SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we've come here to get a deeper, fuller understanding of what the Bible means when it talks about freedom.
SPEAKER_01: We're not here to submit to some yoke of religious slavery.
SPEAKER_01: We're here to be more freed up people, to scrape all the barnacles off the hull of the ship so we slice through the water.
SPEAKER_01: So we get out there on the bow of the ship.
SPEAKER_01: And not like Leonardo DiCaprio and announce that I'm the king of the world.
SPEAKER_01: We're here to announce that you're the king of the world.
SPEAKER_01: We're here to say that we are we are blown away and we are postured and positioned under the reality that you're the king of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Every good and perfect gift comes down from our Father above.
SPEAKER_01: We've been made partakers.
SPEAKER_01: We've tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: So we're without excuse for choosing bad when we've tasted so much goodness.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, expand uh our understanding and our experience of your goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, uh uh relate to us like you do in such a way that it makes all these other lesser things just not less attractive today.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, let us understand what the Bible talks about when it says what it says to us today.
SPEAKER_01: I'll take a minute before I finish this prayer, and you just kind of, whatever's most on your heart, you just kind of unburden yourself to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's not frightening, that's in that's inviting.
SPEAKER_01: You're inviting us not to be some religious poser who says one thing but feels another.
SPEAKER_01: So let the words, before they're ever on our tongue, we just acknowledge, Lord, that you know them.
SPEAKER_01: And so we are we stand before you this morning as a known people and a loved people and an accepted people.
SPEAKER_01: Let the fact that you accept us, let that change us, let that sink into the marrow of our bones, not just in our head where it's an idea, but into our bones where it's an experience.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we come at you this morning like cold people towards a hot bath.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be thawed out and comforted and compelled.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, all of this we we ask in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Matthew chapter seven.
SPEAKER_01: We'll come to the end of the series we've been in all uh since July.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've been in a series called the Jesus Way.
SPEAKER_01: The Jesus Way.
SPEAKER_01: And today I want to read uh about four or five verses from the end of Matthew uh chapter seven.
SPEAKER_01: I'll start reading in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you about this this morning, the Jesus Way.
SPEAKER_01: And the title of the sermon is Build Well.
SPEAKER_01: Build Well.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's easy to hear what Jesus says and not understand what Jesus means.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But before I get to that, before I read, I want to just say uh in this passage we're gonna read, Jesus paints a picture basically of what a life looks like that takes him at his word and then does what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And so I need some audience participation this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you had to pick one word that describes a person that, hey, this is what it looks like to not just hear what the Bible says, but actually to do it, to build your life on it.
SPEAKER_01: What would you say one word is that describes that person?
SPEAKER_01: Go.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Giving.
SPEAKER_01: Safe.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Loving, faithful.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, they're getting all the good answers.
SPEAKER_01: You people over here speak up.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, gentle.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, oh, we've got something from the quiet people.
SPEAKER_01: Contented, obedient.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And we could go on, and some of you get warmed up and start throwing your words out there.
SPEAKER_01: But because we don't have time for everybody's words, they say a picture's worth a thousand words.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bring you a couple of pictures, uh, but I don't want you to overreact and kind of go, oh, I wish you hadn't shown that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh because when you ask people like we ask people uh like like in the culture, hey, what is it, what is it being a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: What is that all about?
SPEAKER_01: Here's probably one of the first things our culture would say it's this.
SPEAKER_01: These people just believe the Bible and they're mad about it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they just they just they're just mad.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if Donald Trump does not get elected, this is what we're gonna get.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so that's what a lot of people think.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in my family that think this is what I do every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Or I shake people down for money.
SPEAKER_01: I have a brother that's like, hey man, you're not like those people on TV, are you?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, where are you right now?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna drive to where you are and punch you in the throat.
SPEAKER_01: That's why.
SPEAKER_01: I got Chuck Norris riding shotgun.
SPEAKER_01: We're on our way.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people say, hey, if you build your life on the gospel and you do what it says, this is what it turns you into.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people think this is what it turns you into if you build your life on the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: These are not actors, these are real people.
SPEAKER_01: Please do not miss the fact that she is she's rocking the flag as a skirt.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, this is what happens when you watch too much Fox News.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that wasn't funny to some of y'all, was it?
SPEAKER_01: It's going fighting words right there.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking about Fox News.
SPEAKER_01: Uh people, actually, this is a church called Westboro Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and this is what they do.
SPEAKER_01: They go around, they're known for what they hate.
SPEAKER_01: Despite the fact that the Bible, you should just put up that the Bible says, I love the grandma that you are going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Uh thank you, grandma.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that, and thanks for rocking those Robocop sunglasses you got at a garage sale.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but this is what a lot of people think.
SPEAKER_01: And when I see something like this, I just think uh uh uh what the Bible says when Jesus said, Hey, that I mean, John says that they will know us by our love.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people think this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what some of you church people think it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Which that's more deadly than the first two.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's like an ambient, glowing Thomas Kincaid painting where you got a golden labrador somewhere on the property chasing a squirrel, and everything's great, and your kids don't have acne and they make straight A's, and your husband's awesome, and you got money just flowing everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And you just love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And when you talk about him, it's kind of breathy.
SPEAKER_01: Like Jesus is the prom king and he asked me out, and I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_01: And people that don't know Jesus can't stand you because they just think that is sappy and that's not real.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: I could never do that.
SPEAKER_01: This is not, when I talked to you this morning, this is not what the Bible is, this is not what Jesus is talking about, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what it looks like what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you are like, oh, that looks dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you like to be the cat that lived in that house?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what your friend your kids' friends would say to them at school?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, uh, you're the hippies that live in the house.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I but it's built on the rock, it ain't going anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I mean, what's that like?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's secure.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big rock.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little house, but it's a big rock.
SPEAKER_01: And what I'm saying to you is this if I had to say, hey, what is it like to build your life on the teachings of Jesus, what the Bible teaches, what it's about, I would give you this picture.
SPEAKER_01: I would give you this picture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says this, what do you mean, build well?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 7, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew again and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus had finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
SPEAKER_01: There's about four or five things that involved in this text when we talk about when Jesus is saying, build well.
SPEAKER_01: And the first thing that the Bible says to us this morning is simply this the Bible is self-validating.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is self-validating.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in order to be this, you have to do this.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that it becomes more true, but we experience the truthfulness of the Bible when we do what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that when I say it's self-validating, what I mean is it's not that it becomes more true.
SPEAKER_01: It's that we experience the truthfulness of the Bible when we do what it says.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, now by the way, there's a certainty and a confidence that we never get by simply hearing the Bible taught.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it validates itself in our experience when we obey.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people come to church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Every Sunday, they hear a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself today, of all the things that I hear preached about and taught from the Bible, how many, what's the percentage of those that I actually do?
SPEAKER_01: Because you want those percentages to be relatively close to one another.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying, oh, well, you got to be perfect and walk out of here.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but you want those percentages, hey, I hear this, you know, this is the percentage of stuff that I hear that I actually put into practice.
SPEAKER_01: I do what it says, I obey.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible is self-validating to hear things and not do them.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful over the long haul, two things have to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, either you become the cynical, jaded Christian who hears good teaching all the time and only does a small portion of that.
SPEAKER_01: And the way you bridge the gap in those two things is that you just you become jaded and cynical, and you evaluate and you critique and you're very critical, but you never really taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: Or the second option is actually worse, you have to renounce the faith and say, I can no longer believe this.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because if if this is really true, and Jesus, as simply as he says it, when he says, Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built this house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: It's really that simple.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is that really self-validating, then if that's true, then how do I explain my life?
SPEAKER_01: If I've been a Christian 17 years, how do I explain that I'm so willy-nilly, that my sexual ethic is just like everybody I work with?
SPEAKER_01: That my morals, my sense of oughtness is about like the culture all around us.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus says, hey, this is this is as simple as I can put it, that's why he says, everyone then.
SPEAKER_01: It's like in conclusion, let me wrap up what I've been saying from Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6, and all through chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: First thing the Bible tells us is of itself is it's self-validating.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, you notice that you can hear and never listen.
SPEAKER_01: You can hear and never listen.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in listening and hearing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, everyone then who hears these words of mine.
SPEAKER_01: Men, I don't know if it ever happens in your house, but sometimes my wife is talking and I'm like watching TV or doing something, and I'm I'm I'm listening to her, but I'm hearing what she says, but I'm not really listening.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because my wife never says, Are you hearing me?
SPEAKER_01: She always says, Are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll look at her and I'll parrot back everything she just said.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I put her on notice.
SPEAKER_01: I said, now next week, football, college football season kicks off.
SPEAKER_01: And there's like games five nights in a row.
SPEAKER_01: So say everything you want to say to me, like right now, this week, before Thursday gets here, because Friday, I'm off the clock.
SPEAKER_01: We're just doing football all the time, like for five nights.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, imagine my sadness, not talking to you for five nights.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm like, watch your mouth, woman.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but she said, so college football, and my wife is not being funny.
SPEAKER_01: She really doesn't keep up with it.
SPEAKER_01: Like she said the other day, baseball season's on, and I'm like, it's almost over.
SPEAKER_01: We're almost to the playoffs.
SPEAKER_01: And so she said, College football is starting.
SPEAKER_01: How long does this last?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Until January when the playoffs go.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, pro football is starting.
SPEAKER_01: And horror of horrors, Tony Romo, who doesn't drink enough milk and has got a brittle back, broke his back.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the big controversy.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, When is pro football over?
SPEAKER_01: It's like we we I've duct tapered to the wall, okay?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, When is this over?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, pro football's over in February.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's her thought, too.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what it sounds like.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So we can talk a lot, like Sunday through Friday, except when there's Thursday night football.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, You're not that way.
SPEAKER_01: What are you joking about?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm just warning you, because there'll be a lot of conversations, especially when I watch football.
SPEAKER_01: My wife will come in and sit down right there on the couch and act like I'm not already doing something and want me just to kind of turn and give her my undivided attention, which I don't by nature do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's good or bad, but here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: I can be watching football, she'll be talking, and she'll say, Are you listening to me?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll turn and tell her everything I said.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, I don't feel like I'm being listened to.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Pause.
SPEAKER_01: Because my wife said this phrase to me a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I need you to listen with your face.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's the dumbest thing a person's ever said.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody listens with their face.
SPEAKER_01: But I feel validated when you look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Then say, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Gosh, why is it such semantical things with you?
SPEAKER_01: Because you use the wrong words, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And so, when, now that I've got your attention, y'all are kind of like, now you're gonna make me have a conversation on the way home with my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I said I'll like to say this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference between listening and hearing.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference in listening and hearing.
SPEAKER_01: When I say you can hear, but never listen, here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing is what someone says.
SPEAKER_01: That's why, ladies, when you say, Are you are you listening to me?
SPEAKER_01: Your husband turns and parrots back what you just said.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't satisfy you.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, why am I angry all of a sudden?
SPEAKER_01: Because my smart electric husband just just said what I just said.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing is basically, it's what someone says.
SPEAKER_01: Listening is what you do with what that person says.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's why Jesus says, He who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice.
SPEAKER_01: Hearing's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: You can hear the words.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, all these were religious people.
SPEAKER_01: These are people that are tracking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They're listening to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh man, I am with you.
SPEAKER_01: You can hear and never listen.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this in James chapter 1, starting in verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.
SPEAKER_01: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, and he looks at himself and he goes away, and at once he forgets what he was like.
SPEAKER_01: But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer but who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's two things I want you to point out right there.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, notice this three-chord progression here where he says, But the one who looks into the perfect law and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
SPEAKER_01: So you look, you persevere, and the Bible says you'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you open the Bible to read it, I want you to have those three words kind of like a pair of glasses you put on.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Look, persevere.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, persevere?
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes what the Bible said is not, you don't see it at first glance.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Look and persevere.
SPEAKER_01: That means keep on.
SPEAKER_01: Look, persevere.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says you'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, notice what the Bible, how the Bible refers to itself in that last verse.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But the one who looks into the perfect law.
SPEAKER_01: And then he describes it and said, the Bible glosses itself with this phrase, the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_01: The law of liberty.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, the law of liberty?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we we when we think about the Bible, we don't think about freedom.
SPEAKER_01: We don't think, but if you really understand the Bible, and then he says, hey, when you look into the perfect law, the law of freedom.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the more you understand the Bible, the more the Bible insists and demands that you and I be set free.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The more you understand the Bible, the more you read the Bible, the more the truths of the Bible find a resting place in your head and in your heart, the more you understand the Bible insists that you and I be set free.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says we're born as slaves into sin.
SPEAKER_01: We're born slaves to sin.
SPEAKER_01: We have appetites and habits that we can't seem to break.
SPEAKER_01: It's like we we have these chains on us.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we sing that Jesus breaks every chain.
SPEAKER_01: That's our natural disposition and inclination, which is why some of you in this room are very well-rehearsed self-haters.
SPEAKER_01: You hate yourself because you can't stop doing the things that you don't want to do and start doing the things that you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the way you were born.
SPEAKER_01: That's your natural state.
SPEAKER_01: That's my natural state.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible comes along and says, by the way, this is not law like a list of rules and regulations.
SPEAKER_01: This is the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_01: This is the, if you understand what God's word says, it insists that you and I go free.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Remember back in the Garden of Eden, first thing God says to Adam and Eve is, You are free to eat of any tree in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: But if this one tree, don't eat, because if you eat of that, you'll surely die.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's laws with liberty.
SPEAKER_01: They're not mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's called the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_01: You're free, but you this don't don't do this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they didn't trust God.
SPEAKER_01: They disobeyed, so they forfeited their freedom.
SPEAKER_01: What if I told you that Jesus came to give back to you and I the freedom that Adam and Eve forfeited in the garden?
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said crazy things like this.
SPEAKER_01: If the Son has set you free, you're free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
SPEAKER_01: Or the Bible says it like this.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says it in Galatians chapter 5, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For freedom, Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again, and I'll demonstrate it out of my own life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For freedom, Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds like it's just repetitive, like, you know, the Bible's running out of words, so it's reusing something.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: For freedom, Christ has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful, listen carefully to me, I want you to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful, when you start going, if you go to the wrong kind of church, you will not become a more free person.
SPEAKER_01: You'll just become more of a religious slave.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, hey, it's for freedom Christ set us free, so stand therefore.
SPEAKER_01: And in this freedom, don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: I use myself.
SPEAKER_01: When I first became a Christian in 1982, I started going to church because that's what you did.
SPEAKER_01: You went to church.
SPEAKER_01: And so I started going to church.
SPEAKER_01: We had church on Sunday morning and Sunday night.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when I first became a Christian, someone came to me with a little booklet thing called the survival kit.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember those?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: A little booklet you filled in the blanks and hand me a pen and a Bible because I didn't have a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Here, no, you need to start filling this out.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, I gotta start filling this out.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, we got church and not just on Sunday morning, but Sunday night and before Sunday night, we got training union.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember training union?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, dude, this starts at like 4.45.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't I just sleep down here?
SPEAKER_01: But I just thought, okay, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I better get out here.
SPEAKER_01: And so Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and I thought, oh, we're good.
SPEAKER_01: And then they said, hey, by the way, we got Tuesday night visitation.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody in this room ever been on Tuesday night visitation?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're over the age of 40.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put it like that.
SPEAKER_01: Leave your hands up so we can see where the old religious people are.
SPEAKER_01: There you are.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Tuesday night visitation was basically we got leads, like we were insurance agents or something.
SPEAKER_01: They got names of people that had visited, or somebody said, hey, my neighbor's got a tattoo.
SPEAKER_01: He must be going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all should go preach to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so you would get names in the fellowship holiday.
SPEAKER_01: Pick up these little cards and you break into teams.
SPEAKER_01: We had continuous witness training, CWT or EE.
SPEAKER_01: You got certified.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, which meant I'm going to memorize a presentation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to ring your doorbell on a Tuesday night and I'm going to regurgitate this in your lap.
SPEAKER_01: Am I exaggerating?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of y'all are like, You really did that?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Until one night on a Tuesday night at about 7:21, the first house we went to, a guy opened the door with his fork in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, You're from the church, right?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I'm not a pagan.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not like sacrificing cats in my backyard.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't seen my family all day.
SPEAKER_01: I've been at work all day.
SPEAKER_01: Is this really God's best idea?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: The guy over here goes, Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_01: That changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: I went back to the fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: I just quit.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at my team and I said, Come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: I got in my car.
SPEAKER_01: I was driving.
SPEAKER_01: I drove to the Sonic.
SPEAKER_01: I go, what do you want?
SPEAKER_01: And they go, Oh, we got four of the visits to make.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do this anymore.
SPEAKER_01: This is not freedom.
SPEAKER_01: This is bondage.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody in your life ever said to you, you know your problem?
SPEAKER_01: You're just not free enough.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, watch your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean, freedom?
SPEAKER_01: You don't let my kids hear you say that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say freedom, I don't mean excess.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself if you really want to know to understand yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, why is it when you hear freedom you think excess?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking excess.
SPEAKER_01: When I say freedom, I'm talking about uh uh uh just interest.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think unchurch people, I think lost people, people that do not have a relationship with God, people who unconsciously are building their life on the sand or crying out to get around a fully orbed, gospel-fluent, transformed, freed up person.
SPEAKER_01: I think it would be the most evangelistic thing they could ever experience.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say it again.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to spend the other whole sermon talking about it, but when people when the Bible says, for freedom Christ has set you free, stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: The hardest, longest fight you will fight.
SPEAKER_01: In your life is the fight to stay a freed up person in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Because, man, we will come at you and say, Oh, you got to be doing this, you got to be doing that, you gotta be doing that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the other end of the spectrum, here's what you don't need to be thinking right now.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm gonna tell the children's pastor I'm not gonna volunteer anymore because I'm freed up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that we we we want to put people under a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: We want to make, we want to tell people, well, you gotta make sure you read first, second, and third John, John Piper, John MacArthur, and John Shott.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta read this book and you gotta do the.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You're free.
SPEAKER_01: You are free.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing the Bible tells us this morning is a storm reveals what you trusted in.
SPEAKER_01: The storm reveals what you trusted in.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that last phrase, because it had been founded, past tense, on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: The storm reveals what you trusted in.
SPEAKER_01: When the storm comes, it's it's too late.
SPEAKER_01: There's a movie out right now called Sully.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever noticed it's pop it's possible to be so popular in American culture that you just need one name?
SPEAKER_01: Sully.
SPEAKER_01: Madonna.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna say your name and just think, oh yeah, like if I said, if someone said Neil, you'd be like, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Brad's another name.
SPEAKER_01: Brad Pitt, Brad Paisley.
SPEAKER_01: No one thinks Brad Dibble.
SPEAKER_01: He goes to my church.
SPEAKER_01: He goes to the first service.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you are like, I got nothing, and I go to the same church.
SPEAKER_01: No, but I say Sully, how many of you know who I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Of course you do.
SPEAKER_01: He was the guy, the pilot on the U.S.
SPEAKER_01: Air that took off from, I think LaGuardia took off at New York LaGuardia Airport, and they flew into a flock of birds.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the bird strike.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what a bunch of you don't know unless you've seen the movie: that when they hit the birds, he wasn't flying.
SPEAKER_01: The co-pilot was at the controls.
SPEAKER_01: But protocol says this when there's a crisis in the cabin, the captain takes over.
SPEAKER_01: So they fly into these flock of birds, and all of a sudden they realize we've lost power in both engines.
SPEAKER_01: And Sully Sullenberger, who is doing whatever, I don't know, doing Sudoku puzzles or whatever in the cockpit, he just puts his puzzles down, grabs the controls, and announces my aircraft.
SPEAKER_01: And the co-pilot who is flying acknowledges your aircraft.
SPEAKER_01: Because the captain takes over.
SPEAKER_01: The captain says, Hey, I'm the captain.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the guy that's got to get us safely back to the airport.
SPEAKER_01: And he realized we're not going to make the airport, and his last thing was, we're going to be in the Hudson.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you saw the picture.
SPEAKER_01: He has men out there in business casual attire, holding their briefcase, standing on the wing of the plane in the Hudson River, like they're waiting on a bus to come get them.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_01: You people don't fly.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you hit 30 seconds of turbulence, and everyone on there's praying the Lord's Prayer out loud together.
SPEAKER_01: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what how did he drug these people?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what happened.
SPEAKER_01: These people believed, oh, okay, this guy's at the controls.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna get us there.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when the prane's coming in, the five attendants have them chanting, brace, brace, brace.
SPEAKER_01: They've got their head down and they're leaned against the back of the seat in front of them, brace, brace, brace, and he lands that thing smooth as silk right on the water, and everybody gets out and just floats.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look, there's debris.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when I say, hey, the storm reveals what you trust in.
SPEAKER_01: When the storm hits, when your life flies into a bird strike and you lose all power, it is our nature to grab the controls and go, my aircraft.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It's God's nature to go, your aircraft.
SPEAKER_01: That should concern you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna go, no, me, me.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We grab the controls.
SPEAKER_01: We get the bank statement, we check it, we call our broker.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, am I good?
SPEAKER_01: Am I positioned okay?
SPEAKER_01: Have I gotta go?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we trust in.
SPEAKER_01: When the storm comes, it reveals what you trust in.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the progressive nature of the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house.
SPEAKER_01: The rains fell, and then the floods came.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's not the rain that gets you, it's the flood.
SPEAKER_01: I was speaking at a men's conference in San Marcus this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to an older gentleman who was wearing synthetic wranglers.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Those dress wranglers.
SPEAKER_01: They're like harvest green and autumn gold.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you rock it, my man.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, How'd y'all do in the flooding?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, when the Trinity flooded, and by the way, there are people who are old enough they know where all the rivers in Texas are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And he proved it to me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, you know, the weird thing about that is it didn't really rain that much in Sugarland, but I mean the brasses just flooded.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess the rain come from somebody told me the rain came from like Austin or somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And the man looked at me and he goes, hey boy, the Trinity River, I mean the brass, it doesn't run through Austin, it came from Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, what?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: The river that flooded there in your city in Richmond, because I saw it on the news.
SPEAKER_01: He said, That rain came from Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_01: That thing started, it rained there and it flooded down in your city.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess that river doesn't run through Austin after all.
SPEAKER_01: And he looked at me and he goes, Do you know anything about rivers?
SPEAKER_01: I know they flood.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, because I'm a genius.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, We did flood relief and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And he just said this.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Sometimes it rains a long ways off, but it floods in your backyard.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about us today.
SPEAKER_01: That man didn't know I was talking about this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you, don't watch the weather and just and think I'm spiritually okay.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you never see it coming.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes oil dips down to$38 a barrel, and you're kind of like, okay, great.
SPEAKER_01: We need to become independent and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_01: And four months later, your boss calls you in and says, Hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We've made all the cuts we can, and now we've got to make another layer of cuts.
SPEAKER_01: It was raining somewhere else, but all of a sudden now the flood got you.
SPEAKER_01: And the storm reveals what you trusted in.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly, no one chooses sand.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: No one chooses sand.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus, somebody came up to me.
SPEAKER_01: I love that you people think.
SPEAKER_01: Man came up to me after the first service and he goes, Hey, the whole no one chooses sand.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No one says, Hey, I'm gonna build my house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: They say things like, Hey, it's my body.
SPEAKER_01: I can do with it what I want.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I mean, I mean, I believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: I I I can talk to God as good in a deer stand as I can in a church.
SPEAKER_01: No one chooses sand.
SPEAKER_01: No one says, I mean, I mean, we don't say, hey, I'm gonna build my house on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: We say, hey, the kids will be fine, they're resilient, they can recover from divorce.
SPEAKER_01: No one chooses sand.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus brings up sand.
SPEAKER_01: He uses this illustration to make a point that these people do not listen to me and do what I say.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
SPEAKER_01: See, this person fails to take seriously the teachings of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They appreciate it, but they don't experience it.
SPEAKER_01: They hear, but they don't obey.
SPEAKER_01: They base their lives on preferences, opinions, and appetites, which are all fleeting and open to discussion and outside influence.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Great was the fall.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like an odd word to use here, but when he says great was the fall, he's not celebrating.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying it was of a cataclysmic nature.
SPEAKER_01: It is a mass and weight and stature to it that we don't have words for.
SPEAKER_01: So that's why he paints the picture and kind of says, and great was the fall.
SPEAKER_01: Why was it great?
SPEAKER_01: We would say epic, because that's our word these days.
SPEAKER_01: We love the word epic.
SPEAKER_01: We would say epic because when it happens, it's too late to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking about judgment.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he's talking about the judgment day.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he says earlier in Matthew 7, many will say to me, On that day, Lord, Lord, when I perform many miracles, we cast out demons in your name, perform many miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I will tell them plainly, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: I never knew you.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's great, because it's too late.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If you can hear my voice, it's not too late for you.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't go around taking pleasure from saying to people, too late.
SPEAKER_01: No, if you can hear my voice today, it's not too late for you.
SPEAKER_01: As tragic as it was, the earthquake that happened in Italy, where 200 and something people are already confirmed dead, and it's probably gonna go up.
SPEAKER_01: They can clear the rubble of that and rebuild.
SPEAKER_01: If you saw a picture on the news, you saw there's a clear line, there's a street where this side of the street was all these old historic buildings that were over 100 years old, and the other side of the street was a more modern architecture that reflected, you know, they were structurally engineered correctly to stand up in an earthquake, and it stood.
SPEAKER_01: They can recover.
SPEAKER_01: It's a tragedy, but they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: These people will never recover.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's too late.
SPEAKER_01: It's not too late for you today.
SPEAKER_01: It's never too late to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't like where my life is headed.
SPEAKER_01: Ask your life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, ask yourself, when I clear all it out, get clear it all out and get down to the get down, what is my life built upon?
SPEAKER_01: What is the bottom line for me?
SPEAKER_01: When the storms come, what do I find comfort in?
SPEAKER_01: Fifthly and finally, people are drawn to authority.
SPEAKER_01: People are drawn, look at verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus had finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, not as their scribes.
SPEAKER_01: What are you saying?
SPEAKER_01: People are drawn to this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just imagine for years you've had, for me, it was I had some good teachers, but I never had a good substitute teacher.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Did y'all have substitute teachers in school?
SPEAKER_01: It was just kind of like, we know why you're here.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting$55 for the day.
SPEAKER_01: You don't care.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember one lady she'd just get up and she'd go, Hi, Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Pageant.
SPEAKER_01: I'm your substitute for the day.
SPEAKER_01: Read chapter six and don't ask any questions.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask to go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: And she would sit down and read a magazine.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just kind of like, This is lame.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus got up and started talking, here's what it was like: it was like you're sitting in class, and the principal said, your teacher called in sick.
SPEAKER_01: Uh sick day.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, imagine being in the sixth grade, and your substitute walks in, and it's Robin Williams.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it was like when Jesus got up.
SPEAKER_01: People just found themselves smiling, like, I don't know why I'm smiling, but I'm smiling.
SPEAKER_01: You have the idea.
SPEAKER_01: That's why people say, Oh, he he doesn't, they were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.
SPEAKER_01: After you, here's how you know you're around somebody that has authority.
SPEAKER_01: When they teach the Bible, your heart kind of beats a little faster, and you start envisioning what they're talking about actually taking place in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus says in Matthew 28, what's called the Great Commission, verses 18 to 20, he says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Everything the Bible tells you and I to do is predicated on authority.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: Not just him having authority, but you being men and women of authority.
SPEAKER_01: Like if I pulled up behind you today and flashed my light, you wouldn't pull over because most of you don't even know what I drive.
SPEAKER_01: But even if I waved, pulled up beside you and waved and said, hey, pull over and ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: And I walked up to your car, you would not have your license and registration in your hand, would you?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't have that kind of authority.
SPEAKER_01: But if a cop pulled up behind you and flipped his lights on, you would pull over.
SPEAKER_01: And just to suck up and possibly get out of the ticket, you'd have your license and your insurance in your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Here, officer, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I give to the DPS Trooper Fund.
SPEAKER_01: Please notice a sticker on the back of my car.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you recognize and respond to authority.
SPEAKER_01: What if I told you this?
SPEAKER_01: In all this Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, hundreds of words, if not thousands.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus is saying is, I want you to be men and women of authority.
SPEAKER_01: I want you when you open your mouth and talk, I want people to be like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Ab yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I had a lady say this to me this past week.
SPEAKER_01: This is authority.
SPEAKER_01: This woman said this to me, and she's got two kids, uh, like two and a half and nine months, and I said, How's it going?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Great.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, you know, a long time ago, kids actually helped on the farm, so my job as their mom is not to entertain them all day.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's authority.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't think you're a bad mother.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No, she said, my job, my job as their mom is not to entertain them all day.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine hearing that at Chick-fil-A?
SPEAKER_01: They would kick you out of the playground.
SPEAKER_01: You're a bad mom.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Again, what if everything Jesus has said for three chapters?
SPEAKER_01: And he summarizes it, saying, hey, then everyone, here's the point, everyone then who hears these words of mine puts them into practice is like a man who builds his house, who digs down and builds his house on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And bad stuff's gonna happen because the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.
SPEAKER_01: But their life stands.
SPEAKER_01: If you just come to church and you just hear and you don't put it into practice, you're building on the sand.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be a great fall.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be too late to do anything about it then.
SPEAKER_01: But it's never too late.
SPEAKER_01: If you can hear my voice today, you're not beyond the pale.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you're being here today, God's just kind of saying, Hey, why don't we build this on something a little more certain than what we've been building it on?
SPEAKER_01: So ask yourself, what's my life built on?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to our church or you're visiting, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible, and then we like to uh just say, hey, think about what it what God said to you today.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to put you under a yoke of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna give you four things to go do this week.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's job.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll listen, he'll make it clear.
SPEAKER_01: So in just a minute, Clyde will just sing something over us.
SPEAKER_01: It may be a song, it may be an old hymn, it may be whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But you could just be asking, hey God, what does this look like with my life wrapped around it?
SPEAKER_01: What do I do with what I've heard?
SPEAKER_01: Let's start right now practicing what we've heard preached today.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just hear the word, we do something with it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's called the law of liberty because when we do something with it, it sets us more free and more free every time we obey, because it's self-validating.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about this.
SPEAKER_01: We're forced to think about this morning, God, how sure is the foundation that we're building our life on.
SPEAKER_01: Not a person in here chooses to build on the same.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a lot of people that choose not to do what the Bible says, and we don't need to raise our voice and scream and yell and pick it.
SPEAKER_01: No one's helped by that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, I pray for people that are maybe real us, and maybe I'm banking this on the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: That they would just dig down and build on the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Because the storm's gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know in what form, what expression, or the duration, but we know it's gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it rains in Fort Worth and it floods in Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we uh we want to be found trusting and doing the right things.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's freedom, it's not duty.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to grasp that today.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I have a confession for you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I watch the news, try to watch it every night, and it's hard sometimes because sometimes it just sneaks up on me, and I just cry.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, ah, it's just so much wrong in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Last week I was watching the news and a family was boating, I think in Florida, and they had like a two-year-old and a two and a half year old and a nine-month-old, and the boat flipped over in the river, and they got the two-year-old, but they couldn't find, I mean, they got the nine-month-old, but they couldn't find their two and a half-year-old.
SPEAKER_01: The boat's upside down.
SPEAKER_01: Did you see this story in the news?
SPEAKER_01: And they couldn't find them.
SPEAKER_01: They called 911, it's like 45 minutes, and then the rescue guys were about to give up and they heard a noise, and they got up under the boat, and there was a little air pocket.
SPEAKER_01: And this little girl had a life jacket on, and she was under the boat in the air pocket.
SPEAKER_01: And I just burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, why am I crying?
SPEAKER_01: Uh here's what I want to say to some of you.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, your boat's flipped over.
SPEAKER_01: And and and and it's two ways to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: You you can be mad at God because your life's flipped over, or you can thank God for that little air pocket and that life jacket.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes the grace of God comes to us in unforeseen ways.
SPEAKER_01: And don't miss it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, let me say thanks for being part of our church uh service today.
SPEAKER_01: You're always welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when you came in, you were handed a little worship sheet, and on there's a little area that asked for some information.
SPEAKER_01: We'd just love to know that you are here.
SPEAKER_01: If you've had a chance to fill it out, if you would just kind of fold it and tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we're we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_01: So if today is the day you worship through giving, uh uh through obedience or through generosity, uh, that's where you do that as well.
SPEAKER_01: As always, myself and some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_01: If we want to pray with you, answer any questions, process anything you've heard today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going through a storm, let us pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta go through that alone, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.