I’m inviting you this morning to turn in your bibles. Guess where?

Back to James chapter 1. Remember the broken record from last week? We’re just gonna let that record keep playing. Alright? We’re gonna come back to this, and I wanna look at one particular element as we kinda round out, what I did not intend to be a series on the word of God.

If you have not enjoyed this, it’s Jim’s fault. Alright? This is all Jim’s fault. The other week when we were gathered at, up at Butterbean’s for our men’s morning breakfast on Tuesday, Jim asked the question, how do we hear the word? Yes.

We’re to be quick to hear, but how do we hear the word? What does that look like? And last week, I tried to help us as we began to identify if we’re gonna hear the word, we’ve got to identify the hindrances, things that block out us hearing the word. And last week in particular, we joined James chapter 1, with Matthew chapter 13 and the parable of the what? Sower.

Right? Not the soils. The sower. We looked at the extravagance of God to sow the word. Then we also looked at the ways in which we hear that word and how that word interacts with us.

We talked about the fact that there are times that the word is snatched away because of lack of understanding. We don’t understand what we’ve heard. We talked about being distracted listeners. There are times that the things of this world distract us from hearing what the word has to say. We looked at the idea that sometimes we’re selective hearers, aren’t we?

Like that, like that, don’t like that. There are times that we’re we like to take our little razor knife and cut out sections and say, yeah, it’s a little hard so we put it aside. It’s exactly what we looked at last week. But then there are times that the word of god falls on fertile soil and it bears fruit. That word becomes engrafted and all of a sudden it begins to produce something.

And the idea is that Jesus says there are times that it produces a 160 and 30 fold. And so this morning, we’re gonna come back to James chapter 1, and I wanna talk to us not so much about the hindrances. We’ve already dealt with that. We gotta work it with what we had last week. I wanna talk about developing ears to hear.

Once we begin to remove those hindrances, how do we develop ears that can hear the word? Gonna invite you to stand as we read our passage from James chapter 1. We’re gonna look specifically at just one verse, but I wanna read the entire text. James chapter 1, we’re gonna begin in verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity and naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueeth therein, he being not a forget fore hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

You may be seated. Before we be go any farther, I meant to mention earlier, welcome to each one of you and welcome to our guests. We have a number of guests with us this morning, and, we wanna say a special welcome. We do have a special guest among us. It’s so good to have brother and sister Eads with us today, Doug and Judy, our conference president and, and first lady.

And she reminded me this morning his only lady too. So just wanna clarify that, first and only lady. And, he agrees that one is enough. And I’m just gonna I want you guys to know because you would not know what just went through my mind, but I want you to know that I just showed some great restraint. You can ask me afterwards how I showed great restraint, but I’ll leave it there.

Alright? It is so good to have them with us, actually. I believe this is brother and sister Edes’ 2nd time to be in Easley and first time at this church. It was a number of years ago that they were here for a funeral back at the old church and, so good to have brother and sister Eads with us. He will be preaching this evening, sharing with us and, so looking forward to that, and I trust you will come back for that.

We’re looking at James chapter 1. I specifically wanna focus on verse 19. Verse 19. If you have your Bible still open, let’s look at it together. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear.

How can we be swift to hear and what does that mean? What does it mean to be swift to hear? As I was looking through this text and thinking about our time together and desiring for the lord’s leadership for what does it mean for us to hear, how do we develop ears to hear, I was struck by the context in which this verse falls. I hope you have your Bible still open because I want you to look at the broad text in which James says these words that we are to be swift to hear. I’ve preached on this verse.

I’ve taught from this verse for a number of years, but I don’t know that I’ve ever fully grasped the broad context in which this passage of scripture falls. So if you look at some important elements of this text, it’s talking about our hearing. Right? It’s talking about our speaking, but it also talks about our emotion that we’re not to be swift to get angry. So that means that we are called to be quick to hear well, let me just broaden that out even a little more.

All of that falls in the context of what? The word of god. So it’s talking about our hearing, talking about our speaking, talking about our emotion, anger, but all of that in the context of the word. That means that we’re called to be quick to hear the word of god. What does that mean to be quick to hear the word of god?

Well, maybe you think that means that the preacher should be short. I’m gonna call him out. Tyler, don’t nod your head and brother Scott hush. It’s not what it means. You know, I’ve thought of this over the years.

This is not in my notes, but this is a side note. You know, preachers have a really tough job because we get paid and for the most part, it’s people are saying, we wanna pay you to preach short. That’s really hard. Let me move on. Alright?

Does not mean that I’m to be short. Alright? Let me assure you that’s not its meaning. Let me share with you a thought that came to my mind as I was preparing for this morning. This context of hearing, speaking, emotions, our anger, and our doing of this word.

I think we run the danger to be quick to speak the word of god to others, initiating or inciting anger from them rather than contemplating the word through our listening. Maybe I could give us an example of that from the life of Jesus. Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7 in particular, Jesus says these words, judge not that ye not be judged. For with the judgment that you pronounce, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can we say to your or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. I think there’s an element of joining this passage of scripture together with the idea of James chapter 1 of our being quick to hear. How many of you would say that you find it easy, when you hear a passage of scripture preached or you read a text then it’s really easy to see how that applies to another brother or sister in Christ. Anybody with me?

Maybe I should change my text this morning to the 10 commandments because there’s a bunch of liars here this morning. You know, the natural man, when we read scripture, it’s easy for us to see how that fits in somebody else’s life and it’s easy for us to want to correct others. That’s why Jesus tells us this very truth in Matthew chapter 7. Because so many times we’re we are really quick to speak what we’ve heard rather than for us to be swift for us to hear ourselves. It’s easy to wanna take the pitchfork.

I talked about this last week, and we wanna pitchfork it on to somebody else rather than to take the spoon and take that word into our own life. But how do we do that? How do we develop a heart that hears the word of god? I wanna give us 5 things and kinda round it out maybe with a 6th thought this morning of how do we become hearers of the word, swift to hear. This is not a part of it, but I think one of the things that we need to address right up front that I notice about hearing is that hearing begins by the gracious moving of God.

God is a God who speaks. He is an initiator to communicate with us. Amen? Amen. That’s why we have the word of God is that he has initiated for us to have something to hear.

And so God is the initiator. God is a conversation initiator. He’s a starter. He’s the one that speaks to us. We need to understand that.

Hearing happens through communication and God has communicated to us. And the primary way that God has communicated to us is through his word. He speaks in many ways, but primarily, God communicates to us through his word. So our hearing the word is primarily gonna come through what? Somebody help me.

The word of god. Our hearing is gonna come as the word of god is communicated, whether that’s through preaching, whether that’s through listening to the Bible or that’s through reading a scripture. That’s how we primarily hear the word of god. So let me give you the first way. If we’re gonna develop ears to hear, let me give you the first way that we do that.

If God primarily speaks to us through his word, then the primary way in which we hear God’s voice is through reading and listening to the word. You say, pastor, that is really profound. I know. Let me just bring that down to us a little closer. That means that you and I have to regularly be in the word if we’re gonna hear the word.

Somebody say amen. Amen. Let me ask you this morning, how much time do you spend listening to the voice of god? If this is the primary way through which god speaks to us let me just pause here long enough to say this. The reason that we’re to be listening to the voice of God or reading the word of God is not for a checklist.

Amen? We’re reading the word of God because we wanna know his heart. If we wanna hear what he has to say, then we have to be in his word to allow his word to communicate with us. I remember as a young person developing a reading pattern, and there were days that I felt like I’m not getting all that I’m sure that god is trying to say to me. But I realized that as I would take that element of the word, and I might set it somewhere, I needed these other pieces.

We talked a little bit about this last week. I needed other pieces, other blocks to put down until I could take that piece and put it into its rightful spot. But do you know as you develop a regular pattern of reading God’s word, do you know what happens? All of a sudden, those texts sometimes that you look at and say, I’m not sure what that means, you’ll come back to it a year or 2 or 5 years later and all of a sudden you say, I get it. I understand what that word means.

I’m sorry, sound booth. I just realized I didn’t turn on my wireless. It’s on now. Alright? So one of the ways that we hear the word of god or we hear the voice of god is whenever we read the word.

Sadly, I find that there are times it’s far more easy Let me just say this from a personal standpoint. And if it hits where you’re at, you can say, amen. Alright? I find that it’s easier for me to spend time reading the news, or surfing Facebook, or reading a book, Or engaging in some other activity. I find it far easier to spend my time with that, rather than sitting with my face in this book.

Rather than saying, you know, what really matters, is what I hear from this book. So I would suggest to us this morning that if you want to hear the word of God, He goes on and he said, God speaks. The main reason because every single time God speaks, they’ll just discount what he said is their own idea. What he said is their own idea. And so I would suggest to us this morning, position yourself to hear the word, And you do that by being in the word.

Give you a second way in which we can hear the voice of God. Hearing is enhanced through intimacy with God. Hearing is enhanced through intimacy with God. Jesus, the son of God. Did what He went to the synagogue and he would read from the scrolls.

And then he would also do what? Get away and have time alone that he spent with his father. Time alone that he spent with his father. JEZUS developed into The closer that you get to the Lord, the clearer you can hear his voice. Let me just repeat that.

The closer that you get to the Lord, the clearer you can hear his voice. Let me just repeat that. The closer that you get to the clearer you hear his voice. You say, well, how do I do and listening to his word and doing what his word says. You know, whenever you behold the face of God, right, the idea of beholding, the face of.

God speaks to us even sometimes through non verbal ways. Yeah You know what I’m talking about? Without say in a word, just because they know us. You know there are times that just between spouse relations spousal relationships. You can know what the other is thinking based on the look on their face.

My wife tells me that I’m a terrible liar. Right, figured out how I can whatever I’m doing with my face, it gives it away. You wouldn’t know. Most of you would not know if I told you what I’ve tried. And it was intentionally just a but lie.

Fasting and prayer have become lost arts Law. But do you know one of the ways that God communicates I was so touched by the song that we sang right before we prayed together, for a purpose. -Silently we wait. And how many times do I listen for the voice of God in You know, there have been times that I’ve heard clearly the Lord speak in the Lord speak. And there, and we hadn’t been married very long.

We hadn’t been married very long. And then given an invitation to pastor a church and Al Dibout and didn’t feel a lot of clarity, but I remember saying to Tanya, you know, I think we could go and we can make a go of it in Ta Nehisatt. And I don’t think it’s a right. I don’t think it’s a right. I don’t think it’s a right.

I don’t think it’s a right. I don’t think it’s a right. I don’t think it’s a right. I right. I don’t think it’s a right thing.

And so it’s a right thing. And we turned that down. And then the opportunity arose, I was asked to be the youth pastor at Hope’s Inn. Christmas of, I believe it was 19 90 2,006. Gotta get my years straight.

2,006. I remember being in my parents basement, walking around my father’s pool table. We had some carpet underneath it and I was walking around praying. I remember so clearly But it was in a time of prayer. Stripper, if you go to acts chapter 13, discover the church and there’s within the church, there’s prophets and there’s teachers, and then it goes to naming some names.

There’s Barnabas and there’s Saul and there’s Simeon. In their time of fasting and prayer, the Lord says, set apart their fasting and prayer. To start within our circles. All the eastern, religions and the mystics, they’ve taken over the idea of meditation. You know, there’s great power in meditation.

David said that he would meditate on the word of the Lord day and night. Mediate is allowing the word to just soak in to our hearts, and it begins to break parts of our life and the blockages in our And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. And I know that.

And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. And I know that.

And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. And I know that. And I enjoy some of the weirdest.

And anybody, anybody enjoy, ear be cleaned out. You don’t understand. I see, I look at that and I think, oh, man, think of the relief that they’re getting from that. Think of the relief that they’re getting from the They couldn’t hear and now they can hear all I mean, that’s just And that’s just this, if you’ve ever experienced an impacted ear where the wax has gotten build up and harden, it deadens your ability to hear.

It blocks your ability to hear. Do you know what they’ll do? You’ll go in and they’ll put drops in your ear, and they’ll let that soak. Sometimes they’ll do it for days in advance. You’ll put drops in your ears to begin to soften that.

Do you know what? That’s what meditate what an analogy. Some of you will never never be able to forget the idea of meditation in that context. Alright. But the word of God, that’s what it does.

Mind. The ways that you hear the word is as you take time to just stop and meditate. You know, there are times that I’ll start reading, scripture, and something will stand out. And I just and that and meditate give you the final one that I want you to community. You may be saying, what do you mean by you hear the word of God in community?

I want you to think about what it meant for James to say, be a here of the word of God, and He’s not writing to us in 21st century specifically in this sense. He’s writing to an audience that doesn’t have a baby maybe some who are wealthy that may have been able to procure a script or, you know, a score. But by and large, where do they go to hear the word of God? Somebody or they’re going to go to a house where this letter is being read or where somebody has bought a scroll and they’re reading from the word. They’re doing it in community.

They’re doing it in community. They’re doing it in community. And they’re reading from the word. They’re doing it in community. And they’re doing it in community.

And they’re doing it in community. And they’re doing it in community assemble ourselves together and we hear the word together, it gives opportunity for us to be able to talk about that. Life? And what is that doing in your life? What does that mean to you?

Right? What does that mean to you? Right? And what does that mean to you? Right?

And what does that mean to you? Right? And what does that mean to you? Right? And what does that mean to you?

Right? And what does that mean to you? Right? And life? What does that mean to you?

Right? Whenever we hear the word of God, it’s not, well, I’ve got my interpretation, you’ve got your interpretation. No, the Lord intended it for a purpose. We’re not interpretation. You’ve got your interpretation.

No. The Lord intended it for a purpose. But there are times as we begin to talk about the word of God. One of the reasons why I believe what we’re going to start next week is of great importance, is because we’re what we’re going to start next week is of great importance is because as we hear the word of God in community, and then we begin to talk about how do we live this out? And then, oh dear, we’re going to go to be in methodous.

Back to our roots. How do we live that You know, one of the things I’m convinced, I’m convinced that if we were to go back to our roots, many of us wouldn’t like it. It’s true. To Wesley’s class meetings, when the word of God was talked about, and then it was there was application made and then it was not just and made, then there was a What are you doing? Uncomfortable.

Were you living this word out in your life and being held accountable to that word? I was struck. I was doing some reading and I came across some material. The written version of the oral teachings of the scribes and the form many groups and study Torah. You know what Torah is, right?

The early scriptures. Form many groups and study Torah. You know what Torah is, right? The early scriptures. Form many groups and study Torah.

You know what Torah is, right? The early scriptures. Right? The early scriptures. For many groups and study Torah, for Torah is only acquired through the study in a group.

Right that and I’m like, wow. And then I start looking throughout history. Community. Community. And I say, Lord, help us to be people who hear your word in community where we’re talking about the word of God together and we’re discussing about how it applies to our lives, and then we’re holding each other accountable.

Amen? To our we hearing the word and living it out. Let me give you the last one, just very quickly. This is the 6. This is the capstone.

I believe that the that probably the most overlooked truth about hearing the word is the fact that we have not truly heard the word until we respond in obedience. You know, I’m told that the Jewish fathers did not consider their children to have heard scriptures until their children did what the scripture said. For example, the Passover. Whenever they would have their Passover Seder, they would do this as a part of teaching their children the importance, but they didn’t consider their children to have learned it, to have truly hurt it until they did it. And I believe James ties that to us today.

Word. When we put all of these things into practice, we’re in the word. We’re listening to the word. Meditate in us. We’re listening for the voice of God through prayer and we’re hearing the word of God through community.

Truely become here whenever it’s more than just sound. And I say, Lord, make us true hearers of the word, Demonstrated through our actions. Amen? Lord Quicken your word, make it active in our lives. Help us to be hearer.

Help us to be hearers. So we can be doers. Let’s stand together as we close in prayer. COURTNEY: And reminded this morning of the song that says word of God speak. Your majesty?

Or teach us to be still and know that you are God. I pray that for us this morning as a. To put into practice the things that we’ve talked about this morning, so that we would be able to hear your word to us. That we would be quick to hear. Laura, help us to do more as we looked at a couple weeks ago.

Help us to be more than just hearers. Help us to be And I pray that you would help us, first of all, to be hearers, to know clearly what you’re saying to us, so that we can live it out. I ask it in Jesus name. Amen. But Lord bless you.

I’m inviting you to turn with me to the book of James for our scripture reading.

James chapter 1. This is a passage of scripture that we have looked at recently. In fact, if you are here on our Wednesday night services, then you will remember that we did a study in the book of James. And, we have looked at this passage recently, not ever been to New York City? How many of you have ever been to New York City?

Anybody ever been to New York City? Beautiful place, isn’t it? Just a beautiful place. You all have no sense of style. There is nothing like New York City.

The hustle, the bustle, the beeping of the horns, the yelling, the you know, all of that. I mean, it’s just it’s wonderful. The smells. Yeah. That’s style.

The smells that come on trash day, from the mounds of trash. It’s just it’s a place that you just have to experience. Yeah. But one of the things that you’ll encounter, in New York City is if you want a good deal on a Rolex watch, you’ll find it on about every other corner. It’s beautiful.

Ladies, you want a Louis Vuitton bag, disdain, right? Louis Vuitton bag is a fake Louis Vuitton bag. Good disguise, looks good on the outside, but in reality, and the danger is, is there are some that will deceive themselves into thinking that they caught a really good deal. Remember as a kid, I think I’ve shared this illustration on more than one occasion here. My brother and I were baseball card collectors.

Some of you maybe in the older segment of the congregation was a $1,000,000 card, even in my day. I knew that the Honus Wagner most expensive card. There was a 8 of them and they were that had been printed and they were down to 6. And if you could come across the Honus Wagner card, you had a $1,000,000 card. And lo and behold, my brother and I came across Kellogg’s box.

Ain’t that phenomenal? One of 6 right there in the Kellogg’s And so we went to our neighbor, boy, who was about our age, and we told him, we said, we have the Honus Wagner $1,000,000,000 the Honus Wagner $1,000,000. They only trade it to you if you give us all of your The one of only 6 in existence left in the world. It was a Kellogg. James chapter 1, James writes In James chapter 1, James writes these words to us.

I’m gonna invite you to stand. Why don’t you stand with me as we read this passage of scripture? I’m sure we’re there. We’ve given you enough time. James chapter 1.

We’re gonna begin reading in verse 19. James chapter 1 verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear and slow righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughty and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is, and grafted word, salvation of Make that connection before we move on. In grafted word, salvation of source, versus 20 2, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, your own selves.

Natural face in a glass, but those who look and look into the perfect law of liberty and continue there, he being not a forgetful but a doer of the work, this man shall be bluffed in his deed. You may be take this text that we’ve looked at and narrow it down into one verse that it seems like is the highlight of what James is trying to communicate. Congregation, particularly on Wednesday night, recently latter part of that, divining your own selves, and the word, and the Hearing the word, but failure to practice the word, This name may not mean anything to you, but Heinrich Schliemann back in 18/71 sought out to try to find the city of Troy. We know about the city of Troy, right? If you’ve done any sort of historical, or enjoy any kind of history, then you know about the story of Troy and how, Troy was destroyed.

Right? The Trojan horse presented at the gates. You know, the people of Troy, oh, look, they’ve given us a gift. What a bliss. And they’re leaving.

The Trojan horse into the city, cover of darkness come out, open the city gates. The fleeing enemy apparently turns around, comes in and burns the city of Troy. Heinrich, Schleckman did some excavating and found the city of Troy. Isn’t it a sad thing to be deceived into thinking that everything is okay only to have your city utterly destroyed. That same deception is dangerous when it comes to the Christian Extremely dangerous.

To become a hearer of the word and not a doer and be so deceived that you would destroy your own soul through it. Warren W bybals, but their eyeballs never mark them. That’s a Bibles, and yet, if we were to look at our hearts, and our that highlighted and underlined scripture has not marked us internally. And so look with me if you have your Bible still open, what he says. James and crafted or the implanted, and is able to save your right?

Not just the into your life. James is concerned with the idea that as Christians, you and I would simply read the word, hear the word, but not do the word. It would never take root in us And what’s the remedy of this superficial hearing of the word? On the top. It needs to be more than just a word that is heard.

It actually has to be inserted, implanted into When a tree branch I should ask a horticulturalist. We could ask Austin this. What happens when you sever a branch and just lay it down? In back and you slide that branch down inside of that and you pull it back together and you wrap it a and that branch will begin to take its nourish from all of the roots that send up the nutrition up that plant, and pretty soon that branch is not dead. What’s it do?

It’s barren fruit, isn’t it? Over the years, it’s been obvious that I’ve been losing my hair, right? I don’t buzz my head like this because I think it looks good. Alright? I got tired of looking like a chia pet with mange, and I just decided it’s time to get rid of it.

Alright? Over the years of the process of losing my hair, people have given me advice of what I could do. Mange and tail. That’ll help you. There’s Rogaine.

You can use Rogaine, right? Just put a little bit of Rogaine on there and it’ll grow You know what, the best way to really deal with here lose it. That’s right. Just shave it. Just get rid of it.

It. If you wanna deal with it, you can go out and you can get a toupee, but guess what? A toupee is not gonna grow, is it? But if you go in to a hair transplant clinic, they will take and they’ll harvest go in and they’ll put holes, it begins to actually take the source of life in your scalp again. And you’ll draw Do you want to know why I didn’t do that?

Because it’s about $2 a plug. And with the amount of hair loss I have, that’d be a really expensive transplant. James is concerned about that the word of God would not be something that is just superficial laying on the surface. Because in time, if it’s only on the surface, it dies. You remember, Jesus tells the parables of the soir.

Snatches it up and takes it away. It has to take root. It what’s the danger that James is speaking about in this. It’s easy to receive the to But that’s not good enough. Word.

We know the scriptures. We know all about we do everything that we’re supposed to do. We’re going through all of the motions. But the reality is, is the word has never really taken root in our heart to bear James Remar, to me, comes in verse 22 when he cautions us be several occasions recently how much the latter part of this particular text has just gripped me. Because I’m afraid too many times, word.

Aw, wonderful truth, good truth. Oh, I so enjoyed. Good truth. Oh, I so enjoyed. Changed.

But never it? What’s going to happen as a result of it? The dangers that were stirred but never changed. Being a doer of the word is not who is just a hearer as one who looks into this mirror, sees himself, and walks away and promptly forgets what manner of man. But the one who looks intently And the one who looks int word?

You ever had a kid who, loves bugs. I have some, some kids that don’t always like bugs. In fact, a great illustration of our family. We have one child that used to be if there was a creature and this happened back in Florida when they were younger. There was a turtle in our backyard.

And one of our boys just stood at the door and observed. That was one of our boys just stood at the door and observed. And a lot of our The patio about 12 feet away. That’s, that’s good. There’s another one that goes out on the patio and There’s another one that goes out on the patio in the Then we had one that went right out and just dropped down right in front of the turtle and started beating its back.

Word is that you come to it and you study you see a child that loves bugs, they get down, and I mean they’re mesmerized by it. They’ll pick it up. They’ll look at they’ll let it crawl all over their hand. They’ll Do you know the danger is that sometimes we want to observe the word from a distance. It, it looks so implanted in your life that it transforms you.

You do something. It’s a great observation. He said, if your spiritual life is built on merely, listen to the words of Jesus and not on a bane. And I just repeat that. And I just repeat that.

And I just repeat that. And I just repeat that. And I just repeat that. And I just repeat that. And I just repeat that.

And day, your life will eternally and ultimately end in distraught. And I’ll tell you one of the dangers we run, we want to word. You know, I read this morning. Man, isn’t this powerful? And then we want to get into conversation dialogue about it, and break it apart, and, you know, parse it, and do all of this.

And at some point, I want to say, what you’re going to do? A draw that’s great that you got great new insight, but how’s it going to change your life? And so, I think that you got great new insight, but how is it going to change your life? The danger James says is you deceive yourself. You think, wow, look at this great truth that I just came Oh, in this.

Oh, in this. And you walk away and you promptly forget what manner of man you are and you don’t do it. You deceive your self. And I tell us this morning, church, Satan is happy for you to read the. And, can to try to keep you from reading the word.

But if he can’t keep you from reading the word, you know what? The second best thing is, innate. And meal, putting the ingredients together, fixing it, making the mead and then saying, boy, isn’t that a nice they go just set it on the table and then it just And the danger is if all we ever do is hear the word and never do anything about it, we’ve deceived ourselves. Why did David Platt say that the danger is, is that we become hearers and not doers and we become destructive because God puts his law on our hearts. Jeremiah 31 tells us that God puts his law on our hearts and he puts his spirit in us, word.

About it, we’ve dangerous places that you and I can find ourselves. Word, but we’re not John Wesley was strong on 2 elements. In our case, the foreigner. Do you know it’s really easy for us to fall off onto the ditch on one side or the other. Oh, look at me and all of my piety.

I pray regularly. I fast regularly. Look at my holy character. And then, piety? We’re out there doing this and we’re, we’re feeding the, the hungry and we’re closing those that are innate.

What about your relationship with the Lord about your piety, your time alone with him, listening to his. We’re not hearers of the word we’re not doers of the word. Because it takes the relationship with God and the working maybe this will help us this morning. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7.

I’m gonna hurry. I’m looking at our time. I want to be sensitive to your time this morning. Matthew chapter 7. Jesus is coming to the end of his sermon on the mount.

And in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus verse 21 says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of JUSTICE, the will of the father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name, perform many. Then I will declare to them I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them.

And who hears these words of mine is, is welcome. He who hears We don’t have relationship with them. Why? Because we’re not acting on the word of God. Turn over just a little bit farther to Matthew chapter draw Jesus gives 3 parables.

The last one dealing with judgment. Him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All of the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate them from one another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. And the King will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. Stranger and you invited me naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink?

And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? The king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, even the least of the left, apart from me, a cursed one’s into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil in his And you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me.

Naked and you did not clothe me. And your did not Then they themselves also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or imprisoned and did not take care of one of the least these. You did not do it to me. Torn. Good truth.

And do and just take you back to Matthew chapter 7. Jesus is ending his sermon on the But if you go through the sermon on the mount, Jesus begins to talk about the things that are really important that we’re supposed to do. And so, you know, we’re not going to talk about the things that are really important that we’re supposed to do. And so, And he talks about and or anger is our anger is demonstrated.

So you’ve heard it of old not to murder. I say to you, if you are angry at your brother, you’ve committed murder in your own heart. And all of a sudden our anger arises, and goes through chapter 5, chapter 6, it teaches about and your It’s not good enough to be a hearer of the word. We must be doers. About our marriage relationship.

What about the vows that we make? What do we what about the way in which we respond when we’ve been robbed? Teaches about fasting, the way that we use our What am I saying to us this morning? God is calling us to not just be hearers of the word only, but doers of the word. It’s me this morning that so many Christians claim the name of Christ as their lord and yet in their lives, there is no evidence of the engrafted word bearing fruit.

Still filled with anger, still filled with lust, still filled with, still with, let it be and craft it into your and then you have to obey it here. But you’re not doing well with the Obey. Inviting us to stand as we close in prayer, I realize it’s late, and I’ve called attention to that on numerous occasions. But I also want to be faithful to the holy spirit.

The word of draw You and I cannot just be hearers of the word. And that doesn’t happen by us pulling ourselves up by our boots, but by to the Lord and saying, I need your help and your grace. I need your And to engraft that word into your life so that it can bear fruit. It wants to bow our heads, close our eyes. It’s to draw our heads, close our eyes.

It’s to Want us to bow our heads, close our eyes. And to give you an opportunity to respond to, to draw its worth. Doer? Sthieved your lie that you’re okay because you’re a good hearer of the for your and it’s not bearing fruit in your obeyed. Maybe this morning you want to just slip out and come up and the church that if you have a need, it’s all you’re always welcome to come to the holy spirit has spoken to.

I’m a here, but I’m a the holy spirit to help me. I want to change that. You just want to slip up your hand and say, Pastor, that’s me. I see that hand. I see that hand.

I see the authority of God’s word this morning. I want you to know God’s given us his spirit to and to aid us and help us to live that word, not just to the holy spirit for this truth this morning. I pray those that your spirit is speaking to, and then you’ve been faithful to open our eyes to the reality that when we hear the word, but we don’t do it, we’re deceiving our for not being a doer of your Help me through the power of your spirit to live out your word, not just and your word would bear fruit in our lives. It would cause us to live out the truths that we’ve looked at this morning. We would care for those that are all around us, the poor, the afflicted those that are in prison, but that it would also transform areas of our lives that we looked at in, in Matthews.

Yeah. Change how we respond to people in anger, change how we look with our eyes, the way we engage with our money and our spouse, or help us to be doers of the word and jesus. Amen. Lord bless you. You are dismissed.

And then, Lord bless you. You are dismissed.

Looking forward to the ministry of brother Eddie Roche. He was with us last year to share the ministry of Gideon’s International and has agreed to come back this year and, appreciate brother Roche. I’ve just had limited, opportunity to get to know him over the last year, year and a half, but have thoroughly appreciated, him as a person and know that he has a heart for the word of God and the spreading of the gospel.

And I’m inviting him to come and share with us this morning the ministry of Gideon’s International. Thank you so much for that great singing, and what a beautiful baby. Man, oh, man. I can remember, the time when my daughter was born. She’s now a sophomore at the University of South Carolina.

It’s hard for me to believe. She’s probably brokenhearted this morning, but that’s another story. But we’re here to talk about something more important today than any rivalry game that took place yesterday. We’re here to talk today about the word of God. So I wanna thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to come, and let’s open up in prayer this morning.

Lord, I just thank you so much for this pastor. Lord, I just pray that you’ll continue to be with pastor Jonathan and his wife, Lord, and just pray that you’ll bless them as they minister here. I thank you so much for this congregation, for this church, Lord, and for the lighthouse that it is in this community. Lord, most of all, I thank you for your word. Lord, I just pray that you will give me the words to say this morning.

And more than anything, Lord, I just pray that you will be the one that will be magnified and lifted up. For it’s your name I pray. Amen. So this morning, I have with me a pack of seeds, a pack of squash seeds, as a matter of fact. And you see it brings back fond memories for me of my father and my grandfather.

Both are deceased now, but they both love to have a garden. So they would get out every year, and I remember them tilling the ground, and you had to do it in rows. I would help them. And I remember just being a little boy and my grandfather saying you gotta do it in rows. And then they would come behind with these seeds and they would drop the seeds in the ground and they would patiently await for that seed to turn into a plant and eventually into a vegetable or into a fruit.

You see, in the parable of the sower, Jesus states in Luke chapter 8 verse 11. Parable is this. The seed is the word of God. And I can tell you this morning in the simplest terms, who are the Gideons? The Gideons are Christian business and professional men and their wives who were sowers of the word.

Our ministry is to go out and to place God’s word in as many places as we are allowed to do so that men, women, boys and girls can come to know the lord Jesus as savior. In first Peter chapter 1 verse 23, the bible says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You see, every year, my father and my grandfather went through the same process. Rose. They’d drop those seeds.

But at the end of the year, all that stuff would die And they would come back again and have to start the process over and over and over again every spring. But see, God’s word is eternal, everlasting, inerrant, infallible, and perfect, lifetime of this ministry. Scriptures, 53,000,000 seeds sown worldwide by the ministry of the Gideon’s International right here in Easley, our Easley camp since June 1st has distributed 12,622 copies of God’s word in this community. We were blessed by your church and by your pastor allowing us to distribute here at your fall festival. 505 copies of God’s word went out of this church because of the work of the Gideons that are members of this church and your pastor’s graciousness to let us partner with him in distributing the word of God.

Have distributed bibles here in Easley at numerous VBS’s Vacation Bible Schools throughout the course of the summer, upper state fair, and numerous fall festivals, including, yours. And today, this afternoon, your Gideons will be out busy as we will be distributing Bibles right here in the hotels in Easley, South Carolina to ensure that there’s a copy of God’s word in as many hotel rooms as they’ll let us in. So praise God, praise God for the seed. Praise God for what he’s allowing us to do. And he can do miraculous things that we cannot even imagine when we’re obedient and we sow the seeds.

You see, seeds were sowed by the Gideons in a Las Vegas hotel, and God did a work. There was a man named Bud Paterson. Bud Paterson was a successful businessman. When I tell you that he created the home shopping network, there’ll probably be some people in here that would be pretty happy and probably remember seeing on TV the home shopping network and may have even ordered something off of that channel. Bud Satzman was a very successful businessman.

He seemed to have everything in control on his life. And then one Christmas morning, his wife got up and she told him, bud, I’m leaving you today for another man. Car, and drove away. Can you imagine, on a day that’s supposed to be all about joy, having to go through what Bud went through? For the first time in his life, Bud did not feel in control.

For the first time in his life, he had tragedy strike his life. A few days later, Bud was traveling to Las Vegas, of all places, for New Year’s Day. As he sat in his hotel room on New Year’s Eve, morning, he got up, and he opened the drawer in his hotel room, and there was a Gideon Place bible. Very much like this bible that we’re gonna be putting out today in the hotels here in Easley, South Carolina. Bud picked up that bible, and he just started randomly turning to the word.

And God placed him in the scripture in the book of Job. And when he read through the book of Job, he saw how that Job was rescued bible. You see in the front of these He then turned to the front of that bible. You see in the front of these Gideon Bibles are sections that say, are you alone? If you are, here’s the verse to go to.

If you’re depressed, here’s the verse to go to. If you’re addicted, here’s the verse to go to. He began to go through those helps and he found the verses that he needed. Bud put his faith in Jesus Christ that day, and he got saved. You see, right in the city that’s called Sin City, he made a savior.

God saved his life, and Bud became a Christian. Bud wanted to carry that not only into his personal life, but he wanted to carry his Christian walk into his business. So he went in and he started what’s called what was at that time called Patch TV, which is a family centered network that brought spiritual based programming that a family could sit down together and watch and learn about God. You see, God took a seed and he multiplied it. He took a heart and he changed it.

And then he took that and changed it into a network that put out spiritual programming. Another place that the seeds have been sown by the Gideons is at colleges. This past September, we were at Clemson University distributing in the places that they would allow us to distribute. And we distributed with other accounts 2,761 testaments at Clemson University. Why is that important?

Because when you place a seed on a college campus, there may be somebody like Barney Barnett there, Bonnie Barnett, that needs that copy of God’s word. You see, she grew up in New York. She was a went has part of a typical family. They went to church every Sunday. But what Bonnie remembered from her childhood was that her pastor in that church never referenced the bible and never referenced the gospel.

Consequently, before she was a teenager, she went astray. She got involved in cult worship. She began to work with tarot cards. She began to do seances and she realized that the powers of darkness were real. Denmark for a year and to be in Denmark for a year.

And 5 years, she struggled with the meaning of life. She tried to find peace in substances, drugs, alcohol. It didn’t work. She tried multiple religions. She went to mass.

She went to Jewish bible studies. She attended Jehovah Witness Groups. She even studied Harry Krishna. At 21, she quit college, and she came home. So you can imagine there was a little stress in the family coming home from college, quitting college, and coming home and telling your parents that you’re done with college.

The stress in that home led to an argument between her and her father one day. And even though her father and her had always had a great relationship, her father literally picked her up and threw her against the window in an argument. The next morning, she got up and she packed all of the belongings that she had into the back of her Dodge car and she drove away. She had nowhere to stay. She was gonna go and live in her car, find a job that she could get and start to pay rent.

She was homeless and she was hopeless. Finally, she made enough money to get a place to rent, but she was working 3 jobs, and she was living alone. Life was miserable. She began drinking heavily, and she said that she in her own words, that she had a mess of a life. And then one cold January blizzard hit bottom.

And she looked up and life was ravaged. And she felt completely deserted by everyone. She really felt she had no reason to go on living, but she bade God to show her the truth. And she remembered that when she left home, she had packed a little green testament in her trunk. And she went and got that little green testament.

Let me tell you how great god is. That little green testament was given to her brother in college 6 years prior to this day. You see, God does so many things where when we sow the seed, he puts it where it needs to be. He puts it right where it needs to be. That bible was in her trunk.

She got it out. She went into that room all alone on a cold blizzard night and she sat by the window and she opened to the book of Matthew And she began to read. And when she began to read, she couldn’t put that bible down. She read through all of the gospels that night. And she realized that she was lost.

And she realized that God loved her even while she was a sinner. And she fell to her knees, and she gave her life to Jesus. She was set free from the power of darkness. No more burden. No power of satan.

Just the power of God. 5 years after that, she finished bible college. She married a pastor, became a pastor’s wife, and they led numerous people to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it didn’t end there. She loved evangelism, and she started a full time missionary work called discover the book, which is now a worldwide ministry.

Gideon sowed. God provided the increase. And he multiplied it and multiplied it and multiplied it over and over again. But you see, the Gideons also sow oversee overseas in places like Trinidad. The Gideons are sowing seeds in 200 countries, territories, and positions in over a 100 languages around the world.

In the country of Trinidad, Bola, Ramlogan, and many were born to Hindu families. They got married and they could remember in their family as part of the Hindu culture. They would go into a room and their parents and grandparents would have the pictures of all of the gods they worshipped pasted on the walls. Numerous, numerous gods that they were worshiping, part of the Hindu religion. And that they were worshiping, a part of the Hindu religion.

Bhola and his best friend, Ramazur, were alcoholics. Bola would drink and he would drink heavily and then he would beat many. And that was accepted in the Hindu culture. Even her brothers didn’t think that was a problem, that he would drink and then beat his wife. Rameshwar, his best friend, became very ill.

He had tuberculosis. He had spots on his lungs. He was suffering from all the abuse of alcohol from all the years that he had abused alcohol, and he was in a hospital and wasn’t expected to live. As he laid in that hospital bed, he looked out the hospital window and he could see a group of people in the hallway that were He had no idea what they were praying about, whether they were praying for him or someone else. But what he did see in their faces was the peace that they had.

And he looked through that window and he said, that’s something I want. Travel around other areas around that country in Trinidad. And then he even went to India and met his wife in India. But as he went to those places, he couldn’t get his best friend, Bola, back in Trinidad off of his mind. So he took a Gideon Place testament that he had been given and went back to Trinidad.

And he knew exactly where to find BOLA. He went to the local bar. To a death testiment And in the local bar, at the bar, sat Bola, drinking as he normally was. He took that testament, and he told his friend who couldn’t read very well, I want you to start with the book of John. And he helped him read some and then he left him with that testament.

And Bola continued to read the book of John about Jesus. And later, both Bola and his wife, Minnie, accepted Jesus. But it doesn’t end there. You see, Minnie was pregnant at the time that they accepted Jesus with their son, Peter. The extended family was so angry at them for turning to Christianity that they were even plotting to kill Ebola at one point.

Cebolla and Minnie and their 8 children moved to a new village there in Trinidad called Los Lamos. Began to talk about the word of the God. And over And they get began to talk about the word of the God. And over the years, every household on that road entering that vintage village were all hendos converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. They began to have bible studies in homes.

People would sit on the floors. They had all night prayer meetings. Someone gave up land. And they built a church that just had lob post and a roof on it, but it was somewhere that they could worship God. And then guess what?

God took that seed and he said, okay. Let’s not keep it here in this village. Let’s go to the next village. So they began to go to these other villages telling people about Jesus and Hindus all the way from Hindu priest to gunman gave their heart and life in those surrounding villages to Jesus Christ. But the story doesn’t end there.

You see, young Peter wanted to be a pastor. Young Peter wanted to come to the US. So young Peter came to the United States of America. And he got he wanted to go to bible college, but he didn’t have any money. So he prayed about it.

And someone during a bible study came up to him and said, I’m from Holmes Bible College. We have what’s called Scholarships of Faith where someone gives money to sponsor a student. We’d love for you to come to school here. So he went to Holmes Bible College and he became a pastor. And he’s a pastor at Grace Way Church, 2 minutes from your church.

From Trinidad, 2 minutes from your church. He’s here. I got the privilege of hearing him give this testimony first hand in our monthly meeting back in October. What a wonderful man. And not only that, but let me tell you how this comes full circle.

Pastor Ram Logan, Peter Ram Logan led a young man who, used alcohol. His name was Tyler Messer. He led him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Guess where Tyler Messer’s at now? He’s a Gideon.

He’s a Gideon, faithful in our camp, serving God, distributing scriptures. One testament, carried back, changed a village, changed another village, brought a man here to be a pastor 2 minutes from your church at Graceway Church, and he led a man to Jesus, who’s now distributing more copies, more seed, sowing more seed of God’s word. God is so amazing, so powerful. But see, we just owe that seed even in prison. There was a dark prison cell, and there was a man named Sammy Contreras there.

And Sammy Contreras was a very mean man. He was a as a teenager arrested for distributing drugs, and he even one time set a person on fire because he didn’t like him. The Gideons went into that jail cell into those jail that day and they gave out testaments. Scriptures and we’re gonna tear the pages out. Stack.

And they were gonna play cards. Is they’d shuffle the deck and you’d pick out a page. And you’ve if you had a match, if your page matched another page, and it comes from one of those bubbles, then you won the game. That sounds horrible. But let me tell you something.

In order to know if they had a match, guess what they had to do? They had to read it. Sammy Contreras got the page that said, John 316. And he looked at that. Sammy had never felt love in his life.

But when he read that verse, he realized that whosoever was Sammy. And Sammy got saved and he went from being a prisoner to being a pastor. Again, Gideon’s planted a seed and God multiplied it over and over and over. But Gideon’s also sowed seeds at a hospital. And that’s important because there was a young lady named Kari Pankonan in Minnesota.

Kari Pankonan was 13 years old. She was your normal junior high girl. She was very insecure, wanted to be light. She had perfect parents, and they had the perfect marriage. But something happened and the marriage began to fall apart.

The home became completely unbearable. The parents, the father, talked about committing suicide, was put in a hospital for a short time. He then came back and he ended up dating, of all people, a high school girl who was a friend of Kari’s and also went to church with Kari. Hated her parents. Couldn’t even go back there.

She began to do things that she shouldn’t do, drinking and partying and turning to alcohol and hanging out with boys that she knew she shouldn’t be hanging out with. And all she could see, she was so depressed that she began to fantasize about death. She even planned her funeral. She wrote poems about death and felt that her only choice was suicide. She had it all laid out to the hymns that would be sung, to who would be there, and what would happen in that service.

She thought in her mind, how could God allow this to happen to a good church going girl? She felt completely alone. She found some old razor blades in the house and she began to practice with small cuts on her wrist, planning for the big one that would end up causing her to bleed out and to take her life. She’d all often even said, look, In her mind, she had a diary and she would write these things down. And she planned to do this suicide on Good Friday.

She said, for dramatic measure and effect, I’m gonna do it on Good Friday. Well, one of her teachers and one of her friend’s parents had noticed the cuts on her wrist even though she always wore long sleeves. So they call it her mom. And when she was in the 8th grade, her mom and grandmother were waiting for her as she come off the school bus. They took her to a psychiatric unit.

She was placed in a room with bars, a locked door, and a locked hospital. She had no mirror in the room because they couldn’t put it there, afraid she’d break it and take the glass and kill herself. It was the most miserable time of her life. She was led to go to individual and group therapy and forced to go. And she found out, look, if I go to these therapies and to go.

And she found out, look, if I go to these therapies and I just tell them that I’m getting better and I tell them I’m feeling better and I’m not harming myself anymore, then they will give me some privileges maybe. So that’s what she started doing. She just lied. She told them she was good. She wasn’t gonna harm herself anymore.

So they started to ease up and they took her out of the lot room and they put her in a regular hospital room. And then she got the news that she was being released to go home. So the night before she was gonna go home, she sat alone in her room with the book that she had been writing all these things about her suicide that she was planning. And she took that book and was writing in it. And then she got tired and she closed it up and she set it down.

Suddenly, she took a break and she felt this overpowering, unexplainable urge to go to the nightstand drawer. And when she did, in that nightstand drawer, was this. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Thou forsaken me? Wow.

They’re so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring. She knew that someone else felt her pain. Someone else could understand what she was going through. She continued to read over to Psalms 27. The Lord is my light, my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of whom shall I be afraid? And then she got to verse 10. When my father and my mother for Satan, When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. And that first changed her life.

She, in her own words, she gave this testimony at the International Convention in July. In her own words, she said, you had no idea what that verse did for me. Said, God was the only one who could love me unconditionally, but also knew my pain. She didn’t have a relationship much with her parents, even after getting saved. But she married a Christian husband, and they were extremely faithful in their local church.

She and they were extremely faithful in their local church. She also had 2 sons and a daughter-in-law who loved the Lord and they were faithful in their church. She said, in her words, that bible in that room in my relationship with Jesus Christ was literally the difference between life and death. Let me tell you. The census from 2020, which is the most recent figures that we have, say there are a 131,400 people in Pickens County.

That same census says that barely 50% of them are Christian. That means around this church and in Pickens County, there are 65,000 lost people. The Gideons have to have a greater urgency than ever before to sow this seed. How can you help us? First thing is pray.

We always covet your prayers. Please pray for this ministry. Pray that God will open doors that are closed. There’s countries we can’t go into. There’s places in the United States of America that we can’t give out of bible.

Pray that God will open those doors. You can give. This morning, you’re gonna take up an offering. You know, we wouldn’t ask you to do anything that we don’t do. Last year, our Gideons gave over $16,000 of their own funds to buy scriptures.

This morning, you have the opportunity to give. If you’re not prepared to give this morning, you can take this little tear off, and you can give by credit card or mail it in to the Gideons. So we would ask you if you please could help us support this ministry so we could buy more Bibles. You can also give through the In Memory or in honor program where you donate Bibles that are given in memory or in honor of someone. And, Ashley, you can serve.

We are so blessed by this church. This church supports the Gideons so much. And hopefully, I don’t miss anybody. But we have Paul Churchill, Bobby and Susan Hunt, Wesley Wilson, David James, and Dan Melton that are all part of the Gideon Ministry from this church. Thank you so, so much.

Pastor, I’ll turn it over to you. Thank you so much, brother Roche, for sharing with us this morning. I always love to hear those stories, not because they’re dramatic, but because they’re real. Transformed lives all because of the word of God. And you and I get to be a part of that element this morning as we give, to Gideon’s International.

I’m gonna ask our ushers to take their places, to receive an offering. Let me encourage you to give generously this morning. I mentioned this last week, we have investment accounts. I would say that there are a number of you here this morning that have investment accounts, and you probably watch those investment accounts fairly regularly and, sometimes those investment accounts are pretty dismal, aren’t they? You watch the returns come back and think, oh my.

Not getting what I wanna get out of my investments. You know, this is one way that you can invest and you know that there’s gonna be a great return. You may not see it. You don’t have to, but we know that when we give for the ministry of the kingdom of God and especially the spreading of scriptures, his word will not return void. And so this morning, can I just encourage you to give generously to Gideon’s International?

Our ushers are coming forward. Thank you again, brother Eddie, for sharing with us today. I hope your heart has been stirred as mine has been stirred and that you will give generously today. Let’s bow our heads. Father, thank you for the accounts that were shared with us this morning of people’s lives that have been transformed, even some right here in our community, pastors right down the street that are a product of the spreading of the gospel through Gideon’s International.

1, I would pray, Lord, that you would bless their ministry, that you would strengthen the Gideons that are our local Gideons right here in Easley, those that are part of our church as they give out scriptures. I would ask this morning that you would give us hearts to be generous in our giving, that the ministry of the word would go forward all throughout easily in transforming lives, we pray. We ask it in Jesus’ name, amen. Thank you so much for giving. Thank you so much, brother Eddie, for being with us today.

If you pay attention to the preaching schedule around here, it’s rare that I will give up a Sunday morning. In fact, I talked to our conference president this last week, and he said, hey. He said, I wanna come by your church. I said, that’s fine, but I’d like to have Sunday morning. You can have Sunday night, but I want Sunday morning.

But I’m willing to give it up for ministries like this because it’s exactly goes back to what brother Parker is saying. It’s the gospel that transforms. And when we give to Gideon’s International and they’re able to go out through our giving to put scriptures into places and into hands of people. The gospel is going forward, and I believe in the ministry of what Gideon’s International is doing. And so thank you so much.

There are some of you that may have interest in becoming a Gideon. I would encourage you to talk to brother Eddie Roche and, he can connect you with how you can become a local Gideon here in Easley. And, I would encourage you to do that if you have interest in that way. I’m gonna invite you to stand this morning as we close in a word of prayer. The Lord bless you, as you go.