All righty, if you've got a Bible war in Luke chapter 8 and just coming off the parable of the soil,
and me encouraging you all, you know, to try to find out what kind of dirt are you anyway.
And we are just dirt balls, right?
That when you break us down, we're just, we're just dirt.
I used to work at a cemetery, and I remember I had to disinterer a few people that had been in the ground a long time.
It was just dust.
That's all it was.
Something probably didn't smell real good, but it probably would have grown good spuds.
Well, all the elements are there.
You know, it's a natural fertilization.
So anyway, but what Jesus was talking about is the word of God, as it comes and it falls on the human heart,
where do you let it go? How deep do you let it go? Is it just a surfacy shallow? I mean,
who likes to be called shallow, really? Right? And I know sometimes I fit that description,
just being a very shallow person, only concerned about poor old Scotty.
And that's not a good thing.
Scotty needs to die.
So often I've, over the years, I've done counseling with husbands and wives.
And I've heard them tell me both husbands and wives.
I've got to find myself.
No.
That's the problem.
You've got to lose yourself.
Right?
That's what the scripture says.
he who loses himself, for my sake, we'll find life. And so the sower is about the word of God
taking root in our hearts and how easily it is taken out of the heart in various ways, right?
With doubt and unbelief, right, with the birds coming and plucking it up, with Satan and his schemes,
persecution in hard times will drive people. Heck with this Christian thing,
it wasn't near this hard when I was a drunk.
And so they just go back to it.
Like the Proverbs tells us, like a dog to its vomit.
We ain't looking up.
That gross.
So gross.
Or a hog to its wallow.
You know, them pigs, when you clean them up, man, they look good.
But they go and find a mud hole as soon as they can to wallow right back in it.
And how many people have you known over the years?
Maybe you've done it.
I've done it.
I've been the pig and the dog.
And so I realized it, praise God, a fairly young age.
I think I was in my early 20s, 23 years old.
I'm just thinking, this vomit don't taste very good.
Right?
And this hog wallow stinks.
And it's really gross.
And so I begged the Lord to help me.
And what it was, it was his word getting presented to me.
At first, I went to church.
And I would read very superficially.
You, that kind of a Christian.
You just read the Bible superficially.
You're not really digging in.
You know, Jesus talked about a guy who figures it out and realizes it's like a, it's like
just treasure in a field and he goes and sells everything he has and he and he buys that field,
man, he starts digging and mining and getting all the goods out.
That's what the Bible should be.
That's what God's words should be for us, something that you dig into.
And so the theme continues in these other parables.
We're going to read verses 16 through 25, only 10 verses,
but it's power packed with a lot of cool.
nuggets. And so let's read, shall we? Starting in verse 16. And so, well, let me back up to verse
15 there where it says, but the ones that fell on good ground are those who having heard the
word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Verse 16. No one,
when he is lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lamp
stand that those who enter may see the light, for nothing is secret that will not be revealed,
nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. Therefore, take heed how you hear.
For whoever has to him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have,
will be taken away from him. Then his mother and brothers came to him and could not approach him
because of the crowd, and it was told him by some who said,
your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
desiring to see you.
But he answered and said to them,
My mother and my brother are those who hear the word of God and do it.
Now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples
and said to them,
Let us cross over to the other side of the lake,
and they launched out.
But as they sailed, he fell asleep.
And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy.
And they came to him and awoke him saying, master, master, we are perishing.
Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.
And they ceased.
And there was a calm.
But he said to them, where is your faith?
And they were afraid and marveled, saying to one another, who can this be?
for he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.
Let's pray.
Lord, your word is, it tells us in the Old Testament, Lord, it is a light and a lamp to our feet.
Lord, that it actually has the power to convert our souls.
And Lord, we just know that today, Lord, as we look at it, we would desire that you would help us to be that good soil.
Lord, what it would go deep and that it would make an impact in our lives, Lord, that it would
direct us, that it would help direct our thoughts, Lord, and in our ways, in our deeds, in our words,
Lord. And so we just thank you for the truth of who you are, Lord, and you've given us this,
this word that we can truly mine and glean and place it on the pages of our heart that we might
not sin against you. So help that to be a reality for us today in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen.
So he starts here and he says it's a light, a light, right? And it doesn't matter. A light is kind of
relative to how dark it is. Like if I let a match up here right now, it wouldn't illuminate that
much. But if it was total darkness, right, and I lit a match, you could see it for a long ways away,
right? It has impact. And depending on how dark your life has been in the past, my life was
fairly dark. And when Jesus opened my eyes to what I was doing, and I kind of went home,
and the first one that noticed something was my younger brother.
He said, I sure missed you, but something's different.
Something's different.
Because my brother, Rick, was still, he was just in the trenches of his wickedness.
He was so much more wicked than I had ever been.
Did more jail time than I did.
but Jesus had gotten a hold of me and he knew something was up.
Just when he saw me, I didn't speak to him.
I hadn't said anything.
And the Lord was starting to do a work in my life.
Well, it wasn't long, right?
And you're an influence to people, whether good or bad.
And it wasn't long.
At 19 years old, he'd just done a drug deal, sold some drugs to somebody and went home.
and just had this empty feeling.
It was a button that God was pushing.
You know, God knows how to push all your buttons.
Right?
He knows the perfect button to push
to get you to turn to him.
And so he pushed that button.
And Rick, I remember him calling me.
He was in tears.
And he said, I don't know what's happening.
And I heard a voice say, tell me to pray.
And I just, I've been terrible.
And I ask God to forgive me.
And how do you cuss when you're a Christian?
I don't know. I'm still learning myself, right? And so, but we started growing, right? Light came into these
dark lives and it's, it's obvious that when that happens. And so he says here, he says, when you light a lamp, you don't cover it up.
Right, you start talking about what happened. Right? Because that's your testimony. That's, and it's powerful because nobody can actually argue.
you with what happened to you. I mean, sometimes people are going, I don't know about that.
But, hey, if it's your testimony, if it's how the Lord got a hold of you, if it's that button
that he pushed in your life to get you to come to him, don't hide it. You share it. And you
share the truth of the transforming work of the Lord Jesus in your life. And so the word bears light.
It's light. It drives out darkness.
And, you know, when you shine light, it shows some pretty creepy things about us.
It's kind of like when we went to Uganda years ago, and I remember going into the bathroom.
In Uganda, the bathroom is a concrete floor with a hole right in the middle.
You know, well, can I hit it from here?
You know, I mean, and you have to do everything there.
in the hole. And at night you have to take a flashlight. They don't got, you know, they don't
have to light. You take a flashlight and you shine it down in the hole and it just moves
with roaches. I mean, big, fat, juicy ones. They've been eating good, obviously. It's just nasty.
But when the light, when you shine the light, I mean, they just scurry, they flop back in the
hole and they try to get to a dark spot. And that's kind of like us. When the Lord's
sheds his light. You see all these creepy things in your life going, that's so wicked.
How could I ever thought that that was okay? Right? How could I ever talk like that and think,
that's acceptable? It's so dark. And yet it reveals. It converts the soul the scripture tells us.
In fact, Jesus, in this, in the Matthew version of these passages here, he says in Matthew
chapter 5, verse 14 and 16, he says, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand.
And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. The light shows God stuff. Right?
It shows God stuff.
This impact that the word of God had on my life, it was so powerful.
And it started showing different stuff.
And that's probably why when Rick saw me, he thought, there's different stuff in you, dude.
You know?
You're not dripping with evil quite like you used to.
But that part of verse 16, where it's...
it says, when those who enter may see the light, enter what? Enter your life. When the people that
enter your life, do they see the light of Jesus? That's why he saves you, not just for you,
but for all the world around you. That's why Jesus saves us so that we could be that example and that
light to others and those who enter our life that we can share that good news with. And has that
been happening? That's a good checklist. Right? Has that been happening? How an opportunity to
share Jesus with people? You know, because I struggled. I'm not, I'm kind of a happy, jolly guy for
the most part, but sometimes I'm intimidated and I'm a coward when it comes to sharing things about Jesus.
So I love it sometimes when people just come out and ask you questions. Hey, hey, what's up? I heard you're a Bible thumper. Yeah, really? Cool. Right? It's cool being a Bible thumper. That's if you can quote it. Instead of just carrying it around, it needs to go in because there's power to it, right? It sheds light. Not only does it shed light to those around us, but when we hear it, it exposes our own hearts. I love First Corinthians when it's
talking about prophecy.
And so many people, I mean, how many are kind of like prophecy?
Any prophecy buffs?
Right?
Hey, there's one more daily web or YouTube guy that I listen to.
His name's Don Stewart.
He's been to Water Springs.
He's been there a couple times.
I think Pastor Ties had him there.
And Pastor Rick used to have Don.
Don gives an update every single day, sometimes twice a day,
depending on what's going on in the world.
So that's a good resource.
Don Stewart's YouTube.
That's all you got to put in and it'll come up.
And he gives updates, prophecy updates of things that the Bible has talked about that are going to happen.
And he has a checklist of 30 things that you watch for.
Right?
And you try to line things up.
And so it's really good.
Kind of keeps your feet on the ground, keeps you from getting too crazy.
because we see stuff and we think,
oh, today's the end.
It's, you know, I can see where,
because of the world and the way things are going,
I could see people like the dude in 1988, right,
that wrote the book.
You guys are, some of you weren't even born in 1988.
But anyway, he wrote a book called 88
reasons why Jesus should come back in 88.
People put their pets to sleep.
They maxed out their credit cards.
they like, Jesus is coming in 88. Party on, dude. No, it's crazy. Seriously, that happened.
Those things happen. The guy's name should have been a red flag. His name was wise not.
Wise not. It would be wise not to listen to him. But like Chuck Mr. used to say, listen, don't listen to people.
Read the Word of God. Sift everything you hear, everything people say, sift it through the Word of God.
Because it is a constant. We're called to be Bereans like it says there in Acts 17.
So know the Bible. That's why you should know the Word of God. You should know it.
And not just get tossed around with every wind. Hey, did you hear? No. I want to read.
And that keeps me in a good place. It keeps me sane and not crazy. But I like what it says in first.
Corinthians about prophecy. And this isn't the forth telling of an event kind of prophecy.
This is a proclamation of the Word of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit type prophecy.
Right. This is when the word of God goes out and it's alive and it's sharper than anyone's
sword and it discerns the thoughts and the intents of your heart. This is the prophecy that it's
talking about here in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Versus 24 and 25, it says, but if all,
all prophesy, listen, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all,
why?
Because everyone's proclaiming the word of God.
It's like what Paul said, make sure you're all saying the same things, right?
You're quoting the word of God.
He's convinced by all.
He is convicted by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed.
And so falling down on his face, he will worship God and report, port that God is truly among you.
right that's that's what i desire to happen here at out west for us as the body of christ that we would
be transformed by this word that speaks to our heart and when i read it it tells me whether i'm
thinking right or not a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart and that's the
light that it sheds on my life and then verse eight
is very powerful here where it says,
therefore take heed how you hear.
Take heed how you hear.
For whoever has to him more will be given.
And whoever does not have,
even what he seems to have will be taken from him.
These are people that have received the word of God,
but then they're like that one by the wayside
on the stony ground or that one among the thorns.
And they get sidetracked.
They seem to know the word, but then the word seems to leave them.
Warren Weirsby says this about it.
I love this man.
They say if you're not dead, you're not red, but he's died, so I read him a lot.
But Weirsby says, it is a serious thing to hear and understand the word
God. It's a serious thing. How serious do you take it? Because this puts on us the obligation to share that
word with others. Every one who receives the seed then becomes a sower, a light bearer, a transmitter of
God's truth. If we keep it to ourselves, we will lose it. But if we share it, we will receive more.
When's the last time you shared the word of God with somebody? It's just quoting it.
I love it.
Just quote the word of God to people.
You can't go wrong, right?
Because it's not your opinion.
It's God's word.
And people all the time tell me this.
It chaps my hide.
I'm just saying.
Right?
They say, well, I feel.
It does not matter what you feel.
It matters what he says.
That's what matters.
Because feelings are like bubbles in a windstorm.
I just the Lord just gave me that as I was driving in this morning
like bubbles in a windstorm right they just go up and
and they're just gone right they have no substance
they don't make a difference in anything so it is well I feel
I don't mean to be insensitive I don't care how you feel
right I care what God's word says
That's what I care about.
Feelings come and go.
But I'm telling you what?
Feels pretty good to be walking in the truth.
Amen?
Even when it's not comfortable.
And so David Jeremiah and my wife, David Jeremiah Bible,
he says this about verse 18.
If people choose to meditate deeply on his words,
along with a settled determination to put them into practice,
then God will open their minds to even,
more of his truth. But if they listen only to be entertained or to find fault, giving only
careless attention to it, then even what they think they understand will be taken away from
them. I don't know about you, but that scares me. Because I know I'm thinking of a guy right now.
And he's a young guy. And God was using his life in a powerful way. And he just turned. And he was
doing some things that he shouldn't have been doing, instead of just repenting and getting right
with the Lord and keep going and walking with Jesus, it's like he's doing his own thing now.
You know, I think of Matthew 633.
Seeky first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added
unto you.
This guy is building his own kingdom now, doing quite well, actually.
I don't even know if he could quote John 316.
And he led people to Christ.
It's a scary thing.
it's not a flippant thing
whether you read God's word or not
it's like the air that you should be breathing
because it is our spiritual life
when we read and allow him to speak to us
because primarily that's how God,
you want God to speak to you?
You got to read the word.
So maybe people, well I feel.
You know what I think about feeling.
Don't go there.
Let God's word direct your path, right?
because he says it'll be taken from them.
I don't want what I know of God's word,
which it's always new and it's fresh.
Every time I read through it,
this eternal word of God,
I don't want to lose what I do know now.
But I want to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord
until my number's up.
And that may be sooner than later.
You never know.
Romans 12 says,
Do not be conformed to this world,
be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
And in chapter 10 of Romans in verse 17,
so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Is your faith growing?
It's growing if you're reading God's word.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
faith is a gift to God that God gives us.
But it's like a body that God gives you.
It's a gift.
You need to work it out.
Get it strong.
So is faith.
Work it out.
Be in the Word.
Write it upon your heart.
So first of all, the Word comes, takes root.
It lights things up.
Secondly, in these next few verses here from 19 to 21,
the Word of God shows this.
who belongs to Jesus, who his family is.
Notice, it says, then his mother and brothers came to him
and could not approach him because of the crowd.
And it was told him by some who said,
your mother and your brothers are standing outside,
desiring to see you.
But he answered Jesus and said to them,
my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.
The important thing is not that they're my relatives.
These were his four younger brothers that were with Jesus.
Some in Catholic circles say,
Jesus did not have brothers, right?
Mary was a perpetual virgin.
Now, her and Joseph,
there was some hanky-panky going on after Jesus was born.
They had many other children, right?
In fact,
it's, well,
this seems to be so gentle, right, that they came to see Jesus, Mary and the boys.
But Mark tells us why they came, right?
Luke doesn't tell us the reason they came, but Mark does.
And in Mark chapter 3, verse 21, it says, but when his own people heard about this,
they went out to lay hold of him, for they said he is out of his mind.
I love the amplified contemporary version.
It says, and when those who belong to him, his kinsman, his family heard it,
they went out to take him by force.
For they kept saying, he is out of his mind beside himself, deranged.
That's what they thought.
Jesus, our older brother, has absolutely lost his mind.
That's why they came.
they decided to do an intervention.
Because listen, these folks, I don't know about Mary,
but I know his brothers, they hadn't been lit up yet by the Word of God.
They hadn't realized, oh, big bro, he's the real deal, right?
He's the God man.
He's the Messiah.
He's the virgin-born Messiah of Israel.
because they didn't believe it at this point, though later they do.
Right?
And so the four brothers are named in Matthew chapter 13, verse 55 and 56.
This is a good one to, you know, just put in your cap when you're talking to people.
And it says, is the people say to themselves, is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary?
And his brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us?
Where then did this man get all these things?
They weren't believers.
They weren't receiving the Word of God.
It wasn't settling in their hearts at all.
In fact, there was a rejection, actually, of the Word of God.
And that's why Jesus said, oh, no, you want to be my bro and my sis?
hear the word of God and do it.
Hear the word of God and do it.
That's who's closest to me is what Jesus is saying.
Do it.
Verse 21.
Those who hear the word of God and do it.
Doing the word of God.
And that's not just reading them up,
but actually letting it have its word.
in your life. Wiersby again says as his disciples we must take heed what we hear and how we hear because
God will hold us accountable listening to the wrong things or listening to the right things
with the wrong attitude will rob us of truth and blessing. If we are faithful to receive the word
and share it, God will give us more. But if we fail to let our light shine, we will lose what we
have. It is a solemn thing to hear the word of God.
Have you ever just been reading? Do you ever just read God's word sometimes? And you just go,
wow. This is wild. This
this same thing that just becomes more and more alive, the older you get, the more you read it,
right? Cyclicly, over and over again. It never gets old. It's always full of life.
it changes you.
And so there's being lit up by the word,
there's being close to Jesus
or being a family member because of the word.
And thirdly, the word can be drowned out by fear.
And that's what we see in the last little passage here
in verse 22 through 25.
And it says, now it happened on a certain day
that he got into a boat with his disciples
and he said to them,
let us cross over to the other side of the lake.
And they launched out.
But as they sailed, he fell asleep and with a windstorm,
and a windstorm came down on the lake,
and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy.
And they came to him and awoke him, saying,
master, master, we perish.
Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water,
and they ceased.
And there was a calm, but he said to them,
where's your faith?
And they were afraid and marveled, saying to one another,
who can this be for he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him i don't know if you've
ever been on water that's pretty radical or the wind that's blowing hard but it does make you feel
pretty small it's it's awfully intimidating and uh and these guys were scared now now they were they were
seasoned mariners they knew what it was like to be in in rough water now the sea of galilee is like 600 feet
below sea level.
And so it says the wind came down.
And so, man, it came down
obviously off the hills,
going at a pretty good clip
to make those guys think
that they weren't going to make it.
The boat was taken on water.
But Jesus isn't afraid.
Is Jesus afraid of anything?
Isn't it cool to have a hero
that's not afraid of anything?
Because I know I'm a wanny.
I've had people ask me, where are you afraid of?
I'm so afraid of so many things I don't even want to talk about, okay?
But most of all, I fear God, right?
Which trumps a lot of the other fears.
But they're thinking, we're going to die.
We're going to die.
We're done.
It is amazing how the elements really put you in your place, don't they?
I remember one time a fire got away from us and burnt this.
haystack down and I was thinking my boss is going to kill us right but but it just got away from us so fast
and then started creating its own wind and we were burning this big old pile of pallets and there was a
haystack quite a ways away and but it sounded like a jet in once we lit it off the the pallets
were so ventilated that it started sucking air the fire created its own wind started sucking
sucking air up through these pallets. It sounds like a jet engine going off. And all of a sudden,
we're looking over at the haystack and these little black polka dots start showing up on the haystack.
And I'm going, oh, no! And I'm around there with a hose. And it was so hot I couldn't run between
the haystack and the fire trying to hose it down. And he had him in ash heap the next day.
But the elements are brutal. Right? They're brutal.
Has it been feeling fallish in the mornings?
Just a little bit?
You almost are getting ready to hear an elk bugle or something.
Just a little hints of fall.
You know what's coming, right?
In Idaho.
And you have to prepare.
Or they will.
They will kill you.
And, but there's a contrast here between fear and faith.
Because when Jesus wakes up, what's he tell them?
Where's your faith?
Huh?
What are you guys doing?
You know what I mean?
Pop their sailor hat off or something?
What are you thinking?
Did I not say?
Let's go to the other side of the lake.
We're going to the other side of the lake.
Jesus said, we're going to the other side of the lake.
You know if Jesus says you're going to the other side of the lake?
Guess what you're going to do?
You're going to go to the other side of the lake.
But your fear totally put that in your back pocket.
You did not even think that we were going to the other side.
You just thought, that's it.
We're dead.
We're done.
And that's what fear does.
It demolishes faith.
Fear demolishes faith.
And as sad as it is to say,
you really know where people are at in their faith
when death is knocking on their door.
And this could come knock on all of our doors.
And over the years, the people that I've interacted with
that some of them I've been very impressed with in their faith.
But then when it comes to dying, there's this fear that, I mean, it's like a life-shattering fear.
I'm just going, don't you?
You believe in the one who conquered death.
Yes, there is a fear of the unknown.
But it shouldn't.
It shouldn't drowned out faith.
Right?
It shouldn't even challenge it, honestly.
I mean, now we live in a time like no other.
It's like, bring it on, man.
You know, and I know as a 60-plus year old, I can say that.
You know, if you're 14 or 15, you're thinking,
well, no, I kind of want to give my driver's license
or maybe get married or have a baby.
Listen, I've done all those things.
I still have a driver's license, miraculous.
honestly. Been married for 38 years and she's awesome, but it wasn't easy, right? And I've got
four kids that at one particular time in all of their lives, they were this close to me killing them.
So just forego driving, marriage, and children and go to heaven. Right? You save yourself a lot of heartache.
But what's interesting about this passage of scripture, as I look at it this time, you always think,
I remember this was a passage that floored me when I was, the Lord was pushing my buttons
in 1984 at a rodeo Bible camp in Abbeville, Kansas.
And I remember a guy sharing a story, and he shared this story, his name was.
was Kyle Dodds, I think, pro baseball player.
And he shared this story.
And I remember his words, I can still hear him say it.
What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
I remember being 23 years old and thinking, that's the most powerful thing I've ever heard in my life.
A person that the wind and the sea obey him.
Isn't that crazy that creation obeys Jesus and we rebel against him?
Creation is going to witness against us at the judgment.
I'm convinced because it's obedient to the God of heaven.
And we are these fearless, fearful, excuse me, wannies that think the word of God is too hard.
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things.
What does that even mean?
Just seek God.
Seek Him in everything you do.
In your job, in your marriage, as a parent, as a neighbor, seek God in everything you do.
That's what it means.
It doesn't mean you have to be perfect.
Well, I've got to be on my knees 24 hours a day?
No.
You can do it while you're walking down the street.
You can be praying and talking to God.
Incorporate the Lord into every part of your life.
I remember when people heard that Rick and I got saved.
He said, the brown boys got saved and it's like it's affected their whole life.
Duh.
Ought it not?
But their fear, their fear seems to be sensationalized.
because of what Jesus did.
He didn't do what they thought he would do.
I don't know what they were thinking he was going to do,
but they were pretty amazed when they saw him do what he did.
And it says, and they were afraid and marveled.
It's like it created more of a fear,
which may be a good thing.
Because they realized at that moment, folks,
and people don't realize this, and they need to.
They were in the presence of the Holy One.
they were in the presence of the holy one
the one that told Moses
take those sandals off your feet boy
you're on holy ground
and you and I should be that way
when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ
because I know what he can do to me
and it causes me to tremble in fear
but I also know his love for me
that motivates me
right to walk with him
and to
be full of faith because he gives it to me. Not because I'm better than anyone,
better at being faithful than anyone else. I just know that Jesus will give it to me.
And if I lack, I ask. Revelation chapter 4, verses 8 and 11. It says,
Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
These are creatures that are bowing before the Lord.
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things.
And by your will, they exist and are created.
That's why you're here.
That's why I'm here is to know him and to fear him and to tremble before him.
And to recognize him as holy.
He is a holy God.
And I am not holy in and of myself.
That's why I need him.
Isaiah says it in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 3
and one cried to another and said,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Why is it three holies, do you think?
Maybe the triune God, right?
The father of the son, the Holy Spirit.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
Is his glory in you today?
are you filled with faith?
Maybe you need to be filled with faith today.
Cry out to him.
He'll give you that gift
because without it,
we can't please him.
And faith in his word.
In closing, I just want to just ask three questions.
Is the word lighting you up?
Right?
Is the word lighting you up?
I read about the Kinsey.
redeemer this morning because we're in the book of Ruth.
Oh!
That is so awesome.
The kinsman Redeemer.
This poor Gentile woman that is a picture of us, poor Gentiles, that most, that all the Jews
thought was fodder, just fuel for the fires of hell.
And Jesus has come.
And he is our kinsman redeem you.
Deamer, and he's rescued us.
And he's gave us a place.
He's given us an abundance.
Is the word lightening you out?
Read it.
Keep reading it.
Well, I don't understand it.
You think I understood the Bible the first time I read through it?
I mean, most of the time I was going, I don't get it.
But what do you do?
You keep doing it.
It's kind of like push-ups.
Right?
You start with one.
I have a friend that works at a school here in town.
He had a P.E. class.
He said the kids could not do five push-ups.
He said, and I made him do 10, and you thought I was killing him.
No.
Okay, then start with two.
Right?
Do that for three or four days.
Didn't move to three.
It's the same way.
It's an exercise.
You exercise your faith.
I pray the word is lighting you up.
Secondly, are you in the family of the Lord?
You close to Jesus?
Right?
Are you those who have?
hear the word of God and do it? And thirdly, do you have faith in the word in time of crisis?
Or does fear snuff it out? Right? Or does fear snuff it out?
Walking by faith is the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life. And I still get fearful
at times. But you know when I get fearful, I just go walk and talk to the Lord.
I just take it to the Lord, right?
Start walking with him, and he'll whisper in my ear.
He's done this a lot over the last few years.
Scotty, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Right?
I hope you know that, right?
Because he wants your faith to always overcome your fear.
Should we all stand and we'll dismiss?
Father, thank you for the truth of your word.
Lord is powerful.
And Lord, I know there are some that maybe fear is overwhelming them.
Maybe they've just been lazy, not setting a time aside to dig into your word,
to let it light their way and be that lamp into their feet.
Lord, to know that they can be close to you by hearing your word and putting it in their hearts and doing it.
Lord, it's so simple and yet sometimes so hard.
This world pulls at us from all directions.
Lord, help us to just prioritize at least that part of our life, Lord,
will we have a quiet time with you, a time where we can seek you,
but also a time where you can minister to our hearts, Lord,
by the reading of your word.
And God, that we would do it in faith.
Lord, not as a drudgery or something to just mark off of our list,
but because we love you.
And we want your light to so shine in our lives that people would would see our lives and give glory to the one in heaven.
Lord.
And so we love you today.
We pray that you'd walk with us this week.
And may we glow for Jesus.
And your holy name we pray.
Amen.
Hey, God bless you.
Have a great week in Jesus.
If you need prayer, the prayer team will be up here.