.png)
Bread of Life Church of Fresno
Welcome to the Bread of Life Church Podcast! This podcast seeks to bring the Bible to life through teaching and sharing what God has given us in His word. The goal of these messages is to obtain a functional spirituality that is worked out on a daily basis through the love and power of God.
Bread of Life Church of Fresno
Pursuit: God's Word | Doug K
Doug introduces the vital role of God's Word in our spiritual journey and underscores the importance of pursuing a deeper understanding of scripture. We examine what it means to truly follow Jesus and the transformative power of applying His teachings in everyday life.
• Importance of pursuing God’s Word for spiritual growth
• Understanding the Great Commission’s emphasis on teaching
• The role of scripture in resisting temptation
• Insights into biblical literacy and cultural relevance
• Practical steps to engage with the Bible in daily living
• The connection between faith and actionable discipleship
Don't forget to check out bolcf.org for more resources on studying the Word of God!
Find more content at bolcf.org
Amen. Well, I'm going to try to move very quickly and I know you guys are good, I'll try to be prompt. I listened to Tom's message about pursuit and I know you're launching this year in pursuit different aspects Very amazing. Thankful for that. What I've been given an assignment for is to talk about pursuing the Word of God, because that is incredibly important. If we're going to pursue God, we've got to pursue His Word, and I know Tom talked a lot about Acts 2, when the Spirit of God birthed the church of God, the first thing they were devoted to was the apostles' teaching then to fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer and that idea of the Word of God. I want to hit on that here this morning because the word of God is so important. It's an incredible place. You know Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well and she said well, hey, our forefathers said you worship this way. You say that way, this mountain, that mountain, what is it? And he said the time is coming, and now is when the true worshipers worship the Lord in spirit and truth. It's not one or the other, it's both together. And so we're going to talk about that element of the truth of God and pursuing the word of God this morning.
Speaker 1:Now, what I'm going to do here is I want to begin by talking about basically the vital place, a bit of a vision of the vital place of the word of God among his people. Because here's what I found If vision answers why, right, that's kind of what vision does. It's designed to answer why we're doing it. I got to listen to the lady that did In-N-Out Burger. I got to listen to an interview and I thought, oh, praise God, I always like it. But now I've got vision, you know, because I understand why they're doing it, things like that. So vision answers why. And here's the issue when it comes to the Word of God, if we don't get the why right, we usually won't get the way right. I know that sounds cliche-ish, but it's very important. If we don't understand the why from God's design, then we'll probably have a problem getting the way right, of actually putting it into practice. So I want to start out this morning by answering the why, why, why does God insist on his word being so important?
Speaker 1:Okay, so if you turn to Matthew 28, we're not going to read a lot. I'm going to quote scriptures, but we won't read them for time's sake. But turn to Matthew, chapter 28. Okay, this is one of the post-resurrection commissions. All right, and what I mean by that is it's commissions Jesus gave his followers after he rose from the dead. Every gospel writer records one of them, and we're going to look at the one that Matthew records. Matthew had a Jewish audience in mind. That's why you see, when you look at his writings, so many references to Old Testament passages and how Jesus was bringing them to pass, and so I want to look at a couple of them from Matthew. This is the first one, because I think this one's very important. Okay, matthew 28, and we're going to read verse 19 through 20. Okay, and Jesus said this again post-resurrection.
Speaker 1:Now, when we think of the great commissions or post-resurrection commissions, we often think maybe of one of them or two of them. You know, you baptize people, you preach the gospel. Matthew's is very important because it's got the word of God right at the center of it. He says this in verse 19,. Go, therefore, and make disciples from all the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, and look at this and teaching them to observe that word. Observe means put into practice. Can we say that together? Put into practice, teaching them to put into practice all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. This was a post-resurrection commission, a great commission, and it had the teaching of the word of God and helping people have the word of God being put into practice in and through their lives. We often don't think this.
Speaker 1:Matthew 28, great commission, by the way, is one that often we don't get it right. We often think of the great commission as going and getting people baptized. No, he says make disciples. He's talking about a way of life, a disciple. When you look at the definition, it was a follower, a learner and an adherent, and we're not trying to just make converts or people that just you know sign a card or get back. We want people to follow Jesus. It's a way of life. Christianity is a way of life following Jesus. I want to get this, because you won't understand the place of the word if we don't get this one. It's not about just having a transaction where I do a spiritual barcode and therefore I'm going to heaven when I die. That is not biblical Christianity, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:When you look in the Bible, the word disciple in the gospels, 269 times Jesus speaks of being disciples. The word Christian is used three times. All right, now I say can you be a Christian without being a disciple With maybe your version, but the biblical version of Christianity? You know we're in the self-identity movement. We're not. We don't want to be self-identified as Christians. We want God to identify us right, and it has to be a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 1:You look in the gospels. This is crazy. Can I get animated? It helps me go quicker, okay, but when you look at the gospels, when Jesus walking around, he used this term follow me, come after me, come with me. 35 times, 35 times. He used the term believe in me four times. Yeah, come on now. Did you say? Come on now. Say that in the mic. Oh, come on now, come on now. That's not biblical Christianity. Just believe in Him. It's follow Him, it's be with Him. Salvation, folks, folks, righteousness is in Jesus. That's not just a mental ascent turn, it's a reality term. Think about that. 35 times, come on. That means we follow Jesus. Does this make sense to you? So our call is to help people follow him and then, as they follow him and become his and are born again and are touched by the spirit of God, they begin to learn how to put his word into practice in their life. Does this make sense to you? I've seen so much.
Speaker 1:Let me tell a couple of stories here I'm checking time here when I encountered this believism. Christianity, I mean, we encounter it all the time. But I remember one time you may have heard these stories, but I was on a prayer walk early one morning and there's a guy sitting on a park bench, right at the crack of dawn, of course, when I'm praying and I've had coffee and I'm stimulated by the Spirit, stimulated by the spirit stimulated by caffeine, and here's a guy sitting on a bench, nobody else is around. I said, hey, how you doing. And he goes hey, man, I'm doing good. And he had a smile on his face. I said hey, I'm Doug. What's your name?
Speaker 1:I thought there might be an opening there. And he says my name's David. And so I'm immediately thinking okay, what are you doing out this early in the morning? He goes I just got out of jail, been there for six months. He points down to the jail, which I didn't realize it was right down, so interesting. I said that's amazing, david, what were you in for.
Speaker 1:Well, then he just opens up his life story and he talked about even how the last seven years and he starts telling these awful things fathered several kids with different women and, you know, was in and out of jail for drug stuff and everything like that. And then he was alienated from his parents. And you know I'm sitting there going okay, I've lived a little of that life. I said well, david, I want you to know something, man, there's good news here, because I had some similarities. I wasn't in jail, but I did a lot of this stuff. I had some similarities. I wasn't in jail, but I did a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1:But I said here's what I found, david. I said I found that when I gave my life to Christ and began to follow him, all that changed and now I've got this wonderful wife and four kids. I said man, david, have you ever heard about following Jesus? And he goes. Oh, I did that. And I said did what? And he goes. I did what you're talking about. I said okay, what did you do?
Speaker 1:And he said well, seven years ago a guy came to the county jail when I was in there and he said he talked about Jesus and said if you want to receive him in your heart, just raise your hand with me. And he raised. He said I raised my hand, I did what you're talking about. And my mind quickly said wait a second. All the bad stuff you told me happened seven years after he did that. And I said David, what did you do? And he goes. I raised my hand, david, I'm not talking about just believing in Jesus, I'm talking about following him. That's how our life changes. And he goes oh, I never heard of that. And I said well, let's pray about it. And you know, and of course I'm praying for him. And then you know well, then I had another thing. Is this okay if I tell a couple of stories here? Tom, I'm going to be done by 15 till. So I'm running, I'm running.
Speaker 1:But here's another one Interesting. I had to go to get a blood test at a doctor's office and you went in an hour before the clinic actually opened. So I'm in there early, nobody else is there. Then this guy comes in and it's a guy that Denise was helping. He was the stepfather of this lady Denise was helping. He wasn't part of our church or anything like that, and this guy from what Denise had been dealing with with the daughter. Man, lady, are you okay? Okay, but you know, he, he, they, they came from Florida and he was just a wicked, awful stepdad. I mean terrible, some of the things that he did. And I'm sitting there and I'm going okay, this, there's what's his name.
Speaker 1:I said, hey, man, and I'm thinking this guy's demon possessed, that was my, because I know he's just been demonized. So I, you know, I've got hearing aid, so I can't hear. And I said, hey, man, and I'm thinking this guy's demon possessed, that was my, because I know he's just been demonized. So I, you know, I've got hearing aids, so I can't hear. And I said, hey, man, I'm Doug Craigbaum, I don't know if you know who I am.
Speaker 1:And he said some things. I said, hey, I can't hear you very well, my hearing's not great. Can I come over by you? Well, I, demon, I'm just thinking the guy's demonized, you know. So he said, yeah, sure, so I go over next to him, I start bringing up the name of Jesus as much as I can, hoping that'll provoke some kind of manifestation Jesus, this, jesus, that. And I said, man, you know, my wife's been meeting with your stepdaughter, you know, and Jesus has been really good Jesus and he's like getting troubled and he goes hey, why are you saying Jesus so much? I said well, and he goes. And then he made this statement. I ain't no atheist or nothing. I did this thing down in Florida. I'm fine with Jesus. I said what I mean. I about felt that was the demon part. I about I wanted to cast out my own reaction to him because it's like what? And then all of a sudden the nurse comes out and says Mr Craigbaum, come this way, you know. So I have to go back. And I came back out.
Speaker 1:We never saw any sense that this guy got saved. I couldn't follow up with him. But it's like what in the heck are you People? When you think about saved, they think about just a mental assent, belief. That is not biblical. We're following him, he's working in our lives and we're learning to put his word into practice. Can you say amen to that?
Speaker 1:Now, when we're talking about the reason why I chose Matthew, the great commission, that post-resurrection commission, matthew said some things about the word of God that are so important for us to see this. All right, if you remember Matthew, that's the one where we have this great explanation of the Sermon on the Mount, and one of the things Jesus did when he was teaching the people is. He said this is Matthew 5, you're the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a city sit on a hill. That can't be hidden. Now we love that, but understand Matthew writing with a Jewish context in mind. He was referencing scriptures from the Old Testament that talk about the people of God, and I want to read one of the ones that he was referencing when he made that declaration to the church that you're to be a city set on a hill. So could you turn to Micah, chapter 4? This one's important to read and Isaiah says almost an identical prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 2. But I want to read the one in Micah just for time's sake.
Speaker 1:This was what Jesus was referring to as he was speaking to followers and then a Jewish audience when he made that declaration you're the light of the earth, you're the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city. When those guys heard him say that, they understood he was referencing what happened in Micah and Isaiah Two places in Isaiah, but I want to look at the one in Micah, all right. It says this in verse 1. Boy, this is important. It says are you there, micah? Chapter 1. Did I say chapter 1? Chapter 4. Sorry about that.
Speaker 1:Go to Micah 4, and we want to read it, verse 1. It says this I don't know, I didn't give these guys the scriptures, but it says this it will come about in the last days. The last day started when Jesus came to the earth. The first time. It will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. It's what Jesus was referencing to. It will be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say come Now. This is important, come. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and look at this, that he may teach us about his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Now, this is important, that you see this right in the midst of this call and design of God for his people, when he elevates us and has us as that city set on a hill. You remember the Bible says that Jerusalem in Hebrew Hebrews the Jerusalem above. She's our mother. We've come to the heavenly Mount, zion right.
Speaker 1:And when he makes that declaration in Matthew 5 about they understood as a Jewish background, he's talking about what Isaiah said, what Micah said and I want you to know. Isaiah said I'm just going to read the Isaiah when you don't have to, you don't have to turn there. But this is Isaiah, chapter two, verse two through five. It says something identical. Now we'll come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations will stream to it and many people will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways and we may walk in his paths, for the law, the word of God will go forth from Zion. I want you to see.
Speaker 1:This is so important because when we start talking about pursuit and pursuing the word of God, many people have differing ideas about why we need to pursue the Word of God, and some of them are probably good. But the biggest reason we need to pursue the Word of God is because it's central to His purpose. We need to be transformed by His Spirit and by the Word of God and begin to walk in His ways. So when people see us in our workplace or in the supermarket or in our neighborhoods and they say, man, they're living different. One of the prophets said they'll come up and yank on your outfit, which mine's kind of crummy Sometimes. They'll come up and yank on your outfit. I mean, take me to wherever you learn to live like this. That's our calling. We're to demonstrate and declare the good news. That demonstration comes as we learn the word of God and we learn to put it in practice in our lives. That's why pursuit of the word is so, so important. Now, like he said to the Samaritan woman, you'll worship me in spirit and truth. We cannot ever let ourselves think one or the other is sufficient. Hello, I come from Kansas City.
Speaker 1:We are well known for charismatic craziness, charismatic kookiness, and then we have people that react to that and say we just want to be word people. We don't want any of that. Well, both of those are wrong. I have a little phrase I use. It sounds cliché-ish, but if you try to have Holy Spirit without the Word of God, you'll drift towards spiritual craziness. One of the prophetic words we got as we moved to Kansas City is we're going to provide a family harness for charismatic craziness. So hallelujah this one. But if you try to have Holy Spirit without the word, you'll drift towards spiritual craziness. But if you try to have the word without Holy Spirit, you'll drift towards spiritual deadness and we can't have either one. But if we have the word and the spirit together we will move in his design. So pursuing the word of God is important in the destiny and design of God for his people. Now I want to hit just a couple of the things here.
Speaker 1:But this is important, this idea, when you look at how the how many of you know the Bible says we're not ignorant of the devil's schemes. It says it in a couple of places. One of them is in Ephesians 6, where it says put on the armor of God. Right, because we're not ignorant of the devil's schemes. And I want to expose a scheme because it has a direct bearing on the armor of God. Right, because we're not ignorant of the devil's schemes. And I want to expose a scheme because it has a direct bearing on the word of God, one of the schemes of the devil. That word scheme means he's trying to con us. When you look at that definition cunning and deceitful method that's what the word literally means.
Speaker 1:The schemes how does the devil come? And he does it through the word of God. I want you to see this. This is so important. It happened at the beginning of God creating mankind and it happened at the beginning of Jesus launching his ministry. The scheme happened at both those places because the enemy wants to come and the scheme was centered around distortion and ignorance of the Word of God. Boy, I want you to see this. This is important. What do you mean? Well, think about creation. What happened at creation? You have Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and it says God came and breathed on Adam. How many of you know that was a move of the spirit. He became living, eve came out of him. They were living in the spirit.
Speaker 1:And then, just a few verses later, we have chapter three, verse one. There was a cunning figure in that garden, a serpent, and he began to come up to Adam and Eve and the first thing he did was try to trip them up based on their knowledge of the Word of God. Come on, that's Genesis 3.1. You know that passage. Immediately, he comes up in his cunning self and he says, hey, did God say something about a tree of knowledge of good and evil? Did he really say that the first temptation was over the word of God? And then, well, he said I can't tell you. He said, well, did he really mean it? He said, yeah, I can't tell you. And he said, well, did he really mean it? And if he meant if he said it, it may be because he didn't want you to get something that you'd really like.
Speaker 1:The initial fall in temptation of man was by a scheme of the devil. That continues today. We all face it. Did God really say it? What was the reason for it? Is it really that important? That's God launching His work through the initial man and woman. But then we find later on, god launching His work through Jesus and he was baptized.
Speaker 1:And what happened after His baptism? He went out to face the schemes, the temptations of the devil. And how did the devil tempt him? Over the word of God. This is why this is so important. Are you hearing me? You see this in Matthew 4, luke 4. He's tempted in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:The first thing that happens is the enemy tries to get him to disobey the word of God. Hey, you're hungry? Make these stone braces. Hey, man, wait. Jesus said it is written. How do you destroy the schemes of the devil? You have the moves and sometimes we need to have spirits broken over us, but we also have to come back and say and it is written, and I'm not going to do that because it is written, and I'm not going to do that because it's written.
Speaker 1:And then the devil comes along, that second temptation and he tries to twist the word. This is why we need to pursue an understanding of the Word of God he tried to twist. Have you ever had the devil try to twist the word? He comes and says hey, throw yourself down from the temple. Because it says this is a scheme of the devil, because it says he'll give his angels charge over you. Thankfully, jesus was a man of the word and he had grown up for 30 years in the synagogue learning and he recognized the enemy was misinterpreting what God said. That was from Psalms 92, right? He says no, no, no, no, no. I wish I had time to go into why the misinterpretation was of Psalms 92, because that's the scripture the enemy quoted. He'll give his angels charge over you. And Jesus says no, no, no, this is Doug's translation. You're misinterpreting that. I'm going to tell you this. I'm not going to put the Lord to the test. And he quoted another scripture. It is written. That's why we've got to have a sound understanding of the word. This is how the schemes of the devil work.
Speaker 1:And then we go to the third temptation. Right, he offered to give him something that the word of God would kind of indicate we could get. Have you ever been around teaching where people promise something that probably has a biblical basis, but something's wrong with it? That's what he did on the third temptation. Come on, you can have all the nations. In other words, this is what you're destined for. Just worship me here a little bit. Have you ever had the devil? He didn't do it that blatantly. But just worship me here a little bit, I'll give you everything you're wanting. You're believing God for this, probably even in the word.
Speaker 1:Jesus says it is written. Boy, it's getting quiet here. It is written. That's how we stand against the schemes of the devil, as we're walking with the Spirit and he brings to our remembrance things that Jesus said. That's how we overcome the schemes of the devil. Can you say amen to that? So we have to be a people as we pursue him. Pursuing the Word of God has to hold a central feature for our destiny and who we're called to be, and for our own and who we're called to be, and for our own sanity and spiritual health, so we will not succumb to the schemes of the devil. Can you say amen to that?
Speaker 1:Many times, I think in our charismatic world we need to have a revival according to the word Right. You know, here's one thing we often get, you know, christian media and stuff like that. When there's any hint of an awakening, it's like whoa, look at that. Every time I hear of an awakening, my first thing is okay, where is the Word coming here? Okay, it's getting quiet here. I want you to think about this. What's the most famous passage on the Word of God is Psalms 119. And you know, in that passage there are nine times in that passage that he says Revive me according to your word, according to your commandments, according to what you've said. An awakening should have an awakening of the word of God in us as well, because God's trying to establish a people of spirit and truth.
Speaker 1:There's a great place in the Old Testament it's in 2 Kings. It's under King Josiah, where you see this literally happening, because you remember the book of kings and stuff. There would be good kings and bad kings. Well, they'd come out of a season of terrible kings and the temple was in terrible shape because idolatry was happening in there. And you know, when the false gods come in, they tear up the good stuff, and so this king. Have you heard of King Josiah? I think somebody's got a kid named Josiah, don't they? But this good King Josiah starts ruling at eight years old, when he's 26,.
Speaker 1:He sees the devastation in the temple. He says let's go start restoring this thing. And the crazy thing is he sent someone down there to help in the work because he didn't live right on site at the time. And as they were going through the rubble in the house of God, they found the word of God. This is a great story If you get a chance to read it.
Speaker 1:They pull that word out and they begin reading it, and the guy that came down there said, oh my gosh, something's wrong here. And so he takes the word of God goes back to Josiah giving him the thing about. He says, hey, we found this lost thing. It's Josiah giving him the thing about. He says, hey, we found this lost thing. I think it's the word of God. He says can I read it to you? And Josiah, yeah. He starts reading it and Josiah tears his clothes as this guy's reading the Bible and he goes oh my gosh, this is what we call revival, according to the word, because that king declared. He said oh my goodness, we have forsaken this thing and the wrath of God is here because we haven't been walking in the ways that he told us to. And he pronounced and there was a great move of God. That's because the word is important. It's God's design of who he is and how he's called us to live. Can you say amen to that?
Speaker 1:Now, the last scripture I'm going to read, and then I'll close with three quick things. One of the reasons you know I've told you the vision for the word of God. But another reason that's important is because and you'll find this, I'm just going to read one portion of this it's in 2 Timothy, 3. And, if we're there, this is the last scripture I want to reference. But he talks to Timothy and he describes to him the last days. All right, and he begins. I won't read much of it, but he begins in verse 1. This is 2 Timothy, 3, 1.
Speaker 1:He says but realize this, in the last days, difficult times are going to come. Anybody know those last days? We live in them, right, boy? He described our culture well. Here's what he says, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self-control, haters of what's good. Can you say that's like the culture around us today.
Speaker 1:But he follows that on down. I just this is where I want to get to this the last few verses we want to look at he. He says verse 13,. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad doors, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, you not like that, but like the vision and the call of God, he says. You, however, continue in the things you've learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you learn them and that from a child you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And then he makes this wonderful declaration about the word of God, of God. All scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God would be equipped for adequate and equipped for every good work.
Speaker 1:Guys, we're in a terrible time, right? Yeah, I'm getting ready to close the door. We're in a terrible time right now, and it is. Is Jesus coming back? I hope so, because the spirit and the bride say come. We want him to come back, but we also know we want people to know him, so they don't want to perish. They won't perish, but the word of God is going to be central and essential for us being the people that demonstrates and declares the good news of Jesus Christ. People need to hear it and see it, and see it and hear it. Boy, I've got so many, so let me close with this All right, three essential steps that will help us be pursuers of the word. All right, three essential steps. And this is going to probably lead into what you're doing on Wednesday nights, right? Am I right, tom Again? Okay, all right, the first one is okay.
Speaker 1:This is I call this approach kind of blue collar theology. All right, when people hear the word theology they think of high academic thing and I can't go away to Bible school. You don't have to. I mean, fine if you can go to a good one, but you don't have to go away to Bible school. Jesus was taught in the synagogue, which is the closest thing to a local church that they had in that time. But blue-collar theology the word of God that's accessible for all of us common folk. This is Arkansas. I live close to Arkansas for a while, common folk like you and me, right, but here's the thing it's kind of a blue collar approach to the Word of God. Number one we have to learn what God was saying to the people in their proper context. This is big if you're going to understand the Word of God. What was he saying in the context? It was written.
Speaker 1:One of the problems we have today is that we have people in the media that take a 20-second sound bite out of a two-hour speech and they make it say something completely different than what the guy spoke about. We do the same thing with the Word of God if we're not careful. How many of you know? You may not know this, but verses, right Chapters, those weren't added to the translations of the Bible till the 1500s. Now that was good. It helped us find stuff. I can take you into the history of that, but it can help us find things.
Speaker 1:But the downside of the verse thing is it enabled us to pull verses out of context and then read them out of context. How many of you are old enough to remember the old blessing boxes where you had little scriptures there? Here's what sometimes it can look like. If you don't realize this, you go up one day to your blessing box, you pull the verse out and Judas cast the money into the synagogue or the temple floor and he hung himself Interesting verse. Next day you go up, you get your verse out of the blessing box and Jesus said to his disciples go and do likewise. Okay, I'm going to go, but okay, listen. The verses and everything like that are in the context of a writing and we need to understand the context of the writing to know what he was saying to that group at the time.
Speaker 1:That's number one. There's easy tools we have. Can I care? I'll give one. That's that that. It's a simple one to use. I've done this for you.
Speaker 1:But how many of you have done the bible project right? I? I would encourage you. It's well done, for you know you say well, that's kind of childish whenever you get ready to read a passage of scripture. Can I just encourage you for a while? Eventually you'll learn the books. But go, pull a Bible project video out that says let's say you're going to read out of Corinthians, and there's a seven-minute video on the Corinthians. They do a pretty good job of telling you the background of what was going on at the church and why Paul was writing the letter.
Speaker 1:That's important because we've got to get the kind of what was God saying to the group? He wrote it to number one and then number two. In light of that, in light of that truth, what does this mean for me and for us? I'm showing you a simple thing to walk in the truth of God, he wrote this. What was he saying to the audience, the group at the time? And then, secondly, what does it mean for me and us? What's God trying to say and get us to do as we read this passage? And then the third thing is this what's some steps I can take to put it into practice today? Okay, this is blue collar theology, all right, what was he saying to the audience? He wrote to. What does that mean to the audience today and what's a step we can take to put that thing into practice?
Speaker 1:And as we have this pursuit of the word of God this year, or this season of time for this church, come on, let's do some. I've got lots of stuff on this. If you say, hey, I want to learn a little more about it, if you email me, I'll send you studies and all kinds of stuff where I go into this, but it's blue collar, it's accessible to all of us. We want to learn the truth as God designed it, and then see it applied in our life. Like Matthew 28 says, learning to put into practice everything God said, and we'll be. That city set on a hill that is this culture around us is falling apart because they don't know God and they don't know His ways. We can say come on, how do you live this way? How do you live this way? Come here. His name is Jesus and I'm going to show you His word. Amen, amen.