Growing Pains -Pastor Hope Carpenter

It is always painful when God puts his finger on our lives and says, you got to come on up higher. You got to put that down. You got to shift and you got to change and you got to lay that down. You can't act like a child no more. It's time to grow up into God.

It's time to grow up and be an adult. Right?

We can't kick and scream and have our way about everything.

We got to line up and we.

Got to be soldiers and we got to obey. That's not a popular teaching, but it's a powerful teaching. It shifted and transformed my life. We've been studying Ruth, and we're going to continue that today. Pastor's been teaching on Judah and My goodness, he broke that thing down about praise, hadn't he?

I mean, if you don't know what.

Praise will do in your life, something bad, wrong, or you ain't been here long. You need to go get the CDs, go get the tapes, go get. Listen to them, digest them. Well, today we are going to go straight into Bethlehem. We're going to talk about the power of the Word. Naomi and Ruth, they left Bethlehem and Judah. They left the praise and they left the bread. They left the Word and they went to Moab. They went to a place of idleness and comfort and laziness. And everything around them fell apart and died. Everything in their life fell apart and died. You can't leave. You cannot live without the bread and you cannot live without the. And expect your life to prosper, period. You can't live without praise, and you can't live without being in the Word of God and expect things to go good in your life. Listen, everyone wants a good life, right?

Do you want a good life?

Come on, let me see. Yes, you want a good life. You want a prosperous life.

But a life without the Word is.

Dark and dead and confusing.

How do I know?

Because I live there.

A life without the Word is dark. Why?

Because thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The Word of God helps me see where to go.

So without the Word of God, my life is dark. Without the Word of God, my life is dead.

Because why? The Word is Spirit and it's life.

If you feel dead and you feel.

Depressed and you feel sad, it's because.

You don't have enough Word in your life. You're sitting around praying for something to.

Happen in you that you've already got the power to change.

But we're lazy. We're living in Moab. We're living in idleness, we're living in laziness. But we want the life of God in our life. It's not gonna happen. You gotta get up, you gotta get out of Moab. You gotta get out of laziness, you gotta get out of idleness.

And.

And you gotta run to the Word and you gotta run to praise. It's where your help comes from.

It's a life that's confusing. You don't know which decisions to make because it's the word of God in Hebrews 4 that says, it's sharp, sharper than a two edged sword. And it penetrates and it separates and it divides rightfully. It divides truth, it divides spirit from your soulish man. So a life without the Word is dark and it's dead and it's confusing. There's power in the Word. Look at somebody and say, there's power in the Word. Power in the Word. We say that and we throw it around like flour in the kitchen.

There's power in the Word. Hallelujah. There's power in the Word.

Like a little parrot.

Power in the Word.

Power in the Word. It's our manual. It's our lamp. Think about it, what a lamp does to you. When you walk in a dark room, you turn on the lamp and you can see. You know where to go.

You know where your stuff's at. That's what the Word is to you. When you turn, turn it on, you activate it.

You know where your stuff's at. It's food for your spirit. It's food. We came out of the Word. So how can we live without the Word?

You were birthed from a word.

It is your source. You can't live outside your source. Going to break down scripture today. Joshua 1:8. Go ahead and get your Bible and go there. And God gave a command to Joshua in this scripture. God had promised to lead Israel into the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness. And we've heard that story so long, it doesn't even hit us any type of way. But I'll be 48 next month. And I can't imagine for 40, 40 years of my life wandering around in a wilderness and already told that I'm allowed to go into a promised land. But wandering around the same situations, the same issues, the same habits, the same failures, tripping over the same things for 40 years. And there is a promised land waiting on me. Wide open to me. This is huge news. Huge. He said, joshua, you're going to lead them into the promised land. There's A huge deliverance at hand. And in Joshua 1:8, he received a command to put on his armor. He received a command to shout and Praise. No. Joshua 1:8, you're about to lead these people into the promised land. And this was the command that God gave him. The command to meditate. Okay, I'm about to take all these crazy church people who are mad, ticked off, hungry, ready to see some big old grapes, and you are telling me to meditate? This is what it says. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Did it say that God was going.

To make his way prosperous? Did it say the preacher was going to make his way prosperous? He said the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Okay? That's a commandment. You shall meditate in it day and night. That you may observe to do that. You may stand back and see that your life produces everything that's in the word of God. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. God said, if you meditate on my word day and night, obey it, do everything I say, then your life will be successful. All right, bye, y'. All.

I mean, it ain't 27 things to do. And we sit around and wonder why our life is so jacked up, jangled up. We don't know Matthew from Mark, from Mork and Mindy. We know more about the walking dead.

In CSI Miami than the promises of God.

And we mad at God.

He ain't come through for me.

No, He's a covenant God.

He said, if you, then this will happen. If you.

Then this will happen. But no, see, we content to live in Moab.

We are miserably secure.

We like our laziness.

We don't want to get up early.

We don't want to stay up late.

We don't want to turn off the tv.

We don't want to pick up a.

Book and read anything.

We don't want to seek wisdom. The Bible didn't say anything about, oh, pray for wisdom.

It said, seek wisdom.

You seek it, you go after it.

I used to not be a reader. I like magazines, pictures. I was a visual learner. I liked who wore it best.

But when hell breaks out in your life, who wore it best can't help you. I had to discipline myself. I had to discipline myself. I had to pick myself up out of my idleness and my laziness. And I had to sit myself down and I had to turn off the tv and I had to put away Facebook and I had to get into the word of God, and I had to read books that were going to strengthen my walk with God. I had to disassociate myself from people who did not push me to the call of God in my life. I had to be alone. I had to be alone. But listen to me right now. I love being alone right now.

We had to leave Moab. We had to leave idleness and laziness.

And just drifting along and riding around.

Meditate on my word day and night. And if you speak the word and obey it, everything, total everything, everything in your life will be prosperous and successful. Look at somebody right beside you, probably your wife, and say, why am I so stupid? Why don't I? Why hadn't I been doing this?

You know, she's talking to me. Most of you in here have read.

Or heard of Rick Warren's book, the Purpose Driven Life. And in his book, this is what he says. So simple. He says, this is what meditation is. It's thinking about God, okay? It's not thinking about him sitting up on the throne with glowing hair. It's not thinking about his image, what he looks like. It's thinking about the attributes of God. It's thinking about his character and his commitment and his promises to you. It's his essence, his desires, his plans and his purposes, his mercy and his great love, his grace and his precepts.

All through the day.

That's what thinking about God is. It's thinking about how good he's been to you.

It's thinking about what you didn't get.

That you know you deserve, and that'll.

Throw you right into a praise break going down the road.

Thinking about God is what meditating is. It's focused thinking. Mulling over, contemplating. And this is how he said you're supposed to think. This is. This is what he said you're supposed to do. Day, night. Focused thinking. Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head?

Oh, my gosh.

Doesn't it drive you insane when you can't get it out of your head? And it just plays over and over and over?

You're like, how do I. I hadn't heard this song in 20 years. Where did this come from?

Why? Because you first had to memorize the song.

Y' all ain't hearing me. You first had to memorize it, and then it pops in and it Plays on its own. Y' all ain't getting it. That's meditation.

We know more words to songs than we know scripture. I know every word to Prince's Purple Rain.

I'm sorry. I memorized it back in the day.

And it's still there.

Parliament, Commodores, I had it all. I had it all till they made me bring all my albums to that.

Church service and I had to burn them.

I know y' all didn't ever have.

One of them church services.

I had to burn all my albums.

Why? I remember as a little girl, I mean, I mean, you didn't have much to do in Calhoun Falls, but I had a tape recorder.

You know the tape recorder where you.

Press play and record.

And I sat right at the radio.

Station on my speakers.

I'd go from WANS to wbbq. Y' all don't remember any of that. So I would go back and forth, waiting on my songs to come on. You know, my songs. I gotta record my songs and. And listen. When my song came on and I recorded it, I'd listen all day long. I was going to have that song.

Memorized by the nighttime because I couldn't.

Be around my girlfriends and they know the song and I didn't know the song. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to know every. Ooh. I'm going to know everything about it.

I mean, I was intentional.

I wrote down the words, I stopped it and rewinded it and had to write it down again. And then I pressed play again and then I listened again and then I wrote it down again and I stopped and I repeated it over and over and over. And if I had to listen to it a hundred times that day, I was going to know that song.

That's what I'm talking about with the word of God. And most of us brag about being able to multitask. Most of us women anyway.

Right?

Well, you know, really, that's not even biblical. See, husband say, I told you.

Told you I was right. Do four or five things at one time.

But God wants us to be single minded. He wants us to be truly focused. James said, a double minded man is.

Unstable in all he does. Remember we were talking about being successful.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. And he shouldn't even think you should receive anything from God. I didn't say it. And I love this translation. This is the New Living Translation, James 1:5. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God. He'll give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver. For a person with a divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the Word, and they're unstable in everything they do. That's that person who just can't seem to get it together because they have a divided loyalty between the Lord and the world. See, our life tells on us. Our life tells on us. And it takes discipline. It takes much discipline. It has to be practiced like you practice that song so that you could memorize it. Now let's talk about success. What does God say? If you live like this, what is your life going to look like? Who wants to know what your life's going to look like?

How many of you know it can.

Be different than what it looks like today?

Hallelujah. Somebody needs to shout, my life's going.

To look different after today. The Hebrew word there for prosperous is salach, and it means this. It means to rush, to advance, to prosper, to make progress.

How many of you want to make progress?

To succeed, to be profitable, to show or experience prosperity? To show it. Look what the Lord has done. You don't have to hide your car.

You don't have to hide your jewelry. If you've been faithful and you've been.

Disciplined and you are a hard worker.

The blessings of the Lord come with no sorrow. And you ain't gotta hide it. Let that guilt come off of you right now. In Jesus name, let that guilt come off of you. You need to spur somebody else on right now.

To prosperity. Showing them how a blessed life is supposed to look.

I didn't say it. I didn't write it.

It's the word of salach. Prosperous. To rush, advance, prosper, make progress, succeed, be profitable, to show or experience prosperity. Success and prosperity go hand in hand, right? Success. When you're successful, it goes hand in hand with prosperity. Okay? You can't help it. You can't get one normally without the other. And I love this one. Another meaning for the word God. This is so good, is to fall upon you. Just picture God's blessings and God's prosperity.

Just falling on you just wherever you walk.

Here, here.

You want $10,000?

Here you go. Here.

God just told me to bless you.

With this new car.

I don't know what you've been believing.

For, but tell me the number of it.

Tell Me, I love it when I'm washing clothes and I get in a pocket and I find me a hundred dollar bill. I go looking through every pocket I can find. It's just falling on me. I said, thank you, Lord, that the blessings of Ron Carpenter's pockets are falling on me. I thank you, Lord. Finders keepers, losers weepers, y'. All, men might ought to wash some clothes every now and then. You might find your money.

And all the women said, I don't know.

They tear it up.

They make everything gray. I told them in the first service, back in the day when our oldest son was living his crazy life and doing drugs, this was in high school. I'm kind of OCD about cleaning and things that are neat in order. And so I go into his closet.

And I'm one of those psycho moms, too, you know, I feel like everything they got is mine. I bought it anyway. I can look at it, I can read it, I can open it, I can do all of it because it's mine. It ain't yours till you paid for.

It, so.

I just let you borrow it.

So one day I was in his closet cleaning his closet, and he was. He's a pretty neat kid. Anyway, he keeps his shoes in his boxes, and everything was where it needed to be.

But I was in there.

I was like, that's too many boxes in there. We're going to clean out some boxes. So I'm in there shaking. I'm like, what in the world? Something in this. I opened it up and I said, well.

Bless the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessings of Abraham have fallen on me right now. I opened up that shoebox, and when.

I got done counting, it was over $10,000. Now, I'm telling you now, he was.

Anointed for business at an early age. You understand what I'm saying? It was all $10. Anointed for business, entrepreneurial spirit. So I just decreed and declared that entrepreneurial spirit gonna head in the right direction. And I took that money right to.

My bank account count.

I said, the Lord is good. I said, the blessing of the Lord has fallen me today. I text him, I said, thank you, son, for that $10,000 I just found in your closet. I said, I. I just praise the.

Lord for it, and I bless you in Jesus name.

Mama, that is my money. You can't take it. I said, oh, no, sir. It ain't your money, baby. I said, I know. I seeded your business. I seeded it with your allowance. I seeded it. So this is my return. That's what I'm talking about. The blessing of God just fall upon you. Y' all might need to go on a little hunt today.

And the last one, God, this is good. The last translation of that word is that you would finish well. God has proven, promised you that it would end well with you. That ought to be comfort to some of you.

I know some of you struggle saying.

I'm going to end up with this.

Disease or I'm going to end up broke, or I'm going to end up.

In a nursing home, or I'm going to end up with nobody seeing me, or I'm going to end up alone.

God promises if you meditate on his word and you keep it in your.

Mouth that it will end well with you. Psalm 1 said this. Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight you, love you. They delight. They love the law of the Lord and they love meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit in each season.

It didn't say in one season. It said, you are like trees that are planted. You are strong and you are stable and you don't sway and you don't change. You are prosperous. You bear fruit in every season. You don't go without.

Their leaves never wither. And they prosper. Somebody say prosper in all they do.

I like that now. Hey, Brandon. Brandon's new. Come on, give it up for Brandon.

God's talking about a blessed man. Blessed is the man who meditates. The world knows the power of this. It didn't originate with the world. It originated with God. It originated with his commandments. But the world has done studies, psychological studies, for years and years, hundreds of years, about the power of meditation. They're just not meditating on the right things. But this is what this. Listen, this is even what the world study says. The world says that when it's done and when it's done, regular people are happier. They have less anxiety, they have less depression and irritability. Husbands, you might need to slap your wife and say, you might need to start meditating. You've been irritable, your memory improves. Wives slap your husband, say, your memory needs to improve. You might need to start meditating. Your reaction time is faster. It reduces chronic pain, reduces cancer, and it relieves drug and alcohol dependency.

That's the world studies.

So how. How hope. How do I meditate? Tell me how it's done. Tell me how it's done time. You ready? You ready? If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate.

Think about it.

Think about when you worry. Think about what it does to you. That mulling process, that focused thinking, how it keeps you up at night and you lay down and it's all you can think about, just running through your head. Running through your head.

When you wake up in the morning.

After you finally get a few hours of sleep, it's the first thing that pops right back into your head.

That's what worry is. That's what you're supposed to do. That's what the word of God, if you have meditated on it and it's in you, you so good and so rich. When you lay down at night, you can't think about your children. You can't think about your husband acting crazy. You can't think about your finances. All you do is think about how good God is. All you know is the promises of God are yes and amen. Yes and amen.

Nags you all day. It interrupts your day. It interrupts your conversations. When you have meditated on the Word and the Word is present in your mouth, and it's all you know, you.

Can'T come in the presence of negativity.

You'll shift that thing.

You can't come in the presence of somebody who's depressed. You'll speak a word of life right, right into them. When you come into the presence of somebody who's struggling with any area, you got the word ready right there. The Word is your weapon. The Word brings them life.

Let's break it down. Let's break down. Joshua. Joshua 1 8. Is this good? Joshua 1 has three parts. And it's your mouth. It's your thinking. Hello. And it's your observing and doing. I heard it. Okay. It's your mouth, it's your thinking, it's your observing, it's your doing. Did you write it down? Okay, good. Now say it. It's your mouth. It's your thinking. It's observing and doing. Okay? This is what it says. It says your mouth. It says, the book of the law shall not depart from your. Okay. If we took an inventory of how much came out of our mouth, just the babbling, the junk, the idle talk, stuff that don't mean anything. And we put a time on it. All of that is wasted breath. Where we could be speaking the word of God into our situation, into our life. Wasted words, wasted breath. The word of God shall not depart from your mouth. This isn't A suggestion. This is a commandment. So for it to come out of your mouth, we have to know it. We have to know the word of God for it to come out of our mouth continually, okay? To know it, you got to read it, we got to speak it, we got to memorize it, and you got to think it. I was challenged last year when I came in contact with Marilyn Hickey to memorize the word of God. And here she is. She's 85 years old, okay? She's 85 years old, and this woman challenged me. So she's memorized over 37 books of the Bible. I don't mean Scriptures. The book. She's memorized over 37 books. She said it took her eight months to memorize prior proverbs and three years to memorize Ephesians, three years. And I said. I said, marilyn, tell me how. Tell me how you did this. She said, well, for me, she said, I just wake up in the morning, she said, and I go to the Word before I get my coffee. She said, I go. I said, well, I messed up there, okay? She said, I go to the Word before I go to my coffee, she said, and I just sit. Whatever I'm working on, she said, I break it up into sections, she said, and I read it 10 times, she said, at 10.

I don't know why.

It just works for me. She said, I read it 10 times, she said, and then I just start trying to say it as much as I can. She said, and then I write it 10 times. And then I'm like, do you do it all day? Do you carry around a note card? She was like, no. Then I go get my coffee. I mean, like, it's, you know, so easy. It's nothing. I go get my coffee, and then I go get ready, and I do my day. And then around lunchtime, she said, I do it again. I read it 10 times, and I say it 10, 10 times, and I write it 10 times. She said, and then I go on about my day and do whatever I'm doing. Then before I go to bed at night, I do it again. And then I just lay there and I think about that word, and I just think about what God's trying to say to me in that word. She said, because just rote memorization is hard to remember. You know that by trying to cram for a test. She said, but when it means something, when you can apply it into your life, it becomes a part of who you are. It becomes a part of your person. She said, and that's how I do it, she said. And I don't put any pressure on myself, she said. I really don't even say, okay, bye.

30 days I'm going to memorize.

Da da da, she said. When I memorize it, I memorize it, she said. I just do it as I go. And God is renewing my passion and my love for the Word. I read more than I've ever read. I study more than I've ever studied. Why? Because I saw what it did for my life. While I was 240 days in isolation with all of the comforts and the cares of this world stripped from me, all I had was Jesus. But when all I had was Jesus, I found that he was all I needed. I was so happy and I was so blessed and I was in such peace because the word of God was life to me, was spirit, and it was life to me. It led me and it guided me. So number one is the mouth. Number two, the meditation itself says, meditate on it day and night on the scripture you're memorizing. The goal is, like I said, not to just memorize it, but to get the revelation out of the Scripture, to get what it means to you in your life. I call it talking God's word. Just talk in his word, speak it to yourself until it becomes ingrained in your brain. And then three, you bring the action that you may observe to do, observe to do according to all that is written in it. That's the walking. That's your life lining up with what you've been speaking. That is your life looking just like the word that. That you've been speaking over your household.

And over your mind and over your.

Marriage and over your health and over your finances. That you may observe it. That you may stand back and say, wow, look at my life.

It looks just like the word of God.

Then you have made your way prosperous.

You did it.

You have made your way prosperous, and you will have good success. We sit back and say, if there's something I can do about my marriage, there was something I could do about my finances, if there was something I.

Could do about my kids, if there.

Was something I could do about my.

Job, you can meditate on the Word. Get God's word on that situation.

Think it, talk it and walk it. Think it, talk it and walk it. Say it. Think it, talk it and walk it. That's it.

Lily Carter.

I love Lily Carter. God didn't say he would make your way prosperous. He said you would. When I was studying this, I started reading about Ezra. Not many people read about Ezra, but God took me to Ezra. And Ezra arrived in Judah with the Jews. And he delivered treasure to the house of God. And he gathered the people kind of like this. He gathered all the people. This is what he did. And he started reading the Word to them. But here's the key.

He made everybody stand up.

Okay. Stand up. He made them stand up for three hours. Now sit down. This is Ezra, the priest. He made them stand up, and he read the Word to them for three hours. They stood and listened as he poured into them. It's interesting how the priest and the kings treated and handled the word. Need to read it. It's so interesting to me how they handled the Word of God. This was the priest responsibility. The priest's responsibility was to write it down. They had to write down all the Scriptures, just like Ezra had to do. And then this is what they did. They carried the Word under their breastplate like this. Oh, it works like this. The priests would carry the Word under their breastplate like this. Why? So that when someone had a problem, they whipped it out. And here's the answer for you. They never said what they thought. They never gave their opinion. This is the priest. Our job. It is to whip out the word of God and to give them the answer that they needed. Then the kings were placed in office, and they went to the priest and they said, give me a copy of your scrolls. Then they would personally write it down. The kings would not just take the copy. They would take their copy, and then they would write. Rewrite it. They would rewrite it down. Okay? This is how they handled the Word of God. They had to read it every day so that they would know it, so that they would know how to judge properly. Come on. And every seven years, the priests would stand before the people, and they would read it. The seventh year is very special. Deuteronomy 31. Go there. So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying, at the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, ye shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. He said, the end of every seven years at the appointed time in the year of release. John 8 says this.

He says, if you abide in me, I abide in you.

Ye shall know the Truth. And the truth of the words will what it will make you free.

That is exactly what Ezra was doing. That is exactly what Ezra. He was releasing people from bondage through the reading of the Word. He was releasing them on the seventh year. That's why they were so intent. That's why they were willing to stay, stand up for three hours to hear it, to get it. Because it was the year of release. And they were standing there waiting on their priests to decree and to declare the word of God over their life. I'm here today to decree and declare to you that it is the time, it is the year of release over your life. I speak freedom over you. In Jesus name, I read the Word over you. I decree and declare as I read the Word today, that chains are breaking off of you, that shackles are coming off your mind, that healing's coming to your body, that you are free from addiction. In Jesus name.

It'S the year of.

Release.

The washing of the water of the Word. We have an amazing promise today. Some of you need to just decree and declare it over your life right now. Come on, decree and declare it. What do you need God to do? He sent His Word and he healed your disease. You are free from every generational curse. In Jesus name, he sent his Word to heal.

Some of you are in confusion and you don't know what to do.

You need to decree and declare the word over your life. You don't need it to let it depart from your mouth. You need to know that this is your time. This is the end of the seventh year for you.

And do you want to go around this mountain again and wait for the priest staff to stand up and to decree and declare the year of release over your life.

You can be prosperous and have success in all you do. You take the word of God, you leave the land of Moab. You gotta get up and shake yourself and get up out of laziness and idleness and get yourself together and do what you gotta do to get your house in order.

It's time you stop blaming people. You got to stop blaming your mama. You got to start blaming your upbringing. You got to stop blaming your job. You got to stop blaming your marriage. You got to take responsibility for your life and leave the land of idleness and laziness and get up and do something about it. You cause success to come to your house. You cause prosperity to come to your house. You do it. You do it. And if you're not living there, it's because you haven't done it.

It's time for us to take responsibility for our life. We got to know it better than you know your radio stat. Got to know it better than you know your favorite pop singer songs.

What if we had raised our children like this? What if we had raised our kids like this?

Oh, the heartache we could have saved ourselves but we're so busy taking them to basketball and cheerleading, in dance lessons and horseback riding.

Oh, we'll pay money for it. Oh, we'll buy everything they gotta have.

What have we invested into the life of the Word of God in their life?

God forgive us.

Our hearts are divided between the Word and the world. And we sitting here asking God to do things and he's not doing them because he's not going to.

He said, you're double minded. You're unstable in all your ways and I can't trust you. You're unstable. It's like handing a three year old dynamite.

Come on. Church. We have been petted too. I scolded my husband the other day. I scolded. I said, you're too easy. I said, you're too easy on them.

Y' all are like what? I said, treat them like you treat me.

Talk to them like you talk to me. And our children. That right. He gets on them, not you.

She's like, not me.

I said, pastor, Pastor. We make everything so easy for everybody. We've enabled our kids, enabled a generation and then we're mad at them for the way they are.

We were the parents that stormed up to the school and said, my child will get.

Knowing they didn't deserve it, knowing they.

Didn'T work for it.

And then we want them to work for something in the kingdom. Work for your health, work for your prosperity, work for your healing, work for your sound mind. Does not come from just a sermon, guys. We got to know the word of God. Bible 101. We got to know the word. We got to pray. Know the word and we got to pray. God help us. God help us. Help us, God to leave Moab. Oh, Jesus, make us hungry. Make us hungry. Make us thirsty. The Bible says that the full soul loathes or hates the honeycomb. When we're so fearful, full of so many other things and we leave the best part out. God, strip us if you have to. Strip us if you have to. So that you are our first love, you are our first priority. And the word of God is primary in my life. Come on, if that's your desire, stand up on your feet and tell him.

God, do what you got to do. Now watch what you pray, God. Do what you got to do, Lord. Create a hunger in me. Create a hunger in me, God, to know your word.

Lord, I repent for putting you on the back burner. I repent for doing so. Being so self absorbed and consumed with other things that you just don't matter. And my house is out of order. My life is out of order. And it's because I've done it. Because I've been lazy. God help us to be disciplined grown ups. In Jesus name. In Jesus name. Walk it, talk it and live it. Amen.

Amen. I love you. I speak a blessing over you. In Jesus name, I pray you have.

The greatest week you've ever had and I'll see you next week.