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[0:00] We could be a spiritual powerhouse for God. I do believe that. Is it reality? I don't know.

[0:11] You know, I believe a lot of it's in the individual, obviously. You know, you mentioned about praying more. You know what your prayer life looks like. You know what your Word of God life looks like. You know what your soul winning life looks like.

[0:24] Right? You know. So, yeah, the two verses come to my mind, Revelation chapter 3. Yeah, we're in that last church. Do we have to be that?

[0:35] I would hope not. I would hope not. In the last days, perilous times are going to come. Regardless of what you do.

[0:48] It's still going to be here. Are there going to be some churches on fire for God still when the rapture hits?

[1:01] I hope so. I think probably. Be one of them. Amen. Right? Be one of them. Now, maybe there's a miscommunication.

[1:16] I don't know if I was the guy that was supposed to be doing Sunday school. I thought I'd discuss some things. But whatever the case is, you know, you got the B team today anyway. Right?

[1:30] Look at Hebrews chapter 4. You know, look at a couple things. Let me ask you something. Is anybody this week, you was reading your Bible and something just went, you know, something just, wow.

[1:42] It was, I don't know about you, but, you know, when I first started reading my Bible when I was young, I got saved when I was 15 years old. And I read my Bible through it in two and a half months.

[1:54] I have no idea what I read. I just did it. I was cleansing. I was a little rough. You know, I was behind a Bible-wired fence when I was doing this reading like that. But as time went on, I'm talking years.

[2:12] I used to fall asleep reading my Bible in the morning just for years. And then it just, I mean, years. Went all through Bible school like that.

[2:25] Falling asleep. You know, Bible school, I tell people, you go to Bible school, here's what you're doing when you go to Bible school. You're going to just go like this and try to just take anything you can.

[2:36] You put it in here and you put it down in here and you're packing a box and you put it in a bag. That's what it is at Bible school. Because you're doing four hours a night, different classes every night. You ain't getting all that.

[2:50] But I would, and I'm 17 years old. You talk about doing bad in school, that was me. And I didn't read anything. My reading was skimming. Christopher Columbus discovered America. It discovered America's right.

[3:01] I was just looking for two capital C's. Got a date. Bingo. That's the way I, that's how I got through school. That and because my brother and sister were honor students. And when they saw me, I wasn't.

[3:14] So they had two choices. They could put a D on my report card or see me next year. And they didn't want to do that. So I get it. I get it. I wouldn't want to see me either looking back. But there came a time when the Bible just like, it just became really good.

[3:34] Now, I would, I would hope it came, become really good for you young and just right away after you get saved. But you know, I didn't always like that. But there was a time when it just, and that's kind of where I'm at.

[3:49] It's, I just opened up that face. So I just wanted to ask if anybody this week, you were reading your Bible and it's just, it's on. You know, you got a passage that you're just like, this was good this week.

[4:03] Anybody, and just raise your hand if you do. I'm not going to call on you. Okay. A couple of you, that's good. I want to encourage you to read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible. All right.

[4:16] Because if it's not good now, it, it'll get good. Just get in that thing. Get in it. Let it get in you. And it's good.

[4:28] Hebrews chapter, if I'm correct, because I don't have anything written down this morning on this. So, Hebrews chapter, I want to say it's 12, maybe.

[4:43] The word of God is quick and powerful. What is it? 4.12. Okay, 4.12. It says, the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow.

[4:58] And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God. I thought, you know, I'd do that one first. That would be the first verse. I want you to grasp this morning that the word of God is that.

[5:15] Is that. I don't even know what we're to use. We're talking about. We're talking about. We're not just talking about a book with pages, all right?

[5:26] We're talking about the word of God. I got chills right now. Amen. What is. The word of God.

[5:38] To you. You're in a Bible-elieving church. The definition of a Bible-elieving church is what this is. I don't believe there's another one within 40 miles here.

[5:51] But the definition of a Bible-elieving church. We believe. What it says is the very words of God. We believe this is a preserved.

[6:02] Preserved book. That if I. When I get to heaven. He's going to be reading this. I'm telling you. That's what we believe. That's what gravitates here.

[6:15] Now that might not. That may not be you yet. You may have come here. You know. The Baptist Church. Or. King James. Only. You know. They. They believe the King. Lots of people read the King James.

[6:25] Lots of people believe the King James. All that. Some of them are connected with the Texas Receptors. Greek manuscripts. And this and that. That's as far as they go with the preservation. I believe. That I hold.

[6:36] The very word of God in my hand. And that when I open it. I can trust everything it says. I mean the ands ought to be there. The thes ought to be there.

[6:47] Everything. That's written in that book. Belongs there. Now if it's a printing error. From the typesetter. Okay. That's going to happen.

[6:59] We're in a fallen world. But as far as the. The. The coming over from one language to the other.

[7:10] This is. This is it. God's using the English language. This is it. You. Happen. To have it in your hand this morning. The word of God is quick.

[7:21] And powerful. Romans. Psalms 12. Psalms 12. And you know. There's probably lots of verses. Jesus came to my mind this morning.

[7:33] This morning. This morning. Psalms. Psalm chapter 12.

[7:47] And verse 6. It says. The words of the Lord. Are pure words. A silver tried. In a furnace of earth. Purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them.

[7:59] Oh Lord. Thou shalt preserve them. From this generation forever. Okay. It says. The words of the Lord. Are pure words. Now. People. People that. People that think we're crazy. I don't even understand it.

[8:10] Because. Here we are. We believe we have the word of God. And then there's. The. Then there's all the rest of them. That don't believe you can. Now. That to me is crazy.

[8:24] I think. If you're in Christianity. And you don't have anything to trust. It may be a mistake. It may be right. It may be wrong. Any version goes. I think that's crazy.

[8:35] Amen. Because if I had to believe that. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today. I'm sure of it. If I. If I got to open up my Bible.

[8:46] And I can't trust what it says. What am I doing? Look. The only reason. The only reason. I can pass on anything to you.

[8:57] Is because we have. A perfect book. If we did not. Why would you listen to me? Who am I?

[9:09] I am a fallen creature. Just like you. But because. I can present to you. Something from the scripture. That you can see for yourself. And you can decide. Whether I'm right or not.

[9:19] Most of the time. It's not. That easy. That's. What you're trusting. When I say something. No matter who it is.

[9:31] That gets up here. And says something. You have every right. And every responsibility. To check it out. And make sure. It's right. I get it.

[9:42] You're young in the Lord. Maybe. You haven't. You haven't been able to. You know. You haven't. I'm 35 years in. Maybe 40 now. I lose track. I don't even really know.

[9:53] How old I am. 56. 57. 57 years. The same thing. I'm getting older. It's coming like that. I don't even know. What. How old am I honey? Am I 56? 57? Six right?

[10:04] Don't make me too old. So. I would. Expect myself. I went to Bible school. For four years.

[10:15] I taught here. In the Institute. For 10 probably. I would expect myself. To know some things. About the word of God. I would expect myself. To be able to navigate. Through the scripture.

[10:26] Do I know everything. But. I would say. I probably know. About 2%. That sound crazy. But it's probably true. Now you're really nervous.

[10:44] But that word of God. That word of God. Ought to be. Ought to be that real to you. Now I want to look at Luke. This is what stood out to me this week.

[10:59] It was just yesterday actually. I was reading my Bible a little bit. Before I was. Reviewing the sermon for today. But it's just kind of. It just kind of.

[11:09] Came alive. And. This is a passage in Luke. I understand the doctrinal implications. But you know. There's three. Three. I got in trouble.

[11:21] Last time I did this. Three applications of scripture. Right. There's a historical application. Where it had happened one day. Jesus said this passage. Right. There's a doctrinal application.

[11:32] Of who it belongs to. Doctrinally. And then there's the spiritual application. The practical application. Of how you. Can apply it to your life. Look. Godliness.

[11:45] Is. Godliness. No matter what age you're in. Right. Dispensations. There's the. There was before the law. Before.

[11:55] Before the Jew. Before Israel. Right. God dealt with everybody. That was from. Adam to. Moses. Right. Abraham.

[12:07] Somewhere right there. Then there was God choosing it. It had to be Abraham. Yeah. But Abraham is the father of many nations. That's what gets everybody in. Amen. Amen. Amen brother. Then there's Israel.

[12:21] Now. When Israel. Is the deal. Which they will be. And they are. Amen. God.

[12:32] Worked with Israel. And everybody else. Was basically. Out of the picture. If you wanted to get in on God. You got in on Israel. Searched out their God.

[12:45] That's what it was. Because. God focused. He funneled. He gave them the law. They wrote the law. All your. All your Old Testament is Israel. And then they rejected the Messiah.

[12:59] Right. They rejected God the father. In the Old Testament. They rejected God the son. And the new. They rejected the Holy Ghost. In the book of Acts. They rejected God. And.

[13:10] And God went to the Gentiles. Which is us. That's how we got in on it. A lot of things going on there. If Israel would have accepted. They didn't.

[13:20] It's prophesied. All this other. I understand all that. We could do all that. But we're here. And we're the Gentiles. And we're in the church. So we.

[13:33] Look at the scripture. We're. You could call us dispensationalist. We believe. In rightly dividing. The word of God. Right. All scripture is given. By inspiration of God.

[13:44] And it's profitable. For doctrine. For proof. For correction. For instruction. For righteousness. Right. It has. It has divisions in it. The Bible says. To study. To show thyself approved.

[13:55] Under God. You're supposed to study. Are you a studier? I hope so. But it says. Rightly dividing. The word of truth. There is divisions. In this book. That you. You better.

[14:06] Understand. Or you're going to be messed up. You're going to be messed up. It's not. Everything is not to you. You start taking Israel's promises. You're going to be in trouble.

[14:18] So. Right now. God's dealing with the church. The Gentile. Us. We are getting in on it.

[14:30] That's where we are today. But we take. When we look at Israel's verses. You know. Pastor's been doing Matthew. Right.

[14:40] He's constantly telling you. About how it. How it applies to Israel. But the practical applications of it. We can grab. Right. Let your light so shine before men.

[14:52] I understand. It's written Israel. Great. You got light. Sure you do. You are a reflector. You reflect the light of Christ.

[15:04] So you could take those verses. And apply them. You don't hide your lighter under a bushel. Right. So you can take these verses. Are here in Luke. Just want to look at it for a second.

[15:15] Talking about the sower. And the word. Companion. Passage. Is in Matthew. I want to say. Chapter 13.

[15:27] So. Pick it up in verse 11. Luke 8. Verse 11. It says. Now the parable is this. The seed. Is the word of God. Now. The Lord. You know. It's nice. We appreciate.

[15:39] When. When God. Just. Plainly tells you what the answer is. You know. Because we be sitting there going. What you talking about. So. So is the seed. Great.

[15:50] Girl. I plan. I'm a gardener. I get it. But when. But when the Lord says. This is what. This is. I like that. That makes it really simple.

[16:01] I don't have to interpret it. I don't have to guess. I don't have to argue with you about it. Right. The seed. Is. The word of God. Man. That's pretty clear. We got that.

[16:11] We understand that. We can grab that. Now the parable is this. The seed. Is the word of God. Those by the wayside. Okay. There was four places. Right. There was the wayside. What was there? We're about looking at.

[16:22] You know. There was a wayside. Right. There was. Stony ground. There was. Thorn and thistles. There was. Huh. Stony ground.

[16:33] Rock. Huh. Good ground. That's right. That's what you want to be. You want to. In case you. In case you didn't know. You want to be the good ground. Right. Good ground bears fruit.

[16:45] It's. Real fruitful ground. You want to be that good stuff. It says. Those by the wayside. Are they. That here. Then come at the devil.

[16:57] And take it away. The word out of their hearts. Lest they should believe and be saved. Okay. This is. This looks to me like. If I was to put a practical application. It would be. You're lost.

[17:08] That's not us. Wayside. Not us. No application there. Verse 13. They on the. They on the rock. Are they. Which when they hear.

[17:20] Receive the word with joy. And. These have no root. Which. For a while. Believe. And in time of temptation. Fall away. So they're believers. And they believe for a while. Right.

[17:31] I don't know how long that is. But. They were believers for a while. And it's. But it says. It says. There was a problem here. In time of temptation. I don't know what temptation.

[17:42] Temptations are. For everybody. It's different. For me to tell you what a temptation is. It could be. It could be anything in your life. But. It says. In time of temptation.

[17:53] They fell away. You know why? What's it say? Huh? That's it. They didn't have.

[18:03] They weren't rooted. Now. You. If you've done any planting. You know. When you pull a plant out. It's got these. Long things on the bottom. Right?

[18:14] And there's the. There's trees that. Have these big. Things that. They call it tap roots. That hold that tree in place. But I. I haven't done a real good research done.

[18:26] I'm sure. If I did. It would. Probably blow my mind. But you ain't doing anything. Without a good root system. It just. It's not going to work.

[18:39] You got to have roots. And this says. This says. They on the rock. Are they. Which when they hear. Receive the word. With joy.

[18:49] They get fired up. They're happy. They're. They like it. But they have no root. Which for a while. Believe in. In time of temptation. Fall away. So the people that.

[19:00] Fall away. Or. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to encourage you. I'm going to encourage you. This morning. That you need. To get rooted. There's some other scriptures. In there. I have to do it. Rooted and grounded in love. And. Talking about the Christians.

[19:12] Over there in Ephesians. I think it's first Corinthians. Also. But. You need to be rooted. You got to have some root. You need. To get some roots. If you don't get rooted.

[19:25] And what I'm talking about is. You. Get. I listened to a message recently. Wanted to put something together on it. Pastor Dave preached it. When he was here. Oh.

[19:36] You need to get it settled. You need to get it settled. You need to find out. What you believe. Get it settled. And when you do that. You're putting roots in.

[19:47] Like the word of God. I told somebody. Just recently. I could fall by the wayside. I mean. I could fall. I'm human. I'm in a. I could.

[19:57] I could go. I'm not going to. I'm not going to. Make no. Claim that I'm. Ultra spiritual. And can't fall.

[20:09] But I will tell you this. I've got the roots. And you might. You might. Put me in the. You might tie me to the stake. And light that fire underneath me.

[20:20] And tell me. Ask me to deny the word of God. You know what. And I might. But in here. I don't think so. I can do something out of here by action.

[20:32] This is bad. But down in here. There's something rooted. The roots are down. Down. I believe the word of God.

[20:45] There is only one group of people that believe they have it. And that's us. So. It's a. You don't have another choice. There are no other options. There's nobody else that believes they have it.

[20:56] They believe they have something close. They believe it still might have mistakes. It's the best thing they can get. That's what they believe. If you don't know that. And you run into somebody that thinks different.

[21:07] Give me five minutes. Just bring me to them. In five minutes. You'll. You'll know. Doesn't take for five minutes. They just don't.

[21:20] They believe that they have something. That. The best they can get. But not. The very word of God. Okay.

[21:31] So you need to be rooted. Those roots need to go down. Those roots are only going to get. Down and in there. By you. Doing something. It's not.

[21:43] Going to happen. By accident. And it says. In time of temptation. They fell away. How are you going to handle it? In time of temptation.

[21:56] You got some roots. Are you rooted? I don't know. What's coming your way. I really don't. But you need.

[22:07] To have. Some roots. You need to be rooted. So it says. No roots. Which for a while. Believe. And in time of temptation.

[22:18] Fall away. And I've. I've seen it. Over and over. And over. And over. And no matter how many times. I tell that person. You need to get rooted. They don't.

[22:29] And they fall away. They fall away. It's sad to watch. But it happens. A lot. Okay.

[22:41] I want to look at one other thing. That stood out to me. And that was verse 14. It says. And that which fell among thorns. Are they not. Don't get me wrong. I've read this passage. I don't know how many times.

[22:52] I've read this passage. Over and over and over. I've done messages on it. And I've. I've done all kinds. Man. I've been through this passage. But it was just good.

[23:05] Yesterday. And that which fell among thorns. Are they. Which when they have heard. Go forth. And are choked with the. With cares and riches. And pleasures of this life. And bring no fruit to perfection. And you're going to read.

[23:16] You're going to read your Bible. And you're. Not going to get something today. Or get something. And then the next time you read it. You're going to get something else. And the next time you read it. You're going to get some more. And the next time you read it.

[23:28] You're going to get some more. And then the next time you read it. You're going to get. A reminder of what you got. The first time. That's the way it works. I mean I got like four Bibles at home. Right. I'll take one of them out. I'll take one.

[23:39] I'll put a note in my Bible right now. And I'll take one of them things out. And I'll look at it. It's got the same note in there. I put that note in there. Five years ago. 10 years ago but it just happened to stand out to me like it was brand new just forgot but here this and that which fell among thorns are they which when they heard go forth and are choked with the cares and the riches and pleasure to this life and bring no fruit to perfection I thought about that this weekend I thought about the bringing forth fruit to perfection and it doesn't get brought to perfection because you've got dead flies in your life that cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor it's those non-christian things in your life that although you believed it and you got in on it but the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life got in there that's where we are today we have it on every turn we've got access to it every place what are we going to do to keep that from doing its damage this was the it says and they bring bring no fruit to perfection that's the point the point isn't that you didn't have any fruit the point is you didn't bring it to perfection fruit ought to be brought to perfection in our lives we are a Christian we're an example but yet we do these things that people look at and they go that ain't Christian that can't be Christian you know all of a sudden

[25:43] I'm at work and I'm witnessing this one guy somebody else comes around the corner and says something and bite his head off that might yeah that'll do it yeah that'll do it that'll take that fruit and not let it come to perfection could be anything I don't know you think about it what are those things in your life that are not letting you bring forth fruit to perfection I think of that word blameless in the Bible that's kind of like what I'm talking about it doesn't allow you to be blameless I should be blameless as a Christian forget the pastor what about the Christian right there's just something that stood out to me these two verses right here you need to be rooted and you need to look into these things in your life that choke that choke it out choke the word it's the it's the cares it's the riches and it's the pleasures right this isn't the temptation time this is just those the things you do for let's say entertainment getting wrapped up whatever else we get wrapped up in that does not allow the fruit to come to perfection let's pray

[27:05]  Father I am thankful for thy word you know that and I'm glad to have it thank you for the church and thank you for our salvation store our hearts let's see some of these things in our lives and and try to apply these scriptures and grow and and be rooted and bring forth fruit to perfection in Jesus name amen alright let's take a break Lord I am happy with you Thanks allAM pleaseon what have you wanted to come out I'm looking at be a few авгу that I know that I don't have to trust and I own only I think I know it's the kind of where you like in the way