Unmoved By God's Word

we're going to read a portion of scripture i'll read a few verses now but we will be going back through this chapter jeremiah chapter 36 the series that we are studying this month is the importance of god's word in jeremiah 36 beginning at verse 21 we read this so the king sent jehoday to fetch the roll and he took it out of elisha of the scribe's chamber in jehoodi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month and there was fire on the hearth burning before him and it came to pass that when jihadi had read three or four leaves three or four pages three or four columns i think is the literal translation that the king cut it with the pin knife

and he cast it into the fire that was on the heart until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth and here was the response yet they were not afraid they did not rend their garments neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words lesson titled today is unmoved by god's word unmoved by god's words several years ago as i was getting ready to read through the bread program i thought i would do something a little bit different and i know they make chronological bibles and i did not have one but i just thought well i'm gonna as best i can go through the bible chronologically if you ever get an opportunity to do that i would highly recommend it either find a chart that has it that way or if you can find a chronological bible or if you just want to flip through it

and figure it out yourself but in particular the old testament is really a collection of books that is grouped mostly by themes we understand that you know the first five books the pentateuch are the books of the law written by moses and then next come the books of history that talk about the things that happened to israel and taking over the promised land and then the history of their kings and then these are followed by what we call the poetical books we look at psalms and proverbs we look at job we look at those writings those and then followed by the the wisdom writings and then major and minor prophets and so that's kind of how the old testament our old testament is laid out and so what is not so apparent when you read through the bible straight through like that is that many of the psalms that we studied last month were written in different time periods of history in fact moses wrote some of them

so they were written way back in those first five books and david wrote them which would have been in in first and second samuel he would have written those psalms asaph wrote them the sons of korra wrote them and so they were written at all different times and when you read through them you don't always put them with the events that were happening and to read them alongside those historical event events that inspired them really gives us some insight into what the psalmist was thinking and what he was experiencing this time and the same holds true with the prophets it's it's interesting to read them after all the history has been told because you read the historical books first and then you get into job and psalm and proverbs and on and on ecclesiastes and and then you get to the prophets and to read them

then is to miss much of what the prophets were trying to convey because they were actually prophesying during the times of the kings for the most part or during the times of earlier in the old testament and so if they are read along with those books of samuel and kings and chronicles ezra nehemiah we begin to better understand what they're prophesying about and to whom they were prophesying and we can see also how some of those prophecies were fulfilled in those days and so today's lesson is a case in point the lesson looks at an event that occurred during the reign of a king by the name of jehoiakim and his story is told us in second kings and in second chronicles but the story we chose today comes from jeremiah chapter 36 so if you're reading the bible straight through that means you would have read nine other books including that longest book of psalms before you return to a story that's in jehoiakim's life

and and i dare say most of us if you're just reading straight through would have forgotten even who jehoiakim was by the time you get to jeremiah he is one of those kings what was going on in there and so if you go back and put it together it all seems to make sense so perhaps maybe in some future lessons we'll endeavor to help us understand better how it all fits together i think it's vital that we not only read god's word but we really understand it right as we read it and see what's going on so when we look at this king this jehoiakim he was the second son of josiah judah's king that we studied last week and if you remember from last week if you were here josiah had led judah to repentance upon discovering the book of the law in the house of the lord his grandfather

and his father both lived very wickedly josiah decided he wanted to reform and serve the one true god and so he was in the process of doing that and while they were doing that they were cleaning out the temple that was there and while cleaning it out somebody found the scroll found the bible find found the word of god that they had the book of the law and from this story we learned that when josiah was comforted by that word we learned that we must submit to the word we must repent turn around change our mind bring it in line with the word of god and then we must change the way we're living so that we line up with god's word and under josiah's leadership as we learned the people had committed unanimously to keep the lord's commandments his testimonies his statues with all their heart with all their soul

and to perform the words of the covenant that were written in that book and so josiah's spiritual guidance was remarkable so much so that the bible says unlike unto josiah there was no king before him that turned with all his heart and all his soul to the lord and with all his might according to the law of moses neither after him was there any king like him so what we see today is after josiah's death the people made his son jehoiah has the king in his place that was a big mistake you think josiah was a great king he served god he turned the people back to god re tore down all the idols all those things now we'll put his son in place and jehovah has reigned only three months and the bible says that he did that which is evil in the sight of his lord

so if his father straightened it all out josiah went right back to what his forefathers had done well he only last three months because the king of egypt the pharaoh captured him put him in prison basically made judah a subservient nation to them and begin to extract attacks of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold on all the people and so when that happened he was imprisoned in egypt and so this pharaoh set his brother jehoiakim up as king now his name wasn't originally jehoiakim the king chained pharaoh changed that but he put jehoiakim in the place jehoiakim's story is interesting in that it only gets 10 verses in second kings and even fewer in second chronicles and i'm going to read through that won't take too long pharaoh made eliacham the son of josiah the king in the room of josiah his father this is second kings 23 it's beginning at verse 34.

and he changed his name jehoiakim and he took jehoiah has away he came to egypt and that's where jehoiah has died and jokowicum gave the silver and the gold to pharaoh this was this tax that he put upon then then he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of pharaoh and he exacted the silver and gold of the people of the land and of everyone according to the taxation to give it unto pharaoh jehoiakim was 25 when he began to reign he reigned 11 years in jerusalem and he did that which was evil in the sight of the lord according to all his fathers has done and his days so while he was still king nebuchadnezzar king of babylon and that's the same nebuchadnezzar you read about in daniel and that's why i say you got to try to keep all this together when you're reading straight through

but that king nebuchadnezzar came up and jehoiachin became his servant for three years then he turned and rebelled against him and the lord sent unto him unto jehoiachin bands of the chaldees and the bands of the syrians and bands of the moabites and bands of the children of ammon and sent them against judah to destroy it so there was just continual fighting all these nations coming against them but here's what it says it was according to the word of the lord which was spake by his servants the prophets so the prophets had told them if you don't serve god this is what's going to happen and this is what we see beginning to happen surely at the commandment of the lord the bible says came this upon judah to remove them out of his sight so god instituted this because of the works of his grandfather manasseh

then it says this now the rest of the acts of jehoiakim and all that he did are they not written in the book of chronicles of the kings of judah okay let's look at chronicles and see what it says and the king of egypt made a liar come his brother king over judah in jerusalem and turned his name to jehoiakim we already read that and pharaoh took jehoiah has his brother carried him into egypt jehoiakim began his reign at 25 he reigned 11 years in jerusalem he did that which is evil in the sight of his lord as god and against him nebuchadnezzar came bound him in fetters and carried him into babylon but nebuchadnezzar also carried the vessels of the house of the lord to babylon put them in the temple now the rest of the acts of jehoiakim and his abominations which he did that which was found in him they're written in the book of the kings we already read that too

so that's all we get that's the entire history that we see of jehoiakim however later in the book of jeremiah we would know a little bit about this king a little bit more because jeremiah helps us to understand the attitude of this king and it really helps us understand the reason that jehoiakim was carried away by king nezukinezer it's because he had no regard for the word of the lord so we're going to look at jeremiah 36 to see exactly what happened and that came to pass in the fourth year of jehoiakim the son of josiah the king of judah the word came unto jeremiah and the lord said saying take a roll of a book and write therein all the words that i have spoken against israel so write it all down jeremiah everything that i said i'm going to do to israel to judah

and against all the nations from the day i first spake unto thee from the days of josiah even until today so god's instructions are very specific jeremiah get a scroll write everything that i said i'm going to do write all the judgments that are going to come upon israel that are going to come upon judah and all other nations it wasn't to be selective he was going to write everything the lord told him to that time and god even gives him the purpose of why i want you to do this i am hoping i am trying to bring judah to repentance when we look at the word of god there is always that goal in mind in god's mind it is to turn us to repent to turn us around from our direction that we would follow god's direction sometimes he does it with great promises

and says if you serve me you're going to be blessed and this is going to happen that's going to happen in your life and sometimes he does it with warnings if you don't turn around here's what's going to happen aren't you thankful god he tries every way he can he he offers benefits and says if you follow me there's goodness that will follow and mercy all the days of your life some people say it's fine i'm doing what i want to do it's good enough and to them he said well then if you don't turn around here's what lies ahead and yet because we're so stubborn many of us we keep going down the path and so the lord said to jeremiah here's why i want you to write it it may be maybe that the house of judah will hear all the evil which i purpose to do unto them

and that they may return and there that's that idea of repenting that they may repent or turn every man from his evil way and here's why that i may forgive their iniquity and their sin wow god already knows what they're doing and how they're putting up idols and everything else and he said i'm going to send my word i'm going to tell them of the judgment and here's why i want to forgive them to those that say god can never forgive me guess what he says i'm sending the warnings and i send the instruction and i send the blessings and i do all this for one purpose because i want to forgive you but the only way that can happen is if you will return or you'll repent or you'll turn from your evil ways and you'll begin to follow me he's not going to forgive you when you're continually walking the other direction

but when you return and you come back to him and you repent and you put it before god he is ready and he is willing he attempted through many kings the kings and the chronicles and we see over and over always through the voices of the prophet to bring them back to repentance to bring them back to a spiritual restoration and there were moments of hope as we saw last week in josiah and as as you can read about in in the reforms of hezekiah and others there were times but spiritual recovery always seemed to be temporary but yet still the lord longed for a reason he's always look is that that's what i want to stress right now he is always looking for a reason to forgive you now it won't ever violate his word that's important to know you can't just say well forgive me because i just feel bad about it

but i'm going to keep doing what i'm doing now no you've got to follow the word but he is waiting for the opportunity and he is looking that's why the bible said he is long-suffering toward us not willing he doesn't want us to perish not willing to donation but that all should what come to repentance he's long suffering he keeps trying and trying to get you to repent so that he can say great you've repented you've changed your mind you're walking toward me i'll forgive those iniquities what a merciful god that would do that for us that would say i will wait as we read biblical history we discover that this long prophesied judgment is very getting very close but his story is he is one of the final kings here in judah so jeremiah gets ready i'm going to do what god says to do i'll get somebody to write

so he had a man by the name of baruch who was his scribe or like a secretary if you will and so jeremiah begins quoting the word of the lord here's what god said to me here's the promises he made here's those promises of destruction here's what he said write it all down and baroque is writing away and he gets it all down and then jeremiah sends him to he says i want you to go and i want to read this to the people with the hope that they will repent and turn from their evil ways ultimately we see and we will see as we go through this the scroll was read three times at jeremiah's instructions so he instructed him to wait here's what he said therefore go thou and read in the scroll which thou has written for my mouth everything i said the words of the lord

and the ears of the people in the lord's house upon the fasting day and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all judah that come into out of their cities he was very specific of when he wanted it read i think the reasons for this were twofold first if judah were fasting then their minds would be on god so let's wait until the time when they call a fast let's wait until a time when they're seeking god usually fasting usually was accompanied by repentance as the people entreated the lord for their situation i think by this time in israel it had just become a ritual well if we fast god's got to answer us even if their hearts were far away from that but that was the intent and second when the fast was called as many people in judah as could we leave their homes

and go to jerusalem and that would give barack a much larger audience than normal and so the call finally came bible says in jeremiah 36 and 9 it came to pass in the fifth year of jehoiakim the son of josiah in the ninth month they proclaimed a fast before the lord to all the people of jerusalem and to all the people that came from the cities of judah unto jerusalem now this was not a scheduled fast judah had one of those on their calendar they did every year once a year there was a great fast called and they would go to jerusalem for that that took place in the seventh month it's also not likely that the king called this fast because he had very little regard for god god of his father josiah the wording of the voice the wording of the verse is

very interesting it simply says they proclaimed a fast i'm not sure who the they was history does not tell us we do not know the bible does not say who they was that proclaimed the fast but what we do know was during this time that as we read in the kings they were constantly under attack from the chaldeans and the moabites and the ammonites and all these people that were coming against them so maybe they thought you know we keep getting attacked maybe if we just have a fast and ask god that he'll take all that away i'm not sure they were also going through a time of severe drought during that time period and maybe the fast was out of desperation let's seek god we need your help but whatever the reason was this was the opportunity that barack was looking for i think it is

notice notable that god chose a time when the people were seeking him to bring forth his word let's wait until they call a fast their minds are everywhere else well now when you're fasting you're usually thinking about something usually food but beyond that hopefully you're thinking about god right i'm doing this for a reason i don't think it's without purpose that we generally preach after a time of worship right god waits until the soil is ready to send his word and so he figured well if they're fasting and they're seeking me maybe the word will impact and he intends for his word to touch the hearts of those that are open to him and so we preach after many times after the spirit of god is moving hearts or touch and people are open and then the word of god can go and it can bring forth fruit often also in times of those maybe not in that situation

but in but when we're trying to reach those it is often when they are in crisis situation that it is easier to talk to someone about god when they're going through a struggle or going through a trial and we can talk to them when they're open to the things of god god looks for those times and we should be too and so baruch goes into the house takes the book of jeremiah into the house of the lord verse 10 tells us he went in the higher courts went up where everybody could see him at the entry of the gate to the lord's house and he read in the ears of all the people the word was read just as jeremiah instructed him to do now we find it interesting because it said he read it the bible however doesn't tell us of any impact it had on the people how they responded we don't know all it says was he read the word doesn't say

and there was great revival doesn't saying great things happen it don't say that people begin to shout and say yes let's serve god like they did in josiah's day they didn't say yes we'll commit to do this in fact we don't see any response out of it but here's what we know and what god has promised he said the word so my word shall be that go forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which i please it shall prosper in the thing wherein two i sent it brook you r you read you didn't see any kind of revival you didn't see anything happen don't worry about it god is in control something is going to happen now he may never have seen the revival he wished but god's word hit his hit its mark because there was a man there by the name of mackay i the son of chafin

and that's a shaping we read last week that actually read this scroll to josiah that chaff and his grandson heard the words out of the book the words of the lord and he went down into the king's house into the scribes chamber and he declared to them all the words that he heard when the book was read in the ears of the people so baruch may not have known it but somebody took that and went to the scribes and said you know what guess what i just heard read and upon hearing that they said well we want to hear it too so they went therefore all the princes sent jihadi unto baroque and said take in your hand the roll go get it bring it back to us and so he took the role in his hand and he came unto them and they said unto him sit down

now and read in our ears we want to hear it too so he read it in their ears this time there was a response this book as we said was largely a list of judgments that were coming upon judah and the bible says now when it came to pass in 36 16 when they heard all the words they were afraid both one and another and they said unto him we've got to tell the king something's going on see god's word how it's starting to work it's starting to go exactly where god wants it to go god always has a plan and his word will hit home and the word went first to the people now it's well it had gone to the scribes and finally suddenly it is heading straight toward the king just as the word had reached josiah now it was going to reach his son

but what we see is such a different reaction the princess questioned him about where it came from he said well it was from jeremiah and he said well then you go hide you and jeremiah don't tell anybody where you are we'll take care of it we will read it to the king they hid the scroll they told the king what they had heard and jehoiakim said well i want to hear it what's it about let's go get it so he gets jihadi to get the scroll and to read it to him so the king sent jehoday verse 21 said to fetch the roll and he read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king what happens next is amazing it's what we read in in our opening text the king was there it was the ninth month it was starting to get cold he was in his winter house he was there sitting before a fire

so he could keep warm and jihadis begins to read and he reads the bible said three or four leaves or three or four columns three or four pages however you want to look at that he reads a little bit into it and as he does he starts reading to these judgments that are coming upon judah and the king gets very upset and he pulls out a knife and he cuts it up the things that he had just read and then he takes the scroll in this role and he throws it in the fire into the whole roll was consumed in the fire that was on the heart jihadi had barely started to read didn't even get through the book when the king was so upset and so that he cut it up and threw it in the fire refused to even listen to the word that was spoken in the name of the lord

and here's the thing the word hit its mark as god promised and it got a response and it accomplished what god sent it to he was sending jehoiakim a warning to say if you don't straighten out here is what is going to happen and joe holcomb got so angry at the first few pages that he didn't want to hear any more we need to be careful how we handle the word of god when it comes into our lives are we going to be like his father josiah who said you know what i hear the word and he rents his garment and he cries out to god and repented and said we've got to get this straightened out and we've got to serve god or are you going to take an attitude like jehoiakim that says i don't want to hear it i'm going to cut

it up i'm going to throw it away i'm going to burn it don't talk to me about the things of god in contrast to the scribes reacted in fear after hearing that earlier reading the king or his princes they didn't respond they responded completely different listen what verse 24 says of 36 yet they were not afraid the word comes that judgment is coming and you're going to be carried away into babylon and all these things going to happen they were not afraid number one it did not convict them as we talked about last week they weren't convinced i don't care what you say jeremiah number two nor did they rent their garments or they didn't repent they didn't cry out for mercy neither the king nor any of his servants that heard all these words we just don't care and here's what we learned from

that our response to the word of god will determine the trajectory of our lives when the word goes forth how am i going to respond to those who embrace its promises to those who embrace its commandments even to those who embrace the judgments that are come and understand those there is a great reward when we turn from our wicked ways but to those who reject even a part of it there is a certain judgment that is coming you see we either take this whole book or we don't take any of it you can't take a pen knife and cut out what you don't like you can't cast in the fire the parts that you don't want to hear some will hear the word of the lord and conviction will grip their hearts and say i gotta get right with god and others will look in

and say this is just a bunch of foolishness i've seen people when the word of god went forth and they were just brought to tears and they couldn't wait to get to an altar and i want to seek god and i've got to repent of my sins and i've got to turn around and i remember one man in the middle of service the word of god was going forth and he jumped up and he said i'm sick of you foolish people making a fool out of me and he walked out no one was telling him the word was going forth and it was hitting his heart and he said i don't want to hear it it was such a shock to hear that response never seen that before but it drove it home the word of god is gonna affect everyone definitely when conviction grips your heart are you gonna be like josiah who said i'm gonna repent i'm gonna turn to god or are you gonna be like those that mock as precepts

and say i don't believe it i don't want to hear it don't tell me about that paul described these people in second thessalonians 10 he said here's what happens to them that perish they received not a love for of the truth that they might be saved the word of god went forth and they just did not love it they did not want to hear it and the bible says and for this cause because they did not love the truth that they did not receive what was given that they might be saved god sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but they had pleasure in their unrighteousness or in doing the things that they were doing what will be our response to the word of god when it touches our lives i find jeremiah to be an interesting book because jeremiah was giving a very tough assignment he was called to prophesy

and he was called to preach destruction and he was going to tell them about the things that were going to happen he was also going to tell them that after 70 years god's going to bring you back into this land but no one would want to receive it in fact god told him when he called him i'm going to call you to preach but they are not going to listen to you i wonder how we would like that today i i just felt this is what you know we we all think we look at people and we look at the ministries of people and i think sometimes we say well i don't see much results coming out of that and i see this person this great revival following i want to go over there you don't know what god has called that person to do

it might be an isaiah that god called to prophesy in somewhat somewhat similar of a time a little bit before jeremiah it might have been like him who was going to tell about a millennial period and all the great things and so many things about the messiah and all these good things and and he was well loved and looked up to in a lot of ways where he may have called a jeremiah that said guess what i'm going to call you but they're not going to listen man it's a whole lot easier to preach when you know they're right behind you right come on preach with me tonight no god didn't call you for that i don't think any of us want to be a jeremiah but here's the thing we've got to give god's word give god's whole counsel and let god take care of where it goes it will accomplish where he's going to send it to no it may not be where i think he's sending it to

but i'm going to preach it and i'm going to teach it if god says this is where we need to go and here's the thing it did no good for jehoicham to burn the scroll containing god's word the word of the lord it can't be destroyed you can burn a book i could take this over there i wouldn't but you could take it over right now and put it in the fire it wouldn't matter the word does not change because it simply came to jeremiah again said jeremiah go write it again okay get out another scroll brock you're ready to start writing again i'm going to quote it all over and you can rewrite the whole thing and while that happened we see in verse 29 why jehoiakim burnt the scroll in the first place because god asked him he said ask him why hast thou written therein or the lord said here is why he did it because he asked why did you write the king of babylon shall come

and destroy this land and shall cause descent cease that's why did you write that jeremiah i want to know why did you write that this is going to happen it's the word of the lord jeremiah didn't just make that up he wasn't in cahoots with with the king of babylon nebuchadnezzar hey you got plans you know tell me he was given what god had to say you ever wonder when somebody preaches something say well what'd you say that for it's the word of the lord the answer to this question in jeremiah here's what the lord said thus saith the lord of jehoi of jehoiakim king of judah now isn't that an interesting statement jeremiah 36 and 30. here's what the lord of jehoiakim king of judah said whether you agreed with the word or not i'm still your lord i'm still over you jehoiakim and you can say what you want

but i am still the lord of jehoiakim king of judah and here's what's going to happen you're not going to have any to sit upon the throne of david in other words none of your family is going to follow you your dead body shall be caused cast out in the heat of in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost and i'm gonna punish you and your seed and your servants for your iniquity and i will bring upon you and upon the inhabitants of jerusalem the men of judea all the evil that i have pronounced against them and then he said this but they hearkened not i told them exactly what i was going to do they heard the word but they did not listen and jehoiachin today is an example to those who wish to control what we hear from god

and he's also an example of the futility of what happens when we try to do that you see god's word is authoritative and it does not change even if we refuse to read it or to hear it it is eternal jesus said heaven and earth is going to pass away but these words they're not going anywhere they shall not pass away see this word it will cut across humanistic philosophy it doesn't matter what this word said it is offensive to those who have opposed god in their lives paul said it this way in that they did not like to retain god in their knowledge they didn't want to know anything about him and paul writes to timothy he's in chapter four he said the time is going to come when they will not endure sound doctrine they don't want to hear what the word of god has to say i was on a a chain on facebook i got off of that several years ago

but i was on there and it was with classmates i grew up with and they were talking about a situation and they were talking about what do you think about a church doing this and they going back and forth and and the general consensus well god just loves us all and we just need you know the teachings of what jesus said about love and one another that's all great and the rest of it you know i said what about these verses well you know we let's just he's a god of love they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts or after their own desires here's what he said they're gonna they're gonna heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears that's a weird phrase and i looked it up and that means itching ears i couldn't find anything else it was one word

that said tickle something that tickles your ears scratch it it's what you want to hear having ears that you know desire if you got an itch you scratch you gotta you know got an itch you got to scratch it right you're rich tell me what i want to hear and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and they shall be turned unto fables tell me what i want to hear preach a prosperity message and don't tell me if i got to live right just say these are my best days you can do what you want serve god everything's just going to be a blessing after blessing and well what about me i'm not living right don't worry about that there is a proper response to god's word proper response from the new testament there's a parable jesus gave i found it interesting you've probably heard it many times just go through it briefly he spake to them many things in parables he said a sower went forth to sow

and when he sowed he's throwing down seed some of that seed goes over here on the wayside birds came devoured them some of them fell on stony or hard places where they're not much earth no dirt there and they tried to spring up they had no deepness of earth and when the sun was up they were scorched they had no roots and they withered away some of it fell among the thorns and there's weeds around and the thorns swung up and choked them but other seed fell on good ground and it brought forth fruit some a hundred fold some sixty some thirty who half ears let him hear now i know there's whole books you can read on how to interpret parables i'm thankful jesus didn't even say go look that up and try to figure it out for yourselves he gave us the interpretation for this one he said the sower sows the word the word's going to go forth

and these that are by the wayside where the word is slung so it goes over there to the wayside they heard it satan immediately comes and he takes away the word that was sown in their hearts so they really don't care it goes out they hear it lands there on the wayside it's taken away they walk away and aren't changed at all by the power of the word of god then there are these likewise that are sewn on a stony ground they hear it they immediately say well that sounds great but they have no root in themselves they don't get any further than that well that sounds good you know i i accept god as my savior the lord is my savior and and they well i'm saved so i don't have to worry about that check that one off and i'll go live the way i want to live no root they don't get into the word

and so they endure for a short time but afterwards he said when affliction or persecution arise for the world's sake immediately they are offended and they lose out and then there are those that are sown among thorns and they hear the word of the lord and and all the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering choking the word i've got other things on my plate and you know okay i'll i'll relegate god's word and his truth and it's just to this part of my week and the rest of it you know i don't think about god and he said it chokes out the word but these are they which are sown on good ground and here's where we want to be we hear the word we receive it we get into the word and we bring forth fruit

so we have a challenge today since we believe and we teach and we stand on the fact that this bible is the word of god we must read it we must hear it we must obey it we must walk in it and we don't want to be like a jehoiakim that says i don't care don't give that to me leave me alone and toss it into the fire he's an example that we do not want to follow i want to follow someone like timothy where paul wrote from a child from a youth you've known the scriptures and you've learned from them to be watchful and to do endure afflictions and to do the work which you were called to do to follow after god i think you're here today because you want to be grounded in the word of god and stand on that truth i think if you're really interested in just cutting it up

and throwing the fire you'll probably be outside doing what you wanted to do and not hearing the word of god amen but let's let it get deep in our hearts standing on the promise as the bible said there are promises i mean good promises there's also promises if you don't follow but we've got to stand on all of them amen and follow what god has to say you're thankful for his word why don't we stand and just give him a thanks for that lord so thankful for the word it is the way that leads to eternal life if we will stay in the path and in the word that you have given god there are great things in store for us lord jesus in this life yes but in the world to come so much more lord and we thank you for those promises lord

jesus from your word in jesus name amen amen