Good morning everyone. Welcome to Emerge International Church. We are so glad you are here with us today. Man, God is so good. So many great things have been going on. We are going to start with that song again this week. This is like the fourth week we have done this song, but as I was preparing, God says, go ahead and do it. Do it again. I want to hear it again. God loves surprising us with great things, and I am going to talk about that a little more in a minute.
Father, we thank you today for the time we have to come together. We thank you for our members here with us. We thank you for our live stream audience. Father, we thank you for the privilege and opportunity we have to represent you and your kingdom here in the earth. Thank you, Lord, for all the great things you are bringing about in our life. We thank you for it in Jesus’ name. And we declare, I am expecting great things.
If you have your Bible handy, I am going to turn over to Jeremiah 33:3, and I want to read this to you today from the New King James Version. Call to me, and I will answer you. Right there, we could stop and preach. The Lord is saying, call to me. Talk to me. Reach out. Ask me, and I will answer you. And it goes on to say, I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. Every day we should get up expecting great things because God is ready to work in us. He is ready to work with us. He is ready to work through us. He is ready to work for us. He wants to do great things, and He wants us to go forth and represent Him and His kingdom here on the earth doing great things.
In John chapter 14, Jesus said to His disciples, you will do the works that I have done. You have seen me do. You are going to do those same works. And then He says this, and even greater things than these because I go to my Father. We read about all the things Jesus did in the New Testament. He healed people in so many different ways. He raised people from the dead. He cast devils out of people, worked in their lives, and brought about health and healing and wholeness and provision. And then He says, but you will do greater things than these. So what are you doing every day? I encourage you, just get up and go out looking. If somebody is hurting, pray for them right there. Just, Lord, we thank you for bringing healing to this person or releasing them from this pain, whatever it is. You do not have to spend an hour interceding and praying. That is good when you can do that, but just one simple little prayer, one simple little God loves you, one simple little I love you can change somebody’s life. Great things can happen for them.
It is time to worship the Lord through our giving, and as always, we share a little devotional, a little scripture with you about God’s perspective on giving. Today we are looking at Luke 6:38, where Jesus said, give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet, with it shall be measured to you again.
Jesus presents giving as more than an act. This is more than just something we do every week. We put our offering in the offering plate, or these days we do it digitally. We scan the QR code, we Zelle, we give online. But giving is not just an action. Giving is a way of living. When we study Christ’s life, His whole life was about giving in some way. Every day He was giving. As we give, we are declaring that we are not the source of what we have, that it all flows from Him. And then we take that seed and sow it into others, to the place He shows us. Why? God is our source.
God requires us to release from our hands what He has blessed us with while trusting that He is faithful to provide us with more and bring the harvest in, bring the return in. I may have shared this before, but I grew up where my uncle owned one of the largest farms in the area our family was from, and I grew up out there in the field. One of the things he grew for market was peanuts. He was in the panhandle of Florida, just thirty miles from Alabama. Some people said Florida back then used the abbreviation FLA, formerly Lower Alabama. I remember being out in that field and watching him get us out there helping and planting those seeds, then watching those little peanut bushes sprout and grow until it was harvest time. You run out there and pull one up, and guess what is underneath the ground on the end of that? There is a peanut there. How did that happen? Giving is a way of living. It is a way of sowing. And God is our source.
Notice the progression here. Give, and it shall be given. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. What Jesus is doing here is painting a picture of abundance. The image is that of someone filling a container with grain. It is not casually filled. It is packed, compressed, and overflowing. The emphasis is not simply on getting something back. The deeper principle is this: God is a God of increase, and He works through a generous heart to bring an abundant harvest. God is always in the process of increase. He has not changed since the beginning of time. He still looks at us and says, be fruitful and multiply. In one context, if you are married, yes, that means have children. But that is not the only meaning there. It means go out into the world and be fruitful, be productive, bless others, and then multiply that, increase it everywhere you go.
Here is the greatest example of this. God Himself is the ultimate giver. As we saw last week, John 3:16 begins with, for God so loved the world that He gave. His expression of love was through giving. God’s giving flows from His love. Therefore, Christian generosity is motivated by the desire to bless others in partnership with God’s plan and purpose.
Giving is a reciprocal process. It is not just sending it out; it is a sending it out and it coming back in, is what Jesus is saying. It is a going and coming. Luke 6:38 began with, give, and it shall be given. We sow, and when we sow, we receive a blessing for sowing. One of the other things my uncle grew was corn, and I used to love that. We would plant one kernel of corn and get this big stalk that was six, seven, sometimes eight feet tall. You would say, yeah, but it only has one ear of corn on it. But that one ear of corn has between eight hundred and twelve hundred kernels on that one cob, and all of that came out of that one tiny seed. When you plant the field, you have got thousands of corn stalks out there. It is amazing how God multiplies it. It is a reciprocal process. When we sow, we receive a harvest. We receive a blessing, and from that blessing of harvest, we are able to sow again. We are even able to sow more. That is seedtime and harvest in action.
Here is another principle. To be a good giver, you must be a good receiver. If you only give and do not receive, you hamper the order of giving and receiving. You stop the reciprocal process. You stop the flow of reciprocity. In essence, you rob someone else of their opportunity to be blessed.
Second Corinthians 9:8 in the Amplified Classic says, and God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing, come to you in abundance so that you may always and under all circumstances, whatever the need, be self-sufficient, possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. That is where God wants us living, and the way He takes us there is through our giving. God’s grace, His favor, His blessing, enables generosity in us and through us, and generosity becomes an expression of grace. There it is again. There is that reciprocal process. Grace enables it, and once grace enables it, it becomes an expression of grace again to someone else.
Let us do this declaration together. I trust you, Lord, as my source and supply. I will always have more than enough to give to every good work, because from you all blessings flow. Thank you for multiplying the seed I sow and increasing the fruits of my righteousness. Amen.
Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to sow into your kingdom. We set our hearts right now to give ourselves to you through our offerings, through our time, our talent, however you direct us. We listen and we look for what you would have us do today. How would you have us sow into your storehouse? Thank you for the privilege and opportunity of giving into your kingdom, your purpose, and your plan. Now, Father, I pray a hundredfold blessing over every seed sown today, just like I saw those peanuts come and the corn come. Thank you for your heart of multiplication, your heart of increase. Thank you for blessing every seed sown today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The last few weeks we have been studying the blessing of living God’s way, and this is part four today. The person and power of the Word is what we have been looking at, and that is what we are going to continue to look at today. The central message of our study has been, God has a way for us, and His Word is His way for us. Our faith in God, His Word, His character and His way is the foundation for living the abundant life He desires for His children.
We saw a few weeks ago in John 1:1 that the Word was there in the beginning. The Word was in Him, and the Word is Him. God is His Word. If He speaks, it is so. Last week we saw in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith, without hope, without confidence in the Lord, it is impossible to please Him. The writer here is not reprimanding you. He is just telling you about the way. God works through faith. God lives by faith, and He wants us to do the same thing. It is very pleasing to Him when we do. If you believe in Him and you have received Him as your Lord and Savior, you are walking in faith with Him. You are pleasing Him. So do not let the enemy take that and use it against you to condemn you or try to make you feel bad. Well, I am not perfect. I did not know. It is okay. You are His child. He loves you. But He does want us to be consistent. We must believe that He exists. Do you believe that the Lord exists? Good. That He is trustworthy. Do you believe that the Lord is trustworthy? I believe you do. And that He rewards those who diligently and earnestly seek Him. God is a rewarder. He blesses you in some way when you earnestly and diligently seek Him.
Faith is more than just an intellectual agreement. It is a deep, heartfelt conviction that influences how we think, how we speak, and how we live. His Word shapes us. When we are fully persuaded of who God is and learn to rely on His Word, then our faith empowers us to live His way with strength, confidence, and purpose. God is always empowering us. He has given us everything. This is not a real hard struggle living with Him His way.
God is our Creator and Ruler, the one we can fully trust. And that word ruler does not mean to lord it over someone. If you look up the definition, it means one who pours into those he is responsible for. The king was ruler over the dominion, his kingdom, which meant it was his responsibility to see that things were done well, that there was harvest, blessing, prosperity in the kingdom. God wants to do that in our lives. He is our ruler, one who pours into us. We are under His dominion, His authority, His rule, and we can trust Him with all of our heart. He is not distant or uninvolved in our lives. He is present with us here and now. Whether you are right here in the room with us or watching on the live stream, God is with you right now, wherever you are.
Hebrews 11:6 also reveals that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. Diligence means being steady, consistent, and intentional in our relationship with Him. Seeking God should be a daily priority, not an occasional activity. It is not just something on our list that we check off. Well, I went to church Sunday, I went to prayer and Bible study Wednesday night. No. Those are great things to do, and we are encouraged in Scripture to come together as a body of believers and support one another and encourage one another. But our relationship with God should be a focused, daily priority. We are called to pursue His presence, understand His will, meditate on His Word, and put His principles into practice, to live His way every day.
Matthew 6:33 keeps coming up in me and gives us insight into the key Jesus is talking about here. He says, seek first of all His kingdom and His righteousness. Seeking first God’s kingdom means making His authority, His interest, His way of living our highest priority. So when you are getting ready to go do something, why do not you seek the Lord first before you leave the house, while you get in the car? Ask His opinion. As our friend Bob Bodine says in his book Two Chairs, God knows everything, so why would not you ask Him first? God says, if you will come seek Me first, I will show you the way.
Seek first all of His kingdom and His righteousness. His righteousness is His way of thinking. We studied in our first session from Isaiah 55 that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. Why would not we want that? If somebody walked in here today and I knew they were an expert at something and had more wisdom about it than anybody else in the world, I would ask them some questions, would not you? You should ask them questions. God says, come, come sit with me every morning for a few minutes. Ask me questions. His righteousness is His way of thinking, His way of feeling, His way of acting and doing what is right.
As God’s children and citizens of His kingdom, we are called to represent Him and live according to His ways here on earth. The priority of His presence and His power opens the door to His provision. That is why Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things will be added. They are going to flow to you. They are going to come to you. Because if you are walking in alignment with Him and living His way, then all the blessings of the kingdom are yours. When we put God first, we align our lives with His purposes and make room for the fruitfulness and increase that comes from following His direction.
This does not mean that we are treating God as a means to get what we want all the time. It is not a slot machine. It means trusting His character, pursuing His will, and allowing Him to shape our lives. I always go back to this. When David was anointed king and the Philistines heard about it, they said, let us go down there and just whip him right now and put him in his place. They came down into the valley to show him a thing or two. David went and sought the Lord first, and God said, go out head on, meet them in the valley. You are going to win. He went and did what the Lord said, and they won. They overcame them, and the Philistines turned and ran home.
They had not had enough. They were mad about it, so they said, let us go back. Here they come again down into the valley, ready to attack Israel. David goes and seeks the Lord and says, do I go out against them again like we did last time? There is a lot of wisdom in what was just spoken in that verse when he said, do I go out like I did last time, Lord? And God said, no. Go around the poplar trees, hide there, and flank them, and come from behind them and surprise them. And they won again. God has a plan and a strategy for every day of your life. Just because you did it one way yesterday does not necessarily mean He wants you to do it exactly the same way today. So seek Him.
Jesus said He came to give us life. In John 10:10 He contrasts what He came to do versus what the enemy came to do. He says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy; that is his purpose. But Jesus is saying, I came with the purpose of my heavenly Father, the kingdom of God. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, to the full, till it overflows. There we go again. God is a God of multiplication, of increase. The enemy seeks to rob us of what God desires for us, but Jesus came to restore us to a genuine, meaningful, God-centered life, the abundant life.
His offers are superior in quality and fullness, beginning with our relationship with Him and extending into how we live, serve, love, and fulfill our purpose here on the earth. Living God’s way is not slavery or merely following a list of rules. It is learning to live the life God designed for us to live, a life guided by His wisdom, empowered by His presence, and grounded in His Word.
God created us as His children and has called us to represent His kingdom on the earth. His desire is for His will to be expressed through our lives, bringing the reality of His kingdom into the world around us. That is part of our calling every day. It might be through a smile, a kind word, a hug, a touch. It could be through praying for someone, encouraging them, letting God’s love flow through you to touch the world around you.
Ultimately, this message calls us to make faith practical. The enemy wants us to think that faith is this big thing and we have to work so hard and believe so hard. And God is going, just trust me, believe in me, and come on, let us do this together. Make it practical. You ever seen those people trying to get something done, working so hard at it, and then the person who has been doing it for fifty years walks up and goes, here, let me show you. They learned how to make it practical. My grandmother, both of my grandmothers, were masters at the pies and cakes and things they fixed. I would say, what is the recipe? I want the recipe when I get older. Well, it is a little of this and a little of that. And I would be trying to fix it, and she would look over and say, no, you just need a pinch more of this here. And I would go, how do you know? Well, you just know. You learn. God wants to bring us to that place in Him where, in the moment, we know, we sense His Spirit showing us the way.
Faith connects us to God’s power, seeking Him first aligns us with His kingdom, and living according to His Word enables us to experience and demonstrate His abundant life. Our purpose is not simply to exist here on earth, but to walk with God and reflect His will and His ways in our everyday lives. His kingdom come, His will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. That was the summary from last week, and there is new stuff in the summary, so you can go back and listen.
Today we continue that, but we begin to explore the process of living God’s way. There is a process to living God’s way, and the Lord says to us, this is the way, walk in it. That brings us to Joshua 1:8. Joshua chapter 1, verse 8 in the Amplified Classic says, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
Joshua 1:8 is fundamentally a verse about how to live faithfully and wisely in this world God has placed us in. It is the direction of, here is how to live my way. Think about it. Joshua is standing at a major transition for Israel, for all of their lives. Moses is gone. Joshua has been given enormous responsibility, and Israel is about to enter unfamiliar territory. But God does not first tell Joshua, be strong because you are capable. He tells him to anchor his life in God’s Word. He says, if you will anchor your life here in my Word, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success. God was setting Israel up to succeed. This was spoken to Joshua, but Joshua spoke it to the children of Israel. It was for all of them, and it is for us today. We are God’s children, and this Word is for us today.
Let us drill down into this. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. The word book there in the Hebrew means a letter or a message sent by or through a messenger. So it could be translated, this letter, this message from me, the Lord, should not depart out of your mouth. It also means a written order, a commission or decree, and that is why translators kept calling it a law. What they saw was not a law in the sense of legalism, you better watch out, because if you do not do this you are going to end up punished. It was more a law of, this is the way it works, like the law of gravity or the law of lift. Because we understand the law of lift, we can overcome the law of gravity and fly.
God brought this book by and through Moses to Israel. It was God’s word of instruction to His people. When you go and study whatever you study, whether it is science, math, or something intangible like cells, there is a way. There are rules you follow. There is direction and instruction. That is what that word law means there. In the Hebrew it means divine direction. God says, I am telling you the way to do this. Your Creator is telling you this is the way it works. Divine direction, instruction, custom, the manner of living or being, a law in the sense of the way things work. Like I said, the law of gravity or the law of lift. It could be called the law of living God’s way.
The next word is depart. This book of the law shall not depart. The word depart means shall not be removed, shall not leave, shall not desist, shall not forsake, shall not abandon. Not to depart from God’s purpose, resolution, or standard. It means not to desert God’s government, the way He rules and reigns and oversees things, His instruction. God is emphasizing here the importance of His Word, His way. Keep it, guard it, focus on it, and hold it close. And when you do, you will prosper. You will be blessed. You will have good success. That is the way it works.
We need to realize something, and this just came up in me. We are living in two kingdoms. We call the world around us the natural world, the kingdom of man. It is also the kingdom of the enemy. It is the world system. But we are also citizens of heaven and living in God’s system, His kingdom. We need to remind ourselves of that and not get caught up in, oh, we live in the world and this is all there is. No. God has more for us, and He is ruling and reigning over us. His government, His way of being, doing, and having.
The mouth is an organ of speech, a tool the mind communicates through. Your mind, which is a part of your soul, is communicating through your mouth. The brain is simply the physical organ that the mind uses to communicate through the mouth. Proverbs 18:20 and 21 in the Amplified says, a man’s moral self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth, and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied, whether good or evil. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it, for death or life.
Let us read that same passage from the New Living Translation. Wise words satisfy like a good meal. The right words bring satisfaction. The tongue can bring death or life. Those who love to talk will reap the consequences. What are you saying? What seeds are you planting verbally? Proverbs 18:20 and 21 in the Passion Translation says, sharing words of wisdom is satisfying to your inner being. It encourages you to know that you have changed someone else’s life. Your words are so powerful that they will kill or give life, and the talkative person will reap the consequences.
What the Lord is saying to Joshua here, and through the writer of Proverbs, is about allowing God’s truth, His instruction, His direction, His way to become part of who you are. How you think and speak shape you. His Word forms, fashions, and shapes your life, and that is why He is saying, keep it in here every day. Keep it before you. Keep declaring it. Keep praying it and confessing it. It is shaping you. It is helping you to be who I created you to be.
Here is a principle to take note of. Spoken words are never trivial. We get caught up in that all the time. We say something and then we laugh and go, oh, I am just kidding. No. God knows if you were kidding. The true heart behind those words actually engages when they go out. Spoken words are never trivial. They carry massive real-world consequences for relationships, reputations, and survival. Speech dictates the entire spectrum of human experience, from destruction and ruin to healing and flourishing. People ultimately live with the direct results, good or bad, of the habits and words they cultivate.
You have probably heard this before, but it is the truth, and we see it in Scripture. Cognitive science has proved it over and over. What you focus on becomes your appetite. What you feed on influences your perspective and beliefs, which influences your day-to-day life. Spoken words begin with thoughts. Our thinking creates a platform for our speaking, which influences our attitude, our choices, our actions, and our outcomes.
So God is telling Joshua here, focus on this book of instruction. Read it out loud. Meditate on it. Murmur it. Mumble it, so that you receive the revelation of the Word, the insight, the understanding, and wisdom of the Word. By doing this, you will transform your thinking, understanding, insight, and wisdom so you walk in the way that will bring blessing and good success.
God was telling Israel, this is the pattern for a blessed life. It is not merely, okay, read your Bible, and you do it occasionally. The idea is that God’s Word should be so familiar that it influences your conversations, your decisions, your reactions, your priorities, and your perspective. In everyday life, that can look like this. When you are uncertain, what does God say is true? When you are afraid, what has God promised me? When you are angry, how does God tell me to respond? That is a big one right there. When you are tempted, what does God’s Word say about this? When you are making an important decision, what principles should guide you? When you are successful, who gets the credit? When you are disappointed, what does God want me to learn or remember?
The Word of God is a reference point for reality. Let me say that again. The Word of God is a reference point for reality, rather than simply something you consult on Sundays.
Next, you shall meditate on it day and night. Meditate means to murmur, to ponder, to imagine, to mutter quietly over and over. It also means to roar, speak it out, study it, talk it, utter it, devise a plan around it, plot. What is it inspiring you? What is it showing you?
Meditation is something you can do all day long when you are driving in your car. You ever get home and wonder, how did I get here? Because you were just driving. You were not even thinking about the turns. Conia and I were going somewhere the other day, and we were talking, and I was driving and making turns, and she finally looks at me and goes, where are you going? And I said, well, I am going way over yonder, but I was driving as if I was going home. It was habit. It was habitual. God wants His Word so close in us, so real in us, that it is just the way we think and do.
So meditate on it during the daytime, continually. Do not stop it. And night, as opposed to day. Nighttime can be considered a season, a time of prayer, praise, and meditation. I know this week Conia and I took some time and came here to the chapel and spent about an hour praying in the Spirit, walking and praying and worshiping and declaring together. It was powerful, and it gave us insight. God gave us insight on some things we were working toward.
This is probably the part I would focus on the most. Biblical meditation is not primarily about emptying your mind. A lot of meditation practices tell you to empty your mind. Biblical meditation is about filling your mind with God’s truth and turning it over repeatedly so that, as Paul said in Romans 12, we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. And transformation proves the perfect will of God for us. You read something in Scripture in the morning and then you carry it with you. A verse about patience comes to mind when someone frustrates you. A verse about trust comes to mind when you do not know what is going to happen. A verse about generosity comes to mind when you are deciding what to do with your resources. A verse about integrity comes to mind when nobody would know if you cut a corner. That is meditation becoming a living reality. When that is done consistently, the outcome is stated. The result is positive, and positive action is taken consistently.
The third point here is that you may observe and do. Observe means to guard, protect, attend to, take heed, be a keeper of, regard, have charge of, retain, treasure up in memory, perform. It means to guard. You can guard your mind. Weeds get into your thinking sometimes, and you have to uproot those things. That is why Paul said in the New Testament, take captive those thoughts that are not of the Lord. Cast them down. Guard your mind. Guard what comes out of your mouth too.
Conia and I have had this conversation over the years. Something will happen, and she will go, how did that make you feel? And I say, I am not going to give voice to that. I do not want that out there. I do not want the enemy to be able to take that and use it against me. Be prudent in speech. That word prudent means to do it with respect and grace and some skill. And when you do this, wisdom shall preserve you.
The word do here, observe and do, means to accomplish. So the insight, the understanding, the direction, everything you get from being in the Word, do it. Do not just read it. Do not just study it. Do it. It means to accomplish, to advance, to bring forth, to emerge, to execute, to follow, to govern, to perform, to provide, to serve, to form, to fashion, to produce, to acquire. Hebrew is so multifaceted, so multilayered. It can go so deep. That is one reason we study it like we do. God is saying, in every way you live and breathe, do this. Observe the Word and do it.
This is where Joshua 1:8 becomes extremely practical. God is not telling Joshua, no more scripture. What God is saying, essentially, is know my Word well enough that it changes what you do and how you do it. So again, here is the progression. Hear the Word, meditate the Word, understand the Word, obey the Word, live wisely, and be blessed. Six steps there.
It is possible to know an enormous amount about Scripture and still not live according to it. You ever seen that? Have you ever felt like you were like that some days? Joshua 1:8 puts the emphasis on application. It is not just knowing; it is knowing and doing. The question becomes, what does this truth require me to do today? That is a very different approach than just reading the Bible.
According to all that is written therein. As Pastor Conia likes to say, and I have borrowed it from her, guess what all means? All. Very good. The whole, altogether, everything, totality, all. According to all that is written, not just part of what is written here, not the part you like, all of it.
Let me read it again. Joshua 1:8, Amplified Classic. This book of the law, this book of instruction, direction, divine direction, shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. That is the first half of that verse, and it is giving us His way. As we said over the last few weeks, His way is His Word. Not some of His Word, all of His Word. Simply put, it is these four things. This Word shall not depart out of your mouth. Meditate on the Word day and night. Observe, learn, understand, and do according to all that is written in the Word. This is the way. Walk in it. There is the process.
Next week we are going to drill down into the second half of this verse, which is the part everyone loves. Oh, I am going to be prosperous and have great success. Yes, if you do those four things I just talked about. We are going to look at the three keys to walking in the blessing next week.
I want to encourage you. I have a Bible reading plan I read every day, but I also study. There are verses that come to me, and I want to study them, and I want to get them in me. I do not want it just to be head knowledge. I want it to be heart knowledge, inspired by the Holy Spirit within me in a way that causes me to walk in the way God has for us here on the earth. God wants to bless you. This is not about legalism and being perfect and all the things we see in Jesus’ ministry here on the earth with the Pharisees talking about how perfectly they kept all the rules and regulations and the laws. No, it is not about that. God wants you to get this in you because it is life. It is love. It is light. It shows you how He created you to be, to live, to walk and do, so you can be a blessing. You can live and walk in His blessing, and you can share that blessing with others.
Father, we thank you for your word to us today. We thank you for your instruction. We thank you for showing us the way. I pray that as everyone hears this and goes back and studies these notes and listens to this message again, that it gets in them, and they begin to walk more fully in who you created them to be and in your Word. Thank you for doing that in us and through us, with us, and for us. I pray for a blessed week for everyone, and may your Word come alive more and more in us. Pastor Conia is coming now with some closing thoughts and a prayer. God bless you. Have a great week, everyone.
Two Bible scenes come to mind as we are doing this. One of them is God basically kind of just gave up and said, I am done with you guys, go to the Promised Land if you want to go, do not go if you do not want to go. And they said, no, God, if you are not going with us, we do not want any part of it. And Jesus at one point looked at Peter and a few of the other disciples and said, hey, you guys want to check out too? Because everybody was leaving in droves at one point. And Peter said, to whom would we go?
As we look at what we are doing in our lives, it really does not make any sense to do anything without God. It does not make any sense to do anything without Jesus. So whatever you do today, walk with God in it, because without Him it is just kind of empty.
Thank you for this time today. Thank you that you show us how to live. Thank you that you give us this book of instruction, and that as we meditate on it, Lord, it gets down deep in our spirit and becomes not only something that we have heard about or something that we have read about, but something that we walk in, something that becomes part of us. Thank you, Lord, for your word. We love you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen. Yall have a great week.
