Some Things Never Change: The Bible Still Speaks
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION:
Well, good morning everyone. It’s great to see you. I hope that you’re doing well. Hope that you’re ready for this new ministry season. We kicked it off this past Wednesday with Inspire, and for you that are new around here, may not know me. I’ve been on sabbatical for the last six or seven weeks and I’m Virgil Grant, I’m the senior pastor of this wonderful faith family. And by the way, did not our staff do a great job in bringing the word over the month of July, so give it up for them. And today, I don’t know about you, but I’m grateful that some things actually change. I’m glad that we don’t have to go around looking like this from the seventies. Anybody else thankful of that? And I pray to God that this will never, ever come back in style again. The big hair of the eighties, right?
I mean, how would you like to carry this around in your back pocket? I mean, how many of you know what that is? How many of you ever used one of those, right? Some people was like, if you don’t know, just ask your grandparents. Okay? And how would you like to work on something like this on your lap, right? I mean, that would be pretty bad. But believe it or not, I had one of those computers at one time and how would you like to rack up a frequent flyer miles on something like this? That would be pretty bad, wouldn’t it? But you know what? Even though there are some things that should change and needs to change, there’s some things that seems like that they’re just iconic. I’ve been to California four or five times, but I’ve always avoided going into LA and that area.
But this sign, this iconic sign, Hollywood sign has been there since 1923. The song that starts Every Ball game written by Francis Scott Key pinned back in 1812, and it’s been our national anthem since 1931. We begin every ball game with this song. And some things just never change like your grandma’s kitchen cabinets, right? I mean, they’ve been the same as long as you can remember them, correct? And then since 1949, the winner of the Master’s golf tournament has put on the green jacket, and it just seems like this. Some things never change. And we’re doing a new sermon series in the month of August called Some Things Never Change and some things will never change. They will stand the test of time. They will always stand the test of time, and over this month, we’re going to be looking at some of those things. Next week we’re going to talk about is how the Holy Spirit empowers us, and the third week we’re going to talk about how the church will prevail.
There’s a lot of people talking negative about the church, but friends, I’ve got news for you. The church is here to stay. It’s not going anywhere because it’s the bride of Christ. And then in the week four, we’re going to talk about that Jesus still saves. But today we’re going to talk about how the Bible still speaks. Every religion claims to have its own enlightened truth source or truth sources. For example, Judaism has the Tarran and the Talman. Islam has the Quran. Hinduism has the Vida. Mormonism has the Book of Mormon. Yep. Scientology has the works of El Ron Hubbard. JVA witnesses has edit the Bible to suit them, and then they have this literature called the Watchtower. Yeah. And Christianity claims only one book as its truth source, and it is the Bible.
The Bible claims to be the word of God.
Now, because the Bible claims to be the word of God does not make it so because everyone else claims that their source of truth is legitimate as well. But the Bible contains indisputable evidence as the actual word of God. And so what I would thought today that we would do as we begin a brand new sermon series is that we would talk about the reliability of the word of God. And why would I do that? Is because, listen to me, friends, is that everything that we do, every practice that we have, every sermon that we teach is based upon the word of God. We preach the word of God. Now, there’s people that accuse us east side of not preaching the word of God. And I’m going, are you smoking crack cocaine or what? I mean we preach the word of God. I’m going to give you more scripture references today than you would probably would want, but listen to me, folks, is that what they mean is I’m not preaching the Bible the way that you want me to preach the Bible.
There’s some people that wants me to go verse by verse and spend three years and a half preaching through the book of Romans. We just don’t do that. There’s other churches that does that, but that’s not what we do. We take the word of God and we make it applicable to where you are in your life. And so that’s just who we are. And so I just want to talk about in the next few moments about the reliability of the word of God. Now, understand that this morning, that when we come together is that we have people all over the continuum when it comes to the word of God. There’s some of you that are skeptical about the word of God. There’s some of you that you believe that the mouths were inspired by God himself in the very back, and we have everybody in between.
But wherever you’re at, you would have to agree with me. You have to admit that the Bible is a unique book and it’s unique for several different reasons. And so regardless whether you believe it, whether you practice, whether you live out the truths or not, you have to believe with me. You would have to agree that yes, Virgil, the Bible is a unique book and there’s several reasons for why it’s unique. Number one, is the Bible has amazing unity. The Bible has amazing unity. The Bible is made up. It is literally a library. It has 66 books in it. The Bible was written over 1500 years, over 40 generations by 40 different authors from every walk of life, including kings and servants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, doctors, military generals. And believe it or not, IRS agents all contribute to the Bible. And they came from all different places.
Some of the books of the Bible was written in the desert, some of it was in the dungeons, palaces, islands, battlefields, hillsides, prison cells. And as you’ll see from three different continents and three different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Exactly. Now, here’s the thing that’s interesting about the Bible. Think about this in the Bible, let me just ask you a question. How many controversial subjects are in the Bible? A hundred, 200, three. There’s a lot, right? I mean, there’s a lot of controversial subjects. Now let me ask you a question on every controversial subject, would you not agree that there’s agreement in the word of God around that subject? Now, let me ask you a question. Let’s just take for example, that we would get together 10 authors, 10 writers, they’re all from the same walk of life. They’re all from the same generation with the same education, from the same university.
They all speak the same language, and they’re all in one place at one time, on one continent, in one city, and they’re all in the same room, and Brian, we give them the assignment to write on one controversial subject. Now, let me ask you a question, Brian, this is for the whole congregation, but what do you think is going to happen to those 10 authors on that one controversial subject? Do you think that they’re going to come out with agreement? Do you think that they’re going to build upon each other’s writings and that they’re going to compliment each other and at the end, they’re all going to say the exact same thing with amazing unity? And the answer is what? No way, Jose, right? No way it’s happening, right? But think about this as 10 authors cannot agree on one controversial subject, but there’s many writers who agrees on hundreds of controversial subjects in the word of God.
The Bible is number two, is also has longstanding popularity. The Bible is the bestselling book of all time since it began to be printed off on the Gutenberg’s printing press in 1450. The Bible has been the bestseller. Do you understand? Is that the Bible is the most published book in the history of the world? The Bible is the most translated book in the world. Listen to this. The Bible has been translated into over 1700 languages and it’s still climbing. Do you understand that? The Bible is the most smuggled book in the entire world. People have risked their lives to get their hands on the word of God. But not only does all of that make the Bible unique book, but the third thing is that it maintains incredible durability. Is that, just think about this. Has any other book in the world been a scrutinized, been criticized, ridiculed, dissected, slice dies, banned as burned as the Bible?
Can you think of any other book who’s ever gone underneath? The scrutiny of the Bible is that kings and governments and dictators and emperors have tried to ban the Bible altogether. But guess what? In absolutely no luck whatsoever, in fact, there’s a French philosopher, his name was Voltaire, and he died in 1778 and before his death, he made this declaration. Look what he says. He says this, “A hundred years from now, the Bible will be swept from existence and you will hear no more of Christianity.” Now think about that. You know what happened when he died? Guess what happened? They auctioned off his house and inside his house was a printing press. Guess who purchased his house in the printing press? The Geneva Bible Society. And guess what they started doing? Producing Bibles and distributing them around the world. Folks, you cannot make this stuff up.
But Jesus knew of the durability of the Bible when he said this in Matthew chapter 24 is, read it with me out loud. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” But also the fourth thing that makes the Bible unique is that it continues to be fresh and to be relevant. People will all the time will say, well, East Side just makes the Bible come alive. I don’t know what you guys do, but just make it come alive and we can make the Bible feel like it was written in 2023. In reality, the Bible was written over 2000 years ago. But it’s easy to make the Bible feel fresh, unique, and relevant when you have something like the Bible to work with. Because what does the Bible do? The Bible provides us with fresh insights, with timeless answers for raising kids, for managing anger, for relating on the job, for building friendships, how to handle addiction and bad habits, how to give fresh information and insight on how to manage money, how to balance the stressful demands of life, how to deal with anxiety, how to have a fulfilling relationship with the maker of the world and of creation.
Folks, the Bible is fresh, it’s relevant and it’s unique and it can absolutely be a lifeline for every one of us. And some of you maybe who are skeptical would say something like this, you’re skeptical and you go, okay, Virgil, okay pastor, I’ll give it to you that the Bible is unique, but I have some questions that I need answered and I try to come away with the four most relevant questions that you would ask as it relates to the Bible. And one of the main questions that kind of undergirds the four other questions is, can I trust it? Can I trust the reliability of the Bible as my truth source? Is the Bible literally something I can stake my life on? And round that thought, I have developed four questions. The first question is this, what does the Bible say about itself? Because whatever the Bible says about itself is important.
And what we’re going to look at in the next few moments is what the Bible makes claims about itself. It’s not what I’m making about the Bible. This is not about what any denomination is making about the Bible. This is what the Bible makes or declares for itself. In second Timothy chapter three, verse 16, Paul says:
“The Timothy, all scripture is inspired or breathed by God and it’s useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
2 Timothy 3:16
Peter, one of the close inner circle of Jesus in his life group, he says this in one Peter chapter one, all people are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. Read it with me.
“But the word of the Lord does what endears forever.”
1 Peter 1:25
Now, I don’t know if you know this or not, but if you read the Old Testament, it’s important that you understand that when you read the Old Testament, you’ll read phrases like this and the Lord spoke to Abraham and the Lord spoke to Moses and the Lord spoke to Jobe and the Lord gave a word to Jonah something like that over 2000 times. Well, why is that important? Well, look at the next verse. The next verse says this:
“Above all…” this is what you have to understand. “…you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.”
1 Peter 1: 26
In other words is when a prophet says the Lord eth or the Lord says that it wasn’t coming from their heart, from their mind, from their soul, it was actually coming from the spirit of God.
God gave them the words, as we continue reading, for prophecy never had his origin in the human will, but prophets, though they were human, spoke from God as they were carried alone by the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who gave them the prophecy that they need in order to speak and so the Bible tells us about the deeds of God and the words of God. The Bible claims to be the word of God. Now, Brian, let’s go back to your favorite bookstore, wherever that is, I think you have to go to Lexington. I don’t if we even have one. Maybe we do, I don’t know, but if you go to your favorite bookstore, there’s a section called biographies, and some of those biographies are about the early years, some about the later years, some are authorized, some of them are unauthorized, and based on who you pick up to read about, the authors will come at it from different perspectives. You know what I’m saying? They will be in conflict with one another. Take for example, Elvis Presley. Now by all means, and by all accounts, Elvis died when? August the what the 16th, 19 what? 77. And he’s buried where? In Graceland. And where’s Graceland at Memphis, Tennessee. Now, but according to the National Enquirer,
Elvis was last seen last month outside of a seven 11 in Nashville, right? You hear these conflicting stories, yet everything written about Jesus all said the same thing. And some of you’re thinking, well, if they all said the same thing about Jesus, then who are these witnesses? Are they dependable? I mean, how many people actually interacted with Jesus? How many people actually interacted with Jesus after his death and his burl and his resurrection? I mean, are these people, are they caliber people? Are these respected people? I mean, are these credible witnesses? Who are these eyewitnesses? And if you read the Bible, we have the biography of Jesus, right? And we have four of them and they’re called the gospels. And the word gospel means good news. And what are the four gospels or biographies dealing with Jesus’s life, their name after their authors, it’s Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, right?
And all four of these authors who wrote a biography about Jesus, they all do what? They all say the same thing. They all point to the same thing. That Jesus came to save humanity from their sins. And here’s the thing that you need to understand. It’s consistency all the way through with all of the different authors about the life of Jesus. Look what it says in second Peter chapter one. It says this for, and Peter goes:
“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were, what does it say? We were I? Witnesses of what? Of his what? Majesty.”
2 Peter 1: 16
Exactly. Look at one John chapter one, another one of Jesus’s disciples whom Jesus love, who is a part of Jesus’s small group. Notice what John says:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with their own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have what touched this we proclaim concerning the word of life, talking about Jesus, the life appeared and we have testified to it and we proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has what has appeared to watch.”
1 John 1:1-6
You know what John is saying? John is saying this, we’re not making this stuff up. We have no reason to, is that we saw him, we touch him, we saw the calluses on his hands from working in the carpentry shop. We hug his rugged body. I mean we ate with him, we prayed with him, we sang with him. I mean we sat around the campfire, we swapped stories. I mean we listened to him, he listened to us. I mean we worship together. We were involved. He’s the greatest person that you’ll ever meet. He’s the great I am. He has always been and will always be. He is life. He’s the life that brings about eternal life.
We saw him do so many things like turn water into wine and to restore sight to the blind. He makes leopards clean. He drove out demons. He walked on water. He calmed the storm from a boat. He called a dead man out of the tomb. And John says, what? I write all of this down so that you may believe what we have witnessed and seen and touch with our own hands. There’s another guy who wrote most of the New Testament and his name is Paul. Notice what Paul says. Paul says this:
“For what I received, I’m going to pass on to you as of first importance that Christ died for his sins according to the scriptures that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared…”
1 Corinthians 15: 3-8
and who does he appear to Cephas and who is Cephas? Peter, right?
“…And then he appeared to the 12 and after that and appeared to what? To more than what 500 of the brothers and sisters all at the same time, most of whom are still living…”
When Paul wrote this, he was saying they’re most still living, though some have fallen asleep, some have died. And then he did what he appeared to whom? To James and then to all the apostles. And then at last, what does Paul say at last? What does he do? Jesus appeared to whom? To me he shared with me. Now maybe you’re thinking, but come on, I witnesses can lie. Let me tell you something. Some of you’re thinking, well, I was just watching Dateline the other night or 48 hours, right? And there’s a witness on there that lied. Let me ask you a question. Would you lie about something if it was going to cause you death of all the apostles, out of all the disciples, when they push, come to shove, they had an opportunity to recant.
They had an opportunity to say, you know what? We just made the whole thing up. We were just lying about the whole Jesus thing. We were just lying about his death burrow and resurrection. None of it is true. You would think that if it was a lie that somebody would break rank. You know what I’m saying? Somebody would say, uncle, and give in. You’re not going to crucify me upside down. You’re not going to dip my body in boiling hot oil. No, you’re not going to murder me. You’re not going to hang me from a pole. You’re not going to nail me to a cross. No, no, no. We just made it up. We made it up. But none of the disciples, none of the apostles, none of them recanted, all of them said that Jesus was the resurrected savior. Let me ask you this question. What about eyewitnesses to eyewitnesses?
We have the story of Paul and Peter and John being eyewitnesses to the death and burrow and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, when they started talking about the death burrow and resurrection of Jesus Christ is that they were people who were alive, who witnessed the death and the burrow and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Peter and James and John and Paul, if they were lying, what would all the eyewitnesses do? Somebody tell me, what would they do? They would go, you’re lying, you’re a liar the truth is not in you. We know different. But you know what, Peter, he preaches, listen to me, he preaches in the city of Jerusalem shortly after the death burrow and resurrection of Jesus Christ after he preaches in the city of Jerusalem. Guess what happens? They don’t call Peter a liar. They don’t say that you’re lunatic. They don’t say, get off the stage and go home.
You know what happens? 3000 people receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And so the eyewitnesses to the eyewitnesses confirms what the eyewitnesses says. Look with me at Acts chapter two, fellow Israelites. Peter says, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited or appointed or anointed by God to you. And how was he anointed? How was he appointed? He was confirmed by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you and through him, as you yourselves know, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Folks, do you understand that the eyewitnesses to the eyewitnesses repented and received Jesus as our Lord and Savior? Now, one last question real quickly, the third question, then we have a fourth one. The third one is this. Is there any outside source of confirmation? In other words, we have the Bible, but is there any evidence externally that supports that?
Now, I want to say something very clearly. I want you to hear me Whenever the Bible and whenever history of the world has collided and there’s been a difference, I want you to know something. Is that nothing in the history of the world, no archeological dig, no finding has ever contradict the word of God. The word of God has always proven to be accurate. Let me give you an example. In Luke account of Jesus’s life is found in the gospel of Luke, but he also wrote the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 17. There’s a term that Luke wrote about that was confusing to scholars for years. It’s called politarchs. And politarchs means city officials and people and scholars believe that Luke was off his rocker, that Luke made up something and that you couldn’t believe anything that Luke or the Bible says. Until several years ago, they did an archeological dig and in the Roman Empire they found an ark that said in the days of the poliarchs, and it was proven.
And that arc is in the British Museum in London and you can go there and you can look at it. And since then there’s been like 50 additional reference to poliarchs that was not there beforehand. And this led scholars to scrutinize Luke’s account of geographical cities and continents and islands. And I want you to listen to this, is that Luke’s reference in his two books, 32 different countries, 54 cities and nine different islands, and every one of them is completely accurate, is no outside source has ever been able to contradict the Bible. The fourth thing very quickly. So what does this have to do with me? What does it has to do with my life? The Bible is an old ancient document. So what does it have for me is actually the Bible has the ability to change your life. The Bible has the ability to change the trajectory of your life.
Did you hear what I said? The Bible has the ability to change your life. I don’t know about you, but as a Christian it can do course correction in my own life, the Bible helps. It’s like a mirror that I look into, and as I look into the mirror, it helps me to understand who I am and understand that I’m not God and understand that God is God and that I’m sinful and I need a savior and I need forgiveness, and I need his mercy and his kindness and gentleness and it points out to the fact that to be totally dependent on him, it reminds me of that of every single day, but it also reminds me that I need to be saved for myself. And Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse six, he says this, he says:
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
John 14:6
Now, do you understand that when Jesus said I am the truth, he didn’t say I am a truth. Jesus says, I am the only truth. Immediately he put a distance between him and all the other religious sources. He put distance between him and all the other world religions. This is the reason why we can’t take all the religions of the world and put ’em on EKU football field and put Christianity right next to him because Jesus has elevated Christianity. He’s elevated the Christian faith above everything else. Because why? He says, this is the truth. If you want to find your way to God, you can only come through me and listen to me. Friends, for some people that’s offensive. For some people they don’t believe that’s true. But we as Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. We believe that it’s the only way to have forgiveness of your sins.
It’s the only way to have your name written in the Book of Heaven. It’s the only way to have a fresh start. And for some of you, that bothers you. And here’s the reason why it bothers you, is if there were a thousand ways to God, we would want 1,001. It’s not that there’s only one way to God. We want to get to heaven on our own terms. We want to dictate how to get to heaven. Folks, you’ve never been to heaven. How do you know how to get there? There’s only one person who knows the way and his name is Jesus. And the issue is that God gave us a way to God through his son Jesus Christ. But we think that we’re smarter than God.
See, let me just say it this way. People don’t want simplicity, they just want autonomy. They want to determine their own way to heaven. They want to determine their own terms rather than the terms of God. And so people who are takes Jesus’s words as offensive and takes Jesus’ words of saying that’s not true. It’s because they think that they know better. And see, here’s what Jesus says. Jesus says in John chapter three verse three, these are Jesus’s words, not mine:
“No one can see the kingdom of God. No one can see heaven. No one can have eternal life. No one can have their sins forgiven or for a start without being born again.”
John 3:3
The question I have for you this morning is this is:
Have you been born again?
Have you placed your faith in Jesus or have you placed your faith? And do you still have your faith in your own way? See folks, let me just tell you something,There’s not a denomination, there’s not a church, there’s not a cathedral, there’s not a synagogue, there’s not a mosque, there’s not a chapel. There’s none of those things that can help you to get to heaven. The only person who can help you to get to heaven is Jesus. He’s the only way, my friends. And the question is, have you been born again? And some of you go, well, I don’t know what born again means. Well, around here we say is as simple as A, B, C, and the letter A, B and C all represents something.
The letter A stands for to admit, to admit that I have sin.
To admit that sin has separated me from God to admit that there’s something broken inside of you. There’s something broken inside of me, and the Bible calls it sin. And let me tell you something, that thing that’s broken inside of you and me, nobody can fix it.There’s not a priest. There’s not a pastor, there’s not a pill, there’s not a program, there’s not a prescription. There’s not none of your parents. There’s nothing that can fix this brokenness inside of you and I called sin. And that is the reason why:
The letter B is believe, is that we believe that God sent Jesus to deal with their brokenness, to deal with their sin.
And how did he deal with it? Jesus died on the cross. He absorbed all of our brokenness and all of her sin. And when he absorbed all of her brokenness and sin, you know what Jesus gave to us in return? I call it the great exchange. Jesus took her sin and her brokenness in exchange, he gave us his righteousness or his goodness. And then we just have to confess that Jesus is Lord. And this morning, the good news is that you can be born again. You can receive eternal life right now, whether you’re watching online or you’re here in service, let me just ask you to bow your head if you would. You don’t have to close your eyes. If you want to, you can. But if you’re here this morning and you’ve never ever received Jesus as your personal savior, never been born again. Today’s the day, today’s your opportunity. You can do it right now. And the way that you kind of begin the journey is that you pray the born again prayer. And I want to say that prayer with you in a moment, but I want to make sure that I include you in on the prayer.
This morning, in the first service, we had eight people who prayed this prayer. You know how I know that? Because I asked them if they wanted to be included in the prayer for them to raise their hand. In the moment, I’m going to ask you to do the same thing. I’m going to ask you if you want to be included in Born Again Prayer. If you want to receive eternal life this morning, I’m going to ask you in a second just to raise your hand and by you raising your hand, I want you to keep it up. I’m just going to count the hands in the room. And then after I count the hands, then we’re going to say together the Born Again prayer. Not only just you, but everybody in the room as a reminder of what Christ did for us. And so if you’re here this morning and you want to start your relationship with Jesus, you want to have eternal life, you want your sins forgiven, you want your name written in the Book of Heaven, would you just raise your hand, hold ’em up really high. Let me just count the hands. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
See seven. Anyone else.
And so this morning, would you look on the screen with me? And let’s just read this together, everyone in full voice.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I believe you’re the son of God. I believe that on the cross, you took my sin, my shame, my guilt, and you died for it. You faced hell for me so I wouldn’t have to go. You rose from the dead to give me a place in heaven, a purpose on earth and a relationship with your Father. Today, Lord Jesus, I turn for my sin to be born again. God is my Father. Jesus is my Savior. The Holy Spirit is my helper, and heaven is now my home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Would you welcome these seven people this morning into the kingdom of God. So 15 people this morning has made heaven their home. And the Bible says, not only does the church rejoice, but heaven rejoice, and the angels rejoice. And so we’re excited that you made the greatest decision of your life. And by the way, I didn’t say it in the first service, but we have seven kiddos who made Jesus their Lord and Savior at children’s camp this past week. So let’s give it up for them. Yeah,I just want to make a couple announcements and then I’m going to pray and then you’re dismiss. First of all, everything that we do around here at East Side is due to your generosity. Your generosity provides all the resources that we need to do ministry from birth to the grave. You know how that works, and if you haven’t started your spiritual journey of giving, most of us, we do it online. It’s at Eastside Church forward slash Give. That’s how Rose and I give. We get paid twice a month. So we just set it up for twice a month. It’s safe, it’s secure, it’s simple. God doesn’t worry about the amount, nor do we as a church. The important thing is, is that you take that spiritual step. And if you don’t want to give online, we have some giving boxes at the exit. You can drop cash or a check in there and just encourage you to do that.
And we can give testimony, hundreds of us in the room today about the faithfulness of God in that area of our life called finances. And God wants every bit of your life, every category of your life. And for some of you, this is kind of like your last step is to let go and to let God have control. And we just pray that you’ll do that. Also, we kicked off this whole, our ministry season is from August through the end of May. Summer is just a different animal. And we kicked it off this past Wednesday with our monthly Inspire, and it went over 300 people in attendance. And if you’ve never been, I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand if you’ve never been. But here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. I want to take your little pinky out. Everybody take, if you’ve never been, if to inspire, take your little pinky out.
And I want you to do a pinky promise with me that you’re going to come either in September, October, or November to inspire. It’s the first Wednesday of every month. Love for you to come. Worship starts around 6:30. We’re usually done 7:30 ish based on how excited I am. But in September, I’m going to be telling you everything that’s coming on and going down over the next year around here at East Side, going to give a building update. So if you want to kind of be in the know, inspire is where you find that out. So if you would do that, I’d appreciate it. And the last thing I want to say, I forgot about it in the first service, but here’s my cell number. I think we have it. Here’s my cell number. And every week I try to send out an encouraging text message.
How many of you have received that encouraging text message? Yeah, I try to send that out. It’s almost a thousand people that I send out. It comes directly from my phone. If you want to be a part of that and you haven’t signed up, then text me. This will come straight to my phone. But give me your full name. Don’t say This is Mary. Well, we’ve got 10 Marys at church. I don’t know who you are. So yeah, give me Mary Jane, okay. Or whatever your last name is, or Bob. And then I’ll add you to the text message list and you’ll just start receiving some text messages from me. And if you want to respond, you can respond. Lady asked me this morning, can I respond to those text messages? I go, yeah, it comes straight to my phone. She goes, oh boy, you’re in trouble. So I’m going to have to block her. I don’t know. I don’t think I will. But you get the picture. But just feel free to sign up for those and make sure that you get included in that. So would you stand? Let me pray out.
Father, thank you for the 15 people who made heaven, their home, their eternal home. We rejoice. We’re thankful that the Bible still speaks. And Father, we’re excited about this series. We’re excited about what we’re going to learn and how we’re going to realize that the things of God never changes, that they’re eternal. And Father, as we go throughout this week, may we go in your name and in your power, in your presence, and help us to push back darkness wherever we go. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Have a great week. You’re dismissed.