Wednesday In The Word

This is Chris Hughes with the Christian Perspective Podcast with Chris Hughes, where we encourage our listeners to engage the culture with Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds, so enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why, where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.

Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Well, good afternoon. How do you get ready to hear a sermon? How do you get ready to hear a sermon? That's the big question today on Truth Talk Live.

Good afternoon again. I'm Duane Carson. I have a ministry called Date the Word. And it is my joy to fill in for Stu Epperson today here at Truth Talk Live. And today, we want to dive in and discuss how do you get ready to hear a sermon? How do you get ready to hear the Word of God?

How do you get ready to even read the Word of God? And the reason we're talking this question is because today is the Wednesday in the Word edition of Truth Talk Live. And earlier today, we had a Bible study.

It was phenomenal. A group of men together, Stu Epperson teaching from Mark chapter 4. And in Mark 4, it begins with Jesus giving the parable that we call the parable of the sower. Now, this parable is believed to have been taught by Jesus as a visual teaching to those who have been hearing his message since he had started teaching.

And he's going to cause them to think about how they are receiving and responding to his messages. Now, to help me and to help us unpack this parable and answer the big question of how do you get ready to hear a sermon, I'm blessed to have with me today Robbie Dilmore. Robbie is the Christian card guy, and he's here on the other side today. Robbie, welcome to Truth Talk Live. It's really fun to be on the other side, too.

It is. I've sat where you've sat. You've been so kind to me to invite me to come. And now, Stu says, Pastor Carson, we want you to host it.

And you were so gracious to say, I'll be glad to sit in and mentor and help. So welcome to Truth Talk Live. We're going to talk about the parable of the sower.

What do you think about this parable? Well, it's really cool because, you know, if you're a broadcaster, the whole idea of when you're sowing, right, you're broadcasting. And, you know, God has given, you know, this unbelievable platform that all our listeners make possible, right? That is, everybody tunes in and prays for and all that stuff through, you know, the word goes to people, and you don't know where it's going to fall.

Like, if I've gotten letters from people out of prison, you know, I got a really neat question from, what do you call it, and I can't think of the word. He wasn't a believer. Agnostic, he called himself. But yet he was really seeking, and you could really see that. See, you know, it's rarely a day that goes by, whether that's, you know, going out in Utah or it could be in Ohio or wherever it is, that something you said actually maybe 10 years ago, right? And it's out there in a podcast, wherever it is, you know, God is behind the whole deal. And you never know when he's going to get somebody's attention, because it is his word. And if you just simply say the word, you've, right? You've just unloaded a cannon. Well, I grew up on a farm, and very early, my grandfather taught me how to broadcast.

Oh, yeah. And we would have a field, and he'd give me a bucket and have seed in it, and he would show me how to use my hand to broadcast the seed so it would land on the ground. And so then when I become a Christian, I'm reading this parable, I go, I understand this, because as we do broadcast it, some seed, they don't grow, and there's a reason for it.

Then others grow tremendously. Well, I want our listeners to be able to hear this parable. We're in Mark 4, and you've got your Bible, I don't know where you may be right now, but if you can check your Bible, we're at Mark chapter 4, verse 1. Robbie, if you'll be so kind, let's read the word of God. Oh, yeah, this is so cool. The entire parable and Jesus' interpretation of it, which is more than amazing. That's right.

Wow, we get a chance to see both of them. So, verse 1, and again, he began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude was gathered to him. So he got in the boat, and he sat in on the sea, and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then he taught them many things by parables, and said to them in his teaching, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow, and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came in and devoured it.

Some fell on stony ground, where it didn't have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

But other seed fell down good soil and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. And he said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable, and he said to them, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables. So seeing that they may see and not perceive, and hearing that they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable?

How then will you understand all parables? The sower sows the word, and these are the ones that are by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These, likewise, are the ones sown on stony ground, who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness. And they have no root in themselves, and so ensure only for a time. Afterwards, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word. And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

But these are the ones sown on good ground. Those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Well, if we picture this being taught, see a Galilee, and now as those words went out from Jesus, you the listener have heard Jesus' word. And we're going to come back in a few moments, and we're going to unpack this about how you receive the word of God.

How's your heart today? We want to talk with you. Call us at 1-866-348-7884, and let's talk about how we prepare to hear. This is the Truth Network.

Well, welcome back. This is Wayne Carson with Truth Talk Live on January the 24th, 1-24. And by the way, I have a ministry called Date the Word, and we have a verse for today, Matthew 1-24. It's where we get recorded from Matthew that Joseph, when he heard from the angel what God wanted him to do, it said, he got up and he did as the angel commanded him, and he took Mary as his wife. Now, in that little simple verse, we find a man who, when he heard what God wanted him to do, he immediately did it.

He immediately obeyed. And what a challenge for you, for me, that when God speaks to us, we do it. Now, today we're talking about the parable of the sower.

Jesus is ministering in Galilee, and he had to get out on the Sea of Galilee in a boat, and he starts teaching people what we call the parable of the sower. And we've got a caller, Mr. Bussman from Ohio. And Mr. Bussman, what do you have for us? Well, I love this topic, Pastor Carson. This is awesome. And thank you, Mr. Dilmore, for sitting in.

Love listening to you guys. What strikes me, Pastor, is the fact that he opened up this parable so that we knew straight from the Lord Jesus Christ exactly what he meant. So it makes me look at my own heart, Pastor, and say, okay, Bussman, which one is it? Are you the stony ground? Amen.

Amen. And that's what I would ask all Truth Talks listeners. Ask yourself right now, listeners of Truth Talk Live, what position is my heart in right now, based on this wonderful parable? Is it the stony ground? Is it the ground that it's, I'm just letting the birds and all my thoughts and all my world steal my seeds that Jesus threw on top of it? Or am I that nice, black, fertile soil? Guys, I used to work in landscaping, and I used to plant flowers. And I can tell you that when we, when the homeowner would have that rich, dark, really black soil that I would plant the petunias in, I would come back a couple days, weeks later, and those petunias were absolutely gorgeous. And, you know, up there in Ohio, you've got that black soil to raise some of the greatest corn crops ever.

I've seen that. So you're exactly right, that rich soil, we want our hearts to be rich soil. You know what's cool about this, Bussman, when you think about it? I've thought about this a lot, that the word for dirt in Hebrew is adama, right, which is Adam.

You know, it's Adam expressed. So, you know, and it's like, we are becoming dust. And so to an extent, we really are dirt. I mean, I'm just saying we're about dust, right? And so I've thought about it often, that, wow, I mean, stuff, it really is planted in soil.

It to an extent, and you couldn't be more right. Darrell Bock And the one, I'm gonna be honest, that usually gets me is that thorny one. And there's a verse at the end of the third chapter of the Song of Solomon, Bussman, I just absolutely love, and it says, Ye daughters of Zion, behold King Solomon with the crown his mother crowned him with on the day of his espousals, on the day of the rejoicing of his heart. Well, when you think about what was Jesus crowned with, he was crowned with a crown of thorns. And when it says his mother was the one who crowned him, you see mother in the Hebrew way of thinking is his family.

And so actually, it's me. I mean, I'm just saying Robbie crowned him with those thorns that got me earlier today, or maybe later. And the thing that blows me away is he rejoiced to take it Robert Chisholm For the joy that was set before him. Darrell Bock Right. Robert Chisholm Amen, Pastor Carson for the joy set before us. And I believe, gentlemen, and those listening to Treetalk Live is we, it was the joy set before him wasn't just the return to his eternal father, when he was received by the cloud in Acts chapter two, but to see us be redeemed. Robert Chisholm And to be followers and lovers of his father.

I think that's what got him through that horror of the cross experience. Darrell Bock That's beautiful, Bussman. Yeah, you know, you're awesome, man. I always appreciate you calling in. Robert Chisholm Thank you for your call. Robert Chisholm Absolutely. Anytime. Robert Chisholm Have a great day. Darrell Bock You have a great week.

And he tells great jokes, too, by the way. Robert Chisholm Okay, next time. Listen, call us 1-866-348-7884. We want to hear your story. We're setting this up as we talk about the different types of soil, but I want to hear, we want to hear your story of how you prepare to hear a sermon. How do you get ready for Sunday? Not how does a pastor get ready to preach? But how do you, as the person in the pew, get ready?

Because, as Bussman said, we're talking about our hearts needing to be ready, not years ago, but even this very hour, how is our heart when it comes to receiving the word? Darrell Bock I just think about, you know, the typical Sunday morning, right? Robert Chisholm Yes. Rush, rush, rush. Darrell Bock We got to get the kids in the car seats. Robert Chisholm Yes. Darrell Bock Like, the weeds are all over the place, right?

I got cares, you know, I got to put on the good face. There are so many things that are going on. What a time of attack, right, where we should be trying to figure out, because God's always got something amazing for us, right, when we come to his house. Robert Chisholm When we hit that first soil, we talk about the birds, and Jesus comes back and says, that's Satan. And one of the thoughts we've got to have when we're coming to hear the word of God, read the word of God, is it's spiritual warfare. Satan does not want us to hear what God has for us.

So we've got to gear ourselves up in prayer, guard our hearts and be ready for that spiritual attack. Darrell Bock And the cool thing about that, when you think about it, Pastor Carson, is if you think about the first verse in the 119 Psalm, right, it says, Blessed are the undefiled where? In the way. Robert Chisholm In the way. Darrell Bock And see, the seed that fell on the wayside, it's off the way. Robert Chisholm Off the way. Darrell Bock Right. And so part of the deal for Sunday morning is, we got to get in the way. We got to get on the King's Highway.

And that isn't so, it sounds easy enough. But in order to do that, right, because I love that idea is if you've got your eyes on Jesus, and that's what you're focused on, then Satan can't get to your heart. Robert Chisholm Eyes on Jesus. Now, here's a heart, secondly, that's shallow. It's a heart that's excited about what it can hear for the moment.

But it does not have any thought for endurance. And all of a sudden, we've got a person who, they're thrilled in the moment. But all of a sudden, when a little tribulation comes, they thought, I'll have no problems.

I'll have no issues. And all of a sudden, now life is not easy. And they turn right away from the Lord. Darrell Bock I'm afraid that, you know. Robert Chisholm There's a lot of those. Darrell Bock You go to church, how are you doing? I'm fine, fine.

It's real surface. Like, oh man, we need some roots. Got to dig deep. Robert Chisholm We're going to take a break. We want you to call us at 866-348-7884. Tell us about how you get ready for a sermon on Sunday. This is Truth Talk Live and we're looking for your calls here at 1-866-348-TRUTH or 7884.

Give us a call. We want to hear your story about how you prepare to hear the Word of God. And we want to hear also who sowed the Word into your life. As we're talking about the parable of the sower, thinking about those people who shared God's Word with you and it began to be received into your heart and it changed your life. Maybe you've got a great story about someone that sowed into your life. And by the way, today is National Compliment Day.

So give us a call and give a shout out to the person who made a huge difference in your life. Robin, we're talking about these different types of soil. Now there is this soil that's the wayside and Satan takes it and we lose it because we were careless with the Word. But you're talking now on this second soil of how one is shallow.

They don't get real. And there's something about when we're going through heartache, our hearts break and the soil that gets broken up is the best soil for receiving the seed. And I just want to hear your thoughts on that about how important it is to be real with God in difficult times.

Right. I mean, my early years in church, because interestingly, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was actually the person that sowed the Word in my life. I picked up a Power of Positive Thinking series. I was a car salesman. I just wanted to sell more cars. And he said I was supposed to get up an hour early every morning and read the Bible as if that was going to help me sell more cars. And boy did it.

By the way, like it was the thing that changed. So I'll forever be indebted to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale for that thing that came kind of out of left field. But when I was crushed by the Jeep, we hadn't been in church. You know, I hadn't been a Christian maybe two or three years and I got cancer. Oh, and a pastor came that felt like, wow, there's somebody at this dealership needs to be healed. So he walks in, asks for my finance manager, right? And my finance manager goes, well, that's got to be Robbie.

He's sitting back in his office. He's got lymphoma. And so he anoints me with oil and he prays over me. And I was supposed to start chemotherapy on Monday and I was covered in tumors. And now when you're in that position, your heart's broken and all of a sudden it's real.

It's real. I mean, you can't hide the fact, you can't hide the fact that you are desperately in need. And, and here comes this man. And I kind of thought he was nuts actually. Cause I didn't know anything about being anointed with oil. I didn't understand what that meant.

I didn't understand what he was doing. All I know is after his prayer, something really like you get the chills and all that kind of thing happened. I don't know if you've ever had that happen in your life. Somebody prayed for you like that. Well, Monday morning I show up for my chemo treatment and I'll have one tumor. And I had hundreds and they were big, like all in my skin. But come Monday morning, that was Friday. Come Monday morning, I didn't have one. And it was a miracle.

In fact, it's written up in books and all that stuff. And it's a big part of why I guess I ended up right after that. As soon as I got over that, then we went on a Jeep Jamboree to celebrate and I got crushed between two cars and almost lost my left leg. And again, being crushed, my Sunday school class, they brought me into Baptist hospital like one in the morning and there was like 50 of them out there at one in the morning. And a girl, as they were coming, taking me out of the ambulance, she goes, man, what church do you go to? And I said, this Calvary Baptist over there on PC.

She goes, man, when one of you shows up, you bring a crowd. But what a testimony. You know, I've thought about it often that that's how my roots went deeper is because God broke me in so many different ways in that period of time, shortly after I came to him to send those roots deeper. So many times when a trial comes, we turn away from God. Sometimes we turn on God, but those are those moments when we have to turn to him. And then he begins to do that deep work.

And that's where then the word gets in there. And all of a sudden your trial becomes a testimony and you get to tell of the triumph, not of yourself, but of God. So as we're talking about the parable of the sower here, we've got a stony heart that's got to be broken. We've got we've got a stubborn heart.

It's definitely got to be broken. But then we have this heart in which we're going to be strangled by the things of the world. I look at this verse here, Mark, in Luke 8 14.

I call it one of the scary verses of the Bible, because I'm now doing things for the Lord. I'm having some fruit. But now I get caught up in the things of the world, the riches of this world. I get caught up in the pleasures of this world. I get caught up in the cares of this world. And he uses the word it chokes out. And again, having grown up on the farm, watching weeds start growing.

And we talked about this today. We did the word how that you don't have to plant the weeds. They just start growing. And I love to grow watermelons. But weeds would start growing. And my grandfather said, you got to get in, you got to pull every one of those weeds. I hated pulling weeds.

But if we didn't pull them, the watermelons would not grow. And so those things start creeping in. And next thing you know, your spiritual life gets choked out. And you may be as a caller, like as a listener right now, call us and tell us about a story of how you had to get the weeds out of your life so you could grow. And the big question of the day, again, I'm still looking for some of you.

Give us a call. I want to hear how do you prepare to go to church on Sunday and hear a sermon because when you're sitting there on Sunday, Robbie, the word of God's being proclaimed and you can have a heart just like these four soils. And what I want as a pastor, what you want as a pastor, is that the person is going to have a heart ready to, here's the word, receive the word. Paul talked about the Thessalonians, how they welcome the word.

So I'm just curious, what are some ways we can be taking so that when we get to church on Sunday, we're ready to receive the word. Robbie, talk to us about this fourth soil. What does it look like?

We heard from the call in Ohio, the rich, black, brown dirt that you could put a seed in and just like that, it is producing tremendously. How does one get to that type of a heart? Yeah, it's much, much easier said than done, wouldn't you say? But to me, it's not something that happens Sunday morning. It actually happens every day. And hopefully, to some extent, like the first Psalm says, you're meditating on his word day and night because if I'm not, if I'm not somehow or another staying in the way, then the weeds start growing. And I start having what I call idle time.

What do I do with my idle time? It's really a scary thought, right? Oh no. Because I mean, if you just sit down like your wife wants to hear, watch this with me, okay?

Oh my gosh. You can sit there and binge watch something. The next thing you know, three hours of watching something that was not doing anything but making your heart grow wheat or getting shallow or who knows what.

But it's pretty easy. But it's also Sunday morning, obviously, now it's time. And for me, and you know this all too well, whether I'm preaching or not, and fortunately, I praise God, I get to do that a lot, mostly. But when I'm not, I'm still the same place I am when I'm preaching.

I'm up as early as I can possibly get up. And I'm studying because God I don't know about you, but I'll get something and he gives me a little nugget and it makes me come alive. I get quickened.

Like that, oh man. And at that point in time, it's like he did something to break up my soil and only he can do that through his word. So it's actually his word to me that actually is the big plow. Do you find, and I know you did a great study on Psalms 119. In Psalms 119, verse 18, I found this to be my, if you will, go to verse not just for Sunday morning, but whenever I'm opening God's word. He said, open my eyes. Behold. Behold my eyes that I may behold wondrous things from your word. I want to see, I want to see that nugget. I want to understand something about you that I've never seen before. It's in the gimel section.

Okay. And the idea of that is that God's got this unbelievable provision. That's the idea of the gimel. It's literally like a rich man. It looks like a rich man. It's literally like a rich man. It looks like a foot. And it's running to catch the poor man, to give him something that was stolen, which that is the Dalit.

So the gimel is running after the Dalit to give it something that it was stolen. And so really, I mean, when you think about that he's going to give you, God is going to give you something so you can behold the wondrous thing. And therein lies, doesn't that soften up your soil every time? Yes.

Yes. So for me, I would encourage a listener, pray Psalms 119.18 as you're headed to church. And when we come back, I'm going to give you something to pray for your pastor. And if there's pastors listening, call us and tell us how you get your people prepared to hear the word. We would love to hear from you.

Yes, we would. 1-8-6-6-3-4-8-7-8-8-4. Give us a call. This is the Truth Network. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Wade Carson here.

Gave the Word. And with Robbie Gilmore, the Christian car guy, we're talking with you about the parable of the sower and how to have a heart that is ready to receive God's Word. And as we've been talking, there's these components of the soil that we can have that's going to cause us to miss out on what God has for us. There's going to be spiritual warfare and we're not ready for it and Satan's going to steal the Word and we miss out. We're going to have a shallow heart. We're not going to be real.

We're not going to be genuine. And because we don't allow our brokenness, the Word doesn't get in there and the trial overwhelms us. There's going to be those things of the world. Instead of being focused on the things of the Word, we're focused on the things of the world. Instead of giving ourselves to that which is eternal, we're giving ourselves to the temple, the things that are passing away and we miss out. But if we get a soil, a heart that is plowed and fresh and soft, God's Word goes in and Jesus wants us to be fruitful and that's the key.

The seed's got to get implanted. And so just a couple thoughts for you as you prepare your heart for whether it's hearing the Word, hearing the sermon, you've got to remember James chapter 1 tells us that we need to lay aside all filthiness. And that means when I'm coming to God's Word, confessing those sins, being honest with God, I blew it.

I was wrong. Get those weeds out of the way. And then we said, you want to be praying a prayer. Psalms 119 18. Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things, wondrous things from your Word. And then I like to ask people to consider having a mindset that the people of God had in Nehemiah's day, Robbie. And Nehemiah, they're working on the wall, but there's also the rebuilding of the heart. We've got the rebuilding of a wall for the outside, but Ezra comes along and he's teaching the Word and it says in Nehemiah 8 3 that as he read the Word of God, as he taught the Word of God, it says that the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

And I just curious, what is your thought of, what does it mean to be attentive? And that cool, like I was studying that and we talked about it earlier this week in 1 Samuel where, you know, the whole bleeding of sheep passage, right? And what, you know, first, what Samuel tells Saul is he'd obviously disobeyed God was God, what he delights in and the word delight that he uses is the same word in the Lord's prayer that is referred to as will. So it's almost like thy delight be done. Well, what is the Lord delight in according to Samuel?

To solve the light be done, right? The light is in obedience and the hearkening, which is by the way, attended this and the hearkening to your work. And so, and the and the word for obedience is Shema, it's, you know, like Deuteronomy 6, like the famous passage, Hear O Israel. Well, hear, hear and then hearken. And hear has to do with obey, but it also has to do with just playing hear.

Listen, my son, Proverbs says that. Right. It's the same word, Shema. And that's the reason why Samuel was saying it is that was a prayer that they prayed every morning, first thing when their feet hit the ground and every night before they hit the bed. And when they went through the door, they kissed, you know, the mezuzah, which had the Shema on it, which was again, Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And, and, you know, that, that's a huge deal.

And to me, you know, it's really, really cool to think, wow, I, you know, this isn't hard. I can get him to the light if I just simply listen, obey and hearken. Well, as we think about having that fourth soil, that's rich and fertile, that's ready to receive the word, we've got to prepare ourselves just like a farmer would be preparing the ground so that he can plant corn and he can plant wheat. Our hearts need to be with a preparedness to be attentive. And I would say this, listeners, one of the ways you're going to be able to receive God's word really well is if you're praying for your pastor. And in First Thessalonians, chapter three, the Apostle Paul said, night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again. Pastors want to see you in church on Sunday.

Absolutely. And supply what is lacking to your faith. Now, as a pastor, Robby, you as a pastor, what we want to do is bring to God's people what they need.

So I'm praying for that. But as a person who's also sits in the pew, as one that attends church, I'm not always pastoring, not always preaching. There are times I'm praying, Lord, for the pastor that's preaching, I want to hear a word from you. And I'm telling you, friends, if you will have that mindset of I'm going to go to church on Sunday, having prayed for my pastor to supply something my faith needs, you're going to go with a whole different mindset with your heart. Your heart's going to come in going, I'm ready to receive what God has to say to me. We're talking about the parable of the sword.

What kind of heart do you have? And we have a caller here. Yeah. But he's coming in, but it's kind of cool to think that, you know, clearly, if you're going to try to grow a crop, you got to have some water and a little living water comes in pretty handy.

Well, I think of that water, too, as the prayers. And I believe this is some guy named Stu. Oh, Stu.

Hi, Stu. You're on Truth Talk Live. What do you have for us? Well, I'm driving down the road, and I'm just listening to two guys that are blessing my socks off, and it reminds me, and I'm thankful for a godly mom and dad who sowed God's Word into me when I was just a little fella. And I just tell you, that's impacted my life, and it's impacted everything that I'm doing now, and every day I get an email from the guy that I'm hearing on the radio, Dr. Dwayne Carson, date the Word, and he's sowing the Word of God into me with that date, the Word, and you guys are just a blessing. And I just wanted to thank you for doing this today and for encouraging me. I've been driving, I've been listening to you non-stop from Raleigh, Durham, Mebane, and now I'm coming through Greensboro.

It's a little bit rainy, but I'll take 64 degrees in Greensboro today as opposed to 24 degrees. Absolutely. Well, Stu, we studied this this morning in your study, and to watch, I don't know what there was, 100 men out there, and they were jumping up and down with the excitement that took place, the Spirit of God in that place, in what God has done with His Word right at Dario. And what made it really special this morning was how many men were talking about how their hearts had changed. They weren't talking about someone else's heart needed to change. They were telling stories about how their heart changed, and we can have that hard heart, and we can have that heart that is being choked out with other things, but we can make decisions to have a heart that will receive what the Word of God has.

And Stu, I'm thankful for someone like you. You're pouring into me, and I go back, you talk about your parents. I had parents, grandparents, but I had some neighbors, neighbors that poured into me, and the first time I ever heard Psalms 1 was at an invitation of a man in the church who said, boy, get in your truck and follow me down to my house. And I went down there and sat down at his kitchen table. His wife brought me a piece of cake, some coffee, and he said, take your Bible and turn to Psalms 1.

And he said, now read it. I want you by next Sunday night to have memorized it, and I'm going to tell you this will become the foundation of your life. You've got to learn how to delight in the Word of God and meditate on it not once a month, not once a week, not even once.

You've got to meditate on it day and night. And that changed my life, getting the Word in and people being willing to share. We need to be not only receiving the Word, we need to be sowing the Word. Darrell Bock And Stu and I both had a mentor by the name of Ted, and he sat down with me across the dealership desk and said those exact same words for that exact same Psalm. Stu It's the foundation.

Listeners, read Psalms 1. Ted Chisholm Yeah, I was a senior in high school. I had about maybe 20 college basketball scholarship offers, mostly the smaller schools. I had a couple small D1s offer me. I had a couple bigger schools wanting me to walk on. And I didn't know where I was going to school.

And it was like, you know, early part of the second semester of my senior year. And mom and dad took me up to this Christian camp that they were on the board of. And this golly man named John took me in a room just like this guy did for you, Doc, and just like Ted did for you and me, Robbie. And he wrote Psalm 1 on the chalkboard. And he said, Stu Jr., memorize this right now. I'm like, what are you giving me something else to memorize?

I need even book work. I'm trying to get into college. I don't know.

All these annoying adults, like where are you going to college? And I memorized it, and it changed my whole life. Because the Word of God really got in me, and His delight is in the law of the Lord. In His law, He meditates day and night.

And I thank God for this guy, John. And now I try to get young people everywhere, because what happens is, when you align your heart, Psalm 37 4 says it this way, delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart, because as His Word gets in you, what happens? His Word starts to color and starts to change your word and your heart and your thoughts, and it's so powerful. So how are you hearing the Word? How are you receiving it? How are you then sharing it?

And I love how you started the program up. How are you under the teaching of God's Word? Well, my church doesn't teach the Word. Well, that's not a church. No church that feeds you the Word, that disciples you, and then that advances and promotes a discipleship culture that is Word-based. Talk about Scripture. Study Scripture. In your family, in your home, in your life, guys, His Word.

Jesus said, if you abide in Me and My Word abides in you, ask anything you want, and it'll be given, because it's His powerful Word, man. You guys are such a blessing. Thank you, Steve. I'm so used to, obviously, just amazing to be able to do this.

Yes. This is Truth Talk Live. We're so glad you joined us today. I would say to you, read and memorize Psalm 1. Truth Talk Live! Another program powered by the Truth Network.