Hearing is Believing Teachings Podcast: Recent Episodes
Timothy Brown
The teaching ministry of Timothy Andrew Brown. Connecting contemporary culture with the timeless truths of God’s Word.
The Cross of christ is the good news we share to everyone as heralds proclaiming the message of salvation. Our message is the cross of Christ as the only remedy for sin. There is no pathway to heaven other than the cross.
Reconciliation is messy. Reconciliation looks at the deepest of depravity and says, God’s grace is sufficient. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Reconciliation says what Corrie Ten Boom famously quipped - “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still."
One of the challenges our society faces is the myth of autonomy and the false sense of individualism. We are autonomous, we are individuals and as free individuals we face consequences of our actions. There are certain limits put in place by God that ensure freedom.
The Bible is specific. Our message is not simply Christ has set us free; he has done that. But, for freedom, Christ has set us free. He has set us free to enjoy freedom. He has not set us free to entrap or enslave us but to free us. In Christ, we are freed to be free.
The Law doesn’t build delight. It can’t! It can only build anxiousness. It can never satisfy.
Everyone knows someone with a story. What’s your story? I can tell you your story. Though I might not know the details, I can tell you enough of your story. I am able to tell you your story because I know the one story that touches every story. I know the story of Jesus. Amazingly, it’s a story that begins before the foundation of the world.
Christ is the defining moment of human existence. He created space in order to be known and he orients human history according to himself. He is reality!
Christians have a book, a Holy Book. In that book we have a message from God to us. But not only do we have a book, we have a Word to help us interpret the book. Jesus is the Word of God in flesh appearing, as the carol says, and each Sunday we take our Bible’s and come and adore the Word through taking our Bible’s to turn to hear from God.
Jesus redeems ruined sinners through being lifted on a cross - through crucifixion. The death of Jesus on the cross is the way that we know God. We cannot know God outside of a cross. John 3:16 tells us that Jesus died on the cross because God so loved the world.
The question that Christian confession must answer is, why did died on the cross? According to Scripture, Christ died in order to pay the penalty for our sin. No sin was in him and so his death was taking what he didn’t have in order to give what only he could give. He took our sin so that he could give us his sinlessness. He took our unrighteousness so that he could give us his righteousness.
Truth matters. How can you discern truth from error? Is life just a set of opinions or experiences or is there something more concrete that guides? As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we proclaim that truth has a name. We proclaim truth has come to us through Jesus who himself is the way, the truth, and the life.
As we think about the changes the pandemic has brought to our world I want us to think carefully and clearly about what matters most. Followers of Jesus have a confession that stands above any challenge; a bold assurance that looks in the face of strong diversity and says, “there will be a brighter tomorrow, because he lives.”
We are preparing a new season starting in 2022. For that reason, the teaching podcast of Hearing is Believing will be taking a break for the remainder of 2021. Here are some ways to stay connected to our teachings. See you again for a new season in 2022.
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What does it mean to be a family? Our cultural is desperately seeking an answer to this question. We have an opportunity this morning here in church to consult God to see the foundation of family.
On the sixth day, God created the crown of his creation - man and woman. As we come today to the sixth word we come to consider God’s special creation - humanity.
There is something special about being on a first name basis with folks. No one likes to be called by the wrong name. Being on a first name basis is a mark of relationship.
The commandments flow from Exodus 19:3-6 - redemption. Here at the head of the commandments - redemption. God acts on our behalf and then extends an invitation for us to experience what life his all about - relationship with God, walking with him.
The Bible tells the story of people encountering God and that encounter setting the direction of their lives. Abraham never came back from his journey of trusting God. Moses never got over his encounter with God on the mountain. David never got past his confidence in God after he killed the giant. The disciples never got over Jesus.
We are pilgrims on the way. God has left us here as road markers to the eternal city of God. We are part of the expectant hope the world longs for. The world is looking for authenticity. There is nothing more authentic than the message of God’s grace that says come as you are. The world is looking for love. There is nothing more loving than the message of the cross of Jesus Christ. The world is looking for belonging. There is nothing like belonging with the forgiven. The world is looking for truth, joy, hope. God says here’s the church.
When Jesus walked out of the tomb the rays of the new creation began piercing through the darkness for the first time the dark rays of Adam's curse of death. The end has come, we are in the last days and have been since the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, and the sealing of the Spirit. We are waiting on the consumption of the age, the end has come and the end is coming. Both realities center on Jesus!
It is amazing how our Lord comes into our chaos and teaches us to hope, shows us to love, and causes us to believe. Jesus has a way of making beauty out of ashes, bringing joy out of pain, and giving everlasting peace.
This message of love forms a community of love, and the community of love will eventually fill the whole world. Our world is looking for love but is doing so in all the wrong places.
We turn our attention today towards the Bible’s teachings on morality, specifically sexual morality, or sexual ethics. Christian teaching on sex and morality was not popular when it first came to society, and still to this day what the Bible says about sex and morality is not popular. It was Spurgeon who said, "There is toleration for everybody who conforms to the fashion of the day; but no toleration for anyone who believes that the laws of heaven should regulate life on earth."
How do we "supply what is lacking" in another's faith? We alleviate the concerns of others as we serve them in Jesus name.
We bring all our cares and concerns to God and long for the day when we will have no concerns. Until that day we come together and share one another burdens stirring each other to faith and good works.
A community of Christians are those who have embarked on the Jesus way together. We travel together through this world on the way to glory and as we do we confess the gospel truth.
The world around us is desperately searching for joy; looking for any anchor of hope; and God has entrusted the church, as his new creation, to serve society by giving a glimpse, however fleeting, of a brighter tomorrow that begins today. The church is born in a world of turmoil, born through the adversity of the Cross of Christ, and through the scars of affliction we point weary travelers towards certainty - a celestial city filled with purest delight and absolute joy! The assurance of our joy comes from the indestructible life of Jesus.
Tune in each day next week as we explore the most significant week in history - Holy Week.
Our world is desperate to know what Christians know. Now that we know, we have been commissioned to tell this good news of a God who loves, heals, forgives, and judges evil. How will they know unless someone tells? God uses our lives to tell his story.
The difference between true teaching and false teaching is Jesus! He is the difference between life or death, between eternity with God and eternity separated from God. Jesus is the difference between hope and hopelessness, between truth and error. And, since he is the difference since in him is life, we understand the responsibility to both know him and faithfully make him known.
Contentment is our eleventh principle in our series Safe to Shore. As we begin the end of our study of 1 Timothy we do so focusing on what we saw at the beginning of the letter, an emphasis on true doctrine. Again, Paul emphatically puts true teaching and the results of true teaching side by side causing us to realize true teaching produces what Burroughs called that rare Jewel - Christian contentment.
God intends to build a community. The way that Jesus builds community is by putting the flame of his presence within his followers, within those who believe, the Spirit who seals until the day of redemption. Often when we consider God building his church we might thing of movements or moments, events or programs, but God’s work is with living stones and he builds in the secret part of hearts as he molds and fashions us into his likeness.
False teaching is always the danger of the church and it enters through false teachers. False teachers follow a pathway of a slow fade - they drift from the truth. Timothy’s charge is to persevere through discipline. Discipline that nourishes through the Word and through not neglecting the preaching ministry he has. Both things require training for godliness.
Don’t panic, instead pursue faithfulness. As you do, do so with confidence in the God who calls, empowers, and sustains. All is according to plan. We might not understand it, we don’t have to understand it, our marching orders are clear. Hold the line. Stay faithful.
Every human has a desire for fellowship, a desire for belonging. Why is this so? The Bible says, “In the beginning God created.” God creating is full of meaning. By understanding God created we understand purpose. God, who has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Spirit in love, decided to create space to be known. God, who is love, created. Amazingly, as we encounter the first pages of creation we see God’s special creation - mankind. We learn that male and female are created in the image of God and that God speaks to them and they understand him. God created mankind to walk with him - to know Him and to make Him known.
Headline after headline will convince us that the Church all over the world is in crisis. Such a headline should shake us to our core. The crisis in the Church does not mean a waining influence, or a closed building, or a time talking about days gone by. The crisis in the Church means the beautiful Bride of Christ has a crisis. The crisis of the church is a leadership issue, the leadership issue becomes a fellowship issue. Leaders of the church are leaders who follow the leader. The leader of the Church is Christ!
Freedom has a boundary. The boundary of freedom is truth. When we turn our attention towards Holy Scripture we turns towards the Word of God. Every word of God proves true. (Prov. 30:5) Holy Scripture truthfully testifies to the one who said, I am the way the truth and the life. (Jn. 14:6) The words he speaks through Scripture are spirit and life. (Jn. 6:63) In knowing the truth we know freedom.
God has given us a ministry of prayer. We are to be non-discriminatory in our praying, we pray for all people, even those who persecute us, who spitefully use us, and who abuse us.
Jesus has brought an extravagant truth to the world. Our text this evening tells the truth God has brought to the world in Christ. 1 Timothy 1:15, This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. From that idea comes what we call The Gospel. What is the gospel, when, and why is it important? Have you ever considered those questions, or have you assumed those questions? What is assumed is often lost.
The cultural tides of our society are shifting rapidly. As the foundations upon which our society were built continue to crumble due to secularism, there is a heavy-handed desire from some to disjoin Christian confession from public expression.
How do you know what you know? How do you know if what you know is true? Questions like this are not silly, instead they represent a quest towards reality and not away from it.
The hope God has called us to is not for just a moment, but for every moment and for eternity. Such a hope means we must take seriously the call God has called us towards.