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True discipleship demands more than hearing God's Word, it requires receiving it with humility and putting it into action. Pastor Joseph challenges us to stay teachable, let Scripture confront and conform us, and obey what we hear. The blessing isn't in knowing the Word, but in living it. Scriptures: James 1:19-25, James 1:21, James 1:22, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12, Hebrews 12:6, Hebrews 12:11, Proverbs 12:1, Proverbs 9:8-9, Matthew 7:24, Acts 20:26, Matthew 6:21
We are a local Church in Orange County California who are passionate to witness lives being renewed in Christ, strengthened through discipleship, and to thrive in the fullness of living for Christ.
Get connected to us by visiting www.c3oc.com or emailing us at hello@c3oc.com
I'm so excited as we're going through this series to be hearing so many people who are who have been impacted and we've really sought God throughout this series to speak. And one of the things we want to see is, and it's the vision of this church is to equip the saints. And we don't want to be just dressed up Christians, we want to be equipped disciples. We don't just want to believe in Christ, we want to follow Him beyond belief into and down the narrow path that he has called us to walk. And there is certainly a cultures within Christianity that have crept in to see how comfortable we can make our lives when God has actually called us to live a strong life and to live a life that is leaned in. And that takes a certain amount of grit, But it actually requires the spirit of God within our life. And to be encouraged by his word that we can continue in strength. And so the last few weeks we've run through these different core fundamentals of being a disciple of Christ, what that truly means. And I don't believe that discipleship stops at the pulpit and the message. It starts, actually, might start here, but it ends with us challenging one another and encouraging one another and walking with one another and praying with one another and actually living out the word of God. It may be tough some days, but the fruit is immeasurably good. And Jesus says that you would know my disciples by there. By there, was the coffee strong enough? by their fruit, right? So we want to be fruit filled disciples. We want to see that fruit growing in our lives. And when we apply his word to our life, we actually begin to see fruit grow. And so today we're going to be focused in on the word of God. And today's message is called receive the word. receive the word and the core attribute that I want us to, you know, begin digesting is teachability. Are we teachable? Not just informed but would we shape and change our lives actively after receiving the word. And so there is so much that is implanted through the whole Bible that is driving us towards this. And I want this hanging over, you're going to hear me say this a few times throughout, each week I've delivered a question for us to chew on throughout the week for us to And I want this question to be hanging over this message here today. Is can the Bible still change my mind? Can the Bible still change your mind? Can it still reshape, reprioritize? Can it make practical changes? Even though everything within me doesn't really want to, I want to apply this truth. I may not feel like I got the strength to, but I'm going to apply this truth within my life and not just hear it and do nothing with it. So James 119 to 25 is where we are focused here today. You guys ready to receive the word here today? Let's pray this. Just say this. God, prepare my heart till the soil to receive your word today. Let it flourish, let it produce fruit in every area of my life. We say amen. Amen. James 1 19 to 25 says this, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourself. He is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away, and it once he forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres be no hero who forgets but a doer who acts. He will be blessed in all his doing. that's a great promise, isn't it? That we could look into this law, look into this word, which is living, make it alive in our own worlds, in our own minds that are shaping our thoughts, shaping our soul, shaping our actions, and the promise of doing so is that you would be blessed in all that you do, not just some of what you do, but all of what you do. We have to be careful that we don't fall into the trap or this danger of being a disciple, of being a follower of Christ who can no longer be taught. It's a danger that can happen the longer that we follow Jesus. Is that the weight of what we have heard for so many years has become so familiar that we have no application in our lives. And familiarity can become the side table where we rest our honor very quickly in life. You know, you become so familiar with your wife and before long you kind of just like become a little bit lazier and you just kind of become more off your toes and I'm not saying, you know, don't be comfortable around those situations, but man, you want to be intentional with your spouse as well, or you want to be intentional with your work. I've been working here so long. I can get away with this, this and this. You know, I'm friends with the boss. He's good with me, so I don't have to work as hard. I can get away with this kind of attitude. Now, we don't want to live a life like that where we're so familiar, the honor, which means weight within our life, The weight of the word is, is kind of pushed onto a side table. And there is a danger of becoming so familiar that we think being informed by the word means that we are being changed by the word. And there, there, there is a knowing of the word, but without applying it to our lives we are losing so much power and we can end up deceiving ourselves as the word says here. We don't want to be people who think, because I know it, I've already become it, because knowing truth and being formed by truth are two entirely different things. And that's why this week belongs right here in this collection of messages, because the last few weeks we've said, been talking around Jesus, I will follow you Jesus, I surrender to you. Jesus, I depend upon you. Jesus, I leave my old life behind. That was last week. That was repentance. How many people were here for that week? Wow, everyone was so excited. Do you know, I will say this. This is what I loved about it because repentance can come across as this very like down thing. But when everyone wrote down what they were going to turn from, scrunch it up and through it to the front. You should have seen all your faces. You are all smiling and laughing. That's what repentance does. And that's what repentance should be. It's like this joyful thing like, I don't have to hang on to this anymore. I'm going to throw it away and I'm going to turn. So we're turning and reorientating our lives towards Christ. But then after all of that comes that deeply unavoidable question which is this? How is Jesus going to form us? How how is he going to shape us? And one of God's primary answers is through his words. Jesus doesn't just call disciples but he teaches and trains disciples. The word disciple itself, it tells us it implies that the disciple is a learner. The disciple is someone who is ready to learn, who is ready to take on, who is ready to receive, who is ready to correct, who is ready to change their lives according to his Word. That means that there would be something so fundamentally and foundationally wrong with the disciple that says, I am a disciple of Jesus, but nobody can tell me I'm wrong. Nobody can tell me, oh man, you're walking down the wrong way, or let's sharpen up this attitude, or let's focus on this, or it's time to forgive and to move forward. A disciple has to be teachable, a disciple must be correctable. A disciple has to be able to encounter something in the word of God that contradicts something in themselves, and they decide the word wins. The word of God wins. And that's the confrontation this week. We live in a culture that has been training us increasingly to curate a truth to our own liking. This is what is comfortable for me, so we bend the word for it to fit into our life. When we are meant to change our lives to fit into the words so that it lives around me, don't like the content, so we scroll, scroll on. We don't like the agreements with the preacher. We don't find any agreements that we ghost. We don't feel like this is what I want in my life. And so we switch directions and we start walking another way. And what we do is then we find people who would validate us. We find a podcast that would agree with us. We find a preacher who would confirm and how we feel, and the way that we want to go, that is contrary to the word of God. We find a community outside of the church which God has designed as his mission feel. It's his place that the kingdom of God runs through, that we would find another community. You can find communities everywhere. I don't wanna be a community. I wanna be the body of Christ that is alive and living and active. And if we're not careful, we can bring God exactly into that same exact posture where we don't receive the word and we kind of curate it and we make it into what we want. We keep the parts that encourage us. We quote the promises and we underline all of the blessings, but when the scripture starts to confront an attitude, unforgiveness, our pride, our money, gossip, our marriage, our ambitions, our time, our anger, our drives and motives in life. Suddenly the word becomes negotiable. We start kind of negotiating with the word. But James says receive with meekness the implanted word. Let's say evaluate it and see if you like it. Let's say receive all the parts that you agree with, but check out the rest. It says, receive the word, the whole word, the full counsel of God, and there is a blessing attached to that. I love that it says, receive the word. That does mean the whole word. And there's a way that doctrines are created. And some doctrines have been created off partial counsel of the Word, which have led many astray. But in Acts 20, we'll see this, and I'm saying this so that you understand there is a whole council of God. There is a full council of God from which doctrine that we should apply to our lives is found and received. In Acts 2026 it says this, therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all four, I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. This church's doctrine and theology is from the full counsel of God. If one scripture lives in absolute contention with another, then it is not the full counsel of God. And there are particular tensions that the scripture holds, but it would never contradict itself, never does. And so when we take the full counsel, we're looking from Genesis all the way through to Revelation. And I'm telling you that with all of the authors, with three languages and thousands of years between them, they all come into a grants. And so for us, we want to receive the full counsel of God as we begin receiving the word from Him. And when we receive that full council, we actually see full transformation in our lives. And that's what we want, right? That's what following Jesus is all about is not that there would just be partial, oh, yeah, things are like kind of better. Actually, starting to follow Jesus, sometimes life looks a little tougher, or the battles start like what is going on. I mean, I feel like I mean, pulled in so many different ways or tested in so many different ways. But we see these little blessings as we begin to follow Him in our life fully, and we start submitting to Him. And on that main scripture, it actually walks through a process, and we have a slide there for where it says, there is a word that is proclaimed. So here today, the word has been proclaimed, it's been spoken. There is a word that is received, So as we walk away, there is a reception of this word, like I'm receiving it into Maha. There is the word implanted into our lives, and then there is the word obeyed, so I am watering these seeds. I'm seeing them come to life, and then there is the life transformed that you and I would be blessed in all that we do. And this is the process of the Word within our lives, that there is a proclamation, there is a reception, there is an implanting, there is a call for obedience, and ultimately our lives would be transformed. I'm telling you, when you just don't seek God, and I believe our God is a miracle working God, but we certainly don't want to just put it down to always miracles. I'll tell you what the miracle is, the strength that is given to you to actually take the step of obedience and say, I'm gonna obey this. And we always want the destination, don't we? I want the destination, I want the life transformed, I want everything in my world transformed, but can I just skip on like the word implanted and word obeyed part, like even the receive, just I like listening to podcasts and preaching and stuff like that, transform my life. But there is a process that is put within the Bible, that here is how it's going to work. There is a proclamation, there is a hearing. Am I going to receive that word? Or am I going to let it sit on the surface so that the crows can come and pick at it? Am I just going to let it go a little bit deep so that the thorns and thistles can strangle it out? Am I not going to till the soil of my heart with prayer throughout the way we worship as I come to receive it? Or am I going to be hard in my heart? So it just kind of bounces off the surface. We got to tell our hearts for the reception of His Word as well, amen? So the question today isn't, do you own a Bible? Isn't even, do you read the Bible? This deeper question for today is that same one. Can the Bible still change your mind? Can the truth still be worked through your life? example one here today is come under the word. Come under the word. James 1.21 says this, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. That word received, like I've said, It really matters. It's a requirement for this receiving to happen that we are postured in the right way. You could be around the word without receiving the word. Jesus encountered people who knew the scriptures so well. They had all memorized. They had whole books, the whole Torah. They could just recite it off. They knew the scriptures, but it wasn't received within their heart. They couldn't see the word in action in front of them. You can study it intellectually. Academically, you can debate it, memorize it, quote it. You can even teach it and still refuse to let it correct your life. Now word, deco my. It means that that's the word for receive. It means receive, welcome, except to take to oneself. It's way stronger than just hearing something and letting it kind of pass on. Practically, it means this. I allow God's Word to have complete authority over my life. It means that when Scripture comforts me, I believe it, means that when it corrects me, I submit to it. When it exposes sin, I repent. When it gives a command, I obey. When it challenges my assumptions, I let scripture correct my assumptions rather than editing scripture. I surrender my life. When it confronts my emotions, my desires, the cultures that I've grown up in, my upbringing or preferences, I bring all of those under the Word of God. This is why James, straight away he goes on and he says, We do as of the word and not here as only goes on and he says, receive it with meekness, meekness. Now, meekness is not weakness. Say that with me, it rhymes, it's meekness. That's right. It's this grounding humility that says, God, I am willing to be wrong. I'm willing to be wrong. Now open up the scriptures, I am willing to be wrong. That's an essential posture of us as disciples, that before opening the scriptures, we can say, God, if my thinking goes against yours, then renew my mind. Renew my heart, renew my desires. If my desires go against your will, please change them. If my lifestyle contradicts, let me conform my life to the image of Christ. If my personal preferences, oh man, those pesky preferences that we have within elevated, if it goes against your will and desire for my life, then let me surrender them. I'm not opening the Bible to get God to agree with me. I'm opening the Bible so I can learn how to agree with God. That's teachability, that's what it is. Proverbs 12, one. is offensively direct. He says this. He says, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. That's the Bible. That's the word of God. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof A rebuke, a reproving is stupid. God doesn't soften the truth for us. Why? Because how we respond to correction to pruning often shows how serious we are about growth. Proverbs 9, 8 to 9, it says this, do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you, give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser still. Just see this, the evidence of wisdom is not that the wise person doesn't get corrected. It's not that there's something that needs to change in the wise man's life. How much biblical advice or wisdom or knowledge has been thrown our way? And we might have even asked the right questions, but we have not used the answers within our world. And I've said this many times, and I say it very carefully, but we don't want to be ask holes. But I just want to ask, ask, ask, and all the questions go into some hole. I don't want to be an ask hole. I want to come with my questions for a bow to actually put the truth to work in my world. The evidence of wisdom is seen what happens when correction comes. I've often thought that you can really understand where your character is that by how you deal with no or wait or change. It's such a good tell for when you're receiving this no that's not going to happen like what's our reactions to this hey you need to change this you need to sharpen up in this you cannot talk to your wife that way you shouldn't talk to your husband this way you you you are overcome and overruled by anxieties you are we need to fight against this. And how do we receive this within our lives? Here's a piece of practical wisdom that was given to me, okay? So, there was a point in my life when I had a bad attitude, okay? It's not now. I never struggled with a bad attitude now. But many, many years ago, okay, so, and I was confronted, because I tell you why, I had issues everywhere, issue with that person, with that person, with that person, with that person, with that thing, the way that happens, the way that this happens. And I had an issue everywhere, these little kind of resentments. And I was confronted with this simple truth. An attitude will always find an issue to hang a tad on. So it was told to me. And I said, I'm not the one with the attitude. They all have the sucky attitude. It's not me. It's a maybe In our lives, we find issues all over the place and never deal with the attitude. But if you're dealt with the attitude, like the word does, all these issues would disappear. Because we think that the issue is the issue, but it's not, it's the attitude. I mean, there is nothing like the word of God. There is nothing like brothers and sisters who would come to you and say, hey man, like something's got to change here. And then we don't fall into this thing of offense. We were like, well, you can't reprove me. I saw you last week doing this, or you know, you act like that, or you're not better than me. No, no, no, we're not of that elk. Man, I wanna receive those corrections or rebukes or encouragement or training for righteousness from the brethren and the sisters that are around us, from the church, from my pastor, from your pastor to you, from your tables leader, from your friend that's standing next to you, that we would be so open to being correctable that we could be trained up in righteousness, amen? Maturity doesn't mean I need less correction. Maturity means I've become better at receiving correction. We walked into this whole cancel culture and gaslighting and I know that there are particular circumstances and people who act in those particular ways But we can't just boil down all rebuke and correction down to, I'm just being gassed lit, or I should cancel that voice because it's not affirming how I feel. And each of us should have this desire to seek out truth that would confront us because we all have blind spots. Every disciple has places of immaturity that needs to mature. I recognize that within myself. Every disciple has assumptions that have never been questioned. I see that in myself. Every disciple has areas where their desires are trying to interpret the scripture instead of the scriptures interpreting their desires. So the answer comes forth. If I cannot be corrected, if I cannot handle correction, then I cannot be disciples. So we have to come under the words to become a disciple of Christ. Amen. Amen. Point number two, let the word confront you. 2 Timothy 3 16 to 17 says this, you guys all good? You're excited? Love it. You know what? You know Paul said I couldn't deliver meat to you because you were so immature, so I've just been feeding you milk. But I believe you guys are hungry for maturity. As I am hungry for maturity, I love steak. I don't want to drink milk. give me the stake and so 2 Timothy 3 16 and 17 it says this all scripture that's back to the full counsel of God all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped every good work. Isn't that awesome? I want that. I want to be equipped for every good. How many people have tried to do a good work and you walk into it and you're like, I don't feel equipped. Oh my gosh, Evan, I don't feel like I'm ready for this. But man, when we submit to the Word, we get to be equipped for the good works of God. Teaching shows me what is right. Reproof shows me where I'm wrong. Correction shows me how to get it right. This is now how I have to correct this. And training and rights just as teaches me how to keep walking in the right way. These days I think we love one of these so much more than all the others and that's teaching. We love teaching. That's why podcasts have become so popular and old YouTube videos and these books and every resource that we can actually gather that says, give me revelation, give me insight, give me something that I've never seen or I've never heard before and I'm not against this, this is part of it, but it cannot outweigh the rest of what the Word can do within your life. If the Scriptures are just informing you of God and you know about God, it needs to pull into action within our lives, that there is something that is transforming, that we let it prune our lives. Because sometimes the word will come to reprove you. You may be reading the word and says, that's wrong, that's wrong with your life. Sometimes stop, sometimes forgive them, sometimes you're the problem, sometimes confess it. Sometimes you've been justifying this for too long. Sometimes your attitude is finding issues hang its hat on. Sometimes it's saying you've got to let go of this situation and begin to surrender, go make it right. Then the correction comes after that. It doesn't just expose what is wrong, but it puts us back on the right path. And that's what we dealt with last week in repentance. The word exposes, the disciple receives, repentance turns and obedience walks. That is how formation happens. Hebrews 4, 12 says this, for the word of God is living an active sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. the Bible doesn't just tell you what you did, but it will expose why you did it. The thoughts and intentions within Maha. Now, I love that this would discern between how I feel and what the truth is, between joint and marrow, between soul and spirit, so that we're not led by our feelings, but we're led by the truth of God. Maybe it exposes something in our life where we we thought we were just been discerning, but the word reveals that we were being judgmental. Maybe we thought we were just telling the truth in a situation, but the word reveals that it was gossip. Maybe we thought we were being financially successful, but it reveals greed. We thought we were protecting ourselves, but the word exposes unforgiveness in our life. And that's why receiving Scripture sometimes hurts. Sometimes hurts receiving the truth. Hebrews 12, 6, it says this, for the Lord disciplines the one He loves. And later in Hebrews 12, 11, it says, for the moment all discipline seems painful, right? In this moment, this seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness by those who have been trained by it. There is correction that God brings into our lives because He loves us too much to leave us the same. So we got to stop interpreting every uncomfortable word as condemnation and instead receive it as conviction to actually change our worlds. You'll find at times that formation is found on the pathway that is difficult. the Holy Spirit puts his finger on something because the Father is committed more to your maturity than to how comfortable He can make us. And that's where that culture of affirmation can become particularly dangerous for us. Because affirmation says, I want you to make me feel okay about where I am, right? But discipleship says, love me enough to help me become who Christ is calling me to be. That we would be people who can receive the word of God. That Paul says is given in truth and love. Sometimes the scales get put out of place. We love in a particular way but we leave it absent of truth because oh man sometimes it's kind of hard to bring that up and so we just want to be affirming in all of these things. On the other side people just deliver truth with no love. They're just cutting people up. But there is a balance within the life that God puts the love in the heart that when you are receiving or giving correction there is love for that person, not just the wanting to be right, amen. We cannot be formed by a truth that we refuse to receive in our lives. And receiving is allowing the word to confront us so it can conform us to the image of Christ, amen. Point number three is put the truth to work. James This takes it further than just hearing it and knowing it, but actually obeying it. Teaching is ultimately demonstrated by nodding during a sermon, right? Teaching is received within our lives when we begin to apply it. He's 122, says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. That's a scary premise, but if we know the word and we hear it and you like it, it inspired you, but it doesn't change anything. don't implement it within your world. We can begin to deceive ourselves. You might even be blaming the devil for a deception that we have brought on our own lives because we are hearing the words and not applying it to our lives. That's the kind of spiritual deception that does not but come because we've heard the truth. It's because we haven't applied it. You can sit in church for 20 years and become extremely informed and academic about God without becoming deeply transformed into the image of Christ. James goes on and he says in verse 23 to 24, for if anyone is a hearer of the word, but not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror. For when he looks at himself, he goes away and at once forgets what he looks like. The word is a mirror. It shows me what is there. It gives me this reflection and it says that he looks in it intently. So I want you to imagine that. Tomorrow morning, wake up. You go to the mirror and you look in there and you've got a booger hanging out of your nose. You've got a little forest caught in between your teeth. You've got toothpaste on your shirt and you look at it all intently and you're like, wow, I've memorized this. I've memorized how I look right now. I see like, oh, I cut myself shaving all over and I've got all these, you know, little white dots or women don't do that, but, you know, you looked at the makeup and the mascara is like running or the lip liner is off to the side and you go, okay, cool, so I studied it. I did my Bible study, I'm looking at it. I've seen now all the forest that's in my trees and the broccoli that's kind of sticking out and the thing hanging out of my nose that's like a little wrecking ball. And I've studied it, I've memorized it now. And James is saying that if you were like the person who is describing in scripture, you would walk away and you could call all your friends and you're telling them about it, but you change nothing. You don't get a tissue and wipe your nose and clean up this, or change your shirt. Instead, you go out knowing, like, man, I've got to clean out my teeth and do all of this. And now I'm just walking around, looking like this. And so it's not only just hearing the word today, like receiving the word and being like, man, these last few weeks have been great. I've learned about this and surrender and dependence and repentance and following Christ and being made into His image. And they're just hearing it, but nothing actually changes. Like you see it, man, I don't wanna walk around like this. I don't wanna look and study in this mirror intently without it actually changing and shaping my soul, building up my faith because it's real that it encourages me, but man, it teaches me. It reproves me because I've been taught like I know the truth now. And so I need to change something in my world, I rebuke myself, I change this and then correct it. Well what do I do? How do I do this? I seek the word, I seek the people around me. Man, I don't know how to change this, can you show me something that can help me? And not only that, but it trains me and being faithful. The word can train me and still actively living strong in this area. transformed, committing my life to being sanctified, changed, performed into the image of Christ. The purpose of the mirror isn't just revelation, it's that we would change our lives with the Word. It's our response to the Word. In Matthew 7, 24, it says, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them and does them, sorry, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. I always think of, you know, the 90s movie, The Rock. It's about Alcatraz, like buildings, fortress, man. I want to build my house on the rock, on truth, unshakable, not like Dana Point swells, come rocking in and houses are shook. No man, I'm built on the rock. No matter what the storm, no matter how big the waves, no matter all the erosion around me and my house will stand. So maybe the important question for you and I after a church service or tables or isn't just, was that a good message? Like, was that good? Did I like it? Did I like the stories? Did he make me laugh enough, I'm not that funny. I'm sorry. Did I learn something? Have I taken away some cool little tidbit that I can quote? Maybe the question should be what am I going to do because I have heard the word? What's going to change in my life because I've received the word here today. And that's the response of discipleship. That we would be teachable, that we would be hungry. Like, can I just encourage you? Don't wait for the explosion in your life. It's way easier to dismantle a bomb and clean up the mess after it's gone off. That's why God would say humble yourselves and pray. My people, they would humble themselves and pray. I will heal their land. Don't wait to be humbled by life. Humble yourself. And so instead of waiting for correction to come in your life, get around incredible people. Like, oh, I look around. I see Nancy. I see the Feldman's, I see the Sippens, I see Bailey and Jess, I see, I see so many. Nati, Christine, Lily and Nangie, like, get around these guys and just say, is there anything in my life that needs to change? It's a scary question, right? Like, hey, can you tell me something about my life that needs to shape it up? What's my cap? Like, what's my ceiling at the moment? What What needs to change? Like, get around those people don't, you're wise if you ask questions. For some reason it's been dealt down to this, like the stupider you are, the more questions you're going to ask. That's not true. It's not true that you would be a seeker of those occasions of being like, man, I just want to get better in this area of man, I'm struggling. I don't sleep because I fester with bitterness in my heart, and I don't, I don't know what to do but I'm meant to look really good and you know I'm dug on Sundays and he dug how's it going find a jury you know like let's get real about it I want to be dressed up we want to be equipped with the word amen