jeremiah chapter three and it's it's my task to teach four times this week on that bible and the authority of the bible and to start out we need to get a hold of this that we have to have an attitude towards the bible for it to work for us for us to understand this we live in a day and age in which folks seem to have used the bible of the week They'll honor a multitude of Bibles that teach dramatically different things, often not even aware that they teach different things. And it creates this very flexible, loose attitude toward the Bible. You can sort of go find one that fits whatever you want it to fit in a particular occasion. See, this is something that other religions have not had anywhere near the same attitude with. They pretty much have a standard Bible, whatever their religion is. what a young lady in our church, got saved out of Islam, and when she first came to our church, she came in late on purpose, and intended to leave early because she didn't want to meet anybody, the whole concept was scary to her. And all she knew was Islam, and she came in late on purpose, expecting not to meet anybody, and we do just the same thing you do, go around and greet everybody, and especially look for new people, and there she was, people all over. A couple of our young ladies, her age, went and got her to sit with them. And she had no idea what to make out of all that. But they encouraged her to talk to the pastor. She didn't want to at first. Waited about eight weeks, and then she sat down and talked with me, and she did what many folks will do in our setting there. Folks will come in and say, I'm a Buddhist, or I'm a Muslim, or I'm a Hindu, or whatever, and they want to get your reaction. And people ask me about it all the time, how I witness to those different groups. I witness to them all the same. And you'll always get that statement, folks are looking for your reaction. What are you gonna say? She said, I'm a Muslim. I said, really? That's interesting. I said, I gotta be honest with you, I don't know much about Islam, but I know one thing about every Muslim, or Buddhist, or Hindu, whoever I'm talking to. And they will inevitably ask me, Brother Bloom, now I just stop after, I know one thing about every Muslim. Well, what is it? Jesus Christ died for you. Because I have no interest in talking about Islam and I have no interest in talking about Hinduism, etc. I want to talk about the death of Jesus Christ and what it accomplished on Calvary. Well, she trusted Christ as her Savior. We gave her a Bible, but she saw some of the folks around with reference Bibles and all. She went to a Christian bookstore for the first time in her life. and just ask for a Bible. You know, one with a nice leather cover and all that kind of thing and the one we'd given her wasn't quite that nice and she bought a Bible and she came to church the next Sunday morning and I could see her troubled about all this. Because I'm reading scripture and she's looking at her Bible and it doesn't match. She looks at the girl sitting next to her Hers doesn't match hers. She looks at the girl sitting next to her. Hers doesn't match hers. She goes back to the Christian bookstore on Monday and tells them they've sold her a defective Bible. And she either wants her money back or one with the real words in it. Now this is the interesting part of the story. Christian bookstore, I later checked, they sell 25 different English Bibles. And when she asked for one with the real words in it, do you know what they gave her? A King James Bible. Just automatically, didn't check. She didn't know anything about Bible versions, wouldn't have known what version to say. But when she asked for one with the real words in it, they gave her a King James Bible. I will tell you the King James Bible has been such a standard that even those who are the enemies of the King James Bible recognize the unique place that it's had. We'll talk more about that in the course of the week. Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah is a prophet to Israel at a time when Israel is just in rebellion against God. And they're in rebellion, Jeremiah chapter 23, because the preachers, the prophets, the priests, have set the stage for rebellion against God. They've said it by their attitude towards biblical authority. Let's go along and we'll look at a number of verses which we'll make quick comments on. We've got to stop a couple places and spend a little more time. Verse 9, Jeremiah 23, 9. My heart within me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of His holiness. You ever seen a drunk man? How physically affected they are? Jeremiah was so physically affected, he was so devastated by this, and so torn up by this, that he said he was like a drunk man. It influenced the way he walked, the way he talked. And he said this was what had him so upset. He was listening to what the prophets were telling the people about God and what God wanted. And what upset him so much was he was comparing the message of the prophets to the words of holiness. By the way, every time you get to discussing the inspiration of the Bible in the scripture, it's always about words. It's never about ideas, concepts, or doctrines, it's about words. God gave specific words. And here, one of the many names for scripture, description to scripture, it's called the words of holiness. This book has the words that produce holiness in the heart of people. And he heard what the prophets were saying and he compared them to the words of God's holiness. And he knew they had a big problem. Verse 10, look at the result of being disconnected from biblical authority. For the land is full of adulterers, for because of swearing the land mourneth, the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, their course is evil and their force is not right. Aren't you glad nothing like that's happening to us? For both prophet and priest are profane. Yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Wherefore, their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven on and fall therein, for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. our church has been burdened to start a work in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago we're actually a pretty nice neighborhood of Chicago but Englewood neighborhood is the third highest crime district in the United States and the highest in Chicago and uh... we we go down there once a week we're going soul winning now the intent is to start a bible-believing church there and here's what amazed us about going to Englewood there are churches on absolutely every block There are churches everywhere. Chicago's got a lot of churches. But very few of them teach salvation by faith. And very few of them would say anything positive about the authority of scripture. There's churches everywhere. And the churches are the heart of the problem. But then I got to the worst neighborhood and found you could multiply the number of churches we had by five. They're everywhere. And anybody you talk to in that neighborhood is saved. In fact, they'll tell you they get saved every day. Sometimes several times a day. They've been taught that by the churches. They're everywhere. But they have no understanding of the truth of God. And the biggest obstacle is what the preachers have told them over and over and over again. Verse 13, I've seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied in Baal and caused my people Israel to err. I've seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem and horrible thing. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen also the hands of the evildoers that none doth return from his wickedness. Their very preachers themselves lived in ungodliness and they strengthened those. Instead of challenging those and convicting those, they strengthened those that lived in ungodliness. They gave them excuses for their wicked way. He goes on to say, "...they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and as the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah." Sodom and Gomorrah were the ultimate example of rejecting the authority of the Creator God. They not only rejected the authority of God's words, they rejected the very way that God designed their bodies and used their bodies in a fashion that they were never designed for and that you can never get a good result from. The ultimate rebellion against the Creator God. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets, Behold, I will feed them with wormwood and make them drink the water of Gaul, for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak a vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of the Lord. What happened was all over the land, after they got disconnected from the authority of the word of God, there were preachers there who preached things that came out of their own heart and proclaimed them to be the word of God, and they drew to them followers because they liked what they heard, not because it was anything that came from the words of God's holiness. And he said that preaching makes you vain. It makes the people that hear it worse than if they heard no preaching at all. They're worse off in their behavior, they're worse off in their understanding, they're worse off in their doctrine, they're worse off in their life than if they had never heard any preaching at all. That's a scary thing. I say to you, you do not have to go very far in any place in the United States, but what you can come across churches that once, church buildings where there was once the truth of God preached, that today just the opposite is preached. And men are encouraged to make gods of themselves and of their own ideas and their own wants. He makes them vain and causes them to live shallow, empty lives. We just been dealing with this in Chicago over the last little bit. We have our former unanimous ministry where we minister to folks who have addiction problems and so forth on Friday night. And one of the large local churches that once upon a time really stood for the things of God in Chicago proper. And I've known it was gone for a long time, but a lot of our people didn't know it. And they just came out and announced that they no longer had a policy against their staff smoking or drinking. They sort of had to do that because so many of their key leaders had been seen out in public drinking. They didn't have much choice but to change the policy. And one of our men, who in Reformers Unanimous, struggling to stay off alcohol, And he would actually go to that church on Sundays, but he'd be in our Reformers Unanimous program on Friday night. And he went to them saying, how can you do this? Do you know how hard it is for us to struggle to get away from this and the hold on our life and the challenge that's there? How can you put people in front of us to minister to us that would say to us by their lives, it's okay. He said, we need all the help we can get. We don't need you to help us think that drinking is okay. Say, we got that problem already. Bad preaching. Make a person vain, it'll make them worse off than they were before they heard the preaching. They speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of God. You see, when you're tied to biblical authority, you keep coming to grips with truths that might not be your favorite truth and that you wish it wasn't that way. I hope you won't think ill of me of this. Sometimes the Bible and I do not agree. Now, trust me, whenever you come across a place where we don't agree, it always turns out the Bible's right. But let me give you an example. This forgive everybody that wrongs you thing, if I was writing the Bible, I would not put that in there. At times, that's been real trouble to me. I was raised by Eastern Hills of Kentucky hillbillies. That was not a derogative term. They were proud of it. That's how they described themselves. And they were fussing, fighting, feuding people. Never forgive a wrong. I was raised with that thought process. Never forgive. Anybody that wrongs you, you get them worse. Never forgive. And I got saved. I was a bus kid. Ten years old, church bus started picking me up. And those dear folks would get me to church on Sunday night and Thursday night, which was their prayer meeting as well. And I got saved, and I grew into things of God, and I'd come across things that didn't fit with the way I had been raised or what I had been taught. This never forgive anybody thing? I became aware that didn't fit with what was in Scripture. And when I became aware that didn't fit with what was in Scripture, I wanted to find another version. It turns out that appears to be even in the worst versions. I'm kidding about the looking for another version part, but I had trouble with this. God had to work on my life and convict me about it and deal with me about it. And there were times I felt real conviction about it. And if it had been up to me, I would have rewritten that line, vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord. I'd have put the word ordinarily right after that and left an excuse there. turns out the bible is the bible it's the authority and i'm not so you know what i gotta do with that when i come to something i don't agree with something up i have to bow to god's authority and obey god be real honest with you i don't like the doctrine of hell if i was the creator and ruler of the universe hell wouldn't be in there but nobody should take much comfort with that you wanna know why I am not the creator and king of the universe. As a pastor, it's been my job to have people ask me and plead with me, please tell me my husband's not in hell. Please tell me my children aren't in hell. Please tell me my mother's not in hell. And talk about people that never trusted Christ. I could never tell them what they wanted to hear. My heart would go out to them. First church I pastored, I was in a small town. I was the only preacher that lived in that town. There were other churches, but none of the preachers lived there. They had one funeral home. So whenever anybody needed a funeral that didn't have a preacher, they would call me. And I preached funeral after funeral after funeral of people that I did not know. I always tried to be very gracious in how I did it, but I'd always give the gospel. You don't know how many times people would come up to me afterwards and say, tell me my seventeen-year-old son that died of a heroin overdose. I'm talking about a family that there's no indication they'd ever been around the gospel. Tell me my sev... a woman weeping on my shoulder, tell me my seventeen-year-old son didn't die and go to hell. And I couldn't help her. Some years back I was in London, Ontario preaching a meeting and one of the men in the church came and said there's a local talk show on, the host is an American. and uh... he's really rough on preachers said i could get you on there if you'd want to go on with him a couple hours and and and see if you have the opportunity to make some points to the audience and all that so i agreed to do it and i went over there turned out the guy was not only from indianapolis my hometown he went to the same grade school i did And we had some of the same teachers. We're sitting talking before the program, just having fun, hitting it off. And how about this teacher and that teacher and all that. And we got on the air and he was really nice to me. He was throwing me softballs. Just anybody could hit him out of the park and I was. That was the first hour. At the end of the first hour, I saw the station manager call him into the office. And I'm not stupid, I understand this. That's not how talk radio works. Everybody getting along and being friendly. So he comes out. I figured he was being told to be tough on me. He comes out and this is his first question in the second hour. Do you believe that the Jews that were mercilessly slaughtered by Hitler went to the same hell that Hitler went to? So how's that for a great opening line? I'm trying to explain to them the gospel is the gospel. People that trust Christ go to heaven. People that don't trust Christ go to hell. And I mean the callers opened up in anger and fury and they're calling in and accusing me of being pro-Nazi and anti-Semite. And one guy called in and said, you're the one that's going to be in hell. Another guy called in and said, you deserve to go to hell. I said, sir, you have no idea how true that is. Because I really do. But I mean, they just called and they were bombing me from every direction. And on a break he said, why do you put yourself through this? You had to know that was going to make all these people angry. I said, can I tell you a secret? He said, I don't even like the doctrine of hell. And he said, well, why do you do this? I said, it's real simple. It's not up to what I like and don't like. The only thing that matters is what God said. it's his universe and while I'm offended by sin I'm not that offended by sin that I would create a hell but it's not my universe I'm not in charge and the issue is not what do I want or what do I think the issue is what did God say So what kind of God would he be to turn us loose in this universe and not give us a guidebook or directions or instruction? And we can't go, you don't take a map, say this is how I'm gonna drive from Florida to Pennsylvania, and you say I don't like it, I don't like the road going this way, so I just don't believe it does. I'm just gonna go my way because that's how I feel. Feelings don't determine truth. Verse 17, they still say unto them that despise me, the Lord hath said, ye shall have peace. And they say that everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come upon you. You hear liberal preachers, it's amazing who they love and who they hate. They hate Bible believers. And the King James Bible drives them crazy for some reason. All the folks say, it doesn't matter what Bible you use. Go berserk if you use the King James Bible. And I've often wondered, and I've asked some of them, since you don't believe it matters what Bible you use, why are you so offended that I use the King James? Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word, who hath marked his word and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind, it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return till he hath executed and till he hath performed the thoughts of his heart. In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. but if they had stood in my counsel and caused my people to hear my words then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings you understand if in every pulpit where the bible used to be preached in america somebody was up preaching the truth of god this morning you could turn america from the wicked ways that america has got caught up in our problem and it began in the pulpits our problem is a lack of the preaching and teaching of the word of god We can't even count on the churches that claim to be biblical to teach basics of the Word of God. a young lady just started coming to our church. She had gone to Costa Rica in one of the student worker programs there, Peace Corps, something similar to that. She got saved in a church in Costa Rica, a Baptist church. So she came back looking for a Baptist church and there happened to be a liberal Baptist church close to where she lived in Chicago. So she started going there. She had not been there very many weeks when the Supreme Court made all its foolish stuff about gay marriage and all that. And that church that she was attending had a celebration. And she just couldn't understand what was going on. She came over to our church couple services and I visited with her. She said, how could a church that claims to believe the Bible is true not respect what it says? That's a really good question. Nothing but the Bible and the influence of the Bible could turn around what's going on in this country. Am I a God at hand, verse 23, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? I mean, it's been announced that God cannot be mentioned in the public square, but it happens to be his public square that he's not supposed to be mentioned in. He's still in charge. And America's waiting for some people brave enough to stand up and say, that is not something you're entitled to tell me. Verse 25, I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart. That's their source of authority. The deceit of their own heart. Whatever they tell themselves they want to believe, they claim to find in the Bible. And that's what they run with. and their source of authority is their own heart. I had a friend who they sold their church building Jehovah's Witnesses and they're moving into a new building and they had an arrangement in the real estate contract that the Jehovah's Witnesses could come in and measure and look at things and so forth anytime except during Wednesday night and Sunday morning and Sunday night as they were getting ready to move in. Immediately they show up on the first Wednesday night and are disruptive to the service. They're passing out Jehovah's Witness literature and stuff. So the pastor talked to the head of their kingdom hall. The head of the kingdom hall said, you know, there must be some mistake. And he said, no, the problem is you interpret real estate contracts exactly the way you interpret the Bible. He said, you read it and make it say whatever you want it to say. That is the problem we have with false teaching all over the place. which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, verse 27, which they tell every man to his neighbor as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. There's nothing wrong with America that would not be cured by six months of old-fashioned Bible preaching, the kind this country was built on. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? It's not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, like a hammer that breaketh the rock in places. Now, I want you to very much watch this next verse, verse 30. Therefore, behold, I'm against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words, every one from his neighbor. Do you understand what these false prophets would do? They wanted to steal the words of God from people. Literally. They would take them away so that you would not be influenced by them. That was their tactic. You see, Satan understands the power of the Word of God. He understands the influence of the Word of God. He hates churches like this. He hates Christian schools like this. He understands the impact they can have on the lives of people. And so one of the tactics is to whisper in people's ear, you don't want to go to church. You're too tired. It's too long. It's too difficult. It's too far away. You don't want to go to church. That's a tactic. Uses governments around the world to physically shut churches down. That's a tactic. But one of the tactics is simply to get preachers who don't want to be bound by the authority of the Word of God to literally steal the words of God away from people. Did you know that in most of the modern English Bibles there are between 60 and 65,000 fewer words than in your King James Bible? Folks have come along and said, you know, that verse doesn't belong, and that phrase doesn't belong, and that word doesn't belong, and that needs to be out of there. We're living in a day in which our country is overrun with Bibles where the words of God have been stolen from people. Could I give you an example real quick? Would you go with me to Romans chapter one? We're gonna come back to this. Romans chapter one. Let me read Romans chapter one verse 16 to you the way it is in most of the Bibles that folks have around. You see if you can discover the difference. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." What was out the way I read it? Gospel of Christ. Man, doesn't that make all the difference in the world? And there are so many such places in the average modern English Bible that there are between 60 and 65,000 fewer words. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a huge number to me. and the absence of one of the words of God's holiness that God had given is of tremendous importance. So how did we get to a place where there's so many gone? People weren't paying attention to what the prophets of our day, the seminary professors, were doing. Occasionally they add words. Can I give you just a quick example of that? Would you turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2? We'll deal with more of these things as the week goes on, but just to give you an idea, 1 Peter chapter 2. In this case, modern English Bibles usually have two words added. So I'll read it with the extra two words. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation. Do you understand how those two words change that verse? This verse, as you read it in your King James Bible, is a verse about growing as Christians. We need the Word of God to grow as Christians. But when you read it in most modern English Bibles and add the words unto salvation, it's a verse about growing so that you can be saved. It's a verse about salvation by works. It's an idea like those dear folks we witness to every week in Englewood say, oh yeah, I get saved every day. Sometimes several times a day. That's what they're being taught in all the churches in that community. And that message isn't having the power to change anybody. Quickly back to Jeremiah chapter 23. We need to be concerned about folks stealing the words of God. It's serious business. It's how people miss the authority of God. Many people in the pew miss the authority of God because they have God's words that they never even knew were there. Verse 31, behold, I'm against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, he saith. Behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all. Drop down with me, if you would, to verse 36. And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more, for every man's word shall be his burden, for ye have perverted the words of the living God of the Lord of hosts, our God." There are folks whose tactic has been to change the words of God and to pervert them so that they no longer say what they used to say. We have to start with an attitude toward the authority of God. What amazes me, how many people say, it doesn't matter. 64,000 words, like the difference between the New International Version and the King James, doesn't matter. Words cut out don't matter. Words added don't matter. Words perverted don't matter. We have to have this starting place. That we want to know what God said. And that what God said will be authoritative to us. We want to know what God said because that's the only way we know how to order our homes. We want to know what God said because that's the only way we know how to operate a local church and know what God's plan is. We want to know what God said because that is where our moral standards come from. We want to know what God said because how else do we recognize truth and error? See, these folks didn't want to know what God said. There were false preachers there to give them what they wanted to hear, and that got them in the mess they were in. We have to start with this, that we believe God gave us his word. And exactly what God said is exactly what we're supposed to have. And that it is binding on us So when you get to that part, ladies, about following the spiritual leadership of your husband, and there's something that nags at you that says, I don't want him telling me what to do. You don't know what kind of idiot he is. Yes, I do, I'm male, I know what we're like. Or husband, when the word of God teaches you that your wife is more important than you are in terms of your provision and that your life ought to be built around meeting her needs instead of thinking she's the servant God gave you to meet your needs all the time that's binding because it's from the Word of God a business about following the leadership of your pastor in the affairs of the church He's not a pastor in the world that hasn't at some moment or another made a mistake that people in the church caught, but he's still the pastor. That doesn't give him any liberty to lead anybody wrong doctrinally, but he has a role to play in the church. The authority of the Word of God. You say, well, I have a loophole to God's moral code. No, you don't. the authority of the Word of God. But my situation is different. The authority of the Word of God. But that doctrine causes a lot of people to criticize you in this day and age. The authority of the Word of God. And we have to start out with an attitude to authority. God gave words of holiness. And it's our job to know them and to follow them. And if we start there, we've got something to build on. If we don't start there, it doesn't matter. Let me say, there is a plan of salvation described in the word of God. I'm so glad that as a 10-year-old bus kid in junior church, I heard them explaining this about salvation. It took me a few weeks to get it. I didn't just grasp it right away. It was nothing like anything I'd ever heard. I'd never been in church before. My father didn't attend a church service for the first time until he was 58. And he had no vision for me ever going to church. But somebody knocked on our door trying to build a bus route. They've been taught to look for signs of kids. And by the grace of God, I forgot to put my bike up like I was supposed to. I've often wondered what my life would be like if my bike had been in the shed where it was supposed to be. And they invited me to church, and I jumped on going before I talked to anybody. And there I heard what the Bible said about salvation. Didn't matter what anybody else thought about it. Didn't matter what anybody else said about it. I heard what the Bible said about salvation. Took me a few weeks to grasp it, but I finally did. I was a little hesitant. I wasn't happy with that part about acknowledging you're a sinner. Because I was afraid mom and dad would find out that I was admitting I was a sinner. And I didn't think they knew. Turned out I found out later they suspected already. But believe it or not, as a ten-year-old boy, that really weighed on my mind. But God said, and I trusted the plan of salvation that God gave us. just last week during our Sunday school at church I met with the daughter of a new family in our church and mother and father and one daughter have gotten saved studying the Bible and they're in church and doing great but the other daughter hasn't bought all this yet. So I was answering her questions and explaining to her about salvation and going through and she's still having trouble with the Bible being a word of God but I showed her some things and I like this. She looked at it and said well one thing's for sure that's what this book says She's got to accept the authority of it, but it's clear to her it's what it says when you get into it, what is there. And the plan of salvation got a hold of me when I was 10 years old and I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. And I understood this, that the Bible was my authority. I didn't tell you I always lived up to that, but I understood this. The Bible was my authority. and that is the attitude and heart we so desperately need in our independent baptist churches we so desperately need in our christian homes that we so desperately need to communicate in our christian schools this attitude towards the authority of the word of god i do not want to know what came out of the deceit of somebody's heart i do not want the words of god stolen from me i do not want the words of god perverted i do not want words added to the word of god i want to know what god said and I want the authority of the Word of God to be the standard of my life. We live in a culture where everybody says, how can you tell? How can you know what's right and wrong? You think you're God or something? Even in that, they acknowledge that God is the one who tells us what's right and wrong, and He has. And we've loosed this country from the moorings upon which it was founded, and we're reaping the whirlwind. I mean, just when I started preaching 39 years ago, started when I was three, you understand, but 39 years ago I started preaching, Christians were the mainstream of our society. And there were always homosexuals and ungodly people and those who wanted to sacrifice their little children, so always in our society, but they were the fringe. And we were the mainstream. What's happened in the last 40 years? They have become the mainstream and we have become the fringe. We have to turn back in the beginning in our own hearts, in our churches, in our families, in our Christian schools, we have to turn back to the authority of the Word of God and an attitude towards that authority that it is God that tells us and not us that tell God. Could we have heads bowed and eyes closed, please? Dear Heavenly Father, meet with us as the pastor comes and takes the invitation. I pray you'd stir and challenge hearts that we'd see work done in your people. Help us now in Jesus' name. Amen.