Hearing God, Week 3

Written By Tim Rivers
 

Hey, that's a pretty good golf clap. Has God been good to anybody? Yes. I'm not going to pump you, I'm not going to prime you, but if God's been good to you, I want you to take 10 seconds and give him praise according to how good he's been in your life.

Come on, somebody give God praise in this place. My goodness, you may be seated. Hey, you know how many know that the devil is after you. I don't like to give the devil too much credit because a lot of the stuff we go through is actually on us, but I do know that the devil actively works to try to get you to be distracted when you're in the presence of God. He'll bring up the bills that you got to pay tomorrow. He'll mess with your mind about the folks that you got in conflict with. He'll mess with your marriage. He'll try to get all in your business. Can I just be honest with you? We like to be hot around here, honest, open, and transparent. Since we have started this series of hearing, God, I have been really having to fight to hear from God.

I know I'm a pastor. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but is there anybody else that could testify to the fact that when you start actively wanting to hear from God, Satan actively wars against you and it's incumbent upon us to recognize the schemes of the enemy and war against him by the word of God? Because remember what we learned last week. The word works. The word works. The word works. The word works, the word works, and somebody say, amen. I'm so glad that you're here. If you are a guest with us, we want to say welcome to Embassy City Church. If you're watching online, thank you so much for joining us. We are in a series called Hearing God, and this week is especially significant because groups started. Is anybody in a group?

We have hundreds people, literally hundreds of people that are gathering every week in small groups discussing what we talked about on Sunday. If you're not in a group, it's not too late. You can still get signed up and get in a group. There's a lot of things that will happen when you're in a group. You'll find friendships. If you're single, you could find your mate. What better place to find a mate? You know what I'm saying, than sitting around studying the word of God. You'll find fellowship, you'll find community, you'll find camaraderie. One thing I love the most about being in fellowship with other believers is that it normalizes your situation. You realize that you're not the only one going through stuff. Other people are going through the same thing, and that's why you should get into a group. So make sure that you sign up and if you are in a group and you know somebody that isn't, invite them into your group or put the pressure on 'em, let 'em know, Hey, listen, you can't do life by yourself and somebody say amen.

Alright, grab your bibles. We're going to two Timothy chapter three, the book of two Timothy chapter three. While you're turning there, let me just preface this entire a message by telling you we're going back to the fundamentals, we're going to go foundational. For some of you Bible scholars, you're going to think, man, I already know this stuff, but for many of you who may be new to the faith, or maybe you have been around the church but maybe haven't dug into this, this is going to be new to you. So want all of us to have open eyes, open minds, open hearts to receive from God. Because lemme tell you something, if you try to build a house without a firm foundation, it's going to collapse. You have to be built on firm foundation. You have to be built on the rock, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

So second Timothy chapter three, we're going to read the whole chapter. Is that all right? But understand this, then in the last days, there will come times of difficulty di I love how the Bible just pulls no punches for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unpleasable, slanderous without self-control, brutal, not loving, good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with concede lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. What are you supposed to do with people like this? Avoid such people.

Some people think, no, I think I can make a huge difference in their life. I know I'm not supposed to be around them, but I think I can influence them for good, not without the power of the gospel. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into houses and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth just as Janice and Jamis opposed Moses. So these men also oppose the truth. Men corrupted in their mind and disqualified regarding the faith. A lot of preaching going on from disqualified people, we're going to get real today, but they will not get very far for their folly will be plain to all, as was thou of those two men. You however have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering that happened to me at Antioch, at econ and lira, which persecutions I endured yet from all, from them all.

The Lord rescued me. Don't you love that? Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work and somebody say, amen. Here's my title for the very, very, very simple understanding the Bible. Understanding the Bible. Dear God, we thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house.

I pray that as we dig into your word, we would have an open heart and open mind, open spirits to receive from you. Help us never to take for granted the beauty of the Bible. Help us not to skip past the word ever because it is through the word of God that you speak to us. I pray that we would grow a deep love for your word, convict a heart move in our lives. We give you a name, the praise, the glory, and the honor in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. Amen. Understanding the Bible, most of you know that this past December I officially earned my doctorate degree. Oh, thank you.

I ain't never going to skip past the celebration, but what most of you may not know is what my dissertation was on to earn my doctorate degree. My dissertation was concerned with the importance of biblical literacy for pastors. Now, this would seem to be a subject that I wouldn't do a dissertation on because we all would assume that if you are a pastor that you are biblically literate. Unfortunately, what caused me to actually focus on this topic of biblical literacy is because much of the preaching that I've heard from a lot of my contemporaries were filled with fluffy sayings, quippy quotes, cool graphics, awesome illustrations, but no word of God. Now, I grew up in an environment where the word of God was the premise for preaching. I grew up in an environment where the word of God was the main course. Everything else was appetizers and desserts. But at the end of the day, preaching was based on the word of God. How can you preach without the word of God?

Churches today are filled with a lot of false doctrine, heresies, humanism, secularism, fluff, all because there are individuals who are disqualified from preaching and yet they have a platform and they're preaching their word and not God's word. And what it ends up happening is if the Bible is removed from being the main course of preaching, we produce malnourished believers who are starving and will not grow in spiritual maturity. Lemme say it this way, biblical illiteracy is the main cause of spiritual deafness in the church. Some of y'all missed it. Biblical illiteracy is the main cause of spiritual deafness, the inability to hear from God. Think about this. If the word of God is the word of God and you don't use the word of God, who are people hearing from? Sounds good. Alright, so a recent study by lifeway Research showed that 87% of adult households in the US own a Bible.

However, their survey Americans don't prioritize the Bible saying that they don't have time. Only 11% have read the entire Bible at least once while 30% said that they've only read a few passages or stories. I want you to see this graph right here. This pie chart was just done and it kind of shows you the condition of Americans as it relates to the Bible. Now we look at this and we think, okay, 11%, that's not too bad, but think about this. The whole premise of Christianity is based on the word of God. If the word of God is absent from our life, then we miss out on hearing from God. I believe that at Embassy City Church we are going to reverse this.

We're going to reverse this. How many this week? We talked about it last week, how many this week you got in your word, at least once you got in your word, you read a scripture or two. Here's the thing, the problem is that much of preaching today does not include the Bible, and as a result we're dealing with an epidemic of Bible illiteracy among Christians. And here's the thing, Paul said this was going to happen literally Paul said that this would happen. Let's go to second Timothy chapter four, verse number one, he speaking to Timothy. He said, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is the judge? Who is the judge, the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready. In season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Paul, 2000 years ago was writing to a church, to a pastor and was telling him just to let you know that the time is coming when what will be popular is preferred over what is truth.

Now we tend to think that we live in the last days because we're dealing with a lot of strange things in the world. There are a lot of things happening today that you didn't even dream would be possible 20, 30 years ago. I'm still young, but I feel like I'm getting older by what is tolerated today based on how I grew up 30 years ago. And it is interesting, I don't know how you grew up, but I grew up in a very conservative Christian household where there were certain words you weren't allowed to say. Now sometimes I would rebel and if you really wanted to step out, you'd call somebody the S word stupid and then you'd branch out and say the D word dumb. If you really wanted to be rebellious, you said the F word fart, but have you heard popular music nowadays that pales in comparison? So my natural reaction is, God, we must be in the last days,

Right? Because it is human nature to think that things are getting worse and when things are getting worse, we all feel like Jesus must be coming in any moment. Well, can I tell you that we're not the only ones that think we're living in the last days? Did you know that the disciples after Jesus ascended, believed that they were living in the last days? Even Peter said, when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened in Acts chapter two, Peter addresses the crowd and he says, this is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel. In the last days, I will pour out my spirit of Paul all flesh. Peter literally thought that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in inaugurate the last days and most believers in the first century believed that Jesus was coming back in their lifetime.

The last days have been happening for the last 2000 years. The last days were inaugurated when Jesus ascended the time period from the moment that Jesus ascended until the time that he returns is the last days. So we are all living in the last days. Why is that important? It's important because when Paul is talking to Timothy and he says, Hey, listen, this is going to happen in the last days, it wasn't just applicable to Timothy, it is also applicable to us because we also are living in the last days, and what Paul says to Timothy is, listen, in the last days, in the period of time from the ascension of Christ until his return, crazy stuff is going to happen. Now lemme give you a little context about this passage that we read. Paul is writing to Timothy who is pastoring an Ephesus, and we talked about this a few weeks ago.

We talked about the condition of Corinth. Well, Ephesus was not much different than Corinth. It was just a bigger city with bigger problems there. There's idolatry, there's sexual immorality, there's all types of stuff that was happening in the city of Ephesus, and there was a lot of that influence that was coming into the church. So when Paul is to Timothy, he says, Hey Timothy, I'm about to give you the antidote to making sure that you don't enter into all this stuff that's going to happen. But before I give you the antidote, let me just tell you what's going to happen. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unpleasable, slanderous without self-control, brutal, not loving, good, treacherous, reckless, swollen, with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having the appearance of kindness but denying its power. Doesn't that sound just like our culture today?

Yes. Does anybody know anyone who's swollen with conceit? Don't say their name, but you know who I'm talking about, right? We all can think of a few people who fall in this category, but after Paul mentions all the things that are going to happen in the last days, he then presents to Timothy the thing that is going to help sustain you in the last days. Paul says, all this stuff is going to happen, but to make sure that you don't get caught up in all of the turmoil of the last days, Paul says, there's only one thing that's going to help you and the church to thrive in the midst of the last days, and that is the word of God. Look at two Timothy chapter three, verse 14, after he mentions all the stuff that's going to happen at last days, Paul then says, but ask for you.

Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Now, I told you I want to go to the basics. I want to talk about the foundation, and in order to do that, the first question that we must answer is what is the Bible? What is the Bible? Now, for some of you, you know what the Bible is and you think it's just duh, it's this. But for many of you, you may not understand what the significance of the Bible is. When someone comes up to you and they say, what is the Bible? Do you have an answer for that? Do you say, well, it's just a document that I believe in, or do you know the significance of what the Bible is?

Because when Paul references the sacred text or the sacred writings, he's using that word interchangeably with another word called the scriptures, and he talks about this in two Timothy three 16. We'll get into that here in just a second, but the scripture comes from the Greek word grafe, which is the entirety of sacred scriptures inspired by God. Now, here's one thing to note for all you Bible nerds. You already know where I'm going. In New Testament when Paul or any of the biblical writers of the New Testament referenced the scriptures, they're not including the New Testament.

Paul didn't know that when he was writing to Timothy that his writings would be included in the canon of scripture. So when Paul is writing to Timothy and he says, Hey, don't ignore the sacred texts or the sacred writings or the scriptures, he's actually referencing the three part canon that was popular to the Jews at that time, which is comprised of the law, which is the first five books in the Bible, the prophets, both major and minor, and the Psalms, which are poetic writings. The New Testament was still being written at the time when Paul is talking about the sacred text. It isn't until now after the last New Testament book was written, which is the Book of Revelation, and then a couple centuries after that, the New Testament and the older testament was combined into one book that we call the Bible. So now when we talk about the scriptures or the sacred writing, it includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

I know that some of us love reading the New Testament because it seems so relevant, but you're missing out on a lot of God if you don't engage the Old Testament. You say, well, what's the Old Testament? Testament literally means covenant. So there's the old Covenant and then there's the New Covenant. Or another way to understand this is you have the promises of God concealed in the Old Testament and the promises of God revealed in the New Testament. This is why it's important that we have a full understanding of the Old and New Testament. Now, the word Bible is the Greek word biblia, which means a collection of writings that Christians consider uniquely inspired and authoritative. Now, I want to throw this graphic up here so you can kind of get an understanding that the Bible is broken up into genres. Now we're going to Sunday School.

Is that all right? When we talk about the Bible, the Bible by itself is one book, but it's made up of 66 books. There are 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, written over 1500 years by 40 different scribes. Now, some people use the word authors. I don't like to use the word author because God is the one who authored the scriptures while there were individuals that scribed as they were moved on by the Holy Spirit. Now, I want to show you this graphic because when you read the Bible, it's important to know what portion of scripture you're reading. The genres of the Bible will help you understand their significance. So if you look at this graph, you can tell that there are several different ones and depending on what Bible scholar you're talking to, they can divide the genres a little differently. But this is a good, I think, very simple way to look at the Bible as a whole. You have your historical narratives, which include Exodus first and two, Samuels first two Kings and the Book of Acts. These are books that their main focus is history, and this is very good because if you want to understand God's redemptive work in the New Testament, you kind of have to see where it started, and then you have wisdom literature. This would be Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes job, the Song of Solomon, come on, married couples.

Then you have prophecy which are comprised of major and minor prophets. Now, some of you may be wondering what makes it a major prophet and what makes it a minor prophet, you ready for this? This is a deep revelation. It's the size of the book. It's not that God was like, yo, you got major prophecy vibes and you got minor prophecy vibes. No, it's just the size of the book that they wrote that you have the gospels, which are Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. The first three, Matthew, mark, Luke are called the synoptic gospels. That simply means that their stories are very similar to each other. While John wrote his gospel later on and he didn't really reference the other three when he wrote his, so when you read the Gospel of John, it's really an account more focused on who Jesus is rather than what he did. Then you have the epistles or the writings, which are the epistles of Paul and then various other writers, and then you have the apocalyptic texts, and this would be the Book of Revelation or Daniel, how many love to read revelation right before you go to sleep.

Now, many people stay away from apocalyptic writings because they think it's creepy. What does it mean to have a beast coming out of the sea with seven heads and 10 horns, which doesn't even make sense, but if you look into the apocalyptic writings, the writer of John, he begins by saying, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I'm Alpha and Omega beginning. In the end, when you read the book of Revelation, understand that it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not meant to be a book for you to pray, try to predict when Jesus is coming, Biden, okay? It's the second letter of the alphabet and I, you know how many false prophets are out there trying to predict when Jesus is coming based on politics? Be careful what you're listening to. You just leave it a dead. So what is the Bible? Simply put, the Bible itself is evidence that the God who made the heavens earth and sea and everything in them is a communicator and he wants to communicate with humanity. If you are going to summarize what the Bible is, the Bible really can be broken down into God created. God is the creator of everything that we see. Mankind rebelled against God. God gave mankind a promise to redeem mankind and then God redeemed mankind. That's the whole story of the Bible.

Why do you need the Bible in your life? Because God is telling you through his word how your life is to work. Here's number two. Second question we want to answer today. Why does the Bible matter? Two Timothy chapter three, verse 16 says, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness. We must all agree that the word of God is God breathed that the Bible is inspired and breathed out by God. Can I tell you, if you don't believe that the Bible is God breathed, you will have a hard time believing that the word of God is true.

I would say the reason why most people don't read the scriptures is because they don't really believe that it's God breathed. Here's what I mean. If the scripture is God breathed, then everything that is in the scripture is inspired by God. If I want to be inspired by God, if I want to sit down and have a conversation with God, the primary way that I hear God is through his word. If I believe that his word is truly breathed out by him, if you believe that the word of God is breathed out by God, then you would have to conclude that when the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Paul says, before I tell you the purpose of scripture, Timothy, I have to establish fundamentally that the Bible is breathed out by God. That has to be a foundational agreement to anybody who reads the Bible. If the Bible is not breathed out by God, you might as well read any other book that inspires you. The difference between the Bible and every other book in the world is that this is the only document that has been inspired directly by God. I don't care what they say about the Quran, I don't care what they say about the Book of Mormon.

Those books are not God breathed. The word of God is God breathed, so do you want to hear from God and you got to get in the Bible? Why does that matter? John chapter eight, verse 31. This is Jesus speaking. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my, you are truly my disciples, and you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. Now, here's what's interesting. How many people have heard people use this passage? You will know the truth and the truth will set you free, but they skipped past the beginning of the sentence. Jesus is saying, he's clarifying what the truth is. Jesus said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you'll know the truth. How do you know the truth? It's through the word of Jesus, through the word of God.

If you don't get into the word, you will be deceived. The only way to measure what you're hearing from other people is by the word of God. Lemme tell you something. People will tell you all kinds of stuff. You got to measure it against the word of God. Whenever somebody's coming up to you and says that, I got a word for you, great, hear what they got to say, then open your Bible to see if it matches, because there are certain things that if they don't align with the word of God, people will talk crazy to you, but it has to align up with the word of God. Why? Because the word of God is inspired by God. The difference between being a follower of Jesus and being a disciple of Jesus is that followers chase Jesus for miracles and disciples chase Jesus for his word. The difference between being a follower and a disciple is that a follower hears the words of God, but a disciple does the words of God because they believe it's the word of God.

Here's number three. Third question we want to answer today. What is the purpose of the Bible? Everyone who is a Christian has to at some point answer this question, what is the purpose of the Bible? Two Timothy three 16, we look at the same passage. All scriptures breathe out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God or woman of God may be complete equipped for every good work. We've established what the Bible is. We've established why the Bible matters, but at the end of the day, we have to understand what is the purpose of the Bible? Why is it important for you to have a relationship with the Bible? Here it is. The purpose of scripture is to make you complete and equip you for every good work. The reason why so many believers are not complete is because they don't engage the word of God.

The reason why so many of us are wandering around in the dark trying to get a word from God is because we're skipping over the word of God. You know how many people will walk past the Bible on the bookshelf to go make a phone call with someone? They think you're spiritual. This is the source of the word of God. There are four primary ways that the Bible makes us complete and equips us for good work. If you take notes, you can write this down. Number one, Paul said it's good for teaching. The word teaching is the same word. Instruction. Did you know that the Bible is an instruction book? Did you know if you want to work? If you want to work on your car, you can pull all kinds of wires and try to figure it out yourself and you're going to mess something up.

I am not a mechanic, okay? You don't want me working on your car, but if you give me a good instruction manual, I can figure some stuff out, but you still don't want me working on your car. The Bible is an instruction manual. It instructs us on how we are to be saved. That's the first thing that it does, but then the Bible also gives us answers and instructions to every area of our lives. Think about it. Whatever you're dealing with in your life, the Bible has an answer for it. The Bible teaches us how to handle our finances. Read in proverbs, go to the Anth slugger, consider her ways, see how she stores up for the winter. The Bible teaches us how to resolve conflict. Hey, if your brother sins against you, go to them and tell 'em about it. If that don't work, bring a friend. If that don't work, call the elders of the church. If that don't work, square up in the parking lot. Not just kidding.

If anybody squares over in the parking lot, I'm just saying, don't do it. That's not actually in the word. That's the book of third Timothy. The Bible teaches us how to raise children. The Bible teaches us how to treat our spouse. Husbands love your wives. Even as Christ has loved the church and what gave his life. The Bible is a teacher we hear teaching us by his word. You don't have to just be instructed on Sunday morning. You can be instructed just by opening the scriptures and reading the word of God. God is constantly, if you're having a hard time in your business, you're trying to figure out how to deal with staff, go to the word of God. Read the proverbs. There's so much wisdom in there.

Number two, the way that we are equipped and complete is by reproof. Now, we don't use the word reproof really, but the word reproof really means conviction. The Bible is a source of conviction. The Bible exposes our sin and makes us aware that we need a savior. Paul even said that. He said, I would not even have known about my sin until I was made aware of the law, because the law, the Bible has a way of shining the spotlight on the dark corners of your life. Why? Because God does not want you to live in constant condemnation and in darkness. God wants you to come out of darkness into the light, and the way he exposes it is through his word. The Bible is the source of all morality and ethics, so if you want to know how to live for God, get into the word because the Bible will expose some things in your life.

How many know have ever read the Bible and you're like, ouch. That's not what I was trying to read today. I wanted to get an encouraging word and the Bible's talking to me about being a good father after I just went off on my kids. That's what the Bible does. When you treat your spouse a certain kind of way, I dare you to go read the Bible because it will expose it, but here's what I love. Paul goes on and says, not just that it works for teaching and reproof, but it also works for correction, which the word correction is the word improvement. Don't you love? The Bible doesn't just convict us, but it also offers us improvement. The word or correction here means the act of offering an improvement according to a standard to replace a mistake. If you want your life to remain the same, don't read the word of God.

Don't because the Bible will offer you some improvements on your life. How many have ever had, like you've had some noise happening in your vehicle and you've avoided going to the mechanic because you're like, man, if I take it in, they're going to verify what's wrong and then they're going to make me an offer to improve it. Here's the thing. You can either drive your car clanking on the highway and risk getting into a wreck or take that joint to the mechanic, have him charge you $578,000 for your windshield wipers. I came for an oil change. How am I out? Why my windshield wipers costing $5,000? I don't. Why did I just buy a new car? You just, the word of God offers you an improvement plan.

If you're cool with driving around with your alignment off, don't read the word. Keep pulling the wheel to the left. People's lives are going off the rail and read the word of God. The word of God will tell you how to get your alignment right. Here's the fourth way that you get equipped and complete is by training, and the word training is actually the word growth. The Bible helps us to grow into maturity. The word word training is the idea of training a child to grow up. It is impossible to mature as a Christian and experience spiritual formation without the word of God. It is literally impossible. You cannot grow just by hearing me preach. You cannot grow just by getting words secondhand from people.

You have to develop a relationship with your Bible. You have to develop a relationship with your Bible because it is the primary way. Think about how, think about this. Satan delights in biblical illiteracy. Why? Because if he can get you not to engage the word, he has just cut out the primary way for you to access hearing God. Think about that. The simple act of reading a couple of chapters a day, a chapter a day allows you to hear God. So when we say we don't have time to read the word, what we're saying is we don't have time to hear from God.

Now, I know this is convicting, and that's a good thing because that's one of the primary objectives of the scriptures is to convict the heart, but it's to convict the heart for improvement, right? Four ways that you can hear from God. The word number one, attend church because you're going to hear the word of God. You will hear, read your Bible. How many will commit this week? You want to read it at least once a day, once a day, every day, every day, hearing from God. Read with others. One of the best ways that you can learn how to understand the word of God is to read it in community with other people. Yo, I read this passage. It makes no sense. Can you shed some light on it? Read it with somebody who's read the Bible so that you can compare notes and then keep going. Keep going, and here's what I would encourage you to do. Read scripture according to your appetite.

Read scripture according to your appetite. Don't pass scripture by because you're trying to work through a difficult passage. You can get back to that, but maybe start if you're going to eat right. You can't just jump all the way in, right? You got to work your way there. Mix in some broccoli. Get some asparagus until you develop an appetite, and the more you develop an appetite, the more your diet is going to change. Here's what I do know. The word of God works. The word of God works. Oh, I wish I had three people that could testify that the word of God works. The word of God works. How do I know it works? I did this last week. I'm going to do it this week when I'm afraid. I go to two Timothy chapter one, verse seven. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.

When I'm tired, I go to Psalm 1 27, verse two. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest. Eating the bread of anxious 12, for he gives his beloved sleep. When I feel betrayed, I go to Genesis chapter 50, verse number 24. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. When I face adversity, I go to Romans, chapter eight, verse number 31. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us, who could be against us? When I'm dealing with sorrow, I go to Psalm chapter 30, verse number 11, you have turned for me my morning into dancing. You have loosened my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. When I think that no one understands, I go to Hebrews chapter four, verse number 15, for when do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin?

Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Can I tell you the reason why we're preaching this for two weeks straight is if I can get you to do one thing, one simple thing during this entire series is falling left with the word of God. It'll change your life. It'll change your perspective. The word of God works. Could you stand to your feet? Heads bowed, eyes closed. If you have your Bible, grab it. Clutch it, clutch it, clutch it. Clutch it.

Lord Jesus, we are so thankful for your word. It is a revelation of your word, is a revelation of who you are and is a revelation of what you can do through us. I pray, God, that we would grow an appetite of hunger for the word of God. I pray that this would be a place. This church would be a place where we are biblically literate, where we fall in love with the words on the pages of our Bible, that we would see it as a book that is helping us grow, correcting us, convicting us, moving us toward you. It's fundamental to our understanding of who you are in Jesus' name.

Tim Rivers
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Hearing God, Week 2