steps of his love, and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
A wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord,
he taketh my burden away,
he holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved,
he giveth me strength as my day.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love,
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
With numberless blessings each moment he crowns,
and filled with his fullness divine.
I sing in my rapture, O glory to God,
for such a Redeemer as mine.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love,
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
When clothed in his brightness,
transported I rise,
to meet him in clouds of the sky.
His perfect salvation, his wonderful love,
I'll shout with the millions on high.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love,
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.
Great singing, Brother Alex.
Can you open us and we're in prayer?
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for today.
Thank you for our church here, Father.
And thank you for all the brothers and sisters
that have come.
We pray for those that couldn't make it,
and we ask you to bless our service, Father,
when we worship you and study your word.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
Our next song is song number 343.
343, Revive Us Again.
Revive Us Again, on the first.
We praise thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love,
for Jesus, who died and is now gone above.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Revive us again.
We praise thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of light,
who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Revive us again.
All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every stain.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Revive us again.
Revive us again.
Fill each heart with Thy love.
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen.
Alleluia, thine the glory, Revive us again.
stand against the wiles of the devil Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11 great
scripture there something we need to do every day on our
inside page there we have our service times
10 30 a.m for our sunday morning service and we are continuing in the series
picking back up where we left off in the sermon is going to be about bible
reading for new believers and of course it can be
definitely something for old believers too
we can all have some motivation about reading the bible
in our daily lives sunday evening service six
or six thirty pm three thirty pm and i'll be preaching in joshua chapter
number two tonight talking about the two spies and raheb
the harlot and thursday evening bible study will be
in first chronicles chapter number 12 and then our so many times are listed
below we have these so many maps put in the whatsapp group if you're planning on
going sewing you're not in the whatsapp group just see brother sean collin he's
right there and if you want to go sewing uh just
meet in here at one o'clock or you could meet
on location at the map location if you don't know what group you're in
also see brother sean collin and he'll let you know what group to be in
and what map to go to so if you have any other questions about someone today
see that guy right there brother sean collin okay
all the other times are listed there below and if you look down you can see
the praise report all the statistics the uh salvations
baptisms and attendance is from last week
and then um let's see the super soul winning
saturday is coming up october 27th it'll be from 12 to 4
pm in saint john's which is just across the river there in portland
it's not like saint john's new york or anything like that so
saint john's is just a neighborhood in portland and we'll have more details
coming uh soon about that but it's basically
just like a four hour time slot and you don't have to go the whole four
hours you can come in a couple hours late or
one hour you'll still get rewarded just like you came
at the first hour just like in the bible so you'll still get to eat with
everybody and whatnot so just trying to give an
opportunity for people to get a big day in soul
winning if you're missing that's that saturday time slot so also
october 31st we're having our chili our first chili and cornbread
potluck on um yeah the 31st it's before the thursday evening service
from 4 to 6 pm and uh let's see you can bring any kind of chili you want that is
fine beans no beans cincinnati beans whatever you want to do
and you can come early if you wish because uh you can play games
and whatnot before the service will wrap everything up about six o'clock so we
can clean everything up and then even if you want to stay after
the service and hang out you're more than welcome to do so
just make sure you lock the door and turn off the lights and take your food
home all right and the november uh the
missions conference at faithful word baptist church is
november 6th through 10th that is coming soon upon us here if
you're planning on going to that november 14th is the homeschool field
trip to skyzone trampoline park that is 11 to 12 30 see miss rachel
woods for any questions uh she needs to know how many
jumpers are coming there's also a release if you've never those expire or
they if you've already filled one out you
might just go check and make sure that you
have yours filled out because they're going to make you fill one out when you
get there and it's kind of annoying it cuts into your time jumping
so you can do it you can pre-do it right yeah i think she put
in the homeschool field trip whatsapp group i think she put a link where you
can go in and just fill it out real quick for your kids
and if you're jumping i think you need to fill one out too
so she needs to know how many people are jumping or attending
by november 1st so that is going on and then
26 we're having a pie social after church on tuesday night so
we're not having a thursday night service we're moving that to tuesday
night so all the women in the church don't get
mad at me because they're cooking on wednesday
and then thursday of course is thanksgiving so we're gonna move this
the service to tuesday night so um and then we're a family integrated church of
course that means the children infants are welcome during the church services
but please utilize another baby room and dad baby room for your convenience
all the other list of rules is down below
all that and the online donations are available at our website the
text-giving number if you'd like to give that way
or whatever however you want to do it and the ties and offerings
that have come in so far for the month are at the bottom of the page
and then we have several birthdays we have kayla wood's
birthdays the 21st which is what tomorrow all right well
happy birthday she's going to be old 18 that means she can do whatever she
wants but she better not she'll be in big
trouble all right um oh Zacchaeus I miss Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus's birthday is today actually how old are you Zacchaeus
five five that's the best that's one of the best ages to be is five
no responsibility all kinds of toys cool well happy birthday Zacchaeus and
then Zadok is going to be
oh I don't know how old he's going to be but it's the 22nd he's not here but
we'll sing happy birthday to him anyway and Isaiah is going to be how old
three all right so his birthday is on the 22nd also
and then Julia is going to be how old two hi Julia she's like I heard my name
all right well we got a lot of children right around the same
area so that's great and then so we also have
Jeremy and Molly's anniversary so we'll sing happy birthday
to all the birthday people and then we're going to sing happy anniversary
after that so let's sing happy birthday first
so happy birthday to you happy birthday
to you happy birthday god bless you
happy birthday to you all right all right now molly and
jeremy how long have you been married where are you oh there you are
a decade wow that's great well many more blessed
anniversaries to you let's sing happy anniversary
happy anniversary to you happy anniversary to you
god bless you and keep you happy anniversary to you
all right all right with that being said oh yeah one more thing
um last week we had dr phil stringer here
if you're if you attend our church i was offering to buy
each family one of the books that are on the table over there
and if you write down which book you want your name what book you want
i will make an order to buy one book for each family
if you haven't done that already today's the last day to do that i'm going to
send off the order to dr stringer so please fill it out
don't come to me later because i'm just gonna make one bulk order
all right so write down your name what book you want
today's the last day at the end of the service all right so that's all i have
for announcements go ahead and sing another song we'll receive the offering
okay
our third song is psalm 126 you can grab a binder in the seat in front
of you or open your bibles
so psalm 126 i'm not sure how many times we've done it i'm just gonna go over how
it's supposed to be done real quick so you
go through the whole first chorus and then it hits or uh the whole first
force verse and then it hits the chorus and
then you come back so it says like turn again our
captivity and design and after you do that chorus
you come back and start again at he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing
precious so that's that's how you go back and you can see
you can see the end of the bar with the double dots that's how you know to go
back but anyways yeah we'll do that song so psalm
126
psalm 126
when the lord turned again the captivity of zion
we were like them that dream and then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue with singing then said they among the heathen
the lord had done great things for them the lord had done great things for us
whereof we are glad turn again our captivity
oh lord as the streams in the south they that so
in tears shall reap in joy they that so in tears shall reap in joy
then said they among the heathen the lord had done great things for them the
lord had done great things for us whereof we are glad
he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing her seed
shall doubtless come again shall doubtless come again
with rejoicing bringing his sheeps with him
then said they among the heathen the lord had done great things for us the
lord had done great things for us where of
we are glad our barashas come forth to receive the
offering brother sean will you pray for the offering
lord thank you so much for this day
thank you
you
all right we'll be in the book of psalms we'll be in psalm number one
psalm number one if you don't have a bible there should be a bible under the
seat in front of you
in psalms one
psalm one the bible reads blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of
the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the
lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night
and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season
his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper
the ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away
therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the lord knoweth the way
of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall
perish brother drew will you pray for us
amen all right like i said in the announcements we are
in the third sermon of my steps for new believers i know a lot of you are not
new believers in here but i am trying to preach this series
so we can point new believers to sermons to
go to and i want to put these sermons on our
website and uh so this is like i said the third
one the first one was basically assurance for salvation
and people sometimes people get you know either some weird teachings after
they get saved and that sermon was designed so that
people would you know not get fall for some of
the weird traps that people try to set for them and
you know just um so that people would also have
assurance of salvation that you know once you're saved you're always
saved and not you know have these weird people in different types of
churches that say you can lose your salvation things like that
and of course the second one it was about baptism because
that's the thing the lord said that we're supposed to do next
after we get saved is to be baptized and
i have this one as the third one because you know it's very important that we
read our bibles so that you know so the third
in this series of steps for new believers is bible reading
it's not a real flashy title or anything but you know i mean
this isn't a real flashy book is it it's just
uh a black you know cover with black and white pages and sometimes you'll
have the red letters uh this one does have a red letter
edition but uh it's all inspired amen so
why should we read the bible why should a new believer
read the bible and of course old believers should read the bible too
but why should a new believer read the bible well the bible has often
been called by this acronym you know the the acronym would be bible
but basic instructions before leaving earth
we should all read the bible because it's kind of our instruction manual
and it's our guide it's our manual to know what god wants from us why we're
here what does god want from us what are the
great mysteries of life who made the world there's just all kinds of
instructions and knowledge in there for us
to understand what is my purpose what am i worth who am i
you know these questions are often asked by people and if you go to the
wrong source you're going to get the wrong answers
you know the the world wants to tell us that we
are some cosmic accident that we just happen
to form life on this planet through just this
cosmic burp that happened billions of years ago
and we happen to have this sustainable planet that
cycles around perfectly a perfect distance from the sun
a perfect distance from everything and it just happens to spin at the right
uh the right speed so that perfect 24-hour days and all this other stuff
and that we have you know this food that and these bodies that produce
you know that sleep at night and regenerate during the you know during
the night and all this other stuff and that's just an accident that all that
all happened and nothing made us nothing made the
earth nothing made the solar system or all these different things but when you
have the bible the bible tells us who made
all this stuff the bible says in the beginning
god created the heaven and the earth so and the bible says that god
created us for his own pleasure the bible says that god loves us
the bible says that you know it it explains why people die
it explains what sin is and and it explains all these things
and you know he didn't just bring us and have us be born for no reason
he loves us he wants us to be restored to how we were when he made adam and
eve in the first place and eventually that is going to happen
there's going to be peace there's we can have peace now with
god by salvation but eventually jesus christ is going to come back
he's going to give us glorified bodies that can't die
it can't be hurt and eventually there'll be no more tears
there'll be no more pain and suffering and things like that
but he does have this book here and it has all the things that we need to know
in it so if you are a new believer or if you've been saved for a long time you
apps you should be absolutely sure that you're going to heaven
and you and you can be absolutely sure that you're going to heaven
when you die and you know if you're not 100 sure you should see
a video that we have on our website called the bible way to heaven
or you can just look at the first new believer series and there's
a lot of stuff in that first series of video
that explains how to go to heaven but you know the bible has a lot of great
answers for us but is everything that you could ever
ask in the bible no but everything that we
need to know is in the bible not every question that you ask is a
lot of people will go well what about this question what about
that question not everything is in the bible i mean
if every question was in there it'd be a really long book
it already is a really long book but so not
you know people will say well what about this what about that and sometimes you
know the bible doesn't give those answers
but it gives us what we need everything that we need to know
is in here so and you know you shouldn't just read the new testament
you shouldn't just pick and cherry pick things that you like out of it
and just only focus on those things god wants you to read the whole thing
and to get a balanced view of who god is and what the and what god expects
and the whole timeline and to be able to figure everything out
you need to be able to read the whole thing and
then you'll get a balanced view of who god is what he expects
and and and that like the whole timeline of how it fits
into history because if you just read the bible one time you're still not
really going to understand the whole timeline you're going to have
to do some studying to get all that down and so you know and the other thing is
you're going to start to understand what god's will for
your life is but if you just cherry pick things you're never going to understand
the whole bible and there's a lot of people out there
that think that they know what god wants or they think that they know the bible
really well but haven't even read it one time cover
to cover so to change the way that you think you have to
start thinking the way god thinks you have to start putting on you know
and start changing your mind about what you believe you know obviously
salvation is to change your mind about what you believe and believe
on christ for salvation that's just step one but then you have to start to renew
your mind with what the bible says and you know some things in the bible
are hard you know the disciples left you know a lot of
jesus's disciples left him because of the hard
sayings that he said and he told he asked his disciples will you go away
also because there's hard things in here that
people are like i don't know if i can keep
following the bible or god if he believes these things but
maybe you should start thinking well maybe i should stop believing the dumb
things that i believe or the stupid things that i believe and
start believing what god says because this book is perfect this book
is the word of god this book is a book like no other book
out there and this book will change your life
it'll help you in all aspects of your life
how to be a good spouse how to be a good parent
how to be a good worker how to get along with other people
how to actually love people the way that the that
you know nobody you know you might think that you love people the way
that you're supposed to but god's the one that shows you how to love the
proper way and so people out there will say i love
you but they don't love you necessarily the
way the bible says that they should love you
god tells you what love is god is love you know people say that a lot
god is love and that's true but they don't even really understand what that
means because they don't even understand how love is really supposed to work you
know so point number one this morning and
let's look at our text in psalm chapter one but point number one
this morning is read the bible day and night if you want
to be blessed because the blessings of god just don't
come from going to church praying every once in a while reading
your bible every once in a while to be truly blessed god says
we should be in our bibles day and night okay not just once a day not just once
every once in a while once every blue moon once every
time you you know think about it when you're not on facebook or instagram or
something but every day every night look at psalm
chapter one verse number one
psalm 11 says blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the
ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful so first off in this psalm this is you
know psalm one this is you know the book of songs
basically for the bible and we sang one of those
today in psalm 126 but this is an actual song book that god commands us
to read in the bible it says we're supposed to
speak it says speaking to each other in psalms hymns and spiritual songs
singing and making melody in our hearts to the lord
you know we're singing when we sing it we don't just come together so we can
hear how good our neighbor sings how how great
our voice is we're not putting on a show here
we're singing in our heart to the lord that's why we come into his presence
with singing on a sunday morning but it says blessed
is the man that walketh not in the council of the
ungodly so we are blessed when we stay away from
the wrong type of people and so he's basically
saying hey make a separation if you're a believer we should the
first thing you should do is just stay away from people that are not
walking in the ways of the lord it's saying
you don't walk in the council of the ungodly don't listen to
the wrong type of council where should we get our council
this book god's people start hanging around the right type of people
don't get your counsel from the ungodly don't get your marriage advice
from the ungodly don't get your how to walk in this world from the
ungodly it says nor standeth in the way of of
sinners and it's like well jesus hung out with
the sinners jesus went to the bar with the sinners no he didn't
he did interact with sinners so that he could get them saved
but he's not just partying and hanging out
you know hold my beer while i give this guy the gospel or something
that's not what jesus was doing he went and
preached to sinners and got them saved but it's not like he was hanging out in
the in the bars or something you'll never
see jesus hanging in a bar in this book you
just won't see that so if the bible says to stand in the way
of sinners we're not supposed to be just hanging out
with these ungodly people nor sitteth in the seat
of the scornful what is this what is the scornful
scornful are these types of people that just like to mock and make fun of people
and they're ungodly the the the types of people
that like to run off at the mouth and make fun of people and these are the
types of people we should avoid it says bless is the man that
doesn't do these things you don't walk with them you don't get counsel from
them you don't hang out with them you don't
sit with them you know like at school if some of you went to public school i'm
sure some of you did you had to sit at the cafeteria
and you sat next to certain people and you know so basically god's just like
saying hey when you're sitting with people who are
you sitting with are you sitting with the ungodly
are you sitting with the godly people you know
if we had a cafeteria full of people and you got all these ungodly people and you
had all the christians who are you going to sit with
you should be sitting with the godly people you should change
who you're hanging around with that's what it's saying first off but now verse
number two says but his delight his delight is in the law of the lord
now what does that mean well his delight is in
the bible you know the law of the lord in the old testament is basically
all the books before the new testament i mean it's not really hard to figure out
right all the things before matthew are the
old testament right but specifically the law of moses you
know is basically what it's talking about here
but i mean now we have the whole bible you know
you can apply this in his delight is in the bible
his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law does he meditate
what does it say there day and night and that word meditate means to think
intensely upon those things to mull those things over
think about what those things mean and try to figure it out
right so meditate day and night you don't just read the bible but you
think about what it means you try to make application to those things in your
life also because if you're just a hearer and not
a doer then you're not really helping yourself
out those things need to be applied to your
life and so it says you know blessed is the
man that walk not in the accounts of the ungodly but his delight is in the law of
the lord and in his law does he meditate day
and night he's his delight that means the thing that he loves
he loves it he enjoys it he memorizes it and he thinks about it he mulls it over
in his mind about what it means isn't that what it's
saying it's his delight what do you delight in are there things
that you delight in things that you like doing
if you're a christian you should delight it also
in god's word is there like verses that you like
you know sometimes you'll the pastor or you know when someone's preaching
they'll flip to a verse and like man i love that verse
that verse just speaks to me or it's been a long time since i went to that
one oh i love that one that's a great verse
and they're just it's just powerful we should love the bible
as christians amen and i've often said this and i know that
people that go to my church know this it takes about 15 minutes per day on the
average to read the bible cover to cover in one year
and so you can read the bible cover to cover in 15 minutes
of reading now that's just the average reader of course some people read slower
some people read faster but if you dig in and get 15 minutes of reading a day
you can read the bible cover to cover in one year
so if you just break that down to simple math so if you're supposed to
read in the morning and in the evening how many minutes
would it take for you to read in the morning and in the evening
to accomplish 15 minutes in a day yeah seven and a half you do a lot of
things for a lot longer time than seven and a
half minutes in the morning don't you i'm sure there's a lot of things that
are just mind-numbingly unimportant that you do
every single day for seven and a half minutes
so when you think about that the dumb things that we do
or maybe even think about that or just you know maybe they're not dumb
but they're just not as important as reading the bible
then we really should kind of feel ashamed about that
and you do have to kind of make it a habit
because if you don't make it a habit you won't do it
because reading the bible is a spiritual exercise
it's a carnal it's it's a it's a hard thing to do carnally
that's why people don't do it but once you start doing it you like
that you're doing it you're like man why don't i do this and
when you start a habit see like god's telling us start a habit
so this is why it's so important that a new believer just starts to read their
bible on a daily basis he's saying hey do it
in the morning and at night and that way you start a habit that
just continues on and you you know when you get up in the
morning you know and you're like well i just don't have time i got to go to work
and i have this much time well why don't you set your alarm clock
seven and a half minutes earlier than you normally do
and then read the bible for that long set an alarm for yourself
at night that allows you to you're like well i go to bed at this time
we'll set an alarm for seven and a half minutes before
you're supposed to go to bed or something and then just read the bible
or maybe even give yourself 10 minutes that way you have three and a half
minutes to mull over what you read and think
about what you read and say hey you know what i'm just gonna
think about what i read maybe try to make some application in my
life or just think about what it means whatever you have to do
to accomplish this goal and why do i say 15 minutes
because you should try to read the bible once a year
and i'm not going to ask for a show of hands of who's read the bible cover to
cover in here because i just don't want it's just none
of my business you know that's between you and the lord
but you should as a christian read the bible cover to cover and you know if you
haven't done it yet why don't you make that your goal say
hey you know what i am going to start doing that
and if you are a new believer and you haven't done that
then start start making the habit now if you if you're just so bad about
scheduling yourself to do things then set alarms i know everybody in here
that's an adult that can pay their own bills has a cell phone
even if it's a flip phone it has alarms on it they've had this technology in
existence for many years now i mean cell phones have been out since
like the 90s right i know you have an alarm on your phone
i know you have facebook on your phone okay if you have an alarm clock
facebook on your phone i know you have an alarm clock i know you have a
calendar so you can have that calendar alarm go
off every single day and you should have that so if you want
to if you want to go for more then 30 minutes a day would get you
through the bible twice in a year 45 minutes a day would get you three
times a year and one hour of reading a day will get
you through the bible four times a year maybe you just want to do extra you know
i wouldn't expect someone to read the bible four times a year unless maybe
you're shooting to be a pastor someday or maybe
you just have some goals you know i just want to get this much
done i want to learn as much as i can because in reality you know on the third
time reading the bible through you're probably going to get some solid
foundations some solid timelines but you still don't know the bible
that well yet but you probably know it more than someone that's never read the
bible cover to cover you know the bible fairly well but on
your 10th time through you're going to know the bible pretty
well you know but why read it over and over again you're
like well i only read books once this isn't the same book as your stephen
king novel that you read in sixth grade okay
this is not the same book as your romance novel
that you read you know whatever the amish
you know romance novels that you're reading or whatever i don't know what
you read but what is that though isn't there like
some romance novels that christian ladies like to read what are they called
something he comes softly or whatever you know what i'm talking about
who does what i'm talking about i'm not gonna the ladies can't talk anyway but
you know what i'm talking about the ladies are laughing because they
know exactly what i'm talking about anyway they're like hallmark movie made
into hallmark movies or something anyway fabio no
those those aren't the fabio ones okay my mom used to read a lot of romance
novels okay all right mom if you're listening i'm
sorry for throwing into the bus but um
so but you know there is a blessing if you read the bible
every day look at verse number three the bible says and he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water that's a blessing because the difference
between a tree planted by rivers of water and a tree that's out in the
middle of of the wilderness where there's no
water there's a big difference between those types of trees isn't there
one tree is going to be nourished really well
one tree is going to have real deep roots that are hard to pull up
and one tree is going to be really strong
and so why is he saying why is the psalm psalmist saying this well he's saying
you're going to have deep roots and it's really important for a christian to have
deep roots because you're going to be a tree that's
hard to take down when you read the bible
you're going to learn a lot about spiritual warfare you're going to be
uh you're going to know a lot about going through trials and temptations
you're going to know a lot about having you know
you're just going to know more than the average christian to be able to go
through things better and go through the storms of life
better than the average person is you're not going to be able to just be
taken out and pushed over like a weak dried up christian well because the more
you read the bible the more you go to church the more you
pray the more uh spiritual you are the better
off you're going to be in the christian life if you're
spiritually starving you know if you're a spiritual you know
i don't know you know if you whatever if you feed yourself spiritually
you're going to be stronger than someone that never nourishes themselves in the
spiritual life so it says he that is like and he
he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
so you'll have strong roots that bringeth forth his fruit in his season
now of course i like to liken this to soul winning you're probably going to be
a soul winner that brings forth fruit but also the blessings that come at the
appointed times you know when you every year you expect
if there's like an apple tree that at a certain time of the year those apples
are going to come and they're going to be ripe and ready
for you to pick off the tree we usually pick our apples at walmart or whatever
store you shop at right so we're not used to these types of
uh you know we don't go fruit picking most of us right
but these are very applicable to people that probably had fruit trees back in
these times right but some of us do some people i know
like some of these some of the families here pick berries
certain times of the year or whatever and you don't want to get the walmart
ones i get that so but this makes sense though that
you know the times of the seasons when fruit is available
but when the the bible's just talking about blessings here
when you read the bible god is going to bless your life
he's going to bless the fruit of your life
he's going to bless you know you know bless the blessings that
are going to come to you are going to come at the appointed times when you're
trying to have children or when you know you're not going to be
in a famine when you need to have sustenance
but also the spiritual blessings that will come to your life
are that you're going to bring forth fruit you're going to want to be a soul
winner you're going to want you know you're going to read the bible you're
going to know hey i need to bring forth souls to the harvest for my lord
and so it says his leaf shall also shall not wither
so thinking about no lack of nourishment no lack of strength
no lack of health and i'm not saying that like if you read the bible you're
never going to get sick okay i'm not saying that but in general
that's what it's teaching here that we're going to you know your life is
going to be very blessed and it says and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper god's going to bless us with a prosperous life in our work lives
you know or in general we'll be very blessed
now again it's not to say we're not going to have trials we're not going to
lose jobs we're not going to lose loved ones
that's not what it's saying it's just saying in general your life is going to
be a lot more blessed than the christian that never reads
their bible and that's what i mean why would there
be no reward for someone that's doing what
god says he's going to bless them for it just doesn't make sense of course
god's going to bless you for doing and keeping his word so
it doesn't say bless is the man you know not not not whosoever reads
their facebook updates every morning not not whosoever
you know post their picture to instagram on their way to church
you know instead of reading their bible on the way to church i literally there's
this i was sitting and there's a girl like you know trying
to you know there's nothing wrong with this or whatever but it just was funny
to me she's just like trying to nudge her
husband or whoever it was to make him smile in this picture she's
like and she's like
i just thought it was funny but the people that read the bible
are are going to get blessed not the people that
check the nfl box scores and forget about reading god's word
i look those things aren't wrong
but your due lingo should not come before your bible reading your
whatever game you have installed app on your phone
should not come before your bible reading you know
we've got to put things in their proper perspective i mean
do you think that it might make god a little bit angry
if you go through your whole day not thinking about him
not not want want to hear from him because this is how we hear from him
folks he doesn't answer you in an audible voice
regardless of what all these pentecostals say
regardless of what all these people said well god's speaking to me
he's telling me that you should get a haircut from me or you know whatever
people are just weird with this stuff god does not speak to you in an audible
voice and if he does you need to go get some medication he
speaks to us through his word there's this book is finished
revelation is the last book of the bible and there's nothing
added that you're going to add to the bible okay
so how does he speak to you through the bible how
so if god's going to speak to you if you don't open this book up and read it
he's not going to speak to you so that's how we have
god speak to you and you know what's such a blessing about the bible
is that god can speak to you every single day that's not something that
in the old testament that was available to every single person that was around
we're really blessed to be able to get these
words of god every single day and you're like well it's nothing new
well it might be new to you because maybe it's been a long time since you
opened it it might be new to you because you've
never read that part before you know especially a new believer when
you're reading it for the first time it's like wow i didn't even know that
was in there that's great so the word of god again
doesn't contain all the answers in life but it does contain all the answers you
need to live a perfect life and what do i mean by that i'm not
saying that you live a perfect life without sin i'm saying a
complete life and that's what god wants he wants you
to be the complete package he wants you to be
an all-around complete christian successful
and if you want to be successful as a christian then you should read the bible
so number one read the bible day and night if you want to be
blessed number two you need to read in every word bible you need to read in
every word bible what do i mean by that well let's look over at matthew chapter
four verse one
matthew chapter four verse one now after jesus gets baptized the whole
he's filled with the holy spirit without measure and
jesus goes through a temptation that that we would never be able to
withstand but jesus of course is not only a man
but he is the son of god which means he's the god man he's the god
man so he's 100 god 100 man
he's able to fulfill the whole law and not sin one time so he's a little
different than us in that way he's born without sin we're born in sin
born with sin but matthew chapter 4 verse 1 says
when then was jesus led up of the wilderness or excuse me of the spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil
and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights
he was afterward and hungered i would say so
if he didn't eat any food for 40 days and 40 nights i mean we'd probably be on
the verge of going crazy a lot of people try to do this kind of
stuff and they do have mental breakdowns from it
so he is to say afterward he was hungered that's probably a very big
understatement right and when the tempter came to him he said
if thou be the son of god command that these stones be made bread
now could jesus have done that of course he could have
i mean he fed five thousand with a couple loaves of fish you know
five loaves and three fish he fed five thousand people right
so he could have done that but what listen to his answer he says
but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by
look what it says there every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god
so that means in order to have to to have every word that proceeded out of
the mouth of god that means he would have to preserve
every word that came out of his mouth that
that is to us that goes into the bible so we are not supposed to just live on
food for sustenance of course we need that to live our daily lives
we need to have food to get through and have fuel to work and
and for children to grow they have to eat
they have to eat a lot don't they brother shawn
the boys you know you got to start making giant
stew pots of goulash pretty soon to even feed these kids and then they'll probably
just go through that like a day or two but we need sustenance to eat
to survive but jesus said it's more important
to not you know more importantly it's not just
food alone that's going to get us through we we also need
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god
every word isn't that what it says so wouldn't that also tell you that we
need to read the whole thing then so we have the whole thing somewhere
exists the whole word of every word of god
there's some place that it exists in god wouldn't tell us we need jesus
wouldn't say we need every word of god and say but you know
what i'm only going to give you the book of
john he's going to make it available for us
turn over your matthew look at matthew chapter 24
verse number 35
i mean this should be an obvious statement
the fact that we could read that jesus said
we need every word of god we can read it because you know what we
have the word of god look at matthew 24 verse 35
heaven and earth shall pass away but my words
shall not pass away heaven and earth shall pass away but my words
shall not pass away how do we know that because we have it right there in front
of our face the words haven't passed away yeah
it's been two thousand years and guess what we have it right in front of our
face so we have the words of god and you're
like well yeah but you know what about some of
these other bibles that don't have you know all the words in it well i'm
going to get to that in a minute let's turn to psalm chapter 1 1989
psalm 1 1989 though god does preserve his word and
you know people will say well yeah but there's mistakes and there's copyist
errors and there's you know we don't really know the
original manuscript you know those are only in the original manuscripts and
you know once we get to heaven we'll have the finished copy and all this
other stuff but we can't really know what's in the
word of god well then you don't have you don't know whether john 316 is the
real john 316 then right so what is your faith resting on because
if we don't have the word of god then how do we know any of this is even
true i mean moses broke the original
manuscripts moses came down and broke the ten
commandments because he was so mad that the children of israel had turned
that quickly broke the original manuscripts how do you know that's that
was the original ten manuscripts or the original ten commandments
that he rewrote well because god is the one that
preserves his word look at psalm 1 1989 it says forever
oh lord thy word is settled in heaven thy faithfulness is unto
all generations does it say our faithfulness no it says thy
faithfulness see god's faithfulness is what we have
to count on that we have in every word bible
and it's settled forever in heaven you're like well yeah but it's in heaven
no it's it's just settled in heaven but his faithfulness is unto all
generations it's not like oh it's faithful only in
heaven and it's not but the people in all these
generations don't get to know it no the people in the generations get to
know it too that's why he's saying his faithfulness is unto all generations
salvation's available in all generations in genesis all the way from genesis
people have been calling upon the name of the lord
look at genesis 12 or excuse me psalm chapter 12 verse 6
psalm chapter 12 verse 6
the bible says in psalm chapter 12 verse 6
the words of the lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth
purified seven times so how pure are the words of the lord
well they're so pure that they're like silver that was
purified seven times so you're taking
silver out of like you know you're digging it up out of the earth
you're melting it down you're getting all the scum out of it you're getting
all the dross is coming up you're scraping it off
and you're doing that seven times so basically you're talking about
the purest silver that you could possibly think of
the best silver or the best gold you could think of
it's so pure that there's no impurities in it
and he says thou shalt keep them oh lord so whose job is it to keep the
word of god pure is it our job no it says oh lord
thou shalt preserve them from this generation
forever so it's god's job to preserve it isn't it
who inspired the word of god god did god breathed
god spoke and those words were inspired and so he is responsible to preserve
those words and jesus said man shall not live by
bread alone but by every word so is every word still preserved
yes it's god's job to keep them in those inspired words preserved for us
we have them right in front of our face now is every english bible the same
no it's not you can take all the modern versions that are
in english and compare them and they're not the same at all
in fact you have to change a certain percentage
of every new translation in order to be different from the other ones so that
you can make it copyrightable and so you have to
change it enough to be different enough to make it a new
translation and they that's what they do so they can
make money off of them now the king james is not even
copywritten except for the crown copyright in
england but we can freely i could take this and freely make copies
you know the the maps and the concordance maybe
and some of the other stuff is copy written that i couldn't reproduce that
but i could take all the text of the king james bible and hand copy that or
print it and nobody could do a thing about it
nobody could get me in trouble for that but the king james bible
is free to go out the word of god is free
and in english that's the version that we use at this church
that's the version we preach that's the version i got saved out of
and the salvation verses in some modern translations are the same and i
would say that if you could compile all the modern versions and if the
verses were the same you could get saved with those verses
but if you just look at the modern versions
and look at the salvation verses they're not the same
it'd be very difficult to get somebody saved out of a modern
bible version so but all that so let's turn to
second timothy chapter three second timothy chapter three
i kind of got a little bit ahead of myself on that but
you know the bible you know you're like well the bible says
that about itself well the bible is a living book it's not the same book
as any other book you're like well the bible uses
circular reasoning the bible is the word of god
it's just because you know jesus people said well your witness
doesn't matter your witness can't be true because you're testifying of
yourself but jesus said i can testify of myself you're wrong
about that the bible can testify of itself and so
people can say that all they want but they're just not they're not right
about that because the bible has power the bible i
know that the bible has power because the bot
this you know not this specific bible here
but the king james bible is what i got saved out of
i know it's true because i'm saved i know it changed my life
because i got saved out of it so anyway second timothy 315 says and that from a
and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in christ jesus you know the bible
is able to get people saved that's a powerful book
and it teaches about salvation look what it says in verse 16
all scripture is given by inspiration of god
now last week dr stringer was preaching a sermon and he said
you know he's given us all these uh all these uh
things saying about how all means all right all means all
all scripture is given by inspiration of god
and is profitable for doctrine for reproof
for correction for instruction and righteousness
doctrine is the teaching of the bible doctrine is reproof you know
or reproof is where you're telling somebody they're wrong
correction telling someone they're wrong or correcting something that they
believe it's wrong and for instruction and righteousness
telling someone how to do what's right and it says that the man of god
may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works this book has
everything you need for uh to be perfect now again that's not
talking about walking on water and not sinning it's
talking about that you're going to live a well-rounded
christian life thoroughly furnished that means everything that you need
if you walk into a house that you moved into and and it's all
furnished and everything you need and you don't have to u-haul all your stuff
to the next to that place that's that's a blessing
right but that's what the bible is like it's
thoroughly furnished it has everything that you need
onto all good works everything that you need to do
to be able to live a godly life is right here in the bible for you
now turn to second corinthians chapter 2 verse 17
second corinthians chapter 2 verse 17
but the problem is that there's a lot of people out there that will corrupt the
word of god and even in paul's time there were
people that were corrupting the bible and there's people that do it
today it says for we are not as many
so many as a lot of people right which corrupt the word of god
so this is what i was just talking about there's many people that are out there
trying to corrupt the word of god but as of since but as of sincerity but
as of god in the sight of god we speak or speak we in christ so
but what's paul saying we're not like those people that corrupt the word of
god we're not like the people that change
the word of god and try to take things out of it or add things to it
the bible puts a special curse on someone that would do that
so this point is talking my point in this
is that we need an every word bible but there are people out there that are
corrupting the bibles taking things out of it adding things to
and there's many in paul's day that did it and there's
many people that are doing it in our day so how do we know what bible we can
trust why do i trust the king james well
and what what king james people go well which one
which king's james do you actually trust pastor thompson
well i i trust the revised 1769 i trust the one that's been revised and
updated the the 1611 has a a font type that
is just hard to read and it had the f's look like s's
and you know there's spelling changes that occur
and they're just you know sun is spelled s o
n n e you know it's just it's it's updated in that
sometimes there's some sentence structures that are changed
but the words are not changed the words are still the same you can
we have a king james 1611 we have different
uh translations of modern english translations that are that come from
the original text in our in our church that are very
similar to the king james that you can look at but the 1611
that's the 1769 right there that we use that's right it's just right there you
can go look at it not changed you can compare it to the 1611
and all it's going to update is the spelling and font type
so yeah i don't like the font type of the 1611 sorry
it's hard to read i don't like some of the spelling it's hard to read
and so that's why we change you know that's why we use that one but people
say well it's all it's changed you you you like the revised one
well yeah i mean i think that there was a problem in the printing of the first
1611 where it said there was a guy that got arrested i
think and put in prison because he said it said thou shalt commit
adultery or something like that is that is that right and it's called
the adultery bible or something because that guy
he made a mistake on the font or on on a on a font text
and put thou shalt instead of thou shalt not commit adultery
and that guy went to prison for it i don't know did he get killed do you
know if he got killed
1626 yeah the six oh it was the 1626 so he just messed up on that and like
he got in big trouble for it he i think he went to prison for it
so i mean it's a big deal to mess up on that but it's not like
the the words were like that that's what the text was or
something he messed up on the on printing it
but people will point to that stuff say those are error in the king james bible
no it's an error in that guy's craft that he was doing so but i just want to
point out a couple different problems with you know i'm not
gonna sit here and just go through all the problems but
the internet new international version in acts chapter 8 verse 36 these are
things that i'll point people out to because
why am i talking about this because as a new believer you should have the right
bible if you're going to use a bible and read
a bible every day you should at least read a good one and
the modern versions have a lot of problems in them
they change like 60 something thousand verses
to change the meanings of them and some of them are just really bizarre
meaning changes where they'll actually flip what the what the meaning of the
verse is but they'll also subtract verses
or subtract words or change the meaning of
you know first john five seven they'll completely like remove it or take it out
and that's the trinity verse or in acts 836 through 39
they subtract and delete a whole verse and
this is like one of the most egregious ones i think that is really easy to
point out in every modern version so i'm going to read for you acts 836
through 39 in the niv the niv says
in verse 36 it says as the and you can turn there in the king james
and yeah go ahead and turn there turn to acts 836
and just follow along with me as i read the
niv version
i normally wouldn't read that but i'm doing it for
learning purposes only okay so acts 836 through 39
you follow along with the king james it says as they traveled along the road
they came to some water and the eunuch said look
here is water what can stand in the way of my being baptized and he gave orders
to stop the chariot then both philip and the eunuch went
down into the water and philip baptized him
when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord suddenly took
philip away and the eunuch did not see him again
but went on his way rejoicing is that what your bible says
in the footnotes here it says acts 837 some manuscripts include here philip
said if you believe with all your heart you may
the eunuch answered i believe that jesus christ is the son of god
but this is put in the footnotes why is it put in the footnotes because they
don't believe that that's the scripture they take that out they delete a verse
so do they have an every word translation in the niv
no and that's just one verse but that's a pretty important verse
why is it an important verse well what's the king james say acts 836
and as they went on their way they came to assert water and the eunuch said see
here's water what doth hinder me to be baptized
and philip said if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest
and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god
so what's missing you have to be saved before you get baptized
i mean that's what the bible says but they want to catholicize
and and make it where you don't even have to be saved you can just get dunked
on the side of the road and you know catholics will baptize babies
but they don't dunk them underwater do they what do they do the
the teaspoon or whatever they put the spoon on their head
or whatever you know or just splash water i don't know what they do
isn't it a teaspoon or something is that what they do what what do they do
is it something oh you can't talk the soup yeah the soup ladle
yeah i mean or or the orthodox will take them and dunk them three times or
whatever you know their kids come at poor babies
coming up gasping for air but the bible teaches believers baptism
clearly but why do they delete that because they don't want believers
baptism to be in there so they messed up the manuscripts
somewhere and so they took the modern frankenstein
you know corrupted greek corrupted hebrew
and that's why you get the corrupted manuscripts in the new in the new
testament greek the new testament hebrew and so you have a perversion of god's
word a corrupted version that's why paul said
that they corrupt the word of god they did it in his day
they do it in our day let's look at another example
first corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 turn there in your king james
and i'm going to read for you the new king james you're like well surely the
new king james all it does is just updates the language
it just takes out the these and the vows the new king james is fine it's just
like all you know king james you know on his
deathbed authorize this no this was came out way after king james died so
how are you going to call it the new king james when king james didn't
authorize it they just call it that to trick people
that you know don't like the these and the vows basically
that's what it is so in first corinthians chapter 1 18
follow along with me as i read and and this is what it says in the new king
james for the message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved
it is the power of god is that what the king james says
that's completely different isn't it who are being saved
so they're basically making it a process
to be saved you're being saved you're not saved
what's the king james say it says for the preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the
power of god see when you get saved you are saved
present tense to us which are saved you're not being saved
you are saved when you believe on the lord jesus christ you put your faith in
jesus christ you are saved the moment you believe
you pass from death unto life and you have everlasting life
you're not being saved so this garbage that says that the new king james
is just an updated version of the king james well
how come you can't get your tenses right you know you know why
because they want to make salvation a process they want to make salvation
something you have to keep working for in order to stay saved
and that's why anybody that's reading this i mean that's just
one scripture what else did they mess up tons of stuff they took out the blood
like multiple times more like 40 times or something
just tons of stuff but i just wanted to show you a couple
examples of how bad you know these modern versions are
why do we trust the king james well they don't say stuff like that how
about just saying for god so loved the world that he gave
his one and only son is that what the king
james says no it says only begotten son because i'm a son of god too and you're
a son of god if you're saved and you're a man
and you're a daughter of god if you're saved but
you know the the the modern versions say his
one and only son that's a mistake you want to talk about mistakes in the
bible that's a mistake god has many sons
god has many daughters he didn't just have one son
he had only one only begotten son we are sons and daughters of god adopted
into his family so that is a mistake now people go like oh well the king james
is just it's just hard to understand thee thine
singular ye you yours plural that's not really that hard to
understand it actually helps you to understand
what the context of the passage is who's he talking to are you talking to a group
of people are you talking to one person it's not
hard and all the so-called archaic words in the modern unabridged
dictionary are right there for you and you know
there's people like james white that will say stuff like
well a do a do like who what's that mean it's a do much ado about nothing it's a
very famous play by william shakespeare so he
didn't even know how to say the word ado much ado about nothing or about
yeah much ado about nothing or whatever the the play is but
he didn't even know how to say that word so everybody has heard that play i'm
sure so the first point was read the bible
day and night if you want to be blessed second point is you need to read in
every word bible and that's the king james and you need
to make sure you have all the right words
and then the last point is what the bible
does for the christian now i'm just going to
go through this really quickly because i'm running out of time here but
the one of the things that can do for you as a christian is it can help you
grow up let's go through these real quickly
second peter chapter two i'm not going to wait for you you can turn if you
want second peter chapter 2 verse 2 it'll
help you grow up it says as newborn babes desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby if you're a new christian
hey start reading the bible and and start getting the easy stuff down
and get that milk of the word the bible calls it milk
and you know how do babies grow well they drink milk
they don't drink they don't eat steak so baby christians need to grow and
you know the bible kind of likens it to somebody that's a new christian as a
baby so you're a baby you need to grow up how
you're going to grow up well you read the bible and it says if
so be you have tasted that the lord is good
or as gracious excuse me second peter 318 says but grow in grace
and in knowledge of the lord and savior jesus christ to him be glory
both now and forever amen so you know you grow
in grace and in knowledge and how do you do that well by reading the bible
and what else does the bible do for you as a christian well
it helps you make other christians now in first peter 123 it says being born
again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of god
which liveth and abideth forever so again there's a
verse about not using corruptible seed what is
corruptible seed corruptible modern bible versions that
those those aren't going to get people saved
you want to use the incorruptible seed the word of god
the right word of god not the niv or the hiv or the ni you know these other
modern bible versions you want to use the right
one you're like well what if i just say jesus well just saying the word jesus
isn't going to get people saved folks you have to preach the word of god to
them that's how people get the gospel
preached to them romans 115 says so as much as in me is
i am ready to preach the gospel what's the bible
going to do for you as a christian christian well it's going to help you
make other christians and it's going to help you get ready to
preach the gospel to other christians paul said for i'm not ashamed of the
gospel of christ for it is the power of god to everyone that believeth
or power of god unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the jew
first and also to the greek so it's also our offensive weapon in the
spirit so yeah we're supposed to put on the
whole armor of god but in ephesians chapter 6 verse 17 go ahead and turn to
hebrew chapter 4 12 and i'm going to read for you ephesians
6 17 it says and take the helmet of salvation and
the sword of the spirit which is the word of god see we
we don't just put on the armor but the sword is part of that armor
and that's our offensive weapon when we go out if you go out
and preach the gospel you don't have that sword with you
then you know you're kind of worthless out there and your your bible
is the sword this likening the bible to a sword
look what it says in hebrews 4 12 it says for the word of god is quick
that means it's alive 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 and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart what other book do you know
that can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart there's no other
book like this book there's no other book that can pierce the
to the dividing the center of soul and spirit
there's no other book that is sharper than any two-edged sword
this book can cut to the quick it can it can discern your thoughts and intents of
your heart there's no other book like it and this
This is the book that God's given us
to be our offensive weapon.
You know, it can be a defensive one, too.
You know, swords can block things, too, so.
And it will warn you of what not to do.
Proverbs chapter 28, verse nine, it says,
he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer shall be an abomination.
So watch what you say about the word of God.
I've seen Christians go this wrong way,
and they're like, well, I don't care
what the word of God says.
Well, you better care.
You better care what the word of God says,
because you turn away your ear from hearing the law,
and you say, I don't care what the Bible says.
What's the Bible say?
Even his prayer shall be an abomination.
You want your prayer to be an abomination unto God?
Well, go ahead and just say
you don't care what the Bible says,
because God cares what the Bible says.
And if you don't care what he says,
then he's not gonna care what you have to say to him, either.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 30 says,
For we know him, that as said vengeance belongeth unto me,
I will recompense, saith the Lord.
And again, the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.
So the Bible warns us of what not to do.
Don't make God judge you.
Don't fall into his hands, because it is a fearful thing.
You know, it's our responsibility
to know what God wants from us,
and what he doesn't want us to do also.
Because ignorance, if you're, you know,
a drug mule for the cartel in Tucson,
I'm just thinking of some random thing,
I got some people from Tucson here.
If you just think you're gonna start working
for the cartel and being a drug mule,
but you don't think, you know,
there's nothing wrong with that,
they're just gonna give me some extra money.
And like, I didn't know it was wrong, officer.
You know, is that gonna get you off the hook?
Well, I just didn't think it was that big of a deal.
Doesn't matter whether you thought it was a big deal,
or whether you thought it was illegal or not,
you're still going to jail for it.
So just because you don't know what God wants from you,
you know, doesn't mean that you're excused
from the penalties of what you've done.
Now, you're gonna maybe pay a little bit less
of the penalty, but you're still gonna get
held accountable for what you do.
Memorize, you know, what can God's word do for you?
Well, when you memorize it, it can help you.
The Bible says in Psalm 119, verse 11, it says,
thy word have I hidden my heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
You know, you wanna help with struggle, with sin?
Well, that's a good verse to help you out,
but other verses that will help you out,
whatever you're struggling with,
memorize those scriptures that will help you.
Numbers 32, verse 23 says,
but if you will not do so, behold,
you have sinned against the Lord,
and be sure your sin will find you out.
Your sin's gonna find you out,
so maybe you should memorize the verses
that will help you not do those sins,
because eventually, your sin's gonna come knocking,
you know, your chickens are gonna come home to roost,
so to speak, and that's gonna be, you know,
a day that you don't like,
and so to avoid that from happening,
well, you know, maybe you should take
some precautions to not have that happen.
Get that sin out of your life,
and then God won't, you know, maybe he won't,
maybe he'll spare you from that day happening.
And you know what?
The great thing about God's word also is that
what it can do for your life is allow you comfort
when you're going through a difficult time,
because there's a lot of heartache and pain in this life.
Even as Christians, we're gonna go through hard times,
and you know, I'm not gonna go through all these verses,
but Psalm 23 is one of the most comforting passages
in all of scripture.
You know, it's read at funerals a lot, you know,
and so that's a good passage to help you
when you're going through a hard time,
when you're going through trials and tribulations.
1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18 is a good comfort
for when a loved one is passed on and they're saved,
and you know that you're gonna see them again,
and this is wherefore comfort one another with these words.
I mean, those are great ones that are read at funerals also.
James chapter five, you know, talks about,
is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray, is any merry?
Let him sing psalms, is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil
in the name of the Lord.
You know, and it says, and the prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,
and if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another,
and pray for one another that you may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
There's many scriptures that are very comforting to us
and can help us in our daily life,
and you know, aside from that, just all the ones
that teach us how to get along in this world,
how to get along with our brethren,
how to forgive other people.
The Bible's just so rich with all kinds of knowledge,
it can help us in so many different ways,
but if you never read it, if you never pick it up,
if you never apply it to your life,
then you're just missing out on so many blessings
that you could be blessed with, and as a new Christian,
it's just vital to your growth as a Christian
that you read this book, and you're like,
well, I just have a hard time understanding it.
Well, you know, the Holy Spirit will guide us
in all truth, the Bible says.
You know, if you just pray and say to the Lord,
hey, Lord, will you help me to understand this?
You know, not all passages are you gonna be able
to understand right away, but God will guide you
into all truth, and maybe he just doesn't want you
to understand that passage right now.
Maybe he wants you to understand the milk first,
and then he's gonna give you the meat later on.
So just because you don't understand something right away,
there's still stuff I don't understand.
You know, I'm a pastor, you're like,
well, you're a pastor, you should understand everything.
Well, do you understand everything?
Because there's things that I don't understand,
there's passages that are very difficult to interpret.
There's passages that pastors that have read
the Bible scores of times still don't understand,
because God's gonna reveal some of those things
in his own time, and the secret things
belongeth unto the Lord.
So there's just some things that we might not ever get,
and maybe he's gonna give it to somebody
that wasn't even looking for it,
and he's gonna reveal it to them.
So, you know, so number one,
we need to read the Bible day and night
if we wanna be blessed.
Number two, we need an every-word Bible.
And number three, the Bible can do many great things
for our life as Christians,
but we need to actually pick it up and read it.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the Bible
and all the great things, and how you preserve it for us,
and how it was inspired for us.
Lord, I pray that we would not take the Bible for granted,
and that, Lord, in a time where we just have a surplus
and a plethora of all kinds of Bibles,
pray that you'd help us to always use the right one,
and Lord, that we wouldn't take it for granted at all,
and that we would love your word,
and that we would take great pleasure in it,
we'd meditate on it,
and that we would share it with our children,
share it with our grandchildren,
and that we would always put the Bible
in high esteem in this church,
and that we would live by it,
and, Lord, that we would never forsake it,
and we would never forsake you, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
The last song this morning is song number 104,
Lean on His Arms.
104 in your red and green hymnals, Lean on His Arms.
Lean on His Arms on the first.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
He'll help you alone, help you alone.
If you will trust His love unfailing,
He'll fill your heart with song.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercies prove.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arm.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
He'll brighten the way, brighten the way.
Just follow gladly where He leadeth,
His gentle voice obey.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercies prove.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
Oh, bring every care, bring every care.
The burden that has seemed so heavy,
Take to the Lord in prayer.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercies prove.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arm.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus.
Then leave all to Him, leave all to Him.
His heart is full of love and mercy.
His eyes are never dead.
Lean on His arms, trusting in His love.
Lean on His arms, all His mercies prove.
Lean on His arms, looking home above.
Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Great singing. Thank you all for being here.
Love to see you back here tonight at our 3.30 service.
Brother Mike, you can end us in a word of prayer.
You can end us in a word of prayer.