Now is the Time - Matthew 3a (Ep. 103)

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Hi, everyone. Dave here. I wanted to let you know about wait. Do you hear that? I think it's can I believe?

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Captain Captain Memory Verse. Captain Memory Verse. The greatest bible remembrizer in the whole wide world.

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That's me. I never forget anything. I have a super memory.

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Captain Memoryverse, what are you

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doing here? You're on the wrong podcast. I'm here to tell the children something very important.

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What is it? Are you gonna tell them about when you accidentally wore your underwear on the inside instead of the outside and all the other superheroes laughed at you? No. No. Don't talk about that.

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It's so embarrassing. Well, are you gonna tell them about the time you came on the bible in your brain podcast and you said the bible verse is completely wrong even though

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you said you never forget anything? One word. It was one word that

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I got wrong. Or are

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you gonna tell everyone about the time listen. I don't tell them about all your embarrassing things, do I? Like what? Like how you dropped the price of club membership so people can listen to all the episodes of stories of

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a faithful god for kids for

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a very low price. Oh, look. Don't tell them about that. And how you also dropped the price of the super club membership so they can not only get all the episodes of stories of a faithful god for kids, but also the brand new bible memorizing podcast, bible in your brain, featuring sometimes me.

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Shh. If you tell them that, they'll all want to join.

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And how if they join, they'll not only get all these amazing episodes, they'll be helping support you make more amazing content to help people trust Jesus.

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Well, okay. I guess you can tell them that.

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Oh, is that not very embarrassing? Oh. Oh. Well, well, I'll tell them not to join then. Whatever you do, don't go to the shop on faithfulgod.net and discover the new super low prices and join the club.

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Don't do it. You don't want something that has such good value for helping your family trust Jesus.

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Sorry about all that. But seriously, what are you waiting for? Join the club now. Just go to the shop at faithfulgod.net. That's faithfulgod.net.

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Good day. Dave here. Welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. I wanna do a couple of shout outs before we begin. Firstly, a big shout out to Eleanor, who's five years old and lives in Florida in The USA.

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Eleanor, I totally love the picture you sent into me. It's so beautiful. Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to make such a wonderful gift. Keep trusting Jesus. Also, a big shout out to the kids in mister Palmer's class at Orange Anglican Grammar School.

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I heard you've been tuning in every week. I love that as well as teaching you about maths and reading and writing, mister Palmer wants to teach you the most important thing, trusting and following Jesus. Now on with the show. It's so important to do the right thing at the right time. Like, if you're jumping into a pool, you don't need a parachute.

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But if the time's come to jump out of a plane, yeah, you'd better put that parachute on. Or if you're on a boat that's sinking, that is not the time to go into your cabin, do some coloring, and listen to the latest stories of a faithful god for kids episode. No. It's time to get into a life raft. Or if you're at school and the teacher says, well, it's been a fun year, but now it's time for the summer holidays.

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That is not the time to

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say, no. No. Please don't make us leave. We want you to teach us all summer about reading and the life cycle of Siberian reindeer and the history of how different countries around the world have used toilet paper.

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No. It's just not time for that. Really, it's time to run outside, yell, woo hoo. It's summer. Rush home, and spend the next few weeks cleaning the whole place from top to bottom.

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You have to do the right thing at the right time. Sometimes if you get the timing wrong, it doesn't matter too much. Like, if you brush your hair before breakfast or after it, it won't make much difference. But for other things, if you get the timing wrong, it can be a disaster. Bad things can happen, and you can miss out on something totally awesome.

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In today's story, someone warns people to understand the time they're living in. Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. At the end of our last episode, Jesus was a little child. As he grows up, someone else starts becoming quite famous, a man named John the Baptist. He goes out into the desert and begins preaching, telling people a very important message, telling them that a very, very important time is about to begin, telling them what the right thing to do at this time is.

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The thing he tells them to do is repent. Repent kinda means turn around. Stop living the way God doesn't like and start living God's way. Stop living the sinful way and start living for God. Stop loving and serving yourself first.

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Love and serve God first. That's a good thing to do at any time. So why is John saying that they should really, really do it now? It's because god is about to arrive. God's about to set up his special kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

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And you're either gonna be in that kingdom, which will be really, really awesome, or you're gonna be outside his kingdom, and that will not be good at all. Now this guy, John, he isn't just some nobody. He's not just making this all up. God had actually said in the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, that before he, God, came, someone else would get people ready for him. And that someone is John.

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John is getting people ready to meet God by telling them to repent, to be living for God, not against him. Matthew tells us in chapter three verse three these words. He says, John the Baptist is the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about. Isaiah said, this is a voice of a man who calls out in the desert. Prepare the way for the Lord.

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Make the road straight for him. So if John is that guy, then that means God's about to turn up. And if God's about to turn up, you don't wanna be living against him. You want to repent and start living for him. There's another clue about who John is and why he's so important.

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The clue is in what he's wearing. He isn't wearing a big sign saying, I'm the guy who gets people ready for God. He isn't wearing a really expensive suit or the special clothes of someone who works for a king. No. John is wearing camel hair.

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That's right. You heard me. Camel hair. Like hair from the big animal with a hump that always looks like it's really bored. In verse four, Matthew tells us, John's clothes were made from camel's hair.

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He wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey. Yummy. So why is John wearing clothes made out of camel hair and a leather belt? It's because he's dressing like another prophet from the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah.

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We talked about him in the first five episodes of Stories of a Faithful God.

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Episodes you can listen to if you become a club member at faithfulgod.net.

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Yes. Yes. Thank you, Captain Memory Verse. This prophet Elijah wore hairy clothes and a leather belt. John is dressing up like Elijah.

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That's really important. Because in the very last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, God said that he, God, was going to come to bless the people who trust and obey him and punish those who don't trust and obey him. And before God comes, guess who would come first to get people ready for him. If you said Elijah, you're spot on. Elijah would help people repent, turn back to god so that they were ready for god to arrive.

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And here, John is dressed as Elijah, getting people ready for God to arrive. So if John really is that guy, then that means God's about to arrive, to bless the people who trust and obey him and punish those who don't trust and obey him. And if God's about to arrive and you still live your own way, not God's way, what should you do? Repent. Turn back to God.

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And that is what heaps of people are doing. Heaps of people are coming to John, admitting that they've done the wrong thing and being baptized by him in the Jordan River. That means John was dunking them in the river as a symbol that they want to change their lives. It's like they go into the river as one person, a person who doesn't live for God, and come out as a person who wants to change and live for God. The river doesn't actually change them.

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It's just a sign that they want to change. Now among the people who come to see John, there are some very important religious leaders. Some of them are called Sadducees, and others are called Pharisees. These are the sort of people who everyone thinks, oh, yeah. They live their lives for god.

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They obey god all the time. They don't need to do much repenting. But that's not what John thinks. He knows that all the things they do and say about god, it's all just a show. It's like they're acting.

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They don't really love God and love other people. They don't really obey God or care for other people. They say all the right and fancy words, but, really, they're just living for themselves. And John gets really angry at them. He warns them that they need to stop trying to fool other people and stop trying to fool God.

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They need to repent and actually do what God wants, not just pretend. He says to them in verse seven, you are snakes. Who warned you to run away from god's anger that is coming? You must do the things that show that you've really changed your hearts and lives. Another thing these guys do wrong is they just assume that they're fine with God because they're from Abraham's family.

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They're Jews or what the Old Testament calls Israelites, God's special people. They think that just because they're Jews, God will be happy with them. But that is completely wrong thinking. Because they're Jews, they should know how God wants them to live and live like that. They can't just sit back and say, oh, yeah.

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I'm Jewish. God loves me, so I can do whatever I want. In fact, John says that when they say that, they're like fruit trees that only ever give bad fruit. And what does a farmer do with fruit trees that only ever give bad fruit? He chops them down and throws them in the fire because they're useless.

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In verse nine, John says to these guys, and don't think that you can say to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God could make children for Abraham from these rocks. The axe is now ready to cut down the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. John's telling them, you can't fake it.

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You can't say, because I'm from Abraham's family, I can do whatever I want, and God will still be happy. This is no time for messing around. God's about to arrive, and you have to be ready for him. In verse 11, John says, I baptize you with water to show that your hearts and lives have changed, but there is one coming later who's greater than I am. I'm not good enough to carry his sandals.

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He will baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire. In other words, water can't actually change your hearts and minds, but God's Holy Spirit can. Everyone who trusts the one who comes after John will receive God's holy spirit to help them change and live for God. You know what, though? God's holy spirit cannot be tricked.

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He'll deal with anyone who says, oh, yeah. I'm on God's side, but then spends all their time ignoring god. So John's telling them all, now is the time. Repent. Turn back to god.

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Live for him. Love and obey him. That all happened two thousand years ago. And I guess it's worth asking, well, what time are we living in today? What's the right thing to do now?

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How should we live now in this time? Well, we actually live in an amazing time, an in between time. We're in between when God came the first time and when he'll come a second time. You see, God did turn up in Jesus. He came to deal with sin.

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He came to save his people, and he did that when he died on the cross and was raised back to life. But he's coming again. He's coming to take everyone who trusts and obeys him into his perfect new creation. For everyone who doesn't trust and obey him, when he comes again, he'll lock them out of his goodness forever. We don't know when Jesus is coming back, but he's given us this time right now to repent, to turn back to God, love him, trust him, obey him.

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None of us will do that perfectly. We'll still sin. You don't have

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to say, oh, no. I sinned.

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I must never really have repented. No. We won't be perfect until the new creation. But we are trying to love and obey our good and wonderful god. So when you sin, repent.

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Say sorry for what you've done and ask for God's help to do better next time. You know, it's easy to be like those religious leaders. It's easy to say things like, I go to church, so I must be fine with God. Or my family is Christian, so, I'm probably fine with God. And then live caring more about yourself than you do about God.

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If you think that might be you, don't panic. Repent. Pray and ask God to forgive you and change you. God's been so good to give us this time to come back to him. He really wants us to come back to him.

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He loves to save people who come back to him. Back at the Jordan River, as large crowds of people are coming to be baptized by John, someone arrives who John doesn't expect. Someone who John thinks should not be baptized. Someone who John thinks should actually be baptizing him. But that's a story for next time.

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Thanks everyone for tuning in. I've been doing some work on the website, and it's changed around a lot. If you click on the link there and it's broken, please let me know. Something that isn't broken, though, is the contact button. Grown ups can write me a message there and pass on messages from kids, or you can even leave a voice message.

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Why not get together as a family to leave a voice message? I'd love to hear from you. Don't forget to sign up to the club to get access to all the episodes of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids. Or even better, sign up to the Super Club to get access to all the episodes plus the new Bible in Your Brain podcast. Keep trusting Jesus.

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Bye for now.