Well, well, it's fun to have fun with one another, amen? And celebrate Jesus. Well, look, look, won't you take the revelation that you brought with you today and turn to the book of Hebrews. We have launched out in the book of Hebrews and I am really looking forward to walking through it again, seeing what the Lord desires to show us and speak to us, that we would heed its wisdom, that we would heed the warnings in the book. The book gives us several warnings that we really have to pay attention to. It's very important. And it's going to give us a lot of practical application toward the end of the book. The front part is really instructing us in faith to put our confidence in the Lord. and trusting him and he gives us quite a few examples of those in the past that got caught up in the flow with people but they had not put their trust in the Lord and as a result They were connected to people who had trusted God, but they themselves personally had not trusted Him. And that is really, really something that we want to glean as you're going through it. You ask the questions that, am I not just, I just don't want to believe about Jesus. I really want to take Him at His word. I want to believe Him. I want to put my confidence in Him. I want to follow Him wherever He leads me, because if God's speaking to you, He only will speak to you because you have a relationship with His Son. And that's what Hebrews starts out with from the very beginning, that God has spoken in various ways in various days, that is, in many, many different ways through the years, and He still will speak. God is not limited on how He will speak to you. But you are limited on who He will speak through, and that's only through His Son. And what I mean by that is that when you have a relationship with Him, God will speak to you in various ways. But until you have a relationship through His Son, you're not going to glean from the Lord. You've got to go through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's really important for me to remember that. So if you'll look in verse number 1 of chapter number 1, I put a little note in my scriptures to share with y'all. God has not ever been limited in how he speaks. God can speak. He uses donkeys to speak. Y'all remember reading about that? He's used handwritings on the wall to get a message out. He's done all kind of things through the years. He's used the enemy to speak. He tells us that. He spoke through Necho, the king of Egypt, to Josiah, but he didn't heed the message. He's spoken through various false prophets as well as his prophets. But God in no way is limited in how He speaks, and He's still not limited The limited ones are us. We are limited in a way that you could only hear from God in a relationship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And once you have a relationship with Him, God uses all kind of practical ways to guide us and speak into our lives mainly by His Word. And that's another thing very important. God doesn't contradict His message. that he has spoken, and all God's people said, has he spoken to us in his word? Do we have the word of God that we can rely on and depend on? Yes, but notice what verse number one says. The father, God, who at various times and various days throughout history and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by who? the prophets that's saying that we have a revelation here that is filled with the words of the prophets and that's how God spoke to him like we was just in Ezekiel when God spoke to the people in Ezekiel's day who did he speak to him through Ezekiel who else was alive in those days Daniel Who else was alive in those days? Jeremiah. Who else word was living and alive in those times? Isaiah's word, Hosea's word, Amos' word, Joel's word. All these words were living and alive because God spoke to his people for his people. Now, something that we wanna remember, very important for us. How many of you have ever asked, what does this mean to me when you're looking at the word of God? Now, a lot of people do that. A lot of people start there. What does this passage mean to me? And that's not really the best place to start when you study in God's Word. Now, the reason I say that, it really doesn't matter necessarily what it means to you. What matters is what it meant to God. That's what matters. Let's take you and me out of the picture. Let's say we don't even, we've never been born. Did his word mean what it meant when he wrote it, whether you were involved in it or not? God's word is what truth. And it's meant something when he wrote it to the people that he wrote it to in the context that they were in. It really meant something. And I want to know what he meant when he said what he said, right? Now, here's the better question. After knowing what he said to them in that setting, then we ask the question, how can I apply what I understand what it meant to them? That's where we begin to ask the right questions. How can I take what it meant, I wanna understand it, interpret it properly, and then I wanna what? Put it to work in my own life. Because is God's word trustworthy? Is it beneficial? Is it profitable? Yes, and it brings what? Clarity into our lives. But I can't interpret it based on what it means to me. I gotta know what it meant to him when he penned it for the people that he penned it to so that then I can say, God, how can I understand this in that setting? And then how can I work it out in my life? How can I live it out for what you really meant it for? Now to do that, There's several things that we need to do. We need to really observe what He said, when He said what He said. We need to look at the passage of Scripture and pay close attention to it and just a simple read. How many of y'all read over Hebrews 1 several times already? How many of you? Then jumped in the chapter two and even in the chapter three. Once you get into these things, you just keep walking with it. Why? Because it's really good to take your time as you read through it. Now, how many of y'all's Bibles have headers above sections in your scriptures? Your Bible have headers? All right, let me encourage you to do this. Maybe later on today or tomorrow, go through those headers and just look at the headers of the sections. Because those headers in the sections are gonna give you a summation of a little brief header of what that section is about. And what you will be able to do is get an idea of what the entire 13 chapters are about in its setting. Not just reading up front and you don't have any idea what he says in the end. Because remember, all this is what? Meant to be understood together. And it has an objective in where he's going. And in the front part, he's gonna give us a lot of instruction. And in the instructions, we're gonna find wisdom and wise things to walk in. He's gonna warn us of how important it is to put our confidence in the Lord. But like the heading of mine right here, let's see how y'alls may do the same thing. My heading says, God's supreme revelation. God's supreme revelation. See, God has spoken to us in times past. God spoke through creation. Does the Son still speak today? What does the Son declare? What does Psalm 19 tell us? The Son, the firmament, the heavens, creation, what does it do? It declares what? The glory of God. But can creation explain to me who God is? It can give me some dynamics that I might be able to understand that God is all-powerful and that God is consistent. Has the sun ever missed coming up yet since it was put in the sky? No. Has it been consistent? Why is it consistent? Because who else is consistent? God is consistent. What does James tell us? James tell us there's no variation or shadow of turning with God. He's faithful and always consistent. See, but I wouldn't know that if I didn't have God's message to explain to me that God is faithful and consistent and unwavering in the things that He does. Does God change? What does the scripture tell us? God changes not, right? You can't change Him. Can't change Him. Now can He change us? Praise God. Amen. He sure can. I'm grateful that He has. See, but this creation doesn't tell me that. God's given us a special revelation, a specific revelation that would be His Word. And His word will explain to me things about creation that creation can't tell me, but creation in itself tells me there is a God. And that God is consistent. And that God is purposeful. All this just didn't happen by accident. In all God's people said. Have you ever considered the complexity of your eyeball? Or just how complex the eyeball is and what it can do? There's no camera in the world that is as complex as your eyeball. of how our eyes can focus in at 100 yards or at 15 yards and have in the peripheral here and immediately turn the Charles and he'd be in perfect view. And immediately turn and see y'all perfectly. Where a camera, what would you have to do with those lens? What does that lens have to do? You gotta manually or automatically adjust that lens to refocus from Charles to over here. Now we know that some people can't see as good as other people. How many of y'all have trouble seeing? How many of y'all wear contacts? Y'all know Stephanie, honey, is blind as a bat. You know she can't see me on the other side of our king-size bed. Matter of fact, when we had a queen-size bed, she couldn't see me either. And even in a full-size bed, I could be sticking my tongue out at her and she don't even know it. She needs glasses on. If she ever lost her contacts or her glasses, there's no way she can get in that car and drive. She could barely see the dashboard. She literally cannot see. She needs help seeing. So she'll tell me, she'll say, Nick, I don't have my contacts in. She'll be asking something like the kids have been with us now for seven or eight weeks or whatever it is and they fell asleep and the power went off the other night and she was already in the bed and I'm standing at the door and she's asking me something and I'm telling her the kids are asleep and she's going. I can't, she couldn't see my movements of what I was trying to do. She said, you got to get close to me. You got to talk to me. But I couldn't talk to her because I didn't want to wake the kids up. Because if you wake Daisy up, if she took a 10 minute nap, Daisy would be up to midnight. You don't want to wake her up. You with me? You don't want to wake her up. Because she won't be like the other ones where she just lays in the bed. She wants to get up and wander around and move a little bit. She's just a different breed than the rest of them. And she was concerned about the sound machine in the room with little Marigold. Little Marigold, as sweet as she is, she's an animal. That thing, if she's on her feet, you got to keep your eye on her. She'll eat anything under the sun. Put it in her mouth. She was eating yesterday the corner of a big thick about that big book had it ate about that far into it before we even recognized She's like a little billy goat and not only that she can climb like a billy goat She can get up on anything and you look at it. She just smiling with a big old smile You can pat her on the butt and she'll look back at you and smile and keep on rolling But Stephanie couldn't see and she was wanting to make sure the sound machine had come back on in the room with Marigold. So I was gonna have to slip in that room real quiet. And fortunately, when I opened the door to go in there, the sound machine was running, it came back on. And that sound machine, how many of y'all use a sound machine? Or how many ever used a sound machine? Some people use them right now just to sleep with, but with a kid, you put a sound machine on, it helps drown out all the other noise that the other kids are making. So they can sleep. Now she goes to bed about 7, 7.30 and she'll sleep to about 5, 5.36 in the morning. And she'll sleep all the way through. But we don't want her waking up at 10 o'clock or at 11 o'clock or at 9 o'clock. We want her to sleep through. When you and I are in the Word of God, we gotta be able to see. We wanna observe, we wanna look at everything that God has said. Doesn't necessarily mean I gotta understand it yet, but I wanna see the words He's using, how He's using them, and what He just said. And then we ask the Lord to give us the interpretation of what he said. That is, who's speaking right now? For an example, who's speaking right now in Hebrews? Let's read that one more time. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. Do we know who wrote the book of Hebrews? As one book, or one of the books, we do not know its author. Now, there is the possibility it could be the Apostle Paul. For some reason in my spirit, every time I talk about Hebrews and I mention it, I say Paul. But it may not have been Paul. It could have been Apollos. It could have been another team. Matter of fact, he even tells us in there that somebody was with them and Timothy mentions Timothy had been released from prison. You've probably read that. And that he'll be coming to you soon and he hopes to join them too. So it was somebody that they were really familiar with. Now, when you consider Paul as the possible author, which I do, some people say that Paul didn't write it exactly how he wrote the other letters. But you got to remember, what did the Jews in common think about the Apostle Paul? They did not like him. They did not like him. You know what they treated him? They treated him like they treated Jesus. They wanted nothing to do with him. And Paul was an apostle for the Gentiles. He was an apostle for the Gentiles. But Paul had a heart for the Jew, his brethren, people of his same nature and family. He had a burden for them and he wanted them to know Jesus as much as any Gentile that he wanted to know Jesus. And he really was concerned for the Jew. Matter of fact, every time Paul went to a city, where did he start first? He started with the Jews first. And when the Jews rejected him, he went to the Gentiles. That just was a common practice that he did. And Paul, usually, when he writes, he always starts out in certain ways. For an example, turn to the book of, say, Colossians real quick. Let's just go to Colossians. Go back a few books. And notice this. Paul started all his letters like this. Keith, he says in verse number, well, read verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and who? Timothy. Timothy was a close brother to Paul. He used Timothy in everything that he did. Our brother. To the saints, and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, it's a city. Notice the next phrase. What does it say? Grace to you. That is a common opening statement that Paul usually used when he wrote to the churches a letter. He would say, grace to you. And he closed out his letters like this. Go to Colossians at the end of the book. Look in verse number 17 of chapter four. Nearly every letter he says, grace to you, and then in the close, he says this in verse 18. This salutation by my own hand, Paul, because sometimes Paul would have somebody write the letter for him as an assistant, and then he says, this salutation by my own hand, Paul, remember my change, and then he would always close his letters out with this phrase. Grace be what? He started them out, grace to you, and He closed them with grace, be with you. Well, let's go to Hebrews at the end of the book and let's just see. Look in verse 24, well, verse number 23, let's see how he does this, this writer. I'm gonna claim in my, just my, I don't know why I can't get away from it, that Paul is the one who wrote this letter, but he didn't write it like he normally would write in the beginning to the Jew, because he really didn't want the Jew to know that he wrote the letter. Because the Jews would have rejected the letter. They didn't want anything from Paul. But he had something to give away. Verse 23, he says, Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he come shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints, those from Italy, greet you. Grace be what? With you all. Amen. That is a common way that he finishes out every single letter he writes. Timothy's involved. I'll be with you. I want to see you. All those things were common with his writing, but that one phrase there, grace be with you all, is usually exclusive to Paul. And that's why I would say I believe he wrote this, but I believe and understand why he didn't greet them the same way he greeted all the other Gentile world, because he didn't want them to automatically think that he's the one who wrote this, but it was this message from God. Why? Because we believe ultimately the message is from God, isn't it? This is God's word. Amen. So we then, to interpret what he's writing about, want to ask the question, who's speaking? Who's he speaking to? Whatever book you're in, wherever you're at, who's he speaking to? What is he saying? And why did he say it to them in the setting that they found themselves in? And when I'm at that place, then I can get to a place of, I can start asking the questions, well, understanding those questions, how can I put this to work in my own life? How can I apply it in my own journey? Because the word of God is not just to be learned, though we learn it, the word of God is to be what? Lived. Not just learned, but what? It is to be lived out. We want to live out these messages that we're reading. We want to say, God, I want to understand it. I want to know you. I want to make you known. I want my mind to be in tune with what you're seeing and saying. I want my heart to belong to you. I want my hands and my feet at work in your business. I want to live for you. Therefore, I must learn Who you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, what you do for them, and then how can I put it to work in my own life so that I can be a blessing to the people that you surround in my life? And when I begin to do that, the next thing we ask that how can I communicate these things? How can I share them with other people? Because God doesn't want my lips to be silent if my love for Him is growing and real. I want my lips to tell what He's teaching me, right? I want to be able to share them with others. Why? Because people are going to ask you, why you live that way, Hunter? Why did you do that? Why did you ask them to forgive you for what you said or did? Well, because the scriptures, Jesus taught me to do that. Jesus teaches me how to live that away. And then you're ready to explain to them why you do what you do. Paul, excuse me, Peter wrote to the church and said, brother, and always be ready to give an answer to those that ask. Always be ready. Always be ready. Why? Are we in the most important business in all the world? We sure are. No matter where you work at, your work is just a mission opportunity for His message to go forth. You and kingdom work, amen? Matter of fact, look what He says. Go back to Hebrews and notice what I mean by this. Look what He says in chapter number, let's see here. Yeah, chapter number two. Look in verse number five. Chapter two, verse number five. Today is chapters two's reading, right? So he says, for he, for he has not put the what? The world to come of which we speak in subjection to who? In the book of Hebrews, there's six times, if I'm not mistaken, the word world is used. The word world. And it's used in three different ways. One way is the word eon, which means the ages, the times. The from the beginning to the end every age and generation of time God is in control over and all God's people say it but he also uses the word cosmos is Speaking of the physical world or the system that governs the world that we live in That's the world that he says he don't want you to be influenced by because the influence of that world is only filled with what the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the lust of the pride of life. That's what governs that in this cosmos and everything that governs by it's gonna come to an end one day. But this word here is speaking about the inhabited world that Jesus has come to do a work in that the world that will be existent when all the other world is gone is gonna be the inhabited kingdom that he's come to make. And God's put that kingdom, those people in subjection to Jesus. Let's read it again. Let's read it with that. Well, I'm going to use that phrase. He says he, for he, the father has not put the inhabited world to what? To come. How do some of the other translations read? Because we don't want to, some of these translations can get you a little confused. So what does the King James say, Miss Pat? The world to come. What's the New American Standard say, Miss Barbara? The world to come. That is, He didn't put the world to come in subjection to angels. Who did He put it in subjection to? Jesus. Jesus who ordained that the father ordained that there is a world to come And that inhabited world to come is gonna be a world that's made up of the kingdom of the converted, the kingdom that has been transformed, those who have been born again. That's the world, the inhabited world that he's gonna rule over in a future day. But the rest of the world are gonna bow their knee to him one day and confess that he's king of kings and Lord of lords, but they'll be cast to the lake of fire. So the world to come, the inhabited world to come, aren't you glad God's got a plan, amen? that there will be a world to come, that the world we live in now and all the elements are going to be burned up and are going to disappear, but the world to come is going to be inhabited by people who've been made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Their old bodies are going to be cast in the grave. They're going to be made a new creature in the sense they're going to get a new body one day and they'll ever live with the Lord. That's the inhabited world that he's talking about. God did not put the angels in charge of it. Who did he put in charge of it? he put his son in charge of it. So if understanding that, I need to be able to communicate that it's only people who's been saved by the grace of God's gonna live in that world. If you haven't been born again, you don't have any prospect for that world. But there's a world coming, amen. My king's gonna be king over it, and every single soul that lives in it is gonna be subject to him. Why? Because they were subject to him in this world, in the life we live now. He made them a subject, amen? And if I'm not a subject to Jesus, now, I can't claim that I'll be a subject to him then. I wanna be submissive to him today, amen? You're gonna see in this book where he's gonna keep using that phrase today. Today. Today is the day of what? Salvation. Today is the day. Why is that so important? Because faith is always an active, present thing today. I don't claim what I did 15 years ago. There's evidence in my life that I've been following Jesus from the time I gave my life to the Lord. There's evidence he's been my shepherd and today he's my king. He's my shepherd and guide and rule over my life today. But you see, it's easy to get caught up with a crowd 15 years ago, make a profession of faith with having no evidence that you've been following Him the past 15 years, and even today, you may still be with the crowd, but you're still not part of the kingdom yet. Because your heart hadn't been converted yet. You're not a subject to his you're not a sheep of his you don't hear his voice You don't listen to him. You don't follow him. And if you don't follow him here, you're not gonna follow him there Amen, you'll just be condemned and separated from that's the world to come. That's why these things are so important That's why these warnings are there look in chapter number two in verse number one today. I'm communicating What I observed what I interpreted what I've applied now I want to communicate it with you. And when I communicate it with you, you know what the goal is? It is to edify you, to build you up. And if you're lost and you've never trusted Jesus, what is it to do? To reach you with the good news of the blood of Jesus, amen? But ultimately it's to glorify God. in what we do and say. But notice what verse one says. Therefore, because of this, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard for fear we what? For fear we slip off and slip away. If you slip off and slip away, that means there's no anchor there. There's no anchor anchoring you to what you've heard. Or if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast, and it does, and every transgression and disobedience receive the just reward, and it does, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders and various miracles and the gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will." And then he goes into what we just said, "...for He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place with man. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him man a little lower than the angels and you have crowned man with glory and honor and you have set him man over the works of your hands and have put everything, all things in subjection under man's feet. That was what? Did God do that? When did God do that, Brother Charles? In the garden. He put Adam and Eve in charge of everything. Everything was subject to them. Everything. He gave him dominion over everything. But what happened? What happened to Adam and Eve? What did they do? They sinned. What happened in that sin? They lost the dominion. They lost dominion. They lost the right to have everything subject to them. That's why, look what the next phrase says. For in that phrase he put all things subject under him, God left nothing that is not put under him. But right now we do not see all things put under man. We don't see man in control of all things. But what do we see? We see who? We see Jesus. Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels. That is, Jesus became a man What did he become a man for? For the suffering of what? Death. Jesus came to die, didn't he? And all God's people said, if Jesus didn't come to die, we got the wrong message. Jesus came to die. He says, crowned with glory and honor that He, Jesus, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone or every believer. Isn't that a wonderful thought? that Jesus, by the grace of God, would taste death for us. You see, we don't see man in charge anymore, but what do we see? We see Jesus, who was born to die, but crowned with glory. Why was he crowned with glory? Because he lived a life that qualified him to die the death that he died. What life did he live? He lived in perfect subjection to his Father. I gotta know how to go communicate that, amen? So I need to see what he says, interpret what he says, apply it in my own journey by trusting him. Now I need to communicate it so that I can edify Josh and Kate and Lucas and Karen and Tyson. And those that are in the world that I come across that don't know any of these things, that I can evangelize them. I can reach them with the good news of Jesus, that Jesus took their place. in life and upon the cross, amen? So that my life can glorify God by reaching people and teaching people, communicating his truths to people, and live by what he shared with me, amen? That's how we live, that's the things we do in everyday life. So we see here, there was a warning, right? What did he say? Don't slip away. Why is that important? Look over in chapter 3. Look in 3.16. Let's see what he says there. 3.16. Chapter 3 and verse 16. I know you haven't read that far into it, but you will tomorrow. He says, For who, having heard, what did they do? They pushed back at what they heard. Indeed, was it not all who came out of what? Okay, now when you read a passage like this, this is where simple observation, reading it slow, paying attention to the words, what he said. What does, when it says who came out of Egypt, what does it not say? It doesn't say they came out of sin. What does it say? They came out of what? Egypt, the entire crowd, a million plus people all came out of Egypt. But you see, Egypt was still in most of them. They didn't get delivered out of sin, they got delivered out of Egypt. They went with what? The crowd. Notice, how can we tell? What would be the evidence of that? He says in verse 17, now with whom he was angry for 40 years, those that came out of what? Egypt. Was it not with those who did what? What does sin mean? What's the nature of sin? It means the what? Missed the mark. who missed the mark. How did they miss the mark? He says, their bodies fell in the wilderness, verse 18, and to whom did he swear that they would never enter into his rest, but those who did not what? Obey. Well, you see, you can't obey if you don't believe. When you believe, what do you do? You obey. When you put faith, faith always has an obedience with it. Amen? So what's verse 19 say? See, we see then that they could not enter His rest because of what? There's the answer. What was the sin? The sin was unbelief. How was it manifested? Their disobedience. When God would say something, they pushed back at it. When God would give them something, it was never enough. When God would do this for them, it didn't mean anything. Though he delivered them from Egypt with the group, individually, they had to trust God with their lives and with what he said. Let me show you another place that ties right here. You can cross-reference it over. Go to the book of Jude, right before Revelation, your last book in the Bible, look in verse five. Jude is one chapter, so one verse, verse number five. Notice how he says the same thing in just this simple observation of looking at the words correctly, then interpreting it so that we can also apply it. I'm gonna read in verse number five. Notice the phrasing here. Jude does the same thing. He's wanting to remind the people But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having delivered, saved, some translators say rescued, the people out of what? Out of what? The land of Egypt, but not out of their sin. We're not talking about a redemptive deliverance, we're talking about a collective group of people that was pulled out. This happens with people in the church. They get caught up with the body of things, but never individually putting their confidence and their trust in Jesus. Peter talked about it, having been delivered out of the world, They never come to a knowledge of the truth and they just keep going back into the world again and again. That's the picture here. You've taken from the things out of the world coming and joining in with the church. But it's only a deliverance from the world or from the land, but not an individual, personal deliverance that'll set you free to follow Jesus in this life. And boy, that's the difference between eternal salvation and being with the group that is eternally saved. Are you with me? There's a world of difference. And that's what the book of Hebrews is wisely warning those Jews who have been convinced that Jesus isn't enough, that Jesus isn't what they need. They need to go back to Judaism again. And they were getting so much pressure from the Jews and persecution from the Jews They began to be, they weren't anchored to Jesus, so it was easy for them to what? Slip right back into their old ways again because of the pressure from an outside world. Because all they did was get caught up with a group of people, but they hadn't put their confidence in the Lord themselves. And the Scriptures teach us that when a person puts their confidence in Jesus, that persevering, enduring confidence will continue to move them in Christ in this world. That doesn't mean they're going to be without sin, but it means God will chastely and graciously correct them, love them, and keep leading them back to that work that Jesus has done for them. They won't totally abandon Jesus. They may backslide in areas of their life, but God loves them enough to chasten them and correct them and grant them repentance and bring them back into the work that he's assigned for them. And that's why Hebrews is such a great word for us, because it reminds us, don't get caught up with the crowd. The crowd may be moving in the right direction. or they may be moving in the wrong direction. God's never gonna do a work in your life apart from the group, but He's gotta do an individual work in you where your faith and your trust, your belief is in Him and you are fully persuaded you are His and He is yours. He's yours and you are His. And whether my husband or my wife or my children or my parents or my neighbor or my coworkers follow Him, I'm all in for Jesus. I'm trusting Him with everything, amen? And I'm gonna take what He gives me and I'm gonna walk in it. And that's why Hebrews is so valuable to us is because it just keeps reminding us, look, today's the day. Today's the day. Is He everything to you today? You want it today to be today. that he's everything. So if he ain't, what do you do? You repent and you lay your life on the line and give it to him and say, Lord, you are my salvation. You are my everything. I trust you with everything. Shepherd me in this life today. When you wake up tomorrow, Today is the day, amen? My life is in your hands, Lord. Shepherd me, grow me, teach me. Let me see wondrous things from your truth. Let me understand it correctly the way it was intended to be understood. Because I want to live it, Lord. I just don't want to learn it to have something. I want to live it for your glory. I want to help my people that you put me in life with to live it. And I want to reach people for you. And I want it all to glorify you, amen? So Lord, teach me. Teach me. I was thinking as we closed last week, we had the last nine chapters of the book of Ezekiel. And in chapter 40, y'all probably remember seeing this as you was reading through it with us. But in chapter 40, in verse number 4, the Lord told, took Ezekiel to Jerusalem and showed him something. And he said he saw a man that was clothed in brass or bronze, and he had a reed in his hand, a measuring reed in his hand, and the man told him to look at what his eyes could see, hear what his ears could hear, and set his heart upon what he would show him. I brought you here for that purpose, to look, listen, and lean in what I show you so that you can go declare it to the people. Every time we gather, every time we get in the Word, that's what we're doing. We're looking for what God wants to show us. We're listening to what He wants to speak in our life. We lean in and set our heart upon it so that we can live it out and so that we can go let it go. to the people He brings into our paths. Amen. And that's the pattern. That's the pattern. That's the pattern for Hebrews. That's the pattern for wherever we're at every day. I'm looking, listening, leaning in to learn so I can live it and go let it go in other people's lives. Because God's speaking today. Amen. And He's speaking through His Son. Now tonight when we gather back, we're gonna deal with some of those pictures of who he is, that imprint of God. I brought this over to share with y'all. I've shared with you before what it is. It's a stamp. It's like a die set, but it's got my name on it. And when I take this and I squeeze this die, this stamp, the exact characters that are on this die is gonna be transferred to that paper. And that's the idea of who Jesus is. He's the exact representation of the Father. When you get Him, the die, the character, The imprint, you got God. You got everything, amen? Because He is the expressed image, the dye, the imprint of the Father. So you don't have to wonder if you got it all. You got it all if you got Jesus. Now the bigger question is, not do I have it all when I got Jesus. The big question is, does Jesus have all of me? Does He have all of me? I want to give Him all of me. Amen? And I encourage you to do the same today. Give it all to Him. Give it to Him. Father, we bless you. We thank you. We ask you to help us with these things, that we do put ourself in a position to hear from you, to listen to you, to see you, to see what you show us, so that we can live it out for your glory, that we can continue to learn with the people you put in our lives, and that we continue from day to day. Just share it, just share it, just let it go to others. And we know that you promise that we'll get to keep what we get to share. Because we want to know you, and we want to make you known. And we know we can't know you apart through what your Son accomplished for us. So today, we give our all to you. We give our all to you through Jesus, and we trust you. And I ask you now to shepherd us day by day, and we'll give you the praise for it in Jesus' name. Amen. What are we going to sing, brother? 336, there is a fountain. 336, there is a fountain. Flowing from Emmanuel's veins. Cry out for Jesus today. Give Him your all. Right where you are. Take me, Lord. Aren't you glad He'll wash them and make them white as snow? Now this old world you live in, they still see the stains. So don't get upset with them when they still see the old ugly stains you left behind. Just shout and give God glory. He's made them white as snow. Amen? They still see what you've done. They still got a record of it. Praise God, He's washed the record clean though. Give Him the glory. How many of y'all ever heard of a guy by the name of Alistair Begg? Anybody ever heard that name before? He's a preacher. He is one of my favorite preachers. He is really, really, really solid, good preaching man. He's been preaching for years. He's from Scotland. He's got a unique voice. You probably heard him on the radio, may not know who he is. But he preaches a message about that man on the cross with Jesus that had his sins forgiven before he died and Jesus said, today you'll be with me and what? He uses a little phrase, he says, when that fellow made it to heaven, they asked him, who in the world told you to come? How'd you get in here? And he says, the man in the middle told me I could come. The man in the middle. Oh, for the precious blood of Jesus, amen? The man in the middle made it possible that all of us could come, amen? Anybody have anything before we go? Them workers back there done heard the closing invitation song, so they know it's getting close. Sometimes we get in here and talk a little bit more, and they're saying, now Nick, when you started singing back there, we figured you was gonna be finished, and we carried on another 15 minutes. No, they run out of things to do for them, amen? He said, when you run out of things to do for them, them kids get crazy back there. So anybody have anything before we go? on the 30th and just every little detail was so sweet, how it worked. The people that bought it ended up knowing my dad. They brought boxes, offered to help pack, didn't ask us to fix. There was probably about $5 worth of things that needed fixing that wasn't done at the beginning when they built it. And they said, you know what? Don't worry about it. We're going to take care of all of it. They bought every piece of my dad's furniture. Look at that. They just blessed y'all. Lord blessed you. Amen. What a blessing. What a blessing. He's always working it out, ain't he? He's always working it out. I shared with a group of folks down there last week. I've talked these things here before with y'all about that word meanwhile. Meanwhile. out of Jeremiah 39. If y'all get a chance to listen to it online, I think it'll bless you. I think it was a blessing for them down there. Just how God is working in the meanwhile. When it don't look like it's coming together, He's working. He's working it out. Amen? He's working it out. Anybody else? Love y'all. Love doing life with you. Love serving with you. Love y'all. Keep going to tell the world. that great love of Jesus, amen? Because if it wasn't for Jesus, none of us would be here today. You wouldn't know me, I wouldn't know you if it wasn't for Jesus. If it wasn't for Jesus, to Him be the praise.