music playing there is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word. Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey, Scott Pauley leads us in a brief study of Scripture. Today on The Weekend Pulpit, we are happy to share a full-length Bible message given through Scott's Pulpit ministry. These messages were recorded live in a local church or gospel event in recent days. It is our prayer that the message will be a help to you today. Open the Word of God with me would you please. I'm taking you to the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And when you get there I want you to find Revelation chapter number 3. We're going to use this as a jumping off place if you will, an entry point to all of the things that I want to talk to you about this week. Now, I hear either Siri's reading to me or somebody's talking to me, right? How many of you want the Lord to talk to you? Yeah, me too. I wish I could hear His voice just that clear today. Now, look at Revelation chapter number 3. As a matter of fact, back up to chapter 1 just for a second, and notice it begins with the title, The Revelation of Jesus Christ Which God Gave Unto Him, To Show Unto His Servants Things Which Must Shortly Be come to pass." Remember that statement because we'll return to that later today. And verse number three gives us this promise, blessed is he that readeth. How many of you want the blessing of God? Did you know there's a specific blessing of God connected to the revelation of Jesus Christ? Now, I think there's a blessing to the whole book. I think when you read the Word of God, you're meeting the God who is the origin of all blessing. But when you come to the last book of the Bible, you're coming specifically to one of God's great blessings. And if you want the blessing, the blessings found in the book, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. What time? The time of our Lord's return. Any moment we may see Jesus. I know what time it is. I had to change my watch this morning, so I'd get on your time. But I know exactly what time it is. I also know what time I'm supposed to be finished. Tell me if you're glad about that. We live on time, don't we? Yesterday, I had a flight delay that messed lots of things up, and so I had to drive to a different airport. And I knew what time I had to be on the plane. I knew what time the plane was leaving. I thought I knew what time it would arrive. We live in time, this sense of time. But the time here is a time that Jesus said nobody knows the day or the hour, only God knows. It is the time on God's clock and on God's calendar when Jesus is coming for His own. And I'm glad to report to you it might happen today. Today could be the day. As the Bible says, the time is at hand. Then in chapter 1, John gets a vision of the glorified Christ. Then in chapter 2 and chapter 3, he begins speaking to seven churches. They were specific churches. They were all located in Asia Minor. As a matter of fact, if I had time this morning, I'd give you a little Bible geography lesson, put them all on a map, and show you that they actually move in a clockwise formation, almost a circular formation. You ever heard of a circular letter, like people would read a letter and pass it on, read a letter and pass it on? We have so much privilege. I mean, we've got the Word of God, the completed revelation, bound up in Moroccan leather. What do you think of that? We're spoiled, that's what we are. Most of us have multiple copies. These people didn't have all of this, and they didn't have a copy of themselves. And so from church to church, the letters would go, and they would be read. And these churches were individual churches, just like the church I'm speaking to today. But in a very real sense, these seven churches also represent all churches. As a matter of fact, if the Word is really a mirror, that's what the Bible teaches, right? to show us us. I believe when you read and study these seven churches, you see elements of your church. Might I say, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Every church has good in it. If Jesus is there, it's good. And God's people are the best. Last Sunday, I was preaching in Brooklyn, New York. Did you know Brooklyn, New York is a very different place from where I'm preaching right now? But do you know the common denominator? Jesus, the Word, the Church, the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you, being a part of a local New Testament church is the greatest thing you could ever be a part of on planet Earth because it is the very body of Christ at work in this world. People say, I wish I could be connected to Jesus. You were placed in Christ on the day of your salvation and you were placed in his family at the day of your salvation. And if you love the head, you ought to love the body because the church is just that it is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't want to get in the weeds here, but some people believe that these seven churches are pictures of seven periods in church history. As a matter of fact, lots of people believe that and have written about it. And I wouldn't argue against that because I certainly see parallels. However, I would point out to you that all of these churches are in some way represented in every age. And so somebody said, we're living in the Laodicean age. Well, we may be. The very end, that's where we're coming to in Scripture in just a moment, Revelation chapter number three. But I'm glad to report to you, you can still have a Philadelphia church in a Laodicean age. that you can still have a gospel-centered, Christ-honoring, Spirit-empowered, advancing, local New Testament church, even in the midst of an apostate age and a secular society. Aren't you glad for that? And so we come to the end of these letters to one verse. It is Revelation chapter 3 and verse number 22. And what a short verse it is. And yet, what a sword it is. The Bible says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I want you to read that out loud with me. You got it in front of you now? Revelation chapter 3 and verse number 22, ready? He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Read it to the person next to you. Ready? Look at that center next to you and read it to him. Ready? Here we go. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now let me show you something. Take your pen. Take your pen. I want you to mark something in your Bible. That's the verse we're looking at in just a moment. But if you back up to chapter two, now stay with me quickly. Look at verse number seven. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 11, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 17, he that hath an ear, let it hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 29, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Chapter 3, verse 6, he that hath an ear, Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Verse 13. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Everybody lift your head and look at me and say it, ready? He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. You just memorized the whole Bible verse. Aren't you proud of yourself? And it's a brainwashing of sorts, but it's a good brainwashing. It's the washing of water by the Word. But every church, this is powerful, At the end of the message, there was an invitation. At the end of every message to every local church, he ends the same way. It's like the Lord's divine exclamation point on what he just said to them. And what is it? Say it with me, ready? He that hath a ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And the seven churches. This is interesting, but if you take the New Testament, And you look at all of the churches that were specifically written to by the Apostle Paul, there's seven churches. Now, there's nine letters because the Church of Corinth and Church of Thessalonica each got two, but there's seven churches that Paul writes to. Pretty interesting. Then you get to Revelation, chapter 2 and chapter 3, and John is the one writing, but Jesus is the one speaking. And maybe you have a red-letter edition Bible. I'm just curious. You got a red-letter edition Bible? Shows the words of Christ in red. That doesn't mean it's more of the Word of God, but I think it's significant that it's the words of Jesus. Look at those two chapters. Are they all in red in your Bible? Every word of it. You know why? Because Jesus is the one talking. This isn't John's word. This is Jesus' word. This isn't a revelation of John. This is a revelation of Jesus. And there's how many churches? Seven of them. It's my conviction that if you take what Paul wrote to those seven churches, and you take what Jesus said, and add John Wright to these seven churches, you have all the truth that God wants for all of His churches in all of the church age. Now, I don't know what that means to you, but to me, that means we ought to sit up, pay attention, and say, all right, God's got something in this for me. That is why when you come to the end of the whole thing, last word before the rapture of the church. Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but look at chapter four, verse number one, we're getting ready to come here. After this, I looked and behold, a door was open. in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Anybody else looking forward to the hereafter? Please don't miss this. While we're looking and studying and waiting for what is next we must not miss what is now. Do you understand that we are today living in Revelation chapter 3 and verse number 22. Now shortly, shortly a door is getting ready to open in heaven and a trumpet's going to sound and a voice is going to say come up and we're going to be called away. I'm looking forward to that. Very shortly we're going to live what John experienced in a measure in Revelation chapter 4 verse number 1. But look where we're living right now. Right now We're living on the edge of eternity. Right now, we're living on the verge of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Right now, we're living on the brink of the rapture. And if that is true, let me tell you what God's people ought to be concerned with. We ought to be concerned with what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us right now. Everywhere I go, people are at Namburg with revelation. Everywhere. I mean, you lost people. You ask people, what's your favorite book of the Bible? They may not know anything. They go, I love Revelations. Really? Tell me about it. Well, I don't understand that much about it, but I really love it. And I must confess that for years, I think I sort of like it. You know what I discovered? I discovered that Revelation is one of the greatest revival books in all of scripture. You know why it is? Because it brings you to God. That's the essence of revival. It makes you think about eternity. That's what revival does. It awakens the church to the fact any moment we're going to see Jesus and that ought to make a difference in the way we live now. And everybody's really consumed right now with what's next, what's next, what's next? What's the chronological timeline? I don't think I can answer all those questions for you. I am by conviction of Uh, a man, he believes in scripture that we're going to be called out of here before the tribulation age. And that we're, we're going to be with Jesus. Cause I don't believe the Lord would let his bride go through the wrath because Jesus already took the wrath for us on the cross of Calvary. And there are many reasons that I could give you for that. I think the next thing on God's agenda for the new Testament church is the rapture of the church. And for the next couple of days, I'm gonna study with you Revelation chapter four and Revelation chapter five, because I believe Revelation four and five is what's next. Like if you'd like to know how to plan and you'd like to know more about your forwarding address and you'd like to know more about your eternal destiny, you got to spend some time in Revelation chapter four and Revelation chapter five because it tells you what is next. But I must tell you that if we get enamored with prophecy and we get to thinking about the future, but we don't let it change the way we live today, something is desperately wrong. And that's why we do one more time with the revelation three verse 22. He that hath an eater, let him hear what the Spirit say unto the church. I want to give you three things and I want you to write them down. They all come from this one verse. There's a lot packed in one verse. In fact, there are three people or groups of people in that verse. First of all, there's the local church. I love the local church. We know he's referring here not to the general family of God, but the local church is, because he says that he that hath an ear, that it be where the Spirit saith unto the church is. And what do we know about the local church? Well, we know it's Christ's church, because Jesus is the one doing the talking. You know why I love the church? I love the church because Jesus loves the church. Would you like God unless Jesus loves the church? Jesus loves the church so much he gave himself for it. You know what I think? I think if Jesus loved the church enough to die for it, the least I could do is connect my life to it. I think if it mattered to Jesus that we have a congregation that we could belong to of fellow believers, like-minded people who accomplish his work in this world, I think if it meant that much to the founder, it ought to make sense that it means much to the members. Have you been with me on that so far? You know what's really odd? The closer we get to the end of the age, the less church membership needs to be. That's kind of crazy. Seems to me, the writer of Hebrews said something like, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another. Aiden, wait for it, so much the more, as you see the day approach. In other words, if the time is really at hand, if shortly we're going to see Jesus, if any moment Revelation 4.1 might take place, don't you think it behooves members of local New Testament churches to say, I don't want to be as close to Jesus and as close to what he's doing in his local church as I could possibly be. One of the bread aims that I had for meetings like this, I don't want you to love me. I'm grateful for the love of God that's shown to me. But you're going to forget my name in a few days. You won't even remember who preached this meeting. But you know what I want? I hope every one of you grows to love Jesus more. And watch this, when you love Jesus, you love what Jesus loves. And one of the marks of real spiritual awakening is people fall in love with the local New Testament church all over again. See, I believe Christ is the founder of the church. He started it. That first little congregation wouldn't be 12 men in it. That's not a big church, 12. One of them was a traver. Somebody said, ah, that's nice. No, that one little church turned the world upside down. Founded by Christ, empowered by the Spirit, established in Jerusalem. See, watch this. I'm talking to you about the last church. That's where we are, the church of Laodicea, the last church. And you do understand that some churches are going to be the last church. You never don't know that some church is going to be worshiping when the trumpet sounds. That's thought provoking, isn't it? That some group of Christians is gonna be witnessing and working for the Lord Jesus, when suddenly there's a shout and the dead in Christ rise, and we, the laden men of color, together with the clouds, will meet the Lord there, and some shall we ever be with the Lord. Look, we might just be the church. We might be on the welcoming committee for the Son of God. We don't have the privilege of being the first church, but we might be the last church. Watch this carefully. If the first church was concerned, if the church in Jerusalem was concerned what Jesus wanted, don't you think so much the more the last church getting ready to meet the founder and give an account for our time ought to be saying, oh, Lord Jesus, we want to get this church right in line. And the only way to get the church in line is everybody in the church has to get in line. Or we want you to tell us what you didn't tell us and change whatever you need to change because we want to be the church that Jesus died for. We want to be the church pleases God and fulfills your purpose in us. So you've got the local church, by the way, I wish you had time to walk you through the seven churches here. There's a lot of commonalities. He has things he corrects in them. Nobody likes that, it'll be all naive. He has things he commends in them. Aren't you glad that the Lord sees the good and commends that? Do you know recently I was studying through these seven churches and I noticed some things I'd never noticed before. Did you know in every one of the seven churches he reveals something about himself that is fresh? That's really interesting. Do you know that Jesus wants this church to know him better? Everybody look me in the eye and hear me with your heart. Jesus wants you to know him better. That's what revival is. Look, churches don't go to another level until the people in the church go deeper in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't go higher without going deeper. So to every church, he says, let me show you something about me. Let me tell you something that you may not understand about me. I just want to pause right now and say, dear Jesus, help us come to know you better this week. Something else that I think is interesting is every one of them, even the baddiness, now this is fascinating, that even the ones that he has the worst things to say about, he gives them hope of overcoming. And I gotta tell you, in a world where there's so much junk going on, and it's like saying all the hounds of hell have turned their big guns against the church, aren't you glad that in Christ, we can still be more than conquerors to him that loved us? That is made a way that we can overcome. I remind you what Jesus said to that first church. He said the gates of hell prevail against his church. Can I just say that Satan cannot stop what Jesus has set in motion? The only thing that limits what God does in the local church is our own unbelief and disobedience. We need to stop blaming the devil. We need to stop blaming absentee members. We need to stop blaming culture. And we need to say, if things aren't like they ought to be, it's not my brother or my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. And so the local church, it's Christ Church. It's a church that he has much more for. And I'd never be honest with you until this week, I never paid any attention to this. If I had time, I'd read through both chapters with you and show what I'm talking about. He showed them all great things and promised them all great things. But I'd never noticed till this week that he saved his most precious promise for the last church. His most precious promise, the church of Laodicea. You know how many sermons I've heard through the year on the church of Laodicea and the Laodicean age? And by the way, we all repent and we need to get it right with God, but right in the middle of this passage, do you understand that Jesus just promised the brightest promise he gave in the darkest moment of church history? To show you what I mean, back up. Look at verse number 20. Behold, I stand at the doorknob, If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. Would you like to know what the greatest promise of all this? Would you like to know the greatest reward of all this? The presence of Christ. Look, I'm glad to be here today. I'm with him. You all have already made me feel at home, and I'm so glad all of you are here today. But can I tell you what we really need? We need Jesus to be amongst us. You wanna know how to have a good day? Live consciously in the presence of Jesus. It's the presence of Christ promised to this church, and this is so good. Look it, it gets even better. In verse 20, he said, I'll come be with you. In verse 21, he ended up overcoming, but I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and I'm sitting there on my father's throne. He says, not only will I come be with you now, then I'll take you to be with me then. You know, you can't be following Jesus. He lives in you now and you get to live with him for all eternity. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and thank God for the end. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see who he gave that promise to? The last church. The things that need to be convicted and corrected and confessed and consecrated, you better believe it. But I got to tell you, I'm hopeful, I'm very hopeful. Look, I'm not trapped under my health. People that say they don't believe we can still have revival, I don't believe that. I'm here today because I believe that even in an apathetic, anemic age, we can still know the power of the living Christ among us at this time. And so, what's great about a local church? Jesus. Jesus, you've got a beautiful building here. But if this church wasn't here, you could still have a great church. Do you know why? Because the greatness of a church is not measured by the building or the budgets of the baptisms. It's not measured by how many missionaries you support or how many programs you offer. It is measured by its likeness to Jesus Christ. A great church is a church that is big on lifting up the Lord Jesus. And so, number one, the last church, we see the local church. Notice the second one, verse number 22. Not only do you have the last church, you have the Holy Spirit. I love that. You see, the church age is the age of the Spirit. There's synonyms. What makes the church age the church age? The fact that the Holy Spirit has come to indwell every believer and someday the Holy Spirit's gonna be, the restrainer's gonna be removed and that's when we're called away, we're taken out of here when he is taken out of here. So the age of the Spirit and the age of the church are synonymous. May I say to you, the church would have no power at all apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. And I come into meetings like this, I'm deeply conscious of something and it is this, that I cannot affect any change. I cannot save a soul. I cannot reclaim a backslider. I cannot restore marriage. I cannot melt a hard heart. I cannot meet the deep needs of your soul. I cannot answer your questions. I can't do any of that. And for the record, neither can your pastor. Watch this, only the Holy Spirit of God can do that. May I ask you, look at it carefully. We know Jesus is the one speaking to them, but Jesus says, the Holy Spirit wants to talk to you. Isn't that fascinating? The Father sends his Son, and what is his name? The Word made flesh and dwelt among us. So God the Father says, here's my beloved Son, hear him. Then when Jesus comes, Jesus tells us truth, and then Jesus says, there's coming one after me, and he's gonna tell you more truth. When he gets here, listen to him like you've been listening to me. Let me ask you a question. If Jesus walked in this auditorium today, Walk to the platform. He wouldn't have to, he wouldn't have to open the book. He is the book. You see, he, he is the word. But he then speaking, how many of you would pay attention? I'm just curious. How many of you pay attention? You know, we do instead of sitting, talking to one another, we'd be all ears. We'd fight for the front seats. Right? We get as close as we could. We take really good notes because Jesus is talking today. Jesus is preaching today. Do you understand that the Holy Spirit of God is another sit along just like the Lord Jesus to give us God's great truth? So why should we give any less attention to the Holy Spirit than we would to the Lord Jesus? The Holy Spirit is a real person. I'm not trying to be spooky or mystical, but I'm telling you, the Spirit of God is here today, and at this moment, the Holy Spirit of God is speaking. Some of us, I don't hear anything. Let me just point something out. And look how practical the Word of God is. Every one of the letters to the churches starts this way. Back up to verse number 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write. Two things, look at it carefully. He speaks through the Word, and he speaks by his message. Let's take a survey. How many of you would like to hear from God today? Come on, raise your hand, please. You'd like to hear from God today? All right, the only way we can hear from God, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The only way you can hear God and His Spirit is through His written revelation. George Whitefield said, God wrote a book. He condescended to become an author, and most people will never even read the book He wrote. It's pretty convicting, isn't he? Somebody said, I don't hear God speak. Read the Bible. Well, no, I don't hear God speak out loud. Didn't read that loud. This is God's message to us. And it's amazing. But the Holy Spirit has a way of taking the written word and opening it in hearts and lives in church. Powerful. Early this morning, very early this morning. I was reading the scripture, not for you. I knew what I was going to preach on today. Worked on that yesterday, but I was reading this morning for me. You know why I was reading for me? Because I need the word from God. Because who cares that I have a sermon to give you today if the Lord's not ministered to my own heart? Look, I'm the most desperate sinner in the room. I'm the most needy person among us in the meeting today. I'm telling you, I need to hear from God. How do you get that? Do you go into some trance? Do you wait for a vision in the middle of the night? Do you hope for some euphoric, ecstatic experience and a peedle up your spine, a lightning bolt from heaven? Is that the way it works? No. God speaks through his word. And by the way, notice so carefully, he says under the angel of the church who lay the things out, did you know each one of these churches had an angel? Some of you are saying, yeah, that's me, that's who I am. Now this is interesting, but the word angel here is just similar to the word messenger, the messenger of the church. What is this? This is the shepherd, this is the pastor, this is the minister of the church. Look right back yonder. Everybody look right back yonder. There's the angel of this church right there. That's the angel. And his wife's saying, not on your life, but that's the angel of this church. What does that mean? It means, watch this carefully, that he doesn't speak of his own mind. He's simply telling you God's mind. And he doesn't speak on his own authority. The only authority he has is the authority given to him by Almighty God. That's why it's a very sober, serious thing to be one of the Lord's messengers. Look, I enjoy preaching, I love preaching, but I tribulate it too, because I'm going to meet God for everything I say to you, and I don't want to tell you what I think, I want to tell you what God says. Because that's when the Holy Spirit's... I was preaching in a place the other day, at the end of the meeting, somebody came out and they said to me, God spoke to me then. Use those words, God spoke to me then. You know what I tell you? It was the kindest compliment I ever received. I don't care, I hate to say this, I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't really care what you think about my outline, don't really care what you think about even the style or the tone, that's not the thing. What I'm concerned about is this, are we hearing from God today? And how do we hear from God? We hear from God through the word and by the messenger faithfully giving us the truth of Holy Scripture. And so look at our verse, Revelation 3, verse 22. You got to go to a local church, and then you've got the Holy Spirit. By the way, we need what he says to all the churches, but we got to let him get personal with us. I don't know this church. I'm looking around here. I don't know this church. Looks like a great church, but I don't know this church. But I know one thing, because I know it every week, everywhere I go, anywhere in the world, it is this. Jesus has something he wants to say to this church this week. You ready for it? We'll find out. Oh yeah, we will find out. You know how we'll find out? Here's the third person, look at verse 22. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Would you write it down? In the last church, you've got number one, the local church, number two, the Holy Spirit, and number three, the discerning believer. Do you understand that in the crowd there are individuals? Preachers preach to audiences of people. I'm speaking right now to the group. It's my assignment to that. I enjoy talking to individuals. God put me yesterday through a little series of events and change seats and all that next to a Jewish woman, kind woman. She, she didn't know the Lord, didn't know Messiah. fairly secular woman, but interested. And by the time it was done, we'd had quite a conversation about Christ and didn't see make my life. I love that. I enjoy that as much as I enjoy preaching to a group of people, sometimes more. I love that phenomenon. But here's what I know. Even when the preacher, the messenger is preaching collectively to the local church, the Holy Ghost of God, like errors from heaven, is speaking to the hearts of individuals. Don't miss the most obvious thing. Kids, excuse me, young people were using a dirty word in church, but look at the grammar of the verse just for a minute. Would you please look at verse 22? He speaks of the church is plural. That's collective. That's the group, right? But did you notice the singular he? Do you understand that in this crowd? See, some of you think you're lost in the crowd and nobody really knows you. I got a thing I need to tell you. Jesus has got his eye on you right now. He actually knows you better than you know you. He knows the deep needs in this room. He's speaking to the specific needs in every life. To me, one of the miracles of preaching, one of the miracles of meetings like this is you stand up, you preach what God tells you to preach from the Bible, and you trust the Holy Spirit to do what only the Holy Spirit of God can do, and then God takes that message and applies it a hundred different ways. I mean, look, I've had meetings where I preached on on sin and the life of a believer and had people come forward and say, I need to be born again. And I've had meetings where I preached on the church or the family and somebody came forward and said, I need to get baptized. Excuse me, we didn't talk about that tonight. Oh, but the Holy Spirit did. That's amazing. It's the miracle of the word and the work of the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit of God at this moment is connecting God's truth to your life. The issue is not, is God speaking? The issue is, are we listening? Look at the word here. He that hath an ear, let him hear. My dad said when I was a boy, he said, son, God gave you two ears and one mouth so you'd listen twice as much as you talk. I don't think that's exactly right, but it was a great principle. But did you know what Jesus just said seven times to the seven churches in Asia Minor he had already said during his earthly ministry? Remember the parable of the sower and the seed, the soils? That in that same context, he said the exact same thing. He that hath an ear, let him hear. Do you know why that is? Because the struggle in every age is this. Who's going to listen to God? Who's going to listen to God? You know, Pastor, I think sometimes in churches, we ought to just stop and have a little talk about even how to listen to preaching. If you remember, years ago, Pastor Sexton had a little lecture he gave on how to listen to a sermon. I've thought about that a lot, especially in hundreds of churches now, because honestly, I go in churches, and it's really interesting to observe. You don't even see a lot from the platform. I mean, for reals. And I see things. And I see people and some of them they just come in locked down in the same little seat and cross their arms and look at you and glare at you kind of like, go ahead, big boy, tell me something I've never heard before. And then some people come in, they're staring at the floor. And some people, you know, they're just kind of all over the place. They're there, but they're not there. How many of you know you can be present and not be present? Sure you can. Do you know what he's talking about here? He's talking about people who are sincere enough and spiritual enough to say, I'm going to plug in here because I don't want to miss anything God has to say to me. I want everything that God has for me. Can I just ask you something? How loud is God going to have to talk to you to get your attention? I was praying at this this morning in my own life, and I thanked Jesus for something. I thanked the Lord for speaking tenderly to me. Because I get a thick skull sometimes. I get stubborn. Any of you ever get stubborn? And sometimes God's got to knock you in the head and get your attention. But I'm thinking about the times in my life when I deserved much more, but the Lord said, no, I'm just going to do just enough to get His attention. I wonder, is God trying to get your attention right now? Is God speaking in that still, small voice by His Spirit through the Word, through the mouthpiece? Look, I might be the voice this week, but He's the Word. Forget what I sound like. What is God saying to you? It has to get personal. And it has to get specific. And that's why Jesus closes the old church age with this invite. Would you like to the invitation of the church? If you're going to, are you listening? Are you listening? Are you listening? Are you listening? If you're really interested, then pay attention and hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you right where you are. There's attentiveness in this. I'm listening. There is. I think an openness to this. I'm sitting on ready for God to speak. There is a responsiveness to this. I'm not just wanting to hear in. I'm willing to obey. Look, if you're not willing to do what God tells you to do, don't expect to hear from God this week. Matter of fact, let's just pack up and go home now. Because I'm wasting my breath and you're wasting your time if we're not serious enough to say to the Lord, speak Lord for thy servant heareth and then we act on whatever it is that God tells us to do. I'm happy to see these teenagers here this morning. I'm in a lot of youth camps, youth conferences and for seven years I directed a camp. And God led me to something and I still do it in the camps where I'm at. My favorite invitation is Monday night. Now that's backwards from what some people think. Everybody thinking it all builds. The last night, that's the breakthrough. Matter of fact, I went to a large camp not long ago to preach, and they said to me first night, now you don't have to give an imitation on the first night. First night, we was trying to get acquainted with people, and I said, with all due respect, first night, I'm gonna hit them right between the eyes. They said, what do you mean? I said, the longer we wait to respond to God, the better chance is we're probably not going to. And the earlier we say, all right, Lord, we're all in, we're all yours, the more we're going to hear from God this week. So, so Monday night is my favorite night because on Monday night I ask everybody in the camp to make one decision, one decision. They may make others, but one decision. On Monday night it is this, Lord, whatever you speak to me about this week, the answer is yes. You know what I've learned? That's really the big decision. Because if you can make that decision, it helps you with all the rest of the decision. If we can just get wide open to God, ready, willing, open, God will speak. You hear the beautiful music in this room right now? Beautiful. Somebody said, his hearing's messed up. He didn't get enough sleep last night or something. Oh no, it's here. Matter of fact, bring me a radio and let me start to tune the dial and somebody would say, I know that's all. We were listening to that station on the way in this morning. I recognize that voice. Please don't miss this. The music was already here. It was here all along, but something had to get on the same frequency to receive what was already there. I am convinced that the God of truth is still speaking. And I think what he's looking for are some people in churches who will just have an ear and be willing to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to them. If this Bible message has been used of God in your life or we can pray for you in some definite way, please contact us at enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible messages, please visit Dr. Scott Paul's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is the Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful to attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday. Thank you for listening to The Weekend Pulpit. 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