Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 1: I was waiting.
Speaker 1: I thought that when we discovered that little video that I would just let that play and we'd sing an invitation to him and I would be done.
Speaker 1: But you know, I guess that wouldn't be fair to you all, right?
Speaker 1: Anyway, my name is Bert Pursner.
Speaker 1: I serve as Family Care Pastor here.
Speaker 1: Pastor Randy and Sherry are away for a few days and they certainly deserve it.
Speaker 1: As you know, they were supposed to be in Israel with a group of folks from our church, but those lands got changed and we thank the Lord for that.
Speaker 1: So you know, my question today, based on that little video, is what do you choose?
Speaker 1: Which way do you choose?
Speaker 1: And I reflected on that.
Speaker 1: I remember the child growing up and hearing that passage of scripture in Sunday school, and I think children focus more on what happened to the house than the application of Jesus' message.
Speaker 1: So I hope today, as we walk through the passage of scripture, that you will understand, we will all understand, and I'll get it better to understand what Jesus is saying to us about his word and how we live our life.
Speaker 1: I didn't plan this, but God placed the scripture on my heart sometime back and he said the next time you get to speak, this is what you should speak on, and so here it is.
Speaker 1: Y'all ready, all right.
Speaker 1: But, in God's Holy Spirit, I really believe it is a great follow-up to the Mountain Men series.
Speaker 1: Okay, because you had all of these men who heard God's voice and chose to obey him and to do what he asked them to do in each and every situation.
Speaker 1: And I believe that part of what God's calling us to do to hear his voice through his word and follow him, because indeed he has the best way forward for each and every one of us.
Speaker 1: So I pray that you hear that today.
Speaker 1: I pray that we have a little fun with that today, maybe, and so you help me.
Speaker 1: I tried to get the ladies on the third row to give me an amen.
Speaker 1: I tried to give them to give me a wave, but they refused for some reason, and I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: But if you feel so led, you may do that.
Speaker 1: All right, amen.
Speaker 1: All right, there you go.
Speaker 1: So one of my favorite we're going to talk about choices today, or about choosing.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite choosing stories is this one.
Speaker 1: I know you've probably heard it before.
Speaker 1: I do not know the source, I do not know if it's true, but pretty sure it may be.
Speaker 1: There was a second great Sunday school class who had been studying and teaching on heaven Sorry, martha and the teacher decided to see if the kids had been listening and what they had learned.
Speaker 1: So she spontaneously asked who would like to go to heaven.
Speaker 1: Everybody raised their head and it said, from one little boy named Johnny.
Speaker 1: So the teacher, as good teachers are, was concerned, and so she said Johnny, don't you want to go to heaven when you die?
Speaker 1: And he said oh yeah, sure, I wanted to go to heaven when I die, but I thought you were getting up a group to go today.
Speaker 1: Have you heard that before?
Speaker 1: Of course we have, roger has.
Speaker 1: Thank you, roger.
Speaker 1: But anyway it makes us laugh, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: Because in some ways we would probably all choose to go to heaven today to get out of this messy world in which we live.
Speaker 1: But we do live in a messy world and there are a lot of storms around us, and we're going to get into that in a minute as we dive into God's Word.
Speaker 1: Look at this message or the scripture on the screen and you'll recognize that coming from the writings of Peter in 1 Peter, chapter one, verse 24 and 25, peter, quoting Isaiah, and he said the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you, and so that's important for us to remember.
Speaker 1: Not only is God's Word always been around, from the very beginning, but it has been proclaimed even through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which we are grateful.
Speaker 1: Right, amen.
Speaker 1: So let's pray together as we dive in Father, thank you, thank you for our gathering here, lord, thank you for your word, lord.
Speaker 1: I pray that if we look into it today, that you will teach us, that you will draw us closer to you, that you will draw us closer in being your followers and being obedient to your word.
Speaker 1: God, amen, that spur us on to be sharers of your word, not only in word but also in deed, guys.
Speaker 1: So help us now, lord, help me, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: This is not my normal speaking area, correct?
Speaker 1: And I'm a little thrown off by the Halloween candy because I love candy corn.
Speaker 1: Okay, I grew up calling it corn candy, so we were a little backward in Orangeburg, but you know that just kind of breaks my heart.
Speaker 1: So if you don't like corn candy, bring it to me, all right, I'll take care of it for you.
Speaker 1: And weigh 300 pounds, but anyway.
Speaker 1: But thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for participating in that, because it's going to be a great day.
Speaker 1: Eddie, I want to compliment you on the music today.
Speaker 1: Normally when I speak, eddie doesn't have a lot of lead time to figure out the music, but I think the Holy Spirit is working very strongly in this service and I was very encouraged by the music and especially the choir anthem.
Speaker 1: So good job, don't we love our music both?
Speaker 1: Amen, yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1: Well, we are in Matthew, chapter seven today, so you can turn over that way.
Speaker 1: But I want to give you a little bit of context, as we normally do here.
Speaker 1: Jesus' public ministry has begun, all right.
Speaker 1: He's been baptized by John, he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and tempted by Satan, and he's called his first disciples, according to Matthew's description, or Matthew's gospel.
Speaker 1: And so now we're coming to Matthew, actually chapter five, all right, and let me read just a little bit from chapter four at the last part.
Speaker 1: So it's now.
Speaker 1: Jesus began to go all over Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people, and goes on in verse 25, I believe large crowds followed him from Galilee, the decopolis, jerusalem, judea and beyond through the Jordan.
Speaker 1: And then in chapter five of Matthew, verse one, it says when Jesus, when he saw the crowd, he went up on the mountain and after he sat down, his disciples came to him and he began to teach them, saying and it's important to me to kind of set the stage there, because this unfolds the longest message or teaching that we have recorded in Jesus in one section called the Sermon on the Mount, and you're familiar with that.
Speaker 1: It begins with the Beatitudes, which are very encouraging, and I'm always reminded that each Beatitude is connected through some teaching or a part of the Old Testament as well, and if you want some homework, that's a good Bible study sometimes.
Speaker 1: But then Jesus goes on and teaches in this sermon on many, many different subjects and in some ways it can be called a handbook or a guide for Christian living or Christ-like fellowship, because a lot of things that we encounter in our world and in our lives are covered in these passages.
Speaker 1: So he teaches things like law, the law, witnessing murder, adultery, divorce, lying, difficult people.
Speaker 1: Anybody got those enemies praying, fasting, materialism, anxiety, worry, judging others, giving and receiving, and basically all of the things he's talking about is about bringing the kingdom about, because when Jesus began teaching, he proclaimed that the kingdom of God has come.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll pass it.
Speaker 1: Today, we're going to skip over all of those chapters and we're going to go to the end of chapter 7, which is the conclusion of Jesus' teaching here.
Speaker 1: So, at the end of this teaching, this is what happens, and you've heard a preview of it on the screen.
Speaker 1: But here I'm going to be reading at verse 24, matthew, chapter 7.
Speaker 1: Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, which is this is Jesus speaking, and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Speaker 1: The rain fell, the rivers rose and the winds blew and pounded that house.
Speaker 1: Yet it didn't collapse because its foundation was on the rock.
Speaker 1: But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Speaker 1: The rain fell, the rivers came, the winds blew and pounded that house and it collapsed.
Speaker 1: It collapsed with a great crash.
Speaker 1: Now the CSB said that last sentence.
Speaker 1: I love that it collapsed with a great crash.
Speaker 1: Say that word with me Crash.
Speaker 1: Ah, have you been involved in a crash before?
Speaker 1: Maybe you've had something crashing on your life.
Speaker 1: Consider that.
Speaker 1: Then this passage concludes.
Speaker 1: It says Jesus has finished saying these.
Speaker 1: When Jesus has finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.
Speaker 1: And so there's two things I want to pick up from that passage, those last two verses there that made this passage even more significant to me and drives my message of today home.
Speaker 1: I think the word finished there in chapter, in verse 28, and that should be up on the screen by now.
Speaker 1: There we go, we're going to choose.
Speaker 1: We're going to choose what we believe about Jesus and we choose what we believe about the Bible, and we're going to unpack that a little bit.
Speaker 1: So when the word finished there, one of the commentators that I read, craig Bloomberg, said this word finished is from the Greek word teleto and it suggests the derivative form of completeness, of fulfillment.
Speaker 1: And I think that's important here to recognize in Jesus's teaching that in all of this teaching, jesus is kind of saying, or the scripture is pointing out to us that Jesus is finished, this work is finished.
Speaker 1: This is a finished work and a finished message to us on how to live.
Speaker 1: That word also is rooted in Jesus's last words on the cross teleste, telestai.
Speaker 1: And that means it is finished.
Speaker 1: And so when Jesus proclaimed those words from the cross, he completed everything.
Speaker 1: He completed his mission.
Speaker 1: But he completed his work so that our sins were paid in full.
Speaker 1: It was fulfilled, it was paid up, it was done once and for all.
Speaker 1: And for me that's like.
Speaker 1: Jesus had the last word.
Speaker 1: Jesus had the last word in this teaching, but he also had the last word from the cross, which means everything to us Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Moving on from that, the crowds were astonished by his teaching.
Speaker 1: When they were astonished by his teaching, because he was teaching in a way that they had never heard before.
Speaker 1: Jesus himself said about there in chapter 5, verse 17,.
Speaker 1: It said don't think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophet.
Speaker 1: I did not come to abolish but to fulfill them.
Speaker 1: And so his teaching was encompassing.
Speaker 1: His teaching was bringing to completion the work that God needed to have done on this earth through his life.
Speaker 1: But his challenge to his followers and to challenge to those who believe was in the finished work of him, of him, him on the cross, sorry.
Speaker 1: So in that the people were hearing things in a different way and scripture said that he was teaching as one who had authority.
Speaker 1: One of our Bible teachers in Israel, ron Moran, who works for or has the organization Hope for Israel, when we were in Israel a few years ago, said that this can be better seen or interpreted not as Jesus has authority, but that Jesus is authority.
Speaker 1: He is the authority in proclaiming God's word because the very words that Jesus speaks are the words of God.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: So Jesus is the teacher in his whole, teaching his words, what we have in scripture or the Bible.
Speaker 1: So we're called to decide what we believe about Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's God's son, a teacher and speaking God's word, but also his finished work and his sacrifice for us on the cross.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that in a little bit.
Speaker 1: So what we choose to believe about Jesus is important, because it affects what we believe about the Bible, obviously, but then also we have to come to grips what we believe about the Bible.
Speaker 1: In this room there are probably some different opinions on interpretations of different scripture passages, but we come together, the people of God, putting our faith and our trust and our fellowship and our belief in this God's, in the Bible of God's word.
Speaker 1: Many people maybe you have struggled over the years with understanding the Bible and figuring out how to use it or apply it in your life.
Speaker 1: One of my heroes is Billy Graham.
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to work for them in the local crusade some years ago, but he's always been someone I have admired because he followed God's path and taught God's word as few have done in our modern age.
Speaker 1: But yet even Billy Graham came to a point of crisis in dealing with his faith and what he believed about the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful testimony and I'd like to share that with you this morning in this video, please.
Speaker 3: When I arrived in California, I was invited to speak at Forest Home, which is up in the mountains about 5,000 feet up.
Speaker 4: When my grandfather got this invitation, he was real nervous to go to it.
Speaker 4: He felt like he was small and inadequate.
Speaker 4: There was all these great theologians, all these great intellectuals.
Speaker 3: There were a group of Princeton theological students there, but there was one or two that I admired very much he wasn't a well-known evangelist at that time and he really felt intimidated by these men.
Speaker 2: Although Billy had graduated from Wheaton College, he was uncertain about pursuing further education and also struggling with whether to continue preaching at all.
Speaker 2: A recent event in Altoona, pennsylvania, had not gone as expected, leaving Billy discouraged and confused.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of bickering, a lot of fighting, very low attendance.
Speaker 4: It's all.
Speaker 4: People come to know Christ, but at least in my grandfather's eyes.
Speaker 4: He said it was just a flop, and so now he's questioning himself whether he should even be an evangelist.
Speaker 4: All this was the baggage that he brought and it was all weighing down on him.
Speaker 2: While he was at Forest Home, Billy's doubts would converge in a disturbing crisis of faith.
Speaker 2: One of the colleagues he traveled the world with challenged Billy's faith in the Scriptures.
Speaker 3: Questioning why my father believed in the Bible to be the holy, inspired word of God.
Speaker 4: One of his friends.
Speaker 4: He said, billy, what you believe about the Bible and how you preach the Bible, it's outdated.
Speaker 4: No one believes that anymore.
Speaker 4: It was written by a man.
Speaker 4: You can't trust it.
Speaker 3: And I remember how disturbed I was with that, because I'd always believed in the Bible.
Speaker 2: This wasn't the first time Billy had been confronted by his friends changing theology.
Speaker 2: Their ongoing discussions had led him to begin an intensive study on the question could the entire Bible be trusted as the divinely inspired word of God?
Speaker 2: He had reached his crisis of faith.
Speaker 2: He would study other theologians.
Speaker 4: He was reading the Bible to see how Jesus looked at the word of God.
Speaker 4: Jesus is quoting the Old Testament Even the hardest things to believe.
Speaker 4: Jesus said they were true, they had been talking about this and so he'd been studying and studying.
Speaker 4: As time at Forest Home wore on, Billy Graham's heart became even more burdened.
Speaker 2: He had to have an answer.
Speaker 2: If he could not trust the Bible as the authoritative and living word of God, he could not go on and he would have to leave the ministry of evangelism.
Speaker 2: He was devastated One night when he couldn't sleep.
Speaker 2: He didn't know what to do.
Speaker 4: He just went out to take a walk.
Speaker 4: He walked down the path and found a tree stump and I laid the Bible on it and I said Lord, I don't understand this book.
Speaker 3: There are many things in the Bible I don't understand.
Speaker 3: There are things I cannot put together, but I accept this as your word by faith.
Speaker 3: This is your revelation to man and I accept it by faith.
Speaker 2: Billy later wrote that his eyes stung with tears and he sensed the presence and power of God as he hadn't sensed it in months.
Speaker 2: Not all of his questions were answered, but it was a crucial turning point.
Speaker 2: By faith, he had accepted the Bible as the fully inspired, living word of God.
Speaker 2: And that's where we are.
Speaker 1: We have to come to that moment of understanding, that moment of choice, and what we believe and what we choose to accept about the Bible, even on all of the things that we believe, even on all those things that we don't understand.
Speaker 1: But when we accept it by faith and we stand on it, god's power is released, our faith is honored as he guides us and teaches us and calls us to be obedient to him, amen.
Speaker 1: So Billy Graham can question the Bible, it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1: God can handle our questions, but we have to come down to what we believe and accept it by faith.
Speaker 1: Got it?
Speaker 1: We can do an invitation there, but we're not so anyway.
Speaker 1: So let's look at the passage here for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Eddie, keep me on track as well.
Speaker 1: So at the beginning of our passage there, in verse 24, it begins with the word therefore okay, and you all know what that means.
Speaker 1: You got to find out.
Speaker 1: What is therefore okay Is therefore all of the teaching, basically, that Jesus had done, not only to His twelve disciples but to all the crowds like us who were following Him, who were interested in who he was, who were trying to discern and understand what he was teaching, but making decisions, choosing whether to follow Him or not.
Speaker 1: So the verb, therefore, is therefore this that it unfolds behind that.
Speaker 1: We have to choose, first of all, to hear the word.
Speaker 1: Okay, choose to hear the word.
Speaker 1: Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mind.
Speaker 1: Jesus said this two times in this short passage as he concludes his teaching Hearing is very important.
Speaker 1: Can I get a name in from that?
Speaker 1: I had a hearing aid malfunction this week and it was difficult.
Speaker 1: Most of you know that I've been hearing in pairs since birth.
Speaker 1: They discovered it when I was in the second grade.
Speaker 1: My mom thought I was just a hard-headed boy and didn't come when she called okay.
Speaker 1: So then the teachers begin to discover and say hey, maybe you need to look into this.
Speaker 1: So I'm grateful that they did.
Speaker 1: I've had hearing aids my whole life, but when one goes out, it is a crisis, right, all right, I'm not going to ask who has them today, because I know a lot of you will raise your hands and some of you may need them.
Speaker 1: Your wife will tell you okay, but hearing is important, and when we don't hear, we can't know and we can't understand and then we can't act.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: But at the University of Missouri, studies sometime ago said of all of our time.
Speaker 1: We spent 9% of that time writing.
Speaker 1: We spent 16% of our time reading.
Speaker 1: We spent 30% of our time speaking and 45% listening.
Speaker 1: Okay, almost half of the time that we have that we are in existence, we should spend listening, and that may be the reason, as you've heard before, that God gave us two ears and one mouth.
Speaker 1: Tell your spouse that.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's another thing to consider as we think about listening and hearing.
Speaker 1: There's something called an Egredale Cone of Experience.
Speaker 1: I just discovered this recently, but apparently it's been around since the early 1900s and I think it's proven true.
Speaker 1: It says that we remember 10% of what we read, okay, 20% actually of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we say and write and a whopping 90% of what we do.
Speaker 1: And that is where Jesus is going, because he's going from hearing to doing in this passage, and so that's a message and a challenge to us today.
Speaker 1: His teaching continues and we hear him making two observations and two choices here.
Speaker 1: Okay, he says, two times the one who hears my words.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's a choice of action either the rock or the sand.
Speaker 1: Then the storm came.
Speaker 1: All right, the storm in this passage is described in exactly the same way for both situations, right?
Speaker 1: And then you have the result the one that stands and the one that crashes.
Speaker 1: Okay, we all have storms today, don't we?
Speaker 1: How many of you had a storm this week?
Speaker 1: Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: Turn to your neighbor and say are you listening?
Speaker 1: Just saying, just saying we did have a rainstorm this week.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking about other types of storms in our lives.
Speaker 1: The storm over in Israel, obviously, rhonda Prey, for our missionary friends this morning who are at the airport in the midst of the storm trying to get back home, because the IMB has found it wise for our missionaries to come back home at this time.
Speaker 1: We have storms when something goes wrong at home.
Speaker 1: We have a storm when the doctor calls and says you need to come in and we need to have a talk.
Speaker 1: You have a storm when your finances crash in and there's not enough money to make any.
Speaker 1: You may have a storm at work when there's conflict within your coworkers and your boss is not understanding or intervening.
Speaker 1: You may have a storm at school when you have tests.
Speaker 1: Every test is a storm, right?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's been a while since y'all were in school, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Every test is a storm that comes into our lives.
Speaker 1: But Jesus is saying you can handle the storm based on my word here.
Speaker 1: But we can choose to act.
Speaker 1: We can choose to act.
Speaker 1: Not only hear God's word, but to act.
Speaker 1: Next slide, we're going to act like a wise man who built his house on a rock.
Speaker 1: Okay, the Rock is a firm foundation, right?
Speaker 1: I read on a website four-poem website that says choosing the best foundation for your needs is a real trick.
Speaker 1: The most important things to keep in mind are budget, long-term use and site consideration.
Speaker 1: Now, our budget is limited when we can go into God's word, because God's word is priceless to us.
Speaker 1: We have it available to us, and what a blessing that is in our day and time.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' day and throughout the Old Testament, they had to go to church to hear the word of God preached and read.
Speaker 1: We've got it in our very own hands, and what a treasure that is.
Speaker 1: That website says the home foundation can be one of the most expensive aspects of a project.
Speaker 1: It also says you only get one chance to build a house, so it's important to consider the long-term use of the property.
Speaker 1: Well, that house he's talking about is the house of our body, the house, of our spiritual relationship with him.
Speaker 1: And then, finally, it says keep the site consideration in mind.
Speaker 1: Builders will likely have to consult an engineer to decide which foundation is best for the home.
Speaker 1: Well, that tells me that we, as a builder of our house, need to consult Jesus to determine what the best foundation for our home is or for our house of faith, and that's what we're doing today.
Speaker 1: So, on the rock, it weathered the storm right, no matter what the storm was.
Speaker 1: Jesus was using an example that related to the people that he was teaching, because storms were frequent in Israel.
Speaker 1: They were aware how fast they could come up and that wind could blow and the rain could come, and the water fall and rise, and they knew the effect it would have on their physical homes in which they lived.
Speaker 1: And so they recognized that if their house was on the rock, if they built their lives on the word of God, as Jesus was teaching, that house would not collapse.
Speaker 1: The foolish builder did what Built his house on the sand.
Speaker 1: So that's the other choice there.
Speaker 1: And when you build your house on the sand and the storm comes still the wind blows, the water's rise, the rain falls that house does not stand Right, tommy, amen, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: That house does not stand.
Speaker 1: It collapses and collapses how oh, some of you are paying attention With a great crash.
Speaker 1: Say it again With a great crash.
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep you awake today so you can listen.
Speaker 1: All right, it's different, sorry.
Speaker 1: So we have those choices, do we not?
Speaker 1: We understand those two building material.
Speaker 1: We know what a solid foundation on a rock or concrete or some other time the material is.
Speaker 1: And then, if you've been to the beach and you've built a sandcastle, you know what that means too, right, it crashes and then it's like it never existed.
Speaker 1: So that's our challenge.
Speaker 1: I think that's our call today to make a choice, to make a choice that the wise builder or the foolish builder the wise builder who built his house on God's word, who hears the word of Jesus, who hears and understands the words of the Bible, who hears the very words of God and acts on it.
Speaker 1: Because, then, what?
Speaker 1: You're going to stand firm.
Speaker 1: No matter what happens, no matter what illness comes your way, no matter what crisis happens, no matter what happens in Washington DC, no matter what happens in Israel or the Ukraine.
Speaker 1: We stand firm as followers of Jesus, but also as his church too.
Speaker 1: Right, amen, church, there you go.
Speaker 1: But if we don't make that choice, if we build our house on sinking sand, ok it what it washes away at the very first drops of rain.
Speaker 1: The house starts to shake, the house starts to crumble, and then it will collapse with a great oh, there you go.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: So my question to you today, basically, is what do you choose?
Speaker 1: Ok, do you choose to understand who Jesus Christ is?
Speaker 1: Ok, do you choose to know Jesus and follow him and follow his word?
Speaker 1: And then, what do you choose to know about the Bible?
Speaker 1: And is that your rock?
Speaker 1: Is Jesus your rock?
Speaker 1: During the times of uncertainty, during these times facing the unknown, when we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day, we can turn to God's word.
Speaker 1: I promise you, if you turn to God's word, you will be encouraged.
Speaker 1: You will, through the power of the Holy Spirit, be equipped in a way that I cannot explain.
Speaker 1: I can remember some very difficult times in my life when things crashed in and I did not know what was going to happen next, one time, when I got fired from my job, I had no idea.
Speaker 1: I kind of figured that might be coming, but I had no idea that that was going to take place.
Speaker 1: But on that very night you probably heard this testimony from me before I went to a Bible study at a Presbyterian church my new friend Mary back there and that night they were teaching on Jeremiah 29 and 11.
Speaker 1: Well, god's word says for I know the plan that has for you, because to Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.
Speaker 1: And that hope and future was real to me that night.
Speaker 1: It gave me what I needed to face the next day and to decide what the next steps were.
Speaker 1: And those next steps through many years led me to seminary, led me to Martha, led me here, and I'm so grateful for that.
Speaker 1: So, whatever you are dealing with, when you don't have no hope, when those things crash in.
Speaker 1: A few years ago we had some difficulties here in our church.
Speaker 1: We don't want to revisit that, but there was some uncertainty.
Speaker 1: We could not see the way forward In those times.
Speaker 1: Dr N gave me a verse Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trucked in the Lord with all your heart and leaned not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and his word and he will direct your path.
Speaker 1: Folks, it doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker 1: None of that was in my message.
Speaker 1: I don't know where that's coming from.
Speaker 1: It comes from the Holy Spirit to encourage you today.
Speaker 1: So, no matter where you stand today, no matter what you're struggling with today, you can choose to know Jesus, choose to believe and follow his word, and it doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to understand that A couple of scriptures from the God's word.
Speaker 1: John 1.1, said in the beginning was the word Some of you know this and the word was with God and the word was God.
Speaker 1: That word's the capital W because it means Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: John 1.14 said the word became flesh, that Jesus had dwelt among us.
Speaker 1: We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1: And that's the choice of following the living word of God.
Speaker 1: Often we said earlier, the word of God will never pass away.
Speaker 1: We're grateful to have our Bibles that we can refer to and turn to each and every day, but when we get to heaven, we're going to be in the presence of the living word, and what an awesome place that will be.
Speaker 1: We will not need our Bible because Jesus and God will be there.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And John 3.16 and 17,.
Speaker 1: You know there, every time I speak I have to say it.
Speaker 1: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son for that, whosoever that's anybody believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Speaker 1: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to what?
Speaker 1: To save the world through him.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And that invitation is open to you today.
Speaker 1: Invitation is open to all of us.
Speaker 1: Believe in Jesus, choose Jesus, and that's as simple as ABC.
Speaker 1: Acknowledging that we are all sinners, we separated from God because of that sin, knowing that God sent Jesus to down the cross for us in he was buried and resurrected on the third day to overcome sin and death forever, and by faith we may accept that free gift of salvation and forgiveness.
Speaker 1: And we choose Jesus.
Speaker 1: Amen, he can be your savior today.
Speaker 1: If he's not, do you choose and act on God's word?
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you some more application here.
Speaker 1: How do we choose and act on God's word?
Speaker 1: First of all, I believe we should be thankful for God's word.
Speaker 1: As we said this morning, we all have our own copy of God's word.
Speaker 1: Some of us have multiple copies of God's word and we should treasure that word and I encourage you in that today.
Speaker 1: When I grew up and went to Vacation Bible School, how many of you went to Vacation Bible School?
Speaker 1: Ah, there you go.
Speaker 1: You remember most Vacation Bible schools and we still do it here.
Speaker 1: We do the pledges play to the American flag, spread the Christian flag and play to the Bible.
Speaker 1: You know that I pledge allegiance to the Bible, god's holy word.
Speaker 1: I will make it a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and hide its words in my heart that I might not sin against God.
Speaker 1: If you don't think about that, I'll give you those words, it'll encourage you.
Speaker 1: After each one of those pledges, we sing a song.
Speaker 1: I'd add it back in my day.
Speaker 1: For the American flag, we sing my country's hymns of thee.
Speaker 1: For the Christian flag, we sing onward Christian soldiers Right, miss Rhonda.
Speaker 1: Miss Rhonda knows that too.
Speaker 1: And for the Bible we sing Holy Bible, book divine.
Speaker 1: It's still in our hymn book.
Speaker 1: I was going to say sing it today, but I've already got it written down here.
Speaker 1: It goes like this Holy Bible book, divine, precious treasure thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach me what I am, and it goes on some very, very wonderful, precious verses as well, but it's a special little song simply saying this is the Bible and that we should hold it dearly in the treasure.
Speaker 1: A little bit of a challenge or homework for you.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about God's living word, check out Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Bible, but it talks about God's word over and over and over.
Speaker 1: It's organized by the letters of the Jew alphabet, hebrew alphabet, and it'll encourage your heart today.
Speaker 1: But I'm kidding you, not only should we see thanks, only in treasure God's word, we should apply it, which is what Jesus was talking about here.
Speaker 1: Well, in order to apply it, we need to hear it, we need to engage it, and I encourage you to do that today.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a quiet time, start a quiet time.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what a quiet time is, we'll be happy to help you figure that out.
Speaker 1: Have a devotion time.
Speaker 1: A devotion time, not only your personal devotion time or quiet time, but have one with your family or with a few neighbors.
Speaker 1: Read the Bible through.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for a few years and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: It takes a little bit of time, but it's amazing what happens on just the days that you need to read a certain passage of Scripture, how it intersects and encourages your life.
Speaker 1: I want to give you a homework and a challenge today.
Speaker 1: Also out of the tent, there's some Bible reading plans.
Speaker 1: There are Bible reading plans everywhere.
Speaker 1: They're in our devotional magazines, open windows, journeys, stand firm, a mature living and more.
Speaker 1: But if you start reading today, actually yesterday, if you start reading today, there's a plan that you can start in Matthew, where we are today, and read through Revelation by December.
Speaker 1: But if you've never done that, it's a great time to start.
Speaker 1: A great time to do that.
Speaker 1: Or if you aren't engaged in the other way, I challenge you to do that, and there are plenty of other Bible reading plans out there.
Speaker 1: Since I'm kind of the discipleship pastor, I have to say a way to apply the Bible to join a small group, right, whether, no matter what age.
Speaker 1: Amen, roger, we have group for all ages meeting here on campus on Sunday morning, some on Sunday evening and throughout the week in home.
Speaker 1: So I encourage you if you're not connected into a small group or a life group to do that today, because that is the reason for those life groups to engage God's Word, to apply it to our lives and help us to be building our lives, to build our faith, on the solid rock.
Speaker 1: There are other short term studies here for adults and children.
Speaker 1: Have plenty of biblical activities on Wednesday nights.
Speaker 1: Also, connect with a friend or a fellow group member and study passages together, or even start a small group in your neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Ooh, if you want to do that, let me know.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'd love to multiply.
Speaker 1: So treasure God's Word, keep it close to you, apply it in your life and then act.
Speaker 1: Simon Peter said I think it's up there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, simon Peter answered.
Speaker 1: Jesus said Lord, to whom will we go?
Speaker 1: You have the words of eternal life.
Speaker 1: We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Whom, where do we go?
Speaker 1: Choose Jesus, choose His Word, the Bible, and God will be glorified and honored and God will bless your life because he only wants the very best for each and every one of you.
Speaker 1: So don't miss out, because storm will come.
Speaker 1: Dorm are here and we want to build our lives and our faith on the rock.
Speaker 1: Jesus said if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
Speaker 1: My father will love him and he will come to him and make and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Speaker 1: The one who doesn't love me will not keep my words.
Speaker 1: The word that you hear is not mine, but it's from the father who sent me.
Speaker 1: I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
Speaker 1: Remember too, from Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds a house, it's builders labor over in vain.
Speaker 1: Unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.
Speaker 1: Jesus told us also that we were going to have troubles in this world.
Speaker 1: Amen, there are going to be storms.
Speaker 1: But he said take heart, or take courage, or be courageous.
Speaker 1: And he said because I have overcome the world, we can count on that.
Speaker 1: That's a sure thing and a sure promise.
Speaker 1: When we face storms, when we face uncertainty, when we face the unknown, but we have the free will and the ability to choose.
Speaker 1: And so I encourage you in your choice today, I encourage you in your walk today and I say to you today how's your house?
Speaker 1: Is it on the rock or is it on the sand?
Speaker 1: Maybe you need to move to a new house.
Speaker 1: Don't do it down here.
Speaker 1: Too expensive, just kidding.
Speaker 1: But that new house would be the house of Jesus Christ and allow him to save you, to work in your life.
Speaker 1: So these few minutes of invitation are for you today.
Speaker 1: If you've never made a decision for Jesus, I encourage you in that.
Speaker 1: We'd love to talk to you about that.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to join this church family, it's a great place to be.
Speaker 1: I recommend it.
Speaker 1: If you need prayer for the storms that may be going on in your life, we'd love to join with you in that, and Rhonda and I will be down front here for a few minutes and we're grateful for your response.