Mike Bickle emphasizes the need to establish a spiritual culture based on the teachings of Joel, particularly focusing on the importance of hearing and understanding God's message during unprecedented times of crisis and revival. He urges leaders and the community to pay close attention to the entirety of God's word, ensuring that the next generations are informed and spiritually equipped to face the challenges ahead. Bickle highlights the dual nature of God's message, which includes both judgment and revival, and calls for a relational connection with God that is based on His terms. He stresses the importance of passing down this knowledge to children, creating a legacy of faith that spans generations.

Let's pray. Father, we ask you for an impartation of your heart. We ask you that you would touch us with the things that fill your heart. We want to see what you see and feel what you feel about this book and this hour of history. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. This is class number four, our fourth class, and we're on the session notes number five. We're beginning now the verse-by-verse part of the book of Joel. We're here in the first paragraph, developing or establishing a spiritual culture. And that's what Joel's really talking about here. We'll read verse two and three. Joel begins this heavy message, day of the Lord message. But it's not just heavy related to judgment. It's also glorious related to the greatest revival in history. Because that's what Joel's talking about. He goes, Hear, you elders. Give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days? He's talking about the crisis right here. Has anything of this level ever happened in your day, in living memory? Or even the days of your fathers? Can you go back a few generations and remember the stories of your father or grandfather telling you about this level of crisis? So we know this was a very unique hour of a crisis, this locust and agricultural crisis. It wasn't just a bad summer on the farm. It was unprecedented compared to the generations even before. Verse three. Tell your children about it. Don't ignore it. Don't hide it. Don't cover it up. Tell them the story. The whole story. Tell them the trouble. Tell them the warnings. Tell them the answer. Build this into their spiritual genetic code, so to speak. And let your children be so marked they tell their children. And their children tell the next generation. He's talking about the development of a spiritual culture. That's what he's talking about. Roman numeral one. And this session will be a bit shorter than the other ones. And then we're going to have just a short ministry time with the Lord so that we can respond to this. Because it's this verse two that I want to really respond to. He says, hear you elders and give ear. Hear and give ear. He says, give ear all you inhabitants of the earth. Paragraph A. The first exhortation. The first thing Joel says in his message, before he even gives the negative, he calls them to hear. He says, pay close attention. Paragraph A. Pay close attention to the whole message, the whole story. Don't get part of the story. Get the whole story. And it's the story of Joel one and two. But really, for our purposes, it's the Joel one to three story. It's the whole message that we're going to apply this to. And why does God want us to pay close attention? Because He desires that His people would avoid the judgments that He does not desire to release. But He has to to wake them up because He loves them too much to let them go uncontended with. If we will live in relationship with Him based on agreement with His heart. He doesn't just want relationship on our terms. He wants relationship on His terms. That's critical. We all know that. But it's important to stress that. Because in the body of Christ today, we talk about relationship with Jesus. And to a lot of people, that means something that's not even a biblical concept. They're just talking about, you know, Jesus a little bit at Easter and Christmas time. Just, you know, He's kind of an ornament in their life. And we're talking about living in relationship with Him based on agreement with Him on His terms. That's what He wants. Paragraph B. Now this is what He's after. The overall message that we are to give ear to. It's the message of the glory. It's the positive. It's the message of the judgment. I call it the glory and the gory. They're both in. It's not enough to only hit the crisis without the glory, the revival. But it's not the truth to only say the revival without the crisis. But that's not the whole story either. It's the glory and the crisis, but living in relationship with a God who's kind. A judge who is kind. Because the judge is also a bridegroom. He's a bridegroom judge. He's a bridegroom king. Look at, here's the, as we said in the earlier sessions, Joel 2 verse 13 and 14. Return to the Lord. Verse 12 to 14 actually. Return to the Lord with all of your heart because, and it gives us five answers here, or five reasons. He's gracious. He's merciful. He doesn't get angry very fast at all. He's very slow to anger. He's kind. No. Great kindness. The judge is filled with kindness. He's a judge filled with tenderness. But he cannot be manipulated though. His kindness is not the sort we can take advantage of or manipulate. He relents from the harm that has already been decreed or established in heaven, but he gives time. He says, I will cancel it, so to speak. I will relent of the harm that is due this geographic region to wake them up as well as to stop them from their oppression because there's always two dimensions. Wake up His people and stop the oppressors from harming the people. There's two different dimensions of His breaking in. He says in verse 14, that glorious dimension, that mysterious dimension, I mean, that we don't like, who knows if He will turn. I don't like the who knows. I want to know for sure. What's the number of people we got to get to respond? Is it 1,000? 2,000? 10,000? A million? Who knows? Oh, come on, Lord. Tell me. Is it 2%? 5%? I want to know where I'm at. Who knows? You press in hard. I'm really kind. I'm really generous. I will answer. I will give you a better deal than you deserve. Trust me. I appreciate that, but I still want to know the number. He leaves us with the who knows. One translation says perhaps. Now we know from His character He's inclined to relent of the harm that's deserved. That's His nature. But He only gives the harm to wake up and to free. That's the reason He gives the harm, to wake up and to free. And so He says, My love is the balance of My love. And so I love you, therefore I'm coming after you, and I love you, therefore I'll be tender and give you time. But I love you, therefore I'm coming after you. He says He'll leave a blessing. So the disaster zone is turned into a revival center, a blessing. He goes, that which would have been a disaster will be a revival center, a place of blessing. So here's the message that we are to give ear to. Is that wholeheartedness makes a difference. Wholeheartedness with God really matters. Because a lot of people think it doesn't matter that much. It really does matter. The problem is relational. The problem of the earth is relational with God. With humans and God it's relational. That's really the issue. And solving the relational dilemma is the main answer, not the only answer, but it is the main answer. I want to say here we can change the course of history. We really can. A small number of wholehearted people, I don't know that number, but a small number can change the course of history and increase the quality of life for a region and a nation. He says in, I have here in paragraph C, the call to hear and give ear. Now this is a very strategic statement. He says, verse 2, hear this you elders, give ear all you inhabitants. The call to hear and to give ear is a call to study. It's a call to meditate. It's a call to go deep. It's the two-fold message. It's the glory revival and it's the judgment in crisis. It's the both and message, not the either or. But it's not just revival or judgment. It's I want a response of wholeheartedness. I want a relational connect with you that's strengthened and I will show myself as the kind judge. That's the message. That the judge is kind and he wants to bless. Now in paragraph E, Jesus used this same phrase, the same principle. He said, let him who has ears, let him hear. Thirteen times, if I'm remembering right, I think that is the number. In the New Testament, Jesus used this phrase or this very equivalent phrase, he that has ears, let him hear. It's the number one teaching of Jesus. Jesus preached this more than any other single sentence in terms of a one sentence message. This was the most repeated message of Jesus in his ministry. Pay attention. He that has ears, here's what it means when it says he that has ears, let him hear. It means you have to pay close attention because it takes the help of God to get what is being said. And that's what Joel starts with. Hear this. He goes, understand what's being said is very, very significant and also understand it's going to take Holy Spirit help to get it. Why does it matter? When I read the book of Joel, I'm not happy just to read it through and just say this is that. I look at this, I go, this is a give ear portion of the Bible. That means I'm going to pray, I'm going to ask the Spirit for help, I'm going to ponder on it, I'm going to put energy in it, I'm going to throw some fasting in because fasting, I call it an accelerant. It accelerates the process of growing in understanding. You don't earn more when you fast, but it accelerates the growth process, the learning process. So when the Lord starts off by saying give ear and hear, He's saying pay close attention. There's more than meets the eye. There's levels of understanding to be had here. Pay very close attention to this Bible information because if you don't, you'll end up explaining it away or you'll end up neglecting it. Many people, they explain away the passages like this. They go, well, it was symbolic, it was for that day, it doesn't really matter. Joel says, don't do that. Pay attention, give ear. Again, it's this phrase that Jesus spoke more than any other one phrase. What Joel is really saying is learn the message and respond to it. Take time to go deep. Take time to go deep and learn it. Let's turn to page 48. Hearing, He says give ear and hear. Hearing does not happen automatically. You're not hearing because you're in a class. What a teaching class like this is, really, it's a big advertisement. It's really what this is. It's like a neon sign saying study Joel, study Joel, study Joel. And it's giving you a couple little points, I trust, of just kind of a few sparks in your heart going, huh, okay. You can't remember that much, you know, a few days later. You won't remember that much of what you heard. That's why I always like to give notes. But no matter how smart you are, you can't get that much in a hearing. Really what I want you to walk away with saying, you know, I'm going to go after this. I remember the feeling a few times in different classes, a sense of urgency. I better go after this. If you feel that, then this has been a successful session, successful course, even. But know this, hearing is not automatic. It takes time to cultivate hearing. I've been studying Joel for some time now, and it's unfolding more and more. And I can just imagine the Spirit saying to me, give ear, hear, Mike. Give ear, give ear. He that has ears, let him hear. There's more than meets the eye here. It's going to take the Holy Spirit's help. You're going to need a Holy Spirit escort to go deep. Let me mark your heart. Take time with this passage. Don't go over this fast. Hear it. Give ear to it. That's what this passage is saying here in verse 2. Paragraph G. Now the process of revelation begins with studying. Studying is not enough, but it begins with studying. We read it. We don't feel that much when we read it. When I began to study the book of Joel, it was like, interesting. Occasionally it inspired me, but mostly it confused me. It was interesting, not very inspiring, a little bit confusing. I went, huh. And it begins with studying, but you stay with it. Then over time, the studying, something begins to happen. Living understanding begins to grow like a seed in your heart. Just a little bit. You stay with it though. It's the passage that we looked at that we refer to occasionally. Eat the scroll. That's what the angel told Ezekiel. Ezekiel 3, eat the scroll, which means devour the prophetic message because there was a prophetic message on the scroll. That was the idea. To eat the scroll meant digest the prophetic message. The angel told John the same thing in Revelation 10. Eat the scroll. Digest this. It's not a casual kind of, just a run through the book of Joel. I think I did the Joel course. Yeah, I got Joel down. No. You won't get Joel on a quick drive by. That's not going to happen. It's not Joel fast food. This will not happen. Fast food at Joel's place. I mean really, you need to go deep. You need to give ear. I've looked at that verse over the years, give ear and hear, and I think it's only because that's the most quoted statement principle of Jesus in his entire ministry. That grabbed me. Because when you read it, I mean when you really think about it, Jesus, I believe, was quoting Joel chapter 1 verse 2. He was looking back to that passage. Give ear. And he might not have had that passage in his mind, but he very well might have because that's where the early church was born in the Joel 2 kind of spiritual environment. Roman numeral 2. Joel asked the question, has anything like this ever happened in your days or even in the days of your fathers? It's unprecedented. Therefore, it's unfamiliar. And there is the problem. Because what is going to happen in the future is so unfamiliar to us, it's a stumbling block. The greatness of the revival is so great, it's far beyond the book of Acts, and the greatness of the judgment is far beyond any act of history, any season of history. The unfamiliarity of it, I mean not being able to connect with it, makes it difficult to hear. And when Joel says, hear it, he goes, but I want to warn you. It's hard to hear because it's so unprecedented. It's so unfamiliar. So hearing won't be easy, and it won't be automatic. It will take time to hear this. Because again, hearing doesn't just mean hear it with your ears. It will take time to cultivate understanding of this passage. Because it is completely unprecedented. Nothing like it in history. Paragraph B. I'll add a verse to the notes. Haggai chapter 2, verse 7. God says, talking about the generation the Lord returns, I will shake all nations. All nations. All 262 nations will be shaken. Every single nation. They'll be shaken with the spirit of revival, and shaken with the spirit of trouble. Because part of it will be the devil, part of it will be escalating sin of men, and part of it will be the judgment of God. But it will be shaken. Every single nation will be shaken, and we cannot imagine what it looks like for every nation to be shaken with glory and trouble from the devil, from man, and from God simultaneously all in the same period of time. We can't even imagine what that kind of environment on the planet looks like. Joel said, well, know this. I told you to give ear. I warned you there's more than meets the eye. I warned you that you won't get it quick. I warned you it's unprecedented. It's unfamiliar. It will take time, but it will be worth it. That's what he's saying. Paragraph C. We must not yield to a scoffing spirit. Look at 2 Peter 3, verse 3 to 4. This is a very significant passage. Peter says in verse 3, knowing this first. What a statement. He goes, the first thing above everything is to know this. Like what? What's going to follow this introduction? Of everything to know, this is the first thing to know about the end times. What would that be? Jesus is appearing in the sky. He goes, oh, that's a real big one. But first, I want you to know something else. Know this first. Scoffers will come. Know this first. In order for you to connect with the message, you will have to resist the spirit of scoffing that will be prevalent in society. In the church, as well as outside the church. Know this first. There will be an opposition against faith. A spirit of scoffing. Scoffers will come. But he goes, here's what I want you to understand. They are not empowered or motivated by revelation. They are motivated by their lusts. These scoffers, they're walking according to lust. And what it means, it doesn't just mean, you know, just rank perversion. They're lusts. They are motivated by their agenda for their pleasure, their comfort, their honor, and what they want. They will take the Bible and make it say anything they want to support their agenda, their lust. They're not being moved by revelation. They have an agenda that they want to uphold, so they will read the Bible, and they will minimize it, and they will scoff at it, and they will dismiss these real things. So, for the heart of faith, you must know this first. There will be men in the church and out of the church, motivated by their own agendas. They want things to be good, because it makes their plan work well. Their ministry plan. It makes things go good for them. So, they're not going to be so concerned with what the Bible is really saying. They will search the Bible to find ways to dismiss these concepts. They will have clever Bible passages and set-ups, presentations, and arguments. But He says, know this. They're being motivated by lust, not by revelation, and not by love of the truth. He says, and here's what they're going to say. Here's what the common logic will be. Where is the promise of His coming? Where is this great revival? And where is this great trouble? Every since the fathers fall asleep, all things continue as they were from the very beginning of creation. Everything is the same as it always was, is their basic message. Know this, that if you're going to hear this message, you will have to resist a scoffing spirit. Again, in the church and outside the church. And they will say, where's the revival? Where's the trouble? And they will say, every generation always said that they were the one the Lord was going to come, which is absolutely not true at all, by the way. It is true, probably, that every generation, there was at least 10 people on the earth who thought it was that generation. Or maybe a few more, but probably, this is my guess, far less than 1% of the body of Christ. In all these generations, the vast majority, I'm guessing, I haven't interviewed the whole human race, so I wouldn't have a scientific number, but when you look over church history, the vast majority of the church never believed that they were the last one. There's always this one guy on a hill, and this one other guy, and this one teacher, but the vast majority have not thought this. There's only two generations in history of which the majority of the people of God will believe it's the coming of the Lord for a sustained period of time. The majority for a sustained period, that's the generation of the apostles and the generation of His coming, and all the generations in between had maybe a fraction of a percent who believed it for a little while. But the scoffers will say, well, everybody has always said that. They're actually fulfilling what Peter said they would say. It won't make any difference anyway. It's always the same as it's always been. Because they don't want a crisis and a drama. They don't even want it on their mind because it messes up their plans, and he called it their lusts, their agendas. But what we need to do is throw away our agendas and say we want the Spirit of Truth regardless what it means to us personally. We trust your wisdom. We trust your power. We trust your love. We're going with you. What do you have to say whether it's this hour, or it's the next hour, or the one after? What do you have to say about this hour of history? Number one, Peter foresaw scoffers. Number two, their worldview does not come from revelation of Scripture. I mean, they have many revelations of Scripture. They have many biblical truths, but not related to the end times. Because you can have many biblical truths that are real and alive and sincere heart for Jesus, but when it comes to the end times, the end times have a scoffing spirit. I know many people, very warm relationship with the Lord, but a scoffing spirit related to the end times. Peter said, know this first of all, scoffing will be the thing you have to resist and overcome beyond anything else. Be guarded against that one thing. Top of page 49, paragraph D, I call it the ostrich syndrome. It's, I mean, the vast majority of the people I know in the body of Christ, they have what I call the ostrich syndrome. They put their head in the ground, and they go, I'll just take care of itself. I love what Alan Hood says. The people say, well, it will just, you know, it will all work its way out. It will pan out. He says, yes, it will pan out, but the question is, how will it pan out for you? It really matters if you know and understand what's going on. It really matters. Yes, it will pan out, but he says, how will it pan out for you and for those that you have an influence on? Putting our head in the ground and saying, I don't want to bother with this because it's kind of really messing up my five-year, ten-year, and forty-year plan. I don't want to think about it. The Word of God will not go away because we don't want to think about different things. Obviously, we know that. Joel says this. Has anything like this ever happened? It's new ground for everybody. It's the greatest revival and the greatest crisis ever. Coming in all the nations together, simultaneously. The best days and the worst days for the planet are yet ahead of us. And I believe it's in the lifetime of people alive on the earth right now. If that be true, if it's in the lifetime of your lifetime, your children or grandchildren, then this is absolutely relevant to get this stuff clear. Because again, there are 150 chapters in the Bible on this subject, which most of the body of Christ is illiterate on about 95% of those 150 chapters. And they're really filled with relevant information for the people of God. Paragraph E. Noah. Talking about unprecedented. Noah. I mean, imagine. I've thought on the Noah's situation. I'll give you a verse. Genesis 2, verse 6. Write that down, if you will. Genesis 2, 6. In Noah's day, Genesis 2, 6 says, God watered the ground from beneath. It never rained. It never rained from the top down. God watered the ground from below. So Noah comes out. He says, it's gonna rain. They said, good. What's rain? It's never rain. They don't even know what he's talking about. He said, water's gonna come down. They said, Noah, we love your heart. You skipped science class in second grade. That's obvious. Water doesn't come from above. It comes from below. Scientists can prove it. He says, yeah, I know. I did that class. Did well in it. But I hurt God. Well, how do you suppose the water down there is gonna get up there? How's it gonna stay up there? I don't know. Somehow God's gonna get the water up there and he's gonna pour it all down here. That's cool. That's good, Noah. Noah builds a boat for 120 years. We don't know exactly how long, but that's the parameters of the story, 120 years. So it's real close to that time frame. He's actually building the boat. Can you fathom preparing for something for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? How about 120? Some people, they go hard for a summer and they just, you know, they need about a three year reprieve after a hard summer. 120 years. Cut in wood. Build a boat. It's never rained before. The society is absolutely laughing at him. It says here in Hebrews 11, verse 7, he was moved by godly fear. He didn't neglect it. He didn't explain it away. He was moved by the fear of God. He was moved. I love that phrase. Moved is the same idea as a hearing ear. He was moved. Most people, they neglect it. They dismiss it. They explain it away somehow. Some are stirred for a month or a year or two, but the initial stirring kind of lifts and evaporates because they never cultivate a hearing ear. Joel said, hear and understand. Listen. Listen. Cultivate hearing on the subject. You might get inspired for three months or a year or two and ten or twenty years from now it may not even be on your mind. I've seen many people get inspired about the unique dynamics of the generation the Lord returns for a summer or a year and it's far away from their mind now because the initial stirring, they didn't feed their spirit on the word of God in a continual way. They didn't cultivate a hearing ear. But can you fathom how unprecedented this was to Noah? I mean, I always think of the family dynamics. The three sons. They each have a wife. The wife has a mom and dad. They go home to mom and dad's house. I told you not to marry that boy. His dad's a kook. Picture the dynamics. I know, mom, but he's so sincere. I tell you, that boy is no good and his dad's a kook. I tell you. I mean, just picture the dynamics of going on. Just the neighborhood. Just everything. How did this guy sustain motivation for so long? Unprecedented. And then the Lord says in Matthew 24, it will be like the days of Noah in many ways. There's five or six ways it's like the days of Noah. And not just that it's sudden. It's like the days of Noah that it's unprecedented. It's like the days of Noah that most won't believe it before it happens. It's like the days of Noah in a number of different ways. But the unprecedented dimension is one of the dimensions. It's like the day of Noah. I'm saying, Lord, I want to have a hearing heart. I want to hear and give ear. I want to do what Jesus said. Have ears that hear and cultivate more than just catching it for a minute. That's talking about a profound heart of understanding on the subject matter of which Jesus was teaching. He says there's more than meets the eye when he says have ears to hear. There's more than meets the eye and it won't happen easily or automatically. Stay with it. Stay with it. That's what that phrase means. Let's look at Romans 3. Hear this you elders. Let's look at the word elders. It begins with leadership. God is raising up leaders who will research this out. Starts with the elders. Now, I'm talking to mostly 20 year olds. You are the leaders. I'm not talking about the other group. I'm talking about you. Get a vision. 20, 21, 22, 23. I am going to be a leader that hears. And in a few moments we're going to just wait on the Lord and respond. And my prayer is that you say at 20 years old, I've got a vision. Joel chapter 1 verse 2. I am going to be an elder who hears. Hears means to follow through. I'm going to respond. I'm going to go deep in this. I'm going to eat the scroll using the terminology of Ezekiel 3 in Revelation 10. Paragraph C. One of the greatest gifts God can give a nation is to raise up leaders. To raise up 20 year old leaders that become 30. Then they become 40. And then lo and behold when they least expect it, they're 50. I didn't read that in a book. It's true. But God to visit you right now, give you a resolve. Because you're going to be 30 in a minute and you'll be 40 a minute after that. And you'll have ministry. Some large numbers and some one on one. But it's as significant to God as the large ones are. And here's the question. Even now you're called to leadership. You say, well I'm not doing anything. There's a whole bunch of 12 year olds that need your leadership. Jump in and start leading them. I don't know any. Well open your eyes. There's about 10,000 of them within a 5 mile radius. Open your eyes and look around and go find 3 of them and start leading them to the Lord. Then teach them the Gospel of John. And guess what? You're a leader in the body of Christ. That's another subject for another day. But what I'm saying is, don't think you're only a leader tomorrow. You're actually leaders now. But get a vision to be an elder who hears. Here's the progression, D. Leaders here and then the people here. First it's leaders, then the people. Judges chapter 5 verse 2. It's a great verse. Judges 5 verse 2. Here's what it says. It's that song of Deborah. Remember Deborah was the great judge of Israel. She was an anointed woman that was the senior prophetic voice of a nation, of Israel. Judges chapter 5 verse 2. Here's what it says. Bless the Lord when leaders lead and the people voluntarily follow. When they voluntarily cooperate and offer themselves. Judges 5 verse 2. Let me say it again. Bless the Lord when leaders lead, the people will follow. Say in your heart not I'm going to be one who follows. That's cool. Say I'm going to be one who leads. And I tell you the people will follow. The people, there will always be some that will see your revelation and your conviction, your boldness and they will be empowered by it and they will follow. That's what it says in Joel 1. First the elders and then the inhabitants. That's the divine order. Top of page 50. It's not enough to have a hearing ear to cultivate revelation. He says tell. Tell. Tell the children. Tell them. Say it. Don't just study it. Say it. Studying it's fun. Debating it's fun. Sharing it with a friend is fun. Telling it to the next generation, that's a whole other issue. Because when you tell it then a whole lot of other implications start happening. Because other people start weighing in when you start proclaiming it. And they don't like it. Because they think it's not helpful. They got a hundred reasons why they don't like it. But the point is part of really hearing, part of really hearing is proclaiming. You don't proclaim at the front because you want to get it clear, at least part of it. But saying it, you don't really have a hearing ear until you're willing to say it, even if it's one on one. Until you start saying it to others. The price we will pay for boldly standing for the truth can be seen in the persecution of the Old Testament prophets. They were criticized, ostracized, imprisoned, and killed because of the things they said. Jesus was not killed because he did miracles. He was killed because he made statements. If he would have done miracles and voted for the right team they would have loved the miracles. The miracles are not what offended them. His statements. If he could have just skipped about five key statements things would have been great. He said no. I will say the whole truth. And then the miracles, backed up by those statements, made the statements far more explosive in society because of the miracles. And so God's raising up people that are willing to bear the reproach of the truth. Like I tell people, my guess, this is a guess, I haven't interviewed the whole earth, the most hated person in the earth, my guess, is the president of the United States. It's really true. All the nations, the guy, he has more people that say, if you would just change your policy in America, things would be better for us. They don't like it. I said, but don't worry president, whoever you are, I mean through the years I'm talking about, the only person hated more than the president is God. It's really true. The nations don't like God's leadership. Why don't you do it different? Why aren't you doing more? Why aren't you? How come? Why did you? If you have power to make a difference, then people don't like the decision you made. My point is this, the nations do not like God's ways, and you become a voice for God, and you're thinking, wow, I'm going to be in the stadium, I'm going to be popular, things are going to go good. Wrong. Dream. They don't like Him. I mean, a billion will, but billions won't. I mean, billions won't. They don't like Him. Say, I want to be faithful to you. That really means, if you're going to join the hall of fame through history, the prophets were killed. The apostles were killed. The prophetic voices through history have been imprisoned and killed. We got to shift gears from, I want to fill a stadium and be rich and famous and tell mom I really did make it, to shift the gears. I want to be loyal to the truth, and I might die for it. I certainly will lose a lot of friends for it, but I'm going to be tender, kind, and faithful and stick with it, and a lot of bad will happen along with some good. I mean, bad people resisting. So when it happens, we don't go, bah humbug, we go, we get it. He says, tell. I want you to say it. Tell the children. Tell the next generation. Pass it on. Look at paragraph B. This is Jesus now taking on this theme of he that has ears to hear theme. Again, the teaching he gave more than anyone teaching in his ministry. Here in Mark 4. What he says, in essence, is if you are faithful with the revelation he gives you, he'll give you more. Starts off in verse 23. Anyone that has ears to hear, let him hear it. That's again, Jesus is saying there's more than meets the eye. There's levels to what I'm saying. You won't get it immediately. You won't get it automatically. You've got to go after it. You need the Holy Spirit's help. It's going to take perseverance. That's what he's saying. By he that has ears, let him hear. And again, I think he's quoting Joel 1. Verse 2. Then he says, here's verse 24. Pay attention to what you listen to. And he's not talking about if you listen to Christian music or non-Christian music. That's not the subject right here. The reason I say that, because when I was younger, that was the verse they always used. Pay attention to what you hear. And I think that's a true concept. We need to pay attention to what we hear. But that's not what he's saying here. He's saying, you be attentive to what kind of understanding you cultivate when you approach the Word of God. Because with the same measure that you use what you get, you'll get more. Or if God gives you some initial inspiration and you never use it, that inspiration will go away. You will either gain ground and keep growing in Revelation, or you will actually lose ground. The only way to keep the ground you gain is by gaining more ground. If you quit taking ground in the Spirit, I assure you, you will lose ground. There is no static place. Like Scala 1 to 10. I got to a 5. Okay. I got to a 5. I'm 25 years old. I'll camp out here and kind of retire at a 5. I made it. No. It doesn't work that way. You get at a 5, the only way you'll keep a 5 is if you go to 6. If you camp out at 5, you will become a 4 in a short amount of time. You will go backwards. You will not stay the same. The only way to keep the ground you've gained in the Spirit is to take new ground. Jesus said, if you want to use that inspiration I gave you of truth, I mean, if you want to keep it and grow in it, you got to use it. You got to keep using it. Speak it. Grow in it. Say it. Take a stand for it. And I'll give you more and more. And if you don't, the inspiration you had back that one summer, you'll lose it. It won't even be on your mind. Matter of fact, you'll even get cynical against it in the years to come. I mean, what a sober passage. He's talking about the way we steward truth here. That's what he means by take heed what you listen. He's not talking again to movies and all that stuff. That's not the point here. That is a point for another day, but that's not the point here. He's talking about our approach to truth, and if we use what we're inspired with instead of just kind of stack it in the corner, we have to use it. We have to invest it. We have to say it. We have to take a stand for it and bear the reproach for it, and we will get more and more of it. Romans 5. Now he says, talks about the establishing the dynamic spiritual culture. Tell your children, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation. There's a four, paragraph A, there's a four generation mandate here. B, every child should hear the message of the primary events that are prophesied in the Bible. I mean, the ones the Bible says are important, about Jesus' return. They need to know two or three of the positives, or whatever the number is, two or three of the negatives. They need to grasp what the future looks like. So as they get older, they now becomes 9, 10, 12, 14, 15. It is normal for them to believe what the Bible says about the future instead of weird. Because their mind and heart's like wet cement. Whatever you write on it, or don't write on it, will dry. And that's what they'll be like. We want children believing it's right to seek Jesus wholehearted. We want them believing that prayer meetings are a normal part of the kingdom of God. We want them to believe that giving money away, standing for truth, blessing our enemies, is normal Christianity. We want them to believe that the key broad stroke things, as they're picturing their future, and their little minds are being formed, we want them to believe what God says is going to happen. So when they get 20, 30, 40, they go, well, you know, I don't really buy any of that stuff. My church never really talks about it in any way. I don't really know. The stuff you hear so much today. It was normal for Noah's three boys, eventually, to grasp a flood was coming. We want it to be normal for the young ones, and the ones after them, and the ones after them, to believe there are unique dynamics happening, and they may have a direct role in it, very, very possible. But to begin to see what God says about it, and when four generations, paragraph B, when they understand this, I mean, when, I mean, imagine, granddad, dad, son, grandson, all of them, and daughters, and wives, everybody together, they get it. They understand there's a spirit of faith. When the four generations are all in unity together, it is not odd to go to a solemn assembly. It is not odd to give empty your bank account to help somebody in a big missions event. It's not even crazy. It makes sense to all of them. It's not odd to study what the Bible says about what's coming, because it begins to develop a spiritual culture, and people grow in faith. It's normative for them to make sense of this, and so that's what he says about that, but it begins with us, and I'm going to mention my final point here, paragraph I, Lenny and Tracy LaGuardia, they, I tell you, I met Lenny in 1985, so how many years ago, is that 25 years ago? 25 years ago, and he was saying many of these things back then, and he was saying, I want to teach kids to flow in the spirit and to prophesy and to preach Jesus, to experience the love of God, etc., etc. I remember, well, he's 50 now, so he was 25 back then, and I remember him, and he stayed with this for all these years, and I just think, well, I just had to mention him because we're talking about children, and I put him in the notes there, him and his wife, and his wife has held the line with him, but I'm talking about investing in the next generation, but we want to be a people who hear it, we've got a vision to be leaders, and we want to invest in the next generation. Amen. We're going to end with that. Let's stand.