Beacon Sunday Service: April 21st 2024

Our call to worship comes from Psalm ninety three, verse one to two. Read that for us. The Lord reigns, He is roved in majesty, the Lord is roped, He has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established, it's never been moved. Your throne is established from the old.

Amen. And in our weakness as a church, the Lord shows Himself strong. He still reigns today. Amen. We can sing that together. This is a new song. Let me just teach this to you. Super simple song. I don't like singing complicated songs. But it's very fitting.

The chorus to the song. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

For the Lord Almighty.

A multitude of praise.

God has done like the roar of mighty seas and rows of thunder. All the church will sing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah for the Lord on Heights Hallelujah for the Lord I got beyond my race certain of that day, certain of that day, Christ we will proclaim Oh that more would share the pride, salvation in his name, and greater will the anthem ring, the mighty chorus rising to the king, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah for the Lord Oh mylu for the Lord I got thee on my for the Lord on my race hallelujah for the Lord I got the race next song is also a new song but I love teaching you songs.

We should be singing new songs every week. This song is called I Set My Hope on Jesus.

Amen.

For the deepest wounds that time won't heal.

I set my hope on Jesus. I set my hope.

Upon Jesus, my rock, my only trust who set his heart upon me first, I set my hope on Jesus Though I falter, though I falter in this war with sin, I send my hope on Jesus, Amen when I fail the fight and sink within I set my hope, I set my hope on Jesus, though the shame, though the shame would drown me in it sea, and I dread the waves of justice I will cast my life on Calvary.

I send my hope on Jesus, my rock, my only trust who set his heart upon me first. I said my hope on Jesus though the world though the world caused me to leave my Lord I set my hope on Jesus Though it offers all its main rewards, I set my hope on Jesus Though this heart of mine is prone to stray give me grace enough to finish till I worship on that final day I set my hope on Jesus I said I set my hope upon Jesus my rock my trust Who set his heart upon me first I set my hope on Jesus I set my hope I sent my hope on Jesus my rock my trust who set his heart upon me first I sent my hope on Jesus Amen or uh question and answer comes from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

The question is, how is the word made effectual to salvation and the answer altogether? The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. Amen.

Take your truth. Plant it in us, shape and fasten us in your life that the light of Christ may be seen today in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.

Speak O Lord and fulfill us all your purposes for your glory. Teach us, Lord. Seek us, Lord, full of beings, holy, true humility, test our thoughts, and our titles in the race of your purity, cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see your much love and words of power that can never fail.

Let the truth prevail over. Speak, O Lord, speak oh Lord, and renew Almight. Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us. Truth and change from the dawn of time that will go down through eternity, and by grace will stand on your promises, and by faith will walk as you walk away, speak till your church is built, and the earth is filled with your glory.

Today is just another day.

Um what happened this past week and the struggles that we have in our own lives. We know that God is a just God, He loves us. Um He just requires of us to come before Him honestly and transparently and to share the things that we struggle with so that He and the Spirit can work within us and change us. So today we're going to have a corporate time of confession of sin with that following time of confession of sin. And so we're gonna read this first part together.

We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. We have fallen short by what we have done and left undone. Our love has grown poor towards you and also our neighbors. We are truly sorry and humbly return to you for the glory of your great name. Have mercy upon us. Cause us now to light in your will and walk in your ways. Amen. Please be seated. Let us now take a time of private confession of sin.

Here's your assurance of pardon. Blessed are the pure in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Brothers and sisters, the pardon of Christ is a grace greater than all our sin. He forgives you. Today's prayer topic is going to be one that hits close to home for us.

And so they're going to be listening in on what change could be could occur, especially cleaning them out. And it'd be up to each city, each community to make those judgments based off what the Supreme Court would say. But let's pray over this situation because we know that it's prevalent where we live. It doesn't matter how far you live, if you live in Palmdale or in Northern California and San Diego. It's everywhere. And there's an epidemic. Causes a lot of safety issues. And we know that there's drug use and fentanyl has become the drug of choice and is become an epidemic across our country. Crime rate has increased. These people need help. It's really up to them whether they would accept it.

Let's pray over them. Let's pray that they would receive the help, that they would receive just the care for others from others. And ultimately, um that the wise judgment will come from the Supreme Court that facilitates positive change for our city, our community, and for our families here.

These are people of need. Let's pray for God's word to be revealed to them. There is a lot of hopelessness in the way that they live sometimes, and we know that God brings them hope. We know that the gospel message would help them, give them something more to strive for than just what is provided in this life. So let's lift up this subject. Um close on for us, a tough one to pray over. But let's just ask that the Lord's work would be done.

We pray for the homeless people and the people who live in the tent and campments, and we pray that change would come. Not as not for the reasons of cleaning up what is dirty and pushing them out and not loving on them.

That loves on them, provides shelter, helps provide a safe environment for us and our children. And we pray that ultimately your kingdom would be revealed because these people need that hope. These people need change in their lives as more than what this world can provide. Or we know that there is a heavenly hope that we ask Father that would be revealed to them through the gospel. So Lord, we pray, Father, for blessing upon them. We pray for this situation. We pray over uh the course of uh the decision making. We just pray that your will will be done. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please follow Teacher Stephen out for Sunday school. Uh we don't really have any new announcements today, uh, other than um our brother Philip Yang, who's not here at the moment, uh, got engaged yesterday.

I found out this morning. So uh he got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Christopher. So we wanted to just uh share that announcement, and when we do see them, we'll pray over them. Uh but for that announcement to be known as a member of our church that's getting married. That's such great news. Uh per usual. Uh if you are a guest of our ministry of our church today, please do not feel obligated to give. But as a member, you know that our offering options are Zelda, Vemo, Cash, and Check. With that, I'm going to welcome Pastor Madison.

Hey, we've been going through uh the book of James, and uh in a moment here on the screen, uh, we'll have uh this kind of stop sign that says, you know, stop kidding yourself. There are times that uh we kid with one another about uh we say, hey, I I gotcha. Oh, I'm just kidding. And so we can do that way. Um let me see. Are you able to get that? There we go. So we're gonna look at James 1, 19 to 26. And when I when I think of, you know, when I say stop kidding yourself, I think of this story. Uh my wife uh is here, and she got uh this email from one of the people in our church. Here's what the email says. So I went to Walmart to get some stuff for tonight's dinner. I noticed this lady was staring at me on the same aisle that I was on.

I moved to the next aisle, and there she comes again, staring. So now I'm like, what's going on? But I finished up my shopping and headed to the checkout line. Of course, this same lady was ahead of me. And she starts staring again. Awkward. So I start playing with my phone, so I don't have to look at her.

But you look just like my daughter who just passed away.

She then said, Thank you. But I have a favor to ask you.

Inside I was like, no. But me being the softy that I am, I went ahead and did it. She smiles, thanks me, and leaves. The cashier rings up my stuff. And the total comes to way more money than it should have. I knew something wasn't right. After my coupons, it should have been way less than she said.

The girl, the cashier, tells me that my mom's total was included with mine. I'm like, what? She said, your mom said you were paying for her items along with her things. I told her that woman was definitely not my mom. She said, Well, I saw you hug her, and I heard you call her mama. I flew out of the store. This is what the woman wrote, my wife. I flew out of the store looking for this witch, ready to beat her off. I see her loading up her car. She saw me, she jumped in her car. I got to her as she was pulling her leg in. And I started pulling her leg. Just like I'm pulling yours right now. She sent that to my wife. And I thought, oh, just kidding.

Just kidding. Because we know how we do that with people. We're just kidding at times. But the interesting thing about it, when we talk about just kidding, in the Bible, you know, see, just kidding is a fun thing we do. I do it all that time with my brother on the phone. I, you know, I may call him. He's back in the Chicagoland area, and I call him and I say, I was told if I call this number, I could get, and then I make up some funny thing about him. I could get the oldest man in America, you know. And so just kidding. We understand just kidding. But there are times in scripture where we're kidding ourselves about our walk with the Lord. We're not really where we need to be.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, doing what? Deceiving yourselves. That's interesting. It's verse 16. Then verse 22. Oh, and then in verse 26, he says it this way. If anyone thinks he is religious, by the way, the word religion only occurs about five times in the Bible. God never meant us to talk about religion.

If anyone thinks he's religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless, and he does what? He deceives himself. So three times now in just these 11 verses, what's he talked about? Being deceived, being deceived, being deceived. When was the first time somebody was ever deceived? What's interesting is we know in history, the very first time someone was deceived. And it's in the book of Genesis. And in Genesis chapter 3, it says this. So the Lord God asked the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, It was the serpent.

And I ate. So we know exactly when the first deception ever occurred in history. And she knew that he had deceived her. Satan had deceived her. And she took of the tree. But God said, No, leave that trade alone. But you know, there are many people in this world that are deceived and thinking they're saved. And Jesus talks about that in Matthew chapter 7, verses 22 and 23, when he says this. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Drive out demons in your name and do many miracles in your name. Who did that sound like they're trusting for their salvation? Didn't we do this? And didn't we do this? And didn't we do this? Instead of, Lord, you did this for me, you died on the cross for me, you paid the penalty for my sin.

It's didn't we do this? Didn't we do this? Didn't we do this? And then I will announce to them what? I never what? I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. So what's really interesting is they thought they knew the Lord, but he says, Yeah, you knew about me, but you didn't know me. It would be, uh let me illustrate it this way. Every one of us that would know about uh President Biden or when President Trump was in office. You know about him. But if he walked in here right now, he wouldn't go, hey Pastor Medicine, how are you doing? I haven't seen you in a while. Because he doesn't know me. I know about him, but I don't know him, and he doesn't know me. And what I want you to hear today is I want you to leave here so that you're not deceived, that you don't leave here thinking that you're saved when maybe you're not.

So Eve was deceived. That was Genesis. Jesus talked about people that were deceived thinking they were saved. Let me go to the last book in the Bible in the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 17, he's talking about uh the church of Laodicea, because you say, I'm rich, I have become wealthy, and I need nothing. Listen, when you think you need nothing, when you think you don't need the Lord, when you think you made it on your own, boy, you're being deceived. He says, Because you say I'm rich, I become wealthy and need nothing, and you don't know that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. What happened when Eve first sinned? What was one of the first things she thought? When Adam sinned, what did both Adam and Eve?

What was their first thought when God came to them in the garden? They wanted to go hide. Why? Because what did they say? We were what? Do you know what they said? We were naked. And he said, wait a minute, who told you you were naked? But what the Lord is saying to the church at Laodicea, you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and what? Naked. You know, you have nothing that's covering you, so that the righteousness of God isn't covering you and making it possible. You see, let me put on the screen, the only way to keep from being deceived is to know the truth. Remember the story I opened up with? The woman in the store. If you'd have known the truth about the end, I would have never caught you off guard.

You'd have never, you'd have thought, oh yeah, you know, he's just pulling our leg. If you know the truth, then you can't be deceived. And so here's the here's the sermon in terms of the word of God, John 17, 17, sanctify them by the truth, and what's the truth? His word. If I know the truth, then I can't be deceived. But if I don't know the truth, you know, uh, mechanics. There are some mechanics that are um they cheat people. And you take your car to the mechanic, and you say, I don't know exactly what's wrong, and they come up with item after item after item that's wrong. Uh, but you know what they've done? They've taken um cameras, uh, hidden cameras, gone to places, they've checked the car out.

The car, you know, maybe had one thing wrong, and they take it to the guy, and they say, Can you work on this and fix it? And then the guy gives them a whole list of things that are wrong, and they knew, they knew exactly that it wasn't wrong, but they were gonna make some money off the guy. They were gonna deceive the guy. But when you know the truth, you can't be deceived. What's the truth? God's word is the truth. John 17, 17. So here's the sermon in a sentence. Knowing the truth found in God's word will keep you from being deceived. Let me take you back to the James passage again. Here it is, all 11 verses. I know they're tiny and you can't see it on the screen, but I want you to see. This is the volume starting at verse 16 in chapter 1, all the way to verse 26, and look at the focus.

Don't be deceived, deceiving yourselves, deceive yourselves. So, what's the focus? What do you think he's trying to tell you in these verses in James 1? Hey, you can be deceived, but don't be deceived. And if you know the truth, you can't be what? Deceived. So here's the what I want you to do. There are three responsibilities when it comes to God's word that we have so that we can know the truth, and we won't be deceived. The first responsibility is this.

By his own choice, he gave us what? A new birth. How do you get saved? How do you get this new birth? Remember, Jesus came to Nicodemus and said, You must be born again. And he says, How can I be born? I'm old. Can I can I get back into my mother's womb and be born again? I don't know, it's a new birth. It's not a physical birth, but a spiritual birth.

So where do we go to find the truth? Romans 10 17 says this. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's where I go to get saved. Faith. How do I get faith? By the word of God. How do I keep from being deceived? Uh, the word of God. James 1 21 says it this way. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive what? What did I say that your first responsibility was when it came to the word of God? You have to receive it, right? I have to receive it. And he's saying here, humbly receive the implanted word, and look at what's what it's able to do. See the text on the screen? What's it able to do? Which is able to do what? To save you. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word.

And so I need to have this implanted word, which is able to save you. Let me slide this down and put the King James version on the screen. Wherefore, lay apart, and he really goes into big words here. Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness what? The engrafted word. So you hear you hear these two different phrases he's using here? One's an engrafted word, one's an implanted word. So let me slide these and talk about this. On the screen, I have an apple tree. On that apple tree, which is just a young apple tree, you know, if you take um, if you're grow a vineyard or an apple tree or something like that, uh vines, grape vines take three years to produce anything.

They don't just produce the first year. You you plant them and they grow. We had a guy in our in our church uh in Palmedale, he he would grow uh grapevines for people, and you know what he would do? He would take uh from the grapevine, he would just cut off a piece, clip it here, clip it here, so he had a piece about this long, and then he would set it in water, and it would start to bud, and they'd get some roots on the bottom, and then you'd take it and you'd plant it in the ground, and three years later, that would become part of the vine, and it would start to produce fruit. What you see on the screen is an apple tree, and look at I'm gonna show you what apples are on that, gonna grow from that.

Uh a Cortland apple, a lodi apple, a red delicious, a red macintosh, and uh and a wine sap. That one tree is gonna have five different kinds of apples. Why is that possible? Because they have grafted in a part of another tree, a different kind of apple tree. I want you to understand that God said his word could be engrafted, grafted into your heart and life, and when it's grafted into your heart and life, what will it produce in your life? Fruit. Here's way the way it's worded in Romans 16 22. But now since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit.

So that apple tree, the main result is fruit, whether it's going to be the Cortland apple, the sweet apple, the delicious apple, whatever the it's going to be fruit because it got grafted in. And you know what God did to us? He grafted us into his body, and he says, I want you to graft the word. I want you to receive the word now, so that your life will have what? Fruit. Here's the way it's worded in Colossians 1, 9 and 10. For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We were asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good word.

But you have to have something else before you bear the fruit. The last line says, and growing in the knowledge of God. God, where do I grow in the knowledge of God? From the word of God. And if I graft and I receive, what's the first responsibility we have when it comes to the word? I have to receive it. And if I receive it, oh, it begins, it gets getting grafted in my life, and fruit comes out of it, and my life changes. You don't know these people.

Matter of fact, both of them just passed away last year. Both of them were uh in their mid-90s. Wonderful, godly people. Jay and Shay Burgess. When Audrey and I uh were first married, uh, we'll be married 49 years this May, when we were first married, so uh a couple years into our marriage, uh, we were going to, I was going to become the pastor of a church in in Indiana. Jay and Shay got in touch with us. So they're they're they were about uh twenty years older than me. And so they got in touch with us and they said you know we should surely appreciate your ministry I'd been with them when their son died on a basketball court in Greenville College he just he was out in the court heart gone and I ministered to them they then contacted me and they said to me you know we we would really like to help you and and Audrey would you let us do this we would like to take you down and actually it was to the merchandise mart the merchandise mart was a is a big building in Chicago I'll tell you how big it is it occupies sixty acres that's about the size of a of a shopping mall the the Palmdale shopping mall is sixty acres that building is owned owned solely by the Kennedy family.

And 60 acres and we we want to buy you all new furniture for your home I I we were kind of overwhelmed by it the thought uh that they would do such a kind thing I sat down looking here what I did I sat down I wrote a letter you know why I wrote a letter because I have a hard time receiving things when people want to give me things I have a hard time receiving things and so I wrote them a letter because I wanted to know how much I loved and appreciated what they had what they were willing to do. I said you know I I ended you know we we we we can't we can't let you do that but the very fact that you wanted to do that means more to us than even the furniture and I wanted to share that with them I wanted them to know that what let me let me tie this into the message what are we supposed to do with the word of God we're supposed to do what receive it what did I have a hard time doing from these people receiving it was within the probably the last five years or so they moved out of Illinois where they lived moved to Florida and they're in their 90s early 90s and they sent me a letter you know what the letter said we were thinking about you the other day and we were cleaning out around our home and we came across this letter that you sent us and we kept it all these years because it meant so much to us and we we thought maybe you'd like to have it back and we read the and I read the letter and I thought oh my goodness yes um yes these people godly everything about them they wanted to give and I had a hard time receiving you know God wants to give you his word he's given it to us there's always available for us and we have a hard time doing what they have a hard time receiving it when you think of how little time did you know the Bible is still the best selling book in America.

Somebody said it's the number one selling book in America, and it's the number one neglected book in America. Everybody has one. But nobody is taking time to receive it. What's the sermon about? Knowing the truth found in God's word will keep us from being deceived. How many times does he say, don't be deceived in chapter one? Three times. He's trying to warn you. In verses 13, 14, and 15, he's saying, Oh, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Do not be deceived, my brothers. Those are the verse. I just quoted those verses. What is he saying? Look, Satan wants to deceive you just like he did to Eve. And he wants to tempt you just like he did to Eve. And how's he going to keep you from failing? You need to what? First responsibility, you need to receive God's word. It's there, it's available. I'm wondering if you'll make a commitment today that you're going to spend some specific time in God's word. And I'm whether it's being read to you from you version, or whether you're reading it yourself, you know, I would say to you, you know, the wonderful thing about living in today's age, the terrible thing is all the sin is so rampant. The wonderful thing is where sin abounds, God's word says, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

Meaning that you get more of God's grace and through God's word. My son and I, last year we had the joy of every single month going through the New Testament. Every month. So 12 times we went through the New Testament. This year we decided that we'll go through the entire Bible two times. And so six months, we'll go through the entire Bible. The next six months I'll go through the entire Bible. And I would just say to you, look, you can do this. Are you willing to do it? Whether, you know, don't just waste time. Make it count. You know, I've sometimes in the morning I'm shaving, and I'm just listening to scripture and shaving. And sometimes Doug, our son, is on the road, and he's just listening to scripture.

You need to receive it. But there's a second responsibility. The second responsibility is you must obey it. And in the text, here's what he's saying in James. But be doers of the word and not hearers only. Otherwise, you're going to be deceiving yourselves. Be doers of the word. And let me just slide this down and say the Greek text begins with a present tense command. Therefore, present tense means it's always going on and on and on and on. Therefore, it could be read like this. Therefore, continue to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And what does a command necessitate? Obedience. When Phil says something to his kids, and he says, I want you to do this now. He's giving them a what?

It's a loving command. But it's still a what command. Okay, come here. Hey, right now. Hey, come here. And that's a command. What does he expect when he gives a command? Obedience. What does God expect when he says, be doers of the word? He's commanding. Hey, the word says this. I want you to do it. Love your husband, love your wives. Love one another. Here's another Matthew 7, 26. The Lord Himself is saying it. Matthew 5, 6 and 7 happens to be the Sermon on the Mount. Stuff on the hillside. So they call it the Sermon on the Mount. Okay? And it's the longest sermon Jesus gave. As he finishes this sermon in chapter 7, here's what he says. But everyone who hears these words of mine.

And his words became what? Scripture. You have the word of God. Everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like what? A foolish man who built his house on the sand. I don't know. In the church I grew up in, we had that little song, you know, the wise man built his house upon the rock. You know, the foolish man built his house upon the sand. You know, the rain came down and the floods came up. Do you sing that song when, you know? The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down, the floods came up, and the house on the sand fell flat. He's saying, look, you got these words of mine. And I want you to be able to, you know, take them and do what? Obey them.

John 14, 15 says it this way. If you love me, you will keep my commands. So we have the word of God. And he gives the command. Here's a command. Ephesians 4 32. Be kind. Tenderhearted. Forgiving one another. Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. I would say to you, if you have kids, that's a great verse to teach them. When you get married and have kids, that's a great verse to teach them. Be kind. Tenderhearted. So when you're correcting your kids, you can simply say, what's that verse say? Be kind. Were you kind to your sister? Were you tenderhearted? Did you forgive her just like God forgave us? These are the commands. So what do we have to do? Knowing the truth found in God's word will keep us from being deceived.

And he's going to say, Here are the responsibilities. What kind of responsibilities do I have? If I claim to be a believer in Christ, what should I do? Ah, I open the word. I need to receive it. By the way, I'm still working on receiving things that people want to give me. It doesn't come easy. You know, I'll uh we picked them up at the airport the other day. We're on our way back to our place in Palmdale from Burbank Airport. We stop off at the at the world famous In and Out burger. My brother says to me, let me pay. I said, nah, no, no. Didn't I? I mean, that's where I was, you know. I it's just I'm still working at that. And you know something? I believe that you're probably still working at receiving God's word on a daily basis.

You get so busy, you think I don't I didn't have time. He says, you need to receive it. That's first. You need to go to the second one. Obey it. What do you think the third one is? If you have your Bibles right there, look at James, you know, and James chapter 1. And go starting at verse 23 and following. What does he say? We need to do. After he says in verse 22, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Okay. When you found it, look up at me. You know? When you think you found a third responsibility. I receive it. It's the engrafted word. I obey it. That's the command he gave us in being doers of the word, not hears only.

You got the third one yet. This is inductive Bible study here. Okay, let me put it on the screen and show you. Okay. You're going to persevere in it. Do you see it in the text there? Okay. So now let's look at the text. Here's what he says. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. You know what men do? You know, you use the mirror. You go to the mirror, you look, and you go out and you immediately forget. And so on occasion you go back and you say, let's see, uh, is it okay? You know, you're checking if your hair's okay or if what's what's okay, you immediately forget. Verse 24. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

The text goes on. But the one who looks intently into this perfect law of liberty, and does what? Perseveres in it. Will not be a forgetful hearer, but uh what one who does good works. This person will be blessed in what he does. So the first one, I need to receive it. You've probably, you know, people have given you the Bible. Gideons have handed out Bibles on the street. We have a we have a Gideon ministry in our church in Palmdale, and they, oh, we probably have 25 of our people involved in Gideon ministry. They go to public schools, they hand out Bibles to kids as they come out of the public schools. They're often told, you can't do that, it's illegal. No, it's it's legal. You can't be on school property, but you can be on the sidewalk, and the sidewalk is not school property.

And and principals come out and they say, We're gonna call the police. Oh, would you oh go? You know, please do that. We you know, we because they need to discover that they cannot keep you from offering God's word there. And so they'll hand out 300 to 500 Bibles. You know, uh in America, we receive, we get the Bible, we have it, but we don't often obey it or look intently and persevere in it. Look at the screen. Here's the Greek word that's used for that.

For that's that's the Greek word for look intently. You guys know what it's like. Uh we only have a couple of women here, so let me just talk to you guys. You guys know what it's like to look intently at a woman. You know, you your head, you know, and women, by the way, women know that you're looking at them. I mean, it's not a surprise to them. When they walk down the street, they know, they know if they're walking down the street and there's a group of guys there, they know that you're doing this. You know, it's like a strobe, you know, and you're just you're just you're following them, you look intently, and you think, ah, that one has all the molecules in the right place. You know exactly what I'm saying.

So, what do we do with God's word? We're to look what intently, and we're to persevere in it. Let me take the Greek word and divide it on the screen, okay? It's in two parts. You have a little prefix, the little prefix is para, pa-a-r-a, par. We use it. And I've told you this already in the short time I've been with you. The Greek prefix para is used in our English word parallel, para. And what does para mean? Beside. This railroad track, this track is parallel to this track. Para. It's beside this track. The second part of the word, kupto, means to bend forward. So when I put them together, look at what it says to do.

Look at the screen. It says, I'm going to bend forward and move beside. You ever you're looking for something. You're hunting for something. You know, and you're looking, and you get maybe in your house. You've misplaced something, and you're not sure where it is. Look at me. Here's what you do. You bend forward and look right beside. Listen, is it down here? Down here. God's saying, look, I want you to search my word in the same way. I want you to, you know, bend toward it. Get closer to it. Get beside it. Look intently into it. It's the exact Greek word that's used when it when the women and the men went to the tomb of Jesus.

And this is what they did. They got to the tomb, and they para kupto. They bent forward and looked and said, He's not here. Oh, he's gone. They looked intently to the word of God. And what I'm asking you to think about is that you look intently. The question I have for you today is, are you ready to stop deceiving yourselves and follow his word? Because what do they say? You will know the truth, and the truth shall set you what? Free. You won't be deceived. Listen to me. We don't, we don't follow cults. And I'm going to name a couple of cults. Okay. Because this church is built to glorify God. And how do we glorify God?

By exposing false teaching in our world. That glorifies God because He wants us to know the truth. He is the way, the truth, and life. And when people don't say the truth, that doesn't glorify him. So we have people like Jehovah's Witness and Mormons. And they're not telling the truth. And how do we know they're not telling the truth? First of all, is anybody that denies Jesus is God? And both Mormons and Jehovah's Witness say, well, he's the Son of God, but he's not God. No, he is God. And what's interesting in Jehovah's Witness, if you were to read like in Isaiah, it says, I will not share my glory with another. God says, I will not share my glory with another. And so they go there and say, see, so Jehovah God, you know, you're not going to share his glory with another.

And so Jesus can't be God. Oh, but then in the New Testament it says, and we beheld Jesus' glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So God the Father and Jesus have that glory. So I open up the word of God and it keeps me from being deceived. And the question I have is, are you ready? To stop being deceived. Stop deceiving yourself. If you don't know you're saved, you need to really say it. Dear God, I I need to admit, I've never trusted you. And uh go into his word. You're gonna receive it, you're going to obey it, and you're going to persevere in getting into it. So what I'm going to ask you to do today is to make some commitment to the Lord this week that you're going to be receiving it and obeying it and looking intently into it that it's just not on the shelf over there some Bible on the shelf or some phone in your pocket that you talk on all the time but you never read his word let's pray together with you bow your heads Heavenly Father we're asking that you work in our hearts and lives that we can be open to receiving your word thank you that you've given it to us and that you have preserved it and we pray Father that we'll treat it as a treasure this week that it will be such a treasure to us that we'll search it and we'll hide it in our hearts so that we won't sin against you all your heads are bowed can I ask you to make a commitment to the Lord right now are you willing to tell him Lord this week just just give him a commitment for this week let's start there this week Lord this week I'm gonna give you uh fifteen minutes a day I'm just gonna read your word I'm gonna start the New Testament I'm gonna start in the Old Testament and I'm gonna be just like this dear pants after the water and I'm gonna ask you to speak to my heart so that I won't be deceived that in my heart your word will become important we pray these things in the wonderful name of Jesus Amen we're gonna do something uh a little different let me just advance a slide there uh we're gonna end with a song uh amazing grace and uh I'm gonna ask you to stand and and Albert's gonna lead us uh but I'm gonna I'm gonna grab my trumpet here and I'm gonna play with us so I'm gonna ask you to stand as we close the service with amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me Thank you for worshiping the Lord today.

I hope the kids had a great time back in their area as well. And you're invited, uh, fellow. They're invited to just stay after, and there's some snacks over here for you. But let's just close our time in prayer, shall we? Heavenly Father, I want to pray your blessing on this congregation. I want you to watch over them. I've asked you to watch over them this week. May you cause your face to shine on them and be gracious to them. May you bless our time of fellowship as we share afterwards.

Amen. Amen. Have a great week.