Beyond Knowledge: Living the Transformative Power of God's Word - 3TC Podcast - Jeff Ryan - 2/16/2025

Jeff Ryan emphasizes the importance of understanding and internalizing God's Word rather than just knowing it. He highlights the story of Philip from Acts 8, who guides an Ethiopian eunuch to understand and accept Jesus, stressing that true transformation comes from comprehending scripture, which can lead to actions like baptism. We have a need for reverence and respect for God's Word and the transformative power it holds.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today. I would ask your help this morning that if my head blocks the screen in any way, let me know just because of my height, so short right now, you know we all can feel sure. We all feel like we can come up short sometimes, you know, we probably often look back at this week, and so I wish I would have maybe handled that different, or thought about that different, or approach that different, because we're imperfect people, and it's so funny that all of us can get frustrated with the imperfection of other people without ever realizing that people get frustrated with art and perfection as well, and the only person that really matters when it comes to perfection is God. He knows we're not perfect and he is perfect, and so when we slow down and realize it's okay to understand that we're not perfect, and it's okay to know that God loves us even though we're not perfect, boy, it really takes a lot of pressure and stress out of our lives. And so we want to be intentional and come together and confess to God what he knows, that we're not perfect, that we don't always act and think and do the right things, but God always loves us. So let's take time to go to God and to just confess what he already knows, and then just, and then just read together the company words of Scripture that let us know we are forgiven. Let's go to the Lord and Father, God, we confess that we've all come up short and Lord, we confess that sometimes we hold other people to a standard that we ourselves cannot meet, and that is perfection. So Lord, we confess those thoughts and those deeds and those lack of thoughts and those lack of needs to you that Lord, you know that you forgive us, Lord, that we are love and that you will cleanse us. So, Father, I pray that we would leave our sin where it was meant to be left, and that's at the cross that we leave our fear and anxiety over our sin at the cross, because if we don't, then we have nullified you going to the cross. So I pray Lord, we believe it there. I pray Lord, we would read together the words that were written in first John one nine. Let's say this, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Friends, that is good news. I would encourage you to write that down and have that with you when you are struggling with having one of those days, one of those sinful days, to know those words. You know, as you get older, you get the chance to look back, and I think you appreciate your parents even more. You appreciate what they were trying to do. You don't always appreciate them in the moment, but as you get older, you're like mom. I am so thankful for my parents and how they love me. And there are certain things I think that all of us could go back on our lives and say, I remember when my parents said this or did this, and it really had a lasting impact on my life. And I remember when I was younger, my my parents gave me a card, and it was a card that was very popular, if you remember those days where it had the word success, and then it would have a picture determination, and it would have a picture and all that. And so they gave me this card that had this quote that I want to read to it and take a minute to get through, but I just want you to hear these words and just imagine how they would impact you, maybe when you were younger, as they did to me, and they're from Theodore Roosevelt. And it goes like this, it's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who airs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming. But who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold, intended souls who neither do victory nor defeat? I think I still have that postcard, and those were words that were incredibly powerful to me and really helped shape how I approach things. That says it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, or succeed or fail, but you gotta try. You gotta put. Yourself out there, and words have meaning, and we don't hear those types of things said anymore, and we don't talk like that anymore. When it comes to remembering things that are said, We are all very good at knowing song lyrics. They're all very good at quoting movie lines, right? Cuz those words somehow stick with us all the time. But what if we knew another set of words. What if we only didn't only just know scripture, but what if we understood it? See, there are a lot of people who know scripture, there are a lot of people who can say, well, I know what the Bible says, but do you understand what the Bible says? We've gone through a few weeks now later. So the purpose of the church right to replicate ourselves, to make disciples. We understand about passionate worship that nothing should hold us back from passionately worshiping the God who has saved us. And today, we're going to look at the power of God's word to shape us, to form us and to guide us. And so I'm going to be reading from Acts chapter eight, verses, 26 through 36 in the NIV version, Acts Eight verses, 26 through 36 and as you look that up, let me just pray for God's word, because God's word is powerful, not the person delivering it, but God's word is powerful. So we want to pray that that God would open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to his words. Let's pray together, Father, God, we thank You for Your word. It is a lamp unto our feet. It is life's instruction manual. It shows us how to live, how to move forward, how to trust and how to have hope. Lord, it is the most powerful thing that we can have. And so Father, I pray that despite the broken, sinful heart that is me and my failures and shortcomings, Lord, that I would just be an empty vessel, that you would work through that Lord, each of us would hear what you need us to hear. It would comfort us. It would convict us. Lord, it would move us from being just hearers of the word, to be doers of your word. And we ask this in the name of Jesus amen Acts chapter eight, starting in verse 26 now an angel of the Lord said, Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the candidate, which means queen of Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship on his way home, was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet the Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay here. Then Philip ran to the chariot. Heard the man reading Isaiah, the prophet. You understand what you're reading. Philip asked, How can I? He said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a land before its Shearer is siloed. So he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who could speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about himself, or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water. The union said, Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot that both Philip and eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized. One of our music this morning was about what God is doing. And one of the things that God is doing, that you and I don't always realize is God is always working behind the scenes. He is always working in the hearts of you and I. He's always working in the hearts of other people. We just don't know it. Now. We know that God is sovereign over all things. So we know that God can do this. And what God is doing is he is setting up what I'll call divine appointments, that God may be setting up a divine appointment for you to go and to share with somebody the good news of the gospel of how the Word of God has shaped you, has changed you, has comforted you. Or maybe God is setting up a divine appointment for someone to come to you and share with you how God's word can be a comfort in the midst of difficult time, but God is setting up these divine appointments so that people can understand and experience the power of God's word. It is not just enough to know God's Word. We must understand God's Word. Amen. My family teases me all the time because I seem to know a lot about technology. I'm always reading, I'm always talking, but I don't know how, and I don't understand how to use technology in any way. So we have to understand there's a difference between knowing something and understanding something. And God doesn't just want us to know Scripture. He wants us to understand and experience the power of Scripture. And so we read in this text that an angel of the Lord, a representative, an ambassador, an emissary from God to Philip, says those words that we read again and again in Scripture, go, go. Right. Remember, we talked about the purpose of the church, go and make disciples. And now hear God come sending an angel of the Lord, and Philip, it says, Go. I want you to leave where you are, and I want you to go down to Gaza. I want you to go down this desert. I want you to go somewhere now nowhere. In Scripture do we read that Philip had any questions or any concerns? Philip said, Lord, I just trust you enough that you'll work out the detail. You wouldn't tell me to go if you didn't have a plan. God, we love to know the details, like I love spontaneity, as long as it's plain, right? God says, Go. We need to go. And so God said to Philip, you need to go. And so Philip, what? What you don't know is that Philip had a very successful preaching and teaching ministry. Philip was doing very well in his life. He was probably very comfortable. Everything was going his way. Then God comes and says, Go. And isn't that just how God works? Maybe you're having a comfortable day, maybe you're having a comfortable week, or you've got comfortable weekend, and then God, all of a sudden, shows up and says, You need to go and talk to that person. You need to go and call that person. You need to go and be with that person. And we don't like that, because we say, why God? God said, Don't ask. Why just go? And so Philip said he would just go. So why would Philip go? Because Philip was obedient and he understood and reverence for God's word. And when God's word and God says, go, you go, he says, I believe and I reverence, because I know that God can transform lives, because God transformed Philips, and God transformed yours, and God can transform mine. And so when God's word tells you to go, if you have reverence for God's word, you go. See Philip just didn't know God's word. He understood God's word. He understood the authority of God's Word, the proclamation of God's Word. So Philip decided that he would go. When you think of the things that shape us in life. Technology is a big thing that shapes us. Family is a big thing that shapes us. But what we need to understand is the biblical illustration of who we are and who God is. We are the clay. He is the potter. We need to allow God to shape our lives. God needs to be shaping your marriage. He needs to be shaping your parenting. He needs to be shaping your finances. He needs to be shaping your future. If we say, God, you are the potter and I am the clay, that God's word is the thing that shapes us, it is the thing that molds us, it is the thing that guides us. So we have to understand the power of God's word, not just knowing God's word. And so we read in the story that Philip goes down this deserted and desert road, and there is this Ethiopian unit riding in a carrot, and God says, Stay close to that carrot. Now a unit can be a man that has been emasculated, but a lot of times it was a title for someone that was a treasurer. So this was somebody that was in the royal position. This was somebody that had means. This was somebody that had power. This is somebody that had success. Just the fact that he's riding in a carriage tells you that he is pretty well off, and he is doing very well in his life. He was a God fearing man, but not a Christ follower. And there is a difference. There are a lot of people who fear God. There are a lot of people. So I know who God is, but don't understand what Scripture says about God. So he was a god fearer, but not a Christ follower. And there's a difference there. What was the thing that was keeping him going from being a god fearer to a Christ follower? The thing that keeps people from doing that today is understanding the power of God's word. I can tell you because my whole life, when I was young, I was a god fearer. I feared God. I was in awe of God, like you don't mess with God, but I wasn't following Christ. Why? Because I didn't understand the power of Scripture. When you come to understand the power of Scripture, it takes you from just being a god fearer to becoming a Christ follower. You. And God fearers aren't the ones that are ushered into heaven. It is Christ's followers who are ushered into heaven. And so we see that Philip took religion seriously, like many people do. He was actively reading scripture. But what was the struggle for him? It was he didn't understand it. And if you don't understand scripture, you cannot experience the power, the transformational power of Scripture. And so we find this man very clearly where many of us are. He was frustrated. He couldn't get answers. He had answers about scripture, but I don't know where to get them, and I don't understand what this is saying. It says he was reading a passage and he just didn't even understand what it meant. Or how are you supposed to interpret that? One of the reasons why people can't understand Scripture is that we are dead to our sins, as it says in Ephesians, two, one, we are dead in our transgressions. Our minds can't comprehend it. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to illuminate what the truth of God's word means, if you and I are going to experience the transforming power of God's Word. Now this man had means you and I, we could download the Bible on our phones. We had multiple Bibles in our homes. You go you can go to certain hotels. You can pull them in a drawer and there's a Bible there. But back in this world, Scripture was very difficult to find. It was like trying to find eggs today, you just can't find them. So he had a scroll of Isaiah, and he's reading the scroll, but he just doesn't understand what the text is saying. So what does he need to understand the text? He needs beautiful feet. And you may say, did you just say beautiful feet? I did. And let me tell you why. I want to read to you what it says in Romans 10. For there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they've not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are said as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? If people are going to understand the power of God's word, we need to have beautiful feet. And we understood from what our purpose is as the church to make disciples, that we are a set people. Jesus says, Go and make disciples. The angel of the Lord said to Philip, go down this road. We have to be ready to go, because we are a sent people. We focus so much on getting people to come that we forget that we are called to go, and we are called to go and have the beautiful feet of the Good News of helping people understand Scripture. What this man was having, this Ethiopian leader, this man in the royal court, he was having a power failure. He wasn't able to understand and access and apply the power of Scripture because he didn't get it. And if you really listen, and I'm equally listening your daily lives to the people around you. People are having a power failure, and the only solution is the power of God's word. I want you to hear some of the things that people say, maybe in your everyday world, but I want you to hear them too. They don't understand how to access the power of God that will change that. When people say, I'm worried about my job, that's a power failure. Who will provide for me. But we know that God will never leave us nor forsake us. If you don't understand the power of God's word, you're going to worry about your job. How about I'm stressed about the future? I don't know what's going to happen here. The Lord will never leave you. The Lord will never forsake you. When you understand the power of God's word, that stress goes away. How would my marriage get better? Love covers a multitude of sins. I have health concerns. Jesus is the great physician. I feel alone. I feel unwelcome or unwanted. The Lord is always with us. See, it's not enough just to know God's Word, we must understand God's word, and when we understand God's Word, we experience the power of God's word that says I am not alone, and I am one, and I am loved, and God does have a plan, and there is going to be a way through this. And I know that God is in the midst of my struggles and my trials. Why do I know this? Because I understand what God's Word says. I understand it's power to give me hope. It's. Power to get me through. It's power to take away the rage and the anger and the disappointment and the frustration so many people are having a power failure, especially those people who have been marginalized or ostracized like this man would have been. We all need to understand the power of God's Word. We need to have our eyes and our ears open to the truth of God's Word. As Philip was going alongside his parents, he heard the man reading scripture aloud. Do you know that in the ancient world, it was very common for people to read things out loud. And I know in my house in the mornings, a lot of the times when I'm getting ready to take Levi to school, he always thinks that I'm on the phone in the morning, but I'm not on the phone. I'm reading scripture out loud. It helps me to hear God's word out loud. And I would encourage you to do that. There's something powerful about hearing it, not just reading it, but hearing it out loud. And so what we hear is that this man is reading a text, and I want to read you that text. It's from Isaiah 53 it says this, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its cheers to silence. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. He was punished. Now, you and I can hear that, and we know the connection begin people in this Hey, was he talking about an actual sheep? Is he talking about a nation? Is he talking about Isaiah? He didn't know. We know that it points all to Jesus, but there are many people then and many people now who do not understand the power of Scripture and Philip understand stood two really important things. Number one, he understood scripture, but he also understood how to interact with people who didn't. And there's such a gift and coming and, you know, gentle and kind to people so that they understand God's word. Listen to what it says in First Peter it says, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. That's reverence. Revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do it with gentleness and respect. Too often people wield Scripture as a weapon of judgment. It's not for us to judge and for us to love, and so we need to be gentle and kind to those who don't understand Scripture. And I love what Philip does here. He asks a really a life changing question to this man, which should be a life changing, life reflecting question for you and I. He comes upon the man. The man's got the scroll he's reading Isaiah. He's reading it out loud. Everything looks good, everything sounds good, but look at the question that Philip asked him. He says, Do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand what you're reading? And so that's the question we need to reflect on as you read scripture, whether it's daily in the Bible, or on your phone, on an app, or if you listen in your car, whatever it may be, do you understand what Scripture is talking about? Because if you do, then you understand the transforming power of God's Word. If you don't, then we need to help you understand what God's Word is saying, because it will be the power that will change your life. See, Philip was patient. He waited for the man to kind of share his story. And he was also observant. He knew when to dive in. He didn't just come out and blow him out of the water. He said, I'm going to wait God for your divine appointment, your divine timing for me to have conversation with this man. And he asked me, Do you understand what's reading? And give this man incredible credit. He says, How can I unless somebody explains it to me? He admitted me to know something. How rare is it particularly for a man to admit they don't love something. As men, we think directions are just a waste of paper, we need to say, I don't understand what God's Word is saying. That's why I love kids. Kids and youth ask the best questions. Whenever I get asked to speak somewhere, I'm like, Man, I hope for the kids there, because they're really going to ask you a question. I know the adults would just be quiet. The kids go, I don't understand this. What does this mean? I met with a young man last month who did not understand anything about scripture, and he had the best questions. He says, what about this? And what about this? Like, that's such a good question. It. So he admitted, I don't understand. And can I tell you what happened in that moment? Philip, a successful preaching ministry, a follower of Christ, someone that is known, someone is respected. Then there's this, this Ethiopian unit. He's a God fearer, but he's not allowed into worship. He's an outside in that moment, all of the differences between those two men went away. They've gone why? Because they focused on their reverence for God's word. That's what changed every dynamic, is that God's word was the difference maker for both men. And now Phil begins to engage this man gently and kindly and lovingly? Why? Well, I think we can get our answer if we go to what Paul said in Romans. Hear these words, Paul says, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it's the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. See you can know that verse, but do you understand that verse. You know how you know you understand that verse is, if you're not ashamed to share your faith, if you believe the power of God's word to transform you, why do you embarrass him about it, like when you are proud about something, you aren't shy about sharing. You know, I may have said to a few 1000 people this week, fly, eagles, fly. I may have said that. Why? Because I'm proud of it. I know it's an amazing thing, and Scripture is so much greater than that. In fact, here's what the scripture we need to remember. Second Timothy 316 says this, All scripture. All scripture is God breathed, and it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And I want us to reflect on that. Scripture will teach you and die how we are to live our lives. We don't have to try to guess. We don't have to try to figure it out. We don't have to try to blend into the culture. Scripture teaches us how to live our life. Scripture will rebuke us. We love to rebuke everybody else, but we don't like to be rebuked. Scripture will look you straight down and go, nope, that was not the right way to handle that. When you understand the power of God's word, you will lovingly be rebuked by God because He loves you. Scripture corrects our thinking. Our thinking can get sideways because we can think more culturally than we can biblically, but scripture will correct our thinking and say, No, this is what God wants, not what the world wants. Scripture trains and equips. Scripture is ongoing, making us stronger, making us grow. Scripture equips us for all of those things. And I love the word here that says scripture is God greed and now, why? That seems like an interesting word. Why would it say God breed? Well, I want you to go back to Genesis with me, and you remember how God formed Adam out of the ADAMA, the dirt he formed him. He made him right go back to that clay and empire. But what was the final act that God did to bring Adam to life? He breathed into his nostrils and he gave him life. The breath of God gives life this, friends, is breathed by God, and it gives you and I life. When we know it, we understand it, we apply it. And that's what Peter was saying to this man. He was sharing it with him. The greatest example of this for me is from the book of Nehemiah. The Ezra and Nehemiah story is my favorite story in all of Scripture. Now you have to understand a couple of things here. The people of God desperately, desperately believed in the power of God, and they believed in the power of God's Word. And so what they did was they begged Ezra, the priest, to read them God's Holy Word, because, again, they don't have access to Scripture, like you and I have access to Scripture. All that they actually said, Please, please, please, read the Word of God to us. And so what would happen is Ezra read the Word of God to them for a fourth of the day, and then for another fourth of the day, they confess their sins and worship, and you think that our services are wrong, I want you to think about that, but I want you to hear their response to hearing God's word. Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people lifted their hands and responded, amen, amen. Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Do you know what that shows? Reverence, absolute reverence. They understood the power of God's word. They just didn't. Know God's word, they understood God's word. And when you understand God's Word, you can apply it, and it will be the power to transform your lives. I think one of the other really cool things about this text, it is the first place in scripture where a pulpit is referenced. Now we don't have a pulpit here, but obviously I want a little bit of a raised stage. But probably all of us have been in a church where there is a raised pulpit. And you may say, Well, why is there a raised pulpit? Does the pastor just want to feel really cool and powerful? No, it is symbolic to show that all people are underneath the Word of God. It is a physical representation. The Word of God is here, and the people are beneath it. The people submit to it. The people are subject to it, that people have reverence for it. So the reason that Ezra was raised up, not so that Ezra could look good and powerful, but so that people understand we are a people of the book, and we are a people that are submissive to the book. If you want to understand the power of God's word, you must submit to the authority of God's word. It cannot be that God's word is here, but my word is here, or God's word is here, but culture is here. It's gotta be God's word is here and we are below it, because if we don't, then we don't have the reverence for God's word. And so Philip, from that passage where the eunuch was written from, Isaiah, began there to explain to him the Word of God, and through the understanding, not just the knowing, because the man was eagerly reading. He was a guy that had access to read Scripture. He came to understand and what happens after you understand Scripture? That means there's an internal change in you. That means you understand the power of God's Word. And so what does this royal official asked to do? He has to be baptized. Why? Because he understands scripture. Now, not just he knew scripture, but he understood scripture. And the Scriptures reveal who God is. The Scriptures reveal the glory of God, the majesty of God, the mercy of God, the incarnate God in Jesus Christ. And when you come to understand that inwardly, in your heart, outwardly, you want to make that profession a big baptism is an outward act of an inward change. When people come to a knowledge in their heart, in their heads of I get what Scripture is saying about who Jesus is and who I am and who God is, I want to be baptized. But here's the trick. Remember, where did God send Philip? He sent him into a desert. He sent him into a dusty road. So the question wasn't finding enough water to be baptized. The question was finding any water to be baptized. But remember how we talk God makes divine appointments, and all of a sudden they pull up and they find water in the desert. And he was baptized. He was baptized as a Christ follower because he understood the scriptures now, and when you understand the scriptures as this man did, I want to read to you another text for my day. I want you to imagine how this man would have reacted after reading these words. For this is what the Lord says to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who chose what pleases me and hold fast to my COVID. To them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and the name better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. Can you imagine the joy of understanding that as a unit, someone who has been ostracized their whole life, someone who's been told they're not good enough? Now, he understands that scripture, and it changes him. And there's a scripture out there for you too, one that when you understand, is it going to change how you view yourself, your life, your future, hope, everything. That's why we have life gurus, so that you can go deeper in understanding God's word, because the Holy Spirit speaks to everyone of us. And so I want to encourage you being in a life group, because that's where you're going to really grow and understand the scriptures. Read Scripture every day, listen to Scripture at night. And it's not enough just to know we gotta understand it. They always talk to you in seminary, what's the 3am sermon? And what that is, if somebody woke you up 3am Saturday night and you got to summarize your sermon in one sentence, what would it be? Because if you can't do that, then people are never going to understand what it is that you're talking about. So here's your 3am understanding of this text if you want to write. Now it's about the Spirit's preparation. God was preparing the unity. God was preparing Philip. God is always working to set up divine appointments. So it's about the Spirit's preparation. It's about Philip's presentation. Philip was patient. He was understanding. He was non judgmental, and ultimately it was about the eunuchs jubilation, because he got baptized as a Christ follower. We talk every week that we are a church based on passion, power and presence, passion and worship, nothing should hinder us from praising God. We should be more excited than anything else when we worship the power of God's word needs to shape us. We can't sell for knowing it. We need to understand it. And that's why we have life groups. That's why we developers, that's why I'm here, is to help all of us continue to understand and apply God's word. So I pray that you will be a part of that growth in your lives. And I want to understand and not just know. Amen. Let me pray for us as our worship team, Father God, we thank You for Your word and as a lamp unto our feet. We thank You, Lord for the opportunity to gather and to hear from the spirit, and Lord, I pray that there's anything that I have said in error. Lord, that You would strike it for all of our memories, and the only thing that would remain would be your truth, I pray. Lord, that we would not settle for just knowing, But Lord, we will understand we want to apply. Lord that maybe there's somebody here today that says, I do understand that. I do want to be baptized. I want to be baptized because there's been an interchange in me. And maybe somebody was baptized as a baby, but now they're really ready to step forward and say, I am a follower of Jesus, not a perfect, a perfect person, but somebody says, I want the power of God's word to shame my life. So Lord, I pray that you would move in that person's heart to to seek me out so we can talk. Father, thank you for your word, Lord. I pray that we would never turn from it to the left or to the right, as you told Joshua, as he replaced Moses and faced a dawning task of leading the people into the Promised Land, if you said, Do not turn to the left and to the right and keep your head in this boat. I pray Lord, we ask this in the name of Jesus. Thank you for joining us for more information about three timbers, church, ministries and services. Visit three timbers.org we would love for you to join us in person. You.