College Ministry Is Good, But the Church Is Greater (w/Dr. Hannah Shady)

College Ministry Is Good, But the Church Is Greater (w/Dr. Hannah Shady)

In this episode, we talk about the value of college ministry and the danger of making good things ultimate things. College ministry can be powerful. It’s formative, relational, and often deeply impactful in shaping young believers. For many, it becomes one of the sweetest seasons of spiritual growth. But as good as it is, it was never meant to be the center of the Christian life. All of us are prone to elevating good gifts beyond their proper place. Conferences can become our church. Podcasts can become our pastors. Ministries can become our identity. And when that happens, even the best things can begin pulling us away from what God has actually designed to be primary. Scripture keeps drawing us back to the same reality: Christ is central, and the local church is the ordinary means through which disciples are formed, shepherded, and sustained. College ministry matters, but it is meant to serve that greater purpose, not replace it. Here we explore why the church must remain central, how college ministry fits into God’s design, and why keeping the right order protects us from confusion and drift. When Christ remains primary, and the church stays central, every other ministry finds its proper place and its real purpose. Song Recommendation:  My Soul Will Wait (Psalm 62) by Sovereign Grace Music https://open.spotify.com/track/1aEZuiSGyqxvp0RKQy4CaM?si=c543c0a809b94f53 [https://open.spotify.com/track/1aEZuiSGyqxvp0RKQy4CaM?si=c543c0a809b94f53] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] Subscribe to He Must Increase on Youtube: ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast [http://www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com/] #theology #reformed

How to Navigate Unbelievers

In this episode, we talk about what it means to walk faithfully among unbelievers. All of us have people we love who do not know Christ. Some grew up without the gospel. Others are kind, moral, and admirable, yet still outside the faith. Scripture reminds us that every person shares the same need for the Savior, whether they seem far from the kingdom or close to it. These relationships are often complex. Conversations about Jesus can feel awkward, misunderstood, or even strained. Many believers carry fears and questions about how to speak, when to speak, and how to love well. We want to be faithful without being forceful, bold without being harsh, loving without becoming silent. Here we explore how the gospel shapes our posture toward unbelievers. We look at why understanding the heart keeps us patient, why remembering our own story fuels compassion, and why both truth and love matter. Above all, we focus on the hope that God saves and the gospel is powerful in every relationship. Book and Song Recommendation:  Humble Calvinism by J.A. Medders https://a.co/d/0aob18VA [https://a.co/d/0aob18VA] Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing https://open.spotify.com/track/0f9U92JG3vu8BH3PTvxySR?si=29117798024241bd [https://open.spotify.com/track/0f9U92JG3vu8BH3PTvxySR?si=29117798024241bd] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] Subscribe to He Must Increase on Youtube: ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast [http://www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com/] #theology #reformed

Depart From Me: The Warning of Matthew 7

In this episode, we’re stepping into one of the most misunderstood and weaponized passages in modern Christianity: Jesus’ chilling words in Matthew 7, “I never knew you; depart from me.” For many, this text has become a source of fear for tender believers and false confidence for unbelievers. But much of that confusion comes from reading these verses detached from the larger message of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is not calling His disciples into anxious introspection or performance-driven religion. Nor is He handing out assurance to those who merely profess His name or perform religious activity. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exposes the bankruptcy of external righteousness and calls His people to a deeper reality: a transformed heart that knows and is known by Him. In this episode, we explore how misunderstanding the Sermon on the Mount as a whole has caused Matthew 7 to be used and abused. We examine who Jesus is actually warning, why “Lord, Lord” is not the same thing as true faith, and what it really means to be known by Christ. The result is a passage that does not exist to terrify genuine believers or comfort empty religion, but to expose false assurance and call us to cling to Jesus by faith alone. Book and Song Recommendation:  The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson https://a.co/d/07Hl0rUz [https://a.co/d/07Hl0rUz] All I Have Is Christ by Jordan Kauflin https://open.spotify.com/track/7phWWwVPGUKJ9qH3wRPErQ?si=4946f0d5e9d34865 [https://open.spotify.com/track/7phWWwVPGUKJ9qH3wRPErQ?si=4946f0d5e9d34865] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] Subscribe to He Must Increase on Youtube: ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast [http://www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com] #theology #reformed

Mercy and Wrath in Both Testaments

In this episode, we’re stepping into one of the biggest misunderstandings in modern Christianity: the idea that the Old Testament reveals a God of wrath while the New Testament reveals a God of mercy. But Scripture never allows us to divide God like that. From Genesis to Revelation, His justice and His mercy are never in competition. They flow together from His holy character. In the Old Testament, God judges sin with absolute seriousness, yet He also relentlessly pursues sinners with compassion, patience, and covenant love. In the New Testament, Jesus does not replace or cancel God’s wrath. He absorbs it. The cross becomes the place where God’s justice and God’s mercy meet in full, overwhelming clarity. So in this episode, we explore how the same God who pronounces judgment in Genesis 3 is the God who promises redemption in the very next breath. The same God who sends the flood is the One who preserves Noah. The same God who disciplines Israel is the One who repeatedly delivers them. Mercy and wrath are not opposites. They are two sides of the same holy love. Book and Song Recommendation:  Saved From What? & The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul  https://a.co/d/0hbblLWt [https://a.co/d/0hbblLWt] Before the Throne of God Above by Charitie Lees Smith https://open.spotify.com/track/5apGyg9RCFhhMu413kt08Z?si=xmTcHuRwQ3q-k9sNmxgDAA [https://open.spotify.com/track/5apGyg9RCFhhMu413kt08Z?si=xmTcHuRwQ3q-k9sNmxgDAA] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] Subscribe to He Must Increase on Youtube: ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast [http://www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com/] #theology #reformed

Assurance: No Really, How Do I Know I Am Saved?

In this episode, we’re stepping into the next layer of assurance, not just the struggle to know if you’re saved, but the confidence that grows from understanding how God Himself secures that assurance. Part 1 dealt with the questions, the confusion, and the internal wrestling. But Part 2 shifts the focus outward and upward: What has God given His people so they can live certain, steady, and anchored in Christ? Because if the gospel really means Christ is enough, then assurance stops being a guessing game. It moves out of the realm of fluctuating feelings and into the realm of what God has declared. Not what you can measure about yourself. Not what you feel on a strong day. Not what you fear on a weak one. But what God has spoken over His Son and over all who belong to Him. Scripture doesn’t treat assurance like a prize for the spiritually elite. It grounds it in promises made by a God who does not change. “Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.” “No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” “He will bring His work to completion.” These aren’t Christian niceties; they are covenant realities meant to steady trembling hearts. In this episode, we look at what God’s Word actually says about assurance. Scripture grounds our confidence in God’s promises, His Spirit, and His work, not in ourselves. True assurance rests on Christ alone and naturally produces fruit without making fruit the foundation. Book and Song Recommendation:  Safe: An Intro to the Doctrine of Assurance by Theocast https://theocast.org/products/safe-an-intro-to-the-doctrine-of-assurance [https://theocast.org/products/safe-an-intro-to-the-doctrine-of-assurance] He Will Hold Me Fast by Ada Ruth Habershon/Matt Merker https://open.spotify.com/track/1Mp90z16Mneiqthtf7fOf9?si=0afc760846964a6d [https://open.spotify.com/track/1Mp90z16Mneiqthtf7fOf9?si=0afc760846964a6d] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] = Subscribe to He Must Increase on Youtube: ⁠⁠www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast [http://www.youtube.com/@HeMustIncreasePodcast] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com/] #theology #reformed