Next Level Bible Study

Next level Bible study. Is it not the same old same old? Because I want to bring something up.

How many of you have ever flown in a very small airplane? Most of you? Very small! That small? Wow! Okay, I know Dale used to fly one about this size, right? Diane? Not when I knew him. Not when you knew him. That was BD before Diane.

This brought to mind my first little flight. It's in Tennessee. I was 19 or 20. My roommate said, hey, I got a guy at work that's getting his license and I think he has it.

He'd like to go up on this little Cessna. And I said, at that time, well, I've only been up in one flight, one plane. Yeah, why don't I go up there? I'll go up with you. And he said, well, there's only just a few seats in it anyway. So I went up. Man, I would do a lot of things except that. It just shook and it just rattled and it swayed. And I was like, why in the world would I get in this plane? Because they were so small.

And then I looked at the guy and he looked like he had been out all Saturday night. I thought, if I ever get on the ground. And then a few years ago, I had to go from Freeport, Bahamas to Marsh Harbor to see some members. And there was only one flight. They don't even fly that way anymore. The flight is only a hundred miles and it never gets more than two hundred feet off the ground.

And so I got there for the flight and it only seated six people. There were me and two women and the two women had to sit on one side of the plane and I had to sit on the other to balance it out. And then this pilot comes who looks like he was on a three-day hangover. He didn't even have a door and he climbed through the window.

And that flight was terrible. And I thought, I'm never going to get in a small plane again. Oh yes, I had to on the Amazon when I was in Guyana. And this time, William Brown was with me and this would only seat six people. So we all got on to fly over. There's no way you could go on land. They just had to fly over. And this little bit of plane and then the people who were getting on the plane was just myself, William, the pilot, which he was a very good pilot, and then two prisoners with one guard.

And if you know of our Indians, they're about that big. Well, that was the guard. Prisoners were not. And I just kept thinking of that movie Con Air. I thought, this is going to happen. Well, thankfully it didn't.

But now, why do I bring that up? Because I'm never going to be a pilot. My nephew, who is at feast with me this year, oh, I was going to say Whelan, but William, uh, Will, he has his pilot's license. And I asked my brother, do you ever go up with him? He said, no. I will never fly a plane. I don't really want to fly a plane.

Has any of you ever flown a plane? Can see. Oh, there you have back there. Okay. Okay. Just not something I want to do, because I don't want to sit through all the hours of training. And you do all this paperwork. You have to do so much of this figuring, especially in a small plane, where if you have one of these, like I flew on the other night, it flies itself just about the first four minutes, as I always say on a plane, the first four minutes.

And the last four minutes is where all the danger happens. The rest of the time, 92% of the time, it's no problem. It's just the first four and the last four, because it's on automatic pilot. So hopefully, someday, I could actually fly one of those where I didn't have to study. So, but that's another thing. So why am I bringing this up? Because it takes a lot of training. How about you? Your jobs? Your careers? Did it take any training?

Or did you just have to have the qualifications of breathing, as some jobs do? And what do you need to study? What do you need for your next job? Do you know?

Your next job, I hope you found out at the feast, is to be kings and priests.

This is your manual. This is your flying manual, if you want to call it, how you learn to do everything. This is what we are called to do. As a matter of fact, going to do this for those who are in Guyana, you do not, sorry, Grenada, don't have to have one. But this is a Bible study I did. And if you don't mind passing those out, Anna, do you mind passing that side out? There's some who don't need one. They may already have one. Yes, they got one already.

Because I think I have 30-something, so I don't know how far that will go along. But if you have a husband and wife and you actually like each other, you can share.

So, as you look at this piece of paper, it asks a question. Do you really know what your next job is and are you qualified to do it? The Bible study was interactive and basically we split up in groups and everybody talked about and tried to answer these things to see how much you really knew about your future job. And are you really qualified because a big part of it is about Bible study? What do you know about it? It's your manual that you are to use. So, I wanted to touch on that today of having practical next-level Bible study. So, it's something. It got almost a number right this time.

I'll ask you to look at it and maybe even take it home and look at some of those things and can you call them off the top of your head? And then go to the Bible in case you need to check.

But there are some serious things.

So, you may ask a question, how dare you question my Bible study? That's personal, just like prayer. It is. It's a personal thing between you and God. It's also personal what you know. And how much time you spend preparing for your next job. The problem with the next job is it's eternal job. It doesn't end. It's not like me on January 31st, 2017, where I am done. No, what is it? See, I don't even remember. 2027. Try and turn it back. Turn back the time. Yes.

Yes, I would like to too. So, where are you strong in Bible? Think to yourself. It's a rhetorical question. Where are you really strong? Are there certain areas that you're strong in? How about weak areas? Are there some? As a matter of fact, I was talking to Mary in my 25 years of giving sermons. I've never given a sermon on lamentations. Never like lamentations. I read it, but I didn't like it. Depressed me. I didn't like to be depressed. But I've never given a sermon. So, I don't know. I flip a coin. Either Vera or Fort Lauderdale gets my depression sermon somewhere before I retire. But other places in the Bible, as you can see, I brought my old Bible. I've had this one 40 years. And there are pages that are worn. And it's interesting. You can see, because I just was thinking about this, there's sections where it's just so worn out. Because I've used it. Your Bible may be the same way. This one's getting so I never carry it hardly anymore. Because pages are beginning to fall out of it after 40 years. There are 31,102 verses. How many of those do you know? Does God expect you to know all of them? No. No, He doesn't. This is our guide. Some of it really does not apply to us. You go to the book of Numbers. Is this something you need to be able to recall every leader of every tribe? No. No. And some people get stuck on, well, because so much is required that you should know that you don't really study very much. Because how can you do it? It's like a, it's a losing formula. Because nobody can study 31,102 verses. What is important? Well, what is important to God? Everyone. He inspired every word it's God breathed, it says. But He put it in there for a purpose. But is that your purpose? The future priest and king in the kingdom? No. No. There are things we need to know now. For now. There's other things that are not in here. I always thought when I first became a pastor, I had to know everything. Boy, it became a relief after about the second year. I didn't have to have all the answers because God didn't give us all the answers to everything, but He gave us enough answers. He didn't need 31,103 verses because there's enough in there. There's enough for you, there's enough for me to qualify for His kingdom. There's enough in there for us to know how to live and to rule and to reign with Christ. We're going to rule under Him. Is it important that we know something about Him? Oh, I think so. I think so. So today, I'd like to give you that in this much time. Galatians 6 and verse 4. Galatians 6 and verse 4, maybe from another. But let each one examine his own work. Do you? Your work that you do for God. Do you examine it? A few years ago, another year. Another feast is gone. Okay. No.

Another translation says, don't compare yourself among yourselves. You don't need to be compared to someone else. I had a teacher in my theology classes that said, we should know every you should know 500 verses off the top of your head. That was in one of his classes. Well, we butted heads because I disagreed. And being he had a doctorate degree and I had no degree. I said, I prefer I would prefer to know 100 verses and know 400 of my people that I take care of. Know them intimately. Know their family. Know everything about them because they will be my sheep, not 400 verses. He didn't like it, but he let it go. And probably most of you know who he was.

The reason I give this is some of you, as my mother tells me, and Phil, and he ain't got to meet my mother. Glad you got to meet him. She was explaining, but she didn't explain you. She said, you know, it was a young man, very muscular with his beautiful wife. So I thought that I okay, that you guys. Okay, so my mother said my memory is no good anymore. You know, many people say, well, I can't remember where a scripture is. I can't remember all this. Well, yeah, bad news. The older you get, the less you're going to remember.

Many of you shaking your head has gray, they have gray hair like me. Does God, is that a requirement?

It is believed that the Apostle Peter couldn't even read or write. Where do you think that puts him? Yet, he quoted scripture. Yet he had, they believed Mark as his writer. God inspired him one of the most impressive sermons on that day of Pentecost. God says he'll give you what you need. He'll put it in your mouth when you need it. And I think many of you can attest to that fact. And he has given you scriptures that are good. So, let's go to the first point of this next level Bible study because I want you to be able to take whatever level you are at and raise it at your level that God has given you abilities and talents. Some people he's given abilities and talents to memorize a great amount of scriptures, right Sharon? And others like myself, I can grab a hundred or so. This Bible, what's in here?

There are 3,267 different people listed in this Bible. 3,267 different people in here. How many of those do you think you need to know?

Anybody? Oh, now you're quiet. I'm gone for two weeks and now you can't speak.

I can recall in here that I really need to know about a hundred people, really a hundred people, that I need to know their story because their story encompasses a big part of the Bible. There's a lot of people in here that their name's in there because God wanted it in there. And they were related to this person and then they related to this person. But think about it. For me to understand this book, and I think I do really well after 40, 50 years now, it's about people. God's always been about people. I don't know about you at the feast, but we had a lot of families this year at the feast. I mean a lot of families. 14 of this one, 12 of this one, 11 of this one, and 10 of this one. And so, yeah, it was really great. But that further enhanced my view of God's all about families. And that's what he's working with us. Because in this book, in the first 4,000 years, or let's take the Old Testament, how many people really are there that's going to be in the first resurrection?

Read this book and you'll find out there's not that many. Not that many people in the first 4,000 years from Genesis all the way to Malachi. Most of them turned against God. I mean, this is a story of failure of two nations that were called. And so, isn't, or wouldn't it be better to know the people who succeeded? Now, we need some bad examples and guess what? Book's full of them. But how about those ones that we're going to be working with as a family, as a team, in the coming Kingdom of God? Don't you think they're pretty important? That you don't meet at the marriage supper and go, oh, what's your name? Oh, Abraham, nice to know you. Can I meet you? This is part of what can give us enough understanding that we can build upon it. But once you have a great foundation, as Jeff will tell you back there, you can build about anything on it. If you don't have a great foundation, pretty much everything you put on it may not matter. That foundation is important. So, I'm trying to wrap the story around for you today that get the foundation and know what it's about.

And know the people. Know the people. You ever heard of a guy named Zachariah? Yeah. How many Zacharias are there in the Bible?

Two! That's what I knew. I'm sorry, Barbara. 31. 31. I know two. Okay. Do I need to know more than two? Well, two are important to me, the one, the writer, and the one that got killed. That's pretty much it. You know Josephs? All right. How many Josephs you know in the Bible? How about 14? 14 in here. That's what made me realize, okay, I've read the Bible. I've read it through. I don't read the Bible through anymore. I just go to to dig out stuff that I, because I know, I know my foundation's laid and now I need to know the finer points or I try to add to my knowledge of what I have. Kings. There were kings of Israel and kings of Judah. Is that important? Everybody know that? How many kings were there of each? 19 of Israel. 19 of Judah plus one queen. Wicked queen. 19 and 20. Of the kings of Israel. How many were good? None. Not a one. All 19? Bad. Bad, bad, bad. Well, we go on the other side and we have Judah. How many were good?

Leave David out of it in Solomon, but when the kingdom split, how many? You had 20?

You have six. Six good kings. Six! Don't you think it's important for us to know those six kings? More than anything else? You got half a dozen that are good and two and a half over two and a half dozen bad. Okay, I may know a bad example or two. I know Manasseh. I know God said he was the worst. Okay, that's good enough. I don't need to study all the other bad kings. Now, I may eventually want to tell a story, but why do I need to retain that? What's important to remember? The whole story. This whole thing that we can explain, because it's amazing what Stephen was able to do. Stand there and gave a whole sermon of history. Okay, he wasn't a minister. He's a deacon. He gave one of the most important messages and profound thing that you have ever read in the book of Acts. Do you know anything about the really bad people in the Old Testament? Now, many of you know the most wicked woman. Why is it we have? You know, I'm so glad we're going to have a new child here. I'm just glad they didn't name her Jezebel. Okay, so if you're watching out there today, you don't see many Jezebels, do you? She's so wicked, nobody wants to name them. They're a child after that. But there are a few wicked people.

Most people know about Balaam's ass, but they don't know the story of Balaam. But right, it's a neat story. It's a unique story. It's an interesting story. To make a movie, you have to have great characters. Otherwise, nobody's going to see the movie. You want to write a book? You have great characters. The Bible has given us great characters, and it's so easy for humans to remember great characters because we can either relate to them or we can, I don't want to be like that. This is why the Bible is so important.

Is it important that you read the Bible two hours every day? Or, as some people say, oh yeah, I read the entire book of Jeremiah. Okay, what did you get from it? It's long. Okay, do we need to know about Jeremiah? Yes. But do we need to know all the stuff and everything around it? No, not really. To be able to help people, you have to be a storyteller. Sorry, that's the way it is because the majority of the people that you're going to touch base with, as was covered in the sermonette, my Clive, thank you for that, is you're going to conduct people without a Bible. They don't have one, may never have had one. And you may not have one. But guess what? If it's in here, if it's in here, you'll know the story. And you can help them. You can tell them. A man I just touched base with at the touch base on at the last day, I ate the day of the feast. He would, my neighbor who died, he didn't know a thing about the Bible. He was Catholic, said he didn't need to. They didn't need to. And he didn't. He would call me every time and he watched a lot of movies, call me every time and say, I didn't know that there were these big stone creatures when Noah was building the Ark that helped him build that. I said, what are you talking about? Then I had to go over there and that's what the movie was showing. I didn't see it, but I saw enough of it. And I said, no, that didn't exist. Oh, it didn't. No, the story's in there in the Bible. It's not that long.

Okay. I love the guy. He didn't honestly know. I have people that don't know. I have a neighbor that has that can use the F word in every which way, but you know, but he'll ask me a biblical question out of nowhere. It's important that I put it in a perspective he can hear. He can understand. Now I got some country music. I like that. I don't know country music up there, but yes, this is what we've been called to do. We've been called to make a difference in people's lives, either your families, your friends, your neighbors. Okay. They may never come to you, but for one once or twice. Do you know how many people after 9 11 came to people in the church, not knowing that day what was going to go on? Is this the end of the world? No, it's not. But you're going to see a lot more things like this. And this is nothing compared to what we may see down the road. Can you help them? You can if you know this book, because this is the grounding work for us. Another thing that's very important is history. And some people don't like history. Mary doesn't mind it, but she doesn't love history. Me, I could give a sermon every week on historical things, and she wouldn't stay with me, I'm sure, because it's like, how much? And there's some ministers who love history, and they go into great detail. I have learned from her don't do that very often. If you are, make it interesting. Well, what makes history interesting? People. People. That ties back to the first point. Know people, and then relate history. Do you need to know everything of when this dynasty was, and when this came and this came? I used to think I needed to do that. Yeah, John? I just had a minor comment that all of that you learn what ideas fail and what ideas work. Yes, I mean that's a story of success and failure, and there's more failure than success in this book. It's written for us that way, so hopefully we learn not to fail as much as others did. History, there is times, but if you really break it down, and I want to do that, all right? In this book, from the beginning to the end in Revelation, covers 4100 years. That's it! 4100 years. And you realize that the first 1600 years can be covered with just knowing seven people. Most important, seven people, right? Leave Eve out, and that wicked fruit. But you have what? Adam, Cain, and Abel, one of the most interesting stories. Then you have Seth, right? Then you have Enoch, and Methuselah, and Noah, a seven. You've covered 40% of the time of this Bible in just knowing their stories. Seven, seven guys, and it's not that long. And that's 12 chapters of the Bible. It's very, very small when you look at 1600 years. 1600 years. Covered in seven people. Seven people. And it's not hard to remember. But through there, there are other people. But do they really come into play? How many of those seven do we know will be in the Kingdom of God in the first resurrection? You think Cain will be there? I don't think so. I don't know. It's up to God. Do we know about Adam? I don't know. I don't know. I wouldn't want to be there. I do know Enoch, right? He walked with God how many years? 300 years. 300 years. How long did he live? 365 years. So he lived 65 years. Was it 65? He didn't walk at the first with God, or did he turn his back on God at the end? Uh-huh. He is first. You bet your salvation on that? No. But that's people. Now, we believe he walked, you know, because it says, and he walked with God 300 years. I believe he was faithful. Methuselah lived, you know, longer than Phil, right?

Yes. Is he in the first resurrection? I don't think so. You think so, because he lived so long. He says, I deserve it. But we do know he died the year of the flood. Did he die in the flood, or did he die? Did God take him out before the flood? As somebody thinks before. And then we know Noah, right? So you have just covered, because you already know this, it's 1600 years. 40% of the time of the Bible. That's the story that's important that we need to maybe go back and brush up on. So that the story, the big story here, we've got it. We've got it, and it's not complicated. The other little things you can add to that story. But if you're so bogged down into this detail, and he begot him, and he begot him, and begot, and begot, and begot, next thing you know, you'll be got in your mind. You know, it's like, what happened? Because you get tossed up, it shouldn't be that way. It should be simple. God did not write the Bible for complicated, educated, highly educated people. He wrote it so that anyone could understand it. And his main story is what? He wants you in his family. That's all he's ever wanted. He had cries out in so much of the Bible, but because he said, you forgot me. He just, just like such emotion, you forgot me to a whole nation who turned another way. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and what? Joseph? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. That finishes the book of Genesis, doesn't it? That's it. See, you already covered the first 12. You've covered now the entire thing. It's over 2,000 years, half of the time of this Bible, by just knowing what you need to know in Genesis.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, most of you know that story pretty well, don't you? Joseph, more words written about Joseph than any other character in Genesis. Wow. He played an important part. Do you know it? All right. To me, that's interesting. I very seldom get tired of reading about Joseph. He was such an inspiring from 17 to 40 years old.

Joseph?

Well, it's the same as Jesus was.

Oh, well, when they gave him that name. Yes, yes, yes. It's a mouthful.

But I want to give you some dates. To me, the most important dates. The other dates, I know other dates, but they're not important to the overall scheme of things, unless you want to go and get your doctorate in theology. But what do we need to know? 722. Can you tell me what that's about? BC. 721, 722 BC. Anybody? I'm just going to give you about four or five important dates. No flood? No? BC? Jeff? That's right. The northern kingdom was taken over by the Assyrians. That wiped out that entire nation. Took them captivity and spread them out all over the entire ten tribes of Israel. You know what's interesting? You ever sit and figure that out? Is Judah lasted 150 years longer than Israel, but they had the same amount of kings? Think about that. And you want to know the reason why? Go back and read. Just take a quick trip of Israel's kings, and you realize they just killed each other left and right. They killed each other to take it. So, 722. Very 721, 722, because it actually took almost over a year to conquer them. But then there's another date that's very important. It is 586 BC. Anybody know what that date meant? Judah goes down. That's when they are conquered. Those are the only two big dates that really you can piece everything else together around it, because they were conquered. That's what so much of this is about. So for people to get, oh well, I need to know this. And then when David, Daniel predicted this, and then he predicted it. No. No. Next date, 31 AD. Anybody remember what happened there?

Was he born then? No. He died there. He died there. That's it. And another number that's not in the Bible, but you should know from history, because the historical point is what, David? 69 to 70 AD. What happened? That's right. Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed, and they burnt the city. Just the same thing that Jesus Christ predicted in Matthew 24. Not one stone left on the east. That's it. That's what you need to know, because that's the majority of what's wrapped around this Bible. As I look to my clock, is this clock correct, David? Okay. Then I need to speed it up. So you, okay, so now you got, you have the Old Testament. What's important? Can you go back and read it? And then read it in another translation, and then read it to where, wow, I really know that story. I could sit there and tell a bedtime story. And you know how kids, when they were growing up, they could hear the same bedtime story. Night after night, I know my nephews, and I'm going, you've already heard this story. You want me to read that book again? Yeah, yeah. So then I'd have to put ad lib it and tell, and they go, that's not in there. Oh, yeah. How do you know I'm reading a book? You can't read. So God made this so interesting. If you really dig into it and don't make it like, oh, I have to, make it something you want to, it shouldn't intimidate us. It should empower us to know the big stories of everything. When you come to the New Testament, we have the book of the Gospels, right? How many Gospels do we have? Four. That's right. Two written by the authors and two not written people who were eyewitnesses. Do you know why? It helps you in the reading, right? Matthew was there. Was Mark there? No. That's Peter's account by almost all theologians. We'll tell you that. John, was he there? Oh, yes. And Luke, was he there? No. No. Luke was a physician and he was hired to write the book of Acts by Theophilus. But he was known as a historian, so he was told to go back and write this story. Go interview these people. So he was like a newspaper man. He went back after all this because this rich man, Theophilus, and the church wanted to know, well, I want to know if it's true. I need to hear it from a Greek. And so that's what the book of Luke is about. So you can, by knowing just those three things, when you read them, you can go, oh, well, Luke wasn't really there. He wasn't really there. John was really there, and Peter told Mark what that was about. Is John 3 16 a pivotal verse?

Oh, boy! Any of you that I've counseled for baptism, you know how important it is. It's the most known scripture in the entire world. What do you know about it? You as a Christian, you as a... this is going to be big in the kingdom because you're going to teach. You're going to teach the nations of tribes. You're going to teach them about Christ. You're going to teach them about the king and what the king was before he was a king. And one of the most pivotal verses, John 3 16. Can you tell everything about it? Because there's some amazing things in there that most people, it goes right over their heads. Poor old Nicodemus, it went right over his head. Yet who was he? Why did he come at night? Why was he called the teacher? There are so many things right there that we need to know that we can help people with because people want help. And it's going to become more and more. The book of Acts. What do we know? David did a whole series on the entire Bible, and I appreciate that. If you want to know more about it, just log on, right? And see all of David's. What did you call that series? The Bible Condensed. Okay. And he went through every one of them. Well, the book of Acts. What do we know about 12 disciples? Are they going to be in the kingdom? Are they going to be in the first resurrection? All 12?

Ah, see? Ah, ah.

Yes. Yes. But of the original 12, one of them, I doubt he's going to be there.

Better find mercy. How about Stephen? Do you know the story of Stephen is one of the greatest stories? I think you have a clip of that. If you don't know the story of Stephen, and you cannot just tell it, go and study it. It's a beautiful, big story of an incredible deacon who was hired to take care of the widows and something. We didn't know he was going to be a speaker, but he became one. And his speech is incredible. And God gave him insight into the kingdom like no one else that he gave. You hear the story of Paul, and then you see the story of John. And John in Revelation, it's amazing how many people want to jump to Revelation before they really know the rest of the story. There's a reason it's at the end of the book. He wants you to know the book first before you get to Revelation. It's so deep. It took me 20 years to truly understand the book of Revelation. Really, it did. Because I had to build upon it because there was so much more stuff important that, okay, and then because I teach it is very important. That's the same reason Daniel's towards the end of the book in the New Testament just before the minor prophets. Daniel's not to start out, well, let's let me go read Daniel. Daniel's a great story, but boy is it deep. It is so deep. You need to have the other first before you can do that because they're memorable books. All right, I gotta looks like I gotta wrap this up. So the point that I want to make is have a story, know the story, know the book of what's important, and lock it in to where it becomes a part of your life so that you can share it. And then add a little snippet here and there so you can add a little something instead of, well, I just don't have to remember all this. Well, we're oh, oh, here's Daniel 7 22. It says, and you quote it off top your head. Oh, that's great. But how does that how does that help other people unless they want that? So always seek questions. Okay, once you know you always seek questions. All right, and then sometimes wait and pray and see if he will give you the answer to those questions that are in the Bible. I still have, the last time I counted in here, about six question marks still in here. About 80 of them were taken away over time, but I still have six that God's never given me the answers for. He may never, but I want to know. Always seek those, and he will give it. Luke 9. Luke 9. Better give you a scripture before I do this. Luke 9. Know that story? Hmm. Get back here in Luke, and there's eight, and there's nine.

Luke 9 and verse 59. Where are you? Luke 9 and verse 59. What does it say?

Hmm.

Says then, he said to another, follow me, but he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. He was offering this guy to be one of his disciples, to be one of his apostles, you might even say.

Look, he does it again. Go back to Matthew 8. Matthew 8. Get back there. Matthew 8 and verse 21. Verse 21. Well, where am I? Eight.

Where is that, Luke? No, Matthew 8 and verse 21. Did I do that right? Matthew 8 and verse 21. Oh yes, here it is. Then another of his disciples. Okay, do you get that? Another of his disciples. So this was a guy that had been following him around, then followed him and said, he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, follow me and let the dead bury the dead.

How disrespectful of Christ! Is it? That's a disgrace because he's did it. Was he telling him to break the fifth commandment? Because it says to what? Honor your father and your mother. If Christ had told me that when I got the word that my father had had a heart attack and died, and then instead of going to the funeral, Christ said, now you need to go preach. We were over in Naples at the time. Oh, no, you need to go preach up in Fort Myers. I said, but I kind of bury my father. And he said, let the dead bury the dead. I would have probably gotten his face. You know, he's Christ because I respected my father. I love my father. What was this all about? Wouldn't you? No. So it doesn't make this, does not make sense because Christ loved. Christ loved his father and he knew, understand that. So these are the questions you need to have. When you study the Bible, go, that doesn't make sense. Where did I find the answer? I didn't find it in the Bible. Hmm. I had to find it in history because it was right. Now you understand if you were in Grenada and you actually saw my sermon, you would have seen an ossuary box. Ossuary box. It's called the bone box. It was made out of stone or made out of metal. What they did at the time, especially if you had any reasonable money, just like Jesus Christ was put in a tomb, right? Most people were put in a tomb and you were there for a year. And then your whole body was gone except for your bones. And then they would put them in a bone box. And then they would bury that. So you would have to wait a whole year to bury. This is what this young man didn't, you know, he was wanting to wait around a year and Christ said, hey, I only have a little time here. If you want to follow me, you need to follow me. That's just one example of when you see something that's the beauty of having God's Holy Spirit is when you read something and go, oh, wait a minute, no? How does that line up? Because it should. Just like if you hear a preacher, you hear me say something that's not biblical, your antenna should go up. And you should afterward go, come on, Stan, we're going to go confront that man. We're not going to put up with that. No, and I expect you to. But also, that's what God gives us. Holy Spirit. So that so that when we read this incredible book with his Holy Spirit and guiding us being he said my words of spirit that we read something. Well, wait a minute. How would I explain that to someone? And just because I'm a pastor and I have to know these and explain these things, it doesn't remove it from you. We both have the same. What did I give you? A thing for kings and priests. We both have the same responsibility in the kingdom and God gets to test just now to see if we really can help people who really need help. You know the story of Jesus Christ gets out of a boat and he's in Guderah and it's called the land of the gatherings and he goes there and then what does it tell us? Oh, what is it? In Mark and Luke, Luke 8, there's this guy that comes out of the tombs. Everybody remember that story had changed and they tried to bind him and he was all this.

Do you know the story? Do you like the story?

Yes, but why is there a conflict? One man, right? No. In Matthew 8, it actually tells the same story and says there's two men. Oh, wait a minute. So, are the other two lying or is Matthew lying? Uh-huh. Okay, that's your opportunity to study that and go, hmm, this thing. I like to hear your, I know what I teach people that that's about, but also the 400 and 430 years. How long were the Israelite slaves in Egypt? No, there's a problem there. We have gone through that here in some Bible studies because that answer is not right and there's more to it than that. How old was Jacob when he got married? How old was Jacob? How old do you think Leia was? Yeah, yeah. You know, Leia couldn't find a husband. Rachel definitely was a good-looking woman. How old were they? Maybe 20s? 30s? Yeah. How old was Jacob? Try 85. Try 85 to 87. These are things, okay, is that just an interesting, no, it makes sense when you put all the stories together about the people, about that, so that you can actually explain it. So, the Bible is your eternal textbook. And just like that airplane, you need to prepare to land it. Land it with this. Land it with your life to where you know, you know, that God has given you the right instructions and you're ready to land that plane.