Strength & Stability in God's Word

The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of this book. Come to the Bible expecting God to hold you by you. It's a love story. It's a love story between God and man. God loves you. There will be a joy in your soul. There will be a spring in your step. There will be a smile on your face. There will be a hope and attitude for life. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. So we're thinking about in these weeks the idea of lenses, the way we see reality. Our student minister, Jermaine Arful, on Wednesday nights, he's taking our middle school and high school students to this same idea. One thing he's doing each week is something I'd like to do today just to borrow from him. And he's going to play catch the lie with them during his message. And he's going to tell a lie somewhere during the message. He's a little gutsier than I am. He's going to not tell them the truth until a week later. We said, you know, half of them will be, like, switching out, so somebody's going to walk away, but he's leading the charge and doing a fantastic job, so we'll roll with him. I'm going to roll with, I'm going to lie during the message at some point, see if you can catch it, but we'll do it at the end. Now, if you have to leave sometime before we wrap it up, please call or check and see what the lie was. I don't want to leave you with a misunderstanding of something that we've said. And so I just want you to think about, as you listen, what's the lie, and then what is the truth that counters that lie? If you'll turn your Bibles to Hebrews 4, verses 12 through 16, in these weeks, these first weeks, we're doing a chunk in this series

on why we trust the Bible and why it even matters to trust the Bible. So we started last week, we'll continue today, and then we'll wrap up next week thinking more externally the way things are and said about the Bible as to why we can rely on it as truth. This afternoon, if you're interested in more, we're going to be offering different workshops throughout this series. And this afternoon, we have one of those on hard questions about the Bible. Jordan Hill, Eric Estes, and Rick Townsend will be leading that. It'll be interactive. And they'll be talking about errors and inconsistencies that people say are in the Bible. They'll talk about today people are saying there's a mistranslation on homosexuality. They'll talk about that. And then why do people follow some parts of the Bible and not other parts of the Bible? And that's at 2.30. It'll end at 4.00. If you care, the Cowboy Game's at 5.30. That gives you an hour and a half. They're going to be saying the same thing again and again and again before the game. So if you're there by 5-ish, you're going to catch what's been said all afternoon and all week long, and you'll be ready for kickoff. I can't think of a better tailgate than being right here at 2.30 in the substance of God's Word. Thank you. And then I'd like to point out we're trying to give you different resources for those who are interested. And on our website, if you're at the top in the key categories in the Grow Deeper section, if you click on that, then you'll hit World View Resources under that Grow Deeper. It'll take you to this page. And then you click on Resources on that page, and it'll give you a list of books, articles, and videos. And we've done that on purpose. For those of you who like to read books, there's books. For those of you who like shorter articles, blogs, so forth, I understand blogs are kind of going out,

but they're still kind of there, so we'll entertain them while they're around. And then videos, if you just would prefer a two- or three-minute hit on something, whatever works, we're trying to give you resources that kind of work with the way you like. I think Andy probably would like the videos at the end based on his initial comments here. And so we'll be adding to these resources as we go, and it's there for you. I want us to look in Hebrews 4, verse 12 primarily. That's where we'll spend the bulk of our time. And just to give you a quick insight into it, the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of followers of Jesus, and things are starting to get a little rough out there from a persecution side of things, and some are starting to fade out. And they're thinking, you know, I kind of liked how it was before, and so I'm not so sure I want to follow Jesus and the cost that it is to follow him. The writer of Hebrews is cheering them on and saying, Hey, Jesus is superior, He's better than anything else. It's worth it. And He is the lens through which we see reality as it is. And that brings us to this part in Hebrews 4. And when thinking about God's word today, I'd like to think about it in this big idea. And there's a number of things I'll talk about. And some people say to me, you bring so much, sometimes it's just kind of overwhelming. That's why I try to talk about one big idea, and then I'm just pulverizing that idea with multiple things. And everybody is at such a different spot in their walk with the Lord. My hope is in any given message that wherever you are, that there'll be things that'll help you from the scripture to strengthen with that big idea.

So if something's a little much or whatever, know there's something coming that'll be slightly different than that, that'll maybe be a help to understand what we're saying. But I want us to think about strength and stability in God's word. I believe we live in a day where so many of us are losing our footing with all the cultural chaos. And most of us, I believe, yearn to have a strength and a stability. And I believe that that strength and stability comes in God's word. And so that's how I'd like us to think of that big idea as we roll through the scriptures. So let's begin in verse 12. The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This is where we'll spend our time. And I'm gonna start with that phrase, the word of God. The writer of Hebrews to this point has talked about Jesus being better. And in chapter four, right up to here, he's saying that we find our rest in Jesus. Jesus has done the work on the cross for us, and we find forgiveness in him. When we believe the work he did, then we actually find rest in him.

The way we move then is out of a place of rest, and we labor in the Holy Spirit. And it's a restful place from which to labor. And here he says, hey, be diligent to enter into that rest. And then he talks about the word of God. And we talked about the word of God last week in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. And I want us to think about that as an overlap. I think repetition is one of our best teachers. And as I read this week in a devotional that Alistair Begg wrote, so often when we come together, we're really being reminded of so much of what we already know. Oftentimes we learn new things, but more than often, we're reminded. We need reminders again and again of who we are in Christ, of who God is, and the ways that he's called us to live our lives. 2 Timothy 3, 16 says all scripture is inspired by God. That word inspired means God breathed. So all of God's word is God's words. It is breathed out by him. And he says it's profitable. It's profitable to be taught. It's profitable to be rebuked or exposed for the things we do wrong. It's profitable to be corrected. He doesn't just leave us with the thing that's wrong. He actually shows us what's right.

And then we train in righteousness. It's the way that we're trained so that we can live in the way that God has called us to live. And then all of this is so that we would be equipped for every good work that he has for us. Now in Ephesians 2, verses eight and nine, it says we're saved by grace. Verse 10 says we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so we'd walk in them. So salvation comes by God's grace over us. Once we're saved and we know Jesus, he's laid out these works for us that we're to walk into. And the way we're equipped to do that is through his word. That's how we're trained up so we can do the good works that he already has prepared for us to do. We're simply walking into what he has for us. Now if you like theology, theology is the study of God. If that's it, we all do the study of God somehow, some way. It could be more at a folk level, it could be an academic level, but we all study God. So we're all theologians in one sense, just a matter of how we do our study. And when we look at those who are the ones who write the books on systematic theology, there's some things they say about God's word that I think are worth us talking about briefly. These are things that characterize God's word. as the God-breathed word He's given us.

And the first word they would describe it with is authority. If this is God's word, His words, then this is the authority for life. You could say this is the lens that shapes us. It's coming under the authority of God's word. And authority is the right to command belief or action. And God's, we believe, certainly has the right to command belief or action. He is the authority, we're anchored to Him, and so we follow under the lead of His word. It has authority in our lives. The second word they'll talk about is the word clarity, meaning that anyone can understand God's word. Psalm 19 says that it makes wise the simple. Some of the most uneducated people on the planet are some of the wisest people in the ways of God. Anyone can understand it. Now you say, wait a minute, it's hard for me. Well, it's hard for all of us. But as we spend time studying, fighting for that time, listening, getting into it, it becomes more and more understandable. And we may just understand big ideas at first or a few things at first, and as we keep going, things become more and more clear, and we need to know today that the only way we'll understand anything from God's word is by His Holy Spirit who makes it known to us. So we can ask God to teach us through His Holy Spirit in the word,

and I know anytime I happen to understand something that that's God's Spirit at work making His word known to me and understood. It's clear, and it's necessary. The word necessity is a word they use, and it's a necessity so that we can understand salvation, so we understand that salvation comes through Jesus. We know how then to grow spiritually and to know God's will. So we can look out in creation and say there's a God, but we come to His word, and that's where it's necessary that we have His word to understand these things. Sufficiency would be the next word they talk about that characterizes God's word. And everything that's needed for salvation and living life is in the words that God has given us. He's given us everything we need for life. Every major issue, every major category in life, God's word speaks to it. It is sufficient. And the last thing that's talked about is it's without error, that God's word is true and trustworthy. It is without error in its original autographs. The word autographs, the word they use to describe the original manuscripts of the scripture. And while we don't have those, there's compelling evidence that'll be spoken of next week that will help us see that the scriptures we have today are without error. They are true and trustworthy.

It's the lens through which we can reliably see reality. Now, a book that I mentioned last week that I wanna say again is Kevin DeYoung's book, Taking God at His Word. And I don't know if this'll excite you as much as it excited me, but the other day I was reading a chapter on what Jesus says about God's word. So this is what we're reading Hebrews 4. I just share with you what theologians write about it. I think that's really solid. It's helpful for us to have an anchoring to it. But what did Jesus actually say about the scriptures? And so often I talk to you about, we should pass on what God shows us. I wanna pass on to you some of the insights from this chapter in Kevin DeYoung's book from the scripture and what Jesus said. In John 10, verses 35 and 36, Jesus is speaking. And he says, "'If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, "'and the scripture cannot be broken, "'do you say of him whom the Father sanctified "'and sent into the world, you're blaspheming "'because I said, I'm the son of God.'" Now, the point DeYoung makes here is that Jesus is taking a small obscure phrase out of Psalm 82. And in the mix of saying that,

Jesus says the scripture cannot be broken. Meaning that Jesus sees the scriptures as authoritative, even the most obscure phrases in the Bible, they are God's authoritative word. They cannot be broken. That word broken, it could mean invalidated or nullified, depending on your translation of the scripture. And so, it can't be broken. Then Jesus says something to the same effect in Matthew chapter. or five, verses 17 through 19, do not think I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I didn't come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, or your translation might say iota, it's the smallest Greek alphabet letter, and the New Testament is written in Greek, or stroke, and it's the tiniest graphical hook in the Hebrew that he's referring to. So he's saying the smallest Greek alphabet letter and the smallest little marking of the Hebrew that all these shall pass from the law until all is accomplished, and Jesus is saying every bit of God's word. He wants you to know every bit of it, down to the smallest letter and the smallest marking. He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Jesus is for the whole thing. And then in Matthew chapter 19, verses four and five,

he's answering a question about divorce, and he's making an appeal back into Genesis chapter two. And he answered and he said, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Now the thing DeYoung pointed out that I don't think I've picked up on before is not the main idea of this, but this part right here, that he who created them from the beginning said. Jesus is saying that God's the one that said this in Genesis two, 24 and 25. He's saying that God is the author of this scripture. And when we read scripture, these are God's words, and Jesus is affirming that. The one who created is the one who said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother. Jesus gives compelling reasons, many others, that he believes this is God's word, and it cannot be broken. Well, that's one way to look at it, and then another way to look at it is through the psalmist's eyes in Psalm 119. It's the longest chapter in the Bible, and the psalmist gets us more into the emotion and the feeling of it. Jesus is kind of bringing it home on the facts of it, and the Hebrew writer's doing the same.

The psalmist says this in verse 47 of Psalm 119. I shall delight in your commandments, which I love. I shall delight in your commandments, which I love. So often today, we're talking about and asking people, do you believe the Bible? Do you trust the Bible? Do you believe God? I don't think it's the right question. And it can be the right question, but it needs some follow-up questions. Do you love it? I'm not asking, do you believe it? Do you believe it, and it so captured you that you love it, and you delight in it, and you crave it, and you can't wait to get to it? I was thinking as I was reading this, how cool would it be if we had the same dopamine addiction to God's word as we did to this. Imagine if we were just constantly, if I was in school, and when we substitute taught, I watch kids just do this all day long. They got the best thumbs going, just rolling through TikToks, and just kind of moving along. And how cool would it be if our students were in school, and their thumbs going, and the one next to them says, hey, what are you looking at? I'm reading God's word. I can't get enough of it, so I finish my homework, and I'm like, I'm gonna read this.

I can't get enough of it, so I finish my homework, and this is what I'm doing now. And I'm watching this little YouTube video that's explaining this about God's word. I just love God, and I love God's word. I know you're thinking, nobody does that, but what if we did? What if we just craved it and loved it like the psalmist does? In 119, 62, in midnight I shall rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous ordinances. The writer of the psalms so fired up about it, he loves it, he delights in it, and at midnight he just gets up and starts thanking God for it. Imagine in the middle of the night, we just arose and said, God, thank you for your word. It's rolling right now through my mind. And then verse 92, if your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. If I didn't love it, delight in it, treasure in it, value it. I would have never made it through this hardest part that's gone on in my life to this point. The only way I got through it is because I delighted and loved your word, God. And then verse 97, oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all day. I've just chosen four verses out of 100 and something in here.

Look what the psalmist is saying, say all day long, I'm meditating and thinking on it. At midnight, I'm rising up and I'm thanking God for it. I delight it, I love it, I treasure it. And how cool, if the word that cannot be broken that Jesus said that he wants all of it, the smallest iota and the smallest Hebrew marking, the smallest dot, that's what you'd be consumed with every bit, the most obscure phrases that you can find that we would be obsessed with it in God's word and treasure and exalt it as the psalmist declares. When we get back into Hebrews 4, verse 12, we're talking about the word of God. And now the Hebrew writer describes it here, the word of God, it's living. It's not an antiquated book that sits on a shelf or is a nice decorative piece. I make so many different kinds of Bibles today that you can decorate your whole house with them. And they look really cool. And there's all kinds of volumes of things now that I noticed that are everywhere. But it's not a dead book to be decoration. It's not an antiquated read. It's not just to be part of a world religion class on a college campus in an academic study. It's not just to be an app on your phone unopened. This is the living word of God. It's breathed out by God.

It's the breath of God. It's what he gives us, it brings life, it's living. And it's active. We call our kids camp in the summer that we host here, active, and we do recreation and sports. And then we anchor into Hebrews 4.12 that we would not just be active in our sports, but active in God's word. That it would move through us, that it would do something in us. The unstoppable God, the unstoppable word would move through us. In that 2 Timothy chapter three, it teaches and it trains us and equips us. I talked briefly about the word equip. I wanna say it again. The word in verse 17 of 2 Timothy 3, equip, means to be fit. Now, I played baseball going through high school, college, and then I continued to work out after that. But I didn't have, I would work out, but somehow I'd work out and nothing would change. And then I was getting bigger. And by the time I was 30, and not big in a good way, and by the time I was 39, I kind of looked around at myself and there was a lot to look at. And I thought, this is not a good trajectory I'm on right now. I was about to turn 40. That's always a good motivator for something in life.

And so I looked at it, I said, okay, it's not just the working out. It's not just with the weights. It's not just cardio. I've got to change the nutrition that I'm doing. It's about the diet. And so I found this plan called Body for Life. And I get off of it and I get back on it. I've kind of done it for life, just kind of back and forth. But I realized there's weights and there's cardio and there's nutrition. And then when I was about to hit 50, which is another scary landmark, and you say, all right, we're about to wrap this baby up. Am I gonna be able to walk? And I realized that I hadn't been stretching. I hate stretching. And I saw that as a waste of time and a workout. But stretching is crucial to what we do. Now I'm 58 and now balance is a problem. So you probably wonder, is he gonna fall off the stage or not? One of the days, probably. I'm gonna lose my balance. But in the meantime, I'm trying to do the balance thing. So there's all these aspects of being equipped in our physical bodies. It's weights and it's cardio and it's stretching and it's balance and it's nutrition.

It's the whole thing that makes us fit. And that's gonna make a lot of sense here in a moment. But it's active. It's moving. But not only is it active, but it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow. God's word is sharp. It pierces. And when I read this, it just makes me think afresh of Jesus hanging on the cross for us. And the soldier came in with a spear, poked him in his side and drove that into him and blood and water came out of his side and it's a sharp sword. And then the scripture describes God's word in Ephesians six as a sword of the spirit, that the spirit's the one who wields it. And then Acts 2.37, after the first sermon that Peter preached, when they were done hearing God's word. The scripture says in Acts 2.37 that they were pierced in their hearts. They had heard God's Word, and they were pierced to their very core, and the only thing they knew to say was, what do we do? And then Peter told them, repent, turn from the way you're going, and follow after Jesus. The Word of God, it's sharp, and it pierces, and it also judges. The Word here is that it's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Greek word is kritikos, it gives us the word critic, and God's Word is actually the

critic of our heart. See, we don't have to judge other people. We should just lay the Word out and let it do its work, because God's Word judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The word heart means the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act, so God's Word judges the way we think, it's able to judge the thoughts and intentions, the motivations of it, the way we feel, what we do, and the motives underneath those. God's Word in Jeremiah 23.29 is like a fire, it's like a hammer which shatters a rock. God's Word can shatter the hardest of hearts, it's like a hammer which shatters a rock. It's a fire that melts the hardest of hearts, Jeremiah says, in quoting God about His own Word. In 1 Corinthians 4, verse 5, we see that God's Word judges the motives of our heart. Therefore, don't go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts, and then each man's praise will come to him from God. We are vulnerable before God in His Word because He sees into the very core of each and every one of us, and His Word pierces, and it's sharp, and it's living, and it's active, and it judges the motives that's going on within. We may think we're hiding it from somebody, but we are not hiding it from God. He sees the very core. We are so vulnerable before God in His Word. I wonder if that's sometimes why people don't love it. Jesus would say, and John would record what he said, that the reason they don't love the light is because they love the darkness more. Sometimes we just love darkness more than we do light, and so we don't love this, we love the dark. When we think about these lenses, we've been talking a little bit about a funnel and God's story, and again, I want to repeat this again and again because it's going to be the basis for how we can think about these things together. In this funnel, if you're new with us, this helps us to see what is the reality that we're

living in and how we see things, how we think. When we ask an origin question, what do they believe about beginnings? That helps us see, do they believe there's a God? Who is that God? And then if we believe that or however that flows, then what's the problem in the world? And then what's the solution to the problem? If that's the problem, is there purpose in this life? And if so, what is it? And then what's our destiny? One way to get into this conversation, we were talking to our staff the other day. I think if you just ask people, you know, hey, what's your story? People want to tell their story, they really do. People want to be heard, they want to be listened to. You could also say, hey, in our church, our pastor is just beating this into my head, so I thought maybe I would try it and see what actually happened. Are you game to let me ask you these questions? Then what do you do when you get the answers to the questions? It actually helps you know the way somebody's thinking. And I actually know what their authority is by their answers. I can know if someone sees the God of the Scriptures as the lens through which they're looking or if they're looking through some other lens. And then I just want to ask somebody, or if they ask me or I get to ask them, hey, would you be interested in seeing a different kind of lens that I think really helps us see reality? And I would say God is right here, and the Bible kind of tells us, the Bible does tell us that He's the center of everything, He created, and everything's connected. But then there's the fall, so everything's broken now and we're not connected to God. The only way to get connected back to God is through what Jesus did on the cross. That's the solution to the problem of the human race. human heart. Then in between here is our purpose for life once we know Jesus and that's to glorify God who's the center. Now I'll tell you I'm rarely hearing

those as answers when I ask the questions, whether it's believer or not a believer, candidly. This middle section, problem, solution, and purpose, it's rarely coming out to Jesus. Sin is the problem, Jesus is the solution, and my purpose to live for God. And then finally, the new heavens and new earth, that's where everything ends up in my destiny. That's the end game. Now the good news is we have both the Bible that tells us these things and there are other books in other religions that are also really helpful for us to understand God's story as I just described it. Now we know and we continue on in the scriptures that there are multiple views and I would say the reality is that we could reduce this down. I used big words last week and I got feedback that maybe that was a little much, so I'm gonna back off that a little bit and say I'm gonna try something new. That's the beauty of a long series, we can play around until we find what actually connects. But I would say there's two major lenses, maybe this is a way to think. The lens I'm talking about that we can see reality is a God who makes himself known and it's a God of grace. It's a grace lens. The other major lens that we look through that has a lot of sub lenses, it could be some variety of lenses off of it, will be a God of our own making and every time it's going to be self-effort that gets us where we're trying to go. So maybe it's one lens is grace and one lens is self-effort and under self-effort that could be reason, science, feelings, another world, religion. Only the God who is Jesus is a grace lens. We'll try that. Pass on the feedback and I'll keep us rolling. Now, we're vulnerable before God. I'm not gonna read 13 through 16. Will you do that on your own? What I wanted to say in summary of that, that the Word of God it's living and active. We see that in verse 12 and then we see that we come no creatures hidden from God's sight, but we have Jesus who can sympathize with our weaknesses. So while we're vulnerable before him, he's walked on this earth, he's faced every temptation you and I have yet without sin. So he can sympathize with us. He can walk with us in our stuff as one who overcame those things that have overcome us. And then he says, draw near to God. So it's we're vulnerable before him, we're exposed before him in his Word, but he actually

invites us to draw near to him. I'll hear people say, I don't go to God with a lot of my stuff, especially smaller things. I don't want to bother him, he's not interested in that. Can I just take a stab at it here and say, I think that might be prideful. Because what it says is you can handle things on your own and God says in his lens that you can't and I can't. That's why we're so humbled before the cross, because we're not able. We need someone else to do it for us, but God is able. And he invites us to bring everything to him and invite him in to the smallest of things. And he'll meet us there. There's not a stupid question, there's not anything too little or too big. He's got really big shoulders. That's kind of the wrapping around the verse 12. So what do we do with God's Word? If it's all this that I'm describing it as, and there's strength and stability here, what do we do with it? Well, when we read the scriptures throughout, these are things we're told to do with God's Word. Listen to it, read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, pray it, speak it, sing it, obey it, pass it on. Now, I made a big deal about being equipped for the good works God has for us. Balance, stretching, cardio, weights, nutrition. I did that because it's similar with God's Word. It's not just one thing. God it's not just read a devotion every day and that that'll get me fit it's listen to it you're listening right now it's read it we've been reading it we've studied it some of us because we're doing this together with our life groups we're studying it some people are memorizing you've memorized some of what I've already said today we're meditating on it we're thinking on it we've sung it today we're gonna sing it one more time in just a moment a few minutes and then by God's grace we'll obey it you see you see what's happening there there's multiple ways for this word to be living inactive it's not just one way all the time and it's the same in any kind of training right that's why trainers they make a living off of making sure they don't tell you here's a rope workout program for you they make you dependent on them with a variety of different exercises and then you don't know how to do them and so you have to go back the next time and they change it and you're saying I just got that one down

but your body needs to be tricked and it needs to be thinking and doing different things the classes they always change so it's the same with God's Word if we're going to be fit in God's Word then we read it we study it we look for different ways to study it we memorize it hide it practice it all of these things and then I think Ezra chapter 7 verse 10 is a great summary of what we're to do with it Ezra excuse me Ezra is significant once the Babylonian exile ended I started this series talking about Daniel and his friends and being exiles in Babylon Ezra is on the other side of the exile they're out of the exile now and they're getting re-established in God's Word in Ezra 7 10 I love what Ezra does for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel he set his heart he said his thinking he said his emotions and he said his actions he said his heart to study to study God's Word and after he studied it he practiced it he did it like he studied it and then he did it once he studied it and did it then he taught it he wasn't just up there teaching something he hadn't already done he studied it and then he obeyed and practiced it and then he taught it sometimes I wonder if in our homes children aren't seeing parents study it practice it and then they get taught they might see someone telling them what they're supposed to do but they're not observing it being practiced kids and all of us we see what someone's doing probably more than we hear what they're saying Ezra is a great example for us now this last year I did a through the Bible in a year plan I read the Bible through and I skipped on memorizing scripture very much and I actually started getting really fragile and I realized when I'm talking about being fit I'd gotten imbalanced again and so often I would read the scripture and the Lord would meet me it was a really cool time it's his Word it's his written Word it's God breathed love the time but an hour later like so many of us I didn't even remember what I read but when I memorized God's Word it just hovers and lingers around in there all day and I find a strength and a stability with God's memorized Word running around and just rolling around I'm going to think about it it just pops up I used to drive

my boys nuts I still do this I look at a digital clock and I use it as a Bible reference and I look to see do I know a verse with that reference and when I do that I just say it's another way it's just God's Word just rolling around it stirs it's 323 in the morning I'm up for the third time for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God it must be why I can't sleep Psalm 1 2 & 3 his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night he'll back a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit its seed and its leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers. Oh we're firmly rooted in the memorized and meditated on Word of God. What was my lie? Anybody catch it? Thank you. I said a minute ago if we could have those diagrams up of the funnel in God's story. I didn't tell you I was doing this, sorry about that. I told God's story and I made one statement in there and I said, and there are other books that also tell us the same thing. It's not true. It is not possible for every world religion and every other kind of thought to be equally true because they all teach something different. They have a different lens. The difference maker between the lens that is God's lens is grace. Every other world religion, every other thought is self-effort. Oh it's subtle. I heard somebody this morning early and they said they were talking to a Hindu man and he's a friend but this person was listening to him and I just overheard her say, I just love how rich your culture is. I love that too and I love what Tony Evans, pastor in Oak Cliff, says that we should affirm culture up to the point that it would be in opposition to God. All kinds of things to affirm. I thought when's the last time I heard somebody just say to a Christian, you've got the coolest culture and heritage as a Christian. What if we said that to each other? You've got the richest heritage. I love that you know Jesus. It is so cool. Well yesterday morning, I live in Hurst and it rained. I don't know if it rained with you but I was working on some things yesterday morning and it started raining. I just paused and listened and I would just like to do this. I'd like to share with you some scripture that will give strength and stability today and

give you an example of what I've talked about. This will be on the Worldview resources page so I'd love for nobody to take a note but just like the rain fell yesterday, just let God's Word fall on you and see if it's not a refreshment and a strength and stability for the day. Is anybody grieving? Psalm 119 28, my soul weeps with grief. Strengthen me according to your Word. Is there anybody that has fear today? Isaiah 41 10, do not fear for I'm with you. Do not anxiously look about you for I'm your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you by my righteous right hand. Difficult circumstances? Jeremiah 32 17, our Lord God behold, you've created the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you. Are you burdened today? Psalm 55 22, cast your burden on the Lord and He'll sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. It's difficult to trust today, isn't it? Well there is one you can. Proverbs 3 5 through 8, trust in the Lord with all your heart. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He'll make your path straight. Do not lean on your own understanding. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Do you find yourself tired? Exhausted? Isaiah 41 20. following says, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the universe, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Do you ever have doubts if God loves you? If he's for you? Romans 8, 31 and 32 says, If God is for us, who can be against us? Hugh did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also freely give us all things? Then there's this whole list of bad things that happen, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor

things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Is it scary for you to think about talking to someone about these funnel questions, or God's story? Romans 1, 16, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. You ever feel defeated? Thanks be to God in 1 Corinthians 15, 57, and 58, who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Instability, Colossians 2, 6-8, Therefore as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, overflowing with gratitude, and see to it that no one takes you captive to philosophy or empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. And how do we stay in on Christ? Romans 12, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may know and prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, perfect. And Jesus said at the end of a sermon, He says, Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. We don't have to walk on that sinking sand. Instead, we know in Psalm 19 that God's Word, His law, His testimonies, His precepts, His judgments, the fear of the Lord, they're better than gold, than much fine gold, and they're sweeter than honey in the drippings of the honeycomb. Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable to God, our Lord, our rock, and our Redeemer. And I'd like for us to sing back to God's Word today a song that I asked David this way, I said,

hey, is there any chance we can do this? It's called Honey in the Rock. If you'll stand, let's sing. Just let this be a song to the Lord and a refresher of what we just said. There's honey in the rock, water in the storm And on the ground, no matter where I go I don't need to worry now that I know Everything I need you got There's honey in the rock Praying for a miracle Thirsty for a living well Only you can satisfy The sweetness and the mercy Tasting is not hard to see Only you can satisfy There's honey in the rock Freedom in the streets Bounty in the wilderness You will all satisfy There's honey in the rock, water in the storm And on the ground, no matter where I go I don't need to worry now that I know Everything I need you got There's honey in the rock, purpose in your plan Power in the blood, healing in your hands Started growing when you said it was done And everything you did, did not I keep looking, I keep finding I keep giving, you provide All I have, all I need You are all I need I keep praying, I keep moving I keep praising, I keep going I keep falling, you are all I need I keep looking, I keep finding I keep giving, you provide All I have, all I need You are all I need I keep praying, I keep moving I keep praising, I keep going I keep falling, you are all I need There's honey in the rock, water in the storm And on the ground, no matter where I go I don't need to worry now that I know Everything I need you got There's honey in the rock, purpose in your plan Power in the blood, healing in your hands Started growing when you said it was done Jesus, you are as you know There's honey in the rock There's honey in the rock

There's honey in the rock Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus Oh how sweet, how sweet it is To trust in you Jesus There's honey in the rock, there's promise in your hand There's power in your blood, there's healing in your hands It started flowing when you said it was done There's tears to your eyes and love There's honey in the rock, there's water in the storm There's man on the ground, no matter where you go I don't need to worry now that I know There's everything I need, you've got There's honey in the rock There's honey in the rock Yeah. Yeah. All right, I love it. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Load on your song, mate. Here we go. He chose a band and Freddie's here and how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new jesus. Oh, how sweet. Oh, how sweet it is

to trust the new jesus. Oh, how sweet, isn't that good? Oh, how sweet, come on. Sing, oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new jesus. Let's just sing that one last time. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new Jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new Jesus. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new Jesus. Oh, how sweet it is to trust the new Jesus. to trust the new Jesus. Let's sing that one last time. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is to trust the new Jesus.

Oh, how sweet,