The Power and Purpose of the Word

Transcript

GRM 1175
9/10/2017
The Power and Purpose of the Word
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

As I mentioned, we are in the book of Revelation normally on Sunday morning. We are ready to move into chapter 8 and we're getting a little bit of a taste in seeing what happens with some of the things going on with hurricanes and so on. We'll get into what really is coming to this world and the disasters that will overtake it when we move into chapter 8.

But as I do when I come back from being away, I just like to take this time to reflect on some things and remind us of some of the basics—what we are about as a church, what we need to be careful of, what we need to focus on. As a church we often remind ourselves, as Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:15, that “the church is God's family” and it is “the pillar and support of the truth.” And we have a strong emphasis on the truth. I appreciated each of the men who shared the Word from this pulpit in my absence and their commitment to the Word of God, to handle it carefully and accurately.

And that's the focus we have as a church. It is important because God's work is accomplished through God's Word, that's how God works in this world. He works through His Word which is truth. In John 17 as Jesus prayed shortly before His arrest and crucifixion, He said to the Father, “Your Word is truth.” That's the Word that we are to stand for, to defend, and to proclaim. It's a Word that is unique.

The Bible is different than any other book on the face of the world, there is nothing like it. It is unique. Hebrews 4:12 says that “the Word of God is alive and powerful.” You can't say that about any other book. It is alive, it's powerful. There are other books that have influenced people but there is no other book that has spiritual life associated with it. But it is powerful, penetrating even to the innermost recesses of our being, even to the point of dividing between soul and spirit.

Romans 1:16 says “the gospel,” the truth concerning Christ, “is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes.” Stop and think about it a moment. For God to save anyone in the world today, they have to hear first the truth of God's Word concerning Jesus Christ. Go to Romans 10. Paul opens up by talking about his burden for the salvation of the nations Israel, Paul being a Jew, himself saved out of Judaism. Romans 10 opens up, “Brethren, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for them,” referring to Israel, “is for their salvation. I testify about them, they have a zeal for God.” They think they are serving God, they are passionate about it. Jews suffered greatly, they were committed, but their zeal was not according to knowledge. Testimony of religious people right down to our day, they may be very zealous for their religious convictions and beliefs, may even be willing to die for them. But sadly their zeal is not driven by knowledge.

“For not knowing about God's righteousness, seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” This is the issue—how can a sinful human being be righteous in the sight of a holy God? And God has provided righteousness but people are ignorant of that so they go about and we have all kinds of religious systems. Israel has their system of right down to our day. You share the Gospel with people, we have people go out to our city and share the Gospel and the people are not open. I have my religion, I have my convictions, beliefs. You are trying to establish your own. How are you going to get to heaven? I've been baptized, I've been confirmed, I partake of sacraments, I go to church, I keep the Ten Commandments. We have all kinds of ideas. Some people say I'm not religious but I'm a good person. And always what we are trying to do is establish our own righteousness, make ourselves righteous. But the only way you can be righteous in the sight of a holy and righteous God is to receive righteousness from Him. That's what Paul is writing about.

He comes down to the end of verse 8, “The word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth,” Romans 10:9, “Jesus as Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” So it is with the heart a person believes that results in righteousness, it's not something you do. It's believing something God has done.

We come down to verse 14, verse 13 says “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved,” he's quoting from the prophet Joel there. His plan and method of salvation has always been the same—to give forth His Word and when people respond and believe the Word of the living God, He cleanses them from their sin and credits their account with His righteousness. Verse 14, very important, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?” A proclaimer, someone to tell them. “How will they preach unless they are sent?” Verse 17 summarizes it, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” No one ever gets saved anywhere who has not heard and believed the simple truths of the Gospel. To this day people will strive by their own means. Our church believes this, our church practices this, I was raised this way. It is all irrelevant, what matters is what God says.

So we emphasize the truth, we emphasize knowing God's Word, preaching the truth of the Gospel so people can hear it, believe and be saved; preaching the truth so people can grow and mature. So as Peter said, “As newborn babes long for the pure unadulterated mile of God's Word so you may grow in respect to your salvation.”

But there is a danger and we face, that danger as a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church. We teach the Word of God, we emphasize the importance of knowing the Word of God. But we must not lose sight of the fact that the knowledge of the Bible is not the end goal, that it is the means to the goal. God's intention through His Word is to bring us into a personal relationship with Himself and then to enable us to continue to grow in that relationship with Him. So the end goal is a relationship with Christ and a growing, deepening, strengthening relationship with Christ.

We have to be careful. If the goal is the knowledge of the Bible, pretty soon after studying it year after year after year it becomes repetitive, we think well I pretty well know that. I don't think I need as much Bible study as a new believer does. It sort of becomes repetitive. But we forget, this is not a book like another history book where we've learned those facts.

While I was gone I read a couple of biographies. We read them, we read about these facts. I read a book on the history of a certain movement. It was nice, some of it was repetitive because I had read it in other history books. But it was fine. But I don't need to do it again. And we get that idea of the Bible, I've been through that, I've been through a study of the books. I don't know everything, but I pretty well know it. We forget that's not the goal, more knowledge. Knowledge is part of the goal, part of the means to the goal. The goal is a personal relationship with Christ that continues to grow.

Come back to John 14, we're going to review some verses. This is Jesus' last night with His disciples and He tells them something new, dramatic is going to happen. It is always true through the Old Testament for God's people, He was bringing them into a relationship with Himself and then developing in that relationship. But this is going to be taken to a whole new level, Jesus says.

In John 14 He is preparing His disciples for what is coming. The chapter opens up, “Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.” He is telling them, I'm going to go prepare a place for you. You understand a shattering experience is about to take place in the disciples' lives, they have no idea as they meet here, having had a meal together, that the One that they have poured their lives into, that they have followed as their teacher, as their Lord, their master, they are His disciples, is going to be crucified within the next 24 hours. We thought you came to establish the kingdom. Now He prepares them, Don't let your heart be troubled, I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. And you can come to that place because of your relationship with Me. Verse 6, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but through Me.” Only through a relationship with Christ do we ever come into the presence of God as one of His children. Everyone else will come into the presence of God to be finally sentenced to an eternal hell. Awesome truths!

Then it goes on and Phillip addresses something that is on his heart, I've never seen the Father, I'd like to see the Father, Your Father. He says, “you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” That doesn't mean that Jesus is the Father but He is God, in His essential nature and being, He is God. He is going on to talk about, down in verse 10. Note the connection here, Jesus is going to talk about His relationship with the Father and then He is going to use the same language to talk about the relationship that God has with these disciples of Christ.

Verse 10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” This is a relationship of the deepest intimacy. There is a distinction of their persons, the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son here. But Christ is in the Father, the Father is in Him. The relationship is of the deepest intimacy. “The words that I say to you, I do not speak on My own initiative, the Father abiding in Me,” note that word, abiding in Me, “does His works.” There is an involvement here that comes out of the relationship and activity. The Father is working through the Son as they abide in one another, dwell in one another. The Father dwells in the Son and He said in the first part of verse 10, “I am in the Father.” Verse 11, “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” They are distinct but they are so personally and infinitely involved, together comprise the triune God with the Holy Spirit.

Come down, verse 16, note how Jesus begins to focus this truth. First you understand who I am, Jesus says, the inseparable relationship I have with My Father. Now He says, verse 16, “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper,” that word, a paraklete, one called alongside. He is a helper, He is a comforter and He is another, another One like Christ. But Christ is leaving. He said in John 14:3, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Now He tells them I will give you another like Me, and this will be the third person of the triune God, “that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.”

So here we have the Holy Spirit. He is of the same kind, if you will. He is a Helper, an enabler just as Christ is. Father also. The Spirit of truth, now I want you to know the Holy Spirit is connected with the truth of God because the Bible was given through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That's why it is a supernatural book, it's the very Word of God, it is God's words, if you will. Peter said men who wrote the Old Testament were “moved by the Spirit of God.” Jesus will tell His disciples, down in verse 26, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name.” You'll note the inseparable involvement. The Father sends the Spirit in the name of the Son on the basis of the work of the Son, what He has provided and His authority. “He will teach you all things, bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

There is a lot of discussion on the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and particularly what we call the synoptic Gospels, those Gospels that see things together, that are so much alike—Matthew, Mark and Luke. How could they write these things? It's not so difficult. Wouldn't they get things confused? You know how your memory fails. “The Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,” and note this, “and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Now those who have a problem with the supernatural character of the Bible naturally are trying to figure out by natural means how could Matthew have written what he wrote and he has a lot of the same things as Luke. They must have collaborated, or maybe there was another document. So they have created a document called Q. They just created that out of the air. If you read scholarly writings, Matthew, Mark and Luke drew from Q. Who is Q? What do you mean, who is Q? Q is the invisible man who wrote this document and Matthew, Mark and Luke drew from it.

You don't have to go get a Doctor of Theology Degree, just put it in the trash can. One of the books I reread, I had read it years ago, the book by a German professor who used to teach in German theological schools, well accredited, advanced degrees, a lady. She had studied under this and she wrote books and she was well acclaimed, and she said, “the emptiness of it just took hold of me. I thought for a long time I was explaining to people the Bible and teaching them the Gospel. I realized what I am teaching is empty.” She descended into alcoholism. She said I would spend days in front of the TV drinking. Here is this acclaimed professor and by God's grace she was saved. Do you know what she said? I took all of my books and everything I had written and put them in trash can. And I encourage everyone who has any of my writings from that time to immediately throw them in the trash can. She is marvelously saved, she says I came to realize the truth of the Word of God, alive. Here the Holy Spirit has given it.

So He is the Spirit of truth, He is going to guide these disciples in writing New Testament, enable them to supernaturally remember and guide them what He wants them to record. He is the Spirit of truth. I want you to note this, God and the truth cannot be separated. We want to be careful. We emphasize the truth but it is the truth that leads us to a relationship with Christ and enables us to continue to grow in that relationship once it is established. So Jesus says in verse 16 that “the Father will send the Holy Spirit of truth.”

Now note, the world doesn't know the Spirit, doesn't receive the Spirit, doesn't know Him. But note what Jesus says at the end of verse 17, “You know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Now you see the language here. You come back up to verse 10 where He said, “Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” The end of verse 10, “The Father abiding in Me,” living in Me, dwelling in Me and I in Him is what the context says. Now the Holy Spirit who has been with them, and the Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament, He is going to come in a new and special way. It's not the Holy Spirit wasn't present, the Holy Spirit descended on Christ in the form of a dove at His baptism by John the Baptist. It's not the Holy Spirit has been waiting in heaven and not present on earth. Genesis 1 begins by telling us that “the Spirit of God hovered,” was present “over the deep.” But He is going to now be sent to carry on a special, new ministry of permanently dwelling within the body of every believer. “He abides with you but He will be in you.”

Now you see the relationship, the Father lives in the Father, the Son lives in the Father, now the Spirit who is also God will live in the disciples, will abide in them. That's a new phenomenon the Spirit is being sent to accomplish, to dwell in a new . . . You note the intimacy now being carried to a level . . . The Spirit of God dwelling within us. Remarkable!

Come down to verse 20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father,” now note this, “and you in Me and I in you.” You see the relationship that is established with the depth of intimacy. Down to verse 23, “Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me he will keep My Word.” Note the connection with the Word of God again, the truth of God and the personal relationship with God. “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and disclose Myself to him.” Down to verse 23, I was reading verse 21. “If anyone loves Me he will keep My word, My Father will love him. We will come to him and make our abode with him.” That's remarkable. The Holy Spirit is coming, the Father is coming and the Son is coming. The focal point of the person of the Godhead is the Spirit. When one person of the Godhead is there, the others are there with Him even though the ministry is carried out in a special way by the Spirit. This is remarkable, you see what is happening here. Verse 28, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” It's a manifestation of your love for Him. “My Father will love him, we will come to him and make our abode with him.” We will live with Him, in Him. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Turn over to John 15:4, He's talking about the picture of the vine and the branches and the branches of the vine bear fruit because of the life that comes to the branches through the vine. Verse 4, “You abide in Me and I in you,” I take it that's a statement of fact. “And the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit.”

You see the goal. We dwell in one another and produce fruit. It is the relationship that has been established that is effective. There are different views on abiding, some have associated it with more of a Keswick theology that you can sometimes abide and sometimes not abide. But I don't think so because it is a mutual abiding. You'll note here, “He who abides in Me and I in him.” And Romans 8 says “if Christ doesn't abide in you, you don't belong to Him.” So I take it He is talking about the relationships established that will enable them now to produce fruit, do that which is pleasing to God. You have to have the relationship and now it is growing. And those who aren't related to Christ are discarded by Him as the context goes on. Verse 6, “If anyone does not abide in Me” he is thrown away, discarded. That's important. There is no other way. And you see the point is to bring us into a relationship with Him that will be a growing, developing relationship. It is an unending relationship. The Spirit is sent to indwell us, will indwell therefore, forever, Jesus said. He abides in us.

And what happened? Come back to John 14. Look at the end of verse 10, “The Father abiding in Me does His works.” And that's where the life that we have now dwelling in us, the life of God produces in us the character of God. Doesn't mean we don't have responsibility and accountability, but there is no life without that relationship. We enter into that relationship by believing the Word that God has given, and then we are nurtured in that relationship by being fed the Word. That's why the goal is always the personal relationship. Knowledge of the Bible is not the end goal, and if it is for even us as believers as we'll look at in a moment, we begin to cool. I know it, I've studied it, I've spent many years now in the Word, I've gone to . . . If that's all it is, is knowledge, I have good knowledge, I don't know it all but I know it pretty well. And many of you could say that. And so pretty soon we think we need less Bible study, we need less of the Word.

“But as newborn babes we are to long for the pure unadulterated milk of God's Word that we might grow with respect to our salvation.” It's an unending relationship, it's a growing relationship. Well, I got saved, now I get on with my life. No, I was saved by the grace of God, now this is my life. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.” It's not the old me, it's the new me, made new in Christ.

Come over to John 17. His desire? It affects us as one another. Look at verse 11, Christ's high priestly prayer, “I am no longer in the world, yet they themselves are in the world,” meaning His disciples that He is leaving here. “I come to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.” So when we enter that relationship with God through Christ, we are also brought into a relationship with other believers. This is how 1 John begins as the Apostle John who was used to write the Gospel also wrote his first epistle. He says we want to have fellowship with you, writing to fellow believers, and our fellowship is with the Father. So we share in a bond of relationship with God the Father and that brings us into a bond of relationship with one another.

Down in John 17:21, verse 20, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in Me through their word that they may all be won, even as you, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may be in Us, so the world might believe You sent Me.” You see the relationship established. That's why we talked about being God's family in this place. We are bound together with believers in other places, but the manifestation and the relationship is clearly, obviously, here we are. Note verse 17, “Sanctify them in the truth, Your Word is truth.” Verse 19, “I sanctify Myself that they themselves may also be sanctified in truth.” That's the ongoing relationship. I don't need less of the Word the older I get, the longer I'm saved, I want to get more of it.

We could go to 1 John but we're running out of time. So come over to Colossians, if you would. This is the foundation to everything. Our danger as a church is that we might focus, so absorbed on just knowledge of the Word we forget the knowledge of the Word is so that we might have a deeper, more intimate, fuller relationship with the living God. How awesome is that? I mean, how sad that I begin to think, I think I know it pretty well. It's not a matter of I know the Word pretty well, do I know the Lord of the Word very well? Every portion of the Word enables me to know something about Him.

That doesn't mean every portion of Scripture is talking about Christ. But I read a historical portion in the Old Testament, God says He is going to whistle for the king of the Assyrians to come and conquer Israel. Well, that's nice. Who is Esarhaddon? Who are these kings? That's all right, that's just history. But it is revealing something to me about the sovereign power and authority of God. They come when He says come, He's in charge.

So I'm learning something about the living God and the history that He has written, His power to bring about His word. When he says come, they come. He has the sovereign power to move them. I learn something of the seriousness of sin when I see how He judges sin, the beauty of holiness. So every portion of Scripture is enabling me to know something more about God, His person. So I have to see that as the goal. So I want to have as thorough a knowledge of the Word, I want to continue to take it in. Why? Well, we want to know more than the other churches in town, don't we? We want to be able to say we know the Bible better than they do. No, that's not the purpose, the purpose is more personal. It's so that I might have a deeper love for Christ, a relationship with Him.

When you come to Colossians, we don't have time to do details of this, we've studied Colossians on other occasions. But we've talked about being in Christ, Him abiding in us, us abiding in Him, the intimacy of the relationship established. In the first chapter of Colossians Paul uses these expressions, being in Christ and related expressions nine times just in the first chapter. In Christ, in Christ, in whom, in Him, in Him, in Him, through Him, through Him, in Christ. Do you know what happens? In chapter 2 another nine times. In whom, in Him, in Him, in Him, in Him, with Him, with Him, with Him, through Him. You can go through on your own and mark them in your Bible.

So eighteen times in the first two chapter he stresses our relationship with Christ and the sufficiency of that relationship for everything. And he talked to them about their experience of the grace of God in truth at the end of Colossians 1:6. He talks about Christ and who He is and so down in verse 28, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete.” It's not done. Why? Paul continued to pour out the truth of God because that's what God uses to mature us, to develop us in our relationship with Him so His presence in us is more clearly manifested. We are producing more and more fruit, manifestation of His character. And he says in verse 24, “For this purpose I also labor, striving . . .” Strong words. Paul was wearing himself out but he is doing it according to “God's power which mightily works within me.” There you have the combination. I pour my life into it, every ounce of my being to serve my God. But it is His power that produces results. But we are privileged to be instruments that He uses.

You come into Colossians 2, he talks about his struggle on their behalf and on those at Laodicea. Sadly Laodicea continued to go downhill spiritually while maintaining a mask of success, as we know from the letter to them in Revelation 3. He is struggling for them, he wants them to grow, to mature. And he reminds them that Christ is our focus, “He is the One” verse 3, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so no one will delude you.”

Now you begin to see why this is important. When you lose your focus on Christ and your relationship with Him and growing in Him, all of a sudden now we become susceptible to error. That's what has happened with the Colossian believers, we call it the Colossian heresy, and it is developed as you come through this chapter. “I say this so no one will delude you with persuasive arguments, keep the truth firmly in your grasp and the relationship with Christ.” And that's what he is talking about. Verse 8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, in Him you have been made complete.”

I mean you have everything in Christ. That doesn't mean we are yet perfected, but we are growing in Him. Perfection is in Him alone. So I take in the Word, I discern with the Word, I am closed to error, I am opposed to error because error is the devil's way of distracting me from the Person and work of Christ. That's what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11 when he told the Corinthians that “I am concerned for you. I betrothed you to Christ as a pure virgin, I am concerned that you be led astray from your purity of devotion to Him.” That's why the Word of God is important, it enables us to know Him, to grow in our relationship with Him and error . . . That's what he deals with in 2 Corinthians 11. False teachers come in, they begin to teach a corrupted doctrine. The truth is what enables me to know Christ, to mature in Him, to enable Him to work in greater ways in and through me.

Verse 9, “In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made complete.” Now what is this about circumcision is necessary? We are dealing with this in Galatians. You've been circumcised with spiritual circumcision. We don't have time to go back, all the way back in the book of Deuteronomy, we're back in the books of the Law. God told Israel, Deuteronomy 10:16, you have to be circumcised in your heart. Israel began to move and look at the external things, and when you begin to move from Christ other things become important.

It amazes me in some of my reading, even while gone, sadly reading of those who profess faith in Christ but have gone back, picked up. They are drawn to the traditions of men. One man whose book impacted my life, he has gone to Greek Orthodoxy. Another man well known in the evangelical world, gone to Roman Catholicism, out of which he was converted. What has happened? I was reading a book by a scholar that I have benefited from, he said I just decided the study of the Word was not enough. He had moved more to the experiential/mystical things. Knowledge alone just puffs up, it doesn't build up. If we lose perspective . . .

Why are we studying the Word of God? Why do we come back and study passages we've studied a dozen times and you have studied it in other classes and you have taught it in places. Don't we know it by now? It's alive, it's powerful, it nurtures our soul, it is our spiritual food to not only bring us into a relationship with the living God, but to deepen that relationship, to grow that relationship. We have to ask ourselves, is that true for me? Is that what the Word of God is to me? That's why David said I treasure the Word, it is more precious to me than gold. We sing it, we sing in songs about Christ and our relationship with Him and it is true, it's a love relationship, it is a relationship that is intimately in depth. But there is danger that we be turned away.

So after laying the foundation, Colossians 3 will open up, “If you have been raised with Christ, keep on seeking the things above. Set your mind on things above.” Here is how we conduct ourselves as we grow. There are instructions, there are commands but it all flows out of we are in a relationship with Him. We want to become tired of that relationship, long-term relationships can grow cold. Marilyn and I were talking as we drove back from Colorado and saying isn't it great, we go away and just enjoy each other. We had family come and that made it special, but it is just special to be together. What did you do on vacation? We hang out together, we sit in two different chairs and read a book. Different books. And then we go out and walk around and maybe get a polish dog at Costco. That's my concession in love. Marilyn, when she is done piling stuff on it, I don't think she knows where the polish dog is. But at any rate what do we do? That's vacation? Yes. It's not where we are, what we're doing, it's we're doing it together. It's fun. Do you know what you do when you love someone? You look at the young people who are in love, they just want to do things together.

Well, am I in love with Christ? Well, yes. Don't I want to know more of Him? We sing “more about Jesus would I know.” Is it real? We get done . . . Bible study, classes. We've lost the focus. We have to be careful, we're not above being like the Colossians. We're not above being like the Corinthians and church after church. Have we settled down and we're proud we're not going to mysticism, we're not going to these other things. But the Word of God becomes a dead end. I know it so I don't need much more of it. Are you saying you have exhausted the inexhaustible God?

“In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form” and He is the One in whom we are made complete. Are you going to be bored with God after a million years in eternity? That love relationship growing and deepening? That's why we get together and study the Word of God, that's why we do it week after week, that's why we do it Sunday morning, Sunday evening, have Bible studies, have Bible classes. I haven't heard anything new for a while. No, but every passage makes me appreciate the God who so greatly loves me, Has it deepened my love for Him? Lord, this is revealing you. Why would I not want more of it? I want to know you better, I want to deepen my relationship with you, I want you to be my life. It's the most precious relationship, it's the most intimate relationship and it is by far the most enduring relationship. It will go on for eternity, we've just begun.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for the blessings that are ours as Your family in this place. How blessed we are with Your Word. Lord, we want to be a pillar and support of the truth, we want to be faithful with the truth, we want to show ourselves approved by handling accurately Your Word. We want to build it in to one another's lives from the youngest age up. But Lord we want to maintain the focus, we want to know more of Your truth because we want to know more of You. We want to grow in our relationship with You, we want to deepen that relationship. We don't want to be tired of You, we don't want our relationship with You to become old, worn, wearisome. Lord, may Your Word grip our hearts because we are gripped with a love for You, a desire to know You that keeps it fresh and alive each day. We want our church to be a testimony of a people who are in love with You and in love with one another. Bless the day before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.