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Send us Fan Mail What if you climbed all the way to the top of the ladder, only to find out it was leaning on the wrong wall? In this message from Philippians 4:12-13, we look at what Paul called "the secret": learning to live with plenty and learning to live with little. Success is knowing what God told you to do and pulling it off. Failure is knowing and not doing it. And the enemy is perfectly fine with you being successful at the wrong thing. We walk through Ezekiel's picture of a people God rescued and made beautiful, who then trusted in their own beauty; Jeremiah, who obeyed God for years, was mocked, beaten, and lowered into a cistern, and never saw the fruit of his labor; the five foolish virgins who were holding money instead of oil; and Paul and Silas singing in prison because they were not imprisoned on the inside. The secret is the counterweight. Your circumstances, finances, family, health, and uncertainty will always feel heavy until you put the right weight on the other side of the scale: the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Scripture referenced: Philippians 4:12-14; Philippians 3:7-8; Colossians 3:2; Deuteronomy 8:10-18; Ezekiel 16:6-15; Luke 10:30-37; Luke 19:40; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 7:27; Jeremiah 12:5; Jeremiah 20:7-18; Jeremiah 38:6; Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-23; Matthew 13:1-23; John 10:27; John 11:21; Matthew 25:1-13; Acts 16:25; Acts 21:10-14; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 8:14; Acts 4:32-35 "If you get to the top of a ladder, but you're on the wrong wall, it's a failure." If this message encouraged you, follow the show and leave a rating and review so others can find it. And share it with someone who is tired of waiting on a word from the Lord. Dwelling Place Lithia | dplithia.org Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Before GPS, you got lost. A lot. So what does it mean that Jesus said sending the Holy Spirit would be even better than that? In this message, we pick up at the end of John 15 and move into John 16, where Jesus tells his disciples he's leaving them, hard things are coming, but he is sending a Helper who will guide them into all truth and bear witness about him. We walk through what it actually means that the Holy Spirit convicts, guides, and gives direct access to the Father, no longer through an intermediary but by name, in Jesus' authority. From there we look at what Jesus promises next: that the disciples' sorrow will turn into joy, a joy no one can take from them. We talk about what that looks like practically, staying tuned to the Spirit's promptings (including a story about a middle-of-the-night wake-up call to pray, and a story about a near-miss on a cliff), and why 1 Thessalonians 5 ties rejoicing, prayer, and not quenching the Spirit together as one command, not three separate ones. Scripture referenced: John 15:26-27, John 16:1-4, John 16:7-15, John 16:16-24, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22 "God has joy for you. No matter what you're doing, no matter what you're going through, God has joy for you." If this message speaks to you, leave a rating and review, it helps other people find this podcast, and share it with someone who needs to hear it today. More from Dwelling Place Lithia at dplithia.org. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail If you dilute wine with water, it still looks like wine. If you shave the edge off a coin, it still looks like a coin. Isaiah says that's exactly what happened to God's people, and it gets worse from there. This message traces one story across three prophets and lands in Romans 8. We start in Isaiah 1, where the prophet tells Judah their silver has become dross and their wine has been diluted, a picture of a faith that looks real on the outside but has been quietly counterfeited. A century and a half later, Ezekiel says something worse: there's no longer any silver left to refine at all, just dross, and even the priests who were supposed to know better had failed. But God still preserves a priestly line through the Babylonian captivity, and when we get to Zechariah's vision, the high priest Joshua stands before the Lord in filthy garments and is clothed in clean ones anyway, his sin removed before he ever does anything to earn it. That's the picture Romans 8 fulfills: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because what the law could never do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. We close by looking at what it means to walk according to the Spirit rather than the flesh, even when we still carry dirt on our garments from places we didn't choose to walk. Scripture referenced: Isaiah 1:21-31, Ezekiel 22:18-30, Zechariah 3:1-10, Romans 8:1-21 "Just 'cause our garments are dirty doesn't mean we can't approach the throne." If this message speaks to you, leave a rating and review, it helps other people find this podcast, and share it with someone who needs to hear it today. More from Dwelling Place Lithia at dplithia.org. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Would you pay thousands of dollars for a single piece of fruit? Japanese farmers do exactly that. They prune away every bud on the vine except one, so all the sweetness and nutrition pours into that one piece of fruit. That strange practice is where this message starts, and it opens up one of the hardest truths in Scripture: God prunes the branches He loves most. Walking through Isaiah 5 and John 15, this message asks the question every believer eventually has to face. When something painful gets cut out of your life, is that punishment, or is that preparation? A well tended vineyard that still produced bad fruit. A gardener who prunes not because He enjoys cutting, but because He sees a harvest we can't see yet. A branch that has to decide whether to stay connected to the vine or try to produce fruit on its own. This one is honest. Stories about pride, ambition, distraction, a father's surgery, and a hard question asked on an airplane: what actually brings you joy? If you've ever felt like something was being taken away and wondered why, this message will change how you see the knife in the gardener's hand. Scripture referenced: Isaiah 5:1-7, John 15:1-8, Galatians 5:22-23, Hebrews 12:11 The branch sees the cut. The gardener sees the harvest. If this message speaks to you, subscribe to Dwelling Place Lithia for more, leave a comment about what God is pruning in your life right now, and share it with someone who needs to hear that the cutting isn't the end of the story. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail There's a difference between welcoming someone into your home and being desperate for them to come home. When a guest knocks, you welcome them in. When your own daughter comes home, you don't just welcome her, you hold on and hope she doesn't leave. That's the line this episode draws between how most of us treat the Holy Spirit and how the early church treated Him. Walking through John 4, this episode looks at the woman at the well, and how Jesus never had to argue her into the truth. He simply revealed what He already knew about her life, and every wall she had built came down in a moment. No debate, no argument, just the truth of who He was. From there it moves into Acts and Jeremiah 2, asking a hard question: are we welcoming the Holy Spirit into our services, or are we desperate for Him to lead our actual lives? This one challenges the idea that reading your Bible, praying, and having good church services is the finish line. It's an honest look at broken cisterns that keep filling up and draining out, and a call to stop debating people into belief and start showing them God is real. Scripture referenced: John 4:1-26, Acts 8, Acts 10, Acts 15, Jeremiah 2:1-13, Exodus 33:15-16, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 "You can't be a Christian and not try to look like Christ. It's not even grammatically correct." If this episode challenges you, subscribe so you don't miss the next one, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Dwelling Place Lithia Lithia, FL Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit. Most of us have heard John 15 preached before. This episode slows down on one word most people skip past: abide. In the Greek it's meno, the same word used to describe staying, remaining, and enduring, and it's the same word Jesus uses for Himself remaining in the Father. Abiding isn't a feeling, it's a decision to stay. From there this episode digs into something easy to miss: the difference between logos (the eternal Word, Christ Himself) and rhema (the spoken, active word), and how Hebrews 12:24 ties directly back to Genesis 4, where Abel's blood cries out from the ground. In Hebrew, that word is plural. It's not just Abel's blood crying out, it's the entire lineage that never got to be born, crying out for justice. But Christ's blood speaks a better word than Abel's ever did. Not justice. Mercy. Scripture referenced: John 15:1-11, Hebrews 12:24, Genesis 4:10 "If Christ's word abides in you and his blood is still speaking over you, that's not a memory. That's the ground you're standing on right now." Subscribe so you don't miss the next one, leave a rating and review, and share this with someone who needs a firmer foundation. Dwelling Place Lithia Lithia, FL Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Is it hard to pray in America? That's the question a missionary overseas was asked, and the honest answer says something uncomfortable about how differently we treat prayer when we're desperate versus when we're comfortable. This episode opens with two stories of desperation: that conversation overseas, and a very personal one, sitting in an ER room the day a doctor confirmed a father's cancer diagnosis, with nothing left to say except "God, you're in control." Both point to the same truth: desperation has a way of stripping away everything we normally lean on and leaving only God. From there this episode moves through Luke 8, the woman who had suffered for twelve years, spent everything she had, and was healed the moment she reached out and touched the hem of Jesus's cloak, and into 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat faces an army too large for Judah to fight and prays the one line worth underlining: "We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you." Scripture referenced: Luke 8:43-48, 2 Chronicles 20:1-22 "The battle is not yours, but God's." Subscribe so you don't miss the next one, leave a rating and review, and share this with someone who needs to hear that desperation isn't the end of the story, it's often where real dependence on God begins. Dwelling Place Lithia  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Support the show

Send us Fan Mail "Same smell. Two reactions. We break down 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 — the aroma of Christ, what the Greek actually says about being saved, and what it means to carry both death and life in your witness." Support the show

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Send us Fan Mail Join us as we dive deeper into what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus. In light of the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, we’ll explore what a disciple looks like and how being discipled can transform every part of your life. Support the show