ISAIAH 28:14-292008 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 28:14-29

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008.

in us, little growth, day by day, moment by moment, as we walk with Him. It's a little bit here we learn about as the Word of God is shared, and then a little bit there we learn a little bit more and grow a little bit more, and line upon line, and step by step we grow. It's a daily process that we grow in Jesus Christ. And if you

you really want to grow as a Christian, I would encourage you and challenge you, really make a commitment to spend time in the Word of God. Precept upon precept, line upon line. And you will find that when you spend time in God's Word and just read it, read it, and continue to read it, that God will do tremendous growth in your life. And some people will say, well, it's just too simple.

It's not enough, but it's what the Word teaches. 1 Peter 2, verse 2, we saw that, that we need to desire the milk of the Word by which we may grow. But these people, as Isaiah is taking them back to the Word of God, taking them back to the basics, they're saying, ah, that's silly. Those are the basics. We don't need to hear that. They figured, we've outsmarted God. And so God says in verse 14, hear the Word of the Lord, you scornful men.

Scornful men. Now, scornfulness is, well, it's a part of pride. They're scorning, mocking, making fun of, disregarding God's word. God calls them scornful men who rule the people who are in Jerusalem. So we're looking at the southern part of Israel now. Why are they scornful? Because

Because here's what they say, verse 15, we've made a covenant with death and with Sheol or the grave and we are in agreement when the overflowing scourge passes through it will not come to us. So they say, look Isaiah, you're saying all these things are going to happen, we're going to experience this judgment and the consequences, but listen, we've made a covenant.

It's not going to happen to us. We've got it figured out. We can continue to live like we are. We can continue to do what we're doing. And it's okay. It's not going to happen like you say, Isaiah. It's not going to happen like God says because, well, we've made an agreement. We have a covenant. What type of covenant did they have? Well, there was a time in Israel's history that the northern part of Israel attacked the southern part.

along with another nation or country named Syria. And so what Judah did, the southern portion, is they made a covenant with another nation by the name of Assyria. And they told Assyria in 2 Kings 16, verse 7, Hey, come and help us and we'll beat both of these guys and then we won't be destroyed. And so Assyria came and attacked and it worked.

They made a covenant with Assyria. And so now Assyria is coming down and conquering everything. And Israel is saying, hey, no problem. We've got a covenant. We're not going to be affected. We're not going to be destroyed. We're not going to be attacked by Assyria. We've got a covenant with them.

We're not going to experience the judgment for what we've done. We've got a covenant, don't you know? And in their arrogance, they thought, we've outsmarted God. It's not going to happen the way God said it would happen. No, we've got to figure it out, and we know what we're going to do. Well, after Assyria came and God miraculously delivered them, they still didn't change. They still didn't repent.

And so now there's another nation that's coming against them called Babylon. And this nation of Babylon is coming against them, but they still had the same attitude. Hey, it's not going to happen to us. You know why? We've got a covenant. This time it's with Egypt. We're in agreement with Egypt. And if you can, just flip over probably one page to Isaiah chapter 30 and read with me the first three verses here. Isaiah chapter 30 verses 1 through 3.

We'll get to this in a couple of weeks as well, but it says, woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not of me and who devise plans, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.

Verse 3. Verse 4.

God is saying, look, you're trusting in Egypt. It's not a good thing. But his complaint is they're not seeking me. Remember what Psalm 10, verse 4 said? The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. They say, we've made a covenant. We've got it figured out. We've got it all planned out. We don't need to seek the Lord. We don't need his advice. We don't need his counsel. We don't need precept upon precept or line upon line because I've got it taken care of.

And this evening, as we look at these things, I want to challenge you with what are you facing? What trouble are you experiencing? What things are you going through in this life? And are you relying upon the Lord? Are you really looking to the Lord, seeking his counsel and advice, seeking what he wants you to do in the situations that you face in life? The proud person relies upon themselves.

Looking at the ways that they have figured out. The things that they can scheme and plan and plot. God says, look, they don't seek my advice. They don't seek my spirit. They don't seek anything. Instead, they add sin to sin. So already they're in trouble, but they add on to it because they don't seek me. The proud rely upon themselves. And as a result, they become scoffers and mockers.

So we need to watch out and I want to encourage you to meditate on that. The things that you're going through, are you looking to the Lord? We'll come back to that thought at the end of the chapter. But they say, hey, we have made lies our refuge. Back in chapter 28, verse 15. We've made lies our refuge and under falsehood we've hidden ourselves. See, they know it's lies and they know it's falsehood, but they think they've got it covered. They think they've got it figured out. And they're not.

And that's the way that we are sometimes. We know what we've done is wrong. We know what we're involved in is wrong. But we've got this whole umbrella of lies and this whole umbrella of things that we think, hey, that's going to keep us safe. It's going to keep it covered. We're not going to get caught. We're not going to experience the consequences. You know, it's just something that happened or something that's going on. And it's no big deal. We've got it figured out. We've got a covenant. We've got it all planned out and nothing's going to happen.

And so here's God's response in verse 16. He says,

Verse 18. Verse 19.

As often as it goes out, it will take you. For morning by morning it will pass over. And by day and by night it will be a terror just to understand the report. So God responds to these people who are scornful, who think they've gotten away with it, who think that their plans and their schemes are going to be victorious, who think that their lies are an effective covering for them. And he says, hang on.

I have in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. And whoever believes will not act hastily. Who is this that God is talking about? This tried stone, this precious cornerstone. We know from 1 Peter 2, verses 4-10, this stone is Jesus Christ himself.

God says, look, the answer to all of this, the answer to your scornfulness, the thing that you think you're getting away with, hold on, you don't know what's going on. And Zion is a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. Jesus Christ will make clear, will make evident the sin in a person's life.

In verse 17, he says, I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plummet or the plumb line. The measuring line or the plumb line. Plumb line is how you test if something is straight, vertically straight. Jesus Christ becomes the standard for righteousness, for uprightness. He becomes the measurement that we are measured against. And by this standard, all of our lives are

all of the deceitfulness, even deceiving our own selves, everything becomes crystal clear, exactly where we stand, because you and I do not measure up. Now, when I measure myself against you, I come out looking pretty good. And when you measure yourself against me, you come out looking pretty good.

If we measure ourselves by ourselves, we're not wise, Paul says. It's foolish to do that. Because we look at the faults of others and they're magnified. And our faults, when we look at them, it's like looking through the...

The people in your door, you know, it's like you can't really tell it. It's all real small and it's very difficult to see. That's what when we try to look at our own faults, that's what it looks like. But when we look at someone else, it's like through binoculars. It's like, whoa, look at those huge faults you got there. And so I compare myself to you and it's like, I'm good. I'm great. No problem. I've got a covenant. Got it all figured out. I'm better than you are.

But when we compare ourselves to Jesus Christ, when He becomes the measuring line, when He becomes the plumb line, what does the second half of verse 17 say? The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

You're crouched down in your hiding place, God says. You think you've got it all covered in lies and you think you've got it figured out. But when you measure yourself, when I measure you against Jesus Christ, all of that's going to be stripped away and you're going to be standing there naked, exactly who you are.

You'll be found wanting. You're not going to measure up because Jesus Christ is the standard. For you to enter into eternity, for you to have right relationship with God, you have to meet the standard and the standard is perfection. The standard isn't that you have to be better than the person next to you, but you have to be perfect like Jesus Christ. You have to measure up to his righteousness. Jesus told his disciples, hey, unless your righteousness exceeds perfection,

The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You'll by no means enter the kingdom of God. Now, that blew the disciples' minds. How can my righteousness exceed? These guys are the religious leaders. They're super righteous. I mean, they keep the law. They do all these things. How can I be more righteous than them? Well, you can't. That's Jesus' point. That's why we need a Savior.

But instead of looking to God, instead of looking to what he wanted to do and living by his ways, they decided we're going to figure it out. We've got these covenants. We've got these things. We're okay. And so the scourge is not going to come to us.

He makes reference to the hail that will sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters that will overflow the hiding place. Those two things are important. The hail and the water. We'll come back to that in a few more verses. But verse 18, again, he says, your covenant with death will be annulled. Your agreement with Sheol, it's not going to stand. When the scourge comes through, you're going to be trampled down by it. Jesus says, God says, hey, when my judgment comes,

You're going to experience it. Even just the report. It says at the end of verse 19, it'll be terror just to understand the report. You're just going to hear the news about it coming. You're just going to hear a little bit that it's coming and it's going to freak you out. Suddenly you're going to come to grips with reality because you will experience the judgment for rebelling against me, God says. Go on in verse 20.

For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it. For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perizim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his awesome work, and bring to pass his act, his unusual act. Now therefore do not be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong, for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts.

A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. Here's the appeal to the people of Jerusalem. And the appeal to those today who refuse to seek God. Who decide to live according to their own ways. He says, look, the bed is too short to stretch out on.

Have you ever experienced that? A bed that you just, you can't really get comfortable. You can't stretch out. Maybe you've had to sleep on the couch before and it's just, you can't really stretch out. You can't find that comfortable place. So you got your head popped up like this and your feet are up like this and then your feet go numb and so you try to turn over but you can't turn sideways and you just, there's no comfortable position. There's no rest for the wicked.

There's no rest if you're in rebellion against God. He says, the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering is so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it. Perhaps you've experienced that. I remember times being like at the beach, and it's cold, and all you have is your towel, your wet towel, right? And you try to wrap yourself in the towel. And then, you know, you try to tuck in your legs as best you can, but it just doesn't cover. There's no covering there.

In the same way, the things that we figure out, the agreements that we make, the covenants that we make, and the lies that we deceive ourselves in comparing against each other, saying, hey, we're okay. We find that as we do those things, there's no rest and there's no covering. There's no protection. It's not going to last. It's not going to keep us. Why not? Well, because he says in verse 21, the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim. Mount Perazim. What's that?

You don't have to turn there, but you can look it up later in 2 Samuel chapter 5. There at Mount Perizim, the Lord defeated the Philistines before David and his army. And David says, the way that the Lord worked, it was like the water broke through. If you could picture like a dam that was suddenly broke through and there was this burst of water. David says, the Lord fought against our enemies like a breakthrough of water. He just, man, just wiped them out.

with a flood of water. It goes on in verse 21, He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon. Those who've been reading through the Bible in a year with us might be familiar with this. It's back from Joshua chapter 10. We just read it last week. It was the time when Joshua is fighting for the Gibeonites against those kings that came against him. And they're being victorious, but the day is drawing to a close. And so Joshua commands the son to stand still.

And the sun stands still. And it says that hail came from the Lord and wiped out the army that they were fighting against. And in fact, more were killed and more were defeated by the hail that came down than by the army of Israel. And so God here is describing, he's reminding them of two mighty works that he did with David, like a rush of water. Now, what did we look at in verse 17?

The measuring line is Jesus Christ. He's the plumb line. The hail will sweep away. Just like in Joshua chapter 10, the hail came down and wiped out the armies, the adversaries. The water, it says, will overflow the hiding place. Wherever you're hiding, the water is going to reach there, just like the breakthrough that David described. Here's the point. God worked miraculously on behalf of the nation of Israel, both accounts.

He works miraculously against the enemies. And here's what God's saying. Hey, your ways and what you think you've got yourself covered in and you think you've got your lies all around and your agreements made and you're not going to experience it, but I'm going to work miraculously against you, Israel.

Just like I worked miraculously for you against your enemies, now because you're rebelling against me and living in contradiction to what I've commanded you to do, because you've become mockers and scorners and become full of pride, I'm going to work miraculously against you, just like I worked miraculously for you. That he may do his work, his awesome work, his miraculous work.

How many of you want God to work miraculously against you? Bully was raising his hand at first and then realized, oh, that's not what I want to raise my hand for. Yeah. Think about the miraculous things that God has done for those who are scornful, for those who are proud. They will experience God's miraculous discipline, his mighty discipline. So he says in verse 22, now, therefore, do not become or do not be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong.

So since this is the way that God's going to deal with those scornful, with those who are proud, with those who do not seek God, with those who live according to their own ways. He says, don't be mockers. Why? Because your bonds will be made strong. There will be discipline for a child of God. There will be judgment for rebellion against God. So the plea is, the appeal is, don't do it.

Turn back. The opportunity right now is to repent. You will still experience some consequences for your sin. You will still experience consequences for that lifestyle. Sometimes God alleviates some of those, but that's not guaranteed. For the most part, yeah, we experience repercussions, but you don't have to experience the full judgment of God. You can repent. And that's the appeal then as well as now. You don't have to experience it.

Do not be mockers. Don't be proud. Don't be scornful. Don't be arrogant. Turn and seek the Lord. He says, don't be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong. For I've heard from the Lord God of hosts, a destruction determined even upon the whole earth. You're not going to escape. Nobody can outrun God. You can't outsmart him. You can't escape his judgment if you live in rebellion against him. It's going to take place.

And so here Isaiah is calling them back to righteousness. Back to what God has called them to do. To seek God. But these people are mocking Isaiah. Precept upon precept. This is childish stuff. I heard these kind of things in Sunday school. But the reality is it's the same message that we need to hear today. There's no rest or protection for the proud.

God will discipline mightily and miraculously, and therefore we need to repent. And we need to live uprightly, because Jesus Christ is the standard. And so we must not be proud. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, and He will lift us up. Let's finish it off here in verses 23 through 29. He says,

Does he not keep, I'm sorry, does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cumin and scatter the cumin, plant the wheat and rose, the barley in the appointed place and the spelt or the rye in its place?

Verse 26, for he instructs him in right judgment. His God teaches him. Verse 27, for the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cumin. But the black cumin is beaten out with a stick and the cumin with a rod. Bread flour must be ground. Therefore, he does not thresh it forever, break it with his cartwheel or crush it with his horsemen.

Verse 29, this also comes from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. Again, I would ask you, what are you facing? Are you relying upon the Lord in your life? Are you seeking God for his ways and what he would have you to do in the situations that you face? He concludes this chapter with kind of an odd discussion now.

About farming. And we talked about that farming a little bit on Sunday. But it just kind of can seem out of place, I understand. But again, understand the point. Isaiah is calling them back to right relationship with God. Saying, Jesus Christ is the standard. You don't measure up, so don't be a mocker. Repent. Turn back. And he's calling them to really seek the Lord.

Now, I think this is specifically applicable to us, not just in a general relationship with God, not just in a coming to church on Sunday, but I like the example that he gives so that we would know that God wants to be involved. He wants us to seek him in every aspect of our life. In verse 22, he says, give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech.

Psalm 10:4 says, "The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts." Is God in your thoughts? Not just here at church, but throughout the day? Are you giving ear to hear His voice? Are you listening to hear His speech? Is God speaking to you in your school, in your workplace, in your family, in your neighborhood? Is God... Are you listening to the Lord? And he goes on to talk about this plowman. And does he keep plowing all day?

A farmer, when he goes out to plow the field, is that all he does? He just plows it? And the next day he gets up and he plows it again, and the next day he gets up and he plows it again, and the next day he gets up and he plows it again. No. At some point, verse 25, when he's leveled at surface, he sows the seed. He doesn't just keep plowing over and over and over and over again.

At some point, he stops plowing and he puts seed now in the soil. Now, how does he know to do that? Verse 26, for he, that is the Lord, instructs him in right judgment. His God teaches him. How does the plowman know to put seed in the soil? Isaiah says, God taught him. Man didn't make that up. God taught man to do that.

And then he goes on, he's talking about harvesting the different types of spices or herbs and fruits and vegetables. They're harvested differently. The black cumin, he says, it's not with a threshing sledge. There's not a cartwheel rolled over it. No, it's beaten out with a stick. How does the farmer know how to do that? Well, it's the Lord who's taught him. Bread flour, it must be ground. How does he know?

How does he know not to just keep threshing it? How does he know to stop threshing it at some point and then grind it so that it can be made into bread? Because the Lord teaches him. Verse 29. This also comes from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. Here's the point. From the little things, from our daily tasks, from the very dailiness of our lives, all the way to the reality of a relationship with God.

What we need is to seek the Lord. We need his instruction. You know, God can help you in your job. God wants to share with you and teach you and encourage you and help you and equip you, not just in religious things, but in practical things too. Do you need to become a good employee? Seek the Lord. Do you need to

Become better at your finances so that you can make ends meet each month? Well, you need to seek the Lord. Not figure out your own ways and make your own covenants and try to encompass yourself with all the things that you can do and accomplish. No, you need to seek the Lord and let Him show you, let Him teach you. Does your God teach you how to work, how to live? See, God's not just desiring a Wednesday evening, Sunday morning relationship with you.

But a day by day. And when we reject God, when we don't seek Him, when He's not in our thoughts, it's evidence of the pride that we have that we don't need Him. We think we don't need Him anyways, but the reality is that we do. But God can help you and He desires to help you. Think about a few examples for me. What did Noah do? He built the ark.

Why? Because he was such an experienced shipmaster or whatever they're called. He was experienced at building ships and he thought, hmm, if I'm going to house all the animals, here's what I would need to do and here's the way I would need to build. No, Noah wasn't even near the water. There was no such thing as rain when Noah was building the ark. And yet he said, the rain's going to come and the flood's going to happen.

And God gave Noah details, all of the specs, how to build and prepare this ark, how to make it waterproof. He gave him the dimensions, which, interestingly enough, are really perfect dimensions so that the ark could not be tipped over. It's ratios that are used even today.

Presently, when ships are being built, not for speed, but to carry large amounts of cargo, 30 by 50 by 3 is the ratio that God used in designing the ark, and he gave that to Noah. And many years later, people wonder, well, how do you know to build it that way?

Look at verse 26. For he instructs him in right judgment. His God teaches him. Verse 29. This also comes from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. Hey, do you need counsel? Do you need guidance? Do you need to figure out how to do something in your life? How to do something at your job? You need to build a boat? Seek the Lord. Let him lead you and guide you. You need that kind of relationship with him. How about Moses? He built the tabernacle. All kinds of things went into that.

God also gave him artisans. And what did God say? He had put into them the know-how, the ability to be able to work with all these different materials. They had to know how to work with gold and silver and bronze and wood and all these other materials and cloths. And how did they know all that? Years of training? No, God says, I've put it into them. Remember when Jesus was standing on the shore and he tells Peter, Hey, cast your net on the right side. You've been unsuccessful at fishing. Throw your net on the other side.

He brought up all his fish. How did he bring up all that fish? Because he was such an experienced fisherman? No. Because his God instructed him. Abraham, God called him and said, Hey, leave this place. Leave your family and go to the place that I will show you. Verse 29. Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. You need a guide? You need to know where to go? Where are you going to live? Where are you going to stay? Where are you going to work? He is excellent in guidance. He is excellent or wonderful in counsel.

See, whatever we're facing in life, we need to seek the Lord. You're struggling in your marriage. You need to seek the Lord. Let God instruct you. Let your God teach you. How do you develop that? How do you have that type of relationship with God? You know, it's very easy. It's much like the ABCs. It's precept upon precept, line upon line.

It's spending time regularly and daily in the Word of God. God says, give ear and hear my voice. Listen and hear my speech. I want to teach you. I want to help you. You need help in finances. I know what you need. I'm wonderful in counsel. I'm excellent in guidance. I've experienced this personally in my life. And I can share with you that this is not just something in Isaiah chapter 28. But this is things that God wants to teach us. When...

I proposed to Kim. She was the one. The Lord told me I was going to marry. I didn't figure it out. It wasn't because of, you know, my great understanding or my great scouting skills or my good looks. The Lord instructed. My wife says I talk about it too much, but you often know the financial horrors that I've gone through. How did I get out of those? Well, I really studied and worked hard and earned a lot of money. And no, you know how?

My God instructed me. He taught me. Recently, Kim and I, for those of you who know, we were living at the Reese house since we got married. We lived there in Corona and when Pastor Tom moved to Okinawa. And recently the Lord told us to change that. So we moved out. We moved into an apartment over off McKinley. We don't know all that God's going to do through that. But it's just something God instructed us in.

At Paychex, when I used to work at Paychex and I was the technical support, people come up with all kinds of weird computer problems, just odd stuff. And so we couldn't figure it out. And so they'd send me out and I would go to the client and I would work on it. And oftentimes it would be like three minutes of working on it.

It's fixed, taken care of, and I drive back. And everybody's like, what did you do? How did you do that? Well, I did this and that. How did you know to do that? And some of the resolutions were just off-the-wall stuff. Now, let me give you a secret. I didn't think of those things. You know what I did all the way to the client? I prayed.

Because I couldn't figure out. I knew there was nothing I could do. And it's just amazing to me how time and time again, I was the best technical support specialist around because God instructed me. And I wouldn't have any idea what to look for. And then God would just go, this is where you need to look. This is the issue. Now, it wasn't always like that. Sometimes, yeah, he let me struggle a little bit. But ultimately, always, he would bring it back and he would deliver. Why?

Because he's wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. The thing I want to leave you with is that thought. Verse 23, give ear and hear my voice. Listen and hear my speech. In a relationship with Jesus Christ, in your family, in your workplace, wherever you are, wherever you go, God wants to teach you. He wants to give you insight. He wants to help you. In 2 Peter 1,

It tells us, well, Peter says, may grace and peace be magnified unto you. How? Well, he said, God has given us everything that we need for life and for godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Who's the one who called us? It's God. The knowledge of God gives us everything that we need for life. That's just life. That's what you have to live every day. Hey, the knowledge of God gives

gives you everything that you need for this life and for godliness. So everything that you need to follow God and live uprightly and do what God said, well, you find that in the knowledge of God. But everything that you need to live life, to have grace and peace multiplied to you, is found in the knowledge of God. God says, listen to me, give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech. Why? The Lord of hosts is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.

And so I want to encourage you to listen to the voice of God, to seek him, allow him to speak to you. What are you facing? What are you struggling with? What are you going through? God wants to help you. You have to make decisions. Seek the Lord. Remember what he said in Isaiah 30? Hey, they don't rely upon my spirit. They don't look to me. They don't seek my advice. Woe unto them. When we are so proud that we think, I don't have to take this to the Lord. I don't have to pray about this. I don't have to think about this.

When we're so proud that we think, I've got it figured out. I've got it worked out. When we're so proud that we think, I don't need to repent. I don't need to turn back. I can keep doing this. This is no big deal. I've got it covered. We're in danger of judgment. We're in danger of the discipline of God and he'll work miraculously to discipline us. But it doesn't have to be that way. He says, therefore, do not be mockers. Don't be proud, but turn and seek God. Hear his voice.

And be obedient to Him because He's wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. And so the worship team is going to come up now. And I want to encourage you to spend this next few moments as they lead us in this first song, to just spend it between you and the Lord. Ask God to speak to you. Seek His instruction, His advice, His counsel. Spend time in prayer. If He prompts your heart, spend time reading the Word of God.

allow him to speak to you just seek him and get right with him if you need to repent if you're living in sin if you're practicing things that are ungodly use this time to repent to get right with God if you need to be born again perhaps you've never really had a right relationship with God or you did at one time but you've been gone for a long time ask Jesus Christ to come into your life and make you born again he'll change you he'll transform you he'll make you a new creation

He wants to lead you. He wants to guide you. He's wonderful at it. He's excellent in teaching us, helping us to walk up rightly. So let's humble ourselves before God, confess our need to Him, and seek His advice and His counsel for our lives. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.