Welcome to be on Sunday an extension of the preaching
ministry here at Leamington EMC. I am pastor.
Wait, I'm not pastor. I'm Jonah.
I'm just Jonah. I'm joined here as always by
Joe, just Joe or Joseph, whatever you want to call him.
Joe, how you doing today? Very well, thank you.
How are? You I'm good.
My mouth is on like sort of on fire.
I just ate some chicken wings. Not, not chicken wings, chicken
breast that was doused in some wing sauce that I made using
some sauce from a church member that gave us some like, oh, man,
it was so good. But right now I'm experiencing
some minor pain in in the mouth region from that sauce.
But anyway, yeah, that's how I'm doing.
Well, you preached a sermon on Nehemiah Chapter 8 on Sunday
after your long vacation. Yeah, and the name of it was
God's Word at the century. Yeah, we have a Canadian
spelling of that word. I actually, when I was
preparing, I, I wrote it the other way and I'm my whole, the
whole time I'm wondering like my, my word processor is like I
got it underlined in red. And I'm like, because I always
knew that like there's different spellings of the word depending
on how you use it. Like not just like American
versus Canadian, but also like depending how you use it.
But so I sort of looked it up and like in Canada, technically
the correct spelling is CENCRE. Which is super weird.
It's this Walmart Super Sentry. So we always say that when we
drive our like sentry. Does it actually?
I've never does. It actually is actually spelled
that way. Oh, OK, interesting.
But no, it is interesting my my software because I'm an
American. My Bible software is set up
where it doesn't correct it if I type it in English, but if I
export it to Word, which my computer setup in Canada with
the Canadian keyboard, it says it's misspelled.
So anyway, God's Word is at the center.
We say center even though it's spelled weird.
Nehemiah chapter 8. So why don't you give us a
rundown of your sermon and then we'll chat about it a little
bit. Yeah, yeah.
So really this chapter really was focused on on all of that.
It was focused on God's Word being at the center of his
people here. The people had you know, we've,
we've been going through the book and Nehemiah comes back and
he has a vision from God to rebuild the wall.
And so he comes back and, and of all the things that we we've
seen so far right, like Nehemiah's devotion to God, his
commitment to prayer, he comes back and they begin to rebuild
the wall. And you know, they have
opposition from outside opposition from inside, but they
completed in 52 days sort of miraculously.
And you know, as you preached last week about now, they're
beginning to reinstate like the servants and the Levites and the
singers and the priests and all these things so that they can
get back to the proper worship and, and proper following of all
of God's commands. And, and now the beginning of
the 7th month, they begin to celebrate the, the Feast of
Booths. And so now they're sort of like
bringing God's word back, which it, which it is kind of like, I
mean, they finished this this wall in record time, right?
52 days, which they said all their enemies were fearful
because they could clearly see that God was behind it.
And is it just a coincidence that it was finished like days
before the beginning of this feast?
You know? No, not at all.
It was exactly like the Lord's timing, you know.
And so, yeah. So now Ezra comes and reads the
law. And so really my my points in
the sermon were, yeah, basically the flow of the passages.
Ezra reads the law, the people begin to understand it, you
know, they weep, and then they begin to obey it, right.
And so God's word comes back to leading and guiding his people.
And so that was the focus of my sermon, God's word at the
center, how God shapes his people.
And my points were my first point was God's word unifies us
when we hear the word, when we worship the word, when we
understand the word. And that's exactly what happened
in this passage. As Ezra read the word, the
people listened and then they worshipped and then the leaders
actually went out to make sure they understood.
And, and in all of these ways, these people were unified
because they were gathering together, but recognizing that
what unites us is God's Word. And then the second thing,
second point was God's Word transforms us.
And then I used this illustration of the piercing
comfort of God's Word, which one of our professors you know,
Doctor Pierre? Yeah, Doctor.
Jeremy Pierre and he was our counseling professor and this is
like the piercing comfort of God's word and the one handed
you see here with the Israelites.
It pierced them because it like exposed their sin and exposed
the fact that God had been faithful, but they had been
unfaithful and it made them feel guilty like the conviction of
God's word. But then.
Go. Sorry, you never reminded me.
Yeah, I got to cut you off. You reminded me.
It is connected to this. But when Doctor Pierre he he
really emphasized the fact that all ministry is a ministry of
the word. And that was one thing that that
stood out to me. And I think it when he was
talking about this, the piercing comfort of the word, he was
talking about like all ministry is a ministry of the word, which
is goes hand in hand with what your message was.
Anyway, I'll let you proceed with giving us the.
Run no, and that's and that, but that is so helpful.
Like every ministry is a ministry of the word, like and
that actually was helpful to me this morning.
Like someone texted me and, and just shared something and, and
as I was praying for them, like a scripture came to my mind.
And so I'm like, I'm just going to text them that scripture
because. And then I just thought to
myself, I should be more intentional to do that, right?
It's not my advice that's going to help them.
It's not my wisdom that's going to help them.
It's God's word that's going to help them.
And so when we were praying for people and scriptures come to
our mind, I think sometimes we think they already know that
verse or they already know that. Like, I don't need to, but
still, it's still a ministry of God's Word.
And we're just like the Israelites.
We're really dull, you know, We forget very quickly.
Well, it reminds me of the reading plan that we're in right
now. And you go to, I think today's
reading was Exodus 34, where the Lord gives Moses his name,
right? Yep.
Moses asked to see his glory, but the Lord gives him his name.
And he says, he says the Lord, the Lord a merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for 1000 for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin for those.
Anyway, he goes on saying he's a just God and all these different
ways. But that verse is repeated
throughout the Old Testament countless times.
We did an exercise in young adults this last week where we
took that verse and we just went and had, I had them look in
their reference Bible and start to find all the different
references to the different attributes that are listed there
that God gives. And you can, it's just almost
unlimited. Like how many you can come up
with each one. But at least a dozen times it's,
it's listed in some way, like some way, but at least four
times it's like listed identically.
But it's because we're hard headed.
We need to hear it over and over again.
And so like. We need to be reminded.
In your example, you give the verse because they need to be
reminded, even though they may know it, right?
Yeah, even though they may know that that verse, they may have
memorized they, but they may not be coming to mind.
And the Lord may be using you to bring it to mind.
Yeah. And that's the way he uses us in
our, in, you know, relationships too.
Absolutely. Well, no.
Now that you OK, now that you said that, OK, we're just going
to like maybe stay here for a minute, OK?
Because now that you said that, I really was thinking about that
this morning when I read that passage, like Moses had just
previously asked, like, show me your, show me your glory.
Like I want to see your glory and God's like, well, you can't
see my face, but I'll pass by you and you can see my back.
And so now in this, in this passage, when he, when he
reveals himself to him, how does he reveal himself?
Like he reveals himself with who he is, right?
Like you said, this description of who God is, it's like, it's
odd, right? Like if I were to say, like if
if you and I had never met face to face and you're like, and
you're like, hey, Joe, I want to see you like I wouldn't be like
Joe, you know, I wouldn't give you like a description of me.
I would show you a picture of me, right?
But the thing that that is so interesting about that, I don't
know why this illustration came to my mind, but I was like, Hey,
let's just imagine that I showed you a photo of just a random
person from India, let's say, and I showed you a photo of that
person. I would just say, tell me who
this person is. You would look at the photo and
you would begin to go, OK, well, let's say he's wearing a suit.
Well, he must, he must be in corporate, you know, he must
have a, some kind of job because he's wearing a suit.
His hair, his hair's really nice.
And so maybe he really cares about his appearance.
He's wearing an earring. So maybe he likes to have fun on
the weekend. I don't know, whatever.
Just you, you would begin to make judgments of him based on
his appearance, right. But now, if I were to say, hey,
tell, tell me about, tell me about Anthony fair.
You would not say one single thing about his appearance,
right? You wouldn't, you would start to
say, oh, Anthony, man, he is such a great guy.
He's he's very kind. He's very friendly.
Like, he's very compassionate. You know, he he doesn't, he
doesn't get mad very quickly. Yeah, he's, he's very committed
to this church. He's very committed to his wife
and his son. And like, notice how quickly
that changes, right? How everything is initially
based on appearance for someone that you wouldn't know.
But when you really know someone, it's you begin to talk
about their character and who they are.
I just thought that was so interesting that the Lord you
like, he describes his character and he's not so much concerned
about an image, right? He actually commands them.
Don't make an image of me, right?
I am who I am. Well, he gives.
He gives more than an image. Right, like.
He also gives us it. It shows us how we can like, we
can be like him. So it's more you can't look like
God, right, right. You, you can't, you can't
literally, you can't look like anyone else unless you're a
twin. And then then there's
differences still. But but you can, you can mimic
what he does. You can mimic being forgiving.
You can mimic the different attributes that he has.
And so he's saying, Hey, this is the way you're supposed to be
like I'm, I'm showing you who I am because I want you to copy
me. I want you to treat others the
way I look at you. And so I think, and we see that
too, the connection. We, we're spending way too much
time in Exodus, but we see that too when we're connected to how
Moses intercedes for the people on the mountain previously.
God is showing him like he's never more like he was never
more like God than he was in that moment.
And the fact that he, he showed grace and he in mercy and
compassion for the people, even though they were being like
turds, you know, sorry, we can't edit that out, even though
they're being just irresponsible to, to say it in the best way
possible. Moses was acting like God.
He's acting like, like God who's slow to anger.
And so, I don't know, there's just so many pictures.
Like God wants us to act like him, not, not look like him.
Yeah. And so anyway, that's all I've
got. There.
No. That's so good.
But we need the reminders. That's getting back to the point
you're making like like someone text you.
We need to know the Word of God is central because it does
repeat itself a lot for us to know and to be reminded over and
over again. Yeah.
And so like, like getting back to the point, that's where God's
Word, God's word transforms us, and that's by piercing.
But then after the piercing comes the comfort, right?
When we're, when we, when we are aware of our sin, we recognize
our sin like the Israelites did and they confessed it and they
were mourning and they were weeping.
But then, you know, Ezra and the leaders are like, don't mourn or
weep. This is a day of celebration.
Like, like the Lord's favor is on us because we're turning back
to him. Like don't mourn, don't weep,
like celebrate, rejoice. And so it like comforts us.
And, and that sort of pictures the gospel that, yeah, I mean,
God, the gospel is offensive. I mean, it hurts, right?
Because it exposes our sin. And we don't like our sin to be
exposed. We, we want to hide it.
We want to cover it up, but at the moment, like it exposes our
sin and it pierces our hearts and makes us feel guilt and
conviction and all those things. But then it comforts us with the
truth that we can have forgiveness, we can have
cleansing and washing and be totally blameless and spotless
through Christ when we trust and believe in Him.
And so, yeah, I just thought that was such a beautiful
picture. And then our, the Third Point
was God's word grows us. So the first one was God's word
unifies us. Second one was God's word
transforms us. And the third one is that God's
word grows us. And as we study God's Word
together and as we obey God's Word together, cause here we saw
the Israelites, you know, we all saw these heads of leaders,
they're coming, the heads of the houses are coming together with
the Levites, with Ezra, and they're studying God's Word
together and they're obeying it. And that's where God was able to
grow them as a people. And they rejoiced as they were
obedient to his Word. So good, so good, really good 3
point sermon couple like I had written down.
I don't know if you said this specifically like word for word,
but one quote that I wrote down was the Bible isn't meant to be
mastered, but to be mastering you.
And I don't know if you had more to say about that or if that was
something you got from someone else.
It was something I got, something.
I did mention that in the sermon.
I couldn't remember. I did give away credit and it
wasn't original with me. I had some.
We were taught that very explicitly in seminary, right?
You don't always have to quote exactly who you're who you're
giving things from, because sometimes that can be a little
overwhelming at times in a sermon, but you need to give
away credit when it's not at. Least say you didn't.
You didn't come up with it. Right.
And so I did say I'd seen that in a, in a social media clip.
And yeah, I just, that struck me because I feel like sometimes
it, it is true that a lot of times maybe we go to God's word
and maybe unintentionally, but, but some of we go to God's word.
It's like an answer book or like we're trying to proof text.
It's like where I'm trying to get something to win an argument
or whatever, you know, and it, it was really helpful for me to
go, OK, God's word, like these texts are not meant to be
mastered. Like, like I become a master at
like using these texts to win arguments or whatever.
They're meant to master you like God's word, a God's spirit
working through his word is to control you so that you obey God
and long to obey him and subject yourself to God in his word.
That was just such a helpful, such a helpful illustration.
For sure. Yeah, I really, I really
appreciated it because often you're right, we often go to it
as like this self help book. And that leads me to like the
next question in your Third Point.
I wrote this down. Maybe you asked this question
again. I didn't write down like I need
to quote quotes around what I'm quoting from you.
But you said you said or I said something like I thought about
this or you said it specifically, I don't know
which. Why is God's word so important?
Did you say that? Oh yes, I did.
I thought it was my closing. Yeah.
So what? What is it like if you can like
you have more time now, What is it that's more like?
Why is it so important? Why does it have to be the
center of everything? Yeah, well, so where I went was,
you know, God again, it it tied into our our church Bible
reading plan where God just saved his people.
He saved them out of Egypt. You know, these 10 miraculous
signs, He delivered them out of the hand of their enemies, out
of slavery and he saves them. He calls them to be his people.
And then he tells them, you know, in Exodus chapter 19, he
says, you saw how I delivered you out of slavery.
You saw how I bore you on eagles wings.
Now if you will be faithful to my covenant, you will be my
treasured possession. You know my holy people like a
royal priesthood and a nation, a holy nation, all these things.
And it's like that hinges on their obedience, right?
And what does what does their obedience mean?
It means that they trust and they believe in God, right?
They have faith in him because his word is telling them
something about who he is. And so all of these rules as we
get into God explaining and, and showing like, OK, here's the
structure, here's the system of worship.
I'm giving you a Tabernacle, a table for bread, a lampstand, a
towel, you know, all these different things that that are
supposed to be in here, these priestly garments.
And it sounds like a whole bunch of like rules.
And it's overwhelming when you read like this is how you make
it and all the different parts, right?
It gets a little tedious at times as we're reading it, but
it tells you that like, and then God says like, make it exactly
like this. And he even goes back to like
what I, the way I showed you on the mountain, right?
Like the, the replica that I gave you and showed you like,
just like that. Don't deviate from it.
Make it exactly the way I tell you why so that God can dwell in
their midst. And that's really the
overarching theme of Scripture. God dwelled with Adam and Eve in
the garden, but they sinned and so they got kicked out of the
garden. They got kicked out of God's
presence. And this sets the tone for the
rest of the Bible. Our sin separates us from God,
but God is so loving, so gracious, so kind that he he is
longing to restore what was lost, that relationship, that
connection. And so in the Tabernacle, we see
it God trying to restore it in the in the temple when once it's
like a fixed location. And then we see like that next
level of fulfillment is when Christ comes and now his spirit
dwells in US. And so the reason God's word is
so important is because we are now the temple.
You know, we make up God's dwelling place like God's Spirit
dwells in US. And so we need to be holy
because God is holy. So we need to obey and follow
God's word. We need to make it a part of our
everyday lives, but we're living it.
You already alluded to this already, not yet sort of like
situation that we're living in. We're, we're living in an
already realized, it's like God's revelation is sort of
already realized in Christ. There's that first layer of
layer of fulfillment that that Christ has now brought in this
new covenant whereby his Spirit dwells in us.
But there it's not yet fully realized because we're not
perfect yet. And we don't dwell in God's
presence without sin. And that's where we're looking
forward to Revelation 21, where the new heavens and the new
earth come down out of heaven and we're with God in
perfection, you know? Yep, that's your, that's your,
your big theological word for the day that Joe just laid out
for you in a very plain way, which is great.
This is like inaugurated eschatology.
So it's already here, it's been, it started, but it hasn't yet
been fulfilled or completed. And so inaugurated, like we
inaugurate presidents, they're inauguration, they're beginning.
And then eschatology means just the end.
Yeah, the eschaton. So on that note, we did have
some feedback. Someone, a very astute listener
to your sermon, made a connection to the festival of
Booths, which you talked about in well, it's we talked about
the Feast of Booths because it came up in the text, which is
great, the festival of Tabernacles.
It's also known as right instituted by Moses and
Leviticus. And then this listener made a
connection to the book of Zechariah 14, which is an
apocalyptic chapter of prophecy pointing forward into
eschatology into something that hasn't happened yet.
I don't I don't think it's happened yet.
Anyway, it's pointing forward. His question was like, like,
first of all, they're they're obviously related because of the
festival that's happening. But what's really going on
there, Joe? Well, I have to start by saying
it's I, I, I had not, you know, made that connection or not seen
that. But yeah, as I, I, I did a
little bit of research and and obviously, I mean, just a little
bit, right? This this would require.
If you wanted a, you know, a really in depth or thoughtful
answer, I yeah it. Seems like Zechariah 14 is
pointing to the very end. Like whenever whenever Christ is
coming like looking like you think Revelation.
I think when I was reading it, I think automatically.
I'm thinking this thing looks like familiar.
Right, 'cause you, 'cause you, you.
And as you read it like, you know, because again, we, we, we
talk a lot about things being fulfilled in Christ, you know,
and that's, we're always trying to point to Christ in our
sermons and especially when we read the Old Testament.
We need to go, OK, well, how is this fulfilled in Christ?
And so as I was reading it, I was starting to think like,
well, was this fulfilled in Christ?
But then there are some things in there that you go, OK, well,
this, this doesn't seem to have been fulfilled in Christ.
Like it seems to be pointing beyond that, right.
Yeah. And so like you said, it does
seem to be. Pointing forward well the point
is it seems fulfilled in Christ, but not completed not yet.
So that's the thing so like fulfilled and that the fact that
that that's the inaugurated eschatology that you have to
like for us for, for our theological like framework like
that already not yet mentality is firmly rooted in my mind.
I don't know about you, but it is like something that is firmly
there for me. Right, yeah.
And so and so Zechariah 14, I guess just to lay it sort of out
it he Zechariah predicts this, there's going to be a time when,
when God's people are gathered together and they are going to
celebrate, they're they're going to together, celebrate this
Feast of booths again, this Feast of Tabernacles.
And so I think the question, the question was like, is that a
literal interpretation, right? Like what or or what is the
importance of like? Why would we celebrate that,
that festival in particular? Jesus has already come right,
Right. And so the little bit of the
research that I did, you know, I found somebody's perspective
that I thought that I thought was kind of helpful on this.
He kind of just talks about again, how the New Testament,
the New Testament writers understood that all of the Old
Testament was fulfilled in Christ.
And, and Jesus says specifically to the the Samaritan woman at
the well that worship is, is no longer restricted to a certain
place or certain times or certain seasons.
It's about the heart. And and then when we think
about, you know, the the end of time, we think of the
fulfillment of the fact that, well, what, what, what all the
Scripture is pointing to is the in gathering of of all people.
It was now like again, God always intended His people to
ship to be a light among the nations, but the New Testament
realizes that where the Gentiles are folded in as God's people
through faith in Christ. So when Christ comes, the
inauguration is instituting the new people of God.
That's the way I view it anyway. Yeah.
Instituting the new people of God at that, at that moment,
yeah, which is I think what you're describing.
Yeah, and in Ephesians, Paul talks about that.
He talks about like the dividing wall of hostility is gone.
That that there, there was two people.
There's no longer Jews, Greeks, Gentiles, Scythians, male,
female. There's no longer all these
distinctions. We're one in Christ.
We're we're one through him. And so this, this guy that was
writing this article that that at least from when I read it, it
makes sense to me. And this is this I guess would
be at at this point in time with a very little bit of research
that I've done would be what I what I would.
Be like 4 hours, you know so. Sorry, I would see what
Zachariah is saying is he's saying, yeah, they're going to
celebrate the Feast of Booths again, but and, and to what
extent it will be fulfilled, I don't know, but at least it will
it what it means is this in gathering Cause again, that's
what the Feast of Booths was that everybody.
Came to Jerusalem? Yep.
They set up tents, Yep. And they all dwelled together.
Yep. For what reason?
To worship the Lord, right? To listen to the law of the bed.
And and to it, it was a reminder.
It was it was like the bringing in of the first fruits of the
harvest, right. And so it was like, and that's
the that's fulfilled at the end of the age when God's people are
like harvested. You know, this person references
Revelation chapter 14 where it's like, here's the harvest.
He's going to swing his sickle out on the earth and he's going
to gather all of God's people together.
And that's like, that is the first fruits of these people
that are gathered together to the Lord.
And so I guess to what extent it will literally be fulfilled or
not, I don't know. But I think that's like I was
saying to you before we started the podcast, like what Zechariah
can't do because he doesn't know is he can't go, OK, well, we're
not actually literally going to set up booths for seven days in
the wilderness. That's not what we're going to
do because of Jesus and all these things that are going to
happen. He can't say that because he
doesn't know that, and so he's just saying what's been revealed
to him. He doesn't know how it's going
to be fulfilled, and so this is how he's prophesying it.
Well, Peter said right? Did you read the Peter passage?
No, I didn't, but he did. Yeah.
You know, he sort of does talk about that, that this is what
the old prophets, the Old Testament prophets did.
They spoke concerning the salvation and grace that are
ours in Christ Jesus and, you know, the glory that is to
follow, right. So it's like they prophesied
what they knew to prophesied, but they didn't understand how
it was going to be and. It sort of shadowed, right?
So it's under, under like a cloud.
They didn't completely understand it.
Here's what the Lord has revealed to me now this is what
you need. Like that's, that's the beauty
of what the Lord, the Lord reveals what we need at the time
and no more because he wants us to trust him.
If he told us exactly how it was all going to play out, he's
given us a pretty good game plan.
But if he told us exactly, like step by step by step, then we
would be so prone to not, not think of him.
Yeah. Not to rely on him and trust
him. Yeah.
I don't know. There's something, there's
something that stands out to me in Zechariah 14.
I need to study it more, like way more.
But if something stands out to me like the, the, there's a
separation, the people who come the festival to the festival
shelters or the festival of the Tabernacles.
And then there are people who don't celebrate it, who are
punished. And so like, there's this
dividing of the people of God and then those who are not of
God. And so I think that's something
to draw out to. I think, I think our listener's
interpretation is, is a good one.
I don't, I don't know. I don't know if it's right.
I can't say if it's right or wrong.
I think there's room for, there's just there's room for
like opposing views here because we there is, it's talking about
a topic. We don't have all the.
Answers for Well, I think we would.
We would all. Agree on the Old Testament
scholar by no means. Right.
And we would all agree that it's scripture and for sure Zachariah
is prophesying something, it is going to be fulfilled.
Like we would all agree on that. Maybe how it is fulfilled
exactly? I don't know.
We don't know exactly, but I do I do think this perspective of
well, it is going to be fulfilled in Christ, right?
Like like this, this feast symbolizes a reality that is yet
to come where people are gathered in as a first fruits to
the glory of God. And I think so.
I think it's foreshadowing the salvation of of people,
salvation of souls. More than Israel.
Yeah, more than Israel. So that that's the biggest thing
to like, it's thankfully like there's more, more than Israel
that's that's offered to salvation.
Because I wouldn't be there. You wouldn't be there, right.
So, yeah, it's really, I, I really appreciate the, the
thoughtfulness of the question. Yeah.
Because what it does, what what you're seeing is what you're
seeing someone who's taking biblical theology seriously and
they're taking what we've been teaching seriously.
And like in that the Bible is telling one cohesive story
absolutely from the beginning to the end.
And, and it's just a really encouraging thing to see.
But even though they're harder sometimes to these, these topics
are harder to discuss because there's no like cut and dry
answer, right. And so biggest thing is what we
always say we can we agree in the most important things and in
everything else we show charity, yeah.
And love towards each other. Yeah.
So I think that was good. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. And as far as like, I guess, I
guess just drawing back, drawing back to the sermon and I guess,
you know, there was one, there was one aspect I think of of
that I really wanted to draw in on that I didn't, that I didn't
really have time for or I guess didn't make time for is probably
the better way to say that because you choose to leave
things out or leave certain things.
Yeah, We make choices. It's just like any kind of any
kind of thing you're doing. Like if you're, if you're
preparing a Thanksgiving feast, like at some point you run out
of time and so you got to make choices.
Do I, do I serve the pecan pie or the pumpkin pie?
Yeah. Or if I have time to do both,
that's great. But so we get, we got, we got a
pumpkin pie on Sunday. Now we're going to get the
pecan, right? Exactly.
Pecan's my favorite anyway, sorry.
Well, if you get together for lunch and dinner, you can have
one at lunch and and 1:00. At how many people you think are
going to say Jonah, you say pecan.
Wrong. I I mean some say pecan, pecan.
I mix the two together and say pecan.
There, there you go. Sorry, mix it together.
But yeah, I guess 1 aspect that I that that I wanted to hone in
on and I is like this, this, this pruning of God's word,
like, like why is it so important to be in God's Word?
And it's, and it's because of what we were already alluding to
before when we were talking about the Israelites and Exodus
and all these things. It's like they have such short
memories. Like we read, we read their
story. And if we're honest, we can't,
like, we go, OK, yeah, we're like Israel, but then we read it
and we're like, nobody's that dumb, you know, like.
I know. Yeah.
For. Sure, like you've been out of
you've literally walked through the Red Sea and you've been like
out of past the Red Sea for five seconds and you're complaining
about being thirsty. Like who is that dull?
Right. And it's the answer is us.
We we are all that dull. How James even says it, He says
like one minute, you know, there's there's praise coming
out of your mouth and the next minute there's like anger and
hostility and resentment and it's like brothers and sisters,
this should not be. And it just reminds me of how
quick we are, right? Like when we praising in the
car, listen to worship song, somebody cuts us off and the
next second we're cursing, right?
Like we are just like the Israelites.
But I think that's why it's so important to be in God's word,
because the world, the flesh, the our flesh, the devil, all
these things are working against us, right?
Trying to trying to turn us away from God, trying to find
satisfaction and fulfillment in the world, trying to find
fulfillment in the things of this life.
And those weeds begin to creep in our hearts of being the creep
and take over our life. And it takes the pruning of
God's Word. I got this from our professor
again. I was reading some of the notes
that I had from our class. The Pru takes the pruning of
God's Word to constantly be pulling those things back.
And the truth is it's like it doesn't just take one reading of
God's Word and it's like, oh, now you're good forever.
Same thing with an apple tree. Or if you have a garden, it's
like, you know, it's like you don't just pull the weeds once
and then you don't have to worry about it the rest of the year.
It's like you got to be on top of it all year, the whole year,
the whole season so that you make sure those weeds don't
creep in and take over. And I feel like that's so true
in our lives. It's like that's why we got to
be in God's word every day. Because every day I'm tempted to
find satisfaction in Facebook. Every day I'm tempted to get a
better phone, to buy a nicer car to to go to the golf course.
And maybe today I'll shoot my best score ever.
Like every day I'm battling those things, finding
fulfillment in the things of this life.
And every day God is saying taste and see that the Lord is
good. Be reminded that like God is all
you need. You don't need the stuff of this
world. And I, I say that because you
sent you sent a sermon last week from a from, from Doctor Cook,
one of our our previous pastor. And he was talking about the
life of David. And you know this he, he read
that passage. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. And as we're coming up to Lent,
I just thought I might use that verse as my, as my verse for
Lent, as I, you know, try to give up some things and maybe
try to put in other practices in my life.
And I just thought like, you know, in a season where where,
you know, usually people, it's, it's food related, right?
Like I'm going to cut certain foods out of my life or I'm
going to cut bad habits out of my life.
I thought that's a really good verse to hang onto, to say, you
know, rather than, you know, running to sweets as my comfort
or rather than wanting to whatever it is, right, It's like
I'm going to taste and see that the Lord is.
Good. Yeah.
That sermon was really helpful to me because he's talking about
David eating the bread of the presents.
So that's whenever it is. David's in the on the run from
Saul and he's starving. He's got his men there.
And then they go and eat the consecrated bread, the bread of
the presents and, you know, breaks the law, whatever.
But then like, he, he acts like a crazy person.
And Doctor Cook was so like, like quick, he was quick to
point out that like David was the anointed 1.
He didn't have to act like a crazy person, right?
He, he's the, he's the anointed king, even though he hasn't, you
know, assumed the throne yet. But he, he forgot God.
Like he Doctor Cook made the made the point that in the in
the text in Samuel that that there's no mention of God in the
text in the story, in the narrative.
But then in the Psalm when David is recalling it, he says God so
many times he has had the time, the time to like the separation
from the event to be able to like really, man, I don't really
need to do. And just like you said, he's
trying to find salvation outside of God is what he was trying to
do be saved from the situation. And and we don't have to do that
like we have God's word and so taste and see that the Lord is
good. The Lord is going to take care
of you. He's going to satisfy your needs
and your wants and your desires. Yeah.
There's just such a good sermon. Yeah.
Anyway, I'll, I'll, maybe I'll link that in the show notes,
too, because, yeah, Doctor Cook's so good.
But that was just a really good lesson to learn.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
And I think that's why, again, just why we just have to be
disciplined to be in God's Word all the time so that He can, He
can be pruning away our flesh, pruning away the desires of this
life, and just helping us to find our satisfaction, our joy
in Him. Any other?
Well, do you have any thoughts on?
Hang on, let me find it. OK.
Verse three, he said. The first three, I'll just say
I'll just read it. And he read from it.
Facing the square before the Watergate from early morning
until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those
who could understand. All the ears of all the people
were attentive to the book of the law.
Do you do you have anything to say about those who could
understand? Yeah, I, I, I didn't study this
a whole lot. I know Doctor Betson, his
commentary sort of pointed to the fact that like, well, it
mean this would have included like foreigners, this would have
included children, like anybody. And, and he sort of pointed to
the fact that, and, and I know a lot of our people would sort of
relate, sort of connect with this because they come from
backgrounds where children were sort of excluded from certain
parts of worship. And sort of Doctor Betts was
making the point that like there shouldn't be that separation of
like, well, kid, this is not for kids, right?
This it's like anybody who can understand should be in God's
word and should be hearing God's word and studying God's word,
right? And so I think that's an
important element to like you, you don't exclude, you don't
exclude people from from the hearing of God's Word, right?
Yeah, I was just like drawing an application.
Like obviously we don't, we're not like what the people some
people call like a family integrated church, right.
Like we don't, we have Sunday school first for kids.
We have, we have areas for kids to go.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean we don't want them in the service.
Right. So like if you have a conviction
of bringing your children into the service, by all means.
Yeah, do it. Come to the first service
though, because you'll have more room.
Well, I know people that do that.
You're absolutely. But we also want to make make it
clear, like I don't think we're being disobedient to this by not
by not saying, because what we're doing, and you mentioned
this in our in the sermon is what we're doing in the kids
environments is we're giving them the word of God.
Yeah. We're not like neglecting that.
It's not like coming over here and having a tea party.
Yeah. They're, they're, they're
listening to a Bible story. Yeah.
They're going through the entire Bible in, in the course of three
years. Yeah.
And they're, they're listening to a teacher give the Bible
story. They're doing like activities
that are related to the story and all the different things.
So I think it's important to note there's different ways to
do church. There's different ways that we
can set it up. We don't have the space for all
of our families in our church, for one thing, right?
That's a sort of practical reality.
But if you like baby, baby's crying.
Do they bother you, Joe, when you're preaching?
Oh, I Not at all. Me neither.
It's like it's sort of funny you.
Always apologize. I'm like, I didn't even hear
your baby crying. This last Sunday, I, I, I sort
of like noticed that people were looking at a certain direction
and then I sort of caught on to like, oh, there is, there is a,
a child that was like, and then I sort of noticed, but like I
didn't even notice to that point.
I know people ask me that and I'm like, sometimes I notice it,
but it's like I'm so focused on what I'm doing that it's like I,
I keep trucking along and. The thing is we're, we're
parents, right? And we, we know what it's like
to have kids, and we know that they're gonna be rambunctious
and they're not bothering anyone really.
But you. Yeah.
And so if you feel like you need to take them out, do that.
But don't feel like it's something that, like, everybody
around you, they might be sort of like, oh, whatever, you know,
can't focus in that moment. But the Lord's gonna.
The Lord's gonna give them and reveal them what they need in
the message, with or without your kid crying.
Yeah. So don't worry about it.
Yeah. Anyway.
But no, that is. That is a good thing to point
out though, because, yeah, I mean, there, there will be some
people. I mean, I know we have people on
both sides, both sides, right? People who do appreciate like,
hey, they want their kids to be in the service.
They want them to see that and, and they do, right.
So we have kids, we do have age graded ministries for children
up to grade 5 through grade 5. And so at that point they're
what, 10-11 years old. And so after that, then then
they would come into the service, right?
And so then we do fold them into like what we do in a Sunday
morning, right? And it's like you said, like I,
I do notice, like my kids will get more out of the Sunday
school than they will like sitting in the service, right?
I, I do know they get things out of the service, like if they sit
in, in the service, but we, I'm pretty diligent to ask our kids
what they're learning in Sunday school at lunch on Sundays.
And it's just incredible. Like, like, like the whole
story, like they're remembering like every bit and every part of
it, like the craft they did and, and the story and the
application of the story. And it's just, and so I, yeah,
I, I'm not like super hard on it.
Like I would never, never say like, oh, we'll never just have
kids in the service. I'm not that convictional about
it, but I'm convictional about kids getting the Bible.
For sure, yeah, 100% yeah. It's like we coach our teachers
in Sunday school to to read the story themselves or tell the
story themselves. And then we have we also have
the video that plays and shows the story with, you know, some
for the younger kids, it's like a a lady of ventriloquist so
does like a puppet. And then for the older ones,
it's like some pictures on the on the screen with someone
telling it and sort of like in more engaging way than right.
So they get it twice, at least twice in in the in the lesson,
which is helpful. But yeah, anyway, I just, I love
this, this versus where a lot of the people who think integrated
church should be like the, the only thing you do, the I think
the important thing is that God's word is at the center,
right? So that's the important thing we
need to remember. Well, and so before we move on
from that, I guess I'll just say like you oversee the children's
ministry and the Wednesday night ministry and, and what the kids
are learning. So thank you for your diligence
and your hard work on like having that conviction, right,
that we're going to be in God's word.
And you know, you guys, you guys working together with, with the
Sunday School Committee recently, like within the last
year worked on like how do we get a, the curriculum we've had
before was good, but then you guys work together to like,
well, how can we get more Bible in there or be more intentional?
And so you guys working together did an excellent job of like
coming up with a curriculum that gets our kids in the.
Word and everybody seems to really like it and that's good
yeah. Everybody that comes to teach
really likes. I think the kids do too.
So but yeah, it's it is a conviction of mine.
We have to make sure that we don't and it's not watered down.
They they don't skip things that are hard.
They, they just go for it. Yeah, which is good.
I mean, they do skip around, right?
Because they're they're kids. We're not reading.
We're not reading the end of judges.
OK, Don't be fearful of that. But yeah, it is a conviction.
And so, but yeah, then gracious, the Sunday School Committee and
all the different people who like takes an army of volunteers
to do it. They're all gracious to to say,
OK, this is what this is the vision.
This is what we're going to do. And so that's been, it's been
very good. So.
Yeah, and it keeps growing. But we knew want you to come to
the early service if you're listening to this, this will
just make a plug for the early service.
The early service is exactly the same, right?
Yep. No difference in music, no
difference in the sermon in the Sunday school.
If there's a difference in the sermon, it's very slight.
You might get a better sermon in the 1st on the first round
depending on who the preacher is.
That's actually really funny because I would have always
thought, OK, the second one, you've refined it a bit and so
it gets better and I and I feel like, hey, if you preach it
three or four or five times, I think that probably would be
true. It's like you'd eventually get
it so solidified in your mind that it would be better.
But I do find often times with the first one, the first one is
better than the best. You got all the energy, you're
ready to go. Yeah.
I found that like for most of the time, the first Rep is best.
The last sermon that I preached the.
I wish the second one was recorded, not the first, because
it was better anyway. Yeah, I think I find that like I
go off script more in the second one, like off manuscript more in
the second service when I'm preaching than I would in the
1st. And therefore you have.
Your thoughts aren't as connected as they should be.
You would you would think they would be more right, but I I
find the same thing. It's like I'm I'm although I
feel a little more free to go off script but that's when I I
miss things. I get ahead of myself and then I
think, oh, I got to go back now anyway.
I thought this was going to be the year of no manuscript.
Joe No. Not this year, not quite there.
What's your final thought for Nehemiah?
Eight, I think the final thought is I mean, obviously like, I
mean I talked a lot about the vision of our church to be like
word centered that in our preaching, in our teaching, in
our worship, in our Sunday morning gatherings, in our
Wednesday night gatherings, like in everything that we do, we
want to be word centered. And I think I would just that
that is a vision of our church. That's the direction that we're
headed. Like that's what we want.
We know that God's word changes people.
And so we that's, that's sort of our expectation of people that
come in, right? And so we want every ministry
that we do to be word centered. And so that no matter what, no
matter what event you come to, no matter what ministry you come
to, it's like you're going to be fed the word of God.
And so I would just encourage people to for you in your life,
right? I sort of posed that question in
the first point that like, what are you doing to put God's word
at the center of your life? I sort of it's a good question.
It is a good question. And as I was thinking about it
this week, like I just sort of thought, I sort of thought about
like, like for us to be unified, we all need to be in the word
together, right? It's like if there's one person,
you know, who never reads the Bible, but like has opinions and
ideas about how things should go, it's like, how can we really
trust that person when they're not being shaped and molded and
pruned by God's word? Like, like we can't really be
confident that like, their will is God's will, right?
Because they're not subjecting themselves to God's word every
day. And so it's like we want to be a
people who all together are pursuing God in his word, you
know, feeding our love for the Lord to call back to like an
earlier in First Corinthians so that we're being shaped and
molded into his image so that we are all unified and heading in
the same direction. And so I guess just again, I
would just again promote D groups, which we often do in
this, in this podcast, but man, that's such a great way if, if
you need accountability, if you need help, if you want to grow
together with brothers and sisters in Christ, that is such
a great ministry where you're it's not complicated, it's not
difficult, it's not hard, it's very simple.
It follows our Bible reading plan and you just hold each
other accountable to read. You talk about what you're
learning, pray together, memorize the scripture together.
Like it's very simple, but it is so effective.
Yeah, yeah, it's and you don't have to have, you don't have to
have been in one already to, to start 1.
And so like if you're interested in it at all, just reach out to
me or Joe. We'll be glad to like get you
connected. Find 3 or 4 people of the same
gender as you. Like if you're a lady, find 3 or
4 ladies. If you're a guy, find 3 or 4 men
or like and and make it to all different age groups.
Like find people that are in all different walks of life.
Even though that made me more uncomfortable at first, I think
you'll find out that it's way more beneficial for you to have
that. And then just like get with us.
We, we have a starter guide that we can hand you and we can walk
with you for the first it it gives you the first four weeks
of meetings. Like it's it we, we can help you
get started. So yeah, very, very good.
D groups are the way to go. Yeah, I even built an app for
you anyway. Which is good.
It's getting better, but yeah, so things we like.
Did you have anything this week? Not that I can think of.
So we said something three weeks ago, maybe now, maybe it was
just two weeks. We talked about RC, Sprole said.
Everybody's a theologian. Was that with you or was that
with Carl and Ryan? I can't.
Remember, I remember that. I think it was with me.
Anyway, JT English and Jim Wilkin wrote a book that's they,
they stole it and they were completely ripped off RC Sprole,
but they give him credit in the book.
But like it's called You are a theologian.
It's very short, but it's very, very good and it basically just
like maps out like anybody that thinks about God in any way.
You are a theologian. It's just thinking and studying
God. So I would recommend that book
to anybody that's interested at all in like basic Christian
theology that's going to spell it out for you, give you like a
basic high level overview. It starts with the Trinity,
which is the hardest part sometimes for some people to
understand and comprehend. But anyway, I'll recommend that.
So good. Everyone's a theologian.
Yeah. I'll recommend both RC Sproles
and theirs just so you can have both.
Yeah, anyway. But they're very, very good.
So I wanna say I was just on a website the other day.
I know where you can get a copy of that for free.
I'll maybe look for it again and see if I can find that.
Maybe we can link that? Somewhere, yeah, for sure.
And then if you have Spotify Premium and you're the primary
user in your house, that's the rule that they have for Spotify
Premium for audiobooks. If you're Spotify, it's
currently available on Spotify Premium for audiobooks for just
included in the fee. Whatever you pay for that
anyway. Nice, that's good.
So nothing else. No, Sir.
OK. Will you open in prayer?
No, you didn't. You prayed before we started.
Will you close us in prayer? Sure.
All right. Thanks, Joe.
Laura, we are so grateful for your word.
We're so grateful that it teaches us of of your
faithfulness all through generations and that it teaches
us who you are. We are so grateful to find out
that that you are not a God who is angry and frustrated and and
unwilling to forgive. You are a just God who is going
to who is going is not going to clear the guilty.
You are going to to give justice.
But at the same time, Lord, you are so gracious and forgiving
and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love for those who
love you and into the thousandth generation.
Lord, you are so good and your word teaches us about that and
we know that all of your word is fulfilled in Christ and, and we
have the promise that that he has come and ushered in this new
covenant whereby we can have a relationship with you.
We can be made right before you. We can have the hope that one
day we will be in your presence all through our faith in Christ.
Because through faith in Christ, our sins are forgiven, we are
washed clean, we are made new, we are given new life by the
power of your Spirit, Lord. And so we thank you for this
truth and we, we thank you for these realities.
And we pray that that through the power of your spirit,
through you changing our hearts, that we desire to be a people of
your word, that our greatest longing is to be satisfied in
your presence, to be shaped and molded and pruned by your word.
And we pray, Lord, that as we do that, that that you would unify
us as a church, that you would transform us through the
renewing of our minds, and that you would grow us into your body
so that we may fulfill your work, that we may build your
Kingdom as we seek to bring glory and honor to your name.
We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
Well, thanks LEMC for listening. We hope to see you next week.
Have a great week.