Kaleo Church Podcast

Every human since the beginning of the world has longed for justice and peace. In Psalm 72, we have King David praying that his son would be the one to bring justice and peace forever. Listen and hear how the Gospel is about the King of kings who would fulfill all of King David's prayers at great cost to himself.

Have you ever felt yourself surrounded by what if’s. Your mind races, your body tenses as your thoughts take you down a spiral of worst-case scenarios. In Psalm 56 we find that we are not alone. David, the great warrior who once defeated the giant Goliath finds himself alone and afraid. In Psalm 56, David tells us how he responded to the fear and anxiety that he felt rising up within. In his response we can find hope for our own fears and freedom from the crippling grip of our own anxieties.

Pride is subtle and sneaky. It can infect our thoughts in ways we do not even realize. It leads to restlessness and discontentment with our circumstances. Psalm 131 gives us hope! Psalm 131 is God's word to us to lead us out of ourselves to rest in the loving arms of our Lord. It illustrates a heart that is humble, satisfied, and at rest. Jesus offers us this heart today through the good news of his humble sacrifice to save prideful and anxious sinners like you and me.

What do we do with our sin? When denying it and justifying it and explaining and excusing it don’t seem to be doing the trick. When we realize that hiding it doesn’t make it go away and distracting yourself from it only leaves us feeling empty? In this message we will look at Psalm 51 and find that it was written specifically to show sinners what they are supposed to do with their sin. If you have ever found yourself feeling dirty and ashamed and you just want to feel clean again, this Psalm is for you.

Forgiveness can be hard. In Genesis 50 Joseph explains how he was able to forgive his brothers even after all they had done to him. In Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers we catch a glimpse of God’s amazing forgiveness of us and we also find some practical help for how we too might learn to forgive those who have sinned against us.

We don’t talk very much about death do we? In tonight’s message we will consider why thinking and talking about death is so important. We will also consider some questions like: what does a good death look like? How does someone make sure that they are ready to die? And how should Christians respond to the death of our loved ones? These and other questions will be addressed as we look at the death of Jacob and see what we can learn from it.

In this text Peter exposes our toxic cravings and how Jesus purifies us and gives us new craving for Him.

Are there still consequences for forgiven sin or are grace and consequences meant to be mutually exclusive? In Genesis 49 we see that even for God’s people there are consequences for sin and those consequences don’t just impact the people who commit the sin. However, as we follow the story of Levi we will see that the consequences of sin, both the sins we commit and the sins that are done against us, are able to be redeemed!

There is something powerful about people’s last words. Here in Genesis 48 Jacob’s dying words are meant to teach us how to live. In them we learn about the importance of gratitude and we are reminded of how God has chosen to interact with his people. Jacob reminds us that we have a shepherd who will never leave us and that he is able to redeem his people from all evil and those two truths are meant to radically impact the way that we live.

In Genesis 47 the Egyptians joyfully gave Joseph everything they had in exchange for food so that they might live and not die. This got me thinking, “If we could only rightly grasp all that Jesus has saved us from, we too would joyfully let go of the things of this world in order to cling more fully to the one who offers us eternal life.” In this message we will consider what we have been saved from and the price that our savior paid to do it. My hope is that we too would join the Egyptians in declaring to Jesus, “You have saved our lives, may it please my Lord, we will be yours forever…”

After Jacob found out that Joseph was alive, you would think he would be overwhelmed with joy. What we actually find out in Genesis 47 is that sorrow and darkness have shaped Jacob in a way that makes joy seem foreign. Listen and hear how the Gospel changes us to be honest about sorrow but also frees us to experience joy.

When faced with a fork in the road we often think we have to choose between obedience to God OR our own happiness because we cannot imagine how God could accomplish both. However, the paths of obedience and blessedness are not two different paths. God comes to remind us that the path of faith and obedience is the path of greatest blessing and happiness. The God who raises Jesus from the dead is worthy of trusting with our future happiness even when we don't understand or when he intentionally leads us down uncomfortable and even painful paths to get there.

Tonight’s story is one of paralyzing fear that turned into hugs and tears as forgiveness is offered and estranged brothers are reconciled together again. It’s the story of prayers being answered in ways that exceed anything anyone could have ever asked or imagined. It’s the story of a numb heart being revived when a father realizes the son that he thought was dead was actually alive and he was going to get to see him again before he died. But even better than all this, tonight’s story is just a shadow of a far bigger story with an even better ending that you and I have been invited to be a part of.

Relief, it’s something all of us long for. Relief from guilt and shame; relief from the insidious fear that perhaps our God is against us; relief from the sorrows that we bear and the pain that we carry. In this passage we will get to see both Joseph and his brothers find relief from some of their greatest burdens. In their story we will not only see that relief is possible, but we will also find out exactly where it can be found.

Like all of us, Jacob struggled with letting things in this world become more important to him than God. Over and over in Jacob’s life we see that he looked to a person to give him what only God is able to give. But God did not let Jacob live comfortably with his disordered love, but instead he pursued him, often through disappointments, in order to bring him to the place where he was finally ready to look to God as his only hope. In God’s pursuit of Jacob we get a picture of the way our God pursues his people in order to loosen their grip on the things of this world and put their trust in him.

Sometimes the brokenness of this world can seem overwhelming. Sometimes loss can seem irreversible. Sometimes even the promises of God seem unable to bring us the comfort we long for. What then? In John 20 we encounter a woman who was so overwhelmed with grief that she had lost all hope of things ever getting better. But Jesus was not content to leave her in her despair. Instead, we will see how the resurrected Jesus comes to offer comfort to his people even in the midst of their darkest nights.

We are a people who are haunted by the sins and the sufferings of our past. But what are we supposed to do about that? What do we do with the things we wish we could forget, but can’t? The memories that seem to spring up uninvited and often end up controlling us in ways that we know are unhealthy. Tonight we are going to look at a family that is haunted by a tragic event that took place over 20 years earlier. An event they all wish they could forget, but can’t. And in this story something happens to each of them that triggers their memory of the past. And in the midst of the many unhealthy responses to the past that we will see, there is one that I believe offers us hope and direction for dealing with the sins and the sufferings in our past.

Have you ever begged God for something that you knew was good, only to have God say no? Have you ever pleaded with God to let you keep someone that you loved dearly, only for him to take them away? Why? For 13 years Joseph asked God for good things and over and over again God said no. In Genesis 41 we finally see why. My hope is that in understanding why God said no to Joseph, we will get a better understanding of why he sometimes says no to us as well.

Disappointment and self-pity are two things that most of us are pretty familiar with. But what do we do about them? In tonight’s message we will see how Joseph was able to endure terrible injustice without falling prey to feeling sorry for himself. We will also consider what it is that God wants to say to us in the midst of our disappointments.