In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not just reading the Bible, but truly feeding on its message. He encourages the audience to let the Holy Spirit open their understanding of the scriptures, specifically referencing Isaiah 53. The preacher urges the listeners to focus on Jesus and his sacrifice, rather than getting caught up in external symbols like the wooden cross. He also emphasizes the need to surrender our will to God and pray for His will to be done in our lives. The preacher warns against the superficiality of reading a large number of chapters without truly digesting and applying the word of God.

I think we have just sung the text. We've just sung our text. And what the Father would say to us this morning is found in this word. In the 11th chapter of St. Luke again, this beautiful, beautiful exhortation and will of God for us was brought to us, as I said the other morning, it came to pass as He was praying. Can you imagine Heaven's response? They knew who this man was. They knew Him there with them. I don't believe they ever could understand why He left them and would come down to sinners. How Heaven loves Him. How the Father loves Him. How the angels love Him. He said He could call 10,000 of them any time and they'd come. And they would. How Heaven felt when they said, Look, Jesus is praying. Jesus is praying. And they knew He was conscious of tremendous need when He, if He were praying. Jesus is praying. He's praying. Let's take Him everything He wants. Jesus is calling. Jesus is praying. Honey, do you know, He says, As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. When we come with sincerity and real prayer, Heaven sees our devotion to Jesus. Heaven knows when our dedication is real. Heaven knows when we truly love Him and adore Him. You loved Jesus this morning. Say His name, will you? Say it again. Jesus. How do you say it when you're all alone with Him and nobody's there? It comes from way down. Oh, young people, give Him all. There is nothing. Don't withhold anything from Jesus. You will never, never, ever regret giving yourself 100% plus to Jesus. Somebody says this morning, after 50 years, you can say that. Oh, if I had 10,000 lives, I'd give every one of them to Jesus. 100% plus. Nothing less. He's worthy. He's worthy. He is worthy. He's worthy. And we dedicate according to the value that we place on Jesus. Wow. How much value. What value do you place on Him? All day yesterday, I was blessed. Through the night, I was blessed. In my subconscious, I was still hearing you sing yesterday morning. This is the day the Lord has made. I'll rejoice. And you're rejoicing. That rejoicing just got down into my subconscious and rejoiced in me all day yesterday and all night last night. Paul says, rejoice in the Lord. Now, there's that word rejoice. There's certain words that just captivate me. This word has so varied meanings, and one of the meanings is the value that we place on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your rejoicing be according to the Word. The Word. The Word of Jesus. The value of Jesus to you. What value. What worth. Rejoice. Rejoice. What worth do we place on this man? A number of you have said to me, I want to love Jesus. I really want to love Him more. I don't love Him as I should. I really want... How can I love Jesus more? How can I? Honey, you take this chapter Brother Johanson read this morning. You will... Love in you is awakened in the presence of your Lord. Love is awakened in the presence of the object of our love. Take this 53rd chapter of Isaiah. You want to love Him. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you don't read 10 chapters a day. Folks frighten me sometimes. They frighten me. One man came up. He said, Sister, I read 40 chapters every day. And he was so proud of himself. And he thanked me to say, You're wonderful. I know he did. I said, Man, you scare me to death. And he looked at me and he said, Why? Why? No person can eat 40 meals a day. And the fact of the matter is he's not eating. He isn't eating. It's better to have one crust of bread than to drive past 40 restaurants and say, Doesn't that smell good? That's all you can do reading 40 chapters a day. You're just driving past the restaurant. Stop. Stop. It isn't how many chapters we read. It's how we feed. Yes. That's right. Get out your pencils and write that down. It isn't how we read, how much we read, but how we feed. Sometimes I don't get through one verse all day long. He has held me in one word for weeks. Read this 53rd of Isaiah and let the precious Holy Spirit open that chapter to you. Let him open it. Don't turn to it now. We're not going to open it up now. No. But if you want to love Jesus, here, this is Jesus. Here is who he is. Here is what he means to us. Here is what he has done for us. Here is poured out his love for us. Here is his suffering. Here is the very heartthrob of the whole universe. Everything in the universe that is, has its center in the sacrifice of our precious Lord Jesus Christ. His holy, divine sacrifice. We're in this holy, holy Lenten season. We'll be thinking about and singing about Calvary, but don't be taken up with the old wooden cross. On a hill far away. I'd love to sing that. On a hill far away. Keep that cross there. No dear, it isn't the old rugged cross. It's what happened on that cross. It's what happened on that cross. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His poured out life. And all that he's suffering. All that he's enduring. All that he's going through. In this 53rd of Isaiah. If you see what he does for us here. Do you know he almost died of a thrombosis. When he thought he was going to lose us. A broken hearted lover. Have any of you ever lost, loved and lost? I don't want to waken any heartaches. But if you know such a heartache. You have loved and lost. I all over this country. I can think now scenes at the altar. Of lovers. When engagements was broken. When they loved and lost. I can think of a young minister. Assistant pastor in the church. And was just a couple months before his wedding. And some jewel jacket evangelist. Came into that church. And stole the heart of that girl. And left town with her. And here was the assistant pastor down there at the altar. Sobbing and sobbing. Sobbing. Finally I went over to him. Jack. You've got to tell me what's wrong. You've got to tell me boy. What's wrong. What's wrong. Oh. Oh. Oh. And I heard the poor. Poured out agony. I said Jack. Jack. It has happened. But in no experience that you will ever go through. Will you get closer to the heart of Jesus. And what he has gone through for us. That's what. That's what happened in Gethsemane. That's what Gethsemane is all about. When Jesus said let this cup pass from me. He wasn't praying about Calvary. That was all determined before the foundations of the world was laid. He was ordained that if anything happened to this man they were going to create. And this one that was to be for Jesus. Let us make man in our likeness. And in our own image. And he is to be this man. Out from him. From this company of redeemed ones if necessary. If he fails I'll go down. I'll pay the price. I'll give my life. I'll go to Calvary. I'll die for him. That was all ordained before man was even created. He wasn't saying now at this late date. Father I hope I don't have to go to Calvary. Father is there some other way that I don't have to go to Calvary. That's not what was happening. That's not what's happening. That's not what was happening. The devil knew. He knew. That if Jesus got to that cross. He was doomed. The pride. The pride would be redeemed. All the prayers, the hopes, the dreams of Jesus would be realized. The whole plan of God would come through. And he was doing his best to take the life of Jesus before he got to Calvary. That he wouldn't have this pride. And the agony of Jesus was over you and over me. Here the devil was trying to make him feel he wasn't going to get to Calvary. He wasn't going to have this pride. He wasn't going to have this pride. He wasn't going to have this church. Oh Father. Father if I could take you through all the surrenders that Jesus had to make. Every surrender. You will never be called on to make one surrender if Jesus hasn't already made that surrender. Everything that he asked us to do he has done. All the way he asked us to go he has gone before us. Everything he asked us to do he's already done that. He's already done that. He's already paid that price. He is the one that has counted the cost. We talk about us counting the cost. You sit down and count the cost. You're going to say it's too much. He's the one who counted the cost. He's the one who says I can do it. He's the one who fought the battle. He's the one who met the enemy. He's the one who has gone before. He's the one who has made every surrender there is to make. He made it. He made it. And now he's called on even to surrender his church, to surrender his bride. This is what the devil is hammering the life out of. This is why he's sweating drops of blood. It's not over going to Calvary. The devil is telling him he's not going to have a church. He's not going to have a bride. He's not going to get to Calvary. Oh, God, oh, God, let this cup pass from me. Don't let it be so. Don't let it be so. Nevertheless, if I must surrender my bride, if I must surrender my church, if I'm not to have a bride and not to have a church, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, paid the price that he is paying. Oh, my. And Hebrews tells us he was hurt in that he feared. He didn't fear Calvary. He feared losing you and losing me and what we would be then. I will be done. Every angel, every archangel, Michael, Gabriel, every cherubim, would have broke out of heaven and come to him if they could. And those God let out rushed to him and ministered strength, ministered strength. He had a thrombosis therein. Strength was given to him, paid the last that he could have his bride. Listen, honey, this is what you mean to him. This is what you mean to him. Oh, never was there a lover like this lover. Never was there love like this. Never, ever. When the precious Holy Spirit takes us into this world, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He's going to have a church, isn't he? He's going to have a bride, isn't he? Yes. Have you settled that you're going to be in that number? Have you settled that you're going to, that in you he'll see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied? Have you settled that? You're that seed, that seed that will bring, bring him many sons, the corn of wheat that fell in the ground to bring forth much fruit. Do you know, dear, Jesus has a terrific claim on your life? Do you know this? Say yes, will you? Yes. That he has a terrific claim on your life. Do you know you were born for a long, long time? Do you know that? Say yes. Do you know your eternity has already begun? Do you know that? Yes. Yes. Do you know Jesus has great plans for you? Do you know that? All right, listen to me. Listen to me. Do you know Jesus has not one future plan that does not include you? You don't have any plans. Are you in this holy company? Eh? Are you in this church? Are you in this bride? For you, Jesus, God, for you Jesus paid such a price. His wife, his holy bride, we're included in all his future plans. So this is why, this is why he's dealing with us now. You know, his plan is a long-range plan. We only see the end of our nose. We only know today, and we're taken up with all the little waves and the upheavals that we're involved in right now. We only know today. His program is a love, is eternity. And he's, listen dear, all the dealings of God in your life have to do with God's long-range program. He wants to bring through a church that will rule and reign with him, that has those qualifications wrought in us now. This is why he says if we're faithful in little, little things, little things, if you can't trust somebody with a dime, you're not going to trust them with a dollar. Right? So he just puts us in little, little circumstances, little situations, little, little trials, a dime's worth, to see if in the eternal ages what value we are to him. Say his name. You know he's here? Do you know he's here? Say his name again. He's here. Yes, he's here. He's here. For you personally, Jesus went to Gethsemane. For you, he suffered a thrombosis, a broken heart, and sweat drops of blood because he thought he was going to lose you. And when he surrendered us and God gave us to him, isn't that the way he deals with us? Exactly so. Exactly. Make the surrender. Don't hold anything. Don't hold your life. Fellas, give her up. Put her on the altar. Give her to God. If you put her in God's hands today, they'll be in her hands when you need God's help tomorrow. Girl, let go everything, everybody. Give yourself to God. Give yourself to God. Oh, I know. I hear it at every Bible school. I hear it every church, everywhere. I'm afraid to give him up. I'm afraid to give him up. I'm afraid God will take me at my word and take him. You had better give him up. You had better let go. Well, suppose this is my last chance. Oh, oh, oh, oh, these little surrenders that God asked us for in this little cramped lifetime. It's only three score year and ten that he's promised us. He wants our greater interest to be in the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life. I'm going to spend the rest of my life there. So let that be ours. Say his name again. Say it again. His long range program. Not my will, but say that. Not my will. Oh, to have these wills subdued, conquered, brought under the power of another will. Say it again. Not my will, but. Now I want you not to say it. Pray it. Oh, God, not my will. Pray it. Come on. Not my will, but thy will be done. We sang, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Where? No, honey, it doesn't say on earth. Yeah, that's right. In earth, in this clod. Right in here. Here's where his kingdom is. Thy will be done in this earth. All right, now sing it. And I think it's an individual matter this morning.