Look Unto Jesus and Preach the Word

[Music] praise God brothers and sisters um I'd like to read from Galatians chapter 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who who loved me and gave himself for me and uh you know Christ in dwelling it's like a a mystical Union where he lives within us and uh transforming our desires and our actions to reflect his righteousness so you know the the trans transformation signifies our you know the death of ourselves our old selves and the resurrection of Our Lives In Christ and um you know living by faith in Christ means relying on his strength and guidance enabled by the Holy Spirit and it's to overcome the laws and demands of of the world and sense power so uh with that being said let's stand up and pray God we thank you for everything that you us Lord thank you for everything we praying we ask Lord for your blessings to come onto the service Lord we ask you Lord bless everything God bless the sing bless the preaching Lord may your Mighty Holy Name be prais and high God praise and glory be to you praise and glory be to you God all praise and glory be to you Lord Lord God thank you for this day that you've given us that we are able to come here to this place to worship your name God help us to take something for ourselves today Lord and to also bind your law on our hearts God and to walk by on this week Lord help us to be guided by the holy spirit in Jesus name we pray amen amen and from the very beginning of our service we're going to be singing When the Music [Music] Fades when the music F all is stripped away and I simply come longing just to bring something that's a word that will bless your heart I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself it's not what you have require you search my deeper within than the way things appear you're looking into my heart I'm coming back to the Lord of worship and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry Lord for the thing I made CU it's all about you it's all about you Jesus king of endless word no one could express how much you deserve the one we can for all I have is yours every single [Music] I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself it's not what you have [Music] required you search much deeper within the W up you're looking into my heart I'm coming back to the P of worship and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry Lord for the thing i' made it cuz it's all about you it's all about about you Jesus I'm cling back to the Lord of worship and it's all about you it's all about you Jesus I'm sorry Lord for the thing i' made it's all about you it's all about you Jesus Grace that is greater [Music] marvelous grace of our Ling Lord Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt Yonder on calvar M outp where were the blood of the Lamb was fil praise graise God Grace Grace th will part and cleans within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that is greater than all our sin marvelous infinite matchless grace fre bestowed on all who believe you who are longing to see see his face will you this moment his grace receive gra Grace God's Grace Grace that will B and cleanse within Grace Grace God's Grace Grace that is greater than all our sin gra gra God God's grace gra the and cleans within Grace God Grace Grace that is greater than all our [Music] sin well praise the Lord God it is good to be with everybody this evening I was looking for my little guy there he is praise God well last week brother Peter came up here and of course he was preaching second and so he was talking about how he was going to do six slides because I always do a slide and I did at least bring one today um but since I'm preaching first 10 to 15 minutes is what brother Tim uh said that I had possibly and uh if anybody has heard me preach that that might be a feat for me which I'm excited to be a part of um but yeah it's a honor to to be here like always so um quickly before we get into the message if you have your Bible tonight let us turn to Hebrews 122 Hebrews 122 okay I'm going to go ahead and read that looking on to Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God and I I really want to point out something because the title of my message is look on to Jesus now friends I find this interesting and I I actually wish I would have brought a copy of it of all these sermons that I have written once I found out I was going to be a preacher here I was like one way that maybe I could be less nervous up here is that if I just start writing sermons so I have about eight sermons actually written I have yet to preach any of those so this one look on to Jesus I started working on just a few days ago and I'll be looking at one of the sermons and I'm looking okay I'm looking here looking here and every time I feel like the holy spirit moves me and says this is what I need you to preach on and it's interesting because I feel like even within the church Church like we'll we'll be at a Revival or a Tent Revival and we'll talk about Christ the Savior but many times we don't talk about him in church or in other places that much or even at home or even with our friends how often do you say the name Jesus and think how much power is in that name there's so much power in that name how much do we say it how much do we talk about it friends and I think we need to talk about it more because we know that he loves us but how much you love him and the more that you love Christ it constrains you when it's when is true love his love will constrain you from so many things I have an image that I want to bring up real quick I only have one tonight and why we bring that up I'm going to ask the question okay there it is right there so I've asked this before but who is Christ to you really think about it tonight and how often do you look to Jesus how often in your trials do you look at actually even at Jesus in your hope like when things are going good because a lot of times we almost forget about the author and finisher of our faith look what's going on there the author and the finisher he's writing it from the beginning beginning all the way to the end we must finish with Jesus we will not finish by ourselves we won't run the race well he needs to be close with us this image right here I shared a part of this story with the youth some time back on a sermon and it's actually this uh picture was from 1849 and uh as you it it's cister Church which is in England okay and uh during a snowstorm in 1849 there was a 15-year-old young man that entered this small country church and it was a lay preacher that was preaching I've shared this story briefly so he was the substitute he wasn't even the main preacher and from the research that I've done he was kind of if you want to say the nobody but let me just say something in God's kingdom there that there's no case to that you don't have to come up here and whether it's preach or be a part of the kingdom and have all the skills needed the holy spirit will give you that so if you ever feel underqualified good feel that way friend because guess who is qualified Christ Jesus follow him you don't need to be qualified I'm surely not now I'm going to briefly read this this is from a journal he had not he had not much to say the preacher for what compelled him to keep on repeating the text and there was nothing needed by me at any rate except to hear that text the scripture then stopping he point listen to this here this is powerful to me then pointing then stopping he pointed to where I was sitting under the gallery and he said you young man look miserable I've never seen that I have never seen a preacher I've been a Christian for 19 years call somebody out in the middle of preaching you young man you look miserable this preacher did that and then he shouted at him look look young man look to Jesus this is beautiful what he says here then I had a vision not a vision to my eyes but to my heart and I saw what a savior Christ was and I did believe in one moment boom like that and I finish here and as the snow fell on my path home from that little house of prayer and I love that the little house of prayer this little house of prayer that we're in we don't need to be a mega church friends to reach the community or to be a part of of sparking Revival in this community in fact a lot of the mega churches friends they're not going to spark true Revival because they're not searching and seeking and following the true Jesus he said this and as the snow fell on my path home for a little house from that little House of Prayer I thought every snowflake told of the pardon I had found for I was as white as snow through the grace of God those are the words of Pastor Charles Hayden Spurgeon he was 15 years old when he wrote well he didn't write he wrote that later but when that moment happened and the man the preacher that spoke to him just that's all he said look to Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith of our Salvation Look to Him friend seven years later when he was 22 23 years old he was preaching to 23,000 people and it was true gosp he was preaching by the way so I'm going to say a couple things here are you looking to Jesus my friends and I'm I'm speaking to Believers right now are you looking to him first in all things are you looking to your career first I'll go as far as this are you looking to your wife or your husband or your kids or your ministry or your church what are you looking at first are you putting something before for Christ see this this message to me is a reminder that if he is the author and the finisher of our faith we need to be looking at Christ Jesus from beginning to end in all things in all things friends let us turn back to the word of God John 146 Jesus said to him I am the way the truth truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me 1 Timothy 2:5 now I'm going to go a little quickly through some of these for there is one God and one mediator between God and man that man is Christ Jesus John 3:36 he who believes in the son has everlasting life and he who does not believe in the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him I've been noticing a lot lately in many churches especially what's going on in the world right now there's doctrines being preached and teached that believe there's an addition or an other path to Salvation other than Christ and if no other preacher is willing to say that's an error I will and I I'm the only one that stands at a Pulpit and says it I'll do it every single time our Salvation is in Christ and him alone let us read Acts 4:12 nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved and that is happening a lot in churches not just American churches even some Slavic churches and I won't get into that doctrine of what's being taught but as M it's taking Christ and putting him here and making him level with something else that we need this and this and we need to add this for our Salvation he's the author and the finisher because once you start to look in other places do you know what happens friends your heart and how you look to Christ it starts to diminish and my goal as a preacher is to always make Christ here actually I'm going to say this the pillar of all things I'm preaching Christ and him crucified to the fullest let me pose a question to you friend are you struggling in your faith and when I ask these questions just know it's out of of love I love my brothers and sisters that are in here are you struggling you have to be that's a question that only you might know because some other people might not know it are you even as a Christian looking and here we go are you looking to yourself more than you look to Christ because your fears and your doubts that you have and I know you all have them and we get them they will arise every single time that you look to self that's another doctrine that that is definitely preached often is yourself yourself we need to build up our s our self-image who we are that's kind of that Prosperity message and it's interesting because whatever you battle in life friend or if you're growing in faith you are not going to do it alone you have to be following the king of your ship the the the head of all things and that is Christ Jesus and I made this note real quick think about Peter think about Peter friends we see it in the Bible what's happening when he gets off that boat Jesus Christ himself in the flesh is holding out his hand which means means what he's looking at right at Peter he's not Peter's not here he's not going like this he's holding out his hand to Peter like this and what can Peter do when that moment's happening because he's looking on to Jesus the author and the finisher of all things what does Peter do he walks on water that's a miracle friends oh only Jesus should be able to do that but Peter's doing it at that moment some of the greatest theologians in the world can't even figure all that out but what I do know is that power is coming from Christ not Peter so he's walking on the water and he's looking Upon Jesus this is an apostle so we as Christians that's why I'm trying to tell you all always look to Jesus in the morning when you wake up look to him every morning friend I want you to love him with everything you are it's like you think about this Henry and Tim if brother Peter was here Paul any of these men that are friends of mine that have children they would give their life for their children like this I don't even doubt it for a second I know it that much love that Henry has for his kids and his wife imagine if you bound up all that everything for for the entire family and the church and everybody here and imagine if you could take that much love and put that towards how much you could love Christ Jesus he's the one that saved us and then when you love him like that like I said it constrains you friend people ask Zach how how do you deal with sin how do you beat it you want me to be real transparent the number one thing that I do if something is just haunting me I'm a visual person people know that because I direct films and I close my eyes and I visualize not just Jesus on the cross I visualize him on the path walking and holding the cross and that sin that I'm looking at that is trying to torment me it dies off because I'm looking to Jesus you have to look to him him what are you struggling with look to Jesus what have you been looking at if you're struggling with something are you just looking at your phone and looking at Instagram but you're like a I'm still depressed oh I'm hopeless but how often are you looking to Christ Jesus and I want to finish here Peter he's walking on the water and we know the story what happens when he sets his eyes off Christ he puts it on the storm and I know many of you have been through storms some of you are going through storms right now and that's why I'm telling you when Peter was starting off and Jesus was holding his hand out his eyes were fixed on Christ Jesus fix your eyes there in all things and I mentioned about his love constrain in us I don't think we preach sometimes Christ enough I've been a Christian for 19 years and I actually haven't heard that many sermons about Jesus I haven't why are we not talking about the author and the finisher of our Salvation the reason we are Christians Christians Christ we are Christ followers we're not sitting in this church unless he saves us friends you're not here I'm not here none of us and his grace is sufficient now but also his grace was sufficient even before what do I mean by that what would you have done with your defiled heart if Christ wouldn't even have showed his grace from the beginning a good friend of mine said something I'll never forget it he said some of the sins I might have committed but it was the Grace that he received even beforehand so he was grateful for Christ even before here's a quote that I want to read oh Christian here is I'm going to highlight a couple words here's the greatest remember that word greatest argument to persuade you to dread sin remember how you were redeemed remember remember that friends if you're struggling in life too remember that God has redeemed you and set you free and now you have life for all eternity but also here now when tempted to sin look to the Cross look on to Christ Jesus hear that again look on to Christ Jesus say to yourself sh listen to this shall I love that which Kindles the fires of hell and which Crucified My Lord and we can take that even if it's not sin that you're struggling with could be anything look to Christ Jesus on the cross again and again and again and again and again keep looking and looking and looking as I'm wrapping up my sermon now friends I need you to please put this into your heart think about it tonight when you go home look to Christ Jesus and here's the thing that could happen because if you're a Christian in here you're going to think I've already I already looked to him I already I'm I'm saved I'm not talking even about salvation right now I'm talking about your walk as a Christian in this world you need to be looking to Christ Jesus always always friends at the cross we demonstrated how far we will go in our sin and that's a whole sermon itself so I'll save that but think about this for a second at the cross we demonstrated how far we're willing to go in our sin and yet Christ Jesus showed how far he'll go for our Salvation he'll go way farther than we ever will if we're going to run the race well and be in Ministry so many pastors get burned out quit the ministry so many Ministries end so many Christians Fall Away we're seeing that all the time right now are they setting their eyes to Jesus daily yes we want to read our Bible for sure I preached on that prayer all those things but if you do all those things and you forget about Christ the Savior you're going to struggle friend I'm going to conclude here my friends let us rest in the assurance that Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith may we look on to him in all things from the beginning of our faith until the very end and this will only take two minutes but I feel the Holy Spirit wanted me to to say something I have to say this real quick if you're dealing with guilt or shame or something from your past somebody in here is and it's more than one friend that's stapled to the Cross Let It Go the enemy is trying to entrap you and he wants to make it to where you're here or maybe you called to preach but you feel like you're not good enough to go up there because how can I go preach and look like a hypocrite so I'm speaking to somebody in here set your eyes to Christ Jesus that's what I want to tell you right now set your eyes to Jesus he will renew and redeem you friend and he will set you new may we look onto him in all things from the beginning of our faith all the way to the end praise be His holy name amen friends let us pray standing will be singing thank you [Music] Lord I come before you today and there's just one thing that I want to say thank you Lord thank you Lord for all you given to me for all the blessings that I canot see thank you Lord thank you Lord with a grateful heart with a s of praise with an out stretched arm I will bless your name you Lord I Just Want to Thank You Lord thank you Lord I just want to thank you thank you Lord [Music] for all you've done in my life you took my darkness and gave me your life thank you Lord thank you Lord you took my sin and my [Music] shame you took my sickness and healed all my pain thank you Lord thank you Lord with a grateful heart with a song of Praise with an outstretched arm I will bless your name thank you Lord I just want to make thank you Lord thank you Lord I Just Want to Thank You Lord thank you Lord I Just Want to Thank You Lord thank you Lord I just want thank you Lord thank you [Music] Lord praise God my dear friends and right now we're going to be doing announcements and you know praise God for the message that was spoken uh To Us by Zach you know because sometimes we need a reminder you know uh throughout the week all of our Lives get busy and sometimes we're just rushing um but that's a good reminder that we wake up with Christ who started our life but who also started our day and we end with Christ who who ended our day but um so I would like to can we get the the announcements on okay um you know after this kind of message I don't even want to say open gym anymore I I already feel condemned but uh but we do have open gym and um so it looks like the kids had a good time last week with dodgeball and so we'll start off with dodgeball and then some some girls asked me for another sport volleyball and so we'll do that and I thought it would be fun for us older guys to to give our youth a challenge so we also do dodgeball so we also do dodgeball and um it's going to be us married men against the the youth um are you guys coming today because because Mark said you guys are okay um Okay cool so so we have a competition and also our wives can join and the youth girls can join you know because I know sometimes women they get a little bit more competitive than the guys you know sometimes we have to hold them back like hey it's okay it's okay no but uh so so that will be open gym for tonight and the next slide is my dear friends if you if you guys have time we do have Bible studies on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. and 400 p.m. for those that do have time those that can make it uh please come Doug would love to have all of us there and um that'll be it for today yeah okay yeah so so for those that are watching us it's also on YouTube on our morning star uh Christian Church YouTube so if you can't make it to his 10:00 a.m. or the other times or 400 p.m. just know that you can make it throughout the week amen okay well uh we don't have any numbers for today so brother Doug you take the the mic good evening everybody this is the day that the Lord has made let's all stand for the reading of God's word let's turn in our Bibles to the book of second Timothy and we're going to look at chapter 316 through chapter 4 4 and bear in mind as you're reading along that this is God's holy word it is inherent that's another way of saying it has no mistakes of any kind and it is therefore authoritative over every part of our lives in what we are to believe and do all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for Doctrine for Repro for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work I charge you therefore in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom now here's the charge preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with great patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but wishing to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths let's pray Father in Heaven thank you for this message thank you for this powerful message feel that it's just loaded beyond what what I can com comprehend there's just so much in this and then you also wrote everything before that and after that and we are just amazed and let us be amazed let us father will you send your Holy Spirit to touch our eyes that we might see and our ears that we can hear and give us hearts of Flesh that we might understand and receive this gospel we ask all this in the name of Jesus Amen so this is a number one of a two-part series I get to go next week also and uh two-part series on where we're headed where we're going as a church and uh I was reading this passage and I realized that this passage gives us no choices on some things now remember the night October 25th that my wife fell and broke her hip and uh when we finally all got to the hospital and the doctor was telling her that she had broken her hip the situation there was that there were no choices she had to have the surgery they had to do what they had to do and I'm going to make the case here [Music] um our big idea here is that we have no choice but to become a word church a Bible Church a doctrinal church God has given us no alternative I'm going to give you three reasons because God breathed it out in the scripture secondly because God commanded it third we got to do this now because the time is now and then I've got some bonus reasons that has to do with the culture here at the church because God breathed it right here here in 2 Timothy 3:16 where we started it says all scripture is inspired by God but sto right there what is that inspired by you know different churches have a different view of how much the Bible was written by humans and how much it's written by the Holy Spirit and uh long time ago I used to belong to a church that really seriously believed that the Bible was written by humans and God helped a little bit and that's how they interpreted this word inspired you know like a composer was inspired to write a song like I had this feeling and I wrote this song I was inspired is that what they mean by the words of scripture what is the original Greek well the original Greek word WR right there is Theos it means god breathed breathed out by God breathed out all of it to disbelieve any word of this or to disobey any word of it is to disbelieve or disobey God himself that's how serious this is this is Holy scripture is written by a holy God a holy spirit through holy men prophets and [Music] apostles God breathed it do you know at the beginning of the Bible the middle middle and at the end of the Bible it says don't add or subtract from these words Deuteronomy 4:2 says you shall not add to the word which I am commanding you nor take away from it that you may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you it's Deuteronomy 4 verse two then in the middle of the Bible Proverbs 30 verses 5 and six says this every word of God is tested another translation says every word of God is pure like at the beginning it the it says the Holy Bible why do we say holy Bible because it's full of mistakes because it's written by humans no it's pure it's holy every word of God is tested he's a shield to those who take refuge in him once again it sayso not add to his words or he will reprove you and you will be proved a liar that word reprove everyone in our family had to look it up you know what it is it's the opposite of approve God approves you or he reproves you now toward the end of the Bible about the last page in my Bible Revelation 22 turn in your Bibles to revelation 22 verses 18 and 19 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy in this book if anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book and if anyone takes away from the words of this book or this prophecy God will take away his part from the Tree of Life and from the holy city which are written in this book um Psalm I'm turning to Psalm 19 verses 7-9 now the word of God is sometimes called the law sometimes it's called Commandments sometimes it's called testimony sometimes it's called precepts here's a spot where it's called all of that Proverbs 19:7 the law of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes all right so you know I've taught music for a lot of years um and there's an interesting thing that I observed this takes a lot of experience to learn this but every once in a while you don't have a chance to practice like you have to miss a big chunk of time to practice like I remember once I had missed about three weeks of practice and I had a teacher a great teacher he's passed away now but he said there's an amazing thing that happens when you don't get to practice is that you're Rusty on everything but you're also Rusty on your bad habits when you start again you have an opportunity to make a clean break with lifelong habits when you're Rusty on them now I need to say that this church has some amazing things about it and we're making a new start here with the with the Sunday evening service but there's a really bad habit this church has that they need to break and that's the habit of leaving your Bibles at home I know that Henry agrees with me Westminster short short catechism what a catechism is if you haven't heard of this Westminster assembly assembled in the 1600s mid 1600s and they uh came across with the Westminster Confession of Faith it's very worth having worth reading the Shorter Catechism what a catechism is it's a way of teaching what we are to believe using a question and answer format I just want to read a couple of these this was published in 1648 question number two what rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him answer the word of God which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the Only Rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him I'm just going to read also question three and the answer question three what do the scriptures principally teach answer the scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what Duty God requires of man how simple is that so my uncle my uncle r he just passed away his funeral's coming up in a couple weeks over in Portland I'll be going over there now for a while they were in twinfalls and they didn't um didn't particularly have a church close to them so they went to this Baptist Church that was there and uh he uh didn't stay at the Baptist Church but he said you know that church they really knew their Bible and he Saidi really learned the Bible while I was there do you know what happens is the preacher says a verse and you hear the sound of rustling leaves it's everybody in the whole place turning the pages it's this sound you hear of everybody going there and uh I want to do an experiment next week and I want to see if we can make that sound I want to charge everybody here to bring your Bible and I get to speak again next week and I'm gonna I'm not going to give you too many verses not like in Sunday School in Sunday school we looked at more than 30 verses today I'll give you a few and I want to hear the Beautiful music of the pages turning in the Bibles do you you know God has ordained that it be a book that this be written you know it was in the old days that the whole population was mostly illiterate and people didn't read do you know that's where stained glass comes from you've seen marvelous Cathedrals with stained glass it's because people didn't read so they made pictures that would tell Bible stories and in the Catholic Cathedrals they had the Stations of the Cross the 14 stations that tells the story of Jesus what you what did you picture Jesus walking to the Cross they had statues or images or whatever around that would show that story but it was because people couldn't read and uh do you know that the pews and the chairs in the church didn't used to be until after the re Reformation who knew that before this the cathedrals and actually if you go to oh what's the one in the Vatican the big one St Peter's Basilica there it's still just a mar it's just a marble floor and it's because the sermons were quick the sermons were short after the Protestant Reformation sermons started getting long people had to have a place to sit down and uh that's also where the importance of scripture came about because in the old Roman Church the masses that's another name for the service I don't mean to be condescending but not everybody knows it so they were in Latin funny thing nobody spoke Latin except for trained clergy and so the sermons were short and the average person didn't read the Bible Protestant Reformation Martin Luther actually we go back before that hundred years before that we had maybe more than a hundred years Wickliffe John Wickliffe started translating the Bible by hand to English and if you can find a wickliff Bible now is probably worth quite a bit of money like an authentic wickliff Bible and then before the Protestant Reformation in God's in God's acting in and around us in the world he made the printing press 1450 just what is that 67 years before the Protestant Reformation and then the Bible was not only printed but it printed in it quickly went to every language okay I see that um it's just a little bit before 6 so I'm going to move ahead here my second reason is because God commanded it in Acts 9:15 Jesus was speaking to ananas about who Paul was and he said he is my chosen instrument to take the gospel to the Gentiles and to the Kings and to the Jews and so there we have in 1 Timothy 1 you have right there it says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the Commandment of God our savior and of Christ Jesus who is Our Hope and in the book of second Timothy it says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God see he was sent by God God so to disbelieve words of Paul or to disobey words of Paul is to disbelieve or disobey God and right here in uh in the verse that I read in uh Second Timothy chapter 4 verse1 he says I charge you therefore in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his King Kingdom and here's the charge preach the word not your [Music] opinions a sermon isn't your opinion with a few verses stuck in what it is is Nehemiah oh I don't know if I could find it very quickly Nehemiah 88 says they taught from the law and they gave an explanation that people understood that's the Simplicity preach from the word preach the word preach about the word okay God commanded it and because the time is now now one of my students one of my high school students uh the Friday before last he did a a sermon in the chapel on David and Goliath and uh I told him some stuff and he ended up not using the specific stuff and so now I'm going to use it here if you go in your Bibles to 1st Samuel 17:48 there's this critical moment in the David and Goliath story this is after after the Philistine Giant Goliath had marched back and forth for 40 days taunting the armies of Israel and cursing Us by his Gods cursing David and uh David didn't draw any weapons just then but there was a moment that he did and this is in 1st Samuel SE 17 verse 48 then it happened when the Philistine Rose and came and Drew near to meet David that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine you see that's just like just War Theory or self-de Theory where somebody's taunting you you're not justified blowing them away right then when they're taunting you but once they take out the rifles and start to take aim at your children it's time for them to go down and in first Timothy tothy 1 verse3 it says some men are teaching strange doctrines different doctrines other doctrines false doctrines I'm going to say that that's the same as Goliath taking his sword and rushing toward you Goliath is rushing toward us right now the time is now to become a word Church a Bible Church a doctrinal church now I'm going to end with this there are some interesting things about this church body that we noticed when we first came here we noticed how amazing it was see my daughter used to live right around the corner there and all the times that I'd given her rides we driven by here and we noticed that several days a week parking lot's full and uh this was right at the tail end of Co we were getting real tired of watching church on TV I mean real tired of that and uh and we thought hey maybe there's something going going on at this church we should visit you know and uh interestingly the first day we showed up here just in case we brought masks and we came in and not one person was wearing a mask we were like yes yeah thank God and so we we decided to come again and Come Again Come Again no The Masks were not the point The Masks were just a clue right um we noticed that the music was especially excellent and I saw my old friend from the boyy full harmonic Anna I know her you know and uh something else I don't think anybody can debate this there's one undebatable thing here I have never ever in my life been at a church that had coffee so excellent as this church has coffee it's without peer I think it's just like a professional coffee shop you know it's tough top also I don't know that I've seen a church that has so much Family Ties matter of fact this creates a problem is when when we were first coming here we'd say oh you know there's that lovely girl over here and she's uh and what about this nice man over here and you know what nobody can meet anybody because they're all related they're all cousins and brothers and sisters am I exaggerating no I'm speaking the truth but this is another reason we have no choice in these matters think about it either you young eligible people go somewhere else looking for a spouse or we become the light to draw people here right oh there's this story of this moth that went to a podiatrist you know what a podiatrist is that's a foot a foot doctor and this moth comes to him and the doctor says well what seems to be the problem and the moth says well I I just feel like I feel fluttery all the time and I just kind of go around in a fog and I bump into things and bounce off of things and I and I just feel kind of crazy and the podiatrist says well that you're a you're a wreck sounds like you need a psychiatrist not a podiatrist what did you come to me for and the moth said well your light was on okay so everything comes to the light I'm uh I just used a joke I know it's meant to be an illustration to point out that we can be the church where everybody brings their Bible we can be the church where everybody really knows the Bible we're the church that has doctrinal accuracy because everybody knows the Bible I have this thing I got it a bunch of years ago it's a Bible it's a leather Bible cover see and it has a a zipper it has a little compartment where you can put a pen and you can put some notes and some bookmarks and it's like this little it's like this little flat football that I can carry around see right and and so I really want to see that here I want to see Bible culture here we can be the church that has Bible culture that has the word of God God at the center Christ at the center who's also named the word of God let's pray amen and we'll be uh singing uh he is exalted but before I'm going to read Leviticus 27:30 a tithe of everything from the land whether grain from the the soil fruit from the trees Belongs to the Lord it is a it is Holy to the Lord and may God put it on your heart to give today [Music] amen he is exalted the king is exalted on high and I will praise him he is exalted forever exalted and I will praise [Music] His he is the Lord forever is true shall Heaven and Earth rejoice in His holy name he is exalted the king is exalted on [Music] Earth he is exalted the king is exted on high I will praise him he is exalted forever exalted and I will praise His [Music] name he is the Lord forever his TR shall re Heaven and Earth rejoice in His holy name he is exalted the king is exalted [Music] he is is the Lord forever his truth shall reign Heaven and Earth rejoice in His holy name he is exalted the king is exalted on high he is exalted the king is exalted [Music] on praise God my dear friends I think today we have learned a lot thank you brother Zach and uh Doug that you know these are very important lessons that that we can take into our lives this week you know um because like I said sometimes we're just so uh caught up caught up in our daily um work and school but as long as we put God first and how we uh heard that reading the scripture word that is God himself wrote by by the Holy Spirit through the holy people that's big because it's living it's not a dead book it's a Living Word of God that actually does work in our life amen to that so there's a couple needs that um uh brother Ben again he's not here he has some kind of infection and so he like he asked us to uh pray for him and and um brother Henry like asked us to pray for Alina Alina Alina she's having a surgery yes Alena that's the slavic's wife she's having a surgery so we're going to pray for her as well yes brother okay and we'll pray for elara's Mother and Father um that you know God works on their hearts anybody else okay let's pray Lord God we thank you so much for this night Lord that we can learn Lord God that we can use this word in our lives Lord God that we can walk Lord in your ways to be more like you Jesus Christ Lord that that God we are that light that attracts God those that are lost Lord God God we also pray for the sick Lord for um the um Alena Lord God she's having a surgery God and we ask that that you guide the the hands of the doctors that everything goes well we also uh God uh pray for elzar's Mother and Dad Lord God that you work on their hearts and we thank you for everything Lord God in Jesus name we pray amen Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one for your kingdom your power and Glory forever are yours amen amen