the song and saying, oh, I don't sing the song. Then the preacher is going to come. Listen, that's not worship. Worship is when you listen, when you can align yourself in the spirit of your mind with an attitude of gratitude and gratefulness, and you begin to say, I can What God has done in my life and around my life I can relate to what's me and so from the abundance of my thankfulness from the abundance of my heart But this mouth is going to glorify you Lord because of what you've done and I didn't deserve it Worship is an attitude of gratitude. Can you all hear that right now? If you have an ungrateful, unthankful heart, you are going to remain in your prideful condition and you'll sing the song, but it is not going to close the gap. It's not going to close the gap. Why? Because you've already got your reward. He says, you want to really honor me and glorify me? You demonstrated a heart of thankfulness and a heart of gratitude, and you get alone with me. Even if you're together, you get alone with me in the spirit of your mind. can to pour out from your heart, the abundance of the heart will speak through the mouth that you are glorifying God and thankful for God in what He's done, listen, and what He will do. God, I know you're never gonna leave me nor forsake me. I praise you for that. I know you're gonna get me through this valley of the shadow of death, and I'm gonna praise you for that. I know you're gonna get me through making the right decisions in my life about relationships, and God, I'm just anticipating that you're gonna be glorified in how you bring this about, so I'm gonna thank you ahead of time for what you're gonna do. God, I wanna have an attitude of gratitude. That closes the gap. So today we're going to talk about the second thing that closes the gap, and that is to receive instruction from the Word of God. That's another part of what you and I are responsible to do that helps us keep that gap a little worship him. Yep. But another thing you can do is you can receive instruction from God. I knew how exciting that would be. So I figured we'd go to 2nd Timothy chapter three today. And I want to talk about this from this context. All right. Here's what Paul tells young Timothy. And if Paul was giving instruction to Timothy as a young preacher, in his heart and his attention toward, I think it's good for us too. And here's what he does with young Timothy, and here's what I'm doing with y'all. Here's what he says in chapter three, verse one. This know also that in the last days, in the last days, by the way, I don't want to take this too far Listen to me carefully, you and I are living in the last days. taken up in the cloud to be with his father, seated at his right hand, making intercession for believers, true believers, in himself. When he was ascended up to be with the father, the angel stood by and said, hey, why are you standing here gazing up? The same way you've seen him go up, he's gonna return again someday. That very second of eternity past began what we call the church age. That is, we are living in a church age But we're also living in the last days. Why because Jesus Christ could come back at any time and anymore There's there is nothing Biblically yet to happen on the timeline of the Bible Before Jesus Christ could rapture the church and return to this earth. There's no other option And hey, just watch a little bit of news, because you can't put up with a lot of it, but watch a little bit of news and you will see all of the things lining up in the culture of our day that absolutely line up with the pattern of the promises of the scripture. And if you can't see it, let's get together and have a cup of coffee. It's in there and it's happening right now. beginning of his ministry. Why? Because even if you do not believe in a corporate rapture and catching away of the church, believe this, every single one of us are going to have a personal rapture some moment. Sunset we're living in the last day We're living in the last day you could be living right now in your last physical day Tomorrow the only promise we have is right here right now. That's why it's a gift from God called the present And we look at God and say, God, you can take me out of this world tomorrow, but I'm going to be either, right now I'm with you, and then I'm going to be even more with you. But the bottom line is, I will always have you as my Lord and my Savior, no matter what. Amen. So you look at this and you say, we're living in the last day. He says, this know also that in the last days, perilous times are going to come. He doesn't say, he said, he doesn't in this passage say they're going to get worse and worse. He says, they're going to come. And he gives a list and everybody reads this list and says, man, can I see these things in our present culture? Look at what he says. Everybody read verse two. Look at it together with me. For men should be lovers of their own selves. I think the way I think, I'm going to stand by what I think and I'm going to go the way I want to go and nobody's going to change my mind. Lovers of self means you've got a sense of pride and arrogance that will not yield to the holiness of God. He also is meaning the lovers of selves without. It goes on and he says, they're covetous, bolsters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. You look at our culture. And I really want to be as positive in the pulpit as I can possibly be. But I want you to understand from a biblical standpoint and from a God-centered standpoint, the Bible makes it abundantly clear, as goes the church, so goes the culture. It used to be that you could step in the midst of a congregation of people, worshiping God and serving God, and there would be a whole different set of standards among that group of people than there is out there in the world. But nowadays, ladies and gentlemen, oftentimes you can't tell the difference between the two. blasphemy, where there's blasphemy, there's disobedience, where there's disobedience, there's ungratefulness or unthankfulness, you're unholy. Where is the time that the people of God said no, no, no to the rest of the world? And it's alluring a loss and said yes to Jesus Christ. Only living is about putting him first in every decision of your life and walking with him. But he goes on and he says in verse three, without natural affection. You know what that means? Men with men, women with women. It's not talking about just natural affection. He's talking about that which is not natural. Oh man, that brought a hush over the room. Truth breakers. Man, some of us are old enough, I'm not, but some of us are old enough to remember that a handshake and a word was all you needed. I'm not that old yet. But the truth is, right, some of us remember days like that. A handshake and a promise was all you needed to believe that a person was true to their word. False accusers, incognite fears, despisers of those that are good. In other words, people are going to not like you when you love God. Sometimes that happens within our own families. Sometimes that happens in our own household. One has surrendered to the holiness of God and wants to serve God and love God. And the other says, no, I'm gonna live the way I'm gonna live and do what I'm gonna do. It creates a great deal of tension and conflict and stress in that family, in that home. He says, there's coming that day when people will be traitors and heady and hot-minded, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God. Verse five is very important, it says, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Man, I can't preach on that or teach on that enough, but I'm here to tell you that that should never be seen in the household of God. In the household of God, it should be all about God. Even though we're human, even though we deal with the flesh, even though we struggle with the spirit of our minds, even though there's conflicts in our relationship with the Lord, even though there is often that distance between us and him, we should never, ever, ever pay lip service to God. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15 about the people that were there, he said, they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in another passage of scripture, he says, they're like whitewashed tombs. They're beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, they're hollow and empty. They have nothing to give. One of the prophets would say, they're like a broken cistern. They're intended to hold the rivers and useless, and have no purpose in the realm of heaven, only because they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far, far from me. That's the kind of condition that Paul was telling Timothy will come. He goes on and he says, watch what he tells them to do. He watched in verse five, he says, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. In our modern Christianity, we don't turn away. We don't turn away, and that doesn't mean thumbing our nose at anybody. It doesn't mean we're judging them. It means that we're simply choosing to put God first in our lives, and we're not going to let the life that we had with our Heavenly Father become distanced so that all that confusion and conflict can come in the middle of our relationship with God. No way. It's not worth it. And so our desire is to turn away because you know what that leads to? Emotional death. I've learned that in this part of my life beyond everything else that I preach and teach. I believe when James talks about being encapsulated, enslaved to sin, what does he talk about? He's talking to believers, and he's telling us, hey, you're going to, what's the end result of sin when it finishes its work in your life? You are emotionally dead. If you're a true believer in Jesus Christ, Satan cannot have your soul, but he can mess with the spirit of your mind, and he will create havoc in your life enough that you will be overwhelmed and despair, and a spirit of overwhelm, and stress, anxiety, and all the looms of the spirit of your mind. And what does he create? Emotional death. Emotional death. And it's coming for all of us if we don't guard. if we don't watch out for it. And I haven't got to the best and I need to very quickly. But all of that is to say, these are not the people you want to allow your life to be connected with. It doesn't mean you don't minister to them, doesn't mean you don't share the gospel with them, doesn't mean you don't love them, but you distance yourself. If you see characteristics in their life that could draw you in or draw you away in that space, But look at what he says, and he gives an example. Look at it very quickly. He says in verse six, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive. He talks about silly women laden with sins. And the only reason he says silly women is because he mentions in the context who he's mentioning. This is very personal. And he says, ever learning, look at verse seven, ever learning and never able to come to knowledge. Of what, everybody? But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known life doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, and patience. Every single one of those are fruit of the Spirit of God dwelling on the inside of a true believer's life. And that is what's supposed to be coming out of your life and mine so that it draws other people to that fruitfulness of your life and it is something good. and His mercy reigns and rules forever. You look at your life and say, am I seeing through my life the product of these kinds of characteristics? You live in a household of contention. You need to go back to your relationship with God and say, God, am I truly saved? Or secondly, am I so distant that Satan has moved into the spirit of my mind and made me forget that I need to show I'm to show thanksgiving, I'm to show concern, empathy, and love for those around me. And that's what he's saying in the verse 11. He says, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me in Antioch, and Iconium, and Lystra, what persecutions I endured. But out of them, out of them all, the Lord delivered me. The Lord is close to those who love him. The Lord is close to those who are willing to recognize the distance and say, oh no, I'm going to do what's necessary to close the gap. He goes on and he says, he says, but evil men, look at what he says in verse, I'm sorry, verse 12. Yea, and all, and look at this church, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So everything that I'm teaching you and preaching with you and you're reading in the scripture, everything that I'm trying to tell you is to lead to one thing, that is, some people are gonna hate you for loving God. And they may not say those words to you, but they treat you like that. And really what's making them angry is not you, it's your love for God. Listen, that'll disrupt the demon. Oh, y'all really quiet. You love the Lord, it'll disrupt their demon. You put God first and the decisions you make, it'll disrupt their demon. You put God first in every decision and every desire of your life. And you say, I may not be perfect and I may make a lot of mistakes, but my desire is to put God at the centerpiece of my life. Guess what? When you love the Lord and that gap is closed and Satan don't have any work in you, he's gonna do whatever he can to create that gap. He's gonna do everything he can. And sometimes it comes through the very people that are around you the most. Man, that's tough preaching right there, isn't it? Now here's the remedy. Here's the remedy. Look at what he says. He says, he says verse 13, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. Boy, that's hopefulism. That means people that hate God are going to get more and more hate in their hearts. More and more pride, more and more arrogance, more and more trying to use you. They're going to do everything they can to destroy your spiritual wall. But here's what he says in verse 14. Good remedy right here. Look at what he says. But you do what? You continue thou and the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Verse 16, look at a church, all scripture, not some scripture, all scripture. What is scripture? It is the unadulterated, unchanging word of God. Now here, listen to me carefully, I gotta hit this quickly. This has nothing to do with what type of Bible you read. It has everything to do with whether the word of God is allowed to read you. I preach King James. I'm never going to stop that till God calls me home. I preach King James. I read King James. I love King James. That's what I've been raised up on. And I'm just old fashioned like that. Some of you read different translations. Do I criticize you for that? Nope. Do I look at you and say, oh, that's that, and that's that, and that's that? Do I see discrepancies? Yes, I do. Do I think there are some bad translations? Yes, I do. Do I believe that that's a misleading truth in the culture? Yes, I do. But as for me and my house, I'm going to serve the Lord, and I'm going to stay faithful to the most conservative scripture writing I can find, and that's in the King James Bible. Now, you can disagree. That's okay. I still love you. But I'm gonna read this and believe this and follow this. Why? Because it is the most accurate translation from Greek, Latin, Hebrew into the modern English of that day. Hello, y'all still hear me? Of that day. But that isn't even the point I need to make right now. The point I need to make is, do I believe that the Bible that I'm holding in my hand is the inspired word of God? Do I believe without any check in my mind, check in my spirit, do I believe this is the word of God? Look at what Paul tells Timothy. He says, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. What is that? The breath of God. That's inspiration, the breath of God. Every single one of these words were inspired in the minds of men, Men were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and they wrote, just like a man that preaches in a pulpit, hopefully and prayerfully is under the inspiration of God, and he brings words to you, and you can believe that they're the word of God because they line up with the scriptures of God. This is what he says, all scripture is God breathed, but here it is, everybody, quickly, here's what he says about it. He says, and is profitable for doctors, to reprove, is profitable for correction, is profitable for instruction in righteousness. What does that say? Is this the word of God? If you don't settle that first, then the rest doesn't matter. If you believe that this Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, that is the architect of heaven, inspired in the heart of men, to write and pin the words down that they wrote and pinned down so that there were comparison scriptures written and compared to one another and they came to this place where they compiled all of these into one book called, we call the Bible. You look at that and say, okay, how do I close the gap between me and the Lord? You believe first and foremost that this is the word of God. If you don't believe that, then everything else is a point. Everything else doesn't matter. You say, well, I want to know what God thinks about this, or I want to know what God wants me to do about this. I want to know what God wants me to choose in this situation. This scripture, this Bible is inspired by the God you want to hear from. This Bible is the breath of God in written form. You are indecisive, you don't know what to do, you don't know what direction to go. Guess what you should always do? Go to the Heavenly Father in prayer, an attitude of worship first and foremost, and then you open His word and say, God, speak to me. where I am right now, because you've already given the inspiration of your scripture. It's right here. Your breath has already been put in written form. It's called the Bible. If I want to know how to have peace in my heart, it's in the Bible. I want to know how to worship God, it's in the Bible. I want to know how to get through the circumstance. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because He is with me. His rod and His staff, they comfort me. What is he telling me? Ladies and gentlemen, he's telling me in his Bible, he's with you even in the most difficult valleys of your life. And you say, when I read the Bible, I get that promise of his inspired word. He tells me that he's with me even in the valley of the shadow of death. I don't have to fear evil because every time there's evil in my life, he always stands up in the midst of my evil like he does through the pattern of the scripture and says, peace, be still, fear, go away. What is he telling us? He has authority. He has power. He has dominion. Where do you find that? In the word of God. Why should you not be angry? Because it's in the word of God. You say, now, wait a minute, preacher, just a couple of weeks ago, you said we're allowed to be angry. No, I said, if you listen and quote the preacher correctly, I said, the emotion of anger is not the sin. It is when you let the sin take hold of you and you react in a dangerous manner, then it becomes sin in your life. And it is a very, very, Overwhelming thing to deal with in your life, please when you quote the preacher quoting correctly The Bible is abundantly clear of things that we should do and things we should not do it is in the instruction of his word You want to know what he thinks about lifestyle choices He'll tell you you may not like it, but he'll tell you Hey, you wanna know if there's only two sexes? He's already settled that. He created male and female. Pretty simple. It's in there. You wanna know how he feels about the political oversight in our culture? Guess what? Go read the book of Romans and he'll tell you how you and I are supposed to respond to whomever is president. He tells you in the word. But here's the bottom line, and this is where I'll finish the message. If you can give me, bear with me just a few more moments. Here's what I want you to get out of this. He has the power through his scripture to convict you of sin. He has the power in the scripture to convince you that you need a closer walk with him. He has the power in the scripture to correct your attitude and your behavior. You want to close the gap between you and the decisions you make in your life? You have to let the word of God change your mind. I preach, teach three or four times a week. And I don't do that because I'm trying to build an audience for myself. God forgive me if that ever becomes my own. My aim is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible. But I have never yet in my entire ministry, more than 25 years, I have never been able to change a single soul. Only God can do that. Only God can change your mind. Only God can make you hungry enough they retired enough in the valleys that you reach up for some help. Only God can create that interest in your heart. No amount of love, no amount of chasing after somebody, no amount of trying to convince them that you're right and they're wrong, or maybe even trying to meet them halfway and say, well, I'm right. change another person. And I don't say that to be harsh, I say that in love. If they're bullheaded, they're gonna stay bullheaded. If they're mean, they're gonna stay mean. If they hurt you, they're gonna keep on hurting you. And there are people that live in that abuse every day. The only thing that can transform a human heart is God Almighty. and He can change your heart. He can change your life. Not as long as they're arrogant, not as long as they're private, not as long as they say, my way or the highway, but if they give just a little bit to the love of Almighty God, God can reach into that heart and He can change that life forever. So your prayer should not be, change that person for my good. No, change that person for your glory, Father. Change that soul for your glory. Because God, as deep as they are in this pride and arrogance of their heart, I know that if you transform their life, they'll be a witness for you like no other. Because only you, God, can take a person from the pit of hell and the pit of spiritual death and raise them to new life the same way the resurrection power worked On the day of Jesus Christ coming out of the tomb, so is the resurrection power available to the one who is willing to acknowledge you to be their Lord and Savior. Praise be to Almighty God. He can change a life from death to life, but they have to be willing to look up. They have to be willing to acknowledge where they are in their life. They have to be willing to acknowledge you. And by the way, you have to be able to acknowledge where you are in order for God to get that gap fixed between you and Him. Guess what? You got recognized. You've drifted further away than you realized. And you're making choices and decisions that are not pleasing Him because you think you've made up your own mind of what's right and best for you, and you've just drifted away. Worship the Lord in the spirit of truth and love. and get into his word. But here's the closing remark. Let his word get into you. Man, we fight against it, don't we? Our human nature is to, nobody's going to tell me what to do. Our human nature is nobody's going to make me, nobody's going to make me feel bad about myself. I feel great about myself. I don't know what your problem is. And God's looking at you and saying, this is about you and me. This is about you and me. His word should be able to correct you and you and I be willing to receive it. His word should convince you and we should be willing to receive it. His word should be able to even convince us. Maybe we haven't quite come And he might, through his word, he's gonna convince you, you need to surrender. Now I can, I read people and I watch faces and I watch reactions and I watch body language. Listen to me, I cannot change a single soul here today, but I've done everything in my power by the word of God to express to you the love of God that is found in the scriptures of God. And if you'll turn to him, you can close the gap between yourself and him. That gap is always going to kind of be fluid in our lives. It's going to kind of open and widen and shrink depending on where we are in our mind and our experience. We got a lot to deal with in this thing called life. Can I hear an amen to that? And it's tough. It's not easy. But you want to close that gap? Worship the Lord. You want to close that gap? Get in His Word. And I'm not talking about just all of a sudden when you're listening to the preacher preach. He said, now you're going to meddling. Some of you already think I'm following you around all week with a camera. But the Spirit of God is. The Spirit of God is watching us. The Spirit of God is with us. If you're a true believer in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God is with us every minute of every day. Let's bow our heads. Is there anybody in the side of my voice that would say, preacher, if I died today, I'm not sure that I would get to go into God's heaven. And please don't base that answer on pride or arrogance of your own decision making. Think about it. Do you know God? Do you know Christ? Do you have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of you and changing you, molding you, shaping you, convicting you, convincing you, directing you? Do you have that spirit of God living on the inside of you? If not, You might need to check your relationship with God. Is there anybody in the sound of my voice that would say, preacher, if I died right now, I'm not sure that I would get to go to heaven. I think so, I hope so, but I'm not sure. Raise your hand quickly and put it down. Is there anybody I'm not sure? Maybe somebody watching us through Facebook Live today might not be sure about where they stand with God. Here's what I want you to know. Right now, you can make peace with God by, listen, my prayer does not save you. Only God can save you. Only God can transform your life. And he knows if you're willing to receive him right now. But if you are, I'll give you the words to express this prayer. You pray this prayer for me. You say, dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin. I'm choosing to turn away from my old life and I'm turning to you. I ask you to take the blood of Jesus Christ and cover my sins and wash my sins away. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and teach me how to live for you and love you the rest of my life. I surrender in Jesus' name. No one looking around, but did anyone here with me pray that prayer? Lift your hand quickly, put it down. Anybody, I prayed that prayer. If that prayer is in your heart, then I'm telling you right now, you've settled peace with God. And I'm telling you right now, you will never ever feel closer to Him than you do right this very second. He's set you free and he's given you a new life and a promise of eternity with him. Your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. It can never be erased. He loves you with an everlasting love. Heavenly Father, I pray for every other decision that needs to be made in the sanctuary. I believe pride needs to be set aside today in somebody's heart. I believe arrogance needs to be crushed in somebody's life and their spirit. I believe, Heavenly Father, that the spirit of depression needs to be off of somebody's life. I believe that somebody emotionally needs to be set free by your holy power in this place today. Would you set us free today as we believe in you and trust you? In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.