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The Fine Art of Insight · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: For several months now, the children of Israel, under Nehemiah's
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Speaker 1: superb leadership, have been rebuilding the protective wall around the
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Speaker 1: ancient city of Jerusalem. They've done that amid much criticism
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Speaker 1: and opposition. On top of that has been internal strife
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Speaker 1: and economic hardship. The leader, Nehemiah, has weathered the storms
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Speaker 1: and the response of the Israelites has been nothing short
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Speaker 1: of magnificent. The wall was completed That led to a
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Speaker 1: great revival that you may remember. There was much rejoicing
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Speaker 1: for their having been brought back to their homeland after
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Speaker 1: a long captivity. It was a great time of celebration.
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Speaker 1: In our last time together, we learned of this spiritual
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Speaker 1: revival as led by Ezra at the water gate. It
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Speaker 1: was just the beginning of the Israelites' desire to remodel
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Speaker 1: themselves before the Lord. In search of a solid foundation
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Speaker 1: in the law, they returned to the priest, Ezra, seeking insight,
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Speaker 1: wisdom that could be built into their daily lives. In
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Speaker 1: a grand way, those people committed themselves to clearing away
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Speaker 1: the rubble of wrong thinking and their old patterns of living,
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Speaker 1: and replacing those things with obedience to the Lord and
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Speaker 1: to His law. This very biblical method for spiritual renovation
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Speaker 1: is really an excellent model for our rebuilding our own
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Speaker 1: spiritual lives today. A wise man once said, knowledge comes,
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Speaker 1: but wisdom lingers. Knowledge is simply a collection of the facts,
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Speaker 1: what is and what was. Insight, however, connotes a deeper
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Speaker 1: understanding of what those facts imply, the consequences, for example,
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Speaker 1: or implications, perhaps significance of the facts. Knowledge doesn't necessarily
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Speaker 1: move easily into practice, but insight always leads directly to
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Speaker 1: some kind of response or action. In other words, Insight
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Speaker 1: is a singular blend of knowledge and wisdom married to
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Speaker 1: decisive results. Let me say that again. Insight is a
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Speaker 1: singular blend of knowledge and wisdom married to decisive results.
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Speaker 1: As I read our passage for today from Nehemiah 8,
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Speaker 1: verses 13-18, I want you to listen closely to the
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Speaker 1: Israelites' incredible insight as they blended it with knowledge and wisdom,
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Speaker 1: with some very decisive results. So here we go with
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Speaker 1: Nehemiah chapter 8, beginning at verse 13. Then on the
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Speaker 1: second day, the heads of fathers' households of all the people,
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Speaker 1: the priests and the Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe,
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Speaker 1: that they might gain insight into the words of the law.
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Speaker 1: They found written in the law how the Lord had
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Speaker 1: commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live
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Speaker 1: in booths during the feast of the seventh month. So
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Speaker 1: they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities
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Speaker 1: and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the hills and
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Speaker 1: bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches,
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Speaker 1: branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it
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Speaker 1: is written. So the people went out and brought them
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Speaker 1: and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and
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Speaker 1: in their courts, and in the courts of the house
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Speaker 1: of God, and in the square at the water gate,
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Speaker 1: and in the square at the gate of Ephraim. The
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Speaker 1: entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity
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Speaker 1: made booths, and lived in them. The sons of Israel
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Speaker 1: had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua,
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Speaker 1: the son of Nun, to that day, and there was
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Speaker 1: great rejoicing. He read from the book of the law
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Speaker 1: of God daily, from the first day to the last day,
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Speaker 1: and they celebrated the feast seven days. And on the
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Speaker 1: eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
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Speaker 2: It probably would be good for us to brush off
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Speaker 2: the dust of a few of the previous chapters of
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Speaker 2: Nehemiah and review before we settle in on the last
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Speaker 2: few verses in chapter 8. Let's approach it from a
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Speaker 2: different point of view than we have before. I think
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Speaker 2: Nehemiah really falls into the two sections mainly The first
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Speaker 2: six chapters and the last seven chapters. In the first
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Speaker 2: six chapters, we have the reconstruction of the wall. The
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Speaker 2: last seven, we have the re-instruction of the people who
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Speaker 2: built that wall. In the first six chapters, we have
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Speaker 2: a dominant character in Nehemiah, who was the builder and
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Speaker 2: the superintendent over the job, and ultimately the governor of
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Speaker 2: the city of Jerusalem. But in the last seven chapters,
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Speaker 2: the leadership shifts to Ezra, who was a priest and
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Speaker 2: a scribe. He was, you may remember, the one who
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Speaker 2: led the beginnings of the revival that we read of
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Speaker 2: in the first part of chapter 8. But all the
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Speaker 2: way through the book, there is threaded one theme, and
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Speaker 2: that is leadership. How God uses one person to sway
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Speaker 2: and move and motivate and encourage others, many others, into
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Speaker 2: new fields, new vistas, new actions to change. The first
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Speaker 2: six chapters he uses Nehemiah, and the last seven he
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Speaker 2: uses Ezra. Now, in the first part of chapter 8,
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Speaker 2: you may remember that the revival of the word of
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Speaker 2: God had a telling effect upon the people. They who
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Speaker 2: heard the word read before them by Ezra, according to
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Speaker 2: verses 1 and 2 and 3 of chapter 8, were
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Speaker 2: thrilled with what they heard. In fact, verse 8 says
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Speaker 2: that they... who read from the book translated it so
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Speaker 2: that they gave the sense of it. And the result
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Speaker 2: was understanding. In other words, the people who had built
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Speaker 2: the wall, now secure behind the wall, began to have
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Speaker 2: input from God's word. And it motivated them. I suppose
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Speaker 2: it could be compared to the people as the workmen
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Speaker 2: in the first six chapters and God as the workmen
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Speaker 2: in the last seven. In the first six chapters, they
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Speaker 2: are engaged in the project of building a wall, a
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Speaker 2: physical project. But in the last seven, God is engaged
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Speaker 2: in a spiritual project building into their lives. It's like salvation.
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Speaker 2: For a period of time, God brings us to a
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Speaker 2: knowledge of His Son, and then we ultimately receive Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 2: We have, at that point, to use this analogy, built
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Speaker 2: the wall. We have been placed securely behind it. And
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Speaker 2: then God begins that beautiful work daily of instruction, building
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Speaker 2: into us truths for the Christian life, which we otherwise
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Speaker 2: could not and would not know. And so as a
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Speaker 2: result of understanding what they read from the book, the
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Speaker 2: Bible tells us that they had two reactions. According to
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Speaker 2: 9 and 10, they wept because they were grieved over
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Speaker 2: the sin of the past. They looked back and they
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Speaker 2: remembered those failures of the past. And I'm sure a
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Speaker 2: great sense of inferiority came upon them as they knew
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Speaker 2: they had not tapped the best riches of God. But
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Speaker 2: the men who led them said, don't weep. It's like
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Speaker 2: crying on the 4th of July. It's like weeping through
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Speaker 2: Christmas Day. Those are celebration days. Those are days when
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Speaker 2: you look back and you think of the commemoration of
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Speaker 2: what that day means. You rejoice, you celebrate. And so
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Speaker 2: in the 11th and 12th verses, they celebrated that great festival. Now,
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Speaker 2: the festival technically was a festival known as Tabernacles, more
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Speaker 2: specifically the festival of booths, B-O-O-T-H-S, booths. Here's what it meant.
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Speaker 2: It meant that they, all the way through their lives,
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Speaker 2: once a year, were to remember a period of time
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Speaker 2: in the history of the Jews when they lived in
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Speaker 2: temporary quarters, when they were redeemed from Egypt under Moses
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Speaker 2: until they went into Canaan under Joshua. For those 40 years,
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Speaker 2: they didn't really have their own homes out of brick
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Speaker 2: and mortar. They lived in temporary quarters. So once a year,
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Speaker 2: the people of God were to build themselves little homemade shacks,
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Speaker 2: to use a very honest term about it. They were
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Speaker 2: to gather wood and sticks and leaves and branches from around,
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Speaker 2: and then they were to build little booths, and they
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Speaker 2: were to live in these booths. Family members were. And
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Speaker 2: living in these booths for seven days out of the year,
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Speaker 2: that was their commemoration of that period of time in
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Speaker 2: the historical Jewish tradition, when their forefathers had lived like
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Speaker 2: that for 40 years. Now, when they became aware of that,
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Speaker 2: understanding set in. I want to make a point of
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Speaker 2: that because I want to build on it. You'll notice
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Speaker 2: the last part of verse 12 in chapter 8, they
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Speaker 2: understood the words which had been made known to them.
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Speaker 2: What had happened? Well, for a full day, they had
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Speaker 2: gathered facts from the scriptures. They had gained what I
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Speaker 2: would like to call a surface knowledge. That's understanding. We
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Speaker 2: can be exposed to biblical truth so long that we
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Speaker 2: build what I would call a reservoir of truth. But
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Speaker 2: this is mere knowledge. It isn't wisdom. As we will see,
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Speaker 2: it isn't insight. It's knowledge. But that isn't all that
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Speaker 2: God has for His children. God longs for us To
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Speaker 2: have something more than knowledge. It is insight. Let me
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Speaker 2: show you. Verse 13. Then on the second day. The
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Speaker 2: second day of what? Of the festival. The first day
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Speaker 2: they had been in mass. In this assembly. Listening to
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Speaker 2: Ezra preach God's word. Then on the second day. a
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Speaker 2: select few came back to Ezra, according to verse 13.
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Speaker 2: Who were they? Well, they were the heads of the
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Speaker 2: father's households. They were the priests. They were the Levites
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Speaker 2: who gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain
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Speaker 2: insight into the words of the law. I must have
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Speaker 2: read that verse over two, maybe three dozen times aloud
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Speaker 2: while I was away, thinking about what God was saying
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Speaker 2: in these few verses that remain in chapter 8. And
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Speaker 2: I think I've landed on something that the hurried reader,
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Speaker 2: even myself, would normally overlook. I want to camp on
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Speaker 2: this idea of gaining insight. For a few moments. First
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Speaker 2: I want to analyze the word. And then I want
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Speaker 2: to talk about how it can be pursued. And what
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Speaker 2: are the results of that pursuit. In our daily living.
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Speaker 2: First of all let's think about the word itself. Insight.
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Speaker 2: It is the translation of a Hebrew term. That means
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Speaker 2: to be prudent. Now that doesn't help us much does it?
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Speaker 2: I doubt that anybody has used the word prudent for
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Speaker 2: a month in all this congregation. We don't use the
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Speaker 2: word prudent. It's kind of archaic. We've passed it by.
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Speaker 2: But if you were to check Webster to find the
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Speaker 2: meaning of prudent, you would discover that it means to
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Speaker 2: have foresight, wisdom. It means to be shrewd in the
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Speaker 2: practical management of of daily life or daily affairs. Now
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Speaker 2: that might have come across too fast. To be prudent
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Speaker 2: means to have foresight. That is, not to be so
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Speaker 2: anchored to today that you cannot project into tomorrow. Not
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Speaker 2: only with regard to schedule, but with regard to situations.
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Speaker 2: A prudent person isn't anchored to the now. He can
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Speaker 2: see the results of his now ahead of time. He
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Speaker 2: is wise. She is wise in life. This person is
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Speaker 2: able to deal with practical management of living in a meaningful,
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Speaker 2: correct fashion. That's insight. You can have a knowledge of
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Speaker 2: Bible facts. Up to here you can have it. You
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Speaker 2: can be 40 years in a Bible teaching church and
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Speaker 2: have no insight. You can have truth spelled out in
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Speaker 2: a teaching fashion, systematically, book by book, verse by verse,
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Speaker 2: and not gain insight. Insight comes, as we will talk
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Speaker 2: about today, in a different way. Turn from Nehemiah 8
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Speaker 2: to Psalm 119. I want to show you something about
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Speaker 2: the benefit of God's word that may have passed out
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Speaker 2: of your memory in these last few weeks. Psalm 119
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Speaker 2: is the longest of all the psalms, and I think
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Speaker 2: in many ways it is the richest. In the 97th
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Speaker 2: through 100th verses of this great psalm, we have laid
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Speaker 2: out for us three benefits of the word of God
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Speaker 2: in the life of the child of God. 97 of
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Speaker 2: 119 is a praise verse. Oh, says the writer, how
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Speaker 2: I love thy law. It's my meditation all the day.
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Speaker 2: David was saying this, when I come to God's word
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Speaker 2: and I pour over its pages early in the morning,
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Speaker 2: it stays with me through the day. Whether I'm at
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Speaker 2: work judging in a particular situation among the people of Israel,
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Speaker 2: whether I am out taking a walk, whether I am
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Speaker 2: correcting my child, whether I am engaged in some Difficult decision.
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Speaker 2: God's word is a meditation through my day. Well, what
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Speaker 2: are the benefits of having the word as one's daily meditation?
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Speaker 2: There are three. First, thy commandments make me wiser than
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Speaker 2: my enemies. When you really get a hold of the
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Speaker 2: scriptures in an insightful way, you can handle conflicts with enemies.
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Speaker 2: For they are ever mine. When I come across people
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Speaker 2: that rub me, that turn against me, I can handle
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Speaker 2: that because of the word and its truths in my life.
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Speaker 2: The second benefit, verse 99, I have more insight than
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Speaker 2: all my teachers. Wow, is the best response to that,
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Speaker 2: I would think. Do you know that you can go
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Speaker 2: back to school, as some of you have done, even
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Speaker 2: with your family raised, and you can get a higher
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Speaker 2: degree and yet a higher degree and yet gain only
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Speaker 2: surface knowledge. But if you mix with that good and
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Speaker 2: commendable discipline of higher learning, the teachings of the book,
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Speaker 2: you will know more insight toward living than your teacher,
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Speaker 2: who has a breadth of physical academic knowledge. By the way,
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Speaker 2: this is one of the reasons I encourage Christians to
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Speaker 2: enter the teaching field. In my opinion, the Christian teacher
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Speaker 2: that has a real grasp of his subject, whatever it
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Speaker 2: may be, along with a meaningful grasp of the Bible,
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Speaker 2: provides incredible insight to those under his tutelage or under
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Speaker 2: her teaching. By the insight of God's word gives you
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Speaker 2: something that even the teacher doesn't. have. Look at verse 100.
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Speaker 2: I understand more than the agent. You don't have to
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Speaker 2: be old to have understanding if you know the word
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Speaker 2: of God. Job says, great men are not always wise,
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Speaker 2: neither do the aged always understand. Just because a person
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Speaker 2: is old doesn't mean he has understanding. But David says here,
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Speaker 2: when you have the word, you've got it. That is understanding.
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Speaker 2: Now what interests me is verse 99. And I've taken
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Speaker 2: time on it because I wanted to develop a case.
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Speaker 2: I have more insight than all my teachers. That's the
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Speaker 2: same word translated insight in chapter 8, verse 13 of Nehemiah.
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Speaker 2: Let's go back. Nehemiah 8.13 says, These men gathered together
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Speaker 2: that they might gain more than knowledge. They got that
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Speaker 2: on the first day. They wanted in-depth understanding. They wanted insight.
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Speaker 2: Now let's talk about it. Since it seems clear from
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Speaker 2: Scripture that insight is something God loves to give His children,
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Speaker 2: and it's certainly proven in this 13th verse as well
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Speaker 2: as Psalm 119 that insight is beneficial, let's talk about
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Speaker 2: how it is pursued. I find in verses 13 through
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Speaker 2: 15 five specific Things that are part of the pursuit.
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Speaker 2: First of all, it takes time to gain insight. No
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Speaker 2: one suddenly becomes wise. That takes time. David has already
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Speaker 2: told us in the 119th Psalm that you don't have
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Speaker 2: to be old to have understanding. But you and I
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Speaker 2: know that there is no such thing as instant insight.
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Speaker 2: No novice in the Christian life has a depth of insight.
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Speaker 2: You will notice that they came on the second day
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Speaker 2: back to this individual. And that tells me it takes time.
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Speaker 2: The first encounter won't do it. I see something else here.
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Speaker 2: It takes the right people. Look at the 13th verse.
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Speaker 2: These men came to one individual, Ezra, that they might
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Speaker 2: gain insight. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood, and
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Speaker 2: I do not want to mislead anyone who might hear
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Speaker 2: what I have to say about the right people. Far
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Speaker 2: be it from me to say that one person is
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Speaker 2: the source of all insight. There are many people with
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Speaker 2: whom we should spend our time. And in doing so,
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Speaker 2: we are able to glean insights for living. Solomon says
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Speaker 2: if you run with an angry person, you will, in
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Speaker 2: a period of time, become angry like that person. He
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Speaker 2: warns the young man if he runs with the wrong
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Speaker 2: crowd that spends its time in thievery or lust or whatever,
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Speaker 2: that young man will be like the crowd that he
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Speaker 2: runs with. The same applies to insight. Coming to the
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Speaker 2: right kind of person is a great assist in gaining insight.
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Speaker 2: What kind of man was Ezra? Hold your place here
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Speaker 2: and look at the previous book, the book of Ezra.
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Speaker 2: Chapter 7, verse 10. I just want to point to
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Speaker 2: one verse regarding the life of Ezra. He was a
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Speaker 2: rare and essential man in his day. Ezra 7.10. Here
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Speaker 2: is the man that they came to for insight. Ezra
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Speaker 2: had goals in his life. He had set his heart
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Speaker 2: to study the law of the Lord. Point one I
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Speaker 2: want to make under this is that a person who
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Speaker 2: gives insight is a person who is a student of
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Speaker 2: the law of the Lord, the word of God. You
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Speaker 2: will not gain spiritual insight from a person who doesn't
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Speaker 2: know his Bible. You will from those that do. And
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Speaker 2: there are many scattered through this congregation who are people
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Speaker 2: of the book, qualified, capable counselors, givers of insight. Ezra
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Speaker 2: had that major goal to study the law of the Lord.
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Speaker 2: Robert Dick Wilson was like that. If you have studied
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Speaker 2: anything of the history of Dr. Wilson, you know that
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Speaker 2: the greater part of his life was like an iceberg.
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Speaker 2: Beneath the surface of conscious waters lay years spent in study.
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Speaker 2: study of various original texts, study of related languages that
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Speaker 2: bore upon the original texts of Scripture. Time spent alone
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Speaker 2: developing himself so that by the time he stood, he was,
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Speaker 2: in many people's opinion, an older man. But those that
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Speaker 2: sat at his feet say there was nothing like the
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Speaker 2: teaching of Robert Dick Wilson. He had made a life
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Speaker 2: study of the Word of God. Ezra did something else.
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Speaker 2: He had set his heart to practice it. What a balance.
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Speaker 2: Not just a scriptural egghead. Not just a person that
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Speaker 2: could tell you events and dates and genealogies and inane information.
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Speaker 2: As far as that's concerned, inane. He made a study
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Speaker 2: for the purpose of practicing it. And then he didn't
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Speaker 2: want to keep it. He set his heart to share it,
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Speaker 2: to teach it. Teachers that are here today, you that
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Speaker 2: are gifted in the scriptures, you want a verse to
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Speaker 2: motivate you for your ministry, verse 10 is a good
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Speaker 2: one to use. Set your heart to be a student
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Speaker 2: of the word, to practice what you learn, and to
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Speaker 2: share what you have learned and begun to practice. Now
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Speaker 2: that's the man they came to when they came to Ezra,
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Speaker 2: back to chapter 8 of Nehemiah. And I want to
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Speaker 2: say something here that may sound strange. Some people that
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Speaker 2: are people of insight will not appeal to you, but
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Speaker 2: they will appeal to others. Isn't that interesting? Merrill Tenney
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Speaker 2: at Wheaton College has said, you can never separate truth
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Speaker 2: from the one that teaches it to you. And for
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Speaker 2: some people, they have a wealth of truth But somehow
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Speaker 2: the vibes aren't right, I guess we would say. So
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Speaker 2: a certain kind of person attracts certain kinds of people.
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Speaker 2: Another kind of person attracts other kinds of people. But
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Speaker 2: God's beautiful work in his body is such that he
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Speaker 2: has all different types so that no one is left out.
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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful arrangement. They came to Ezra, apparently, Because
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Speaker 2: something in him, in his person, attracted them. They wished
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Speaker 2: to go with the right person. You spend time with
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Speaker 2: the right kind of person. As we have mentioned, insight
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Speaker 2: will begin. Now there's another. There's a third area. And
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Speaker 2: that is the right attitude. Not only did it take time,
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Speaker 2: not only did it take the right person, it took
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Speaker 2: the right attitude. What was their attitude? Well, before I
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Speaker 2: answer that question, I want you to notice something that
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Speaker 2: to me is very startling. Who came to hear Ezra?
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Speaker 2: Ezra was a preacher. To put it in present day terms,
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Speaker 2: he was a preacher. Who came to hear him? Heads
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Speaker 2: of father's households. I'm sure some of them were older
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Speaker 2: than he. Some were grandfather's. And other preachers, the most
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Speaker 2: unteachable group of people in the world, are those of
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Speaker 2: us that are preachers. But these preachers came to Ezra,
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Speaker 2: a peer of theirs, and said, Teach us. We really
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Speaker 2: want to learn. You know, some of the wealth of
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Speaker 2: information that God has for us will come through our peers.
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Speaker 2: But our attitude is at the test at that point.
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Speaker 2: As I talk about attitude, I'm reminded of an experience
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Speaker 2: I had two weeks ago in the family conference. One
29:40
Speaker 2: space was left open in the conference. It was full
29:43
Speaker 2: except for one space. And a family chose to come
29:50
Speaker 2: at the last minute, and they filled up the camp.
29:53
Speaker 2: They were the last ones. They were at rock bottom.
29:57
Speaker 2: I'm sure that a divorce was... being planned, or at
30:01
Speaker 2: least in their mind, had certainly been considered. They had
30:04
Speaker 2: several small children, and though they on the surface were
30:08
Speaker 2: a Christian family and looked the part and sounded the
30:11
Speaker 2: part and even came to a Bible conference, their lives were, frankly,
30:18
Speaker 2: very miserable. And they sat under the sound of God's word.
30:24
Speaker 2: Olin Hendricks spoke in the evening on the making of
30:27
Speaker 2: the man of God, And it dovetailed beautifully with a
30:33
Speaker 2: few of my comments from the morning on insights into
30:37
Speaker 2: family living. As we talked about various things that pertain
30:41
Speaker 2: to the husband-wife, parent-child, child-parent relationships. And as time passed,
30:49
Speaker 2: there began to be a change in these lives. This
30:53
Speaker 2: father hung on every word. This mother had her Bible
30:59
Speaker 2: open and stayed right with us from passage to passage.
31:05
Speaker 2: And through the afternoon's discussion, talking, until the last day,
31:12
Speaker 2: Saturday morning, they came up to my wife and then
31:17
Speaker 2: to me. They said, we want you to know that
31:20
Speaker 2: this week has been a 180 degree experience for us.
31:26
Speaker 2: We came together. Ready to separate. We're going back stronger
31:31
Speaker 2: than we have ever been in our marriage. Now that's
31:35
Speaker 2: the sort of thing that makes you want to stick
31:37
Speaker 2: your head up and say, Hallelujah! When you hear something
31:41
Speaker 2: like that. Except for the fact there is another story.
31:47
Speaker 2: Same conference. Same speakers. Same truths. Same building. Same schedules.
31:57
Speaker 2: But another father was turned off. He wasn't open. He
32:04
Speaker 2: attended the first several sessions and by and by the
32:08
Speaker 2: guilt became so great and the conviction so deep. He
32:13
Speaker 2: went home and he stayed awake all one night, decided
32:18
Speaker 2: not to go back. And that family left hurting, perhaps
32:25
Speaker 2: more than before. What was the difference? Attitude. Some of
32:33
Speaker 2: you can come to meetings, church services, and it does nothing.
32:41
Speaker 2: In fact, it turns you off more. Others of you
32:45
Speaker 2: cannot get enough. Just like sponges, just get bigger and bigger.
32:52
Speaker 2: I mean, spiritually, just bigger and bigger. You just get
32:56
Speaker 2: more of the water of the life and it just
32:58
Speaker 2: gets larger and you just think, man, there's no end
33:00
Speaker 2: to this. It's the most exciting thing I've ever seen.
33:06
Speaker 2: What's the difference? It's interesting, isn't it, that the same
33:11
Speaker 2: one that turns some off would turn others on. It's
33:16
Speaker 2: the attitude. That's the difference. The soil is prepared and
33:21
Speaker 2: the heart is open and it says, welcome. Welcome. God,
33:25
Speaker 2: speak to me. And when he speaks, what a remarkable change.
33:29
Speaker 2: A person with a bad attitude, a closed heart will
33:36
Speaker 2: never gain insight until the attitude is changed. The longer
33:42
Speaker 2: I live, the more I value the importance of the attitude.
33:49
Speaker 2: We will discipline in our home as readily for a
33:52
Speaker 2: bad attitude As we will for a bad action. Because
33:58
Speaker 2: attitude determines actions. Now they had the right attitude. They
34:07
Speaker 2: had the right source. Verse 14. Lest you be misled
34:11
Speaker 2: into thinking that Ezra was the source. Let me show
34:14
Speaker 2: you something. How does verse 14 begin? And they found
34:19
Speaker 2: written in the law. Was Ezra the source of the truth?
34:24
Speaker 2: Not at all. He was a messenger boy. What was
34:29
Speaker 2: the source? God's book. The last part of verse 13
34:34
Speaker 2: says they gained insight into the words of the law.
34:38
Speaker 2: They found written in the law. Verse 15 concludes, as
34:42
Speaker 2: it is written. Can't you picture that? Granddads, dads, preachers.
34:49
Speaker 2: I just can't get over that. Preachers in groups. Learning.
34:53
Speaker 3: Learning.
34:53
Speaker 2: Being taught, doing Bible study, as it were, discussing. And
34:59
Speaker 2: in the catharsis of that experience, insight began to bud,
35:05
Speaker 2: began to come in the right context, the right source.
35:12
Speaker 2: They didn't quibble over the authorship of Moses or the
35:16
Speaker 2: technique of interpretation or even the preservation of scripture. They
35:21
Speaker 2: came and they went to God's word And they said, Lord, teach.
35:27
Speaker 2: And he did. Give us insight. And he did. I
35:31
Speaker 2: was given a book years ago. And in the fly
35:34
Speaker 2: leaf of the book, the one who gave it to
35:35
Speaker 2: me wrote these words. Whom have we, Lord, but thee?
35:40
Speaker 2: So thirst to satisfy. Exhaustless spring. The water is free.
35:48
Speaker 2: All other streams are dry. You know the problem with
35:53
Speaker 2: modern man? His streams haven't dried up. He hasn't come
36:00
Speaker 2: to an end of his own streams. His own ability,
36:06
Speaker 2: his own knowledge. They came saying we want what God
36:13
Speaker 2: has said period. You know You cannot really glean insight
36:29
Speaker 2: from Scripture unless you are spending time in the Scriptures.
36:45
Speaker 2: Are you? There are certain things that go together in life.
36:55
Speaker 2: Patience and trials, they go together. Let me give you
37:02
Speaker 2: a little bit of head start on a prayer. Don't pray, Lord,
37:11
Speaker 2: teach me patience. Unless you are ready for the roof
37:18
Speaker 2: to cave in. The American's prayer is, Lord, teach me patience.
37:22
Speaker 2: And I want it right now. But God says, you
37:26
Speaker 2: ask for patience. Through tribulation, patience will be developed. It's
37:35
Speaker 2: like taking a correspondence course in water skiing in your
37:39
Speaker 2: living room. You ever thought about doing that? You get
37:42
Speaker 2: a book on it. You stand on your skis. You
37:46
Speaker 2: got the book in your hand. Put left foot a
37:49
Speaker 2: little bit forward. Hold reins. You know, lean back. Act
37:55
Speaker 2: like you're skiing. What do you have to have to ski?
38:01
Speaker 2: You've got to have water. You've got to have a boat.
38:06
Speaker 2: Without it, you'll never learn to water ski. God doesn't
38:11
Speaker 2: drop insight out of a cloud into your head. It
38:19
Speaker 2: comes through this book. Every insightful Christian that I've ever
38:26
Speaker 2: had the pleasure of spending time with has poured over
38:31
Speaker 2: this book. Many of them not even engaged in vocational
38:36
Speaker 2: Christian service, but on their own have made it a
38:41
Speaker 2: real study. That brings us to the fifth, and that's
38:44
Speaker 2: the right response. After the time and the right people,
38:49
Speaker 2: the situation being all that it should be, the right
38:52
Speaker 2: source the right attitude, then there is the right response
38:57
Speaker 2: that follows. Thomas Jefferson has said, when the heart is right,
39:01
Speaker 2: the feet are swift. That's true. When your heart says, Lord,
39:07
Speaker 2: teach me, and he shows you, you say, thanks, Lord,
39:11
Speaker 2: now help me put it into practice. When the heart says,
39:15
Speaker 2: I'm open, then the feet say, let's go. Now, what
39:19
Speaker 2: do these people do? Well, it says in verse 15,
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Speaker 2: after they They heard that they should live in booths.
39:26
Speaker 2: They proclaimed and circulated a proclamation. in all their cities
39:32
Speaker 2: now picture that they went around in all of those
39:35
Speaker 2: areas saying go out to the hills bring olive branches
39:41
Speaker 2: wild olive branches myrtle branches palm branches and build yourself
39:48
Speaker 2: a shack How about that? After they heard what God
39:57
Speaker 2: had said, they did what God had said, which is
40:05
Speaker 2: a perfect place to turn from pursuit to product. The
40:10
Speaker 2: first product of insight is personal effort in spite of
40:16
Speaker 2: the difficulty. I especially want the dads to listen right now. Okay, fathers?
40:23
Speaker 2: We have to be among the laziest members of our families.
40:26
Speaker 2: It's the dads that have the trouble turning off the
40:29
Speaker 2: TV more than the moms. It's the dad that has
40:34
Speaker 2: trouble consistently maintaining the walk with the Lord more than mom.
40:39
Speaker 2: We pick on the moms too much. Moms are trying
40:43
Speaker 2: to follow the leadership of the dads. And look what
40:46
Speaker 2: they have to follow. Dads, we're lazy. And when God's
40:54
Speaker 2: word says something, he doesn't ask for a discussion. He
41:00
Speaker 2: doesn't say, now, class and session, are there any questions?
41:06
Speaker 2: He says, it is written. Let it be done. These
41:14
Speaker 2: people actually proclaimed that they were to live in booths.
41:20
Speaker 2: Now look at verse 16. This has to have a
41:22
Speaker 2: little bit of humor, if you would allow me. So
41:25
Speaker 2: the people went out. He's an intelligent, grown man. Picture this.
41:31
Speaker 2: They went out and brought them and made booths for themselves,
41:38
Speaker 2: each on his roof. Now, can you picture that? Some
41:42
Speaker 2: guy had his training in electrical engineering, going out, bringing
41:46
Speaker 2: in sticks, branches, building up thing on his roof and
41:54
Speaker 2: in the courts and in the courts of the house
41:56
Speaker 2: of God and in the gate of Ephraim and in
41:59
Speaker 2: the water gate picture Sanballat Tobiah outside the wall everybody's
42:06
Speaker 2: leaving the enemy says where are you going gonna go
42:12
Speaker 2: get some sticks gonna go get some what we're gonna
42:18
Speaker 2: get some sticks for what For shacks. You're going to
42:26
Speaker 2: go get some sticks for some shacks. Right. Come on, kids.
42:30
Speaker 2: There's some myrtle leaves over here. I want you to
42:32
Speaker 2: carry a handful back. By and by, they get all
42:36
Speaker 2: of this bundle up and they walk back into the city.
42:40
Speaker 2: They dump it down. An old sand ballot is looking
42:42
Speaker 2: over the wall, taking it all in. Can you picture that?
42:46
Speaker 2: Can you picture the ridicule that must have gone on?
42:49
Speaker 2: Some guy's up on his roof putting together this little
42:52
Speaker 2: lean to. We don't ever picture things like that. We
42:56
Speaker 2: think everything's got a halo over it. Perfect little boots,
42:58
Speaker 2: you know, like they build in seminaries and Bible colleges. Perfect.
43:04
Speaker 2: These things look like dumps. They were all over the
43:07
Speaker 2: city of Jerusalem. And San Ballas says, man, not only
43:11
Speaker 2: can they not build a wall, they cannot build houses.
43:14
Speaker 2: Look at those houses. And all of this was going
43:17
Speaker 2: on by intelligent people. They went to the work involved
43:24
Speaker 2: in getting it all together. I am impressed all the time.
43:36
Speaker 2: Those that really put together scriptural truth are those that
43:41
Speaker 2: go to the effort. They pay the price. You know
43:47
Speaker 2: why you don't have more scriptural truth in your life?
43:50
Speaker 2: Because you don't go to the effort. That's why. Forget
43:55
Speaker 2: the rationalization, the excuses. You simply don't want to do it.
44:01
Speaker 2: God says, you have offended somebody else and you know
44:04
Speaker 2: that you have offended someone else. There's one thing. You
44:10
Speaker 2: go and apologize, seek forgiveness and make it right. Reconcile
44:16
Speaker 2: that relationship. Don't come to me with all your prayers.
44:22
Speaker 2: Don't think that six months in the church, never missing
44:25
Speaker 2: a service, will make up for that. You've got to go.
44:29
Speaker 2: What do we say? A person with insight says, where
44:34
Speaker 2: is he? I'll go. Forgetting the pride and the embarrassment,
44:40
Speaker 2: I'll make it right. God says you have a child
44:43
Speaker 2: and the child is not obedient and that little child
44:47
Speaker 2: is willfully standing against what you know to be the truth.
44:51
Speaker 2: Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child
44:53
Speaker 2: and the rod of correction will drive it from him
44:56
Speaker 2: and the Christian parent does everything but discipline. God says
45:02
Speaker 2: to us, if you want to get to know me,
45:04
Speaker 2: we've got to have some time together. Don't give me
45:07
Speaker 2: the business about being too busy. Let's get alone together.
45:10
Speaker 2: Let you and I spend some time The person with
45:14
Speaker 2: insight says, what time? Lawrence Sandy said the first time
45:20
Speaker 2: he really got a hold of Dawson Trotman and begged
45:23
Speaker 2: for some time with that man of God, with all
45:25
Speaker 2: of his insight, Trotman says, okay, I'll meet you in
45:28
Speaker 2: the morning at the lake. Fine, what time? Five o'clock.
45:34
Speaker 2: Five o'clock. Okay, I'll be there. You know, Sandy would say,
45:39
Speaker 2: you'd think God was awake at five o'clock in the morning.
45:42
Speaker 2: So he got up, rustled around, got dressed, went all
45:45
Speaker 2: the way down to the lake, and there was Trotman,
45:47
Speaker 2: had a fire going. Now, unless you've built a fire lately,
45:51
Speaker 2: you can't appreciate what time Trotman got there by the
45:54
Speaker 2: lake to build the fire. Willing to pay the price.
45:58
Speaker 2: When the heart is right, the feet are swift.
46:02
Speaker 3: Effort.
46:04
Speaker 2: When God gives you insight, not knowledge, when he gives
46:08
Speaker 2: you insight, you say, Lord, take over! Nothing in my
46:15
Speaker 2: life is bound up. It's closed off. Here are the keys.
46:21
Speaker 2: You can have access to the closet, the kitchen, the
46:24
Speaker 2: living room, the study. Take it. These men put together
46:33
Speaker 2: those little booths because God said to do it. Second,
46:38
Speaker 2: willingness to change in spite of traditions. Ask some people,
46:47
Speaker 2: how long have you lived here? 43 years. Really? How's
46:51
Speaker 2: your walk with the Lord? Struggling. What if God said
46:55
Speaker 2: he wanted you to live somewhere else? Oh, no. Why not?
46:59
Speaker 2: Because I've been here 43 years. What's 43 years got
47:04
Speaker 2: to do with doing the will of God? Well, all
47:07
Speaker 2: my roots are here. But the person with insight says,
47:11
Speaker 2: I'm living with shallow tent pegs. God says, move on.
47:16
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go. Look at what it says in 17.
47:20
Speaker 2: The entire assembly, I love that. No holdouts. No group
47:26
Speaker 2: that said, no, we don't want to do that. That
47:28
Speaker 2: looks funny, living in those little booths. The entire assembly
47:32
Speaker 2: who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived
47:34
Speaker 2: in them. Now look, the sons of Israel had not
47:38
Speaker 2: done so from the days of Joshua, the son of Nun.
47:45
Speaker 2: Sanballat could say, what are you doing? We're living in booths.
47:48
Speaker 2: Ever seen it done before? Never in our lives. Doesn't
47:51
Speaker 2: that bother you? Uh-uh. Why not? Because God said it.
47:59
Speaker 2: Why must we have the approval of tradition? We are
48:04
Speaker 2: creatures of habit. And I might add, bad habits. And
48:09
Speaker 2: these bad habits develop our whole philosophy of life. And
48:12
Speaker 2: when God digs away in that habit... We think, he
48:15
Speaker 2: can't really be talking to me. One of the delightful
48:20
Speaker 2: goals of my last couple of weeks was the reading
48:23
Speaker 2: of James Dobson's book, Hide or Seek, a book on
48:27
Speaker 2: how to develop self-esteem, not only in your own self,
48:31
Speaker 2: but in your child. Excellent book. He says this, talk
48:37
Speaker 2: about bringing about a change. If I were to draw
48:41
Speaker 2: a caricature that would symbolize the millions of adults with
48:45
Speaker 2: low self-esteem, I would depict a bowed, weary traveler. Over
48:54
Speaker 2: his shoulder, I would place the end of a mile-long
48:57
Speaker 2: chain to which is attached tons of scrap iron, old tires,
49:06
Speaker 2: and garbage of all types. Each piece of junk is
49:13
Speaker 2: inscribed with the details of some humiliation, failure, embarrassment, or
49:22
Speaker 2: rejection from the past. He could let go. That's change.
49:29
Speaker 2: He could let go of the chain and free himself
49:32
Speaker 2: from the heavy load which immobilizes and exhausts him. But
49:38
Speaker 2: somehow he is convinced that it must be dragged throughout
49:42
Speaker 2: his life. Some of you are doing that. That long
49:47
Speaker 2: chain has attached to it all of those humiliating experiences,
49:53
Speaker 2: or in some cases, sin, failures. And you're dragging that on.
49:58
Speaker 2: So he plods onward, says Dobson, digging a furrow in
50:03
Speaker 2: the good earth as he goes. You can free yourself
50:08
Speaker 2: from the weight of the chain if you will but
50:11
Speaker 2: turn it loose. Those men said, God says build a booth,
50:20
Speaker 2: we'll build a booth. You know the third product? I
50:27
Speaker 2: love this. Great rejoicing. You picture seven people in a
50:33
Speaker 2: family inside a little booth. Man, that gets a little tight.
50:40
Speaker 2: But they were having great rejoicing. They were having fun.
50:45
Speaker 2: I can't explain how it happens. But when you do
50:50
Speaker 2: what is right, you're happy. When you do what is wrong,
50:56
Speaker 2: you may make millions, but you're miserable. Isn't that remarkable?
51:03
Speaker 2: How could a family live happily in a little shack?
51:09
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you, they did. The only way is
51:15
Speaker 2: because it was obedient to live there. How can you
51:21
Speaker 2: be happy in a mission field away from family, loved ones, friends,
51:28
Speaker 2: even the place of popularity or wherever you grew up,
51:31
Speaker 2: the home? in obscurity and loneliness, because that's obedience. Jesus said,
51:39
Speaker 2: if you know these things, happy are you if you
51:43
Speaker 2: memorize them? No. Happy are you if what? If you
51:48
Speaker 2: do them. We don't need more truth. We need obedience
51:57
Speaker 2: to the old truth. The psalmist begins, oh, the happiness
52:02
Speaker 2: is many times over of the man who walks not
52:06
Speaker 2: in the counsel of the ungodly or stands in the
52:09
Speaker 2: way of sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful.
52:12
Speaker 2: His delight is in the law of the Lord. He's
52:14
Speaker 2: the happy man whose life is like a tree planted
52:19
Speaker 2: by the rivers of water that bring forth its fruit
52:21
Speaker 2: in its season. His leaf will not wither and whatever
52:24
Speaker 2: he does will prosper happily. I could just picture in
52:31
Speaker 2: my mind's eye. My imagination. The laughter that came out
52:35
Speaker 2: of those little places. Just because. They had done the
52:41
Speaker 2: right thing. How was it preserved? Verse 18 says they
52:47
Speaker 2: read from the book of the law daily. That's individual intake.
52:52
Speaker 2: And they celebrated the end of the week. I like
52:56
Speaker 2: to liken that to our. our personal lives, and if
53:00
Speaker 2: it doesn't press it too far, to our daily times
53:03
Speaker 2: with the Lord, and then our gathering as an assembly,
53:07
Speaker 2: in a solemn assembly of worship, celebration. Maybe the reason
53:14
Speaker 2: church isn't more interesting to more people is because the
53:18
Speaker 2: experience of worship is so rare to them. But if
53:28
Speaker 2: you have worshiped through the week, if you have gained
53:33
Speaker 2: insight through the week, time as an assembly is exciting, thrilling.
53:43
Speaker 2: I look at young couples here today who have begun
53:45
Speaker 2: to make their homes. Some of you have been married
53:47
Speaker 2: two months, three months, five, six, ten, perhaps only a
53:51
Speaker 2: year or two. Where does the word of God fit
53:55
Speaker 2: into your homes? How's your time as husband and wife
54:01
Speaker 2: in the teachings of the book? How much motivation is
54:06
Speaker 2: given by you that are the husbands, the spiritual things
54:09
Speaker 2: in your home? How much insight flows from your lips
54:14
Speaker 2: when you sit together for your huddle three times a
54:17
Speaker 2: day or twice or maybe only once? How much encouragement
54:22
Speaker 2: comes as a result of what God has given you
54:27
Speaker 2: which you pass on to them. You see, what I'm
54:32
Speaker 2: really talking about is not just intellectual insight, but practical,
54:39
Speaker 2: earthy insight.
54:42
Speaker 1: I want to ask you a few very personal questions. One,
54:47
Speaker 1: are you content with mere knowledge, or are you looking
54:51
Speaker 1: for something more? Here's another. Do you honestly yearn And
55:02
Speaker 1: a third, if so, is your life characterized by effort
55:09
Speaker 1: and change? And let me add joy. Are you preserving
55:16
Speaker 1: your newfound insight with daily time in God's Word and
55:21
Speaker 1: fellowship with other believers? Be honest now. Insight is a
55:26
Speaker 1: precious gift from God. He intends for us to deeply
55:31
Speaker 1: desire it and to earnestly search for wisdom. The book
55:36
Speaker 1: of Proverbs is full of statements like that. For example,
55:41
Speaker 1: if we seek it with all our hearts, he has
55:44
Speaker 1: promised that we will find it. Words like that appear
55:48
Speaker 1: in Proverbs 8, 17. All of this, of course, begins
55:54
Speaker 1: with a personal commitment relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, those
56:00
Speaker 1: are words you may have heard before, but you may
56:02
Speaker 1: not have acted on them. We don't come to know
56:06
Speaker 1: God because we go to church. We don't have a
56:09
Speaker 1: relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ because we read his
56:13
Speaker 1: words in the Bible. We come to a knowledge of
56:18
Speaker 1: Christ by faith. The scripture tells us, by grace you
56:24
Speaker 1: have been saved and through faith, and that not of yourselves,
56:29
Speaker 1: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
56:33
Speaker 1: anyone should boast. As many as receive Christ, to them
56:39
Speaker 1: God gives the authority to become the children of God,
56:43
Speaker 1: even to those who believe in his name. So I
56:48
Speaker 1: urge you now to believe in his name. to turn
56:53
Speaker 1: from your life that you have been living and turn
56:56
Speaker 1: to Christ. That's called repentance, to turn around in your mind,
57:03
Speaker 1: to change direction, to trust Christ rather than yourself for
57:10
Speaker 1: eternal life. And if you've done that, you have become
57:15
Speaker 1: a child of God. Many of us today are children
57:19
Speaker 1: of God, but don't have that insight we've been talking about.
57:24
Speaker 1: So let me pray for both, you who have come
57:26
Speaker 1: to Christ and you who have yet to make that decision.
57:31
Speaker 1: Let's pray. Lord, today I ask that you would give
57:34
Speaker 1: insight to those who know you, to those who believe
57:38
Speaker 1: your word. I pray that you will move them from
57:41
Speaker 1: the realm of mere knowledge to a grasp of putting
57:46
Speaker 1: that knowledge into action, blending wisdom, with the truth that
57:52
Speaker 1: they're learning. And Lord, I pray for those who've never
57:56
Speaker 1: trusted Christ, your Son, as their own Savior. I pray
58:00
Speaker 1: that you would make them restless and uneasy and that
58:05
Speaker 1: sense of distance to continue between you and them until
58:09
Speaker 1: they finally release their own will and turn to you
58:12
Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ. I ask this in his name for
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Speaker 1: his sake and glory.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 3: The preceding message, The Fine Art of Insight, was copyrighted
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Speaker 3: in 1974, 1983, 1990, 2007, and 2016, and the sound
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Speaker 3: recording was copyrighted in 2016 by Charles R.
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Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc.
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Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
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Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.