when we started singing Power in the Blood tonight, I, oh, I keep forgetting to ask our musicians if maybe we could sing a hymn tomorrow. That will go along with my talk and I'm doing an audible, what I had sent him my titles and decided that I really wanted to speak on assurance because that just more and more seems to me.

To be an issue that many people, myself included, struggle with that sense of security when it comes to salvation. And so I all weekend have been meaning to ask somebody on the crackerjack musician team and they are terrific. Thank you. Thank you. And since you're right here, Chris, I will just ask you that's I was thinking I'm gonna talk about the him.

Tomorrow Blessed Assurance. Is there any way you guys could sing it? And then the next song that we sang tonight was Blessed Assurance. So I don't know if it would be possible to maybe do a repeat on that tomorrow morning. Since I know that one. Yes. Okay. Okay. And then the other Holy Spirit Momenta was I've run into a relative of mine, Clifford Niece.

My grandma's maiden name was niece. She married a hafner. And and actually I'll be talking a little bit about her tonight, but we're related somehow. We're not exactly sure. And then he was saying that the Holy Spirit prompted him. To put in his trunk this morning. A bunch of, and I don't know if you guys have read this book, you wanna just come up and share a little bit, but I read this book a few years ago steps to Personal Revival, and it is one of the best books I've ever read.

On the theme of what I'm talking about tonight, and that is just living in that space of surrender and being yielded moment by moment to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, just being receptive and responsive to the Holy Spirit. And this whole book is about that. Do you want to say anything more about it, please?

Yeah. I was watching YouTube about six months ago. White Nelson was preaching on this YouTube and he promoted this book, steps to Personal Revival. I want personal revival. I thought I'm gonna, I'm gonna read that book. So I ordered it on Amazon and when I got the book, I read it and there's a special prayer in here on page 110, and it's a prayer that it's a modeled prayer.

I've been praying that prayer now for about six months, totally changed me. The Holy Spirit is the most powerful being in the universe. Amen. Amen. Amen. He helped create the world. Yeah, the universe. He brought Jesus up. Bowly grave, he's available to us. All we gotta do is ask for you. Yes. Every day when you get up in the morning or during the day, say, please fill me with the Holy Spirit, and he will just ask.

Just ask. And so I made it my mission that I'd like to get this book into the hands of every member of the Kansas, Nebraska Congress. So I promoted probably a little too much, but I don't think so. Some of you've already got the book. I'll hope if you're reading it, cause you just put it on the shelf, it won't do any good.

But if you read it, the Holy Spirit will. If you don't want the Holy Spirit, don't pray for it. Cause he'll wake you up at four o'clock in the morning and he'll give you all kinds of ideas. There's gotta a surrender and this book tells you how to do, it's so simple. Yeah. So anyway, it's steps to personal buy.

I got a book for, I got, I've got 80 books, so pass em out. Pass. We can pass 'em out after I think. Okay, fine. Okay. I've given these books to our Wichita Amist Academy. Anybody from the fourth grade up have got a book and they're studying it in their Bible class. Huh. So about three months ago, one of our grand grandchildren goes to even the eighth grade, 13 year old boy, and he called me up one day and he said, grandpa, he said, I need a prayer partner.

I said, man, you died. Let's do that. 13 years old, eighth grand. And so every morning at six 50, we get together and we pray. So we pray this little prayer in here, and it is an awesome prayer, powerful prayer. And so we pray that maybe the next time he said, grandpa, can we pray a prayer from our heart? Oh. And so it comes out.

He prays for the Keep Me from Temptation, keep the woman away from you. That's all in here. So we've been doing that for about three months now, and so it's powerful. It cheers my eyes. Yeah. We've got a granddaughter from another family, and she goes to, she's either a freshman and a Rose Hill Public High school.

She said, I think, I hear you're having a prayer with Levi. Will you be my prayer partner too? So at six 30. Every morning I call her up and we pray this prayer. Can you imagine a girl in a public high school where drugs and everything is all over praying this prayer? Amen. So I challenge you to read this book, pray about it, and it will change you.

It will give you personal guarantee it. Amen. Yeah, isn't that great? I was, the story is about praying every morning at six 15 and six 30 or six. Is that six 30? Six 50. Six 30 and six 50. My, my kids don't wake up until about 11, including my wife. Yeah, my wife calls. The annoyingly chirpy in the mornings.

Because as there's only two kinds of people in the world, those who love to get up early and those who hate those who get up early. And you know which camp I'm in. I'm an early morning guy, but I love that about your grandkids and really. Dovetails beautifully with what I want to talk about tonight.

So thank you. I really believe that's just a Holy Spirit moment, so thank you for sharing it with us. And yeah. So we moved from Ohio to Southern California about three years ago. And I gotta say I love Southern California. I'll accept one thing. Actually not traffic, but two things.

You're right. I hate traffic. I hate the traffic down there. Yeah. The smog. Okay. There's three things I hate.

Fires, fires. Yes. Fire. That was the right answer, but so there's three things I hate about southern cattle. And the first four months after we purchased our home we watched three fires burning out of control from our yard. Wow. Three different fires. Which is very unnerving. Yeah. And forces you to think about that.

Unsettling question, if your house was on fire, What would you grab on your way out? What do you value the most? I was thinking about this as I was sitting at my office there at the university and my focus or my gaze focus on four bibles that I have sitting on my desk in my office.

And as I looked at those bibles, I thought, I don't know what I charge more than these four bibles. I think that's my fire evacuation plan. If I've gotta get out of the house and I can only grab a few things, I want to save these 400. Cause they represent. Four generations. And so the Bible on the far left is my grandma's bible, Christine niece.

Oh, she got married, so it's Christine Haner. And then next to that, my dad's bible next to that, my Bible that I have used for most of my ministry. And then next to that, my daughter's Bible. So at the time tonight, I just wanna walk through. The four Bibles and tell you some stories that come to mind when I think about the different Bibles.

So the first one, the one on my left old King James version because it was my grandma's bible. It's a leather bound and engraved on the outside of it is her name, but it's engraved Mrs. Carl Haffner. Inside there's a covenant card that she signed almost exactly on my birthday. And so that tells you this Bible is really old, right?

And she signed the covenant. Mrs. Carl Havner didn't sign it. Christine Hapner signed it. Mrs. Carl Havner. And I mentioned this to my wife, I said, you could sign your name, Mrs. Carl Hapner. She said, And she just laughed. Exactly. Yeah. She like, I don't think so. Big guy. Good try. She's signing her thing.

Sherie. Hapner. So there you go. But this covenant, it says I will study God's word every day and she dated it almost my birthday. And I have no doubt. That she kept her promise because of all of the people who have had a profound spiritual impact. My own journey I would put my grandma right near the top of that list.

She was a godly woman. And it brings to mind what Paul says and what he observes of the young preacher Timothy. You remember second Timothy or. Chapter one, verse five, he says to Timothy, and I'm reading from the King James version from my grandma's Bible, when I called to remembrance the un unnamed faith that is in the, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois and thy mother, Eunice.

And I am persuaded that dwells in thee now also. And so Paul observes in this young preacher that faith. That I saw in your mother and in your grandmother. Now I see the influence that a grandma has on a grandkid or a grandpa in your case, right? I see this faith in you now. Now, keep in mind, second Timothy, of course, is the last thing that we have written in that Paul Reveled.

And Paul was well aware of the fact that he was in that, final season of life, that he was facing the finish line, that he was about to die when we know this, because at the end of this letter to Timothy, he says, I have thought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

And I bring this up because I've had that sacred opportunity of being with people in their final minutes and hours of life. When I'm standing with the family around a hospital bed, it strikes me that never have I heard anybody talking about trivial matters when they find themselves right at the finish line of life, right?

Like you don't hear them talking about the Boston Red Sox or the weather or the stock line. Inevitably, they're talking about the most important relationships in their life, the relationship with God, with family, things that really matter. When Paul was well aware, this could be the last thing he ever wrote, and so you know.

Second Timothy just drips with wisdom and with what matters most in life. So right at the end of this final letter, this is how important tonight's topic is. Paul says this, he talks a lot. He urges Timothy continue, he said. In the things that thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them, namely his mother, his grandmother.

So he says, just continue learning the things you have been studying. And he goes on and that from a child now has known. The holy scriptures. So at the end of his life, the last thing he wants to press onto the next generation's consciousness. The holy Scriptures continue to study the holy scriptures which are able to make these, the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture he says. He is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction. In righteousness. All scripture is God. Breath. It is inspired. It is the source of life for any follower of Jesus. So continue to build your life, your heart, your mind.

Around the holy scriptures. That's how important this is. We've been talking about living in Christ and the primary way as we communicate with God the primary way that God communicates with us through his holy word. Now, I haven't had grandma's Bible. On my bookshelf, but for a few years I just actually got it.

Not because she died recently. She died many years ago. But because I didn't even know her Bible was in the possession of my mom. And so I received the Bible when we were at my sister-in-law's house, my wife Cherie, had just come from Portland where my mother lives, and she just seen my mom. And my mom actually said to s Hey, I just found my mother-in-law's Bible and I was wondering if maybe Carl would like to have it.

And so Shere brought it from Portland to Walla to my sister-in-law's house. And she said, Hey, your mom wanted to know, would you be interested in having your grandma's buy one? Is that Absolutely. Now, the reason we were in Walla Wall is because my sister-in-law. For the past nine months have been battling cancer.

She got diagnosed with brain, liver, and lung cancer. The doctor said, you have nine months to live and almost to the day. They were spot on. And so they had just transported her from the Walla Wall Hospital there. And Hospice was setting her up better house and they set her up in the entryway of their home there.

And just before I went in, I was leaving that afternoon, fly back to Ohio, and just before I was leaving, it was my opportunity to say goodbye to Caroline. And just before I went into the room there my wife said, would you like grandma's wife? And so I sat down next to Caroline's bed and for the next hour I read Old King James version and all of my favorite passages.

Yay, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Ms. Th with me on staff.

I read several of the Psalms finished in Revelation, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain. For the former things have passed away. For weeks, Caroline had been in so much pain and she was just always.

Agitated and really just so uncomfortable. And I'm telling you friends, when I started reading from God's word, it was like this tsunami of calm just washed over her and I had a front row seat to witness this peace that truly passes. All understanding I can't even describe it. There was just such a beautiful picture of just assurance, peace, grace.

God's word is no ordinary block. It really is our. Best source to understand the supernatural God that we serve. So you can understand right why if there was a fire I really wanna save my grandma's life. And then next to grandma's Bible is my dad's bible. Now all the bibles up there, his is. By far in the worst shape.

He was a pastor of a local seventh Advant d church for 40 years. That's all he did. That's all he wanted to do. And he loved the local church. He loved his Bible and he used this bible all four decades of ministry. And it is so marked up. I don't think there's any page that. Isn't underlined for most of it.

And it's just falling apart, which brings to mind Charles Spurgeon's quote, a bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. And that was my dad. And also in this Bible are all these note cards, which he would write bible verses and passages on these cards. And he always had a stack of them in his front pocket, and so if he ever had a spare minute or two during the day, if he was waiting in line at the bank or if he was waiting for a red light to turn green, he would just, out of habit, it was instinct.

He would grab one of these cards and he would commit that Bible verse or that passage to memory. He just wanted to marinate his mind on the word of God, and he did this all of his professional life. Even well after he retired, even right after the fog of dementia began to steal his mind, he would still have those note cards.

So my daughter was telling me how on Thanksgiving break, she was attending Walla Wall and she was going to visit grandma and grandpa for the Thanksgiving break. And she showed up Wednesday night and she said, dad, it was the most heart wrenching thing because for the first time when Grandpa answered the door, I could tell he couldn't remember my name.

And she said, I knew that he knew he should know who I was or he should get my name, but he just, he struggled and he just, he could not, because by this point Dementia was taking over and then she said but dad, when we sat down for supper that night, Night Grandpa did, as he always does, he offered prayer.

She said it was like this symphony of beautiful music, just poetry of, this man, just like talking to his dearest friend. Perfectly coherent. And she posted on her Twitter account that night. She. Tweeted this message. My grandpa can't remember my name, but he can remember how to read, which strikes me as a pretty good legacy.

Wouldn't you agree? If your grandkids are gonna remember you for something that's not bad. Couldn't remember my name. Couldn't forget how to pray.

Brings to my, one of my favorite stories that the elderly woman who all of her life had a habit before she would fall asleep at night, would read passages of scripture and then set her Bible on the bed stand, fall asleep. And in her later years as she became increasingly frustrated because she couldn't remember what she just read.

One night she was particularly frustrated and she cried out to go, what's the point? I just closed my Bible and I, right now, I can't even remember what I just read. That night she had a dream. Dream that she was in the earth. They knew by the river of light. An angel approached her, gave her this dirty, muddy, sued old basket with the assignment to scoop up water and carry it over to a garden.

So she tried. She tried, but every time the water just kept flowing through the mesh of that basket, and finally she slammed on the ground. And so what's the point? It won't hold the water. When the angel picked up that basket, which was all dirty, muddy, but now she said, look, it is as fresh and clean as freshly fallen snow.

Okay? Friends never forsake the discipline, the practice, the habit of exposing your mind to the life transforming word of. God, even if you don't remember what you just read, that's okay. It is God's primary method of changing us, of communicating with us. And so just make it a practice even when you can't focus or just keep exposing your heart to the holy scriptures.

This is no ordinary book we're talking about so you can understand right why I really want to save my dad's. Bible. I treasure that Bible. He passed away now, six years ago. I miss him every day, but I still got his Bible know how I treasure it. Next to his Bible is my vital, and that's not in great shape either.

Just because it's falling apart and so I no longer take it when I travel, but I've, used that bible for probably 30 years of ministry and. Making it all around the world when I preach and so on. And of course I have a lot of memories, a lot of notes in the Bible. I'll give you one example of many that we could talk about in John chapter six, where Jesus makes this statement where he says, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. And that verse brings to mind a worker's meeting where I took notes, a pastor's meeting where Pastor Mor Venden was the speaker, and he was talking specifically to the Unordained pastors, and he told us about his.

Aunt Zelda, apparently his uncle was dating Zelda and another woman at the same time, Uhhuh, and they didn't know about it. But then the one woman did find out about Zelda, and so he quickly, Married Seldon. So just a fun fact that I remember for some reason. But anyway, didn't work out with both of them or with the other woman, but he loved visiting Aunt Seldon because he said when, whenever they would.

Come into her house and she lived a ways away. So they would only go visit maybe once, twice a year. But whenever they walked into her home, she always had bread baking in the oven, and then she would pull this fresh loaf out of the oven. Whereas the aroma would just overwhelm you, and there's nothing that smells better than freshly baked bread.

Amen. He said they lived on a farm and so they had their own cows and she would turn her own butter, and so they would slather on fresh butter on this hot. Steaming bread, and then they had a big garden and she would make raspberry preserves and they'd, slush a bunch of raspberry jelly on that piece of bread.

And he said it was just beyond divine. They loved visiting Aunt Selma, but then Maurice said now can you imagine if when we arrived, if Aunt Sda would've insisted that we sit down and watch her eat the whole loaf of bread and she didn't share it? It's that would be cool and unusual punishment, right?

But of course she didn't do that. He said we were very thankful for that. But then he said, you know what would've been even better than her just sharing the bread if she had given us the recipe so we wouldn't have to wait a year. To experience her freshly baked with bread. Then we could make it every day at home.

And then he said that, I wrote it down in my Bible, preacher, every time you stand behind a podium, remember to talk about the bread of life and talk about him with such a fresh experience because you have just come from the oven. You just pulled the loaf out cuz you just spent fresh time with him. The bread of light.

Every Sabbath morning you come and you describe what that bread tastes like so beautifully, that by the grace of God people start salivating for Jesus. But then he went on and by now he was as animated as I think Venden ever got. He was a pretty late guy, right? And he said whatever you do, preacher, Don't forget the second part.

Give the recipe. Give the recipe. Every week in church, every time you preach, give the recipe never preach about the matchless charms of Jesus without reminding people how they don't have to wait until the next Sabbath in order to taste the bread of life. Amen. Give them the recipe.

And this got me to thinking

it has conjured up in a, a theory. I don't know if the theory is true or not, but it gives an answer to a question that I've really struggled with through the years, and that is simply why is it? That sometimes church members, God's people can be so unspeakably savage to one another. Honestly, we can just say the cruelest, most unkind thing, things to each other.

Even if we disagree, that's fine, but. Why is that? So I've got this theory, and you may or may not disagree with me. I don't know, but here's my theory. You know why? Because people are hungry.

If the only meal that the Saints are getting every week, Is 25 minutes on Sabbath morning during a sermon, and that's the only bread of life that they get every week. They're gonna get grouchy, right? I don't know about you, but when I'm hungry, I'm just a nasty person to be around. I'm just always in a foul mood and I'm just, I'm mean guy when I'm hungry.

Maybe that's the issue, which makes me think of a Brady Bunch commercial. Do any of you remember this? Let's see if we can get this to play.

Marsha, what happened? Peter hit me in the middle for the football. I can't go. I'm short. It was an accident sweetheart night for an I. What Dad always says, never said that. Honey Peter. Lesson Marsha, eat a Snickers. Why you get a little hostile when you're hungry? Better, better. Marsha, Jan.

This isn't about you. Never is.

I love that line. You get a little hostile when you're hungry.

It's not enough if the only have exposure you have to the bread of a living water. It is for 30 minutes on Sabbath morning. Oh, the recipe. Spend time every day in the word of God, not breath. And then the final Bible on my desk back home is the red one there. And that's my daughter Claire's file.

And when she was quite young, I decided that I was just going to read her the Bible from cover to cover. And it took us a couple of years. But we did go through the entire Bible together and we have a picture of her one night after I had read to her. And I gotta tell you, I. I just cherish this picture because now she's 21 years old and, she's an adult.

And about ready to graduate from college here soon. And this seems like yesterday and I gotta say, I've never just totally lost it emotionally in the pulpit. The only time I have is when, a few years ago I baptized Claire and at this point she was, I think 17 or 18.

So she waited until she decided to be baptized and I had her bible in the baptistry with me, and I read her the letter that I wrote to the fly lead. While we were in the Baptist Street. And then I looked back and they had this picture behind me and I, and then I looked at her and she was just sobbing and it was just a hot mess.

But really beautiful moment in some respects to share that with her. So here's what I wrote in her Bible, and we'll close with this. My dearest Claire in the beginning is where we started. Amen. Come Lord Jesus, the grapes of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen is where we ended in the 1,480 pages.

In between, we listened to God's speak. We started with one bookmark. By Leviticus, we had six bookmarks by cr, by Chron Chronicles. You declared yourself a bonafide bookmark collector, and a stack of bookmarks was as thick as the songs. But by the New Testament, you had lost interest in the collection. And we were back to one post-it notes stuck in the chapter that we would read next.

We began when you were just five years old. Daddy read me the Bible. You would beg every night at bedtime, so I'd lay your box lamp shade on its side to direct light so I could read the lamp to iron bed early on. I'd read until you drift to slate. Since some of the stories and judges are rated PG 13, I was thankful you were snoozing.

You know what I'm talking about? My Ecclesiastes. You would no longer fall asleep. Sometimes I thought you asleep. So I'd finish reading the chapter and close the Bible just then. A little finger would poke out from under the cover Signaling a one then your sleepy little voice with pie. One more chapter.

Daddy, please. Just. Read one more chapter by the New Testament. You didn't need to say anything. That fingers set it along so I'd read one more chapter. Sometimes we'd repeat that routine a dozen times until I'd say no more go to sleep.

You've changed in our journey through the Bible. You're taller. You can read for yourself now and your spiritual attunement has matured as well. Your spirit was a sponge through this journey, often interrupting me with questions that clued me in that you were absorbing every word. Why did Aliah kill the royal family?

You asked me in Second Kings, you loved the story of obadiah hiding the 100 prophets from Jezebel. You loved it so much. You insisted that I read it again and again. And you had more than a few questions. When the Bears mauled, the 42 kids who mocked Elisha for being bald, that story did not put you to sleep.

You were mesmerized with the story of Johnath and the talking trees in Judges nine. Our goal was not to limit our reading to the pretty parts of scripture. Rather we chose just to read it all. The good, the bad, and the form. Remember the book of numbers of pages and pages of names that I couldn't pronounce?

Some stories made me chuckle. Others passages caused me to doze, and there were times when of tears when I just came undone with the outrageous grace, oh God, and the overpowering pleasure I felt when I gaze at your perfect face on that. Claire, nothing brings me greater joy than to be called your daddy.

I was filled with pride when your kindergarten teacher's husband shared how your teacher told him of the many students she's had through the years, you stand out in her mind as a kid with extraordinary spiritual depth and heart. She remembers you well as a kid who passionately loved Jesus. I pray that you keep on growing in Jesus.

I know that you are crazy in love with him, and he feels the same about you. May that friendship deepen every day. Thank you, Claire, for going through God's word with me. I treasure the times that we've shared with our Heavenly Father. If his love for us is anything like my love for you, then truly neither depth nor height nor anything else in all of creation will compromise that love.

I value you more than life. I love you more than words. I praise God for you more than always your day.

So if your house is burning, I don't know what you would grab and save as for me. Give me the Bible. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for giving us such a compelling picture of your heart, your love of your son, and your spirit in your word. God, may we amidst all of the clutter in life and all of the noise and all of the distractions and all of the things that scream for our attention, God, may we never vote in our time with you through your work.

May we cook that recipe every day. And spend time in your word that we would eat the bread of life and drink of the living water. And we know God. This ultimately is the only thing that will truly satisfy and we will never be hungry or thirsty again as long as we live in your presence. So may we live there as my prayer in the name of Jesus.

Amen.