God's Word is Clear

Summarizing Joe ask them. Can you make a video a short little video can introducing yourself? And this was the very first video that they ever did. All right. I got here. I'm warning you. Okay, how's this is fearful deer-in-the-headlights look so they made a second one and it was really funny. But his wife is not in it. So we're going to go with the first one. So this is kind of weird. I can meet us this very young couple. They just got married. They're heading to a new Mission field. So let's meet the makinsons of this time. And then we will also hear the video from the other couple.

hopefully

work the right now what they're talking about nice.

Alright, well, I'll talk and laugh. You can get these to work. That's great. I guess that's the blessing and the curse of Technology, right? And sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Well this young couple Ronnie and Jackie makinson there. Like I said, they're just newly married Ron actually grew up in the church that I attended Rye was the pastor of back in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I didn't even know that until I saw this video, but they are going to a brand new Mission field in Panama. And so they asked that we we pray as they go to Panama and the as their newly married. This is all there's a lot going on offer them all at the same time and so on their praying that we were there asking for prayer that as they go to language school and as they travel around the United States and Ray support that all those things will go well and then they just got married I think back in September. I was just thinking to myself

Fortunately, we stayed in the exact same city that we met in on it was two miles from where Christine drop and so we had that familiarity between the two of us, but just getting married learning a new language and going into a brand new Mission field. That's that's a lot to take in and so far this is this wonderful young couple, which maybe you'll meet maybe you won't hopefully we'll just pray that God will really bless them and the second videos what's from the Google Arts to even have the Google Arts video.

You are so if I can orange traffic cone right now, they've been here at our church a few years ago and they're just saying hi and to know the Google Arts is to love them that you instantly feel like they are your long-lost best friend for life as soon as you meet the Google arts and soul.

All your support to share a little challenging. We have a little so we move to a new location in our church of Grace Bible verse to share very happy to see you.

to know that Bailey they're just so lovable and hopefully we'll be able to get them back soon when they're back in the United States and I think we do have the video of the first couple of the Arizona my name is very excited to speak with you today a little bit of ourselves in a little bit about how we became missionaries. It's a little bit about me, Michigan in Jenison, Michigan at Grace Bible Fellowship in Grace Gospel Church. So, how did exactly did we become missionaries with? How did God move in our in our lives and in our hearts to become a missionary? So for Jack and I both know it's a little bit similar God started to speak to us and move in. Our hearts emissions was important in 2016. And when we really saw the importance permissions, we wanted to grow closer to God, so we started to pursue God into wanting to know him better. And also, how could we serve him? And during that time a few years later it we finally in 2018 Bulls two-sided to submit to the Lord and be to become full-time missionaries. And at the same time. We actually both met each other or eachother testimonies and really heard about our our passions that we had which were both the same which it was to go into the mission field in to serve the Lord. We fell in love with each other. And in this past September, we just got married. We are new GMI. Missionaries Grace Ministries International. And we are going to the new field of Panama. But how it's so how exactly are we prepared to go to Panama? How are we prepared to go to a new field and a little bit about that and how God is moved in our lives and works through us on there's been a lot of Ministries that we've been apart of for me one of the biggest reasons with a team called breakthrough martial arts mission team. And what they do is they go and use martial arts as an evangelist on tool and what they do is they go and do in presentations and martial arts to to attract attention to themselves to share the gospel Jesus Christ with others and some teaching martial arts to others to build relationships with people and opportunities for me to share something that I love, but then I also have conversations with people and I've really been able to have a lot of fellows Others and also been able to even study God's word with them Sunday school teacher channels me to step up as a leader and as a teacher be able to really invest in some kids lives during this time of of making sure that they understand God's word and how they can be rooted in it and that it is the word of God and the truth the word of Truth and dance. I was also a Christian Ministry in my church, and I was also animation moment in my church. Where are presented different Mission fields around the world to my home church, and I also have wanted to plan a church with my pastor and Alders. So all of these things we hope to take to the mission field God has prepared Us in this way. We have been used to glorify him to take some of these Ministries to Panama and these things if it's dance if it's circus performance all these evangelism martial arts relationships with people gospel Jesus Christ with them going forward into actually starting but we also another couple will be also going to this to Panama with us their names are alvadore in my Lane Bryant. Is there Costa Rican and got his also laid it on their hearts to become missionaries as well and we are excited to be a part of that team with them down in Panama. So our plan is for this coming may we are going to Nicaragua in Spanish 1 years Sunny Spanish after 1 year and we are going to move to Panda. So moving forward it as you are thinking about us and praying for us. We have a few prayer request that we ask that you might pray for us more for us. We will be traveling this winter too many different churches to really talk about our ministry and talk about our our desire to be in the field and so pray for us as we travel as we go to all these these churches also going forward. We will be going to language school soon in Nicaragua. We ask that you pray for us that we may have a strong understanding of the language and be able to learn it very well so that we can communicate with people and really be able to bring glory to God by sharing the gospel to the people Panama and also to him together even within our marriage and finally if you could pray for the hearts in the minds of the panamanians the people of Panama to to be soft and to prepare them to hear the truth, which is They can receive an awesome. Hope by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. We just want to also thank you so much for this opportunity to be talking with you and telling you a little bit about our lives a little bit about ourselves to thank you so much, and we hope that you have a blessed week, and we want to just thank you again so much. Thank you.

All right, who knows? Maybe we'll be able to meet them in person Someday by after we told them can you send us another video? He did send us a video and he is doing karate or Taekwondo and he knocked out like 5 people at the same time. No, I just give me a video of Jackie wasn't hidden. So it's okay. Tell her thank you for a technology and just the fact that we can meet a roni and Jackie makinson a young couple just married a lot of challenges but a lot of sincere Faith or they want to serve you. So we just pray for their marriage help them to make that a priority and as they're going into a new Mission field and going to a different country learning a new language. They have a lot of challenges in front of but this is definitely going to be something that strengthens our relationship with each other and hopefully you and Lord. We also pray for this new field in Panama. They need to meet new people that need to secure a location to meet and all these exciting things or we just pray that you open up the door and the opportunities for them and also Lord as they travel around the country and we pray that the support will be racing that they can serve you in Panama. And also are we continue to pray for the Google Arts? I'll work cited for the worth of their doing and he said Place they have lots of Muslims all around them. They have a very difficult task to reach Muslims with the truth about Jesus Christ the Lord. I'm you've definitely gifted them with some people skills. And we pray on the devil open up the dorsal or we just looked up these missionaries before you and not only views missionaries, but the other ones that we've seen this month and the other missionaries at all of us know personally Lord, they are serving you and in places that we can't and that we are not until we we pray that you bless them and imbrie use them to bring more people to a saving knowledge of your son Jesus Christ and his name we pray. Amen. Alright, well, we're going to go on in our next or next sermon on our mission statement and I have noticed something recently and maybe I've noticed more recently because we just got through Christmas and I've ordered a few things but for those of you who order something or you purchase something that has it some assembly required on maybe you have noticed I've seen this trend where instructions don't always have words. Sometimes they just have pictures which I think is a great idea. I think it was a simple installation something very simple to do. All you need to do is see a picture, you know, you put this part went to this party use this screw or bolt through this night. I like that a lot easier. Sometimes they giving it very difficult instructions. Maybe you maybe you feel the same way. Sometimes when you're assembling something there is a lot of difficult instructions. Sometimes there's Easy instructions, but one thing that I'm very grateful for is that there's probably some Out there in the world who is assembled what you're trying to assemble and they took a video of themselves and he posted on YouTube how many views done that you just go to YouTube and just fine Chris. I have a motorcycle, which I haven't talked about yet in a servant. So get ready for motorcycle illustration when it came in the mail yesterday. I didn't like the instructions. So I just went on YouTube and I saw what the guy didn't I did the same thing. That's wonderful. So instructions we definitely need instructions in life. Would you like to know the best instruction manual ever given to mankind? It's this right here. It's the Bible. In fact, I don't know if all of you knew this, but the Bible literally means basic instructions before leaving Earth. I'm just sitting up there. That's not what I mean. Although it is ironic that it's very accurate basic instructions before leaving Earth actually as a kind of a side note. I want to tell you where we get the name Bible from Bible is from the Greek word bib loss and the Latin Biblia which simply mean books and so when we say the Bible were talking about the collection of books into a singular buck. And so Bible literally means books or the books or the book and you think okay. Well, where did that word come from? Here's a here's a little extra history for you guys to know. Apparently the paper that they used to write originally on is from a Papyrus plant and they usually would Harvest those Somewhere in Egypt and so they would get all of this Papyrus from the seaport of Biblia. So that's where that comes from. So when we say the Bible were talking about the books and Bible literally means the seaport where they got the Papyrus to make paper which paper makes books of the story. All right, we're going through our mission statement. I feel like it's important for us to take a lot of time talking about the most important thing which is the Bible because everything we believe comes from the Bible. So let's talk about what we believe about the Bible the last week. What we did is we talked about how we believe that the Bible is God's chosen method of communicating with us. And aren't you glad that he did that for all of mankind instead of telling one person who has to tell another person he wrote this down make sure that it was written down so that we can know it and last week we talked about if the Bible is truly God's way of communicating with us, then that means three things. The first of the Bible is from God which is fairly obvious. But we need to understand God is the one who inspired and wrote this the second thing is that the Bible is the truth. It's not just filled with true things. It is the truth. And the third thing is that the Bible then is authoritative. And before we go on and our doctrinal statement and look at the different other things that we are that we believe I want to focus again on the Bible today and will do one more next week. And today we're going to do is we're going to talk about how the Bible is clear. The Bible is clear. We can understand it. And so every single person who lives in this world needs to ask this question. What does it take to understand God's word. What is it take for us to understand the Bible. And if the Bible is God's chosen method of communicating us he chose to communicate to us clearly and by that what I mean is that God intends for us to use a Literal interpretation or a normal interpretation of the word of God. Here's another fancy Biblical word is called hermeneutics hermeneutics is the science of the interpretation of literature and especially scripture and so are hermeneutical the way that we interpret the Bible is we do so literally or use a normal hermeneutic and this obviously takes into account that the Bible uses figures of speech and uses metaphors that uses poetry and it uses different genres of Literature Like a popped apocalyptic literature, especially if you look at some of the prophecies you go to Book of Revelation and a very Vivid and lots of imagery, but basically what we're trying to say is that God did not choose to communicate to us in code so that only a few people can understand what God is trying to say, he tells us plainly and he tells us clearly who he is so that we can know who he is and know who we are and what he expects from us. I don't know many of you this morning or saying I already know this I believe this but a lot of people don't believe this and they don't understand this and so it is worthwhile to say publicly. This is what we believe about how to study God's word and it's not something that we should take for granted some people out there in the world. They do think you probably run across people that the Bible is mysterious and it's very hard to understand and only a few people are able to understand this that got a conversation with a friend of mine growing up in high school and she told me that they were told by their religion that they were not allowed to read the Bible on their own that only a few people could read it and tell them what it meant that really the way the god communicating to us know. I don't think so at all are being passage of scripture this morning is from 2nd Timothy 3:16 always look at this before but let's read this again. This is what this passage says. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. And so this verse gives us a number of reasons why God chose to communicate with us clearly. And for today, I think even the most important word In this passage right here is the word profitable some of your translations might say something different might say useful but it said that the word of God is is profitable meaning that we can use it we can use it for these different things and it we can use it because it is clear. Will it look at three reasons Given In this passage the teachers why God chose to communicate to us clearly? And the first reason is this he did this so that we can teach each other. God communicating clearly to us so that we can teach each other again. Look at this passage for 16 and 17 says all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for what for teaching we can use this for teaching what God has given to us in the form of history and instructions and everything else within his word is given to us so that we can know him and so we can pass on that information to others and the information doesn't change over time. So he's given it to us clearly so that we can teach others. You know, this is always been the case, even when you look at the Old Testament and when you look at the New Testament, it's always been given so that we can teach others what the truth is. The passage in Deuteronomy where God is telling the nation of Israel through Moses the importance of teaching each other what God had said in his word and here in Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is what God says to the nation of Israel. He says Hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise you shall bind them as a sign on your hands and he shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall write them on the doorposts of your house. And on your Gates think about these others on the way that we can do that is because of the reason we can do that is because God communicated clearly in this is useful for teaching. Could you imagine if God had written to us in a very mysterious way that we didn't know exactly what it was saying. How many times would a parent tell their child this is what the Bible says a new if you disagree with each other maybe be like that for thousands and thousands of years. There's no way up. This is not clearly given to us and profitable for teaching what this meant. If God didn't give it to us clearly. So that's the first point that we have the reason why we can know this is clear is because it's profitable for teaching the second Point deals. Obviously with the first point in that is this shows to communicate with us clearly so that we can know the truth so that we can know what to do. We can be certain that this is the truth. The Bible also tells us the one thing that God wants more than anything else is for us to be saved. He wants us to have our sins forgiven so that we can be in a relationship with him and 1st Timothy Chapter 2 verses 3 and 4. This is what it says. 1st Timothy 2 3 and 4 and says this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our savior who desires all people to be saved and what and come to a knowledge of the truth. So this is what God wants for all of us to be saving to know the truth. And so if that's true and God really wants us to come to a knowledge of the truth and truth comes from God then God needs to give it to us clearly. And so as God spoke through the prophets and all the authors of scripture he gave it to us so that we can take this at face value and understand what it means answer again. Some of you were thinking I've known this my entire life. I I know that the Bible means what it says, but this is not the case for every single person out there in the world are told that you can understand this but this is this is what we can understand if God's words could not be interpreted literally then you and I would have no possible way of knowing what the truth is or how did he save and so even though that seems like Common Sense something is very important for us to say that we need to interpret the Bible literally and Jesus actually affirming this and he does this in John 8 verses 31 through 33 Are 31 and 32 he says this so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The only way that you and I can know the truth is of God gave it to us plainly and clearly and once we have that truth and we accepted then that truth will set us free will the third reason why God chose to communicate with us clearly is so that we can live holy lives so that we can live holy lives in 2nd Timothy 3:16 or mean passage for today. It says that God gave us his word because it's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction in for training in righteousness. One of those words that we use in church all the time, but righteousness means right living before God, but there's a certain standard that he holds us to in righteousness means that we meet that standard. What God desires for us more than anything else after we have placed your faith in him is for us to be holy just like he is Holy in about the desire for us. Then he needs to tell us what that looks like and how we can be. Holy. I know a plenty of places in scripture where we find that looks like one of those this morning First Peter chapter 1 verses 13 through 16. This is how we can be holy and how we can be righteous. 1st Peter 1:13 says there for preparing your minds for action and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient. Children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is Holy you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am Holy so this is one of the ways that we are trained in righteousness. We say no to those passions and all of us understand we read the words here in 1st Peter and we say I know exactly what that thing. I know the passions that he's talking about. I know those things they're really leave me to live a life that's not pleasing to the Lord. And so these three point that I've given to you that God gave us his word clearly so that we can teach so that we can know the truth and so that we can live holy lives if it's kind of academic

But the million-dollar question that we need to ask ourselves is well if this is how we're supposed to read the Bible then why is it that some of the Bible is confusing and why is it that not everyone agrees with the what the Bible says and so I have three more points in your sermon you're getting a double sermon today you getting six points. That's pretty good. Right and hopefully by going through these next three points you might say that kind of makes sense. Now, I understand why some parts of the Bible appear to be confusing. So let me give you three reasons why some people Miss understand scripture? Okay. The first reason is because scripture is filled with prophecies. Troopers killed his prophecies and not all of them have been fulfilled. And so when you're dealing with unfulfilled prophecies, sometimes that can lead to misunderstanding and I think a very good example of this was during Christ's time on Earth. He told his disciples. These are the things that are going to happen to me and he spoke to them in clear plain language and guess what? They didn't understand what he was talking about is very clear to us when they read it because those have been fulfilled a good example of this is found in Luke chapter 18. Teluk chapter 18 verse 31 and I have to admit I was wearied this today and we can see exactly what Jesus is talking about. It makes perfect sense to us and it's kind of frustrating that it didn't make sense to them, but Luke chapter 18 beginning of 31. It says I'm taking the 12. He said to them see we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the son of man by the prophets will be accomplished for he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon and after flogging him. They will kill him and on the third day. He will rise, but what did Jesus mean by that what he means exactly that right? It's pretty clear and yet the scripture says But they understood none of these things this saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp. What was said. And so unfulfilled prophecy can lead to some confusion fortunately all the prophecies that Jesus has fulfilled so far have been fulfilled literally and we can read of them and say, oh I know exactly what they're talking about and thank you Lord for giving us this this confirmation interesting thing is after Jesus had actually done the things that he said he was going to do here in this passage. I'm after is risen from the grave a couple of the disciples. They were walking on the road to Emmaus misses down in the last part of Luke and I ought to have this this verse on the screen. I'll put this up in a second and all the things that you met with them and has his conversation with them Luke 24 verse 25 and Jesus and he said to them Jesus to the disciples. Oh foolish ones and slow hard to believe all that the prophets and spoken wasn't necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets. He interpreted to them in all the scripture the things concerning himself back later on. I don't have this verse up there but in verse 32, so they said to each other did not our hearts burn within us when he talked to us on the road while he opened to us the scriptures. This is one of the reasons why many people have disagreements and there's a misunderstanding in the Bible today because sometimes we're dealing with prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. There's still a lot more in the Bible that has not taken place. And that's why some of us a will. This is confusing. I don't know what this mean because we need to just wait we need to wait because they will be fulfilled. And I do have to say this we here at our church believe that all these prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled. They will take place exactly as the Bible says they will and here's the pattern that we have when Jesus fulfilled prophecies from the Old Testament. He fulfilled them literally in the same way that the prophet said he would do that. And so we believe that the prophecies have yet to be fulfilled especially dealing with the nation of Israel and the kingdom of God. That's about to come we believe Jesus will fulfill those in the exact same way. He fulfilled the prophecy that he did. So this is one of the reasons why there's some misunderstanding because of prophecies and specifically unfulfilled prophecies. Well, there's another reason why some people find scripture hard to understand and now to do to their own lack of faith or the hardness of their hearts, This is the reason why some people can understand the word of God remember that even though this book is truth. It's filled with true facts. It's still a spiritual book it reaches into our souls and to our Spirits. So sometimes if someone has a lack of faith or a hardened heart, they're not able to understand some of these things. I think a great example of this is with the nation of Israel. They were told at a specific point in their history that God was going to give them their own land cuz I'm going to give this land to you. It's going to be yours. You will live in this part of the land and God brought them about of Egypt. He brought them to the doorsteps of the promised land is wonderful we can go in those take it and what happened to them. they had a lack of faith in God could do it and they had the hardness of their hearts and they refuse to accept what God said he was going to do and so when we get to the book of Hebrews the author of Hebrews wrote to people today saying be careful about having an unbelieving heart or lack of face because this is what gives life stood then back then Hebrews chapter 3 this is what this passage is referring to Hebrews chapter 3 beginning verse 12. It says take care Brothers. Let there be in any of you and evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the Living God but exhort one another every day, as long as it's cold today, the none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we have come to share in Christ's if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end as it is said today if you hear his voice Do not Harden your hearts as in the Rebellion referring to the Israelites in the desert how they hardened their hearts. And so many people fail to understand what the Bible says because of the condition of the parts. They refuse to be open and willing to accept what God's word it teaches them will finally there's one other point last point in a sermon. I want to give him a special attention to this point and another reason why some people fail to understand God's word is because they failed to see that God has dealt with different groups of people differently at different times throughout human history. And so the third reason is because we're reading something written to the wrong audience. We might be reading something that was not intended to be given to us. Today We Live in What's called the Bible calls. The age of Grace were Jews and Gentiles are equal in God's sight. Deals with all of mankind. And if anyone reads the Bible you realize it was not always the case. Sometimes he dealt with just the nation of Israel, you know, doctrinal statement. I put this up last week. It says it's about the Bible and this last Point kind of explains one of these phrases in here this what we believe the Bible, we believe the entire Bible verbally inspired of God is completely inerrant in the original writings and is when interpreted dispensation Ali of supreme and final Authority in life and faith some of you might know exactly what that means. Especially the word dispensation the others of you might say what in the world is that mean and that's what this third point is just recognizing that God dealt with different people at different times throughout human history. I want to come to give you an example of how this is important. On Tuesday nights here at our church. This place is packed. We have this wonderful Ministry called Awana will all these little kids from in the nursery. We have these copies. He's cute little puppies. Do we have you Sparky? We have TNT all the way up through sixth grade. I don't know the exact total that there's like 50 kids maybe 60 kids and we have another 20 and it's great and I'm all the leaders who go there all excited to get there and they're all excited when it's done so they can go home and go to bed ritual. We do this almost every single Tuesday night when all the kids are gone. I lock up the church and I had to Cafe Rio for taco Tuesday and archery. I love to do that. And even though we do this every Tuesday night imagine if I wasn't I didn't have a chance to talk to Christian and confirm this what if I wrote to her a note something like High tonight after Awana I'm going to go to Cafe Rio I'm going to get for Sweet Pork top Sweet Pork Barbacoa tacos, and I'm also going to get some chips and some queso dip tonight. So make sure you don't go to bed so we can eat tacos when I get home and then I sign my name and what if she took that piece of paper and she was all excited and she said yippee and she threw it up in the air and she walked off and what if all does Sparky's got a hold of that letter. That's right, and they read the letter and it says hey he's coming to my house tonight with tacos and chips and queso dip and I can't go to bed and what if they went home and told her parents? She coming to her house? I can't go to sleep. What's going to happen to go for kids and yet what happens I make I'm not making a joke out of this. I'm trying to make light of it. Maybe we're not making a joke out of this. But sometimes people will take different parts of the word of God and they will read it and say God is promising to do this for me and it leads to confusion. One of the greatest examples that we have of this is it found in Jeremiah 29:11 off of those of you who were just in the house for my Sunday school class A couple months ago. He did a great job explaining to this but this is probably one of the most misinterpreted but this is what Jeremiah 29:11 says, all right. Frye know, the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future and that's from the NIV. I think I like how the NIV puts this verse that's pretty good right prosperity. Nothing is going to go wrong, and I'm not going to be hard. And so if you look at this version you say God has a plan for me until there must be prosperity in my future. Well, is this written to US Written specifically to you while we need to do is back of 1 verse 2 verse 10 and realize it was written to a specific group of people verse 10. Just for that says the Lord when 70 years are complete for Babylon. I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. And if you go back all the way to the beginning of this chapter chapter 1 verse 1 of chapter 29, it gets very specific to the very people that this was written to this this process. Does this plan of a god prospering them in verse one it says, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving Elders of the Exiles into the priest to the prophets and all the people who never can never had taken into Exile from Jerusalem to Babylon featuring Jeremiah 29:11, wonderful passage, but wrongly applied to us today is written specifically to the nation of Israel while they were in Exile in Babylon. And after 7 years. This I promise I will bring you back home because my plan is to prosper you and some for us today to take a claim like this and applied to our lives and say this is God's will for my life. Going to lead to a lot of frustration and a lot of confusion and might eventually lead to people doubting other parts of God's word that is written for us looking at passage is an example like this. I have I have good news and I have bad news. All right. The good news is I believe with all my heart that God truly does want what is best for each and everyone of us. That's the good news. The bad news is is not necessarily to be wealthy write some of you say, amen. God also more than us being wealthy wants us to be holy. And if we're happy and healthy and it is and holy than that. That's it. That's a tremendous benefit. And sometimes Joy comes from sharing and God's holiness. So I think there can be great harm done in the body of Christ when we wrongly a pot apply a passage of scripture to us that was not intended for us. But the good thing about this passage even and Jeremiah 29:11, even though it might not be specifically to us. It does show as revealed to a Scott's character how he really does want what is best for his children in that something that we can apply to us, even though if it's not directly to us one passage that is directly to us. It's not a fun. It's not fun to show this right after the Jeremiah 29:11 passage. What did I say this in second Timothy 3:12 indeed all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ. Jesus will be persecuted. All right, so that is for us. And so if you live a Godly life chances, are you could be persecuted? Tragic read the word of God and as we accepted clearly we need to make sure that we're applying it to ourselves and especially the passages of scripture that are specifically written to us. All scripture is useful for teaching. We just need to make sure that were applying the passages of the written to us for us. What's morning? I want to close this message with a challenge. We talked about the Bible for the last couple days last couple Sundays and I just want to ask you this question in this book is from God and it is clearly written to us so that we can know it so that we can teach so that we can know how to live a righteous. Holy life. How much time do you spend every day and every week filling your heart and your mind with God's holy word and as we're going through this series on our doctrinal statement and we're spending time with folks on the word of God. The challenge for you. Maybe you already do this. Maybe you say I know I should be doing this more often, but I challenge everyone of you for this week, especially this week because this is written to us, it's clear. We can understand it spend time every day this week these next six days leading the next Sunday reading from God's word with the expectation that when you read this you'll be able to understand it and you'll be able to play Get your lives. So I hope that you'll take that challenge and I won't necessarily call anyone out. And if you didn't read the Bible, that's fine. That's between you and God he'll get you.

But you know, there are countless blessings found in the fact that God has chosen to communicate with us clearly and the biggest blessing is by reading the word of God. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt who Jesus Christ is he is the Son of God. He did come from the father. He did die in the cross for our sins. He did rise from the grave so we can have the hope of eternal life. That is the most important part of this entire word. And so it's closed right now in prayer and let's thank God for giving us his holy word and teaching us the truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ what spray? Dear. I thank you that we have the freedom in this great country that we live in that we can gather together this morning and we can open up your word that you've given to us and we can understand it clearly on Lord. I think this is the foundation that is so important that we need to continue to lay the foundation of what we believe about the Bible with the Bible teaches us about itself so that we as a church as we move forward, we know the Firm Foundation that we stand on and I realize that there are people in this room that have believed these things for many many years, but we also need to understand we it's giving us this privilege in this responsibility to cheat teach listen to share this with the Next Generation and it's so fun to walk around in the halls of this church and in and watch your kneecaps cuz all these kids are running around Lord, what a precious resource you've given to us through our wanted Ministry our youth ministry and having these groceries overflowing with kids Lord. I put it with an O. Our hearts this passion in this desire to teach our children the truth about the word of God so that they know what the Bible is and they know the truth that it contains and so Lord my prayer right now cuz we close our service soon as we get ready to enter into the work week for the school week or whatever. It is. All of us were about to go go to just to reiterate in and place us on our hearts and our minds at Lord. There is truth in the world and you have taught us your truth and you've done it in a way that is playing in clear and for that we thank you for these things in Jesus name amen. Have a wonderful week.