Built Around the Word

Heat up here. Good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? >> Good, good. Good morning. I am DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. So, if I haven't met you yet, welcome. And uh would love to meet you afterwards. I want to reiterate the pizza with the pastor. Uh if you didn't sign up, like you're welcome to still join. I always order a little extra pizza for those who uh want to come but didn't sign up. But yeah, that is we go over mission, vision, values, and uh beliefs, our statement of faith as cross church, and uh um talk about membership and some things. So, if you would at this time open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 8 and if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in the seat back in front of you. You can feel free to use it. Uh you can keep that one. That would be our gift to you. You can highlight it or mark it and underline things. We just ask that you would uh use it. and uh bring it back next week and and make it your Bible. Do devotions in it. Um I want to thank everyone who came to our garden day yesterday. We made a lot of progress. Um it had still rained the day before. It's like if you want it to rain, just ask me to plan a garden day. Okay? Or or I'll call and schedule, you know, the weeds to be sprayed. It'll it'll rain right right before and after that. So just let me know. I'm just kidding. But, uh, it did rain the day before, so the ground was a little wet, but we made it wasn't as bad as it was before. So, we made a lot more progress and got both sides cleaned out. We got beds cleaned out, and so a few more going to start, we're going to start growing um some things in the other beds that we got cleaned. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have a statistic was shared with me uh by crossurch that uh we want to communicate back to you. And this is not um a you know uh a elevate us thing. This is uh this is what God is doing. Right. Well, in 2025 from January 1st to December 31st, the average attendance in the life of Cross Church was the highest it's ever been since it started, since we started in 2016. So, you can uh yeah, praise God for that. Um but what do we do, right? What do we do? We're all about making Jesus known. But what does Paul say? We plant and water. Plant and water. Plant water. God gives the growth, right? And I love that we are a community about making Jesus known about some people just show up right out of nowhere and other people come because family or friends have invited them. Keep it up. Like we just love I love that we are an inviting uh uh uh church and a a church that invites. Um so uh yes. Yes. Praise God for what he's doing and uh we'll continue to do. We look forward to what God has in store for 2026 here at Cross Church Phoenix. This morning we come to one of my favorite passages in scripture because we get to meet um what I like to call one of my kindred spirits, Ezra. Ezra is a lover of God and God's word. If you wanted a a summary statement of the heart and character of our brother Ezra, you would find it in Ezra 7ap 10. You say, "Aren't we in Nehemiah?" Yeah, but brother Ezra showing up. Uh, but in his own book, come on, Ezra. Like in his own book, he doesn't show up till like over halfway through. But in Ezra 7:10, it says this, "For Ezra had set his heart to study uh the law of the Lord and to do it." Get a little James action right there. Our brother, a New Testament, be don't be hearers of the word only, but doers also. Right? That's a little Old Testament James action. to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. So Ezra, his life is dedicated to studying God's word, doing right, there's a difference in studying God's word and then doing God's word and then teaching God's word. And so this morning, I'm excited because I just get to stand before you and tell you how awesome, powerful, and wonderful the word of God is. Because that's what this is all about in Nehemiah chapter 8. The word of God is taking center stage. It is on full display. And we'll see the power that it brings. As we saw last week, the physical work of the building of the walls and installing gates and doors that the book of Nehemiah is most remembered for, right? It's a building project. And it is the first half of it. They're building Jerusalem back up. That's complete. But what Israel needed was not just a new building, right? Or to so to speak, or new walls and gates. Oh, that's nice. What they needed was spiritual revival. They desperately needed spiritual revitalization. In chapter 8 is the beginning of Israel's worship revival centered on the word of God. And just like Israel's worship is centered on God's word, the same is true today in God's church. The marks of a healthy church begin with its fidelity to God's word. And so that's our main heading this morning. If you have a handout, um you'll see it. If you don't, you can grab one on the back uh black tables if you want to and it'll also be up here. But what are the marks of a church built on the word of God? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. I thank you for who you are, God, for being so holy, so righteous, so just, so merciful, and gracious and kind to us. Lord, we pray that Cross Church Phoenix would be a church where the full the full council of God, the whole word of God takes center stage all the time. It is our foundation, our pillar. It is everything, God, because it is your word from you and it guides and directs the church. I pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I'm going to ask us to stand as we read the first six verses of Nehemiah chapter 8. And you'll see why. Um but and we do this from time to time and I enjoy doing it when there's a longer passage sometimes. I know. But I do enjoy this because it it deserries. um you know stand and revere and respect God's word in your heart of course but we are going to read the first six verses in standing representation in honor of God's word and I'm going to ask if you'll read with me I know that some people have different translations so if it's different then no worries but if you're using um a CSB or one of the Bibles in the back it should be the same um let's start reading in verse one all the people uh if you'll read with me. All the people gathered together at the square in front of the Watergate. They asked the e uh scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had given Israel. On the first day of the seventh month, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding. While he was facing the front uh I'm sorry, I'm messing this up. Verse three, while he was facing the square in front of the Watergate, he read out of it from daybreak until noon before the men, the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a high wooden platform made for this purpose. Here we go. You guys ready for this? Mattathiah, Shama, Annayiah, Uriah, Hilkaya, and Measia stood beside him on his right. To his left were Padiah, Mishael, Malijah, Hashim, Hashbadana, Zachchariah, and Messulam. Verse 5, Ezra opened the book in full view of all the people. Uh since he was elevated above everyone as he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and with their hands uplifted, all the people said, "Amen. Amen." Then they knelt low and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. You can be seated. Thank you. As you could tell, I uh needed I got some work to do myself. But thank you guys. The first thing we see, right, the first mark of a church built on the word of God. We see verses 1-6, reverence and uh reverence for the authority of God's word. Now, I don't know about you, but I imagine in my mind mind's eye this picture of all the people are gathered together. They're all just they're all together. They're hanging out. Remember the end of chapter 7 approximated there's about 42,000 Israelites back now. So, this is a big old giant assembly, right? This isn't like a group of 20 people. This is a huge gathering. And they're all together and they look over at Ezra and say, "Ezra, bring the book." Right? Bring us. We want the word of God. A common criticism of the Bible, especially from those people who oppose it, is that it was written by men. Right? Bible was written by men. Um, and I love how it's described here in verse one. Ezra, bring the law of Moses. And you say, see, see, it's the law of Moses. He was a mere man. It's written by a man. See, it's Moses that the Lord had given. Oh, so it's actually God's word. Yep. Exactly. And if you look further down, right, God gave the law to Moses. God's word originates from God himself. If you look further down, we didn't read it. We'll get to it at verse 8. This same law of Moses is also called what? The law of God. Right? So you say, which is it? Is it the law of a mere man, Moses, or is it the law of God? Yes. You know, boom, roasted, right? No. But it's both, right? Peter says the same thing about the scriptures in 2 Peter 1 uh 20 21. He says this, "Knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation." So this isn't just the opinions of a couple dudes in the first century. Okay. Verse 21. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And you say, see, men spoke. Yeah, men spoke. Men spoke. Yes. But they spoke what? From God. Carried along by the Holy Spirit. And that word carried along is a word picture in Greek. And you can look at this yourself, but it speaks of the wind that carries a boat as it hits the sails of the boat. So picture a man being carried along by the Holy Spirit is like a boat that is carried along the sea being pushed by the wind. So the wind is guiding this thing. And so that's the picture there. What Peter is trying to communicate is that yes, men spoke and men wrote and yes, it was from God carried along inspired by the Holy Spirit who is God. Here's the here's the question. Every single one of us must answer this question. And you can say, "No, I don't." Well, that's your answer, right? Do you truly from the bottom of your heart, from the depths of your soul, believe that the book in your hand is the very word of God? Because I know some people who have sat in church for years. I have a family member who is this right about 10 years ago, he'd say yes and amen. It's God's word. Until things changed, until the culture changed, till things happened. And now he'll sit across from me and say, "No, it's not, DJ. I've been enlightened by the culture. You're the one who's blind. And I pray that you'll pray, which is interesting, um, but pray that you'll, you know, see the light eventually, but I'm enlightened. What the Bible says is actually not true. It has errors. It's not God's word. It's the word of humans in their opinions. Do you truly believe this is the living word of God? I do. This is the holy word of the living God and it must ought to be treated as such. It should ought to must be. And that's what you see here. Notice verse 5. Ezra opens the book and what happens? Everyone stands up. They're not standing cuz oh wow, Ezra is so awesome. Um we need to stand up for that guy. Whoa. Like he whoa like Ezra. Wow. Ezra. Oh dude, I'm standing up for Ezra. Right. Attention. Right. Like the president walked up in the room. No, no, no, no. They're not standing because Ezra's here. They're standing up because the word of God is here. And they're recognizing its power and authority. They can't just sit down for this one because it demanded their reverence and respect. Not only do they stand up for the word of God, but look at how long they gave their attention to it. It says from daybreak to noon translation about 6 hours. This is a world uh in Nehemiah's time of course and Ezra's without modern electricity, right? So they wait till daybreak so they got light and as soon as they can see the light they start opening God's word to read it and it goes on until noon. Now I did the homework for you but you can check my stuff right you can check me up but the seventh month in scripture in an Old Testament Israelite time frame would be approximately September October time frame. So I I did a little research. The average sunrise time in Israel in the September October time frame is about 6:30 a.m. So maybe it was like only 5 1/2 hours or maybe they started reading at 6:35 a.m. Okay, 5 hours and 25 minutes. Let's say however which way you cut it. They are listening to the word of God being read by Ezra for hours. And we sit in church and sometimes we're like, "Hey, when's this sermon going to be over? It's been like 20 minutes, right?" And it's kind of sad, but there's also some there's some sobering truth in that where it's like they gave the word of God their attention and received it for hours and hours because it was that important. And so from 6:30ish to noon, it's Bible reading time, right? And the result was what? You see, humility and worship. They kneel down low to the ground in worship in a posture of humility and reverence. That's what happens when you experience the holiness of God. You can think through different passages. What happens to Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 when he's brought into the throne room of God and he is experiencing the holiness of God. I'm a dead man. I'm in trouble. Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm over. My life is over. The holiness of God is overwhelming. I'm dead. Or John in Revelation chapter 1 when he is describing he he's interacting with the risen Christ, the one who has ascended and but not a baby in a manger. This is the like king Christ, right? And he's describing him and John, it says, falls down as though dead. John sees the the the the li the high and lifted up exalted Christ. He's like, I'm dead. I'm dead. My life is over. I'm I'm I'm dead. I'm dead. What can I do in the presence of a holy God? Well, well, you're dead. And what happens? What happens in Isaiah? You remember the the the coals from the altar and he touches his lips and cleans him. And God says, right, who will go for us, right? Elohim, the plural of L. It's great. It's wonderful, right? Who will go for us? Trinity. And Isaiah says, I'll go right here. My send me. Or what happens with John? Right? John is he's a wreck. He's a mess. He's done. He's undone to and the Lord Jesus just comes and you know taps him on the get up John we got work to do right you going to start writing some awesome crazy stuff in Revelation right we got work to do but what happens when you experience the holiness of God is you are brought low in humility and worship and reverence and respect you are brought into a posture of humility and reverence before the word of God. Do we treat the word of God with the same reverence and respect? Skip Heitzig, he's a pastor of a church in New Mexico. He once said this, quote, "If everyone who owned a Bible decided to open it and read it, the greatest dust storm of the century would sweep across America." Right? And it's kind of and it it is humorous, but it's also kind of sad, right? How many Bibles are sitting at home collecting dust on shelves? How many of our Bibles are gathering dust on the shelves? Maybe we open it on Sundays and then Monday through Saturday. Nah, not really. I want to encourage you to be in the word of God every day, not just on Sunday at 9 or 10:30, right? Because the problem is we don't read our Bibles. We don't know it. We don't spend time in it. But we say we love the God who wrote it. Many Christians, even churches today, proclaim love for God with little to no care about what his what he says in his words in his word with uh sermons with little to no scripture at all. Sermonets for Christianets, right? I'm serious. We get a little 15-minute TED talk that's meant to motivate you and tell you how great and wonderful you are. And soon, who takes center stage? The pastor and his stories. It becomes story time with the pastor. Right now, I'm have to walk a thin line here. I know. And it's recorded online. So, hey, but here's the thing. I'm not against personal illustrations. I've shared things about my family. Not against that. What I am against is if that takes center stage to where a 30 minute sermon is 28 minutes of someone talking about themselves and their families and maybe they read a I've listened to some cuz I listen a lot and I do some thing, you know, just for my own edification and um learning and and they don't even read a verse like they might allude to the Bible, right? like this random psalm somewhere, but it's not read. What's taking center stage? The charisma of the pastor, the attractiveness and the oratory skills. Y'all are lucky here at Crossroads Phoenix cuz I'm terrible ortor, right? I'm terrible. If you said, "DJ, stand up there and motivate me. Give me a TED talk and motivate me to go." You got the wrong guy. I can't do it. I when I have the Bible, when I have something to say, God has just flipped a switch in me because I'm naturally introverted and never thought in a million years that I would stand in front of people and preach every week. But God's word gives me something to say. But I couldn't motivate you. If I was to just come up here and do some extemporaneous spontaneous um hurrah, you would see a completely different a terrible awful awful deal. You don't want to hear it. You don't want to hear. Ask Becky. You don't want that, right? Here's the thing. Here's the thing. More and more churches are drifting away from biblical principles. And a major reason for that is cultural change. Churches are allowing the culture to dictate truth. People, even churches, say scripture is outdated. It's old-fashioned and it doesn't mean what it says and it doesn't apply to us. It doesn't mean what it says it what it says about human sexuality. It doesn't mean what it says um about the sanctity of life or marriage, etc. Right? And the moment a church undermines the authority of God's word, starts to capitulate to any given culture's demands, I don't care if it's 2026 or 1926, cultures change. If the if a church is going to allow the culture to dictate truth and not this, that is the moment that their gospel light starts going out. It shouldn't be a surprise that the church is countercultural. It's been that way since the beginning. If you read the book of Acts, there is immediate opposition and hostility to the church in the gospel message. Read it. There's martyrdom, imprisonment, beatings, whipping. And yet, the church continued to do what Christ commanded them to do, which is to proclaim him in the gospel to the nations. You remember Paul at Lististra? I think it's Lististra. I forgot to look it up in between services, but I believe it's Lististra. He's beaten, right, and thrown out for preaching the gospel. You remember what he does? He gets up, goes right back. I love Paul. It's great, right? We shouldn't be surprised that we will be opposed by the world. We look around in the world today and we think, "Wow, it is really anti-Christian and anti-biblical values." And I would agree with you. And it's growing stronger and stronger. But in a very real sense, here in America, we live in a world more okay with Christianity and God's word like for the most part than they did. For example, no one's coming into your house and taking you to jail for being a Christian like they were in the first century yet, right? You never know. persecution could be coming to a city near you. But no matter what our first century brothers and sisters in Christ endured, nothing swayed them from the power of the word of God in the gospel. Paul is a great example. In Acts 1-8, Paul is Saul. He hates the church. He's a Pharisee. And the scriptures say he ravaged the church. And there's a passage in Acts chapter 8 that says that he's the Greek is like he's snarling like a pig. It's a snarling hatred. He's burning with anger. So what does he do? He goes around persecuting him. He goes and finds Christians and puts him in jail until he heads over to Damascus and God says, "You're done." Right? Knocks him down. He's blind for three days and God saves him. flips him around and says, "You're done opposing and killing my church. You work for me now, right? And you're going to go be Paul, the missionary of the first century who will endure sufferings." And Paul shares himself in Acts 20 27 that in the midst of trials and plots against him, he did not, he says, shrink back from declaring the whole council of God to you. That's what he says. He says, "In spite of everything I'm enduring, I didn't shrink back at all." We must stand with them with Paul, Peter, James, John, the whole history of the church, the faithful church of God, who stood on biblical principles, no matter what was going on around them. We have to stand up and uphold and maintain reverence for the authority of God's word, both in our own lives personally and corporately as a church. We have to let's read verses 7-2. Yeshua, Bani, Sherabiah, Jamon, Akub, Shabathi, Hodiah, Measia, Kalita, Azariah, Josead, Hanan, and Pia, who were Levites, explained the law to the people as they stood in their places. They read out of the book of the law of God. There it is. translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read. Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, "This day is holy to the Lord your God," "Do not mourn or weep. For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law." Then he said to them, "Go and eat what is rich. Drink what is sweet and send portions to those who have nothing prepared since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grief because the joy of the Lord is your strength." And the Levites quieted all the people saying, "Be still. Since today is holy, don't grieve." Then all the people began to eat and drink, send portions, and have a great celebration. Why? Why did they have a great celebration? because they had understood the words that were explained to them. So number two, the second mark of a church built on God's word is sound instruction in the knowledge and application of God's word. So you see in verse 7, there's a group of Levites translating and explaining the word of God to the people so they could understand what was being read. And what happened? What happened when they heard and understood the word of God? They wept. Verse 11 adds that they're grieving, right? So weeping, grieving, sorrow. Why? Why? Because the reading of the law of God exposed their sin. That's why Paul teaches in Galatians 3 that the law exposes sin. The scriptures confront our sin. The perfect holy love of God is a standard none of us can keep. Paul uses an interesting word in Galatians 3:22. He says, "Scripture imprisons everything under sin." Galatians 3:22, "But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." So if you think, "Oh, I'm going to read the law of God and keep it perfectly to earn my way into heaven." No, you're not. Right? It's not that you will fail. It's that you already have. No one can keep it perfectly. And the whole point, right, the law, the old King James, I think it was, or another translation says, the law is a school master. I like that. Is a school master pointing you to your sin and your failure to uphold the law. right? And your need for the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sin by his perfect obedience and faith and trust in his saving work on the cross. And so what Ezra is reading is essentially the first five books of the Bible. You say the law of Moses, what's that? It's Genesis through Deuteronomy. And if you read those, you'd get a sense of what they're hearing. Remember, these are Israelites coming out of exile, which was uh direct punishment from God for their disobedience. Remember also that they spent about 70 years in exile. So some of them might have been old enough to remember, right? Like they were old enough to reme to go into the exile, spend 70ish years in Babylon and come back. But many of the people here haven't even been to Israel, their hometown. They grew up because they still had kids. They grew up in exile in Babylon. And so you say like, why does it need to be translated? He's reading this in straight up Hebrew. Yeah, it needs to be translated cuz some of them have not heard this before in their language because they've been in exile and might have even learned different languages. You remember Daniel was taught the language of the Babylonians. They would bring them up in this Calaldian thing and they needed to translate this because not all of them knew. So what would they hear? They would hear Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Who is that? Elohim. We just sang it. What's Elohim? Elohim is the plural of the word for God, L. Like you have El Shai, God Almighty. It's singular when you're describing him, right? El Shadai, God Almighty. But Elohim is the plural of the singular. Why? Because that's the trinity. So in the beginning, God, the Trinity uh created the heavens and the earth. They would read about how they wound up slaves in Egypt, but also how God redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt through the 10 plagues and through Passover and through parting the Red Sea and saving them. They would read all these laws of God, but one thing that they would be reminded of over and over and over again is something that God told his people over and over and over again. If you obey me, it'll go well with you. be fine. Don't worry about it. But if you disobey me, and this is like the DJV, right? The DJ translation, like I'm gonna kick you out. It's not going to go well with you. And so these people who lived the punishment. This is why we're here. We disobeyed our ancestors, our fathers, our families who've gone before us have disobeyed God time and time and time and time again. And we are, we lived the punishment. Now we're back. So they would hear all of the sin that led them to this point and their weeping and mourning over it. All the sin that got them sent to Babylon in the first place and also how God was faithful to bring them back and it leads them to mourning and weeping. Look how it affected them when it was translated and taught to them. Look at what happened. Let me ask you a question. If you read scripture and it confronts your sin, does it affect you? If you know the way you're living goes against God's word, does it stir something in you that says, "I need to get right with God on this." Because disobedience to the word of God should cause consternation within us. If you come to church on Sunday with a clean mouth, but go to work on Monday, Monday, letting all kinds of filthy talk come out, how do you feel about that knowing God's word says to not let filthy talk come from your mouth? If you're a Christian and find yourself lusting after after another person or watching pornography, does it bother you that you're not fleeing sexual immorality like God's word says to do? If you're a Christian um businessman or boss or supervisor and you engage in shady financial practices, does it bother you that you're going against God's word that exhorts us to put off falsehood? If you're a Christian and you gossip or talk behind people's backs, does it bother you that you're going against God's word that tells us to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, and forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you? And there's plenty of examples, right? We could just go on through. But if you can read and understand the scriptures and it says stop doing what you're doing, it should stir something in you. And I would be very concerned if it didn't, right? I don't care. Stop gossiping. The Bible says stop gossiping. No. Whoa. You might want to watch out and reflect on your relationship with the Lord. Right? Now, this is not to say that we won't struggle with these thing these things, right? Cussing or lust or there's people that uh all this stuff, right? lying, cheating, stealing, whatever it is, we will struggle with these things. That's I'm not taking that away. I'm saying but it should bother us when we're in them because we have the Holy Spirit. We don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit, right? So, we need to get back right with God. It's when it doesn't bother you. I can get drunk and I don't care. I don't care what God's word says. I like being drunk all the time. Problem with your relationship with God, right? For the Christian, disobedience to God's word should bring weeping, grief, and sorrow. But but obedience to God's word brings joy. Let's read. I know I have to move fast. Sorry, but hey, I'm going to hold you hostage a little longer. I'm just kidding. But 13 to 18. Um, on the second day, the family heads of all the people along with the priests and Levites assembled before the scribe Ezra to study the words of the law. They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should dwell in shelters during the festival of the seventh month. So they proclaimed and spread this news throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make shelters just as it is written." The people went out, brought back branches and made shelters for themselves on each of their rooftops and courtyards, the court of the house of God, the square by the Watergate, and the square by the Ephraim gate. The whole community that had returned from exile made shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not celebrated like this from the days of Joshua, son of Nun, until that day. And there was tremendous joy. Ezra read out of the book of the law of God every day from the first day to the last. The Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day there was an assembly according to the ordinance. The third thing, a third mark of a church built on the word of God is readiness and eagerness to submit to and obey God's word. So you see in verse 13, they have this ma massive Bible reading to everyone who could understand. The next day the heads of the families come together. What does that mean? Hey, heads of the family, get all the do get all the fathers together. Um, in that in that culture, that's what it would be. Get all of them together. We're doing Bible study again. We're doing it again. And they're reading, right? Parents in the room, like, listen up. You should be in the word of God so you can train your kids up. But look what happens. They're doing more Bible study. And they come across, if you're reading Genesis through Deuteronomy, you're going to come across Leviticus 23. which says in verse 39, on the 15th day of the seventh month, remember we're in the seventh month right here in Nehemiah verse two, right? When you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. What they had celebrated, I'm not going to finish reading to you that thing. I I have it in my notes, but I don't have time to. What they had found was they are supposed to be celebrating the feast of booths. That's what they found. They're like they're like reading on the seventh month on the the seven. Dude, bro, did you know what time it is? Yeah. We're supposed to be doing the feast of booze right now. Oh, all right. Go, go, go. Everyone grab stuff, right? Olives and all this stuff. You You read it there. Go grab Bring it back. Go, go, go. Everyone go because we're going to gather together and we're going to do what God commands us and tells us to do. do what God's word says to do. They didn't even know it, right? They were ignorant of the fact that they're in the middle of technically a festival, but they're all mourning. This is why they tell them not to mourn and weep. Today's holy like you're weeping weeping. No, no, no. God's word overrides all that. Um we're supposed to be celebrating a joyous uh feast of boos. Everyone stop crying, right? Just stop stop crying. Stop crying. Stop weeping. Um go get the stuff so we can celebrate this festival. Obedience to God's word. And it brought them great joy. They were ready and eager to obey. And I understand. So our our application of this overlaps with the last point. I get that. But do you read God's word this way? Ready to submit and obey it. Looking for what God has for you in it. You're sitting there maybe reading God's words. God's word and it tells you to pray without ceasing. And so you know, you think, man, how can I start praying more? What does this look like in my life? or God's word tells you to not look to your own interest but the interest of others. Do you sit back and say, "hm, how can I go do that? How can I meet someone else's need today and put their needs above my own today?" Or when it says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, will you? We live in a world where people are barging into churches and protesting now. You've seen it in the news. Maybe you saw it uh in in a church in Minnesota. Persecution and hatred of Christianity could be coming to a city near you. But will we pray for those lost people? That's what Jesus said, right? Pray for those who persecute you. And it's tough, right? It's tough. It's not easy. But would we pray that they'd come to know the God they're working so hard to oppose? That's Paul. Paul's a full-time hater of the church before Acts chapter 9. And then he becomes a full-time lover of God and his word and a gospel proclaimer after Acts chapter nine. He dedicated his life to destroying Christianity in one minute and is completely changed by the gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ and is all in after that for the gospel. There's a lot of people in our world today working real hard to oppose God and biblical principles. Will we pray that God would just write them? Do whatever you got to do, Lord. Whack them blind for three days and restore their sight and put them on fire for the Lord. I don't know. But pray, right? Pray for them. It's hard to trust me. It's hard. And we crave justice, which is good because we serve a just God. So there's justice comes into play. But will we pray for lost people who oppose God? We should. There's more examples. Just start reading New Testament and start finding commands. Right? Paul, Peter, James, and John give you a ton of guidance on the Christian life. The question is, will we read it with an eagerness to submit to and obey it? So, here's our closing thought. In giving advice, I know it's long. Sometimes my closing thoughts are long. It's all right. In giving advice to those looking for a church, Paul Washer once said this, "Do not, I'm quoting him, do not look for the church nearest to your home. Look for the church closest to the Bible." I like that. May Cross Church Phoenix be a church built on the word of God. And I want to end with this quote from David Platt. He wrote a book called Counterculture. It's all the ways the scriptures in the God's word and Christianity, the gospel, all the above, all the ways that that is uh that it opposes or goes countercultural. He addresses all the hot button topics. So, if you're looking for for something there, there's that. Um how the gospel is countercultural to um all of these things. But he says this, quote, "The gospel is a call for every one of us to die. To die to sin and to die to self and to live with unshakable trust in Christ." Now listen, listen. Choosing to follow his word even when it brings us into clear confrontation with our culture and our own desires for that matter. Wow. End quote. Right. So, will we choose to follow God's word even when it pits us against the culture? Number one. But better yet, number two, will we choose to follow God's word when it pits you against your own sin? Yeah. I hope the answer is yes. Right. >> But may we be built individually and corporately as a church on the word of God. It's confrontation. Well, it's not easy, right? Just look to our church. Just look to church history. Constant persecution. It's not going to end until the Lord takes us home. I'm going to invite the worship team back up. We'll end with our last song. I know I've gone long, but uh if you would uh join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. There's there's a lot more to say um on the power and the authority, the supremacy of God's word in the church, but Lord, I pray that we uh in here would would hold high, have a high view of scripture, not a low view, not a view of scripture that is, you know, well, it kind of pertains to me, but kind of not mostly, you know. Um, I pray that we'd have a high view of scripture because it comes from God. If we truly believe that the God of the universe gave this to us using his people as his instruments, if we truly believe that the message of the scriptures, the message of the gospel comes from the eternal God of the universe, it demands our time in respect and reverence. I pray God that if there is anyone listening to my voice either online or in the room that does not um have a care in the world what the Bible says. I pray God that you would convict them. I pray that they would be uncomfortable. I pray that they would be uh bothered by the scriptures so that they might come to you and rejoice in knowing you, the Lord of all, our savior Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.