You with the ruler?
Hello, my friends.
This is Andy and Hedy coming
to you live from Yorba Linda, California.
We are almost inside your living room.
Hello.
This is a good angle.
Just our faces.
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face right now.
I'm going to...
You'll see all my wrinkles.
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Make sure and comment.
Let us know what you think about A.W.
Tozer's devotional,
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If you have any comments
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Yeah, but that's the recording.
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So make sure and use that.
And then make sure and look
in your Bible to look to
your Bibles for Psalm 1, 1 through 3.
We'll be reading that one
just a little bit later on.
And just to give you an
example of the comments that come through,
we have Cindy Hauser on.
Hello, Cindy.
Saying hi.
And Kevin says, I look great.
Yes, of course.
As always.
It's all about you.
Man to man.
You know, it's a man thing.
Mano to mano.
Yeah, we're talking man stuff here.
Corrine says.
Fabulous day for your family.
It sure was, Corrine.
Thank you.
Yeah,
we're going to share some of that
story a little bit later on.
Kelly Elliott saying hi from
where's Kelly from?
Oh,
we're supposed to know these things off
the top of my head.
Whoops.
Kelly, where are you from?
Remind us.
I think she's local,
but I'm not 100% sure.
I know she follows Pastor Jack,
but that doesn't mean she's local.
I think she's a Calvary
Chapel Chino Hills person.
Kate from Australia.
She's really close.
Yes.
Canberra, Australia.
Nice to see you.
Cindy says...
I did go to church and the
message was in God being God, not us.
And God is the great communicator.
Yes.
Love that.
Yay.
And Maria Baker is on.
Shalom, shalom and blessings,
loving hosts and everyone
that's watching.
Thank you, Maria.
Congrats on your lovely
daughter's baptism.
You gave it away.
We were going to tell about that later on.
But yeah, well,
they're saying
congratulations because
they're Facebook friends.
Yes.
All right.
We'll talk a little bit about that.
All right.
So that's an example of what
you can do in the comments.
And we'd appreciate that and more.
So keep them coming.
That would be fantastic.
Again, Psalm 1 through 1,
1 through 3 is going to be
our scripture later on.
Right now we're going to be
reading from AW Toja for
the Christian leader for April 7th.
The title is just meditate for a month.
Wow.
That's a long time to be meditating.
I don't know if I could do that.
I think he means like think
and don't speak.
All right, well,
you tell me that after I get done reading,
if that's what he means.
Psalm 1, 2 is his reference, and it says,
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.
Let the old saints be our example.
They came to the word of God
and meditated.
They laid the Bible on the
old-fashioned handmade chair,
got down on the old, scrubbed board floor,
and meditated on the word.
As they waited, faith mounted.
The spirit and faith illuminated.
They had only a Bible with fine print,
narrow margins, and poor paper,
but they knew their Bible
better than some of us do
with all our helps.
Let's practice the art of
Bible meditation.
Let us open our Bibles,
spread them out on a chair,
and meditate on the Word of God.
It will open itself to us,
and the Spirit of God will
come and brood over us.
I do challenge you to meditate quietly,
reverently, prayerfully for a month,
but put away questions and
answers and the filling in
of the blank lines in the
portions you haven't been
able to understand.
Put all of your cheap trash
away and take the Bible.
Your cheap trash.
Get on your knees and in faith say, Father,
here I am.
Begin to teach me.
Guide me, Lord,
as I take time to meditate on you.
Tozer is stimulating me,
but my real desire is to hear from you.
I'll get on my knees this morning, Lord,
in quiet expectation.
amen amen yes I say yes to
this yes how do we how do
we begin this process do we
need to have a prayer room
Well,
I've been thinking a lot about this
ever since we listened to
Francis Chan saying he was
competing with his daughter
about how fast he could
read the Bible cover to cover.
And there's something to be
said for the fact that we
have all of these resources.
We have 17 different
versions of the Bible on our phone.
We have all of these commentaries.
We have Google.
We look things up.
We've got dictionaries online.
We have the enduring word.
And yet in...
It's like everything else.
We have access to so much information,
but we're not gaining wisdom.
We're gaining knowledge.
And Jackie Perry was saying
the same thing.
Like we need to stop just
reading the Bible to gain knowledge,
but start to really absorb
the Bible so that it's
engraved on our hearts.
And that requires doing it
in a contemplative fashion
as opposed to a study fashion.
Nothing wrong with studying,
but there should be time
when we read the Bible for
it to read us and to open
our hearts and to transform
us and to change us.
And it's not about
understanding every single
word that's written.
It's about communion with God.
Yeah, just what you're talking about.
It says,
put away questions and answers and
the filling in of the blank
lines in the portions you
haven't been able to understand.
And that is the excuse that I use.
And even one of our people
in our community church saying, you know,
I just I can't understand it.
I don't understand.
And I heard myself, you know,
that's why I don't read the
Bible is because they talk
about all these names for, you know,
a good couple.
pages of the bible I don't
understand why they do that
or uh bring too much of
your mind into it yeah and you just think
At the time, you're thinking, well,
if I can't figure that out
or understand it,
then there's no sense that
I read the Bible.
It is the reading of the
Bible that will bring those
things to you and the
whispering from God that
will then begin to put some
of those things together.
Absolutely.
But it surely is an excuse
not to read the Bible.
It's God's love letter to humanity.
You've got to pick it up
with that reverence and be like, Lord,
speak to me.
what are you trying to say to me?
And just let it wash over you.
It's not about,
do I understand these
historical facts at this very moment?
Like I get wrapped,
I wrap myself in a knots
because I've done a number
of Bible studies on Old Testament books,
you know?
And so I get myself wrapped in knots.
Wait a minute,
is Babylonian captivity coming now?
Or wait,
did the Babylonian captivity pass
already?
Did the temple,
was this the structure of
the first temple?
And I literally cannot read
um any of the old testament
books which I'm really like
I'm rereading ezekiel um
Isaiah and Daniel.
And every time I do it,
I keep trying to remember
what time period they're in, you know,
and I'm like, Lord,
I just stopped doing that.
You know, I just want to stop.
I want to remember the
historical context every
time I pick up the book.
And I'm like,
I need to stop doing that
because there's such prophetic books.
They're so important.
I just want the Lord to
reveal himself to me through them.
So it's a process, I think,
of taking our mind out of it.
I knew Corinne would relate to that.
She's like, you're telling my story.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, you brought up something too, again,
and I'm going to revert to
my notes from Pastor Bob's message today.
But you said something about
that it's God's love story,
love letter to us.
The other thing is that, you know,
quite often, like many people,
I buy books based on who wrote them.
I'm really into self-help or, you know,
teaching me something about
what's going on in our world.
And I go to those people that I respect,
whether it's Tucker Carlson
or like a Tony Robbins book or who else?
I mean,
there's a number of people that are
writing books that you go
to because of who wrote them,
specifically by those books.
Somebody else that you don't
know could write even better stuff,
but you don't read them
because you don't respect
them maybe because you
don't know who they are.
You don't revere them as you
do these other people,
but you go to the people that you revere.
So here's the important thing.
The one book we should
revere is the one written
by the God who created the
universe and who created us.
And we go, you know what?
I don't have time for his book,
but I have time for Tony Robbins' book.
ridiculous now that seems
and I like the notes that
say here realize the source
and scope of the book the
source being God and the
scope is everything that we
need to know about our life
and our in our in our life
beyond this life yes this
the scope is huge and the
importance of it is is just
beyond anything that we can imagine
And so the fact that we
hesitate to read the book
or put it off or make
excuses as to why we're not reading it,
that I did, and I'm talking to myself,
is just ridiculous.
It's nonsense.
Spoken from a skeptic.
My Lord,
the things that we do to ourselves.
Oh, my lands.
Yeah.
What's Cindy saying there?
We need to, yes, we need knowledge,
but it needs to soak in and
become applicable wisdom of God.
It's a living powerful work
that empowers us in the Lord.
Amen.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's,
it's hard to shut the mind off.
You know,
the mind always wants to drive the bus.
And so you have to just,
you have to turn it off.
Sometimes you have to lead
with the with the heart and
with the spirit so that it
could really absorb what
God is trying to say.
And he doesn't say the same
thing to everybody.
There's words written on the page, but
different people get
different things from it.
That's what makes it so personal.
I, I was, we were in this coffee shop,
it was an Arabic,
Muslim Yemeni coffee shop.
And they had a little
pamphlet to proselytize about Islam.
And one of them was,
what was the title is Jesus God.
And something to that effect.
Do you know the real Jesus or something?
And so, oh, you have it.
And so they were reading
through I was reading
through the quotes and this
is this comes up very often.
It actually came up in a
conversation the other day
when I was talking to a
lady that was raised by one
Christian and one Muslim parent in Iran.
And what often comes up,
it's an argument I've heard
and used myself when I was a Muslim,
was that God has no rivals, partners,
or equals, reading from the flyer.
And Jesus was born, he ate, he slept,
he prayed, and had limited knowledge.
All attributes that are the
opposite attributes of
those associated with God.
So what Muslims always say
is that God is too
magnificent to come to
earth and be a human being.
Like, why would God eat and sleep?
And I tell people in response to that.
And what I told this lady the other day,
it's not about whether he should, right?
He's God.
So do we acknowledge that
he's capable of it?
If he could send his Holy
Spirit to impregnate a woman,
we acknowledge that God can do it, right?
So everybody can agree that
God can do that.
And the question is,
is your relationship with
God is so distant,
you don't believe he should have, right?
And what God's trying to
tell you by sending his son
and giving his only, John 3, 16,
giving his only son as a
sacrifice for us to be saved,
was that he wanted to have
a relationship with us.
And the only way he could do
that was to come incarnate.
He had to come in human form
so that we could form a bond with him.
He didn't have to.
And it's not a matter of, well,
he shouldn't have.
Why shouldn't he?
He's God.
He makes a creation and
we're so far away from him.
Just read the Old Testament.
He's like,
I don't want to lose you forever.
So I'm going to come
incarnate so you can relate
to who I am and what I can do for you.
So it's the equation for
Muslims is always off
because the equation is
he's too great for that.
Why would he do that?
Well, because he loves you.
to love the world and for a
muslim that's very hard
what do you mean he loves
me I mean I don't get what
you mean he loves me um
it's a word that's not even
hub uh the word in arabic
doesn't even exist in the quran
So it's breaking through
that barrier with people
sometimes is hard, Muslim or not,
to just accept that God loves us.
He writes a book.
He sends his son to pay the
price of sin because he wants.
And, you know, I never,
I thought it was a cliche
when people used to be like,
Jesus loves you.
You can't really,
and I'm really starting to
understand just what that
terminology means.
That he loves you.
Like that God sent his son
to earth because he loves us.
He writes the book because he loves us.
Wow.
So the flyer is called,
I love Jesus because I'm Muslim.
That's what the flyer is called.
That's a really good
pamphlet to understand the arguments.
Yes.
To be prepared for some of
these arguments that they have.
that they do believe Jesus was, you know,
that he existed,
but that he was a prophet.
They claim that they believe
that he was a virgin birth,
a virgin birth.
Yeah.
And a number of other things,
but not that he was God.
Right.
In human skin.
Right.
So that was really good.
I really enjoyed that.
Thank you.
That talk.
You're full of little nuggets.
Little nuggets.
Oh, and Kate says, beautiful idea.
Thank you.
So today we had a very full day.
Busy church day.
We went to church many times today.
Three times.
Yes.
The hat trick.
Yes, we did.
Of church visits.
And we started with service.
Came home.
I changed into my bathing suit.
My little one piece bathing suit.
And Zahra got ready because
as was noted in our
comments is that Zahra had
decided to be baptized today.
Do you wanna tell a little
bit about how that came about?
Yeah, it's just been an amazing journey.
She's had a really rough go of it.
Teenagehood has been just really,
really rough for her.
And there was, as I mentioned before,
in this little church for young people,
she rededicated her life,
gave her life to Christ as a
mature, young person.
And then she went to church
camp and loved it had a lot of very,
very cool.
God moments there.
And then when Easter came,
she decided she wanted to get baptized.
She said, Mom, is it okay?
I know I was baptized when I was young,
but is it okay that I want
to get baptized again?
I was like, absolutely.
She's like, Yeah,
I want it to be for me this time.
Hmm.
That's what led up to it.
And it was interesting
because I don't know how
many times I've sat in a
church service praying for
her to give her life to the Lord.
Like literally every holiday that comes up,
especially Easter,
especially Pastor Jack
would make a big deal.
Similar to what Pastor Bob
did of the altar calls on
Easter right and Easter and Christmas.
This was the first year I
wasn't praying my heart out
that she would go to the altar call.
I was, I was sure she was saved.
Yeah,
it was just a completely different
experience.
You know,
it was just so... Because you
heard she had an experience
at camp with one of the
counselors that said that
she had a miraculous... No,
but even before that,
at the little deliverance
church we went to at the Battle Cry,
I saw, I mean, I witnessed the...
The surrender to the Lord.
But she had subsequent
experiences in camp as well.
So when she sat next to me and I prayed,
I was just like,
the Lord just gave me the comfort,
not saying that this isn't
going to be an easy road at all.
So remember the whole
sanctification
justification process for
all of us is long and arduous.
Sometimes our people are
able to give up vices and
sins immediately.
Sometimes it takes a while.
Sometimes people backslide
backslide for a while.
um so it's definitely
doesn't mean it's smooth
sailing but um I just um I
wanted the confidence to
know that no matter what
happened to her that she
would see the lord face to face
So like, I don't know, I just, you know,
as a parent of a child that
struggles with, you know,
addictions and things like that,
you always worry that one
day your child will succumb to it.
And I remember from the
pastor of Saddleback,
the name suddenly escaping me,
what his wife wrote about
his son that he's like,
I love my son so much,
but he just gave up and he just,
he just wanted to go to
Jesus and he just gave up.
And it was like,
oh it sunk in my heart
because I said oh my god if
if god forbid she gives up
or she gets in a car
accident I want her to see
jesus on the other side I'm
like please lord I just
need to know she's going to
see you on the other side
um and so that's the that's the comfort
it gives me because this
life is short and you know
we have our dear friend
melissa and byron and and
her son um lost his battle
with drugs and um took a
bad dose of fentanyl and
died but she knows that he
had faith before he died he
was actually sleeping in
his pastor's house that night
And stuck out and went
partying with some friends
and died of a fentanyl overdose.
On his way back to his mom,
having run away from a boarding school.
But she has the comfort of
knowing that he's with the Lord.
So that's what today meant.
That's what that salvation means to me.
That's awesome.
And to see you there with her.
Oh, yes.
And we have to go back and read Psalm 1,
1 through 3.
We got excited.
Yes.
We just moved that.
So, yeah, I was lucky enough.
Pastor Bob made it to...
made it a point to say any
fathers that want to join
their children that are
going to be baptized to do that.
So I was lucky enough to be
able to do that.
So here's just a little bit of a photo.
Let me see if I can make
that any different there.
There we go.
I don't like it when it's not centered.
And so, yeah, so there's us getting ready.
We're praying.
Or did we?
No, we already dunked.
No, you already dunked.
Yeah,
we already dunked and now just had
the opportunity to pray over Zara.
And it was a great moment.
I was so thankful to dunk.
And then hopefully,
it looked like the water got on my face.
So they didn't see that I
was crying like a baby.
It was tough.
I mean, just walking in line.
Just because we would chat
about something here or there.
We'd see something happen.
And then she reached over
and kind of hugged me.
And I started crying just
because she hugged me.
Nothing was said.
It just...
Oh, so crazy.
And then he was able to give
her a big hug and a kiss
and started crying again.
And if you've heard me speak about it,
these two pastors you see in this picture,
the guy with the dark
sunglasses is Pastor Josh Dorada.
He's the head youth pastor,
and he's the reason my
daughter wanted to come to this church.
Zara wanted to come to this
church is because of him.
And Daryl is the associate pastor,
the one with the cap that
was with Andy Duncan here.
great guy he was shivering
because the water was so
cold and then there we are
there's us pre-dunk
pre-dunk we're a little
still dry uh but uh what a
great picture I love that
picture it was awesome what
a great time uh we had there
Great day.
And I mentioned on the broadcast,
I mentioned in the post for
those of you that are friends of ours,
friends of my own Facebook,
I said April to April in
response to April.
She's like, oh, my God,
I love watching the journey
of your family.
And I said it was such a
hard decision for us to
leave Chino Hills.
And we talked to Pastor Jack
about it and to get planted
in a local church and then
to see this be the fruit of
it is just amazing.
the Lord telling us, Hey, I got you.
Yeah.
You know, you made the right choice.
We followed his, uh, his prompting.
Yes.
But it was an audible voice
or just a little like nudge little push.
Yep.
Um,
it does just kind of make it all come
together.
Right.
And the, um, just, um,
Yeah, so hard to leave Chino Hills,
but how we've been welcomed
at this church, East Anaheim,
is just nothing I've ever experienced.
It was one thing to go to Chino Hills.
It was absolutely where we
were supposed to be because
that's where we met.
It was part of that journey
that God had us on.
He goes,
I need you to get into a church
that's teaching the Bible.
And now you couldn't handle this before.
Anytime during your life.
Yes.
This church is what you need now.
Cause you would not, he's talking to me,
not you.
No, I was at elevation.
Yeah.
And it's so great because we,
we learned so much.
We gained so much knowledge
and understanding of where
that really meant to be a Christian.
What it meant to courage, to,
to be filled with the Holy spirit,
which I never understood before.
I never understood.
I never heard it before.
Who knows whether I was ever
told it before, but I never heard it.
I mean,
it doesn't mean that people could
have said it.
I just wasn't hearing it.
And then to then make such a
good connection with Pastor Jack,
where we would meet with
him and be able to talk
with him and interview him on our show.
And it seems like, well,
that seems like you should
really stay at the church.
And it really was the opposite.
It was like an earthquake.
It was a weird seismic shift.
It was a little bit of Jack saying,
I still love you guys,
but I know that there's
something else that your family needs.
And our building is not it.
We're still part of the church.
Right.
Forever.
But coming to this building
is not mandatory.
It doesn't mean that you're
no longer following God.
It's just you're not coming
to this building that
happens to be in Chino Hills.
there's a building closer to
your home where you can
have a greater connection for your kids.
And that's, what's more important.
But, uh,
today was the day that it showed
that's what was supposed to happen.
And especially cause,
and then in the evening we
had our community group dinner,
which was the culmination
of our six week study as
community leaders.
So we hosted a group in our, in our church,
in our home for eight weeks.
Yeah.
And again, just being there,
just people that just it
feels like family.
Right.
And it's amazing.
Very cool.
Another form of confirmation.
Yes.
God put us in the right
place because people we all
sat together and ate together.
We we sat together during worship.
We talked and chatted a
little bit before we left
and and hugged everybody
other than the one one guy.
Someone ditched us.
Somebody ditched us.
But other than that, no,
that was just a little funny side story.
But yeah, what a day,
a day of confirmation.
Today we should mark in our
calendars that April 7th, 2024,
a day of confirmation that God has us,
has us at every step.
Amen.
And holding our hand as we
walk through these.
And he has you too, friends.
so trust in the lord let's
get the comments and then
we'll go back to psalm okay
one second you want to go through
It's a choppy wee journey.
My pillow is wet, Karine said.
Watching you cry, Andy.
Denise.
You cried first.
I did cry first.
So rare.
I know.
Denise, what a beautiful day.
I pray I have that one day
with my children.
Amen, Denise.
Amen.
Never give up hope.
Yep.
You've got me crying.
What a lovely moment.
Stop it, Andy.
You got me crying.
I told you it's your crying, not mine.
Why me?
Why do I have to cry?
And where did we leave off?
Yes.
Just beautiful pictures.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kelly.
I got to say that another
thing that happened during the baptism,
you're going to have to go
back up there and click that.
Oh, welcome.
Is another gentleman, which we've...
uh discussed before this is
a man who um was gender
confused he was gay and he
started a movement because
he found himself arguing
against all of the gender
uh issues that were coming
through our schools
sexualization of kids and
yeah everything everything
had to do with bathroom
boys in the girls locker
room dressed as girls all
the the boys in the in the girl sports
all that stuff.
And he says, well,
this is not what the gay, first of all,
God says, I, you happen to,
while you're in this little
confusion state,
you need to do something
before you leave.
You need to tell people as a gay person,
since you happen to be gay right now,
that all that stuff is nonsense.
that my sexuality or my
confusion does not need to
be brought upon the
children in the way that
they're trying to do it um
and so and he did that he
created a movement called
gays against groomers and
gays against groomers would
talk about how they're
grooming kids in disney
movies and at schools and
in other ways that they're
doing that and his
organization did that very well well um
In Orange Unified School District,
they were recalling two of
the school board members.
And we'd seen Frank before
coming to our school and
speaking at school board
meetings and other school districts.
But he had made a connection with Madison,
one of the school board members.
Who was recalled.
Yeah, and then eventually got recalled.
But he connected.
And she's a member of
Calvary Chapel East Anaheim
and began bringing him to church.
I don't know the entire story.
Maybe one of these days
we'll be able to get him on it.
ask him some questions but
as time went on he he found
himself understanding that
that god is real and that
god does not want him to be
confused about his gender
that he's a man and um
And he accepted Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior.
And today, right before Czar got baptized,
he was baptized.
And I was able to be there
and take some video and
some pictures and hug him
and just tell him how grateful I am.
So beautiful, folks.
His face shined like the sun.
It's just he's been
completely transformed.
One of the things that
started another crying
round with me is that I said,
so who's here is with you?
He goes, my entire family.
I go, what does that mean,
your entire family?
Your mom and dad?
He goes, 12 of his family members.
And other people in his circle were there.
So he says,
you know how many people have
been praying for him?
Oh, so many.
And that was just like, oh, my gosh.
Never give up praying.
Nicest guy.
Never give up praying.
When I posted those pictures,
I thought of all the people
when they were commenting
and how many prayer
warriors on that post that
had prayed with me and
cried with me and never
give up and tell as many prayers
believers as you can what
you're struggling with pray
for one another so that you
shall be healed go to your
elders be anointed with oil
like you know just allow
your community to share
your burdens um you'll look
back on it and just be
amazed at how many people
went to the throne of the
lord and pleaded on your
behalf um it's just a
remarkable gift it really is
His name is Frank Rodriguez.
So when he had a chance,
pray for him and his
salvation and that he
continues moving forward
and walking with God.
But such a such a cool story.
Yes.
All right.
I want to get back to real
quick to Psalm one through three.
So one, one through three.
So we don't bypass that.
Blessed is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor stands in the path of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law he meditates
day and night.
He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of
water that brings forth its
fruit in its season,
whose leaf shall not wither,
and whatever he does shall prosper.
Perfect transition between
Frank Rodriguez and... Isn't it?
Isn't it?
And God's advice to us,
don't walk in a council of ungodly.
Don't be around people that are ungodly.
Do not sit with sinners.
Do not sit with those who are the scornful,
people that scoff at religion.
I actually it's you know,
I know we're supposed to be
witnessing to atheists and
people of other faiths,
but I really have
absolutely zero patience
for family members and
others who have hostilities to God.
You know what I mean?
Like that say really nasty things.
I really,
I do anything possible to change
the conversation because to me that's,
you don't throw pearls to swine.
It's a really negative
conversation and I don't
want them blaspheming the
Holy Spirit and forever
being damned either because
God knows maybe they could change.
So those are the scoffers
and the scornful people I
really do try to avoid with
talking about issues of faith.
Yeah, so good.
Look at this cute picture.
Real quick, I just want to show you.
Oh my God, yes.
That is the greatest picture.
Look at Frank.
If you see this twinkle in his eye,
I'm telling you, it was not there before.
This is faith.
It's what faith does.
It was just before we went up.
And like I said,
he was right in front of us.
But, yeah,
take a look at his face and just
picture his face when you pray for him.
He needs, obviously,
still a lot of prayer and
needs a lot of prayer
warriors to get him through
the few phases.
Yes, absolutely.
Zara, too.
Look at Zara.
What I love is that she's smiling.
Right?
Because she often just likes
to make these other faces.
Yeah, stick out her tongue.
It's so awesome.
Oh, what a day, Snuggs.
Yeah, fantastic.
Starting the book of Revelation,
Pastor Bob.
Oh, we didn't even talk about that.
No.
Revelation, day one.
Awesome.
This is a great time for you
guys to start.
Those of you that aren't in this area,
watch the replays of our
messages at Calvary Chapel, East Anaheim.
And I totally recommend it
even for those of you who
go to Chino Hills because he has,
of course, he's Calvary.
He's trained just...
um, similar to pastor Jack,
but he has a different perspective.
His heart is different.
Uh, so his focus is different.
And, um, you know, of course,
Jack's done a lot of, uh,
exegesis on a book of revelation,
but pastor Bob brings a unique, um,
perspective to it.
So we encourage you to listen to it.
It's the,
this was the opening sermon and
it was fantastic.
Just the,
even the little nuggets we got
today as the opening, um,
I never heard before.
I never heard emphasized.
It's not that we didn't read it.
But like, for example,
the first few verses,
it says the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave him to show
to his bondservants.
the things which must soon take place.
So the first question he asks of us is,
are you a bond servant or
just a believer?
Is this message geared to you or not?
Because the difference
between a bond servant and a believer,
a believer just shows up on Sunday,
a bond servant has given
his life to Christ,
that it gives his life in service to the
to the church to the
community gives his life
over to be led by the lord
just this juxtaposition of
what it means to just be a
believer or a bond servant
so is this message written
to you to edify and teach
you something special about
the lord in the coming days
because you are special to
the lord uh and I mean I
was just I was like that's amazing
And I like his message about
why it is we need to pay
attention to Revelation and
why we need to understand
it and learn it because
it's about our future.
And he writes in our notes here, he says,
God shows us the future so
we stay focused.
And again,
this is something that I
completely missed,
but not many pastors teach on Revelation.
Right.
You've never heard it in friends,
I'm sure.
But to understand that is
just going to be so much
more of a reason for me to
really understand what the
book of Revelation is all about.
so that I can stay focused
to understand and hear it
and to learn about why all
this is going to happen.
Right, and who Jesus is.
It's all about Jesus,
the King of King and the
Lord of Lords and the Lion of Judah,
the Root of David,
like just the majesty with
which he will return and
what it means for us as the
church and what will happen
in the Great Tribulation,
like all of these things
not only have a historical context,
but in a future context,
but a practical context for us,
for the church today,
and for what it means for
our lives moving forward.
Yeah,
the very top thing that's unveiling
revelation is the title of
today's sermon and it's and
I just wrote what he said
and that's all about Jesus everything.
I mean, you just learning again also that.
The Old Testament is all about Jesus,
right?
The New Testament is all about Jesus,
Jesus and revelations.
revelation is all about
jesus everything's about
jesus well and then and
again but that's it brings
us back to the initial
point of why I was I my
greatest I think argument
to muslims is if you were
to read the bible then you
would understand the centrality of jesus
is because the lord wanted
to save us so he showed in
the old testament you guys
are not capable of being
saved without some help you
guys will mess it up no
matter what so you can't
understand the value and
appreciate the value of why
god would come incarnate
unless you read the old testament
and then as you read the new
and he fulfills everything
that he promised he would
do that god is this is a
plan god intended all this
none of this happened by
accident and they would
have a sense of that that
that jesus is part of um of
god's entire that jesus was god's focus
for all of civilization for
all of mankind uh it will
put christ and his role in
humanity and in the world
and in god's plan and
improper perspective the
god man yes that whole
thing about bondservant or
being a slave uh to god to jesus
and understanding what that
means you know being a
slave to a man is is not
good okay but you do want
to be a slave to god um and
to to have that honor to be
a bond servant yes is um is
hard to understand until
you listen to pastor bob
speak about revelation
And the Bible.
And then he brought up Psalm
8410 that says,
for a day in your courts is
better than a thousand.
would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my god than
dwell in the tents of
wickedness amen oh yeah
just you have to stand
there and just be the guy
that opens the door yes you
know you know on the
outside is so much better
than being all snuggled up
in a nice warm tent in
wickedness yeah and tents
are not warm like well you
said those days but I
thought of a tent and I'm
like oh ten yikes I'd
rather be in the house
I don't like that in those days.
I don't know that houses
were much better than tents.
Really?
You know, back in, you know,
the tabernacle sounds pretty cool,
though.
Well,
not very many people got to stay in
the tent.
Such a good day.
Wow.
Just so amazing.
And Kelly says,
We absolutely need to pray
for one another.
Yeah.
And Kate says, Please pray for my brother,
Paul.
I was blessed to FaceTime
with him yesterday,
but he's ready to let go
and hasn't turned to Jesus.
We definitely will pray for Paul.
Paul's one who has cancer.
Yes.
Doesn't have long.
All right.
We do it.
So we'll put Frank on the prayer list.
Zara, of course.
And Paul.
And Denise's children.
I know two.
Okay.
Oh, dear Lord,
thank you for your faithfulness,
for your promises are true,
and you never disappoint.
You never break your promises.
You will not break your
promise to the children of
Israel or to the church or to any of...
Any of your sons and
daughters Lord we're so
grateful for that
reliability for that
dependability for that
unchanging nature of yours,
and we ask that you bless
our family that you lift
those up that are new in
their walk with you Lord
and that you show them
miracles and signs and
wonders in their lives that
all point to you Lord.
For those of our family
members that have not yet
gotten to know you for
Kate's brother Paul and for
Denise's children and for
Lisa's children.
I'm not sure about Kareem's children,
but we'll throw them in there too.
Can you please, Lord,
show up in a miraculous way?
Can you...
Humble them, bring them to their knees,
whatever it takes, Lord,
to meet you where they are
so that they can have their
own road to Damascus
experience where the light
will shine and blind them,
that they will know there's
no other explanation than
the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one their mother spoke of,
the one their aunt spoke of,
the one their grandmother prayed about.
Lord,
just remind them of all the people
that have been interceding
and standing in the gap for
them and lifting them up in prayer.
We ask that you give us all
wellness and healing and
restoration for illnesses, Lord,
and that for Frank,
that you renew his mind,
that you give him a right
spirit that renews his soul
and his spirit in a way in
which he feels that
transformation and that he
goes through the
sanctification process quickly, Lord.
And that you change his lust
and his temptations that
they leave him quickly and
that he turns everything over to you,
Lord.
We love you.
We honor you with all that we are.
We offer ourselves as living sacrifice.
It's in the mighty name of
Jesus that we pray.
Amen.
Okay, good.
I'm glad we added your kids too, Karina.
Thank you.
love you guys thank you so
much thank you for your
support thank you for your
prayers yes we love you
guys god bless god bless