Good morning everyone. Welcome to the Burnings in the Soul luncheon. I just wanted to give you a five minute heads up. So begin, as you know some people are still registering, but those who are in here, begin finding your seats and we're going to begin in about five minutes. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, can we do one more piece? Yeah. Front and back.

So it's a little wider. Let's do that. Yeah, they can see it. Well, so are you Google? No, that's good.

Yeah. It's tall. Okay, may I have your attention? Are you hungry? Okay, well this thing is all ready.

Well thanks for coming. This is a feast. It's a celebration. It's a time to give thanks and to hear from men who have something burning in their souls. I've always loved this time.

I think that when this time is concluded I've always thought this is the best part of the conference. I think we should just go home now. But that's not going to happen. But anyway, thank you for coming and I'd just like to lead us in prayer and then you see the two buffet lines you can just serve yourselves. Let's pray.

Oh Lord we thank you for your provision how all the days of our lives you've brought food to us to sustain us. Oh Lord you are so kind to do this for sinners To do this for men who fall short in so many ways who have so far to go But you Lord your kindness your mercy is extended Daily toward us and so Oh Lord we want to use This opportunity to eat to break bread together to fellowship with one another to celebrate your kindness to us Oh Lord that you would give us The words of kindness upon our lips that you would help the brothers to encourage one another To help one another to be a blessing to one another Lord. I pray for Conversations that would be helpful to the souls of every person that sits and eats together Lord that you would raise up in us the works of your spirit all of these wonderful one another's that you've established and now that we would partake in them you are such a kind father amen if it's the first message he reads, that's kinda how we got to know him. He does something about it.

It's just a way that, that's all right. He's not gonna be able to talk to you about it. He's not gonna be able to talk to you about it. No, yeah, but I think that's, that's rather interesting. He's had some Bible studies.

Okay, yeah. There's something in front of him. He's this guy, he's like, She was here with me and she was busy so she was like, hey, stop the little guy. And that's how I went. That's how I knew I was a program.

That's my potential. And then like, Lord, now I'm just with the rest. Th th th th th th th th th Well, welcome again. I hope everybody enjoyed the lunch. Sorry for the abrupt interruption, but before we begin this time I thought it would be wonderful for us to stand and rise together and sing as men.

We're going to sing together the solid rock. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name On Christ the solid rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking sand. When he shall come.

When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found dressed in his righteousness alone for less to stand before the throne on Christ the solid rock I stand all the ground sinking sand all the rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking sand. All of the ground is sinking sand. Amen. You may be seated.

So now is the time where we begin the time of teaching that will run through this afternoon and I want to invite up Scott Brown, the director of the NCFIC, a pastor of Hope Baptist Church and a dear friend to all of us to introduce our speakers today. Please welcome with me Scott Brown. Well welcome to Burnings in the Soul. If you've been here before, how many of you have not been here before? Raise your hand.

Amazing. Okay. So here's the deal. I guess I better explain what this is all about. We ask men who are here at the conference to come and speak about what's burning in their soul.

It's pretty simple. We don't ask them to speak on anything in particular except something that they have great interest in and desire before the Lord to come and do what men ought to do and that is to cry out to God and to receive help from him and to speak boldly, lovingly about that matter. So that's what these men are going to do. I have no idea what they're going to say, but I'm really excited about it. And so the first man that we have up is Kevin Swanson.

Kevin Swanson, pastor of Reformation Church, operates Generations with Vision, an absolutely wonderful radio program, a social commentator, a bold man, a man who's really uncovering, Exposing the works of the devil in many many areas of our lives Is such a blessing. I'm so grateful Kevin that you've come. Thank you Thank you Scott Brothers God is working on us God is active. God is breaking us down. God is humbling his people.

It's happening right now. And I praise Jesus that he cares so much about his church that he will break us down That he would have something of a church What's on my mind is apostasy Apostasy is on my mind we live in remarkable times And the apostasy of previous centuries in the West is now affecting America, and it's breaking out big time. I was raised by Reformed Baptist parents in the 1960s and 1970s, and my parents were very affected by A.W. Pink and John Murray and others that were writing in the early 50s and 60s, and these men understood the apostasy that was coming, and now it's breaking out. Now it's becoming, I think, more obvious than any other time in American history the apostasy began in the previous couple centuries and I wrote a book called apostate this last year my goal is to move 50, 000 copies of it because I want to strengthen the things that remain we're here for a reason God's kingdom is all around the world and I appreciate that it's good thing His kingdom is moving into every continent.

But we're here in America. We work here. And we need to, I think, caution people concerning the apostasy. That is all around us. Much of it is in the universities, in the liberal arts schools.

There's a reason why twice as many liberal arts professors in Christian colleges believe in old earth evolution versus the science department heads. And it's not because the liberal arts guys know more about science. Okay, it's because liberal arts professors tend to be liberal. And they're liberal because they don't understand the antithesis in world views that really need to be brought to bear in the literature classroom. I don't know of a single homeschool literature curriculum that introduces any kind of world view conflict in the study of Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, or any of the other classics.

I don't know of a single one. That's why I wrote the book Apostate, because I think it's time for a change in the game. I'm tired of losing. Our best and brightest go to liberal arts colleges, they become the next batch of pastors and political leaders and educators that will guarantee an apostasy from generation to generation to generation. Happened in Harvard, happened in Yale, happened in Princeton, and will continue to happen in Wheaton and all the other liberal colleges, liberal arts colleges, until we bring antithesis to bear in liberal arts.

We need to point out that the great writers, the great thinkers that are being studied in liberal arts colleges are almost without exception self-professed apostates from the Christian church of the last several centuries. Brothers, it's time that we understand that today is a day of apostasy, and it's affecting Reformed Baptist pastors, Reformed Presbyterian pastors. I look over the previous 30 years of my life, and I've seen the children of good solid Reformed Baptist and Reformed Presbyterian pastors leave the faith and it's almost without exception There's one or two children or three or four or five that are leaving the faith generation after generation after generation. Apostasy is real and it's affecting our churches. The zeitgeist is apostasy.

That is the spirit of the age is apostasy. And I think we need to recognize it. We need to teach our children about it. Our children, my children, are, have been very much affected the last several years because they have seen their fellow professing believers, their friends, from our churches walk away from the faith. Some of them becoming liberal atheists, evolutionists, homosexuals.

We continue to witness this in our day, and I think we need to encourage our children to a scriptural, biblical, God-centered perspective in life. This need to be preached in our churches. The bottom line is it's a man-centered approach versus a God-centered approach that is primarily evident in worship. That's why this conference, I think, is so important. I took a look at this and said, this is a conference that is not about you.

And anybody coming to this conference, you know, this is not a sales pitch for anybody who wants to attend a conference that's about them. This is a conference about God and about the worship of Almighty God and as people walk into our family integrated churches oftentimes they are more taken by the horizontal than by the vertical this is one reason we have so much attrition in our churches many of you I'm sure I've seen it over five eight ten twelve years you take a look at the church directory twelve years ago it's only 20% of the people remaining or 30% or 40% remaining after 12 to 13 to 14 years many of them came to our churches because they were looking for something for them. They were not looking to give glory to God. And this man-centered approach to church, this focus on fellowship versus a focus on the God-centered worship of God is demonstrating the lack of commitment, the lack of a centrality of God in the minds and hearts of tens of millions of Americans who attend our family integrated churches our our evangelical churches are fundamental churches listen I believe right now that the evangelical and fundamentalist churches are collapsing.

They're either turning towards liberalism or they will reform. They'll do one or the other. But for the time being, fundamentalism and evangelicalism was a halfway house. It was a refusal to separate from the liberalism, entirely from liberalism of the 1920s and 30s. Christianity today would not completely reform.

They would not go the direction of J Gresham a chin and others in the 1920s and 30s so they establish a halfway house will which will not survive in the present earthquakes that are they're taking down Western Christianity I'm telling you they're not going to survive. Evangelicalism and fundamentalism while either reformed that has come back to a god-centered metaphysic epistemology and ethic or they will completely apostatize for the faith I think in just the next 20 to 30 years. So right now is the time for Reformation and the time for repentance. The message that I think I'd like to convey to all of us is it is repent or you will likewise perish. This is the message that Jesus Christ is sending home to his church in the present day.

You must repent or you will likewise perish and I'm not speaking just towards your church I'm speaking towards you men and this this message applies to each and every one of us individually. Either we will repent the salient sins of the day that is the man centered at nest the materialistic focus on ourselves the existential istic escapism of moving into a world fulfilled with pleasures and entertainment versus worshiping and focusing and living for the true and living God. It will be one or the other. It will either be us repenting of our sex-saturated culture, of our tendency towards fornication and towards being driven towards pornography and these sorts of things. Either we're gonna repent of our feminism in the church as it is exemplified and lived out in the lives of the ladies and the men in our church either will repent of the existentialism materialism the feminism the sexual perversion either we will repent of these things or we will likewise perish as the world is perishing around us right now the world is seeing its birth implosions the world is seeing its materialism kill itself it's it's debt saturated existentialism will destroy its socioeconomic systems We are watching the world pass away with its lust thereof.

We're watching sexual nihilism everywhere. People are moving from homosexuality now to just plain old fashioned sexual nihilism. The world is taking care of itself. Jesus will see to it that the world will destroy itself. The question we have for God's people is will you repent?

If you will not repent, Jesus says you will likewise perish. In our family integrated churches, I think we do have a benefit in that we have relationships and relationships really do point out the hypocrisies that exist within the hearts of fathers and children. Family-integrated churches enable us to see each other. It enables more transparency. Relationships do enable transparencies, and this is why we're starting to see a fair amount of hypocrisy rise to the surface.

In many of our churches, we're starting to see pastors and fathers exhibit some hypocrisy, and believe me, their children who are raised in those homes in relationship begin to note these hypocrisies, and that's one reason why they they continue on with the hypocrisy and they become more self-conscious in their rebellion and become full-fledged apostates and open up the websites I hate homeschooling calm or homeschoolers anonymous calm And tell everybody their full-fledged support for sexual perversions and such. Okay, this is this is what's happening right now within the family integrated churches. So if God is stripping back the facades in your churches, as he is in ours, he's taking back the thin, fundamentalistic facades in the lives of our family members. Their children are seeing them as they really are. They're seeing them who they really are.

And I say praise God he's beginning to show us who we are. He's showing us where we need to repent and where we really need the blood cleansing of Jesus Christ himself friends this is a time I think of repentance and reconciliation and Reformation in the church this is a good time final point I want to make is this is a time of serious spiritual battle the leaders in our churches the elders the pastors myself included have I think been under serious spiritual attack We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. I sense this more than I ever have in my life we are in spiritual battle we are in all-out spiritual attack and I think the first thing to do is to recognize it and then take on the full armor of God be on your knees brothers for two three four five hours a day if you are in the thick of conflict, recognize the spiritual warfare is real, understand it, turn to God because it is only God that can help us to take down these hundred-foot dragons that are destroying the villages and raking their claws down the backs of our churches and potentially ruining the lives of other men around us.

Let us turn to God in faith. This is a time to embrace Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of the church. Thank you so much. Kevin thank you thank you so much. Next I'd like to bring up Sam Waldron, who is one of the pastors at Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky.

And he's also the academic dean and professor of systematic theology at the Midwest Center for Theological Studies. And Sam is a kindred spirit in many ways. He's here to carry some really important water at this conference, and I'm so glad that he's come. And so, Sam, over to you. I'm really happy to be here and I'm really happy for the invitation from Scott to be here for several reasons.

First of all, I'm happy about it because of the largeness of heart and confessional center it shows that Scott has. That's really encouraging to me. I'm also happy to be here because of what Scott has asked me to speak about this week. I don't think that there are many subjects more important to reform churches in our day than the subject of the regular principle of worship that is one of the themes, if not the theme, of this year's conference. And I'm excited to speak on this subject because, for several reasons, but first of all, because there's nothing more important than the worship of God corporately in our churches.

There is nothing more important than that in the world than the worship of God corporately in our churches. I'm also happy to speak on this subject because there is a lot of unrest and confusion about this subject. There are a form in denying the regulative principle who grew up in historic historically in churches that believed it. There are some that are so on reinterpreting it that it's unrecognizable in terms of its historical meaning. And then I think there are others that are attending to the most rigid and extreme applications of it.

And so I'm really happy to be talking about it this week for that reason as well. I'm happy to be talking about it because there's almost nothing more important in the worship of the church than the sense that in worship we are confronting not human inventions or human traditions but biblical and divine institutions. When our people come to church, they have to know, they need to know, they deserve to know, that they're coming to church to do the things God has told them to do in his word. And there's just very few things more important than that. They have to know that we're worshiping God in the way that he is appointed in his word.

It's their right to know that, it's their liberty to know that, and it's our duty as leaders of our churches to give them divinely appointed worship. And I'm happy to be here speaking on this subject because there's nothing more important in our day, I think, than a careful restatement of both the biblical framework and the biblical basis of the regulative principle of the worship of the church. If the people of God are to worship in a way that is both pleasing to him, protective of their liberty, and richly brings to them a sense of the presence of God, the special presence of God in the worship of his church, then we need to understand this issue a whole lot better than we do, and I hope to do a little bit towards that end this week. Thank you. It's always a blessing to be in a gathering like this among many friends, many pastor friends, battle scarred yet happy men.

And next, Craig Houston is going to come up. He's one of those men, a dear friend from across the country pastor of Eastside Baptist Church he was a he was a pastor at age 22 you know I was a pastor at age 26 but he's beat me there's another guy over here was at pastor who's age 25 but anyway Craig Houston has has been called to the Lord to come and minister to the Church of Jesus Christ and now he's going to come and minister to us. Well it's a delight to be here this afternoon and to be able to share with you the burnings of my soul. That's a hard thing to narrow down. First I just want to say thank you to so many of you for praying for our family.

And my daughter, Anna, many of you have already this week said, we've been praying for you and following what is going on. And I'm grateful to share with you that she is doing quite well, and we'll find out mid-November whether the cancer is completely gone or not after the bone marrow transplant. But everything points right now to that reality. So we're grateful for that. Thankful for my my wife and my family.

That's always burning on my soul. What I want to share with you this morning is the need for us as men of God as pastors to train up the next generation of men of God. There is no future to what we're doing if we will not do the hard work of investing in the lives of men, of investing in the lives of young men, many of whom may be fatherless in our midst, who need fathers in the faith like Paul was for Timothy. This needs to be something that does not leave the forefront of our mind and our life. Just as we are called to raise up our children to walk with them to talk with them when they lie down when they rise up when they and they go in the way we're to teach them the word of the living God we're to teach them to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I submit to you that as shepherds, for those of you who are elders and pastors in your church, we have this great obligation to treat the young men and the men in our church in the same way, to be a father to them and to nourish them up in the faith. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 1, thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. I think we need to recognize here this familiar language that is being revealed here. There is a relationship between Paul and Timothy that is as a son. This indicates there was a deep relationship that had been developed and that that takes time that takes our life to do that it says thou that for my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." We know this verse, we're familiar with this verse, but we see Paul sharing with Timothy his son in the faith to go and do likewise with other sons in the faith so that this work of the gospel of grace and this work of church planting and shepherding of the people of God could continue.

It was not something that he was to take lightly, he was to commit himself to faithful men. That word commit has a strong depth and meaning of being fully and wholly devoted to those whom you are ministering to, to those whom you are leading in the faith, to those whom you are bringing up in the ways of the Lord. He's also exhorted that it would be hard. It would be hard. The work that we do is not an easy work.

The work that we do sometimes comes with heartbreak. If you've been in the ministry for long, you'll understand that that is the case. You at times will invest, as I have, you'll invest your life into people who will turn and who will either apostatize or they will flee in some other way. And yet we need to remain faithful. We need to remain faithful no matter the cost.

Just now therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Don't count on it to be easy. Don't count on it to be without cost training men for the work of the ministry. Training sons, I am the blessed father of five sons. Training sons is not a easy task.

It's a hard task, but frequently because you're dealing with your sins in them. If you have children you can probably relate to that. Some of the things that frustrate you the most are like looking in the mirror and yet you continue on because you want a better way for them. You want to teach and strengthen them and this is going to take a total devotion of our life. It says, no man that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.

It's going to require us to be all in if we are to raise up the next generation of faithful men. And I want to just for for a minute from the book of Proverbs, a minute or two, share with you one, I think, key element that we need to really seek to instill in the hearts of young men. And it is something to instill in them that should be a life-long pursuit, and that is wisdom. Proverbs 24 verse 1 says be not thou envious against evil men neither desire to be with them for their heart studieth destruction and their lips talk of mischief. Through wisdom is in house builded and by understanding it is established and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

A wise man is strong, yea a man of knowledge increases strength. For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war. And in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. But wisdom is too high for a fool. Wisdom, the scripture says, is the principal thing.

Therefore, get wisdom. I think in the day and age of which we live and young men desire to be strong and the Bible says that young men's glory is their strength and yet their pursuit of life and my pursuit your pursuit of life should be to grow in wisdom in all things. Wisdom and how we better worship the Lord as we're going to learn about this week and hopefully it will it will build up in the treasure trove of wisdom in our hearts and minds and we will all leave changed, sharpened, strengthened in this way, more faithful to the word of God, more faithful to pleasing our Lord and Savior. Young men that are here this morning in particular, this afternoon, There's a lot of emphasis on strength in our culture, physical strength of all kinds. False ideas of what strength is.

False idea of what makes a man powerful. Position, notoriety, popularity, fame, muscles, athletic prowess, all these things are focused on as what it really is to be a man, to be strong. And I submit to you from this book of Proverbs, the same principles that Paul was seeking to teach his son Timothy was to grow in wisdom and strength as a man. Growing up as a boy ever since I was an infant, there was a name placard in my room. I still have it on my desk in my study at home.

It says Craig strong enduring and underneath it has these words from Proverbs 24 a wise man is strong a man of knowledge increases strength. We need to be those men who are seeking to have the wisdom of God that we might be strong. We need to be those men who are seeking to grow in wisdom continually because it is a true strength that God desires to give us. The book of Proverbs chapter four, there's so much about wisdom here and I have a brief amount of time. Proverbs chapter four and verse seven, the scripture says, Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding.

Wise men are strong. You want true strength? As a young man or an elder statesman, seek the wisdom of God and you will obtain real strength. One of the things that I love about some of the men in this room who have been serving the Lord for many years is their desire to continue to grow. That's what wise men do.

They never get out of the habit of seeking to grow in grace. Brother Kevin, just share with me in line. It's we never get to the place. We should never get to the place where we just coast We have to continue to pursue wisdom and knowledge and understanding Wise men are the kind of men who keep growing It doesn't matter if you have no letters behind your name, or if you have 20 letters behind your name, you have not yet obtained. Continue to seek the wisdom of God.

Proverbs 1 says in verse 5, it says, a wise man will hear and will increase in learning. A man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb in the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, or their deep meaning. The meaning, if you will, that's under the words that are spoken, the deep riches of God's word. Wise men will grow, and here's something that is hard to learn wise men will grow by receiving a rebuke and instruction from their elders. This is paramount.

None of us like to be rebuked, but when we grow in wisdom we will learn that that is not something that is done against us, it is done for us. Especially when it's done in the spirit of grace and love. Proverbs chapter 9 and verse number 8 says, Reprove not a scorn or lest he hate thee, but rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. He will grow, teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the holy is understanding. We need to grow in wisdom. This is taught throughout the book of Proverbs as well as through the rest of scripture. Proverbs 17 verse 10 says these words, a reproof entereth into a wise man more than a hundred stripes into a fool. Don't be one who despises instruction, who despises the the growth and the rebuke.

Paul was loving but he was also sharp in the sense of his rebuke was well placed even with Timothy in training him for the ministry. Wise men speak carefully. They choose their words with discretion. This is something that in our day and age, even just using words at all in a profitable way has not only, it's just fallen out of vogue, I guess. It's almost non-existent.

The scripture teaches in Proverbs 29, verse nine, if a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest. The bloodthirsty hate the upright, but the just seek his soul. A fool uttereth all his mind, But a wise man keepeth it till afterwards. He knows when to use words, and he knows when to hold them in. He knows when a debate is profitable, and he knows when a debate is endless genealogies and the like.

Wise men will use words, even Proverbs 16, 14 says, to pacify kings. And lastly, wise men will live righteously. Did you know something in Christianity at large that is almost completely gone? It's a word holy. Holiness.

Righteousness. The reason it's never preached on or rarely, the reason there's not a load of books being written on the subject is because It's rarely being practiced amongst God's people. We need to have that be one of the marks of this body, of this group of men, brothers from around the country and even from different countries that are here this morning or this afternoon. We need to live righteously. Living righteously begins with the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge and understanding.

If we do not fear God, we'll do whatever we want. We'll do whatever we want in worship rather than the Word of God regulating how we worship. We'll do whatever we want in our private lives rather than the Word of God guiding what we do. We're to build our house as wise men. Matthew gospel Jesus said a wise man builds his house upon the rock and he'll weather the storms.

We need to use good judgment and be wise and discerning as we live righteously. Have a good walk before others that they might see, that they might turn and glorify the Father, James teaches us. And lastly, Jeremiah 9 23. Jeremiah 9 23, the scripture says, Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

Men, we must train up young men. We must have sons in the faith, sons in the ministry, and we must seek to live before them as wise men and to train them to pursue wisdom that they might lead generations beyond the present. Thank you. Thanks. Craig, thank you.

You get a lot of extra points when you quote my dad's favorite chapter in the Bible, Proverbs 24. Thanks. Next, it's my pleasure to bring one of my longtime friends, labored together as elders for many, many years. I've known each other for a quarter of a century, have gone to the same church, you know, for many, many, many years. And he is the pastor of Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, which he planted two years ago, two and a half years ago, a church plant from our church, Hope Baptist church and it's really a blessing have Jason Jason talk us.

Let's pray. Father it is good to be before you. Why would you even look upon us, God, that you've brought us together to consider your word Oh God be lifted up and highly exalted we want to consecrate the time to you it would be completely set apart for purposes Your people would be strengthened. Feed us Lord. Send us out with joy.

I pray in Jesus name. Amen. This is from Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 and 6. Jesus says, and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly I say to you they have their reward but you when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

I'm a very normal man in this regard. I like to do the things I'm good at. God has given me some gifts. When I get to work in those things it makes me really happy I like to do that because I can do those things I can make that happen and so when my to do list contains the things that I can make happen it is a good day but a question has been persistently pressing on me and I believe this is the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Here's the question.

What do the people God has me serving need the most? What do the people God has me serving need the most? The things I can do, the things I like to have on my to-do list because I can do them, I can make those things happen. I'm an orderly person. I'm a very systematic person.

So I can make things run relatively predictably. Is that what the people God has me serving need the most? Or do they need the things I can't do? Do they need spiritual desire? Do they need repentance?

Do they need more faith? Do they need spiritual insight? Try to go impart those things just with activity. Go ahead. Have you ever tried that?

I've tried that a bunch of times. Just ends in discouragement. Only God can do those things. The people that I'm serving need more spiritual desire. They need repentance.

They need faith. They need a bunch of things I can't do for them. Then how should I be allocating my time? Prayer. Prayer.

I need to go into my room and shut the door and pray to my Father who is in the secret place for clarity. I'm talking about a place I think God is going to take me. So I'm not coming to say, I'm here, you guys come over here. I just see all the signs of pressure that God brings to bear on me when He's going to take me somewhere where I'm not. And so I know that this is what's happening.

This has happened in a bunch of different categories in my life before and the pressure is there so God is God is going to take me there so I'm just simply here to say brothers Maybe he wants us to go there together. I'm a praying man. I know how to touch on the heads of a few things and then move on to my activities. Is that the kind of praying men you are too? You know how to touch on the heads of a few things before you move on to the things that you're good at and you like to do because you know how to make those things happen.

I can tell this is going to cost me. It's going to cost me things that are very lawful but unprofitable. In other words, no one can reproach me and say, you're doing unlawful things for the things that this will cost me. It's going to cost me sleep, I know that. It's going to cost me entertainment and amusement, I know that.

But I can't get these words out of my head. Pay it. Pay it. Because when God has moved me before, brought pressure to bear before, and I've counted the cost, and I've not been able to get the words out of my head, pay it! I've never one time been sorry.

I've never looked back and said, wow, I wish I wouldn't have paid it. Brothers what about you? We're a room full of men and because we're men it means that there are people in our lives that God has us serving. This is not just pastors. This is husbands and fathers.

If you're a man, there are people God has you serving. What do they need most from you? The things you're good at? The things that you can do? The list of things that you can make happen?

No! They need the things that you're utterly unable to do. Brothers, has God gotten stingy about answering the prayers of his people? Doesn't God give us promises that make our jaws drop, then why won't we pray? When Kevin says when you're under attack and you need to pray for three hours, four hours, five hours, are you like me?" And you say, What are you talking about?

What are you talking about? May God put his hand upon us and bring all the pressure to bear that it takes to move us from where we are to there where we'll go into our room and we'll shut the door for however many hours because He will answer our prayers. He has said he will answer our prayers. The people that God has us serving need the things that we cannot do, and they need us to be men who have been with God much, because it changes us. They don't need us as we are.

They need us as we will be when we spend much time with God. Let's pray. Father, come. God, Forgive us for our coldness of heart. We're so happy to do things that are under control.

And we're so reluctant to come to you and wrestle with you and labor with you in prayer forgive me oh Lord I pray that you would change us and make us a people wholly dependent upon you who are have so many less things on our lists and have cleared time to be with you. May it be so in Jesus name. I'm always grateful for men who love the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who dedicate their hearts, souls to them. Steve Grusias is one of those men. He is an elder at a Christian Heritage Church in the Chicago area.

And I'm so grateful, Steve, that you're able to come. Would you come and speak to us now last year if you remember the Sunday service at the conference, Scott shared a message on prayer. This kind doesn't come forth except by prayer and fasting, and that was very meaningful to us. At our church, we rent a facility and we were able to get a Thursday night for prayer meeting finally and so for the last year we've been praying on Thursday nights and it's been a blessing a blessing to the church and we're believing God for some great things well burning on your soul what it what a topic or a thing to talk on. As I was thinking about this, it wasn't hard for me to decide what it was.

About two or three weeks ago, I was reading through Joshua's chapter 13 and 14. And it really hit me hard as I was reading through it. In Joshua chapter 13, the very first verse of that chapter, it says, Now Joshua was old and advanced in years when the Lord said to him, you are old and advanced in years. And they just hit me as kind of funny. That guy would tell Joshua he was old and advanced in years.

But he didn't stop there. He said, and very much the land remains to be possessed. So he's bringing reality to Joshua. Two realities. One, you're very old.

And two, there's still a lot of work to be done. So I continued reading on in that chapter and it started laying out some of the land that wasn't possessed yet and then when it went on in chapter 14 to talk about the land how it was going to be distributed and when it got to Caleb's share if you remember who Caleb was he was the other man that that was the spy with Joshua These are the only two men that made it out of the wilderness alive, because they brought a good report about the land. And Joshua, or I'm sorry, Caleb was also old and advanced in years, he was 85 years old. But this was his request to Joshua. He said, Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day.

For you heard on that day that Anakim were there. Now the Anakim were like the Vikings. They were the giants. The Anakim were there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken." So here's Caleb's request.

He said, you know, I want the hit he's 85 years old. He says, I want the hill country because it's harder to do battle in the hill country. I want to go fight the Giants because they're harder to defeat and I want to tear down the strong fortresses. And so I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about the country I live in. Kevin even mentioned today that other men have mentioned today.

And I started to think about it and I said, wow, do you think that very much of the land remains to be possessed by the Church of Jesus Jesus Christ of the United States of America. Absolutely. Do you think there are giants in the land? Do you think there are fortresses that need to be defeated and torn down? And there are.

But Our battle isn't going to look the same as Joshua and Caleb's battle did. It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 that though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they're divinely powerful for the purpose of destroying fortresses. We're destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The fortresses that we need to take down is the worldly wisdom of man.

The fortresses we need to take down is the false knowledge and the false science that's propagated out there. One of the greatest strongholds in our days is false science and false knowledge. It's exalted to the point of a god, where the experts and the academic elite are bowed down to and worshiped because of who they are. If you remember, Paul warned Timothy about this, the very last chapter of 1 Timothy. He says, oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter, and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called science or falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.

By mincing worldly wisdom, many of Timothy's contemporaries have strayed from the faith because they've taken that as true knowledge instead of what it is false knowledge. Now the church has been assaulted by this on every front just like Kevin was talking about. You know we've been evolutionized Thanks to men like Henry Morris, Ken Ham, we've confronted evolution head on and proved it to be what it is, a false science. But a remnant of evolutionary thinking remains in the Church. Progressive revelation, which is a biblical concept, you know, the the New Testament reveals the Old Testament this idea progressive revelation It's been replaced With evolutionary thinking in the church.

That's what the emerging church movement is about It's an evolving view of the nature of God, an evolving view of God's law, an evolving view of sin and eternal punishment. So as we're still tainted by this, we've been psychologized. We live in a psychologized culture that marginalizes the church and its ability to help people with real problems. In seminary pastors are taught that they can only handle the little issues and that any major issue must be turned over to the experts, the psychiatrist, the psychologist, the psychoanalyst. In other words, it's another way of saying that the Bible is not sufficient.

You need added knowledge to address these issues, a secret knowledge, it's a modern form of Gnosticism, but that's what they're told. Many pastors view certain types of sin as a mental illness that require specialized therapy Habitual sin is now called addictive or compulsive behavior and its solution is found in psychiatric care and group therapy rather than moral correction and reproof Which is what we're told to do reprove rebuke exhort with all patients To think about it a psychiatrist would have a field day with the Bible, you know. Samson and Delilah were in a codependent relationship. What happened with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? Was that an acute anxiety attack?

How would they explain Nebuchadnezzar you know it's one day run it out in the field eating grass schizophrenia they need Prozac how what would they do to diagnose that But what did God say that happened? He was proud. I took his sanity away. He repented. I gave it back and I restored his kingdom.

See what I'm saying? The Bible is sufficient for all these issues and we turn to other things because somehow we don't believe that. Just think about what is currently being taught in colleges across America. Almost every facet of education is a stronghold or a fortress that needs to be torn down and brought under the obedience of Christ. Think of philosophy, think of environmental science, sociology, political theory, economics, ethics.

Think of all these disciplines. Now take that body of knowledge, hold it up to the word and what you find and this is Christian colleges to they're using the same box so here's what's on my heart first of all I don't buy into a belief I'm just confessing this to everyone I don't buy into a belief that the world's going to get worse and worse and then just before the church is completely defeated Jesus is going to come and rapture us don't buy into that to me it goes against everything that Jesus taught about the church it goes everything that the New Testament writers taught about the church and its purpose in its position it also goes against everything that we've been commanded to do take Dominion disciple the nations bring everything that exalts itself under the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ many of my friends and my colleagues good friends believe in that type of a future And they're always pointing me to 2 Timothy 3. They say, well that's what it says, Steve, 2 Timothy 3. Times are going to get really bad in the last days. So what I usually do is just have them read it to me.

I say, go ahead and read it to me. So they start reading. But realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And they'll usually stop there and go, see it's terrible, the last days is terrible, it's gonna get worse and worse and then Jesus is going to rapture us out of here.

So I say keep reading. So they do. Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of truth just as Janice and jamborees opposed Moses do these men also oppose the truth men of depraved mind rejected in regard to the faith and they go see it's just it's getting worse and worse they're depraved they're rejected as regard to the faith I just say read verse 9 but they will not make further progress for their folly will be obvious to all just as Janus and Jamboree's folly was also. Do you remember that story?

Moses took the staff and he threw it on the ground and it turned into a serpent and Janus and Jamboree says, hey we can do that without God And they threw their staffs down to the ground and they became serpents. Looked a lot like what God did. What happened? God's serpent ate up the other two serpents. Their folly became obvious to all.

And that is what's happening in our day brother we live in a crucial time we live in a time where this whole world system is going to crumble as the church confronts the culture with the light of God's Word their folly will be obvious to all As the world's financial systems and educational systems begin to crumble, and they will, their folly will become obvious to all. As all the false knowledge and false science is exposed for what it is, The vain imaginations of man and foolishness, as that happens, their folly will become obvious to all. So this is not a time to be defensive. It's a time to be like Caleb. Take the hill country, defeat the giants, tear down the fortresses, and men, let's take the land.

Amen. Amen. Do I have an amen on that? Amen. Take the hill country.

Well, next, Dan Horne, my fellow elder, one I've learned so much from over the years where we work together at Hope Baptist Church and Wake Forest North Carolina Dan owns a company, a programming company called Data Tech, and he's a very, very active counselor, elder, teacher, and I'm so thankful to have him with me in ministry, and I'm also thankful, Dan, to have you here today. So what's burning on my soul? It's interesting as I've done this multiple years in a row how every year there's different things that are all related, but different things every year as I come and stand up here and tell you what's burning on my soul. What's been burning on my soul this year is just how small my view of God is. Just how small my view of God is.

And understand it's because I've been trained to have a small view of God. Because everybody in this room, I believe, has been trained to have a small view of God. We don't think of God as He's described in Scripture. We're way too quick to assign things to natural consequences that God says in His Word or in His hands. We've grown up in a materialistic society that therefore we think everything and we come to it with a materialistic perspective.

So what's burning in my soul is how do I in my own life have a greater view of God? And how do I, to the people I minister to, teach them and exhort them to have a higher view of God? When we talk about the fear of God, it's the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding. Understand that's because if you get a high view of God, all these other things start to fall into place. And until we have a right view of God, we will never understand the world.

Until we have a right view of God, we will never understand ourselves. So specifically I want to talk about three areas that I see in my own life but in the church as well and in the churches outside that I see as major areas that we need to ascribe greatness to God. That's the term that Moses used. I've been thinking about that verse a lot this year from Deuteronomy 32 verse 3. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, and ascribe greatness to our God.

As a pastor, that's my responsibility. Any of you that are in this room that are pastors, that's your responsibility, to be like Moses and to ascribe greatness to God. But it's just not pastors, It's also fathers. If you're a father, your responsibility is to ascribe greatness to God. Do you have a view of God like David did where he ascribes greatness to God and says He is but dust and but a worm.

Do you understand? You are much more like a worm than you are like God. And until we get that understanding, until we hold that understanding, where will the boldness in our faith be? Where will the changes in our lives be? So I want to talk specifically in three areas that I see in the modern church and in areas that I've been taught that I need to unteach myself and I need to cry out to God to teach me a Better way to understand the world around me The first way is just an insufficiency of understanding of God's sovereignty When we read Romans 828 that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Everything that happens happens for the good of those who are the elect of God. That's what the whole world, everything in the world, everything that happens, it's for the good of those who love God and those who will love God, those who God will call. That's what the world is about. Now understand what that means is that when you get sick, your response needs to not be, oh, this is flu season, of course I get sick. Do you know what God says about flu season?

There's no such thing. It's a sign of cursing. When pestilence comes on a society, it's a sign of cursing. We schedule curses. That's how small of a view of God we have.

Then we start to assign it to natural causes? Well, it gets cold outside. That's why sickness doesn't screw with culture. Well, read the Old Testament. Does God ever say that?

Or do we go to natural explanations because we have too small of a God? When we think of disaster, problems, things, difficulties in our own lives, do we say, well these things happened. It was an accident, right? Last year I stood up on this pulpit and I had a neck brace on because I rolled over in a car three times and I had my neck broken in two places. When that happens, when those things come upon you, what's your response?

Is your response to say, well these things are an accident, or your response to say this is from the hand of God. What does God want me to know? And think about this. I want us to not think that this is mysterious, that somehow this is unknowable. Put it into a personal perspective.

There's a lot of fathers in this room. You take your son and you scourge your son. And he has no idea for what reason he's being punished. As a pastor, if I was counseling that man, I'd say you'd sin against your son because your son has to know why he's being scourged. Otherwise it's not effective, it's not discipline, it's just vengeance.

And if father disciplines his son, he doesn't wreak vengeance upon his son. So if that's true between a human father and a human son, do you think the perfect father doesn't let us know when we get scourged, why we get scourged? But do you ask? When those disasters come in your life, even a simple thing like a sickness, do you ask God, why is this in my life? What are you teaching me?

Why are you scourging me? It's to be a blessing is why God does it. Not to be a curse, but to be a blessing. Do you have that high of a view of God? I need to work and I need to strive and I need to concentrate so that I think that way because that's not how I've been trained.

But That's how the Bible trains us. That's how the Bible teaches us to think about the world around us. Do you have that view of God, that you make God that big? Because that's the God of the Bible. Pastors is that the God you preach of in your church?

When sickness goes through your church, you say, God show us what we're doing that's not pleasing to you. And now sometimes He does it just so we can be a witness to those outside so it's not, I mean he's scourged Christ. So it's not always because of sin but it's always purposeful. It's always because God has a purpose for it to bless the elect of God. Do you have that view of the sovereignty of God?

Do you have a view of God that's big enough in his sovereignty big enough to say God says in his word six days you shall labor in one day that you shall rest Do you have a big enough view of God to say if I don't do that I should expect punishment if I'm his child. If I do do that, I should expect blessing because my Father in heaven who holds all things in his hand desires to bless me. Or do you say God's too small? God can't set my schedule. God doesn't have the right to tell me what to do when.

He doesn't have the right to tell me six days I shall work. He doesn't have the right. How big of a God do you have? Do you have a God who's your master? The language in the New Testament is a picture of a slave master.

What slave master doesn't have the right to tell his slaves when to work and when not to work. You make God small. And I understand as I say that and as I read Isaiah 58 and other places that I'm not saying this, saying that I've arrived, that I have this perfect, that I actually understand this and obey it the way I should obey it. But we need to have a view of God that says God is sovereign over all things. God controls all things.

When you pray, give me this day my daily bread, do you believe it? Or do you actually think it was by your labor that you were able to feed yourself? Jason talked about there's things that we can't do. Do you understand? Putting a dead seed into the ground and having life come from it is something that no one in this room can do.

Yes, we can go put seeds out, but understand it requires God to step in and put the picture of the gospel before us that out of death comes life for us to eat. None of us can feed ourselves. So every one of us needs to recognize that it's the mercy of God. Do we pray that Lord's Prayer and then go and say, it's all by my hand? Or do we actually say, God is great and I am small?

Point number two, which is in worship. I want us to think about this. I just want to give an example. There's going to be a lot of preaching on the Regulator Principle this weekend. And that's a good thing because I see our worshiping so far from how God would declare it and it's a constant process of reforming and I praise God that he's merciful in the midst of reforming because as we reform and move closer to what he would have us to do he's merciful to his children He's not a judge that's sitting on the throne saying, I'm going to try to catch you in something that you did wrong.

No, he's a merciful God. But at the same time, our desire should be to do what pleases him. So as people are going to preach on this this weekend, I don't want to preach on it, but I want to give an example just so that you think about how small we may God. Say you got a phone call tomorrow and said that they wanted you to meet with President Obama. And you said, yeah, there's advantages for me to meet with President Obama.

And they say, okay, to meet with President Obama, within 30 days of your meeting, you need to fill out a security questionnaire. And then the day that you come to meet with him, you need to be a half an hour early because they're going to do a search of you, you're going to have to go through metal detectors, and then you'll sit in this room, and then he'll come into this room, and when he comes into this room, you need to stand up, and then you'll meet him. And most of us would say, okay, this is the process that you have to go through. If you want to meet the President of the United States, there's a protocol that you have to go through to meet the President of the United States. And none of us would say, how dare President Obama say that there has to be a protocol in order to meet with him.

But yet then we turn around and say in order to meet with the King of Kings there's no protocol. He has to accept us however we come. We can come in and say no I'm not going to fill out a security question here. You have to meet with me. Do you understand we make God smaller than President Obama when we say he doesn't get to regulate how we come to him?

When we say We can come to him however we want. We know that's not true of earthly authorities. And maybe you say, but he's a father and we're a son. How many fathers in this room or how many sons in this room if you're a younger son that hasn't learned etiquette yet? Almost all of you, if you walk up to your father and he's in the midst of the conversation, you don't just start speaking.

Because your father's told you, that is improper, That is not how you approach me. Maybe it's you put your hand on my arm and wait for me to acknowledge you. Maybe it's you look directly at me from across the conversation until I acknowledge you. But either way, Most of us in this room that have sons, even as fathers, we said there's a protocol by which you have to approach me. We need to understand that God has a protocol by which we approach Him.

And we should desire to walk in the way he's regulated it because it makes God big. It doesn't make him smaller than human authorities, all of which we submit to, all of which we agree that there are ways to approach and so we accept those ways and we say yes we're showing honor to whom honors do, we're showing respect to whom respects do, and then we walk away and we say but we can come to God however we want. We don't need to care about what he said. May we all stop making God smaller than President Obama. And the third one, which is probably the one that has torn at my heart the most over the last year, is our view of the Holy Spirit.

The modern American church has made the Holy Spirit a carnival show. And forget the speaking in tongues. Forget the argument about cessationism versus continuation. I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about that if what you want from the Holy Spirit is to speak in tongues if what you want from the Holy Spirit is is to foretell understand you want to show.

Do you understand why God sent the Holy Spirit? I went through John on the drive over here where Jesus Christ says why he sent the Holy Spirit or why he was going to send the Holy Spirit. And I want us to Compare these things to speaking in tongues into foretelling and ask ourselves, aren't we making the Holy Spirit a mockery of what the Holy Spirit truly is when our focus of our conversation is speaking on tongues when the focus of our conversation is foretelling. He says, I will send you the Spirit of truth. Which is more important, to have the Spirit of truth or to speak in a tongue?

God gives his Holy Spirit to those who believe and trust in him because that's how we hear his voice and we know his voice rather than the voice of a false shepherd. That's a lot more important than speaking in tongues. And that's why Jesus Christ said he sent his Holy Spirit. One of the reasons. How about because the Holy Spirit teaches us all things?

He teaches us all things. Isn't it more important to have wisdom, knowledge, and understanding than it is to speak in tongue or to foretell? To actually understand who God is and have God himself teach us who he is, isn't that a lot better than a carnival show? How about this one from John 15, 26? He testifies of Christ.

You understand without the Holy Spirit we wouldn't know who Christ was. Without the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't be saved. What's more important, that or the things that we want to focus on when we talk about the Holy Spirit? Jesus Christ even says that It's an advantage to us for him to go away because then we'll have the Holy Spirit indwelling us and that is an advantage to us. It's better for us to have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, teaching us all things than it is to have Christ standing next to you.

How about that he convicts the world of sin? Do you praise God that the Holy Spirit is here and is among us so that he convicts us of sin. How many things have you done in your life that have displeased God that you open his word and you read it and you go, I need to stop that. That's evil. Do you understand that's the work of the Holy Spirit?

Do you understand how important the Holy Spirit is? That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Are we ascribing greatness to God? Or do we want to show? He also convex the world of righteousness.

He also brings a spirit of judgment. I was talking to somebody about this a couple nights ago about what this means. Think about what this means. We've been preaching through Isaiah and Isaiah talks about how I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Do you understand that the Holy Spirit moves so that the world is more just place than it was 2, 000 years ago.

And we might look and we might say, no, no, no, that's not true. I suggest you study history better. Human sacrifice was the norm 2, 000 years ago. It's not the norm anymore. The Holy Spirit, God pouring out the Holy Spirit on his people, have created a level of justice that has never been known before in the world.

Even as we see it decline into the US right now, don't deny the fact that the Holy Spirit brought a spirit of justice and judgment to the world. These are important things. These are significant things. These are God things. Not like tongues, not like foretelling.

These are things that are worthy of a God. He also guides us to truth. He also teaches us how to glorify Christ. He also takes what is Christ and declares it to us. This is why Jesus said He sent the Holy Spirit.

Have you made the Holy Spirit small in your life? I know I have. It made myself great. The Holy Spirit is great when you're small. We need to stop thinking of the Holy Spirit as a show and start to think of him as God indwelling us and changing us.

Right before his ascension in Acts 1, Jesus gives another reason why he's sending the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He's sending it so no longer do you have to have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. Because now God of power is in you and abides with you. He is the spirit of power. When we talk about the world getting worse and worse, as Steve mentioned, I'm sorry.

That's belittling the Holy Spirit. Israel didn't have the Spirit of God poured out upon her, and she failed because man will always fail. But the church has the Spirit of God poured out upon it. We don't need to wait for Christ to come back to have victory Because God's already here. God's already here.

The Holy Spirit is God. We already have power. Let's stop denying the fact that we are a people whom God has poured power out upon. And What's that power? What's the primary thing the Holy Spirit does?

He gives the Spirit of holiness. It changes us. This is why Paul can say, don't be deceived. No murder, no adulterer, no liars. These will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Why? Because of the power of man? No, because of the power of God. Let's stop belittling the Holy Spirit. When we say it's normative for there to be sin in the church and not expect God to remove it, we're denying the power of the Holy Spirit, Because this is what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit makes people holy. You ascribe greatness to God. We need a bigger view of God and a smaller view of ourselves. In John 3, and I'll close with this. John's disciples come and they, starting in verse 26, And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom have you testified?

Behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear witness that I said I am not the Christ but I've been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears and rejoices greatly because the bridegroom's voice therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.

May that be true in your family, that the focus of your ministry as a father to your family is to make God increase and you decrease. May that be the focus in your church, that God may increase and you may decrease, they don't need more of you, they need more of God. May that be what happens throughout the world until the glory of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. May each one of us decrease and may God increase. Amen.

No stranger to this time is Jeff Pollard, who will come up next. Jeff Pollard, who works hard every day to distribute literature all over the world through Chapel Library if you don't know about Chapel Library Google it and be blessed and help them help them if you can along their way by giving them gifts which they they're in constant need of. Jeff has this worldwide literature distribution ministry and he's also an elder at Mount Zion Bible Church. Jeff, it's always such a pleasure and a joy and also a wounding of our souls to have you. I bring you greetings from the saints of God at Mount Zion Bible Church.

I am always thankful for the privilege of being here with you. Here with you. Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter six verse eighteen praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints. Please pray with me as we consider this. My Father in Heaven, Thou art holy and pure, righteous, just, good, all-knowing, all-wise, all-power, in all places, at all times.

What a great and good God thou art. We thank thee for the exhortation that we have just had, that Thou wouldst increase and we would decrease. Now Lord, I pray that Thou wouldst give us the grace of Thy Spirit as we consider these few things. I pray that Christ would be exalted, that thy people would be edified. In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, this is what is burning in my soul this year, burning in my heart. Earlier in the year, someone sent me a little book by E.M. Bounds. Now, I don't mean to be insulting or denigrate someone who has been a great blessing to you. I've tried to read Bounds a number of times and have just never found him profitable.

I find him so man-centered it's very hard for me to read him with real profit. But it was a little book, and it was Preacher and Prayer, and that has been on my heart for a while. And I said, well, I've tried reading him. It's not that he'd never said anything good. I don't mean that.

It's just that I want to hear more of Christ. And I began this little book, and throughout the year it's been my companion for just a couple of paragraphs at a time. And it has been immensely profitable. And I have not been able to escape the very thing that apparently is on Jason's heart, and I'm sure it's probably on the hearts of most pastors that are wrestling to see the kingdom of Christ advance. But it is the issue of prayer, and it is something that cannot be preached upon too much.

I'm not here to preach right now. I just want to tell you what's constantly in my heart as I've been thinking through this throughout the year. How will we be pastors of Christ's blood-bought sheep? How will we be the pastors that he's appointed us to be? The answer, at least in part, must be this.

We must know the good shepherd in prayer. There are a lot of books about being a pastor, and many of them are helpful and profitable, but there's nothing more important than spending time with the shepherd of the sheep. And it is from him that we must learn how to feed, how to mature His flock. They're His, not ours. Secondly, how will we be the preachers Christ has commissioned us to be?

We must cry out in prayer to the greatest preacher that ever lived and pray down his spirit's unction into our impoverished souls. How will we be the husbands that Christ charges us to be? We must be on our knees learning from Christ who knows how to love his bride. How will we be the men that Christ has redeemed us to be? Well, we must plead with the Son of Man and ask him to fashion his manhood in our lives.

Most of us have entirely wrong notions of what manhood is. We've been taught by Hollywood and our own wicked flesh. There was never a greater man than Jesus Christ. We need to learn from Him. How will we be the fathers that Christ has shed his blood for us to be?

We must ever be in communion with our Heavenly Father, who loves us and gave his Son that we might have life. How will we be the sons God has called us to be? We must be intimately acquainted with the eternal Son, who was always faithful to His gracious and good Father. How will we love one another as Christ loves us? We must learn in earnest prayer to believe in Christ's love, to drink in Christ's love, and to be content with Christ's love.

It is astonishing to me that in a culture, at least in the religious culture of American evangelicalism, the one thing they want to talk about is the love of God. And that seems to be one of the things most scarce among those who call themselves the Lord's people. Perhaps it's because we do not spend enough time in prayer with the one who loves us, Truly drinking in his love, really understanding what that means. There are times when I'm convinced the Lord loves me and there are times when I don't feel like that's a reality. And I'm never more convinced of it than when I'm in the room with the door closed, my face in His Word, and crying out to Him.

Without prayer, we are weak, feeble, impotent, fruitless, arrogant impostors. We test positive for hypocrisy, and we lay the groundwork for apostasy. It was touched when I heard Brother Kevin mention that very subject. We scatter the ground with seeds of destruction, we harvest a crop of flesh, we reap a whirlwind of judgment, we are weak as newborns and impotent as geldings without prayer. Prayer, earnest prayer, Not that hurried prayer that you do.

I've got all this important stuff to do. I'll punch my prayer time clock, rush through this, and then get on to the other things. Earnest prayer, focused prayer, tearful prayer, joyful prayer, thankful prayer, eager prayer, hungry prayer, spirit-inspired prayer. We must not be phony in our prayers. God, deliver us from mouth religion.

Get around some guys who read a few Puritans, they spout a little King James English, and they become blowfish. It's like, Brethren, we've been called to something that should be real, so real that the world cannot deny it, so real that their hatred is justified. Deliver us from mouth religion, O God. We must not pray for the ears of men. We must pray as those aware that everything about our lives is open and naked before the eyes of God.

We must, as it were, tear our own breast open and cry out, thou God seest me. We can put on around each other the next couple of days and not know how we are, really. But God does. And brethren, we get more real with others when we deal with God, as it were, face to face. Beloved brethren, we must not become, and I say this with all of my heart, I love this conference, I love the friendships that I have made.

I have told several people numerous times, even in the last day. This is like coming to a family reunion. I love coming here. This is my favorite event outside of the Lord's Day throughout the year. And with that in mind, we must not become a group of smug, self-righteous, self-congratulating Pharisees who believe that we alone are God's people.

We don't need a mutual admiration society, but we do need to know how to love like Jesus loves, real earnest face-to-face, no sham. Real earnest face-to-face. No sham. Our preaching will be nothing but empty, useless, damaging words unless we pray down the unction of God to our souls. Let us ever, ever be before the throne of grace.

I don't recall in this time that we've had over the years as many men mentioned prayers they have today. And I hope that that doesn't go by us. We need to be a praying people. We shouldn't be trying to squeeze prayer into our lives. Our lives should be the outgrowth of our earnest prayer.

Christ's blood, brethren, has opened the way. We have full and free access to our loving Heavenly Father. His word informs our minds, His Spirit empowers our souls, and His intercession beautifies our weak and feeble prayers and makes them acceptable to our loving and Heavenly Father. If that's so, and it is, why aren't we in a hurry to pray? And may God in His mercy burn in all of our souls to pray.

I would be distressed, I would be bothered if anybody went out of here and said, well you know I feel a little guilty about all this so now I'll pray a little bit more. We should go with great joy. We should run to prayer because we have a prayer answering God. He gave us His only begotten Son that we might pray, that we might know the living and true Almighty God. How will we influence the next generation for Christ?

As again we've had an illusion to this, Many of us have been around long enough to see that those brought up in good, solid, homeschooling, age-integrated churches go right out into the world and feast. They run to it as quickly as their feet will carry them. They outdo the world in their hatred for Christ. It isn't getting together and saying, well we're just going to be better dads. It's going to be when we are men of prayer, fathers of prayer, pastors of prayer, sons of prayer, people that are conversant with God.

You can hear sometimes, brethren, and again I want to say this gently, you can hear sometimes when a man is praying that he is a stranger to the courts of heaven. He is not used to being in God's presence. It shouldn't be that way with us. Oh, when the Lord first saves us, perhaps. We ought to give ourselves to prayer.

I would love to think that I could pray for three hours. I prayed all night only once in my whole life and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But we can pray throughout the day. We can ever be ready for prayer. We can be prayerful, even as the Puritans would speak of ejaculatory prayers.

Lord, help me! And then go on. How will our preaching, how will our preaching for all the time we put into study, all our exegesis, all of that stuff, it's all important, but how will our preaching ever move souls? How will it ever be used to transform the hearts of men and women and children? How will it bring conviction?

How will it pluck up by the roots? How will it pull down strongholds, bring life-giving transformation, how will it bear fruit? Without prayer. Prayer. Let us then pour out our souls to God in prayer.

Let us bathe our sermons in prayer. Let us cover our families with prayer. Let us carry Christ's sheep to the throne of grace in prayer. Let us plead for the lost. Just to be honest, pastors, when was the last time you wept for lost people I mean from the heart without somebody pushing pressing sticking you in your guilt zone When was the last time we wept over the thought of fellow human beings dropping into Christless eternity?

Prayer! Let us see the advance of Christ's kingdom through prayer. Prayerlessness is lifelessness prayerlessness is darkness prayerlessness is Christ-less. We all may have different habits, different times, some may be marathon prayers, some of us may only pray in bits and pieces throughout the day, but men of prayer, men who are accustomed to pray, men who pray like they know breathing. We cannot live without air.

Brethren, we cannot live without prayer. God hears and answers our prayers in Christ. May his grace make us men of prayer. That's what's burning in my soul. Father in heaven, Father in heaven, thou didst send thy Son to teach us to pray.

Now we plead with thee by thy grace, by thy spirit, make us men of prayer. Amen. Amen. Praise be to God. Let's apply what the preacher said and not just move on so fast from these things without carrying them with us.

So we'll dismiss you and we'll see you at six o'clock. Hopefully you can be getting getting ready to be seated at 6 o'clock so we'll have a start at 630 for our evening sessions. God bless you. Thanks for coming. Thank you.

Yeah. So this is just not a resonator. It's made of very prayerful words. So it's made with the same answer. And what would be like to face the same challenges?

It's made of very powerful words. Yeah. So this is made in the rain. So it's made in the rain. So it's made in the rain.

It's made in the rain. It's made in the rain. It's made in the rain. In the rain. In the mythical name.

Thank you.