Good morning, everyone. It's a little bit late for a technical issue. Welcome to this interview with us via internet. And thank you for your faithfulness to be with us. Lord bless for that. Please open your hymnals to number 129. One, two, nine. At the cross. Number one hundred and twenty-nine. Allah sendeth my Saviour great and did my Sovereign die. sacred day for such a worm as I. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burning of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree Amazing meeting with the Lord, and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burning of my heart rolled away. it was there by faith i received my sight and now i am happy all the day well might the sun in darkness hide and shout his glories in with ♪ The mighty maker died ♪ ♪ For man the creature sinned ♪ ♪ At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light ♪ ♪ And the burden of my heart rolled away ♪ ♪ It was there by faith I received my sight ♪ I am happy all the day but drops of grief can't hear repeat the days of love I owe. Hey Lord At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rolled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the cross upon which Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, laid down His life, where He was willing to go and to shed His blood there for our sins. We're thankful that today we don't know where that cross is. We don't know exactly where it was planted, but we know that it's true. We're thankful that Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not on a cross today. He's not in a tomb somewhere. but he's risen and seated on thy right hand in glory. We're thankful that we can know thee as our God and Savior, have the forgiveness of sin in our hearts, that we can glorify thee with our lives. And I pray that we would do that and that we would be able to help others to know the truth in these last days in which we're living. We continue to pray for our governments in Canada, In the Philippines, United States, we pray for the nation of Israel. We pray for many Jews there and across the world to be saved. And as they continue to struggle to live in peace in that land, we pray that many Jews would come to know the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. We ask that they will be accomplished in our own country with our outreach efforts here. We pray for the Waldner family that they would desire to know thy peace and blessing in their lives. We ask that thy will be accomplished in Ken's life and many others that need to know thee, that we can be a help to people to know thy peace and blessing. May thy will be accomplished here, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. And over to 196. Bless it be the fountain. Number 196. Blessed be the fountain of life, Till the word of sinners revealed. Blessed be the dear Son of God, Only by His stripes we are healed. Oh, I wander far from His fold, Wash me in the blood of the Lamb And I shall be whiter than snow Whiter than the snow Whiter than the snow Wash me in the blood of the Lamb And I shall be whiter than snow. Sturdy was the crown that he wore, And across his body all came. Grievous were the sorrows he bore, But he suffered us not in vain. May I tear that fountain beneath Me to cleanse my sins here below Wash me in the blood that you shed And I shall be whiter than snow Whiter than the snow Whiter than the snow Wash me in the blood of the Lamb, and I shall be whiter than snow. Water, I have wondered from Thee, often has my heart gone astray. Crimson to my sins seems to me, water cannot wash them away. Jesus, to that fountain of thine Leaning on thy promise I go Please be by the squashing divine And I shall be whiter than snow Whiter than the snow And over to 382. 382. Trust, try, and prove me. Number 382. Bring all the tights into the storehouse. All her money, talents, diamonds. O drink, lift it all upon the altar, While your Savior from above speaks sweetly, Trust me, try me, Promise it the Lord of hosts, and see, If a blessing, a measured blessing, I will not pour out on thee. When my wavering faith in trial falters, When His guiding hand I cannot see, Then in wondrous love and tender mercy, Through the world His love to me does trust me, drive me, ♪ Promise it the Lord of hosts and sing ♪ ♪ If a blessing, unmeasured blessing ♪ ♪ I will not pour out on thee ♪ ♪ I have held it in my life forever ♪ ♪ All I am or have or hope to be ♪ ♪ Now don't hurt my hold of income saver ♪ While I hear Him say to me, My child, just trust Him, try me. Prove me, saith the Lord of hosts, and see, If a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on thee. Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. We're just going to read a couple of verses there today. Verses 27 and 28. We'll stand, please, for reading of God's word, Luke chapter 11, beginning there at verse 27. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning again that we have thy word, thankful again that we can be reminded of what is important. We know that there are many people today, far too many people, who worship Mary. And we pray, Father, that we could help some of those people to see the error of their ways, that they would see that that is not helpful for them. We're thankful that we have Thy Word, that we can know the truth, and we can see that all praise and glory belongs to Thee, and that there is a great blessing for those who will listen to Thee Know Thee as our God and Savior and follow Thee. So we're thankful that we can know that blessing today. We can be forgiven. We can have Thy peace in our hearts. May Thy will be accomplished here in this place. May we honor Thee in all that is said and done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is Hearing and Doing God's Word. Hearing and Doing God's Word. In the news in the United States, there's a constant theme that is coming across in the last little while, quite a while, I guess. That has to do with a man who died in prison a few years ago. His name was Jeffrey Epstein. There's a debate on whether he took his own life or whether he was murdered. It seems that he was murdered, but we'll never know that, I don't think. But this man was an abuser of young women, young girls and women. with his girlfriend, he was not married to the woman, but with her, they would find young girls who wanted to be models and they were not living at home. not getting any good counsel. And he would offer them a modeling career and to train them to be models. But his real purpose was to take them to his island that he had and give them to rich men to abuse. And then he would blackmail those men to give him money. So he had a very prosperous business going, if we can call it a business. And he was making lots of money, and he had a lot of high-profile people under his control. One of those people was Mr. Clinton, the former President of the United States. In the news this week, a very well-known newspaper in the United States tried to smear Mr. Trump and claim that he too was involved with this wicked man and ran an article in their paper to that effect. And Mr. Trump denied it and denied it and denied it. And finally, Mr. Trump decided to sue this paper and its owner for $10 billion, not million, billion. The newspaper has since come out and said they made the story up. It's not true. It'll be interesting to see how that finally settles out. But we live in a time of great corruption, real corruption. We live in a time as well where the public wants to discredit anyone that is doing anything of value. Now, Mr. Trump, I've said it before, he's a lost man. He's a wicked man. I believe that he is a type of the Antichrist. He is trying to present himself as the world peacemaker. He believes there's no one in the world that can make peace like he can. He believes there is no one in the world who can make deals like he can. And that's not true, but he believes that. And he has a number of people that believe that with him. He will find out if he doesn't get saved, he will find out just how wrong he was when he dies and finds out that he can't make a deal with God. And at this point, he is going to be in hell. So it's very important for us, those that are saved, to keep our heads on straight, to make sure that we're listening to the word of God and not to people, and honoring God and helping others like Mr. Trump and those who are so enamored with him to think clearly about what is important and who is important. And then in the Middle East, there's also the continued fighting. In Syria, there's a community known as the Druze population, D-R-U-Z-E. The Syrian government, which was just recently put in place, they overthrew Assad and there's a new leader there, but he was an ISIS man before, still is, but he's now the leader of Syria. And the Syrian government wants to eliminate the Druze people. The Druze people are a religious sect that began in the 10th century. And they are Muslims, but they are Shia Muslims. And so they don't get along with the Sunni Muslims. And so they are trying to destroy them. Israel, for some reason, is trying to protect the Druze population in Syria. There are Druze people living in Israel as well, but Israel is trying to protect the Druze population in Syria. And interestingly, the United Nations, which is supposed to be a world body designed to keep wars from starting and bring peace to the world, which it cannot do and will not do, but the UN is coming out condemning Israel for trying to protect the Druze population. and is supporting the Syrian government, which is trying to wipe out the Druze population. Now, we need to keep in mind that the UN, funded by countries like Canada, United States, but the UN is basically run by Muslims. And so it is not a worthy world body. It is a very corrupt organization, but the world is content to have those kinds of things around and swallowing up taxpayer dollars and doing nothing of any value. So as we look at our text, God helps us to see what real value is and the importance of identifying real value. And so the first thing that we want to notice here is the recognition of worth. In verse 27, it says, and it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast sucked. So there were people, as this woman, who were very impressed with Jesus' ministry. If not, she would not have made the statement that she made. She had observed what Jesus had done. It seems to me that she was there and saw what Jesus, the teaching that Jesus did in regard to the unclean spirits that we looked at last time. and also possibly she was there when he cast out the devil in verse 14. But whatever this woman had observed Jesus and she noted that he was different. She didn't make this statement about any of the Pharisees. She didn't make it about the scribes or the Sadducees, but she's willing to speak up here because of what she has seen Jesus do. And it is important to recognize true value. So she sees what Jesus has done, but then she has a misplaced understanding of why Jesus did what he did. And so the second point we have is a misplaced devotion. So you see that this woman here, she lifts up her voice and she's not praising Jesus, but she's praising his mother. So she says, blessed is the womb that bear thee and the paps which thou hast sucked. Now, a godly mother is very important. A godly mother has a big impact on her children. In fact, every mother has a big impact on her children. A family where there is no mother is a family that is hurting. Now, there are times when a mother dies. Children are young, and the mother dies. That doesn't change the fact that those children are hurting because they do not have a mother. A mother is very important in the family. It's God's design. We've talked about that in our Zoom meetings, that a mother's place is in the home. Those children need the presence of the mother. Not just the fact that she's there in body, but they need to know that she's there in spirit and in mind. She's there for them. A lot of women that become mothers think that they have been cheated because they had a career that they wanted to follow, they wanted to make money, they wanted to be somebody, and they think that having children, even though they chose to have children, they think that somehow that is robbing them of what is important. There's nothing more important for a mother than to give her time in looking after her household, including the children. So this woman is correct here in acknowledging the place of a mother. Where she's wrong is that she is elevating the place of Mary beyond where it belongs. Moses' mother in the Bible was an important woman, the Bible tells us that. She had opportunity to spend with Moses in his infancy. We don't know when she gave him over to Pharaoh's daughter, because Pharaoh had found him in the river, and Pharaoh had demanded all the sons to and under be killed. And Pharaoh's daughter did not kill Moses, but she had compassion on him, and he was brought into Pharaoh's household, and Pharaoh's daughter and her maids looked after him in his young years. But Moses' mother had that time, as spoken here, that blessed is the womb that bare thee, so Moses' mother bare Moses, and then she also gave suck to him. A lot of women today miss out on that intimacy that God has designed for a mother and child in that they do not give suck to their children. They put them on formula. Now again, some mothers don't produce enough milk, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Because that is an important bonding that God puts into humanity where the mother has an opportunity of holding that child close as that child is being nourished by the milk from the mother. You can't replace that with a bottle and formula. It doesn't matter how good the formula is. Doesn't matter how nice that nipple from that bottle soothes that child. You cannot replace what God has designed. So that part is good here that Jesus, this woman is talking of Jesus and about Mary's place as his mother. However, as Jesus will point out in this passage, Mary had an important place, but it was not the thing that was important to remember. The Bible tells us that Mary is the mother of Jesus. The Bible tells us that Mary was a special young woman. God recognized her character, and God chose her to be the mother of Jesus because of who she was. Mary grew up learning the fear of God. She was not a wicked woman. She was not a runaround. She was not someone that was flirting. She was not someone who was putting herself out there to be noticed by every man. Joseph wanted to put her away when he found out that she was with child and he had not married her yet. They were not a married couple. but Mary was with child. Joseph did not want to make a public example of her. He had respect for her. He knew her enough that he did not want to expose her to what had happened. He didn't understand what had happened, and the angel of God told him what had happened, and he accepted that. He took Mary to be his wife. He knew she was not a runaround. However, the Catholics have taken Mary, the mother of Jesus, and they have invented a different Mary. And they have made their Mary the mother of God. Now, the Mary of the Bible is not the mother of God. In John chapter one, if you go there in your Bibles, this is important to understand this. John chapter one and in verse one, it tells us, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. So the Bible is clear that God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not a created being. He was never born. He is eternal. God the Son is eternal. The one that was born was Jesus, the Son of Man. God the Son took upon himself flesh. He is unique in that. Every one of us here, we take upon ourselves flesh. but we were nothing before we were conceived in our mother's womb. Jesus Christ was God who became a man, subjected himself to being conceived in Mary's womb to take upon himself flesh, not in order to be able to become somebody. He already was, and he already is. And so for the Catholics to promote the lie that Mary is the mother of God is wickedness. And they get that from the Babylonian religion, which is the basis of Catholicism. And in the Babylonian religion, they have the Queen of Heaven. In the Old Testament, I believe it's in the book of Jeremiah, it talks about the Queen of Heaven. And that is an idol. It's not real. But the Catholics adopted that, and they have made Mary the mother of God. When we lived in Alberta, there was a park that we went to sometimes. And in that park, which was originally a trading post, and it was run by the Catholics, and they have a idol in that park of Mary, and she has a spear in her hand, and under her feet is supposedly the serpent, claiming that Mary is the one who defeated Satan. That is a lie. But that idol has been there for who knows how many years, and many people see that idol, and most probably believe what it's showing. but it's a lie. So it is important for those of us that are saved to help people to realize that Mary is not the mother of God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, had an important place, but that place did not make her anyone worthy of worship, not anyone that we should be having any special recognition for because she was simply an obedient young woman whom God could use for his purpose of bringing salvation to mankind. So it's very important that we help people to realize who Mary is. If you go to Israel, there's a church there that is owned by the Catholics. And on the top of that church, they have three images. They have an image of God the Father, they have an image of Jesus Christ, and they have an image of Mary. All three of them are on the top of that church building. They have Mary standing higher than God the Father and God the Son. depicting in their minds Mary, the mother of God. The Catholics have purchased over the years, claimed ownership of many places that the Bible speaks of in regard to where Jesus was. And the purpose of that is because when you go there to visit those places, you have to pay to go there. And so the Catholics are trying to make money off of something that should not be charged anything for. But that's why the Catholics are so rich, because it's all about money. And sadly, too many people are willing to embrace that false religion. It's an abomination to God. As I mentioned to a man recently, and he still thinks about it, No Catholic will be in heaven, and that's a fact. No Catholic will be in heaven. Anyone that is a Catholic and gets saved is no longer a Catholic. They renounce their false religion, and they're no longer a Catholic, and they will be in heaven, but not because they're Catholic, but because they got saved. That's why they'll be in heaven. So that's very important as well to understand that. And yes, that will offend Catholics. But it better to be offended now and to deal with it than to believe a lie and end up in the lake of fire. So again, it's important for those of us that are saved to stand upon biblical convictions so that we can help lost people to know the truth. We don't help lost people when we pamper them in their wrong thinking. So in our text here, this woman who was very bold and she was willing to speak up and willing to make her statement. But in verse 28, Jesus corrected her. what she said and help the people to understand what is really important. So the third point we have is hearing God's word. Hearing God's word. So in verse 28 it says, but he said, And we find that often in the New Testament that people said things, but Jesus corrected them in what they were saying and they were saying what they were thinking. He doesn't scold her, but he points out that her thinking is wrong. And so he says, yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. This woman, up to this point, had not been hearing the word of God. She had witnessed that Jesus was different than the Pharisees, obviously, because she's made that statement, but she's not hearing what he's saying. You see, every one of us here today, I don't think there's anybody here that's deaf. And so you can hear what I'm saying. The question is, are you hearing what I'm saying? Are we listening to what God is saying? You see, if I was to go up to each one of you after this morning's service and ask you, what was the title of today's message? Unless you made a note of it, most likely you won't be able to tell me what the title was, just the title. And then if I was to ask you what were the three main points of my message this morning, probably unless you made notes, you couldn't tell me those either. You see, we have to actually hear what is being said. And in order to do that, we have to remove from our mind everything that would hinder us from hearing it. That's why I often pray that we would remove the distractions that could interfere with us hearing what God has to say. When you read your Bible in the morning, and I hope that you're doing that, but when you read your Bible in the morning, you need to pray and ask God to remove the distractions that would hinder you from actually hearing what God is saying as you're reading his word. Because otherwise you're just going to read it and then you're going to close your Bible and you're going to go about your day and forget what you read. And because you don't remember it, it's not going to impact the way you think throughout the day. It's not going to have that benefit for you that God says his word is. The problem is not with God's word, the problem is what place do we give God's word in our hearts and lives? And so, as we read in 2 Timothy 4, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. It's work to hear what God has to say. It's work. It means that I have to actively put away from my thinking anything that would interfere with it. So I'm not thinking about dinner. I'm not concerned about whether the roast is burning. I'm not concerned about what my plans are for the afternoon. I'm not concerned about what I've got scheduled for the week ahead. My mind must be focused on what's going on in the word of God right now. So someone could come into this building and they could come in here and they could sit down and you should not notice that they've come in because you're focused on the word of God. You want to hear what God has to say to you right now. And that's why we try to make an environment here that allows that to happen. So here in our text, it says, but he said, yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God. But he qualifies what that hearing means by saying, and keep it. And keep it. Now over in the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, There's a blessing that God has for those who will read his word. Verse three, blessed in chapter one, verse three, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. So you see, it's important to read the word of God, it's important to hear the word of God, but it's important to keep the word of God. And that should be the purpose of our reading and hearing the word of God. Now, this time that you are spending here in this church, or if you're listening online, This time is more important for you than anything else that you will do today or in the weeks to come. The time that you spend in actually listening to a good preacher is more important than anything else that you will do in the week that's coming. That's not, I'm not saying that because I'm such a great preacher. It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the word of God. That's what's important. And that's what we need to focus in on. Now I've mentioned before, we're living in a time of great convenience because we have the internet. Years ago, I pastored a church and I wanted to reach beyond the walls of our church and beyond what I could do with speaking to people on the streets and so on. And so we had a radio broadcast. That radio broadcast cost us over $500 every month. 15 minutes on Sunday morning. Cost us over $500 to put that on. But that broadcast came on early Sunday morning, and it was being broadcast by the local radio station, which was at that time a country western rock station. But we got permission by paying to broadcast our service on there for 15 minutes Sunday mornings. That broadcast was being beamed into restaurants and into people's homes. but it was costing us over $500 a month to do that. Now, we can go on the internet, and as of this morning, we are going into 94 countries. And it's costing us a little bit of money, but not $500 a month. So we have a great opportunity of broadcasting, not just to a small area like we did with that radio broadcast, but we can go across the world, 94 countries, for a couple hundred dollars a year. And we are broadcasting into many places. So we have the advantage of the Internet. However, On that same internet where we are broadcasting, there are hundreds upon hundreds of heretics who are also broadcasting. And they are talking about the hundreds and thousands of people that are clicking on their sites. And they're always advertising and wanting more people to subscribe, join them, and so on. And these heretics are also having a great influence on the hearts and lives of many people. There are many people today who are extremely confused because they don't have discernment, and so they click on this site, they click on that site, and they click on another site, and the creators of those sites, they know how to use titles to get your attention. So they'll put a few keywords in their title to get you to click on their site. And then they will talk about the Bible. Oh, this has got to be good, the Bible. And then they won't even mention the name of Jesus. Oh, well, that's, again, this has got to be good. They mentioned Jesus. But because most of the people who click on those sites lack discernment, and they never bother to open their Bibles and see what the man is reading or the woman, and so they just take what the person says, and then they click on somewhere else, and they take that, and they might even listen to our broadcast, and they mix it all together. And when you do that, what do you come up with? Nothing. because you have not learned the importance of truth, and so your mixing lies with truth, and when you do that, Jesus says you've made the scriptures of none effect by your traditions. It's not that the word of God was not effective, but because the people were mixing it with their traditions, the end result was nothing. And that's the danger that many people are facing today because they're hearing the word of God, but they're not keeping it. Go in your Bibles to Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter 7 has a lot of things to say about the importance of truth. There's a lot of things in chapter 7 that will help anyone that is willing to listen and try to understand what is truth. Now all of the Bible is the truth. But God seems to have taken this one chapter and helped us to be able to go to just this one little place and we can learn so much about what truth is and how important it is to make sure that we're going the right way. So we have the narrow way and the broad way mentioned in chapter seven. We have the tree that's bearing fruit in chapter seven. We have false prophets. warnings about them. And then we have in verse 21, we have the many people back then and today who claim to believe in the Lord, and we have the charismatic crowd very clearly identified here, not mentioned by name. But it says there in verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? This is what the people were thinking about what they were doing. That's a description of the charismatic movement of our time. Fits them to the T. But notice what Jesus says about this group. in verse 23. And then when I profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now they, in verse 22, are saying that they've done many wonderful works in Jesus' name. And Jesus says, ye that work iniquity. So while they were claiming to do these things in his name, he didn't recognize that. And then, in verses 24 to 29, that's where we want to look at, you notice there, it says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them. See, that's the same thing he's telling us in chapter 11 of Luke, hearing and keeping. And then he says in Matthew 7, 24, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. So if we're going to build our house upon a rock, we're going to build our house upon Jesus Christ. He's the rock. The house is your life. Are you building your life on Jesus Christ? And then it says in verse 25, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Now, a week or so ago, there was massive flooding in Texas. A river overflowed its banks. There was a massive rainfall that caused the river level to rise suddenly. Campers were camped out all along that river. They were not prepared for that kind of a flood situation. And many people lost their lives as a result of that. They weren't prepared. Warnings were given. but the people were not prepared. In the news this weekend, it showed flooding in Calgary. Apparently they had a massive rainfall in Calgary and people driving on the streets and the water just flying as the cars are driving through it. Flooding. Floods can be destructive. That moving water has a lot of power. It can erode riverbanks. It can move things around. Water has a lot of power. And so if your life is not built upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and the storms of life come along, and they are gonna come, it says, and the rain descended. It doesn't say if the rain descended. It says the rain descended. and the floods came and the winds blew. So that's a fact of life that every one of us is going to face storms in life. Those storms can take many different approaches. It can be a sickness that you have yourself, It can be a family member that suddenly gets sick or dies. It can be financial problems. There's all kinds of storms that we can face in life that are going to hit us hard. When a flood comes, it hits hard. However, it tells us here that the person who hears God's word and does it can weather the storm. Why? Because he's built his life on the rock. He's built his life on Jesus Christ. He doesn't just know the name of Jesus. He actually knows Jesus. There's a difference. And that's the problem that we're facing today in our world with the easy access to the internet. There's a lot of people that are being exposed to a Jesus. But very few of those people know the true Jesus. That's why they keep going back to those useless sites. Because the person that has that site has figured out the hook that will get you coming back. And who's behind those sights? The devil. And he's got many different tactics that he uses to get the curious to go to where he wants them to go. To waste their time listening to things that have no value. He's good at it. The Bible tells us that. And those of us that are saved need to understand that. The lost, they're caught in that trap. They can't see it. But those of us that are saved, we should be able to see it. And so our responsibility is to help the lost to see you're in a trap. You're going the wrong way. And we need to help them to see the importance of turning to the truth. So Jesus goes on in verse 26, he says, everyone that hear these sayings of mine. So again, both groups are hearing. It's not the problem, they're not hearing. But it says in verse 26, and do with them not. There's the problem. Everybody's hearing. But this group is not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. What's the sand? Anything that's not God. That's the sand. So you like Joseph Print, you like Kenneth Copeland, you like some other nutcase that's out there on the internet, or that you attend their church, the Springs of Living Water in Winnipeg, or whatever that church is called, and many, many, many places that are nothing but sand. And they have a Jesus, and they have a Bible, but it's not the truth. So how do we know that? Well, it says, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it, what? Fell. It fell. And great was the fall of it. There's the difference. Storms will come, whether you're saved or lost, storms are gonna come. But you can't weather the storm if you're not built upon Jesus Christ. So what does the world need? Well, what's happening in all of these heretic religious places that call themselves churches, what's happening there? Most of them started out using hymns. What are they using today? You can't find a hymn book in there no matter how hard you look. They don't have any. It's all on the screen. Are they using hymns on the screen? I remember some years back, we attended a nephew's wedding. And my oldest brother was still alive then. And he wanted those family members that were going to be there to get up on the platform with him and sing a hymn. I don't remember the hymn now. Great is thy faithfulness, okay. He wanted us to join him up there and sing that hymn. So my wife and I, we agreed we would join him to sing that hymn. And we assumed we were just gonna sing a hymn. Well, as we're coming up on the platform, he's apologizing to the people for choosing a hymn to sing in front of them. Apologizing for singing a hymn? And so, well, OK, we let that slide, and we went up there, and we start singing. And of course, he has to right away try to change the tune of the hymn and the rhythm of the hymn to fit his charismatic thinking. Had I have known what his plan was, I would never have gone up there. Because he was trying to destroy something that was meant to be a help to people. It's not the word of God. But the hymns that we sing are supposed to be a help. We're supposed to be teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. But that's the problem with the modern churches in general. They don't have any hymns. They've got choruses, 7-11 choruses. Repeat the same words seven times or 11 times or more than that, just keep repeating it until you get the people in a frenzy and then the speaker can get up there and he can feed into that frenzied mind his lies. That's how they operate. But when the storms of life come along, They're not prepared. So they need that rock music to get them out of their slump, and then they need some alcohol, and so you have churches that will teach you how to make beer, or they'll give you some other drugs that you need to be on in order to try to get you through life, because life is just hard. And even if you know Jesus, there's no guarantee that you're gonna be able to get through those hard times. You're just bound by it. It's just the way it is. And it won't be until after you die that you get into that blissful imaginary heaven that they believe in. Now heaven, the heaven of the Bible, is a place where there are no tears. There's no pain. There's no night there. But it's real because the Jesus of the Bible is there. and only those who are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ will be there. Not the many who think they know Jesus, but are crippled in their sin, finding no help, and eventually say, what's the use? So God does not want us to go through life miserable. He wants us to be victorious. And so in verse 28 of Matthew chapter 7 it says, and it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine. So they heard what he's saying and they realized, it says in verse 29, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. You see, Jesus shows us there that any godly preacher doesn't get into the pulpit and apologize for preaching the word of God. And he doesn't concern himself, well, if I say this, even though it's in the text, but if I say this, I might offend somebody, so I better not say it. Because I want people to come back. I want people to give money to the church. I want to be famous. So I want people to like me. So I'm going to tell them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. That's worthless. There's no point in even bothering to attend a place like that. But a lot of people will go there because they like to have their ears tickled. But Jesus tells us back in our text in Luke chapter 11, And verse 28, he said, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. So the question that each one that's listening today needs to ask yourself is, do you want a blessing? Or do you want to be pampered? What do you want? I know what your flesh wants, because I'm just as human as you are. And I like to have people come and say, you did a good job. That was a great sermon. You know, I like that and you do too. But is that what you really want? Your soul doesn't want that. Your soul wants truth. Your soul wants something that it can hold on to. And that's the truth. And so Jesus here is offering a blessing. And that blessing is for those who will hear the word of God and keep it. So you have a choice. You can choose to hear what God is saying, you can keep what God is saying, or you can hear it and then quickly go out and find that thing that you want to distract you from actually thinking about what God wants you to know. It's your choice. Hearing and doing God's word. It's a choice every one of us needs to make. But if we want to know God's blessing, if we want to see the value of knowing the true God, and the value of a true church. It's only going to come if we hear and do what God says. So if you're listening today and you're not saved, you need to get saved. That's what the Bible says. You need to turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. That's where you need to start. Nothing else is going to help you. Until you deal with that, you're not gonna find any real help in your life. I'm not saying you shouldn't come to church, you should, but until you're willing to deal with your heart's need of salvation, you're not gonna get that blessing that God wants you to have. Not because it's not available, but because you're not willing to receive it. Starts with salvation. Then, once you're saved, now you have an interest, a genuine interest in the truth. And you need to cultivate that interest. So you need to choose that you're going to get up every morning and you're going to read your Bible. You're going to make that choice because you're saved now. And you want to know the God of the Bible better. You want to know how to function. in your new life as a Christian. You want to know how you can have the blessings that the Bible talks about, not imaginary so-called blessings, but real blessings. So you're gonna spend time in God's word every day. You're gonna be in church when the doors are open because you want to be with other Christians and you want to hear what God has to say. through his chosen messenger. And you're going to get involved in things that can help you to grow in your Christian life. You'll be able to look at that same internet and say, that site, that site that I used to listen to, that's junk. I'm not going back there. I don't need that. I don't want that. And you're going to get rid of them. And you can do that once you're saved. You can do that. Because they're of no value to you. They're not helping you. So it all begins with what's in your heart. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior today? If you don't, you can change that today. He's inviting you. He's talking to you through the Holy Spirit right now. It's not an audible voice, but He's talking to you. He's showing you that your life is empty. You're going the wrong way. He's showing you that. Are you listening? And the way to change that is to turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you and save you. And then start growing in Him. and he'll help you. It's not a wasted time to get saved. It's a blessing to be a child of God, to know his forgiveness and his peace. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word. We're thankful that we can know the truth and be forgiven and truly be saved. We can have thy peace in our hearts. I pray for each one that's listening today. Thou knowest the heart of each one. I pray for those that are not saved, that they would see that their fight is a waste of time, that they would rather humble themselves and turn to Thee in repentance and trust in Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation, that they could know Thy peace and have Thy blessing in their life. May Thy will be accomplished in each one that's listening, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.