Meeting God: The Importance of His Word in Our Lives

Praise the Lord.

Well, good evening.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter 25.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

Exodus, chapter 25.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

If two parties want to have a personal meeting, but neither one

wants to travel the distance, one might say, well, can you meet

me halfway?

When someone is attempting to make a purchase from another person

and the price is a little steep, it might actually say, well,

can you meet me part way?

Can you meet me part way?

In either instance, the question that's being asked is this.

Are you willing to compromise so that we can be in agreement so

we can come to an agreeable end?

Wouldn't mind compromising a little bit.

I'm not willing to travel the 50 miles to meet with you, but if

you could meet me halfway or meet me part of the way, that would

be agreeable.

I'm not willing to pay the $50 that it's going to cost, but if you

would meet me part way, that would be awesome.

We make compromises all the time, and many times it's healthy.

Often this is the only way to solve a dispute, or sometimes it's

simply to reach an agreeable conclusion.

But when it comes to the Word of God, can I get an amen?

You know where I'm going.

When it comes to the Word of God, he makes no such compromises.

God makes no compromises.

God doesn't have to make compromises because His Word is perfect.

And if we follow His Word, it's always going to come out to

an agreeable end.

It's always going to create.

It's the best conclusion.

He doesn't have to compromise.

When it comes to the Word of God, there's no compromise.

There's a couple of things he doesn't compromise when it comes

to salvation.

Acts chapter 4, verse 12 says, neither is there salvation in any

Acts 4:12

other for there's none other name under heaven given among men,

whereby we must be saved.

Right?

John 3:3.

John 3:3

Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee,

except a man be what born again he what he cannot see, the

kingdom of God.

And so God will not compromise His Word when it comes to salvation.

He will not compromise His Word when it comes to matters of

this life either.

He said in second Peter 1:3 according as his divine power hath

2 Peter 1:3

given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,

through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and

virtue.

Everything that we need for life is found right here.

He doesn't need to compromise it order for us to make it in life.

God places a lot of stock in his word.

Much stock.

It's valuable.

God places stock in his word.

Listen to this.

We're going to get to Exodus here in just a moment.

This is all introduction, but listen to this.

Hebrews chapter six.

Let me just read a couple of verses here.

For when God made promise to Abraham.

This is verse 13.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by

no greater, he sware by himself, saying, surely, blessing,

I will bless thee.

And multiplying, I will multiply thee.

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men verily swear by the greater.

And an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

That settles it.

Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs

of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it by an

oath.

And that by two immutable things in which it was impossible

for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled

for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us.

Now, I know that's a truckload, and there's a lot of teaching

that goes in before and after that.

Basically, what he's saying is this.

The promises I make, I seal it with two things, my name and my word.

Those are the two immutable things that will never change.

That's why God doesn't need to compromise on His Word.

And so because His Word is golden, there's no reason for him

to compromise on anything that he has spoken in the Word.

And so, with this in mind, in Exodus, chapter 25, I want to read

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

verses 10 through 22.

So God is giving Moses instructions on how to construct

the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, the table of showbread

and the lampstand.

But we're only going to look at the ark of the Covenant and the

mercy seat for our purposes.

So I want you to really pay close attention.

This is kind of a teaching moment.

But we'll see teaching, preaching, we'll see where it goes.

But we're only going to look at the Ark of the covenant.

So beginning in verse 10, and the mercy seat.

So in verse 10.

So the now, now follow now again, these are those verses you

just want to, you know, you see the skip over, you know, when

you're reading these are those verses you just want to skip over

all the dimensions.

Or if you don't skip over them, you read through them so fast,

when you get to the end, you're like, whew, I'm glad that's

over one of those, right?

And so.

But I want you to pay attention to this, because this is.

This is good stuff.

All right.

Verse 10.

And they shall make an ark of Shittim wood.

Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and

a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height

thereof.

I'll read through this kind of quickly because we're actually going

to come back to it and break it down a little bit.

So verse 11 says, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold within

and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown

of gold round about.

And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the

four corners thereof.

And two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in

the other of it.

And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood and overlay them with

gold.

And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the

ark, that the ark may be borne with them.

The staves shall be in the rings of the ark.

They shall not be taken from it.

Now watch this.

Verse 16.

And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give

thee.

And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold.

Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and

a half the breadth thereof.

And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work

shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat.

And make one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other

end.

Even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two

ends thereof.

And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering

the mercy seat with their wings.

And their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat

shall the faces of the cherubims be.

Now look again.

Verse 21 and 22.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark.

And in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

Say that again.

And there will I meet with thee.

And I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between

the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony of

all things which I give thee in commandment unto the children

of Israel.

Now there were three things that eventually made their way into

this box or the ark.

There were three things, Moses.

Rod that budded as well as a pot of manna and the ten commandments

that were written on the tables of stone.

But what I want, I want to focus on the first thing that God

said they were to place inside the ark of the covenant that is his

word, the Testament, the Ten Commandments on the table of stone.

Now again, let's look carefully at verse 16, 21 and 22.

Let's read them again.

Look what he said in verse 16.

Thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give

thee.

Verse 21.

Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and in the ark

thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

And then he says in verse 22, and there I will meet with thee,

and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between

the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony of

all things which I will give Thee commandment unto the children

of Israel.

I want to talk to you just for a minute on this subject.

Meeting with God.

Meeting with God.

God swore by his name and by his word, because he could swear

by nothing higher.

And brethren, we ought to highly esteem the word of God simply

because he does.

If for no other reason, we ought to give it some value to our

life because God esteems it greatly.

He wanted to give us a visual.

Now, I want you to think about this now.

He wanted to give us a visual of just how precious His Word is.

I mean, brother, listen, you know, when you got a whole lot of

something, you got to sell it cheap to get rid of them.

There's not a whole lot of value placed on it.

When you got a bunch of them, when those things start getting scarce,

when the value rises, how many Bibles do we have in our own homes?

How much importance do we give it?

How much do we esteem the word of God?

And I can promise you, if someone.

If our government was overrun and somebody came into your home

and started taking Bibles out and burning them, I guarantee you

I know I'd be grabbing one of them and hiding it, because this

is dear.

And then how dear would it be if it's the only one you had?

God esteems His Word, and we ought to esteem it just because he

does.

He wanted to give us a visual of just how precious his words are.

And so here's what he did.

He had the Children of Israel construction, a precisely measured

box of a particular type of wood.

And then, watch this.

He inlaid it and he overlaid it with pure gold.

He made a box and then he put gold all the way inside and then

gold on the outside of it.

He then ornamented that Box so that it was peculiarly beautiful

and not plain and common.

I almost asked Reed tonight.

I don't see him over there, but I know he's here.

I almost asked Reed tonight to put up a picture of the Ark of the

Covenant, a one that was full color so that you could see the beauty,

the intricacy that God took the details that God decided to make

this box.

We it's just a box, but it's more than just a box.

I'll show you that.

So he then had them attach rings of gold to each corner and

then construct rods overlaid with gold in order to carry it.

To indicate that what was inside was divinely given by God

himself and was not to be contaminated by man's hands.

God thought a lot of his word.

He made a special box, a beautiful box, gold inside, gold

outside.

And then he put hooks or loops on the ends of it and he ran and

made out of gold.

And then he put a rod through each end staves made pure gold.

So that when they carried that thing around, man's hands wouldn't

touch it.

God didn't want man to contaminate it.

It's not a man made book inside that box.

Inside that box was the book that made man God's word.

The Bible is inspired by God.

How many times have you gone out and you tried to tell people

what's inside the word of God and they say, oh, man wrote that

book.

No, I'm telling you, God may have used man to write it, but these

are the divinely inspired words of Almighty God.

This Bible is not only inspired, it is inerrant, it is infallible,

it is irrefutable, it is indestructible, it is irreversible.

The word of God.

God puts a lot of weight, a lot of stock in his word.

And so he made a special box to put it in.

And he said, don't touch it lest you destroy it.

You know, that's exactly.

You know what's going to happen when man gets.

You already know what's happened.

I'm here to tell you.

Listen, if you go ahead and you go out there and get the Bible

of the month, you go out there and get the Bible of the month.

Stick with the old King James.

But if you get the Bible of the month, you're going to see how

man really tears up the things of God.

When man's hands get involved in it, it really messes it up.

Now this isn't a message on the different versions of the Bible,

but I'm here to tell you.

If you take them out and you compare.

Just because it's.

Just because it's.

It says in the margin the oldest and the best manuscript doesn't

mean it's the oldest.

Just because it's the oldest doesn't mean it's always the best.

Amen.

Right there too.

But I want you to notice that God placed His Word inside a special

place.

It was a sanctified place.

It was set apart as holy or sacred.

And he placed it inside a sealed place, a safe place.

Look with me now, you see these verses that we're going to

look at.

We have a tendency.

These are the ones we read and we go, oh, glad that's over.

But look at it with me now that you kind of got the idea of

what's inside and why.

God made this box as intricate and as beautiful as he did, and he

put His Word inside.

And now look at verse 17.

Thou shalt make a mercy seat pure gold, two cubits and a half

shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth

thereof.

And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, two angels of

gold, two cherubims.

Not angels, but cherubims.

You know what I'm saying.

Of beaten work shalt thou make them.

What does that mean?

In beaten work, carved out, beautifully, made in the two ends

of the mercy seat.

And make one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other

end.

Even of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubims of the two

ends thereof.

And.

And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering

the mercy seat with their wings.

And their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat

shall the faces of the cherubims be.

And then verse 21.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark.

This is the covering.

This is the lid for the box.

Look at the.

Look at the trouble, if you can call it trouble, the detail.

Look at what God did just to seal his book, to put it in a special

place.

Once the box.

The box or the ark was complete, this lid was constructed

to secure it.

Do you understand what we're talking about here?

These aren't just boring details.

They can be if you don't know, if you don't look inside.

What he's telling us is that the Word of God is preserved.

It's preserved.

God sealed his word.

He put it inside of a special box and then he sealed it with the.

With the mercy seat.

It was the lid that went on top of it.

And if you know your Bible, if you read any of that, those who looked

inside of it, hum, chum.

Didn't go good for them, did it?

Psalm 12, 6, 7 says, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver

tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.

Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.

Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.

While it's secured inside the ark, the cherubim stand sentry over

it with their wings spread over the top, and they keep constant

vigil and they sing, holy, holy, holy.

The Word of God, it's inspired by God.

It is not made by man.

It's what makes man.

And it's not only inspired, it is preserved by God.

We'll have this Bible, we'll have the Word of God till Jesus comes.

And then when we get to heaven, we won't need it because

we'll know even as we are known, and we'll have knowledge and

God will answer all the questions that we have.

I know we like to make fun and we like to say, I got a lot of questions

for Paul.

I got a lot of questions for you.

Know what?

Those questions will be answered as soon as we get there.

God's going, listen, the word of God, it's preserved.

It's inspired.

It's preserved.

Now this is the reason why God will never compromise his Word.

He doesn't have to.

It is perfect.

The word of God is perfect.

You'll never hear him say to any of his creation in regard to

his word.

Well, if you can't agree with all of it, just meet me halfway.

You'll never hear God say that to any of us.

You'll never get that when you pray.

When we pray about something, about something that we know we need

to do or something we need to stop doing, we'll never hear God

say, well, I know that's kind of a tough thing.

And look, if you can't deal with all of it, then just meet me

part way on this.

God doesn't compromise his Word.

He doesn't have to.

Never happened.

In fact, look what God says in verse 21.

He says, Thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and

the Ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

And here's the key, verse 22, and there I will meet with thee,

there I will meet with thee.

And I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between

the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony of

all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children

of God.

Look what he said in verse 22.

And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee.

I love this.

God said, where my word is, there will I meet you where my Word

is, there will.

I meet you where my Word is, there will.

That's where I will commune with you.

I will meet you where My Word is, and I will communicate with you.

I will communicate to you truth.

Where my Word is.

If you go to where my word is, I will communicate with you wisdom.

If you go to where my word is, then I will communicate to you instructions

for life.

Where my word is, that is where I will meet you.

No shortcuts, no middle ground, no halfway mark.

In the Book of Amos, when God asked the question, can two walk

together except they be agreed?

He wasn't talking about God agreeing with me.

He was talking about me agreeing with God.

God and I can't walk together unless I agree with him.

He doesn't have to agree with me.

My ideas and my definition of things are all messed up, but he's

perfect and His Word is perfect.

And I can't walk with God unless I'm in full agreement with

this.

Oh, I'm not saying men don't try.

I'm not saying from time to time, I don't try.

There are times I look at this book and I go, don't want to read

that verse, let's go to the next one.

And yet I call myself a Christian, I call myself a pastor,

and yet I still try to circumvent his word and walk with

Him.

And it never ends well.

Where My Word is, there will I meet you and commune with you or

communicate to you what you need to communicate to you what you

need to succeed, to communicate with you what you need

to be victorious in this life, to overcome, to find peace in trials,

to find comfort in crisis and to bless you.

We need all of that.

Some of you are going through crisis right now.

This is where you'll find the peace to go through that crisis.

Some of you are going through trials.

This book right here is what's going to give you the calm and the

storm.

This book, when you meet God here, here, that's where you'll find

what you need to get through it.

God said, if you want my blessing, if you want my wisdom and

counsel, then meet me where my Word is.

But as the children of Israel learn, and as many, as many, as many

of us in here have learned, when we choose not to meet God, where

His word is when we try to.

Like I said, when we try to circumvent His Word, or when we try

to live outside the parameters of his word, outside the parameters

of his will, he obligates himself neither to bless us nor protect

us when we choose to ignore this.

Well, preacher, how do you know I'm ignoring it?

Well, have you read it today?

Mmm.

I'm going to come down there.

I'm going to amen myself.

Ms. Charlene, I know it's hard.

Look, it's not as hard as last week, but that's the truth we want

to ignore.

I don't ignore His Word.

Okay, what are you memorizing?

What verses are you memorizing today to help you tomorrow?

Are you reading the Word of God?

I tell you, I got so under conviction this last week.

My wife and I were in Michigan at the Bridge to Recovery Conference.

And, you know, I'll tell you what this preacher said, and I'm

going to tell it to you because I don't think he was lying.

I really think what he said was absolutely true.

And particularly the spirit of the man was just amazing.

Just a man of God.

He's just a man of God.

And he didn't say it to try to shame anybody or to put himself on

a pedestal.

It was really in passing.

And he said it, and I was like, whoa.

He said he reads his Bible through every 90 days.

Every 90 days.

Now you say, well, what can you get reading it that fast?

If you were standing where I.

If you were sitting where I was sitting and listening to the

word of God that he was quoting, you would know that.

Well, I'll tell you, he got more than I got.

And now I'm not saying.

I said, can I do that?

I don't know if I can do that.

I'm going to try timed myself.

The other day, I said, well, okay.

Well, I'm going to read for 30 minutes.

Just 30 minutes.

And I read pretty fast.

You heard that?

I can read.

And so I read for 30 minutes straight, put myself on a timer,

and I read.

Let's see, where was I?

First Samuel.

And I read seven chapters of First Samuel in 30 minutes.

First Samuel is some pretty long chapters.

So if you do that in the New Testament, just set yourself a time

limit, 20, 30 minutes, man.

I believe you could probably read if you set yourself a time limit.

20, 30 minutes.

Reading every single day like that.

I bet you could read through the New Testament.

I say, I bet.

I really don't know.

I hadn't really figured it out yet by how many pages you have in

your Bible.

But I bet you read through the New Testament probably in less than

a month, probably in a week or two.

I would think you'd have to look at your time yourself and then

see how many pages are in your Bible.

I bet you could do it really fast.

But do we meet God where his word is?

We try to go through the day without meeting with God, and we

wonder why in the world this thing isn't working.

You know, many a saved person left the good counsel of God's word

only to find destruction and misery in this life.

Many a good Christian.

It's an unfortunate thing that I can think of, not only just Christians,

but preachers, preacher friends.

Preacher friends I went to school with who made havoc of their

life because they got a word, they got away from this.

I'll tell you a quick story.

There was a preacher friend of mine, a guy I went to school with,

Bible college, and I'm telling you, a very aspiring evangelist,

a really good preacher.

Some of y' all may know.

I won't say the name, but just by telling the story, some of you

may know what I'm saying.

So one of his desires and dream in life was to sit and stand

and preach on the same platform as Dr. Jack Hiles.

Now, whatever you say about Jack Hiles, I want to tell you straight

up, he was one of my heroes.

So if you have something bad to say about it, don't say it to

me, because there's people that love him and there's people

that hate him.

I loved him, and God used him tremendously in my life.

And I would go a long way to hear him preach.

And every time he preached, God used the sermons to speak to

my heart.

And I always found myself at the altar and always found myself

making solid, good, godly decisions based on his preaching.

And if many of you know.

How many of you know of Dr. Jack Hiles?

How many of you know him?

Okay, there's more in here that don't than do.

Well, in my estimation, he was a tremendous man of God, and God

used him greatly.

And my brother really wanted to preach on the same platform.

Now, he preached at this church many times, this brother's

home church.

And so he asked his pastor, he said, can I schedule a meeting with

Dr. Jack Hiles and can I preach on the same platform as him?

He had just graduated from Bible College, and his pastor said,

yes, you can do that.

You schedule it, you set it up, you.

You market it.

Market.

That's not the Good.

Advertise you let people know he's coming and the place will fill

up.

And it always did.

You had to come early if you wanted to get a seat.

And so the day came, and, boy, that brother, he got up here and

he made the statement.

He said, it's been the joy of my life to speak on the same platform

with Dr. Jack Hiles.

And he preached a great message.

And then when he was finished, song or two, and then Dr. Hiles got

up and he said, I want you to know that it's been the joy of my

life to preach on the same platform with this brother right

here.

And of course, it was a great laugh.

Everybody enjoyed it and got a great kick out of it.

And Dr. Hiles got up and preached like he always did with

the anointing of God on him.

And what a tremendous service it was.

The next day, the next day that was actually on a Sunday.

The next day that brother ended up in jail because he tried

to solicit a prostitute.

And I asked him, I said, what in the world?

What happened?

And this is what he said.

Although I don't think.

I think there was definitely more to it.

But this is what he said.

He said, you know what, Brother James?

He said, I got up that day after a great mountaintop experience,

and I didn't read my Bible.

That was his words.

I didn't read my Bible.

And if something like that can happen to a preacher, a man of God,

how much more can it happen to any of us?

All of us are 24 hours away from being extremely and totally,

completely backslidden.

We need the word of God.

We need the word of God.

Many a good person left the counsel of God's will only to find

destruction and misery.

God said, if you want my blessing and wisdom and counsel,

then meet me where my word is.

Now, obviously, we don't have a tabernacle or a temple to go to

anymore.

There's no more Ark of the Covenant.

So where we can go to meet?

So what are we to do?

Where are we to find those blessings?

Where are we to find that instruction or that wisdom or that

counsel?

Well, God hasn't changed.

Amen.

He said, where my word is there, will I meet you?

Where my word is there, will I meet you and commune with you?

So if God hasn't changed and will meet and commune with us where

his uncompromising word is, then we need to make sure that we

include His Word in every area of our life.

Every area of our life.

Here's four areas real quick.

Where we need to make sure that we keep God's word so that we

can commune with him every day, throughout the day for the rest

of our lives.

Number one, our head.

Our head.

You want to meet with God?

God said, I'll meet you where my word is.

Joshua 1:8 says, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy

Joshua 1:8

mouth, but thou shalt meditate there in day and night.

If we want God to meet with us and to commune with us, then put

his word in our head.

We need to think on it and meditate on it.

And that's different than just memorizing.

That's different.

Just meditate upon the word, think on it.

I mean, look, I'll tell you what I like to do, and I'm not saying

this makes me super spiritual, and I'm not saying it's what you

ought to do, but what I like to do that really helps me is to.

When I read the Word of God, I keep a journal next to me.

And as I'm reading it, as God speaks to my heart, I write down.

I told somebody the other day I was writing and I was reading about.

I can't even remember now.

Anyway, I was reading something and it spoke to my heart

in such a profound way that I grabbed my pen and I wrote down,

I am such a wretch.

I am so unthankful.

I am so ungrateful.

And, brother, we need God to tell us that sometimes.

Because there are times I go through the day without saying thank

you to God, when in truth, I really ought to get up every single

morning and say, thank you, Lord, for the strength to get out

of this bed.

Thank you, Lord, for the strength that I have to work a job.

Thank you for the mind that you've given me.

Thank you, Lord.

God will meet us where his word is.

Psalm 1, verse 1 and 2 says, Blessed is the man that walketh not

Psalms 1:1

in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,

nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord.

What does it say?

And in his law doth he what?

Meditate?

Meditate day and night our heads.

If we want God to meet us where his word is and to bring us

blessings and instruction and wisdom and counsel, then let's get

it in our heads.

Let's get in there.

Let's meditate on his word.

And then secondly, our hearts.

Our hearts.

Psalm 119, verse 10, 11.

Psalms 119:10

With my whole heart, the psalmist said, with My whole heart

have I sought Thee oh, let me not wander from Thy commandments

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against

Thee I'll probably butcher this, but let me try this.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be Let thy

goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee Prone to

wonder Lord, I feel it Prone to leave the God I love here's my

heart O take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above the writer

of that song was thinking of me.

Prone to wonder Prone to wonder here's my heart, Lord don't

you wish that you could just do that every day?

Don't you wish you could just take your heart and give it to God

every day and allow him to seal it so it won't wonder?

Boy, I wish I could do that.

And in reality, I can.

Now, we're not, you know, we can read this for an hour every morning

and then be in the car and two minutes later, it's gone, right?

So we do have to ask God to fill us with his spirit on a regular

basis.

I die daily, Paul said.

I die hourly.

James said this.

James, our hearts, if we want God to meet with us and commune with

us, that's what he said.

Where my word is, there will I meet with you and commune with you.

Where his word is, there's no temple to go to, no tabernacle, no

ark of the covenant, but we can put it in our heart, we can put

it in our head.

And he'll meet with us, commune with us.

And then third, our hands.

Our hands again.

Joshua 1:8, the book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,

Joshua 1:8

but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written

therein.

Do.

Do the work of God.

What we find here.

Love people, do it.

Act on it.

Help people.

Act on it.

Do it.

Love the brethren.

Go to church.

I'm preaching to the choir tonight.

I know, but you know what?

Stay in church.

Amen.

I've got a brother that I love dearly.

And right now he's, you know, he's just struggling.

And I said, just do, you know, if you just do.

And I understand.

There's more to this thing than doing.

In fact, I even told him, I said, going to church without having

a personal walk with Jesus Christ is like filling a bucket with

water.

Like filling a bucket, putting water in a bucket that's full of

holes.

So there's a whole lot more to it than just coming to church.

You have to have that walk with Jesus Christ.

But just, you know, there's the whole.

You gotta be balanced.

Amen.

You gotta not only believe and have it in your heart, but have it

in your hands.

And if you have it in your heart and in your head, you want

to do it.

You want to be able to have it in your hands.

You just want to.

I love the word of God and I love being a Christian.

And sometimes I'm so selfish.

I don't want to give to others.

I don't want to give of myself.

I don't want to give of my time, my talents, my treasures.

I'm selfish.

And then when I do, oh, my goodness, it's amazing because God

said, where my word is, there will I meet you?

And all of a sudden I'm as happy as Jesus said I would be because

I did what he said in his word.

Give unto others, and it shall be given unto you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over

shall men give into your bosom.

It's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

Sometimes I don't believe that.

Or I believe it, I say I believe it.

But sometimes I don't want to do it.

I don't want to give, but when I do, I find out that God is true.

He's right.

It's more blessed to give.

And then let me give you a final thought.

Not only our head and our heart and our hands, but our homes.

Our.

Our homes.

Make sure his word is in our homes.

What does Psalm 127:1 say, except the Lord build the house.

Psalms 127:1

They labor in vain.

They build.

It doesn't mean you're never going to have any troubles in your

home.

Doesn't mean your spouse and you won't have it out every now and

then.

Doesn't mean your kids are going to just fall at your feet and

say, oh, yes, Father, what should you have me to do today?

Doesn't work like that.

Wish it did.

But what it does mean is that you'll have a more harmonious relationship

with everybody in your home if you'll do what the word of God says.

And I'm telling you, even when it comes to discipline, the way God

says to discipline.

You know, it's an amazing thing when I discipline my little

girls, and I hated to do it.

And it is true, isn't it?

It hurts me more than it hurts you.

It really is.

It's really true.

I would have never guessed that by my dad doing it.

But when I became a dad and had to discipline my kiddos.

Oh man, it hurt.

And you know what the amazing thing was?

We did it in love.

I didn't do it in anger.

And we usually had a set of rules on the refrigerator.

The consequences that went with breaking the rules lie.

Five pops.

Now, I wrote that because my wife started at 10.

She was the mean one.

You asked if you were to ask my kids, who did you want to spank

you, mom or dad?

And they would say this.

Well, I would want mom to spank us, but I'd want dad to give

the number how many pops.

I was gracious in that area.

But here's the thing.

And you guys, some of you know this is absolutely true.

When you do it in love, you say, okay, babe, baby, you lied to

mama.

Let's go look.

What does that say right there?

What does that say?

Do not lie.

And what does it say on there?

Five pops.

I always gave them an opportunity to ask for mercy.

Daddy, will you forgive me?

It depended on their heart and depending on how many times they

broke that law.

But sometimes I give them mercy and sometimes I wouldn't.

And the days that I didn't, I went ahead and meted out the punishment

and I used a paddle and it hurt.

And they cried and I said, alright, you sit here and just cry.

Just cry it out.

And then it was an amazing thing that happened.

They on their own.

I never had to say, now you come and give Daddy a hug.

You know what?

After they cried it out, they would come up to me and for some

reason they wanted to just hang out with me.

They loved me.

It's amazing what God did.

He put our.

He bonded us through that.

Who would have ever thought that right when you do it, right

when you do it according to the word of God, when the word of

God is in your home and when you, when you and your spouse agree

on the biblical way to run a home, it's amazing what God will

do in that home.

You know what he'll do?

He'll meet with you and he'll commune with you and he'll bless

you.

We do not expect God to compromise his word.

Nobody in here does.

We know that he will not compromise his word.

So that means that we know that if we are willing to live outside

his will, then we have to be willing to accept the consequences.

And if we do live outside his will, it's going to be without the

benefit of his blessing.

Now, I know that you here tonight, you desire God's best for

your life.

It Means that you desire to be in God's will.

I believe that nobody woke up this morning and said, I think I'm

just going to step right outside God's will.

I don't think so.

I believe that all of us desire to be in the Lord's will.

So let us do something.

Let us meditate upon the word of God.

Memorize it, get it into our head, get it into our heart.

Meditate upon it prayerfully, get it into our heart.

Let it create convictions within us.

Act upon the Word and the will of God as you understand it.

Get it into your home and allow it to govern every area your

life.

If you want to meet God, you have to go to where His Word is.

And if you want God to meet you, he'll come to where his word

is.

I want God's will and his blessings and his counsel and his

instruction and his wisdom.

I want it all.

So I'm going to stick to the old book.

I wonder if you'd be willing tonight to look inside your own heart

or maybe to open it up and let God look into it and be honest.

Just be introspect, Lord.

Do an inventory.

Am I reading your Word like I should?

Do I read your Word every day?

Is it a part?

Remember what Job said?

I esteem it more than my necessary food.

Wow.

Are you reading the Word of God every day?

Is God meeting with you every day?

Because it's in your head, it's in your heart, it's in your

hands, and it's in your home.

Is he meeting with you every day?

If not, maybe tonight, we ought to just say, you know what?

I may not be able to read it in 90 days, but I can read a little

bit here.

You know what?

Here's something else to do.

And I gotta quit.

7:50.

I have to quit.

I learned a long time ago.

I'm not gonna promise God.

I'm not gonna make a vows.

I'm gonna read your word the rest of my life, every day for the

rest of my life.

I did that once before.

It didn't work.

But I'll tell you what I have done.

I've said, God, I'm going to read your word every day this week.

I can keep that promise.

I wonder if you'd be willing to do that.

Today is Wednesday.

I wonder if you'd be willing this evening to say, God, I promise

you I'm going to read your word every day for the rest of this

week.

Just a couple days.

Can you do that?

I'm going to read your word every day for the rest of your week.

See, here's what I know.

I. I know that in this room tonight that's going to be a struggle

and a challenge for some.

But why don't you promise God you're going to do it?

See what the Lord does.

I promise you he'll meet with you.

Let's stand together and we'll have a verse of invitation.

Meeting God our Father tonight.

I just pray that you would help us to apply these simple truths

to our.

To our heart.

I know that as we read some of these passages in Exodus and Numbers,

Deuteronomy, they get very tedious, but there's a reason they're

in there.

And I pray that you'd help us to see how precious your word is

to you.

And I pray that you would help us to transfer the value that you

have to our own heart to our own mind.

Help us to value and to esteem your word highly.

And Lord, help us to apply it and implement it into our lives each

and every day.

For our good and for your glory.

I pray in Jesus name just for a few moments.

As the instruments play, Brother Caleb's going to sing through

a verse of invitation.

If the Holy Spirit of God spoke to your heart, you come tonight.

Maybe you just want to come and come to this altar and say, lord,

I want to do that.

I promise you I'm going to read my Bible the rest of this week.

You can do that.