God's Word

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. If you're using your pew bibles, you'll find that on page 489. Psalm 19. To the chief musician, a psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no law or speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the Son, which is like a bridegroom coming out of His chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? cleanse me from my secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Prayer for Illumination

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You speak to us in Your Word, that not one jot, not one tittle shall ever fall away. And God, we pray now that Your Holy Spirit would write these words upon our hearts with an iron pin. that you would impress it upon our consciences. Give me words to speak, Lord.

Sermon

Let your saints be built up in their faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. I was listening to Jan Buchanan, a missionary from South Sudan, just last week. She came, or two weeks ago, at family camp. She says they're still translating the Bible into the Dinka language. So they have the entire New Testament, they have parts of the Psalms, and they're working on the Old Testament.

First Point

First, they have to teach the Dinka people how to read. And so, as they teach the Dinka people how to read, they start to learn their own Bibles. And Jan says, every once in a while, they'll be sitting there and they'll be teaching the ladies how to read their Bibles.

And all of a sudden, the ladies will sit up and they'll smile and they'll start to clap. because they've found something in the Bible they've never heard before, a promise from God, a truth they've never heard, and they just start laughing and clapping, filled with joy, because God's Word has become their delight, and He tells them things about His love, and of His sovereignty, and of His glory, and they are filled with joy because of it.

Do you still feel that way about God's Word? Is God's Word a delight to you? Do you still listen to the Lord, or maybe Guys, we've been accused of this before, haven't we? When you were first dating your wife, you paid attention to every word that came out of her mouth, didn't you?

But now she's able to tell when you're listening and when you're really listening. Too often as Christians, we're just listening, but we're not actually hearing. Today, I want to encourage you, I want to challenge you to cultivate a listening heart. to lean into what the Lord has to say for you, and to love the Lord. So first we're going to work through this.

There's really two distinct parts of this psalm. The first part is verses 1 through 6, how God reveals himself in nature. And then verses 7 through 14, where God reveals himself in his word. Theologians talk about the first part, when God reveals himself in nature, as general revelation. that God displays His majesty in the heavens. The psalmist here talks about the absolute beauties of the sky.

I've been waiting with anticipation. I remember seeing different videos and watching all these engineers building the James Webb telescope over the different years, and waiting on pins and needles as I watched it launch. And I was sitting there thinking, it's got a million miles to travel, but in a few weeks, it's going to be in position. And then they had all these simulated videos of what it would look like for the sunshield to open, and for the solar panels to go, and all this other stuff. And just waiting for images from the James Webb telescope to come in.

And finally there came a morning where I got an email saying the first images are in. And if you get an opportunity to look at these images, this is taking one grain of sand, looking up into the night sky, holding it at an arm's length, And that's where it looked, in that one tiny spot. And in that one tiny spot, they found millions, not stars, galaxies.

The heavens declare the glories of our God. The Lord knows each one of those stars by name. He spoke, and they came into existence. He called Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans, out of the town of Ur, into the promised land. He said, look up at the stars, buddy. Go count them if you can. Your descendants are going to be more numerous than these. The heavens declare His glory. You go to the Psalms, and you open up the Psalms, and you hear about the waves crashing against the rocks, and it's a picture of God's firmness as our rock.

You open up the book of Job, and you turn to the end of the book of Job, and it speaks about God holding the storehouses of the snow. When He says to Job, were you there when I'm the one who called the mountain goat to give birth? God counts every moth that falls from the sky. God feeds every sparrow that's in the air. God counts every number of hairs on your head. Whether it's staring up at the sky, or whether it's looking at the smallest thing in creation through a microscope.

The complexity just in a single-celled organism displays His glory. The picture it gives us here is when a runner goes out. This is like what the sun is like when it has sunrise. You know me. I'm a hopeless fanatic for Iowa sunrises and sunsets. I'm just amazed, right? After spending years and years and years in Pittsburgh, where it's like 96% of the time it's cloudy and you're in the hills, you don't get good sunrises or sunsets. Actually, it's so unique that you get a good sunrise or sunset that the one time it happens every four months, Facebook and Instagram blow up with pictures because there was a sunset. And you could actually see it. And here, it's like every morning when I wake up, There's magentas and purples and blues and oranges and reds. It's incredible! And every morning it's there!

It's God displaying His artistry. Sometimes we become just so used to the world that we become numb to the creativity of our Creator. When's the last time You've looked at a tree in the autumn, in the cool, crisp weather, and as you saw the leaves glow with the sunset going behind them, you realize God chose the color of every one of those leaves. The beauty of the darkest of oceans And the amazingness of the turquoise blues around the islands in the Caribbean displays glory.

I love watching the Olympics. Not all the time, but there are certain things I love watching. I love watching track and field and swimming. Mainly because most of the races are short. But it's really fun. Especially I remember when Usain Bolt was taking to the track. And the event was coming, and I wasn't even there. I'm just watching it on TV. And you feel the anticipation growing, because you know there might be a world record set. You know the fastest man on the face of the earth is about to take to the track.

And as he walks out onto the track, all of a sudden the crowd starts roaring with anticipation, clapping and cheering, and then everybody gets silent. As the referee says, take your marks. and you get to hear a pin drop, even though there's tens of thousands of people in the stadium. And then the pistol goes off, and the crowd erupts, and Usain Bolt runs as fast as he can, he wins the gold medal, and people start crying and weeping and cheering and screaming, and they're so excited.

This is what God says the sunrise and sunset are for His glory. Are you still in awe with your Creator? Or have we just become so mechanical, so used to the things in this world that it's just like the humdrum of life? I'd like to encourage you just to sit back some time. Give yourself some buffer space in your soul and in your schedule to stand in awe of your Creator.

When you hold that baby in your arms, To remember the joy that God gives in life. That these children were created in God's image. Next time you hug your loved one, to remember that they are a gift from God and that they are a display of His glory, that they are of His image. And thank God for your loved ones. This is why everything in our life is meant to cultivate a heart of prayerful thankfulness.

When you eat your breakfast in the morning, do you just think, well, I guess it's cereal again. I guess it's oatmeal again. Or do you think, man, God's so good to me. He's giving me breakfast. He woke that farmer up. He let their combine work. All the logistical things happened to get this food onto my plate. but he wasn't able to eat because he opened his gracious hand. See, general revelation, the natural world around us displays his glory.

Now there's a limit to this. I don't want you to think that all we need is general revelation. I don't want you to think that you can walk out of here and you should just do church under a tree, you by yourself, and just go worship, you know, the sunrise.

No, that's actually what Romans 1 talks about. Right? That's one of the things that our hearts will naturally do. Romans 1 teaches us that the creation declares His eternal power and His divinity. But it's not enough for salvation. And baked into the human heart is actually this desire that what we do is we take the created thing and we worship the created rather than the Creator. See, this is what the beauty of Scripture and what the Holy Spirit does, is it makes us not just enjoy the things of the Creator, but it's meant to draw us to love the Creator Himself.

To cultivate a heart of thankfulness, of listening with your soul to the good things that God has created. And then the second half. Now this is where I got a lot for you. And so get your pencil out because that was like one line in your sermon outline. This next part is going to go fast. So buckle up. Get your writing finger ready. Here we go. We're going to go into special revelation.

God's Word itself. Verses 7 through 14 are largely about God's Word. It's a special revelation of listening with our heart to God's revealed Word. First, I want you to see what the different attributes of God's Word are. Different attributes of God's Word. Verse 7 says that it is without blemish. Right? The law of the Lord is perfect. And then verse 7, it tells us that the testimony of the Lord is sure. Right?

This is 24 karat gold. When you come to God's Word, you don't have to sit there and go, oh, I wonder which part of it is dross. I wonder which part of it I can't actually trust wholeheartedly. No, it is 24 karat pure gold. It's without blemish. It's pure.

That's why verse 8 says, the statutes of the Lord are right, the commandments of the Lord is pure. You're not going to find anywhere in God's Word where it's taking a wrong turn. But everywhere in God's Word, it's leading you along the straight path of righteousness. Verse 9 tells us another attribute of God's Word is that it is clean, enduring, true, and righteous. Look with me at verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean. enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. The father of flies is Satan.

And how do we know, or where do we go to know what is true? We go to the Lord's word. Right? We go to His righteous word. We go with what 1st or 2nd Peter chapter 1 said, where holy men were inspired by God to speak out His word. This is why even though Peter is on his deathbed, even though Peter says, hey, I gotta die just like Jesus told me I'm gonna die, but I need to remind you of the things that the prophets said. I need to bring your mind back to God's word. That's what's important. At the end of my life, you need to know God's word, and it's good for me to remind you of these things.

Because they're true, they're right, they're pure, they're holy. But it's more than just what the attributes are. Look also at what the effects of God's Word are. Right? When we receive God's Word by faith, verse 7 tells us it is for the converting of the soul. I love this one. It makes wise the simple verse 7.

That's our schoolmaster. If we want to know what God's will is, if we want to know the ways in which we should walk in our life, there are certain precepts which he sets down. But there are other ways in which it gives us principles to live our lives upon. It shows us the path of righteousness. It makes us wise. He rejoices the heart, verse eight.

This is a tough one at times. If we're honest with ourselves, we like to smile, don't we? Right, I mean, some people come to church and they're just like, I want my feel-good pill. Let's be honest, some of you walked in today and your heart was heavy. Let's be honest, sometimes you get out of bed and you don't know how you're going to make it through the day.

There's a psalm for that. The saints of old let us know that there are times of hardship. That there are times in which God's people have faced such economic harm in their lives that all they could do was cry out to the Lord. See, the Psalms remind us again and again that our souls are refreshed by turning to the Lord. Time and time again, God rejoices our hearts in the Lord. So the effects of God's word, verse 7, it revives the soul. Verse 8, it makes us wise. Verse 8, it enlightens the eyes.

I love how the book of Ephesians talks about this, you were once darkness, but now you are of the light. How did he do that? When you heard the good news of Jesus Christ, and he breathed new life into your soul, he opened your eyes, he enlightened your mind, that you might see and know the things that are true.

So what should we do? Point C, we should appreciate God's Word. We should appreciate God's Word. Look with me at verse 9 and following. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And then let's lean in specifically into verse 10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward."

When Mark Spence was here, he talked about, if I told you I'd give you a million dollars, Every single time you told someone about Jesus Christ, would you do it? Like if I brought in a briefcase, and in that briefcase there was a million dollars, would you go tell someone about Jesus Christ? And a whole bunch of us were like, yeah, we'd do it right away, you know, absolutely. And he says, so why wouldn't you do it for your Father to smile upon you? Where's your treasure? What do you value? What are we chasing after in this life? I remember reading a story about this missionary who was in China. And China went one way and now they're returning back to authoritarianism in their land.

But as he was there in this secret meeting with all these different church leaders, all these different pastors, he was just teaching from God's Word. He had his Bible there and he was talking to them. And he said, you need to take God's Word and you need to give it to God's people. And the pastor started weeping and crying and he asked his translator, he said, why are they crying? He said, they don't have Bibles to take to God's people. They don't have Bibles for themselves. And he was amazed by this. What do you mean they don't have Bibles? He said, you can't get Bibles.

And so what they decided to do is they took his Bible that he had brought from America And they took the book of Genesis and they cut out the book of Genesis and they handed it to one pastor. And then they took the book of Exodus, and they cut out the book of Exodus, and they handed it to another pastor. And they took the book of Numbers, and they cut the book of Numbers, and they distributed each number. Now, I don't know how the guy who got the book of Jude felt, you know, like he gets one piece of paper.

But each one of them went home with this treasure. And each one of them went home knowing that if a government official caught them with those papers in their pockets, that they could be thrown into prison for years. But they valued God's Word. And what happened is God built up in these people's hearts this treasure, this desiring for God's Word, that this pastor, once they got done reading and preaching the book of Genesis, they would take that book, and they would go to the next town, and they would hand it to that pastor, and that pastor would hand them revelation, and they would go take it back to God's people, and God's people would memorize it, so when they went into prison, they went with God's Word inscribed on their hearts. Because they valued God's Word. And yet, how often do our Bibles stay shut on a table, on a shelf, gathering dust? Do you treasure God's Word? Are these words true for you? More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

I remember growing up, every once in a while we would go up to this orchard in the mountains And this big huge apple orchard, and we would make pressed cider and stuff like that. But in the shop, every once in a while, our parents would give us a $5 bill. That $5 went a lot longer those days. And mom and dad would give us this $5 bill, and we'd go into the shop. And in this little plastic box would be honeycomb that they cut from the hive that week. And the four of us kids, we would cut it up and we'd put it in our mouths and just chew on that honeycomb for hours. Just the sweetness of fresh honey.

In the Old Testament, this was the stuff of kings. Pharaoh was called the bee king because he held so many different hives of bees. It was for the rich and the wealthy. You could sell it for a whole lot of money and it was refreshing to the soul. And God here is saying, this is what my word is like. It's a royal gift to you, to sweeten your life, to help your soul, to nourish you and heal you.

Yes, God's word, brother and sister, is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. But also, to appreciate God's word, lastly, here in verse 11, Do I actually feel that way? Like, let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. Do you actually feel like Leaning into God's Word is rewarding to your soul? We're talking about affections here. We're talking about how our hearts are turned towards God's Word.

Do you actually think there's reward in coming to His Word? Or do you treat it as junk change? Throw it in a jar and give it to the kids? Or do you think this is the very words of God that will pay dividends in my life? So this is how the Scriptures talk about us appreciating God's Word, but I want you to also see the applications of God's Word.

Look with me at verses 12 and 13. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Do you see, the Scriptures are what show us the path to acquittal. Look with me at verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

Oh, I don't like that. Maybe you're just like, okay, Pastor Brian, you're just talking here, whatever. What are you getting at, dude? Do you like when someone tells you when you're wrong? When your kids come to you and they say, mommy, you didn't do that right. Or when you're at work and your boss says, you've messed up here. Or when your spouse comes to you and they have something that you've done wrong, do you often go, oh yippee, I'm so glad you told me what I did was wrong. But isn't it a blessing that God is not a nitpicky God, but he is a holy and righteous God. And he is the one here who shows us our hidden faults or secret sins. He's the one who shows us.

Like a father whose boy is walking straight into a bear trap. It's open. Son, if you step there, it's gonna snap off your foot, boy. Oh, I sure hope the Lord loves me like that, not to just say, oh, I don't wanna hurt your feelings, so go ahead and walk there.

No, the Lord shows us. Those paths that lead unto destruction. And He corrects us from those ways. He shows us the way of acquittal where we might actually find forgiveness for our sins. Where He might actually cleanse us of our trespasses. He brings us not to a place of hardship, but He brings you to a place of forgiveness. And of cleansing where your soul might be washed white. He restrains us, verse 13, from presumptuous sins. Look at his prayer. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Is this not the Lord's prayer? And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

How will you know, Christian? Sister, how will you know where Satan is lurking? Children, how will you know where your adversary, the lion, is roaring, is prowling around, ready to devour your soul? How will you know the traps even that your own heart would lead you to? It's God's Word who lays naked, lays bare our hearts, does an autopsy on our soul and says, here's where things go wrong.

So avoid here. Don't go into that house. Stay far away from this type of person. Don't commit these types of sins. He blatantly, boldly gives us guidelines for our lives. Not because He's a tyrant in heaven, but because He's a loving Father who corrects and leads His children to keep us from presumptuous sin. And He shows us The way of our Master, verse 13, continuing, let them not have dominion over me. He has this desire, this prayer of David, is that God would show him the path of righteousness. He doesn't want sin to have dominion over him. He wants Romans 6, where he is no longer a slave to sin, but a slave unto righteousness. He's crying out here for the work of the Holy Spirit to incline his heart to God's Word that he would know the way to walk in which God would be pleased.

And then lastly in verse 13 of these applications of God's Word, it shows us the path of forgiveness. Then I shall be blameless. and be innocent of great transgressions." Isn't this interesting? You read this and you're kind of like, who wrote this? You read this and you're like, man, whoever wrote this psalm really knew the path of righteousness and they must have never sinned. And then you read who wrote this, to the chief musician, a psalm of? That's right, David. David wrote this. David knew sin. David knew presumptuous sin. David knew capital punishment deserving sin. So how can David pray this? I think the answer to that is verse 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. You know who sang this psalm perfectly? The word who became flesh and dwelt among us.

It is Jesus Christ who had this heart towards His Father and kept God's law perfectly and was kept blameless. Jesus was tempted in every way as you are, yet without sin. Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted towards irritability and anger like I am, and yet never sinned in His anger. Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted with lack of self-control or the desire for greed, and yet his heart was to do his Father's will. He was kept from both secret faults and presumptuous sin.

David is writing with a prophetic voice toward Christ, and in his own heart he's saying, Lord, I need you to show me the path of the Redeemer. I need you to show me how I will be bought back because of my sins. He longed to see what you know. David only had a little glimmer of this.

Someday he would have a son who would sit on his throne forever. Who would be the king who would reign in righteousness. And David knew, that's not me. Maybe it'll be Solomon. Maybe it'll be my grandkids. Maybe it'll be someone someday down the line. And eventually that Redeemer came. And His name is Jesus Christ.

But let me ask you, how did you come to learn of Jesus? This King of righteousness? The lover of God's law? The eternal Son of God? The one who is the exact representation of His being? The one who is the display of His glory and majesty? How did you come to know Him? How did you come to know the one in whom in heaven there is no sun or moon because Jesus Christ and the radiance of his glory is their light? We think about the sunrise, just wait till you get to heaven and see Christ's glory. But how did you come to know that that's what Jesus was like?

If someone hadn't been sent to preach his word, if God had not inspired his prophets to write down his word. See, this is why we're people of the book. Because the book tells us about our King. Because our book tells us about the one who redeems our souls. Because the book tells us about the way of righteousness that Jesus Christ paved and said, come and follow after me. So we go to the book to know Christ. And we go to the book to keep His commandments, because by this they will know that we are His disciples, if we keep His commandments, and if we love one another.

So it's halfway through the year. I never get tired of reminding you of this. Surprise, surprise, every single year you're gonna get at least one, most likely two sermons on God's Word, and you need to read it. I hope when I'm at my deathbed, I'm still trying like Peter to say, hey, I'm going to die, because Jesus said I'm going to die until he returns. So I'm going to tell you to read your Bible.

But I know some of you have tried this, and some of you have told me objections, and some of them I've seen in your face when I've done this every year. I'm not trying to put legalism in your heart. There's a way in which to say every single one of you must read their Bible every single year or else you're not a Christian. That's a lie from the pits of hell. I know it's great to read your Bible every year, but some of you have told me it's hard for me to read. I don't read well.

Okay, get the YouVersion app and press the play button. It's free. As long as you've got data on your phone, you can listen to the audio Bible for free. YouVersion.com, or it might be Bible.com now, it's in the app store, it's free everywhere. Plenty of access to listen to God's Word. Most of God's people throughout the centuries consumed God's Word, heard God's Word audibly first. Some of you have told me, well, I just don't feel like it. There are mornings I wake up and I've been there with you. I just don't feel like reading His Word. I gotta tell you, I don't feel like paying my taxes or saving for retirement either.

But I sure hope that when I retire, there will be riches there. See, when we read God's Word, when we memorize God's Word, when we meditate on God's Word, when we study God's Word, it's like putting money into your wallet. You got cash in your wallet, I don't know when you're gonna need it, but someday you're gonna need to withdraw it. And I hope it's there for you. I hope you know in your soul where to go to. when you need it. Some of you say, look, I'm busy. I just don't have time for this. I've got work to do, man. I'd like to encourage you just with two stories.

One is a guy named Beitzel. Beitzel was a banker. A packer up in Minnesota loves telling this story. not J.I. Packer, sorry, Piper, John Piper will often tell this story to seminary students and stuff, and he'll say, you know, Beitzel was a banker. Beitzel worked long hours at the bank, and every day he worked to teach himself Greek. until he was teaching the kids in the church Greek so they could read their own Bibles in Greek. And Beitzel was a busy banker, seminary student.

What's your problem? Now I'm not expecting you to start learning Greek paradigms. You're more than welcome to. I'd love to do it with you. But Beitzel was a banker, and his heart was storing up God's Word. But maybe you think, well, I don't want to memorize Greek. That's way too much for me. I'd like to encourage you with another story.

I'd like a story that I was reminded of this week as I was reading of General William K. Harrison, a decorated army general. The only medal he didn't receive for his service during World War II was the Medal of Honor. He was one of the few generals in World War II to receive the Purple Heart because he actually fought with his men. And every single year, General Harrison read through the Bible, Old Testament one time, New Testament four times. When he would find himself on leave, even during the World War II days, and he had a brief reprieve from battle, he would catch up on his reading.

He would spend a day reading his scriptures. And at the end of his life, people were amazed by it. It seemed like this man was just oozing God's Word. You would have a conversation with him, and he always had some way to bring it back to the scriptures.

Some way to bring it back to God's Word. Last story, and this is just a visiting saint from this church in the nursing homes. I love talking to the older members of the church. And all of a sudden, when we want to start singing a psalm, they don't need a psalter. God's Word's just in their hearts. And when I pick up God's Word, and I might do a devotional next to their chair, in their little room, just the two of us, all of a sudden their faces shine like God's glory is in their hearts. because they remember these words. Last objection.

Some of you have just tried and failed. I'm just going to give you a few practical tips here. Try a different translation. I know some people who are purists with translations are going to get mad at me for that. That's fine. Some of you have tried so hard to read God's Word that you don't even know where to start. The story doesn't even make sense to you.

I would encourage you to pick up Catherine Voss' Children's Bible and just read through a Children's Bible to start with. And then I would encourage you, pick up an easier translation. There are going to be paraphrases, and I'm not saying to stay there, but sometimes it's helpful. Sometimes, let's just face it, I struggle even to read the New King James out loud.

Nonetheless, understand it. And I know Greek and Hebrew! So pick up an NIV. Don't let that be a stumbling block for you. Try to read less. Some of you have set too high and lofty goals for yourself. Why don't you just pick up your Bible and try to read one paragraph a day? and start to develop the habit in your soul. Join it together with another habit that you do. Do you eat breakfast every morning? Read your Bible while you eat breakfast. Do you go to sleep every night? Pick up your Bible for five minutes before you go to bed.

We're way over. I told you I always had too much. Not really sorry, but I'm sorry for you. I'm going to challenge you. Three last challenges. Fathers, this is your obligation. Fathers, it's your obligation to teach the scriptures to your children. This is what scripture demands of fathers. What's right after the Shema? Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. How will the next generation know how to do this?

And you shall teach them diligently to your children. When you walk along the way, when you rise up, when you lie down. Will you read the Scriptures to your children? Will you talk about the Scriptures to your children? Will you give God's Word to your children? Will you be putting into their faith trust fund God's Word?

That when they leave out of your house, they are filled with a treasure trove. They might not leave with a physical inheritance, but they'll walk out of your house knowing, I know God's Word. Fathers, I want to challenge you. with reading God's Word. I want to challenge each of you.

We're a bunch of negative nannies. I don't like where culture is going, and I don't think a lot of you do either. So what are we going to do about it? Right? This is a challenge for everyone. Do we want to see reform in our culture? How about we bring our culture the truth? I want to challenge you, we're not going to be able to, if we want to complain about, oh people are going this way, people are going that way, but we don't have God's Word to answer to people, when we see them believing something wrong or walking in a wrong way, then we have no right to speak. I want to challenge you, and this is a legitimate challenge, if we want to change God's culture, it starts with changing our hearts towards His Word, bearing His Word in our heart, that we might have an answer to give to the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Do you have God's Word in your heart that you can actually explain to people why you believe what you believe, why you won't do what you think somebody wants you to do in culture?

And lastly, children, this is the final challenge and then we'll be done. I know you're ready to be done. I'm like 17,000 minutes hour over. Children, when I was a kid, I specifically remember the day when my dad, I was bored and he said, why don't you go read the book of Daniel? And you know what I told my dad? Oh, I know the story of Daniel. I know the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I don't need to read that. I was stupid. I didn't know God's Word and I was dumb. You want to know how I found that out? Because I left home. I left everything my parents taught me. I wanted to go on a different path, a path that was leading to destruction. And you want to know how God saved me? My boss came down to the ship. He came into my little shop. He kicked everyone out.

And he said, Brian, have you ever heard of Nebuchadnezzar? And I had no clue what he was talking about. I told my parents, I know the story of Daniel. And I never realized that in my heart was the same pride as King Nebuchadnezzar. And that I had to bow the knee to Jesus Christ.

Children, you might be sitting here in these pews, hearing the Bible. You might even be sitting at home, listening to your parents read the Bible. I want to ask you, do you know it yourselves? Pick up the book and read yourself. Bury it in your heart yourself. For in it, there is great reward.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Holy Spirit, please incline our hearts towards it. Please, Lord, let us love you and value every word that comes from your mouth like precious gold and the purest of honey. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.