Ep 56: Eastbound and Down

0:00 Well, good morning, I'm Daniel Dalp and this is for your Sunday Morning drive, the short podcast with the goal of providing your motivation, your drive and your encouragement on your way to worship and re centering your mind on those spiritual things on a hectic Sunday morning. We are brought to you in partnership with the Ministry League network of podcasts. Ministry League offers many great resources for the church, all of them free and all of them available either on their app or at ministryleague.com. And whether you're just joining us or you've been listening for some time, please know I very much appreciate you taking the time out of your week to make us a part of your routine. And if you don't mind, share us with a friend. Let's go ahead and get the show on the road this morning. This is episode 56, eastbound and down. Let's go to church.

0:56 Are we there yet? Early last month I saw a news story come across my notifications about an overturned semi truck causing traffic issues in Henderson, KY. Now those of you who are familiar with Henderson know that that is hardly news and certainly isn't a surprise. And seeing a semi truck certainly isn't out of the ordinary. It's pretty mundane actually, as a quick Google search told me that there are about 2.9 million of those trucks on the road at any given point within the good old US of A. But what was interesting about this story is what the truck was carrying.

1:45 It was full of Bibles, precious cargo. Indeed, a truck chock full of the Word of God had jackknifed and overturned and was expected to back up traffic in the area for at least six hours. The Word of God was causing a disruption. And that got me to thinking about us as Christians, specifically about the imagery used by Paul in Second Corinthians chapter 4. In verses 5 through 7 he says, for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your bond servants for Jesus sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Some versions are going to read clay jars that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. You see Paul is saying here, hey Christians, how awesome is it that the glory of God, the good news, the gospel of Christ, something so precious, so valuable, something with such disruptive life changing potential is entrusted and sent out into the world in something that's fragile, flawed, commonplace and easily broken as us, his imperfect human servants.

3:06 What's more is that right after this, Paul pins my absolute favorite verses in the Bible, Second Corinthians chapter 4, eight through 10. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken and struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body, those jars, those mundane fragile earthen vessels, us. The gospel within also sustains us. Not so easily broken after all, it would seem. But it's important to remember that we are sustained for a purpose.

3:51 We got to let what is in us out the gospel. And just like that tractor trailer dumping Bibles on a busy Rd. backing up traffic, when we let His light shine, it should cause a disruption. Now not an annoying holier than thou tirade or a cringe worthy social influencer bit, but the kind that is genuine, heartfelt and full of the simple truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and Christians. When we do that, it's going to be like when Paul and Silas and the other Christians in Thessalonica were accused in Acts 17 verse 6 of quote. Having turned the world upside down, you know each of us is capable of doing that with the message of God. And my encouragement to you today is to simply do it. And if you see a fellow Christian out there doing the same, encourage them also. 10 four good buddy. Keep up the good work.

4:50 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 keeps us from causing a disruption with the Gospel? What would help you feel equipped in sharing the message of Christ and what steps are you going to take to equip yourself? How can you encourage others that are out doing the Lord's work? And who can you tell about Jesus this week?