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Episode 827: In this episode, we reflect on the powerful message of Psalm 103. This psalm is a beautiful expression of praise, focusing solely on the goodness of God without any requests. We discuss how David emphasizes gratitude and the importance of recognizing the blessings in our lives, even amidst challenges. The psalm reminds us that God forgives our sins, heals our diseases, and redeems us from death, highlighting His unfailing love and compassion.
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Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, good morning, and welcome to The Bible Guys man. It's good to be here, Chris, it is. I'm very excited. Two days in a row we showed up. Yeah, yeah, of course for us, it was just twenty minutes ago. Hey, that's all right. Yeah, well we're bringing the same outfit. Don't spoil the movie magic. Well, actually, to those listening and not watching, they wouldn't know that. They wouldn't you know. It's about almost half of our listeners listen, they don't watch, like. Forty five percent or so something I don't know. Yeah, okay, pretty cool. Hey, well, first of all, I just want to say thank you for tuning in, and also, if you have missed it this whole series, go back for the last five or six weeks and listen to them. Because we've been in a series talking about the promises of God. That's right, and so this week we're talking about God's love and forgiveness in our lives. It's I think it's really going to be a powerful week. I think people are going to love this. Yeah, I did too. I've already loved it. It's only been Monday. Okay, So today we have a new segment, Jeff, Well, I shouldn't say now, it's it's it's a new it's a newer segment. Neworst segment. It's called we did this one other time, didn't we? Yeah, one other time. It's called rapid fire Roulette. Okay, and Desiree writes, this was a hit last time, so uh that we did it. So let's hit. Flip rolls, not just pretty good hit, a hit. We've had a few hits. By the way, how does she even know that? I don't know. Did she interview everybody? Yeah? Is this a hit? Yeah? Okay, so she said, Chris will ask a rapid series of unexpected, hilarious questions. Okay, Well, Jeff answers quickly as quickly as possible. As quickly as possible, within thirty seconds. No thinking, yeah, no repeats, no overthinking. It's all about fast reactions, big laughs, embracing the chaos. Okay. So therefore, I have a list of questions that I have you writ and down. Here we go as fast as you can go. Okay, Okay, yes, if animals could talk, which species would be the rudest girafts? Okay? Why? Uh? Because they look down on everybody. Oh, there you go, How about you? Okay, okay, what's the most useless superpower you wish you had? Being invisible? If you're if you're like, oh no, we don't want to say that. Okay, you've been arrested with new explanation. What would all your friends assume you were guilty of? Oh, my goodness, what would all my friends speeding? Okay, that's pretty good. Okay. If you had to replace your hands with somebody else's hands, who would you choose? Replace my hands with somebody else's hands? Yep, loos? Nice? Nice? These are the original incredible hole. Yes, yes, okay. What's the most ridiculous fact that you know that sounds completely made up? Oh? Boy, I don't know. None of my facts sound made up. They're all true. Okay, okay, okay. The since it's Thanksgiving week, work, we are in Thanksgiving week? Uh? Did you know that the Pilgrims, the first Indian that they met, spoke perfect English and asked them for a beer. That was the first thing that that was the first engagement with the pilgrims. Did you know that? No, Yeah, is crazy because there were already people that were trading up and down the up and down the coast, and so this guy was the one who helped his village trade. So he spoke English, and he stepped out and asked a beer for a beer? Wow? Okay? How about this? If you could if you could only communicate for a week with only movie quotes from a certain movie or from a certain TV series only, Yeah, what would you choose? I think the one I quote the most is Princess Bride, right, yeah, but I think the office is what you'd have to choose because the office applies to so much more of life than just you know, giants and kidnappings. Oh, how the turntables? Yes? Okay? How about this? What food would you fight someone over if they try to steal it from you? Ooh a real by steak? Right? If you could invent a holiday, what would people be celebrating and how would they celebrate it? We would celebrate the awesomeness of Chris. Oh okay, how would they celebrate that? Bringing gifts? Bringing gifts would be bringing gifts and laying them down. I think it would be like a elephant? What was it? Elephant? Whatever? What you know whenever you give like a gifts weird gifts sat Christmas? Oh, white elephant, white elephant gift. Yeah, it'd be like a white elephant gift. Okay, all right, that's pretty good holiday. Okay, Now you've just been given ten thousand dollars, but you you must waste it on something stupid. What are you buying? Oh? What would I waste ten thousand dollars on? Yeah? An outdoor kitchen? Ooh, good answer, that's not stupid, though. It's not necessary. It's is not necessary. Okay. What is the worst possible name for a pet? Uh? Chris Sarbo? That's terrible. You just honored me and then slammed me within throw. You don't want to name your dog after somebody you care about? Your dog? NERO? See I see? Okay, that's pretty good. All right. What's the weirdest thing you believed as a kid but now you're embarrassed to admit it? I don't know. I was so skeptical as a kid that I really probed on stuff. All right, I'll ask you, no'm the question this, This one's going to take a minute. If you could only eat foods for the rest of your life that started with one letter, the same letter. Which letter are you choosing? Uh m, why meat? Eminem's meat and meats? Okay, first of all, so chocolate and meat, that's all I need. Okay, I guess that's a category of food. Well you didn't say, I. Guess, So there's a lot of wiggle room. Okay, I was not going to be vegetables. How about this? Okay? Is that be what conspiracy theory do you secretly think might be true? Even just a little bigfoot? Bigfoot? Bigfoot? Yeah, I think it's legit. I think it's possible. Really yeah, yeah, wow, okay. What about uh. The moon? Oh yeah, the moonlight? Yeah yeah yeah. If you were a ghost, what would be your go to method for haunting people? Uh? Touching them? Oh that's creepy, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. If I was, If I felt something and nobody was around. Whispering and touching at the same time. Oh yes, yeah, creepy, creeped out. Just think about it. If you could force everyone in the world to do one thing at the exact same time, what would it. Be, Uh Sing? If I could teach the world to sing? Oh? If I could teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. Okay, how about this one. Huh if your if your brain had a loading what would it say? A loading screen? So so like trying to find his thoughts, I guess, so hang on a second, I say to him, hang on a second. Okay, and then finally, here's the last one. Huh. What movie would be absolutely terrible if it were turned into a musical? Uh, Brave Heart. Brave Heart, I Kill you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be terrible. You could have said Shindler's List. That'd be pretty bad. That would be terrible. That would be a terrible one. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be really really bad. So, hey, that is pretty good. That was pretty rapid fire question. Those were good. Yeah, that's a fun one. I think that is funny. And you know what, to be honest with you, there's a certain amount of anxiety. I'm sure there is. Yeah, where you were like because your brain just doesn't want to write, find the word in the moment, right, Like I should have a funnier answer than this. Yeah, yeah, you know, those were pretty random. But you know what Psalm Chapter one O three, David Psalm. It was not random at all. No, he wrote it on purpose. No, he did, he did. They all had a theme. They were all connected, unlike the segment in which we just did. Yeah. So this week we're talking about God's forgiveness and mercy. Yep. And today is as far as the east is from the west. And I love this. This is one of my favorite passages. Yes, of course, so Psalm one O three. I've read through this passage. I bet you at least one hundred and three times. I'm not joking, hundreds of times. Yeah. So it says, let all that I am praise the Lord with my whole heart. I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord Man. Never forget the good things He's done for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfair. He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love, he will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve, for his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassion to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are. He remembers, we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass, like wildfires flowers. We bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone, as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children's children, of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey as commands. The Lord has made the heavens his throne. From there he ruled over everything. Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who carry out his plans, listening for each of his commands. Yes, praise the Lord. You armies of angels who serve him and do his will. Praise the Lord. Everything is created, everything in all his kingdom. Let all that I am praise the Lord. Nah. Good, that is a great That's a good one statement, right. I mean, think about the meaning of every word. Let all that I am praise the Lord with my whole heart. I would praise his holy name. You know, it's it immediately, you know, I just think to myself, that's an entire sermon, right because full surrender, you know, when you want, when you have to, you know, address everything that's in God's word. You know, We've always said this. In fact, Wesley said it at the We taught the one on one class last night, and he said, people treat the Bible like a buffet, you know, And he started going through a buffet and he used Golden Corral as an example, and I was like, dude, Golden Corral. But he was like, oh, I don't want Brussels sprouts. I want some chicken. I want some shrimp and everything else. But he was just saying, like, you know, there are parts of the Bible we don't necessarily like or to adopt or listen to or ithre and then at the same time, you know, if you think about another visual aid, you can think of your body like a house. And you know, when you clean your house for a guest to come over, sometimes you stuff all the clutter in a closet and you say hey to all your guests. You're allowed in every part of the room except for that closet or that bedroom, you know, and you shut the bedroom. But it's like, it's like and you have. To say, praise the Lord with almost all that I. Am correct, correct, Yeah, So I think of all those things, and I think of Man, it's the true definition of surrender. It's the true definition of become a fully devoted follower of Christ, to say, God, you have all of me. I hold nothing back, and I'm going to allow you to speak into every area of my life regardless of my preference. I've said several times from stage that I believe that gratitude is one of the most powerful things in your life. Right when you choose a life of gratitude, it winds up resolving so many things, or it changes your perspective and it changes it. Gratitude has potential for changing everything in your life. And so that's one of the reason why I read this passage so much, And I think it's interesting this this The notes for Psalm one oh three says, David's praise focuses on all the good God was doing for him. It's easy to find reasons to complain about life, but David's list gives us plenty for which to praise God. He forgives our sins, he heals our diseases, He redeems us from death. He crowns us with love and compassion. He satisfies our desires, and he gives righteousness and justice. We receive all these without deserving any of them. No matter how difficult your life's journey, you can always count your blessings past, present, and future. When you feel as though you have nothing for which to praise God. Read David's list. Yeah, count your blessings named then well, yeh, by what there you go? You know you have you ever known that? I don't know that I've ever heard anybody snap their fingers of that song? So yeah, gone, and then they go, God your blessings? Yeah, okay them one by one, that's right, got your many blessing. See what God has done? Hey, So did you ever notice this that in Psalm one of three. There are no requests. No, David doesn't make a single request. This psalm is a psalm of singing, right, because psalms were put to music, So this is a psalm of David, which meant it was it was a independent, rehearsed lyric. I don't know what would you call it, like a I guess just a song. This is a praise song. So there's worship songs. There's praise songs. There's spiritual songs those are remind us of biblical principles or ideas. And then there's testimony songs this is this is what God has done for me or this is my and then there's like prayer songs, requests God, I need you kind of thing, right, And so in this instance, it's just pure praise. Just God, You're good. You're good. Yeah, and and uh and you know, I think I've mentioned this before, but like I heard a preacher one time say that's the reason why when Jesus taught us to pray. He started off by saying, uh, our Father hoard in heaven hallold be your name. Hello, be your name means great as your name, right, And he says, just spend time there before, you know, because Jesus gave us a model to pray, and uh, you know, we you know it's not it's not a bad thing to rehearse or recite the Our Father or the Lord's prayer. It's not a bad thing at all. However, we believe that it wasn't necessarily given as something to recite as much as it was given as a pattern of how to pray, which was the question of the disciples teach us how to pray, right, And and the reason why is because in another gospel he also listed a prayer and it was similar, but it was different, right, So anyway, the point is is that, uh, it's it's a I heard a preacher say that's probably the reason why he started with saying great is your name, because he's saying, like, spend time there, remind yourself just to it as you're praying to because by the time you get to all your requests, you'll feel better about them anyway, you know. That's great, which is great, that's really powerful. So by the time you get down to versus h well, I think eight right, the Lord is compassionate and merciful, He's slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You know, the devil always whispering You're God's so mad at you. You don't deserve anything. God's angry at you. Right, he said, God is slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. Unfailing is never failing love, right, Right. Maybe we've had people who told us they loved us and then got mad at us later and then stopped loving us, broke up with us. Whatever. Right, God will never break up with you, and he will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. What we deserve is far worse than anything that we're getting. And then instead it says, his unfailing love toward us, toward those who fear him, is as great as the height of heavens above the earth. So he talks about as high as you can go wherever heaven is, it's that far away. The immensity of his love for us is beyond this universe, is what he's saying. And then the next one is He's removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The east never meets the west, and the west never meets the east. Yeah. So how far is that? It's infinity? Yeah, yeah, infinity. Yeah. It's an incredible picture, you know. And you know, here's another thought that I had. This is a deep thinking sort of chapter because he says, you know, it's like the wind that comes and it goes. It's like a wildflower that blooms and then it dies. Right. God remembers that we're only dust. It's like, you know, it's like a father and his children. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's all these like deep contemplative you know, you'd have to really think about life from a grand scale to just be reminded that all of us are just dust in God's eyes, you know, just we're just this temporary creations that are here for a while and then we return to dust. It's like, what, that's incredible, right, I Mean, we're only reminded of that when we you know, see corpses on movies or something, right, right, But you know, but from God's point of view, we came from the earth, and we go back to the Earth, or at least these earthly shells do, right. And then and then he says, yeah, it's like a wildflower that comes it just blooms, Oh how pretty it is, and then then all of a sudden it's gone. The wind just blows and we're just gone. It's it's a really deep thinking verse, you know, Like like when Jesus was talking about the lilies of the field and Solomon clothing you know, or God clothing the lilies and feeding the birds. It's like those are just deep thoughts that I just think are really really great. Well, God uses nature to reflect his glory. God made us in his image to be able to reflect his heart and attitude. That's why it talks about here he's like a father, right, was it say, is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. So the fear him is respect. He's tender and compassionate to those who respect him, which means if you don't show respect, he's not going to be tender and compassionate. Right, So when you're when and I think you and I know what this means. There are times when our kids were particularly naughty, and in that moment, we weren't wanting to cuddle them, right, We're wanting to throttle them, right, but when your children were respect or like right now, my granddaughter's in this big cuddly stage. She comes running over to me. She's not quite too. She'll come running over to me, put her hands up, then just put her head on my shoulder. You know, hey, would you go get me that? She'd go run and get it, grab it and come back. And she's just so happy to serve and all this stuff, and man, you just want to hold her all the time, right, And that's kind of what he's saying here, is that the Lord is like a father to his children. We're the children. He's tender and compassionate. He's wanting to hold us. He's wanting to treat us in a tender and compassionate way as long as we hold him in the right position. Right, And what is that position? Well, he says, you shouldn't have any other gods before me. Nothing should be more important than me in your life. And that's why David starts off and ends with let all that I am praise the Lord. It's in that context of how he starts, the beginning and the end. Let all that I am praise the Lord God everything that I am, my whole heart, I'm going to praise you, and then he says, hey, for a person who has that kind of attitude, God's always going to be tender and compassionate. His love never fails. But the tender tenderness and the compassion hinge on us having him in the right place of respect in our life. Yeah. Yeah, And when it talks about you know, the key verse, as we already mentioned, is as far as the sins, He's removed our sins, as far as the east is from the west, right. You know, it's it's almost hard to believe the theology behind the removal of our sins, isn't it. Yeah. I mean, like Jesus became sin. Think about the just the statement of that, the reality of that that Jesus Christ took upon our sins on the cross and became sin, which is it's widely believed that's the reason why God the Father and God the Son were separated, and God the Father turned his head, which is why Jesus was alone, said why have you forsaken me? Because God cannot have sin be a part of who he is, his nature. And so the idea that like Jesus took upon our took our sins upon himself, and then he paid the ultimate price by dying, which is what sin demands, It demands death. And then because of that, the punishment of sin for us has been completely satisfied. So therefore, you know, we repent of our sins, we return from our sins, and then we ask God, you know, to forgive us of our sins. And then last yesterday and yesterday's podcast it says he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then today it says he removes our sin. And then you know, and I know we're probably going to get to it, but like he buries them in the deepest sea, right, he remembers them no more. The theology of that is just incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so sometimes people are surprised to find out that God completely forgives, completely forgets, chooses not to remember our sins, and yet there's still consequence to our sin. Right, And it would be like you tell your son don't play with matches, right, and then he finally come, he burns his hand and he has to come and confess, I've burned myself. Well, because he confessed, you forgive him for disobeying, but he still has the burn, right, right, So there's always there's consequences, and that's not God's judgment as opposed to God's judgment would be far worse than just a little burn on our fingers. Right, God's judgment, the consequence for sin is eternal. And so God says, I resolve that now there are issues. You drink too much, you might wind up having zorrosis delivery. You drive too fast, you get angry too often, you spout off, you might get your nose broke. Right, there's consequences to our yeah, to our bad decisions, but eternally that those are just short, temporary physical consequences. The eternal resolution there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that's really the glory of it is when we get to heaven, He's not going to be disappointed in us. We're never going to see this look of disappointment in God's eyes when he sees us. Right, regardless of the failures we have on this earth, regardless of the dumb things we do and the consequences we receive on earth, we can be confident the fact that God's not punishing us for those things if we've confessed them. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our righteousness. We go around feeling defeated because we feel dirty. We feel like we're covered in all this sin and God knows it because we know it. God forgot it, but we didn't forget it, and the devil loves reminding us about it. And then we feel like there's nothing that we can do. We can never please God. It's only the saints, it's only good people to do it. And what we forget is God has only ever had really bad sinners to work with. Right, it's all. He's got good sinners and bad sinners. We're all sinners and it's all. It all killed Jesus, so he only has sinners to work with. The question is not whether or not we have sin. The question is whether or not we've confessed it. And we've confessed it, then he forgets it. As far as the east is from the west, it never comes back around. You keep going around the I have a big globe in my office at home. You go around the globe, you never go If you're going east, you never ever ever ever wind up going west. If you're going west, you never ever ever ever go east. And so he's saying, it's not possible for me to recall sin that I've already forgiven. It's not possible. It never comes back around. And so then if it never comes back around from God, the question is not whether or not you can be forgiven. You are forgiven if you've confessed your sin. The question is whether or not you're going to surrender and go ahead and do what he needs done? Right right, we already know what his mission is, Love God, love people, make more disciples. How about that? Just go do that. Alls he has is sinners to work with and man alive verse fourteen. For he knows how weak we are. Right, he knows, and he understands, and he still loves to work with us anyways and use us anyways. Sounds great. That's why we can say with all that I am, I can praise the Lord. David spends a third of the time in this passage talking about sin, and then he says, even this sinful person, everything that I am, I choose to love God. That's crazy, all right, Well, hey, that's our time. Thanks for tuning in. And hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible gus