S13 E9 [Heaven Now] Part 9: Legitimacy

S14E1 [The Rescue AI Isn't Bringing] Part 1: Babble

"Part 1 of The Rescue AI isn't bringing goes back to the Tower of Babel, where people reach for the newest technology of their age to make a name for themselves out of fear of being scattered. Chris makes the case that technology never rescues us, it reveals us. The reversal comes at Pentecost, where the Spirit comes down and God gives a name we could never build for ourselves. Anchored in Genesis 11 and Acts 2, with Joel 2 and Matthew 5." WEEKLY REFLECTION: 1. Where in your own life are you using a tool, a platform, a screen, a skill, to build a name instead of receive one? 2. What is one piece of technology in your life right now that is not neutral, that is quietly shaping you, and you have never stopped to ask in which direction? 3. Who are the people you are "waiting in the room" with right now? Thank you for listening. You can support 15& by visiting fifteenand.org [https://fifteenand.org/].

S13 E9 [Heaven Now] Part 9: Legitimacy

In the final teaching of the Heaven Now series, Chris unpacks the last fruit of the Spirit — what the Greek calls enkrateia, energy governed from within — and why the English translation "self-control" collapses when placed next to who God actually is. Anchored in the story of John the Baptist and the opening of Genesis, this teaching traces the difference between a proving identity and a received one, between a river flooding its banks and one that flows with direction. The Beatitude of the misunderstood meets the wilderness where legitimacy gets forged. WEEKLY REFLECTION: 1. Where are you working harder to be seen? 2. When the doubt hits, who or what is your first move? 3. What boundary would let your energy run with banks instead of as a flood? Thank you for listening. You can support 15& by visiting fifteenand.org [https://fifteenand.org/].

S13 E8 [Heaven Now] Part 8: Gentleness

In this episode of the Heaven Now series, Chris walks through one of the most uncomfortable leadership case studies in Scripture — King David’s silence after Tamar’s violation, and the hidden-agenda coup that silence produced in Absalom. Drawing on 2 Samuel 13–15 and Jesus’s encounter with the woman at the well (John 4), Chris unpacks the identity fear of vulnerability — how it shows up as proving or hiding — and how the fruit of the Spirit of gentleness (and its Beatitude counterpart, “Blessed are the meek” from Matthew 5:5) is not weakness but power under direction. A practical teaching for any leader who knows they’ve been avoiding a conversation they can no longer afford to skip. WEEKLY REFLECTION: 1. Who in your life has never actually met the real you because the version they know is the one you let them see? 2. Is your energy in relationships really a way to avoid being known? 3. Who is the person in your life right now who needs the direct conversation you have been avoiding? Thank you for listening. You can support 15& by visiting fifteenand.org [https://fifteenand.org/].

S13 E7 [Heaven Now] Part 7: Faithfulness

In Part 7 of Heaven Now, Chris traces the arc of Nicodemus — from a nighttime visit driven by fear, to a public act of burial loyalty before the resurrection. The fear of a bad outcome leads leaders to control every variable or avoid real commitment. The answer is faithfulness — the same Greek word (pistis) Paul uses for faith — a covenant loyalty that holds across time, especially when things go wrong. Grounded in Habakkuk 2:4 and 3:17–18, John 3 and 19, Galatians 5:22, and Matthew 5:10, this teaching calls leaders to move with the Spirit rather than manage the outcome. WEEKLY REFLECTION: 1. Where in your life right now are you trying to control the outcome? Where are you trying to disappear from it? 2. What is the next faithful thing in front of you that you keep putting off until you can see how it ends? 3. Who or what are you not willing to be publicly associated with right now because the outcome looks uncertain or is going badly? Thank you for listening. You can support 15& by visiting fifteenand.org [https://fifteenand.org/].

S13 E6 [Heaven Now] Part 6: Goodness

In this teaching from the Heaven Now series, the fear of being a bad person gets traced back to its root: trying to get your goodness from moral categories instead of from God. Using Paul's story — from Saul the coat-holder at Stephen's stoning to the apostle who writes Romans 14 — this episode explores how identity shifts when you stop earning your goodness and start receiving it. Anchored in Romans 14, Acts 9, and Genesis 1, it asks: what becomes possible in your leadership and relationships when you're no longer policing yourself or others? WEEKLY REFLECTION: 1. Where are you currently running Fear 6's proving play (High-Horse Critic, verdict-rendering, KEEP OFF THE GRASS!)? Where are you running the hiding play (paralysis, cannot move because any move might be the wrong one)? 2. What is the category you are currently weaponizing against a brother or sister? What would it look like, concretely, to keep the conviction in your own conscience while letting the relationship stay of primary importance? (Romans 14) 3. Where in your life this week are you trying to manufacture goodness you have not received? "I cannot give the mercy I have not received."  Thank you for listening. You can support 15& by visiting fifteenand.org [https://fifteenand.org/].