The Power of Preaching

Oh, king of kings, lord of lords, I exalt you, Lord. I lay it all down at your throne. You're the only one that matters, yes. Oh, let me see you for who you are. Let me see you for who you are. Let me see you for who you are. Let me see you for who you are. Let me see you for who you are. Yes, Lord. Well, welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Altar Fellowship. We're so glad you're here. Listen, we have so much space down here. So if you want to come out of your pew and come down here and worship with everyone, please do that. And we've got a couple new people up here that I want to introduce before we get started. So we've got Jack Hinchey on the drums. He's one of our youths. He plays like he's been playing for 30 years. So you're going to be blessed by him. We also have Christian on the bass. He's killing it. We're so glad you're here, Christian. Thank you for serving with us. And we've got Jared, and Austin's awesome, Brandy. We might as well introduce everyone. And then we have Alyssa. She's new to our team, and she's going to lead us in our first song. So she's got a killer voice. But we're just so glad that you're here. I love being in this house.

I can't imagine not having this church in my life. I've been to a lot of churches, and this one for sure takes the cake. And I would say it's especially because of the people that are in it. And I'm just so thankful for the way that all of you worship and that it encourages me up here. And I just love watching how you guys pour your hearts out to the Lord. So that's what we're going to do right now. Yahweh, we love you. We thank you, God. We thank you that we have the freedom to walk into this room and to say the name of Jesus without consequence, Lord. God, that we can freely get on our knees and hands in the air, God, and surrender everything to you. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, God. We declare your truth this morning. That you are the living hope, God. That you are every part of hope in this broken world, Lord. That you fill every void. You fill every hole. God, you are the glue that holds creation together. Without you, it all falls apart. It all falls to waste. So Jesus, fill this room right now. Fill every heart. Fill every hole. Fill every part of us that is missing you, that needs to be transformed by you, God. May you be our living hope this morning. So Jesus, we just, we pour our hearts out. We lay everything aside and give you everything that we have. And it's in your precious name we say, amen. How great the chasm that lay between us How high the mountain I could not climb In desperation I turned to heaven

And spoke your name into the night And then through the darkness Your loving kindness Tore through the shadows of my soul The work is done ♪ Finished, the end is written ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Oh, thank you, Lord ♪ ♪ Who could imagine so great a mercy ♪ ♪ What heart could fathom such boundless grace ♪ ♪ The God of ages stepped down from glory ♪ ♪ To wear my sin and bear my shame ♪ ♪ The cross has spoken, I am forgiven ♪ ♪ The King of kings calls me his own ♪ ♪ Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ Death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Say hallelujah, praise the one who set me free ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ You have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope ♪ ♪ Oh, you're my living hope, ever-present Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Then came the morning that sealed the promise ♪

♪ Your buried body began to breathe ♪ ♪ And out of the silence the roaring lion declared the good news ♪ ♪ The grave has no claim on me ♪ ♪ Oh, singing again, then came the morning that sealed the promise ♪ ♪ Your buried body began to breathe ♪ ♪ But out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me ♪ ♪ Oh, no, it doesn't cause Jesus, yours is the victory, oh ♪ ♪ So, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Death has lost its grip on me and you have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope, hallelujah ♪ ♪ So, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Death has lost its grip on me and you have broken every chain ♪ ♪ There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope, Jesus Christ, my living hope, oh Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, my living hope, oh, thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, you are a living hope, Lord, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, we speak Jesus, Jesus, oh, yesterday, today, forever, Lord ♪ Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah, oh, oh, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me, you have broken every chain, there is salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope, oh Jesus Christ, my living hope, yes you are Lord Jesus Christ, my living hope. I won't forget, I won't forget the wonder of how you brought deliverance, the exodus of my heart, you found me, you freed me, held back the waters from my release, oh Yahweh, you're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory, hallelujah, hallelujah, you have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep, hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, a cloud by day, a cloud by day is a sign that you are with me, a fire by night is the guiding light from my feet, you found me, you freed me, held back the waters from my release, oh Yahweh, you're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory, hallelujah, hallelujah, you have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep, hallelujah, hallelujah, you're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory, hallelujah, hallelujah, you have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep, hallelujah, hallelujah.

The Lord has freed you tonight, this morning, get your dancing shoes on, we're free in the name of Jesus. Come on, cause you said, cause you said it to my ear. ♪ Egypt, you took me by the hand ♪ ♪ You marched me out in freedom into the promised land ♪ ♪ Now I will not forget you, God ♪ ♪ I'll sing of all you've done ♪ ♪ Death is swallowed up forever by the fury of your love ♪ ♪ You stepped into my Egypt, you took me by the hand ♪ ♪ You marched me out in freedom into the promised land ♪ ♪ Now I will not forget you, God ♪ ♪ I'll sing of all you've done ♪ ♪ Death is swallowed up forever by the fury of your love ♪ ♪ You're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪♪ Come on, you stepped into my Egypt. ♪♪ ♪ You stepped into my Egypt, you took me by the hand ♪

♪ You marched me out in freedom, into the promised land ♪ ♪ Now I will not forget you God, I'll sing of all you've done ♪ ♪ Death is swallowed up forever, by the fury of your love ♪ ♪ You stepped into my Egypt, you took me by the hand ♪ ♪ You marched me out in freedom, into the promised land ♪ ♪ Now I will not forget you God, I'll sing of all you've done ♪ ♪ Death is swallowed up forever, by the fury of your love ♪ ♪ You're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And you're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ And you have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ Do it again. ♪ You're the God who fights for me, Lord of every victory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have torn apart the sea, you have led me through the deep ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Hallelujah ♪ Hallelujah, you have freed us, freedom, freedom, you have freed us by your blood. You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us by your blood, free forever by your blood, Lord. You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us through your cross, Lord. You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us through your cross. You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us by your blood.

You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us by your blood. You have freed us through your cross. Oh, yes, you've got it. You've got it. Holy are you, Lord. Oh, we lift our eyes up to you, Lord. Holy are you. Oh. Sing a new song to him who sits on heaven's mercy seat. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is he. And sing a new song to him who sits on heaven's mercy seat. And holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come. We invite you to use the music and songs for meaning to us today. How does it feel to be in such a high position to receive this revelation? Jesus. And Andy, I want you to express the great hope and passion of God to the only wise King. Holy, holy, holy is our God Almighty who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings.

You are my everything and I will adore you. Oh, yes. Oh, you are holy, yes. Oh, yes, you are holy, Lord. Oh, yeah. Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder at the mention of your name. Hey, ooh, hey. Ooh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, yes, you are holy. You are holy. Hallelujah. Oh, yes, you are holy. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Come on. Come on, you're in the throne room. Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, yes. Oh, Jesus, you are holy. You are holy. Oh. Ooh, holy. Holy. Come on, just lift your shouts of praise. Oh, you are holy. You are holy. Oh.

Oh, yes, you are holy. Oh, there's no one like you Lord. There's no one like you Lord. There's no one like you Lord. No one like you Lord. No one like you Lord. No one like you Lord. Hey, oh, hey, oh. There's no one like you Lord. No one like you Lord. No one like you Lord. ♪ No one like you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder ♪ ♪ At the mention of your name ♪ ♪ Jesus, your name is power, right? ♪ ♪ Such a marvelous mystery ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh ♪ ♪ And holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ To the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh ♪ ♪ Yeah, oh ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ To the king of kings ♪

♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ With all creation I sing praise to the king of kings ♪ ♪ You are my everything and I will adore you ♪ ♪ Ooh, mmm ♪ ♪ Mmm ♪ ♪ Ooh, yeah, ooh ♪ ♪ Yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh ♪ ♪ Yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah ♪ Come on, just let him minister to you. ♪ Mmm, mmm ♪ Let him give you a vision, maybe a word. ♪ Mmm, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy, eyy, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy, ayy ♪ ♪ Mmm, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh, holy, yeah ♪ ♪ Holy, I lift your name up high, oh, speak to me, Lord, oh, speak to me ♪ It's just you and me right now, it's just you and me yeah, oh come and speak to me. It's just you and me yeah, oh come and speak to me. Holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb.

You are holy, holiest are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holiest are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. You are holy, holiest are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. ♪ Yeah, you are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Are you Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb ♪ ♪ Yeah, you are holy, holy ♪ ♪ Are you Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb ♪ Yes, Lord, we just thank you for your blood, Lord. We thank you for the sacrifice. God, that there is freedom, there's the ability to just worship you freely in your presence, God. Thank you for a love that is deeper than we could ever fathom. For a choice that we could never make, but you made on our behalf. Thank you, Jesus. And the word says that the angels for all of eternity sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. That if here on earth, that's the only words we sang, that we would be glorifying you in the highest praise.

In our flesh and bones, Lord, you give us the ability to sing and cry out to you. So Lord, we just sing holy, holy, holy over and over today. Maybe the song of our hearts today, maybe the song that we sing over our children, maybe the song that we sing over our families, over our country, Lord. Holy, holy, holy are you Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. For all of eternity, God, we sing you. We fix our eyes on you this morning, Lord, and I ask that you just prepare our hearts to hear your word, God, that it would fill the holes of our hearts and the cracks, God, of our being that are missing something, Lord. May it be filled with your presence. So we just honor you, God, and we praise you. And it's in your holy name we said, amen. Man, what a beautiful morning already. Hey, welcome to the Altar Fellowship. We're so glad that you're here. And you should know our secret plan is that we want to recruit people to join the choir of heaven and to stand around the throne of God and to lift their voices and to lay their hearts and their lives down as an offering to the Lord. So thank you for joining in the chorus of praise

that God is orchestrating out of Northeast Tennessee. We're so glad that you're here. Would you guys just bless our musicians? Thank you guys so much, so good. If you can find a seat, this would be a great time to do that. Come on, y'all, awesome, awesome, awesome. Amen. I want to tell you, we have the privilege this morning of giving into the work of the Lord. I'm so glad there are three of you who are so excited about that. We have the privilege this morning of being a part of what God is doing, not just with our singing, not just with our sitting, but with our giving. You know, I'll tell you a story I've been thinking about a lot lately. In 2009, my wife and I got married in early 2009, and right after that she came on tour with the band I was playing in at the time. And we, on that tour, in like the first week of that tour, we played a show in Waco, Texas. And I'll never forget this one in particular because after the show, my wife and I, we stood outside in the parking lot talking to a group of kids and we were just sharing the gospel, sharing our story and our testimony. There was this group of three kids, Matt and his girlfriend, Aubrey, and their friend, Sam. And we're sharing the gospel with them, all three of them had been drinking. And they were 16, 17 year old kids that had come out to this concert, were a little bit tipsy and they're standing out in the parking lot and they had heard me on stage talking about Jesus. And so they came up and they were asking some questions about, you know, how can you guys believe in a God you can't see? And how do you trust the Bible? And, you know, they're asking some of the

standard sort of apologetic questions and these are good questions. And so, you know, we're saying, well, you know, we trust the Bible for good reason historically, but ultimately we trust the Bible because we know the author. And I could talk to you about all of the reasons that the Bible has been, you know, historically or archeologically verified, or I could tell you this, you can actually come to know its author and you can come to know him tonight. And so, you know, I share the gospel with them and I say, God doesn't just want you to know about him. He wants you to know him. He wants you to have a relationship, a living relationship with him. And you can do that by putting your faith and your trust in Jesus to be your Lord and savior. And so I'm sharing the gospel with them. And I say, would you like to, would you like to pray today and say, God, you know, take my heart. I want to follow you. I want to walk in your ways. And Matt, this young man, he says, he says, yeah, I want that. And his girlfriend's standing next to him. She says, yes, I want that. And their friend standing behind them, Sam, I turned to him and he's been pretty quiet during this conversation. He's kind of disengaged. Candace, you remember this? He's kind of disengaged and he's just looking around like there's other things he'd rather be doing. And I said, Sam, what about you? And he says, no, man, I'm my own God. And, uh, and I said, okay, man. Um, and so I prayed, we prayed right there. Ms. Candace and I, we prayed with Matt and Aubrey for them to receive Christ. And, uh, and the three of them, they walked off into the darkness of the parking lot. And, uh, and that was the last time we saw him a couple of days later. Uh, we got a call from the promoter of that show, the guy that was in charge of organizing the show. And he said, Hey, Aubrey is in the hospital and she has been asking to talk to Candace. Would it be okay if I put you guys in touch with each other? And so we said, yeah, absolutely. You know? And so, um, she reaches out and we find out that, uh, on the way home that night, the three of them were in a car accident. They left their conversation with us where Matt and Aubrey had prayed to, to accept Christ and where Sam had declared, I'm my own God. They left that conversation. They went and got in their car. And as they're driving home, Sam, who was the oldest, who was driving, who had been drinking, took a turn too quickly and rolled the car. Matt and Aubrey were both injured pretty badly. And Sam was thrown from the car and killed 30 minutes after looking me in my eye and telling me I'm my own God. Rejecting the gospel. Sam stood face to face.

Sam Goodrich is his name. And I promised myself I'd never forget. I have his obituary pulled up on my, on my phone. Currently it's been there for weeks. I, uh, I think about Sam Goodrich every day. And I think about Sam Goodrich every day because I recognize like we convince ourselves we have time. We convince ourselves that we are self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-defying, defining. We convince ourselves that we have the authority and the autonomy to live the kind of life that we want to live. And the reality is that's just not true. And I can't tell you what Sam Goodrich's eternity is going to look like. I do know the last conversation he ever had on this earth was an opportunity, an invitation to receive the gospel. And there's no telling. Maybe he laid on the pavement for 10 minutes before. before he stood at judgment, and maybe he began to replay the gospel I'd shared with him, and maybe his heart changed in that moment when he was humbled. I don't know, but I do know this, that the gospel is the only hope we have for salvation. And I do know this, you are not your own God. You don't self-determine. You are not in control of what happens on the way home today. You are not in control of your ability to wake up tomorrow morning. All of those things are in God's hands. And here's the thing, if we could get that principle, if we could understand that idea, then not only would our urgency with the gospel, not only would we begin to rightly relate to the gospel in ways that maybe we never had before, but I think also when it comes to offering time, maybe then we wouldn't clutch our wallets so tightly. Maybe we wouldn't think, well, you know,

I gotta make sure that I grow the nest egg. Like, you know, we wouldn't be enslaved to money when we realize that there will be a day, and there's no telling when that day will come, that suddenly the amount of money in our bank account does not matter at all. Suddenly it doesn't matter at all. What matters are the investments that we made into our eternity. And so I'm inviting you this morning not to make an investment into some stock or some mutual fund. I'm inviting you this morning to invest into eternity and to understand that the time you will spend on earth is nothing compared to the time you will spend in eternity. And eternity is much closer than you've ever imagined. And so I would invite you friends this morning to give in light of eternity and to give like it matters for eternity, because this is the one place you can give your money that will actually bring for you an eternal return on your investment. Amen? Amen. All right. So we're gonna receive the offering here if I could call the guys forward. Would you stand with me? We're just gonna pray over this. There should be an envelope in front of you.

Of course, if you wanna give by cash, check your card, or you can scan that QR code or give through the mobile app. Let's just come before the Lord. God, we say you are holy and you are God and we are not. And Lord, we repent for our idolatrous relationship with money. We repent, God, for the ways that we have put our hope and our faith and our sense of security in our financial situation instead of in you. God, you hold our future in your hands. God, you are in control of our lives. And so we give to you today as an act of rebellion against the ways of the world, against the false security that we've had in our finances. God, we give to you today confessing that you are infinitely worthy and that when we put our hope in you, that's the only place that our hope will never be shaken. Lord, you are faithful and you are good. And we thank you that you've called us and invited us to partner with what you're doing in the earth. So we give today, gratefully. And we say, Lord, thank you for the opportunity to do so. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, whenever you are ready, we'll be receiving the offering here at the front. Thank you so much. Hey, good morning.

You can be seated. This is an adventure for me because this morning I am going to preach to you about preaching to you. Maybe it's a little bit meta, but I have been sort of wrestling for months now with how to communicate the value of preaching. And really this has been the idea that has been sort of bouncing around in my head, that God, who is infinitely creative, who demonstrates and manifests his creativity in countless, innumerable ways, has chosen preaching to be the primary means by which we come to revelation or to the knowledge of God. It's the way that the gospel is disseminated from one person to another. And that's a profound thing. God could call the elect by dreams. They just have dreams while they're sleeping, and that's how we come to salvation. It could be by race, you know, that you're just born. born into the right family, into the right lineage. You were born into the right, you know, gene pool. And so you're, you're good. You're safe. Like there's a million different ways that God could bring someone to salvation, but he chose preaching. And, uh, and so I want to just want to just jump in and see where we end up. I think, um, my hope today is that, uh, maybe all of us,

myself included can leave here with a clearer understanding of God's will and God's intent and God's mind when it comes to the proclamation of the truth of his word. And so this morning, I want to invite you to join me as we wrestle with how exactly we ought to engage with the preaching of the word of God. One of the early church fathers, John Chris Austin wrote, the soul is healed by the word of God and preaching is the instrument of that healing. The soul is healed by the word of God and preaching is the instrument of that healing. You know, how often do we hear from, uh, from, from people in our modern culture about soul healing, you know, trauma recovery is what sometimes we call it, right? Counseling therapy, uh, heart work. You know, we, we go through these processes, we pay, you know, boatloads of money to people that are licensed by the state to bring healing to our souls. But I think John Chris Austin is, is, is right in his, uh, prescription here that, uh, that the soul is healed by the word of God and preaching is the instrument of that healing. Uh, the reformer, uh, years, generations later, William Tyndale would write the preaching of God's word is the chief and principal work of the church. The preaching of God's word is the chief and principal work of the church. Notice he doesn't say that the preaching of God's word is the chief and principal work of the pastor. It doesn't say the preaching of God's word is the chief and principal work of the church's leadership for the sake of the church. He said, the preaching, the preaching is the chief and principal work of the church. All of us are called by God to preach. All of us are called by God to receive the healing of the soul that preaching

the soul that preaching can produce, but as vitally important as preaching is not just to the function of the church, but to the sanctification of our souls, the healing of our souls. I see before me today, a generation who is overwhelmingly prone to treat preaching like it's a common thing. We neglect to preach the word to ourselves, our families or our friends. And then when someone does preach, we approach them with either either the sort of dismissive patronization we'd give to a child banging clumsily on an instrument or we approach them with suspicion and criticism as if they're preaching needs our approval to be acceptable to God. So I want you to consider today that the preaching of the word of God should carry the same weight and honor to us as the word of God itself. As one of the early church fathers origin said, when the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. What a beautiful statement. When the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. And I, I've got to be honest here. I want to make sure that I don't remove clarity just for the sake of being gentle or, you know, kind or compassionate. And so I want to be really honest here as the pastor of this church. I feel frequently like people listen to my preaching as a gift to me. You know, it's like when, when your kids are little and they're like, dad, look at this, you know, and they're doing like a somersault or something. It's like the lamest thing you've ever seen. They want to show you some picture that's just not a good picture. And uh, you know, but they drew it and it matters to them. And so you go, Oh,

that's really nice, sweetie. That's how I feel as a pastor that people are like, Oh sweetie, like he preached a sermon. Good for you, buddy. Um, and while I appreciate it, I suppose, I wonder if we might approach preaching differently if we actually agreed with origin that when the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. Do we show up? Do we show up to preaching, to events, to moments like this where the Word is preached and tremble before it? Do we show up with the kind of expectation and hope that God will speak to me today? Or do we show up like, you know, I get to wear my new outfit, I'm gonna hang out with my friends, check in with them, good to see you guys, y'all doing good, how was your week? And then we're gonna go eat, you know, chips and salsa afterwards. We're gonna go home and watch football afterwards. When the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. I want us to become a community that actually believes that, that actually treats the preaching of the Word like it is a holy, sacred thing, like it's an opportunity for us to hear from God. And yet, the truth is, far too frequently, we do not, we see it as anything but that. I wanna go primarily today to Romans chapter 10, and I'm just gonna read Romans 10 verses nine through 15,

and then we'll sort of go through and we'll break some things down and then we'll see where else we might end up today. Romans 10, starting in verse nine, it says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? How will anyone ever believe in a God they've not heard about? And how will they ever hear about the goodness, the kindness, the mercy, the compassion, the power and the love of God without a preacher? There's a world full of people who are lost and without hope unless a preacher shows up. There are people in your workspace that are lost and without hope in this world unless a preacher shows up. There are people in your neighborhood that are lost and without hope in this world unless a preacher shows up.

Your kids are lost and without hope in this world unless a preacher shows up. Like there is no access to the gospel if there is not preaching. But I digress. I wanna come back to the beginning of this passage because I feel like I can't read Romans 10, you know, nine and 10 without taking at least a minute to talk about the promises that are made here. Romans 10, nine, it says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. As we talk about preaching, I want you to hear this very important part. And I would say, James, to any guy that ever wants to be a preacher, Owen, any guy that ever wants to be a preacher, you know, I'd say to you that if you wanna be good at preaching to others, you should start by preaching to yourself. I have preached thousands of sermons to myself. There's no preacher that has blessed my life more than I have. Like I'll be like, you got this, buddy, you know? You can do it. Don't be weak. Suck it up. It's just a little pain, you know? Like I'm telling you, I am hard on myself

and I preach hard to myself all the time. And I do this because I recognize that like the confession of my own mouth is actually one of the means by which I am saved. And that word for saved or salvation, it's a soteria, it's a Greek word, soteria, that means to be healed or delivered or rescued. And so it's not just about like, you know, being right with God. It's about a sort of holistic deliverance from oppression, from captivity, from deception or from sickness. And so there's this beautiful idea that actually my confession, the confession of my mouth. it is the primary indicator of the position of my heart. And so my heart and my mouth, Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart, or scripture says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Like you can always tell what someone believes by what they say. And so we've got to make sure that we don't just confess. Got to make sure that we don't just believe in Christ, but we confess him as well. And here's what I think is so beautiful about this passage. It says that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, there's that word, Lord, I think is important to understand this, that we can't just confess Christ as a teacher.

That's, there is a whole society that would be perfectly happy with us confessing Christ as a teacher, one among many. There's Jesus Christ and there's Buddha and there's Lao Tzu and there's Muhammad and they all teach different things. And there's Richard Dawkins, you know, and they all teach different things. Plato and Aristotle and Nietzsche, they all preach different things, but you know, they're all preachers, they're all teachers, but we are not permitted. It is not a path that leads to salvation to confess Christ as teacher or healer or friend or moral leader or example we might want to follow. He is all of those things, but he's not only any one of those things. We must confess Christ as Lord. We must confess Christ as Lord. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And then Paul, who's writing here, he explains, for with the heart, one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. So the position of our heart is the thing that makes us right with God. That word for righteousness, it just means rightness. I want to make sure, are you hearing what I'm saying? This is, you have heard that righteousness is moral purity.

That is not what that word means. I think God has called us to moral purity, but that word righteousness there in Romans 10, 10, it just means rightness. So with the heart, one believes, and by that belief, we are actually made right with God. And then with the mouth, confession is made, and that confession is the thing that leads us to soteria. It's the thing that leads us to, what is it? Deliverance, preservation, rescue, or health. That's the thing, that with our mouth, we confess, and confession leads us to salvation, deliverance, preservation, rescue, or health. It is by faith that we believe and we are made right with God, but the promises of God come to life by the words we profess. Understand our preaching does not start when we set foot on the platform. Our preaching starts when we look in the mirror in the morning. Our preaching starts when we're faced with an obstacle bigger than we can handle on our own. What do we say in that moment? We can say Christ is Lord. We can say I belong to him. He is faithful to me, and he's gonna walk with me through this day. Our preaching doesn't start when we set foot on the platform.

Our preaching starts when we wake up in the morning and we decide, are we going to confess Christ as Lord today, or is he going to be merely an afterthought or an accessory to our otherwise full life? Paul continues in verse 11. He says, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame, and I just want to make sure that I put my finger on that for you, because here's the reality. I was having a conversation with somebody and I sort of jokingly said this week somebody needs to write a book called American Shame, because the truth is shame is actually the, it's the bait by which the overwhelming fear and the overwhelming amount of deception and division and confusion in our nation has been introduced. That it's like you have people that are doing things that are demonstrably, obviously not in the best interest of our nation, and they're doing it to try to absolve themselves of the shame that they carry. People are ashamed to be white. Some men are ashamed to be men. People are ashamed to be American with the privileges and the blessings and the responsibilities that it affords. They're ashamed of the privilege that they were born into,

and so they spend their life sort of self-flagellating, voting into office, people they know are going to tyrannize and oppress. because they feel like that's absolution for the shame that they carry for things they didn't do, things that their grandparents or their great-grandparents did, or things that other people that sort of look like them, maybe they're not even directly related to may have done. And this is an issue, like the fact that we carry shame that is not ours has made our society so backwards and so easy to manipulate. Here's the good news. There is no shame for the man or woman of faith. Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. In this passage, Paul is quoting to the Romans, Isaiah 28, 16. Peter also quotes the same passage in 1 Peter 2, 6. This is kind of important, right? We see Isaiah and Paul and Peter all agreeing that there is no shame. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Shame is not your inheritance. Lay it down on the altar today. Shame is not your inheritance. Lay it down on the altar today. Verse 12 says, "'For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, "'for the same Lord over all "'is rich to all who call upon him.'"

You have all heard me harp on this topic a thousand times, but we must lay down the things that we allow to divide us. By culture, by race, by ethnicity and nationality, by language, by economic standing, we so easily say, well, that's the white church and that's the black church and that's the, you know, there's a Hispanic church and a Korean church down the street. And it's like, no, there's only one church. There has only ever been one church. It is those who come to God through faith. By grace, through faith. It's like, that's not just, like the sacrifice of Christ is the means by which grace is available to us, that we can be made acceptable before God. But even Abraham came to God by grace through faith. Even Moses came to God. David came to God by grace through faith. Like there's, this covenant is the transcendent covenant. This covenant of grace has always been the means by which man approaches God. And you can read all throughout the Old Testament, there are people who are of the Jewish ethnicity who are rejected by God because they're faithless. And there are people who are not of the Jewish ethnicity who are accepted by God because they came to God by faith. And so what Paul is saying here, what the scriptures say very clearly is that it doesn't matter what nation or what family

or what ethnicity you were born into, what matters is that you come to God by faith. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then Paul asks here a series of questions. And this really, everything to this point has been sort of contextual for where I really wanted to go today. He says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How could any, if all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved? We know that that is true. Scripture makes that promise repeatedly. We've got to ask the question, how can people call on the Lord if they've never heard about him? How can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? People cannot call on God for salvation if they do not believe in God. People cannot believe in God unless they hear about God. And people cannot hear about God without a preacher. Family, preaching is God's chosen method for the dissemination of the gospel. It is, out of all of the countless applications and outlets of Yahweh's indescribable creativity,

the sole means by which he has chosen to transmit the good news of Christ from one person to another and from one generation to the next. Now, what does this, you know, for years, I played music in the hardcore scene. There were a bunch of other Christian bands in that scene. And many of them would say to us, why do you guys preach so much? You're so pushy, you're turning people off. You know, not everybody in the room is a Christian. This is uncomfortable for those people. And then I would always respond, why don't you preach at all? Don't you believe the gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all who believe it? What about Romans chapter 10? People cannot call on the name of the Lord if they haven't believed in him and they can't believe in him until they hear about him and they can't hear about him unless somebody is willing to preach to them. And these guys sort of have this vain philosophy that maybe if I just sit at a bar and drink beers, if I'm cool enough, somebody will want to know what religion I'm a part of. It's never happened. No one has ever thought, dude, you are so much like me. I need to know what faith do you practice? Like it just, it doesn't work that way, right? Like we've got, we've got to be able to preach.

You cannot flatter people into the kingdom. People aren't going to receive the gospel by osmosis. Like you can't just get close enough for long enough that the gospel just seeps into somebody. At some point you got to preach. At some point we've got to preach. Preaching is the sole means by which God has chosen to transmit the good news of Christ from one person to another and from one generation to the next. I am convinced that one of the major weaknesses in my generation is that we do not give adequate weight and honor to preaching. Maybe it's because we've been oversaturated with it. Somebody asked me, you know, what do you think the church needs in this generation, in this hour? What does the church need? And I said, I think what the church needs more than anything is fewer preachers. Because it has become so cheap. It's so easy. You just get your iPhone and turn it on selfie mode and you can say whatever you want to whoever you want all over the world. Absolute nonsense. Constantly. I couldn't tell you the number of people that have reached out to me like, what about the lost books of the Bible? You know, that they, that they, whoever they,

that they stole from us so that we wouldn't know the whole truth of the message of Jesus. It's like, gosh, there's so what are you talking about? You saw this on you get off Tik TOK. This isn't helpful for you. And if you're wondering, I should say this. If you're wondering about, you know, the gospel of Thomas or whatever, you should read it. And, and I think pretty soon you'll realize this is nonsense that doesn't line up with who Jesus clearly is. Now there's good reason to think that these overwhelmingly, these books are forgeries or they're, you know, in some way invalid, they've been pretty well studied from people that are way smarter than by people that are way smarter than I am. But I would encourage you to, to not just sort of say, well, I can't trust anything because I heard some guy on Tik TOK say that some books of the Bible were removed. I'd say, well, read those books. You know, if you think, well, let me say this. You should read the Bible. Don't read those books instead of the Bible. Like you should read the Bible and, and come to know the God of the Bible. There are 66 books that everybody agrees on. Get real familiar with those and then find out if these other Tik TOK books you heard about, if these line up with what is clearly revealed in those 66. My wife, my wife just said they won't. She's right.

She's right. She's right. All right. I'm convinced that one of the major weaknesses in my generation is that we do not give adequate weight or honor to preaching. Maybe it's because we've been oversaturated with it. Hearing so many hours of sermons about nothing each week that when God's word is actually preached to us, we've been inoculated against it by the steady stream of spiritual white noise. Or maybe it's because in a generation that salivates over scandal, we have become suspicious of everyone. So we come to church on Sundays and we spend the morning judging the preacher instead of joyfully receiving and applying the word that is being preached. I'm sure that's not you. Couldn't be. I've got to be honest with you. I've done this. I've thought about, I've sat in rooms and thought about how I could have done a better job preaching that sermon than the guy preaching. I've sat in rooms and thought, this guy's not doing a great job. You know, the singing wasn't that good. And the preacher is, he's all over the place. And you know, what's he talking about? And he lost his train of thought and he stuttered there. picking apart the message instead of grabbing a hold

of the word of God, clinging to it like a life raft in the middle of an ocean, and saying, God, thank you for your word. Thank you that it's being preached. Thank you, God, that your word is always on time, and it's always applicable, and it's always relevant to my situation. As I was thinking about this over the last few weeks, I thought about something you heard Elder Kashif say recently when he was preparing for communion. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're being taught about the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper. One of the things that Paul says to the church in Corinth is he says that if we eat and drink in an unworthy manner, we drink judgment upon ourselves. He says we do that because we're not discerning the Lord's body. We're not discerning that Christ is with us as we engage in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Then Paul actually explains in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 30, he says, for this reason, many of you are weak and sick. There are many, oh, look at you, you guys are quick. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep, that's like Bible language for it, and many have died. He's saying you guys have been eating and drinking at the Lord's Supper in a manner that is not, that does not carry the adequate degree of honor and humility and responsibility,

and because of that, your bodies are breaking down. You are not discerning the body of the Lord. I want to take this same principle and say, if that's what the physical elements of Christ, who is the word that became flesh, if that's what not discerning the physical elements of the body and the blood of Christ will do to your body, then I've got to ask, what if we don't discern the word of God that is the eternal nature of Christ? Then maybe it won't just be our bodies that are weak and sick and dying, maybe it'll be our souls that are weak and sick and dying if we neglect to discern the word of God when it's dropped in our lap. The truth is, preaching is prophetic. That is to say, if it's done well, then every single message you hear ought to unravel God's word and reveal God's will to you in a way that is vital to the journey he's called you on. Also, good preaching, it's not just prophetic, it's also personal. That is, it is not a performance for a crowd. It is a message written prayerfully with love and urgency and aimed directly at your heart, your family, and your current situation. I need you to hear me when I say this. It would be in your best interest to receive preaching like it's a message from God for you. Maybe, instead of asking, does God have anything for me in this message, we should begin to ask,

what does God have for me in this message? We should maybe begin to presume, like Origen said, that when the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. If we presuppose that that is true, then we can show up here not saying, I wonder if God might do something in my life today, but rather we can show up here saying, God will do something in my life today. I better not miss it. God brought me here. He sustained me in this moment. Of all the multitude of places I could be and the things that I could be doing, God has me here today doing this, hearing this message preached, and I've gotta believe that if God brought me here, if the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord and God brought me here to hear this message, it's because this message is a vital part of what God is building. This is a peace that I cannot live without. So Lord, reveal to me how I can rightly grab a hold of this message and begin to build my life upon it. Now, this is a little bit uncomfortable for me to preach because normally I'm the one preaching to you, but I wanna make sure that I explain this very important distinction. The message I came to share with you today, though, is not that preachers are holy.

It's that preaching is holy. This is important. We need to die to the idolatrous way that we have been. have allowed preachers to engage with those to whom they preach. I'm not asking you to worship me. I'm not asking you to have fear and trembling before me. It is crucial that you hear and understand this distinction, that my argument today is that preaching is holy, not that preachers are holy. In 1 Timothy 5.17, Paul gives this instruction to Timothy. He says, let the elders who rule well. There's that caveat. This has been the position of much of the church throughout much of the church's history. Let the elders who rule be counted worthy of double honor. That's not right. Paul puts a caveat here. Only, the only elders who are worthy of double honor are those who rule well. I wanna make, are you hearing this? Y'all should be very excited about this. This is important. This is how we avoid spiritual abuse. We read the scriptures carefully. Let elders who rule well, those who rule well with humility, with integrity, with honor, those who lead in truth, who are biblical leaders, who are godly men, who lead their households well, let those elders, the ones who rule well,

let them be counted worthy of double honor, especially, everybody say especially. Those who labor, everybody say labor. And it's labor. Especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. Especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. Another translation says, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. The labor of preaching is honorable and praiseworthy. Those who engage in it for our sake, we should be grateful for those people, those who do it well. We really should. Those who do it well, not just those who do it, but those who do it well, we should understand that that's an honorable and a praiseworthy thing. But look at Mark 16, 15. This is what Jesus says to his followers. He says to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Understand that preaching is not something reserved only for preachers. The labor of preaching, just as it is honorable and praiseworthy, the labor of preaching is not exclusive to professional preachers. Every one of us has been called by God to preach the gospel to every living creature. Go home and preach the gospel to your dog. You know that house plant that you just can't keep alive,

you forget to water it? Go preach the gospel to it this afternoon. It's a living creature. Go preach the gospel. And get confident preaching the gospel to your dog and your plant until you can preach the gospel to your neighbor when you guys meet taking the trash out next week. Preach the gospel to your coworker, to your family member. The labor of preaching is not exclusive to preachers. And I wanna end here. We're getting close to the end. In Galatians chapter one, this is Paul writing to the church in Galatia who was messing up big time. And he says to them, in Galatians one, starting in verse six, he says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. This is an interesting thing. He says you're turning away in verse six to a, if we can go back to Galatians one, six, he says I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, and then he says this, which is not another, there are some people

who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. So he describes a different gospel as the same gospel that's been perverted. He says it's not another gospel entirely. It's not that someone is preaching salvation through whatever, Jim Jones. They're still preaching salvation through Christ, but they're perverting the gospel of grace and they're trying to use the name of Christ to say that there have to be works added onto it, that it's not about with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It's not that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ. It's that, you know, Christ died for us or whatever, but you also need to do this and do this and check this box and go through this class and be confirmed in this way. In their day, it was to be circumcised. In our day, it's baptism. It's baptismal regeneration. It's these heresies that add to the gospel. It's not another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. In verse eight, he says, but even. If we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be anathema. That's the Greek word, accursed. It means damned eternally. Now, I have preached this before

in opposition of Mormonism and Islam. Both of those religions claim to be divine revelations given to a man by an angel. Paul actually subverts this in Galatians 1.8, where he says, even if it was an angel that came to Muhammad, even if it was an angel that came to Joseph Smith, that still let the angel be condemned. Like, I don't care what it is that preached another gospel to you. It's another gospel, and it is therefore unacceptable entirely. We understand that the gospel is a gospel of grace. And so I've talked about the angel part a lot, but there's something that stuck out to me recently, and I think this is so profound. Paul says, even if we preach any other gospel to you, Paul says, if I show up in five years and I'm preaching something different than this gospel of salvation by faith, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, let me be eternally condemned. Paul says, even if I, the apostle Paul, show up preaching a different gospel, don't listen to me, have nothing to do with me. This is, I think, so profound that Paul would say, it doesn't matter who it is. It could be an angel from heaven, or it could be the apostle Paul. If I preach a gospel that doesn't line up with the truth of God's word,

allow me to be eternally condemned. And I love that Paul says this because in his using the word we, he's asserting here, Paul's asserting here that he reserves no authority and he demands no loyalty to himself. He's declaring to the Galatian church that the apostle Paul is only to be trusted to the degree that he continues to faithfully deliver the unchanging gospel of God's grace. And so we wrestle as a church with how to, you know, how to honor leaders. People write books on how to honor leaders. And you hear words like submit, spiritual authority, covenant, spiritual father, loyalty. And Mr. Rich, Elder Rich is gonna be teaching a class on this very soon, and I'm really excited about that. But I want you to hear this, and I have talked about this a lot, not necessarily from the pulpit, but I've talked about this a lot over these last months as there have been a bunch of well-known leaders that are getting exposed pretty publicly and their ministries are falling apart and their lack of integrity has been their downfall. Here's the reality, that people have to ask themselves, is this person who's preaching to me, are they ruling well, are they leading well? And if they are, that person deserves my trust, but only to the degree, according to Galatians 1, 8, only to the degree that they continue

to faithfully deliver the unchanging gospel of God's grace. Now, I may not always agree with every choice they make, I may not always agree with every point of every sermon, I may not like something that they do, it might hurt my feelings or turn me off, I may be genuinely offended or upset or even horrified at things, but if they're preaching faithfully the unchanging gospel of God's grace, then I ought to continue to celebrate the fact that I have the chance to come and to receive the preaching of the word of God, which is the word of God itself. We must honor and esteem preaching appropriately. And we do this not by idolizing the preacher, but by recognizing the authority of the word of God when it is preached to us and then trembling in humble submission before it. We don't esteem preaching appropriately by idolizing or worshiping the person preaching. We do this by recognizing the authority of the word of God when it is preached to us and then trembling in humble submission before it. Today is the day to humbly repent for our casual disposition toward preaching. Sam Nava came to me, it's interesting, he didn't know what I was talking about, but he came to me today, but he came to me at men's prayer and he said, you know, I had this dream

and he said, I felt like the Lord spoke to me through the dream that we approach preaching too casually. We come into the presence of God too casually. He said, you know, we go and get pizza in our, you know, pants and we're like dressed down and but when we go to get steak, and we dress up when we go to a steakhouse, you know, we wear our nice clothes, we're clean, we're put together. And you know, we want to make sure that we look our best when we're getting a meal that we really value, you know, a meal that cost us something. And he said, we need to have that when we come into the church. And you should know, this is not my style. This isn't like you're gonna you're not going to catch me around town, dressing like this. But I, I dress like this every Sunday, I wear a collared shirt. And I, you know, I get myself together, I try to look like I'm not still a hardcore kid at heart. And, and I do this, because I want to be an example of how to esteem the Word of God, we came here to wrestle with God's Word, we came into God's presence. And Sam is right, we, we treat the Word of God, like it's fast food that gets thrown through the window of our car as we drive by. But it's not, it's, it's the, it's the steak dinner that cost us a month's salary, you know, it's, it's the, the thing of, it's the greatest treasure, it's the pearl of great price, it's the glorious, the glorious riches of eternal wisdom that are laid before us. And to treat God's Word as anything less is, is heresy of the highest kind. Today is the day to humbly repent for our casual disposition toward the preaching of God's Word. How many answered prayers have we ignored or disregarded? How many words of wisdom or encouragement have we missed? How many moments of profound revelation have passed

us by, because God was speaking, but we were thinking about lunch or scrolling on our phone, or asleep in a pew? How many times have we prayed all week long, God, give me wisdom, help me understand how to handle this situation, Lord, I'm drowning here, I'm struggling here, I feel like I'm surrounded by my enemy, God, give me hope, give me guidance, give me revelation, give me wisdom. And then it comes from the preaching of His Word and we miss it because we viewed the preaching of His Word as a casual or common thing. If origin is right, that when the scriptures are read and explained, God speaks to his people. And I'm convinced he is. Then let me as your pastor desperately beg you this morning, listen, when God speaks, bring a notebook and write it down and make sure six months from now you can remember that God answered your prayer, you heard his voice. When you sat in this room, listen, when God speaks, because man does not live by bread alone, but by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Father, we thank you for the gift of preaching. How we thank you that we get to receive from it. Lord, thank you that I get to receive from preaching every day of the week. Lord, thank you that there's faithful, godly leaders in the church that rightly divide the word of truth and who proclaim the way of salvation to us. Lord, thank you for faithful leaders, for good pastors, for people that with great fear and trembling, exposit your word and deliver it to the body of believers faithfully. God, I pray that you would give me grace to be one of those. God, I pray that you'd raise up more preachers in this house. God, I pray that those that preach from this platform, that the number of those who preach from this platform would grow. But God, I pray that every one of us would say yes to the call to preach, to

preach the gospel to every living creature, to preach to our neighbors, to our friends, to our family members, to our children. God, I just pray that you would give us grace to be bold with the truth of your word, to never hold back for the sake of self-preservation or personal comfort. God, would you make us voices that thunder with the truth that can bring salvation to a world that desperately needs to meet him. God, we love you and we honor you. We commit to you today, our mouths and our ears. And we say, Father, Let us rightly esteem the preaching of your word as we do it and as we hear it done in Jesus name. Amen. Amen family. God bless you. Thank you so much for being here. We will see you next week. Thanks y'all. We will see you next week. Thanks y'all. You