Episode 08 - Meditate Therein

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:07] Good afternoon. My name is Pastor Peter Yanada. I am co founder of Eyes to See Ministries International. [00:00:16] We are what I would call an apostolic training ministry. We train people all over the world, pastors and other leaders. We do leadership training as well as training on any discipleship that people have a need, whatever they're lacking in. [00:00:37] We are being recorded here at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. I would highly recommend that you look them up on the website because this is a community organization that links the community together and as of this year their community has grown outside of South Central Pennsylvania and it is, it's becoming international as well. So last week we spoke on Bible prophecy and I, I have a bad habit of doing this. [00:01:24] I get inspired while I'm sitting here and I open my mouth and say what I'm going to begin next week. And then by the middle of the week I. I hear the Lord tell me you're on track. But there's one more message you need to give before you get into the Book of Revelation. [00:01:49] So I am going to speak and today the message title today is called Meditate. Therein we're going to talk about meditating on the word of God. [00:02:01] I'm going to open in prayer and then I'll. I'll get into this message. Father, I just thank you that we can. [00:02:08] That we have a book that's truth that all. [00:02:13] All things that pertain to life and godliness are found therein. [00:02:18] That you've given us promises, many of them conditional. We're going to talk about that this evening. I feel inspired to make sure the church knows that sometimes things don't happen because people don't fulfill our part of a covenantal agreement we have with Almighty God. [00:02:42] But I thank you today for the opportunity to speak. [00:02:47] We never take this lightly, for we are called to represent you when we speak about you. [00:02:54] And I thank you that your word says you promise says that if I speak the words of God, they will not return empty. They will accomplish what you send them forth to accomplish for your good will. And as I'm going to quote scriptures today, they won't be my words, they'll be your audible words. And they will accomplish whatever you have purposed for them to accomplish today. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:25] So if you have your Bible, open it up to the book of Psalms. I went through this psalm last week. It's six verses. [00:03:34] But I want to focus on last week. We were talking about there's only two people groups in God's eyes in the whole world we have different races, different creeds, different ethnic groups, but there's only two people groups according to Almighty God who created us, and that is the righteous or the godly and the wicked or the ungodly. Now the only way that you can be righteous in God's eyes is you have to be a believer and a disciple in Jesus Christ. [00:04:15] There's a lot of good people. [00:04:17] And I'm sorry to say this, but the majority of the world either does not believe Jesus Christ is who he says he is. They don't believe at all in, in the person. I'm going to repeat that, in the person of Jesus Christ. [00:04:36] And then there's many religions that believe in a different Jesus. [00:04:42] They, they say the name even in Islam. I have a very good friend of mine who's a Muslim and he believes that Jesus is a prophet. [00:04:53] He believes in the Antichrist. [00:04:56] He believes that Jesus will come back one day and kill the Antichrist. [00:05:02] But he doesn't believe Jesus is the Son of God. And if you remember when Jesus got done speaking the set of scriptures that he spoke on, when he said he was the bread of life, that we were to eat his flesh and drink his blood, that was when most of the people following him left and he turned around and told his original disciples, what about you? [00:05:32] And Peter said, where else would we go? You're the one that has the words of life. [00:05:38] So we are going to look at Psalm 1. [00:05:41] There are some important things that you need to learn here moving forward. Remember, we're getting into the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation. And by the way, when I left last week, my wife reminded me that twice when I said Revelation, I said Revelations, the plural. [00:06:03] So she, she, she as a good wife, tested my ability to be humble and receive correction. When we left, she also reminded me that when I spoke about Jesus ascending, I mentioned that that happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was not then. It was when Jesus raised up into the clouds in the Book of Acts when Peter was first speaking to him and said, lord, is it at this time that you'll restore the kingdom? [00:06:42] They still didn't understand what the kingdom of God was. [00:06:47] And Christ speaks to them. He rises up slowly into the clouds. And as they're staring up there, the angel says, you know this. Jesus will come back the same way that he came. [00:07:01] That scripture ties into first Thessalonians. When we looked at the biblical, I'll say the biblical justification for a pre tribulation rapture today because people have been inspired with a sense of burden, and I have a burden to speak on Bible prophecy. Where are we at and where we headed to? There is no other Bible prophecy to be fulfilled before the Rapture, the catching up of the church, and that will be imminent. We spoke about this several weeks ago when we looked at a Galilean wedding. [00:07:47] So it is important right now that the church is prepared. This is the betrothal period and we need to be speaking on preparation for this day. [00:08:01] Unfortunately, when we looked at the parable of the 10 virgins, we saw that five of them had oil in their lamps, which clearly shows us that they were somewhat prepared, but they weren't completely ready and they got locked out. The end of that parable, the door was closed and locked, just like when God shut the door on Noah's Ark. [00:08:30] So it is important that we look towards spiritual things these days. [00:08:37] My calling right now is to not only speak on Bible prophecy, but to warn the church to speak on not just the blessings of God. But I have been in church services where I've heard somebody give the salvation message and it was good. [00:08:57] They looked out over the attendees and mentioned repentance, but they never gave an explanation of what that meant. So the people sitting there were not responding to a message. They didn't have an understanding yet of repentance. And the reason I say that is because as I studied repentance six months ago, I looked at surveys and the majority of people that are in pews were seats in the professing Christian church, cannot define repentance, nor could they even give an explanation of what that is. And salvation is dependent on repentance. [00:09:43] Sin was never mentioned. [00:09:46] And at the very end, right when I felt the spirit of God moving on people, somebody used a phrase that I really don't like when they use it today because it's splitting the church in half. And they said, oh, by the way, this doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation now. I don't know, other than by fruits. By their fruit, you'll know them who might be saved and who isn't. [00:10:19] So if you have new people coming into the church, how can you make that statement? [00:10:25] And no one responded. [00:10:27] People probably thought they were, you know, I'm a good person, I'm okay. So there was not an understanding given. [00:10:36] The more that you speak the truth behind the pulpit, you know, we have a saying when you go to court to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, unfortunately, today you will have more doors closed and Churches will not invite you to come back and speak. [00:10:55] And there are churches like that in our own county that are that way. [00:11:01] So we have the righteous and the unrighteous. But today I want to concentrate on meditate on the word of God and why you need to do that. [00:11:14] Because as we progress closer and closer, if you turn, if you don't know how to pray or what to pray to, just turn the news on for five minutes in the evening and you'll have more prayer points than you could imagine. [00:11:34] We need discernment. [00:11:37] If I see two different news shows and one speaks the total opposite of the other, how am I going to know if I don't have discernment, who's telling the truth? And unfortunately, most people are going to follow and look up how many people are watching that podcast or that news show. [00:12:02] Now, I believe this was something that was put in me by God's grace. Even as a little boy, I never ever read a review of a movie. If I saw a commercial for one, if I wanted to go see it, I was going to go see it and determine on my own whether I liked it or not. And people do that. I have friends of mine that take hours to look at testimonies on restaurants who liked it, who didn't. And they're stuck. They don't know where to go. [00:12:45] So let's take a look at Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners. Remember, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, and he's the counsel of God, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. These are your scoffers, the people that are speaking out negatively against the word of God. [00:13:15] We're going to see more and more of that as the persecution comes against the church. [00:13:21] We are in a time right now in, not only in America, but in the world where the church, the current talking point, the current dividing point in the church right now is over Israel. [00:13:40] And Israel should be what we're looking at because they Israel is where God's final promises are going to come about. And if you're not paying attention to what's happening in Israel or in our own country, if America turns its back on Israel, then we will position ourselves as a nation to not be blessed by God. [00:14:12] Any nation would do that. And I, I've heard more, I'll just say more ludicrous explanations about scriptures that say, you know, you're blessed if you bless Israel and you're cursed if you don't. I've heard so many explanations of what people think. Look at the Bible. [00:14:35] This book tells you what that means. And that's why we're talking about meditating on God's word tonight. [00:14:46] We should pray before we open the Bible and ask God for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of his person. [00:14:58] Because that's what we were created to be, conformed into the image of God. And we see that in Jesus Christ. That's why the people that don't believe in Christ as the Son of God are going. They're under God's wrath. Remember we talked about that? We were not appointed to wrath. There's several scriptures we looked at that said that there's many, many more. [00:15:27] They're under God's wrath. So I have family that are unsaved right now, and I have to trust God and I pray for the saving of their souls that he reveals himself to them just like he did to me, because they're under God's wrath Now I can pray for my children. [00:15:50] We don't know for sure if Noah's family was saved, but they got on that ark and for all indication, they were there because of Noah, was seen righteous in God's eyes. [00:16:04] Can pray protection over your family. [00:16:07] You can pray for their souls. [00:16:11] And you're going to have to trust God. And you're not going to trust. [00:16:15] You're not going to trust anything unless you know what it is and who it is that you're speaking to in prayer. [00:16:26] So verse 2 says, but this is the righteous person, the blessed person. [00:16:35] And by the way, that word blessed in the Hebrew language means happy. [00:16:41] Be happy with an exclamation point. It doesn't mean that God's going to hand you a pot of gold. [00:16:48] You're blessed. [00:16:51] Happy is the man that walks in the counsel of God and not in the way of sinners and doesn't sit with the scornful people. That person is a happy person. When we get to John 15, 1:11, you'll see a model, a template. [00:17:16] If you don't know what joy is and you haven't experienced joy in a while, you're going to see why. When I go through those scriptures, it's clearly in that word of God. Jesus is going to say in verse 11, talk about that. [00:17:35] So this person, this righteous person, his delight. [00:17:40] Delight is in the law of the Lord. [00:17:43] And in his law does he meditate day and night. [00:17:49] Wow. Are you trying to tell me that I need to concentrate on God's instructions? Because that's what that word law means. It's God's instructions, God's ways that I should be thinking about that, pondering that day and night. [00:18:04] No, I'm not telling you to do that. God is. This is a command. [00:18:10] You want to know why your life is being ravaged and your family just seems like all hell comes against it every week? [00:18:22] There's your reason. Are you doing this? [00:18:25] Do you trust God? [00:18:28] You know, when we wake up in the morning, the first thing that we should be doing is say, good morning, Father. Good morning, Jesus. Good morning, Holy Spirit. [00:18:38] If they are real to you and you have a real personal, intimate relationship with all three, you'll do that. [00:18:49] Now, I can't say I do it every morning. Some days the alarm rings, I jump out of bed. When I look at the clock, I run in the bathroom, I start brushing my teeth, I shave, and I start walking downstairs and I think, oh, I'm sorry, Lord, I forgot to acknowledge you today. [00:19:06] Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy steps. [00:19:19] So I think we're in the seventh session today, and I'm just remembering that I was asked more than once to let them know this is the King James version of the Bible. [00:19:34] So I. I have to ask for forgiveness today. [00:19:38] I haven't allowed them to do the job that they want to do. [00:19:44] Now, there is a scripture. This is a promise from God. [00:19:49] Those that delight in God will be given the desires of your heart, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, the instruction of the Lord, and in his law, he meditates day and night. [00:20:10] When you do this, you read the scripture, you memorize it, you speak it to yourself over and over. [00:20:20] You will find yourself believing it more and more, just as if you told a lie today and you continually tell that lie. At some point in the very near future, you're going to believe that lie to be truth. The same thing happens. [00:20:40] I have people ask me, well, I don't know how to meditate on the word of God. How does that look? [00:20:46] And I always ask. [00:20:51] I answer their question by asking them a question. [00:20:55] Now, my parents told me never to do that. But you know what? When I first got a hold of a Bible and I read it, Jesus did it all the time. [00:21:04] He said, follow me, Peter. So I'm going to be able to do that. So my question back to these people is, do have you ever worried about anything? [00:21:19] And most of us have. So their answer is, yes. Well, why Would they be worrying? Because that's what their mind is focused on. That's what they're dwelling on. [00:21:29] Remember that word dwell, because you're going to see it. A synonym for that word is abide. And you'll see it in John 15 when we get to that. [00:21:42] Now, why would God give me a promise to give me the desire of my heart if I delight in his instructions, when last week and the week before I gave you Jeremiah 17, verse 9. That says, who can know the heart, the intent of the heart? It's wicked, it's sick, above all things. Why would this be? [00:22:08] Because this person is meditating on God's Word and that's what they're concentrating on. [00:22:17] And the more that you do that, the more you'll see the fulfillment. [00:22:22] Where James wrote, be a doer of the Word and not a hearer, only deceiving your own self. You heard the Word of God. [00:22:31] You heard it and now you're not doing it. So you're deceiving yourselves. You got the knowledge, but you're not wise. [00:22:41] Wisdom is applied knowledge, whereas God gave it to us by inspiration of God. [00:22:49] To be a doer of the Word and not a hearer, only deceiving your own self, how would you deceive yourself? [00:22:56] What's in your heart? [00:22:58] The heart, the intent of the heart. [00:23:01] When we get into the Book of Revelation and we look at Christ's seven letters to the churches, you'll see what happened to the heart. And I want you to keep this in mind. The book of Genesis in the Holy Bible and God's Holy Writ is the very first book. [00:23:20] The Book of Revelation is the very last book. [00:23:25] All throughout this book, this book talks about Jesus. He's the Word of God. [00:23:32] In the beginning was the Word, capital W. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. [00:23:48] In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot put out the light. [00:23:59] And the Word was made flesh. [00:24:02] So, wow. The Word of God. The Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. [00:24:17] So the Word of God is full of grace and truth. And of his grace have all we received. [00:24:24] And grace for grace. [00:24:27] No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who was in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him so. The Word of God came in the flesh. Jesus Christ's job was to show us what the invisible Father looks like. He's declared who the Father is. And you'll see that all throughout the Gospels when he addresses his own future apostles. [00:24:57] If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. How can you have been with me this long and you ask me to show you who the Father is? You've been looking at him all the time. [00:25:07] Through my character, through my integrity, through my attributes, through my faithfulness, through my purity in heart. [00:25:17] When you do this, the Word of God, which is living and active, will become that real to you. [00:25:26] Remember, it's full of grace and truth. [00:25:31] So grace comes from God's word, from Christ. [00:25:36] You were saved by grace through faith. [00:25:39] You have to believe it. [00:25:42] I believe what the Word of God says, that if I ask Jesus, is it your will for me to go into the mission field this month? And he says yes. [00:25:57] He always says, but will you go, Peter? [00:26:01] And when I say yes, because I'm not going to tell him no, what happens is he now gives me grace, divine ability that I don't have on my own. And what does that look like on my calendar? I have to teach four days in a row and preach four nights in a row. [00:26:25] And the minute I say yes to him by divine download, he gives me all eight. Messages come flooding into my head. [00:26:34] This is what meditating on the Word of God will do to you. [00:26:38] When I get in my vehicle, I like to put a pad on the front seat and the pen. When I start to drive, I say, lord, I'm going to start praying. And I thank you now for the revelation that you're going to give me through the word of God. That's where a lot of my understanding of the Bible comes from, that revelatory knowledge. [00:26:58] So if I'm believing this book and I start to be behaving, I start to think, I start to speak, and I start to behave following Christ, my desires are going to change. [00:27:16] So now I'm going to start asking in prayer what Christ's purposes for me are anyway. [00:27:25] And it's impossible that he would not answer that. [00:27:29] So one of the classes my wife and I teach is effective praying. [00:27:34] And I hope to do that on this platform one time also. We teach on the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That ministry is to conform you into the image of Christ. [00:27:48] You need to submit to that. And there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are two different Things I know a lot of denominations don't believe. The second one is for today. [00:28:01] And I challenge you, if that's you, go look at First Corinthians, chapter 12. Because this is Apostle Paul telling the church. [00:28:12] So that tells me that these gifts, as the Spirit wills that I'm to desire, are available to the church. [00:28:23] I desire them every day and I delight in the Lord. So when I pray and ask God to manifest these gifts through me, they do. They happen throughout the day. [00:28:37] But his delight is in the law of the Lord. [00:28:41] And if you meditate day and night, that person will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season. His root system is grounded in Christ, in the word of God. [00:29:00] It's being fed by the life of Christ through the word of God. [00:29:07] Your leaf is not going to wither and dry up, because if it does, you're going to be cast into the fire. We're going to see that in John chapter 15. [00:29:20] And whatsoever you do shall prosper. [00:29:24] Why would that be? Because you are allowing God to direct your steps. [00:29:32] This is the will of God. This book, but God's will. And this is another class that I teach on the will of God. [00:29:42] There's an experiential will of God that we should have, and that should be. [00:29:49] It should be generated out of our prayer life. [00:29:52] But God should be that real to you that you say, lord, would you send me to people that are willing to hear the gospel today, direct my steps. [00:30:03] If you ask that prayer before you leave your house, you want to ask for God to open your spiritual eyes to see what he wants you to see, and your ears that you hear what the Spirit's saying to you. [00:30:19] Because probably, and this happens to me, the very first person that I come into contact with that day is an opportunity to witness for Christ. It could be somebody, a believer that needed discipleship. [00:30:34] They needed an understanding of the word of God. Could be an unbeliever that needed to hear about Jesus. [00:30:41] Could be somebody, a lame person that God's going to have get up out of that wheelchair as a witness for Christ. [00:30:50] But that will happen. [00:30:52] You have to believe it enough to ask those things. [00:30:58] I believe that when I'm sent. [00:31:06] That I'm going to fulfill the Great Commission. I have to do that. So I'm inspired now to go wherever I get sent. [00:31:17] And now what is my job? It's to preach the gospel to the poor, to cleanse the lepers, to heal the sick, to cast out demonic and raise the dead. Now I have not been asked by God to physically raise a dead body, but I can tell you this as an evangelist, I've been used by God to raise an awful lot of spiritual dead people out from the pit of hell, multitudes of them in Africa and India. [00:31:51] So you're going to meditate on the word of God, you're going to read a scripture, and hopefully your relationship is enough that you're going to say, God, where do you want me to read today? [00:32:06] And I remember as a very new believer, I never read the Bible before. [00:32:12] And I asked the pastor at the church that I wound up at, I told him that and I said, I don't even know where can I buy a, where can I get a Bible? [00:32:23] And he gave me one and I took a new believers class. And in that class they were teaching where you could go to find Bible reading plans. [00:32:38] And I sat there and I raised my hand and I asked the discipleship pastor, I said, I'm not trying to sound indignant, but if God is everywhere and he's all knowing and this book is the truth, shouldn't I ask him what he wants me to read today and not go to a Bible study plan? [00:33:02] And he laughed because he said yes, but most people won't do that. [00:33:07] So we have to give them some somewhere to start meditate therein. [00:33:17] So if you believe that's your commission and you get to speak in front of an audience, whether it's a youth group, a church, it doesn't matter. Your neighbors are having a cookout and all of a sudden somebody says, hey, you know, can you, can you teach us a little bit about the Bible? [00:33:39] The Bible tells me that God said, if you do this Peter, I will confirm the preaching following with signs, wonders and miracles. Now I don't seek these signs and there's information flying all over the Internet about misinformation. So you're going to need to pray, watch and pray. Remember we looked at that scripture last week. [00:34:06] We need to be watching and we need to pray for discernment. Most of your discernment to know whether you're hearing the truth or not is going to come from how much of this word of God you have in you. How much of it have you studied? [00:34:24] So now take a look at Joshua chapter one. [00:34:33] I'm going to give you tonight what I call the five foundational scriptures on meditating on God's Word that's not going to return empty. [00:34:45] It will accomplish that which God sent it to for his purposes. So look at Joshua chapter one. [00:34:54] This whole chapter is on the Lord instructing. He's giving Joshua instructions. [00:35:05] Now look at verse 8 and 9. [00:35:08] This is God speaking to Joshua. [00:35:11] This book of the law or this book of instruction shall not depart out of your mouth. [00:35:24] But thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. [00:35:35] For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Now look at verse nine. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with you wherever you go. [00:35:55] That's a promise to Joshua. [00:35:59] It's a promise to all of us. [00:36:02] So if God is with me and I preach a message, I know I spoke this before, I'm always going to give the people an opportunity to respond. An altar call doesn't just have to be on salvation. [00:36:18] If you're given a message by God to speak that message to a specific group of people, when you look at that message, you should be able to see. [00:36:31] And I'm not going to assume that everybody in that group is saved. I'm not going to ask them, who here is saved? Because they're all going to raise their hand. And I'm not going to say, do you know Jesus? [00:36:46] Because people, yeah, I heard that name before, But that's a promise. [00:36:56] I'll confirm the preaching following with signs, wonders, and miracles. I will always give a salvation opportunity because the greatest miracle is a changed heart, a repentant heart that says, you're right, God, and I'm wrong. I'm changing my mind. I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior. And I. And I'm going to turn away from my sin. And I need to know who you are, Jesus. So teach me. [00:37:24] It's a commandment. Be strong and of a good courage. Now, interestingly enough, that word, courage, the root word. The root of that word in Latin is cor. [00:37:38] That means heart. [00:37:41] So you could say be strong and of a good heart. [00:37:45] As opposed to what, Pastor Pete? A deceitful heart that. Who can know the intent of. It's wicked and sick above all things. [00:37:55] One of these days, I keep thinking I'm going to do a teaching on the human heart, because it isn't the organ that's in your body. [00:38:05] It's everything that's in you. [00:38:07] The heart that they're talking about, God's talking about in the Bible, and is that which. Which drives your desires and your motives. What. What is it that moves You. [00:38:21] That's what's sick and deceitful above all things within us. [00:38:29] Now go to Jeremiah, chapter 15, verse 16. [00:38:35] Remember the theme. Meditate on the word of God, on the truth, on Jesus. [00:38:45] Thy words were found. This is a true prophet. Jeremiah, this is not the person that said they were a prophet of God from your church this week. This is. [00:38:59] This is. And I'm just using this name, not for anyone in particular, but this is the prophet, a true prophet of God. [00:39:10] And I did eat them. [00:39:14] And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts. Remember when Jesus said, eat my flesh and drink my blood, he was talking about the word of God. [00:39:32] Jeremiah said, thy words were found, and I did eat them. That's how you meditate. Think about how you're supposed to eat your food. [00:39:42] My wife corrects me every night at dinner and she said, you don't chew your food, you just swallow it. That's not how you meditate on the word of God. [00:39:56] And she's right. [00:39:58] I have to correct. [00:40:00] I'm teachable. If you're not, that means you're prideful. You can't take correction. [00:40:07] And if you can't take correction, I would go so far as say you have an authority problem. And if you have an authority problem, do you have an authority problem with God? Because he should be the authority in our life. [00:40:26] Now, before I go to the Gospel of John, open up your Bibles. Now. We're going to jump over to the book of Proverbs. [00:40:43] Proverbs 4, the book of wisdom. [00:40:53] I put two of my bookmarks in Jeremiah and the one was supposed to go to Proverbs. So you'll have to bear with me for a minute. [00:41:03] Proverbs 4. [00:41:10] Remember last week we looked at Proverbs 1 where Solomon gave us the definition of. Of what a proverb is. To know wisdom and instruction. [00:41:21] To know wisdom and instruction. [00:41:26] The words, to perceive the words of understanding our preachers in our churches. [00:41:38] Their message should inspire us to go deeper into the word of God. [00:41:43] There's a difference between being preached to and being taught. [00:41:51] I love to teach, but when I get sent somewhere, I wind up finding myself as I'm led by the Spirit and speaking by the Spirit, to bounce back and forth between preaching and teaching. And the reason that would happen is when I start to preach, it's always in my heart to make sure that the audience is given an understanding of what they're hearing. That's important and that's what that proverb said. [00:42:26] So Proverbs 4, beginning with verse 20. [00:42:30] Remember, this is an instruction from God. This is wisdom, my son. [00:42:40] Attend to my words. [00:42:43] Incline thine ear unto my sayings. [00:42:48] Let them not depart from thine eyes. Same message from Solomon that God gave to Joshua, Keep them in the midst of thine heart. [00:43:00] Now, how many times have you heard somebody say you need to get the word of God from your head to your heart? [00:43:06] I've heard people say that the difference in the word of God is 18 inches, which is roughly from your brain into your heart. [00:43:17] What does that mean? Well, God's telling us the heart is wicked above all things. [00:43:25] Keep the word of God in your heart. [00:43:30] There is your instruction in verse 20 and 21. Now here's the for they, the word of God are life to those that find them. [00:43:46] Guess what? You have to go find what you need in the Bible. [00:43:51] Find God's promise and health to all their flesh. [00:44:00] The word of God is health to all your flesh. This is how divine healing works. Many times someone can get healed when I lay hands on them on my faith. [00:44:19] However, when I get sent to a group of people, God's going to use me as an evangelist. So if I'm speaking on divine healing, they're going to that group, that audience is going to start being led by the word of God from the minute I open my mouth until I close. And their faith is going to build up so that when they are given the opportunity to come forward, because I know I'm supposed to be there to speak to that group of people and God gave me the Word and he said he would confirm that preaching, I can boldly stand up at that pulpit and say, those of you with the faith that come up here to Jesus will experience the glory of God. They'll experience it. [00:45:16] God's got. He's gonna answer that. [00:45:21] So I always tell people because I catch a lot of flack from people. [00:45:26] Well, it doesn't tell you in the Bible, God didn't give us instructions to give an altar call. And I say that's true. [00:45:34] However, I know what the word of God says and we are to baptize people. And what is baptism? It's an outward expression of your faith. [00:45:47] So to me, in my heart, those that come forward are given an opportunity to show their faith in that message, the word of God, not in man or woman. [00:46:02] And those are the people that will be touched by God's hand. [00:46:09] And you know, I've had by the laying on of hands, blind people see Lame people get up and walk. [00:46:19] A man with pins in his leg who, when I commanded the pins to come out and his leg to be healed, he got up and he said to me, that was weird. And I said, what? And he said, it felt like BB shooting out of my ankle and I could feel that in my hand. [00:46:38] So I never ask them, did they feel anything? I wait for them to tell me. But divine healing is the children's bread. That's what Jesus told the Phoenician woman when she came after him. And his instructions at that time were to go to the lost sheep of Israel. [00:47:02] She was a Gentile and she wants Jesus to heal her demon possessed daughter. [00:47:09] And he says, woman, I can't give the children's bread to the dogs. Now that's what they used to consider the Gentiles dogs. The Jewish people looked at us, I'm a Gentile. [00:47:28] And what was her response? She acknowledged his authority, she didn't argue with him. And she said, yes, Lord, that was important. [00:47:37] Yes Lord. But even the dogs eat from the scraps of man's hand that fall under the table. [00:47:47] He referred to healing as bread, not giving the children's bread to the dogs. [00:47:54] So that's why you may hear somebody, maybe an evangelist, say healing is the children's bread. [00:48:02] So I have to go to a prayer meeting earlier tonight and I've been asked to pray over some pretty sick people. [00:48:09] I know they're believers, so the first thing I'm going to say to them is I'm going to have them confirm that verbally because their faith will start to rise. And I'm going to tell them that their healing is the children's bread as a child of God. [00:48:31] And then in verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Remember, when Jesus out of the mouth speaks, what's the abundant in your heart? [00:48:49] All right, John, chapter 15. [00:48:52] Jesus is going to talk about the true vine. [00:49:01] He's telling his disciples, just because they may be children of Abraham doesn't mean they're children of God. [00:49:14] God promised Abraham, but there is a such thing that was called the bosom of Abraham where Christ was going to preach to the dead day. We're going to hear the gospel. [00:49:30] So that was important. [00:49:34] There's 11 verses here. And this is going to conclude meditating on God's word, because Jesus is giving us a little bit of a discourse here. [00:49:48] All 11 verses beginning with chapter 15, verse 1, are Jesus speaking. [00:49:56] I am the true vine and my Father is The husbandman. [00:50:02] So Jesus is the vine, and God the Father is the vinedresser. [00:50:09] Every branch in me, every branch in Christ. [00:50:15] And I'm going to pause there for a minute. [00:50:18] The dead in Christ will rise first, followed by those alive at the time in Christ. [00:50:28] And we will be caught up in the clouds with the Lord and be with him forever. [00:50:35] So when Jesus does come back to the Second Coming, guess who comes back with him? [00:50:41] The church. [00:50:42] We've been gone. [00:50:44] We were raptured. [00:50:49] Every branch in me, every branch in Christ that bears not fruit, he takes it away. [00:51:03] He takes it away. [00:51:07] And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it or prunes it so it can bring forth more fruit. [00:51:20] Then Jesus says something astounding in verse three. Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you. [00:51:32] They're clean now through the Word of God. [00:51:35] Create in me a clean heart, O God. [00:51:41] Abide in me and I in you. That's that word that means dwell. This is a very intimate dwelling place. [00:51:53] When I read out of the first chapter of the Gospel of John, where Jesus is in the bosom of the Father, that's the word of God, in the bosom of the Father. What that means is that's the most. The deepest, most intimate part of God the Father. That's where the Word of God is. [00:52:17] He had to send the Word in the flesh. [00:52:23] So you could see, knowing that that one thing, that one person that he had the deepest, most intimate love for was the same one that he had to sacrifice for everyone else because we just weren't going to get it. [00:52:48] Abide in me, and I in you. [00:52:51] As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine, no more can you, except you, abide in me. [00:53:02] Remember, Jesus is the vine, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me, he that dwells in me, and I in Him. The Word of God in you, the same brings forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. [00:53:27] If a man abides, If a man dwells not in me, this is a dwelling place. [00:53:38] You know, I would challenge most of you to think of this. When you go home to your dwelling place, do you open the front door, run through the house and immediately run out the back door? Or do you kind of hang out there for a while? Do you dwell there? You're abiding in your. In your house. [00:53:56] That's what you need to do in the Word of God, If a man abides not in me, if you don't dwell in Christ in The word of God, that person is cast forth as a branch and is burned. Men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. [00:54:24] Remember that earlier scripture that said your leaf will not wither and whatsoever you do will prosper. [00:54:32] Cause you're a tree planted by the river of water. Your roots are sunk deep into Christ. Think of the parable if you're a believer of the seed sower. [00:54:43] One seed fell on stony ground and it didn't grow any roots. The second seed grew some ro they heard the word of God, got excited, responded to it, walked out of the church and the devil came. The cares of life came. [00:55:02] Now what I just said, the cares of life. [00:55:07] Life is going to come faster these days as we get closer to the end. [00:55:13] We are in those last days of perilous times. [00:55:18] And if you look briefly, don't dwell on the news if you're saved, if you're a disciple of Christ, you were not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. [00:55:35] You should have the peace of Christ. [00:55:39] We should not be a born again believer, should not be tormented. [00:55:48] And you shouldn't be worried about the cares of life. [00:55:57] If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you want and it'll be given to you. [00:56:08] That's another scripture where you are now because you're delighting in God. [00:56:15] The desires of your heart have changed. [00:56:18] They should be more in align with the will of God today than they were yesterday. [00:56:25] And now you're going to start asking God for the same things that he wants you to ask for. [00:56:35] Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. [00:56:44] I one time asked God, how can I glorify you? Jesus said, glorify me Father, that I may glorify you. And he took me right to that scripture. Bear fruit Peter, and you'll glorify me. [00:56:59] That's how you glorify Almighty God, the creator of all things, all powerful God, all knowing God and ever present God, holy God. [00:57:11] You bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. [00:57:16] Now here's two scriptures that you need to see because I know there's a lot of people running around out there thinking that because they're under grace they can go do whatever they want. And God just loves me as I am. Well, I'm sorry but you're going to hear where that's not necessarily true as this is Jesus speaking. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. [00:57:47] He tells his disciples, I'm loving you right now the same as the Father loves me. [00:57:57] But then he tells him to continue in his love. [00:58:01] Now how is that going to happen? You mean I have to continue in the love of Christ? I thought God is love and Christ is the express image of God. He is. [00:58:12] And that's what he's telling you, not me. That's what God said. [00:58:18] And then Jesus is going to give us the answer. If you keep my commandments, you shall dwell in my love, abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. [00:58:33] So God's love is conditional. [00:58:37] You are deceived. [00:58:39] If you heard somebody on a podcast say, well, God is love and therefore he loves you just the way you are. No. The Bible says God hates sin. [00:58:53] Those in sin are at enmity or at war with God. [00:58:59] And John in one of his letters said, if any man, if any person says they have no sin, they make God a liar. And God cannot lie. [00:59:12] So we need to examine ourselves each day, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what we needed to do different. [00:59:22] And then say, you know what, God, that's right, you're right and I was wrong and I need to change. [00:59:33] That's where you repented. [00:59:36] You changed your mind from what you said or did or thought. [00:59:42] You acknowledged God was right. [00:59:44] You're confessing your sin to God. He is faithful to forgive us if we do that. [00:59:51] And that's. That's how that works. But now you have to show the outward change just because I said that. And then I go and do the same thing over and over again. And that doesn't mean you're not trying. You have to ask God to help you with that. [01:00:11] If it's something that you struggle with, just say, God, this is the hardest thing. I'm trying to change, and I just keep fallen into it. Help me. [01:00:24] So what's going to happen if I do this? [01:00:29] These things. Have I spoken to you, said Jesus, that my joy, the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might become full. [01:00:48] So I would. I would not argue, but I wouldn't be as bold to make a statement. [01:00:53] If you don't do this, you probably don't have joy. [01:01:00] That doesn't mean you, you. The. The. You know, you can be pressured. [01:01:06] Most of your spiritual growth is going to come from the times when you feel like you're a grape and in a wine press and the world keeps turning the handle and you're squeezed. You're being squeezed, you're going to be squeezed. That's when you have an incredible opportunity to grow in Christ. [01:01:31] Because most people at that point will cry out to God, help me, get me out of here, get me out of here. [01:01:39] Just like when Peter fell in the water, he had his eyes on Jesus. He walked on water. [01:01:46] His faith, he was act he actually was operating in God's grace, divine enablement. [01:01:55] So I have spent a long time trying to get myself to do this and I finally, with all the other things the Lord's given me and I'm not going to say this out of pride or arrogance, but I've had more than one person come up to me and say, you seem to have God's favor on your life like I've never known before. And my wife is one of those people. [01:02:25] It's only because of one scripture that I saw in the Gospel of Luke, chapter two, where Jesus as a 12 year old boy left subject to Joseph and Mary. That was the authority at the time God in the flesh had to submit to. [01:02:44] And the Bible said when he submitted to that which was submitting to his Father's will, it says he grew in stature and maturity and the favor of God and the favor of man. [01:03:00] We make the Bible more complicated than it is. [01:03:04] All you have to do is read this in context, believe it and do it even if you don't believe it right away. Memorize the Scripture until you do believe it in context. [01:03:19] Because God cannot lie. [01:03:24] Why did we kind of backstep before we go into the church in Ephesus? The first letter Jesus said, because you heard more than once tonight that you needed to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And when we go through these seven letters, you're going to hear Jesus himself say, those with ears that hear, let them hear what the Spirit saying to the churches. And we are at this time this is only revelation. When John wrote the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ was only 60 to 65 years after Christ. [01:04:10] So we're looking at three generations later. [01:04:13] And the church is a mess. [01:04:17] And there's reasons for that. It didn't have discernment. It wasn't a berean saint. [01:04:26] If I give you a message, you're going to hear nothing but scriptures. I'll give you an understanding of it and you can correct me on that if you believe I'm wrong. But God's Word is the truth. [01:04:38] You have to hear the word of God, not my opinion. [01:04:44] And there are people there will always Be people that will argue when you give them a scripture, they'll get mad, they can't respond to that, and they won't want to spend time with you. [01:04:59] That's why families are divided when, when some of them receive Jesus and others don't. [01:05:07] It's only, you know, I was fortunate. I didn't think this way as a child. But being the oldest son of the oldest son In a 100% Italian family, that meant my dad was my grandfather, his dad was the patriarch. [01:05:28] When he wasn't there, my dad was the patriarch. When my grandfather died, I became. Well, I always was. As a 10 year old boy, I was responsible to be the leader of our family. When my dad went away hunting for a week, that's a heavy burden. I remember an aunt and an uncle came to me for marriage counseling because I was now the acting patriarch in the family. [01:05:56] And at one time in my life I just wanted to be one of the worker bees and not be having to be the leader of my brother and all of my cousins, regardless of their ages and all that. [01:06:11] And then one day I realized that my family, I was the one. I think I might have been the first one, maybe, maybe the second one to get saved in the family. [01:06:33] My family, it was ingrained in them that even if they didn't like what I told them, they had to respect that because I was the patriarch in the family. [01:06:45] So even the unsaved in my family, the family's never been split because of that. [01:06:52] They were raised in a culture that said they had to listen to me. [01:07:00] So I have to use wisdom when I witness. But they don't run away. It's been ingrained in them that they have to respect me. And they still see wisdom that they don't understand. [01:07:12] It's godly wisdom that comes out. That's one of the gifts of the spirit. [01:07:17] But that division never happened in my family. And I was amazed at that later. So as much as I rebelled or didn't want that responsibility later, I accept it today. [01:07:30] And it is, it's a heavy, It's a heavy responsibility. [01:07:37] We all have a heavy responsibility. [01:07:42] Most churches are not preaching the whole counsel of God. [01:07:49] There's a growing number of people that may be coming into the church which may lead people to believe they need a wider message to appeal to all of them. Christ never did that. [01:08:03] When it got down to the nuts and bolts and he said, eat my flesh and drink my blood, most of them walked away. That's why it's important to not beat your head against the wall and ask God, God, give me a soul today to speak to, but send me one that's ready and then pay attention because that may come in different ways. [01:08:30] I'm going to give you one more testimony real quick. I still am hired by an engineering company as a consultant for one client. [01:08:43] It's a regional client that has subdivisions, residential subdivisions, all over the east coast and as far west as Ohio. [01:08:57] But I report to their corporate office the ownership, because for the program that they wanted me to help them develop, it had to come from them. Because as a non employee, to go out on their construction sites and evaluate where they're at and give them a report card, they can't tell me, well, that's how I've always done it. [01:09:22] So for 18 years I work for this company and through this employment that God gave me, every day I have to bring groups of people that don't want to work together. [01:09:40] Other engineers and architects, they can't stand one another. [01:09:46] They all believe they're the greatest at what they do. [01:09:51] And I have to lead them. [01:09:53] And yet they have to follow the direction that I give them on these sites. [01:09:59] So when I gave my heart to the Lord, I realized that he used that job to give me all the training that I would need as a pastor and a missionary. [01:10:15] So God is going to use you no matter what you did in life and position you in people with people. [01:10:25] So every one of these construction sites I go to, I do what I'm commanded to do, to witness for Christ. [01:10:37] And what happens is, what's going to happen to you? [01:10:41] Most of these people walk away from me. Now. The thing is, for the job that I have and what I have to do, they're not allowed to leave my side, which really irritates them because they want to run away when they start hearing about Christ and they can't. [01:11:00] But then it comes to the point where the majority of them, statistically this is, this is true, probably eight or nine of them are going to walk away, but because I was being obedient to God, what happens is their vice president winds up calling me and says, peter, I know you've been training my people out there, but I'm afraid I'm going to frustrate you. I'm going to send a new management crew out there. [01:11:30] And I always say, that's okay. That's your call. [01:11:34] And when that new management crew comes out, I find out within a week that they're all believers in Christ from different areas that God brought in, put on that VP's heart to send to this job for some reason. And they need discipled. They're hungry for Christ. [01:11:54] So now we have church out on the job site. [01:11:59] So you can have church anywhere you go. [01:12:02] And I just encourage you meditate on the word of God. You're going to need the word of God in your heart. [01:12:10] I've been telling people for two years, including my family, at some point you're going to have to trust God's word above and beyond anything else that you hear. [01:12:22] You can go to the grocery store and spend three hours reading every can of food in every package to determine what somebody in social media told you was going to kill you. [01:12:35] Or you can believe the word of God, do what he tells you to do every day and say, lord, I'm trusting you. You've already blessed my food. Today I just have to receive it with thanksgiving. And nothing's going to happen to you because the world is going to do sick things through their sick, unsaved hearts. [01:12:59] And you're going to have to believe what God says. He means we all do. [01:13:07] Remember, every knee will bow and every mouth will confess. One day, everyone, some are going to wind up in hell, the majority, and some will spend eternity with Christ. [01:13:20] What side do you want to be on? [01:13:25] You want to be. Because if you're unsaved and you died today on that day of judgment, you will now know that everybody that ever told you about Christ was right and you were wrong and it's too late. That door is already closed by God. [01:13:46] And those people will be eternally tormented, separated from God when they just had to kneel down and confess who he was. They now know who he is. Wouldn't you want to know who Christ is today? [01:14:01] And this is eternal life that they know. You, Father, the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you sent, it's the only one that was risen from the dead. [01:14:12] There's over 500 witnesses, there's archeological evidence being uncovered all over the world that's proving the Bible to be correct. [01:14:24] I watch documentaries all the time with unsaved archeologists who are now talking about, I think this Bible book is true because I've now uncovered things. God's uncovering things. He's revealing them at an at an exponentially increased pace, which should tell you that the time God's trying to get the attention of the world, there's floods everywhere, there's fires everywhere, there's earthquakes everywhere, there's tsunamis happening every day. These are the natural occurrences that the Bible talked about. Jesus said when the disciples asked him, what will be the signs? Remember the first thing he said. Take heed. Don't let anybody deceive you. The only way you're not going to be deceived is if you keep yourself in this book. This is the only truth you're going to get. [01:15:28] Father, I thank you for whoever's listening to this message. [01:15:34] I thank you that the ones that turned it off because they got offended by your word, that enough of it got in them that it pricked them in their heart and it gnaws in their mind. Just like when you go to bed and you lay down and that song repeats itself over and over in your head and you can't sleep. I pray that happens to those people, the ones that received your word. [01:16:00] Lord, I ask that you bless them, give them the grace. [01:16:06] It's your engrafted word that we need. Help them to keep that word in their heart. [01:16:14] And I pray for all those that listen to this message that if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that you haven't given him sovereignty over your life as your Lord, to learn his ways, his instructions, his commandments and model your life after that. [01:16:41] I pray that you touch those people and, Lord, they can. Contact Pastor Peter at Eyes to see ministries at 443-386-3941. You can call me and we can have that discussion. [01:16:57] I ask you to do that. Keep in mind in September, if you already heard this or if you haven't, I will be for two weeks in Africa and unavailable by phone where I'm going. [01:17:10] So if this message, if these messages have plucked your heart and moved you and have caused the stirring in you and you're beginning to be hungry and thirsty to learn about Jesus, please call. We'll answer your questions. Lord, I thank you because I know that prayer will be answered. [01:17:30] And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. [01:17:36] Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy.