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A Christ-centered podcast that points to and lifts up Christ and point to and lift up Christ in the believer.
Gospel Analytics. Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth that the natural comes before the spiritual. He further explains this principle by giving example of how the first man Adam was of the dust of the earth, but the second man or the second Adam, Jesus Christ, was of heaven. The first Adam was of the natural. The second Adam was of the supernatural.
Speaker 1:You also see the principle when Jesus would frequently talk to the crowds and his disciples in parables, which are natural stories that illustrate the reality of the spiritual. As the disciples were filled with grief when Jesus alluded to his his eventual suffering and death, he expressed to his disciples that it was good for his natural body to go away so that his spirit would come after, and which his spirit would descend so that Christ would indwell and manifest himself in a much larger expanded version of his body on earth. This body would be affectionately known as the body of Christ, also known as the church or the called out assembly. The way God desires to express the image and nature of his son to the natural world is through his body. And the way humans are designed to perceive information and interact with the natural world is through the physical body's five senses.
Speaker 1:That's see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. God has called his body of believers to make Christ known through the five senses on earth to illustrate the spiritual reality to the natural world. The sense of sight allows us to perceive things through the eyes ability to process light. Genesis chapter one verse 16 speaks about how God made two great lights. The greater light to govern the day, that's the sun, and the lesser light to govern the night, that's the moon.
Speaker 1:The sun gives us light through the process of nuclear fusion and the moon gives us light through the process of reflection. The moon can't generate its own light like the sun can, but shines because its surface was created with the ability to reflect the sun's light. So fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus explains to Nicodemus who was a pharisee and a high ranking member of the Jewish ruling council that light had come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Jesus says to his disciples, I am the light of the world. But he also tells his disciples, you are the light of the world.
Speaker 1:Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun and shines in the darkness, we as his disciples are to reflect the light of the sun, s o n, and shine in the darkness. Why the sense of sight? Because God desires for those in the world to come out of darkness and come into the marvelous light. And Jesus told his disciples, in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. When one who is lost truly recognizes Christ as the light of the world, this truth will lead to a greater understanding Christ light even transcends natural light.
Speaker 1:The sense of hearing allows us to perceive sound through the ears ability to process various sound waves and vibrations. We are called to be witnesses and preachers of the gospel. Now the Greek word for witness is modus which where we get the English word modus from, which means one who has knowledge to bring something to light or confirm something. Now in our legal system, when lawyers are trying to build a case to either convict or exonerate a person accused of a crime, they call on witnesses. And what are witnesses called to do?
Speaker 1:Testify. Now there are three types of witnesses. Eyewitness, expert witness, and character witness. So in the court of faith, so to speak, and making the case for Christ, Jesus commissions his disciples for the global preaching of the gospel and calls them to be his witnesses. First in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1:And what is the common characteristic that all witnesses need to have in order to be convincing in making a case? Credibility. The disciples made their case for Christ because they were witnesses to his majesty, expert witnesses because they had been with and taught directly by Christ, and character witnesses because they were witnesses to the holiness of Christ, his power, and acts of service. Now the Greek word for preach is koroso, which means to proclaim or announce publicly or openly. Now other words for preach are notify, report.
Speaker 1:So what are we proclaiming? Announcing, notifying and reporting. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. When Paul spoke about the unbelieving Jews, he says, how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard?
Speaker 1:And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? It is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. Why the sense of hearing? Because Paul says, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Speaker 1:The sense of taste gives us the ability to perceive and distinguish between flavors of salty, sweet, sour, and bitter through the sensory organs of the tongue. Jesus tells his disciples, you are the salt of the earth. Salt is a natural mineral that preserves and enhances the flavor of food. Encountering the world's evil and corrupt nature, the Christian life is to be a preservative and flavor enhancer that manifests the holy, innate, and righteous nature of Christ in the world. We are the flavor the world needs.
Speaker 1:While the world represents the flavor of sin, corruption, and death, we as as the body of Christ represent the flavor of life, freedom, righteousness, and peace. And the world says, hate your enemies. But for the church, Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The world says, do whatever you want. If it feels good, do it.
Speaker 1:But for the church, scripture teaches us in Romans chapter six verses 11 through 14, in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of your yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace. Now complementary to being the salt of the earth is believers also producing the fruit of the spirit, which is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
Speaker 1:So why the sense of taste? So that those in the world can, as Psalm thirty four eight says, taste and see that the Lord is good. The sense of smell gives us the ability to detect and distinguish different scents and chemicals in the air through the nose's olfactory receptors. So to atone for mans sin under the old covenant as part of the old priesthood and sacrificial system under the law of Moses, the male animals that God required to be offered as sacrifices had to be presented as faultless, meaning the animal couldn't have any defects, spots, or blemishes. The animal would then be killed, the blood of the animal would be taken to the most holy place in the tabernacle where only the high priest was allowed inside.
Speaker 1:The high priest would then take the animal's blood and sprinkle it in the middle on top of the Ark of the Covenant, which is called the mercy seat. On the right and left of the mercy seat were were two angels guarding it with their wings extended over the mercy seat and towards each other, which was a physical representation of God's holy and divine presence. And because God doesn't tolerate sin in his presence, the blood of the faultless sacrificed animals sprinkled on the mercy seat represented God's forgiveness of man's sin. The dead animal would then be placed on the altar to be consumed by fire. And the the pleasing aroma from the burnt offering symbolized the offering as being acceptable to God.
Speaker 1:Christ fulfilled this requirement by offering himself as the perfect sacrifice as he himself was presented as faultless to atone for the sins of the entire world on the cross. The Roman governor brought Jesus before the crowd who yelled crucify him but told the crowd, watch this, I find no fault with him. As disciples of Christ, we are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Why the sense of smell? Because in second Corinthians chapter two verses 15 through 16, Paul says, for we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
Speaker 1:To the one, we are an aroma that brings death, to the other an aroma that brings life. So back when the Romans held military military parades, parades, there there would would be be public public spectacles held in the streets which included all kinds of, fragrances like perfumes, flowers, and burning incense in which the Roma represented victory and triumph as well as acknowledgement to their gods. But to the captives or the prisoners of war, the aroma of the fragrances represented defeat and death. The same principle applies here spiritually. We as the pleasing aroma of Christ represents the side of victory and triumph because we've been saved by grace through faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:But to the ones held in spiritual captivity, the aroma don't hit the same. To them, it is the aroma of defeat and death. The sense of touch gives us the ability to perceive the distinction of physical sensations through the receptors of the skin, such as pressure, temperature, light touch, pleasure, and pain. Touch is a gesture of physical contact that enables us to feel and connect with the visible reality on a more intimate and relatable level. Now there's no greater expression of touch than one that's rooted in love, and God's and God's greatest expression of touch was through the person of his son Jesus.
Speaker 1:And that's no accident that one of the five love languages is physical touch. In God's eternal wisdom and foreknowledge, God knew that the solution to reconciling man back to himself was to become like man. And in God taking on the form of man, he experienced and expressed all forms of physical sensation for the sake of humanity. Now how about pressure? When Jesus went to the Garden Of Gethsemane, which means oil press where olives from the olive trees will be crushed to extract oil.
Speaker 1:Gethsemane is where Jesus went through immense pressure and emotional stress knowing his body was about to go through a crushing that would extract his blood. The same blood by which we receive forgiveness and clean and and be cleansed from all unrighteousness. This pressure will cause him to stop manifesting hematohydrosis. That's a medical condition where sweat glands rupture and the sweat that comes from the body exudes blood due to extreme levels of physical and emotional stress. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's that's a real thing. And so Luke says that Jesus sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Ironically, the disciple Luke who recorded this moment just so happened to have been a doctor. So there's a reason why why Jesus prayed to the father that he take the cup from him. Not only was the cup scripture a symbolism of suffering and death, it also symbolized God pouring out his wrath as Jesus was set to bear the sins of the entire world.
Speaker 1:And because the pavement of sin is death, he would have the weight of the world on his shoulders, literally. So how about pressure when Jesus was led by the spirit to spend forty days and forty nights without food and drink in a wilderness that consists of extreme heat and cold weather conditions. You know, natural resources such as food and water was scarce and it posed a great health risk. And on top of that, to get tempted by the devil. How about light touch?
Speaker 1:When a woman with the issue of blood who had a chronic bleeding condition for twelve years, you know, under Jewish law, she was considered unclean causing her to be isolated and ostracized from the rest of society. This woman spent every penny she had on doctors only for her condition to get worse. But then she hears about the one they call Jesus. Her faith propelled her to believing that if she just touched the hem of his garment, she would be healed. When she touched him, scripture says that once Jesus realized power had gone out from him.
Speaker 1:So Jesus asked, who touched my clothes? And the disciples were like, are you really gonna ask who touched you when you got all these people crowding against you? But Jesus knew this touch was different because this touch was intentional. The woman's faith in in him caused her to touch caused her touch to stand out among the crowd. And just from her light touch, Jesus not only immediately reversed her medical condition, but her spiritual and social status all at one time.
Speaker 1:Jesus refers to her as daughter and says to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go and be free from your suffering. How about pleasure? Jesus' greatest pleasure was doing the will of the father. When the disciples were repressing Jesus to eat, Jesus said, my food is to do the will of the one who sent me.
Speaker 1:In other words, my pleasure, my satisfaction, my purpose is to do the will of the one who sent me. He also found great pleasure in whenever the people placed their faith in him as he responded in word that their faith made him whole and he responded to their faith indeed which resulted in the people's healing and deliverance from various types of diseases as well as their sins being forgiven. It's no wonder the scripture says that without faith, it's impossible to please God. And how about pain? Jesus endured emotional pain when he was betrayed and denied by two of his own followers.
Speaker 1:Then he endorsed physical pain. He suffered from assault and battery so much so that he was unrecognizable. And then the grand finale where he goes to where he goes on to suffer the most painful punishment and death, the crucifixion. Anyone who was nailed to a cross was left to hang in such a way that it left the large muscle between the chest and abdominal cavities compromised, making it hard for the person to breathe while hanging, causing the person to slowly suffocate. You have to pull yourself up from your nailed feet to exhale, which in doing so caused even more pain.
Speaker 1:This suffering on the cross is what Jesus endured for six hours. For this reason, Christ is our high priest who empathizes with our weaknesses. We have a high priest who empathizes with us because he was tempted in every way like us. He empathizes with us during times of sorrow and troubling circumstances. You know, I think about the story of Martha and Mary whose brother Lazarus died.
Speaker 1:When Mary came to Jesus and fell at his feet and Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews came alongside her to comfort her also wept, his disciple John wrote how he was deeply moved in spirit and trouble. And when they showed the Lord where they lay where they lay Lazarus to rest, the Lord himself wept. So why the sense of touch? Because God so loved the world.
Speaker 1:So now, when Paul says, I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. This truth in life is to be expressed in the body of Christ. So like when Doubt and Thomas came in contact with the resurrected Christ and Christ told him to see and feel the wounds and markings on him, those of the world who come in contact with Christ's body, the church, should not only see and hear but feel his presence because they witness the body that has been crucified with him and bear his markings. As Christ is the head, there should be no greater expression of love shown to the world from anyone than his own body. And making Christ known through the five senses, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature are made visible to the world through his physical body of whom his spirit indwells, the church.
Speaker 1:The kingdom highlight reel is where we highlight the work of those contributing to the body of Christ, whether you're familiar with their ministry or ministry may fly under the radar, as well as those who've made a significant impact on my walk with Christ directly. This segment of the kingdom highlight reel features love works fellowship. Love works fellowship is a Christ centered couples ministry of the we all need some help foundation. Created to support married couples who desire to strengthen their marriage through faith, community, and intentional heart work. Grounded in biblical truth and practical application, this fellowship provides a safe space for couples to grow spiritually, deepen emotional connection, and nurture their marriage with purpose.
Speaker 1:Through guided fellowship, monthly marriage challenges, and shared accountability, couples are encouraged to invest their relationship and walk out God's design for marriage together. Love Works Fellowship believes marriage thrives when couples invite God into the process and commit to doing the hard work that love requires. Because love works best when Christ is at the center. Love Works Fellowship Ministry is ran and facilitated by pastors and marriage coaches, Glenn and Sherry Brooks. And let me just say that my wife and I connected with Glenn and Sherry in March 2022.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you that they have been a tremendous blessing to my life and my marriage. And to be honest, I don't think I would have a marriage right now if not for their ministry. So shout out to Glenn and Sherry. As an extension of their mission to serve families holistically, Glenn and Sherry also founded the We All Need Some Health Foundation, a faith based nonprofit committed to spiritual development, community support, and personal transformation. The foundation's flagship program, Breakfast in the Word, is a weekly online fellowship that gathers every Sunday morning to dive into scripture, prayer, and authentic conversation.
Speaker 1:This global community has become a safe space for believers from all walks of life to grow together, encourage one another, and deepen their relationship with God. Whether you're in need of prayer, connection, or consistent rhythm of spiritual nourishment, Breakfast in a Word is a place where faith and community meet. Learn more about the We All Need Some Help Foundation, the Love Works Fellowship, Breakfast in a Word, and as coach Glenn will say, all the things. Visit the website at weallneedsomehelp.org. Support the mission at bit.live.serve_campaign.
Speaker 1:Meet the founders, Glenn and Sherry Brooks junior. Glenn p Brooks junior, author, coach, pastor, speaker, a veteran, former radio executive, public speaker, and ordained pastor. Glenn has an extraordinary gift for inspiring action and fostering connection. Known for his relatable style and transparent teaching, Glenn specializes in helping men and couples grow into healthy leaders both in the home and in their communities. His passion is teaching people how to cultivate meaningful lasting relationships that reflect God's love.
Speaker 1:Sherry a Brooks, author, coach, pastor, speaker. Sherry is a veteran, wife, mother, daughter, and grandmother who has turned her personal challenges into a platform for transformation. With a background in human services and psychology, she brings both empathy and strategy to relationship coaching. Cherie empowers women and couples to break generational cycles, heal from emotional wounds, and develop the tools necessary for thriving marriages and strong family legacies. Her faith filled compassionate approach is rooted in a real life experience and biblical truth.
Speaker 1:Together, Glenn and Sherry are on a mission to strengthen marriages, restore families, and build legacies. One couple, one family, and one community at a time. The spiritual zone read is where sports meets the spiritual. Several years ago, 2017 to be exact, there was a story that involved a brief spat between former NBA players Jeremy Lin and Kenyon Martin. For those who aren't sports fans and aren't so familiar with Jeremy Lin, this was a guy who took the league by storm for a brief period during the 02/2012 season when he played for the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1:His big play in big shots and key moments captivated the NBA fan base and was what gave rise to a movement at the time called Linsanity. Lin was a player who just so happened to be Asian American. He also happens to be a Harvard graduate, and most importantly, he's a Christian. And he's spoken publicly about his faith throughout his career. But getting back to the story, the brief spat between Jeremy Lin and Kenyon Martin started when Jeremy Lin had worn his hair in a dreadlock style at the time to which Kenyon Martin accused Jeremy Lin of trying to be black.
Speaker 1:Kenyon Martin even did a video on Instagram firing shots at Lin. Here's what he said, do I need to remind this boy that his last name is Lin? Like, come on man. Let's stop this man with these people, man. There's no way possible that he would have made it on one of our teams with that bleep on his head, man.
Speaker 1:Come on man. Somebody need to tell him like, alright bro, we get it. You wanna be black, like we get it. But the last name is Lin. Now the focus of this story was Lin was Jeremy Lin's response, which is why I brought the story up to begin with.
Speaker 1:Here was Jeremy Lin's response to Kenyon Martin via Instagram. Hey, man. It's all good. You don't have to like my hair and definitely entitled to your opinion. Actually, I'm legit grateful you sharing it.
Speaker 1:To be honest, at the end of the day, I appreciate that I have dreads and you have Chinese tattoos because it's a sign of respect. And I think as minorities, the more we appreciate each other's cultures, the more we influence mainstream society. Thanks for everything you did for the Nets and Hoops. Had your post on my wall growing up. I mean, if this ain't killing them with kindness, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1:Jeremy Lin's response wasn't being condescending or insulting. Rather, his response was disarming in the most respectful way. Needless to say, Kenyon Martin ended up sort of backtracking on his comments about Jeremy Lin's hair by saying he was quote unquote joking. But ultimately, Jeremy Lin revealed that Kenyon Martin ended up reaching out to him and did have a conversation in which Jeremy Lin described Kenyon Martin as being extremely apologetic. You know, it reminds me of of Colossians chapter four verse six that says, let your conversation be seasoned with salt.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Jeremy Lin for imitating Christ by overlooking an insult in that instance and for being a living example of how a gentle answer turns away wrath according to Proverbs chapter 15 verse one. Thank you for joining the very first episode of the Gospel Analytics Podcast. If you like this episode or the podcast in general, please hit like or subscribe or tell anybody who's anybody you know about it. I pray that this episode will be a blessing to you and yours and that we'll build and grow together. Till the next episode.
Speaker 1:Holla.