See video here.
Transcription
There will be no Wednesday service this week because of Thanksgiving. And so just to remind you, so you don’t show up and nobody’s here. And also, this is the last week for the collection of the Christmas Child boxes. And so they’re going to be collected out in the four year, and they’ll be taken and then shipped out all over the world to two children. And so if you have a box, make sure that you bring it in. And open your Bibles along with me to Leviticus 24. Father, we can be for you in Jesus name. And we thank You for Your Word and for your truth and the way you are able to speak to us and just magnificent ways. Because it’s not our ideas. It’s not our purpose. It’s not our direction, but it’s yours. We have to be seeking after with all our heart, and it’s your word that truly is a lamp unto our feet, and a light to our path. And so we pray, Father, that your word your word would always lead us along the way of righteousness, and that we would walk and seek after you with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, for no other reason, than to then our desire to see people saved and come into the kingdom of God. And I give You thanks in Jesus name, amen, and amen. You know, one of the things I wanted to share, and the Lord kind of put this on my heart to share, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to Georgia or not. But, you know, every time I stand behind the pulpit to preach, I get nervous. Because I had such a fear of speaking in front of people. As a matter of fact, when I was a child in school, and a teacher would call on me, I would just sit there and tears would come down my eyes because I couldn’t talk. And the reason was, is that I had a severe learning disability. I couldn’t read until I was in eighth grade. In fact, I was always good at math, but I couldn’t read until I was in eighth grade. And so obviously, for instance, spelling was down the tube I never had get like a 10 or five on a spelling test. So I used to bring my spelling workbook calm. This is years ago, and they’d let me bring it home for a weekend. And my mother would write out and copy the entire spelling book, so that she could go over the spelling words with me. And that’s the only reason I ever got through through spelling. But back in those days, remember, they used to go around the class, and each child would read a chapter or a paragraph, and then they’d go to the next child. Whenever it would come to me, I would just sit there, and just tears coming down my face because I couldn’t read. And the reason I’m sharing this is to show the faithfulness of God because when I was 10 years old, I made a promise to God. And I said, Lord, if you heal me, I promise I’ll grow up and be a pastor, be a minister. And he healed me. I had a miraculous healing at 10 years old, and I never forgot that. But then his wife for nine I really thought this assessment of me becoming a pastor was impossible. Because, you know, to use a generic slang term, I really thought I was dumb. I mean, I really did.
But God is always faithful. And so he was able to take me having no idea how I would fulfill this calling. And take me through college and graduate school and Postgraduate School and, and, and I just praise God for it. But nevertheless, to this day, every time I stand up in front of people, I have those butterflies. Because after all these years, those memories come back. And you might be thinking, why is he sharing all that? Because I think it relates to what we’re going to be looking at this morning. And that is that everything in God’s word is to speak to us is to encourage us and to show us his faithfulness, and that he is able to do things, even if it seems impossible to be done. You know what I’m saying? I mean, the very fact that I’m Standing here is your pastor is a miracle. It’s a total miracle of God. And so therefore I believe in miracles. And I believe that miracles are not just for me, but there for anyone who’s seeking after the Lord. And it might not be some whoo, whoo, spectacular kind of thing. It could be something in your heart, or in your mind, whatever it might be. But the Lord can work miracles, if you trust in Him. So we always have to keep in mind as we’re studying the Word is that it’s not just information. This is not just information to understand that this is the word of God speaking to us individually. I mean, this is the word of God. You ever think about that? We use the term you know the word of God. This is the word of God of Almighty God speaking to each one of us. And so we have to seek God to reveal to us the meaning of his word when we’re reading. The Bible talks about you know, meditating on the Word of God and what that’s speaking to us as you shouldn’t just read some cursory way that if you don’t meditate on it, what is it saying to me, was the Lord trying to show me because the Lord has a purpose, as you as a believer, making you mature in him, and that is so that you would become his witness that you would be a light you’re going to be talking about that this morning, you would be a light to the world. You know why? Because the Bible tells us he has patient wishing for how many to perish. None. He doesn’t want anyone to perish. And therefore, we have the responsibility of being the light to shine that light throughout the world, the truth of what we have in God, I once was lost and now saved. I am now saved. Don’t understand that you and I were perishing without any hope. And Jesus Christ came into this world, paid our debt and gave us the signed sealed deposit. of His Holy Spirit, that we might have to do this in our car to the fullest ability of God in our heart to do whatever he calls us to do. So don’t have Don’t let anyone discourage you. And don’t discourage yourself in the fact that God is able to work through you to do whatever he wants. Just let him so awesome. Now, one of the first things we’re going to be looking at today is that the law required the lamps of the holy place to be kept burning at all times. Why? Because it represents the fact that we are a light to the world. And so we must keep our lamps burning, being a light to the world at all times. And I’m going to share a few verses with you. And one is from Matthew, chapter five, verse 16. It says, like you’re not someone else’s, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify Your father in heaven. Our light is for the purpose of people glorifying God getting saved, coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then in Matthew 623, it says, If, therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. And this is the reason the only thing we teach is the word of God. This is the only pure light. And so we have to understand that the light that we’re to express is the truth of God to the world around us. And it is his light. It’s not ours comes from him alone. And I’m going to be sharing about the seven lamps but just use our menorah as an example. I think a menorah is an awesome thing for if anyone wanted to have one in their home. This one, we actually got an Israel and the menorah has definite meaning to it. We’re going to be talking about it in a moment. But the base of course, the This isn’t solid gold, but if the base if it was solid gold, it represents the Lord. And of course the lamps there’s seven of these lamps dancer, seven of them that hold the lamps and that represents the church. Seven always is the number of completion. Okay? There are the letters to the seven churches, Jesus stood among the seven golden lamp stands. So even though there’s there are many more than seven churches seven represents the church as a whole, and the church is made up of people, and we’re the lamps. But in order for that lamp to be lit, it has to be ignited by the Holy Spirit. And so when we’re born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, our lamp shines. This is called a menorah, which means lamp stands. And this is a nurse, which is the light stand, but it is the fire of God that gives us the ability to light Darkness. And one of the things that’s interesting is even though there are many branches to the lamp stand when the lights lit, it only gives off one light. What that refers to and what it speaks to us is that even though you have churches of every kind all around, it’s your Bible believing churches. There are many churches, but there’s only one God. There are many churches, but there’s only one message. There’s many churches, but there’s only one purpose, and that is to share the truth of God to the world around us.
Now, in Ephesians, if you want to turn to that, Chapter four. Ephesians, chapter four, go to verse three, Ephesians four verse three, endeavoring to keep the light, or I’m sorry, in endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, listening to this There is one body, and one spirit, just as you were called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all in all, there’s only one God. There’s only one Holy Spirit, there’s only one salvation. Now, we might have many branches of the church all around. And sometimes the churches are somewhat different, a little bit different, as long as you’re standing on the truth of God’s Word. And that’s a good thing, so that people can sit in and feel comfortable where they’re called to. But the very purpose of the church is that the Pure Word, the pure pressed olive oil, might be dispensed to the people, that the Holy Spirit would illuminate it and cause us to be his light to shine throughout the world. It’s just an amazing thing when you study God’s word. And it’s interesting too, but we’re told in this portion, we’re going to be reading it in just a moment, as the priests were to attend the lamps. That’s pastor Frank Jr. My responsibility. We have a respect. We’re not priests were pastors. But our responsibility is to tend the lamps by offering the Pure Word of God. It’s not our responsibility to make you apply the Word of God. That’s the Holy Spirit’s responsibility and your willingness, our responsibility is to just lay out the word of God, lay out the feast table before you and then you take the Word of God, the bread of life, and you ingest it and allow the Holy Spirit to use it in you, that you might be his witness, everywhere you go.
You know, it should never be any of our own ideas that we expound upon. Right pastor Frank Jr. and I it should always be his words that we expound upon, because it’s only God’s word that has power. Otherwise, it’s just our own thoughts in our own ideas. That’s the important thing. So if you go to Vegas chapter 24 I’m sorry with my glasses. I keep putting them. I used to have I had a pair of preaching glasses, you know preaching the classes are for those of you that were bifocals bifocal was so I could read and then I could look up and see everyone. And all of a sudden, it must be because I’m getting older. They just don’t work. They just, they’re just off. And so I have my reading glasses, my good prescription reading glasses, but then when I put them on, I look up and I can’t see you. So it’s really pretty frustrating. Just to let you know I’m doing all that up and down. Okay. Leviticus 24 starting with first one. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil press for the light to make the lamp to make the lamps burn continually outside the veil, the testimony in the tabernacle of meetings, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the Lord continually. It shall be a statute forever your generations, he shall be in charge of the lamp on the pure gold lamp stand before the Lord continually. Now it’s interesting, if you notice that the lamps were a pure gold, the lamps were a pure gold. And we have to realize that gold always represents purity before the Lord. And so not only the light that the vessel should also be made pure before the Lord. And that’s what gold represents the refining of gold. And in the same sense, we have to realize that we aren’t the light, but we are filled with the light. We are filled with light comes from God. We’re simply the lamp holder but the Holy Spirit is the light That is shown to those around us. Now we have to realize the people were to provide the pure and pressed oil for God’s use. But it was the spirit and only the spirits that could give light or ignition to that pure oil. And whenever we take credit for anything we’re doing, we’re taking the credit from the Lord, and the light that we’re shining is not the Pure Light of God. It’s our own light. It’s only what God does not what we do that has any benefit or any help and other people. And that’s the reason whenever we’re witnessing to other people, we shouldn’t say, Well, I’ll tell you what, since I’ve been saved that become the greatest person in the world. In fact, I don’t know anyone who’s as humble and wonderful as I am. And I know we don’t actually say that, but oftentimes, that is the testimony of people. I mean, our testimony should be I’m a wretched sinner saved by grace. God in His love and His mercy. He reached down And he saved my wretched heart. And the only reason that I can stand before Him is because of His love, because of the Holy Spirit that dwells within me, his free gift. That’s the only reason I can claim to be a child of God. Not because of anything I’ve done. I think we sang that song this morning, but what he has done, what he has done in us and through us. And so you and I are to offer the Lord, a pure heart. Now, we’re not talking about perfection. And if people say, What are you saying, we have to become perfect before we can use be used of God and shine the light of God? No, no, I’m not talking about perfection. I’m talking about being made perfect. Well, what do you mean? It means confession and repentance. If we confess our sin first john one nine, He’s faithful and just to forgive us, and what does he do? purify us from all unrighteousness So I’m not pure because well, I’m just a wonderful guy. I don’t know anyone who’s as holy as I am. The only reason I can claim any kind of perfection is because of him. He purifies me when I’m continually before him and confession, repentance. What a beautiful thing it is. We are imperfect vessels that he’s perfect. And he’s able to cause his perfect light to shine through us, if we’re only willing. Now, notice that the lampstand was to be made of pure gold. You know, in Revelation, chapter three and verse 18, it says, I console you to buy from me, bow, refine and fire, that you may be rich. It is his gold that we purchase from him. It’s refined by Him. And He alone is the one that allows us to be his light into the world. And all we have to do is say, God, forgive me a sinner. Come on. When was in my heart and use me to minister to others? That’s it, he doesn’t. So that’s not a complicated thing. Well, you know, before you get saved, you have to go through 25 degrees of penance. And you have to go through catechism classes and you have to read the Bible through three times standing on your head, and then possibly you might, that’s not the way it is. All we do is we cry out to God, forgive me a sinner. And that’s it. You think of the season the cross, Jesus is dying on the cross, as a propitiation of vicarious propitiation for our sins, he’s hanging there in the cross, and he has two thieves alongside of him. And the ones he starts, you know, saying rebuking things to Jesus. And the other thief says, Look at we’re dying because I’m putting it in my own words, and he said, We’re dying because we deserve it. We’re sinners, but this man did nothing wrong. Then he turned to Jesus. And he said, remember me when you come into Kingdom into your kingdom. It’s always said He didn’t go through all kinds of Penance and all kinds of rituals. And he just said, remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Jesus said, this very day, you’ll be with me in paradise. Wow. That’s the love of God in Christ Jesus. It’s not complicated. It’s very simple. Because we have to understand fire either purifies or devours. It purifies the pure heart. But it devours the heart of flesh. And so if we go before the Lord and say, slower, man, just purify me. I have a heart that desires to come after you. But Lord, I’ve got so many things in my flesh, so many things around me that that are just so much hay straws, stubble that need to be burned away. Come Lord, and and sanctify me with your fire from heaven, and he will.
But if you have a heart of flesh to say, Well, God, you’re lucky to have that Here I am. Well, why don’t you just fill me and use me? Well, you’re going to be consumed. Because you have a heart of flesh. Everything has to point back to Jesus. If it wasn’t for Jesus Christ, none of us would be going to heaven. We owed a debt. Remember the son, we could not pay. And he paid a debt he did not owe. And that’s the reason we can be so thankful to the Lord. In First Peter, if you want to turn their chapter one. First Peter chapter one, and go to verse seven.
You know, it’s so funny people sometimes have said to me, you know, because you do your systematic expositional preaching, which means going right to the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. When you’re in the Old Testament, don’t people miss out on the New Testament? Well, you have to understand the Old Testament was just prophesied what was going to happen in the New Testament. And that’s why when we’re teaching pastor Frank and I we go back and forth, why because it The only way you can do it, it’s one Bible. We shouldn’t say Old Testament new test. It’s the Bible. That’s it.
In First Peter chapter one, verse seven, it says, but the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold, that perishes, don’t is tested by fire may be sound to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom have not seen you love. So now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, hallelujah.
You and I believe in someone we’ve never seen. But it doesn’t mean we don’t know him and we haven’t experienced him. If you’re born again, and Jesus is within your heart, your cardiac if he’s in your inner man, you know him You’ve heard his voice. You felt his direction in life. You know him, but you haven’t seen him yet. But here’s the blessing hope, the glorious appearing, if our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, one day we will see him. One day we will see him face to face. Scripture tells us, oh, what a glorious day it will be when we all get to heaven. What a glorious day it will be. Can you imagine one day that comes going to stand whatever that is. And the dead in Christ will rise first. And be their glorified bodies will be reunited with your soul and spirit, which is coming from heaven says Jesus will bring the dead with him. But then the dead in Christ rise first. So that’s where you have. Jesus brings their soul and spirit to them with him, his essence of who we are personality, then their glorified bodies to meet the Lord in the air. Then we who are left and still alive, baby You and I right now. She’ll be caught up together will be changed First Corinthians 15 will be changed and caught up together to meet him in the air. And there we shall be with the Lord forevermore. I can’t imagine. You know, sometimes people say, Well, I can’t wait to get to heaven and see my grandma and grandpa, see my aunt not all see my good friend here as well. Yeah, good for you. But when I get to heaven, I just going to be looking at Jesus Really? I mean, can you imagine, you know, Hey, Joe, oh, just a minute. Jesus, you know, you kidding me? When we get to heaven, we’re going to be blown blown away, because we’re going to see the glorified resurrected Jesus Christ that we read about in the book of Revelation on believable it’s going to be fantastic. Now moving on to verses five through nine of chapter 24 of it of Leviticus. And you shall take fine flour and bake 12 cakes with it. two tenths of an effects that’s approximately four pounds. It’s pretty big loaf of bread, probably four pounds. She’ll be in each K, and you shall set them in two rows six in a row on the pure gold cable before the Lord, remember the pure gold, the purity before the Lord, and you shall put pure Frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for memorial and offering made by fire to the Lord, every Sabbath, he shall set in order before the Lord continually being taken from children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.
Now notice what was on this pure bowling table. Bread covered with Frankincense. It wasn’t pastries, it wasn’t your favorite donut. It wasn’t cheesecake. It was bread. It wasn’t, you know, a variety of breads. What We have the pita bread choice and we have your Frank’s favorite Columbus bread choice and you know we have all these, it was just it was just bread. And you know why? Because the Word of God is simple. And the word of God has to be presented simple simply and so people who go to churches because boy we want to hear the Word of God all glammed up. We want to have all kinds of pastries and all these feel good messages to make us, you know, actually talked to a guy one time, they said Jay said, I used to go to this one church and and it was all right. You know, the pastor preach it preach from the Word of God, it was okay. But I just stopped going here because every time I went, I was convicted. I’m serious. I’m not joking. And I’m looking at him and I’m thinking, you know, what do you mean? Hopefully we are, but understand conviction should never be a negative thing. Criticism and ridicule is negative conviction isn’t because we have to understand Guilt comes from Satan. You don’t kill this, you’re no good, you’re never going to be any good. You really screwed up this time, you’re never going to have any victory over this. You’re a bad person. That’s guilt. That’s for Satan. Chris conviction comes from Jesus Christ conviction is my child, what you did was wrong, confess and repent, and everything will be right. That’s conviction.
So when I’m studying the Word of God and preparing the message, I can’t tell you how convicted I am over and over again, how the Lord speaking to my heart. And it’s only fair that I shared that conviction with you, right? But you understand my point, conviction is a good thing. I mean, think about this. Let’s say you’re taking a calculus course. And the professor gets up there and says, well, you’re taking one of the hardest math courses that this institution has to offer. But here’s the thing that will kind of make you happy. I’m not going to make any corrections. Whatever you do is fine. I’m not Gonna tell you anything you’re doing wrong. It’s just, we’re just going to get together and have fun. Well, it might be a fun class. But when you walk out of there, you know nothing about calculus. How do you learn? Because he says, These are the rules, and this answer is wrong. Now, I’m not telling you you’re stupid or dumb. I’m just saying, here’s how you have to do it. And if you do it this way, you’ll be right. That’s what conviction is. That’s what we need to be seeking the Lord for to show us his way. God is so good. And we should not be going to church ever to feel good about ourselves. Although church makes you feel good, but that’s not the reason we go. We go to church for one reason to worship the Lord.
You know why we worship the Lord is worth it. We come before God Thank You, Jesus for saving my rich soul. And then we hear his word broken open. And remember they said our hearts burned with in us. So we have to understand when we hear the word broken open, our hearts should burn within us, because it’s the Lord, His Holy Spirit is speaking to us. And we have to always remember that Jesus is the bread of life, and he is the word of God. Did you know that? In the Gospel john chapter one, verse one, it says, In the beginning was the Word, capital W, in your Bible, is to logos, that’s the word of God is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word and the Word capital W was with God and the Word capital W was God. That’s Jesus Christ, through Him all things who created nothing was created. It wasn’t created through him, you know, the rest of that first. And then it’s still in the Gospel of john chapter six and verse 41. The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. So in this chapter, he’s telling us at the very beginning, number one, that he is the word of God and he’s also telling is the word of God is the bread is the bread of life that feeds us. And again in the Gospel john chapter six, this time in verse 51, he says, I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone needs to this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I give, shall get the bread I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Jesus died on the cross, the bread of life, the Word of God died on the cross, that we might consume His Word and His truth and his love and live forever.
You know, people say do you believe in hell? Absolutely. Because the reality is, how could I believe in heaven? If there wasn’t a hell? There’s no hell. What’s the distinct distinction? What’s the choice? Of course there’s a heaven and of course there’s a hell. But the fact of the matter is, no one is in hell, because they were forced to go there. Anyone who is in Health is because they refuse to accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved from what sin and death to go and to be with the Lord forever and ever. such an amazing thing. Now So Jesus is the bread of life come down through heaven, but the vessel that receives this bread, you and I, we have to be willing and able to use it and to allow it to nourish us. You know what I’m saying? It’s taken after my son kind of joking around. I would like to get up and first thing in the morning have a cup of coffee, and a Twinkie. And for lunch, I would like to have a glass of chocolate milk and two quick Twinkies. And for supper, I would like to have a nice cup of coffee and a half a cheesecake but if I did that I would be very malnourished and very sick. The reality is that some of the sets, you know, I’ve never heard anyone saying, you know, I can’t wait to get home tonight we’re having asparagus. I mean, some of you might be that way, you’re learning enough. But anyway, but the point I’m getting it. We don’t we don’t say that. I can’t wait to get home tonight because we’re having, you know, roast chicken. It’s always the thing that we like. But some of these things that we don’t get all excited about are very important for our proper nutrition in order to keep our bodies healthy. See what I’m saying? And so when we take in the Word of God, there might be some things that we read, that are hard, but the Lord is going to use it in order to strengthen us and to keep us strong in him.
In fact, I wrote this down I think this is interesting. You can’t look at the Bible as just another book. contains the word of life. And the gospel john chapter six, verses 66 through 69. For the for that time, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with Him no more remember this portion? And then Jesus said to the 12, his 12 disciples, 12 apostles, do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Why? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of God. What else we’re going to go. He’s the only one, the Word of God. You know, he’s the one who has eternal life to offer to us by simply confessing their sins. One of the things that I find interesting is there is one low for every tribe. And you know, what that speaks to us is there’s bread enough for every one of us. There’s bread, enough for everyone. Not just for this one or that one, just enough bread for everyone. It’s kind of like Jesus remember when he fed the 5000 fed fed the 4000 there wasn’t enough bread but doors, enough bread. You had the, you know, the boy who brought his little lunch with him, you know, fish and bread. And he’s thinking to himself, look at all these suckers around here. They could bring anything to eat. Here I am this little kid. I’ve got my two fish and I buy my loaf of bread. My five was bread. And then Jesus said to him, Hey, kids, give me your fish, Nero’s red. Now he probably didn’t say it that way. But he said, Here, bring your fish and loaves up here. And what happened? Did people have enough to eat? How many basket falls they take up that were left over. There’s always enough bread. When you dig into the Word of God, it will feed you it will nourish you. Now, the thing we have to see here as well that I think it’s also important is noticed that every Sabbath, the bread was change. didn’t leave the same. Read there for four months, every Sabbath, that bread was taken eaten by the priests a new bread was laid out. And how does that apply? It applies to the fact that pastor Frank Jr. and I, we do not have a rotation of sermons that we do every four years. Well, it’s time to go back to my don’t know, we present new bread every week. Do you know if you if you are a pastor, you get all this literature in the mail on these magazines? There’s a an advertisement that I get quite often it says, Pastor starter for the busy pastor. Why what? I’m going to buy outlines of a message.
How am I hearing from the Lord? You know, service starters for the busy pastor. But I’ll tell you what, if a pastor is not able to spend time working on a message to present to the people, he’s he’s messed up. He’s too busy doing other things that he shouldn’t be. Doing, he should be working on the Word of God. Fresh manna has to be presented every week every Sabbath. And just as the bread in the holy place it was, remember it said take incense and put over it. frankincense, which is the kind of incense he said sprinkle that over it. Though it’s interesting if you read Revelation, chapter eight verses three through four, it tells us incense is the prayers of the saints. So frankincense, for instance, always represents prayer, which was laid upon the bread of life. And what I take from that for pastor Frank Jr. and I, what I take from that is, if you’re not praying all through your sermon preparation, and you’re not praying over your sermon before you present it to the people you’re teaching before you’re presented to the people, then it’s nothing more than presenting your own ideas. You know what I’m saying? I don’t want to present any of my if I presented all my own ideas, you guys would be so messed up. is the word of God. And you know, this is where I’m concluding with this. If you’re really studying the Word of God, one of the one of the ways you’ll know that you’re really studying the Word of God and allowing it to speak to you is you’ll change. There are things that I believed and taught when I first went into the ministry that I think back on it, and I’m embarrassed because I was following, you know, some doctrinal teaching or whatever. And by the way, that’s one of the important things as far as the Word of God is just like food. If you had food on the table, a good nourishing meal sitting on a table before you and you just went you know, somehow you’re absorbing it through your thoughts, just looking at footsteps, you know, good. You’re not going to be nervous. You’re going to become malnourished and sick. What do you have to do with the food, eat it and this Same thing is true with the Word of God. If you just look at it means nothing. It has to be injected into your, you know your inner man, it has to be taken in. Because one of the things that proper nutrition does is it gives us the ability to fight off infection. And the point being brothers and sisters, is there’s nothing more dangerous to the Christian than false teaching. And there’s all kinds of false teaching out there more than I would even have time to ever expound on. There’s all kinds of false teaching out there. So how do you know if it’s false teaching or not? The Word of God? The brains, that’s where we got our name, the bereans were of more noble character than assessor lunians for they received the message Paul’s preaching with all eagerness, but gaily examines the scriptures to see if what Paul was saying was true.
We need to examine the scriptures. Just because, you know, I’m your pastor, and I’m old and no things. It doesn’t mean that everything I say you just take. It’s okay. The pastor said that that’s it. No, I want you to notice the Word of God. Because my purpose is to expound the Word of God to you. But it is your responsibility to receive it, and allow the Holy Spirit to apply it to your life, that you become a light into this world. We have to understand that God’s word, my friends, is the most precious gift that he’s ever given to man. It’s not the book. No, people think, well, the Bible. I mean, I could take this and thrown in the fire. And it doesn’t mean anything. I’m not going to go to hell or anything like that. When it talks about the Word of God, it’s what’s in it, it’s the message. And so we need to be willing to take time to study the Word of God. I mean, do we have a Bible reading program We go through the Bible is the only time you look at the Bible when you come to church. Both that so you’re going to be a very now malnourished and very weak believer who is going to be able to be taken as a slave here and there by some false teaching or narrative. We need to know the word of God for ourself. Nothing is a greater blessing to me. And I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I won’t say any names or anything. And sometimes, you know, maybe doing some work around here and I have a chance to be with, you know, another believer, and we’re talking about the Bible in this net. And, and it just happens all the time in our Wednesday Bible study, and people say things like, wow, they write it down. You know, so I can use it the message and take credit for it, but you know what I’m saying, I’m listening to other people in the church, and they’re sharing things from Scripture, just like wow, to me. That means they’re studying the Word of God. And so I’m not trying to make you feel guilty right? I’m trying to bring what conviction that you need to be studying the Word of God is the best book you’ll ever read is the best book you’ll ever read. And every page is filled with encouragement from the Lord.
So my friends, that’s the whole idea of the menorah in the manna, and how it applies to us as believers. Father in heaven, we come before you and Jesus, Yeshua’s name and how we thank You for Your Word and for your truth. And the way you’re able to take this magnificent truth and apply it to our hearts and apply to our lives. That we truly might be a light to the world we might truly be able to lead others since the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And Father, I pray that you would cause your blessing to fall upon each one who is here, and that you would fill them with your Holy Spirit and give them strength throughout this week, to be your witness. And Lord put a conviction on their hearts that Have a love for your word I pray in Jesus name, amen and amen. God bless you my dear friends.