[0:00] Here shortly, Jens and I will get down to the altar, we'll pray together, we'll take this new Bible that we have given to Jens tonight. Don't worry, Jens, I won't be preaching from your new Bible.
[0:11] This is your Bible, okay? I brought my own, and I'm excited about, obviously, the Word of God, but this Bible that's getting out of this box here is about to have a great ride.
[0:25] It's about to go on, right? That the Word of God will go from here, the Indonesian, it'll be opened, it'll be studied, and when I hand this to you, Jens, I believe that it won't be wasted.
[0:36] I don't believe that it'll be unused. This is a nice one, Matt Mincer, it's a nice Thompson Chain reference. I know you're a big fan. Some of you really like Bibles, like the leather, and I'm not talking about the Word of God, I'm just talking about everything around it.
[0:51] You like the Word of God, and you like everything that goes along with it, like people who drink coffee with all the cream and sugar, you like all of it, right? And I'm thankful for that about you, Jens.
[1:02] I said this earlier, Jens, at around the age of 14, some of us would go through Louisiana, he would come to events, and he says, someday I'm going to come to your church, and I'm going to train, I'm going to be a missionary.
[1:13] I'm like, okay, buddy, all right, next year. Says it again. Says it again. Then he showed up. He says, I'm here. Like, yeah, you are. All right? And then he said, now I'm going to go to Indonesia, year after year, year after year.
[1:24] And I would say, I never, let's just be honest, we never knew what Jens would be up to at times. I mean, I can think about a VBS where he was in a scuba suit, felt at home, or he would, in the old building, he would climb across the rafters.
[1:37] He's just always up to something, carrying a knife on his side or a sword. One time we got you on surveillance camera, you found this plastic ninja sword, and you looked at it.
[1:49] Andrew, we could have shown this tonight, but you would never see him. And the video has him, he looks at it, and then he looks down at it like the best thing in the world. He grabs it for about 20 minutes.
[2:01] He is playing with this sword, and then he sets it down, and he goes back to doing his work. Jens has been unpredictable in the most wonderful ways.
[2:11] But I'll tell you one way that Jens hasn't. He has been very consistent. If Jens has the Word of God and open and standing in front of any group of people, he's going to be faithful to it. And I love that about him.
[2:23] As much as any person who's come to our church as a student, Jens had good preparation. Praise God for the church that he came from, and from the family, and from getting the travel.
[2:34] His dad's put a travel. I think your dad sold you to the circus, but you ended up going with that evangelist of all those years. But just the ability to communicate the truth of God's Word is wonderful.
[2:47] And the fact that you're going to go do that to people who don't get to hear that, it's just something as a church we just, we rejoice in. Yes, we love you, Jens. Yes, we love the people of Indonesia as much as we're able to.
[3:00] But we love that God is going to communicate his truth to people, and he's going to use you and his Word to do it. We love that. It's an amazing thing that the God who spoke the world into existence has spoken to his people in a book.
[3:18] The God who has spoken the world into existence by his Word has given us a book. Think about it. The invisible God has revealed himself through the writing of men who were moved along by the Spirit.
[3:33] 2 Peter 1.21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
[3:46] If I did not think that Jens was astonished by this and his life had not been altered by that fact, I would never want to say that he was a preacher of God's Word. But he is.
[3:57] And I love that about you, Jens, and I'm so thankful. I want to talk to you about your relationship with this Word, with the Word of God. You remember at camp, on occasion, we'd start off the week and I would say, campers, get your Bible and come to the altar.
[4:11] Let's make a decision before we even open the Bible this week that you're already going to tell God, I want to follow your Word. Make a decision about the Bible. Jens, I want to talk to you about your relationship with this Word.
[4:23] Ezra chapter number 7, verse number 10. In this one little verse, outlines teaching about the Word that is shown again from Paul to Timothy.
[4:35] It's true about Ezra, it's true about Timothy, and we will pray, Jens, this will always be said about you. Ezra chapter number 7, verse number 10.
[4:46] It says, Ezra prepared his heart, means he set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.
[5:05] First thing that we see about Ezra is that he set his heart on God's Word as a treasure. He treasured the Word of God. Paul tells Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, 13 and 14, Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing which was committed unto thee, key by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
[5:33] The Word of God's been taught to you, Jens, by many people through many years. You've learned it, now you treasure it. The Gospel, the Word of God, has been entrusted to you as a treasure.
[5:46] And just like Ezra prepared his heart, or he set his heart upon God's Word, Paul would hope that Timothy would do the same thing, and that he would be inclined to God's revelation. And that's what we're asking of you.
[5:58] That's the commitment we're asking of you. As Brother Sam said well, God has done the work. God is equipping and furnishing him. As a church, it's our job to say, yes, that's what we recognize.
[6:08] Yes, we want to help him get there. But we're making, you're making a commitment saying that my life will be given to treasuring this Word. Because what you're going to do in any context is preaching.
[6:20] It flows from the heart of a man who has seen great truths in the Bible, who has savored it with what they have seen, and cannot wait to share with others what he saw.
[6:31] Zach said this about you, Jens, that you've been joyful, that you're smiling. When kids are young and happy, you can just assume they're naive, right? You're happy, but you haven't seen anything yet, right? But when grown adults are joyful and happy, even when things are going on in your life, even when your daughter gets you worried at night before she's even born, but you say, I can be joyful, that is a testimony of the fruit of God's Word, finding a place in your heart, and you're abiding with Him.
[7:00] Treasure God's Word. That's before preaching it. Preaching will come from it. When you see the truths of God's Word, you're going to have to go find somebody to tell, and then that will become preaching.
[7:12] When you see something that you have to tell other people about, it will be preaching. It will be in a different language. I don't know if they'll stand up or sit down when they sing. I don't know what you'll have your shoes on or if you won't have your shoes on.
[7:23] I don't know how it will look different. But when a person sees something in the Word of God, they can't wait to share with other people. That's when preaching will happen. So treasure this Word. And then it says that he studied the Word.
[7:35] Ezra, he prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to be diligent about it, be diligent to handle it accurately. Because this Bible, when handled appropriately, takes dead things and makes them alive.
[7:52] But when this Bible is mishandled, it puts people in bondage. When this thing is mishandled, we make people farther from the truth. The Pharisees made people a twofold child of hell.
[8:04] They make them farther away from the truth. So, and this is how Paul told Timothy that God spoke through Paul and in talking to Timothy said in 2 Timothy 2.15, Study the show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.
[8:23] So Ezra had, he had studied God's Word. He had been seeking it and focusing on it. And that's what Paul was urging him to do, to diligently study it here.
[8:36] To be, when it says study, it doesn't mean it just mean to casually do it. It means be diligent. Do your best. Make every effort. Not just what you have to have because you have to be at a church.
[8:47] Not what you just have to have, but make it your life's work. It's such a blessing. It really is. Every one of us in here as believers should have a commitment to God's Word.
[8:57] You would not know of Jesus if it was not revealed to us by God's Word. When people say, we don't need any doctrine, we just need Jesus. Well, tell me where you're going to find out about Jesus if it wasn't revealed to you in God's Word.
[9:10] We all love this. And Jens, God placed a desire in his heart. This is if the person has a desire to be a bishop, he placed a good thing in his heart. It isn't a progressive thing.
[9:22] Jens doesn't love the Lord more than the church member that's sitting beside him. And that's what we're celebrating today. But we're saying that God put a unique desire in his heart to do a specific work that has to do with God's Word.
[9:35] And Jens, what a blessing we have. This has not always been true historically. And it would not be true if we were born in other parts of the world. But God has been so gracious to you that is going to allow you a life dedicated to this Word.
[9:52] It's just overwhelming. Church, it is absolutely overwhelming. The fact that I get to live my life dedicated to the study and teaching of this Word. It's just wonderful. And I'm grateful for it.
[10:04] And Jens, you need to be grateful for it. Because I see the people every week. I see the church families. I know them. I talk to them when they get off of work. I know all the effort they put in.
[10:15] I'm constantly reminded of the sacrifice of this church so that I can give my life to the Word of God. I see people do things so that I have an opportunity to do something else.
[10:25] You're going to be on the other side of the world and you're not going to see those people, but they're still going to be doing that work. They're still going to be going in the work. They're still going to be giving their faith promise. They're still doing all that because they're setting money aside, not just for you, but what they're trying to do.
[10:41] What they are doing is they're creating room for the Word of God to be taught in Indonesia. And that's what we're saying tonight. Your commitment is to this Word because you're committed to the work of the Lord.
[10:53] So study it all the time, constantly. If there's something you don't... They ask you in Indonesia you don't know about, you say, I'll be right back. And then you go find out, all right? You go to it. Ezra practiced God's Word, continued in the life of Scripture is what he did.
[11:09] And he did it. He set his heart, he studied, and he would go about doing it. 2 Timothy 3, 14 and 17 says, But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
[11:24] And you can think of the many people through the years in which you have learned there in them. In Vision Baptist Church, we get to be part of that group. In Jens' life, when he reads, remember where you've learned them.
[11:35] He can think of some of you in different contexts and different places. And we got to be part of that. And that's wonderful. But Jeff, isn't it amazing? That fire that goes at your house on Monday night with those teenage boys, those lessons are going to travel different places.
[11:50] And they're going to remember that they first learned it at your home. What a blessing to know that when we teach the Word of God, it runs. It has free course. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise in the salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
[12:06] And that was his testimony tonight. The preaching of God's Word brought conviction into his life, and he became wise in the salvation. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, that this Word is going to equip you to do.
[12:30] So Ezra loved God's Word. He studied God's Word, and he practiced it. He obeyed it. Paul longed for Timothy not only to see the Bible as a treasure and to study it, but also to continue in it.
[12:42] And when all was crumbling around him, and false teachers and evil men were compromising, Timothy was the continued steadfast and the sacred text, the wisdom-giving Word of God, the inspired and profitable scriptures.
[12:57] It doesn't matter what anybody else around you is doing. You stay fast to the Word of God. And then lastly here, he taught it. Ezra taught the Word of God.
[13:07] And so we often would jump to your responsibility to the Word of God to go teach it. But you see, that's the fourth thing in this, isn't it? You treasure it, and then you study it, and then you live it.
[13:18] And when we do those things, then we get ourselves to a position in that day that we can teach this. 2 Timothy 4 to preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
[13:34] If you are properly studying the Word of God and teaching it to people, there will be times you're reproving. There will be times you'll be rebuking. There will be times you're exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine.
[13:45] That's the Word of God's ministry here. Isn't it amazing, Jim? It's a Thursday night. Some of these people live quite far away. It wasn't easy to get here. They didn't get here because of any less reason than the fact they wanted to have an encounter with God's Word, that this is what brings us together, and to think that you will go there, and you will begin to preach, and the room will be empty.
[14:11] But then there will be some people that will come in, and that through this Word, they will hear about Jesus, and they'll say, I would like to hear some more. Hey, when do we meet and do that again?
[14:22] Or we do this again next Sunday? I will show up, and that through the years, God will fill a church, and then churches with people that are knowing about God from His Word, and you get to be in the middle of that.
[14:36] Ezra longed to teach the amazing truths that he had learned from God's Word. As Paul neared the end of his final letter, and at the end of his life, he urged Timothy to teach and to preach God's Word.
[14:49] So, Jens, set your heart on God's Word. It's a treasure. Jens, study God's Word. Be diligent to handle it accurately. Practice God's Word.
[15:00] Continue in this life-giving Scripture. And then, Jens, you need to take God's Word, and you need to preach it everywhere you go with everything that you have. And then when you're done, lay it down, be forgotten, and hand it off to the next generation so they can do it again.
[15:18] Jens, I am very proud of you, but more so we stand in awe at the work that God has done in your life. The same Word that has transformed your life is going to transform lives wherever you take this.
[15:29] And it's with great honor that I'm going to hand you this Bible. And there you go. So, things have been hard enough to make sure you do. It's a good job. So, you can bring something here as well.