This sermon emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth through the Word of God, highlighting the need to put away evil thoughts, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander to truly grow in faith. It stresses the significance of being born again into a family of believers and the necessity of craving the pure spiritual milk of the Word for nourishment and growth.

Good afternoon, everyone. So good to be here and to hear you lift your voices and sing all is well. I said all is well. Are you happy in the Lord? Everybody stand up. Everybody turn around and shake hands with six people you do not know. You have never met them. You have never seen them. Everyone say hello to someone. You may be seated. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22 says, 1 Peter 1 22. 1 Peter 22 says, Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. For all men are like grass, all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you. Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it, the milk, you may grow up in your salvation. Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. May God bless the reading of his word. Amen. I want to talk to you about that common phrase, at least in America, I guess it's common here in Korea too, I think it was popularized by the ministry of Billy Graham over the decades that he served as an evangelist, and that is born again. Jesus said you must be born again. To go to heaven, to go into the kingdom of God, it's not going to church. It's not owning a Bible. It's not trying to live a good life. It's not crying when you fail and feeling bad about it. Those all have their place in life, but you must be born again. There has to be a miracle that happens in your life, or you are not a Christian. Christians are not those who go to church. Christians are those who are born again, have confessed their sin, put their faith in Christ, and have had that miracle happen, where the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of them and renews them and makes them a new person in Christ Jesus. I trust that everybody here has had that experience. Not trying to live a good life. Not going to church. You can go to church. Joining the Brooklyn Tabernacle won't make anyone a Christian. You must be born again. Now what I want to talk and teach on this afternoon is this. How are we born again? Number two, into what are we born again? And then number three, how do we grow? Let's just pass by the first two quickly, but they're important points. Notice that Peter is writing this letter to churches in the country that we would call Turkey today, and he had heard that these churches were being persecuted. Persecution had hit these churches. Peter had not founded them, and what we call First Peter is a circuit letter that was read to the church. We call it a book of the Bible, but it started out as a letter, and someone, probably the leader, would read it to the Christians at a certain place. Then the letter was passed on and was read in another place, and then it was read another, and that's how the apostolic teaching was passed among Christians, because there were no Bibles. The Old Testament couldn't be easily reproduced, and there was no New Testament. It hadn't been written yet. And there were no printing presses. So the verbal teaching of the Apostles and the letters that they wrote was treasured among the church. Well, he sends this letter out to encourage them that they've got to keep remembering who they are, no matter what they go through in life. You've got to always go back to your foundation. You know, when a... I'm not a golfer. I play paddle ball and tennis a little bit, but let's take basketball. I went, was an all-city basketball player in New York, and went to college on a basketball scholarship. Never went to seminary. Now, when you shoot a foul shot, and you're not doing well, any coach will come alongside, and I've done that, coached later on after I graduated, and you see a kid missing, and you say, okay, forget that you have $150 sneakers. They won't help you on your foul shot, and you got socks, and you got shorts with the trim on it. That won't help you either. Let's start with, how do you hold the ball? And then let's look at what your knees are doing, and then let's look that you follow through. Because if you just do that, you're not going to shoot. So everyone goes back to fundamentals. The greatest golfers in the world, when they get lessons from their coaches, you know the first thing the coach will ask them when they're golfing? And these are guys that are making millions of dollars, millions of dollars. The coach will say, all right, you want a lesson now? You want to start over? Something's wrong with your game? Okay, let me see how you hold the club. What do you mean, how I hold the club? I've been golfing all my life. No. If you're holding it wrong, everything will go wrong. So they start with the foundation, the basics. That's what Peter's reminding them now. What are our foundation? What are our basics? How are we born again? We're born again into a living spiritual organism, and everything that's living has a seed. Every plant that's real has a seed. Every tree has a seed. Nothing is alive that didn't start with a seed. Babies are born because the male seed impregnates the female egg, and now you have a living child when it's carried to term and is born. So everything that's alive starts with a seed. Now, rocks don't have seeds. Nothing that's not living has a seed, and now Peter says, every Christian is born again and is alive because a seed was planted. No life without a seed. But this is not a natural seed. This is a supernatural seed. He says every Christian, you've been born again by a seed being planted in your heart, and what is that seed? It's the Word of God. It's the Word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the seed. When we try to win others, when this precious sister goes to Sri Lanka, she wants to make a difference. How will she make a difference? By planting the seed. The power is in the seed. For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul says. For it, the gospel, is the power of God to salvation. So the Bible tells us that all of us are different. We've all had different experiences. I grew up in New York City. I pastor a church in the inner city. You live in Korea right now. But one thing we all have in common is we were all born by the same seed. And that seed is the Word of God. So when you love someone, you want to see their life change, you plant the seed. Don't argue with them. Don't fight with them. That won't change anyone. Plant the seed. The power is in the seed. Now, what were we born into? Well, Peter says very strange things to most of our ears. He says, now that you've obeyed the truth and have purified your hearts by believing the gospel, have phileo love, have brother-sister love for those who you've been, the family you've been born into. And then he goes further, have intense love for them. And here's the second point we want to just make in passing. This I was never told when I was growing up in church, and it has hurt me until I saw it later on. Maybe it'll help you all. When you're born again, you're born again into a family. And unless you understand you're born into a family, you will never grow. We're going to get to the main question is how to grow. But you've got to understand how you were born again by the seed, and you were born again into a family. You do not, in one way, we have an individual relationship with Christ, but we are born into the family of God. God is our father. Jesus is our elder brother, and all of you are my brothers and sisters. We're going to spend eternity together. Maybe some of our family members won't be with us biologically, but spiritually, this is the family. All born again believers are going to spend eternity in heaven. He that believes in me, Jesus said, though that person dies, yet that person shall live. So every loved person that we've ever lost who's a Christian or every baby that's gone to be with the Lord, we're going to be with them forever and ever and ever. We're going to be in the big meeting that has no end. Amen? Are you allowed to say amen here in this meeting? Amen. So, that's something revolutionary for us, because some of you are loners. You just want to come to the service and go home. You'll never grow. Impossible. Because you've been born again into a family. And I need you, and you need me, and you need the person next to you. Because God put us in a family. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, do you remember how he taught them the first two words? He said, pray this way, not my father. What's the first two words? Our father. Our is first person plural. Our father, which art in heaven. All growth, all serving of Christ must be in the context of the family of God. That's why immediately he says, now that you've been born again, love your brothers and sisters. And he uses the word phileo, where we get the English city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. It's really not, but it's called that. I've been to Philadelphia. There's no brotherly love there. That's funny, I just thought of that. But phileo, the word for love there, is the love that a brother has for a brother, a sister has, sister. It's family love. The only way we're going to grow is by loving each other. All other growth, you can read the Bible, memorize verses, come to church. You'll never grow unless you grow in community. That's why Jesus wrote letters in the book of Revelation to churches. Why? His people are always gathered in churches. Whenever you see a Christian who doesn't want to be with other believers, doesn't, wants just to forsake the gathering of themselves, no matter what excuse they tell you, take it from someone who's been ministering longer than most of you are alive, they're in trouble spiritually. Because the instinct you have when you're growing and you're right with the Lord and God is working in your life, is you want to be with your brothers and sisters. I have a brother named Bob. I have a younger sister named Pat. I have three children. I have five grandchildren. You want to be and love your family. You want to help your family. You're interested in your family. If you're healthy and normal, you think you have to tell me to love my grandchildren? Do you think you have to tell me now pray in the morning that you'll love your grandchildren? It's in me to love my grandchildren because that's my family. And the same is spiritually so. We have to root for each other and love one another and help one another. I have a new member of coming into my family. I want you to pray just like we're praying for our sister from Sri Lanka. My middle daughter named Susan married to a fellow named Brian who's one of my associate pastors. Susan heads up the BT kids ministry. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of inner city kids jumping and praising and shaking and baking and every other thing. Well, she has a boy 13 and a girl 10. But she's always wanted to adopt a child that nobody wanted. And that probably wouldn't hear about Jesus Christ. So, we thought a door had opened in the Philippines some years ago. But to no avail. So she's been for 10 months now working through a long process expensive and long. And she was number 24 on the list. Then she went to number 18. Then weeks later they said you're number nine. Then she was stuck at number nine. Then she was number four. Finally, she was number one and she just got the phone call a couple weeks ago. You have a baby boy from Ethiopia who's going to be your son. Aren't you happy? I have a grandson coming to me from Ethiopia. From Ethiopia. His mother died when he was born. And his father gave him to an orphanage because he couldn't support the child. And then through the providence of God now my daughter Susan is going to have along with Luke and Claire Elizabeth. He's she's gonna his name is Bushara. Everybody say Bushara. It means good news in Ethiopian. It's it's a Muslim word. But he's not gonna be a Muslim. He's gonna be a Christian. How many say amen? And he's going to be called Levi. She's gonna name him Levi. Levi Petri. Now you think already this morning when I got up early you think I was already praying for Levi. I haven't seen him yet. Just seen pictures of him. Got long hands. Long fingers. I saw his legs. They're long even that we have a picture of me. He's one month old. Well, he's almost two months old now. He's gonna be tall. He's gonna play in the NBA. He's gonna be out there shaking and baking somebody. I said to Susie you're gonna have a son six six six seven. How about that? Well, you think you have to teach me? When I see that little guy already I'm praying for him. No because the sign of a healthy Christian is they love their brothers and sisters. If you meet somebody who has family members they hate and they gossip about them and they fight with them. He's saying that that person's sick. That person's off. That's their sister. That's their brother. Families stick together. Now this is all important because as I close I want to tell you the secret of growing which Peter gives us. He says you're born again by the seed and you're born again into a family. Nobody can serve God by themselves. See I pastor in inner city. There's more than 10,000 people every Sunday who come to our church and I'm always careful. I'm always vulnerable to the fact that there are people who come in the building. Want to hear the word. Want to hear carol's choir sing. Want to feel that vibration and all of that and then they're out the door. They don't know a soul. They don't want to know a soul. They're not going to open up to anybody. The doors have closed in their life. They've been hurt. They don't trust anybody and they close their doors and while they're closing their doors they're closing themselves to growth because you can't grow on your own. You grow in relationship to other Christians. You walk with God, but you relate to brothers and sisters. And if you're here today and you're not relating and close and developing friendships and loving one another, you're never going to grow. Something's wrong. You got to go back to now the foundation and say wait a minute. I'm born again by the word of God and I'm born into a family. Am I relating to my family or am I some weirdo here just want to live by myself? I'm going to be the Lone Ranger. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto, right? Right? But some people they just I see that all the time and I can get into that myself just close off people so Peter says So that you can grow up in your salvation While we were leaving the hotel when they picked me up today Uh this afternoon I saw balloons being held by a mom And She had a little boy one year old and that was his birthday. They were celebrating in the hotel She had a little girl about three the three-year-old looked different than the one-year-old. You know why? Because she's grown. She's three and the little guy was only one Everything that's healthy that's been born of a seed it grows trees grow plants grow animals grow humans grow I go to haiti a little bit. We have two missionaries there from our church and when you go to haiti you see children who Look like they're two years old and you find out they're five years old And you think they're two and sometimes their hair has turned a funny color because of bad diet They're not growing they're not eating right they're not being taken care of right and they're not growing now brothers and sisters here at this great English ministry church. I'm so happy to be here. I want to tell you something christians don't automatically grow spiritual growth Can be severely hindered if you don't understand the principles of growth So thus we can have people first of all who come to the church who are not even christians And that's something all leaders have to be aware of are the folks born again and they have they receive christ as their savior The second problem is are they growing? At the end of my life i'm going to stand before christ not you or some denomination No one will judge my peers won't judge me. It won't matter if i'm well known or lesser known or unknown I'm going to stand before christ and one of the things he's going to judge A lot of what he'll judge in my life at the judgment seat of christ is the quality of my ministry What are carol and I doing in downtown brooklyn? Are we having church? Am I trying to make a living? Am I trying to be famous? Am I on an ego trip or am I trying to do the work of the lord? And the work of the lord is to evangelize and then those who receive christ have received the seed. You've got to see them grow So But how do you grow? Growth is not natural. I have relatives who have been in church and received christ 40 50 years ago aunts and uncles They haven't they're worse off now than they were when they were just christians a year You can go backwards Or you can be stunted Come on, we all know folks who are i've watched this all my life Some christians they're serving the lord 10 years and there's no growth. There's no overflow There's no blessing to others and then some drug addict in our church comes in full of crack cocaine Messed up big time in their head uh When you try to talk to them, they get up in your grill and just full of anger And then the next thing you know, they receive jesus christ and the next thing you see them two months later They're like on fire for god They're growing they're they're in the bible they're all kinds of good things are happening And then others you see they're going nowhere Everyone has to grow we can't stop growing Pastors can't stop growing That's how pastors lose their effectiveness They think they know everything and they've studied everything and they stop growing when you stop growing bad things happen So now how do you grow peter gives us just two things and I close Peter gives us two things how to grow Well, it's really basic all of us would agree with it and this is a very health conscious nation a very intelligent Very high type culture that you have in this nation um When you go to a doctor And the doctor runs a series of tests, let's say you're not in korea. Let's take new york And you go to a doctor doctor says sit down I gotta talk to you i've run all the tests Your cholesterol is whoa Your blood pressure whoa Your um Your stamina I when we did that test on you on on the walker there resistance machines, hey You better listen to me we gotta have a talk And what if the person stops and said look doctor? I paid money for this appointment. I just want you to give me a pill so that i'll feel better But don't give me a talk. I don't want any bad news I just want a pill so that I feel better the doctor will say listen. I'm a doctor For your problem. I have no pill You got to take some things away and you got to add something That's the way it is in everything in life. You take away and you add When you want to get better in basketball and during the off season What do you do? You work on things that you weren't so good at can't dribble that good with my left hand like I should So i'm just going to dribble dribble dribble with my left hand. I got to add new skills Maybe you know work out get in better shape Run suicide drills do all kinds of things then take away some things You know can't be hanging out I got to give myself more rest proper diet workout So by addition and subtraction you start moving on and that's the way it is in spiritual growth All people grow spiritually because they add and subtract and peter tells us now what to subtract and then what to add If you want to grow Now with this foundation of we're born by the seed of god and we're born into a family peter starts to say now look You know that verse and he kind of quotes that verse and that says oh taste and see that the lord is good So he says now you want to grow up in your salvation. You don't want to be just stuck And be a perpetual baby You know, there are some people go to church 10 20 years they're still on pablum they're still on on on uh, they're taking Baby food So he said here's what you got to get rid of Again, remember you're born into a family You got to get rid of all malice And all deceit you can't grow If there's malice and deceit in your life Malice Is a word for hateful evil thoughts about other people You cannot grow because god is love If you got it in for other people if you got nasty thoughts toward other people That's impossible How in the world if god's seed is inside of me and god is love and he put me in a family How in the world could I grow i'm going to be stunted something's going to be off in my life If I have evil thoughts about someone I want to see something bad happen to them So he says you got to put that away Notice it's possible for we christians or peter wouldn't say put it away Some people think once once you become a christian, you're never tempted to have a bad thought about anybody. That's false So you got to put away all evil So now here's the other thing you got to put away, you know, like the doctor says listen Blood pressure your weight. Everything's wrong. You got to change. So no more milkshakes No more baskin robbins No more donuts dunkin donuts you have dunkin donuts here, right? Yeah No more dunkin donuts No, doctor I just want to feel i'm telling you how to feel better What do you want me to do you want me to lie to you or do you want me you want to go into fantasy? Denial or do you want to hear the truth? Doctor says I took the hippocratic oath. I got to tell you the truth You got to get rid of these things or you'll never feel better No, I want everything I want but I want to feel better doctor says no don't work that way So put away all evil And then put away all deceit and that word in the greek for deceit is the word I don't you don't have that expression here. Maybe you do we have it in new york is when you try to play someone Everyone know what playing someone is In other words, you're using them. You're talking them a certain way not sincerely, but you want something from them So you're being deceitful And another person that you can't get anything from you just like get out of my you know, get out He says you can't do that and grow because christ never acts that way toward anyone How many are happy that jesus loves everyone just put your hand up, would you please aren't we happy that christ loves everyone? so you can't have you can't be You can't be playing people and getting an advantage. They can do that in the business world Everyone's acting nice. They hate each other possibly show business the media all of that stuff That's in the world all phony junky stuff. New york's full of it. America's full of it and It's he says you can't have that and be growing because the last thing jesus ever was was insincere Jesus never played anyone never said anything to anyone that he didn't mean So if you're conning people You're never going to grow you can con but you'll never grow So the next thing to do is put away all hypocrisy Now that word in the greek Is the word for actor? Because back in that day in the greek theater, which influenced the roman civilization The greeks preceded it. They didn't have makeup and full dress costumes people basically in the theater Dressed all kind of the same and what they did was with holes for the eyes and a breathing Hole for the nose is they would do the whole play with a mask on And they would say their lines And the face that would be painted on there would somehow associate with the character that they were playing And that's what the word is for hypocrisy. It's an actor on a stage And peter is saying do you want to grow do you want to grow as a christian? Are you serious about this? Are you just fooling around with it? You come into church just go to church or you really love jesus with all your heart He died on the cross for you Now, what are you going to do? You're going to really live for him or you're going to do some half-baked nonsense thing of go to church when you can fit it In your schedule or you're going to serve him with all your heart So if you're going to serve him with all your heart and you want to grow then you've got to take down the mask You can't be somebody you're not Because that will kill all growth in you spiritually, that's why so many christians don't grow Is because they're actors god never blesses an actor or an actress Leave that for broadway We got to be real Can I get an amen? We got to be real You can't be high-fiving people. Hi. How are you sister? So good to see you've been praying about you lately. Then the minute she leaves I go who she thinks she is Who does she think she is Don't we have that commonplace in church? two-faced actors Who talk one way to people's face? Then talk another way behind someone. I I don't know the korean culture that well And I don't know how where you all are from. I know some of you are not from korea You live here now in korea and you're coming to this english ministry I don't know what your background is I can only speak to my life experience and that is america is full including the churches of actors and actresses People who high-five you and do the bump and the whole thing and then The moment you're out of earshot, they're going to start talking and then they wonder lord help me. I want to grow It's impossible to grow It's impossible to grow You're taking stuff into your spiritual diet, which is anti-growth anti-growth So he says put away all deceit Put away all evil And put away all acting Because you can't have a family the last thing I would ever do with my brother or my sister. My mother's alive She's 95 years old You think I would ever like see my mother and and act with her or she would act with me. That's my mom You Say what you mean mean what you say or don't talk Otherwise you're not going to grow and you're going to grieve god's spirit because why would jesus christ want to produce a generation of actors And actresses he wants to produce men and women of character right here in this church So we say what we mean and we mean what we say That's the way to grow and not only putting that away but he says put away Envy and slander of every kind now envy Envy. Oh my goodness envy You know, there's a proverb that says wrath is terrible and anger is like a tor uh a torrent But no thing can compare with envy There's some base instinct in all of us Even as christians we have to guard against that. We can't rejoice when other people are blessed. We envy them. We're jealous of them Ministers are jealous of other ministers pastors are jealous of other pastors with other churches You know a woman buys a new dress She comes to church and she sees someone's with a nicer dress and it ruins the whole service Someone does well in school until they find out someone did better Oh in this nation, I don't know how it is, but you're very academically competitive here I imagine the temptation to jealousy must be amazing here Who got what job? Who went to what school? And if you give in if you and I give into that envy say goodbye to all christian growth Because god wants us to rejoice with our brothers and sisters successes My wife has won six grammy awards with her choir Do you think? That bothers me or do you think that that i'm more happy by her awards than anything? That any accolade i've ever gotten Some years ago, I was awarded the best book christian book of the year in america for this book I wrote fresh wind fresh fire. What am I going to do when christ comes, you know, hold up my my book award He wrote the bible what am I going to do hold up my book and Here's my fresh wind fresh fire Ah, but I don't even think about that. I'll talk about I didn't even go to the award ceremony where they they awarded it Ah, but my wife winning a grammy That's my wife That's my carol Why do I feel that way you think you have to teach me No because love always rejoices In the good of the other person It's the opposite of envy And peter says you want to grow you got to put away evil thinking You got to put away. I know this is you know, not a message to make everybody get up and jump around the building But I have to tell you the truth from the word of god because I want to see you grow And the leadership of this church will all be judged at the judgment seat of christ not if you thought they were popular Or how good the praise and worship music is the whole deal is Are you growing? Because if you're not everything's for nothing, it's all a waste of time So put away that put away deceit don't play anyone don't con Put away all hypocrisy take the mask down and be who you are But pastor that's all i've ever seen I grew up in a house where my mother and father were actors Acted one way in church, and when they came home they talked another way Well, then break that whole thing and start a new way be a christian about the whole thing Or the thing is going to go from generation to generation And put away all envy and slander of every kind Oh my If you want to grow you got to stop talking i've come to this conclusion that a lot of churches in america are on the treadmill They're going nowhere, but they're running hard And the reason is the guys preaching the gospel There's some maybe some prayer in the church. They've good praise and worship and all of that, but this is killing them Churches are not held back by the pastor for the most part meeting somebody in a motel in a hotel Drugs and alcohol slay their hundreds of thousands, but ten thousands hundreds of thousands are slain by just this talking Praise in god rejoicing in the lord and when the meeting's over Did you see her who she thinks she is anyway, why does he get the solo who put her on the worship team Was that good what I just said I hear you laughing No, everyone has a remark Everyone has a remark But don't we have enough trouble just taking care of our own lives I know for myself I will be occupied 24 hours a day just looking at my own mistakes and my own weaknesses Who in the world would give give me the time to be judging you or somebody else? And then after christ has been so lenient with me You know, the only reason i'm here talking to you is not because there's something special about me I am a sinner saved by grace And god has been very patient and merciful with me And I know he's been the same with you. So after all the mercy he's shown us who are we to judge anybody else? Who in the world? I mean, are we nuts? Are we well the angels must scratch? They don't have do they have heads? They scratch their wings or something? And they must be saying what is up with that? After god has shown mercy because he knows the secret things that some of us have done that nobody knows And he's had mercy and covered it with the blood of his son And now you and I are going to judge someone and talk behind their back about them. That must be like a sign Spiritual insanity the angels must be looking to go. They're nuts down there God's been so merciful, but they're talking You say well, you know pastor jim I only tell things that are the truth What if god should tell the truth about you to everyone? Sometimes we even pass our gossip and our slander along in a spiritual way Look, I wouldn't I don't want to tell you this really but i'm gonna just so you could pray Because if I tell you this I know you'll pray and then Not edifying Not your business anybody else's business Are our lives so empty that we have to talk about other people? Is it really such a vacuum in your life and mine that I have to occupy precious time talking about people? Who are not present? So peter says if you put all that away You're going to be in position to grow. You're not going to grow unless you get rid of those bad calories Carbs got to go The carbs got to go evil thoughts evil Deeds Deception hypocrisy Jealousy Envy slander of every kind he said put it away from you and then crave the pure spiritual milk notice The the parable has changed now. The metaphor has changed. It's no longer the seed now. It's the milk of the word Keep drinking it So you won't be undernourished live every day on the word of god Did you know in the history of the christian church, there's never been one strong man or woman that didn't live in the bible not one I have a whole section in my library at home huge section. I have like more than 4 000 books in my library I told you I didn't go to seminary So i've tried to remain a student and study on my own And I got a whole section of biographies and autobiographies of great men and women That god has used hasn't been ever one of them who didn't live in the bible Not one because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god. You can't have faith unless you're constantly Drinking in god's word get a little new testament and read on the subway. No, you don't have subways here, right? Do you how you do have subways? Well, then read on the subway then like I said in new york most, you know, everyone's riding the subway and Just get a little pocket new testament, but read the word of god read it alone Read it at long time short time Go to bible studies read the word. Otherwise, you can't grow. This is the good food that god has given us You know what's been happening lately to me. God's been waking me up At night when i've been too busy doing ministry to all of you in leadership now I want to give you a warning you can get so busy doing ministry that you get away from the word of god or worse Temptation for people like me you read the bible looking for sermons You know, oh Second chronicles, can I find something here? Help me jesus, please something I gotta preach Is that the way to read the bible? Or don't I need the bible? I don't need the bible for sermons for you. I need the bible for myself So sometimes when i've been too busy Actually at 12 30 i've been sleeping about an hour and a half god will wake me up And i'll feel this Craving this emptiness, but it's not for food And i'll realize oh no I read a little snatch of scripture this morning Oh god, I need your word and i'll get up out of bed without waking carol And i'll go into the study that's next to our bedroom And i'll just sit with a little light Over my shoulder a little night light And i'll drink in the word of god If you don't love the word of god, then you really gotta pray god, am I a christian? Because not to want to know what god is saying to you. That's kind of out there Isn't it you have a father and you don't want to hear what he wants to tell you? That's a little weird That I would have a father and say don't talk to me dad. I want to hear what you said Yeah, but I wrote a book with I read a gave you a book with 66 books in it I got a lot of good things in there for you. No, guess what? I don't have time. I gotta watch tv I got a twitter. I got a Text I gotta do Just think of all the information we take in every day and how little time we have For the word that will really help you grow And when you're in trouble and your back's against the wall And you need faith in god Gospel music won't do it Neither will sermons from people like me They can be helpful You need the pure milk of the word I love all of you And when life is over I want god to be able to say You spoke in onuri church english ministries on a sunday the last day of february 2010 And you told the people the truth from the word of god That has to that means more to me than anything Because if I dazzle you and you go, wow, he's so clever so funny, whatever How empty is that But I want to hear him say well done My good and faithful servant You told the people things that would help them in their growth Listen to someone who's fought a few battles Listen to someone who's been attacked by the devil in ways. You can't imagine And The bible says be strong in the lord and in the power of his might Let's today as we close this meeting Let's put away stuff That's not good for us If you've gotten a little sensitive or convicted like I have many times hearing god's word you go, oh God, oh wow that hurt Or wow, that was on target That's what happens sometimes with god's word it not only builds up it cuts away it's a two-edged sword And he wants to cut away junk. He wants to cut away those bad carbs He wants to cut away the stuff that'll stop you from growing and being everything the lord wants you to be He has blessings. You can't even imagine for every one of us. He has blessings We can't imagine but we got to get into a place of growth. So let's take away All this stuff we heard about by god's grace And then let's add the word of god. I want some of you tonight as we pray To make a fresh consecration To god that by god's grace You'll have to make time for the bible then change your schedule make time but pastor i'm too busy You don't know I work i'm going to school. I got this I got that then guess what? I declare to you with all love and humility. You're too busy change your schedule Because if you're too busy for the word of god, something's wrong Because in a moment, you know, we lost four people on 9 11 More than any church in new york city You think any of them when they went to work that day said this is the last day of my life Life is a vapor I'm, not trying to be melodramatic. I'm trying to tell you the truth. I think these people in chile who went to bed Last night there's over the death count is now over 300 this huge Earthquake 8.8 and the only reason hasn't done more damage. It was out in the water of some and way below the earth But life is a vapor And when life ends in heaven someone no one's going to say what degrees did you get down there? How much money did you earn? What did your friends think of you think anyone's going to ask that in a millisecond? It'll all be gone And everything that everyone values and is worrying about down here. It'll be gone in a second But the word of god will endure forever And it'll make us strong so we can be everything jesus wants us to be pastor, can I close in prayer here? Can we bow our heads?