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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Well, welcome to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson, the founder of the ministry Date the Word. And it's my joy to be your host today. And today is the start of a new month, the month of July. And when you hear July, I got to believe like me, you think, the 4th of July. And yes, in just three days, we're going to be celebrating our nation's 248th birthday.
248 years. Now, without question, we are not and have never been a perfect nation. But we have, over these centuries, been an incredibly blessed nation. One of the pastors at the church I attended yesterday challenged us to take time on the 4th of July to give thanks to God for the rich blessings we do enjoy. The freedoms, for instance, the freedoms we have to worship. And that's one of the most important freedoms that you and I do have because of a group of people getting together in 1776 created a document called the Declaration of Independence.
I do have a question that I want to put out there, a trivia question. It's somewhat connected to the 4th of July. As you know, the Declaration of Independence was adopted at the Second Continental Congress.
So since there's a second one, that means there had to be a first. The First Continental Congress is going to meet on September the 5th through October 26, 1774. And it's going to meet in a place called Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. And as they got together and they're getting started, a man by the name of John Cushing, he is from Boston.
And there's a lot of things happening in Boston. He thinks it's a good idea that they would open in prayer. And that led to a discussion, that led to a debate, and then a decision that the Continental Congress would begin each day with an opening prayer. Future President John Adams would then enlist Reverend Jacob Duchay. He was the rector of the Christ Church of Philadelphia.
And then he would come. And there on September the 7th, 1774, at 9 AM, he's going to open Congress with prayer. But now before he prayed, he read a psalm. Here's the trivia question for today headed to the 4th of July. On July the 1st here, here's my question. What psalm was read before the first prayer was offered at the First Continental Congress?
If you know the answer, I want you to call us at 1-866-348-7884, 1-866-348-7884. If you know the answer, which psalm was read before the pastor prayed at the First Continental Congress? Well, today is July the 1st. And as we consider the truth, the word of God, as we think about July the 7th month, today I want us to consider what I'm calling the magnificent 7, the magnificent 7. In my ministry, The Date, The Word, we look for unique ways for you to think about God's word so that it might be more memorable to you. So with July being the 7th month, we're going to look at chapter 7s. And there's some really awesome, shall we say, magnificent chapter 7s out there. For instance, Matthew chapter 7, we're going to look at that in just a moment, but we have a call here. Buckman is on with, I think, the answer.
Buckman? How are you, Pastor Carson? Man, I'm doing awesome.
How are you doing? I'm loving the Ohio weather that our Lord's blessing us with over here, Pastor Carson. Well, you must not have it as hot as we do. Because right now, it is blazing hot in the South. And I just did a wedding up in Virginia. And the photographer told me as a pastor, said you might want to let everybody know if they think it is hot now, it could get a whole lot hotter for them.
Yeah, we got blessed. We had a hot weekend. And then it got down kind of chilly this morning. And then the highs only got up into the mid 80s with no humidity. So I'll tell you what, Pastor.
Praise the Lord for Ohio weather. Yeah, so I think I know. I think I know, brother. All right. And I'm in the busmobile. This is literally off the top of my head.
I have not Googled anything. I'm driving right now. So I'm going to take a stab at it, brother Carson.
I'm going to say Psalm number one. Oh, you're a little bit off. You're a little bit off. OK, all right. Well, I thought I'd throw it out there. And I was kind of reading the numbers. And I thought, you know, Psalm one is a very good Psalm.
Oh, it's phenomenal. Yeah, so I thought maybe that's what our founding fathers did. But for Busman in Ohio, we'll wait and see what the right answer is. All right. If you find it later, call back. Thanks for your call. Will do.
Will do. God bless. So Busman did not know what the first Psalm was. Psalm one's a good guess.
But now you give us a call. If you know which Psalm was read, it has a whole lot to do with what will happen once we end up in a revolutionary war. Now, back to us taking a look at the Magnificent Sevens. Magnificent Seven, that's a TV show, movie.
I just watched it the other night. When you think about Magnificent Seven, chapter sevens, Matthew Chapter seven has to be, I think, I think at the top of the list, why would we say that? Well, when you look at Matthew seven, Jesus is giving the greatest sermon ever preached.
He himself is preaching this. And when we come back from our break, we're going to talk about why this chapter is so important for us as believers to know. And then we're going to look at the other six Magnificent Sevens that we have for the day. We'll be right back. This is Truth Talk Live. Well, welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
I'm Duane Carson. And today we are talking about the Magnificent Seven. It's July and the seventh month. So we're thinking about chapter sevens in our Bible. And there are quite a few of them.
And they're magnificent. For instance, when you think about Matthew seven, you're going to get the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is going to teach. And we're going to get the Beatitudes. And we're going to get, we've heard certain things taught. But he says unto us, there's a greater meaning to what scripture is saying.
And we've got to understand the heart of the issue. And he'll give the Lord's Prayer. And he'll tell us not to worry. He'll tell us to seek first his kingdom.
And then there's going to be, there's a narrow way. And then he's going to talk about, you'll know them by their fruits. And as he wraps up the sermon, he says these words. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house.
And it did not fall for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears my sayings and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house.
And it fell and great was its fall. Now, as Jesus wraps up his sermon, he gives us this important principle that he expects us to be doers of the word. Now, are you a wise person or a foolish person? And if you'll take time to read Matthew chapter seven, you're going to be reminded of how important it is to not just be a hearer, but a doer, not just a learner, but one who lives the word. So the first magnificent seven I want to give you for July is Matthew seven.
And then I'm going to go ahead and give you the other six and then we'll dive into each one for just a few moments. Proverbs chapter seven is my next one. Then there's Ecclesiastes seven, Revelation seven, 1 Samuel seven, Micah seven, and Ezra seven. Now, there are 31 chapter sevens for July 31 days, but these are the seven that I really think are just absolutely incredible, magnificent. So we call them the magnificent seven.
And as I've given them, you may want to call in and comment on your thoughts on this. We're also looking for someone to call in and tell us what was the first psalm that was read at the First Continental Congress back in September the seventh, 1774. When I say magnificent seven, Proverbs seven, why would I go with Proverbs seven? Well, Proverbs seven is going to give us wisdom to stay away from wicked women. The wisdom to stay away from wicked women. It's the wisdom that a young man needs to stay away from immorality. It is a chapter on purity, and it pleads with a young man to know the dangers that he's going to face if he gets involved with immorality.
The world sells us a product saying that there's no problem with sex outside of marriage. There is a ton of problems that come when someone is involved with sex outside of marriage, the bounds of marriage, and Proverbs seven lays that out. But now listen, Proverbs seven doesn't start though with the teaching for this young man to stay away from this wicked woman. It starts with an appeal for the young man to get to know God's word. Proverbs seven verse one says, my son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you.
Did you hear that word? Treasure my commands. Keep my commands and live. In other words, God's word is going to help prevent that destruction that comes with sin if you keep his commandments. And my law as the apple of your eye, something that is so special. And then verse three, bind them to your fingers, write them on the tablets of your heart. So as I look at Proverbs seven as a magnificent seven, I see this chapter that's calling me to get to know God's word. And so I got to ask you, are you memorizing God's word? Are you writing God's word on your heart?
It's the truth here. We're not going to be victorious over sin in our own strength. How shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to God's word? Your word have I had in my heart that I may not sin against thee. I'm a huge believer in the spiritual disciplines. And part of that spiritual discipline is reading God's word, hearing God's word, but also memorizing God's word.
You want to be disciplined to memorize. And Proverbs chapter seven, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablets of your heart. So here's Proverbs chapter seven for us as a magnificent seven. And then I want to take us to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Now, Ecclesiastes seven has some very interesting verses in it. And it'll start off with telling us about how that that. A person's death, the day of a person's death is the better than the beginning. There's just something about a conclusion that's going to now move us into eternity. But then verse two sung Ecclesiastes seven to says, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men and the living will take it to heart. Wow.
What a verse of contrast. We look at life and say, who wants to go to a house of mourning? Who wants to go to a funeral home? I want to go to a party. I want a Fourth of July fireworks party.
I want to have ballpark hot dogs and hamburgers. I want to have a good time. Well, all of a sudden, Ecclesiastes says the wisdom here is better to go to the house of mourning.
Why is that? Because at this house of mourning, the funeral home, it becomes a schoolroom where people begin to learn things about life that they had not really been maybe thinking about. And I have a testimony here. This past Friday night, I was at the schoolroom called the funeral home. I was in Madison Heights, Virginia. And I was conducting a funeral on a Friday night of one of my best friends growing up, his name Mike Moore. Mike had just suddenly died.
He had a heart attack and died. And now on a Friday night, we were at a funeral home to do his funeral. And before we'd gotten there talking with his wife, his wife told me that Mike had gotten saved, listen, at a funeral. And I want to just tell you, a funeral is a tremendous place to share the gospel. And my friend came to know the Lord because of what it said in Ecclesiastes 7, 2.
So Ecclesiastes 7 is making my list of the magnificent seven. And when we come back, we're going to talk more about some other magnificent seven and why they are so incredible. This is Truth Talk Live. And we're so glad you're with us. Well, welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson. And just a quick reminder, our ministry is called Date the Word. My wife and I have started this.
This is their third anniversary now of Date the Word. And for instance, on Date the Word, today is July the 1st, 7-1. So we have a verse for 7-1, 2 Corinthians 7-1. 2 Corinthians 7-1 says, therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7-1 reminds us of our personal responsibility to be part of the process of sanctification.
And we do that by asking God to examine ourselves so that we can be cleansed, so that we can live holy lives. And we have a website, www.datetheword.com. And you can go there. We have a way that you can get a daily devotion every day, sent right to your email. You subscribe for it. We have an app.
Go to your app store, Date the Word, download it. You can see all the different verses we have for every date. You want to give someone a birthday verse, go right to that app.
Go to the website. And you can see the different ways we have it. Well, you can go to the calendar, and you can see the verse for any person's birthday, for your birthday. Date the Word. We'd love for you to be a part of our ministry and just grow in getting to know the Word. Now, Bucksman from Ohio is back on.
And he may have the answer now to what Psalm was read at the First Continental Congress. Bucksman, I'm clicking. Let's see.
Do I have you on? There you are, sir. Hey. OK, now with your little hints earlier, Pastor Carson, I think I know what Psalm it is now. All right. All right, I'm going to throw this out to talk live. And please, somebody call in and correct it if it isn't it. But this is going to be, I called a friend, Pastor Carson. No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to say, based on what was going on, and I love our American history, brother.
I do. This is why I really want to challenge myself to come up with the right song. I'm going to say, Pastor Carson, it was Psalm 91, Psalm 91. Oh, you went too far this time. Oh, you didn't go far enough the first time.
And now you really went too far. OK, you know what? Because, well, since you have an interest in the history, I'm going to tell you which one it was. It was Psalm 35, Psalm 35. And here's how it opens. Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Now, it's got, let's see, 28 more verses. But it's a psalm that this pastor read because he was an Anglican pastor, and they read from the Book of Common Prayers. And that was the chapter for that day. So he came in, and so before he would pray, he read that psalm, which then would talk about asking God to protect them and guide them and to cause their enemies to fail. And it really became a foundation for the Revolutionary War of how God would work one miracle after another.
But they were looking to God. And then this pastor did something very unique because usually in the Anglican church they had everything laid out. Well, he went into an extemporaneous prayer, praying for this new Continental Congress for wisdom and that they would be able to do what was right in the sight of God.
You just Google that, check it out. But it's really cool that, again, to this day, Congress opens with prayer every day. And this goes back to what happened September the 6th as John Adams and those guys discussed and debated and then decided we're going to have prayer. And then this is how it all started, Psalm 35, and then an incredible prayer. So I will make a note of that, Pastor Carson.
You took me to school. I'm going to read that totally different now, knowing that that was our very first Psalm, and it was the Second Continental Congress. No, this is the first one. This is the first one. Oh, this is the first one. Do we know what the Second Continental Congress was when they come into being?
We don't know. At that point, it was just the prayer. It's just interesting that at this one that there was the reading of Psalm 35. And they got that from the Book of Common Prayer, which was what those folks used. Remember, those were instituted by the king of the day. And because John Bunyan did not go along with the Book of Common Prayer, that's why he got put in prison and ended up writing that wonderful work, Pilgrim's Progress. That's right, that's right. So, wow, that was, you took me to school on that, Pastor Carson. Well, and again, it's not so much for the Fourth of July, but it lays the foundation for what would happen at the Fourth of July.
Absolutely amazing. Well, I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July as you think on this and Psalm 35. And we're now looking at these magnificent sevens, and I don't know if you're catching my drift here, but there's some great chapter sevens that we can really spend some time pondering and meditating on.
I'm getting ready to take us now to Revelation chapter seven. So, Buckman, thanks for your call. You have a great day up there in Ohio. You too, God bless, Troop Talk Live.
Love you guys, bye-bye. All right, we're now looking at magnificent sevens for July, seven great chapters, seven magnificent chapters from the Bible. We've looked at Matthew 7, Sermon on the Mount, concluding Proverbs 7, wisdom to a young man to stay away from wicked women. Ecclesiastes 7, it's better to go, it's better to go to a funeral home than to go to a place where there's a lot of partying and everybody's having a great time because there's wisdom there.
We learn about life. Now, Revelation chapter seven. You may be remembering that this is where we find the 144,000, but it's at the end that I really love Revelation seven. It says that before the throne, there was a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, people, tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palm branches in the hand and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped, saying amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
What a doxology. What a picture of worship in heaven. What are we gonna do in heaven? We're gonna be worshiping the lamb. And then it wraps up chapter seven with as people are before the throne, serving him day and night, it says, they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst for the sun shall not strike them nor any heat for the lamb who's in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. We're gonna have a shepherd in heaven, Jesus Christ and lead them to the living fountains of water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
You've heard that phrase, God wipes away the tears. Well, that's in Revelation 7, 17. So a great chapter, a magnificent chapter seven, Revelation 7, and now I wanna take us to 1 Samuel 7. 1 Samuel 7, we know our nation needs revival and our world needs revival. Well, in 1 Samuel, we get a great picture of how a revival can come about. Samuel in verse three says, he spoke to the house of Israel saying, if you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away your foreign gods and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.
So the children of Israel put away their false gods and served the Lord only. I'm telling you, not long ago, I just got really consumed with this idea of what does only mean? And so I started looking at different verses in our Bible about only and folks, only means only, there's only one.
You don't have any other. When I did a wedding not long ago, to cleave unto you and to you only was part of the vows. Man is not to have, a husband's not to have multiple wives, a wife is not to have multiple husbands. So husband and wife, the two shall become one. Only, only one.
When you think about our problems here in America and we do have them, well, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart and our heart needs to get rid of these idols that we have. Well, we're gonna be back in just a moment and we're gonna look at the last couple of Magnificent Sevens. This is Truth Talk Live on July the 1st. July is here, the seventh month, Magnificent Sevens. Join us back in just a few minutes after these announcements. Truth Talk Live.
Well, welcome back to our last segment of Truth Talk Live and you know, the announcements, these advertisements, they're just loaded with truth and we've heard some great truth today. Johnny just now gave you Deuteronomy seven and that's not one of my Magnificent Sevens but that's one of the sevens for the month of July and I hope you'll think about reading your Bible just a little different. One of the ways would be to read chapter sevens. This is a Bible study we're putting together with Date the Word and so here we have the Magnificent Sevens and today we've been looking at Matthew chapter seven. What a great chapter to just make sure you understand how important it is to be a hearer and a doer as Jesus wrapped up that great sermon. A wise man is the doer, the foolish man hears.
Oh, we have a lot of foolish people. I just wanna throw in a question for you. Yesterday you were in church, I hope you heard a sermon.
Have you started applying it? Have you started putting what you heard into action? That's what Jesus would want from Matthew seven and then Proverbs seven, that wisdom to stay away from immorality, Ecclesiastes seven, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to a house of a big party because that's where the wisdom is. In Revelation seven, what a picture of worship as we just cry out, worthy is the lamb. First Samuel seven, a picture for revival and first Samuel seven 15 speaks of how Samuel gave solid leadership to Israel and you know what we need right now in America is in every area, not just political, don't just think political, in every area, in the home, we need solid leadership. In schools, we need solid leadership.
In churches, we need solid leadership. That's in chapter seven and now I wanna bring you to Micah chapter seven and one reason I go to Micah is it has two incredible verses for sure of that whole chapter. Micah seven seven says, therefore I will look to the Lord, I will wait for God of my salvation, my God will hear me.
Now, here you've got a tremendous declaration, a declaration of dependence on God. Someone wrote this years ago, if you wanna be dismayed, look ahead, if you wanna be defeated by life, look back, if you wanna be distressed, look within, if you wanna be distracted, look around, if you wanna be discouraged, look to others but if you wanna be delivered, look up. Micah was choosing to look up and who was he looking up to? He said, I am looking up to the Lord, I will look to the Lord. Who is your help gonna come from, look to the Lord and then that other component, he said, I will wait. Oh, I hate that word, I hate that word to wait, four letter word but Micah said, I will wait, I'm gonna let God work things out, I'm gonna wait for God to work and that reminds us of Isaiah 40 verse 31, those who wait on the Lord will have their strength renewed, listen, wait on the Lord and then Micah 7 18, it says that who is a God like you? Just ponder on that for a moment, who is a God like our God?
He pardons iniquity, passes over transgressions of the remnant of his heritage, he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy and as I think about great chapters in the Bible, Micah 7, here I'm challenged to think about how great is our God, is there any God like him who does what he does, a God that is so holy yet so full of mercy and he delights in doing mercy. So these different chapters, chapter seven, magnificent sevens and then the last one for today, Ezra chapter seven, Ezra chapter seven, we got this great man of God who's coming back to Jerusalem, bringing back some people, they're gonna rebuild the temple, he's got responsibilities that the king has given and then we get this verse in Ezra chapter seven verse 10, then Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. Now for us at Date the Word, this becomes one of our key verses because here's an example of what we want every person to be, Ezra prepared his heart, that reminds us to go to James where James says, lay aside all filthiness so you can receive the word.
Growing up on a farm, I understood how important it was for us as we planted the seed, we had to cultivate the ground. You had to get the weeds out and you had to get the ground so that that seed could be implanted and so there's a preparation part of being sanctified. As you get into the word, the word sanctifies you and you've gotta be sanctified so the word can get in you, it's kind of a two-sided coin, gotta do both and you're saying, Lord, I understand, I've got these sins, I can't have them in my life, I gotta confess them, I gotta get them right and now Lord, I need your word in my life. He prepared his heart, he had his mind where I wanna hear your word, God. And then it said that he would seek the law, the idea thereof to study, to know, to understand and there is some work that has to take place. Paul told Timothy, study to show yourself approved, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We're to dive into God's word and study it.
It's a dangerous thing to come to the word of God and not be serious about your study. Someone said, well, why don't you just open your Bible, put your finger down and see what verse it lands on and then go do it. Well, someone did that and said that they put their finger down on a verse that said, and Judas went out and hung himself. Well, that's not a verse we need to be applying and then someone else, then he said, well, I'm gonna try another verse, so he put his finger down and says, what they'll do is go down and do likewise.
Well, wait a minute, that doesn't work, so we did it again and it says, what they'll do is do quickly. Well, you can totally misinterpret scripture. Satan tried that with Jesus, telling him scripture, but he wasn't telling it in context, so we have to study it. Ezra was studying God's word, but then he submitted to God's word. He submitted to God's word.
The teacher put his own lesson into practice. He's not just someone who is telling others how to live, he's living it himself and that is so crucial these days. For us to be disciplers, we need to be authentic.
We need to be real. Here's Ezra, who now says he is going to do what God's word says. Your life is your greatest lesson. Now, that could be a bad lesson if you're not doing the right things and people can learn to do the wrong things.
You wanna be careful. Listen, your life is a lesson to others. Let them see the light from you. Let them learn how to live the right way.
Let your children walk in your shoes, walk in your footsteps. We have Ezra who is now, he is submitting to the word and then it's said and to teach the statutes and the ordinances to Israel. Ezra becomes a discipler. He is sharing God's word. And as strong as I can make this to you, we are to be learners who are living the word of God, but also we're supposed to be sharing it with other people. A disciple, as you are discipled, you make disciples. I had a guy today send me a message on Facebook about how he's been discipling and he used a phrase that I give him years ago. He said, I'm discipling them to disciple others.
Please hear me today. As you are studying God's word, remember you don't just study for you, you study for others so that you can be teaching them, training them. Parents, you're supposed to be teaching God's word in your home so that they learn the principles of scripture, the commandments of scripture from your lap, from your table.
You are their first teacher, parents. And so from Ezra, we're learning an example. Here's a man who sanctified himself. He prepared himself to hear the word of God, to receive the word of God. And then he studied it. He got into it, he rightly divided the word of truth. And then from that, he himself submitted. He was a doer, a practitioner of the word.
And then from that, he began to share it with others. And that's what we want you to be, Truth Talk listeners. We want you to be a disciple maker. You are sent to share the gospel and you're sent to share what God has been teaching you, making disciples wherever you go. So we're starting off July, and we're starting off with Magnificent Seven. We've got seven chapters we want you to be thinking about where the truth of God lies. Matthew chapter seven, Proverbs chapter seven, Ecclesiastes chapter seven, Revelation chapter seven, First Samuel seven, Micah seven, and Ezra seven. These chapters, if you'll read them, I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna get truth put into your life, and little by little, as the word comes in, your life gets transformed.
Application brings about transformation. We are now getting closer to the Fourth of July, and I hope that you will have a wonderful Independence Day. I hope you'll have a time of just giving thanks to God for a great nation that we live in. And it has been a joy to be with you today. Truth Talk Live, celebrate your freedom in Christ. The Lord bless, and the Lord keep you.
