 Malachi chapter 1 verse 1 I read to verse 5 and we'll get into our study the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi I have loved you says the Lord yet you say in what way have you loved us was not he saw Jacob's brother says the Lord yet Jacob I have loved but he saw I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness even though Edom has said we have been impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places thus says the Lord of hosts they may build but I will throw down they shall be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever your eyes shall see and you shall say the Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel and so you can see this is going to be a very cherry book as we go through it but it's so deep it's so rich and you're going to see some very practical things as we go through this book let's begin with the introduction Malachi Malachi is the last of the succession of prophets who foretold the coming of Messiah nothing is known of his personal history because his lineage as well as his birthplace are not recorded here in the book of Malachi but we know that Malachi was written in the late 5th century somewhere around 432 to 425 BC Malachi was a contemporary of another man you know in Scripture by the name of Nehemiah and Nehemiah governed Jerusalem during that day Nehemiah governed Jerusalem from around 444 to 425 so they were contemporaries and so as we look at Malachi the setting that we are going to be introduced to here is that the Jews had been taken captive by the nation of Babylon after three successive campaigns there's a king that you read about in Scripture he's found in 2 Kings chapters 24 and 25 for example a king by the name of Nebuchadnezzar he was a king of Babylon and he had invaded Judah in southern Israel and had taken captives in the years 605 597 and 586 BC three successive over the years invasions and the children of Israel spent some 70 years in captivity but after 70 years of captivity God had allowed them to return to Israel because when he allowed them to return to Israel God was keeping his promise to the nation you see in the book of Jeremiah another Old Testament prophet in chapter 25 verse 11 he had said this whole country will become desolate wasteland these nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years but he went on in Jeremiah 2910 and said this is what the Lord says when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place so the children of Israel spent 70 years in Babylon in captivity but God had made a promise to them and he said that he would after 70 years allow them to return to their land now when you look in the Old Testament book of Ezra and you look in verses chapter verses 64 through 67 in chapter 2 some 50,000 exiles returned to Judah from Babylon and they began to return from 538 to 536 BC the temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt under a man by the name of Zerubbabel in 516 and the sacrificial system had been renewed Ezra the priest returned in 458 and was followed by a man named Nehemiah in 445 so in less than a century the priests and the people had become extremely corrupt their ritualistic religious practices had produced a callous hard-hearted approach to God so it would seem obvious that the priests had tired of serving God corruption entered the system of worship and you're going to see this very clearly in the book of Malachi you see that's where Malachi enters in Malachi is a prophet as the prophet of God he's been given a message I want you to see that the message that he has is one of rebuke and repentance and a call to return to the Lord that's what we're going to see in Malachi for most of this book and for the most part his message when you look at it is one of rebuke because Israel is in sin the nation is in sin and Israel sin has to be dealt with now when you read the Old Testament you study the Old Testament people who spend most of their time in the new may not see the balance that you find in in God's word because there are clear warnings as well as clear encouragements that you find in Scripture sometimes you'll see God giving a very strong word of rebuke and other times you'll see God bringing a word of healing it's the same God doing the same kind of work but he's bringing people to where he wants them to be when you look at Malachi you're going to discover that God is bringing a strong word of rebuke to a nation that has turned it back on God in the New Testament the Apostle Paul made it very clear that there would be a time when when when people would be turning the back on God and thus he was telling the minister of the gospel to make sure that he brings a word of correction when necessary if you take notes 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 when Paul was writing to a young pastor named Timothy Paul said this he said in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom I give you this charge preach the word be prepared in season and out of season correct rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction and so the Old Testament in this book you will see correction you're going to see rebuke but you also see that in the new because we can be guilty of the same kinds of things you see the times that Malachi is living in calls for drastic measures and it calls for a very strong message I think that the days that we're living in are very tough times too and I really do believe that sometimes the message has to be much more clear than sometimes it is and so that's one of the reasons why I wanted to go into Malachi to remind us of what God would want of us you see in Malachi the problem that is occurring is the people are being led by ungodly and compromising priests you're going to see this as we go through Malachi these ungodly compromising priests are making worthless offerings to God this this poor leadership spiritual leadership is is leading people to divorce their wives to marry Gentile or heathen wives it causes them to live in a false sense of security because they believe themselves to be pleasing to God in essence this book is really an appeal from God to backsliders it's intended to call the people back to God and to the joy that comes from serving God in truth in Jeremiah another Old Testament prophet Jeremiah in chapter 17 verse 5 we read thus says the Lord cursed it is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength whose heart departs from the Lord and so people were departing from the Lord and they were doing so through the the compromise of the priests of that day see the bible in John 424 says God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth and so that's the call that we're going to be seen in Malachi this book is the last of the books that make up the Old Testament it's the last book because the people do not respond to the message Malachi brought to them you see they're so dull to sin that they refuse to see themselves for what they really are and sin makes you call us in that way when when people get caught up in sin it makes them blind to who they really are it makes you blind to the things that you're really doing speak to some people who are addicted and many times they'll tell you there's nothing wrong i can stop anytime i want as a matter of fact i've stopped a hundred times i can stop whenever i want to they don't see themselves for what they are they don't see what sin is doing to them they they think they're just fine and and and sometimes there are even those who profess to know Jesus Christ to who who excuse their sin by trying to cover it up by using Christian terminology like you know god loves me the way i am and and and the grace of god and we use terminology that really shows that we don't understand what salvation is we don't understand what grace really is we don't understand what sin really is we simply excuse ourselves and sometimes we can go to a place that allows us to remain exactly in that sin without a word ever being said to us that would cause us to be convicted this is the old the last book of the old testament and the people are dull to sin and they refuse to see themselves malachar will tell us in chapter 2 verse 17 you have wearied the lord with your words how have we wearied him you ask by saying all who do evil are good in the eyes of the lord and he is pleased with them or where is the god of justice there are people today and you and i know this and this is not a harsh judgment or condemnation on people it's just an observation and it's a fact that you perhaps know who excuse their sin every day excuse it all the time it's the same kind of mentality when they are saying all who do evil are good in the eyes of the lord they're basically saying it's okay god's good with this they're basically saying things aren't really that bad again we have this condition today you know i i do speak with people who claim to love the lord but they think just like that they minimize the reality of sin and what it produces and they emphasize their liberties and the grace of god and that's what is happening in israel they're ignoring god's declared will and the second thing is they've come to believe that god is satisfied with external religion with ritual observation but god is never satisfied with religious behavior but some people think he is and so on occasion they may give and on occasion they may pray and they will attend church services you know in Easter and Christmas and things like that they'll go to funerals and make sure it's in a church if they get married they get married in a church they're they're believing that that this external expression of some kind of faith is something that god is satisfied with but in both the old and the new testament god reveals that that never does please him that's why in Jeremiah again chapter four verse four we read circumcise yourselves to the lord circumcise your hearts you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done burn with no one to quench it it's not the external circumcision it's the circumcision of the heart that god is calling for not the external religiosity or the behaviors that sometimes people may find themselves practicing thinking and assuming that god wants them to go to a bible city or to go to a church service or to do certain things you know when Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23 28 he was speaking to the Pharisees and he said to them you also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness you look good on the outside but on the inside you know a lot of times it's what you can see on the outside i on one on one sunday morning i still remember doing this i came walking out and i was sharing and i was trying to illustrate how we can hide things from people they they don't see it they don't even know it why would they it's it's covered up and i said if you look at me right now i said you know you'll see i was wearing a sweater and you see my collar i said but let me tell you something i didn't iron my shirt my shirt was all wrinkled up but you couldn't see it because what you saw was the outer and that's how it is you can have a nice outer appearance people can think oh he's just but no no in reality i was all wrinkled you know because i i didn't take in time to iron i didn't have to all i needed to do is make sure the collar looked like it was okay and that's how people are isn't it that's how we've been i've been that way i look good on the outside i could act good on the outside and i know that you know that when i was a young man prior to getting married and and meeting my girlfriend and rie who became my wife and all uh when i would go and i would meet young girls dads and moms you know because there was a time when you actually went to the house to meet the parents you know that doesn't necessarily happen now you meet at the mall or whatever but but at that time what we did is we actually met the parents we had to come i had to introduce myself to the dad and they would ask me all kinds of questions and i have to tell you i could answer exactly what i thought he wanted to hear i knew how to play like i was a good guy but i really wasn't i was the guy that he didn't want his daughter to go out with but i could act like a good guy i knew the right answers i knew how to smile i knew how to shake hands look firmly and shake their hands firmly look them in the eye speak to them that way i got over for years like that i used to charm my high school counselor mrs willett and i still remember she knew me real well i learned how to forge her name on different things i mean i yeah and i and i learned how to charm her i knew how to do that so many of you did too you knew how to get over it was the outer appearance you looked okay on the outside but on the inside you were corrupt i was corrupt i was not a good person but you're there in church and you're smiling and you're praying and you did all of those things and god says no external religion never is pleasing to me outwardly you can appear righteous but inside you're filled with hypocrisy you're filled with lawlessness your mouth says great swelling words to me but your heart is far from me and and god is opposed to that they don't have a fear of god the result is that they don't have spiritual discernment even when their deeds are pointed out they still can see no harm in what they're doing they refuse to hear what the lord is saying Jeremiah once again chapter 6 verses 16 and 17 thus says the lord stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it then you will find rest for your souls but they said we will not walk in it also i said watchman over you saying listen to the sound of the trumpet but they said we will not listen so when the word is coming and the warning is given you are refusing to listen and i said go to the old ways walk in the straight paths the way that your fathers did and i was able to bless them and you said we will not listen we will not harken to the warning Paul said that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own consciences seared with a hot iron 1st Timothy 4 1 and 2 and that's what's going on there are people who are refusing to acknowledge that they are not pleasing to god they've been in the land there was a return to the land god kept his promise but the evil priests had brought compromise into the nation and through their leadership the people did not have any discernment and the people were living lives that god was not pleased with and so he raises up a man by the name of malachi he raises up a man whom he wants to reach to and speak to these people that they might know what his will is for them he brought up a man named malachi the name malachi means my messenger and that's what malachi is he's a messenger of god to the people and that's what causes malachi to open his book with the words chapter 1 verse 1 the burden of the word of the lord to israel by malachi now the word burden when it starts out the burden of the word of the lord the word burden refers to a heavy sentence that is pronounced on the people through this prophet the this gives us understanding that his message is one of rebuke it's a burden it's a heavy sentence rather than an encouragement now he's burdened because the people have forsaken the right way preaching messages of rebuking correction are a product of a heart that is burdened but preaching such messages also produce a burden in the heart of the one preaching one of my very dear friends all of you know raul raul reese raul and i have been friends for a long time i've known raul since i was i think 27 years old i've known him for a long time i met him when we played against each other he played first base on his baseball team a softball team and i played second base on ours and that's how i met raul i mean got to know him that's how i was introduced to him he was the first baseman and we played uh calvary chapel west cabina beat him two out of three i might add but that's neither here nor there everybody who knows raul knows that raul has a burden i've known him a long time and i have watched the burden of raul increase over the years just this week on monday and then again on tuesday he's messaging me sharing things with me from his heart about his concerns for the church his concern and if you have a chance to hear him you go to his church some of you have been there grew up there maybe still still are members of his fellowship you know what i'm talking about i have found him weeping more now than i've ever seen him before he weeps with a burden because that's his heart and i respect that highly i i love him for it malachi had a burden and the burden that he has it causes one it causes a heaviness the message itself is heavy and there are people who don't want to hear heavy messages oh come on say good things say happy things make me feel good and then there are so many of that of that nature and you know i go to church so i can walk out with a with a spring in my step not a weight on my shoulder so you need to make me feel good about myself if you don't make me feel good about myself you're not a good preacher at all but is that what we're supposed to do all the time is that how it's supposed to always be so you go to the doctor the doctor says you have cancer and then tells you a joke i mean is that is that what we want because sometimes sometimes the weight of the message is is is going to be weighty on the people who hear it but sometimes it needs to be and it always is weighty on the heart of the one giving it i remember how raw wood was weeping in the back shaking his head saying i don't want to give this message i don't want to give this message and he had to go out and give a message that was going to cut to the heart and he didn't want to do that why because he and i and people like us we want people to know how much god loves them and there are times when when god's word goes out in such a way that it does cut and it cuts deeply and that's the burden it's a burden it's a burden in the heart of the preacher it's a burden that is placed on the people and they need to see that this is something that is very heavy you need to understand it it's a rebuke he says the burden of the word of the lord the word of the lord is a phrase used around 262 times 262 times in the bible and it often reminds the hearer that these are god's actual words and that these words being the word of the lord have authority Jeremiah 1 9 the lord i might as well have just taught you Jeremiah right Jeremiah 1 9 the lord put out his hand and touched my mouth the lord said to me behold i have put my words in your mouth it is jesus said it is spirit of my father who speaks in you when you when you give god's word there is an authority to the word of god that the body of christ in our day rejects even when the word is rightly divided and presented accurately you do have people wanting to argue who want to say oh no that's not what that means people who have never read the bible other than when they're told to open it during a bible study people who have never studied one hour of their life will want to argue with a preacher of 45 years ministry experience because it hits them in that way and that's what happens it's god's word and see the best way to know how it applies is when you simply obey it and if you want to know the depth of the ways of god it comes through obedience it comes through doing what god says and so god said i have put my words in your mouth and malachi is bringing the word of the lord to the people and that gives his word spiritual authority now what is it that god is saying i want you to notice this it began in verse one with the burden but two in verse two it says i have loved you so from the beginning god is saying as much as this may be painful to hear it needs to first come with this i i love you if in marriage i'll use an application like this if my wife just rebuked me but didn't love me i probably wouldn't listen to her why would i you're just being mean but i know my wife loves me i know she does why wouldn't she no i know she does and so when she rebukes me and indeed she does when she's got a word i listen to her why she loves me and she would not say something to harm me she wants me to be what god wants me to be i will listen to her it's not always easy over the years i've learned to do it better than when we first got married i do listen because if there's anything you know is when someone who loves you speaks a word of correction to you they're taking a chance with you and god's love begins he actually shows us his rebuke by first saying i want you to know how much i love you and i love you and i'm telling you the truth in deuteronomy chapter seven verses six through eight god was speaking to these people these people he loved and in deuteronomy seven verses six through eight he said to israel you are a holy people to the lord your god the lord your god has chosen you to be a people for himself a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth the lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people for you were the least of all peoples but because the lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers the lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of pharaoh king of egypt because the lord loves you if you want to mark anything in your heart tonight remember that god loves you remember that god so loves you the immensity of his love for you but in the love of god sometimes the correction comes to Jeremiah 31 3 says the lord has appeared of old to me i like Jeremiah have you noticed that the lord has appeared of old to me saying yes i have loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness i have drawn you i loved you with an everlasting love everlasting love a forever kind of love how do you put that into illustration some of us had relationships prior to when we got married to the one we're married to in love now and we said to that person we're dating i love you i love you love is an easy word to use this in it it can be it can be used in many ways it can be used as a as a seduction it can be used as a weapon it can be used in a variety of ways and when you're young and you're learning to date you may use that word sometimes to try and take advantage of somebody you know i love you you can use the word in a variety of ways and you may think that that person you're with is going to be a forever kind of love it is going to be a love that will will always be after all we're 14 years old now i have met people who at 14 fell in love and are married to this day but that is unusual we all admit that so you're 14 you're in love and you're really really in love and and i'll tell you something you don't care about but it's true in the first girl i ever said i love you too i was 14 and i didn't even say it in english what's that mean go ask somebody baby get a translator she wasn't hispanic yeah and that came after maybe three weeks and love with you baby and that happened more than once of course 16 18 20 i love you baby i love you baby then i got together with marie and that's different that isn't a just i love you now that's not it i i love you until next month it's a i love you forever and it's what we would call in our relationship a forever love well god has a never-lasting love it's a never-lasting love it never ever ends you can't even fathom what everlasting is i can't either i was trying to illustrate it on sunday and i said some of you perhaps were with us on sunday second service and i said everlasting how do you define that it's eternity how do you how do you define that something that never ends it's like a bird going to the beaches every beach on the face of the earth and with its beak taking one grain of sand and just moving it on every beach every grain of sand the face of the earth and when he finally gets all of the sand removed starting over again it doesn't ever stop eternity continues and god says i love you with a love that will never ever end so never think that he doesn't love you he loves you in a way that no human being could ever love you he loves you deeper and more passionately and with more purity and more goodness than any human being on the face of the earth could ever ever love you and with that love he brings correction because he has to sometimes i love you that way you see his love for israel motivates his rebuke and his love motivates correction braverbs 3 11 and 12 my son do not despise the chastening of the lord nor detest his correction for whom the lord loves he corrects just as a father the son in whom he delights in revelation 3 19 as many as i love i rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent so he rebukes them why because they've been acting in an unfaithful way they've been acting as an unfaithful wife and god is grieved that's a similar theme you find in the book of hosea in hosea chapter 1 verse 2 it says when the lord began to speak by hosea the lord said to hosea take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land is committed great harlotry by departing from the lord and so they have been acting as an unfaithful wife and god is bringing a rebuke and so he says i've loved you says the lord yet verse 2 continuing you say in what way have you loved us when god says i have loved you israel insolently responds in what way so they're doubting his love for them in this doubt when they ask that question in what way they're they're they're revealing a selfish heart as well as a demanding heart and and that reveals the root of their sin it's a blindness it's a blindness of the kindness and the love of god towards them they don't they don't value the great privilege of being chosen by god they don't value being loved by him they have arrogance they even question his goodness they question his faithfulness to them now his goodness has been evident all along he's worked with them as a nation he gave them great privileges and they're saying that how have you loved us that's amazing how have you loved us i've given you everything and if you'd asked for anything else i'd have given you more it's like when god spoke to to david through nathan the prophet and she were nothing you were just a kid in the sheepfold watching the sheep and i raced you up and i made you the king and if that weren't enough i'd have given you more and look what you did you took bashiva the wife of your your man your raya and look what you did look what you did how have you loved us how have you loved us there are people who do that to the lord even to this day when you say you know god so loved the world how has he loved me you don't know my life you don't know what i've gone through as if they've gone through worse things than anybody who's ever lived their life has been worse worse than joe's that there have been times people have approached me and they've said to me oh i understand what joe went through no you don't come on oh i understand no you don't you can't as a human being joe suffered more than anybody he lost everything he lost his family he lost his wealth he lost his reputation his wife turned on him he lost everything he had boils and swords that were so ugly that he he took broken pieces of pottery and would scrape his skin to remove the puss that was just causing his his his arms and body to swell with infection and you understand no you don't no you don't you know sometimes we say we understand when we don't it's like if a woman was speaking to me she was telling me you know i was going through some massive birth pangs and i said oh yeah i understand sure you do but some people do that oh yeah i understand what you don't no you don't and in this particular case guys god has been so good to the nation and they're even questioning that they had so many privileges when when when paul was speaking of the privileges israel had he said in romans nine verse four theirs is the adoption of sons theirs the divine glory the covenants the receiving of the law the temple worship the promises and from them even came messiah what advantages you see in every way god provided for them and yet they ask him what way have you loved us they are unthankful and they doubt his love yet god loves him in isaac 4915 can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb surely they may forget yet i will not forget you surely they may forget perhaps there's mama in this room who's forgotten what it was like to have your baby and when they nursed and all surely they may forget i can tell you my wife hasn't forgotten that i can tell you that in her memory holding those babies nursing those babies even birthing those babies is is uh engraved in her soul it's deep within her it's still to this day even though her babies are not babies anymore they have babies of their own except for joseph he's not in my will you don't forget and god said even though a woman may forget i haven't forgotten you i love you i love you with the deep and everlasting so what does he say well he he says uh was not isaac's brother says the lord yet jacob have i loved so god reminds israel how he chose jacob through what could be called an undeserved love paul was speaking about that in romans 9 13 through 16 where he writes as is written jacob i have loved but isa i have hated which shall we say then is there unrighteousness with god certainly not for he says to moses i will have mercy on whomever i will have mercy i will have compassion on whomever i will have compassion so then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but of god who shows mercy so when he says you say in what way have you loved us it was not isaac's brother says the lord yet jacob have i loved but isa i have hated laid wastes mountains his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness even though edom has said we have been impoverished but we will return and build the desolate places thus says the lord of host they may build but i will throw down they may be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the lord will have indignation forever he speaks of that and begins to speak concerning jacob and isa and and what was going on there now what's interesting is when he says jacob i have loved but isa i have hated the word hate is used in what is called a comparative sense it's intended to show a greater love by comparison and he's saying the love i have for one in comparison could be looking as as hate towards the other and he's simply saying i have a great love for jacob i loved him and i and i loved isa less than i love jacob now isa is revealed in scripture as a reprobate he was jacob's older brother he was an elder twin but when you read the story of jacob and isa jacob isa rather sold his birthright he sold his birthright for a bowl of soup and he gave up the blessing of the lord he went on to become the father of the edomites and the edomites in the old testament are a nation of idolaters and at this time the edomites were in a state of ruin so god is stating they will not rebuild their national glory and any attempt to do so will end in defeat the people will recognize that it's a nation judged by god and they're going to refer to it as the territory of wickedness but he goes on to say this in verse five your eyes shall see you shall say the lord is magnified beyond the border of israel when you see these proofs of god's love toward you you will stop rejecting him you will begin to praise him and you will praise him because of his love that he has towards you so here's a practical application i'll read that again your eyes shall see you shall say the lord is magnified beyond the border of israel god's love should result in an open sharing of his love that he has for you and others it should result in an open sharing of his love with other people i've had people in the past ask how can i learn to give away my faith here in our fellowship some of you know we have we have ministry that helps you to learn scriptures that are useful in communicating your faith we have groups of people in this church who go out throughout the city and other cities taking the gospel of jesus christ and sharing it that's part of our ministry here just on Easter we have some men from our church who are part of our our prison ministry and they went up to Corcoran to the prison in Corcoran and while they were in Corcoran on Easter Sunday they went into the prison to share an Easter service with the the incarcerated men and 18 of those men in incarceration in prison gave their hearts to jesus christ and so you you go out and you take the message see that's the whole thing see when you when you look in in the book of acts especially chapter two verses 42 through 47 you see in the book of acts chapter two 42 through 47 what are called the marks of the church or the marks of the early church or it was the things the ingredients in the early church that made it what it is and they remain steadfast in the apostles doctrine and and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers and god began to perform miracles through them and he added to the church such as we're being saved and when you begin to look at the marks of the early church you might find this interest and you'll note that the church gathered like we are right now for equipping because according to Ephesians chapter four verses 11 through 13 that that god has given some to be apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and so when we gather together in bible studies like this it's intended to equip the saints for the work of ministry to serve god that's what it's all about and so this isn't a holy huddle where we simply gather together and praise each other for being better than those outside of the doors what this is is is is sinners who are saved by the grace of god who are coming to understand god loves me god i keep saying this in in so many services because to me that is an exceptionally important thing for the church to understand and many don't god loves you god loves you i wish you could understand it i wish i could too i'm not better than you by the way the way that sounded maybe i thought oh i pity you no i want i want to live in the love of god i want to i want to i love him because he first loved me and what has motivated my ministry what has motivated me as a believer from when that message first was communicated in a way that i finally saw that it's true changed my life changed my life radically radically doesn't mean doesn't mean that i didn't go through the process and i'm still going through the process of of dying to self of of learning to turn over besetting sins my besetting sin was alcohol and it took the lord a few years for me to completely be free of it no i didn't drink every day like i used to on occasion i would for the first few years of my walk with god maybe i'd drink some beers and then a year and a half later i'd drink some more i i i would do that and then finally finally it started donning on me this isn't pleasing to the lord and certainly isn't producing good fruit in my life and i don't need this and and i don't remember anymore it's been a long long time since i've had any alcohol of any sort because i was set free but what was it was it because i i i sat down and i said oh i'm just i'm good i know it was god's love in waves started just pouring into my heart and i started realizing how deeply he loves me and it made me respond in love towards him my wife's love as a human being as a man set me free and i've had in i'm going to be honest with you here in a way that maybe i'm not all the time maybe it's too personal even but over the years in this ministry i've had more than one woman who's wanted to take me away from my wife you'd be surprised you could be as ugly as a toad and they still like you so it's no compliment it certainly doesn't go to your head but you'd be surprised you would be surprised that the things have been said to me there's not a chance why is i'm in love and i'm loved and that love that that woman has for me you have got to be kidding there's nobody can match that gal why would i give her up for a fling with somebody who doesn't love me really that woman loves me i feel that way of my lord i'm faithful to him because he's faithful to me he loves me i'm telling you god loves you and when he loves you you tell other people because he doesn't just love you he loves the world and he demonstrated that through jesus christ and so he says your eyes shall see you shall say the lord is magnified beyond the border of israel we share we share and you share because you can't help but do so and in acts chapter four verses 18 through 20 the apostles had done a great work in the name of Jesus a man who had been crippled had been healed and and he had begun to walk and he had begun to leap and he began to praise god and and they saw what took place and they tried to make the apostles not speak concerning this anymore and not to speak concerning Jesus and and they were given them commands to to remain silent but according to acts four 18 through 20 they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of jesus but peter and john answered and said to them whether it is right in the sight of god to listen to you more than to god you judge for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard we have to you know we have to and and you're telling us not to oh the lord i speak about the lord freely not because i'm brave but because it's true and because he loves the world and he should be magnified and he can he can work in people's lives and he can set captives free and and he can cause people who are filled with hatred to to know what love is and people who are filled with anger to know what peace is and people who are depressed to know what joy is people with no hope to know what to know what hope is i mean Jesus said i go to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i'll come again receive you unto myself that where i am there you may be also that ought to cause me to rejoice to be aware of the fact that he has gone to prepare a place for me and i'm going to be with him forever and that causes me to want to tell other people about jesus christ because it's not just for me it's for all who would come to him may his name be magnified beyond the borders