Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have in you, and we thank you for the opportunity for us to come and study your word. We pray, Father God, that with all the treasures that you have placed in your word would cause us to give our hearts and our mind to you.

We ask that you would bless us in our study, bless us in our fellowship, and all that we do, help us, Lord God, to have a heart that is more ready to be molded and to draw closer to you. So we pray for your grace and your blessing over this time.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, I should have gotten your papers. Everybody got it? Okay. All right, so if you, just as a broad overview, if you look at chapter 54 and 55, it is after chapter 53, right, the chapter 53 important passage about the suffering of Christ and how he's going to redeem his people, and then again, these are all passages that are interconnected.

If you look at chapter 54, there's a logical conclusion of what he says in 53, that as a result of what Christ has done in chapter 53, that he's going to establish an everlasting covenant and how this covenant is going to bring upon his mercy and compassion, restore his people.

And then in chapter 55, the ultimate end result, ultimate gift of his sacrifice is to say, you guys can come, come everyone who thirsts and come to the water. So ultimately, the goal of salvation is really chapter 55, right? The goal of chapter 55 isn't simply so that your sins are forgiven, but because your sins are forgiven, that you can now come and drink of the living water of Christ, that you can come and listen and you can be restored and have peace.

So ultimately, if our understanding of salvation is our sins are forgiven, then you really missed the whole point of salvation. The whole point of salvation is to restore a broken relationship with Christ, right? So all of these things that he's been saying, it ultimately leads us to chapter 55.

So if you look at chapter 54, the first question that was asked, I forgot to break it up. So you're just going to have to just jot it all down at once and then I'll get to it once you fill in the blanks. Okay. I'll give you a minute to fill in all the blanks so you guys can pay attention the rest of the time.

(ice cr youring) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) (ice cringing) All done? Okay, so if you look at the first section in verses one through three, or maybe even up to four, the primary theme of this section is God's promise of restoration, right?

God's promise of restoration. So the first question was, who's the barren one? It's talking about the spiritual state of Israel. Why does God call spiritual condition of Israel barren? (ice cringing) It's typically, again, it's all out here, so I'm not gonna have awkward pauses, so you already know, all right?

So the reason why I call it barren is because in the Old Testament, to be barren or not to be able to have children was often interpreted as God's judgment upon them. So when he says, "Oh, barren one," he's talking about the spiritual condition of Israel because of their sins that God's spirit, again, was taken away.

They were taken into captivity, and it was understood as people who have been forsaken of God. But this section, basically, God comes in and said, "Even though that's been your condition, "God's going to reverse this fortune, "and Israel will be greater than the judgment "they experienced in their exile." So if you look at the text when he says, "For the children," sorry, "For the children of the desolate one will be more "than the children of her who is married," says the Lord.

"Enlarge the place of your tent "and let the curtains of your habitation be stretched out. "Do not hold back. "Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, "for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, "and your offspring will possess the nations "and will people the desolate cities." So he goes on and on.

So when he says that the children of the barren women are gonna be much more than those who weren't, who weren't barren, what is he referring to? What does it sound a lot like in Romans? Those of you who paid attention to the sermon this Sunday, in Romans. What were we talking about on Sunday, in Romans?

Chapter five, verse 15. (congregation laughing) Much more, right? Over and over again, Paul says, "Much more." His grace is gonna be much more than the judgment. His justification is much more than the condemnation. His life is gonna be much more than the death. So basically, this is the Old Testament version of that.

Those of you who are barren, at one point you were judged, but when God chooses to restore, the restoration is going to be so much more than even before you went into judgment. So God's promise of redemption is not simply to place you back to where you were. It's gonna be beyond that.

So this is kind of a side question, but people ask the question, if Adam and Eve, I think we dealt with this once before, but if Adam and Eve fell at the Garden of Eden, what guarantees that after we're redeemed, we go to heaven, that we won't fall again?

Are we able to fall in heaven, or are we just given a second chance, and we're gonna go to heaven, and hopefully we don't blow it this time? Or is this whole thing gonna be cycled over and over again in eternity? - No, because we'll be different without the Holy Spirit, without the abergine bodies that are better than the unfallen bodies.

- Right. So the restoration, the redemption that you and I are gonna experience is far greater than what Adam and Eve experienced at the Garden of Eden. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, right? Where in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit may have been upon people, now, because of his blood sacrifice, the Holy Spirit is actually in us, right?

So if we're able to sin in eternity, that means Jesus is able to sin too, right? Because now Jesus Christ and his Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a mediator for us for eternity, not just for a period, but for eternity, so that when it says his sacrifice is complete, it is complete for eternity, not until we get to heaven, and we're gonna start over.

So when he says, when he chooses to restore his people, and it's going to be much greater, right? He's not just restoring us to back to where we were lost. What other story in the Old Testament reminds you of what he says here? There's a particular story, the way it ends, kind of illustrates this point.

Book of Job, right? He loses all of these things, but at the end of the story, right, he gets back and, you know, far greater than what he lost. And the point of that is, when God restores, he restores beyond your imagination, right? So again, he begins chapter 54, because of what Christ has done in 53, that his blessing is going to be far greater.

How does the Lord describe the previous sins of Israel? He calls them, basically, teenagers. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed, be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood, you will remember no more.

So when you think about immature youth, or teenage, you know, or adolescent stage, or kind of like the way it's described here, talking about the sins of Israel, and the baggage that comes with your sin, right, will be erased. And there's a big difference. Again, like when, again, not to say that the sins of the youth isn't as serious, but the way God describes it is, kind of like seeing the sin of Israel, that their immaturity has led to this, and God's not gonna hold it against them forever.

I think anybody who's raised children, you know, there are things like that they may do, if a stranger did it, I mean, it would be over. They said and did, and after everything you poured out to them, and they don't appreciate you, and they say, I mean, it would've been over.

The only reason why you and I all live is because during that stage, our parents were gracious. They forgave us, right? Because we were their children. And there's not a single person here that hasn't acted selfishly, foolishly, said hurtful things, you know, didn't appreciate our parents, but because they were gracious to us during that period, we're able to mature out of that.

And that's how God describes Israel's past sin, that they are immature in their youth, and the baggage that they had, God is not going to hold it against them, right? How does he describe, how is he going to restore them beyond the way it was before? He describes them as people who've been widowed without husband, but when God restores, he doesn't just restore them back to where they were, he says, no, God himself is going to be their husband.

So maybe the Babylonians, that you married with them, and they abandoned you. Maybe you relied on money or idols, and they abandoned you. Maybe on your own wealth or own ability, maybe they abandoned you, but because God is going to be your husband, he will remain faithful, right? So when he restores, he's going to come in, and he himself is going to be the husband.

What promise does he say, as an example? So all of this is connected to, I'm going to restore you, my grace is going to be much more than the sin, my redemption is going to be much more than the condemnation. Well, how is he going to do that? Well, when I restore you, I myself will be your husband.

And as an example, he says, my covenant will remain forever, just like the covenant that I made with Noah. When the flood came and all those people died, and at the end of that, God gives them rainbow, and says, every time you look at that, remember what I said to you, that I will never wipe out the earth with a flood again.

So he reminds them of the covenant, that this covenant that I make with you is an everlasting covenant. So in verse 10, it says, for the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

I don't know if you were able to go through it, how many times he mentions the word compassion. He repeats over and over again, especially in this section, compassion. Compassion basically means deep-seated emotion, that God is moving emotionally, because he sees the plight of Israel, and he decides to have compassion.

And that's the, again, in the larger scale, he sees the sins of mankind, he has compassion. And he looks at the judgment that he brought upon mankind through the flood, and he has compassion, and he says, I will never do this again. But everything that God has promised, that he's going to do in 53, and what he is saying in 54, the restoration and redemption.

You can bank on it, even if the mountains move. Have you ever seen a mountain move? Yeah, maybe, if you have a rural area, and then you cut it down and put buildings in. I think when I visited Korea last, I forget, in April or something, and I went over there, and I went to go, I had a free day, and I went to go visit my hometown.

And obviously, there's a lot of things that were new, different, but the hill that I remember when I was a kid that was in front of our house, is exactly the same. There's more houses, and the houses are modern, but the hill is exactly the same. So they're using that illustration, that even though all of these things may change, God's covenant will never change.

So in other words, you can put your confidence in his promises, and that's what he's leading to, in verse 11, "O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires." God will establish a new city that will be much more precious than the previous city.

He's talking about the gate and the wall is going to be restored. The gates and walls typically talk about the boundaries for protection, but it's also a display of the magnificent. So again, in ancient times, when they talk about how the gates are gonna be fortified, and the walls are going to be tall, and it's gonna be strong, basically it's saying that God's going to come and protect Israel.

He's going to be the gate, he's going to be the boundaries. That the enemies who attacked them and took them into captivity will never be able to do that again because God himself is gonna establish these gates. But the gates also signify the wealth of the city. So it talks about all these different stones that it's gonna be made of.

And I asked you to turn to Revelations 21 and compare these two descriptions, 'cause in Revelations 21, after all the drama of the tribulation and the millennium, and when the kingdom finally comes, he describes this exact same city, made of precious stones. So if you've ever Googled heaven, you'll see a lot of times the picture of heaven will be roads laid with rubies and sapphire and whatever precious stones there are.

Right? 'Cause it's, God is describing through illustrating of these stones that heaven, the city of God, is going to be a precious. It's not only gonna be strong, it's gonna be precious. And what does he say, again, even beyond that, about the residents? That their blessing will go beyond just themselves, but overflow to their children.

He says, verse 13, "All your children shall be taught "by the Lord, and great shall be the peace "of your children. "In righteousness, you shall be established. "You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear, "and from terror, for it shall not come near to you." So in verse 13, it describes how God's blessing is not simply gonna be for them, but even overflow to their children.

Right? And so all of this is a description of the reverse of the curse that mankind experiences in Genesis chapter three. So one of the biggest curses, right, of the fallen world, oftentimes, is between husband and wife, right? I mean, you can get in a fight with your coworkers, you can get in a fight with, you know, your friends, but nothing strains your life more when there's contention between husband and wife.

And then, you know, it doesn't stop there. There's nothing more stressful when there's contention between parents and children. I mean, the kind of stress that you may feel when the kids are young is very different than you may feel when they get older, 'cause now you're dealing with an adult.

So I'm talking about something that most of you cannot relate to. But, you know, one of the most tangible evidences of the fact that you and I are living under, you know, an umbrella of condemnation is the strained relationships that we have. And so it says, for parents who have children, no matter how great, how successful you are, right, no matter how great everything else is going, but if your home is not at peace, if your children are not walking with God, none of that stuff is gonna matter in the end.

And we try so hard to either bring them to Christ, to educate them, to do what's best for them. So when he says, when restoration comes and the curse is reversed, you know, the things that causes the most contention, the greatest burden in the lives of people, he's going to restore that.

It's no longer gonna be up to us. God himself is going to write his laws in their hearts. So all of this is, again, point by point, a reversal of the curse that we saw that came into mankind in Genesis three. (water splashing) I'll give you a minute to write all this down before we jump in.

(water splashing) (papers rustling) So as you're writing, just kind of, you know, listen. As I said in the beginning, chapter 55 is ultimately the main point of salvation. The point of his sacrifice is God being faithful to his covenant, that he becomes the husband, restores. He protects us. He places us in place of peace.

Our children are taken care of. But ultimately, the invitation is the same, is to come, which we cannot do. Without chapter 53, he can't tell sinners to come to him. What would happen if God told sinners to come to him in their state? What would happen? You ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?

(audience laughing) You know what I'm talking about? You ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark? If you haven't seen it, see it, so you understand what I'm talking about. Remember they open up that ark? I mean, it's not biblical. I mean, don't think, that's not the Bible, but just to kind of give you a picture, right?

Sinners cannot behold the holy God and live. Chapter 55 can't happen without chapter 53. It's because the son of God absorbed our sins, he's able to tell sinners to come to me. He can't give sinners in their state an invitation to come to him. We can't go to him, right?

So if you look at it, I think here's, when Jesus was about to go to the cross, he said, "Where I go, you cannot come," right? And he said, "Well, why can't I go, you know, do this?" And then he gives the last commandment that he gives to them, or last of the I am statement, and the last I am statement is, "I am divine," right?

No one can bear fruit without me. And he keeps telling them to remain. If you want to bear fruit, remain. After I go, you need to remain, right? The disciples are ready to go, you know? If you go, wherever you go, we're gonna go. You're gonna go to Jerusalem, we're gonna go, right?

And then even after he resurrects, in Acts chapter one, the disciples are like, "Now, you know, is it now? "Are we gonna go and do it now?" Remember what he says? He said, "Wait until the Holy Spirit comes upon you. "Then when the Holy Spirit comes, you will be my witnesses "in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, "to the remotest part of the world." But the first invitation that he gives to his disciples when he first meets them at the end of the ministry and at the beginning of the Great Commissioner sending out, what's the first thing he tells them?

Is to come. I think we get into trouble when we think like, "Oh, I'm not right with God. "Like, what should I be doing, right? "What mission? "Who do I need to evangelize? "Like, I need to go." But really, I think most people need to heed his first commandment, to come.

Part of the reason why we're not evangelizing is because we're not remaining in him. If you're not remaining in him, if you're not listening to him, if you're not being fed in him, then evangelism just becomes a check-off thing that you need to do. Fellowship is just one of the four spokes in the wheel of life that you need to get done, to balance, you need to balance my wheel.

So I gotta do this, I gotta do more. I haven't had enough fellowship, I gotta go do more fellowship. I haven't prayed enough, I gotta do more prayer, more word, more of this. And it becomes nothing more than just trying to balance our wheel life, okay? Some of you guys don't know what wheel life is.

I apologize, okay? Look that up too, while you're at it, okay? Yeah, so I wanted to highlight this because if you look at chapter 55, over and over, and he said, "Come, listen diligently," verse two, "Delight yourself in rich food. "Come and be fed in me. "Incline your ears here and to seek." So the first duty of a follower of Christ is to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

So if you're not being fed, if you're not satisfied in Christ, if you're not, if you're not, if you're coming and your worship is just, you know, just going through the motion, then our concern shouldn't be, "What should I be doing for God?" That shouldn't be our primary concern, right?

Because that's what the scripture says. First and foremost, come, listen, eat. So again, what's a famous quote from a famous pastor that kind of summarizes this? "He is most," no, "He is," right? "God is most glorified when we are the most satisfied." So you know it, right? Yeah, I mean, it may sound like a cliche, but that phrase that John Piper articulated pretty much summarizes everything that God calls us to do, first and foremost, right?

We get caught up in too much, like, what we need to do. We need to do this, we need to do that, and the next thing you know, right, you're like, "What am I doing this for?" God, let me say this before we move on, because, you know, I have a little bit more time today.

What God is looking for is worshipers, not doers, but worshipers. So whatever you are doing, if you're not doing it out of worship, it is absolutely useless in the kingdom. That's why he says, "Whatever you do, do it without," what? Grumbling, because as soon as you start grumbling, you're not worshiping, you're just doing.

The Old Testament has sacrifices that are mandatory, because you can't come to God without making whole offering, without, you know, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering. You can't come to God without making these offerings, right? But the mandatory offering was committed, was given in Christ. So there is no other sacrifices that are needed for us to come to God.

But in the Old Testament, there's also another set of offering called the free will offering. Free will offering is when you are inspired and say, "I wanna thank God and give this as an offering to God." It was not required. You came and gave that as an act of worship.

So when you come to the New Testament, there is no mandatory offering which says, "If you don't make this offering, you can't know me. You can't come to me." Right? That's why he says he gives his son, he gives everything that we need, and then he says, "Now live up to the calling that you have received." God already gave it to you.

The sacrifices that you need to come to God has been given to you already, so now the act of what we give to him, the sacrifice that we give to him, is an act of worship. So in other words, the free will offering. That's why when we begin to say, "If you're a true Christian, you need to have these 10 things." And then you start going around, it's like, "I did this, this, this, and this." And if you're not careful, you're no longer worshiping God.

You're just jumping through hoops. It's not an act of worship. Whether you're cleaning, whether you're singing, whether you're setting up chairs or leading a small group, or just loving your brothers and sisters in Christ, not because God's gonna shake his hand and say, "If you don't do it, I'm not gonna bless your life." We do it because God's love inspires us.

His love compels us. So what God is looking for are not doers. What he's looking for are worshipers who are worshiping in spirit and in truth. That's why a Christian life, our whole life is a free will offering to God. And that's the difference between a bunch of people who are whatever we're doing, that we're doing because I volunteered to do it.

I wasn't made to do it, I volunteered to do it because I'm doing it as an act of worship to God. Not because someone's gonna yell at me if I don't do it. That's why he says, "Come, listen." The call of restoration is not to figure out what to do or where to go, but to come and eat and listen first.

First and foremost. Every once in a while somebody asks, "What's the most important quality that you look for in somebody who wants to go into full-time ministry?" What would you look for? Think about it, what would you look for? Integrity? That's not necessary. (laughing) Just seeing if you're paying attention, okay?

Of course you need integrity. Word of God? Of course you need the word of God. I would say, again, this is just my opinion and from my observation, there has to be a hunger for Christ. There has to be a hunger for Christ. Or else, everything that comes out of your mouth is just something you've memorized.

The whole purpose of ministry is to bring non-Christians to Christ. The whole purpose of ministry is to get young Christians to love Christ more. So if there isn't a hungering for Christ in your life, I don't care how much Bible you know. I don't care how much integrity you have.

I don't care how organized you are. All of these things are just skills. And the fundamental thing that somebody who wants to serve God, again, obviously, we're not just talking about people in ministry, but we're talking about every Christian, but the first thing that anybody absolutely has to have before he bears true fruit is a hunger for God.

Love for Christ. Because that's what we're trying to reproduce. Love for Christ. How can we make him attractive if he's not attractive to us? How can we tell people the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength if that's not us?

So that's why the first invitation, now that the gates have been opened, he doesn't say, "Now the gates have been opened, "now go and tell everybody." He says, "Now the gates have been opened," he says, "Come, come to me. "Come and listen. "Be fed. "Rejoice, worship, celebrate, sing first." And somebody who is worshiping God in spirit and in truth will bear fruit.

I guarantee you, you'll bear fruit. Even if you don't open your mouth. You should open your mouth, but even if you don't open your mouth, you have no idea how much the quality of your worship on Sunday affects non-Christians when they come in. I mean, I've heard it so many times.

They come in and they see the quality of your worship, that you worshiping God as if you really love him. It's very strange when they see that. Part of the greatest witness of a born-again Christian is his worship toward God. Again, if you've been in ministry long enough, I mean, you've probably heard it many times.

But yeah, when non-Christians come, it's such a shock because basically, what did the fall of man do? They decided to rebel against God. Instead of worshiping the creator, they worship creation. So there's no other place where they go other than in a Christian church where what was lost, they can visually see restored.

Right? They're going around worshiping everything, worshiping Kobe, worshiping, you know, like whatever. They're going out worshiping everything, but nothing satisfies. And all of a sudden, they can't even articulate it, but they come into a room full of people where what was lost is restored. And they see it in the worship of people.

Now obviously, worship isn't just limited to Sunday morning. But Sunday morning is what they see. So if they see a people who are just going through the motion, they're not seeing worship. They're seeing Sunday morning gathering. They're not seeing worship. But when people are worshiping God, what was lost is restored, and they are able to see that.

I've actually had a couple, an elderly couple, a long, long time ago, I don't know if anybody in this room remember that, became a Christian because of that. They had a son who became a Christian, or two sons became a Christian, got in a car accident, and then our whole church went out to see them, and then they came back, and they were so encouraged by our church coming and supporting them that the parents decided, hey, I wanna go to your church because your community seems like a very loving community.

And they came to church, and they ended up becoming a Christian a couple months later, and we asked them, what changed your mind? Because their English wasn't that great. They were able to understand some and not able to understand. But what made the biggest impact in their life was worship.

They saw a bunch of people worshiping God, and at that, he didn't believe it, they didn't believe it, but they saw that these people believed it. And that curiosity, that being in the presence of true worship among young people was what brought them to Christ. So again, worship is the central part of what it means to be a child of God, true worship.

What does it mean to seek the Lord while he may be found? There are times that God has ordained where he calls his people to come and repent. So all these verses, you can look it up on your own, 2 Corinthians 6, one and two, Hebrews 2, three, "Seek the Lord while he may be found," right?

As long as it is called today, right? Today is always today. But the point he's trying to make is there are seasons where God allows you to be able to come. And if you harden your heart and you refuse that, that time is not always there. Ask any parent with young children.

I mean, life is not over, but it's much harder. There's a lot of things that they could have done while they were single, and they can't do now, you know? And there's a lot of things that you can't do in your 50s and 60s that you can't do now.

And then even if you're young, there are periods when God really convicts your heart. And you're really, like God is calling you, the word of God, that your heart is sensitive to him. And you feel the calling, you're surrounded by other brothers and sisters that you're running the race together with.

And then you choose and say, "Maybe not now." And you think that somehow later on you can turn it on, and it doesn't happen. Most people who delay their obedience usually end up disobeying later. The reason why is because their hearts become hardened. You don't just decide to soften your heart.

So it's the, do you not know that it's the kindness of God that leads you to repentance? And that isn't always there. Not that his grace isn't always there, right? But we don't have years to hear all the time. He says in verse 11, the reason why is to accomplish God's purpose.

Again, this means that those who are not in his word will not participate in the accomplishing of his purpose. So the last question was, list as many things that you can think of where he says, "My word will go forth and will not return "until it has accomplished its purpose." So again, I forgot, I didn't say this, but the rain functions to water the earth and bring forth fruit for sustaining a life.

And again, he compares that to his word in the same way that the word of God goes forth and does not return until it has accomplished its purpose. And the purpose of the rain is to bring life, right? Bear fruit and bring life. And he said that's what God has ordained to bring life, his word, right?

So the next question is like, what are things that you've jotted down, hopefully you took some time to think about it, maybe did some study and went through the Bible or some verses that kind of stood out to you. What does the Bible say about itself and why the Bible is so important?

Just kind of blur it out. I'm not gonna write it down. You can write it down if you want. What is the word of God? Why, what has God ordained the word of God to do? - Judge the thoughts and intentions. - Judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart, right?

Sometimes you can think that you feel like you're doing, you know, you're right, and then you open up the word of God and convicts, right? Has that ever happened to you? Where you're thinking you're right and then the word of God, not because somebody told you, but the word of God kind of convicted you, right?

If that's never happened, it's probably 'cause you're not in the word. 'Cause the word of God does that all the time. Lamp, direction, guidance, right? Now I know a lot of times, like when people come and seek counseling and they want an answer, like they want a particular Bible verse, right?

Like what does the Bible say about dating? There is no one verse, right? Other than be like me, like Paul says, don't get married, right? But that's not what you want. That's not what you came for, right? So there's no particular verse that points to that. But what does it say in Romans 12, two?

Do not be conformed, but be transformed by the ruining of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve that which is perfect and pleasing will of God. So how are you able to discern the will of God? When your mind is renewed, right? With his word.

So a lot of times understanding the will of God is not simply getting the right verse to point you to the right direction. It's to have a heart and mind that is bent toward God, right? And you're able to discern what is right and wrong because your heart and your mind has been transformed by being renewed by his word.

Right? But if your heart and mind is not transformed and all you're looking is for that verse to say right and wrong, majority of the time you're not gonna find it because most of the time God doesn't direct us that way. God directs us by changing our hearts, changing our mind.

So somebody who's not surrendered in other parts of your life is not gonna all of a sudden say, "Hey God, give me your will." Because I might, I might obey if you reveal it to me. Right? Because all of this other stuff, I'm just doing whatever I want. But when it comes to dating and marriage, I wanna get that right.

Right? So I don't really want directions with my money, but I want direction with my marriage, at least in the beginning. Right? And then you're seeking the Lord's will. You can't seek the Lord's will like that. If you're not surrendered here, your heart's not bent toward God, all of a sudden God's not gonna reveal all this other stuff on this side either.

Right? Spiritual things are discerned spiritually. So the word of God, again, a lamp unto our feet. So we have to be, if you wanna know God's direction and will for your life, before you run to counseling and to other people, open the word of God and let it renew your mind.

First. So that whatever counseling you're getting from other people, right? That that's not the word of God. Counseling is not the word of God. Word of God's the word of God. So you need to have the word of God so that you can discern which counseling is from God.

What other people are saying, what is right and what is wrong? Right? Because if you talk to 10 counselors, 10 people will tell you 10 different things. Right? So you can't determine what is right and wrong based upon what kind of connection you have with these people. Right and wrong has to be discerned by His word.

So first and foremost, everyone has a responsibility to be renewed by the word of God first. Right? What else? - Salvation, like the parable of the sower, or humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. - Right. Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of Christ.

Right? I think, again, those of you who have been in our church for a while, you know, that we have, there's a lot of techniques and you know, they call it verbal judo that you can have and you know, you can do it to get people to submit and get, win arguments and all that.

But in the end, you can't transform their hearts. Right? Conviction of sin comes from the Holy Spirit when the word of God uses His, when the Holy Spirit uses His word of God to convict the world of sin. And until that conviction comes, no amount of apologetics is gonna, is gonna bring some people to Christ.

Right? So salvation, very fundamental thing about our salvation happens when the word of God is taught and heard and convicted. Right? What else? (faintly speaking) Okay, for our own sanctification. Right? So again, we can have accountability. Accountability is important, but accountability to somebody who is, just wants to look like he's doing well, does nothing.

Can, can, can accountability stop you from watching porn? It can stop you from watching porn in a certain, in a certain venue. Right? You have no idea what I'm talking about. Accountability itself is not gonna cause you to grow. Right? 'Cause if you wanna sin, you can work around accountability.

In fact, you don't even have to tell the truth. Just be vague. Somebody asks you, "Did you watch porn?" It's like, "Yeah, I've been, "I've been kind of struggling with purity." Well, that could be watching an ad. That could be like 10 hours of pornography. I mean, that's so vague.

Like, what do you mean by that? It's like, "Yeah, just struggling." So if your heart is not bent toward God and the word of God is not what's guiding you, even accountability is not gonna sanctify you. Right? Peer pressure is not going to cause you to grow. Right? Sanctification happens when we expose our lives and our heart to the word of God.

Because we're attracted to him. Right? So our very sanctity, our salvation, our sanctification, what else? I think Harry had his hand up. - No, I was thinking about the same verse, but I also think about your word, "I've treasured my heart that I will not sin against you." So it's a way for us to examine ourselves.

- Right. - To not sin against God. - Right. So preventing us from sinning. But even that, right, if we're not careful, does memorizing help you not to sin? Yes. It helps us not to sin. Does it prevent you from not sinning? No. Right? Just memorizing scripture doesn't make, I memorized scripture, so you don't have to worry about me.

Right? Because when you choose to sin, you'll turn it off. Right? Just like you don't want a pastor going with you to watch an inappropriate movie. Right? You want me to go watch Finding Nemo with you, but not the other stuff. So you can turn off accountability if you don't want it.

You can memorize scripture, and then if you want to sin, you just block it out of your head. So to help you from not sinning, but it's not gonna prevent you from sinning. Right? So all of these things are things that God has placed out there, and just like salvation, he speaks, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

Why would people come to him? Because we want to. Because we want to. Because that's where I find life. Right? Why would people not want to sin? Because people are gonna look at me weird. Like, I mean, that'll get us to jump through hoops, but that's not gonna change you.

What's gonna change you is you heard the voice of your master, and that's what you want. Like, that's what you want. And that's why you seek accountability. Right? That's why you get to the Bible. That's why you memorize scripture, because you find more life in him than you find in anything else in this world.

Right? That's why we come to him. And what has he ordained to do this? His word. Faith comes from hearing, and the hearing of the word of Christ. When the word of God gets into your heart, gets into your mind, and God begins to draw you to himself, he says, "The God of this age is blind to the mind "of the unbeliever, so that you do not see the glory "of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"But once the word of God causes you "to be opened in your eyes," right? And it's not just one time you're open, it's a continual calling, 'cause that's what I want. What causes you to come here week after week? Now, there's all kinds of reasons why people can come.

You can come because there's friendship here, you can come because you like football, you know, you come because you got nothing to do on Wednesday, I mean, there are all kinds of reasons why you would come, right? And sometimes we forget, because we're so duty-bound. As a Christian, you're supposed to do this, right?

So you're doing what you're supposed to do. And sometimes you forget that what God wants from you is for you to want this, right? For you, you come study the Bible because you want to study the Bible. You pray not because you're supposed to pray, because you want to have fellowship with God.

Until we recognize the want to in our hearts, we can no longer be true worshipers, 'cause that's not worship, right? And that's why the Word of God is so important. And again, those of you who've been in our church for a while you know that that's the underlying principle of how we do discipleship, how we do training, whatever, is that our primary source of doing that is the Word of God, right?

Now, does that mean that everybody's gonna respond when the Word of God is taught? Absolutely not. But I believe true fruit will always come when the Word of God goes forth, and people who hear His voice from the Word of God, and they begin to get attracted and come to Him, that that's true fruit, right?

They're not trying to please anybody, there's no peer pressure, there's no knocking ahead, it's just they want Christ, right? And just like he said, what's the point of the Word of God? The Word of God goes forth, he said, "Trust my word." 'Cause there's times when we can begin to think, well, the Word of God is not working, right?

Especially in our generation. If you just teach the Word of God, who's gonna come? Right? 'Cause I mean, you hear that all over our generation. So people are moving away from Bible study, because it doesn't work. People don't wanna come to church if it's Bible study, because it's not exciting, it's not fun, right?

And that may be true, you know, absolutely true. There's a whole bunch of things that we can do to attract more people, and get people to do more things. But that's not why we're here. We're here to call people to Christ. And Christ said, the way that I want you to call people to Christ is preach what?

The Word, in season, and what? Out of season. Whether they respond or don't respond. Whether you see immediate fruit, or don't see immediate fruit. And isn't that why he's telling them this? He said, my word goes forth, does not return until it has accomplished its purpose. Why does he have to remind them that?

Because sometimes it seems like it's not working. Right? Sometimes it seems like it's not working, but that's why he says, never, when the Word of God goes forth, it will never return until it has accomplished my purpose. So maybe God may go send his word to harden people's heart, who knows?

Maybe it is to be sent out to judge people, who knows? But he didn't give us 10 different things. He didn't give the church, try these 10 things and see what sticks. He gave us one thing. The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is to be the heralder of the Word of God, to preach it in season and out of season.

So there are seasons when you will preach the Word of God, and people will leave because you're preaching the Word of God. And there are people will be bored out of their mind because the Word of God is being taught. And then there are seasons when people will fall in love with Christ because of the Word.

But God did not give us 10 different methods to bring people to Christ. He didn't give us 10 different methods to sanctify people. He gave us his word. So we stick with that in season and out of season. All right, I've gone over my time, but I think it was an important part of the section.

But I wanna lead you in a time of worship, even though it's gonna go a little bit. (water running) (water running) (water splashing)