Several weeks ago, our classes, Sunday school classes that do the Explore the Bible curriculum
were studying the books of Joshua and Judges.
And these are books that are not big attractions.
You know, you hear people offer revelation and people come out of the woodwork and want to study revelation.
Or even the book of Romans sometimes will draw people or James.
But when you say, I'm going to be speaking or teaching through the book of Judges, you usually don't have big crowds go out of their way to come
because it just doesn't sound that appealing.
Maybe it sounds, if you've not studied it, you know, in depth, it may sound like it has a lot of legal terms
or a lot of the law of the Old Testament, which is not the truth at all.
And I found great delight going through our Sunday school class studying the book of Judges.
There's some very rich biblical truths that are found throughout this book.
And I think it's things that we can learn from in our own lives.
You know, they say a smart person learns from their mistakes in life.
But a wise man learns from other people's mistakes.
And so I think the Old Testament in general, but especially the passages we're going to be looking at today,
are definitely passages that we can analyze the life of the Israelites and we can certainly learn from.
And hopefully we can avoid repeating the same mistakes that maybe they made in their lives and apply them to us.
But understanding, you know, the type of life that God certainly would have us to live
and the holiness and purity that he's called us to live and to be set apart and to be different.
And so I think today we're going to, you know, find a really rich truth in the word that we can also hold up as a mirror
and look back into our lives.
And to recognize that the commands that God gave to Israel can also be heard and applied in our own lives.
God commanded them to rid the people of the land because of their culture.
But we can apply that to our lives of what are things in our culture that we need to rid from our lives,
that we don't need to embrace or to filter into the community so that we can live lives of holiness and purity.
Now, before we get into this, let me explain.
Moses had led Israel for 40 years.
He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and led them for 40 years as they wandered into the wilderness.
And now Moses has died right at the cusp of going into the promised land.
And Joshua has become the leader now that is going to be leading them into the promised land
and conquering and defeating the people groups that are already living there.
And we see that beginning and taking place in the book of Joshua.
And the different tribes of Israel were settling into the territories that had been allotted to them.
But Joshua failed to lead the people to completely obey God's command of driving the people completely out 100% without exception.
And so in the book of Judges, we see some of that continuing.
We see the children of Israel, the different tribes, trying to go to battle
and deliver the people groups from the areas and territories that they had been allotted.
But to spoil the story for you, we're going to see that they continue to fail to do that and certainly disobey God.
God had given them the commandment to go in 100% without exceptions to defeat, to kill, destroy,
and rid the land of the people and the influence that they would have in there.
And we see Israel failing to do that completely.
It wasn't that the Lord wasn't with them when they initially set into the promised land.
It wasn't that they ran into armies that were bigger and more powerful than them and God could not defeat.
They ran into cultures and countries that had chariots like Egypt did.
And the scripture kind of makes it out like they couldn't defeat them because of the chariots.
But is a chariot bigger than God?
Can God not defeat an army of chariots?
We see that he did against the Egyptians.
And so there were others that Israel failed to bring out.
But it wasn't that God could not do this for them.
What it boils down to is one word.
And that word is disobedience.
Disobedience.
You know, Israel could come up with a lot of excuses of why.
We could sit here and analyze today and determine other reasons why they didn't.
But when we get into Judges chapter 2, we will see without any doubt.
And Israel, when confronted, did not offer an excuse.
They wept because they knew they were guilty that they simply disobeyed God and did not do exactly what he had called them to do.
Now, while studying this book, the book of Judges, we can't help but to notice several themes that run throughout, you know, the book.
The first of those themes that we run into and we see over and over again.
Because the book of Judges is a book that spans, I forget the exact number, but something like 300, maybe 350 years.
And we see as many as 12 judges that were raised up to deliver Israel from oppressors.
But we see this happening every time God raised up a judge like a Gideon or a Samson or a Deborah and delivered the people.
And they worshiped and honored God.
And then when they died and the next generation was coming into adulthood, they forgot what God had done for them.
And this theme runs throughout the book.
It says, In those days, Israel had no king, and the people did what was pleasing in their own eyes.
They did what they thought was right.
And therefore, we see that theme of them drifting away from God, worshiping foreign gods, and God having to punish them, them repent, and then God raising up another judge to deliver them.
But one of the other themes that really caught my attention, and maybe it caught my attention the most because this is the message that God was speaking to me.
You know, I've heard pastors often say some of the best sermons they preach are the ones that they're preaching unto themselves.
And so maybe that's the case for me today as I studied this.
But I see a theme that runs throughout the book of Judges that partial obedience is disobedience.
Partial obedience is complete disobedience.
Now, parents, help me.
What's the rest of that that you often tell your children?
And disobedience, come on, you parents, you've never said that to your children.
Disobedience is sin, right?
Am I the only one that's ever said this?
Okay, thank you, D.D.
Thank you.
Partial obedience is disobedience.
And disobedience is sin.
Now, let me give you an illustration.
Imagine on one of these hot days, you decide your car needs to be washed.
Maybe it's been a long time.
There's still the yellow pollen from the spring all over your car.
And your kids are home out of school.
And they're already saying, I'm bored.
I'm glad you said that.
I have a car that needs to be washed.
I've told my kids, every time they tell me they're bored, I've got a chore for them.
So, I need you to go out and wash my car.
The children are excited.
It's a hot day.
They're thinking more of playing in the sun.
I mean, playing in the water.
And so, they go out.
They move your car under a shade tree.
They soak it down with water.
They get the soap going in the bucket.
They sud your car up.
And their cell phone rings.
One of their friends is opening their swimming pool at their house.
And they want your kids to come over and swim.
And all of a sudden, that soapy car is lost in their minds.
And off they go to swim at their friend's house.
Lo and behold, you come out to check on your kids to see how things are going.
And what do you find?
You find a car that has dried soap suds all over it and has made a bigger mess.
Now, do you commend your children and say, well done.
You at least attempted to do what I asked you to do.
You partially obeyed or are you angry and furious that they've left a bigger mess than if they had just not done it at all?
You know, if you're like me, I'm going to be angry.
I'm going to that friend's house.
I'm getting them and bringing them back.
And they're not swimming the rest of the summer.
They're going to wash my car every week.
You know, because partial obedience is disobedience and they disobeyed us.
And we need to understand that as Christians today.
That when God gives us commandments, it's not good enough to just partially obey it.
You know, sometimes we partially obey to ease our conscience, to make us feel like, you know, well, we did what God wanted us to.
Or at least we gave it a shot.
But that's not how God sees it.
God sees partial obedience as disobedience.
And God cannot bless disobedience.
God had commanded Israel to drive the people out of the land because he was serious about them being his chosen people and to being a people of holiness and purity.
God is just as serious about his children today.
Those who have given their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
He's just as serious today about us being holy and pure and obedient people.
1 Peter 1.16 is just one place we find in scripture where he says,
You are to be a holy people as I am holy.
God wanted to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham, through the line of David, and bringing the Messiah into the world.
He wanted the world to come to know who he was through Israel.
And in order for that to happen, you know, they needed to remain faithful, pure, and holy people.
Not blending in with society.
The same is true today for us.
God wants us to make him known to the world.
To communicate the gospel message into the world that people may hear it and receive it.
Romans tells us, how can they believe if they have not heard?
And how can they hear if someone doesn't go to them and share?
But we must not blend into the culture or they won't listen.
You know, we've got to be set apart and different.
You know, so as we study this book today, I want us to walk away with a couple of things.
Excuse me.
We are to be set apart from the world first.
Second of all, I want us to walk away realizing that partial obedience to God is complete disobedience to him.
And so I want you to think about a couple of questions as we listen to God's word this morning.
Are there areas in your life where God has spoken to you that you have not fully obeyed?
Are there areas in the word of God that you have not obeyed?
Are there areas in the word of God that we don't like?
They're uncomfortable.
They're difficult.
And so we choose to not read them.
We choose to not pay attention to them.
And we kind of set them over to the side and focus on the ones that we do like.
You know, God says, you know, Jesus says that those who obey my teachings, those are the ones that will enter into the kingdom of God.
And so we can't just pick and choose the things that we want, but to read it in its entirety and be obedient to all of it.
So are there areas in your life where you're not completely obeying God and his word?
Or are there areas in your life where God's been convicting you?
Maybe he's convicting you of a sin that is in your life.
And up to this point, maybe you've made little efforts to, you know, rid that sin from your life, but you haven't completely done it.
You've compromised.
And you do just enough to make yourself feel comfortable or good about yourself, but you really know in your heart you haven't obeyed.
Or maybe God's leading you to commit more fully to him, to serve him, to be used of him in a certain capacity.
But for one excuse after another, you've not obeyed and followed through with that.
Well, let me ask you this.
How are you going to respond today?
How are you going to respond to the word of God today so that when we leave here, we are walking in total and complete obedience to God and not just partial obedience?
Now, before we get into Judges, I wanted to read a passage in Deuteronomy because I wanted us to understand the commandment that God had given Israel.
And then I want us to look at how Israel responded to that commandment and then what are the consequences of that.
So let's look together at Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 through 6.
It'll be on the board, but I'd love for you to open up your Bibles.
That's one great thing about Pickens First Baptist.
We always still hear people opening their Bibles and following along.
We're probably one of the one denominations that people really still carry their Bibles.
They can still find Deuteronomy in the Scriptures.
And I'd hate for us to lose that.
Continue to open the Bible, read along, make sure I just haven't put something up there that I wanted it to say.
But make sure it really is God's Word and to not lose the skill of opening your Bible and finding, you know, the words.
If you've got an iPad or something, that's fine too.
That's still fine and it may be even quicker.
But let's look together at Deuteronomy 7, verses 1 through 6.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it
and clears away many nations before you,
the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
seven nations more numerous and mightier than you.
And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them,
then you must devote them to complete destruction.
You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods.
Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly.
But thus shall you deal with them.
You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars
and chop down their ashram and burn their carved images with fire.
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession
out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Again, God didn't choose Israel so that they would be exclusive and he only cared about them.
God chose Israel to use them to bless the world.
That's why we're sitting here today.
He wanted the world to come to know the one true God
and it was through Israel that the Messiah would certainly come
that he would die for the sins of the world.
But God commanded Israel that when they went in to take possession of the land
that they were to devote the people to complete destruction.
Now this sounds unlike anything a loving God
that we often understand God to be in the New Testament.
It sounds unlike anything a loving God would certainly command his people to do.
And sometimes people really struggle in the Old Testament
of how God could give such a commandment.
When I was in college, I had a friend that got saved
through the Baptist Collegiate Ministry now.
It was the Baptist Student Union back then.
But he had not grown up in a Christian family.
Grew up in Montana.
Not in a Christian environment.
But he came to faith in Jesus Christ.
But as he studied the Bible
and he got into the Old Testament,
he really had a problem.
And he didn't understand the full scope
of, you know, really the penalty of sin.
And so he said, if that's who God is,
I don't want to have anything to do with him.
And he walked away from Christianity.
And I've lost touch with him over the years.
So I don't know if he's ever come back or not.
But he really struggled with that.
So I want us to ask the question this morning,
why would God give such a commandment
as he told the children of Israel to go into the Promised Land?
Why would he tell them to go in and conquer and destroy
and defeat all the peoples
rather than telling them to go in and evangelize
and enrich them through Judaism?
Well, let's look back at Deuteronomy chapter 7
and look at verse 4
and we will see exactly God's wisdom
and God's purpose behind giving such a command.
He said,
For they would turn away your sons from following me
to serve other gods.
Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you
and he would destroy you quickly.
God gave this commandment
in order to protect the holiness of his people.
He was not fearful or afraid
that the people living in there militarily
would rise up and defeat the Israelites
because God is mightier and more powerful
than any of those nations.
One word from his mouth would destroy all of them
without any problem.
But God was more concerned with their influence.
You know, their worship of false gods
and their culture.
He knew that that would be a constant temptation
to draw Israel away from worshiping the God of Abraham,
the one true God,
and that they would slide away into worshiping these false gods
and committing spiritual adultery against him.
And therefore, he commanded them
to go in and to get rid of anything from their lives.
Get rid of any of these people in the promised land
that would ever serve as that temptation.
Do you see the correlation that we could make
between that commandment that God gave there
and the commandment that he gives us in our lives today?
Jesus said that if your right eye causes you to sin,
it would be better to gouge your right eye out
than to enter into eternity separated from God.
Now, obviously, that's a passage more talking about salvation.
But as Christians, is it not saying,
isn't it better for us to get rid of things in our lives
that would hinder us from growing in our relationship with him
and being faithful and obedient to him
and honoring and worshiping him with all that we have?
Jesus makes it very clear over and over.
Seek the Lord with all of your heart.
You know, pursue him with all that you have.
Lay down your life as a living sacrifice.
You know, what is it that could be in our lives
that is hindering us?
How have we blended in to the world?
You know, they say that if you look at the morality
of Christian churches today in the United States
that we typically just lag behind society by about 20 years.
That means that the morality within the church today
is somewhere around 1997.
Now, how many of you remember 1997?
Were they very moral years?
Was society a godly, holy society in 1997?
No, I can remember back when it turned 1980.
And everybody's like, man, it's the 80s.
We've got all this freedom to do whatever we want.
And TV shows like Three's Company came out
and stuff like that.
And it was like another 1960s
where we had the freedom to do whatever immoral things
we wanted to do.
But that's not for the children of God, is it?
We are not to infiltrate into the world.
We're not to be friends of the world.
We are to be set apart.
We are to be different.
We are to be separate and holy and pure as God is.
For if we're not, then we're only partially obeying
the things God has commanded us to do.
And how will the world ever see God in us
if we are not a reflection of God?
If we are not holy and pure and righteous,
and if we are not set apart and different,
then how will the world ever come to know God?
How will they know Jesus Christ?
I hear different studies that say
one of the reasons why people don't want to come to know
or be a Christian today
is because they see no difference
in Christians and the world.
Well, how will your friends know God?
How will your schoolmates know God?
How will your coworkers know God?
How will your families know God?
If you are not different,
if I'm not different,
set apart and separate
from the things of this world.
God had chosen Israel to be a special people.
Again, not to be exclusive,
but to use them to bless the world.
It was God's purpose to bless the world,
that the world would come to know God through them.
And there is a tremendous correlation
between what God was using Israel to do
in their day and time and Christians today
and what he desires to do with us
by allowing us to make Jesus Christ known
around here and around the world
by going and taking that gospel message.
God knew that if Israel did not go in
and conquer and defeat the people groups
that were living in the promised land,
that they would be a constant temptation
to draw them away from faithfulness to him.
And we see it over and over.
Because they failed to do it,
we see exactly what God was trying to get them to avoid
of being pulled away,
worshiping other gods
and committing spiritual adultery
to the one true God.
Now this may seem to some
as very barbaric still
of why a loving God
would command his people to go in
and totally kill all the people there.
But maybe the right question is not
why would God give that command?
Maybe we're looking at it
from a different and a wrong point of view.
Maybe the better question
that we should be asking
is why doesn't God kill all of us?
Instead of asking why doesn't God
or why did God command Israel
to go in and kill these people,
why doesn't God kill us?
Because God told Adam and Eve
that if they ate from the tree
of knowledge and good and evil,
then what would happen?
They would die.
Romans tells us
that the wages of sin
is death, right?
Hebrews tells us
that without the shedding of blood,
there can be no forgiveness
of sin.
And also in Romans,
we understand that all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.
So every one of us in here,
myself included,
we are sinners
sinners.
And we deserve to die.
We deserve to die
and spend an eternity
totally separated from God
because God is a holy God
and God cannot allow sin
into his presence.
He can't ignore sin.
He can't sweep sin under the rug.
And this might shock you.
God cannot even forgive sin
unless the law is fulfilled.
God cannot forgive sin
unless the law is fulfilled.
And the law was fulfilled
when Jesus Christ
entered into the world,
lived a perfect sinless life,
and went to the cross
taking our sins upon himself,
and the wrath of God
was poured out upon him
because of you and me.
Because Jesus spilt his blood
and died satisfying the law
is why you and I
can be here today
worshiping him,
entering into his presence,
going before him and praying,
and knowing that our sins
are forgiven
and that one day
when we enter into eternity,
we will be able to enter
into the presence of God
and spend an eternity
in heaven with him.
But it is only through Jesus Christ
that that is possible
for without Jesus Christ,
we deserve the same fate
that the Canaanites
and Parasites
and all those people
received
when the Israelites
went into the promised land.
We deserve the same fate
that Sodom and Gomorrah received.
You know, we might live
a little bit more moral lives
than Sodom and Gomorrah,
but a sin is a sin
in the eyes of God,
and he cannot allow it
into his presence.
And so you and I
deserve the same fate
as those people did
except for Jesus Christ.
And so the question isn't
why would God give a command
to go in and destroy the people?
The question is better,
why doesn't he kill all of us?
Excuse me.
And the answer
is because he poured his wrath
out upon Jesus.
And now,
there's only one way
to respond to that.
When we come to understand
what God did for us
through Jesus Christ,
how do we respond?
Do we respond
by infiltrating the world
and living it up
and having a great time
and thanking God,
woo-hoo!
Or do we come before God
and we bow before him
and we worship him
and we praise him
and we thank him
and we glorify his name
and we pray that our lives
would 100% bring glory
and honor to him.
We ask him that he'll search
the depths of our heart
and anything that is in us
that is impure,
that is unholy,
that is ungodly,
that he would reveal it to us
and through the power
of the Holy Spirit
working in our lives,
help us to rid it
from our lives
and become more and more
like Christ.
Romans 12, 1 says,
in light of all that God
has done for you,
when you consider
all that God has done for you,
is it too much
to ask for you
to offer your life unto him
as a living sacrifice?
Is it too much
to ask that we die to self?
Is it too much
to ask that we sacrifice
our wishes,
our cares,
our desires
in order to seek
and pursue Jesus Christ
and to offer our lives unto him
as a living sacrifice,
honor him,
obeying him completely
and helping the world
come to know Jesus Christ?
Is that too much to ask?
What is there in your life
that when you stand before God
on judgment day
that you're going to think,
man, I wish I had done
a little bit more of that?
If you devote,
let's say you really devote
everything to the Lord
and you live that,
you know,
living sacrifice for God
and when you stand before him
and he says,
well done,
good and faithful servant,
are you going to really think,
man, I wish I had partied
a little bit more?
I wish I had worked harder
and made more money
or climbed the corporate ladder
a little bit more,
got more education,
had a bigger house,
but let's flip that around.
If those are the things
we're living for now
and when we stand before God,
Christians entering
into the kingdom of heaven,
but we see
all that could have been ours,
are we going to say,
man, I wish,
I wish I had lived a life
more separated from the world.
I wish I had pursued God more.
I wish I had studied
his word more.
I wish I had been obedient more.
I wish I had told more people
about Jesus
so that they would be here with us.
You know,
when we consider
all that God has done for us,
is it too much
to ask
that we lay our lives down
as a living sacrifice
unto him?
Now, I've got to get moving here.
Let's look at Judges 1.
We see what God
has commanded them to do.
Now, let's look at the reality
and I'm only going to read
one couple verses here,
but if you read the whole
chapter 1,
you'll see this
repeated over and over
with all the different tribes.
And the Lord was with Judah
and he took possession
of the hill country,
but he could not drive out
the inhabitants of the plain
because they had chariots of iron.
And Hebron was given to Caleb
as Moses had said,
and he drove out from it
the three sons of Anak.
But the people of Benjamin
did not drive out the Jebusites
who lived in Jerusalem.
So the Jebusites have lived
with the people of Benjamin
in Jerusalem to this day.
Excuse me.
God had commanded Israel
to devote the people
living in the promised land
to complete destruction.
But what did Israel do?
You know, they did,
they ran into some militaries
that were,
or armies that were bigger than them,
more powerful than them,
that had chariots.
But is that a problem for God?
They had already defeated Jericho.
They had already defeated Egypt
40 years earlier.
They had already experienced God
doing so much in their lives.
Are you telling me that a chariot
is going to stop them?
Is going to stop God
from doing what He's promised?
That He would do?
You know, what I also find
very interesting
if you read throughout chapter 1
is you see some of the tribes
put the people to slavery.
So obviously they conquered them.
Obviously they ruled over them.
But instead of obeying God
and destroying them,
they made them slaves.
God said no treaties,
no compromises.
Just devote the people
to complete destruction.
And yet they did not do that.
And we could look
and we can come up with lots of excuses
of why the people were unable to do
what God had commanded them to do.
But God sends an angel of the Lord
to them to confront them with their sin.
And it's summed up in one word,
disobedience.
And you'll notice that the people
do not argue.
They don't offer excuses.
They don't rationalize why they didn't do it.
They wept because they knew
they were guilty.
Look with me at Judges chapter 2
verses 1 through 5 now.
Now the angel of the Lord
went up from Gilgal to Bochum.
And he said,
I brought you up from Egypt
and brought you into the land
that I swore to give to your fathers.
I said,
I will never break my covenant with you
and you shall make no covenant
with the inhabitants of this land.
You shall break down their altars.
But you have not obeyed my voice.
What is this you have done?
So now I say,
I will not drive them out before you,
but they shall become thorns in your sides
and their God shall be a snare to you.
As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke,
spoke these words to all the people of Israel
and the people lifted up their voices and wept.
And they called the name of that place Bochum
and they sacrificed there to the Lord.
Because Israel failed to obey God,
God said that he would not go before them.
He would no longer go before them at that point
and continue to drive out the people.
And therefore,
the people would continue to remain in the land
and be a thorn in their side forevermore.
You ever watch the news?
You ever look at what's going on in the Middle East?
You ever see the turmoil
that's always constantly in Israel?
Could it be because they did not obey God
when Joshua led them in to destroy the people
and rid them from the land?
That they continue to have strife and difficulty.
And not only that,
but the people remained in the land
and they constantly served as a temptation
to lure the people away from the worship of God.
We even see that in one of the most well-known judges in this book
and that's Samson.
Even a man that God raised up,
he continued to have problems with, you know, Philistine women
and being pulled away
and focusing on things that he shouldn't have been.
And so the people continued to live in the land
and they continued to lure Israel away.
And every time that happened,
God had to punish them.
As a loving parent,
God would punish them for the purpose of bringing them back.
Now, if you're a parent,
you realize we're not perfect
and we don't always discipline in love, do we?
But the great thing about God
is that he's a perfect, holy God
and his discipline is in perfect love
to bring his people back to him.
Unfortunately, throughout the ages of Israel,
thousands of people had to die
to bring them as a nation back to him
because of their disobedience
and their wandering over and over.
Just in the book of Judges alone,
the cycle took place 12 times
to where they wandered from the Lord,
the Lord had to punish them,
they repented,
God would raise up somebody like a Gideon or a Deborah
to deliver them
and then the cycle would be repeated again and again.
And it's because they disobeyed God
and did not rid the people from their lives.
I wonder what we have in our lives
that God has really said,
you need to get rid of that.
You need to remove that from your life
because it's not helping you worship me,
but it's a constant temptation pulling you away.
Dads, what have we got in our lives
that we're setting a bad example for our children?
Moms,
are we teaching our children
to seek and to pursue the things of God?
Or do we allow some things to live in us
that causes our children
to pursue the things of the world
more than God?
And what are we going to do about it?
How are we going to respond?
Are we willing to turn loose
of some things in our lives in this world,
no matter how hard it might be,
so that we might establish a legacy
in our children
and in our grandchildren
and in the generations to follow?
Or are we holding on to things in the world
that are going to send the wrong messages
to our children
that will impact their lives
and then they will live pursuing the same things
and they'll hand that on to their grandchildren
and their great-grandchildren
and on and on.
So let me ask you this morning,
are there areas in your life
that God has been speaking to you
areas in your life
where God has been showing you things in your life
that you need to make a change?
There's areas in your life
where you've not completely obeyed,
maybe partially thinking,
well, you know, I did what I could,
but we've not completely obeyed.
We've made compromises.
We've made excuses.
And how do you need to respond?
How do you need to respond today?
Are there areas in the word of God?
Are there things that God has said in his word
that we've thought,
I just can't live up to that?
But God keeps tapping on your heart going,
read my word,
study my word,
obey in its entirety.
So I want to ask you today
as the musicians come and play
and as we go to the Lord in prayer,
I want you to be very open
to listening to what God
is saying to you in your heart.
And if there are areas in your life
that you need to make a change in,
you need to repent
or you need to step up
and completely obey,
surrender those areas over to the Lord today.
And I'll also be down front,
be more than happy to pray with you.
Let's close in prayer
or have a word of prayer
and then William will play while you pray.
Father, we just thank you for your word.
Thank you for your truth.
We thank you for the lessons
that can be found here.
And we ask, Lord, for each of us
that your Holy Spirit
is speaking to our hearts right now.
There may be some sitting in here
knowing that they need to surrender
their lives to you.
That they need to make you Lord of their lives.
And yet,
they just haven't been willing
to turn loose of things.
And in fact,
they've not done that yet.
And I pray, Lord,
that you continue to speak,
helping them to understand
they need you.
But for the rest of us,
Lord,
I pray,
there may be areas in our lives
where we're disobeying.
There may be areas
in our lives
where there's sin
that we need to repent of.
And Lord,
I pray that your Holy Spirit
is speaking to us
loud and clear
and that we'll recognize
how we need to respond
and give us the power
to do that,
Lord,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.