God, I pray right now, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would come; that it would open up our ears, God; that it would open up our minds, Lord—because, God, Your Word is something that is so unseen in this world. God, it is powerful. It is supernatural. It’s not something to just be heard; it’s something that is supposed to go deep, deep inside of our hearts. So, Father, we open up our arms to Your Word this day, Lord. God, may Your Holy Spirit come and do its work this day. In Your mighty name we pray. Amen.

I was recently at my elderly aunt’s house up in Vermont last week, and it was funny because she’s getting ready to move, and she’s trying to—she’s like going through closets and storage containers and sheds that probably haven’t been opened in like 50 years. So she’s trying to clean some stuff out, and she’s trying to offload some stuff. So she was coming to me and asking me if I could use things—if I wanted to take them.

So she’s going through, and she pulls out like an old camera, and she holds it in her hand. She’s like, “Well, you can use this, right? You can take pictures of a baby with it, right?” And I was kind of like, “No.” I call her “Aye.” I’m like, “No, Aye—I can’t, you know, use that because I have a cell phone, and I just got to pull it out, and I always have it on me. I’ve kind of developed past that. We kind of don’t use those things anymore.”

She’s like, “Oh, okay, okay.” And then she started handing me more stuff. At that point, I just started feeling bad, so I started taking it, but it was kind of funny. Some of this stuff—like she handed me a little model Lamborghini, and you hit a button and the thing pops open, and you put VHS tapes in it and close it, and it rewinds the tapes for you. You know what I mean? Like, we don’t need those anymore, right? Like, I have on demand. I can go forward and backward as I please. It’s pretty easy now.

And then she handed me a book on things to fix around the house. She’s like, “You know, Kris—you know,” she’s 93—she’s like, “You’re a young man now, and you have a house, and you got to know how to fix stuff.” And I said, “Thank you,” and I took it. But really, I could go on YouTube at any second and look at 50 different ways on how to fix anything in my house that I could possibly run into.

The truth is that I was going through these things and I was laughing, because you’ll never see these things again. We’ve developed past them. As a culture and as a society, you’ll never again see a Lamborghini VHS rewinder because they’re just not needed anymore. I just laughed about how we’ve come so far that you never even think to look for these things anymore. They’re gone. We’ve developed past them.

And as I was preparing my sermon this week, God gave me the title: An Old Word in a Modern World. So often we think that we’ve developed past so many things. We’ve come to a place now where we don’t need the Word of God, where we’ve come to a place where the Word of God is kind of an older thing. It was great for my grandparents. It was great for my great-grandparents. But, you know, today’s age, we’ve kind of almost grown past it.

The truth is, that’s the biggest lie in the world. The Word of God is alive and it is active. The Word of God is powerful, and it is 100% relative to 100% of the situations we face every single day. The Word of God does not get old. We do not develop past it, but we have left it behind in so many areas. You know, the Word of God is just as powerful today as it was the day it was spoken. It is still transforming lives. No other word, no other thing is like that. You’ll never find anything else in this world that is still affecting people. Thousands of years ago it was spoken, yet thousands of years later, it is still transforming lives today. That is the Word of God.

"The Word of God is alive and it is active."

So today I want to speak about really what the Word of God is, how it helps you navigate this world, how it’s so prevalent in society, how if you take up the Word today and you live by it, you will be successful in all you do.

The Word of God today is the secret that makes a man prosper in this world. People look at it like it’s an old thing. People look at it like it’s no longer relevant. But let me tell you today that if you take up the Word of God this day—if you open it up and you eat it and you take it in and you live by it—you will find success at every corner.

If you live by the Word of God, you will find you’ll always be on the top and never on the bottom. If you open up and live by that Word of God, you will come out the other end and you will not be burnt; the viper will not bite your heel. Amen?

We’re going to be reading from Nehemiah 8. First point we’re going to be talking about today is that the Word builds walls of influence. So we’re going to be starting at verse 2: “So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of men and women and all who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.”

So if we look in our history, the Jews had been captured. They had been taken over by the Babylonians. And they had been captured, and they had been taken out of Jerusalem and shipped off back to Babylon. So they lived in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. And that was a prophecy that went before them that said for 70 years you’ll be held in the hands of Babylon. So literally to 70 years—and you can look it up in the Bible—I mean, it’s amazing, the prophecies that went forward and that they came true, and they were released from captivity.

But at that point, the Persian king had taken over Babylon. So there’s this Persian king named Cyrus, and he said, “Look, you guys can go back to your homeland, or you can stay—whatever you want.” So the Jews at that point were so built up into Babylonian and Persian society, they had carved out themselves a space and they were living comfortably for the most part, even to the point where a lot of them held high office inside the Persian government—which is what we saw with Nehemiah.

He was a high cupbearer, which is a very high position next to the king in a Persian—in a foreign—government. So he says, “Look, you guys can go,” and he releases the Jews. And it’s a funny thing that a very small percentage of the people who were taken out decided to go back to the Holy Land. You see, they had grown comfortable in their spot. They had grown comfortable away from the Holy Land.

And then I read this verse, and it’s funny because there’s people there who had decided inside of their hearts, “No, I don’t want to stay here. I don’t care how comfortable I am. I don’t care how good I think I have things here. I know my heart is being called back to God—being called back to the Holy Land.” So there was a remnant that God kept that they went back out, and they made the really far journey back into Jerusalem, back into the Holy Land. And this is where we see the wall being built and the amazing miracles that took place.

But then it’s the funniest thing because I read this verse, and these people who had spent 70 years in another land—these are young people, because old people couldn’t make that journey. So these are the new generation coming in. And all of a sudden the Word begins to be spoken. All of a sudden Ezra opens up the Word and begins to speak. And we see in this verse that all of a sudden—from daybreak till noon—six hours—they stood attentively. They didn’t sit. They stood and listened to the Word of God. They were captivated. They were listening attentively to what was being spoken.

You see, the Word began to influence these people. It wasn’t about listening. It was about that it was influencing their hearts. And that’s the difference we miss so often. The Word is not meant to be spoken and listened to. The Word is meant to go out—be poured out from the heart. It’s supposed to be the words of God going out and influencing your heart, and influencing who you are.

"The Word is not meant to be spoken and listened to. The Word is meant to go out and… influence your heart."

The Word went out to those people and it hit them. I don’t know about you guys—I can’t listen to anything for six hours. I can’t stand for six hours. But yet they stood and they listened attentively for six hours. And as the Word was being spoken, it was hitting their heart. It was causing something to move.

I think about a people who had every reason in the world to say they outgrew God—a people who had lived in another land and seen amazing things. Babylon, their society and technology—everything, they had seen so much. If anybody can say they outgrew the Word of God, it was them. Yet they come back, and all of a sudden the Word is spoken, and it hits their ear.

I think about a podcast that I listened to, and it talked about having your ear tuned to the Word of God. The Word was being spoken, and all of a sudden their ears were tuned to it, and it began to hit their heart. That’s the influence that the Word is meant to have. The Word is meant to touch us. It’s meant to go inside deep and cause something to change.

I was at a meeting at work, and I got the opportunity to share a little bit of who I was. I got to talk about my testimony a little bit. And I began opening up, and as I’m talking, I see the eyes all of a sudden being more attentive to what I was saying, and I was taken aback. And you know, this was kind of like a turning point for me and God.

I began talking about how the characteristics that people look for in police and the values that police departments hold are so special because they come from the Constitution—and the Constitution was written from the Bible. And I began to talk about my own values and how those things have the same source.

I began to talk about loyalty and integrity and honesty, and how these things mean something to me. And I began to go forward and started talking about Honduras. I started telling my testimony about going there and crossing the border, as a lot of you guys remember that. I started talking about some of your testimonies here.

And as I was talking more and more, the people—the guys that were there—all my bosses are all just sitting there looking at me, and they were just attentive to what I was saying. And I thought, “Wow, this is amazing.”

And I got out of that meeting, and I said to God, “God, I’ve told these stories before. A lot of this stuff I’ve said multiple times. Why all of a sudden are they acting like it’s the first time they heard it? It’s not.”

And God began to speak to me. A lot of times, we try to say the right thing. We try to articulate things in the way that it should be received. But you know what? That’s man. What I found is, when I started to talk about what was inside of my heart—when I started to talk about the influence that the Word had over me—when I started to talk about how I had been changed and influenced and my life had redirected course based off of the Word of God—when I started to expose what was inside of my heart—all of a sudden there was an intention to it. All of a sudden it was influencing their attitudes. All of a sudden they were interested and they were looking.

And I said to God, “God, I missed it in the past, because I try to do it my way, but Your way is to open up the heart.” The Words that have been implanted in me that have influenced me—that they would come out and influence another—that’s what the Word of God is supposed to do. Influenced by the Word of God.

You see, when we build our own walls up, when the Word begins to influence your heart, all of a sudden you can open your heart up and begin to spill out what you have received.

I think about a flower that when it feels the sun on its petals, what does it do? It opens up. It’s the same—and the good stuff, the sweetness is exposed. And I tell you, it’s the same thing with the Word of God. As He influences you, as He comes and touches you, as your heart is changed based off of the influence that the Word has had on you, you don’t regurgitate it. We don’t just speak verses. We don’t tell you, “Oh, well, Psalms 107:6 says this.” No—we talk about what has happened inside of our heart. We talk about the verses and how they have done something inside of us. And when we open up our heart and expose the Word and what is done inside of us, it has to influence people. You see, that’s what the Word does. The Word has influence. We have not outgrown it.

I hate to tell you—we think that it’s something nice to come on a Sunday and listen to the Word of God, but that’s not supposed to be it. The Word of God is supposed to make you think. It’s supposed to make you ponder. It’s supposed to make you look at your own heart and say, “God, Your Word—I see where it’s not lining up, and I have to change to fit Your Word.”

One of the things I admire about my wife that I try to emulate in her is that, you know, we’ll be sitting at Pastor’s house, and she’ll be on the phone with somebody and talking, and I’ll see her real quiet. You know, we’ll get home, and I’ll see her praying. I’ll be like, “Hey, what’s up?”

And she’ll be like, “You know what my mom was saying? She was speaking the Word today on the phone, and I was examining my own life based off of what she was saying to somebody else.” And I said, “Why? You know, she wasn’t even talking to you.” She’s like, “It doesn’t matter.” The Word of God influences those who are open to hear it.

Are you open to hear the Word of God? No matter where it’s spoken, no matter what’s said, no matter what comes out—are you ready and open to be influenced by the Word of God this day? Because I promise you, you can say all the right words, you can try to do all the right things, but unless the Word is inside of you—unless it’s come in and done a work inside of your heart—we can’t influence the rest of the world.

It’s like somebody who has the authority to speak. I know sometimes you guys have run into people who think they know everything, right? And they’ll tell you all about different things. But when I go and I want to learn from somebody, I’m going to the professor. The kids are famous for that. They’ll tell me all about stuff that they think they know about, right? They’re 17. They know everything. It’s amazing.

But when I want to really learn something, who do I go to? I find an expert. I find someone who has been through it. When I go and a college is looking to hire somebody, they’re not going to hire one of these kids. They’re going to hire somebody who has had experience and lived it, and didn’t just read it out of a book, but had gone through it every single day—that can direct you by their experience.

I tell you today that we cannot be ones that just read out of a book. We have to be ones that have experienced it—that speak from authority, that speak from experience—ones that can rescue the rest of the world because it rescued you.

People are deaf to the Word of God. They can’t hear it. They can’t understand it. They don’t get the wisdom. But God—His Word is 100% applicable 100% of the time.

We think it has no place in our workplace. We think it has no place in our families. We think it has no place among professionals. But let me tell you today that the Word of God is 100% applicable 100% of the time. You will prosper under the Word of God.

People act like it’s obsolete. But let me tell you, when the fruit of God comes inside of your heart—when the Word changes you and starts to bear fruit inside of you—you will see all of a sudden things begin to change.

When the Word develops character in you, guess who’s going to get that promotion? Because I don’t care what people think about the Word. The fruit of God is timeless. The things of loyalty and honesty and character and strength—those things do not go out of style.When God develops those things inside of you, you will be the one on top.

When the Word develops wisdom in you, people will look to you to navigate. When the Word develops strength in you, people will look to you to see Him through the storm. That’s what the Word of God does. The Word of God influences people.

So we have to look and say, what is our area of influence today? When we think about Daniel and Esther and Nehemiah, they were all put in areas of influence and I know God has done the same thing today. Whether you’re teaching kids, whether you have employees underneath you, whether you’re running into customers every day—the fruit that God deposits inside of the heart, that when the Word influences you and changes who you are, all of a sudden you can have influence out in the world. And that is what God is calling for today.

He doesn’t want people just standing by and receiving the Word. He wants influential people who can change our communities. Like the messed up, horrible, disgusting things that happen every single day—I tell you, what is going to stand against that? What is going to stop that? It can only be the Word of God alive inside of us, changing inside of us. And when you go out, you’ll be able to influence the rest of the world.

It’s not a physical thing. It’s a spiritual thing. It’s not something you can control. It’s something you have to open up your arms to—that when all people you encounter, whether it be at your jobs, whether it be that kid that is in despair, they look to you as a pillar of strength—whether it be your employees that look to you as someone who can administer their influence with justice—guys, the Word, it’s 100% applicable, and it influences all those you are surrounded with.

I pray, the Word of God, you would be open to it today. I pray that you would open up your arms, because this old Word in a modern world will transform your surroundings.

So secondly, the Word has the power to transform. So it influences, and it also transforms. We’re going to be continuing in the Word at verse 4. It says, “Ezra, the teacher of the law, stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion.” Jump down to verse 5: “Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them. And as he opened it, all the people stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God. And all the people lifted their hands and responded, ‘Amen, Amen.’ And they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”

When you look in history at Babylon’s society, it was unbelievable. We don’t see it as much in movies. We see more like Roman and Greek culture in movies, and that’s because a lot of the ruins were left over from that time period, and Babylon was burnt to the ground, so there’s really no ruins left.

But if you look at what they did, it was unbelievable what they accomplished. Even—you go back to the Tower of Babel—when they built up, and the Tower of Babel had drainage systems. Who thought of that way back then?

And then you go forward, and there was a Greek philosopher—he was called the father of history—and he went and visited Babylon at one point. And he went to the hanging gardens and talked about how it was one of the seven wonders of the world. And you walked in and there was mechanical irrigation systems way back then. All the plants and all the gardens that were hanging down from the cathedral were all being watered mechanically. Who thinks of that all the way back then?

So these Jews are coming out of that. They have seen so much. How many of you guys have ever met somebody from the city and they feel like, “Oh, I’ve seen it all?” How many of you guys have ever rode the subway and you’re on the subway and people are singing or screaming or rolling on the floor and nobody cares, and everybody’s like sleeping on the subway, right? They’ve seen it all. Nothing affects somebody like that because they feel like they’ve seen it all.

And I think about these guys coming back and they’re like, “Wow, we’ve seen it all. You have no idea what we’ve seen in Babylon. You have no idea the wonders that we’ve seen.” And they’re coming back to this—almost for 70 years, Jerusalem was basically abandoned—and they’re walking back like, “Yeah, we’re going to go back, but you don’t understand what we’ve seen. Nothing can phase us anymore.”

And they walk, and Ezra opens up the Book, and what does it say as soon as he opened up the book? What happened? Everybody stood up as one. And I think about that.

For a people who had seen it all—for a people who had seen wonders, amazing things in another land—they came up and the very Word of God, this old book, is opened up in front of them, and they all stand as one. And in the words being spoken, and they’re shouting, “Amen, amen—let it be done. I agree. Let it be done.” And then they end up on their faces worshiping God. A people who had seen so much—what was it about the Word that made them fall down and begin to worship before God? The Word is powerful, and the Word has the power to transform.

Nothing in this world that you will ever find has the power to transform like the Word of God. No medicine, no doctor, no therapy that you go through, no conversion—nothing has the power to change somebody like the Word of God does. The Word of God is powerful, and it is active, and it is alive.

"Nothing in this world has the power to transform like the Word of God."

We think as a culture that we’ve come so far. We look at our skyscrapers, and we look at our medical technology, and we look at our computer systems, and we look how far we’ve come, and we look back and say, “Well, what could the Word have compared to that?” But that’s not true. The Word of God is powerful. The Word of God is what created the earth. It is what gave form to this world. When it was spoken out of God’s mouth, the dust came together and man came to be. The Word of God goes out and there was water, and there was light, and there were animals. There were stars and there was the moon—out of the very Word of God.

And I tell you, all those years ago when that happened, the Word of God is still transforming people. The Word of God is still creating something new. The Word of God is still going into the hearts of men.

And I get this a lot. I talk to people and I say, “Look, you know, God’s good. And, you know, if you raise your children in Him, he’ll come up.” And I hear this all the time. They say, “Well, you can still be a good person. You can still teach your kids to be good and be moral and have a sense of morality. Yet, you know, you don’t have to go to church.”

The truth is that God is the only thing that is good. We can teach our children to be good according to the world. But what’s the problem with that? It’s the world. What was good yesterday is taboo tomorrow. With the culture’s shifting sands—they’re constantly changing and constantly transforming. And people are always trying to keep up, and they’re sweating, and they’re trying to tell their kids what’s good tomorrow. And they’re like, “Well, that’s not good anymore. Now this is good.” And they’re like, “Mommy, Daddy, you said this was good yesterday.” And they’re like, “Forget that. This is new.” And things change every single day.

But let me tell you that the Word of God is eternal. The Word of God is everlasting to everlasting. The Word of God does not change. Amen?

We have to shape ourselves to the Word of God. The Word of God does not shape to us. The Word of God is eternal. It was spoken years and years and years ago. It was what created the earth, and we have the privilege of being able to come to the Word of God, open up our arms this day, and say, “God, here I am. Transform me.”

Nothing can transform a man like the Word of God. Nothing can break the power of sin than the Word of God. I don’t care what we develop as a society. I don’t care if a cell phone’s in your brain tomorrow and you can make a call with thoughts—it doesn’t matter. The Word of God is the only thing that can break the power of sin.

The Word of God is the only thing that can take a man—a young man like me—out of the clutches of hell and bring him into heaven. That is the Word of God. And we have to get our minds right and realize that the Word of God is not something we just walk into on Sunday and listen to. It’s not something to just passively graze every once in a while. The Word of God is transformative. Where it is, there is transformation. That’s just what it does.

Pastor Janeth said in the beginning, “God, let Your Word go out and do what it does.” You know what that is? That’s transformation. It goes out. It influences the heart. And it transforms us.

I think about those young men and women coming back from Babylon again. I’m sure they were bringing a little bit of Babylon with them. I’m sure as they’re walking back—they’re probably making that long journey; it was like hundreds of miles—and they’re making that long journey and they’re like, “Yeah, you know—things are going to change around here.”

And they’re walking back like, “You know, we know how things go now,” and they have that, again, 17-year-old kind of thing: “We know everything,” you know, walking back like, “We got this. You know, we got this. We’re going to go and we’re going to, you know, make things right this time, and we’re going to do things the right way.”

And they walk bringing that Babylon—that little bit of attitude, that little bit of older thinking—they’re bringing it with them. And you know what? They brought it with them right until the Word of God was spoken. Right until Ezra opened up that book, and every man, woman, and child in that place stood up as one and was attentive to the Word of God. And it was read for six hours. And at the end of it, every man and woman was on their face—worshiping God, bowing down.

You know what bowing down is? It’s saying, “God, I give up.” It’s saying, “God, my body’s dead.” It’s saying, “God, my flesh is dying.” It’s saying, “God, take it all because You are the Most High God.”

You see, in that moment, they carried that little bit of Babylon with them right until the Word was spoken. I pray today that if you have a little bit of the old with you—that a little bit of that old man, a little bit of that old thinking, a little bit of that old mindset of what you deserve and what you’re entitled to and what you think it should be—I pray today that you would come to the Word of God, that you would bow down to the Word of God, that you would open up your arms and say, “God, here I am. Let Your Word come in and transform me.” Because that’s what the Word does. We need to let Babylon die this day.

I know a lot of you guys have amazing testimonies about the transformation that God has done in so many of your lives. And I could almost pick it out and just go through the testimonies because I’ve seen it.

You know, I said, “God, why is the testimony so powerful? It says, “you’ll overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony.” Why is the testimony so powerful?” And God began to speak to me about that. And you know, He was showing me that we think of the Word of God so often as, you know, a verse—and we open up our Bibles—and it absolutely is. But you know, the Word of God goes further than that.

When we begin to take the Word in and it goes inside of our hearts, and it influences who we are, and we begin to make decisions based off of it, and we begin to raise our families based off of it, and we begin to treat our husbands and wives different because of it, and when we begin to lower ourselves because of it, and it begins to transform who we are—you see, all of a sudden we can bring that out.

And I tell you, our testimony—it opens up our hearts and brings out the good stuff. It brings out the Word of God. When you are speaking about God’s transformative power—not for glory for yourself, not so everybody looks at you—but when you are just speaking the raw Word of what God has done inside of you, and His amazing power, and His transformation—when you begin to speak that, you are speaking the Word of God.

That testimony has influence. That testimony has power. That testimony goes out because it proves God to be true. I think about Jesus Christ. He came and He did miracles—why? To prove His testimony was true. To show that He was the Son of God. We are testimony. We use it to say we are true. The Word has to come into your hearts. The Word has to go deep. It has to do something and it has to transform who you are. Why? So we can show God’s Word to be true.

That’s how God’s Word is relevant. People look at it and say, “How can it put food on my table? How could it rescue my marriage? How can it help my kids that are broken down and in despair? How can it help any of those things? How can the Word—opening up a book in black and white—how could it help those? How can it help that?”

But let me tell you today, the Word of God is transformation. I don’t care what your situation is. I don’t care where you came from. I don’t care what you’ve been through. The Word of God brings transformation.

It teaches a man to be successful. It brings you through. It does a work inside of you. It changes you at the depths and core of who you are so that you no longer have to remain the same. It breaks the powers of sin. It pulls you out of the grave. It takes you out of hell and transplants you into heaven.

The Word of God is transformative. My prayer today is that the Word—that you would open up your arms to the transformative Word of God.

And finally, the Word has the power to bring about salvation. Let’s read Nehemiah 8:10–12. Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have none prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

“The Levites calmed the people, saying, ‘Be still, for today is a holy day. Do not grieve.’ Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.”

You know, we look at this verse and see that the words being spoken and the people are starting to grieve, right? They’re starting to look. The Word’s influencing their hearts, and they’re looking and saying, “God, we’re so far from You.”

They look and see that the Word and these things are what binds them together as a people of God, yet they have fallen so far away from it, and they begin to grieve, and they begin to wail, and they begin to cry. And then Nehemiah comes out and says, “Stop.” And I think that’s so amazing. He comes out and says, “Stop. Don’t cry.” And they’re like, “Why? You don’t get it. We’re so far. We see our sin. We see our state.”

And Nehemiah says, “No, this is a holy day to the Lord. This is special. You are coming back into the courts of God.” I hear this and I think of the prodigal son, and I think about God’s goodness and His grace upon these people—to say, “Look, you were far away. You were miles and miles away in another land. You didn’t hear My Word. You were separated. But now—praise God—thank You, Lord—that we are being brought back in.”

This is a special time: a time of celebration, a time of singing. And people look at grace like it’s an excuse to sin. But contrarily, that’s not what this is saying. This is saying, “No, the grace of God was enough to bring you in that you would no longer have to sin.” Amen.

Today, we have to realize that every miracle that has ever happened leads to one thing: salvation. Every miracle that ever happened—you read the Bible, you open up the Word—anything Jesus did, it was all for one purpose, and that was to bring about salvation. There’s no other reason.

As great as the wall being built was—and if you guys ever get a chance, you know, go on Google and look up Nehemiah’s wall, and look how big the wall was—it’s unbelievable the size of the wall. They had no power tools. They just went out, and they just hammered stuff, and they got it completed in 52 days. And it’s just amazing that you’ll see how great this wall was, and that it really was a miracle to get it completed in that time.

We hear Nehemiah, and we automatically think about the wall being built. We automatically associate Nehemiah with the wall, and that was a great, great miracle. But what was the purpose of it? It was to bring about salvation to His people. It was to bring them from the outside back into God’s house.

We’ve all had different scenarios in our life. Maybe you’ve had amazing miracles in your life. Maybe you got the job. Maybe your family is saved. Maybe you were healed. Maybe you used to be someone else that God has rescued you from. Those are all amazing, but I tell you that’s not the end of the story.

The end of the story is salvation. The end of the story is that you have been brought from the outside and put into God’s house. The end of the story is you used to beg for scraps out in the streets, but now you are seated at God’s table in a place of honor. That’s the end of the story.

We can’t look and just say, “God, I want miracles. God, I want a job. God, I want a family. God, I want this and that.” Those are all great things. I’m not saying they’re not. But the end of the story is you at God’s table—saved for eternity.

"The end of the story is you at God’s table—saved for eternity."

Miracles always beget salvation. Jesus Christ—Him coming to this world—He went out and did amazing miracles. The fact that He was born in the body of a man, and He went and He was sinless, and He went and died on the cross—those are all amazing miracles. But what was the purpose of Him doing that? To bring you to salvation.

God today is a God of salvation. Today is the day of salvation. God wants to take you off of the streets, take you out of what you’ve been in, and bring you and seat you at His table. That is the greatest miracle of all.

You know, last week we were talking about the gates, and we said that when the gates are open, anybody can walk in and out. There was a gap in between when Nehemiah finished the wall and before he hung the gates. They were still open a little bit, and Nehemiah gathers the people in because they were all working on the wall; they were all building. And he brings them inside and then he hangs the gates.

I was thinking about those gates being hung. And really what that means—the gates being hung—are the finality. They’re to say, “It’s finished. You’re in. You’re on the inside. Nothing can change that.” The second those gates closed and they were barred, you can hear them almost—clicking down into place. That was it. It was final. They were in God’s house.

I pray today that if you’ve been in and out, if you’ve had some sin walking in and out of your life, if you’ve been kind of wayward—going to the left and going to the right—I pray today that the gates would be closed. I pray today that Jesus Christ would close the gates and bring you in. Amen?

Let’s read Nehemiah 7:3. “I said to them, ‘The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their post, and some near their own houses.’”

You know, I read that and it reminded me so much of God’s goodness. Those gates are closed and there’s nothing—God’s got you. You are in. In the beginning, we spoke about no pestilence, no disease, no heartache. Nothing can come to your doors because the gates are closed.

You know, it was customary at that time that you would open up the gates first thing in the morning. That way the merchants could come in and set up their tables and get ready for the day. But Nehemiah says something. What does he say? Don’t open it until the sun is hot—until you’re awake, until you’re ready, until you’re outside of your house.

Post guards at their post and some even near their own houses. And I read that and I read about the protection, and I think about God sending His angels around you. And I think about God’s protection and His Holy Spirit being a stamp upon your heart, guaranteeing what is to come. I think about you sleeping at night—that God is surrounding you and protecting you, and around your children and around your families. And He has camped out around you to protect you from everything that might come, that you would not be bit in the night, but that you would come out unscathed. And you’d walk in this world triumphant, walking, saying, “God, I am inside of Your house.”

God is calling for salvation for His people today. It’s a new day. It’s a new time. God is looking for you to open up your heart this day. But let the Word influence who you are at the depths, at the core of who you are. Let it change you. Make your decisions based off of it. Raise your families based off of it. Decide what you’re going to do with your future based off of it. Let the Word come in and do a work inside of you this day.

When the Word influences our hearts, it comes in and transforms. How we originally make our decisions… we start to flow with it. It eventually comes to transformation, where at the core of who you are is transformed. Your heart is transformed. You no longer desire the things that you used to desire. Your mind is transformed.

The Word delivers you into God’s hands. It places you at the feet of the cross, looking up at Jesus Christ hanging on the cross and knowing that He went and died for us, that my sins might be forgiven, that I no longer have to live the same way—that if I lower myself this day and make Him King over my life, that He will come in and salvation will be delivered unto me.

God wants to bring you to His table this day. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to have you brought in from the outside.

I used to be the one in the streets. I used to be the one begging for attention, for love, for someone to look at me, for someone to accept me. And I would go all in the world, and I would knock on doors and say, you know, “Can you spare a little?” And I’d go to this door and I’d say, “Can you spare a little?” And I’d go to the next one and I’d say, “Can you spare a little?”

And then one day God’s Word came in. I pray today that God’s Word would go deep inside of you—that you would open up yourself this day and say, “God, here I am. God, let Your Word come in. I don’t want to just listen. I don’t want to just hear. I want Your Word to influence who I am.” Only in God’s hands is transformation. Only in God’s hands can be found the gift of life. The world doesn’t have it. Only in God’s house can it be found.

So I’m going to pray. Lord, I pray, God, that Your Word would begin to come in this place, Lord. You are the Word. You are the Word. Your Son is the Word of God. He came, and He went, and He took bodily form, and He went to the cross and died for us.

He came back as a Spirit to enter into the heart of man that they could be changed. Your Word is a Spirit that comes in and takes over, that transforms, and that delivers us to Your table, God. Lord, I want to eat at Your table, Jesus, this day. I want to be at Your table, O God. Lord, let Your Word breathe right now, Lord.

The Word’s spoken so often, but if our hearts aren’t open to receive it—if our hearts aren’t open to receive Your Word, God—we’ll just be listening, we’ll just be hearing, but we’ll never be receiving. Open up our hearts this day, God. We open them, we expose ourselves before You this day, Jesus, and say, “Here I am, God. Come down and be with me.”

”When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Amen. Hallelujah.