Preface
Review
The promise of the kingdom is the promise of a government that fulfills what we wish our earthly governments would do:
- Provide peace and justice.
- Provide for the general welfare.
- Protect our way of life.
- Support our freedom to live Zoe
Keep in mind that
- 1.) Biblical application is always specific AND
- 2.) Biblical application always addresses something that exposes a competing interest.
Pleasing God Requires Both Hearing and Doing
- Luke 6:47–49 (ESV): 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Click to add your own note
The Reality of Diversity in Our Local Church
- Matthew 28:19 (ESV): 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . . Click to add your own note
- 1 Corinthians 9:20–23 (ESV): 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law. . .that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law. . .that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. . . . . 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel. . . . Click to add your own note
Strong Relationships Require Communication About Difficult Subjects
- We have to communicate, or we can’t be a community.
New Language for a New Direction
A Change in Direction Requires a Change in Thinking
- Ephesians 3:20 (ESV): 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, Click to add your own note
- Numbers 13:25–27 (ESV): 25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Click to add your own note
- Numbers 13:28–29 (ESV): 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” Click to add your own note
- Numbers 13:30 (ESV): 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Click to add your own note
- Numbers 13:31-32(ESV): 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. Click to add your own note
- Numbers 13:33 (ESV): 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Click to add your own note
Today If You Hear. . .
- Hebrews 3:7(ESV): 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 3:9 (ESV): 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 3:10 (ESV): 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 3: 11 (ESV): 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 3:18 (ESV): 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 3:19 (ESV): 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 4:1 (NKJV): 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Click to add your own note
- Hebrews 4:2 (NKJV): 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Click to add your own note
Top 10 All-Time Stupid Quotes
(The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. New York: Fireside. pp.11-12)
10. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”– Kenneth Olsen, President and Founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, In 1977
9. “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” — Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French Military Strategist and Future World War I Commander, In 1911
8. “[Man will never reach the moon] regardless of all future scientific advances.” — Dr. Lee De Forest, Inventor of the Audion Tube and Father of Radio on February 25, 1967
7. “[Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” — Darryl F. Zanduck, Head of 20th Century-Fox, In 1946
6. “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” — Decca Records Rejecting The Beatles, In 1962
5. “For the Majority of people, the use of tobacco has a beneficial effect.” — Dr. Ian G. Mac Donald, Los Angeles Surgeon, As Quoted in Newsweek, November 18, 1969
4. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” — Western Union Internal Memo, In 1876
3. “The earth is the center of the universe.” –Ptolemy, The Great Egyptian Astronomer, In the Second Century
2. “Nothing of importance happened today.” — Written by King George III of England on July 4, 1776
1. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” — Charles H Duell U.S. Commissioner of Patents, IN 1899
The Blessing
- Psalm 133:1 (ESV): 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!. . . Click to add your own note
- Psalm 133:32 (ESV): 3 . . . .For there the Lord has commanded the blessing. . . . Click to add your own note
- Mark 4:13 (ESV): 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? Click to add your own note
© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2025
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