The Problem of Jihad (Part 4)

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

Assurance: How Do I Know That I Am Saved?

In this episode, we dive into one of the most personal and weighty questions a Christian can ask: how do I know if I am truly saved? The gospel seems so simple, and yet so many people still wrestle with fear, doubt, and uncertainty. Is God really pleased with me? Am I actually right with the God of the universe? Did I miss something? Why do I keep searching like Christ is not enough yet? For many people, assurance feels almost out of reach. Some have been taught that confidence in salvation is prideful or dangerous. Others constantly look inward, searching for enough sincerity, enough repentance, enough spiritual passion to finally feel secure. Some look outward, wondering if there are still more requirements, traditions, or works needed to truly be accepted by God. So we are talking about where assurance is actually found. Because the gospel does not place your confidence on a sliding scale of spiritual performance. It calls you to look away from yourself and survey the wondrous cross. To rest in a finished work accomplished outside of you: Christ crucified, risen, and reigning for sinners. Not Christ plus your morality. Not Christ plus your emotions. Not Christ plus your zeal and fire. We also explore the difference between true assurance and false assurance, the danger of cultural Christianity, and why genuine faith will produce fruit without making fruit the foundation of salvation itself. Because the goal is not to leave people trusting more deeply in themselves, but more fully in Christ. Book 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] 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

The American Church Pendulum

In this episode, we dive back into Christianity and explore something a lot of people are feeling but struggling to put into words: evangelical exhaustion. Church doesn’t always feel like what it is supposed to be. For some, it starts to drift into something that feels more like a subjective, me-centered performance than worship. The reverence, structure, and authenticity people long for can feel missing, and over time, that wears you down. A lot of people are tired of trying to find a church that actually encourages them. Tired of showing up, hoping to encounter God, and leaving feeling emotionally manipulated and empty. It can start to feel shallow or even fake, and that creates a yearning for something more real, something that carries weight, depth, and a sense of transcendence. Because of that, we are seeing a growing pull toward more structured traditions like Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Not always because people are fully convinced, but often because they are hungry for objectivity, history, and something that feels rooted and stable. So we are talking about that tension. The exhaustion with modern evangelicalism, the draw toward more historic and structured expressions of the church, and whether those are really the only options on the table. Book Recommendation:  What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church by Gavin Ortlund https://a.co/d/0bt52ibU [https://a.co/d/0bt52ibU] Follow He Must Increase on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/hemustincreasepodcast/] Subscribe to He Must Increase on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2DWZLbL6P9g1ZaJm0nDGgt?si=Obtq14h7QUOLiD5Zyp3eig [https://open.spotify.com/show/2DWZLbL6P9g1ZaJm0nDGgt?si=Obtq14h7QUOLiD5Zyp3eig] Check Out Our Website: threethirtyministry.com [http://threethirtyministry.com/] #theology #reformed