The title says it all!
JED BREAKS BREAD
Thank You! || EP 147
Greeting saints and fellow bond slaves of Jesus Christ. I'm Pastor Jonathan Edwards, and many years ago a co-worker gave me the nickname "Jed," and it just stuck. These days, I have the privilege of studying the Bread of Life, which is the Word of God, and sharing it with His people. My goal in this podcast is to help you know the truth and to put it into practice in your life, so that your orthoprancy is as good as your orthodoxy. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the "Jed Brake's Bread" podcast. It is the episode that is going to close out 2024 and welcome 2025, and it may also actually be the last episode that you hear for quite some time. I want to give you a little update on kind of what's been going on in my life and ministry. I was encouraged this past year to apply for the Doctor of Ministry training program at the Master's Seminary out in Sun Valley, California, affiliated with Grace Community Church, and I had some really good conversations with my fellow elders about pursuing that program, the pros, the cons, the drawbacks, and ultimately they gave me their blessing and encouragement to pursue it, and they wanted me to pursue it. And so in September, I began applying for that program. I finished the application process sometime in October, and right before Thanksgiving, I got word that I was accepted to that program, and along with the acceptance came some assignments that had to be completed before I leave in January to go to school there for the in-class learning module. But one of the consequences of getting accepted to this program, and I'm really overjoyed to be a part of it, I'm thinking that it's going to be a great journey for me to grow in personal discipline, in the Word of the Lord, and in my skill set as a preacher and pastor of the Word of God. And so I'm really excited about that, but one of the things that is going to consequently come to an end, because I have to find time to do this extra work, is the The Jeddbrake's Bed Podcast. Now, I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to all of you who have listened, who have sent me messages, commented, encouraged me, it's been a lot of fun to do this podcast over the years. In fact, 2024 was the best year of the podcast ever, I had 2,400 downloads in 2024, and that was based on an episode, published number of episodes of, I believe, 20. I think I published 20 episodes in 2024. So, you know, I really am overwhelmed by the opportunity I've had to do this. And you know what? I don't know that this is totally goodbye. Maybe I'll get back on and do a podcast quarterly or some random time, maybe some topic will come up, and I'll sense the need to get on and record a podcast. But as of right now, and moving forward into 2025, I'm not planning to publish any new episodes of The Jeddbrake's Bread Podcast. I'm going to leave all the episodes up, and so they will be there forever. I'm going to continue to pay for the hosting service so that I don't lose any of the work. So, if you've been helped or benefited, or if you want to go back and re-listen to something, all the material should be there to listen to. And perhaps someday in the future, we will re-work. Jeddbrake's Bread, we'll relaunch Jeddbrake's Bread, we'll work to make this something that is a regular aspect of ministry so that you all can receive the blessing of that. I know personally that when I'm working or driving, I would rather listen to podcasts than listen to music. That's me, and I think there's a lot of people like me, which is why podcasts are very popular. I also like the fact that podcasts are a long form method of gaining and receiving and telling information. And so you have the opportunity on a podcast to really kind of go deep on a particular subject, to talk about it from a lot of different angles. And it just gives you a lot more insight into various topics than maybe short soundbites would or quick articles that you might read. So I really enjoy podcasts and I enjoy the process of podcasting. It's just that with everything happening, the changes in my life and ministry, I don't have enough bandwidth to do everything. And so the podcast is one thing that definitely needs to be let go or put on the back burner for a while to come. Now that being said, I do want to offer all of you some kind of message here before I leave. I think that it would be unlike me to just leave and not say anything of consequence, of spiritual consequence that is. So I want to offer something to you. I want to offer to you the encouragement that Paul gives to Timothy to continue fighting the good fight. I think that it's so easy to be overwhelmed, to be overcome by the challenging circumstances that we face in life, to be overcome by obvious evils that we see in the world. I think it's easy to be overwhelmed by the systems that we see around us. I mean, how are we going to fight against the news media? Or how are we going to fight against the government? I mean, these entities are just so much bigger than we are. And yet I think when Paul writes to Timothy and encourages him to keep fighting the good fight, that is an individual fight. It is an individual fight first because it's a fight against sin. You yourself are going to war against flesh and the temptations of the flesh. You are going to continue to refine your understanding of who Jesus is, of who God is, of how you can live each day in your daily life in a way that pleases Christ and puts Christ first and looks to serve others instead of yourself. You can become a better mother, a better wife, a better husband, a better father, a better employee, a better boss. We should all be finding areas and pathways of growth as believers. And that just boils down to fighting the good fight day in and day out. I recorded an episode earlier this year on process versus outcome. And I really think that fighting the good fight that Paul talks about is focused on the process and not necessarily the outcome. We know what the outcome is for believers. We win, right? We will overcome death through Christ. We will overcome sin through Christ. We will overcome God's judgment and escape God's judgment through Christ. We already know what the outcome is for us at the very end of our existence. But what do we do with each day? How do we live each day? How do we live each day in consideration of the fact that we're already winners? I think there's a temptation, and I'm sad to say that sometimes I fall into it as well. There's a temptation to not really work as hard as you could work on your spiritual life because you know what the outcome is going to be. You don't have to strive to change an outcome when you already know what it's going to look like in the very end. And yet, the Christian life is so much more than just winning in those big picture sense. It is all of those things, and I don't want to minimize those in any way, shape, or form. But living the Christian life really involves the day-to-day sanctification of the individual. How am I more like Christ today than I was yesterday? How do I put the thoughts and cares and consideration of today ahead of what may happen in the future or what has happened in the past? I believe it's very difficult, it's very challenging to just live in the moment. And I know that's kind of a cliche phrase, but really it's a summation of what Jesus commanded in Matthew chapter 6 on the Sermon on the Mount. You know, tomorrow has its own worries, and the worries of yesterday are already gone. And so don't worry about tomorrow and don't regret or long for what you could have done yesterday. Focus on today because today has its own issues, and we have a responsibility to make sure that the things that we care for today are being cared for in a manner that brings glory and honor to Christ. I invite you to look with me at the context surrounding this command that Paul gives, Timothy. He says this in 1 Timothy 1, 18, "I command or this command I entrust to you, Timothy, my child in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight." How do you do that? Keeping faith in a good conscience. That's a day-by-day necessity to keep faith in a good conscience. Say no to sin, say yes to obedience to what the word of God commands, to what Christ expects to honoring Christ by living obediently to Him. Now, if you're going to fight the good fight, you're going to keep faith and you're going to have a good conscience. But, but if you reject these things, some people have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith, and then Paul names the curious case of Hymenaeus and Alexander, who he had to hand over to Satan so that they would be taught not to blaspheme. Now, I've always interpreted this passage, and I'm not going to do a super deep dive on this right now, but I've always interpreted this passage as these were two men who were believers who began to oppose Paul for some reason, and Paul gave them over to Satan so that God would use Satan to discipline them. See, apparently they were blaspheming, and Paul gave them over to Satan so that Satan would discipline them, and Satan was actually God's instrument for discipline. I don't know that it means that these men lost their faith or never had faith, but it certainly seems to me that they were believers, they were fighting the good fight, and then they turned away from that to their very destruction. So, my friend, I would encourage you in 2025, keep your head down, fight the good fight, focus on today, keep the faith, keep a good conscience, do what you know is right, and don't focus on tomorrow or the next day or the next six months, but focus on today and doing what you know today to please Christ. Thank you again so much for all the encouragement that you've given to me over the years as I've done this podcast. I pray that it's a blessing to you, and may you continue to grow in godliness and in the knowledge of Christ our Savior to his glory forever and ever. Amen. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]