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You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast.
Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the
latter part of the 20th century.
He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa.
For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com.
Thank you, choir and orchestra. That was beautiful.
Well, it's good to be back in your town and in your church,
and I appreciate so much the opportunity that we have to come,
and Kay and I always look forward to this meeting,
and it's such a special time because Michael and Terry
are so special to us
and because you always make us
feel so welcome and at home.
And so we're always glad to come.
And it's good that I come
because Michael needs, you know.
So I think the Lord just has me come, you know, just every once in a while to kind of get him straight, keep him straight.
And the rest of the staff. I'm about to give up on rest staff, but I'm still working on mine.
Well, I want you to open your Bibles this morning to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.
Book of Hebrews, chapter 11. The book of Hebrews chapter 11. And I'll begin reading with verse 1 and read through 1 through 6. It's right before James and right after Philemon for those of you that are still settle anywhere. Pretend that it's Hebrews. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God,
so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain,
through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous,
God testifying about his gifts,
and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, And through faith, though he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
I must confess to you this morning that I have a difficult time keeping my priorities straight.
I have a difficult time keeping my eyes on the target
and find out most of the time I'm shooting for something on the outside rings.
And I suspect that most of us this morning, if we were honest,
would have to confess to that same thing.
Because, you see, this morning I have a number of needs.
There are a number of concerns on my heart.
There are a number of problems that we're having to deal with.
Actually, what I'm looking for, what I need, is I need about half a dozen miracles.
And I'm praying that God would do everything that I want Him to do.
But every once in a while, somehow or another, God reminds me that what I need most is not a miracle.
And that I'm aiming at the wrong target.
And that I need to get my priorities straightened up, get them back in line with
the Word of God.
You see, when I hear the word faith, and of course you have to have faith if you're going
to work miracles, when I hear the word faith, I always think of miracles.
That's what comes into my mind.
I think about the dead being raised, mountains being cast into the sea,
armies being put to flight, laws of nature suspended.
Isn't that what you think about when you think about the word miracles?
Talk about a miracle-working God, the miracles of the Bible.
And I need a miracle, you need a miracle.
But there are times when God will in some way catch my attention and bring it back to what is really the most needed miracle of all,
and the one that is really in my grasp.
Or you see, all of these things that I've got on my heart and mind
that are preoccupying me these days and are causing some unsettling in my spirit, those are not the immediate problem.
Those are not the immediate issue.
There is a miracle mentioned here in these two verses that we rarely ever think about. I'm talking about
Enoch, that man who did not die, but he was taken up, made a detour around death, went directly to
heaven. And usually when you and I think about Enoch, that's what we think about. We remember,
oh yes, I remember Enoch. He was the one that God took him one day,
just went up to heaven without dying.
But that is not the most notable thing
that the Bible says about Enoch.
That miracle of being taken up, bypassing death,
was the result of a greater miracle.
Now, a lot of us want some wonderful miracles
to happen in our lives.
We want to be healed from a terminal illness
or we want a job back
or we want the children to come home.
There are a lot of things that we want.
Miracles that we feel that we need.
But there is another miracle
that supersedes and precedes that
that we always seem to overlook.
Why did God take Enoch anyway?
Why did God lay on Enoch this tremendous miracle that he was taken up? Well, it says very clearly there. He had this testimony that what? That he was pleasing to God. Greatest thing you can say
about Enoch is not that the Lord took him up into heaven without death. Greatest thing you can say about Enoch
is not that the Lord took him up into heaven without death.
Greatest thing you can say about Enoch is
he was pleasing to God.
Greatest thing you can say about anybody, as a matter of fact,
is not that they built great churches
or that they did great things
and performed wonderful acts.
That's not the best thing you can say about a person.
The best thing you can say about a person is he had this testimony, he was pleasing to God. And frankly,
if that cannot be said about you, then anything else that's said about you is not worth much.
The bottom line is that he had this testimony that he was pleasing to God. And that is a miracle, especially when you consider the
fact that you can't even please man. You can't please people, but you can please God. Isn't that
amazing? God, who is holy, knows us through and through. See, I can please you by a number of ways,
one by coming and one by leaving. I please everybody.
I please some when I preach,
and I please others when I stop.
But there's always a way to please people.
And I could please you if I really put my mind to it,
and I could deceive you.
You don't know that much about me.
I could pretend to be something that I'm not.
I could flatter you, which really didn't mean anything to me,
but it makes you think that I really like you.
And before long, I'm flatter you, which really didn't mean anything to me, but it makes you think that I really like you. And before long, I'm pleasing you.
Well, the reason I pleased you is because you don't know me.
And if you knew me and knew what was going on in my heart,
you wouldn't be pleased at all.
You can please man because man doesn't know you.
But here's a miracle.
God knows you through and through
and yet you can still please Him.
That's the amazing thing.
We can please Him.
Without faith,
it is impossible to please Him.
I want to propose to you this morning
that many of us have come
to this building today.
We've come to this worship service today
needing some things done
in our lives, some desperate things perhaps done in our lives. And there may be some here this
morning whose hearts are just about to break, and you have trouble just holding back the tears.
And what you need is a miracle. What you need is for God to intervene in a situation and turn things around.
But I want to propose to you this morning that there is something that you need more than that.
And that precedes the other.
I'd like to propose to you that your greatest need, my greatest need, is that we are pleasing to the Lord.
Now, how does a person please the Lord? How does a person live a life that is pleasing to God?
You know we're not talking about sinless perfection or anything like that.
We're talking about a life that's lived in fellowship with God. When he says,
they that come to God, the word when he says he who comes to God
is a religious word, a worship word.
It means he who approaches God in worship.
He's talking about a person
who wants to live in fellowship with God,
who wants to live in the presence of God,
who wants to maintain his fellowship
and wants to walk with God
in such a way that God would be pleased.
That's what he's talking about. Not just an occasional pleasing God in such a way that God would be pleased. That's what he's talking about.
Not just an occasional pleasing God in something,
but a life that is constantly pleasing to the Lord.
I tell you, folks, God has a great deal of mercy and grace,
but even God says that his patience runs out.
So much of the time, the only time you and I get interested about pleasing God
is when we're in a desperate situation.
We ought to get desperate before we'll do anything. And I guess that's the reason sometimes God brings us to desperate
situations so that we will call out to Him. But what the writer is saying is that you and I
need to live a life consistently of pleasing Him. Oh, it sounds so hard to do. How can I please
God? My goodness. I know Billy Graham must be pleasing to God because look at all he's accomplished.
I know preachers must be pleasing to God because look what they do. My goodness,
what can I do to please God? Well, that's the greatest statement of all.
He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
He doesn't say without faith,
it's mighty difficult to please God.
He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Now, if I'd been writing that verse,
I don't think I'd use the word faith.
I would have said something like,
without tithing, it's impossible to please God.
That's what, you know,
that'd be a good one for a Baptist church.
Without tithing, it's impossible to please God. That's what, you know, that'd be a good one for a Baptist church. Without tithing, it's impossible to please God.
Or without witnessing, it is impossible to please God.
Or without going to church,
it is impossible to please God.
Now, all those things are good,
but that's not what the writer says.
Without faith, he takes one thing,
singles it out, and he said,
this is the utmost.
This is the priority. It's this one
thing. You can do anything else you want to. You can win people to Christ. You can tithe. You can
give gifts and donations. But unless you are living in faith, nothing you do is pleasing to God.
The tenses of the verb when it says it is impossible to please him, the tense of the
verb indicates it is impossible to please Him a single time.
I mean, apart from faith, there is not one single thing that I can do that pleases God,
including my preaching.
Paul said, whatsoever is not of faith is what?
It's sin.
There are only two options.
You live in faith or you live in sin.
It is by faith that I please Him. I don't please God by my preaching.
I think He
is pleased by it when it's right, but that's
not what pleases Him.
God is pleased
by my faith.
God is pleased when I believe
Him, when I trust
in Him.
When perhaps like a little child, nothing makes sense, but I have faith
in my father, he'll get me out of this. He knows what's best. Without faith, it is impossible to
please him. Which leads me now to the main part. What kind of faith is it that pleases God?
I don't know that I have much faith, preacher.
My faith's so weak.
I hear about men and women of great faith who do great things,
but I don't think I've got that kind of faith.
Well, that's the wonderful thing about the Bible.
It always, when it tells us something we need to do,
it always shows us the way to do it.
God never asks us to do anything that we cannot do. You need to remember that. Every shows us the way to do it. God never asked us to do anything
that we cannot do. You need to remember that. Every command in the Bible is a promise, because
whenever God says for you to do something, at that moment, He empowers you to do it, if you're willing
to do it. God never asked you to do anything you cannot do. He said to Lazarus, come forth. Well,
now that's asking an awful lot of a dead person, don't you think?
I mean, if Lazarus could have come forth,
he'd have done it before now.
He said, no, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus did.
That's impossible.
Why?
Because a dead man can't do that.
But when Jesus uttered the command,
at the same time, he imparted to Lazarus
the ability to obey that command.
He said to the man, 38
years crippled, take up your bed and walk.
You're asking
too much of that man, but he did. He took it up
and walked. Why? Because when the Lord gave
that impossible command, he imparted to
that man the power to do it.
He said to the man with the
withered arm, stretch forth your hand.
That's one thing you can't do with the withered arm.
You can't stretch it forth.
But he did.
You can go all through the Bible and find that.
Why?
Because every command is a promise.
And if God commands that I trust Him,
that I believe in Him,
then there's a way that I can do it.
So I want to show you what are,
they're just two things really,
he says here,
you need to believe about God.
He says, he that comes to God must believe that he is
and that he is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek him.
So number one, what kind of,
what do I have to believe to please God?
Well, first of all, you got to believe that God is.
Just that simple, God is.
Now, let me add a word to it, that God is real. God is real. Now, sometimes you read this verse,
and it sounds like what the writer is saying, that you've got to believe that God exists. I mean,
you've got to believe there is a God. If you want to please Him, you've got to believe that God exists. I mean, you've got to believe there is a God.
If you want to please Him,
you've got to believe that God exists.
I don't believe that's at all what the writer has in mind.
That's included,
but that's not what he has in mind.
I don't think the writer is saying,
he who wants to approach God
must believe that God exists.
Well, if he's going to approach God,
he already believes that God exists, you see.
I mean, you know,
you wouldn't be trying to approach God
if you didn't believe there was a God. I think, and these people are Christians to whom he's writing. They believe
in Christ. They believe in God. It would be superfluous to say to them, well, you folks got
to believe in God. Well, we do believe in him, in his existence. I mean, you know, if I'm asking
somebody, how do I get to Albany, Georgia? They say, well, first of all, you've got to believe, is there an Albany in Georgia?
Well, now that you mention it, I don't know, is there?
Well, that's ridiculous.
I wouldn't want directions to this place
if I didn't believe it existed.
Why would a person want to try to approach God
if he didn't believe that God existed?
Now, he's not saying that we must believe that God still,
that God exists, you know, that we believe in the existence of God. That's not, he's not saying that we must believe that God still, that God exists, you know,
that we believe in the existence of God. That's not what he's saying. He's saying we must believe
that God is real even now. He's real even now. You see, what the writer's about to do, these folks
are going through a terrible time of tribulation, persecution.
They're about ready to throw in the towel.
And when he comes down to the last verses of chapter 10, he makes that so clear.
He says, don't cast away your confidence.
You've got to hang in there.
You've got to hang in there.
And what he's going to do, he's coming into the 11th chapter,
and he says, now I'm going to give you people,
I'm going to give you some examples of how God delivered people in times past.
You just hang in there, hang on,
don't give up, just keep on,
hang in there, believe Him, trust Him.
I'll show you what God has done in times past.
But before I show you these things,
I don't want you sitting out there saying,
well, yeah, but that was a thousand years ago.
Yeah, God did that for Abraham.
He wouldn't do it for me.
We have a tendency to think that way, don't we?
Sure we do.
We have a real tendency to think that way.
That God used to do those things,
but God doesn't do those things today.
You see what he's saying?
He said, now when I start telling you
about Abraham and Isaac and Noah and Gideon,
he said, I don't want you folks out there saying,
well, sure, that was good for them,
but boy, that was God way back then.
He said, no, you've got to believe God's still the same God.
He's still the same.
God is.
God is.
I am the Lord, he said through Malachi the prophet.
I change not.
God is not affected by time at all.
Time does not change God.
Time does not alter God.
He is oblivious to time.
God is the eternal now.
He is the eternal present.
God is our contemporary always.
Contemporary with Abraham,
but contemporary with me.
And listen, if I'm going to be pleasing to God,
I've got to believe that God still is.
He still is.
Same God.
He hasn't changed.
He hasn't changed.
He still is.
That's an affirmation, folks.
I'll tell you the kind of faith that pleases God
is when, in spite of everything that's going on in your life,
in spite of all the heartbreaks and the disappointments,
you stand and make this affirmation, God is.
He is. He still is.
May not look like He is,
but He is.
You stand at the grave of a loved one
and you say, God is.
You stand amidst the rubble of a broken home.
What do you say? God is.
I still believe God is. I still believe God is.
I still believe He's in charge.
He's sovereign.
And while I can't see much evidence of it now,
and while I can't feel much of it now,
I make this declaration.
And this is what pleases God,
that in the midst of this kind of thing,
I make that affirmation, God is.
He hasn't changed one bit. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He may change in His manifestations.
He may not part Red Seas or Jordan Rivers today.
He changes in His ways of manifesting Himself,
but His character, His nature, His goodness, His grace
never changes, Never changes. I was in New Orleans
in a meeting some time ago, a few years ago, and before the service I was sitting on the front pew
and there were two women sitting behind me and I couldn't help but overhear their conversation.
They were talking about a car wreck that had happened last week in which the woman, this woman's boy, was involved.
But he was all right, but the other boy, the driver of the car, was killed.
And I remember hearing these two women talk.
Her friend said to the mother, she said, oh, I'm so glad your son is okay.
And she said, yes, God is good.
Well, of course he is.
Of course he is.
He spared your son.
I couldn't help but wonder what she'd be saying
if it had been her son who had died.
I wondered what the other mother
would say.
Makes a lot of difference.
See, my own opinion is
this, my own personal opinion
which I greatly respect
is this,
that you only have the right to say
praise the Lord at a funeral if it's your loved one
in the casket.
God still is.
I want to tell you something, if God was good last year,
He's good today.
If He was there for you five years ago,
He's still there today.
If God loved me a thousand years ago, God still loves me.
God hasn't changed one bit. Circumstances, appearances may have
changed, but God himself has not changed. No, the faith that pleases God is the kind of faith that
can look all the persecution, all the heartbreak, all the tragedy, all the tribulation right in the
face and say in the face of it all, God is. You're not going to get me to believe God has abandoned
me. God still is,
even when it looks like He isn't.
And there are a lot of times when it looks like He isn't, folks.
That's the kind of faith,
oh, that pleases Him, see?
You know what?
I never did tell my parents.
After they spanked me,
I never did tell them
I loved them tell my parents. After they spanked me, I never did tell them. I loved them for doing it.
Good night, no.
You know what I'd say
after my mom or my dad spanked me?
I wouldn't say this to them
or I'd get more of it.
But I'd go to my room and I'd...
They only got me
so they could have somebody beat on.
Now, I know that I'm the only one
that ever thought that. I know that I'm the only one that ever thought that. I know that
I'm the only one that ever thought that. But I knew
that the only reason my parents kept me around
is so they'd have somebody to whip up on,
beat up on.
But you know
what?
I know today
there may be one or two times
they got exasperated. I was a very exasperating
kid. And they may have punished me more out of temper
than anything else, but for the most part,
they did those things because they loved me.
Can you imagine what it would have done,
how it would have pleased them
if after that spanking I said,
I know you did that because you love me.
Oh, and that, of course,
you might give mom a heart attack
if you said something like that.
Do you think it pleases God?
Do you think it might please God
that in the midst of some great trial
or trouble or tribulation,
you might say, God, I know you love me.
And I still believe that you're real
and that you're here.
Don't you think that'd be pleasing to God?
That's the kind of faith that pleases God.
Believing that God is real.
The second is this.
Believe that God is a rewarder. God is real. The second is this. Believe that God is a rewarder. God is real. God is a rewarder.
God still is, even when it looks like He isn't, and God is a rewarder. That that is His character,
you see. What the writer of Hebrews is doing here, he's telling us a part of the character of God.
That the character of God, the nature of God, just like grace and mercy and love, the nature of God
is that He's a rewarder. He's the kind of God who rewards people.
He's not the kind of God who only takes from people
like the pagan sacrifice would just simply take and never give.
He's the kind of God who gives, who provides.
He's a rewarder.
I want to take those phrases one by one.
Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Number one, He is a rewarder.
What does He mean by this?
Well, basically what it means is
you never waste your time when you're seeking the Lord.
You never waste your time when you're praying.
You never waste your time when you're trying to please God.
Why? He is a rewarder.
You just put it down.
God is no man's debtor.
God is not going to be in debt to you.
He will reward you
for your faith. He will reward you if you seek him. He is that kind of God. He is a rewarder.
It is never vain to wait for the Lord. you don't waste your time when you serve God.
I mean, sometimes you teach the same class,
Sunday school class, year after year,
and it looks as though nobody's changing
and they don't listen half the time.
And it's easy sometimes to say,
well, I'm just wasting my time.
I have news for you.
You never waste your time serving God.
Never do.
It's always profitable to serve Him. Always profitable to seek Him. It pays off. You got to believe that
if you're going to please Him. It doesn't please God if you think He's not that kind of God.
I know God is a rewarder. I don't know what the reward
may be right now, but I know this. He is a rewarder of those. I want you to look at that next phrase.
He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Those who diligently seek Him. I'm reading from the New American Standard. It leaves that word out.
Shame on them.
It ought to be in there.
It's in the Greek text.
He is a rewarder of those who diligently, earnestly seek Him.
Reminds me of what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 9 and 10.
God's saying, you shall seek me and find me when you search for me
with all your heart.
And he says, I will be found of you.
Interesting thing.
Literally saying, if you seek for me with all your heart, I'll let you find me.
You know that God can't be found if he doesn't want to be found, don't you?
I mean, you know that.
There is a great deal in the Bible that hints at God's absences,
the way God disappears.
And if he doesn't want to be found, folks,
you can't find him.
I've tried to find him on a number of occasions.
I'm sure I know Danny has.
I know Michael has.
You know, when nothing's working,
and so you keep searching for something that'll... I heard a man, a good friend
of mine, preach one night
and he preached ten sermons.
Not all
the way through. He was searching for
one that might work.
Being a preacher,
I knew what he was doing see
nobody else
may have known
but I knew what he was doing
he started out with a text
and it was going
one direction
and it was dead
and flat
and then
he jumped over here
to another
outline
and then to another
and then I knew
what he was doing
he was searching for God
but I want to tell you something
God wasn't anywhere
to be found that night
you can't find God if he doesn't want to be found, friend.
And He only is found by those who diligently seek Him.
A casual glance will never find the Lord.
Never will.
Half-hearted seeking.
Well, if it's going to take all that much trouble, I don't think I will. Half-hearted seeking. Well, if it's going to take all that much trouble,
I don't think I will.
Only those who diligently seek Him.
Why is that?
Well, how much does it mean to you?
If it doesn't mean any more to you
than for you to not seek the Lord,
then it doesn't mean that much to you.
God's not going to give it to you.
You see, it is by seeking with all of our heart,
earnestly, desperately, untiringly, unflinchingly,
it is by that way that we exhibit our sincerity,
our desire, you see, for Him.
I was talking earlier about when my kids were little
and around Christmas time,
how when you'd ask them what they wanted for Christmas,
you'd make up a Christmas list.
They'd sit in front of the TV
and they'd write down everything TV flashed on there,
whether they knew what it was or not.
And you'd take a carload of train
to carry their gift list a lot of times.
And I wish today that I had all the money I spent on toys
that they didn't care a thing about.
You know what I'm talking about?
You ever buy something and they spend more time
playing with the box it came in rather than the toy?
Well, I found out how to do that.
I found out how to do that.
I discovered something.
I discovered that my kids looked upon me
like a slot machine.
And that you never could tell,
but if you drop a quarter and pull the lever,
who knows, you may hit the jackpot.
So there's Dad sitting over there reading his newspaper,
and you're walking by and you say,
hmm, why not?
I may find him in a weak mood.
Say, Dad, will you buy me a car?
No, okay, you know.
Just thought I'd put a, okay, you know.
Just thought I'd put a quarter in,
you know, never gonna tell.
Well, I discovered that if they just ask once,
they didn't want it very badly.
But when they would stand and stand and stand and ask and ask and plead ask, and plead, and beg, and cry.
I began to get the idea that meant something to them.
And I think that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying here.
Does it mean anything to you?
How desperately do you want to find Him? You see, the reason for this is because
usually the seeking will bless you more than the finding.
You understand what I'm saying? Sometimes the greatest blessing is not in getting what you want,
but it's in the process that you go through to get it.
The having to pray and get with God and get your heart right
and get your sins confessed and all of that enterprise
of getting with God and praying and listening to God,
that does more for you than the thing you're asking for.
And so sometimes God delays, you know.
So you diligently, you diligently.
So let's look at that verse again.
He who comes to God must believe that God is
and that he is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek a reward.
Now, did I read that wrong?
Yeah.
He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek a reward.
Uh-uh.
He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek the healing.
Now I know what it says.
He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek blessing.
Not what he said.
What it looks to me like, if I need money, that's what I'll be seeking. And if I need money, that's what I'll be seeking.
And if I need healing,
that's what I'll be seeking.
And if I need blessing,
that's what I'll be seeking.
No, that's not what y'all be seeking.
That's what I'm talking about earlier.
When I start off earlier saying,
I have trouble getting my priorities,
we're down to it.
I'm finishing where I started off.
You see, I get to thinking the priority,
the number one issue here
is to get that situation changed.
And if God will just somehow work in that situation,
that's not the number one priority.
The number one priority is that I please Him,
that I seek Him and find Him,
and that I'm pleasing to Him.
And then God will take care of the rest.
You trust Him to do that.
But you don't get the reward by seeking the reward.
You get the reward by seeking the rewarder.
Those who diligently seek Him, see?
Those who diligently seek Him. See? Those who diligently seek Him.
We're to settle for nothing less and to search for nothing more.
You settle on Him.
Him.
When I first started traveling,
I would always bring children some little trinket from wherever I was, you know, never, about 50 cents, you know, cheap as I can.
I'd buy a pennant.
They liked pennants, and I'd bring them a pennant from every state I was in, and I'd bring them from exotic places like Tulsa.
Well, it didn't take them very long
to know that when Dad came home,
there were gifts in his suitcase.
And so when I met them at the airport,
they may see me or they may not.
They may speak or they may not.
They make a beeline for those suitcases
because they know that inside that suitcase, you see,
and I've on more than one occasion
had to stop right there,
open the suitcase right there in the terminal and dig that stuff, you see. And I've on more than one occasion had to stop right there, open the suitcase right there in the terminal
and dig that stuff out for them.
It was so bad that Kay used to coach our kids.
When they went to the airport,
she'd say, now kids,
act like you're glad to see your dad.
But I want to tell you something.
Children are poor students of manners
when there are suitcases to be opened
and treasures to be found.
But that's a child, isn't it?
I started to say as they've gotten older,
they've changed, but I don't know that they have
now that I think about it.
But as they have gotten older,
they have changed.
They seem to pay more attention to me now
than the suitcase.
I think they're growing up.
Values are changing.
It's that the father who brought the trinket
far better than the trinket itself.
I'm afraid that I love God's blessings
more than I love God himself, folks.
I'm afraid that's my problem.
I really do.
I'm scared to death to think
that I love the things God has given me
more than I love himself.
And that perhaps my greatest fear
is that God may take away some of the things he's
given me and I can't live without them. Is it possible that I can love God's blessings
more than I love him, himself? He is a reward to those who diligently seek Him.
That He is the pearl of great price.
He is the treasure buried in the field.
That's priority.
Whatever else you may need this morning,
whatever else I may need,
above all, I need to please Him.
And you're going to do that by believing that He's real
and that He is a rewarder.
And of course, you understand, don't you,
that He is the reward that He gives.
He is both the rewarder and the reward.
Would you bow your heads with me now? For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible,
please visit rondunn.com.