We're still doing topical stuff for at least this week.
The Lord kind of wanted me to do all of January and I keep trying
to talk him out of it because I'm really ready to get started
in Exodus. But for right now, we're going
through so today it's going to be we're going to be in Joshua
one versus one through 9 and we're going to be talking about
spending time in the word is really the the point of the
whole, the topical part of it. But my corny title, meditate on
this. I was going to see if I could do
something really offensive and mock yoga, but I decided I would
just say meditate on this. So we'll, we'll start in chapter
1 of Joshua one or Joshua, Joshua chapter 1, starting in
verse one, after the death of after the death of Moses, the
servant of Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua,
the son of the son of Nun, Moses, his assistant.
Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore arise and go over
the Jordan, you and all the people through the land which I
am giving to them, the children of Israel, every place the sole
of your foot will tread upon. I have given you, as I said to
Moses, from the wilderness of Lebanon, as far as the great
river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to
the great city towards or the great sea towards the going down
of the sun shall be your territory.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your
life. As I was with Moses, so I will
be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake
you. Be strong and of good courage,
for to this people you shall divide its inheritance, the land
which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe
to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded
you to do, not turning from it to the right hand or to the
left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you
shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to
do according to all that is written in it.
For when you will make your soul, for then you will make
your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage?
Do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with
you wherever you go. And Lord, I just lift up today.
I lift up this time. I thank you for so many things,
Lord, that you do for us every day.
Lord, that you just keep this congregation in this body
physically healthy, Lord, spiritually healthy, Lord, that
you also protect us as we're driving on the roads.
And Lord, that you put appointments in front of each
and every one of us to speak life into people's lives, Lord.
To. Share you with the community
around us and I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.
So how important was the law the the book of the law is is what
God's telling Moses or telling Joshua here and it was a
necessity for leadership to understand it completely was was
God's will for his people is to actually get it and understand
it. And the thing with that is guys
and I, I don't know if we as Christians really basking in the
joy that we have a God that wrote it down.
You don't have to go figure it out, right?
It's, it is, it is written down for us to know what he expects,
what he, what it is to serve him.
And now in Deuteronomy, Moses explains to the Israelites what
will be expected of a king in Deuteronomy 17, verses 18 and
19. And we'll wait and let you guys
turn there if you have your Bibles.
I, I cheat because I have it all printed out so I can blow
through them, but I don't let you guys actually get there.
So see, I put my Bible up here, so I would actually stop and
flip to it. So starting in verse 18 of
chapter 17. Also it shall be when he sits on
the throne of the Kingdom, that he shall write for himself a
copy of the law in a book from the one before the priests and
Levites, and it shall be with him, and he shall read it all
the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his
God, and be careful to observe all the words of the law and the
statues. So kings were required to write
out with a quill on a scroll or a chisel on a rock.
The entire book of the law, which had a minimum would be
Leviticus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, but it was
probably Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. So anybody want to take that on?
OK, I get, I mean, I'll let you type it out.
Right. I'll give you I'll give you a
computer and you can get to typing.
But there are rules. It must be written on skins of
clean animals. It must be prepared for the
synagogue used by by by a Jew only must be fastened together
with strings taken from clean animals.
Each skin must contain exactly the number of columns, which
must be equal throughout the entire manuscript.
The breadth of each column must consist of 30 letters, and
there's a list of 20 or 30 more things.
Here's one. Each time the scribe comes
across the Hebrew word for God, he has to wipe his pen clean.
And when he comes across the name of God, Yahweh, he has to
wash his whole body before he could write it.
And should a king address the scribe while writing the name,
he must take no notice of him. If a sheet of parchment had one
mistake on it, the sheet was condemned.
If there were three mistakes found on any page, the whole
manuscript was condemned. Every word and every letter was
counted. If a letter or a word was
omitted, the manuscript was condemned.
So if the if the king wrote wrote all of the book of
Deuteronomy and they went through and checked it and he
missed one word, they crumpled it up, threw it away and well,
they didn't actually do that. There's a whole process of them
getting still the word of God. But anyway, he had to do it
again. And so.
All that to be. Said is that it was taken
seriously and and there was a gift in the fact that God wrote
it down for us and and we should understand it at A at a personal
level. Luke 24, verse 44.
Says. Then he said to them, These are
the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of
Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.
And I. I challenge anybody here,
including myself to go through without AI and find everything
that speaks of Jesus in the Bible.
And I'm pretty sure on your whether Jesus comes back first
or in your day and day, dying day, that assignment will not be
completed, right? So there is there is always more
for us to learn in the word. There's always more places for
Jesus to show us and reveal to us who he is and his his vision
for us. So this this verse, this verse
in in Joshua, I say is the key verse to Joshua is that he's
supposed to dwell on the word of God.
One of my favorite moments in, in the book of Joshua is when
AI, they get, they get excited and they think they've got
something after they've done Jericho and they think they can
go attack AI and they, they go attack AI without asking God or
talking to God. And people die and there's
repentance and there's that. But then they go and they, they,
they go to God and they say, how do we do this?
And God gives them a plan and they go conquer that plan and
they, they conquer AI. And then Joshua takes them up on
a mountain and reads them the entire law.
Like, OK, let's be clear. When we did Jericho, you got it
in your head, you did something. So now we're going to do this
little town of AI and now we're going to go on a mountain and
I'm going to read you the whole law so we can remember who our
God is, right? And once again, that's I just
when this is when Joshua was saying we're going to, you know,
when it says they read the book of the law, that is Joshua going
up on the mountain and reading them five books of the Bible.
Anybody want to sit through that?
I can start right? I mean, it is they they really
dug into it, right? They really understand.
Do we understand that that God came down and on a mountain and,
and gave Moses these books and then he spoke to men and women
and and wrote down his word inspired by the Holy Spirit,
right. And for us to know those things
is, is so important. We're not going to go there.
But if you guys want to look at how much, how much reverence the
book of the law had, they had lost it at one point where they
weren't reading it and they'd had some bad kings in Israel or
in Judah. And Josiah, a good king in
Second Samuel was presented with the book of the law and he
basically acted like the Ninevites in Jonah.
He tore his clothes and repented and said we have to do
everything in that book. I don't know what we, we, I
apologize. We, we are, we are beyond
sinning. And he had been doing he had
been doing. If you if you read that second
Samuel, chapters 22 and 23, you will see that he really was a
good king that was really doing after God's heart on that.
But when he actually got to the law, he was, he was convicted.
And and that's us, right? Is that's, that's the awesome
thing about the word of God is that it will, it will convict
us. It will, it will change us
because it has the power, right? It's got the it's, it's got the
words of life. And through this, and you got a
picture in this moment, Joshua understood something that we
don't understand. And the enemy does a really good
job of trying very hard to hide this Joshua.
It was very clear that Joshua was about to.
End for battle. Right and and God said that if
you do these things, you will make your way prosperous and you
will have good success. Do you guys want to be
prosperous and have good success, Right.
And Joshua understood that he was about to battle that would
get people killed if he didn't have, if he wasn't prosperous.
And have good success. It was going to go badly.
And so Joshua wanted to wanted to do that right.
Do we want do we understand that every day we're in a battle,
right? Not one, not one that we we
don't get a swing swords and we don't get to have catapults and
but we're in a battle in the in the heavenly place, in the
heavenly places, right? And we're in a battle for souls
and Eleazar in in second Samuel 23 verses 9:00 and 10:00.
I've I've talked about him before.
Just a great picture of what how the Lord uses us in a battle.
And this is a physical battle starting in verse 9.
And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Anonite, one of
the three mighty men with David. When they defied the Philistines
who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel
had retreated, he arose and attacked the Philistines until
his hand was weary and his hand stuck to the sword.
And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the
people returned after him only to plunder.
So, so how do we do that, right? Do we go get swords and start
swinging and, and hitting people with them?
You know, how do I, how do I cling to my sword and that the
key is we stay focused on Jesus and his word.
You know, I always say, Can you imagine Eleazar mid battle
saying something like I need to check my feet?
I wonder what the social media is going on today.
I wonder, I wonder what my friends are up to.
What's what's my e-mail right there?
There's a there's a focus we need when we're in the word
right? And it says you shall not
depart. God is telling Joshua to stay
focused. Don't take your eyes off the
truth. Know who I am.
If we stay in the word, we stay out of our fields.
The enemy doesn't stand and and then and when we stay out of our
fields, suddenly the enemy doesn't stand a chance right.
And and when I say feels it's you can I pull up YouTube or
Facebook and I can listen to people tell me how they feel and
how they think this is right or how they feel that is right.
And none of that really matters, right?
What matters is what is right. You know Jeremiah 17 verses 7:00
and 9:00. If you want to turn there says
blessed is the man who trusts and trusts in the Lord, and
whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree
planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the
river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaves will
be green, and will not be, and will not be anxious in the year
of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? So if I'm in my fields, that
would be in my heart, which is desperately wicked, right?
But if I'm in the word, if I, if I am planted next to the the
living water of the word right then, then all of a sudden I
have green leaves and I'm not anxious.
But when we least focus on his word and life, we get
distracted, right and start thinking I know better.
This is this is always a especially like I said, when
we're on YouTube or Facebook, we have all kinds of people that
just know better than the Lord. The enemy tweaks stuff and we
miss it right, because we don't know what the word says because
we haven't read it right. It's I have an old, old buddy
that I worked with. He was actually a, a Baptist
kid, Baptist guy grew up with the Baptist and, and he used to
joke and say the Bible loses all its mysticism and fuzziness when
you read it, right. I mean, when you listen to
somebody, you can very quickly, very often in a, in a
conversation or debate with somebody, you can very quickly
know just from the words coming out of their mouth if they've
read the Bible or if they've just heard things about the
Bible, right. And we need to be those that
have read the Bible that are, that are in our word, right?
That because it's what changes people's lives, not not because
I have the perfect argument. You know, I, I say this a lot,
You know, when I'm in Uganda, the last thing I want to do when
some, when I walk away from somebody that I've shared the
gospel with, the last thing I want them doing is re replaying
the conversation we had in their head and figuring out how to
beat me in the argument. I want to leave them arguing
with the Lord, right? I want to leave them going.
That is what it says right and that's that's what that's what
we should be after all the time is not in my fields right, but
in this is what the word of God says right and Ephesians 617
we've all heard the armor of God, but it says I take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is
the word of God. So in the Eleazar.
Quote. Passage.
It's so if the sword, if the word of God is our sword, right?
How well should we know that? How well should we know the
thing we're support our offensive weapon and and not
offensive to damage, but offensive to win, right to to
have those conversations. You know, I mean, when you think
about what happened, when I say stand back, Lord, I know how to
reach this world better than you.
You know, anybody, if you've seen any YouTube videos or or
churches like that, that that veer off what the Bible says
because they don't want to offend.
Let's skip over sin and judgement and just love and
accept. But then you all but don't don't
think that that's you know, there there are just as many
Pharisaical churches out there or people out there that says
let's skip love and just be in judgement and condemnation,
right. We are not supposed to turn from
the right or the left right. We're we're supposed to stay in
the word and that is that is something that is hard for us
because it is really truly trusting him and submitting to
him all the time because I want, I want an easy path.
I want something that I can just say it's like this and I'm just
going to be like this all the time.
And God says you're supposed to love, love people for their
best. And guys, I love in in our
crooked culture, which we'll get into love is not letting letting
people do whatever they want and follow their heart.
That is dreadfully wicked, right?
It is, It is loving them and doing the best for them.
You know, I, I loving someone is not letting them run, run out
and jump and run in front of a train they don't see coming.
That isn't loving, right? Well, they really, they, they
think they can beat the train. Well, it isn't loving to let
them do that. Loving is tackling them, right?
It's doing the best thing for the other person.
That's loving First Timothy 41 says now the spirit especially
says that in the latter time, some will depart from the faith,
giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
And that's guys. When we skip sin and judgment,
we're in those doctrines. When we when we're just judge
judgment and condemnation, we're in those doctrines, right?
We need to stay focused and stay in the Word, right?
Second Timothy 316 and we all know this one, I believe it says
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction and righteousness. So it's got the ability to do
anything we need it to do. It's got the ability to reach
the lost. It's got the ability to correct
the lost. It's got the ability to train
the lost, but then it. Joshua and Joshua goes on to say
you shall meditate. And meditate has been jacked,
hijacked by yoga and Buddhists and Hindus, because what they
say it is, is they're trying to empty their minds to get to a
higher reality. And that is a completely
different idea, right? Because if you empty your minds,
Jesus shared in Matthew 12 verses 43 through 45 what that
looks like and why that should never be our goal.
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry
places seeking rest and finds none.
Then he says, I'll return to my house from which I came, and
when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and they enter and dwell there.
And the last state of the man is worse than the first.
So shall it also be with this wicked generation.
So when, when, when we try to empty our minds, when we try to.
I just need to get. They just need to be like at
peace and and in a state of calm.
But I'm not, I'm not putting anything good in.
Something's coming in right. A better way to explain what God
means by meditation is contemplation, or to think on
it, to ponder, to chew it over, to dwell on it, or to memorize
it. Psalm 119, verse 15 says, I will
meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways and my
favorite and I have lots of faith.
One of my favorite verses, which I have 100.
So it's it's my favorite today, Philippians 4 verses 8 and 9.
And it says finally, brethren, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble, whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue,
if there is any praiseworthy, anything praiseworthy, meditate
on these things, right? So This Is Us meditating on the
word, right? Psalm 91 says he shall cover you
with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge.
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
So his truth is our shield from our from the enemy's lines,
right? So if I know what the truth is,
then the enemy's enemy's lies have no effect over me.
If we are full of God's truth, we can hear deceptions.
I was that a small Bible study? Probably 10 years ago and they
had a guest speaker and he wasn't like a, a bad man And he,
he didn't, he didn't, there was nothing I could pick out
specifically that wasn't right about what he was saying, but it
was all, and, and it was, he was prophesying.
And, and then, you know, but when you, when you get into his
particular denomination or group, you know, they're,
they're training people to prophecy and they're training
people to speak in tongues. And there's just something off
there because it, there's, if you look at, if you look at like
Acts, was there a lot of training at that moment?
Those guys speaking in tongues did did Peter put on a seminar
before everybody started speaking in tongues, right when,
when Saul, when Saul went up or Saul, which is king Saul, when
Samuel says you're going to go prophesied it Samuel give him a
a seminar on what prophesying look like.
Everybody know that story, right?
It's so that stuff comes from the Lord.
It's not a training session that you get and we need to, we need
to meditate on, on noble, on being noble, right?
And what is noble? It's it's great or elevated or
dignified. It's it's righteousness, right?
And in Job, it says Job 29, which I recommend.
All the guys in here should just sit down, write down, read Job
29 because for you it's as it's as powerful a chapter as Psalm
3rd Proverbs 31 is to ladies right, but I'm just going to
verse 14. It says I put on righteousness
and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a
turban. Job understood God's
righteousness. It covered his life right.
Psalm 82 three and this is on meditating on justice.
Defend the poor and the fatherless do not or do justice
to afflict the needy. When we stay in God's Word, we
can discern justice. And this is many well, well
meaning. I mean, that's the thing guys,
is, is that many well meaning fuzzy thinkers out there miss
justice completely. And in our culture, I already
talked about it is some sometimes that plan is that I'm
just going to love others and agree with all of their views
and accept them. And the fuzzy thinking in that
is because they'll, they'll also say things like, well, Jesus
accepts everybody. And so we just have to accept
everybody as they are. But let's, let's look at what
Jesus did in in John 8 verses 11 and 12.
And this is, if you don't know the story, this is the woman
that was caught in the very act of adultery.
And she was brought before him and they wanted to stay, wanted
him, wanted her stoned. And he said, you know, he who
hasn't sinned, cast the first stone.
And none of them did. And they all left.
And so he looks up and he asks her, he says, so where are your
where are your condemners? And she says they've all you
know, she actually right here, she says in verse 11, she said
no one Lord, and Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you go
and sin no more than Jesus spoke to them again saying I am the
light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk
in darkness, but have the light of life.
So this wasn't Jesus accepting her as she was.
This was Jesus saying that I'm not going to condemn you go and
sin no more, right? And if you're, if you're walking
with me, you won't walk in darkness, right?
You, I will, I will. Christ will show us how to walk
in the light. And he does that.
He does that through his spirit and through his word right and
then loving others is forcing them to believe and act like you
and guys, I would say that if the if the American conservative
church is guilty of anything, this is their guilt.
And we we're in good company because Luke 954 and 55, two of
our favorites. And when his disciples James and
John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire
to come down from heaven and consume them just like Elijah
did, But he turned to rebuke them.
You do not know what manner of spirit you are.
For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to
save them. And they went out, went to
another village. So James and John really thought
they were, they were going to do the Lord's work, right?
They went to a village and the village didn't receive them.
And they said, let's just burn them out, get rid of them.
Anybody ever feel like that, right?
And, and Jesus rebuked them, right?
And said, you don't know what manner of spirit you are in.
I came to save the world, not destroy it.
Being in the world, being in the word gives us the ability to see
the world and its problems from what what it is and how God
wants to handle it. You know, I was meeting with the
elders and that's as we're downtown, as we're downtown and
the, the, the vision for this body and this church and this
location is that we're to be in the world, but not of it.
And guys, the only way we pull that off, the only way that
happens and we, we honor God and reach the community.
The only way that happens is if we're in his word, if we're
walking in step with him, right? Because if you let me try to
figure it out, I'm going to, I'm going to blow it, right?
Because I'm going to lean too far one way or the other,
because because either side of that coin is easier to do right,
to be too loving or to be too judgmental is easier than
walking down the middle and loving like Jesus loved.
And the only way we do that is if we're in his word right, and
we're, we're listening to him and we're, we're obeying him and
we're submitting to him. But we can't.
I don't submit to, I don't submit to some random thing out
here, right? Jesus isn't some random thing.
This isn't a this isn't a game we play in religious world.
He wrote it down. We have we have words we can
follow. There's guidance that we get and
then we will, as he told Joshua, then we will we will make our
way prosperous and we will have good success right as we as we
spend time in his word. John 519 says, then Jesus
answered and said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, the son
can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do for
whatever he does, the son also does in like manner.
So when Jesus and we've all read the gospels, hopefully, but when
Jesus was here, how many times did he have interactions with
people that just amazed you, right?
You know, my favorite, my, my favorite back and forth with the
Pharisees was on taxes because it was, it was an amazing
question, right? I mean, he's, he's in the temple
and everybody in the temple hates Rome.
And but there are still people in the temple that will turn him
in for being seditious towards Rome.
So when they come to him and say, well, who should we pay
taxes? Now?
If he says yes, we should pay taxes, they're going to say that
he was he's he's not of God and that he's evil.
But if he says they that he shouldn't pay taxes, then
they'll say that he's striking A rebellion and Rome should come
pick him up and kill him. And what does Jesus do in that
moment? He has the perfect answer,
right? He just asked for a coin and
says give to Caesar. What's Caesar's and give to God?
What's God's? And they were amazed by his
answer because it was an impossible question, guys.
That's what we run into every day or impossible questions.
And the only way we're ever going to answer them is if we're
in step with our Savior, in step with the Spirit of the Lord.
And the only way to be there is to be like we talked last week,
to be spending time in prayer, but also be spending time in his
Word, right? Know what he says, don't think
what he says. Nobody says He wrote it down for
us to read it And then meditate on purity.
And First Timothy 412 says let no one despise your youth, but
be an example to the believers in Word and conduct and love and
spirit and faith and purity. Purity is an all or nothing
game, right? We've talked about the the help
the last time I was talking about purity, but one I was
thinking about when I was thinking on purity in Uganda,
they have the UN came in and there was they were having they
were having some health problems in their camps.
So because all the all the people were going out in the
Bush and going to the bathroom, well, that's a lot of people in
a very tight area. And so you can imagine the mess
that was. So they dug pit latrines and pit
latrines solved that problem and created a much larger problem.
Well, I don't know, larger, just another problem that Ugandans
were not prepared for at the time.
And that was the pit latrines. They dig them down about 30 feet
boreholes, which are their pump their their water pumps, they're
dug down about 30 feet. Anybody figure out what that
that sound like pure water anymore, right?
And but the The funny thing with that story, and that's exactly
how I expected you guys to react to it, is the moment I said that
they were at the same level instantly.
You didn't ask me how far apart they were.
You just knew that they were no longer pure, right?
You didn't say, well, is the pit latrine in the same area now?
It, it doesn't matter at that point that water is, has been
contaminated and it has it's, it's actually so most of the
guys in Uganda are shockingly stubborn and like maybe there's
some men in Idaho like that. That's the way we've always done
it. I got 1 buddy that is his, him
and his wife are really smart people.
They're, they're intelligent. They know things and they, they
don't boil their water. And the reason they don't boil
their water and JB like, and, and I think they're boiling
their water now after many conversations, but he's like, I
didn't have to boil my water when I was a kid.
We don't have to boil our water. That's a bunch of
ridiculousness. Well, the difference is when he
was a kid, there were some things in the water, bacteria
and other things that could make it, could make it an American
sick, but couldn't make a Ugandan sick.
They got stronger stomachs that we have over just, they built up
those enzymes and stuff. But now all of the water has
typhoid in it because it's tied to pit latrines.
And that's the difference, right, Is that we've
contaminated, they contaminated their water.
And that purity is important and it's important for us.
The, this is the pure, right? I've got, I've got a library of
commentaries downstairs and I, and they have very good things
in them right there. There are guys way smarter than
me that have written way better things and they're intelligent,
but they're not scripture, right?
They are not pure. And so everything is to be
balanced off of what this says, right?
That's you'll find all the crooked doctrine out there is by
leaving parts of this out right, Whether you're Pentecostal or
Baptist or 7th Day Adventist or whatever the denomination is,
it's ignoring. It's not that what you're doing
is wrong. It's when you start pointing at
the others and saying they're doing it wrong, it's usually
because you are willfully ignoring verses in the Bible.
J Vernon McGee is if you guys the Bible bus.
I'm sure many of you have listened to him.
He's a he's a good old guy. Well, he's I, if you ever
listening to him, teach on the gifts of the Spirit.
A man that teaches phenomenally at a very simple level from
Genesis to Revelation, gets to the gifts of the Spirit and
starts doing backflips. With his own rules.
To get away with it because he doesn't want the gifts of the
spirit to be a thing and before he before he passed away because
God does have a sense of humor. He was healed and and and admits
he was healed and had a different opinion out.
I mean the Bible bust all those radio programs had already been
done. But my point with that is, is
that everybody in a commentary, everybody in a Bible study,
they're they're sinners, right? They're sinners that are doing
their best right to discern this.
What you need to do is read it and you need to be in it, right?
And and this is how important that is to the Lord.
Ephesians 5 chapter teasing chapter 5 verses 25 and 26 says
husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and
gave himself for her that he Christ might sanctify and
cleanse the church with the washing of the water by the word
and then meditate on love and that's if you guys don't you
guys never done this. This is I'm going to use my
name, but you guys can put your name in here.
First Corinthians 13 verses 4 through 8.
Nick suffers long and is kind. Nick does not envy.
Nick does not parade himself. Nick is not puffed up.
Nick does not behave rudely. Nick does not seek his own.
Nick is not provoked. Nick's thinks no evil.
Nick does not rejoice in iniquity.
Nick rejoices in truth. Nick bears all things Nick
believes all things Nick's hopes all things Nick endures all
things Nick never fails. Well, I fail at every one of
those on a regular basis, right? And the only way that that I
could ever, ever hope to hit that target is if I'm in Christ
and I'm letting him work through me.
And, and part of that being in Christ is being in his word,
right? It's not about, it's not about
what I think Christ is or what I feel like Christ is.
It's who is Christ. And he tells us, right?
And I need his filling and washing every day to guide me.
So I need to be in His word every day.
Because he can love people through me that I can't love.
He can. He can.
He doesn't seek his own right. He does believe all things.
He does endure all things. I don't do any of that.
Well outside of him. You know, it's I I've shared
with my daughters for years. The only good thing about Nick
Adams is, is Jesus Christ. And guys, I, I, I can't
emphasize that enough. Right when it says that our
hearts are dreadfully wicked, my heart is dreadfully wicked.
Outside of Christ, there is no good in me.
It's not like I showed up with some love and he added some
right outside of him. I've got a whole lot of
selfishness that just wants me. And so I need to be in his word
all the time being renewed and washed by him.
I need him to be guiding and directing me in everything I do.
When we meditate on good, it says and that's the gospel is
the good news. Do you dwell on that?
Do you do you ever just sit and and go through the go through
the gospels and just think about what he did and who he is and
the goodness of that. You know, John 317 back to for
God did not send his son into the world to condemn his to get
them the world, but that the world through him might be saved
and how good a news that is and the virtue meditating on virtue
is just the standard of right. If we stay in the word, we know
the standard and the standard is Revelation 19 verses verse 13
says he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is
called the word of God. Love that line because that is
more than more than when John says he was the word of God.
And I mean this is John writing Revelation, but this isn't his
name is called the word of God, right?
It's the Bible is not God by any stretch of the imagination, but
it is him reaching out to us to tell us who he is, like an
autobiography written by somebody from 100 years ago.
This is the Bible is something that we get to read and and
learn who our God is, not who Nick thinks he is right, not who
Chuck Smith thinks he is or Billy Graham thinks he is.
This is this is written in plain English for us to know who he is
and it's translated into hundreds of other languages that
we may observe like it says back in Joshua, which is just to
adhere or practice to obey Romans 616 and I use this one
all the time. Do you know do you not know that
to whom you present yourself slaves to obey you are that one
slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or
obedience leading to righteousness.
What are we obedient to right? Are we obedient to our feelings
or are we be obedient to God? And where do we get our
obedience from? He wrote it down, right.
When we practice or comply or adhere to the book of the law,
we will end in complete agreement, which is leads to
righteousness, right? That's that's the joy is when
when you apply this to your life, you find out that this is
the truth. So back-to-back to second Samuel
with Eleazar and the battle. How do you think his focus was?
Do you think he was in complete agreement with God and his will
for his sword? Do you think he was arguing with
him about it? I mean, you know, they're in the
battle. And he said, well, I think I
should go over here. Or was he just holding on to the
sword? Eleazar was ready for the battle
because he knew his sword and he trusted God to use it.
Do you know your Bible that well?
And I don't mean I don't mean memorized it cover to cover.
The the coolest thing about the word is it will show up at times
you have no idea that you needed it, right?
And it's in there and it's ready to be used.
Luke 2112 to 15. And if you think of this like
Eleazar practicing for battle with his sword, he didn't know
he's going to fight 100 guys or 300 guys.
He was just practicing with his sword.
And then when it came time to go to war, God used it as it was
needed to be used. Luke 21 verses 12 to 15, it
says, But before all these things, they will lay their
hands on you and persecute you and deliver you up to the
synagogues and the prisons. You will be brought before kings
and rulers for My name's sake, but it will turn out for you as
on an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your
hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will
answer for. I will give you a mouth of
wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to
contradict or resist. So we're not supposed to
meditate on particular arguments would be my point.
There in Uganda, they have two different ways of teaching in
the world and and one is to teach critical thinking.
Like if I'm going to teach you English, I'm going to teach you
how to speak English and you're going to understand the words
and in that you're going to be able to communicate or I'm going
to teach you like we teach Spanish.
If anybody's ever been here or been in a Spanish class, we're
going to teach you in Uganda. If I if I look at a whole room
like this and I say, how are you?
The entire room will echo. I am fine because that is the,
that is the I say, how are you? You say I am fine.
If you say, how are you? And I say I'm doing all right.
You have no idea what I just said because you don't know what
those words are. You just know the back and
forth, right? And my point there is don't,
don't concern yourself with the conversations you're going to
have. God knows what those are going
to be. Can you concern yourself with
being in his word and when those conversations come up, even if
you're in in court or in trouble or being persecuted, when those
times come, the words that will be needed you will have because
he will give them to you. Acts.
This is my Peter and John had one thing they got credit for
and through through their entire time, you know, John called
himself the disciple Jesus loved.
There's lots of things, but this is the thing I think they went,
yes, that's us. I want, I want that written on
my team stone that that's what I want.
Acts 413 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and
perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men,
they marvelled and they realized they had been with Jesus.
That's what I want on my tombstone, right?
Not that not, not anything else that I've been with Jesus,
right? The only way to get that credit
is to spend time with Him. And we'll finish with John 1
verses one through 4. I'm sure we all know it.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God
and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was
made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Only be strong and very
courageous because you have been with Jesus, the Word of God.
So I encourage you to be in your Bible to be reading guys, we're
going into a season of just a great time to be in your word,
right? Great time to be praying, be in
your word, a time to to just hang out with him and have a
great week. Dear Lord, I just thank you for
everybody here. I thank you for this time.
I thank you that you did write yourself down, Lord, That you,
you gave us specific instructions for life, Lord,
That from Genesis to Revelation is all instructions you've
given, Lord. And that would be in your word,
Lord, that that I encourage everyone here just to ask you to
fill them with a desire for your word, Lord, That you would just
give us a passion for it, Lord, And that you would open our eyes
to see it, my Lord, You'd be revealing yourself to us through
your word continually. And I pray all this in Jesus
name, Amen. How I love the voice of Jesus on
the cross of Calvary.