The following resource is from desiring God.org.

As we begin, I would like to ask you a favor,

namely, that you would test everything I say by the word of God, by the Bible.

Because most of you don't have any idea who I am.

There's no reason that you should trust me.

There are a lot of people traveling around the world saying all kinds of things, many of which are not true.

And maybe I'm one of those people.

And how would you know that?

There's only one way to know whether what somebody says about God is true, and that is does it correspond to what's in this book, the Bible.

So the favor that I'm asking you to give me is to not take my word for it, but to put my word through the grid of this book. So I regard my job here and wherever I preach. My job is to number one make as plain as I can the realities that are in this book.

And then to try to show you that they really are in the book.

It's not enough for me to just say the Bible says I've got to show you that the Bible says and then thirdly, that I would help you respond in a way with thoughts and with feelings and with actions that correspond to the value of the

realities that you see in the book. So that's my job. So Father, I ask for your

help because I can't make that happen. I can't create in the hearts of these people emotions and affections that correspond to your value.

That's a miracle.

And so I ask for the miracle to happen.

So give me your help, please,

and grant them ears to hear and hearts to respond in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's

Psalm 16 and we're going to

and we're going to look at verse 11 for just two or three minutes.

And the point of looking at Psalm 1611 is to set the stage for everything else that I'm going to say.

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