As believers, we need to be careful that we don’t derive our identity and value from our paycheck or our possessions - if we do, we will always be covetous for more! The substantive part of our life is not made up of the things we possess. But rather, our identity is found in the Person of Jesus Christ! The more we realize this the more we will experience life with rest and contentment.

As you dig deeper into this command, you will discover that it is God’s love for us that causes Him to warn us of covetousness. Covetousness causes us to seek after temporal things that only bring emptiness and death. But as we embrace the boundaries that God has given to us, we find true joy and fulfillment.

A rich man was once asked, “How much money is enough?” He answered, “Just a little bit more.” This answer illustrates the ugly root of covetousness. Covetousness is wanting more than what God has allotted to me. Join Nate and Gabe as they delve into the command of Christ to Beware of Covetousness.

What does it mean to “be angry and sin not”? Is it even possible to get angry without sinning? In this episode, Dr. S.M. Davis expounds from scripture how acting out even in a little anger is never ok. The effects of anger in the home are devastating - causing breakdown in relationships and ultimately causing parents to lose their children's hearts. Join Dr. Davis and Nate as they discuss where we must start in conquering anger and how to restore relationships that have been damaged by this...

Our tendency towards offenses is to react in our flesh. It is helpful to see our offender as God’s agent for developing the character of Jesus in us. Instead of just reacting to conflict and offense from our human perspective, what if we asked God for His perspective? God is able to use even the conflict we experience among believers to form Christ in both the offended and the offender!

What hinders us from going to offenders? Are you harboring bitterness? Are you going to others who are not part of the problem or solution? When we are offended we need to go to the Lord first and allow Him to search our heart. As we take the situation to Him, He is then able to give us His heart and His forgiveness toward our offender.

How are we to “go to offenders” in the first place? So often we approach an offender with our motive being vindication - we go in anger and pride and with a desire to expose them. However it is key that we approach a straying brother with the heart God has for them. If we go with an attitude of humility, love and a desire to restore, it has the potential to open their heart in a way that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

Going to offenders is not about condemnation; it’s about restoration. Join Nate and Gabe as they dig into the context surrounding this command. This command will open your eyes to see the heart of God to restore, not condemn, those who are lost.

We all have “little ones” in our lives - whether they are young children physically or those who are spiritually immature in the faith. A very practical aspect of living out this command is that we learn to take time to invest in these “little ones.” Whether you are a parent with children or someone in a discipleship setting, you will be encouraged as you listen to have God’s perspective toward those He has put in your life.

It is so easy to have the mentality that we need to do something impressive or become something great in order to be used by God. In this episode, Nate and Gabe explore many examples from scripture illustrating the truth that God uses the “little ones” - the ones who are weak and dependent on Him - to accomplish His purposes. Oftentimes the reason God is not able to use us is not because we are too weak, but because we are too strong in ourselves.

We are often impatient with ones who are less mature than us. However it is so important for us to humble ourselves and accept the fact that we are “little children” who are completely dependent on our Heavenly Father. As we rest in Him and receive His gentle demeanor toward us, we will be able to communicate this same attitude of love and patience to those around us.

When the disciples asked Jesus “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”, they were probably not expecting Jesus to answer the way He did! He pointed them to a little child and said that we must become as little children in order to enter the Kingdom. Join Nate and Gabe as they explore the rich insights of becoming “as little children” - ones who believe God and take Him at His word.

Often when we think of denying self, we think of abstaining from things that are obviously “bad.” We need to be aware that there is also a “lust of the flesh” that looks good - it is a desire to be good in our own strength and by our own efforts. We must deny this dependence on the flesh because even though it looks good, it keeps us from dependence on Christ.

Does our behavior define our identity or is our identity supposed to define our behavior? Often we wrestle with our identity in Christ because we still wrestle with old patterns and behaviors. It is paramount to our Christian life that we learn to bring our behavior in line with who we are in Christ. In this episode, Nate and Gabe share that this mentality is a key in learning to walk out the command to Deny Yourself. Denying self is just learning to walk out the reality of who we are in Christ.

What does it mean to deny yourself? And what does it look like to deny yourself daily? Listen as Nate and Gabe discuss the freedom that comes when we forget ourselves and our own interests and begin to live for the Lord’s purposes. At the core of this command to “Deny Yourself” is that we learn to say “no” to ourselves and “yes” to Jesus every time.

Do you ever hear the words “deny yourself” and interpret them to mean something austere and lifeless? In this episode, Nate and Gabe will challenge you to think about the lifegiving implications of Jesus’ command to Deny Yourself. Where living for self brings bondage, depression, and darkness, you will see that turning from self and following Jesus brings life, and joy and peace.

We can know a lot about God, but information doesn’t change us. One of the Greek words used in Scripture for the word “know” is “ginosko.” The meaning is deep and beautiful and refers to something beyond just knowing information - it is an experiential knowing, a knowing that changes us. In this episode, Nathan Johnson testifies to the fact that your Christian life will change dramatically once you grasp the difference between the informational knowing about God and experiential knowing of God.

How are we to deal with the compromise, the hypocrisy, the unbelief (i.e., the leaven) in our lives? In this episode, Nate and Gabe give encouragement on how to allow the Lord to search our hearts, expose us, and bring us back into fellowship and communion with Him in every area of our lives. As we humble ourselves under His Word, He will replace the leaven with His truth.

It has been said that “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” Beware of the lie that “little things” are not a big deal. In this episode, Nate and Gabe will expound on the fact that, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

Jesus said that the leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy. They loved the praise of men, they looked good on the outside, they did and said all the right things, but inwardly they missed the mark! Hypocrisy is very connected to pride - “I want to look better than I am.” In this episode, Nate and Gabe exhort us to ask ourselves the question, “Is there leaven in me?”

What is leaven? And what are its effects? In this new study on the command of Christ to “Beware of Leaven”, Nate and Gabe will take a deeper look into the metaphorical “leaven” in our own lives. Leaven is something very small that grows in secret, and ends up permeating the whole.

The question needs to be addressed: how do we honor parents or in-laws who are difficult? If we really want to honor our parents, we need to walk in forgiveness toward them. This episode is packed with encouraging truth! Listen as Nate and Gabe give encouragement on how God desires to free us from bitterness toward our parents and enable us to honor them even in difficult situations.

It is important to  see that not only does Scripture address those under authority - it also addresses those in authority. Being in a position of authority is a weighty responsibility. Parents are accountable before God for how they lead their children. Listen as Nate and Gabe discuss how one of the greatest ways to encourage your children to honor you is by living and walking in an honoring way.

It is all too common for us to have a list of excuses for why we don’t have to honor our parents. While there may be situations in which we need to “obey God rather than men”, most often we are just looking for an excuse because honoring them is hard and uncomfortable. It all boils down to our heart - if our heart is to honor our parents, we will look for ways to do it.