Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Take God's Word For It- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: God is the God of fresh starts, new beginnings, and
- 0:02Speaker 1: second chances. God is the God of glory days. And
- 0:07Speaker 1: if you could use some, welcome to glory days, a
- 0:10Speaker 1: study of the life and the book of Joshua. God
- 0:14Speaker 1: gave him and the Hebrews a promised land life, and
- 0:16Speaker 1: he offers you the same. Joshua's story might be exactly
- 0:21Speaker 1: what you need. Let's begin by making our glory days declaration.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Fill your lungs with air and your hearts with hope.
- 0:31Speaker 1: Let's say it like we mean it, shall we? These
- 0:34Speaker 1: days are glory days. My past is past. My future
- 0:38Speaker 1: is bright. God's promises are true and his word is sure.
- 0:44Speaker 1: With God as my helper, I will be all he
- 0:47Speaker 1: wants me to be, do all he wants me to do,
- 0:51Speaker 1: and receive all he wants me to receive. These days
- 0:56Speaker 1: are glory days. Thank you, Lord, for the promise of
- 1:00Speaker 1: fresh starts. of new seasons, of second chances. We receive
- 1:05Speaker 1: that promise today. We beg you, Lord, to stand in
- 1:09Speaker 1: bold defiance against the evil one who wants to fill
- 1:14Speaker 1: our thoughts with doubts and fears. Today, Lord, we lean
- 1:18Speaker 1: into you. Forgive the sins of the one who speaks,
- 1:22Speaker 1: for they are many, and help us to see Christ
- 1:25Speaker 1: and just Jesus. Through the mighty name of Christ, we
- 1:29Speaker 1: offer this prayer. And all the church said. Our dog
- 1:35Speaker 1: ran away last Sunday. Yeah, dog lovers of the world,
- 1:40Speaker 1: join with me in a collective groan. A neighbor, Mark McCurley,
- 1:46Speaker 1: had tipped me off to a great place for dogs
- 1:48Speaker 1: to romp and run. So I told Andy, my dog,
- 1:54Speaker 1: all about it. Andy, I said, I know of a
- 1:58Speaker 1: dog's dream come true. It's a creek bed with a
- 2:02Speaker 1: wide meadow, no cars, no leashes, no fences, nothing but
- 2:09Speaker 1: stuff to sniff and trees to wet and crevices to explore.
- 2:20Speaker 1: He looked up at me and he said, oh, Master Max,
- 2:24Speaker 1: you put the wow in bow wow. Wow. That sounds
- 2:30Speaker 1: to me like the doggy version of glory days. I said,
- 2:36Speaker 1: indeed it is. It is a canine promised land. But
- 2:40Speaker 1: let me warn you, you must stay close to me.
- 2:44Speaker 1: This pasture is several miles from our house. And if
- 2:47Speaker 1: you wander off, you may not be able to find
- 2:50Speaker 1: your way home. And let me warn you, deer will entice.
- 2:55Speaker 1: Rabbits will lure. There may even be a seductive poodle
- 2:59Speaker 1: on the path. Remain on high alert. Heed my voice.
- 3:07Speaker 1: Stay close to me. I will, he yelped. But did he? No.
- 3:16Speaker 1: The moment I unleashed him, he ran away, and he
- 3:19Speaker 1: scooted up a 20-foot-tall bluff. Andy, I shouted. He stopped.
- 3:24Speaker 1: He stopped. and looked down on me. Andy, I said,
- 3:29Speaker 1: come back here. And my poor dog was in a
- 3:32Speaker 1: moral dilemma. To one side, he heard the luring voices
- 3:38Speaker 1: of Sodom and Gomorrah. Come on, Andy, they were saying
- 3:44Speaker 1: to him. Come on, let's have a little fun. Come on.
- 3:49Speaker 1: To the other, he heard the voice of his wise, seasoned,
- 3:54Speaker 1: and very handsome master. Come here, Andy, I said. So
- 4:02Speaker 1: he looked away and then he looked my way and
- 4:06Speaker 1: he looked away and then he looked my way and
- 4:10Speaker 1: then in a flash, in the snap of a finger,
- 4:14Speaker 1: he was gone. My first thought, Dillon is going to
- 4:18Speaker 1: kill me. So I went on a rescue mission. My
- 4:25Speaker 1: voice went hoarse from calling his name. My legs grew
- 4:28Speaker 1: weak from climbing. It took me 45 minutes. But finally,
- 4:35Speaker 1: there he was. Beneath a tree, exhausted, thirsty, trembling, and
- 4:43Speaker 1: can I say, repentant. And he looked up at me
- 4:49Speaker 1: and he said, go ahead. Use me as a sermon illustration.
- 4:59Speaker 1: He said, I entered the promised land, but I forgot
- 5:04Speaker 1: my master. I wasn't intending to use my prodigal pup
- 5:08Speaker 1: as an illustration. But since he offered, the story does
- 5:15Speaker 1: fit our study. God was concerned that Joshua and the
- 5:21Speaker 1: children of Israel would enter the promised land and forget
- 5:24Speaker 1: his voice. Canaan was full of news, strange and alluring temptations. Hence,
- 5:30Speaker 1: he issued this pre-promised land caution. Only be strong and
- 5:36Speaker 1: courageous that you may observe to do all the law
- 5:41Speaker 1: which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from
- 5:47Speaker 1: it to the right or to the left that you
- 5:53Speaker 1: may prosper in In all you do. This book of
- 5:59Speaker 1: the law shall not depart from your mouth. But you
- 6:02Speaker 1: shall meditate in it day and night. That you may
- 6:06Speaker 1: observe to do according to all that is written in it.
- 6:11Speaker 1: For then you will make your way prosperous. And you
- 6:16Speaker 1: will have good success. Remember the context. God is calling Joshua. Joshua.
- 6:23Speaker 1: to lead two million ex-slaves out of the wilderness across
- 6:29Speaker 1: the Jordan River into the promised land. He wants to
- 6:33Speaker 1: take them from the east side to the west side
- 6:36Speaker 1: where they can inherit their inheritance. And so what does
- 6:41Speaker 1: God give Joshua? Well, in chapter one, God gives Joshua
- 6:45Speaker 1: the promise of his presence. That was last week where
- 6:49Speaker 1: he said, I will fight for you. I will be
- 6:52Speaker 1: with you. But God also gives him the promise of
- 6:55Speaker 1: his word. God will speak to him. That's this week.
- 6:59Speaker 1: Like you and me, Joshua had a Bible. This may
- 7:03Speaker 1: surprise you to know this, but yes, he had a
- 7:05Speaker 1: set of scriptures. His Bible consisted of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
- 7:11Speaker 1: and Deuteronomy. The five books were written by Moses. and
- 7:16Speaker 1: carried in the ark of the covenant. But though Joshua
- 7:20Speaker 1: possessed the scriptures, God wanted the scriptures to possess Joshua.
- 7:27Speaker 1: So he encourages him to first elevate the word. This
- 7:33Speaker 1: is where you fill in the blanks if you like
- 7:34Speaker 1: to fill in blanks. Elevate the word. God said the law,
- 7:39Speaker 1: the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.
- 7:42Speaker 1: Now that's interesting. Why did he say mouth? Why not
- 7:46Speaker 1: brain or heart well what is the mouth used for
- 7:52Speaker 1: it's used for chewing and it's used for speaking primarily
- 7:58Speaker 1: so there's the message let god's word be something you
- 8:03Speaker 1: chew on meditate on think about rehearse recite over and
- 8:10Speaker 1: over again chew on it and speak it speak the
- 8:14Speaker 1: word Speak it to others. Speak it to yourself. Speak
- 8:19Speaker 1: it into problems. Be one who declares the word of God.
- 8:24Speaker 1: Rely on its wisdom. Encourage others with it. New Testament
- 8:29Speaker 1: verse says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
- 8:33Speaker 1: teaching and admonishing one another. You see, Canaan is loud
- 8:39Speaker 1: with enemy voices. The devil cranks up the volume on
- 8:43Speaker 1: the west side of the Jordan. Once we begin coming
- 8:46Speaker 1: out of the wilderness and stepping into our inheritance, into
- 8:50Speaker 1: our possession, living out God's promises, Satan comes at us
- 8:53Speaker 1: and he cranks up the volume on the voices of
- 8:57Speaker 1: doubt and fear. So a key for promised land living
- 9:03Speaker 1: is let God's word be the authoritative word in your life.
- 9:10Speaker 1: I have a friend who's taking flying lessons. He wants
- 9:13Speaker 1: to learn to fly. The pilot is teaching him to
- 9:18Speaker 1: trust the instruments. And an unusual thing, but I understand
- 9:23Speaker 1: that they do this all the time. He put visors
- 9:26Speaker 1: on his eyes, so he had to rely on the panel.
- 9:30Speaker 1: The teacher then rocked and rolled the plane so much
- 9:32Speaker 1: that the student was dizzy and the equilibrium was off.
- 9:35Speaker 1: And the teacher turned the controls over to his pupil.
- 9:38Speaker 1: My friend thought he had leveled out the plane without
- 9:41Speaker 1: using the instruments. But when he looked at the instruments,
- 9:45Speaker 1: he realized he was going straight down. So he had
- 9:50Speaker 1: to make a choice. Am I going to trust my
- 9:53Speaker 1: instinct or am I going to trust the instruments? Life
- 9:58Speaker 1: has a way of knocking us off balance. Death, disease,
- 10:05Speaker 1: or deceit, or troubles come our way. And we think
- 10:09Speaker 1: we know how to fix our problems. God says, don't
- 10:12Speaker 1: trust your inner ear. Don't trust your inner self. You
- 10:17Speaker 1: need a voice outside of yourself. Let this be the
- 10:21Speaker 1: authoritative word in your voice. Rely on Scripture. I realize
- 10:29Speaker 1: how counter-cultural that commission is. We live in a society
- 10:35Speaker 1: that is increasingly turning away from Scripture. We live in
- 10:39Speaker 1: a society that says there is no authority. Or if
- 10:43Speaker 1: there is authority, that authority is you. or that authority
- 10:49Speaker 1: is on the news, or that authority is your coach
- 10:52Speaker 1: or your teacher, or that authority is on the afternoon
- 10:56Speaker 1: talk show. I realize what we're called to do goes
- 11:01Speaker 1: against what our society says to do. But we're not
- 11:05Speaker 1: the first. We're not the first people to be called
- 11:09Speaker 1: to heed a different voice in a very pluralistic society.
- 11:16Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul was speaking to a young pastor by
- 11:19Speaker 1: the name of Timothy. Timothy lived in a city that
- 11:23Speaker 1: was famous for competing philosophies, the city of Ephesus. And
- 11:29Speaker 1: so Paul told young Timothy, as you lead your church,
- 11:33Speaker 1: do this. You should continue following the teachings you learned today.
- 11:39Speaker 1: You know they are true because you trust those who
- 11:41Speaker 1: taught you. Since you were a child, you have known
- 11:44Speaker 1: the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise.
- 11:49Speaker 1: That wisdom leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
- 11:53Speaker 1: And then he says, all scripture is inspired by God
- 11:56Speaker 1: and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is
- 12:01Speaker 1: wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching
- 12:07Speaker 1: how to live right. What a remarkable statement. All scripture
- 12:12Speaker 1: is inspired by God or breathed by God is the
- 12:17Speaker 1: literal translation. As if to say it comes from within God.
- 12:20Speaker 1: These words come from God. What a remarkable claim to
- 12:24Speaker 1: be made about a book that all of us can read.
- 12:28Speaker 1: It's a remarkable book. The Bible is remarkable in composition.
- 12:33Speaker 1: composed over 16 centuries by 40 different authors, written by soldiers, shepherds, farmers,
- 12:39Speaker 1: and fishermen, begun in lonely Arabia by Moses, completed on
- 12:44Speaker 1: the lonely island of Patmos by John, penned by kings
- 12:47Speaker 1: in palaces, shepherds in tents, and even prisoners in prisons.
- 12:53Speaker 1: Was it possible that 40 writers... primarily unknown to each other,
- 13:00Speaker 1: writing in three different languages and in different countries, separated
- 13:04Speaker 1: by time, three times the period since Columbus discovered America,
- 13:08Speaker 1: was it possible for them to produce a book of
- 13:11Speaker 1: singular theme unless there was behind it an author, one
- 13:20Speaker 1: who designed the pages and the words. It is remarkable
- 13:24Speaker 1: in composition. It is remarkable in durability. It is the
- 13:28Speaker 1: single most published book in history. The Bible has been
- 13:31Speaker 1: the number one seller in the world for 300 years.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Number one seller in the world for 300 years. It
- 13:43Speaker 1: has survived bans, burnings, outlived all of its opponents. The
- 13:47Speaker 1: death knoll has been played a hundred times. But God's
- 13:51Speaker 1: word continues. The Bible is remarkable in prophecy. Did you
- 13:57Speaker 1: know that the pages of your Bible contain over 300
- 14:01Speaker 1: fulfilled prophecies about the life of Jesus alone? 500 years
- 14:07Speaker 1: before Jesus was born, a substantial biography had already been
- 14:11Speaker 1: written about his life. What are the odds? Imagine if
- 14:16Speaker 1: we saw something similar today. If somebody came across a
- 14:19Speaker 1: book that had been written in, I don't know, 1900.
- 14:23Speaker 1: that prophesied two world wars, an atomic bomb, the assassination
- 14:29Speaker 1: of a president, the assassination of a civil rights leader.
- 14:34Speaker 1: Wouldn't we pick up that book and say, there's something
- 14:36Speaker 1: special about this book, folks. There is something special about
- 14:40Speaker 1: this book. But you know, the biggest test of the
- 14:44Speaker 1: Bible is, does it work? If you read the words
- 14:48Speaker 1: and put them in practice, does it work? The apostle
- 14:51Speaker 1: Paul says, that it is useful for teaching, for showing
- 14:55Speaker 1: people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults,
- 14:59Speaker 1: and for teaching how to live right. This is the
- 15:02Speaker 1: big test of Scripture. Practicality. Do the teachings of the
- 15:06Speaker 1: Bible make a difference? Well, there's really only one way
- 15:10Speaker 1: to find out, and that's this. Integrate the Word. Not
- 15:15Speaker 1: only do we elevate the Word, we integrate it. We
- 15:19Speaker 1: click the save button on the Bible. How many of
- 15:23Speaker 1: you know what the save button is on a computer?
- 15:26Speaker 1: I love the save button. I love the save button.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Because once you click the save button, what happens? All
- 15:36Speaker 1: those words that are so vulnerable, exposed to the elements
- 15:41Speaker 1: on your screen, they disappear. sink deep deep deep deep
- 15:47Speaker 1: deep they take that invisible elevator and they go down
- 15:50Speaker 1: down down down down into the bowels of your computer
- 15:54Speaker 1: and they are stored on the hard drive you permanently
- 15:59Speaker 1: change the landscape of the hard drive and nobody can
- 16:03Speaker 1: get to them as long as those words are just
- 16:05Speaker 1: floating on your screen we know what can happen right
- 16:09Speaker 1: I mean, that's why we call the cursor the cursor.
- 16:12Speaker 1: We curse that little thing that comes along and gobbles
- 16:15Speaker 1: up those words that we don't. Oh, come back, come back.
- 16:18Speaker 1: It's too late. But if you press the save button,
- 16:23Speaker 1: if you let those words descend into the innards of
- 16:27Speaker 1: the computer, you got them forever. Are you clicking the
- 16:33Speaker 1: save button on Scripture? Are you letting it descend? Into
- 16:41Speaker 1: your heart. Where it really makes a difference. It's possible
- 16:45Speaker 1: to hear scriptures. It's possible to hear teaching. And never
- 16:50Speaker 1: click the save button. Jesus said. You shall know the truth.
- 16:58Speaker 1: And the truth shall make you free. It's when truth
- 17:01Speaker 1: is known. When it's deposited within us. That's when freedom happens.
- 17:10Speaker 1: You know the truth. You are clicking the save button.
- 17:14Speaker 1: You are experiencing truth when what you've heard with your
- 17:18Speaker 1: ears or read with your eyes makes a difference in
- 17:22Speaker 1: your life. It's as simple as that. You've experienced truth
- 17:29Speaker 1: when what you've heard with your ears or read with
- 17:31Speaker 1: your eyes makes a difference in your decisions, in your emotions,
- 17:37Speaker 1: in your actions. If you don't click the save button,
- 17:42Speaker 1: the words don't have any impact. There's an example of
- 17:47Speaker 1: not clicking the save button in the New Testament. Jesus
- 17:52Speaker 1: once invited his disciples to get into a boat with him.
- 17:55Speaker 1: He said these words, let us go over to the
- 17:58Speaker 1: other side. So they did. They got into the boat.
- 18:03Speaker 1: En route to the other side, a storm pounced on
- 18:07Speaker 1: the boat and The scripture says a furious squall came
- 18:11Speaker 1: up and the waves broke over the boat so that
- 18:14Speaker 1: it was nearly swamped. Buckets and buckets of water fell
- 18:18Speaker 1: out of the sky and threatened to overturn the boat.
- 18:23Speaker 1: The disciples turned to Jesus and found him sound asleep.
- 18:29Speaker 1: They woke him up. They said, don't you care if
- 18:33Speaker 1: we drown? Well, Jesus woke up. He stood up. He
- 18:40Speaker 1: told the storm to shut up. And then he turned
- 18:43Speaker 1: to the disciples and he said this. Do you still
- 18:47Speaker 1: have no faith? Now we might read that and say,
- 18:51Speaker 1: come on, Jesus. I mean, it's understandable that they're afraid.
- 18:55Speaker 1: Why so stern of a rebuke? The sea was raging.
- 19:00Speaker 1: The water was churning. Why did Jesus scold them for
- 19:04Speaker 1: being afraid? Simple answer. They didn't take Jesus at his word.
- 19:09Speaker 1: Remember what he said to them? He said, come, let
- 19:13Speaker 1: us go to the other, what?
- 19:15Speaker 2: Side.
- 19:15Speaker 1: He had said they would go to the other side.
- 19:18Speaker 1: He did not say, come, let us go to the
- 19:20Speaker 1: middle of the lake and drown. But when the storm came,
- 19:27Speaker 1: they heard the sound of the storm and they forgot
- 19:32Speaker 1: the word of Christ. They didn't click the save button
- 19:39Speaker 1: Storms are coming your way. They're coming my way. Maybe
- 19:44Speaker 1: even this week, you'll find yourself caught in the middle
- 19:48Speaker 1: of a lake. and you'll have a choice do you
- 19:54Speaker 1: listen to the words of Christ or do you listen
- 19:58Speaker 1: to the sounds of the crisis do you heed the
- 20:03Speaker 1: promises of scripture or do you just listen to the
- 20:06Speaker 1: noise of the storm Do you ponder the pain of
- 20:11Speaker 1: your problems or do you turn to the Prince of Peace?
- 20:16Speaker 1: Promised land people, let the words of Jesus trump fear.
- 20:26Speaker 1: Promised land people have learned this habit of remembering, recording, receiving,
- 20:34Speaker 1: and rehearsing the words of God so that When they
- 20:40Speaker 1: find themselves in a storm, they say, okay, Jesus said.
- 20:45Speaker 1: Jesus promised. The scripture says. Or when they find themselves
- 20:51Speaker 1: confused or even facing temptation like Andy was. They say,
- 20:56Speaker 1: I'm going to heed the voice of my master. The
- 21:00Speaker 1: promised land life, folks, boils down to this. Taking God
- 21:07Speaker 1: at his word. People in the wilderness, they have just
- 21:11Speaker 1: enough of God's word to get them out of slavery
- 21:15Speaker 1: into the wilderness. But people of the promised land are
- 21:19Speaker 1: trusting God's word daily, leaning into it regularly to lead
- 21:23Speaker 1: them and guide them. This means that the Bible is
- 21:29Speaker 1: the single most important tool in your spiritual growth. We
- 21:35Speaker 1: can say this with confidence because of the remarkable research
- 21:39Speaker 1: and work of Greg Hawkins and Callie Parkinson. I hope
- 21:44Speaker 1: you'll have an opportunity to meet Greg Hawkins and his
- 21:48Speaker 1: wonderful family, Lynn, Jack, Aubrey, and John. Greg is a
- 21:54Speaker 1: recent addition to our leadership team who comes from Chicago.
- 21:58Speaker 1: He's the Minister of Ministry Development. Such a delightful, delightful man.
- 22:05Speaker 1: And you might say that he literally wrote the book
- 22:08Speaker 1: on spiritual development. He and Callie Hawkins surveyed over a thousand,
- 22:15Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Callie Parkinson surveyed over a thousand churches in
- 22:20Speaker 1: the United States. They went on a search for Joshua's.
- 22:24Speaker 1: They went on a search for people who were really
- 22:26Speaker 1: enjoying and living out and victorious in their faith. They
- 22:30Speaker 1: searched for the common denominator of people who were experiencing
- 22:34Speaker 1: a promised land life. And what they discovered raised the
- 22:38Speaker 1: eyebrows of at least a thousand pastors. The key to
- 22:43Speaker 1: spiritual growth, they discovered, is not increased church attendance. or
- 22:50Speaker 1: involvement in spiritual activities. People don't grow in Christ because
- 22:55Speaker 1: they're busy at church. People grow in Christ simply because
- 23:00Speaker 1: they read and trust their Bibles. Look at this paragraph
- 23:06Speaker 1: in their book. Nothing has a greater impact on spiritual
- 23:10Speaker 1: growth than reflection on Scripture. If churches could do only
- 23:16Speaker 1: one thing to help people at all levels of spiritual
- 23:18Speaker 1: maturity grow in their relationship with Christ, their choice is clear.
- 23:23Speaker 1: They would inspire, encourage, and equip their people to do what?
- 23:28Speaker 1: To read the Bible. You expected something more glamorous? Maybe
- 23:35Speaker 1: something more mystical? A little sexier? A little more elaborate,
- 23:41Speaker 1: something that required a trip to the top of a
- 23:43Speaker 1: mountain or 40 days in a desert or something bizarre
- 23:47Speaker 1: or sacrificial when really it's all right here. And what
- 23:52Speaker 1: God gave Joshua, God has given us a Bible. And
- 24:00Speaker 1: he gave him this command, do according to all that
- 24:04Speaker 1: is written in it. This was God's command remembered to
- 24:09Speaker 1: the commander. Joshua was in charge of two million people.
- 24:15Speaker 1: He was the undisputed five-star general of his generation. And
- 24:20Speaker 1: yet even he, the man in charge, was called to
- 24:27Speaker 1: live in submission to a higher voice. Not to make laws,
- 24:34Speaker 1: but to apply laws to not to create new philosophies,
- 24:39Speaker 1: but to understand God's philosophy. God didn't command him to
- 24:44Speaker 1: seek a spiritual experience or pursue a personal revelation or
- 24:48Speaker 1: long for a goose bump giving emotion. His word to
- 24:53Speaker 1: him is his word to us. Open God's word. If
- 24:57Speaker 1: you do, then you can, lastly, anticipate a reward. God says...
- 25:07Speaker 1: you will make your way prosperous and have good success.
- 25:13Speaker 1: This is the only time in the Old Testament that
- 25:15Speaker 1: the words prosperous and success share the same sentence. This
- 25:20Speaker 1: is what is called an emphasized promise, a repeated promise
- 25:26Speaker 1: to make a point. When you study God's word, good
- 25:29Speaker 1: things happen. Align yourself with God's word and you can
- 25:35Speaker 1: expect prosperity and success. We might cringe at a statement
- 25:42Speaker 1: like that because we tend to associate the word prosperity
- 25:45Speaker 1: with money. Well, God does bless his children with success.
- 25:53Speaker 1: Sometimes it is financial success. It is. Sometimes, though, the
- 25:58Speaker 1: Bible uses prosperity and success in terms of emotions, in
- 26:03Speaker 1: terms of relationships, in terms of peace. God may bless
- 26:10Speaker 1: you with increased financial success. He may increase you with
- 26:14Speaker 1: more friends. He may increase you with a good night's sleep.
- 26:18Speaker 1: He may increase you with a lifetime of healthy and
- 26:21Speaker 1: happy years. He may fill your quiver with kids and grandkids.
- 26:27Speaker 1: God has all types of ways of giving his children
- 26:30Speaker 1: prosperity and success. But we believe this, that to the
- 26:35Speaker 1: degree that we align ourselves with God's word, good things
- 26:43Speaker 1: are going to happen. Let's learn a lesson from what
- 26:46Speaker 1: God told Joshua. Let's elevate the word. Let's integrate the word.
- 26:51Speaker 1: And let's anticipate the reward. And let's also learn a
- 26:55Speaker 1: lesson from my sweet little dog, Andy. You know, he
- 27:01Speaker 1: caught me as I was leaving today to come to church.
- 27:05Speaker 1: And he stopped me. He said, Master Max, I love
- 27:09Speaker 1: it when he calls me that. He said, Master Max,
- 27:14Speaker 1: is today the day you tell the story of the
- 27:18Speaker 1: time I was lost? I said, yes, it is. He said, well,
- 27:23Speaker 1: tell the church I have learned my lesson. I said,
- 27:27Speaker 1: what's the lesson? He said, whenever I'm too far from
- 27:31Speaker 1: the voice of my master, life is rough, rough, rough.
- 27:35Speaker 1: That's what he said. That's what he said. I promise.
- 27:40Speaker 1: Who would have thought? Who would have thought that he
- 27:46Speaker 1: would make such a comment? Folks, we don't know how
- 27:52Speaker 1: to get home safely. We don't. And we can easily
- 27:57Speaker 1: get lost. And it's a wild world out there. But
- 28:02Speaker 1: you have a heavenly father. You have a master who
- 28:07Speaker 1: will guide you home. Heed his voice. Heed his voice.
- 28:13Speaker 1: And you will enjoy a promised land life. Amen. Thank you, Lord,
- 28:19Speaker 1: so much for your teachings, for your blessings, for your guidance.
- 28:23Speaker 1: We confess that we, like Andy, have wandered away. Most,
- 28:29Speaker 1: if not all of us, have passed through seasons in
- 28:31Speaker 1: our lives in which we disregarded your word or even
- 28:35Speaker 1: made a mockery of your word. We're very sorry, Father,
- 28:39Speaker 1: for that because we see where that takes us and
- 28:41Speaker 1: we see where that's taking other people. We don't want
- 28:44Speaker 1: to go there. So today we recommit ourselves to be
- 28:47Speaker 1: people of the scripture. We recommit our church to be
- 28:51Speaker 1: a church of the Bible. We pray, Father, that our
- 28:55Speaker 1: finest moments of any day could be the moments we
- 29:00Speaker 1: sit before you with open Bible and open hearts. Through
- 29:04Speaker 1: Christ we pray and all God's people said, Thank you.
- 29:53Speaker 1: so so Thank you.
- 34:53Speaker 2: I'll be all right. You don't have to stay. If
- 35:01Speaker 2: you've already chosen, I won't stand in your way.
- 35:09Speaker 3: I can feel it in your distance, in the way
- 35:13Speaker 3: you barely speak. Like your heart is somewhere else now,
- 35:20Speaker 3: somewhere I can't reach.
- 35:23Speaker 4: I was trying just to hold us While you slowly.
- 35:28Speaker 3: Slipped away Now I'm left with all the silence.
- 35:35Speaker 4: You didn't want to say Maybe I just held on
- 35:46Speaker 4: To something already gone.
- 35:53Speaker 1: I'll be fine.
- 35:54Speaker 4: You can leave.
- 35:56Speaker 5: You don't owe me anything.
- 36:00Speaker 3: If your heart is found away out of what we
- 36:06Speaker 3: used to be, I'll be fine.
- 36:09Speaker 5: Don't look back. I'll survive this empty space.
- 36:15Speaker 3: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but I'll learn. to be okay.
- 36:26Speaker 2: We don't need to fake the feeling.
- 36:30Speaker 3: I can see it in your eyes there's no reason
- 36:34Speaker 3: left for staying when.
- 36:37Speaker 5: The love already died.
- 36:42Speaker 4: Through the quiet in your.
- 36:50Speaker 5: I can hear your choice.
- 36:55Speaker 2: I'll be fine.
- 36:57Speaker 1: You can leave.
- 36:59Speaker 5: You don't owe me anything.
- 37:03Speaker 3: If your heart has found a way.
- 37:06Speaker 5: I'll be fine. Don't look back. I'll survive this empty space.
- 37:18Speaker 1: Not tonight.
- 37:19Speaker 3: Maybe not soon.
- 37:21Speaker 5: But I'll learn to be okay.
- 37:26Speaker 1: I don't need a reason why.
- 37:28Speaker 3: I can see it in goodbye.
- 37:34Speaker 1: And it breaks me, it does.
- 37:36Speaker 5: But I won't ask you to stay. I'll be fine.
- 37:45Speaker 1: You can't leave.
- 37:47Speaker 5: You don't owe me anything. If your heart is found away, how.
- 37:58Speaker 3: I'll be fine, don't look back.
- 38:02Speaker 5: I'll survive this empty space Not tonight, maybe not soon
- 38:09Speaker 5: But I'll learn to be okay I'll be alright