Theology For You: Recent Episodes
Theology For You
In this episode, we are going to go through a three-step process to help you read, study, and apply the Bible. Be sure to stick around to the end of this lesson where I’ll share with you a free resource that will help you get the most out of your Bible study.
You can view show notes and resources here.
Because God is true therefore His Word is true. And because His Word is true it makes good on its claims. It is without error. We can trust the Bible.
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The Bible is necessary to know God, salvation, and how to live a holy life.
We need God’s word for all of life. We cannot live without God’s word. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” This was in the context of His temptation from Satan. Jesus needed and we need to use the Bible to live life. The Bible is necessary.
You can view show notes and resources here.
To say that the Bible is authoritative is to say that it holds the final word; not science, human experience, or human reasoning. Scripture always has the final word.
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The clarity of Scripture means every believer can read and study the Bible on their own and benefit.
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What is the sufficiency of Scripture? One way to explain it is that the Bible contains everything we need for knowledge of God, salvation, and godly living.
A more concise definition is God’s Word is enough.
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If the Bible is not God’s Word then anything else we might say about it won’t matter. We cannot trust its claims for how we can be saved nor can we trust what it reveals to us about God if it is not from Him if it’s not His word. This is foundational for our understanding of God and the Bible.
You can view show notes and resources here.
There are only three possible responses to hearing the gospel and the command to repent in belief, to receive Christ, to reject Christ, or to investigate further.
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In this episode, we explore God's solution to our biggest problem. God is a love-giver who gave Jesus to reconcile us to Himself.
You can view show notes and resources here.
As you are presenting the gospel it is important to pause, reflect and ask further questions to make sure the message is being clearly communicated. In this episode, we take a look at how this can happen.
You can view show notes and resources here.
When we don't live life in a manner that is pleasing to God, when we are not living life in a God-centered way, we are living it in a self-centered way. And any time we disobey God when we disobey God in our mind or our actions, this is called sin.
You can view show notes and resources here.
What is the true meaning of life? What is our true purpose? Why have we been created? What have we been designed for? What does it mean to live life to its fullest?
The answer is life equals God-centered living. That's the second point in the come-home presentation. Life is God-centered living.
You can view show notes and resources here.
What is the starting point of the gospel? When we're sharing the gospel with someone, where do we begin? Do we start by talking about a person's sins? Do we start with God's love and plan for their life or do we start somewhere different? This is our first lesson in a series, teaching on the Gospel, helping you to grow in your faith and understanding of the gospel, and also equipping you with the ability to share the gospel with others.
You can view show notes and resources here.
If we're honest, many of us probably view evangelism as the minimum amount of truth to the maximum number of people. After all, we hear the phrase “the simple gospel”, yet is this the way we should think about evangelism?
The goal of evangelism is not the minimum amount of truth to the maximum number of people but rather the maximum amount of truth to the maximum number of people.
You can view show notes and resources here.
What is true faith? From the Bible, we see:
Saving faith is a conviction, brought about by the Holy Spirit, of the truth of the gospel and trust in the promises of God in Christ.
For show notes and resources visit here.
We need to be aware that people are either saved or lost. Will Metzger writes in his book "to weaken this radical but scriptural cleavage of mankind by suggesting a third category for people is an attack on the biblical doctrine of regeneration.
For show notes and resources visit here.
What do you think your job is in evangelism? Are you supposed to present all the logical arguments for the existence of God? Are you supposed to convince someone that they should become a believer? Is it your responsibility to bring someone to faith in Christ?
In this episode, we’re going to look at our role in evangelism versus God’s role in evangelism and how, many times, we get the two confused.
For show notes and resources visit here.
We must be careful not to confuse the story of how we became a believer with the story of how someone becomes a believer. We need to understand the difference between our testimony and the gospel.
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The greatest message that we as Christians can share with the world is what God has done through Jesus Christ in the gospel. The Christian witness to this great gospel should be evident in what we say and how we live our lives. As Will Metzger puts it in his book Tell the Truth, “The airplane of Christian witness has two wings, our lips, and our lives.”
For show notes and more visit here.
Every Christian is called to share the gospel with those around them that God might be worshipped and that people all around the world might be satisfied in Him.
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In this episode, we explore God’s model of evangelism. Does it matter how we do it or are we free to do evangelism as we please? God in His grace has given us a guide in His word to what evangelism should look like.
For show notes and links to resources mentioned visit here.
To learn more about Theology for You click here.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Herman Bavinck: Reformed Dogmatics
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Preaching and Preacher
John Stott: Between Two Worlds
Howard Hendricks: Teaching to Change Lives
Spiritual gifts are abilities that the Holy Spirit bestows on believers. These gifts are not to be confused with simply natural talents. The spiritual gifts are given by God and cannot be reproduced by the world or natural, unregenerate man.
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In the New Testament, the church is designated by a Greek word that means “called out ones.” What role should the church play in our lives? What is Jesus' connection with the church?
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Sanctification is the reality of God making us holy. When believers are called “saints,” this means that they are holy ones.
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Justification is the most crucial question in all of life and all of the Church because the answer to that question has eternal implications, those being eternity in God’s presence or eternity under his severe judgment. We have to know what God says about this! How do we become legally right with God?
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It is because of grace and grace alone that we have a relationship with God.
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Without the atonement of Christ, there is not Christianity. Let's turn our attention to Isaiah to understand the atonement.
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All people are guilty before God because of sin. Sin affects every part of our being so that we are without excuse.
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The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is personal and not a force. He is a person who has intellect, emotions, and a will.
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The person of Christ has been attacked throughout the history of Christianity? Who is He? Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, truly God and truly man.
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If we want to know God and see His glory His character, His person must be revealed to us. Moses asked God to see His glory but Moses heard more than He saw. He saw the back of God but He heard a beautiful, glorious declaration of God’s character. This is our God.
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God is one and God is three. There is a plurality within the Godhead but the three persons are one in unity. May we be led to worship our triune God as we seek to understand Him in His trinitarian nature. Praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Holy Spirit.
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What the Bible says, God says. The foundation of what we know to be true about the Bible is the inspiration or expiration of Scripture. It comes to us from God.
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Diehard Sins releases September 28th. There are so many sins that creep in unnoticed but are just as dangerous as big-ticket sins. Rush Witt does an excellent job outline what the Bible has to say about this and how we can fight against it.
Get your copy on Amazon today!
In this episode we talk about parenting and the need to be faithful to what God has revealed in Scripture. We also talk about some of our favorite resources.
We are glad to have Chrys on board. We get to know him a little bit in this episode. Chrys serves at his local church and is a Christian Hip-Hop Artist. His favorite doctrine is the doctrine of Scripture. Listen in to learn more about Chrys.
In the life of the church the sermon is very important. God's people are fed through His word for their good. But if we are honest listening to a sermon and responding to a sermon can be hard.
We are excited to welcome back Victoria after her maternity leave and discuss this important topic. To help and encourage we talk about a recent sermon from our church and how we are responding and different responses we want to have.
What tips do you have for listening and responding to sermons?
Arguments for the existence of God are good and we need them, but we also must share Christ when we defend the Christian faith. This can be as simple as stating the truth. We continue our conversation with Blaine and he shares resources we can use to study Apologetics and a few simple steps we can take as we defend the faith.
If you are like me you know you should be defending your faith in conversations but struggle with it. In the next two episodes we are talking Apologetics with my good friend Blaine Vandegriff. I hope his words and passion about this subject will be encouraging to you.
In this episode we discuss what Apolgetics is, arguments for the existence of God, and the role of the Holy Spirit in Apologetics.
What is the Bible and why is it important? How does the Bible affect our study of theology? The Bible is God's self-revelation so that we might know Him. The Bible carries God's authority and He has revealed Himself in a clear manner. The Bible is necessary for our lives and is sufficient for anything we face.
Happy New Year. Let's start our time together this year reminding ourselves of the greatness of the gospel.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Sing along with Ben as he looks at What Child is This and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. There are four themes in these songs to look at: Jesus brings joy, Jesus is the King, Jesus is the Savior, and Jesus is the Conqueror. Thank you all for listening and we are looking forward to 2016.
We are excited to announce the launch of Theology For Worship Pastors in 2016. We pray this will be an encouragement to worship pastors and the congregations they lead.
There is wonderful truth behind the songs we sing during this time of year. If we are not careful we can let the familiarity of them dull us to it. Join me as we sing and discuss "Joy To The World."
I don't know about you but prayer can be a struggle for me sometimes. That's why when I read Donald Whitney's book on prayer it was so refreshing. He suggests using the Bible to guide our prayer life and deepen our relationship with God. I wanted to talk about this book because I know I am not alone in this struggle.
Is meditation needed for the Christian, and why is it important? Pastor Craig Wilson joins us to discuss the practice of meditation and why it is important for the Christian life.
Events around me over the past week or so have me thinking about hope and the Christian life. Hope is found in God and what He is, has and will do for us as His children. No matter the situation we face God is our Father; there is nothing we face that will remove us from that position. Join Ben as he looks at Romans 8:15-30 and the hope of the Christian.
Victoria decided to hijack the podcast this week and interview Ben on his birthday.
We are excited to announce our first Theology for You Weekender.Visit the page to learn and get more information. We are praying God will use this to encourage many.
Can you see the Gospel in the Apostle's Creed? It would be easy to "lose the forest for the trees" as we look at the Creed. Let's take a step back and look at how the Gospel pervades and informs the Apostle's Creed.
The Apostle's Creed starts at a most comforting place for the Christian, God is our Father. Having God as our Father is the highest privilege in the universe.
Are we free to make Christianity what we want? Which is most important, deeds or creeds? What sets Christians apart? What are the basics of Christianity? These are pressing questions today and the Apostle's Creed shows us these have been important questions since the early days of the church. Christians are people who believe in God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. The Apostle's Creed is an explanation of what Christians believe. We pray this series on the Apostle's Creed is encouraging and edifies you.
Communication can be hard for some, easy for others, and for some they just don't try. What is the cause of our struggles to communicate in our marriage and what theological truth can we use to fight sin in our marriages for the good of our marriage? Join us for the last installment of theology for your marriage.
Loving someone else takes effort and honestly sometimes a lot of effort. Love is costly and requires giving. God has loved us in a giving way by sending His Son to die for sinners. How does this relate to marriage?
Pull up a seat and join the conversation as we continue looking at theology for your marriage.
Marriage is tough, there can be times when you can feel trapped or stuck. What does God have to say about this and how can you work through this? Join us as we talk about God's design for marriage and what it says about fighting sin in our lives.
Do you need a theological library? And if so, why and how do you build one? Are there any theologians I should be reading? Join us as we talk about the need for a theological library and where to start building one. I (Ben) want to introduce you to one of my favorite theologians Dr. John Frame. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us on our website. Do you have any reasons why to build a theological library? What about tips for building one? Any theologians you would like to meet? Let us know we love hearing from you all!
What is the relevance of the Old Testament and do Christians need it? The Old Testament is confusing to many because of the way we view the Bible. If we view the Bible as one book with one theme and one here this will alleviate much of the confusion. Is it hard for you to see the relevance of the Old Testament to your life as a Christian? Then pull up a seat and join the conversation.
Parents and teachers of children know that teaching happens in real life. This recording happened in real life as well. My neighbor decided he would mow his lawn as we started recording so I apologize for the "background noise" in the first part of the episode. I guess he wanted to join the conversation as well. In this episode my good friend Todd Strouse joins me to discuss teaching children the Bible and Theology. We discuss the importance of this, the role of the family and the church, and a few practical day to day to tips. Todd is the children's pastor at our church and a great example of how this is done both within the family and in the church. I pray you are as encouraged by listening as I was recording.
I wanted to share with you all a doctrine that has been transformative in my life: union with Christ. It is the foundation of the Christian life and defines who we are and how God's blessing of salvation comes to us. We are in Christ now and forever; our identity is permanent and eternal in Christ.
Join us as we discuss women studying theology and the Bible. Why is there a problem and what are some solutions? What solutions would you offer? Join the conversation and let us know.
Victoria is back as we take a hiatus for a week from Google's Probs. While we talk a lot about theology and the Bible on the Podcast we are learning from it ourselves and the truth is making a difference in our lives. Take a seat as we discuss what we have been learning over the past weeks and months.
Who is up for a guest this week? Join Ben and guest Craig Wilson, pastor of Grace Community Church in Berea, KY as they discuss what it means to fear God. They seem to have a lot alike, I wonder why?
Who defines love? Is it open to interpretation? A better way for the Christian to ask this question is "who is love?" Join Ben as he works his way through 1 John 4:7-12 to answer what is love.
Where do you go to find answers? Do you Google it? One of the top theological topics searched is what does it mean to be a Christian? This is an important question to answer as we seek to know God through studying theology. Join Ben and Victoria as they take a "jaunt" through First John.
The heart of the gospel is that Jesus took our sin and paid the penalty we deserve and we receive his obedience through faith. Justification is the beginning of our relationship with God. Understanding justification will aid us in our pursuit of the studied practice of knowing God.
The Gospel is fundamental to the Christian faith. It is the message of the Bible and the beginning of studying Theology.
Wait. WHAT!?
I just said theology is boring and I expect you to listen to a podcast called Theology For You?
Stay with me.
In the most riveting Podcast ever you will find out the last time Victoria danced in the rain and Ben's perfect pizza. We have to have a little fun.
Hello! Welcome to Theology For You. In this episode we introduce the podcast, define theology, and give three reasons why theology is important for the Christian life. Grab a seat and join us.