The Eric Metaxas Show - O.S. Hawkins

Episode Date: November 17, 2022

O.S. Hawkins asks a simple question, "Do you trust in the promises of God that you've read in the Bible?" and answers the question with his new book, "The Promise Code: 40 Bible Promises Every Believer Should Claim."

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seatbelts and keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times. Here comes Mr. Thrill Ride himself, Eric Mattaxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to Hour 2. I don't know. know what we're playing after my conversation with John Zmirak, because I'm traveling a lot, but I want to continue my conversation with John Zmirak about the new Black Panther film.

What is it? Wakanda. Wakanda forever. Wakonda forever. Trust me, everyone knows about this, but you. There's a lot of things I don't know about. All right. So I was saying one of the pleasures of the Black Panther movies is seeing Africa thrive, seeing Africa thrive, seeing Africans with wealthy cities and high technology, asserting themselves doing well, just in every way the opposite of the vicious exploitation that has been imposed on the peoples all across sub-Saharan Africa. Going back a thousand years, and in my piece at stream.org today, or, you know, came out on Monday, I talk about how the brutal exploitation of Africa began with Islam. The Arab Muslims invented the slave trade. They justified it by pointing to the Quran that any infidels, non-Muslims, who may defeat it in war, could be enslaved. The men could be forced to work.

The women could be made into sex slaves. That has been the mainstream opinion in Islam since Muhammad. Muhammad said these things. Millions of Africans were exported by the Muslim. and sold to Europeans, millions of white Europeans were stolen from Russia, stolen from France, from Spain, from Italy, kidnapped off beaches. The white slave trade was as big as the black slave trade into the early 19th century, again, because Islam justifies human trafficking. We in the West got in on this. The Spanish, the Portuguese, the English, the French, started buying

slaves from the Muslims and using them to create these monstrous plantations in places like Haiti and Alabama and Brazil where we produce sugar massively profitable. William Wilberforce, remember his sugar boycott trying to bring down the slave trade. Houghton. So yes, we in the West colluded with this Muslim crime. It took the British in 1830 to abolish slavery and and then say they were going to abolish the international slave trade. And indeed, it was Western Christian countries, were the first countries in the history of mankind to decide the slavery was evil, and they were going to abolish it.

That was a Christian thing, not a Marxist thing, not a critical race theory thing. That was a Christian thing. Abolitionism comes from Christianity. The civil rights movement comes from Christianity. We can't let the Marxist steal. these fundamentally Christian impulses and hijack them for their own racial grievance industry. I talk about what you just said, almost wherever I go. We need to understand what John just said.

It is vital that we understand if you're against racism and slavery, those movements against racism and slavery come out of scripture. They don't come out of atheist, Marxist doctrine or out of critical race theory. Please continue. And if you take away scripture, they collapse. which is why communist China now has millions of slaves. Uighur Muslim slaves are being worked to death in concentration camps all across what they call Xin province.

Your iPhone may have been made by Uyghur slaves. So no, the sugar in your coffee is not from black slaves, but your iPhone is probably from Muslim slaves in China. So in Wakanda forever, the villains are the American deep state, the U.S. United Nations and warmongering neo-conservatives. You can't do much better than that. Those are my villains too. Yeah.

I've blown away that you just said that. In Black Panther, Wakanda, Forever, which is just out, the villains are, the Americans deep state, neoconservative warmongers, and globalists at the UN who want to control the resources of independent nations. And the heroes are people who stand up for their nation. against the globalists who stand up for their own traditions and culture against the international woke business class. I mean, it's a Trumpian movie. I don't know if they intended it as such, but in my review at stream.org, I call it a Christian nationalist film. Everybody's talking about

Christian nationalism. It's the dog whistle that the left invented to try to scare us into rejecting the philosophy of America's founding. Christian nationalism, is simply the theory that it's better to have independent nations rather than one global empire where everyone is subject to a tiny elite and that it's better to have your laws based in natural law that God wrote in the human heart than to have them based in utilitarianism or Darwinism or Marxism or some other atheist materialistic worldview. That's Christian nationalism. If you believe that, congratulations. You're a Christian nationalist too. So, and my favorite thing in the film is,

and this is something I'm sort of reading into the film, it is in fact the case that Africa does have a secret, rare resource that globalists around the world want to get control of because they don't have it and they want to grab it. It's not vibranium, it's fertility. It's the willingness to have children. Only in sub-Saharan Africa do we have populations that are more than replacing the world.

themselves. Do we have people who think that life is good enough that they will pass it along to another generation? It's the ability, the willingness, the hope that says it's worth having kids. It's worth having more than two kids. It's worth reproduce yourselves that we think life is good and hopeful. So we want to have children and lots of children and grandchildren. These are things that have been lost in the West. That's the only place on Earth that has vibranium, if you will, fertility, we should call it. And Bill Gates and

Klaus Schwab and George Soros and the UN and Planned Parenthood, they all want to get their hands on this and control it. Now, populations are aging. We're going to have one retired worker for one regular worker soon in countries like Japan.

We're going to see mass euthanasia. All of this is a result of our elites spreading the lie of over population. Only in Africa have the people with their traditions and their religious beliefs so far resisted this globalist eugenic Malthusian attack on human fertility. So Africa does have this special resource that nobody else has. And the globalists really are coming for it. So if you go see Wakanda forever, think about that. And you might want to actually go read a really good book

by someone I know about this. Her name, she's an African pro-life activist, and her name is Obia Nuju Ikinjoka. I'm sure I said it wrong, but the book is called Target Africa. Target Africa, and it's all about the globalist, eugenicist attempt to destroy African fertility in order to take that resource away from this much, long-suffering comment. John, we've got less than a minute left. I want to go back and ask you a question

about the first movie, denial. You were talking about David Irving, who went bad, his story, and trying to deny the Holocaust. Here's a stupid question maybe, but why? What happened that he was willing to lie to try to make the Holocaust look like something that didn't happen?

What do you suppose was behind that? the left has weaponized the Holocaust and misused it to try to suppress conservatism and Christianity around the world. If you go to Holocaust museums, you will often see they are aggressively left wing and they try to tie any kind of cultural assertion or nationalism of any kind at all to the Holocaust. So they'll say, oh, well, we see shades of the beginning of the Holocaust. Now we're Donald Trump and Victor Orban. So David Irving, I think, a hysterical overreaction to the misuse of the Holocaust. I'll say unbelievable.

John, just a joy to speak with you, my friend. Thank you so much. Thank you. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up,

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Hey folks, welcome to the program. If you are native of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you probably know my guest. His name is OS Hawkins. Where I live in New York, people don't get to use their initials like that. But in places like Dallas, they do. He's doing it right now.

OS Hawkins, he, God, where do I start? Was a senior pastor of the historic First Baptist Church in Dallas in the 90s, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Fort Lauderdale, and he's gone on to do so many other things, including have dinner with me at the Polo Lounge in New York City a few months ago with my dear wife, O.S. Hawkins, welcome back. Good to see you.

Thank you, Eric. Joy to be with you. You know, and your name is what my name is. you have to go by initials. You know, for my Jewish friends, they say, what's OS stand for? And I say, Oscar Schindler. To my Arab friends, they say, what's the stand? I say, Omar Sharif.

But the truth is, their whole family names. And so I consequently just go by initials OS. And they're so unpleasant, you won't even share them with my small audience. Otis Swofford. Now you know. What is it? Otis Swofford. Swofford.

Swofford. Not Spafford. Swofford. Swofford. I wish you watched it. I heard I could have a claim to fame. Right, right. My gosh.

Well, listen, there's always so much I want to talk to you about, but I want to be real clear. You have a new book out called The Promise Code, 40 Bible Promises Every Believers Should Claim. Now, if you don't live in Dallas, there are many people listening to this program right now. They don't even get that idea of, what do you mean Bible promises I should claim? Where do you get the idea that there are these things? things in the Bible that I can claim. What is that whole idea of claiming a Bible promise? How is it even biblical to claim a Bible promise? I think it is, but I would love you. You're the theologian. I would love you to just explain that to our audience. Well, Eric, there was a perversion about

naming it and claiming it several years ago in the Christian faith. In other words, if I see a big new automobile, I just name it and claim it. God, I'm going to claim that. You give it to me. That is as perverted of biblical truth as anything could be. What we talk about when we talk about claiming a Bible verse, Adrian Rogers used to say, when God names it, you can claim it. For example, the Bible promises whoever believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. You can claim that. You can stake your life on that.

So the Bible, the promise code is the last and a, long series of devotional code book series that I've done with Thomas Nelson. And I did it because of this. Promises made are always appreciated, but promises kept are what mean the most. All of us have had experiences with other people who made promises to us but never kept them. But the Bible is replete with promises. God is made to us. And he has a perfect record of keeping all of his promises in his own time. So I wrote the book so people could begin the great adventure for taking God at His Word. You know, it's one thing to read the Bible and struggle with its precepts, but it's another thing to believe the Bible and stand on its promises. And it's a liberating thing

that I'm trying to lead people into that kind of a lifestyle. When do you, there are people, people who, when they read the Bible, they don't really read it maybe the way you would or I would. I mean, before I came to faith, the man who led me to faith, my dear friend Ed Tuttle, he handed me, he had written down Jeremiah 29, is it 11, for I know the plans I have toward you, says the Lord, plans not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And it goes on from there. And I remember thinking at the time, God is speaking. to me through this. But there are people who don't read the Bible that read. They say,

what are you talking about? This is Jeremiah. This is a whole other thing. How does it that you take that God speaking to you? And when do you know when something is God speaking to you or at least potentially speaking to you if you receive it by faith? Or how do you know when something is just something that is, you know, taken in historical context, it doesn't apply directly to you. How do we How do we process that kind of thing? We process it by understanding, first of all, that the Bible is a miracle book. And we can't expect anyone that doesn't know Christ and have the Spirit of God living in them. The Holy Spirit said he's going to guide us into all truth.

He's going to teach us. He illumines the Word of God to us. He quickens it to our heart. It's a miracle that takes place when the believer comes to the Bible. says, open my eyes to behold wonder's truths, and has the Holy Spirit to lead them in this. And so, you know, one of the real keys to the answer to your questions, Romans 1017, it says faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the word of God, not the Lagos, not the written revelation from Genesis to Revelation, not what we read in the Bible, but the Ramon is the Greek word there, the specific word to a specific person in a specific situation. For example, I passed through Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 15 years. I remember we were on a big beach excursion evangelism time out there one time. And a skeptic came up to me on the beach and said, if you really got faith, start walking on the water,

the Atlantic Ocean is right there. I couldn't do that. Peter did. He said if Peter did it, you could do it if you had faith. Well, Peter got a ramai. He got a specific word to a specific. person, a specific situation. Jesus said, if Peter walked to me, come to me on the water, and Peter acted on the word of

God and did it. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by that special word that God gives us. We've had that experience when we've read the Bible, and we've got a situation in our life, and all of a sudden, a verse jumped off the pages of Scripture and leapt into our heart, and it was though God was saying, this is just what you need right now at this moment in your life. That's the right. That's where we stand upon that word and build our faith upon it. Well, it's interesting because there's so many people they say they're Christians, but they don't understand that we are in a spiritual battle.

You cannot be neutral. You're in a spiritual battle, and we have an enemy who hates God and who hates anyone who walks with God unless you're aware that you're in a spiritual battle. And unless you take what the Bible says seriously, unless you claim these things as this is what God, says. Unless you do that actively, it's kind of meaningless. You have to step in and understand that this is what God says, and I may be hearing other things or circumstances, maybe pointing another direction, but what does God say about my value? What does God say about the value of the people

around me? And I think it's important that we underscore that, and that's obviously what you're doing in all these books. But so the new one, brand new, is called the Promise Code, brand new book, What are some of the promises in this book that you underscore? I know there are 40 of them. We won't get to all of them, but just a couple. First of all, Larry, let me just say that what you just said is in the middle of the bullseye. We are in a spiritual war. And the Bible tells us in Ephesians that we're to arm ourselves with all of this armor.

We put on the breastplate of righteousness. The shield of faith. All of those are defensive weapons. We only have one offensive weapon. And that's the sword of the spirit. Spirit, the Word of God. That's our only offensive weapon to stand against the enemy. And so your point on right there, and that's why this promise code is so important. You know, just there's one of the, the first promise I put in there was what I call the promise of a rider tomorrow. And that's

Romans 828. It says, for we know, you know, R.T. Kendall calls that a family secret. The lost world doesn't know for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. How many of us believers have climbed in times of distress and heartache and uncertainty have climbed up on that verse and stood there and found our comfort there? It's a family secret. The lost world doesn't know it. I mean, you go to the you go to the emergency room one of those major hospitals in New York City Friday night when people are coming in with gunshot wounds and knifings and everything

saddle up to one of those family members in the nurse in the waiting room and just say, listen, I just came by to let you know all things are working together for the good. Well, you'll be in the emergency room yourself in five minutes because the lost world doesn't know that. What's interesting though, OS, is that the world perverts that.

Either they don't know it at all or they pervert it and say, I think everything works out in the end. It's like, no. that's not what the Bible says. And by the way, that is not true. All things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. Otherwise, all things don't work together for good. So we need to determine do we love the Lord and are we called according to his purposes. And if we do, wow. Yeah. When I was pastor of First Baptist Dallas, which is Dr. Christopher pastor of that church for 50 years. It's the most biblically literate church. I preach to Charles Riary from Dallas. Seminary every Sunday, all of these people in that great biblically literate church. I was preaching through Romans 8. I did a survey. I had our staff go out when people were gathering and say, quote Romans 828.

And 90% of them said, oh, I know that verse. All things worked together for good. And they left off the last phrase. Okay, we're going to, we're going to a break here. When we come back, folks, we're going to get to the rest of that sentence. And more with OS Hawkins. The book is the promise code, 40 Bible promises. Every believer should come.

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All things work together for good. Right. But they forgot the most important part, which is what follows. To those who love the Lord and are the called according to his purpose. God has a purpose for every single one of us and wants to lead us into that truth. And the way we find it is by his spirit and through his word. And that's why I call that promise the promise of a writer tomorrow. It doesn't mean everything that happens in our lives is good.

But it does mean that God can take everything and work it together. You know, I had a biscuit for breakfast this morning. I didn't just say, give me a bowl of baking soda and give me a bowl of flour. Give me a bowl of flour. I hate baking soda by itself and flour by itself, but you put it together and mix it up. I love biscuits. And all things, when woven together in the tapestry of the cross in our lives, God can use to work together for our good and his glory.

Well, we need to walk in faith. And again, I said there are a lot of people I know that are Christians, they're not walking in faith. And this is not a guilt trip. It's to say that it's God's will for you to have joy and peace and hope. And that when things go wrong, you immediately say, but God says that all things work together for good for those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And I think a lot of people are dealing with a lot of grief in life, a lot of sadness. and it's not God's will for them to walk around without that hope and without that faith and that we need to exercise our faith.

But that's God's will for us because he loves us. He does not want us to be hang dog and sad and what's the use. That's not God's will. And so I know that that's part of what you're doing in the new book, The Promise Code. It's interesting to me that, you know, when you and I talk about the Bible as the word, of God. It's, you know, really until Martin Luther, I wrote a biography about him, and of course, Reformation Day is right around now, so I've been looking at it recently. And it's astonishing to think how for many centuries the word of God was not being appropriated as the word of God. It was a book

it existed. People would quote from it. But your average believer didn't have the ability really to walk in the kind of faith that you're talking about here, which is God's will for us to walk in. Exactly. Didn't have access to it. You know, Eric, today, what I find in, one of the reasons I wrote this book is that so many people today are looking for explanations and God gave us promises. For example, take Neiman. He was the commander-in-chief of the King's armies of Syria in the Book of Kings, got leprosy,

went to every possible Mayo clinic there was in Syria, found no cure. He heard about the man of God down in Israel, Elijah. He came down there, and the man of God said, go dip seven times in the Jordan River, and you'll be clean. He got his chariot mad, headed back to Syria in a huff, said, we got rivers up there better than that muddy stream. And he had a servant in that chariot that said, if he'd ask you to do something hard of you to have done it,

what do you have to lose? You're dying of leprosy. And so the proud heroic conquer, and Aeman goes down to Jordan, takes off his regal robes, dipped seven times in Jordan, comes up clean, but he almost missed his cure because he was looking for an explanation, and God gave him a promise. I deal with people all the time. They just say, well, I just want an explanation for this. God has given us a promise. You know, there's a difference in a precept and a promise. A precept is a guiding principle. And the truth is it's one thing to read the Bible and struggle with its precepts like the Ten Commandments. It's another thing to believe the Bible and stand on its promises. And that's why we wrote the book to lead people into a new and a freedom way of living on the promises of God. And I just think we're going through such tough times in the country that I think people are more inclined maybe to say, I need help. I need help. Whatever I've been doing has not been working. I need to ask God to lead me. How can I live

out my faith? Really live it out because things are tough. I know there are 40 promises in the book. Romans 828, of course, that's a big one for me. What are some of the other promises in the book, The Promise Code? Well, there are so many. You know, as you you mentioned, some promises are unconditional. For example, that rainbow that's in the sky, it's not conditioned on anything we do. So there are many other promises. Jesus said in John 14, I will come again. That's not conditioned on anything you or I do. He's promised he's coming again. But most of them are conditional. For example, God has promised us, one of these promises in here, God has promised us to forgive us of all of our sin.

What a great promise. But it's conditional. 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all and rights. It's conditioned with an if. If we confess, homo legale, if we say the same as God says, if we agree with God, that our sin isn't some little bias we laugh off or are we excused by saying, well, everybody's doing, or we minimize by saying, lot as bad as so-and-so, our sin is so serious that necessitated the cross. And when we come into agreement with God and confess it, he forgives us. And it's the word forgiveness of him. He means he sins it away. And, and you know, Eric, how can we be sure that God will keep his promise?

I'm going to, we're going to hit another, we're hitting another break here. How can we be sure God will keep his promises? We'll be back for the answer, the happy answer. with OS Hawkins. The book is The Promise Code. Don't go away. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401Ks, IRAs, and other investment accounts? Folks, this is a huge problem. And we need to do something about this to send a message to Wall Street through our investments. You need to go to

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Mypillow.com promo code Eric. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to OS Hawkins, who has written a new book called The Promise Code, 40 Bible promises every believer should claim. So you ask the question, how can we be sure God will honor his promises? And what do you say to that, OS? Well, whether or not, Eric, one keeps his or her promise is, based on his or her character. For example, take an unrepent thief

that's been caught and incarcerated numerous times for theft. And every time he gets out of jail, he goes and steals again, he gets put back in jail. And here he is after several times, coming before judge, saying to the judge, judge, I promise you, if you'll just let me go, I'll promise you, I'll not steal again. Well, the judge isn't going to let him go

because of his past recurring areas, of his own lack of character. And so how can we trust God to keep his character, his promises, because of his character? Because the Bible says in Hebrews 618, it is impossible for God to lie. His word is his bond. And your Bible, my Bible, is laced with promises God has made to us for us to claim as our own. and to live our lives by Bible promises. You know, we don't find a Bible promise. It's not like playing Russian roulette

where I just open my Bible and just let my finger point up, following the verse and say, oh, that's God's fine. We don't find a Bible promise. A Bible promise finds us in the normal traffic pattern of our Bible reading, when God will, by His Holy Spirit,

quick and a verse for us, we know that's God's promise to us, and we stand on it, And faith then comes by hearing and hearing by that word that God gives to us. You know, we were talking a moment ago. I was talking, I've got Luther on the brain, Martin Luther on the brain, just because on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation 1517 to 2017, I wrote the biography of Luther.

And just recently, as I mentioned, I've been rereading my own book. I normally don't read my books. But I have been amazed. You should read your own books. I should read my own books. Well, when you write a book, you have to read it a thousand times. You're proofing it and going over and over and over, so you get so sick of it. But it's been so long.

And so I've been rereading my Luther book, and I am amazed at his faith. I have to say, you know, it's one of these things. Sounds like a cliche, but I am amazed as I read my book at the faith of this man that he knew that the Bible was the Word of God and that he could stand on it. And it's fascinating to me because, again, he was living in a time when this was not the case. In a way, his father confessor, his kind of spiritual father von Staupitz kind of said, Luther, you study the Bible. Nobody else was really doing that. And so he got into it in a way that almost no one at that time had access to it or could study it, but he became so clear about what it was, that it was this sacred thing. It wasn't just

some, you know, sort of inspired writings. It was the Word of God. And it's amazing to us now, five centuries later, we just assume that. Any Bible-believing Christian gets that. But I'm just amazed that for all those centuries, which I said earlier, that people were kind of drifting in the shadows. They didn't understand, and that God allowed finally this book to come into the hands of just about every person in the world. It's an amazing moment that we live in. Most of us take it for granted. Exactly.

And Luther, I believe I'm correct in this, it was the truth of the Book of Romans that opened his whole life to the scripture. And there's no book in all the Bible, as fill of promises to us as the book of God. Romans. It's just on every page of the Book of Romans. And you know, one of the great things on this as this time where we're remembering Reformation Day and things, I would challenge all of our hearers. Just go back and reread the book of Romans. It's the greatest treatise, theological treatise, and all the Bible, and yet it's written in such a way that we can put a handle on it. And it's full of

truth and it's full of Bible promises. So I would encourage us all to learn a lesson. from Martin Luther and just renew ourselves with the truth in the book of Romans. I want to go back to the promises in your book, 40 Bible promises, remind us of one or two others, if you would. Well, you know, there are a lot of heroes right now that are dealing with a real problem. Paul was in Corinthians. He said that he had a thorn in his flesh. and that thorn in his flesh was causing him great.

Anxiety and discomfort and frustration. Some people think it was epilepsy. Others think it was the fact that he was losing his eyesight because he wrote to the Galatians, if you remember, and said, see in what large letters I'm writing. We don't know what it was, but it was some type of a physical situation, a thorn in the flesh,

with which he was dealing. And so he came to the Lord, and he knew God answered prayer. And this is the man who gave us the book of Romans. And he knew God answered prayer. And he asked the Lord repeatedly. He said three times at least to remove it from me, but he didn't.

And then God gave him a promise. God said, this is Paul. My grace is sufficient for you. And that's what our hearers need to learn today. there's a difference in grace and mercy. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. Thank God for mercy. Grace, on the other hand, is getting what we don't deserve.

And God is rich in grace and full of grace and wants to bestow it all on us today. He wants to give us what we never deserve his grace today. And no matter what our circumstance and situation is, if we'll lean on him, his grace will be sufficient for us. what an incredible promise from the Word of God. It is an amazing thing. And if you don't know these scripture verses, folks, life is harder. God wants us to know at least these handful of verses that you can walk around with this, that this is not something that where you can struggle and struggle and struggle,

that it's right there. My grace is sufficient for you. That is a promise from God. And it is an amazing thing because when we think of what we go through in life, and if you live through this life, you're going to suffer, you're going to struggle, you're going to have problems. But God says, my grace is sufficient for you. Hallelujah. What an amazing thing that he says that to bless us. Every single one of us needs to know.

That's for you, folks. That's for us. We'll be right back final segment talking to OS Hawkins. The book is The Promise Code 40 Bible promises every believer should claim. Don't go away. Folks, welcome back. Final segment with OS Hawkins, who has a bookout called The Promise Code, 40 Bible Promises, every believer should claim. OS, this is the most recent in a series of books that you've written over the years. Is that right? That's right. It's called the Code series. The Promise Code is the 12th or 14th, and that whole series of devotions.

Every one of them, Eric, are geared, not to get people into the Word of God, but to get the Word of God. but to get the Word of God into the people. And when we get the Word of God into us, it changed their life. The first one was the Joshua Code, 52 scripture verses every believer should know. You know, as a pastor, I dealt with people. It's hard for them to get started reading the Word of God. They start in the Old Testament, and they get the Leviticus, and they get bogged down. They start in the New Testament with Matthew, and there are dozens of names in Chapter 1 they can't pronounce.

So I picked 52 verses in the Bible, that if you know those, memorize one a week for a year, devotional thoughts with them, you'll know the theme of the Bible, the Joshua Code, 52 scripture verses ever believers should know. Then I was reading devotionally, and I was astounded how many times Jesus asked questions. He was omniscient.

He didn't need answers. And I wrote the Jesus Code, 52 scripture questions ever believers should answer. I believe there are 52 questions in the Bible. We all have answered before we go to heaven. And I can go on, but I want the Bible code finding Jesus in every book, of the Bible, the prayer code, 40 Bible prayers. Every believer should answer. And the latest is the

promise coding. Eric, I just want to say that all the royalties to all these books go to mission dignity. And they've sold over 3 million copies in the last three years. So all these royalties go to mission dignity. We're on a mission to bring dignity to some forgotten folks. And that's retired pastors and widows that never made enough to live on, much less retire on. Pastor churches in the crossroads, had to retire. They're living at the poverty level. Ten years ago, we gave them $50 a month. Now we sold so many of these books that the neediest get $700 a month and there are thousands in our programs. So people can know these are beautiful gift edition, leather books. And every time you purchase one, the royalties go to support one of these precious

widows. A pastor's widow 87 years ago wrote me not long ago. She said, I get to eat at night now. and it's not just a piece of toast. So behind these code series, it's God's hand extended. Wow. Well, that's a great reason to get some copies of the promise code. 40 Bible promises every believer should claim. It's the only way to live, folks, is to know the Word of God and to walk with it. One of my favorite ones is be anxious for nothing but in all things by prayer and supplication.

Make your question on with Thanksgiving. Make your question on it with Thanksgiving. Make a question on it again. And the Lord of all. And then it says, and promises us that God will give us peace. It says it. And it commands us be anxious for nothing. God in His mercy is saying, stop it.

I love you. Take that anxiety immediately. Take it to me in prayer. Don't walk around with it. Take it to me. So there's so much. And I know. And you're calling me a preacher.

What's that? That's good. You're calling me a preacher. That's good preaching right there. Well, I'm telling you, this is just, it's the only way to live. and life is tough. And I think we need to understand that for most people, life is tough. We need answers.

We need hope. And, you know, that's what the Bible is for. That's what God wants to give to us. So, oh, it's just so grateful to you for this whole series and for the new one, the promise code. 40 Bible promises every believer should claim. Love to see you in the studio when you're back in New York. bring your wife next time. The last time I saw her was at Elton John concert, and that's not acceptable, all right?

That's an unacceptable. So next time I want to. Eric, let me just finally say that anybody wants more information can go to OSHawkins.com. There are hundreds of free Bible studies there and all the information about all the books. And Susie does want to come with me next time, even if it's not an Elton John concert. All right. We'll do what we have to do. OSHawkins.com.

O.S. Hawkins, thank you. God bless you, my friend. Thank you. Thank you, Harry.