Facing Trials? God Provides a Team!

On today's episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. We have finished the nativity story and are now moving into the early life of Christ. We will take a look at how God in His providence surrounds us with people to  support us as we face trials in our lives. 

As always I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the reading and as well should you have any prayer requests you would like me to lift up on the podcast don't hesitate to reach out to any of the social media or email below.

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Luke 2: 22-38 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, 

            29       “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, 
      according to your word; 
            30       for my eyes have seen your salvation 
            31       that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 
            32       a light for revelation to the Gentiles, 
      and for glory to your people Israel.” 

33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. 

Transcript

 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. Welcome back, Saints. I'm excited to get back at Luke again this week. Had a crazy busy weekend, so I wasn't able to get out that Saturday episode. So sorry about that. For those of you that may have been hoping to hear that. But we are going to get right back into Loop today. I'm excited to do that huge shout out for all of you guys that are listing on all the platforms. We are on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and about a dozen other directories right now. So if you guys would prefer to listen to it regularly there, please take the time to head over there and set yourself up. I will be pushing this out to all of those channels. But without further ado, let's get down to it. So excited to keep going on Luke here today, guys. We finished last week having done the birth of John, birth of Jesus, Zachariah's prophecy. Now we're heading into baby Jesus, little baby Jesus. I'm excited to get going this week. As always, guys, you're welcome to continue listening wherever you may be, but I am now available on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, and Spotify, as well as about a dozen other directory. So please take the time to go over and listen where you prefer. But without further ado, we're going to hop into Luke here. Luke, chapter two, verse 22. I'll be reading from the ESV. Feel free to follow along whatever translation you would like. If you're in the car, if you're at work, I'm going to read it for you guys so you're able to just listen. So when the time came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present them to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord. A pair of turtle doves are two young pigeons. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death. But before he had seen the Lord's Christ, he came into the Spirit, into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. But my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people. Israel. And his father and his mother were marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother. Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed. And a sword will pierce through your own soul also so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Samuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping and passing in prayer night and day. And coming up to that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak to him of all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. How amazing is this, guys? It's not just that God fulfills the prophecy in Christ. It's not just that he has other folks that have been waiting around, waiting their entire life, and they happen to be at the right place at the right moment. And that's and chance or luck, there's a lot of those words that get thrown around. But the reality is, it's not. It's a designed plan. We see Simeon, who's been waiting his entire life for this baby to show up and ben it's there. And the immediate proclamation is, this is the salvation of the Gentiles. That's a huge statement. That's not a small declaration, that's a massive statement. The Gentiles find salvation in the coming of the Lord. Everybody in Israel was waiting for a messiah. The Gentiles have no clue. But here comes a Christ that is going to save all. And we know this from the get go. This is a remarkable thing, whether slave or free, jew, Greek, it didn't matter. You were going to see salvation in Christ. How amazing is that? And immediately after the declaration of that, we see people pipe up in wonder, people worshiping, people praising. So what's the application for us on the Scripture today? I'd say take a look around. God doesn't just operate on happenstance and chance. His plan and purpose are clear. And oftentimes it's not just out of our own working device, but the people that he puts around us as well. If you're going through a challenge, if you're facing some work trials heading into a Monday, I know that can be a lot of work for folks. If you're facing challenges, if you're facing adversity, if you're facing hardship, take a look at the people around you. Oftentimes, God has put people in your circle, in your spheres of either social or work, and they're there to help. God has provided you people that can give you direction, people that can support you, people that can cry out, this is what we see God doing. Always test out with the Scripture, always come back to the Scripture, but realize that in fellowship with those around you, you can do some pretty amazing things. So if you're feeling the struggle, if you're feeling the trial today, I would challenge you to look around yourself and say, who are the people that God has placed in my life to face this trial? Do I have to go this alone? Or am I a part of a bigger body that's there to support me? And the Lord has provided me that support. All right, guys, we're going to get into the prayer section. Now. I did have a couple of people shoot me prayer request last week, so I am going to pray for them. As always, guys, if you have prayer requests, feel free to drop me a DM or a post on social media, or you can email me directly. All of those are in the description for this podcast episode, but anybody that submits a prayer request, I will be doing a prayer at the end of every episode. And all the prayer requests will be anonymous, so it will either be under pseudonym or first name only. So you have that assurance. But let's get down to it here. Lord, thank you so much for the blessings that You've shown us. Thank you for Your word that we're able to listen open and freely to Your scriptures like this. Thank you so much that in the trials that you present to us in our work that we need to get done as we head into this week, we don't go it alone. You're with us, of course, but you also provide us amazing stuff. Around us that have the tools and the abilities that we need to help us to succeed. Lord, I lift up John to you as he faces about in the hospital, Lord. He's not sure exactly what's going on. I just pray that you would be with those physicians that are there. I also lift up 1s to you and his wife, Lord, as she is recovering at home. I just pray that that would go well. I pray for Ritchie as he is trying to come back to the Lord's word. He's trying to get focused in his life, get right in his life of God. I just pray that you would walk alongside him, that you would show him those tools and that you help him to prosper. Lord, pray for all the men that are listening here today, that the Saints would walk a righteous week this week, that they would seek you in their work, but also in their home lives as husbands, as fathers, as brothers, as sons, that they would walk in a glorifying way to you, Lord, in your name we pray. That's it for today, guys. Again, as always, we are on those new platforms. So. Apple. Podcasts. Google podcasts. Spotify. If you're listening there, please take the time to give me a review. I would love to see your feedback on the show, what I can do to improve. And until tomorrow, have a great day. Catch you then. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.