All right, for this session, I wanna think a little bit more practically. So if you have your Bibles, 1 Thessalonians chapter two. 1 Thessalonians chapter two. In the first principle of manhood, we talk about serving the king, and the way that that begins is in the recognition and our response to him as king. And the, the mode of communication that God has given to us, how he communicates with us is by his spirit through the word. So our response to the king is going to come through listening to him through his word. So if we're gonna be men, biblical men, then we have to be men who know how to listen. We have to know how to respond to God through his word here. So I just wanna kind of lay the foundation for us of where we see this command given to us in scripture, and then maybe walk through some ways how to help us become better listeners, not only listeners to sermons, but also in our own devotional life here. So just to kind of set the stage, before the nation of Israel goes into the promised land, God gives them the book of Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law. It's not a different law. It's the same things that he said in Exodus. It's a different generation. Now, and one of the things that he says to them, and you've heard it quoted before by Jesus, is that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the people. After the settlement in the promised land, God continues to reemphasize this idea that His words are life. So in Psalm 81, it says, hear, O my people. You'd be amazed at how many times God says, hear. Hear, O my people, while I admonish you. O Israel, if you would but listen to me. You think about the New Testament, Matthew and Luke, they both put Jesus' Sermon on the Mount as the first major teaching that Jesus gives to a public audience. Both gospel writers emphasize that Jesus preached this sermon to his disciples, not just the 12, but to his, on a broader scale, his disciples, and both conclude Both Matthew and Luke include in the conclusion that great illustration of that every man who hears these words of mine and does them is like the man who builds his house upon the rock. You think later on into the ministry of Jesus that the synoptic gospels record the transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of his closest disciples. So standing in the glorious presence of the transfigured Christ, God the Father intensifies the moment by showing up with his voice once again, and he says, for the benefit of those three apostles standing there, this is my beloved son, listen to him. Listen to him. So according to God's word, he communicates we are to listen. The Gospel of John, he says, my sheep, what? Hear my voice and they follow me. All throughout the Old Testament, the word that's used for hear or for listen is not just auditory. You haven't heard and listened unless it leads to obedience. And you see that in John chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So hearing and listening carries with it the thought of obedience. Obedience in this. So I wanna give us a grid, a practical process for this that you can use when you're listening to sermons being preached that you can use when you're just in the word of God. So 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul is writing to this church and we can detect a general process that takes place in the lives of the people in the church at Thessalonica for listening and then living it out. And it's not just a process that we find in Thessalonica, but as I began to look at this, I saw it all over the pages of scripture. So this is what it says, 1 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. Chapter two, verses 13 and 14. We also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. It's at work in you believers. For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. So I want you to underline a couple of words or make note of a couple of words that are gonna help us with our process here. The first one is received. received the word of God. We thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, the next one is this, accepted it as the word of God. You accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God. And then this part, at work in you believers. at work in you believers. So there's gonna be a process and I'll walk you through the process there of how to think about that. But let me just kind of show you some other places where you see this same kind of process here. And you remember in the gospel of Mark in chapter four, Jesus is talking about the parable of the soils where he's got us throwing out the seed. And in verse 20, it says this, those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word except the word, and it bears fruit. Hear the word, accept the word, and then it bears fruit. That's Mark chapter four, verse 20. You remember in Acts chapter 17, Paul has been kicked out of several different places. He's been run out of town, and then he ends up in this little community known as Berea. And it says in Acts chapter 17, verse 11, that these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Interesting enough. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so, and many of them therefore believed. They received it, they examined it, they believed it. Okay, so here's the process. You're listening to sermons, you're reading the Bible for yourself, Here is the process. First one is receive. I'm gonna give you an acronym and it's gonna be RAID, R-A-I-D, R-A-I-D. That R stands for receive, to receive. You may think, well, how is this different than accept? There is a difference between receiving the word and accepting the word. Somebody can give me a gift and I can receive it. And then it becomes up to me to use that gift, whatever it is, for what it's been designed for, or to use it as a doorstop in my office. So there's gonna be a difference here. To receive the word of God is to understand it, to be ready for it, eager to receive it, to understand it. It's what we're talking about. I understand the ins and outs of what you're talking about, Cliff, whenever it comes to biblical manhood. I see the points. I understand the points. Men need to serve the king. They need to lead their families. They need to do the work. I get all that. I see how you put those pieces together. Receive the word. Something that has to be understood when it comes to listening to sermons, when it comes to reading the Bible, is that the preacher is not the one who's supposed to be doing all the work. In fact, if you look through the Bible, there's more talked about listening and receiving the Word of God than there is about preaching. There's more instruction given about hearing the Word than there is about preaching the Word, okay? And so one of the things that has happened, you see it in the New Testament, you see it in the book of Hebrews, particularly in chapter five, but we see it in our churches, is that we have become what chapter five, verse 11 in Hebrews calls dull of hearing. Dull of hearing. So go to Hebrews chapter five and let's just see what happens whenever we become dull of hearing. Hebrews chapter five. The author has just said that Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And he's about to go on and explain what all of that means, but he stops short and he says that he can't do it because his audience is dull of hearing. So look what he says in verse 11. About this, that Jesus being a priest designated by God after the order of Melchizedek. And listen, I don't know if you've ever talked through Hebrews, or read Hebrews, or Bruce, if you've preached it, that's one of the big questions. What does it mean that he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek? Well, the author's about to answer that. But then he backs up and look at what he says. About this we have much to say, and it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. I can't teach you this because it's meat and you can barely handle the milk here. So the reason for their immaturity is a dullness of hearing. It's a dullness of hearing. The literal translation here means that there's no push in the ear. There's no push in the ear. What does that mean? It means that somebody, in the medical world in this time, it means that somebody was in a comatose state. If you're dull, you were in a comatose state. There was no readiness, there was no eagerness, there was no anticipation to hear what was going to be said, to receive, to try to understand. There's no push there. So let me ask you to examine your own heart, to examine your own life. When you walk through these doors on Sunday morning, Wednesday night, whatever the case may be, whatever church you may go to, Is there eagerness? Is there eagerness there, ready to receive the Word of God, to work hard to understand the Word of God? The opposite of a dull hearer, one who can only take milk, is a discerning hearer, one who is ready for the meat. So when we talk about receiving the Word, What we're talking about, receiving the word. We're talking about someone who is ready to welcome the word through a discerning, searching mind. So in this reception phase of receiving the word, the work we do after the sermon is to ask some questions. Okay, so I'm talking about receiving here. Paul prays the Thessalonians that they receive the word of God. How do we receive the word of God in the same way? How are we that discerning reader? Well, we ask some questions. Just basic questions is, what main truths were presented in the message? Or if you're reading your Bible, what's the main truth that I'm reading here? What's the main truth about Jesus in this passage? What's the main truth about myself? What's the main truth about the world? Those are just questions that we need to be filtering through as we're thinking about taking in the word of God here, okay? Receiving the word. Here, I'm gonna give you another, well, I'll save that for later. I'll save it for later. So receive. I need to understand the message. Practically, I need to understand the message. I see how he got whatever he's saying from the text or I put the pieces together as I'm studying the Bible. Yes, I understand what's going on, but it wasn't just receiving. It was accepting as well. You received the word of God and you accepted the word of God. So I understand it, I put it together. Here's the acceptance part, is that I embrace the message. I believe the message. I am convicted about the message. You notice back in 1 Thessalonians 2, it says, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the word of God. This is something that we just kind of fail to appreciate what we hold in our hands when we pick up the Bible. This is not chicken soup for the soul, man. This is the word of God. It's not up to us to judge it. It judges us. It pierces us. This is not advice, this is not opinion, this is the word of God. If we want to be men who serve the king, there can be no question as to who the king is and to when he speaks or to what he says. So yes, I understand two plus two is four. I understand the mechanics of what you're saying. I accept it as coming from the king's mouth. This is in reality a lordship principle. Accepting the word of God from God to you is about who's gonna be the boss of your life. Who's gonna be the boss? Someone can receive the message, they can understand the message, they can explain the truth inside and out, but they may still choose to rebel against the message. Jesus dealt with these people all the time in the temple. They knew the word of God better than anybody else. They did not accept the word of God though. And we've got a lot of people that can tell you the stories but it has not fallen down into their hearts. Accepting the message is getting your heart and your will submitted underneath the truth, that it's in step with the truth. So this requires, I mean, it just requires prayer. It requires a lot of work of prayer. God, I understand it. I see that this is your word. Here's the third aspect, is to inspect. I receive it, I accept it, Inspect your heart. So I'm gonna inspect my heart and other areas of my life to see where the truth might need to be implemented. Inspect your heart. Father, I heard your truth. I've read your truth. I understand it. I understand what's going on here. I believe and I trust your truth. Now, will you put your finger in the areas of my life where this truth is not being lived out? So inspect your heart, okay? All of this could be asked and prayed in relation to specific messages that are preached, can be done just through as you're reading through the Bible. Listeners want God to expose areas that need to be transformed. When you show up on Sundays to hear Brother Bruce preach or wherever you go to church, are you going there Wanting to hear something that you can just give a loud amen to or do you want to hear something that's going to convict your heart? True listeners of God want to be convicted because they want their life transformed more and more. They want those rough edges sanded off so that more and more of Christ comes through their life. So I'm gonna inspect my heart. Here's the D, receive, accept, inspect, depend on Christ. depend on Christ. So the next logical step after the inspection phase would be to do whatever is deemed necessary to fulfill the truth that we've just recently embraced. That's the next logical step. It's the wrong step. It's just like we said earlier that I can give you these principles to serve the king and to do the work and lead the family and I can just send you guys out of here and I would set you up for failure. And we can see things in the Bible. We can see truths in the Bible. And we say, well, I need to be doing this and I need to stop doing that. And so that's what I'm going to start doing. Listen, Jesus has been given to us as our example, but a lot of times that's where we keep him. And we say, I just wanna be more, well, I just wanna do the things Jesus did and I'm gonna try to align my life and try to make decisions based on how I think Jesus would make decisions. You don't have a clue how Jesus would make decisions. None of us would have taken a whip and gone through the temple. None of us would have taken the harlot and stood between her and the accusers. So what are you talking about, Cliff? This is where it gets back to, and this is the most difficult step for me. This is the most difficult, is to realize that a believer has been indwelt with the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus can live his life through you, not just as your example, but to live his life through you. Do we believe that? I know in a lot of Baptist circles and the circles I grew up in and Baptist circles, we just give a little bit of lip service to the Holy Spirit. We don't wanna get too far out there, right? Don't get too crazy and have people running down the aisles and stuff. But the Holy Spirit, been given to us to live through us. So let me show you. I want to show you from text. So go to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. And just kind of pull apart what Paul is saying here. Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. The fleshly Paul The old man who made decisions based on whatever he wanted to do, based on his next best guess, just doing the best he can. That person does not make the decisions anymore. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Now watch this. And the life I now live in the flesh, the life that I'm living, this life right here, me waking up in the morning, how I interact with my wife, the decisions I make with my children, the decisions and the things that I'm saying at my work, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. He's talking about that Christ in me. That's what he's talking about here. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. If we walk out of a sermon, if we walk away from Bible study, understanding the truth of God, accepting it as the word of God, and trying to obey that truth apart from faith through grace, we are living a works-based religion. So this is where rubber hits the road when it comes to living out this manhood principle here. All the work a person puts into getting spiritually prepared and all the concentration a person exerts in listening while the sermon is being preached, while the Bible is being read, is in vain if that work does not lead the person to trust Christ. Trust Christ. A person can take great notes or be able to discuss the finer points of a sermon's theological accuracy, but if that person does not seek heart and life transformation, they have not listened biblically. and they'll end up with a hardened heart. A hardened heart. So I'm gonna receive the word. I'm gonna come ready to understand. I'm gonna come eager to hear the word. Whenever I wake up in the morning and I'm doing my devotional, I'm doing my quiet time, part of the work is I wanna understand. I wanna understand. And I'm gonna accept this. not as fables, not as legends, not as good advice for living. I'm gonna accept it as the word from the king. And then I'm gonna pray. Father, the promise that you've given, the truth that you've presented, how you've exposed my real identity here. Is there anywhere in my life where this is not being lived out. Is there anywhere in my life where I'm trusting the world's lie over and against your word? And then I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna trust that Christ wants to live the truth out through me. And I'm gonna expect him to do that. Now here's the great benefit of that, men. It takes all the pressure off of me and puts it on Christ. Are you able to handle the pressures of living the godly life, the Christian life? You can't handle it. But there's one that's already done it. He has faced every type of circumstance. And he has not only not given in to the temptation, he has fully defeated the temptation. You're not gonna walk into anything in your life that Christ hasn't already overcome in his life and is willing to overcome in you and through you. I'm gonna depend upon him to do that very thing. So why do we do this? Why is this full spectrum of reading God's word this way and listening to sermons important to me? And why should it be important to you? This is one of the chief means of our devotion to Christ being deepened, being deepened. Do you want a closer walk with the Lord? Do you, all these things that we've been talking about in manhood, do you say yes and amen, but how? We can't do the work and we can't lead the family and we can't fight the enemy if we ourselves personally are not serving the King. Not serving the king. Look at what it says back in 1 Thessalonians. I want you to see what it says in chapter one. It's not just for your personal sake that you approach scripture this way. It is for your personal sake. Remember we said the decisions that you make carry consequences? Look at what it says in verse four. Chapter one, verse four. For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God for Midas to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven." In other words, The way that they approached the scriptures didn't just affect them personally and it didn't just affect their little church, it went out into the world. And one of the things that I'm constantly asking our church in little bitty Hope, Arkansas is why not little bitty Hope, Arkansas? Why not start a true biblical revival from a nothing town like Hope, Arkansas? Why not? Why not, God? Because it's just like God to start a resurgence of biblical manhood from a little bitty town like Nashville, Arkansas. You just don't know what God's gonna do. But even if he doesn't, he's still worth it. He is still absolutely worth it. So all of this talk, We've gotta put feet on it. And so I just wanted to give you that example. I'm gonna give you another one. There's all kinds of tools. These are just tools for your tool belt, right? Of whenever you get into the word of God. Receive, I wanna understand. And you gotta work to understand. I wanna accept it as the word of God, but I'm not gonna stop there. I'm gonna inspect my heart. Am I, is this being lived out? Where is it not being lived out? And then I'm gonna depend upon Christ. Not in my own strength. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing, John 15, five. I'm gonna depend upon Christ.