this year?  What are you proud of? c.     List out all the bad actions                                                  i.      Bad actions                                               ii.      Lack of good actions d.    How’d you do? e.     How do you feel?                                                  i.      You will know the areas you need to focus on. f.       The goal is growth and peace of mind     2.     Repent:  a.     3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 4 Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.  1 John 2:3-6 b.    Get your eyes on Jesus.  What is Jesus like?  What does he stand for? c.     Who are you?  What’s your identity?  What do you stand for? d.    Obedience to Jesus is how we express our love for him.  We are called to live like Jesus.                                                   i.      His purity of thought                                               ii.      His purpose for living                                             iii.      His humility to serve other people daily e.     Repentance is when we get our mind right and stop conforming to this world and our bad habits and instead conform ourselves to our identity as followers of Christ and sons of God. 3.     Resolve a.     Definition:  “decide firmly on a course of action” or “firm determination to do something.” b.    Examples from the Bible                                                  i.      Jehoshaphat:  2 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom,[a] from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). 3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.  2 Chronicles 20:2-4 1.      He decided firmly to fast and it brought about a miraculous victory.                                               ii.      Daniel:  But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.  Daniel 1:8 1.      He chose to diet and not eat or drink certain foods.                                             iii.      Malachi:  14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.  “And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the Lord Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me.  Malachi 1:14, 2:1-2 1.      The sin was giving God second best, leftovers, “tipping, not tithing to God.” c.     If you want to make 2025 great, you have to decide to take action, you have to decide firmly that things will be different this year.  You have to resolve to honor God. d.    What one thing would make the difference in how you feel about your relationship with God? e.     What one thing would make the biggest difference in how you feel about yourself? f.       What one thing would make the biggest difference in saving people and rescuing people? g.     What one thing would make the biggest difference in serving people around you and around the world? Next Steps: ·        Review ·        Repent ·        Resolve:  I resolve to __________________ in 2025.

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner Listen as I talk to Murvi Baba, a 30-year-old disciple living in the Boston Metro Area.  Born in the US and raised in Nigeria and Ghana, he returned to the states to go to college at Tufts University.  After becoming a Christian, he went into the ministry.  He currently works as a songleader, the European Missions Society and for the Boston Church doing Online Outreach.  Listen as he shares about his life and journey.

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Valdur Koha moved to the US in the eighties with his wife Irene.  Listen as he shares about how he became a Christian, his success as a business founder during the 90's Dot.Com boom and how he navigated the Dot.Com bust and challenges in the church.  In the early 2000's he reinvented himself as a spiritual teacher and applied his business skills to guiding and directing the Beam Foundation to provide support for mission plantings and leadership development.   More about Valdur: Valdur serves as Elder and Teacher in the Boston Church of Christ. He also serves as the president of the European Missions Society and the executive director of the CHORD Leadership Center which promotes holistic, biblical leadership around the world. Valdur currently chairs the ICOC Teacher’s Service Team. Born in Germany in 1955, Valdur lives with his family in Boston since 1985. Valdur and Irene have been married since 1980; they have five sons and one daughter (all disciples) and ten grandchildren.   Contact Valdur here: [email protected]

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner If you are struggling or have ever struggled with the temptationy toward pornography, you are definitely not alone. Statistics reveal that 68% of church-going men and over 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis. Of young Christian adults 18-24 years old, 76% actively search for porn.  In this episode, originally published in 2022 in episode 150, I interview Jeff Hernandez, a disciple I've known for over 30 years.  Of my 300+ episodes, this is one of the most listened to and highlights the challenge of pornography and sexual addiction.  Listen as Jeff shares about his: ·         Descent into sexual addiction ·         Divorce from his wife of 22 years. ·         Remarriage outside of the church ·         Recovery from his sexual addiction ·         Conversion of his second wife ·         Return to the church ·         What he learned along the way ·         How to overcome sexual temptation and addiction.   You can reach Jeff Hernandez at https://www.lovingwingsrecovery.com/ (https://www.missionfrontiers.org/issue/article/15-mind-blowing-statistics-about-pornography-and-the-church)

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Today, I’m talking to Glenn Petruzzi.  Glenn is an experienced missionary, minister and church planter.  He led a young church in Tirane, Albania for two years, revitalized the Boston campus ministries in the early 2000's, planted a church in Portland, Maine and is now working in the Boston Church of Christ.  He has a dream to win the world with the Gospel and today he’s going to talk about that dream.

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Today, I’m talking with Moses Singh, missionary to India, Bangladesh and the USA.  Moses and was converted in New York City and went on mission to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh before returning to the US.  He and his wife have planted two churches in the US while working full time secular jobs.  Listen to Moses story of mission and how he plans to live to 120 by eating right and living right.

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Today, I continue my exposition of Matthew in Matthew 16:1-20.  

ow to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner   Dwayne and Tsega Blai had dreams to go into the full-time ministry as twenty-somethings.  When that plan got derailed they worked in the secular world for a number of years.  They reentered the ministry well into their thirties and then decided to leave the US and lead a church in Bridgetown, Barbados.  The island has under 300,000 residents and the main city of Bridgetown has a little over 100,000 souls.  The church was stagnant for over ten years and in the past year since they arrived the church has grown by twenty percent.  Find out how these middle-aged missionaries uprooted and took their three kids to a tiny island to reignite a fire for God.   How to reach the Blais: Dwayne Blai [email protected]  246-289-1822   Tsega Blai [email protected]  246-289-1823

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner    Matthew Series Matthew 15:21-39 Introduction Jesus had just dealt with the topic of what was clean and what was unclean.  Jesus said our heart and the words that come from out heart are what defile us, not what we eat or touch or our external environment.  I hope you’ve had a good week digging a little deeper, paying attention to your words, the thoughts of your heart.  Jesus goes on from that powerful parable or proverb and in the next two stories illustrates in real time the implications of that teaching.  1.    You Have Great Faith! Matthew 15:21-28 21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” 25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. This story is also recounted in Mark 7:24-30.  Jesus has withdrawn to a Gentile area, not for preaching but to avoid the growing hostility of the Jews and to get ready for the next stage of his ministry.  This puts him in direct contact with Gentiles and these two stories provide a preview and a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate plans for the gentiles.  A woman comes to him.  The word used is “Canaanite.”  This is probably an archaic term at this point.  It’s meant to point back to the arch-enemies of God’s people back in the time of Moses and Joshua.  She comes out to Jesus begging for help.  How does Jesus respond? ·       Ignores her, 23 ·       Rejects her, 24 ·       Insults her, 26 The disciples are really stuck because she keeps on making a ruckus and Jesus apparently won’t deal with the issue.  They want Jesus to solve her problem and make her go away, so there’s tension building.  Jesus continues to ignore her.  Then he repeats his mission.  His mission is to reach the Jews and fulfill the promises given to them first.  After these first two rejections, Jesus goes into a house and the woman enters and gets down and begs him.  Then Jesus drops a bomb.  He calls her a “dog.”  The word used is diminuative.  But the word was used by Jews to describe Gentiles.  Dogs weren’t viewed the same way as today.  He’s not saying “puppy.”  He’s testing her.  He’s using the same language she would hear from Jewish neighbors.  Jesus is not coming across very “Christ-like” in this interaction.  Like the story we read in chapter 8 about the Centurion, there are racial issues coming up right here.  Jews considered the gentiles dirty and unclean.  They were to be avoided.  What we can’t see is the tone or body language being used by Jesus.  Our reading is two-dimensional but the situation was three-dimensional.  It seems clear that Jesus was testing this woman to bring out her faith and highlight it.  If we only focus on individual sentences rather than the entire interaction we will get a wrong view of Jesus, his attitudes and purposes.  Three times he tested her and in the end her faith gave her everything she wanted from Jesus.  What can we learn from this woman?  We better learn something, because her behavior caused Jesus to exclaim, “Woman, you have great faith!”  Why? ·       She focused on getting to Jesus ·       She was desperate ·       She was troubled ·       She was persistent ·       She wasn’t going to accept “no.” ·       She was able to reason with God o  Like Abraham, she didn’t allow difficult situations to box in her thinking.  She reasoned by faith.  Let’s take a look at Hebrews 11:19, “19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”  She actually disagreed with Jesus and “won” the argument.  She took his parable and turned it around on him.  She even points to the fact that the Jews’ blessings were meant to spill over and be a blessing to all nations. §  Pam, “Ok! Let’s talk about it!” ·       She viewed God’s seeming rejection as a challenge o  Abraham had that same type of faith and was able to reason by faith and even get stronger in his faith when God called him to sacrifice his son Isaac.  In Romans 4 it says, “20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  The very nature of the challenge that God gave him stimulated his faith even more.  When God challenged his faith, it caused him to go deeper, to strengthen his faith.  She didn’t quit or get angry, she just dug in and viewed it as an opportunity to have even more faith than before. How do you rate when it comes to faith?  Are you a person that is willing to dig in and wrestle with God?  ·       Health issues, your own or family members ·       Financial challenges ·       Dating, engagement and marriage issues ·       Job related troubles:  Unemployment, underemployment, boss issues, coworker issues ·       Overcoming besetting sins ·       Meeting people and helping them become true disciples ·       Relationship challenges in the fellowship What difficulty are you facing right now?  Really think about that.  Bring it to mind. Are you approaching that problem with the same attitude and approach this woman had? ·       Are you going to Jesus? ·       Are you desperate, troubled and persistent? ·       Are you unwilling to accept “no” for an answer? ·       Are you reasoning by faith? ·       Are you viewing obstacles, challenges, God’s apparent silence or even lack of interest as an opportunity to get stronger or have you just given up? I think Dennis Keating is a good example of this kind of faith.  When told he had cancer, he got his affairs in order and prepared for death.  And at the same time, he started praying and asking God for help.  He faced the facts and still had faith.   2.   Jesus Feeds Four Thousand, Matthew 15:29-39 29 Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. 30 Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 31 The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. 32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” 33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” 34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” 35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. 37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 38 The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan. These two stories are connected by “bread.”  Bread tossed to dogs and bread for “gentile dogs.”  Jesus is still in foreign territory.  His compassion for the people is what drives him.  Why is this second feeding mentioned in two gospels?  It’s smaller, more food is initially available and less food is leftover.  It seems anticlimactic and unnecessary unless you consider the people receiving the food.  In 15:31 it mentions that Jesus’ miracles cause the crowd to praise the God of Israel.  This points to the fact that they were not from Israel.  This feeding is here to highlight Jesus’ ultimate aim to pull all races, all nations, all peoples together and take care of them.  This is what connects this entire chapter on what defiles, what is clean and what is unclean.  He lays out the principle, demonstrates it by helping a Canaanite woman and then broadens that blessing to an entire gentile crowd. If you’d like to have compassion on people who aren’t like yourself,  look around this holiday season for opportunities to serve people unlike yourself. Next Steps ·       Take your biggest challenge and use it as motivation and tool to approach Jesus with unwavering faith.  Spend five minutes daily this week begging God to act on your request.  ·       Have compassion on the people around you.  

How to Support the Rob Skinner Podcast.  If you would like to help support my mission to multiply disciples, leaders and churches, click here:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robskinner In this episode, I’m rereleasing my interview with Brian Craig, who recently passed away from brain cancer.  This interview was originally released as episode 255 in March of 2024 after Brian’s diagnosis.  Listen as he shares about his experience living with a terminal illness.