[Rick Shabi] Good to be with you here on the Sabbath. Let me thank Mr. McClenagan for that very fine piece. I think we all recognize and appreciate the talent he has. And where I was sitting, I could watch his fingers the whole time, and I can only imagine what it would be like to be able to play that way. So we very much appreciate it. You know, Mr. Browning mentioned that it's a beautiful spring day here in Cincinnati, and indeed it is. It's just something wonderful to you, to be in the spring and to to see the sun out and the flowers blooming and buds coming up from the ground trees beginning to green. We lived in Florida for many, many years. And honestly, I don't remember spring much as we lived up here this year. But I'll have to say this year, I'm very much appreciating it. And it's one of the things that we praise God for, right? He didn't have to do all these things, but He created a beautiful world for us. And and the spring to see the miracle of the earth coming back to life is a great thing and gives us one more reason to praise God, as Mr. Fouch mentioned in his sermonette.

But you know Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ did a lot for us as we know as we enter into this spring holy day season not too far ahead of us now. He sacrificed His life but He left us a perfect example of how we should live our lives. And everything He did we can take count of and as we are His disciples, and as we study the words of the Bible, we also study Him to see how He acted, how He responded, what He did. And every word of the Bible we know is a word that we should pay attention to, and the longer we're in the Church, the more we recognize that every word of the Bible does have meaning. And as God grows us and develops us into who He wants us to be, those words encourage us, and every time we look in the Bible, we learn more about it.

You know, Jesus Christ was baptized as an example for all of us. And in Matthew 4, if you want to turn over there, the first recorded words of Jesus Christ after He was baptized, at least in the Gospel of Matthew, are notable. You know that after He was baptized, He fasted for 40 days and then Satan came to tempt Him in what we call the great temptation of Matthew 4. And as Satan came to Him and threw out these things at Him to get Him to just reject God or to go against God, Christ had an immediate response. Let's look at the first one here in Matthew 4, beginning in verse 1.

Matthew 4:1-4 It says, "When Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward He was hungry, and when the tempter came to him, he said, 'If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.'" And His response, the first recorded words after His baptism that He said was, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And as you read through the chapters, you know the other two times He was tempted and He responded in like manner. He just gave a quote from the book of Deuteronomy. All three of the responses He gave there were directly from the book of Deuteronomy and He just used the Scripture. And He set us an example. When we are tempted, when we're in trials, as we know the Word of God and as God puts His Holy Spirit in us, the Spirit that will give us the ability to recall the Scriptures we've been given, to think back on His Word, to give us what it is that we need in that instant to combat Satan or combat the trial or to give us the strength to get through the trial that we're in. Every word of the Bible, and the older I get and the longer I'm in the Church and study the Bible, I'm convinced that every single thing we ever encounter in life, the example is there in the Bible. If we know the words, if we study the words, if we're doing the things that God said and as we are progressing, as He develops us into who He wants us to become, the words are there.

And, you know, when Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:17, "Take the Word, take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." You can combat the trials of life with the Word of God. Take comfort in what He had and use His words just as Jesus Christ set the example for us. So I want to talk about kind of every word of God today and notice some things that God said even as we go back into the book of Deuteronomy. As Jesus Christ quoted three times for the book of Deuteronomy in this great temptation, we can go back to that book, which is actually the second most quoted book that Christ spoke from, and go back to the Scriptures and see some other words that are in those Scriptures that He quoted as He was tempted by Satan, and see how He may accentuate to us some things we should do that we need to be aware of as we follow Him in what He would have us do, again, teaching us, training us, growing us, developing us into who He wants us to become.

So the first verse He quoted from was in Deuteronomy 8. So if we'll turn back to Deuteronomy 8, and we'll read. We'll read what He quoted from in Deuteronomy 8:3. And then we're going to look at the verses around that because in the verses around Deuteronomy, we find some things that God stresses, stresses in a way. He says what He means for us to say, but sometimes God accentuates what He says and adds a descriptor onto it. And when we see these descriptors, it's a very good thing for us to pay attention because he's telling us what we need to do.

Deuteronomy 8:3 We'll read what Christ said here. He says, "So He humbled you." Now, when we see the word so, it probably draws us back to the verses ahead of us before this because He is commenting on something He has just said. "So He humbled you," he's telling Israel, "He allowed you to hunger, fed you with man of which you didn't know nor did your fathers know that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."

You went through all these things. He provided things and answers in ways you could not have imagined, and He did it to test you and that you may know that you may live by every word of God. You can trust Him, you can rely on Him. Nothing is impossible for God. But let's go back and see what preceded verse 3.

Deuteronomy 8:1 "Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe."

Let me pause right there. God accentuates what we need to be. You all remember from English classes in high school, adjectives and adverbs, and we're going to be talking about some adjectives and adverbs because even in our everyday language, when we want to stress something, we may punctuate it with an adjective, we may punctuate it with an adverb just to stress the importance of this. It's enough to say it, but when it's really important, you might add that qualifier or that accentuator or that adverb to make sure people know this is really important to you. You need to do it, maybe you stress, and do it quickly. So, "Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful."

Now, God could have simply just inspired that to say, every commandment which I command you today, you must observe. But He said you must be careful. You must be careful to observe. Now, when we put the word careful in there as an adjective to what we need to be, God is saying, you be careful. Careful with the life that I've given you. You be careful with the words I've given you. You be careful with the commands I've given you. Don't just take them for granted. Don't think it can be done any time. Do it exactly the way I said. You have been called to a way of life that isn't just about rotely obeying God, but as we grow and live that way of life, we see all the benefits of it. It is the way to happiness. It is the way to peace. It is the way of the kingdom, but it is the way of life now that those of us who God has called has called us to. And when we practice that, no matter what goes on in life, we have the peace. We have the purpose in life, the meaning in life that keeps us going on and focused on what God has. It's something for us now, something that you and I will be teaching later. So we must be careful to observe it. Know what it is. Know what God wants for us to do, and be careful that we're doing things His way.

And we learn that more and more as we go on. As we're here in, you know, just a few weeks, several weeks I guess, until Passover, maybe we can ask ourselves, are we carefully following God? Are we careful with the way of life He's given us or do we just kind of live it and do a few things and other things? But are we carefully, carefully doing it? God says, you must be careful to observe. Why? Going on in verse 1.

Deuteronomy 8:1-2 "That you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness." Why? "To humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."

Well, some would say that's Old Testament, right? But that really is us too. That's exactly what God is doing with you and me. He's led us all the time, from the time that He calls us and we commit to Him and say, I'll follow you wherever you go, I will do whatever you say. We're telling Him, you lead us, you guide us to your kingdom, to the time that Jesus Christ returns. This is what we want. And what does He do? He leads us through life for the very same reason that He was doing it with the Israelites, to test us what is in our hearts. What is in our hearts. Be careful. Be careful to obey what God said. Be careful with His law and His calling. Don't take it for granted. Don't minimize it and don't think it's good enough year by year, closer and closer to living by every word of God.

Go back to Deuteronomy 6:24 and look at a few other places where careful and carefully is in Deuteronomy. It's interesting when you look in concordances and whatever and you see that 51 times in the Old Testament careful or carefully is used, 25 of those times is in the book of Deuteronomy. Half of the times it's used in the Old Testament, God uses the word carefully in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 6:24 "The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God." If we fear Him, we'll obey Him. If we have that fear that we've talked about as the foundation of who we are, we will fear Him. We will be careful with His law. "He commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always."

Something we always need to remember. What God does is always for our good. He's not looking to make us miserable. He hasn't called us into a life of burden, but he's called us into a life where we can be happy, free, purposeful, absolutely at peace with everything going on in the world because we trust in Him, because we know Him, because we follow His ways. And the more that we are careful with applying His laws into our lives, the more understanding that we have of His way of life and how great it is. You can mark down Psalm 111:10. You know, God inspired there, it's like a good understanding.

Psalm 111:10 "A good understanding have they who do His commandments."

If you don't do them, if you're not careful with them, you won't understand what God is doing. More and more understanding is by doing what God says and applying it, and He's looking to see what's in our heart. And as we do them with the right attitude carefully, it will become us, it will become our heart because we will see the value of it.

Deuteronomy 6:24 "To fear the Lord God always," in verse 24, "for our good always that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us." Seek first the kingdom of God, seek first His righteousness, "then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful," careful, "to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us."

He could have simply said, it'll be righteousness for us if we observe all these commandments, but He added be careful, if we are careful to observe everything that He told us to do. It's a notable thing, it's a notable thing that God gives us to do. Pay attention to what it is that He wants us to do.

Let's look at one more where careful is in Deuteronomy 15. And as we carefully observe and as we carefully apply God's law into our lives, we see that it does lead us into all the things that God wants us to do. We'll have the purpose in life. We will obey him. We will produce the fruits of the Spirit that He wants us to produce. And in Deuteronomy 15, and we'll begin in verse 5. Here in Deuteronomy 15, God is talking about the poor, the poor that He will have among us, and how we are to respond to them. Let me actually begin. I'll cut into the sentence here, but let me begin in verse 4. I'm going to read down to verse 5 and then on from there as well.

Deuteronomy 15:4 He says, "Except when there may be no more among you."

Well, there will always be a poor among us, He says, but there will be a time when there will be no poor among you, "for the eternal will greatly bless you in the land which the Lord is giving you to possess as an inheritance." He will richly bless, but there's a reason that there are poor among us today.

Deuteronomy 15:5 He says, "This will happen," verse 5, "only..." That's a very notable word, only, this is the only way that's going to happen that there will be no more poor among us. "Only if you carefully," carefully, "obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today."

Only if you carefully do it. Only if you observe it with care, attention to it. It's your life's purpose. It's your training period. It's the education we go through. It's we keep it in front of our eyes and the way we do, the way we act, the way we respond, the way we do things when we go through trials, where do we look? How do we look to God? And use all those things if we will just do it with the care that God says to do it and He accentuates that over and over in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 15:6-7 He says, "I will bless you," and in verse 7, He says, "If there's among you a poor man of your brethren within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, don't harden your heart."

Don't harden your heart. Don't shut your hand from your poor brother. Now, here he's going to give us...in the next few verses, I want you to think about agape. If you carefully observe what God is saying, look what it produces. In verses 8-11 he's talking about agape, the same thing that John is talking about in 1 John 3 when he says, if you see anyone among you and you have a way to meet their needs, do it. Don't ignore them. Don't just walk past them. Take the opportunity to serve your brother. Develop that love. Take those opportunities carefully. Carefully follow what God says. Carefully pay attention to the words He says. They're not just the 10 commandments, but they serve the basis of it in all the way of life that He gives us. Pay attention to what is going on. Pay attention to your brother. Look out for them. So verse 8, He says, don't harden your heart. Don't walk on by.

Deuteronomy 15:8-9 "But you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs." Now, we're going to come back to that word willingly in a few minutes, but we'll go on now. Open your hand to him. "Beware..." Verse 9, "Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of release is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing."

Watch your attitude. Those are things that currently we still think. I don't have time. I don't want to do it. They don't deserve it. God says be careful to obey, be careful to remember what I say. Do it. Let Him train you into who He wants to be, and that is to become like Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 15:9-11 "Beware lest you give him nothing and," going on in verse 9, "he cry out to the Lord against you, and it becomes sin among you." Be careful. Watch the attitude. "You shall surely give to him, and your heart..." notice, always the heart comes back into it. "You shall surely give to him, and your heart shouldn't be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works, and in all to which you put your hand, for the poor will never cease among you."

You'll have the opportunities. Carefully, carefully live your life. Carefully look for those opportunities. Don't pass them by. Don't let the carnal mind say, not important, don't need to do it. God is happy with the way I am. Those should never enter our minds. Careful, careful, careful, God says. And as we're careful with what He gives us and carefully obey Him, that heart will follow. The fruits of the fear spirit will follow. We will become more and more like Him if we carefully pay attention to what it is that God says. And when we look into the Bible, look at every word. Look at every word. Pause and take some time to meditate. Don't just read it. Think about it. What is God saying? Why did He put this into the Bible? Why did He use that word there? What is He telling us? Because He does give us the way to please Him and to follow His way of life.

Let's go to Hebrews 12. We see this word careful in the New Testament as well. And we know that God, among the many things that He wants for us is the unity that He wants among His people. Christ said it on that last night before He was crucified. His will was that we would be one with Him and the Father and with each other. And as we grow closer and closer to the time that Jesus Christ returns, He will lead the Church to truly become united. He will teach us the unity and how to achieve that unity that He wants us to have as we are carefully following him, carefully obeying His commands, carefully doing what He says, and not just gliding through life, not paying the proper attention that we have. So here in Hebrews...did I say Hebrews 10? It's actually Hebrews 12 I wanted to go to. Hebrews 12. He says something in verses 14-15 that can that can harbor all of us.

Hebrews 12:14 He says, "Pursue peace. Pursue peace with all people and holiness," and there's a qualifier there, "without which no one will see the Lord."

Pretty clear. Pursue peace with all people. The things that may stand between us, they have to be healed if we are people of God. It doesn't mean we're never going to have an issue with someone, never going to mean that there's never going to be a conflict, never going to be a time where we have a disagreement at all, but we have to learn how to come together and be united. And He cautions it as you He go on. You see the sentence goes on in verse 15. He says, "Looking carefully." Looking carefully. What is in your heart? What is in your mind? What is in your attitude?

Hebrews 12:15 "Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many, many," it's a scary word, "many become defiled."

What would separate us from God? Would we let issues we have with each other go unresolved forever? I just simply will not talk to that person. I simply will not. Will we harbor grudges? Will we let bitterness take us away from the Word of God or take bitterness take us away from the Church of God? Absolutely not. Because then we are not at all observing what God's will is. We are not all practicing what He wants us to do. He intends that we all come together and be united and in unity, and as we head into the spring holy day season that that becomes part of the focus, what is there and, as we examine ourselves, is there anything there? At Harkinwood, Christ said in Matthew 5:23.

Matthew 5:23 "If you come to the altar and you realize something, go back. First be reconciled to your brother."

"Look carefully," He says in Hebrews 12, "lest any one that this might be part of who any of us are and many become defiled if we don't address it." So, carefully. Carefully is one word we can think of, one adjective when we live God's way of life. Carefully. Carefully live it. Carefully do it. Let's go back to the second verse that Jesus Christ quoted in Matthew 4, and that's in Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, we were in Deuteronomy 6 before. He has a lot of qualifiers, a lot of accentuators, a lot of adverbs and adjectives in Deuteronomy 6. But Jesus Christ responded to Satan when He quoted Deuteronomy 6:16. So let's look at Deuteronomy 6:16, and we'll go on and read the verses around it.

Deuteronomy 6:16 When Satan said, "Go ahead and jump off that cliff. If you trust God, He'll catch you." Christ responded, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massa." And then He goes on, He inspired here in Deuteronomy, "You shall diligently," diligently, "keep the commandments of the Lord your God."

Be careful. Carefully keep them diligently. Diligently keep those. Now, we know what diligently is. It means we put our effort into it. We're putting all our might into it.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might."

If you said you're going to follow God, diligently follow Him. Diligently pay attention to those commandments. Diligently monitor what you're doing and diligently ask God to lead you and guide you that His Holy Spirit would even allow us that He would let us know when we're off the path or when we've done something wrong so we can repent and change our behaviors.

Deuteronomy 6:17-19 "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, His statutes, which He has commanded you. And you shall do, you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers."

We do it that we may be there when Jesus Christ returns, that we may be part of that first resurrection, or there when Christ returns to serve Him and to serve humanity for the rest of eternity. Do it because you believe that, because you know that. Show God you really mean it, you really desire that, which has opened our minds to by carefully obeying. And diligently, diligently, with our effort, putting effort into it. Again, not being one of those employees who are just okay because they get the job done, but one of those who you really appreciate because they are always there and they are always working hard, diligently doing the job they have, putting their hand to it, and you can see the difference when they are just coasting versus where there is the diligence put into it. That's what God is looking for for you and me too. This is what he's called us to. This is our training time. Diligently, diligently keep those commandments.

If we go to...stay right here in Deuteronomy 6. Because He uses this word again. Again, in Deuteronomy 6, let's look down at verse 1. This is an interesting chapter. You know what the chapter is and that God commands that we talk about Him day and night, teach our children. Let's pick it up in verse 1 and look at a few verses here that lead into the verse that Jesus Christ used that time when He was being tempted by Satan.

Deuteronomy 6:1-3 He says, "Now, this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess." And He says that, "You may fear the Lord your God and keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you." Verse 3, "Therefore, here, O Israel..." There's that word careful. Be careful. "Be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey."

Let's drop down to verse 5.

Deuteronomy 6:5-6 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart."

How do we begin to love the Lord our God with all our heart and not just rotely obey and without thinking about what we're doing, let it become part of us? Carefully, diligently, reading with care, reading with diligence. "That you may learn to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Verse 6, "These words which I command you today shall be in your heart." Shall be in your heart. "You shall teach them diligently."

He could have just written, you shall teach them to your children. But He said, you shall teach them diligently. Diligently, with purpose. With a schedule, with a focus, my children will learn the way of God, and especially in a world that has gone so totally astray, and only to go further and further astray, how important is it to diligently teach our children the way of God? The way of God that they have the hope that you and I have, that they see the future. And it's beyond this world that is destined to destroy itself if it wasn't for Jesus Christ.

Teach them diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. Talk about those things. Make them there. Diligently apply them in your house. In your house, we live the way of God. In our houses, we live the way of God. In our fellowship, in our Church, we live, we teach, we practice, we apply the way of God individually, and as we do it individually, collectively as well that we become people of God after His own heart, people that when they look at the Church of God and see how we are and how we operate, we'll look on it and be amazed. How do they get along so well? What is different about them? Because they won't find that in the world. They won't find the peace, the unity, the commitment in the world. You can only find it...you can only find it in God's way.

Well, we'll leave Deuteronomy here in a minute, but let's...one more verse in Deuteronomy, and that's in Chapter 28, Deuteronomy 28:1. Now, Deuteronomy 28, of course, is a very interesting chapter. In it, God recounts the blessings that He's going to provide for His people and His nation if they obey God carefully. And He also recounts in Him all the cursings that will happen if they depart from God, if they fail to carefully obey Him, diligently apply His law. And He begins, as He inspired this in 28:1.

Deuteronomy 28:1 Says this, "It shall come to pass if you diligently," diligently, "obey the voice of the Lord your God..." He could have just said it'll come to pass if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. He accentuates it, "If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully..." There you got both of them we've talked about so far. "To observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth." Do it, He said, diligently and carefully.

And, of course, we see the word diligently in the New Testament as well. I'm sure as I've been talking some of those verses have come into your mind. I'm just going to quote a few of them and you can write down the scriptures. In Hebrews 11:6, God says He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Diligently seek Him. Could have said just, if you seek me. Diligently seek Him. I really want to know what your will is. Really want to do the things that you want me to do. Not my way, your way. Not my will, your will. You lead the path. I diligently seek what you are looking for us to do. If you diligently seek him.

In 2 Peter 1, we can turn to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1:10. The wrong...actually, 1 Peter 1:10, I didn't have that written down, uses the word carefully in what we're doing. So 2 Peter 1:10, though, says this, talking about you and me, New Testament verse.

2 Peter 1:10 "Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent." If you know these things, if you do these things, if you've been called, if you're really serious about God's calling and what you are looking to Him for and what you committed to it, as we all did when we were baptized. "Therefore, brethren, be even more..." Look at the descriptors He has there, "Be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble."

Do them. Carefully observe. Carefully and diligently do the things that God has said to do. And while we're in the New Testament, let's go back to Ephesians. Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5:15. You know, Ephesians has a lot of principles of the Christian life and what we do, and verse 15 is one of them to take note of. He says there, "See then that you walk." That's walking with Christ. That's going with Him and letting Him lead us and taking advantage of the opportunities He gives us to grow along the way. When we have those trials, build faith in Him as we have the tests that God's...you know, pass those tests, choose Him, don't turn back to the world, don't turn back to the things that we would naturally do. Walk with him.

Ephesians 5:15 "See then that you walk circumspectly," He says, "not as fools, but as wise."

Circumspectly is a pretty interesting word. If you look it up in the Greek, it kind of means exactly. I shouldn't say kind of means. It means exactly. Walk with Him exactly. Do it the way He said. Don't compromise. Don't put your own flavor on it. Do it the way God said. Don't do the Adam and Eve thing and say, "Well, I'll kind of do it your way, but really my way as well." Can't mix the two. It's God's way and God's way only. Our opinions don't count. Our compromises, our, like, "Well, this is what God meant and this is okay." He tells us what to do carefully, diligently, walk circumspectly. Walk in the world paying attention to the things that He would have us do as we go through this life.

Now, since I said I wouldn't go back to Deuteronomy, I'm going to have you recall what we read back in Deuteronomy 6, I believe it was, where we talked about willingly. Willingly do these things when we see someone poor among us. Willingly do it. That's another adverb that we could do. God could have just said, do it. When you see someone poor among you, give them what they need. Could have said that in 1 John 3, just do. But He says, do it willingly. And willingly is another one of those adverbs. How do we obey God? What do we see our life being? Are we willing people? Do we do what God wants us to do? Because we have a willing heart and because we really, really, really...three adverbs there, right? Really, really, really. Really, really, really want to please Him and do things His way. He wants us to do things because we want to do it. May not be the natural first reaction we have, but then we willingly submit, right? Willingly submit to God. Willingly yield to Him.

Think back of some of the words where you've seen willing, willingly give offerings. You think back to the Old Testament when they were collecting things for the temple and for the tabernacle. The people willingly brought the gold and the silver and all the things that the temple needed to have. It wasn't just because the king commanded them to do it or Moses commanded them to do it. They had a willing heart. They wanted to please God. We need to have willing hearts, and I think we all do, but we need to be conscious of that. We do it because we want to please God. Willing is such an important thing that God would have us do. Let me let me turn...Let me see. We're in the New Testament.

Let's look at James. James 3:17. Not far from where your Bible is turned to right now. James 3:17, the wisdom that is from above, God talks about here. We all pray, I'm sure, for God to give us the wisdom from above, not the wisdom of the world, but His wisdom, which surpasses anything in the world.

James 3:17 "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield."

Willing to yield to God and what His will is, even if it doesn't match up with what our will is, and especially if it doesn't match up with what our will is. Willing to yield to Him no matter what it is that He puts us in. In whatever situation He gives us, we know it's for our own good. He knows best what we need to become part of His family. We don't. He does. "Willing to yield, full of mercy, full of good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

That verse says an awfully lot. There's an awfully lot buried into that verse. If we go back to Matthew 23. Jesus Christ as He was there among the people of Judah. And He came and He was the most peaceful, giving, loving person that had ever lived on the earth. And they saw everything that He did, how He worked with people, how He was impartial, how He taught the word of God, and He was willing to do whatever it is and to heal all that were brought to him. There was nothing that He wasn't willing to do for those people, and yet they simply wouldn't yield to him. He loved them in spite of the fact that they hated Him. In spite of the fact that they put Him to death, He still loved them. And in Matthew 23, I think one of the more touching. scriptures in the Bible, Jesus Christ said...as He was approaching the day that He was going to be arrested and then crucified.

It's in Matthew 23:37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings."

All I wanted to do was take care of you. All I wanted to do was show you the way to life, peace, goodness, happiness, everything that you said you wanted. Yet you were not willing. You are not willing. You wouldn't listen. You hardened your heart. You had to have it your own way. You let your own affections restrict you from knowing the goodness of God, what He brought to all of us. Oh, Jerusalem, you were not willing. I hope all of us, we'll look at ourselves and as we examine ourselves, every single one of us, me included, are we willing to yield to God? Are we willing to do His will? Do we do it with a willing and a grateful heart, whatever it is that we do? When we give offerings, we aren't sitting back thinking, is it too much, but we are willing to give God what is in our heart and willing to do what He said to do? Carefully, diligently, willingly, three very important adverbs that define the life that God has called us to. And as we're led by His Holy Spirit, we will be careful. We will be diligent and we will be willing if we are completely committed to him.

I'm going to switch gears for just a little bit here. I'm going to go back to the book of Isaiah. When you look at the commentaries and the scholars who study the Bible in a way where they just put together all these statistics, they say that the third most quoted book that Jesus Christ quoted was Isaiah. First one being the Psalms, second Deuteronomy, third Isaiah. So if we look at the book of Isaiah and recognizing the time we live in today, I want to look at another adverb that's there. I'll just briefly remind us of the times that we live in. We live in dangerous times. We live in amazing times. We live in a time of the world that is unlike any time before us. When we look at what the Bible says and when we look at what we're capable of, we realize Jesus Christ is coming. Every single generation of Christians from the time of Christ had a sense of urgency about them.

1 Corinthians 7:29, he said, "The time is short."

But as He looked at the world around him and he saw the Gentile world he was living in, he thought, this can't go on much longer. The time is short. He had a sense of urgency. And down through history, you can see every church has a sense of urgency. But it wasn't time for Christ to return yet. Today we live in a world where we look at things all around us, and it's an amazing time we live in. When Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, "This gospel will be preached in every nation in all the world as a witness to every nation," that really can happen, and very easily with the internet. We can preach the gospel in every nation today. When you look at the world around us, and in Daniel when it talks about people will run to and fro and knowledge will increase, there has never been a time like this on earth.

We can...and I know as we have traveled around to conferences that we've been in the United States and conferences that we have planned in the international areas, it's amazing that we can do all those things in the course of one year. Be able to go out and talk to the pastors and work with them to make sure we're speaking the same things, understand the same things, looking at the Bible and and working with each other to make sure the Church is united we are doing God's work around the world. That never could happen before. We live in a world where we can hop on a plane and be literally in less than 24 hours on the other side of the world. People run to and fro. And you all have heard the internet, the multiplication of knowledge is just unbelievable how much is out there. And it continues increasingly. And with the advent of artificial intelligence, who knows where all this is going to go? I think we have an idea of where it can go. And it's not always very positive where it can go. But we live in a time that is unlike any others. And we know, we know that if the world was to go on the way and the course is in, it certainly would destroy itself.

Things and life that we've known in the United States will certainly come to an end. Those forces are already at work if you want to...if you have been watching anything that goes on and pay attention to it. Yesterday I talked about a red heifer that's so rare, but it's there. It's there in Jerusalem. There's a possibility that if they want to sacrifice that red heifer this Passover, which it's eligible to, I'm not saying they're going to, it opens up a world of possibilities for Israel over there as they find themselves in a very difficult situation with the Arab world and even increasingly the English-speaking world turning against them. We live in a time unlike any other. We live in a time where only God knows when he'll send Jesus Christ back. But we live in a time like any other and we all have to have that sense of urgency. God builds that sense of urgency back in the book of Isaiah.

Let's look at Isaiah 30 as He talks about times that haven't occurred yet and prophecies that will occur before the return of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 30, we find Him talking about the things that you and I will be doing if we continue to carefully, diligently, willingly follow God and that we will be there, part of His children, part of being there with Christ as we teach the world living at that time, the people who live over into it God's way of life as we are learning it now and can teach it to them. In verse 13, we see a word that shows up. God didn't have to use the word, but He did. And He gives us this analogy, which is very fitting for the time that we live in today.

Isaiah 30:12-14 "Therefore, He says..." well, let me read. "Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word, you want nothing to do with it. You want to just forget it. Because you despise this word, because you trust in oppression and perversity and rely on them..." Doesn't that say a lot about the world we live in today? "Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly," suddenly, "in an instant. It will break like the potter's vessel."

He says. "Broken in pieces, it can't be put back together again. No matter how hard they try, only Jesus Christ is the answer to what the world will bring itself to because they have departed from God in trust and oppression and perversity." But He stresses...and the word in there is suddenly. It's just like when you see things happening in your house and you think, I need to address that one day because that's new. I should pay attention to that. But you kind of just let it go by. The wall doesn't burst or the pipe doesn't burst at that time and it goes on day after day. You used to it. And then one day you come home and the pipe is burst, your house is flooded. Happened suddenly, but you saw it coming. You just didn't pay attention at that time. You just didn't pay attention to what was going on. That's what will happen to the world. All the signs are there. When you look at the economy, when you look at digital currency, even people that are in the know saying, don't understand how the economy has stayed the way it is, doesn't make any sense, and believe me, it doesn't make any sense. It's only God that is holding it together until the time that He does, and it will come suddenly because many in the world have just put themselves to sleep. It's all there. We keep hearing these things, but life is good, got plenty of money. Maybe not so much plenty of money anymore, but we aren't missing meals or anything like that.

Later on in Isaiah, in Chapter 47, He uses that same word again, 47, begin in verse 10. "You have trusted..."

Isaiah 47:10-13 "You have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, 'No one sees me. God's not watching, we can do what we want.' Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you. And you have said in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me.' Therefore, evil shall come upon you. You won't know from where it arises, and trouble will fall upon you. You will not be able to put it off, and desolation shall come upon you suddenly." Suddenly. Chapter 48:3, "I have declared the former things from the beginning. They went forth from my mouth and caused them to hear it." You and I have all heard. God will direct the word so that the world hears. "They went forth from my mouth and I caused them to hear suddenly. Suddenly, I did them and they came to pass." Suddenly.

Suddenly should put a sense of urgency in our minds and hearts. We don't know when suddenly is. Could be soon, could be far off. Only God knows, but we don't know. Suddenly, could easily mean that we are not here tomorrow. I could drop dead tomorrow. Would I be ready for God if suddenly my life ended? Would you be ready if suddenly your life ended? Because there's no guarantee that we're going to live until the return of Jesus Christ. There is a guarantee that at some point in time God will look at us, and suddenly that life could end. Would we be ready or are we just lolling ourselves to sleep like the 10 virgins in Matthew 25? Are we paying attention to what's going on? Are we aware of what God is saying? Are we carefully, diligently, willingly following God? Let's go back to 1 Thessalonians 5 because notably this word shows up as it pertains to God's people, you and me.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 "Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need," Paul says, "that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. You won't see it coming. You'll know it's about to come. You're not going to know exactly when for when they say peace and safety."

Whatever peace and safety is in the world's minds, when they say peace and safety, then sudden, sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. They weren't ready. They didn't see it coming. They lulled themselves to sleep. All the news media, all the politicians, everything is okay. Don't worry about it. We're doing this and we're doing that. But God says to us, through Paul's words that He inspired here.

1 Thessalonians 5:4 "But you brethren are not in darkness, so that this day should come overtake you as a thief. You are sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober."

Don't fall asleep. Suddenly is going to come suddenly. Any morning, any morning...as we learned back in 2007 and '08 with the mortgage crisis, any morning we could wake up and life as we have know it has changed. The economy could fall. It is that perilous. It is a bulge in the wall, just willing, just ready to break whenever God determines it should break. Suddenly. Suddenly to the world they won't have any clue what to do. But you and I, while we might momentarily be surprised, will remember God has called us. He's the way through. We are children of light. We are walking with Him. We are doing His will. And that's what we've been called to do. But we must have a sense of urgency about it and be doing His will now. I won't turn to Ephesians 5:16, but it says there. "Redeem the time," redeem the time, make use of it, "because the days are evil." And if we don't think these days are evil and will become more evil, then we need to wake up. We need to wake up and see what is going on.

So suddenly is another one of those adverbs we can add to our list as we review how we are. How are we living God's way of life? Do we have that sense of urgency that drives us to become more like God, to dedicate our lives to it? And there's one more, one more little adverb I want to talk about in the time I have left. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6. It's one little word that we use all the time, but when God uses it, it applies, as I said, to every generation of Christians. Every one of them had a sense of urgency because they could see the times they live in. We live in times unlike any other, any other.

2 Corinthians 6:2 "For He says, 'In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.' Behold, now..." Little adverb, now. "Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation."

Now for you and me. Now. Not way down the road, not put it on a shelf and we'll deal with that in a year, two, three, or four years. Now is the day of salvation. Now we see what's going on. Now we know what God is doing. Now we have the instructions that He gives us to be ready for His return, to become who He wants us to become. Look at Romans 13. Romans 13:11. I'm going to read verse 10, so we read right into verse 11. Here's agape. We talked about agape a little bit. We know that God is agape. He wants us, first listed as fruit of the Spirit, that He wants us to have as part of our character makeup.

Romans 13:10 "Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

We grow into that, loving God with all our hearts, minds, and soul, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. "And do this," Paul writes, "knowing the time that now, now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than we first believed."

Yes, it is. Now it is nearer. Now we can see Revelation 13, as I often say, in the headlights. Now we can look and say, I see how that society, I see how that civilization, I see how that government can be there. I see the things in Revelation 13. We can see the world headed in that direction. Now is the time to wake up. Now our salvation is nearer, certainly, than when we first believed. Now is the time. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2:9. Oops, wrong chapter. 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:9-10 "You..." speaking of you and me, right, and everyone listening to this message, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." That's us. That's what He expects us to be doing. "Who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

God has made us His people. God has bound us together. His Holy Spirit binds us together. Now is the time to be doing those things, working on all the things that God wants us, now becoming one with each other, one with God, doing the things that He said, getting ready, doing and fulfilling the commission He has for the Church, but also working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, as He says in Philippians, now, now is the time. 1 John, 1 John 3:2...Verse one.

1 John 3:1-2 "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us," that's you and me, people who He has called. We responded to Him and said, we will do whatever you say. We will go wherever you say to go. Do whatever you want us to do. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God." If we can even fathom what that means, "God's own people but God's own children. Therefore, the world doesn't know us because it didn't know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God."

And it hasn't yet been revealed what we will be, but we know that when He is revealed, we'll be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Now God sees us as His children. Now God is teaching and training. Now God is saying, be ready. I want you to grow up to be like me so that you can serve in the way that you have been told you would serve and in the way that I want you to serve and I'm preparing you to do.

1 John 3:3 Says, "And everyone who has this hope, if we believe it..." What do we do? "Purify ourselves just as He is pure."

How do we purify ourselves? Carefully, diligently, willingly obey, have the sense of urgency that God wants us to have, understanding now is the time, and we don't have any idea how much time us individually have. We have no idea when Jesus Christ is coming back. We can see the writing on the wall, but we don't know. But it could happen anytime, we're told. Suddenly, we could wake up one day and the whole world is different. If we do those things that God said, if we pay attention to those adverbs as He gives us an adjective to walk in His way, do the things that He wants us to do, and be very careful about the way we live and not allow ourselves to be deceived by the world, watered down by the world, trying to be like the world, but simply teaching, living, and applying in our lives the pure Word of God, doing the things the way that He says. If we do those things...because God is looking for us. He is looking how it will be.

1 Peter 4:17 Says, "Judgment is on the house of God."

That's today that he's looking at you and me. What is our progress? How are we doing things? Because you know God will see how we do things. And there's one more now that he's waiting to see. Go back to Genesis 22:12. Story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham diligently followed God. Abraham carefully obeyed what God said. Abraham willingly did whatever God said, including as the test came on, even sacrifice your son, Abraham. And Abraham willingly did it. He was ready to do it. God could see what was in his heart, he will do whatever I ask him to do. And of course, God stopped him from executing or killing his son. But in verse 12, something that we want God to say about us in a positive manner in the way that He said it about Abraham.

Genesis 12:22 And God said, "Don't lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him for now. Now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld any...so withheld your son, your only son from me."

Now I know. Now I know. I know what's in your heart. I see what you have done. I see that you have completely yielded yourself to me to do whatever I say. Now, we don't want God to say somewhere, now I know that you won't. You've taken things too lightly, you've compromised too much, you have continued to stay asleep or harden your heart or whatever it is, you just won't listen.

We all want to be there when God says of us, whatever it is and whenever it is in our lives, now I know that you will obey me, that you fear me, and I know what's in your heart, you are ready. You are ready to be born into the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns. That's what we want. Let's all keep that in our minds and in our hearts as we go through our lives. And as we prepare for Passover, maybe ask yourself question. Carefully? Diligently? Willingly? Do I get suddenly? Am I working toward the day that God knows, God knows my heart is completely with Him? We can all be there. We can all be there if we let God's Holy Spirit lead us and guide us. And I know that's our prayer for each other.