Ep 47: The Source and the Seed

Speaker1: Hey. Good morning, I'm Daniel Dalpe, and this is for your Sunday morning drive. The short podcast with the goal of providing your motivation, your drive on your way to worship and recentering your mind on the spiritual things on those hectic Sunday mornings. I do hope you're having a wonderful day today, and I'm thankful that you decided to ride along with us this morning. We are brought to you in partnership with the Ministry League Network of Podcasts. Ministry League offers many free resources for your spiritual growth, as well as many wonderful podcasts that I encourage you to check out. If you are interested in checking out any of those great podcasts, you can check out our show notes every week for a link to their YouTube channel. I think that just about takes care of it this morning. Let's get this show on the road. This is episode 47, The Source and the seed. Let's go to church.

Speaker2: Are we there yet?

Speaker1: All right, strap in. It's another bird related episode. And you know what? I'm not apologizing for that. You already know of my love for feeding the birds in my backyard, especially during the winter season. It brings me great joy to see the feathered friends of God's creation flitting about and getting their fill on those icy days, and it makes me feel good to provide them with some extra reserves to help them endure the bitter cold in the winter weather. However, I was reading an article yesterday and it focused on the possible downsides of bird feeders as it applies to winter survivability. And here's what it found. It found that bird feeders do boost survival when looking at chickadees. During a 1980s study, it found that on average, 69% of chickadees with access to a feeder survived the winter, compared to only 37% without supplemental food. But those birds also experienced higher risks of massive die offs associated with diseases spread by contaminated food or dirty feeders. Interesting. It would seem that when clean, healthy food is supplied, the birds prospered. But if they ate even good food from a so-called poisoned well, the result was that they perished. And I believe that there is a spiritual application that can be taken from this. Consider the source of our spiritual nourishment. As Christians, we are to be fed and nourished by the Word of God. But as we are all well aware, not all feeders are safe. You see, Paul is shocked by the Christians in Galatia that seemed to have deserted sound teaching for a corrupted source. Galatians chapter one, verses six through ten.

Speaker1: I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is not really another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you. He is to be accursed, as we have said before. And so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be a curse. For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God, or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond servant of Christ. You know, there's a lot of noise out there, a lot of sources that promise spiritual nourishment and encouragement, but are instead dangerous places for us to draw from, some even perverting the. Gospel and instead offering half truths or more commonly, their own teachings, many buckling to pressures of what is popular and right in the eyes of society, but not in the eyes of God. Paul even warns Timothy of this in Second Timothy chapter four, verses three and four. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myth. You know, I truly pray that this podcast is a good source of encouragement and nourishment.

Speaker1: I really try to make sure it is, but friends, be sure that even those of us that are out here trying our best to do what's right constantly test the source of what you're hearing. We should be constantly testing the source of what we feed from, to make sure that we are getting the Word of God accurately. If a preacher, a minister, or an influencer ever tries to lead you to believe that the Word of God isn't relevant, or that they know better, or have some kind of special revelation? Be weary of that. That's a poison feeder. Let us instead be like those good brethren from Berea in Acts 17. 11 now, these were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. They tested the source. The old saying, I guess, still holds true even when it comes to what we feast on spiritually. You are what you eat. Well, those are my thoughts for your Sunday morning drive. Now it's time to hear yours. Our discussion questions for this week are what sometimes keeps us from being more discerning of spiritual content that we consume. Are we truly holding those messages up against Scripture? Do we sometimes cling on to beloved traditions or beliefs about religion when they're really not founded or rooted in Scripture at all? And what can we do to better build our faith from the only true source, the Word of God?