Grace Coach Podcast Mike Stone and Kevin Smith

The Apostle Paul, inspired by God, urges us to let God renew our minds. Why is this renewal necessary? Because our natural inclination is to think in worldly ways, following the patterns of this world. We are born spiritually dead in Adam, separated from God—like a car without fuel or a light bulb without electricity.
When you receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus comes to live within you, granting you a new power and a deeper understanding of the Scriptures. It is then that you can test the Word of God, and know the truth that sets a person free.
 

Mike Stone and Kevin Smith continue their discussion in Romans by looking at Romans 11 and God's faithfulness to Israel.
Despite the prevailing global surge in anti-Semitism, it may come as a surprise that following the tribulation, God will extend His hand to Israel, grafting them back into their ancestral olive tree.
That is why the Bible says " I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. (Romans 11:25-26). 
God's calling and plan is irrevocable.
 

It may be unexpected, but from the divine viewpoint, distinctions between Jew and Gentile vanish. Romans 3:9 captures this truth, affirming that both groups are subject to the grip of sin and its consequences, necessitating a spiritual renewal facilitated by the agency of God's Spirit.
The solution to this predicament of being entangled by sin and its repercussions lies in accepting the new life extended through Jesus Christ. Romans 10:13 provides assurance that salvation is accessible to all who sincerely invoke the name of the Lord.

Is this really fair? "That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone."  
This is how God chose how people would be saved, "By the sanctifying work of the Spirit and belief in the truth" 

According to the divine plan, the Gospel was initially destined for the Jews, who were the first chosen people. However, in Acts 10, the Gospel extends to the Gentiles as well, who were also part of the divine selection. This instance illuminates the essence of predestination—it doesn't entail God choosing one individual over another, but rather reveals the sequential outreach of the Gospel. Initially directed to Israel, who ultimately rejected Jesus, the Gospel then embraced the Gentiles.
Transcript
Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin (0:06) Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Welcome to Grace Coach, my name is Kevin (0:12) Smith and I've got my best friend Mike Stone with me today. How you doing Mike? (0:19) I'm doing good.  
Yeah, Romans 9 is an incredible little book. It's kind of a (0:26) shift in what Paul's doing here and he's gonna kind of defend his ministry as an (0:32) apostle to the Gentiles and opening up the good news of the gospel of Jesus (0:38) Christ to the whole world. How exciting is that? Yeah, that's very exciting.  
You (0:45) know, before we get into that, I thought we would set the stage, Kevin, to talk (0:50) about this thing with the Jews and the Gentiles because a lot of the New (0:55) Testament is talking so much about the Jew and the Gentiles being unified in (1:02) Christ, which really is an unthinkable thing if you think about it today and (1:07) all of the craziness in Israel for Jews and Gentiles to be united in the Spirit (1:13) is incredible. But Jesus even told the disciples not to go to the Gentiles. He (1:19) said that in Matthew 10 5. He said rather go to the lost sheep of Israel.  
(1:26) And so in Acts 2 you see that they were up in the upper room and the (1:32) Spirit came on the disciples and there were some more people there but they (1:39) were all Jews and you can see that right after the event of Pentecost in chapter (1:47) 2 that Luke the writer was mentioning that it was going to the Israelites and (1:54) you just see that over and over. And then in Acts 10 there's a big switch, Kevin. (2:01) Peter goes up to the roof to pray.  
He's not even sure why. He sees a sheet come (2:06) down with four-footed animals and God tells him to kill and eat and these (2:12) four-footed animals were non-kosher. So he says that I've never eaten anything (2:19) impure or unclean in verse 14 and then God said no I want you to eat those (2:26) things.  
So he is completely confused, thought he was obeying the law even (2:31) though he was born again at this point but he still had the law in him and it (2:39) takes years to unshake the law that's in a person's life. But anyway fast (2:47) forward in Acts 27 Peter is in the house of a Gentile Cornelius and the Spirit of (2:55) God comes on the Gentiles while they're in the house and it says in Acts 10 45 (3:01) that the circumcised believers were astonished that the gift of the Holy (3:07) Spirit came on the Gentiles. That was again an unthinkable thing.  
This was (3:14) something that you don't hear a lot about. I know when I heard that it just (3:19) rocked my world that they were astonished that the Spirit went on the (3:24) Gentiles. But in Acts 28 Kevin Paul finally after going into the (3:31) synagogues, which was normal for him, he was rejected by the Jews and he finally (3:38) made this statement that I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent (3:43) to the Gentiles because they will listen.  
Because the Jews weren't listening to (3:50) Paul about Jesus and he says they will listen. So I'm just setting that up (3:55) because now we're gonna hear Paul's heart even though this happened his (4:02) heart was broken that the Jews were rejecting the gospel because he was (4:09) Jewish he was a top Pharisee but his heart was broken about this and that's (4:14) where Romans 9 comes in

Is There Anything that Can Divide You from the Love of God in Christ Jesus? Can Continuous Sin, External Forces, or Even Satan Separate You? Though at times it may seem like we're distanced from God's love, those are merely feelings. Feelings aren't always accurate or based on truth. Tune in to discover why nothing can ever sever you from the love of God.
 
Transcript
(0:00) Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin (0:06) Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Welcome to Grace Coach. My name is Kevin (0:13) Smith and I got my best friend Mike Stone with us today.
How you doing Mike? (0:18) I'm doing good. Good to see you. Good to see you too.
 
We are going to be talking (0:22) about Romans chapter 8 starting in verse 28 and going through the end of the (0:30) chapter and we are excited to get to it because it is talking about the love of (0:36) God and how secure we are in God's love. So I'll start off and just read a couple (0:45) verses in Romans chapter 8 verse 28 which says, and we know that in all (0:52) things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called (0:57) according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be (1:03) conformed to the likeness of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many (1:10) brothers.
 
And those he predestined he also called, and those he called he also (1:15) justified, and those he justified he also glorified. Yeah, there's a few things (1:22) here that jump out at me that I underlined. Of course that God works (1:27) together for the good of those who love God.
 
I mean he takes everything, good and (1:32) bad, things that are happy and sad, and he works them together for our good. I mean (1:38) that is just so wonderful to know even when it doesn't feel good, you know, and (1:45) it doesn't feel that God is there for us, but he's always there working everything (1:50) together for good. And then it says in 29 he knew his people in advance, and that (1:57) is like, wow, he didn't force us to believe.
 
He certainly did know in advance (2:04) who would and who wouldn't believe, and so that's mind-blowing to even think (2:08) about. And then the third thing is that he chose us to become like his Son. (2:14) That's my version.
 
And when I think about that, you know, I know we're not (2:21) going to perform miracles and raise the dead and do things like that, but it's (2:27) that the God of the universe was living in Jesus, and he was made and (2:37) born in the image of God's likeness. So when I think about that, we have now been (2:43) also made into God's likeness when we came to believe. We were not in the image (2:51) and likeness of God.
 
We were born in the image and likeness of Adam, but it says (2:56) that he chose us to become like his Son and now to be made in the image and (3:04) likeness of now Jesus. And that only means that the Spirit of God is now (3:10) living in us like it was living in him. Okay, clarify for me what you just said.
 
(3:17) God was living in Jesus? Yes. Chapter 14 of the book of John. Let me just go there (3:27) real quick.
 
The only reason why I'm saying that while you're going there is (3:35) because I don't want the audience to be confused that Jesus wasn't God. No, (3:43) he was God. Jesus was God in the flesh, fully God, fully man is what we (3:51) would say and believe.
 
Yeah, it says in John 14 20, on that day you will realize (3:58) that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. So God was in Christ (4:08) reconciling the world to himself, not counting men's or people's sins against (4:15) them, and so God was in Christ and now God is now living in a born-again (4:22) Christian. So that's how I look at the image of God, that the likeness in the (4:28) image or the Spirit of God is now living in us, and I love it.
 
All right, let's