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The Gift of the Gospel
35 Plays19 days ago
In this sermon, John Ballard preached about the invaluable gift of the gospel, emphasizing the divine origin and enduring significance of Scripture as highlighted in 2 Timothy 3:10-17. He illustrated this truth by sharing personal anecdotes and analogies, encouraging the congregation to treasure God's word above all else, just as they would a cherished gift. Ballard underscored the necessity of biblical alignment in an increasingly secular culture and called for a renewed commitment to studying and living by Scripture. Drawing on historical figures and the transformative power of the gospel, he urged listeners to prioritize spiritual growth, submit to God's guiding word, and uphold the priceless value of the gospel in their lives.
Timestamps:
03:54 Paul, imprisoned, writes with hope amidst darkness.
07:07 Treasure the gospel, God's inspired scripture.
12:20 Scripture authored by 40, inspired by God.
16:51 Why prefer knockoff versions over divine gifts?
17:58 Councils emphasized canonized scriptures, but God validated.
22:40 God's word is the true, priceless light.
24:44 Treasure God's word, don't neglect it.
29:20 Equip, transform, and act with the gospel.
34:49 Focus on gospel, transform life, God's love.
39:25 Do we overlook beauty in everyday life?
43:44 Treasure God's gifts and embrace discipleship transformation.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Gift of the Gospel
00:00:01
Speaker
For those of you who are here with family holiday stuff, um we're so glad that you're here with us this morning. We're gonna be in the the book of 2 Timothy this morning if you wanna go ahead and turn over there. The book of 2 Timothy chapter three and specifically in verses 10 through 17.
00:00:35
Speaker
um i ah I don't know about you, but there were a lot of gifts in my house. A lot of gifts all over the place. We went to, I think, three different places for Christmas, all in the Middle Tennessee area, and I'm sure most of you all can talk about some of the same stuff.
00:00:57
Speaker
gifts, gifts, gifts. And you probably heard, if you attend church on the regular, plenty of sermons about gifts. And we talked about that at Grove Hill, the gift of peace, the things that we are given as gifts.
00:01:15
Speaker
But I'm gonna talk about one more and you're thinking, man, and one more gift? I'm tired of seeing gifts. I just went to the dump yesterday, got rid of all my cardboard boxes, got rid of everything that resembled some type of gift or bow.
Relevance of 2 Timothy for Pastors and the Church
00:01:30
Speaker
I promise I'll get off the monetary gifts here and in just a little bit or the the things that we have around this time of year and talk to you about a gift that I believe is one of the most special gifts you can ever encounter and ever intersect your life with. 2 Timothy chapter 3 is a very familiar passage for those of you who have been in church circles, but for those of you who haven't, give you a little bit of backstory. The book of 2 Timothy is
00:02:03
Speaker
One of the pastoral epistles, and you're thinking, what in the world is a pastoral epistle? ah The pastoral epistles include the book of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. And they are specifically speaking and engaging the pastor ah at that time, as well as the pastor today, and as well as the pastor in the future, but it's also for the body of Christ.
00:02:30
Speaker
Because as any church starts to build structure and as they begin to grow, even in the infancy of Grove Hill Church, you had men that were standing in the gap and you saw that there was a desire to follow along with what God had given Paul to write in these three books. And we're gonna dive into that just a little bit today, specifically in chapter three and mainly in verses 10 through 17.
00:03:00
Speaker
So we said the text had meaning for Timothy, it had meaning for pastors today, and even in the future. It's so that we can have a biblical alignment. So many things in our culture today. I've even got wonderful friends who are a part of different churches all across America. But I'm telling you, whenever we get off of a biblical alignment and we go to the appeasement of, oh, well, that feels good.
00:03:28
Speaker
we're going the wrong direction. So I'm here to tell you today, and I wanna encourage you, as the body of Christ, that when you have biblical alignment, and whenever you have biblical emphasis as your gaze and as your guide, day by day by day, you won't go wrong. And I believe 2 Timothy chapter three speaks so loudly to that very thing.
00:03:54
Speaker
Paul is most likely in his final moments. He's probably in a Roman prison, specifically in a dark place, in a place that's very desolate, no interaction or little interaction at all.
Passing Biblical Teachings Across Generations
00:04:10
Speaker
And I believe even in the darkness of this moment where Paul writes this book of 2 Timothy, he still has hope. He still has something to live for, to breathe for.
00:04:23
Speaker
And that's why I think we get encouragement from this today is because Paul speaking about a light that God gave him in the middle of his darkness, man, we have no excuse but to not have hope because we sit here today in a warm place, able to talk about and to live with our lives, what the gospel is trying to change in us. That's what we have the availability to do today.
00:04:51
Speaker
Whenever I got to thinking about a passage as Ridley so graciously said, hey, you want to preach, brother? And I'm like, hey, I'll do it. I'm not Ridley Barron. God designed me to be John Ballard. And I'm telling you, Ridley Barron has encouraged me. ah Kyle Hess has encouraged me. Every single person.
00:05:13
Speaker
that is in that office on a Monday through Thursday has encouraged me, and I hope you were encouraged this morning, because as Pastor Ridley said, there are gonna be multiple people that will speak the name of Jesus today. And I think that's all because there's been an emphasis over time in the structure of scriptures to be able to pass it from generation to generation.
00:05:36
Speaker
that only happens when we focus our gaze on the word of God. But back to that thought, I didn't intend to tag off the Blueprint series, but it really just moves from the end of Acts into what Paul was writing to Timothy. He was encouraging him because he knew, I'm about to die. What do you do when you're about to die? You lay it all out there. You lay everything on the table. Nothing held back.
00:06:05
Speaker
That's what Paul did right here. And we're gonna read 2 Timothy chapter three. I wanna start up just a little bit earlier. I said 14 through 17, but I wanna start in verse 11. Let's start in verse 11. Along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
00:06:35
Speaker
In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.
00:06:50
Speaker
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
00:07:07
Speaker
all All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This morning, I wanna talk to you about what it really means to treasure the gift, to treasure the gift of the gospel.
Treasure the Gospel as a Priceless Gift
00:07:32
Speaker
How many of you can think back, those of us who are a little bit older, not necessarily the the teenagers who probably are still in the middle of receiving all those wonderful gifts, ah but think back to your childhood. Think about a gift that you received and you treasured it. You love that thing.
00:07:56
Speaker
I don't know what that might be. It may be some specific toy. may have been a fourwheer It may have been a You may have been really blessed and got a four-wheeler. You may have had something as simple as, um I don't know, maybe a piece of clothing that you just love. You were wanting that piece of clothing.
00:08:16
Speaker
I'll tell you about my favorite gift. I still remember it to this day. um I can't remember if I was 10 or 11, but I remember the gift. um I was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and I had been given a gift of a CD player.
00:08:33
Speaker
We had moved from the cassette to the CD player and man, I was thrilled. I got to be like my friends, but I love that thing. I treasured that thing. And by the way, it looked like I treasured it even more because I didn't have the anti-skip version. You know, the Sony Walkmans, the anti-skip, yeah, mine wasn't that. it was It was the, you know, step down version. So whenever I had that CD player,
00:09:00
Speaker
I held it like this. you you know what Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Whenever you'd be in that car ride or maybe you'd wanna start getting your run on and you wanna listen to something, I had to do that, but I had to make sure that I had it perfectly level so it didn't skip. I love that thing. I got to listen to Garth Brooks, Steven Curtis Chapman, ah a little bit of everything, but it was something that I treasured.
00:09:29
Speaker
What did you treasure? What was it that captivated your attention? Not just for a week, not just for a month, but you all almost get into the next year and maybe even the next year and you're still treasuring that gift. You see, that's where we're at. Some of our kids, they got given gifts and we'll find out real quick what they treasured and what they didn't. We'll get to see what gets put on the shelf.
00:09:59
Speaker
Well today, I wanna challenge you to take evaluation in your life. Are you treasuring the gift of the gospel? Or are you setting it on the proverbial shelf of life?
00:10:17
Speaker
So we said that Paul is in his last moments, he's in such a dark place and he's pointing to the only light that he sees.
00:10:27
Speaker
he gave He gave this final letter to Timothy to encourage him to be mindful of the gift that God has given him. And we saw that specifically in these few verses. And I wanna pull and just extract a couple of these things out today. Try not to keep you too long.
00:10:47
Speaker
The first point today, and specifically, we're gonna jump around. It's not gonna be verse by verse. We can still follow along in the context of this scripture, but I wanna pull out specifically the pinnacle point of this verse, verses 10 through 17. And I think the pinnacle point is right there in verse 16.
00:11:10
Speaker
All scripture is inspired by God. All scripture is inspired by God. First point today, this gift is of a divine origin and it will never be reproduced.
00:11:30
Speaker
Second Timothy 3.16, we probably heard before, but man, how we should not let it grow numb inside our hearts, the fact that God breathed His word.
00:11:47
Speaker
See, God's been breathing blessing over humanity even though we've been mocking and spitting into His face from the beginning of time. God has continued to breathe into man. God has continued to breathe blessing over humanity. What are we doing with that? 2 Peter verse one or chapter 1 verse 21 is a specific thing that I want to pull out, but I'll even read starting in verse 18.
00:12:17
Speaker
talking about the divine origin. Yes, there were multiple authors, at least 40 authors that helped put pen to paper as these 66 books were put together. But I love how 2 Peter 1 verse 18 through 21 really, really spells this out clearly. We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.
00:12:45
Speaker
We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed and you will do well to pay attention to it. As to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, above all, you know this. No prophecy of scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man. Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Amen.
00:13:15
Speaker
It is not the doing of you or I or anyone else throughout all time that created the words in this book. They just said, God, I'm going to submit. Give me the words to say. God gave him the words to say, and your life is probably changed because of it. If you're submitting.
00:13:40
Speaker
You see, this book has divine origins because look at this aspect. 40 authors, at least 40 authors, 66 books, over the course of over 1400 years, all pointing to the same things, most of them not living in the lives of one another, not living around each other, and they all come to the same conclusion.
00:14:10
Speaker
what a sovereign God we serve.
Engaging Deeply with the Gospel's True Essence
00:14:13
Speaker
God loves you enough to give you the best gift and to bring it about in a way that you never would have thought could happen. I'll give you an illustration. That would be like me telling 40 different people in Chapel Hill, different all on different streets, saying, hey, I'm gonna pick you to be a part of this building crew. We're gonna build a house, 40 different people,
00:14:39
Speaker
I'm not gonna give you any detail, but I'm gonna go ahead and just say, hey, you do this, and then you come together, you 40 people, build this house, and it needs to be perfect. And it needs to all come in alignment with one another. That is impossible for those of you who have ever built a house. You know that that is impossible. That for none of those 40 people to be able to communicate with one another to never have the blueprint all in one place for them all to have a meeting. What do you do when you build a house? You have pre-meeting, pre-meeting, pre-meeting, meeting in the middle, meetings all the time to make sure that you are following the blueprint. We serve a sovereign God who didn't need
00:15:30
Speaker
men to all be on the same page. He said, I'm going to impress upon man's heart and therefore man is gonna pin and stylistically have some differences, um but they're gonna all point to giving me glory and giving God praise. So this gift is of a divine origin. 2 Peter speaks that very, very clearly.
00:15:59
Speaker
You know, we think about this gift being something that can't be replicated. Don't you hate the knockoff version of stuff? I hate the knockoff version sometimes. Hey, don't get me wrong. I've had to purchase the knockoff because, you know, my billfold only had a certain amount in it. Ranch. If you've ever been around me, you know I like some Hidden Valley.
00:16:28
Speaker
I'll eat the great value if it's there. I'll have some other ranch. Well, man, I love my Hidden Valley. And I put it on almost everything, so much to the the point where it annoys my wife. Really, you want to ruin what I just made and put Hidden Valley Ranch into the equation? Why, yes, baby, I would love to. But we hate the knockoff version. So why do we keep going back to it?
00:17:00
Speaker
We keep going to the knockoff version of what we think is gonna fill our hearts and gonna satisfy us whenever God gave it right here.
00:17:11
Speaker
Why do we as people that claim to have God in our hearts say, no, I'm gonna go over here. I'm gonna look to this for the appeasement of my life. Whenever God gave his son so that his son could then give us the living word.
00:17:31
Speaker
Why, church? We have to ask ourselves that question today. Are we treasuring the gift that was of divine origin and could never be reproduced? God's DNA and his thumbprint have been all over scripture from the beginning of time. I mentioned to you some of those facts about scripture being written for over, you know, 1400 or so years.
00:17:58
Speaker
There were many councils um in the the time of around 300 or so AD.
00:18:07
Speaker
They had great emphasis of impressing the books that had been canonized, that had been set apart to say, these are books that mean something, that impress upon us the word of God. They did a good thing, but they weren't the ones that gave validation to our Bible.
00:18:28
Speaker
It was a God who loves and cherishes each and every one of us. He didn't leave Paul spiritually naked sitting in a prison in Rome. He aided him with the word of God, the Old Testament writings, the things that he would see in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the things that would lay as the foundation for Paul would be what he would give to Timothy. And it was because he treasured it a book that was no ordinary book, but it was of divine origin. And as if God didn't immensely gift us with such a gift of scripture already, he made it the most proven, most time-tested source of truth that humanity has ever known.
00:19:14
Speaker
I can't recall the exact books, but um I think there's been books like Beowulf, there's been books of, you know, great literature. If you've been in a literature class, it was not my favorite. But you can probably go and recall, ah maybe we've got a high school English teacher in here probably making fun of me right now, but there's probably some works of literature ah that I know that have been tested As far as their reliability against the Scriptures, and even from secular perspectives, there is nothing that compares to the validity of God's Word. God's Word stands above it all. Church, maybe person that's just trying to figure out what this Christian thing is all about. Try God's Word.
00:20:08
Speaker
Try
The Gospel's Legacy and Daily Application
00:20:09
Speaker
God's word, it'll change your life. The beautiful thing is, it's not changing our life just because it's got some good words, but because it's literally breathed out by God. He cared enough that he breathed on all humanity and said, I'm gonna give you something that you've never had before. I'm gonna give you living water.
00:20:38
Speaker
that you never thirst anymore. So many things God gives us and this gift of the Word is one of the most treasured, should be one of the most treasured in our life.
00:20:56
Speaker
Secondly, the gift of the gospel, the good news came with the price. The gift of the gospel or the good news came with the price.
00:21:08
Speaker
The Greek says it, the Euangelion. This good news, those are synonymous terms. Whenever we hear the word gospel, we hear the word good news. You don't separate the two. Gospel, good news. Whenever you hear somebody from this stage say, go preach the gospel. Wherever you're at, your job, your workplace, your family,
00:21:35
Speaker
They're saying, speak the good news, speak the light. Paul was speaking that same light as he wrote to Timothy, as he wrote to encourage and saying, hey, this is good news. Even in the midst of all that I'm suffering through, this is good news.
00:21:58
Speaker
It came with a price though. How much is your Bible worth?
00:22:05
Speaker
It is, it's priceless. The monetary value of the chronological Bibles that we've been selling, $10, thanks to Lifeway's kindness, $10. Some of you may be have purchased Bibles, $100, $200. There's so many things that we will read in that scripture that are bound, whether it's paper, whether it's leather,
00:22:36
Speaker
they are of priceless measure. We have to see it as that. No matter what price that we have put on this, we have to ultimately know that God's Word is of priceless measure and that we have to treat it as such. We have to treat it like the CD player that has not the anti-skip version, but we have to hold it in such consideration that God sees us and says, okay, he's treasuring, he's putting his word in my heart. pal one night Psalm 119, what we just heard read up here, what is the light in your pathway? I'll tell you this, there's only one light.
00:23:28
Speaker
all other sources, artificial lights that run out. And really no light at all. But God's word will illuminate and begin to pull out all the garbage that life will bring us sometimes. Because guess what? If you didn't know it, you ain't perfect. I'm not perfect.
00:23:55
Speaker
I need to be pruned. I need some stuff on my tree to be snipped every once in a while. And if I'm not letting this pour over my life, guess what? It's not gonna happen. We have to submit ourselves to God's leading and to God's word in our life and start treasuring the gift and not putting it like a pair of socks that we got from grandma over in the bin over here.
00:24:20
Speaker
We've got to treasure it because God gave his son so that his son could give us the living word. John 1.1, the word was with God and the word was God. Psalm 119 verse 16,
00:24:38
Speaker
I will remember your statutes and I will not neglect your word. The Hebrew word for neglect right there is shakah. Josh Friend will probably correct me here in a little bit, but I hope I said that right. But think about that. Are we neglecting God's word or are we holding it close? You know how you probably held your kids close this Christmas. You treasured a moment. You treasured a time that you recalled in this last probably week.
00:25:16
Speaker
I hope that we're treasuring the gift of God's word as we enter into 2025. And as I was preparing for this sermon, I got to thinking, just being honest with you all, I looked at this whenever Ridley first presented this thought of where he wanted to see god lead or where he was following God's leading in Grove Hill Church in 2025, he mentioned this chronological Bible reading. I'll be honest, I probably felt the same way you guys were thinking. Wow, that's gonna be a tall task.
00:26:01
Speaker
Quit thinking about what you can do in that task though, and start thinking about what God can do. may quit working out of a place of, and hey, I know we live in a blue collar community where it's pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but I'm telling you, you can't do it. Life will kick you and kick you and kick you. So start going to the source, start going to God, so start going to His word. Don't look at December 31st of 2025. Look at January 1st.
00:26:36
Speaker
Look at January 2nd. Take the 24 hours that you have and devote it, consecrate it to God because he paid a precious price for you to have the written word. Don't set it on the shelf. The gift of the gospel, the good news came with the price. We may have paid certain things for our Bibles, but it is a priceless measure what is contained in this book.
00:27:06
Speaker
People like the Colby's in the Dark Age, you may have never heard of them, but they were a devout group of people that followed and committed to the word of God. Men like William Tyndale, who was burned at the stake. Men like Martin Luther. Men like John Wycliffe. They said, God's word means enough to me I will do whatever it takes to see it go to the next generation.
00:27:42
Speaker
Timothy's mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, we saw it in the book of Acts, they knew that this gift was worth passing on. They input it in their heart because God desired that of them and therefore Timothy was able to be a beacon of light where God had called him.
00:28:06
Speaker
We have to be willing to pay a price to see the gospel go forward.
00:28:15
Speaker
Do people know the gospel that are around you that in your sphere of influence? Man, I hope they do. But if they don't, you still got breath.
00:28:31
Speaker
Paul had breath in the middle of what he probably saw was the end of his life and said, man, I'm going to do everything that I've got. I'm going to finish well. As Hebrews said, time and time again, I will finish the race. How are you finishing your race?
00:28:52
Speaker
Because church, I'm telling you, you're going out into a world that cares nothing about the gospel, that cares nothing about Jesus Christ, and you're the only difference.
00:29:05
Speaker
Chapter three, there's two differences. Verses one through nine is a world that will go to continue in a peace self. Timothy was gonna be combating this very culture in Ephesus, but Paul was saying, son, you got something different. You got some different ammo to work with. I'm giving you my Holy Spirit, and I'm giving you my gospel. Take it, be equipped with it, and go get to work.
00:29:37
Speaker
So church, I'm telling you today, just like Paul told Timothy, take this gift that was paid for with great price and go do something with it.
Living Out Faith in Contrast to the World
00:29:56
Speaker
Today I want us to better see the remedy that God gave to Paul and Timothy. and what He prescribes for us, considering a world that opposes the gospel.
00:30:09
Speaker
See, Jesus paid that Romans 5-8 price. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and then He gave us the gospel, a living word that transforms, that takes every bit of those rough edges away. 2 Timothy 3, I love it where it says specifically right here,
00:30:33
Speaker
It was able to give you wisdom for salvation, simply for freedom, freedom. If you are not covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, if you're not covered in His righteousness, if you haven't said the same thing that Justin at us, that Lake at us, and that so many others have walked through these doors and said with baptism this year, if you can't say that, I beg you, today is the day.
00:31:03
Speaker
You may not have tomorrow. Paul didn't know what tomorrow would hold. Answer the call. Treasure the gift. Treasure the gift of salvation because God loves you and He has compassion upon you, but you have got to step forward and accept the gift. Somebody bought it for you. You gotta unwrap it. You gotta treasure it.
00:31:35
Speaker
Let's look specifically in verses 16 at the end and look at some of the assets that the word of God has for us as it begins to mold and shape our lives.
00:31:53
Speaker
We saw the price that was paid. We saw the the things that were of divine origin. And lastly today, We are fulfilled when the gospel is poured into us.
00:32:10
Speaker
The end of verse 16, talking about scripture, Paul is urging Timothy and pointing back to the Old Testament and saying, this is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness.
00:32:33
Speaker
God is trying to prune and to pick all the rough edges out of your life. We won't be perfect until we are glorified with Him in heaven, but in the meantime, God desires to sanctify you, but the sanctification only happens through submission. So church, what are you doing to submit yourself and treasure the gift that He's given you?
00:32:58
Speaker
All those actions and at the end of verse 16, we look at and we see that. Profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. It's a collection of things that Paul's trying to tell Timothy. This is what scripture does. Look at it like a timeline of our life.
00:33:20
Speaker
So it is profitable for teaching. That teaching encompasses all those things that follow. On a timeline of our life, before we encountered God, we had to be rebuked. Because of our sinful nature, from the beginning of time, all humanity was separated from God until the Holy Spirit encountered us and said, hey, this ain't it. That happens because of the word of God.
00:33:49
Speaker
And then from that rebuking, it led to correcting. And it's almost like you're turning around and realigning not to your desires, but to God's desires. Not to your desires, not to the flesh that wages war against us daily. Paul said, I have to die to myself daily. Are you dying to yourself daily? Do you even care?
00:34:16
Speaker
Our culture loves laziness. I'll be honest, there are times to where I will catch myself sitting down, not doing a thing, but this. I got a big uh-huh from my wife. But she's right. I think all of us have gotten in that mode of just saying, I don't really care about anything else, but the appeasement of, ah, I'm happy scrolling. Ah, that's funny.
00:34:49
Speaker
quit focusing on the things that will appease yourself and start brushing up and intersecting with the gospel, which will wreck your life and turn it upside down and make it better than it ever has been before.
00:35:07
Speaker
The chain reaction is very intentional. And I'll let you know this, that really, we talked about Timothy's intersection with the town that he was ministering in in Ephesus, the city that he was ministering in in Ephesus. And I'll let you know this, the only difference between those that are called in Christ and those that are not are what Paul detailed, the gospel, the living Holy Spirit in us. That's the only difference. You see the person outside that denies Christ
00:35:47
Speaker
We're no different than them other than that we're covered in his righteousness. That whenever we still war with the flesh, that we have a safe haven to go to. That we have a haven of rest to press into and to lean on. It's because he loves us. The illustration of verse 16 of how God breathed out, the Greek says, the theo nustas,
00:36:18
Speaker
God breathed out of his lungs. God breathed on humanity. God breathed in Genesis life into Adam. God breathed when he talked to a man in Midian named Moses. God breathed whenever he spoke to a young woman named Mary and gave her a son named Jesus. God breathed on humanity when he gave us the written word.
00:36:50
Speaker
Are you treasuring that? I hope you are today.
00:36:57
Speaker
Time and time again, God has given us refuge and refuge and refuge. But we only know that by submitting and hearing his heart.
00:37:15
Speaker
Don't you love that whenever those of you who have walked into a room, you may have been looking for you know certain signs of growth on on a baby. You and your wife, you go in there and you hear the heartbeat. One of the most special times in parenthood, especially whenever it's your first time here again.
00:37:43
Speaker
That's what God desires of us. For us to go in there, go in the quiet, look at His word, and hear His heartbeat.
00:37:56
Speaker
what I want to give you a quick story and then we'll end. oh How many of you love music? I already talked about my CD player, so you know I love music.
00:38:08
Speaker
um I love music, even if I'm not as talented as Jaden. um i can't I can't play an instrument. My brother can. He can play the guitar very well. I'm a little jealous. But I love hearing music.
00:38:23
Speaker
i love whenever um I even go to a symphony. I've only been to a couple. I thought I would fall asleep, but I didn't. ah But I love it. it's It's an amazing thing whenever you hear all those pieces of music come together. ah But one of the one things that I've heard before which is so beautiful is a solo from a violinist. So beautiful. So beautiful. And if you've never gone, I encourage you to go. um But this specific story I want to tell you about,
00:38:57
Speaker
um is about a violinist that was probably in not the most um ideal places for a violin to be playing. um This violinist was playing in a subway station, New York City. How many of you have ever been to New York City? See the craziness? yeah Yes, yes, nod your head. Yeah, you know the craziness. There is no slow speed. And you know if you've ever been in a subway station, that it is this. There is no slow speed down there. Well, this violinist, not in the symphony house,
00:39:44
Speaker
but in the subway station began to play. Play the music that was known, play the music that they had been well versed in. Played it often, people would stop to admire the talent. Didn't know the person, but would rarely stop for more than 30 seconds because they had to be at another place.
00:40:17
Speaker
So many people passed by and little did they know that this violinist had just wanted to try out as an experiment to see how many would stop and admire the music that he was making. That violinist, not but maybe 12 hours before, had been playing to a crowd of thousands.
00:40:46
Speaker
where tickets were probably several hundred dollars a piece and playing the most beautiful music you've ever heard.
00:41:00
Speaker
I want to ask you today, are we like the people in the subway station that passes by and we don't even think to admire the most beautiful music that we've ever heard before?
00:41:17
Speaker
That's what it is in our interaction with God's word. We're doing one of two things. We're either standing before and admiring no matter where we are at, or we're either passing by.
00:41:34
Speaker
How can our hearts be singing a melody we've never heard before?
Final Call to Treasure and Submit to God's Word
00:41:40
Speaker
I pray that this morning that we can sing with our hearts, with our lives, that Christ be magnified. The only way that Christ can be magnified and can be known to a world that doesn't know Him is if we know Him and if we treasure the gift.
00:42:07
Speaker
I hope this morning that this time, maybe a time of realigning some things in your life, maybe adjusting some laziness. Hey, I'm talking to myself too. Don't worry. But we have to realize the gravity of what God is wanting to do in each and every one of our lives. But that only happens if we stop and we listen to the music that God has written all over his word.
00:42:47
Speaker
I hope that's the melody of your heart as you enter into 2025, that you're impressing God's word on your heart, that you're treasuring the gift that he's given you because he gave his son for it. Let's bow our heads, church.
00:43:16
Speaker
God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that that it does not return void.
00:43:29
Speaker
And God, I'm thankful for men like Paul and Timothy that stand in the gap. That just say, God, here I am. I'm in a prison.
00:43:46
Speaker
I'm in a city where people don't wanna hear your name, but God, I'm here. And God, I'm gonna treasure the gifts and the equipping that you've provided.
00:44:04
Speaker
I hope that today, God, if there's someone in here that's taken evaluation of their hearts and they say, God, I'm sorry,
00:44:19
Speaker
that they would not do that in silence, but they they would come to an altar and be a surrounded with brothers and sisters in Christ. And let this be aligned in the same kind of day. That they would move from fear of not being able to accomplish ah knowing you in a deeper way, but God, that they would just simply submit day by day, putting self to the side and say, God, I'm gonna start picking up this gift that you've given me.
00:44:48
Speaker
I'm gonna start being obedient to the Holy Spirit, to the leading in my life.
00:44:58
Speaker
Maybe the Holy Spirit's talking to somebody in this room that's never even accepted Christ, that they're just trying to figure it out. But today he has been kind of an awakening because we're we're just thinking, man, there's something to this being a disciple of Christ thing.
00:45:18
Speaker
People's lives are being changed. I wanna know what that's about. I pray that this time, that this moment would be a time of surrender. Whatever it is, God, I pray that your people would respond and that out of a response and obedience to the Holy Spirit, that there would be a reaction, a natural reaction to diving into your word and letting it pour out everlasting water, a water that we could get from nowhere else. And God, it's only because You've been good to us. God, we again thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this time. May we never take it for granted and may we always be obedient.
00:46:12
Speaker
God, we thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.