Open Our Eyes

How many of you had a happy Christmas? A good Christmas? It’s good to be back. We had such a wonderful time at our Christmas Eve service, if you were able to join us. I’m always so moved by that service in particular, because it is a time where literally all we do is read Scripture. That’s it. It’s Scripture and singing, right? And how powerful and moving that is. I can’t tell you how many people that haven’t been to church in years or decades, or even in their life, came up and said it was so moving just to hear the story. But how many of you know it is more than a story? Amen. It’s the power of God revealed to us that we are celebrating. And so that was just an awesome time.

I’m reminded of when Paul said, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God.” And I just want us to be reminded and encouraged by that. Sometimes it’s very tempting for us to try to perform, or be performative, or try to convince people of things. But how many of you know we can’t change people’s hearts? That’s really the Lord’s job. Amen. And He said, “I’ll draw all people to Myself.” And so what is our job? Our job is just to deliver the good news just as He has said it.

And I want us to talk a little bit about that today. We’re going to talk about God’s Word specifically. What is God’s Word, and what does that mean for us? I think sometimes we’re like, “Well, I have to make it relevant. I have to convince people.” And it becomes very performative, rather than this faith process where, when we speak the word of God, it is powerful. It is alive and it is active.

The greatest resolution

Now, before we do — we’re going into the new year, ready or not. How many of you have actually considered some of your goals or New Year’s resolutions? Anybody else do some of those things? Anybody? Okay. So I’ve been considering what some of the things are that I need to refocus on. It’s a good time to refocus, to spend this next week evaluating the last year. What was good? Where did I do well? And maybe where didn’t I do so well?

And I want to bring to us what I believe is the single greatest resolution that we can make, and that is to be people who are in God’s Word every day. And I really want to talk about what that means. What is God’s Word? What does it mean to come to His Word? And how can we receive from the Lord?

So if you have your Bibles, I’m going to invite you to turn with me to two places. And I would encourage you to bring your Bibles with you. We have the scriptures on screen, but the reason we want to bring our Bibles is — did you know it’s good to write in your Bible, to take notes, and to write down things that God’s speaking to you? Did you know you can do that? People are like, “That’s God’s Word. You can’t write on that.” But how many of you know this is His Word for you? Amen. And so what is He speaking? Write those things down. It’s good to mark up Scripture. It’s good to be in your Word.

And I just like to think about it this way: His Word is life, right? When we’re opening it, it is like the breaking of fresh bread. His Word is food to us. It’s food to your soul. It’s food to your spirit. And so I don’t know about you, but I like to break it open together.

All right, so if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Psalm 119 and 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Psalm 119. Now, if you don’t have your Bibles, don’t feel too bad. We are going to have these up on screen as well. And if you are a Bible app fan, you can follow along on the app.

Open my eyes

Psalm 119, and I’m going to read starting at verse 18. This is the psalmist crying out to the Lord. He says, “Open my eyes” — everybody say, “Open my eyes” — “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”

I think that’s a wonderful prayer. I think that’s something that is good for us to ask of the Lord, especially as we consider going into this new year. “Lord, would You open my eyes?” You know, it’s very difficult to go through life and not have a clear understanding of the situation you’re in or the things that are happening around you, because you’re always reactive. You know what I mean? You’re always responding in the moment. But when you can see clearly —

Something that I do occasionally is go hunting. And you’ll be in the middle of the woods, and you can hardly see past the trees in front of you, right? It’s thick, and there are trees everywhere, and you can’t see too far out. So what do you do? Sometimes I’ll go up to higher ground, and I can see the layout of the land. It’s a lot easier to know where you’re going when you can get a better perspective. And there’s no better perspective than the truth of God’s Word.

And here’s the psalmist crying out to the Lord. He says, “Lord, would You open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law?” That word “law” is referring to Scripture. It’s referring to the Bible. And so I want to talk today about “open our eyes.” That that would be our prayer.

In fact, can we pray right now? Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your Word. Lord, we thank You that it is life, that it is alive, that it’s Your very breath. And so Lord, we ask that You would speak to us today by Your Spirit. That we would receive from You, that we would hear You and be changed by You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So we’re talking about “open our eyes.” And we’re not just talking about reading the Bible. We’re talking about being able to see clearly because we are in His Word. I think sometimes when we talk about reading our Bibles every day — kind of like we heard earlier about our giving — our relationship with the Lord can become transactional. We’ll treat it as an obligation, or, “Well, as long as I’m a good Christian, then God will bless my life.” But if you’ve received Jesus — and my prayer is that we’ve all received Jesus and what He’s done for us — if you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, how many of you know He’s already as pleased with you as He could ever be? And so everything that we do is a response to the goodness that He’s already shown. And so when we come into His Word, it really is an opportunity for us to receive His Word to us.

Not an ordinary book

Maybe we look at this and we’re like, “Well, this was written thousands of years ago. How is this even relevant?” But how many of you know God is eternal? Scripture says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if this really is God’s Word, if this is from the Lord Himself, then we must know that this is an unchanging truth that we are talking about here.

And so we must have our eyes opened. How many of you know that in order for you to understand Scripture properly, your eyes must be opened? If we merely approach Scripture with our mind or our intellect, trying to understand it with our mind, we’re not going to fully understand God’s intent or His heart. We must have it revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

I don’t know about you, but maybe you’ve read your Bible before, and maybe there’s a scripture you have read time and time again — maybe a hundred times — but there will be a situation, a moment, where you open your heart to the Lord and you read that same scripture, and it hits differently. Anybody been there before? How many of you know that’s the Lord speaking? And He knows how to shape it and get it right to where you are in your specific situation.

And so I want you to know that we’re talking about God’s Word. This is not just an ordinary book. It’s not just a book of wisdom. It’s not just a bunch of things we can learn from and consider. Look at 2 Timothy 3:16, and let’s see what Scripture really is about. It says, “All Scripture” — everybody say “all Scripture” — “is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete” — everybody say “complete” — “thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

In other words, when you invite the Word into your life, there is nothing that is missing. You may have a situation you’re going through, and you’re like, “Well, I just don’t see how God could be the answer to the problem that I’m facing.” Listen, I promise you, the answer is in the Word, because it is complete. There is nothing lacking. There is nothing missing, so that you can be thoroughly equipped.

The English Standard Version says it this way in verse 16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” And so when we’re talking about Scripture, when we’re talking about the Bible, it’s not just a book of wisdom. These are actually God’s very words. And when you hear from God, how many of you know it just hits differently? You can hear it from a pulpit. You can hear it in church. But when you open your Word and you recognize, “I think God’s speaking to me. This is for me right now” — how many of you know that’s where the transformation happens? That’s when the rubber really meets the road.

It’s one thing for another person to tell you how it is. It’s another thing for the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you, and all of a sudden — aha — I own this. It’s a part of me. It’s a part of my life. You guys know what I’m talking about. So we’re not just talking about reading our Bible and doing our daily checklist. No, we are talking about Holy Spirit encounters. And how many of you know that’s available every time you get into God’s Word? Amen.

Listen to 2 Peter 1:20. It says, “Knowing this first” — everybody say “first.” Peter’s saying this is one of the most important things you could understand, one of the most important things you could know. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture” — so we’re talking about the Bible — “is of any private interpretation.” Other translations will say “origin.” So it’s not of any private origin. “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

So I want you just to consider this. The various authors of the Bible — there are about 40 total authors in the Scriptures — wrote these various parts over the span of about 1,500 years. They were in different cultures. They were in different geographical locations. They had different circumstances, different backgrounds. And they all wrote in a way that perfectly agrees, that there is no contradiction, that there are no mistakes.

And people will say, “Oh, there are contradictions all over the Bible.” I’ve heard them all. Listen, if we are only going to cherry-pick certain scriptures and say that they are contradictory, that would be the same thing as taking a speech from someone, splicing it up, and making it say something. It’s a very sloppy way to interpret Scripture. It is perfectly in agreement, 100%. There is no error. And here’s why: because Scripture does not come from the will of man. It came from the Holy Spirit. It comes from the Lord Himself. And while these authors would write, the Holy Spirit would move them so that they wouldn’t just write their thoughts, they would write God’s thoughts.

Now, you can read the scriptures and see personality within the writings. You can see different styles, different circumstances. There’s a shaping that the writing would take. But behind it all was the breath, the move of the Holy Spirit, to bring about the holy word of God.

People often ask, “Well, how did the Bible actually even come about?” Well, first of all, the Holy Spirit breathed on man. The Holy Spirit moved people to write the word of God. But how many of you know there were also a lot of good books, a lot of good letters written at the time, that are not actually included in Scripture? The ones that are in the Bible are the ones where God was able to speak completely, where every word was breathed by Him. And so Peter is saying, “You have to know this first. This is not just a good book.” No, every part comes from Him.

That’s why Jesus could literally say all Scripture speaks of Him. Everything about it, in its fullness, in its entirety. And you’re like, “Even the genealogies?” Yes, even the genealogies. It was validating: this is the Messiah. This is Jesus. This is our need. Everything speaks of Jesus.

And so when we read the Bible, do we want to know the context? Yes. Should we know the situations? Yes, because at times that can help us understand what the intent was and why certain things are in the Bible the way that they’re written. But Peter’s saying, listen, there are things in Scripture that the authors didn’t even fully understand when they were writing.

Let me tell you what I mean. God is eternal. And He knew that you would wake up on a specific day and open the Word, and as you read — not only was He writing to that original audience long ago, He knew exactly the situation you would be in. He knew exactly the circumstance. He knew exactly what you would be going through — your questions, your doubts, your fears. And yet when you open the Scripture, you’re like, “This is for me.” How many of you know that’s how good God is? Amen.

The greatest teacher

And so Peter’s saying there are things that even the authors didn’t fully understand when they wrote them. So we have to have our eyes opened. Why? So that we can see. Maybe you’re like, “I’ve read the Bible before, but it just doesn’t make sense.” Listen, you aren’t alone. Not only are there other people who understand what I’m saying, but Jesus literally said, “I am going to the Father, and I will send My Spirit, and He will teach you and show you all things.” How many of you know that when you come to the word of God, you have the greatest teacher ever, literally to help you understand? If you would open your heart and say, “Lord Jesus, would You teach me? Holy Spirit, teach me Your Word, that I might see.”

It’s not about what you’re capable of. Listen, when Jesus called His disciples, He didn’t call the most talented. In fact, He chose people that were not really that educated. They weren’t dumb, and some of them were very educated, but some of them were not, because it’s not based on our ability to know Him. Thank God. It’s not based on our ability to know God. It’s based on revelation and a humble heart that receives His Word to us.

I had you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. So let’s look at verse 11. It says this: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”

So let’s break this down just a little bit. Scripture speaks of us as being made up of multiple parts — spirit, soul, and body. And how many of you know that when you receive Jesus, your spirit, which was dead on the inside, is born again? That’s why people use the words “born again.” Your body does not live forever. Your spirit is eternal. Your spirit is forever. And when you receive Jesus, your spirit becomes alive in Him.

And your spirit, which is reborn when you receive Jesus, will show you the things that are going on on the inside of you. It’s like there was a light on the inside and the light was out, but when you give your life to Jesus, the light turns on. Your spirit comes alive, and it begins to brighten up your life. And the things that maybe you used to do before — when you give your life to Jesus, all of a sudden there’s something on the inside that’s like, “I shouldn’t do that anymore. I shouldn’t talk that way anymore. I shouldn’t allow those things. I shouldn’t be listening to this anymore.”

What is that? That is your born-again spirit lighting up your life. The Lord lighting up your life and working on you, allowing you to become more like Him. Because how many of you know our walk with Jesus should look like something? And when our spirit is reborn and we begin to walk those things out, that is the Lord cleaning up our life. Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of the heart.”

And so your spirit — everybody say, “My spirit” — which is born again, will show you the things that are going on inside of you. But your spirit doesn’t know the things that are going on inside of God. In order to know what’s going on with God, we have to get in touch with God’s Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit. Okay? So who will show you the things of God that you don’t know? Everybody say, “The Holy Spirit.”

What has been freely given

Now listen to verse 12. It says this: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God” — say, “Thank You, Jesus” — “that we might know” — everybody say that, “that we might know” — “the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

So God has freely given you things that you don’t know about, and the only way to find them out is for the Holy Spirit to show them to you, right? Going back to where we started: it’s one thing for somebody to tell you what God will do in your life. It’s one thing for someone to tell you about the goodness of God, the love of God. But until your eyes are opened and you taste for yourself, it doesn’t really hit the same way.

In fact, there’s nothing greater than to have your eyes opened to, number one, just how much God loves you. How many of you know that is a revelation in itself? Because you can hear people say, “Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you.” And it’s true. But when you receive it, and your heart is open to it, it just hits differently, when it’s like, “He loves me.” You see, there’s this personal revelation. And how many of you know, once you see it, once your eyes are opened, not only can you believe it, you can have it? But until we receive revelation, it’s not ours.

There’s a story of a man who was coming to America. This was back in the days when you had to take boats everywhere, and people were selling everything that they had just to buy a ticket to cross the ocean, come to America, and start a new life. And so this man sold everything and gave everything that he had to buy a ticket to come to America. And on the journey, the captain of the ship noticed that this man wasn’t eating any of the meals. Some time had passed — several days of this — and the man didn’t have money to buy the food. But the captain comes to him and says, “Sir, don’t you know that your ticket also included these meals?”

You see, if you don’t have your eyes open to what’s available to you, you don’t actually take advantage of it. You guys know what I’m saying? We have to have our eyes open to what God has said, to what has been freely given to us. And so it says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

And so how does the Holy Spirit show us these things freely given to us? Look at the next verse. Verse 13 says this: “These things” — talking about the things given to us by God — “we also speak” — everybody say “speak” — “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

In other words, the Holy Spirit will speak words to you that convey the things of God that are freely given to you — things that you would never know unless God spoke them and gave them to you. Things that He wants you to know, things that He wants you to live in. Freedom that He has for you. Deliverance, healing. Love — we just talked about that. Freedom from sin, freedom from bondage, freedom from addiction. Paul writes it this way: that we might know the endless riches available to us in Christ Jesus.

Listen, you don’t even know how good He is. As good as you think He is, He’s even better. As much as you think He loves you, He loves you even more. As much as you think He wants you free from the bondage of sin and from the world, from addictions, from pain, from sickness — as much as you think He wants to heal you — He wants it even more.

But do you actually believe that He’s that good? Have your eyes actually been opened to that truth? Again, I can tell you this. I can even say it. But has it been revealed to me by the Spirit? Has the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to actually understand what that means, to the price that has actually been paid? Are you guys with me? Are you tracking?

And so let me ask you this. Why would we go another year — why would we go another day — without knowing these things that have been freely given to us? Why would we go a day and not invite the Holy Spirit as we open the Scriptures? “Lord, would You show me the things that You want me to know?” Because these can either just be words on a page — and they can be that — or it can literally be God’s Word that transforms and shapes my life. It can literally become God’s Word that sets me free. It can be God’s Word that gives me a greater understanding of His love. Even though I’m in a difficult situation and it doesn’t feel like there’s any way out, or I feel so unlovable, yet I know that God loves me.

Because listen, there will come a time when the circumstances of the world will try to talk you out of what God has said, will talk you out of what God has made available. People will say, “No one could ever love you.” And yet God says, “But I chose you from before the foundation of the world.” Do you see the difference? If you only know it in your head, you will not have the capacity or the strength to carry it through the difficult times.

It has to be revealed. It has to be owned. If you do not own it, if the Holy Spirit hasn’t revealed it to you — you know when the Holy Spirit’s speaking, because it’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s almost breathtaking. It’s not just an epiphany. It’s this “aha.” I can’t tell you how many times I come to the Scriptures and I’m reading, and all of a sudden I go back and I’m like, “Wait a minute.” You read it again, and it’s like, “What is that?” It’s the breath of God. Somebody say amen.

“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” It was called the law at that time. I think that turns people off right there. It was called the law because God’s people needed a standard and a way of living that would allow Him to be with them. But the reason we call it the gospel is because, how many of you know, we’ve received the good news of Jesus? And now it’s not about performance. Now it’s about becoming more like Him. It’s receiving His Word to us and Him cleaning up our lives.

I don’t know about you, but when I try to do things my own way, I tend to make it worse. You know what I mean? As smart as I think I am sometimes, as good as I think I can do, I can say things like, “Well, I’ve got this.” Man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that, and then I was like, “Man, I need the Lord.” I thought I had the answer. I thought I knew how to help people. I thought I knew how to love somebody. I thought I knew how to cause a change in someone’s life. And all of a sudden it’s like, “Man, they hate me now.” Because we need the Lord. Only the Lord. Somebody say amen.

More than a checklist

In just a moment, I’m going to share a couple more scriptures, and we’re going to show a quick video. We never show videos, by the way, and we have two today. That’s kind of crazy. By the way, if you don’t know this, the video on the 21 days of prayer and fasting — that was Pastor Randy Remington, who is the president of the Foursquare Church. For those of you that don’t know, that’s the denomination that we are a part of, which is a Spirit-filled denomination. It’s a network. There are, I believe, now 40,000 Foursquare churches worldwide that are joining this movement of prayer. And how many of you know, it’s one thing for us to pray prayers, but when you know you’ve got hundreds of thousands of people praying the same thing, that’s a powerful thing. Amen.

I don’t know if he introduced himself — I think there was a name plate — but just so you know, that’s who that was. And so we are joining churches all over the nation. There are only about 15 Foursquare churches in the state of Wisconsin, and there are 400 in LA. But there are 40,000 worldwide and 2,000 throughout the United States. And so we are joining with the saints in those prayers in that time.

We’re going to show another video, and we’re going to talk about what I believe is a healthy approach, how we can receive God’s Word to us. It’s not the only way, but I believe it’s a good way. Does that make sense? We do have a reading plan that will guide you through the Bible, and it’s in chronological order. Depending on how much reading you are able to do, there are different options, and you’ll see that in the video.

But my prayer and my heart is that this would be more than just a checklist. That this would be more than earning badges, like the Boy Scouts, for hitting certain marks. This isn’t about that. In fact, often when I’m talking with people, I’m like, “Yeah, there are multiple chapters in today’s reading. If you only get through a verse, but you received it from the Lord, how many of you know that’s everything?” Because one word from God can change everything. Amen.

Is it good to read through the whole Bible? Yeah, it is. Have I read through it? Yeah. Do I plan on doing it again? Yes. Because every time I do, He meets me right where I am.

Listen to John chapter 16, and then we’re going to show the video in a moment. Listen to what Jesus taught. He says, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth” — everybody say “Holy Spirit” — “when the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.”

If you’ve read this portion of Scripture, you may remember that in the next chapter Jesus says, “Your word is truth.” Jesus is saying the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth, meaning what I’m teaching you. Jesus was talking to His disciples. He says, “Listen, I’m teaching you right now.” I don’t know about you, but I would love to have Jesus teach me. Anybody else? I think I do. I don’t know — the way it hit, man, sometimes people just walked away. So when people walk away, I don’t always feel so bad. But He says, “No, listen. I’ve got more things to tell you, but there’s someone even better that will come to teach you, because it’s on the inside. It’s a work of the heart. And He will guide you into all truth.” His Word is truth.

Listen to this: “For He will not speak on His own authority.” How many of you know everything that God does is in unity? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit — they are never working separately. They are always one. “He will not speak on His own authority … and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” Didn’t we talk about how He will show you the things freely given? “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”

I think sometimes we can hear this and be like, “Man, that sounds really nice. I really hope that happens for me.” How many of you know we’re not just hoping? If we’re just hoping, it’s not going to happen.

Coming humble and hungry

At our Christmas service, we talked about how King Jesus comes to us lowly and humble, right? He wasn’t born on a throne. He was born in a manger. When He comes, He comes humbly. He comes lowly. And the way that we come to Him is to be humble and lowly.

Listen, when we come hungry — what does that mean? “God, I need You.” And we come humbly, saying, “Lord, I don’t have it all together. Lord, I need what You have for me.” When you come with a heart like that and then you read your Bible, how many of you know He fills the hungry? He’s the God who fills. Amen. Doesn’t He say, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst … for they shall be filled”?

Do you see? Your approach to how you come to the Lord matters. Because you can walk into this room and just have an analyzing heart. “What’s going on? What’s happening? I liked that. I didn’t like this.” Listen, you can do that, and you might get something. Or you can come in and be like, “It’s not about who’s on stage. It’s not about the sound of the worship. Lord, it is only about what You are speaking to me. Lord, would You speak?” How many of you know that’s the heart that receives? Somebody say amen.

If we can only receive from the Lord when I’m on stage, that’s a problem. If we can only receive from the Lord when Suzie’s on stage, that’s a problem. Because the Lord is available. He’s there. And He goes for the humble and the hungry heart.

Listen to Ephesians 1. This is Paul. He says, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” How many of you know we don’t just need to know Bible facts, or facts about God? We need revelation by His Spirit. “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

Proverbs 8:32 says this: “Now therefore, listen to me.” This is the person of wisdom speaking. Who is the person of wisdom? It is Jesus. Listen to what it says: “Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it.” Don’t push it away. Don’t reject it. “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily” — notice this; everybody say “daily” — “watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors” — say “waiting.” “For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord.”

You might hear us say every now and then, “We like to read our Bibles every day.” Listen, that doesn’t mean we’re trying to be better than anybody. What that means is, “No, I need Him every day.” And do we hit that all the time? No. And when we don’t, we come right back. Somebody say amen. We come right back. We don’t wait months. We don’t wait weeks or days. We come right back. And so here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to show this video, and then we’ll do some final instructions.

Scripture, observation, application, prayer

All right. Can we thank Pastor David for that? I want everybody, really quick — we’re inviting everybody into this, to start the new year in God’s Word. And I would say every day. Okay? Is it going to be perfect? No. Are there going to be ups and downs? Yes. Are you going to have questions? Yes. Write those down. The Lord is not intimidated by our questions. He wants us to know His heart, and He’s inviting us into that, I believe.

And so I would encourage you to go to dwellinghousechurch.com/bible. You can find the reading plans there. You can download them. Now, those journals, those fancy journals — yeah, we don’t have those. So you’re just going to have to use a notebook. All right? Use a notebook, use your phone, or use the downloaded PDF, whatever you’re going to do, but follow that method: scripture, observation, application, prayer. Because really the goal is, “Lord, what are You speaking to me?” What verse is jumping out? What are You speaking? What does that mean? How does that apply to my life? And then we end with a prayer: “Lord, would You help this to become real? Lord, would You do this for me?” Do you see? How many of you know that’s a solid way to approach it? Amen.

So let’s go ahead and stand together. I’m going to pray a blessing over you as we go out. I’m going to ask that we close our eyes and just lift our hands to the Lord this morning.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your Word. And Lord, I thank You for what I believe You are inviting each one of us into. Lord, that You want us to know Your heart. That You want us to know You. Lord, what is truth? You are truth. And so Lord, we don’t want to just go about our own ways. Lord, we want to receive from You. And so, Lord, we ask, would You open our eyes? Open our eyes, Lord. Show us who You are. Show us the things that You have for us.

Lord, I pray for every person, that as we open up Your Scripture, which is Your Word, which is life, which is daily bread — Lord, would You feed us fresh? Lord, we need nourishment for our souls. And so Lord, we ask that You would come to every encounter. Lord, this isn’t just a checklist. It’s not a checklist, Lord. This is an opportunity to receive from You. And so Lord, we open our hearts to do that, in Jesus’ name.

I pray blessing over every person here. Lord, protection, in Jesus’ name, as we go into this new year. Lord, I thank You that we are protected. You are our shield, our strength. You are our song, Lord. That our hearts would be fixed on You as we leave this place, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.