SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, you know, summer's great.
SPEAKER_00: We all need a summer.
SPEAKER_00: We all need vacations and breaks.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's but I'm glad that you're on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're on Facebook, uh, I don't have anything bad on Facebook on my Facebook page.
SPEAKER_00: If it does, I'd get rid of it real quick.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, if you're on Facebook, if I'm not your friend, but friend me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I like to keep up with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be looking and going.
SPEAKER_00: Next thing I know, Susan grabs my phone and starts looking.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, I want to see Facebook.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, no, I don't have time to look at mine, but she looked at mine.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to keep up with me and Susan, just Facebook us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, FaceTime us, not Facebook us, I guess, but uh, I'd love to be your friend.
SPEAKER_00: I love to keep up with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I pray for you that way a lot, specifically when you're sharing things that's going on in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So uh, young people, I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_00: I miss those days.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I had some of the greatest days and times of my ministry at the Gotel camps.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm gonna pray that Rick's gonna get his heart right and invite me back to do be the campus pastor one summer in one of the camps.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I used to love being the campus pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I'd hang out with the kids all day and preach to them, love on them, and boy, did we have some great times at Gotel.
SPEAKER_00: Life-changing times, even in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: So I praise the Lord for that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to turn with me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, this Wednesday, this Wednesday, uh 11, is that correct?
SPEAKER_00: 11 to 4 at uh Lay Lake.
SPEAKER_00: There's sign up sheets in the lobby, directions in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: For y'all to come down to our lot uh in Lay Lake, Susan.
SPEAKER_00: I have a place down there, and uh, we love sharing everything we have.
SPEAKER_00: We don't own anything.
SPEAKER_00: We really don't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, we do not own anything.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that God's allowed us to possess is His.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh that's why God, I think, has allowed us to have some things because we share them with everybody.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so come be our guest and enjoy the 4th of July.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have boating.
SPEAKER_00: We got several boats coming.
SPEAKER_00: Larry's bringing his little island for the kids out.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a pontoon boat too.
SPEAKER_00: I think uh Paul's bringing his speed boat.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a boat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so and I think uh uh Wade, where's Wade?
SPEAKER_00: Is he here?
SPEAKER_00: I saw him earlier.
SPEAKER_00: He may be doing security today, but there he is.
SPEAKER_00: I think Aren't you coming with a boat too?
SPEAKER_00: We four, yeah, we're gonna have plenty of boats.
SPEAKER_00: Last couple of times we've done this, we've uh we've uh not had enough boats.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody had to wait to ride, so we're gonna have plenty of boat riding.
SPEAKER_00: You uh enjoy the boat riding on Lake Lake, Wednesday, and uh Susan Scott ported the brain.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have hot dogs and whatever else, and I'm sure somebody's gonna bring a hamburger.
SPEAKER_00: If you do, we'll grill it too.
SPEAKER_00: But the church is providing hot dogs, correct?
SPEAKER_00: And so, but I like hot dogs too.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, it's gonna be a great time.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna have a good time on the 4th of July.
SPEAKER_00: So come uh sign up again, you give them some suggestions.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's really easy to get there.
SPEAKER_00: It's 280 all the way down to Children's Burg, take a ride on whatever that highway is.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's written down, okay.
SPEAKER_00: But old Fayetteville.
unknown: Here's the URL.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's written down.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, last night, I don't know how many pieces of I.
SPEAKER_00: Rick, do you have even an idea how much?
unknown: About a thousand.
SPEAKER_00: About a thousand pieces.
SPEAKER_00: We started about what, 4 o'clock, 4 30, and we didn't leave there until about 9 30 last night.
SPEAKER_00: We saw more people during that time.
SPEAKER_00: And let me go ahead, because you're gonna hear about this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go ahead and admit I'm guilty.
SPEAKER_00: I had a church member come up to me last night.
SPEAKER_00: I won't call any names, Suzanne.
SPEAKER_00: But, but, and she said, Pastor Danny, do you know you are parked in front of the liquor store.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did it on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It's the best spot in Win Dixie parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: It's where everybody comes by.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, did we have a good time.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to see some of the faces going into the liquor store looking at that big yellow bread truck on the very front saying, Jesus is awesome, and they're walking in and then they're walking out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm saying, God bless you, God bless you, Jesus is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: But we had a blast last night.
SPEAKER_00: I loved our ice cream truck.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh there's several churches now.
SPEAKER_00: I saw in the Alabama State Paper, uh, Daddy B, we celebrated Susan's dad's 80th birthday yesterday, and uh uh he showed me in the Alabama paper that there was a big new ice cream truck with another church, and I've had several pastors call me and said, we're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Go do it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the best thing we've ever done.
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we just finished our series on putting on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing we dealt with was prayer, verse 18, was not a piece, but was a power for the pieces of armor.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 17, we said, take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so after that series, I thought to myself, we can't get past our offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, I want to bring to you a message out of Nehemiah chapter 8, which I think is probably one of the greatest chapters of showing you the power of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The power, I've titled the message through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know there are four great lies in America today?
SPEAKER_00: Lie number one, I will respect you in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Lie number two, checks in the mail.
SPEAKER_00: Lie number three, the deliveries on the truck.
SPEAKER_00: Huh.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I've often wondered where in the world is that truck.
SPEAKER_00: Lie number four.
SPEAKER_00: I'm from the IRS and I'm here to help you.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a fifth lie.
SPEAKER_00: And the fifth lie is that you and I can have revival in our own life that we can have a resurgence of all that God is in our life without the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That is a lie.
SPEAKER_00: Because the sword of the Spirit is our power.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 4.32, the word of God is with power.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to show you an event that after the wall had been rebuilt in a miraculous 52 days, the people then call the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I like that, the people called the preacher to preach the word.
SPEAKER_00: And let's pick up the story in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people, now notice not some of the people, but all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the watergate, and they spake unto Ezra, the preacher, the scribe, who had written a lot of the uh Old Testament and written down the word of God, to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezra, the priest, brought the law before the congregation, brought the word of God before the congregation, both the men and women, and all, there's that word again, that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month, and he read therein before the street that was before the water gate.
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a good example or a good indication that these people were not Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: Watch.
SPEAKER_00: From the morning until midday.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they got there when the sun came up and they didn't leave till afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about they came to church for five, six, maybe seven hours.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! Sounds like an Auburn, Alabama football game.
SPEAKER_00: Hello, just a thought.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it amazing how we'll get up early and spend seven, eight hours a ball game, and then if you come to church and go over an hour, you hear griping and grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: Just a comparison.
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know where I'm going today, don't you, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But no, I want you to understand something, folks.
SPEAKER_00: These people were excited about coming to hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: They were excited about coming.
SPEAKER_00: And let me say, we've, you know, our church is between 250 and 300 strong.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't get all 300 every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when we do, we can't put everybody in here, but God's gonna fix that soon.
SPEAKER_00: But but but we have a group of 200 folks that love, that are here faithfully in.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Sunday in, Sunday out, Wednesday in, Wednesday out, that have a hunger for the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And our new Sunday school program and Bible study program.
SPEAKER_00: We, you know, those five rooms, we're gonna need more soon.
SPEAKER_00: And we will when we when we build that gym.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be able to have more Sunday school classes in here.
SPEAKER_00: And and and but what I'm saying is, folks, they had a hunger, and I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: From the morning until midday before the men and the women and those that could understand.
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the word attentive there, or the word understand, and the word attentive mean they did two things.
SPEAKER_00: One, they asked for the book.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, they were attentive to the book.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't come because it was a ritual.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't come because it was profitable.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't come for any personal gain other than to learn more about Jehovah.
SPEAKER_00: Jehovah Jirah, the God that provides.
SPEAKER_00: They had a hunger for the word of God, the Torah, the first five books of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to know what God said to them.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that said, I want us to look at four key things this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing is they desired the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now that word desire is a powerful word.
SPEAKER_00: I looked it up and looked at three different places in the Bible, in the old, two in the Old Testament, and two and one in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Psalm 73, 25 says, There is none upon this earth that I desire more than you, God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: There is none upon the earth that I desire besides thee, O God.
SPEAKER_00: Now the word there in the Hebrew is Hafiz.
SPEAKER_00: Hafiz.
SPEAKER_00: And it literally means to delight.
SPEAKER_00: It means pleasurable.
SPEAKER_00: It means to be pleased.
SPEAKER_00: It means to be pleased with the delight of what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: To be pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Not just that you're doing something, but it's pleasurable.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for most of you that go to a football game, me included, and I like football, I'm not getting down on football.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that we have two gods in Alabama, false gods, Auburn and Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying that the university is false gods, but what's a false God?
SPEAKER_00: Let me teach, let me tell you what a God is.
SPEAKER_00: Something that you desire as a Christian, you desire more than the real God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a false God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's the easiest definition if you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But what I am saying, and by the way, both of those great institutions, my wife graduated from the University of Alabama.
SPEAKER_00: Pam and them, you've graduated from Auburn.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, Brent, no, you are a California guy out by Sacramento.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is, folks, these folks had a desire for the living God.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that the Bible was his book and they wanted to know everything about him.
SPEAKER_00: They desired the word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's another place the word desire is used.
SPEAKER_00: It's used in Psalms 38, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, all my desire is before thee.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's a different Hebrew word they use there.
SPEAKER_00: And that word is a word that is kind of a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: It's tafi.
SPEAKER_00: And it literally means, are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_00: It means longing of one's heart.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, when when he made the statement, when the psalmist said, Lord, all my desire is before thee, he was saying, All that I want, all that I long to do is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have to admit, I'm not sure all the time my desire is that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes my desire is longing to do what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Am I the only one?
SPEAKER_00: But the psalmist is saying, all I want to do, and you put the two words together, all I want to do, I long to please you in everything that I do.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's what the word desire here means.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the people meant when they said to Ezra, Go get the book.
SPEAKER_00: Bring the book.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way we can be pleasing to God is to know what God wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: And how do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: Through his love letter.
SPEAKER_00: There's one other word for desires used.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby.
SPEAKER_00: Now that Greek word is epotheo.
SPEAKER_00: Epipotheo.
SPEAKER_00: And it literally means a longing for to pursue with love.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch this.
SPEAKER_00: That word can be used for good or for bad.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is, if it's used for God, it's a love for and a desire to do what God's called me to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be pleasing to Him.
SPEAKER_00: The other word that could be synonym could be used for this Greek word, epepotheo, is lust.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a lust and a love for the worldliness and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
SPEAKER_00: So, desires can be good or desires can be bad.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: And it all is determined by what?
SPEAKER_00: Your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why what?
SPEAKER_00: The Solomon said in Proverbs 4.23, guard your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: For out of it flows the what?
SPEAKER_00: The desires of your life.
SPEAKER_00: The desires for good or the desires for bad.
SPEAKER_00: It's your choice.
SPEAKER_00: You'll either be pleasing to yourself or you'll be pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty simplistic, I understand, but it's pretty powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Because you either live to please yourself or to please God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the two choices.
SPEAKER_00: You say, well, I live to please my husband or please others.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're again, you're pleasing self.
SPEAKER_00: You should and I should live to please God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what they wanted.
SPEAKER_00: They desired God with all their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
SPEAKER_00: What does it really mean then to desire God?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you four things.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, it means that you love as newborn babes, what?
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
SPEAKER_00: Desire what?
SPEAKER_00: The milk of the word, the word of God, so that we may grow by.
SPEAKER_00: So it means that we are to love the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are to love what God's word tells us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, we have to do four things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, A.
SPEAKER_00: We have to heed it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible very clearly says that in several verses, he says, and Jesus said in Matthew 13, 9, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: James 1.22 says, Be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own self.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 1.3 says, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and read the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So first of all, we've got to heed it.
SPEAKER_00: You remember what we say around here about the word?
SPEAKER_00: We say, what?
SPEAKER_00: One, we love it, we learn it, we live it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And you could add another error.
SPEAKER_00: Lecture it.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: Share it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So here we see, all right, notice the second thing.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do we heed it, number two, we hide it.
SPEAKER_00: Thy word have I, come on, you know it, hid in my heart that I might not what?
SPEAKER_00: Sin against thee.
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 1.8, the book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written therein.
SPEAKER_00: Then shall I make the way prosperous?
SPEAKER_00: Watch, then shall thy have good success.
SPEAKER_00: The only place in the Word of God that God says you'll be successful is by in direct relationship to how you take the Word of God, put the Word of God in your heart, hide it in your heart, heed the Word of God, do the Word of God, and He says you will be successful.
SPEAKER_00: Third thing.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do we heed it, hide it, number three, we handle it.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what Paul said about handling it?
SPEAKER_00: He said, He said, uh study.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what he told Timothy?
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse because it relates so well to our our uh a one-overse.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's the one- of verse, 2 Timothy 2.15.
SPEAKER_00: Study to show thyself to approve unto God a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: In order, hey, to heed it, to hide it, you gotta study it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta you gotta put it in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait this fall.
SPEAKER_00: Our new series we're gonna kick off in August is hey, experiencing God.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna be bringing a series on knowing God.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be studying in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Blackaby's book on experiencing God.
SPEAKER_00: I went through that workbook, it changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be challenged to really know God like you've never known him before.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Don outside, and he was talking about he's been witnessing the Mormons, and and I and he was saying, Well, we need a class on apologetics.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you what apologetics are.
SPEAKER_00: And I was at the graduate level for almost 14 years, and uh let me tell you what apologetics really the definition of apologetics is defending your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And in order to defend your faith, though, you gotta know the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is your faith.
SPEAKER_00: So if you know the word of God, it's pretty simple that, hey, if you know the word when somebody is telling you something that doesn't agree and add up to the word of God, it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So if you know the word of God, you desire the word of God, if you hide it, you heed it, you handle it, you study it, then guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Number four, you're ready now to hold it forth.
SPEAKER_00: You're ready to share it.
SPEAKER_00: He says in Philippians 2.16, holding forth the word of life.
SPEAKER_00: If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 4.11.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready to give an answer.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3.15.
SPEAKER_00: To every man that asks you the question of the hope that lies in you.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't give something forth if you don't know it.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing what we do with our phones.
SPEAKER_00: Siri, you ask them questions.
SPEAKER_00: Took my Siri six months to understand my dialect.
SPEAKER_00: But finally she does.
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while, she still messes up.
SPEAKER_00: But really, I mean it's amazing how she can bring it up just like this, just like this.
SPEAKER_00: Used to, you have to get your cocoards out.
SPEAKER_00: Now all you gotta do is quote a part of the verse, and she brings it right up.
SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: What would be unbelievable is that you could bring that verse up.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Susan used to ask me all the time, honey, where's this verse?
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, Well, look it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way you learn it.
SPEAKER_00: Now she says, Siri, where's and I've cheated and done it a couple of times myself.
SPEAKER_00: But really, this is what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to desire the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00: They desired the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now, I gotta give you the little across the case that's not there.
SPEAKER_00: But the B-I-B-L-E, what?
SPEAKER_00: B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_00: Now, y'all think that's corny.
SPEAKER_00: You know why you think it's corny?
SPEAKER_00: Because you didn't go to Sunday school early.
SPEAKER_00: We used to have a song, the B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_00: That's the book for me.
SPEAKER_00: I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_00: Bible! All right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you why, or what that B-I-B-L-L I means, and then maybe you'll shout it.
SPEAKER_00: Letter B, it brightens your life.
SPEAKER_00: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path.
SPEAKER_00: Letter I, it instructs my life.
SPEAKER_00: Establish my footsteps in thy word, and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 119, 133.
SPEAKER_00: Second, letter B, it builds my life.
SPEAKER_00: And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of grace which is able to build you up.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 20, 32.
SPEAKER_00: Letter L in the word Bible, it liberates you from sin and Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Sin, I word have a hit in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
SPEAKER_00: Satan, hey, Revelation 12, 11, and by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony, they overcame who?
SPEAKER_00: Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And then letter E.
SPEAKER_00: The word is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Before anything was, God's word was, and after everything will be, God's word still will be.
SPEAKER_00: For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 119, verse 89.
SPEAKER_00: Now do you see why I love the B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_00: It brightens my life, it instructs my life, it builds my life, it liberates my life from sin and Satan, and it's everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna try that song again.
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: The B-I-B-L.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: That's the book for me.
SPEAKER_00: I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L.
SPEAKER_00: That's about a C.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_00: But that's it.
SPEAKER_00: We used to do that at camp.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, teenagers, you talking about having fun.
SPEAKER_00: We had fun.
SPEAKER_00: But I when they left there that week when I was there, I promise you, I my desire was to create in them a desire for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Number two.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did they desire the word of God, but look at verse 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_00: They declared the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezra, the scribes, stood upon a pulpit of wood.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's elevated.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you see this pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: Which they had made for the purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the purpose of this pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: And beside him stood his other 13 priests that helped him.
SPEAKER_00: Six on one side, seven on the other.
SPEAKER_00: And then look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Then Ezra opened the book, the Word of God, in the sight of all people.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: All the people were hungry for the Word.
SPEAKER_00: They were there.
SPEAKER_00: And he was above all the people.
SPEAKER_00: He was elevated.
SPEAKER_00: And when he opened it, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: All the people stood up.
SPEAKER_00: They stood up in honor of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of churches.
SPEAKER_00: I used to, when I was preaching everywhere, sometimes I'd get up and tell them my text and begin to, and as I told them to open the text, they opened it, but guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Then the whole church would stand up with their Bibles open.
SPEAKER_00: First time it did me, it kind of shocked me.
SPEAKER_00: I went, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: And then I realized what they were doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the honor that you're giving to God Jehovah and his book, his love letter to you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So they stood up.
SPEAKER_00: Look what else they did.
SPEAKER_00: Another good reason they may not have been Baptists.
SPEAKER_00: The people answered, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You know what the word amen means?
SPEAKER_00: So be it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a confirmation.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they were confirming the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: When you say amen, you are confirming that that word, that principle, that direction is real in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Now you understand why we may not have a whole lot of amens, because it's not real or hey, it's not a confirmation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: For example, deacon that comes with the boys home sometimes back there, when I say it's time to give our offering and to bring our tithe to the storehouse.
SPEAKER_00: What does the deacon do?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one that says that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a confirmation that he knows that truth is real in his life.
SPEAKER_00: So be it.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we have to say, oh me.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're convicted of the principle, but we know it's not real in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We're not doing it.
SPEAKER_00: But we know we've been convicted of it.
SPEAKER_00: And that too could be an amen.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an amen and thank you, Lord, for showing me the truth that I need in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So be it.
SPEAKER_00: So that's very important.
SPEAKER_00: Look what else they did.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did they confirm the word, but then they lifted their hands.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, I have people all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't think you ought to be loud and saying amen and you ought not to lift your hands.
SPEAKER_00: I said, my goodness, show me that scripturally.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, I think, I think there's times to be still and know he's God.
SPEAKER_00: There's reverent times, but they're cheerleading times too, and I happen to be a part of the cheerleader.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible very clearly looks, says, lift, they lifted their hands.
SPEAKER_00: You know what they were doing there.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, they were blessing the Lord for the word of God, saying, Thank you, Lord, for your word.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Psalms 106, verse 48 says, I will lift my hands up to thee for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And here's another one.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 134, verse 2 says, I will lift my hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What are you blessing the Lord for?
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what you're blessing him for.
SPEAKER_00: For his word, for his presence, for his truth, for who he is to you.
SPEAKER_00: That is to me and exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you want to do a wave?
SPEAKER_00: Well, wave for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And then look what else they did.
SPEAKER_00: And they bowed their heads.
SPEAKER_00: They came to the altar.
SPEAKER_00: They bowed down.
SPEAKER_00: They lay prostrate.
SPEAKER_00: Crying out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Thanking him.
SPEAKER_00: Praising him, yes, but praying to him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Honoring who he was.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: They declared the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to look at what it does and what I love about the word of God when we declare it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, turn, well, bring up, Jason, 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Go to 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what the Word of God does.
SPEAKER_00: It does two things.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 3, 16.
SPEAKER_00: It does something for the congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us individually.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Timothy chapter 3, look at what it does.
SPEAKER_00: All scripture, not some, is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, mature, complete.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, your armor may be on, completely on, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
SPEAKER_00: So, look at what it does.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you can't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: This is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It's given by the inspiration of God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it's profitable for.
SPEAKER_00: It's profitable for teaching us doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: Doctrine is truth.
SPEAKER_00: It means teaching truth.
SPEAKER_00: Look what else it is.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it, hey, for doctrine, but for reproof.
SPEAKER_00: It's for correction.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God corrects us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you hear your pastor say all the time, a proverb a day keeps the devil away.
SPEAKER_00: A proverb a day, 31 chapters of Proverbs, you go through it once a month.
SPEAKER_00: It tells you what to do and what not to do.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's wisdom to you and me.
SPEAKER_00: God gives wisdom, out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 2, 6.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that.
SPEAKER_00: So it teaches us, it rebukes us, and then number three, it corrects us.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does it rebuke us for doing what's wrong, then it corrects us and it shows us how to do what's right.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And then, are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, for instruction in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It disciples us.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God disciples us, it teaches us the truth so that we will be ready to give an answer when asked of the truth that, hey, lies within us with joy and with excitement.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say something.
SPEAKER_00: This book right here is not boring.
SPEAKER_00: This book is alive.
SPEAKER_00: It's real, it's powerful, it's quick and sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: It is the spirit that quickens.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh profits, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: These things, Jesus said, I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
SPEAKER_00: John 6, 63.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful, beautiful exhortation by Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Now, are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what it does to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Ezekiel 37.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's up there, but Ezekiel 37 is a whole chapter.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what happens.
SPEAKER_00: When the word of God is preached in a church, and the hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel said, and he carried me out in the spirit of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be carried out in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be walking in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be praying in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last week when I brought, if you missed that message on praying in the spirit, please go online.
SPEAKER_00: Watch it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to get that's probably, I think, one of the greatest messages I've preached to my own self about prayer in a long time.
SPEAKER_00: I needed that.
SPEAKER_00: That we need to be praying in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time we're praying in the flesh and the difference.
SPEAKER_00: So here we see that Ezekiel said, I'm, hey, I'm in the spirit, and you've thrown me down in the midst of the valley of dry bones.
SPEAKER_00: Ha ha! Again, the average Baptist church.
SPEAKER_00: Dry.
SPEAKER_00: No life.
SPEAKER_00: No excitement.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear what the kids said?
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear what they said?
SPEAKER_00: Did you get one common denominator out of all that?
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Serving Jesus Christ is exciting.
SPEAKER_00: I had a lady one time said, I'm not sure it's quite as exciting as you.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: I love you too.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you, when he becomes alive in you, I don't care if you are an introvert or an extrovert, something's gonna come out.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard, Peter said in Acts 4.20.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: I get the can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a I don't I don't get up and say, well, it's preaching time, put on this mask and go out and say, Oh, Jesus is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: No, I wake up, Jesus is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I go to sleep, Jesus is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And I wear it everywhere I go just to remind me.
SPEAKER_00: I had that that band really saved me from making a doing something I shouldn't have done the other day on the airplane.
SPEAKER_00: I did.
SPEAKER_00: Because the stewardess grabbed my little bag.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I need your purse.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't have a purse.
SPEAKER_00: I need that.
SPEAKER_00: And she was reaching to get it.
SPEAKER_00: So she, grandma.
SPEAKER_00: What do you call it?
SPEAKER_00: Murce.
SPEAKER_00: That's what she called it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's a mirth.
SPEAKER_00: I said, no, it's not a purse.
SPEAKER_00: It's a bag.
SPEAKER_00: I had my bill full on my phone.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Leather.
SPEAKER_00: Salt.
SPEAKER_00: So she grabs my mirth.
SPEAKER_00: And puts it up in the back.
SPEAKER_00: I've been wearing that bag.
SPEAKER_00: For years on every airplane I've ever been on.
SPEAKER_00: I have never, in all the flights I've ever been on, and I've been on a bunch, had anybody want my nurse.
SPEAKER_00: I even said, I'll put it behind me.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're not supposed to be able to fly off.
SPEAKER_00: She said, no, I'm sorry, you gotta put it up here.
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked down.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit said, You're wearing Jesus' also.
SPEAKER_00: What would Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Do I have to?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00: I was good.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but inside.
SPEAKER_00: Now wait.
SPEAKER_00: Susan's got this big laptop.
SPEAKER_00: Sitting in her lap.
SPEAKER_00: I call it a missile.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, it would have killed you if it if the plane had gone down and that big sucker hit you, you're gone.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what she says?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Susan was gonna be nice and give her the thing to put.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Oh no, ma'am, you can hold that.
SPEAKER_00: I went.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're gonna put my little bag up there, and this is gonna sit right by me to kill me if we go down.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit said, What would Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: But I really had to repent there for about 10 minutes because I was mad.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was mad.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not joking, her computer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not exaggerating, it's as big as this pulpit thing right here.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, you can keep it.
SPEAKER_00: And I just looked at her.
SPEAKER_00: I did.
SPEAKER_00: I just went.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I told you that story.
SPEAKER_00: I needed to confess.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: I come.
SPEAKER_00: You've been my priest this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I needed to get that off my chest.
SPEAKER_00: God, I bless you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But now notice Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: Not Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: Zeke.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra said, What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a bunch of dead bones.
SPEAKER_00: They're not alive.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_00: This is awesome, verse 4, three times.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Prophesy.
SPEAKER_00: That word there means preach.
SPEAKER_00: And he preached and the dry bones heard the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And hey, verse 5, breath entered into them that they could live.
SPEAKER_00: So he preached, and life came into them.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Now what do I do, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Preach again as I was commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And I preached, and there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, behold, hey, his bones.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, not only was there life to the body, now unity came to the body.
SPEAKER_00: They came together, toe bones connected to the footbone.
SPEAKER_00: And then look what else happened.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: And what I do now, hey, there's life.
SPEAKER_00: We're all coming together.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, preach.
SPEAKER_00: As he commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon the feet.
SPEAKER_00: An exceeding army.
SPEAKER_00: God takes the word of God and he brings life to us.
SPEAKER_00: Then he brings us together and we become an army to reach Chelsea and Westover and this surrounding area with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The good news.
SPEAKER_00: Number three.
SPEAKER_00: So for the church, it builds an army.
SPEAKER_00: They desired the word, they declared the word.
SPEAKER_00: And number three, they were dedicated to the word.
SPEAKER_00: Why were they dedicated to the word?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you miss this in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3?
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what it says.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And the same was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_00: All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: First of all, it literally means that the word of God, I love this, the word of God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Before anything was, his word was.
SPEAKER_00: After everything will be, his word still will be.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 119, 89, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withest, the flower faded, but the word of God shall stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 48.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, not only is the word eternal, it's created.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 33, 6 says, the, hey, and the world, actually, he says, and by the word of God the heavens were made.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1 3, God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
SPEAKER_00: So Hebrews 11 3, and we understand that through the word of God, the world was created.
SPEAKER_00: So, not only do we see that the word of God is eternal, it's creative.
SPEAKER_00: And then look at verse 14 in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, not only do we see that it was eternal, creative, but it was incarnate.
SPEAKER_00: And was Jesus Himself, the Logos.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're praying and in the spirit, you're praying with who God is, who Christ is, what He is, all that He is, all His characteristics, all His attributes, all His power.
SPEAKER_00: His word is with power.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: So we see.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a dedication to the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have time.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta show you this.
SPEAKER_00: Because we got some preachers here and missionaries here.
SPEAKER_00: Notice in verse 5, when he says an Ezra, open the book.
SPEAKER_00: There's 13 other preacher, priests there, scribes there.
SPEAKER_00: Why did they call for Ezra?
SPEAKER_00: When I first read this passage, I asked myself, why did they call for Ezra?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you study the history of Ezra and you know he was a pretty good uh leader and and and all, but but there was a reason.
SPEAKER_00: I think the main reason they called for Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: Just flip back over a few pages to Ezra chapter 7, one verse, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta see this.
SPEAKER_00: This is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Examples, I even put it there for you.
SPEAKER_00: It was so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach Israel statutes and judgments.
SPEAKER_00: This is very important.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I went back and studied this word in the Hebrew text, I saw the secrets of the way it was written.
SPEAKER_00: And I think God had a divine purpose for just the principles in this verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see it.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra prepared his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And here's, hey, hey, you want to be a man of God, a woman of God, used by God in a great way?
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, when I first read this years ago, I meant way back, uh, I said, Lord, if there's ever a revival that breaks out and the people are hungry for you, I want to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be a preacher that they would call for Pastor Danny to come because they know that Pastor Danny has these characteristics and these qualities that are real in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Here they are.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he had a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Ezra prepared his heart.
SPEAKER_00: It was a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: And you know why it was a prepared heart?
SPEAKER_00: Because he had a love for God ready and a love for people.
SPEAKER_00: And that's our key foundational verse, Luke 10, 27.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all the soul, with all the strength, with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
SPEAKER_00: He had a love for God and a love for people.
SPEAKER_00: He had a heart filled for love for God and people.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the second thing he had.
SPEAKER_00: And to seek the law of the Lord, number two, he had a pathos, a passion for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He had a pathos, a passion for the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He loved the book, he studied the book, he wrote the book, he lived in the book.
SPEAKER_00: If we grasp this church, you've not seen anything that God won't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, God's got plans for this little community in this area that you can't even conceive.
SPEAKER_00: But if you will grasp this and say, I want to be a part of this, I want this in my life, and you individually as a congregation start having a desire for this book, and hey, a dedication to this book, and then start declaring this book, we're gonna see things that we could never explain.
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch, watch.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what else?
SPEAKER_00: Prepared heart, passion for the word, then to do it.
SPEAKER_00: To do it.
SPEAKER_00: He practiced it.
SPEAKER_00: He practiced the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He practiced it.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, let me go back and I'll give you some verses.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, he had a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 23, 7.
SPEAKER_00: Guard your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at Proverbs 4.23.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 23, 7, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
SPEAKER_00: And then the passion for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 18.24.
SPEAKER_00: Apollos was an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to, you know, this one in Acts 17.11.
SPEAKER_00: It literally says that they were eager with joy to get, hey, to get in the word of God and to study it, what?
SPEAKER_00: Day by day, to see what it said.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 17.11.
SPEAKER_00: And then the practice of the word.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 14, he that preaches the word must live the word.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: And then listen to what Paul told Timothy in 2 Corinthians 6.3, giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be above reproach.
SPEAKER_00: It means that people cannot bring any kind of accusation against your Lord by your testimony.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_00: This is what I taught for years to preach your boys.
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: To do it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to have a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: You got to love God with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, love people with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Then you gotta, hey, passion for the word.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta study the word day and night.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 6, 4, give yourself continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_00: That was to the pastors.
SPEAKER_00: And then you gotta live it.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta live it out.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta practice what you preach.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, my granddaddy, son, sonny, tiny boy, you gotta practice what you preach.
SPEAKER_00: Or your preaching's no good.
SPEAKER_00: I would have destroyed my testimony just like that the other day on that airplane.
SPEAKER_00: But my flesh and Satan was saying, get her.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife was pinching me.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot to tell you that part.
SPEAKER_00: And when she pinched me, that's when I saw Jesus is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: You thought it was you, honey, it was Jesus' awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Because she knew when she saw I looked at her her computer and then looked at that lady, she was going, mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: That was cute.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Deedra.
SPEAKER_00: No, it wasn't cute at all then.
SPEAKER_00: But prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, wait, passion, practice it.
SPEAKER_00: Now are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this, young preachers.
SPEAKER_00: I know Ty's going into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: David, a lot of you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you uh ladies said God's called you to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen, this is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the formula for success in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Has nothing to do with numbers, has nothing to do with my pay, salary, all that.
SPEAKER_00: What it has to do with a prepared heart.
SPEAKER_00: Loving God and loving people.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, it has everything to do with a passion for the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, you gotta live it.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta practice it.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be a living testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Now, are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Tell you the secret, then you're qualified to preach it.
SPEAKER_00: But if those other three aren't first, you're not qualified to preach it.
SPEAKER_00: And when you step up in that pulpit and you're not qualified, all you're doing is giving a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: You're not preaching in the fullness of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the key.
SPEAKER_00: That's the key.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And you can do that with one, and my wife will tell you.
SPEAKER_00: We had a little revival on the plane going down there.
SPEAKER_00: The lady named Beth sitting to her, come to find out she's a dynamic Christian.
SPEAKER_00: We were sharing Jesus, and we're doing it pretty loud so everybody could hear.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what you do if there's a pathos, because you can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I wouldn't want to offend anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Where in the world are you gonna offend them to if they're going to hell?
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: He's just too aggressive for me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help it.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: You don't like my attitude.
SPEAKER_00: You don't now, good attitude.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't like my personality?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, talk to the Lord about it.
SPEAKER_00: He created me, and let me remind you, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I married a complete opposite.
SPEAKER_00: See, she's sitting there just smiling.
SPEAKER_00: I'm jumping, doing high fives, and she's just smiling.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is what is your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you one thing, her heart's going, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee, whoopee.
SPEAKER_00: I just say, act mine out.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, what do you want to be for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a cheerleader for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I am.
SPEAKER_00: That really is what I am.
SPEAKER_00: No, I no doubt about it.
SPEAKER_00: Then the last thing, and I'm three.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, we got something.
SPEAKER_00: Meal today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else hungry?
SPEAKER_00: There'll be a demonstration.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Get ready.
SPEAKER_00: Fill in the blanks.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, there'll be a demonstration of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse nine.
SPEAKER_00: At the end.
SPEAKER_00: This day is holy unto the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: Mourn not and weep, nor weep for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: Now watch.
SPEAKER_00: Welp when they heard the words of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Weeping, you'll have tears of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have tears of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll see that in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But mainly here, you heard the young people.
SPEAKER_00: Some said they got saved.
SPEAKER_00: That was tears of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You heard some that said they were saved, but they they hadn't needed their fire rekindled, or they came back.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God so convinced them of what they hadn't been doing, knowing that what they need to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: And basically, I can tell you what that is.
SPEAKER_00: They were out of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You can't stay in the word of God with a prepared heart and a passion for the truth and it not set you on fire.
SPEAKER_00: His word was in my heart as a burning fire.
SPEAKER_00: Shut up in my bones, Jeremiah said.
SPEAKER_00: Even when I didn't want to preach, I couldn't help but preach.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 29.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, secondly, there'll be rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever tell me that eating fat's not biblical.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on a no-fat diet, and I found this is a great place to say that's not biblical.
SPEAKER_00: And I just took that out of context.
SPEAKER_00: But eat the fat.
SPEAKER_00: And drink the sweet.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I hadn't had a milk.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get me a milkshake today.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, where's my little girl that brought me uh?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: She works at Sonic's, and a week ago, a week and a half ago, I told her, I said, I love Sonic's peanut butter milkshakes.
SPEAKER_00: You know what she had last Sunday for me?
SPEAKER_00: She had me a peanut butter milkshake, brought it right there.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't offer to share with anyone.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad my wife was in Sunday school where she'd have been drinking it.
SPEAKER_00: But, amen, sweetie, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that anytime you feel that of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's biblical.
SPEAKER_00: Drink the sweet.
SPEAKER_00: And send portion of them for whom nothing is prepared.
SPEAKER_00: For this day is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be joy.
SPEAKER_00: And then, are you ready?
SPEAKER_00: Number three, there, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be renewing.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people went their way to eat and to drink.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're fixing to do.
SPEAKER_00: And to send portions and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-mm.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13 then says, understanding the words of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go on and read all the way through chapter 9 down to verse 4, you'll see the results of revival.
SPEAKER_00: The great joy, holy.
SPEAKER_00: The people love to come to church.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, daily search of the truth, confession, restitution, fasting, and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable results because of the power through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my prayer for our church.
SPEAKER_00: When we started this church, one of our, actually one of the first key core values, you'll see them on the wall up there, was clear biblical truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: It's built on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more, nothing less, because that's all you need.
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
SPEAKER_00: The B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_00: That's the book for me.
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you.
SPEAKER_00: My heart's desire for our church.
SPEAKER_00: And we're getting there.
SPEAKER_00: We're headed that place.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be known for a place that you can come and be loved by God, regardless of your past.
SPEAKER_00: We're not interested in your past, we're interested in your future.
SPEAKER_00: And God has a fantastic future for you.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to show you that future by teaching you how to study the word of God, how to live, hey, how to love the word of God, learn the word of God, live the word of God so that you can lecture, share the word of God to give an answer.
SPEAKER_00: When you do that, people will come.
SPEAKER_00: People that are hungry for the word of God in the last days that we're living, and we're living there.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, they're gonna come for the truth.
SPEAKER_00: They want to know the real truth.
SPEAKER_00: The revelation series was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00: The people that watched it online, I couldn't, it was unreal how many people watched this.
SPEAKER_00: Watch that study.
SPEAKER_00: They want to know the truth about the end of times.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know him?
SPEAKER_00: Paul said that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: It may conform upon the Him.
SPEAKER_00: The only way you're gonna know is through this book.