The TakeAway

Pastor Harry Behrens
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Christianity
  • Weekly

The Takeaway is a verse-by-verse teaching podcast devoted to helping believers see the glory of God revealed through His Word. Each episode walks carefully through Scripture—unpacking the command that confronts us, the revelation that exposes us, the grace that rescues us, and the glory that transforms us.

  1. 16h ago

    John 14:8–11 If Jesus Is God, Who Was He Praying To?

    Send us Fan Mail “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Philip’s request sounds reasonable until Jesus answers with a sentence that rearranges everything: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” We slow down in John 14:8–11 and face the uncomfortable truth that our hearts keep trying to draw pictures of God we can manage, explain, and control, then we call that faith. Jesus does something kinder and far more disruptive. He brings our self-made images to the surface so they can die, and he replaces them with the only image God has ever given on purpose: the Son. We also tackle the question believers hear all the time: if the Son is God, who is Jesus praying to? Using John’s own words, we walk through why the Father and the Son are distinct persons, why Scripture still insists there is only one God, and how the Holy Spirit fits into the same divine reality. Along the way we address common objections like “the Father is greater than I,” using the context of the cross, Philippians 2, and the way the historic church summarized Scripture in the Nicene Creed. The goal is not to shrink God down to something we can fully explain. The goal is to receive the God who has spoken, to see the Father where he has chosen to be seen, and to learn how belief can come before full understanding. If you’ve ever felt stuck waiting for clarity before you obey, this is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who asks hard questions about Jesus, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 14:8–11 If Jesus Is God, Who Was He Praying To?

  2. Nov 3

    John 14:1-7 How Do I Know Where God Wants Me to Go?

    Send us Fan Mail You can feel sincere and still feel stuck: “I want to follow God, but I just need Him to tell me where to go.” We’ve both heard that line a hundred times, and if we’re honest, we’ve used it too. This message from Pastor Harry Behrens lands right on that tension, taking us to John 14:1–7 where Thomas asks Jesus the question we keep asking: How can we know the way? What surprises us is Jesus’ answer. He does not hand Thomas a destination or a step-by-step plan. He gives him something better: Himself. We unpack what it means when Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” why the “way” is not a method but a person, and how the promise of the Father’s house is ultimately a promise of dwelling with Christ. Along the way we talk about rest in Christ, the Spirit of truth as God’s guide, and why “many rooms” can’t be reduced to heavenly real estate without missing the heart of the gospel. If you’re trying to discern God’s will, chasing clarity, or feeling pressure to “figure it out,” this conversation re-centers calling on knowing Jesus through Scripture, prayer, and the everyday walk of following Him. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review if it helps. What would change if you believed Jesus has already given you the Way? Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 14:1-7 How Do I Know Where God Wants Me to Go?

  3. Oct 27

    John 13:36–14:4 What Are We Offering Jesus?

    Send us Fan Mail Peter’s vow is the kind of line we secretly want to believe about ourselves: “I will lay down my life for you.” It sounds brave, faithful, and clean. But Jesus answers Peter in a way that exposes every version of self-powered Christianity, including the confident kind and the fearful kind. If you’ve ever tried to follow Jesus by sheer willpower or, on the flip side, stalled out behind “I’m not gifted” and “I’m not called,” this message lands right where we live. We walk through John 13:36 to John 14:4 and watch Jesus hold two truths at once: Peter’s denial is real, and Jesus’ commitment to Peter is even more real. “You cannot follow me now… but you will follow afterward” shifts everything. Following Jesus does not rest on our strength, our sincerity, or our ability to predict what we’ll do under pressure. It rests on Christ’s enabling grace, his timing, and his Shepherd-like care that goes before the sheep. Then Jesus turns to the whole room and speaks to the anxiety underneath it all: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” We talk about assurance of salvation, why we can’t lose what God secures, and why our felt assurance grows as we stop looking inward and start seeing Christ more clearly. We also trace the hope of Jesus preparing a place, coming again, and taking us to himself, a promise grounded in his work and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. If this helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s stuck in fear or self-reliance, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What are you offering Jesus right now, your strength or your excuses? Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 13:36–14:4 What Are We Offering Jesus?

  4. Oct 20

    John 13:31-35 How Does God Make Himself Known?

    Send us Fan Mail Most of us say we want God to make himself known, but what we often mean is: “Do it on my terms, in a way I can’t question.” Pastor Harry Behrens opens John 13:31–35 with a startling moment in the upper room. Judas walks out into the night, and Jesus immediately says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Not later. Not after the resurrection. Now. That single word reframes the whole question of signs, certainty, and what it means to truly see God. We walk through what the Bible means by God’s glory, starting with Moses’ request in Exodus 33 and God’s answer in Exodus 34. Glory is God revealing his character: goodness, mercy, grace, steadfast love, justice. Then the New Testament makes the claim even sharper: the glory Moses could not fully see becomes visible in a person. “The Word became flesh,” and the knowledge of the glory of God shines “in the face of Jesus Christ.” If you’ve ever asked, “How can I know God is real?” this message argues that God has already spoken through creation, Scripture, and supremely through Jesus. From there, Jesus gives a new commandment that sounds simple until you feel its weight: “love one another, just as I have loved you.” We connect love, grace, and discipleship, showing why real Christian love costs something and why it becomes the clearest public witness that Jesus is alive. Listen, share this with a friend, and leave a review then tell us: what “picture of your life” is Jesus asking you to lay down? Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 13:31-35 How Does God Make Himself Known?

  5. Oct 13

    John 13:21–30 What I Am Doing You Do Not Understand

    Send us Fan Mail Something about the hardest seasons of faith is how disorienting they feel: you’re genuinely sure God led you here, but you can’t see what he’s doing with it. We pick up in John 13 at the table where Jesus drops a sentence that stuns everyone in the room, “One of you will betray me,” and then follows it with a line that explains so much of the Christian life: “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  We walk through the betrayal of Judas with open eyes and a steady Bible in hand, connecting fulfilled Scripture (Psalm 41) with Jesus’ startling kindness as he dips the bread and places it directly into Judas’ hand. We also talk plainly about spiritual influence, how small compromises can widen over time, and why discernment isn’t about panic but about attention. If your world is full of half-open doors, this is a practical, hopeful warning without fear.  Along the way, we step back to Abraham’s long wait between promise and fulfillment, and we address the Passover timing question across the Gospels so you can read the Bible with confidence. The central takeaway is simple and demanding: understanding often requires a vantage point you don’t have yet, so the call is to trust God in the middle and refuse to lean on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6).  If you’re sitting in a job, diagnosis, relationship, or decision that won’t make sense right now, you’re not alone and you’re not failing. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s in the gap, and leave a review so more people can find these John 13 teachings. Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 13:21–30 What I Am Doing You Do Not Understand

  6. Oct 6

    John 13:1-21 Why Did Jesus Wash His Disciples’ Feet?

    Send us Fan Mail A towel and a basin don’t look like power until you watch Jesus pick them up. Pastor Harry Behrens walks through John 13 on the night before the crucifixion, where Jesus shocks His disciples by taking the lowest role in the room and washing their feet. That single act exposes a struggle we all know too well: even when we fall short of God’s glory, we still want glory, so we quietly sort people by rank and worth, inside the church and out in the world. We dig into the Passover setting, the meaning of foot washing in the first century, and why John emphasizes what Jesus knew before He ever knelt down. Then the tension spikes with Peter’s refusal and Jesus’ stunning warning: “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” From there, the conversation opens into the difference between the once-for-all cleansing that saves and the ongoing cleansing believers still need as we walk through a dirty world. Pastor Harry connects that pattern to the tabernacle and to Jesus’ continuing care for His people as our great High Priest. And then comes the detail that reframes everything: Jesus washed Judas’s feet too. What does love do when it knows it will be betrayed? The answer challenges our demand for safety and certainty and calls us into a kind of humble Christian discipleship that serves without keeping score. We close with practical “wash feet” examples, why the low place is where joy lives, and how servant leadership becomes a doorway for the gospel in everyday life. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what stood out by using the text us link in the episode description. Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 13:1-21 Why Did Jesus Wash His Disciples’ Feet?

  7. Sep 29

    John 12:44-50 Has God Shown Enough?

    Send us Fan Mail You can spend your whole life telling yourself, “If God would just give me one undeniable sign, I’d believe.” John 12 tells a harder story: people who had Scripture, public teaching, and even a man raised from the dead still refused Jesus. So we slow down at John 12:44-50, the final public words Jesus speaks in this Gospel before the cross, and we ask the question that sits beneath every other question: has God shown enough? I walk through why “understanding” has never been the point. In John 3, Nicodemus has knowledge and still needs new birth. In John 6, belief is described as God’s work and the Father’s drawing. By John 12, the evidence is overwhelming, yet many still harden. We also visit Luke 16, where Jesus says that if people won’t hear Moses and the prophets, they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead and then we watch that exact objection collide with the real resurrection of Lazarus and the reaction it provokes. Then we sit with Jesus’ own claims: to see Him is to see the Father, His light calls us out of darkness, and His first coming is mercy meant to save. But refusing that mercy doesn’t erase accountability. Jesus says the very Word He has already spoken publicly will judge on the last day, with nothing hidden and no second standard. That same Word is also eternal life when received, because eternal life is knowing God. Listen, share this with someone who feels stuck waiting on “one more sign,” and if this helped you, subscribe and leave a review so more people can find it. What are you doing with what God has already shown you? Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 12:44-50 Has God Shown Enough?

  8. Sep 22

    John 12:37-43 When God Hardens Hearts

    Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever read “God hardened their hearts” and felt your stomach drop, you’re not alone. We sit in the tension of John 12:37–43 where the crowd watches extraordinary signs from Jesus, yet John says they not only do not believe, they cannot believe. That single line forces a deeper question: if God is the one who gives new birth and draws people to Christ, how can God be love when some are left in blindness? We walk carefully through the text and its logic. John quotes Isaiah to show that hardening is not presented as God creating fresh unbelief out of nowhere, but as God confirming a resistance already chosen and sustained in the face of real revelation. We also talk about why belief is not merely an intellectual conclusion, why “turning” is not solved by more information, and why the Bible frames the real conflict as a glory problem: the pull to love human approval more than the glory that comes from God. From Isaiah’s vision of divine glory to Paul’s work in Romans 9–11, we trace how Scripture holds judgment and mercy together, including the surprising hope of a remnant kept by grace even inside a wider pattern of hardening. And we end by challenging our default definition of love. If we think love equals an easier road, we will misread God’s motives. But if love is God revealing Himself and refusing to leave us where we are, then His interruptions may be the very evidence of His care. Subscribe, share this with a friend who wrestles with hard passages, and leave a review so more people can find the podcast. What part of John 12 challenges your definition of God’s love most? Support the show Please visit www.thetakeaway.faith for more resources, books or to send us a message

    John 12:37-43 When God Hardens Hearts
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About

The Takeaway is a verse-by-verse teaching podcast devoted to helping believers see the glory of God revealed through His Word. Each episode walks carefully through Scripture—unpacking the command that confronts us, the revelation that exposes us, the grace that rescues us, and the glory that transforms us.

Information

  • Creator
    Pastor Harry Behrens
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    120
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The TakeAway
  • Show Website
    The TakeAway