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Cory Piatt 
Well, with that brother, let's turn to the word here. I wonder, you argue in this chapter that the mind is the key to spiritual growth - as we've been talking about - which makes Bible exposition so crucial. And then you point to the apostle Paul, demonstrating this emphasis in Romans 12. I wonder if you could just walk us through Romans 12:1-2 and help us understand what he's talking to us about there.

Dave Harrell 
Okay, yeah, let me turn to that passage. I mean, this is a great text that people would just read over. Let me read the passage. It says, "I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Dave Harrell 
All right, now that's a wonderful passage of scripture. A lot of people would be familiar with that and he's speaking here to believers, and he's urging them by the mercies of God, in other words, based on what God has done for us, to present ourselves as a living and a holy sacrifice. All right, that's what's acceptable, that is true worship. And then he gives us a warning. He says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." And in English, we can, okay, well, "Don't be conformed to this world, be transformed to the renewing of mind." We have some sense of that, but if you look at the exegesis of that, in the original language, you see, and I'll try to make this simple, do not be conformed. The word "conformed," "syschēmatizō" in the original language; it's a word that essentially means to wear a disguise or a masquerade; something that does not allow the reality of something to be revealed; like we would have in a mask. So don't be conformed to this world. And here the term "world" is in the original language is "aiōn." It's a term that basically means the philosophy of the day, the zeitgeist of the day; like today, in the culture we live, everything's woke and LGBTQ and and God is love, which means He winks at sin, all of that crazy nonsense. Okay, but what's interesting is, it's in the passive voice rather than the active voice, which means when it says, "Do not be conformed to this world," it's not you conforming yourself to the world, it's the world conforming you to it. And so the warning is: don’t let the world cause you to be on the outside something that you're not on the inside. Okay? But rather than that, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Transformed comes from the Greek term "metamorphoō."  We get our word "metamorphosis" from that, and that's the opposite of "sunschematizo," where you're wearing a mask to conceal what is really on the inside, representing that which is not on the inside; but rather the metamorphosis here - the transformation - which, by the way, the same term is used of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, okay, where he pulled back the full effulgence, and the effulgence of His glory shown forth from him and you could see His glory, and all those types of things. So, what you have here is when it says, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," this metamorphosis that allows what's really on the inside to be manifested on the outside is going to happen. This is what I want you to do, and that's going to happen. And again, it's in the passive voice. It's going to happen as a result of the renewing of your mind. It's going to be the Spirit of God using his word to help you understand truth, so that you will actually manifest on the outside who you truly are on the inside, rather than letting the world squeeze you into its mold and cause you to manifest on the outside what you're not on the inside. And so you know, now, all of a sudden, you begin to see that it's like, oh my, and practically speaking, there's a warning here. Boy, be careful, because the world can cause you to become...Believers, be careful, the world can cause you to become something that you're not. You've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. You've been bought with that price. You're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You're made a new creature. The Triune God dwells within you, and you're going to be like the world on the outside? That's not who you are on the inside; and the world will cause that to happen if you're not careful. But instead of that, let the renewing of your mind cause who you really are on the inside to be manifested on the outside. That's why he goes on to say, why? "That you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." In other words, by the renewing of your mind, that's what's going to happen. So that's just an example of what? Bible exposition and exegesis. That's an example of expository preaching. You come to a passage like that, and the expositor is going to say, "All right, let's break this down. Let me help you understand what is really being said here and then apply that to your life." And now you can begin to say, you know, think about it, folks, what aspects of the world in which you live is influencing so much that you're becoming and looking like, acting like, talking like, living like, the people that don't know, love Christ. Well, you know, how is that happening to you, unwittingly? You see, that's the point. It's not something you're choosing to do. It's happening to you, and you don't realize it. And by the way, it's the same thing, the renewing of your mind is what happens to you to cause who you really are to be manifested on the outside, the transformation, and the Spirit of God just does that.

Dave Harrell 
You see the same concept in Galatians five, where if you walk by the Spirit, you won't carry out the desires of the flesh and later on, it talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Well, that's just going to happen. How does that happen? Well, because you're being obedient to the Spirit, and He causes love, joy, peace, patience, all those wonderful things just grown the vine of your life. It's not like you're grunting hard to make that happen, it just happens. And so anyway, just a great example of expositional preaching, teaching, application.

Cory Piatt 
So helpful, brother. Thank you for walking us through that. And as we continue to think about this, maybe just a related point, I'm reminded of the words of Philippians four, when Paul says that whatever is true, whatever is honorable, just, pure, if there's any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things. I think oftentimes we can be deceived into thinking that we are unaffected by what we watch, what we listen to, who we spend our time with, and so on; thinking that we're strong enough to not be negatively affected. What would you what would you say to that, just in lieu of what we've been talking about, being renewed in the spirit of our mind, thinking on what is true and just and so on?

Dave Harrell 
Well, I would say two words, amen and amen. That's three words, Amen and Amen. You know, yeah, absolutely boy, we gotta choose our friends wisely. We gotta be careful who we listen to. We gotta be careful who we read because again, the world is going to squeeze you into its mold without you realizing it, and our flesh is naturally drawn to those things. Satan is an absolute genius at knowing how to present temptations that appeal to our flesh. He will lay snares in the well-worn paths of our deceitful heart, those things that he knows are going to trip us up, and, boy, they're just everywhere around us. And so we have to guard our heart. The last book I wrote on warrior preachers - and we've just done an updated version that's out now - the last chapter is on that very thing with integrity and purity of heart and all; to avoid sexual temptation and all those types of things. And so, boy, we just have to guard ourselves, because we still have this unredeemed humanness, this flesh. And back to Galatians five that we've talked about before, there's enmity between the spirit and the flesh. They're at war with one another, so be careful, be careful.

Cory Piatt 
Okay, well, brother we've talked about the battle for the mind. And the next section in this chapter, that you go on to explain, is called "The Spirit's Empowering Work through His Word." We've talked about this some, but you introduce it by saying that The Spirit is, "the agent of regeneration and sanctification, and his Word is his supernatural instrument. He is the One who animates an outward manifestation of holiness through an inward transformation of our mind." I guess we've been elaborating on that some, talking about Romans 12, but does the Spirit ever work apart from the Word?

Dave Harrell 
Sure, he'll work apart from the Word in the sense that he will do things within us - bring conviction to our heart - but he'll never work in competition with the Word. He will never work contrary to the Word. And he will never reveal special revelation apart from the Word. You know, you got to be very careful with this, and you see this in the charismatic movement all the time, where truth claims are validated primarily by experience, rather than propositional truth. I find the Spirit of God many times working in my heart through beautiful music, great hymns. But all of those things are consistent with the Word. It's just being presented in a different way. He works through the fellowship of other believers; the means of grace that we have within the church through the Lord's Supper, through baptism - the power of that - but again, fellowship, the the joy of weddings, and even the power in funerals. And you know, he works in so many ways like that.

Dave Harrell 
You can always tell the work of the Spirit, because it is going to put the glory of Christ on display, not the power of the Spirit. You don't want to look for the all the emotionalism, necessarily. I'm not saying that there isn't emotion in our worship, but he renews the mind, not the emotions. You've got to be careful with that. Just because you have a quiver in your liver doesn't mean that God wants you to marry that person or whatever. And so you have to have biblical discernment. It's biblical discernment that is going to inform your conscience, and if your conscience isn't informed by the truth of the Word, then it won't regulate your actions as it should, because it just doesn't see anything wrong with living with a woman before you get married. I say that because I'm dealing with some people right now. Well, what's wrong with that?  Let me tell you what's wrong with it, or the whole LGBTQ thing; you hear this all the time, "God's a God of love." Why wouldn't he want us to love who we want? So it's like, where do you begin with that? There again, their mind is so darkened, they're so depraved, they're too ignorant to even know they're ignorant. And until the Spirit of God, through the power of regeneration, quickens their heart, they're just not going to see these things. But boy, when he does, oh, my, everything changes. That's what's exciting.

Cory Piatt 
I love what you just said a moment ago about the Word of God informing our conscience, and even as we think about emotions, the word of God has to inform our affections as well. We're not untethered, as so often you see today; our emotions are untethered from the truth of God's Word. They're in response to it.

Dave Harrell 
Yeah, absolutely. And that's much of the power in music. You know, you're an incredible musician, and we've got wonderful musicians at the church and you guys understand what I've said before, that music shouldn't be used to induce worship, but to express it, and it provides almost a mystical way of allowing us to experience God's love and the truth of his Word. I mean you take the lyrics of a hymn that's just condensed truth, and you sing it, and it just gives expression, as I say, to the doxologies of our heart and just moves us. And sometimes, and not even with lyrics. I probably listen to Handel's Messiah almost once a week in my study. I love that, and other great, other great classical pieces. There's no lyrics to them, but you can just hear the beauty and the majesty of God through those things contrary to a lot of the music of the world, that just drives you away from worshiping the Lord our God.

Cory Piatt 
Well, let me go back to something you said just a bit ago. You alluded to this, you say, on page 122, "As preachers, we must understand that it is theological propositions that define Christianity, not experience. Only when we know the Word of God can we prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans, 12:2)." I love that quote; and as I was reflecting on that, I was thinking about just an extension of this conversation. So oftentimes you will hear truth claims that are validated by experience rather than discern from truth of God's Word. So I'm sure you've heard a sister or a friend who's a female say, "The Lord called me to the pastoral ministry." And there again, it's kind of an appeal to experience rather than hey, does God's word actually allow for this in qualifications for an elder for example. Maybe just speak for a moment about how to train our discernment, and you mentioned the liver quiver earlier. Should we not trust that at all? Is there some room for "there seems to be a sense of genuine peace that comes from making this decision." How do we train in our discernment there?

Dave Harrell 
Yeah, well, again, the key is going to be submitting to, well first of all knowing, and then submitting to the authority of Scripture. You know, you have to have that. And I may have a very emotional, excited feeling about doing a certain thing, but I want to check that to make sure that this is something that would be honoring to the Lord, just like the woman preacher. I mean that is clearly not the role for a woman, and we see that in Scripture, and people are going to argue that. It doesn't matter what you believe, there's 100,000 other people that differ with you. But anyway, you have to base these things on Scripture. And you know, is this honoring to the Lord? And just because you feel like you really want to do something and you're excited about it, that doesn't mean that the Lord is anywhere near it. Our flesh is perfectly capable of communicating that to us, and the enemy certainly wants us to applaud that which is purely wicked. I mean, look at all the pride parades that are out there. I mean, they've got to have parades in order to somehow make themselves feel good about this. When, if you look at the word of God, like in Leviticus 18, you see that homosexuality is sandwiched in between the abominations of child sacrifice and bestiality. So you have to have your conscience informed by the truths of the Word of God, and you must submit to the authority of the Word of God. And then when you're moving in a certain direction and you're excited about something, if it's consistent with what God would allow then that could definitely be something that the Spirit of God is using to cause you to do that, right? I mean, it's not like, well, I know God says that it's all right for me to date her and marry her, but I don't want to get too excited about it, because that might mean God's not in it. Of course, the Lord, He wants us to have joy and excitement. And you see that, for example, all through the psalter, you know. But, yeah, you got to be careful that you don't trick yourself into believing things just because it feels right.

Cory Piatt 
Okay, that's so helpful, brother. Well, let me give you maybe my favorite quote from this chapter. "The reason the Christian loves the Bible above every other book in the world, is because it is the pure milk of the Word. This is what true believers long for the most. Nowhere else can they find what the mind and the will of God is for their life. Dave, how would you encourage someone who's neglecting personal study of God's word, perhaps because they don't understand it or don't see its relevance for their daily life? What would you say to an individual who didn't prioritize personal study of God's word.

Dave Harrell 
Well, certainly they are going to be spiritually malnourished if they're truly born again. But if they have no desire for that, you really want to examine yourself to see if you're even born again. You know, Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me" You know, we want to hear the voice of the Lord and there will be a hungering and a thirsting for righteousness. We're going to long for the sincere milk of the Word as a newborn babe. Look, anything that has life is going to have hunger. And if, if you don't have a hunger for the Word, there's probably no spiritual life. But when a person is truly born again, there will automatically be a hunger for the Word and the more you get, the more you want. So, I would say to that person, my, if you really don't have a desire to know the Word and therefore know the Lord, you want to examine your heart. Paul said that everything else was just complete rubbish in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. You and I understand that by God's grace, not because we're such good guys and we figured it out, but he changed us. He changed the very disposition of our nature.

Dave Harrell 
But then for believers, it's easy for us to get distracted with all the things of the world. You know, I get that. You get kids and you know, you got to deal with them. You got to deal with work and you're tired, and before you know it, all you want to do is watch cartoons for a while, right? And it's easy for everything else in life to squeeze out the nourishment of the Word, so you've got to get disciplined. You've got to be disciplined and once you get disciplined, for me, it works best, especially early in the morning, when I get up. I've got my routine, I've had it for years and years and years, where I can go and spend time alone with the Lord in prayer and reading His word, which goes together. It's not like I'll read the Bible and I'll pray. I mean you're in communion with the Lord. And then Nancy will come in and we have our time together. So you've got to make that a habit, make that a priority. And then listen to good Bible expositors, read good biblical materials, and also, just real practically, get a MacArthur Study Bible, so that you've got something. I think it's by far the best out there. You've got something that's going to help you understand the passages that you read; and then spend time around other godly people. And as you talk about spiritual things the Spirit of God is just going to do it. He's going to work in your life and cause you to want to go from one thing to the next to the next to the next, and you just keep growing in that grace and that knowledge. But if your life is so chaotic and you’re so overwhelmed with things that you just don't have time for that, you need to reprioritize things in your life. It's just like physically, you've got to get enough sleep. You got to eat the right foods if you do nothing but sit around watch TV and eat Cheetos off your chest and you get morbidly obese, you're not going to feel very good, right? You know, got to make some changes. So it's the same type of thing. And in fact, I think you mentioned it earlier, what Paul said, you have to discipline yourself for the sake of godliness.

Cory Piatt 
Man, I hadn't planned to ask you this, but in lieu of what you just said, I'm thinking about believers who maybe don't study God's Word because they don't understand it. You mentioned some very practical tips getting a good MacArthur Study Bible, listening to good preaching, and we have this available to us on the online. What is the role of personal discipleship within the local church? How important is that, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ?

Dave Harrell 
It's very important, as part of the Great Commission, isn't it? We're to make disciples, teaching them to observe all things that he has commanded. And discipleship can come in two forms. It can be a very organized, Saturday morning, at six, at Hardee's, or whatever. It can be that, but it can also be more casual, more informal, just meeting together and talking and whatnot. A lot of discipleship takes place that way, just in conversation. And so what everybody needs to have are good, godly, wise friends that you interact with, that you fellowship with, that you talk about spiritual things with, and those people that I'm close to, and people that I love and respect. I mean, we may talk about lots of just normal things, just activities of life, but after a bit, we're going to get around to spiritual things and so that becomes a form of discipleship; and then also just being around godly people. So often sometimes it's more of what's caught than taught. You know, you just observe people, but discipleship is important. And if you're struggling in a particular area in your life, maybe you have even a doctrinal issue, you're dealing with, and you need help, then seek someone out that you would respect and say, "Hey, I need some help." By the way, I get this on a routine basis, multiple times every week, emails, phone calls. A dear couple came up after church and say, you know, I want to understand more about the Kingdom of God and the covenants and all of these things. We're going through Zechariah right now. And you know, we've come out of a church where they just never talk about any of these things. And so this is all new, and we're excited and we're learning. But you know, what would you recommend? And so I recommended some books, and that's discipleship, and we probably will talk about it more at a later time. But it's important that we not only disciple others and give input into their life, but that we also be discipled.

Cory Piatt 
Okay, well, that's wonderful, brother. Thank you so much. As we continue discussing expository preaching here, would there be some examples in Scripture that you would point to that this kind of preaching and teaching modeled in Scripture?

Dave Harrell 
There's different places. There is in Nehemiah eight, starting in the Old Testament, in verse eight, this is Ezra, he's renewing the covenant, reading the law to the people. And these people are standing there hearing the word. It says In Nehemiah eight, and verse eight and "they read from the book, from the law of God, translating, to give the sense, so that they understand the reading." Sorry, I don't have my glasses on, so I have to work at this. They gave the sense of it. And my you can go into the New Testament, just listen to Stephen's sermon. Acts 4. Look at Jesus, you know, speaking to the guys on the road to Emmaus. How he began with Moses, and he just takes them all, it says he just takes them all through the prophets and all through the scriptures and frankly, the epistles are basically expositions, and so you see other passages that tell us. Paul told, told Timothy, and by extension, to all of us, I want you to preach the word. Don't just preach about the word. I want you to preach the Word. And all scripture is profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, training in righteous, all of these types of things. And we're to be workmen that are not ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. And so, yeah, there's, there's numerous examples in Scripture.

Cory Piatt 
Wonderful. So that's the biblical model, and you go on to discuss some of the negative effects that will follow the absence of doctrinal preaching, one of those being the lack of biblical discernment. We spoke on that earlier. As a result, you say that we will be vulnerable if there isn't doctrinal preaching to follow after religious fads that come and go, like popular songs on the radio. What are you referring to that? And why should we be hesitant to follow after these religious fads?

Dave Harrell 
Because they're phony, they lead you away from the truth. I think probably in that chapter, as I recall, and this may be dating myself, because some people may not even have heard of some of these things. But you know, way back we had the ecumenical Promise Keepers movement, and that was a fad that came up, not to say there weren't some good things in there, but my goodness, when the Mormons and the Roman Catholics agree with what's being said you better look out, yeah. And then, you know, we had what I remember, the Prayer of Jabez, you know, that was a big fad that came up with lots of phony stuff in there. You had The Shack that came out. I think they make movies on it, you know, and just some blasphemous stuff about the Trinity and different things that I would just croak when I would read some of it. And one of the biggest ones was The Purpose Driven Life that was just filled with a kind of a false, phony gospel; a gospel without repentance, and all of that type of thing; and there's always something coming up. I remember early on in my ministry, and this is back, oh, this would have been first started that the church 30 years ago, roughly, because I've been there 30 plus years now. A lady came up to me, well actually, a couple ladies, they were all excited. There was a new Christian weight loss program and diet. And it was by, I remember the gals, name was Gwen Shamblin, and they said, Oh yeah, it's the hottest thing. We'd like to see if we could do this at the church. And I thought, Okay. And they said, Yeah, it's out of the book of Colossians. And well, immediately I think, Okay, now the authorial intent of the book of Colossians is not weight loss and diet. I mean, let's just start there. And so I thought, okay, let me see it. And it was just complete garbage. And the lady later on proved to be a charlatan, a false teacher, and some of the people were upset with me because we wouldn't do it, and I explained to them why, and all of that; but these are the fads that come up because people don't have discernment. I mean, just as soon as you hear that the apostle Paul wrote a diet and weight loss program for Christians out of Colossians, you got to know there's something amiss here. But if you don't, it just screams, "I have no biblical discernment. I don't understand what the book book of Colossians is about."

Cory Piatt 
That ecumenical tenor that undergirds so many of these fads where you know the, as you said, the Mormon and the Catholic and the Protestant agree about these things. Man, that a really dangerous sign when you understand what these various positions hold.

Dave Harrell 
I would argue that one of the fads right now, of course, you've got the whole prosperity gospel, the word faith stuff, that's just complete heresy. You've got the social justice gospel, but another one that I see that I don't know if it's even got a name for it, but I would just call it the superficial gospel. And I see this on a lot of churches that even claim to be good, solid, you know, reformed Bible, expositional preaching, churches and you listen to what's coming out of the pulpit, and it's pretty shallow, it's pretty weak. And the church is very man centered. It's very entertainment driven. A lot of the emotion and it seems like it's more about the coffee and the music then real worship and real...I'm not saying you got to get heavy and get into deep exegesis on everything, that's not what I'm where I'm going here, but I just see so much superficiality, so much entertainment. And then I talk with people, and I know people out of these churches, and they're worldly. They're just worldly. I look at how they dress; I look at the things that they do, and I think, oh my goodness, what is going on here? So, you know, that's kind of a fad in and of itself, that I think you got to be careful with.

Cory Piatt 
I think of what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians one. He prays that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. So may that be our aim. Well, brother, I've kept you a long time. The final section in this chapter deals with the blessings and benefits of expositional preaching. Now, unfortunately, we can't look at all these on this list, but I would certainly commend to our audience to get the book and check that list out, because it's excellent. But I thought we could just here at the end, highlight a few of the benefits mentioned here and discuss them. So the first one I had was expositional preaching demonstrates the timeless and contemporary practicality of God's Word. I wonder, if you could elaborate on that.

Dave Harrell 
How much time do we have?  It really does. We're in Zechariah right now. And there's things that are being said, that were obviously written to the post exilic Jews had come back from Babylon; and they're depressed, and they're struggling and all, but these promises were given to them to encourage them right then during that day. And the Lord says that, like in Zechariah nine, but also, you see that the issues they were dealing with are issues that we deal with today, and the hope, the encouragement that God is giving them, the promises that he's giving them, they're given to us as well. Now, they're going to be manifested and be fulfilled in various ways. But ultimately, the hope is God is faithful to his covenant promises. And he is sovereignly in control of all things. And so these are timeless truths that that benefit everybody. And you know how we get the prayer list every Tuesday from the church and you hear these dear people, they just found out they've got cancer, or their mother is in hospice, or whatever. And you hear them praising the Lord, trusting in his sovereignty. You know, all of these types of things. It's the same type of thing that happened back then. God is the same, and the truths are the same, the benefits are the same, and expository preaching helps you see that and make that connection with those ancient cultures. I mean, they're people just like us.

Cory Piatt 
Yeah, that's so helpful, brother. Okay, well, the next benefit I had expositional preaching demonstrates how, why and where every passage fits into Scripture as a whole.

Dave Harrell 
That's a big one, because a lot of people, they don't see, for example, I don't understand why all the sacrifices in the Old Testament... what was that all about? And how does that relate to, you know, like the book of Hebrews. Well, those are great question and people need to see how it all fits together. Otherwise, what happens? And I use this analogy. Maybe I've used it before, forgive me, but I'm not very creative with these things. But you know, sometimes preaching, it would be like going to aborigines and saying, "Today, we're going to talk about a transmission," but they don't know what a car is. They don't understand; how does that fit into anything? And the same thing can be true unless, in Bible exposition, you explain, for example, the context. Here's why God is saying this at this time. Here's what it would have meant to them back then, and why it means the same to us today. Here's how this would apply to us today. And here's another illustration, how God is the same yesterday, today and forever; how he's faithful to his covenant promises, etc.. And so you, you constantly keep linking that so that they see Scripture as a whole, rather than different parts.

Cory Piatt 
Okay, that's excellent man. Even as I've embarked on a study of eschatology, seeing how closely connected the beginning of the story is to the end, where he's restoring all things, he's making all things new to that even more glorious, I would say, than the pre-Edenic state.

Cory Piatt 
Yeah, to the praise of his glory. Well, one more brother, the last benefit, expository preaching causes a congregation to grow in the grace and knowledge of God and develop spiritual unity, maturity and discernment; really a summary of what we've been talking about. But is there anything else you'd want to add to that?

Dave Harrell 
Yeah, oh, yeah, and that's the great storyline of the Bible that I believe a proper understanding of the dispensations and a literal, grammatical hermeneutic that will lead you to a premillennial understanding of Scripture. You see that storyline just continuing all throughout Scripture, ultimately, until the King comes, and the second Adam reigns, where the first Adam failed, and all the glory that's a part of that, and so forth. So, yeah, it all fits together. From creation to the new creation.

Dave Harrell 
Other than you know, I just rejoice in the power of the Spirit to accomplish those things. Amen. You know, I've been there at Calvary Bible Church now, as I say, for 30 plus years, and I can just see the growth in so many people. And it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the word. That the Spirit of God just took his word and little by little, just kept carving away at me and at them, just constantly transforming us into the likeness of Christ, and the unity that is there, the joy that is there, the fellowship that is there. And it's all centered around the word. It's not centered around a person or a bunch of programs, or some denomination or anything like that. You know, people come because they love the Lord and they want to hear his voice through his Word. They're craving the glory and the greatness of God, and that that only comes through the in depth, systematic teaching, preaching and application of the word.

Cory Piatt 
Well, thank you, brother, thank you for your time.  I have one more quote. Just as we close here on page 116 of your book, you're talking about the Great Commission, and you say, "We must look beyond the tech savvy, entertainment addicted, truth, hating, self-absorbed, narcissistic mindset of our culture. And remember that these people struggle with all the misery associated with their sin and the God hating world that they love. We live amongst them. Some attend our church. We must love them, pray for them and give them the gospel. They are hurting, confused, frustrated, angry, depressed, addicted, lonely, disconnected. You name it, they struggle with it, although they are too blind to see it. They need Christ and Him crucified, and it is our responsibility to give them a taste of the glory that could be theirs. Amen. Thank you, Brother.

Dave Harrell 
You're welcome. Thank you.