1 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,880 Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South 2 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:14,880 Australia. Lord, we just pray for Dave 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:18,600 right now as he shares the word. We just pray your anointing be 4 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:20,400 upon him. Lord God, that all the words 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:23,840 that he has spoken or, or what he's written down, Lord God that 6 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,000 they will just be your words and anything that is not of you Lord 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,520 will just fall away. We just thank you Lord, we just 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:31,840 pray for our hearts, Lord God, that they'll be open and 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:35,520 receptive to hear the words that you that you would want to say 10 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,960 to us in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. 11 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,080 Thank you, Pete. I feel there's, you know, I've 12 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:44,760 sort of said this already, but I feel like there's somewhat of a 13 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:49,280 emphasis this morning on, you know, God just really want to 14 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:54,760 break in and, and speak clearly. And you know, you know, we could 15 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:57,480 say the Lord always wants to speak clearly to us, but you 16 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,560 know how if we're not willing to hear clearly, it wouldn't matter 17 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:03,280 how clearly the Lord spoke to us. 18 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:05,200 I think about that with my children. 19 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,080 I speak pretty clearly to my children sometimes and it seems 20 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,760 to just to bounce off their ears and, and go in a different 21 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,040 direction. So I'm going to challenge us 22 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:16,640 with that this morning because it's really up to you. 23 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:21,080 Sorry. Yeah, it's really up to you. 24 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:24,560 Like your willingness for God to do a work in your heart this 25 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:25,960 morning. But I I believe he wants to do 26 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:29,880 an amazing thing in this place. Even during the music while Dave 27 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:37,440 was encouraging us to press in, I guess to God, I was just 28 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,920 reminded yesterday I was at a kids birthday party and I was 29 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,640 talking to this man who he was just telling me that his 30 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:47,960 marriage was in a really bad place last year. 31 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:55,440 And, and he he didn't realize why, but they got to the point 32 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:57,640 where they were starting to talk about separation. 33 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,680 And then God just showed him what the problem was on his part 34 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:08,360 and, and, and, and what it was, was that so he'd been hurt 35 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:12,080 before the marriage and he'd held onto his defence mechanisms 36 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,040 from that hurt and he'd never opened up to his wife fully. 37 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,760 And I just, I walked away from that going, you know, like God 38 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:23,920 can speak to you in a moment and show you what, what the, what 39 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:28,200 the problem is. And you know, his words were I 40 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:32,800 didn't do anything but like, but surrendered basically. 41 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,440 And so God showed him. It took God showing him what the 42 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:37,640 problem was. But what he probably didn't 43 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:39,760 realize is in that moment, he actually did still have a 44 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,040 choice. He had a choice to keep his 45 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,280 walls up and go, Nah, I'm not going to trust God. 46 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,520 I'm not going to trust my wife. And I'm, I'm going to stay bound 47 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,360 and lose everything that's important to me because in our 48 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:55,680 flesh, that's easy. It's hard to go let God show you 49 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:57,360 the thing that he wants to show you. 50 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:02,240 And then you go, OK, I'm going to surrender like because 51 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:07,240 letting your walls down is hard and being soft hearted isn't the 52 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:10,360 easy route. So I guess my encouragement, 53 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,960 God, God can minister through music, God can minister through 54 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,880 the word and God can minister through US fellowshipping 55 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:18,360 together. And that's why they're all so 56 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:20,880 important. And so just keep a soft heart to 57 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:23,120 God this morning. Whatever it is that you are 58 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:29,400 potentially putting your walls up to Him, or you know you're 59 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:32,760 desperate for freedom and you can't work out why, just let Him 60 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,280 show you what it is and surrender to Him today. 61 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:38,880 Thank you, Lord. Yeah. 62 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,680 So we've, we've had a couple of weeks talking about the fear of 63 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,720 the Lord or, you know, yeah, last week was predominantly on 64 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:48,000 the fear of the Lord sort of leading in from the week before. 65 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:51,960 You know, I've just been thinking a lot about that and, 66 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,400 and chewing that over and, and really just challenge to like 67 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:57,720 apply what God's saying to my life. 68 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,280 You know, it's no good me standing here and sharing things 69 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,680 that God's saying for us as a church and then me doing nothing 70 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,760 with it. You know, those are challenging 71 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:08,120 things. But I feel like, and I, I 72 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:10,640 believe this wholeheartedly. I believe that God is, is laying 73 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,000 down a challenge for us. And if we were to accept that 74 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,040 challenge, and if we were to implement the things that God's 75 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:18,760 saying, I believe that we're going to take a huge step in our 76 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:23,240 faith and, and, and in our ability to be able to be the 77 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:24,840 church that God's called us to be. 78 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,400 So that's, that can be a super exciting thing. 79 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,440 If you would view that in a healthy way and not a way 80 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,480 that's, you know, just seems like you're failing. 81 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,160 Please do not allow the enemy to convince you that you are 82 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,120 failing. None of us have made it. 83 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,560 None of us are in this place where the Lord's not working on 84 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:46,160 any of us. For me personally, there's big 85 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,400 things that God's working on, and that's the same for all of 86 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:48,960 us. Amen. 87 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:51,720 Very good. So we're going to talk about the 88 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,120 Word of God this morning. This is going to be a very 89 00:04:55,240 --> 00:05:00,400 helicopter view of a huge topic. And so we're just going to, you 90 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,200 know, lay some, I guess some foundations today when it comes 91 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:06,680 to the Word of God. And these are things that, you 92 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,320 know, moving forward, we're going to have to unpack a whole 93 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:15,560 lot deeper in our togetherness. OK, so the Word of God, you 94 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:17,520 know, we're going to talk about like, why can we read it? 95 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:21,960 Why can we trust it? Why can we build our lives upon 96 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,440 God's word? First of all, what is the Bible? 97 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:29,600 You know, the, the word of God says, you know, simply the 98 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,840 simple answer is this is God's word to humanity. 99 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:39,480 God had men and men write down the words that he would want to 100 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,400 speak to us. And that's been documented so 101 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:45,400 that it's, you know, etched in stone, so to speak. 102 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:47,600 It's not passing away. It's there. 103 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,560 We have it is my point. We have the word of God. 104 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,680 He has spoken and we can we can trust it. 105 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:56,360 So we're going to look into some of these things. 106 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:00,320 You know, This is why billions of people across history have 107 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,760 believed that, you know, have founded their lives on this, on 108 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,720 the word of God. Many, many people that are no 109 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:09,760 longer on the earth and many people that are here today 110 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,200 believe that this is the, the word of God, that this is what 111 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:15,840 God says. We believe that in this room. 112 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:18,280 Can I say this church, we believe this is the word of God. 113 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:24,440 We, we base most of what we do here on God's word because 114 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,720 that's this is unchanging. This is the thing that we can 115 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,200 anchor our lives to. And so when we're building a 116 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:32,800 church, we're going to anchor everything that we do around 117 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,120 God's word because this is God in him. 118 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,720 You know, God, Jesus says I am the word of God, and he's 119 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:41,640 written it down for us, right? This book has outlasted kingdoms 120 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,480 and empires and critics and generations. 121 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:46,520 It's still here. They haven't been able to get 122 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:48,000 rid of it. It's still here. 123 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:50,640 Good luck getting rid of God's word. 124 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,040 Never going to happen. They've tried, they've tried 125 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:54,320 burning them all. They've tried to make it 126 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,880 illegal, all of these things. No, it's still here. 127 00:06:57,120 --> 00:06:59,200 Those empires are gone. Do you see what I'm saying? 128 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,760 The ones that try to destroy it, those are those that have have 129 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,120 come and gone. The word of God is still here. 130 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:08,920 So today we're, we're going to look at, you know, why the Bible 131 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:13,000 is trustworthy, why we believe it's divine, why Jesus is 132 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,440 central to it, and how we should approach God's Word. 133 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:18,960 Bible facts. I'm just going to give you some 134 00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:21,320 facts here. There's 66 books in the Bible, 135 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:26,240 Old and New Testament, written by around 40 different authors 136 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,520 over a period roughly around 1500 years. 137 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:31,720 That's a long time for one book to be written, isn't it? 138 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:36,120 It's, it was written in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and 139 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:41,440 Greek, most widely distributed book in all of history, this 140 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:45,520 book, and it's been translated into like 3 1/2 thousand 141 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,320 different languages in different parts of them, stuff like that. 142 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,480 That's those are huge numbers guys like this book. 143 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:54,640 This is the the most important book ever. 144 00:07:55,560 --> 00:08:01,320 You know, like it just is and you know, it was it was written 145 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,960 by kings, it was written by prophets, it was written by 146 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:05,760 fishermen. It was written by priests and 147 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:10,560 shepherds and doctors and scholars over many centuries. 148 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,880 And, but, but yet it still contains like this uniform 149 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:19,320 message of what God is saying that should blow your mind, 150 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:21,880 guys, that, that it's been written over such a long period 151 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,680 of time out with so many different authors from so many 152 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:28,160 different walks of life. And yet the message is clear. 153 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:30,760 Like, how could that ever happen? 154 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:33,919 Like if Justin and I set out to write a book and you, you stay 155 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:35,840 over there and I'll stay over here and we'll write this book. 156 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:38,080 Do you think they're going to align in any way at all? 157 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:40,960 Like it's just like, anyway, that's probably a poor example, 158 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:46,480 but it's, it's unbelievable how this Bible has come about and, 159 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:50,960 and what it is, right? The Old Testament sets up the 160 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:53,000 story, right? We talk, it talks about 161 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,680 creation, it talks about the fall, it talks about God's many 162 00:08:56,680 --> 00:08:59,960 covenants with people. It talks about Israel, God's 163 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:04,440 chosen nation, his people, but it talks about the promise of 164 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,200 the coming Messiah. And it's sort of ends there, 165 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,960 right? So the Old Testament left alone 166 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,520 is like an unfinished story. It just ends. 167 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,880 And it's just like when it's never fulfilled, there's still 168 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:17,560 just waiting for this Messiah to come. 169 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:22,080 And so the New Testament is like it reveals and it fulfills. 170 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,560 So Jesus Christ comes at the start of the New Testament. 171 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:28,840 It's about his life, his death, his resurrection. 172 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,080 It talks about the birth of his church, his bride. 173 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,000 It talks about the ultimate climax of creation of the world 174 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,000 that we live in. And it talks about life beyond 175 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,400 that. So the New Testament is like the 176 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:43,400 the it's like the end of this one book. 177 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:45,880 So you put them together, you have the start, you have the 178 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,400 finish. It it it it answers all the 179 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:50,360 questions, right. The New Testament sort of 180 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:53,880 answers these unleft questions in the old and together they 181 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:59,680 they make up this one story. Jesus him sort himself taught 182 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:02,520 that the scripture. This is the Old Testament 183 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:05,040 because Jesus didn't have the New Testament. 184 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:09,000 The the New Testament was being written while Jesus was alive, 185 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:13,600 but he said that these are they the words that testify of me. 186 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:16,920 So he's saying, you know, all of those words in the Old Testament 187 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,480 that was Speaking of me, right? So the Bible, again, it just 188 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:26,600 carries this unified message of God's relationship with all 189 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:28,400 humanity. All right. 190 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:32,960 So is the Bible historically reliable? 191 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,520 Yes. We, I mean, we believe it is if 192 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:42,280 we look at the, the manuscript evidence when historians, but 193 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,760 people that test ancient writings and stuff like that, 194 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,840 they ask these questions, they say, how many copies do we have? 195 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:52,080 How close to the time when the events happened was it written? 196 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,200 And they say, are they, are these different manuscripts? 197 00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:57,680 Are they consistent with one another? 198 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:02,240 And so ancient writers like Aristotle and Plato, these are, 199 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:04,680 these are famous, well known guys from history. 200 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:11,440 Their, their, their writings have survived with relatively 201 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:15,760 few manuscripts, you know, copies and, and quite often 202 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,960 these copies were written hundreds of years after the 203 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,320 event that they were writing about. 204 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:25,320 OK, so if you look at Aristotle, he's one of the most influential 205 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,400 philosophers in history, right? His, his ideas have shaped 206 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:33,920 Western philosophy. It's shaped education, it's 207 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:35,720 shaped science. His writings, right? 208 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:41,880 Aristotle, his writings, there's fewer than 50 copies of his 209 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,600 writings in circulation. And often they're, they're 210 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:49,160 written like thousands of years after, you know, he lived and 211 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,000 stuff like that. But copies of copies of copies, 212 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:55,200 right? If you compare that alone to the 213 00:11:55,200 --> 00:12:02,560 New Testament, the New Testament has over 500, sorry, 5800 copies 214 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:08,760 of Greek manuscript 50 5800 right. 215 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:13,920 And there a lot of these are within decades of the events 216 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:16,960 that of Jesus decades, not hundreds of years, not 217 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:18,800 thousands. Like a lot of them are pretty 218 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:20,640 close to when these events happened, right. 219 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,720 So the, so the manuscript evidence for the New Testament 220 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:32,640 vastly outweighs any other, you know, ancient manuscripts and 221 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:34,120 stuff like that. It's not even close, guys. 222 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:39,360 Like it's ridiculous the amount of evidence that we have in the 223 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:42,560 manuscripts for the New Testament, just the, the, the 224 00:12:42,560 --> 00:12:45,480 numbers alone of, of how many copies of copies there are. 225 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,040 It's, it's not even close, right. 226 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:54,680 And can I say God authenticates his word through our future 227 00:12:54,680 --> 00:12:56,720 prophecy. So God declares the future 228 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,240 before it happens. We see that in Scripture. 229 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:04,240 Isaiah 46, nine says this, he says I am God and there is none 230 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:09,160 like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient 231 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:11,880 times, things that that are not yet done. 232 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,680 So this is what God's saying. So God authenticates his message 233 00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:18,800 through prophecy quite often. And so we're just going to look 234 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:20,880 at some of these things. There's a, there's a hidden 235 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,880 message in the Genesis, the first ever genealogy in Genesis, 236 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,680 right? So if we look at that, the, the, 237 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,480 the name, the meanings to the names in this genealogy in 238 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,960 Genesis 5, it's the genealogy goes from Adam to Noah. 239 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,320 And when you look at the meanings for these names and put 240 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:41,560 put them together in a sentence, this is what you get. 241 00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:43,840 This is Genesis 5. This is the first book of the 242 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:49,080 Bible and it says man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the 243 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:53,000 blessed God shall come down teaching his death shall bring 244 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,640 despairing rest. Like it's like the gospel 245 00:13:55,640 --> 00:14:02,400 message is hidden in a genealogy in Genesis, like, you know, just 246 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:06,680 way before Jesus even comes and Jesus fulfills that. 247 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,480 And I'm, and I'm not presenting that like as formal proof, but 248 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:13,560 it's just, it's just goes to show you how beautiful the Bible 249 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:17,840 is and how there's just little things just woven through the 250 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,200 Scripture everywhere that declare who God is and that he 251 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:25,120 is outside of time, right. So if we have a look at some of 252 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:28,720 the prophecies of Jesus, because I think this is a good, good 253 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:31,680 place for us to look. The Old Testament contains many 254 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:34,040 prophecies pointing directly to Jesus. 255 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,240 I'm just going to reel off some OK because we can't spend a lot 256 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:38,480 of time here. I said this is like the 257 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:40,040 helicopter view. So here we go. 258 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:44,840 OK so Jesus born in Bethlehem that comes from Micah 5/2. 259 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:46,280 This is the Old Testament scriptures. 260 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,040 Jesus born of a version a virgin. 261 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:52,800 Isaiah 7 betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. 262 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:56,320 Zechariah 11 verse 12, pierced hands and feet. 263 00:14:56,760 --> 00:15:00,120 Psalm 22 silent before his accusers. 264 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:03,520 Isaiah 53, seven buried with the rich. 265 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,920 Isaiah 53, nine raised again. Psalm 1610. 266 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,200 These prophecies existed before Jesus came. 267 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:14,280 These were Speaking of the coming Messiah. 268 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:19,920 And you know, but, and I guess this, this, this brings us to 269 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,560 this question. OK, well, how then do we know 270 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:27,200 that these were written down before Jesus and not afterwards? 271 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:30,760 And it's really interesting because we can be 100% certain 272 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:32,840 that these were written down before Jesus. 273 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,400 OK, there is a, a manuscript or a translation called the 274 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:39,920 Septuagint, right? And this is where they 275 00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:46,000 translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek. 276 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:47,760 So this it's called the Septuagint. 277 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,920 And this was done. The Torah itself is the first 278 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,040 five books of the, of the Old Testament. 279 00:15:54,040 --> 00:16:00,520 These were translated 250 years before Jesus BC documented and 280 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:04,520 the entire Old Testament was largely completed and finished 281 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:09,240 100 years BC before Christ. That's it's not up for debate 282 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:11,240 like that. That is, that's happened, right? 283 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:13,200 Like no one's arguing that that happened. 284 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,760 And so this matters because it proves that the prophecies were 285 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:18,960 already in place before Jesus Christ came. 286 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:23,080 These stories weren't written to fit Jesus. 287 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,960 Jesus's life perfectly matched these prophecies that were given 288 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:28,960 through the Old Testament prophets, right? 289 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:32,400 So then you have to say, OK, did Jesus really exist? 290 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:38,160 Most historians, including non Christian historians agreed 291 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:40,360 Jesus was a real historical person. 292 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:46,160 Non Christian sources. There's a guy called Tacitus. 293 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:47,920 I'm terrible with names. No, I'm good with names. 294 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,400 Tacitus, right? So he was. 295 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:58,240 Around 1/16/80, Tacitus wrote that Christos was executed under 296 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:01,400 Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. 297 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:03,760 He, he was not a Christian. He was not a believer. 298 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:08,119 He wrote down this, this, this Christos, this Jesus was killed 299 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,640 under pilot, under Tiberius. OK, so that's in, that appears 300 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:14,800 in these writings called the annals. 301 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:19,079 Josephus is another one. Josephus is like really well 302 00:17:19,079 --> 00:17:21,599 known. He's he's not a he's not a 303 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,040 Christian, but he, he's he, he's a historian, right? 304 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,800 And so he writes that Jesus as it was Jesus was a teacher. 305 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:35,640 His crucifixion again was under pilot and he says James, you 306 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,960 know, he talks about James being the, the brother of Jesus. 307 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:41,160 So it's just confirming, you know, these things that are 308 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:45,280 written in our New Testament, what historians generally agree 309 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,080 on, right? Generally historians, both 310 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:52,120 Christian and non Christian, they will agree that Jesus 311 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:55,680 existed. He was a Jewish teacher and 312 00:17:55,680 --> 00:18:01,280 preacher, he had many followers, He was crucified by the Roman 313 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:06,800 authorities and Christianity spread rapidly after him. 314 00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:09,600 Right, they all agree on this. It's not up for a debate, 315 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:13,200 there's just overwhelming. Yep, we believe that this is 316 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:17,280 true. So the resurrection now, because 317 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,200 the resurrection changes everything, right? 318 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:23,680 Christianity stands or falls on this one claim that Jesus was 319 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,720 resurrected from the dead, that he is the Son of God. 320 00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:30,120 OK, so let's talk about the resurrection a bit. 321 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,720 The empty tomb. The empty tomb is in all four of 322 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:37,000 the the Gospels, the force, the first four books of the New 323 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,040 Testament. And it's interesting because 324 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:46,040 women were the first witnesses of Jesus's that Jesus says is 325 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:50,560 alive again, right? A female testimony in those days 326 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,560 carries far less authority than a male testimony. 327 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,160 It's just interesting to me that God would do that, right? 328 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:02,120 Like if it was made-up, just use the men, guys, no one's going to 329 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:04,480 believe the women, right? This is sort of the point, 330 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:07,440 right? You know, their opponents to 331 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:12,560 Jesus's resurrection, like those that, that would argue that the 332 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,080 body of Jesus was stolen. They, they, that was the 333 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:19,120 narrative that Jesus, the body of Jesus was stolen by his 334 00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:22,240 disciples. And that's why the, the you 335 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,360 know, that's This is why Jesus body is no longer in the tomb. 336 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,320 They couldn't produce his body. They couldn't say here, this is 337 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,480 the body of Jesus. See, they're lying. 338 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:33,840 They couldn't do that. So they had to go, well, they 339 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,880 must have stolen it, right? So there, there's just not good 340 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,240 evidence for like, show me the body. 341 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,800 So and again, like another reason is that the message of 342 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:51,200 Jesus, it starts where where Jesus was killed. 343 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,240 Like if you wanted to like because everyone was there, 344 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:56,080 everyone saw it. There was, you know, the our 345 00:19:56,080 --> 00:20:00,960 Bible says that many hundreds of witnesses to Jesus in a 346 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,400 resurrected state, right? Where he was executed. 347 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,000 So if you were going to make something up, go and do it over 348 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,120 there where no one knows. Do you know what I mean? 349 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:12,560 Like just make it up over there. And then like these witnesses 350 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:15,160 won't matter anymore because it's just like we can just say 351 00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:17,520 whatever we want over there and no one can say, hang on a 352 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:19,880 second, I was there. Do you see what I'm saying? 353 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,680 Like so there's because it started where it happened. 354 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:27,000 It holds great credibility because the people that you 355 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,600 could ask anyone. So yeah, these are some of the 356 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,720 reasons for the for the, you know, reliable testimony of the 357 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,560 resurrection of Jesus. But another one of the the big 358 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,240 one for me is the transformation of the disciples. 359 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:46,200 While these guys were they were fearful when Jesus was killed. 360 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:48,320 They were hiding, they were scattered. 361 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:53,840 Soon afterwards, they publicly proclaim Jesus rose from the 362 00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:55,080 dead. So all of a sudden they're not 363 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:56,880 scared anymore. All of a sudden they're willing 364 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,440 to stand and say, no, no, no, Jesus is alive. 365 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,640 They endured heavy persecution for that. 366 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:07,080 You know, many suffered and died for this testimony, right? 367 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,440 And this matters because people generally don't die for 368 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,080 something that they don't believe, right? 369 00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:16,840 So, you know, they, they might have mistakenly believed 370 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:22,320 something potentially, but we see that the disciples, you 371 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,240 know, these were the ones that were potentially inventing this 372 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,360 story, right? But they believed this to be 373 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:30,520 true. They, they gave their lives 374 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:33,320 willingly for the testimony that Jesus is alive. 375 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:37,560 And that matters greatly to me because I'm not laying down my 376 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:39,760 life for anything that I know is a lie. 377 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,480 And neither are you like, you're not going to do that. 378 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:45,320 You're not going to lay down your life. 379 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:48,600 You're not going to allow your family and your kids and all 380 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,160 these things to be heavily persecuted for something that 381 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,440 you know is a lot. They believed, right? 382 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,120 They believed that Jesus was resurrected. 383 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:00,840 Why would they believe that? Because there was an empty tomb, 384 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,320 Because Jesus showed themselves clearly to them as we see in the 385 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,560 Scripture. What we read in here is what 386 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,200 happened. Jesus showed up and he said, 387 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:10,560 don't be scared. It's me. 388 00:22:11,120 --> 00:22:13,760 I'd be pretty scared if, you know, a friend of mine died and 389 00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,480 then they rocked up in my lounge room the next day, right? 390 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:18,040 But that's sort of what happened. 391 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,680 And Jesus, you know, which is crazy because he'd been warning 392 00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:25,920 and warning and warning them, but, you know, so clearly that 393 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,160 this was going to happen and they missed it. 394 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:28,880 But anyway, that's a whole nother side note. 395 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:32,240 So there's another guy called Gamilio. 396 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,120 I think I'm pronouncing that right. 397 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,720 Say that again. Gamaliel, This is that he was a 398 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:42,160 Pharisee, right? And he was a well respected 399 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,760 leader. And later we learn that Paul is 400 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,800 actually sits at his feet before Jesus gets a hold of him, right. 401 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,080 So he's like a well respected teacher of the law. 402 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:57,920 And in Acts 539, he makes this statement, He said is if it is 403 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,440 God talking about the, the, you know, the Jesus and the 404 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:05,720 disciples, if this is a God's thing, you can't overthrow it. 405 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,160 It cannot be overthrown. If this is God, we'd be, we'd be 406 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:10,640 found to be fighting against God. 407 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:15,280 We don't want to do that. And so Christianity began as a 408 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:20,000 small persecuted movement and spread, spread across the world 409 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:24,080 despite this opposition. And this is proof that this is 410 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,400 not the work of man, this is the work of God. 411 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:32,000 The reason that we're sitting in Australia like SA Adelaide, like 412 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:36,120 now believing that this is the word of God and believing that 413 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:39,080 that God is who he says he is and Jesus Christ is our Christ 414 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,680 and our Lord. It's because this is God's work. 415 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,320 This is not man's work. This is the one just a bunch of 416 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,200 guys that thought, you know, let's just start this line, like 417 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,120 die for it. And then you people would just 418 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:50,960 embrace it. And then 2000 years later it 419 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,160 will still be going. This is God's thing, guys. 420 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:56,320 The reason that it's still going is it because this is God's 421 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:59,960 thing. All right, So again, what what 422 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:02,880 is the Bible? We believe in Acts 242. 423 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:05,760 It says that, you know, the early church, they continued 424 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,400 steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and some other things 425 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:10,840 as well. The apostles doctrine, it's 426 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,960 God's word. What were the apostles teaching? 427 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,440 God's word right. So they they were teaching 428 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:21,600 prominently out of the Old Testament scriptures, the word 429 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,600 of God and then they were writing down what God was 430 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:26,840 teaching and what God was saying. 431 00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:31,160 So you know, our New Testament is written and the letters and 432 00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,240 stuff like that by the meant most of them by the apostles. 433 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:38,920 And so the apostles teaching is what God's saying to you and I 434 00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:41,440 through through the Scriptures, right? 435 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,400 It's documented there predominantly. 436 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:49,120 So God's word is written by men under the inspiration of the 437 00:24:49,120 --> 00:24:53,160 Holy Spirit. 2 Peter one says for prophecy never came by the 438 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,320 will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the 439 00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:01,440 Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit moved men to 440 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,320 write what's in here. So this wasn't man's idea, 441 00:25:04,360 --> 00:25:06,160 right? This was God specifically 442 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:11,840 orchestrating what needed to be in his book. 2 Timothy 3 says 443 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,440 all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. 444 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,840 All scripture is given by the inspiration of God. 445 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,640 God inspired it. God had men write down exactly 446 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,680 how He would have it written. The Bible is not just 447 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,960 information, it's revelation. What does it reveal to us? 448 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,320 It reveals Jesus Christ. You know, again, I said this 449 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,080 earlier that Jesus, he says I am the word of God. 450 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:39,840 This is not just information. This is revelation. 451 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,160 This should be revelation. It is revelation. 452 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:45,200 It can be revelation. If you receive it as God's word, 453 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,600 it transforms you, it shapes you. 454 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:51,800 If you, if you give yourself over to it and allow it to 455 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,640 correct you and lead you, you will be changed. 456 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,160 You will be changed to be more like Him because this is 457 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,680 revelational. It's transformative, right? 458 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,080 So how should we approach the Bible? 459 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,200 Well, first of all, you got to accept that this is the word of 460 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,040 God. By faith, you have to make a 461 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,440 choice to go. I am trusting the Lord that this 462 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,520 is his word. If you can't do that, you're 463 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,360 never submitting to this. You're never going to submit to 464 00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:27,760 God's Word if you can't actually believe by faith that God wrote 465 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,320 down His Word for you and I, that we could follow it, that we 466 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:31,920 could have it, that we could be led by it. 467 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,760 So that's Step 1. You got to trust by faith that 468 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:37,800 this is His Word. And when you do that, your 469 00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:41,920 posture towards it changes, like your posture towards me. 470 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,560 Sharing the Word of God here can be very different when you are 471 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,360 like Lord, I'm believing that you're speaking right. 472 00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:51,760 I'm believing this is your word, your posture towards the word of 473 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,160 God when you sit down and read it can be very different when 474 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,600 you are given over to it as God's authority, right. 475 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,280 So you don't need to merely analyse it. 476 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:03,000 You don't sit here and analyse it. 477 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,240 Many do this guys, many analyse the word of God and try to, you 478 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,040 know, work it out and understand it and analyse and this thing 479 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:14,800 you sort of need to have do that a little bit, but you need to 480 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:18,160 just listen to it. You need to give yourself over 481 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:23,200 to it, rely on it, trust it. So and and you must understand 482 00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,960 that God is talking to you every time you open the word of God. 483 00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,520 God is talking to you every time you open the word of God. 484 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,440 So you don't open your Bible to know the Bible. 485 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:38,760 You open your Bible to know him. That's the attitude that you sit 486 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:42,680 down with your Bible. Lord, I want to know you, I want 487 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:45,400 to listen to you. I want to hear your word, not I 488 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,440 want to know the Bible. I want to understand it. 489 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,280 I want to be able to teach it all of these things. 490 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:54,360 You want to know him. Scripture primarily is the way 491 00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:58,320 that we hear God. You know, you could hear God in 492 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,680 your spirit and you can hear God speak to you personally, but 493 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:06,000 this is sort of like the, the, the anchor in the, the safeguard 494 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,040 against how do I know that it's God because God's not telling 495 00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,320 you to do things that are contrary to his word. 496 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,760 This is your safeguard, right? Romans 10/17 says faith comes by 497 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,280 hearing and hearing by the word of God. 498 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,040 How do I, how do you increase your faith through the word of 499 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:23,960 God? How do you get the word of God 500 00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:24,840 in? You got to listen to it. 501 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:26,920 You got to hear it, you got to read it, right? 502 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,600 I want to, I want to be more faithful to you, Lord, my word, 503 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:34,600 take a hold of my word. How do we read God's word? 504 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:40,680 This is going to be like a real, just over the top sort of fly 505 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,800 by, right? Different Bible versions. 506 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,520 People are often confused by this, Like there's different 507 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:52,200 translations, different Bibles. But again, I said that the Bible 508 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,400 was written in three main languages. 509 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:55,960 None of those are English, right? 510 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,680 You can't. Does anyone here read Hebrew or 511 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,120 Greek? Ancient Greek? 512 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:03,160 No. So I can't go and read the the 513 00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:05,960 Bible in the original language that it was written, right? 514 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,440 So I have to read a translation. I have to read in the language 515 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,960 that I understand. And so do you think that God's 516 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:14,920 in that? Do you think that God would 517 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,280 allow me a son of God who loves him and wants to follow him and 518 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:20,880 wants to have his word? Do you think that God would 519 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,160 allow me to read the word of God in my own language? 520 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,800 Of course he would, right? So like God's allowed us to 521 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,040 translate the, the, the Bible into languages that we can 522 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,880 understand. It's just, it's a no brainer, 523 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:35,480 right? But people would argue, you 524 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,360 know, unless you've got the original that you won't 525 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:38,880 understand. That is not true. 526 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:43,520 But the Spirit of God, he will enlighten you and teach you and 527 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,120 reveal his word to you in whatever language it is that you 528 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:48,760 read, right? So there's different Bible 529 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:55,400 translations. So you can't like having a, I'm 530 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,040 just going to have to move quickly through this, right? 531 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,000 There's a spectrum. There's like literal 532 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,120 translations and then there's like a readable translation. 533 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:06,320 So there's this spectrum, right, where it's like almost word for 534 00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:07,920 word. It can't really be word for word 535 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:09,280 because it wouldn't make a lot of sense. 536 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:11,720 But and then you're on this end of the spectrum. 537 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:15,760 You've got something that's interpreted for to help you 538 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:21,880 understand what this might be saying now you know, word for 539 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,880 word accuracy. We're talking about Bibles like 540 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:28,880 New King James Version, ESPNASP, these sort of things. 541 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,880 So they're aiming for a word for word translation. 542 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,080 And then you've got others that are like thought for thought 543 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,320 readability. These are things like the NIV 544 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:42,640 and the NLT, stuff like that. Then you've got paraphrase 545 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:45,760 Bibles, message others, ones like this. 546 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,200 These can be helpful, but these aren't the ones that you're 547 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:50,280 studying, guys. You don't study those. 548 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,400 These are sort of translated and they're an interpretation of, of 549 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,520 what someone believes the scripture is saying. 550 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:00,400 But we want to, we want to be able to read it and help God to 551 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,200 help us to understand what it's saying. 552 00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:06,240 So as close to word for word accuracy as you can. 553 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,800 But I realised that there's, there's different reading 554 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:11,920 abilities, there's different attention spans. 555 00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:16,840 There's like some of us just can't make any sense of a new of 556 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,880 a King James Bible, right? You sit down and just, it's 557 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,520 just, I'm not, it's not landing on me. 558 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,440 So you want to choose to read something like an NIV or an NLT 559 00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:27,280 or something like that. That's actually you're getting a 560 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,320 hold of the word of God, right? So a lot of it depends on where 561 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,040 you're at. And we would say that a good 562 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:36,760 middle starting point would be like an NIV or something like 563 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:39,440 that. It's a it's a quite an easy read 564 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,000 for those of you, I don't know if you guys have your own Bibles 565 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,320 and all the rest of it, but if you don't have a Bible and you 566 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,400 want to start reading the Bible and NIV is a good starting 567 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:51,240 place. OK, OK, so now you've got a 568 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,040 Bible. Where do I start reading? 569 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,080 I would say that a good place to start reading is about Jesus. 570 00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,560 So you know, the Gospel of John or Luke or Mark, Matthew's a 571 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:03,840 longer 1. So these ones might be might be 572 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,200 better John, Luke and Mark. And then from there you start 573 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,160 reading Acts and Romans and and the other, you know, just work 574 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,600 your way through the New Testament start of Jesus. 575 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:17,080 That's a good place to start. And then afterward, you know, 576 00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,880 once you've once you've read the New Testament, return to the old 577 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,160 and start looking for Jesus in the Old Testament. 578 00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:25,200 Because again, he said these words are those that speak of 579 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,480 me, right? We can ask some questions. 580 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,840 I'm just trying to help us to to be able to read and to be able 581 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:32,600 to get something out of our reading with the Bible. 582 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:38,040 OK, so some of the questions that you might want to have in 583 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,400 your mind when you sit down and read questions around what does 584 00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,360 the Bible teach me about God? What does it teach me about 585 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:46,760 humanity? What does it teach me about sin? 586 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:49,800 What does it teach me about salvation being saved? 587 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:52,840 What does it teach me about obedience to the Lord? 588 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:55,440 What is what is the Bible saying about Jesus? 589 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:57,720 What can I learn about Jesus through reading these things? 590 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:00,760 All right, so have some questions, maybe write some 591 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,040 questions down and say, Lord, teach me about salvation. 592 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:07,080 And then when you, when you go on reading the scriptures, just 593 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:09,480 it's on your, you, it'll be highlighted to you. 594 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,280 The Lord will do this. If you've got a plan for sitting 595 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,040 down and reading and say, Jesus, I just want to see you clearly. 596 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,400 I just want to see you in the Old Testament and you sit down 597 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,680 and you start reading. You can trust that the Holy 598 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,520 Spirit will teach you because he wants you to lead you into all 599 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,240 truth, right? The Holy Spirit wants to reveal 600 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,880 Jesus to you. So if you ask him to reveal 601 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,280 himself to you, he will do that. I promise you that, right. 602 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:36,760 So the Bible is descriptive and prescriptive, OK, What do I mean 603 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,040 by that? This is important descriptive. 604 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,880 The Bible sometimes describes things that happen. 605 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,440 An example, you know David has multiple wives, right? 606 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,200 This is not saying that you should have multiple wives. 607 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,000 This is just saying it's giving us a description of what 608 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:55,880 happened, OK. And other many other events and 609 00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:58,600 situations like that where things happen in the Bible and 610 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,160 it's documented. It's not necessarily telling you 611 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,400 that you should do that. It's just giving you the details 612 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,040 of what happened. So that's descriptive. 613 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:12,320 Prescriptive is where it's describing to us, to believers, 614 00:34:12,679 --> 00:34:16,679 how we should live, right? So example, love your enemies. 615 00:34:16,679 --> 00:34:18,360 The Bible talks about loving your enemies. 616 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,159 This is descriptive. This is saying that we should 617 00:34:21,159 --> 00:34:24,040 love our enemies, right? And, and many other things, 618 00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:27,239 forgiving and praying and repentance and believing and 619 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,760 walking in holiness. These are all prescriptive 620 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,199 things that we, that we can take out of the Bible. 621 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:35,840 These are things that you and I should be doing like the Lord 622 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,320 wants to make a part of our lives, Amen. 623 00:34:39,159 --> 00:34:41,000 These are basically God's commands for us, right? 624 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,280 When there's descriptive things in the Bible, the Lord is 625 00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,600 saying, this is how you walk. This is how you follow me. 626 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,480 OK, All right, So final thought, just as I close here, I know 627 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,520 this has been a lot, but I sort of said, you know, I set the, 628 00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:55,040 the ground to what we're doing here. 629 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:59,440 This is just to help us to be inspired about the reliability 630 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,760 of God's word and, and the relationship that you can have 631 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,920 with God and his word and the change that this can bring in 632 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:11,160 your life, right? So final thought, the Bible is 633 00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:15,760 historically rooted, it's prophetically unique and it's 634 00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:18,520 spiritually alive. OK, it's alive. 635 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:21,600 This, this book says it's living and active. 636 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:25,440 It's able to transform, it's able to cut through the rubbish, 637 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:27,240 right? It's able to trim things off of 638 00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:30,040 you. It's able to do a, an active 639 00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:34,080 real work in your life, right? No other book can make that 640 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,280 claim. We believe that it's reliable 641 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:40,440 not because of just because of the manuscript evidence or the 642 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,240 fulfilled prophecy, right? We believe that it's reliable. 643 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:48,760 Like I believe that this word is reliable because in it and 644 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,920 through it, I have encountered God and he has changed my life. 645 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,400 You know, I'm not going to argue with people about why I think 646 00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,880 the Bible's reliable about, about, you know, all of the 647 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,600 scholar evidence and the writings and all this thing. 648 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,440 You know what I'm going to say? I'm going to say, mate, I 649 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,760 believe this is the word of God because it's changed my life 650 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:12,240 that the Lord became very real to me and my life isn't the 651 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:14,480 same. And you will never convince me 652 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:18,240 to go backwards on that because I've met the Lord, right? 653 00:36:18,240 --> 00:36:21,280 That's the evidence, right? And you and I are in this room. 654 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:25,120 I'm sure that many of us, well, most of us could say that you're 655 00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:26,960 not convincing us otherwise, right? 656 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:31,520 This is the word of God because of the life that we've lived in 657 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:35,080 our experiences in it. So we as a church, like we want 658 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:39,440 to help us, you know, take steps in growing, in reading the word 659 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,240 of God. And I and I think like, how can 660 00:36:42,240 --> 00:36:44,520 we start doing that? Like for one, we're going to 661 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,480 make sure that anyone, everyone's got a Bible. 662 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,120 If there's someone in this place that doesn't have a Bible, I'm 663 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,320 looking around. I'm pretty sure we all do come 664 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,440 and speak to us. We will put a Bible in your hand 665 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:55,400 because you need a Bible. If you're going to read the 666 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,360 Bible, right? You need to start reading it 667 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,040 regularly. This is like the first steps, 668 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:01,760 right? Get a Bible, start reading it. 669 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,360 Have questions. You're going to have many 670 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:06,600 questions. You're going to, you're probably 671 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:08,440 going to read 2 verses and you're going to have some 672 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,160 questions, right? Write down your questions. 673 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,280 Go and speak to people, pray about it, but but go and speak 674 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:15,400 to people. Come and speak to us. 675 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,120 Come and speak to Justin. Come and speak to others in this 676 00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:19,840 church. You know, Alan, guys that have 677 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,760 been reading the Bible for a long time, Peter, come and ask 678 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:24,960 your questions. Say I was reading this and and 679 00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:27,840 what does this mean? And just keep asking questions, 680 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:29,400 but write them down so you don't forget. 681 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:35,240 Ask many questions and you know, you sort of go from reading the 682 00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:37,360 Bible regularly to studying the Bible. 683 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,000 This is sort of how the progression because we should be 684 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:42,040 studying the word, not just reading the word. 685 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:44,720 And so we want to help you to do that as well. 686 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,600 If you've been reading the Bible for a long time and that's all 687 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:50,720 you do and you're saying, I want to take the next step. 688 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,200 I want to start studying the Bible. 689 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:56,120 Come and speak to us as leaders and we we want to help us as a 690 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,560 church. We want the way church to be a 691 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:02,280 church that is grounded in Scripture, that knows the word 692 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:05,080 of God, that's growing in the word of God, that has an active 693 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,240 relationship with God's word. And so that means that we can 694 00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:10,600 all, there's another step to take wherever you're at, there's 695 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,280 another step to take and we want to help you to do that. 696 00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,800 So please come and speak to us, you know, ask questions in the 697 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,120 community groups. When we're together, we're going 698 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:20,960 to fellowship, we're going to have coffee and stuff 699 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:22,480 afterwards. Ask some questions. 700 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,280 If you've got questions, ask about the word of God, talk 701 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,360 about the word of God. All right, so again, I sort of 702 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,120 just touched this again, but the heartbeat of this church is to 703 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:36,400 be a church that's excited about the word of God, excited to hear 704 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:39,120 the word of God, excited to open up the word together. 705 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,920 We want to be Bible literate. What does that mean? 706 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:46,120 That means that the week we have some sort of a comprehension of 707 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:50,040 this, that we, that we know what it says in here, right? 708 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:52,400 You don't need to know it all, but you've got a you've got a 709 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,320 firm understanding. This is the church we want to 710 00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,880 build a church that knows the word of God. 711 00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:01,560 So that when, as I've said, when new believers come and they get 712 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:03,800 saved and they start reading and they have questions, who are 713 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:08,360 they going to ask us, right? Not just me, not just Justin us, 714 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:10,880 not just our wives, they're going to ask us. 715 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,800 And so we want to be a church that is Bible literate that we 716 00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,960 that we together would have the answers that are going to be 717 00:39:17,960 --> 00:39:19,240 burning in these people's hearts. 718 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,320 We want to be a church that's able to search out the 719 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,400 scriptures that when we have questions, we go digging and we 720 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,160 say, well, how should we do this thing? 721 00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:28,880 Well, what does the word of God say? 722 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,760 Right like that when we're when we're correcting each other and, 723 00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:34,960 and because we should be correcting each other, right, 724 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:37,840 Because if you're not corrected, how are you going to move 725 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,160 further, further in your work with walk with God? 726 00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:42,760 So when we're correcting each other, it's not just because of 727 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,280 my opinion nor who's ever opinion that it's always coming 728 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,920 back to the word of God because of the word of God says this. 729 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:50,760 This is the what God's word says. 730 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,320 That's where correction is. We want to be a church that's 731 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,200 able to help each other, to correct each other, able to 732 00:39:56,200 --> 00:40:00,840 teach, able to this is discipleship, right and and 733 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:06,480 understand from Scripture God's will for our lives, God's will 734 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,600 for this church, this local church, but more than that, 735 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,480 God's will for this city, God's will for this nation. 736 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,280 God's will for the nations. We want to be biblically 737 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:23,560 grounded to know in 2026 and beyond, what is the Lord doing 738 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,800 in Australia, What is the Lord doing in Adelaide? 739 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,320 What is the Lord doing in this community right now and how can 740 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,080 we be a part of it and play our part to see God's will be done? 741 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:35,960 Amen. That's what this is about. 742 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:40,480 We want to be building a church that's totally in step with what 743 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,440 God's doing in our time and our place. 744 00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:45,320 That's what it means to have a lampstand here. 745 00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:50,120 God put a lampstand here not just for another church, but so 746 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:54,200 that his will could be done specifically here to the 747 00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:58,320 specific people that are around here, to the specific needs of 748 00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:01,040 the people that God brings in here, Right? 749 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,200 So, yeah, this is the church that we want to see built here, 750 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:08,160 transformed from Scripture. So I'm, I'm landing here, but I, 751 00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:12,280 I just had this, you know, this picture in my, in my mind this 752 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:14,080 morning. And you see, like Chantel's 753 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,840 driven written some drawn some mountains on the board there. 754 00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,960 This came out of this right. So as I was praying this morning 755 00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,120 and, and asking about our meeting and what God's wanting 756 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,920 to do and what he's going to say, I had this picture of like 757 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,040 these mountains. And there was a couple of 758 00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:30,840 mountains in front of it. And then there was a bigger one 759 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:35,040 at the back and it was like really white on the peak sort of 760 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:39,480 thing. And you know, as I saw that I, I 761 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,920 was led to read about the, where Jesus was gone up the mountain 762 00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:48,000 and transfigured in front of a few of his disciples there. 763 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:51,880 And so when I went and I, and I read that this morning, anyway, 764 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:53,920 I'm not going to bother trying to find it. 765 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:59,080 But basically Jesus is on this mountain and his disciples, 766 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:00,880 Peter and these guys, they're scared, right? 767 00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,720 Because you know, this, this, there's this cloud there and 768 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:07,160 this voice comes out of the cloud, which is just amazing 769 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,360 because Jesus is like bright and shining. 770 00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:11,080 And they're just like, Oh my gosh, what has happened to 771 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,480 Jesus? He's like, you know, this looks 772 00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:15,720 like God. But anyway, so this voice 773 00:42:15,720 --> 00:42:20,760 thunders out of this cloud and it says, this is my son in whom 774 00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:25,080 I'm well pleased hear him, hear him. 775 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:30,440 And I'm, I'm believing that this is a word for us in this season 776 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,800 for this church, hear him. I believe that God is speaking 777 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,760 clearly to us. I believe that our Lord is 778 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:38,440 speaking to us. Even think about the past weeks, 779 00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,040 think about the things that he's been saying. 780 00:42:40,040 --> 00:42:42,320 Think about the things that he will continue to say. 781 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,160 The Lord is wanting to speak very clearly to us. 782 00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:49,560 And he is, we need to hear him because hearing him doesn't just 783 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,880 mean that, you know, that I hear with my ears. 784 00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:58,960 It means that you, when you hear God speak, you do something with 785 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:03,040 what God has said, you use it, you take a hold of it, you 786 00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:05,920 embrace it as truth and you implement. 787 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,280 Now I'm challenged on this guys, because I believe that, you 788 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,840 know, even last week, fearing the Lord and, and moving away 789 00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:16,360 from darkness and, and having a hatred towards sin and these 790 00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:21,040 sort of things, this has gripped my heart again, because we're, 791 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:26,720 we're called to be a holy bride. And so I want to make sure, you 792 00:43:26,720 --> 00:43:29,720 know, I just go to God and I say, Lord, I want to make sure 793 00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:34,880 that I'm hearing you and that you are truly my Lord, that I'm 794 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:38,280 submissive to you in all things. And it starts there, as I said 795 00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,400 last week, but there's some mountains that were in front of 796 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:44,640 this mountain that I think needs to be moved out the way. 797 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,480 When I heard Chantel talk about this, the, the wells and stuff 798 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:52,160 this morning, straight away I was like, I saw other mountains. 799 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,320 There was these other mountains and they were in the way of 800 00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,880 God's mountain. And so I believe that these are 801 00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:00,840 the things that God's saying, these are the things that he's 802 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:03,240 been saying in the past weeks. There's some mountains that need 803 00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:05,360 to be torn to the ground, that need to be moved aside. 804 00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:10,200 I think it's interesting that the Word of God says that you 805 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:12,960 will speak to this mountain and it will go to the sea. 806 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:17,080 Think about that like you will. You have the power to speak to 807 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,440 the mountains in your life that are getting in the way of you 808 00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,920 going up God's mountain. And I think that's significant 809 00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,320 for some of us in this room. I know it is for me and so I 810 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:29,680 would love for us just to again, we got to respond guys, where we 811 00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:32,840 could sit here, we could hear the word, we could leave this 812 00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:34,680 place, we could keep living our lives. 813 00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:38,280 Nothing could change. But for those who have an ear to 814 00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:42,120 hear and do something with God's word and are willing to receive 815 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:46,880 it, then you know you are you're going to be used by God to do 816 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,560 his will in this time. Who wants to be used by the 817 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:53,400 Lord? Do we really lift up your hand a 818 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,400 bit higher go. I want to be I want to be used 819 00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:59,240 by the Lord, right, because because he wants to use us, he 820 00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:02,320 wants to use us powerfully. So let's just stand to our feet. 821 00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:06,160 This is ask us to stand because it's, it's like taking a step, 822 00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:09,480 right? We could stay seated, but but in 823 00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:12,840 responding to God's word, it actually takes for us to do 824 00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:15,480 something. So standing to your feet is 825 00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:18,440 simply just doing that. It's it's taking a step, it's 826 00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:21,480 standing to your feet. It's a showing that what's on 827 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:24,480 the inside of your heart is a willingness to do something 828 00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:26,760 right. So Lord, here we stand. 829 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,200 We stand in the presence of Almighty God. 830 00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:33,920 We stand under the authority of Your Word in this place this 831 00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:38,120 morning, and we are open, Lord, for you to touch us, for you to 832 00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:42,840 move us, for you to change us, for you to show us the mountains 833 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,200 that are in the way that we could command those mountains to 834 00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:49,280 get out of the way, that we could go up the holy mountain 835 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:52,200 and serve the living God. So, Lord, I thank you that 836 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:54,240 you're going to do that. I thank you that some of us in 837 00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:57,560 this room are going to experience the power of the Holy 838 00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:03,240 Spirit to move aside obstacles to to untap the wells, to throw 839 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:06,520 the rocks out of the way that living water could flow once 840 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:09,400 again. So we thank you for the power 841 00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:13,360 Lord of your Holy Spirit in this place to do the mighty work in 842 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:16,040 our hearts. All we need to do and all we are 843 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:20,840 doing right now is to have a willingness to say yes, Lord, do 844 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:22,200 your work. And I say that. 845 00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:26,200 I say yes, Lord, do your work. We say together, yes, Lord, do 846 00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:29,000 your work. We thank you Lord, in Jesus 847 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:30,720 mighty name. Amen. 848 00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:32,280 Amen. Excellent. 849 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,360 What a wonderful rice. Thank you for joining us for 850 00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:38,800 today's message. For more information about The 851 00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:43,000 Way Church, please visit ourwebsite@thewaychurch.com dot 852 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:44,400 AU. Have a blessed day.