Read the Word

- What a blessing to be in the house of the Lord

this morning, amen.

Glad that you're here today.

Yes, and if you're joining here,

it's on live stream, thank you for joining us today.

As you guys are bringing your offerings,

let me give you a few announcements.

First of all, as the Christmas season had happened,

I know that there's been a few inconsistencies

in our communication.

We're shoring that up in terms of our written communication.

We're shoring those things up.

And so I apologize if you've gotten any miscommunication,

but I wanted to make sure everybody understands

what's happening over the next few weeks.

And so would you put that slide up?

First of all, next Sunday, January 5th,

our Sunday school, the 12, is gonna start back

in the fellowship hall.

Now, let me tell you, you know,

the new year brings new beginnings.

I wanna encourage you, if you can get up

just a little earlier and come at 9 a.m.,

it's really rich what happens in the 12

in the fellowship hall.

Going through the book of Acts,

several teachers rotating on a schedule,

and it's essentially a Bible study,

an interactive Bible study.

I wanna encourage you, if you have capacity

in your schedule, to come and be a part

of the Sunday school at nine o'clock starting next week,

and then you can come into this gathering

like you normally do here at 1030.

Next week, we will begin a new series,

The Greatest Stories Ever Told,

and I am super excited about what the Lord has

for us next year.

Go on to the next slide.

Following Thursday on January 9th,

we will begin our midweek gathering.

So here's all of the offerings that we have

for everything outside of the main gathering that night.

At five p.m., the cafe will open for dinner.

Now, we're gonna post those menus on Facebook

and on the app so that you can know

what is there and available for you.

But if you wanna just come from work,

bring your kids and eat and be with us,

that's a great time to fellowship.

Six o'clock, junior Bible quiz starts from K through six.

This is open to anybody in elementary school.

It's essentially a program to help kids know the Word of God.

So anybody K through six can come to that.

Teisha Severes in charge of that.

Six to seven, preschool is open.

We do have preschool available with Krista Edwards

and the team on Thursday nights as well.

Six to 730, the middle school youth work

will meet with Doug Jones.

Six to 730 p.m., the high school youth

will meet with Pastor James.

So there's a bit of change in the youth group schedules

starting on this coming, on January 9th.

Six to 730 for all youth, okay?

And then at 715, the young adults

are gonna be meeting weekly from 715 to 830.

If you're in the age demographic from 18 to 30,

we invite you to come.

Fellas Paul and Kurt Bryson will be leading that.

And so he would love to see you.

And then the series that we will be doing in here,

Pastor Barbie is doing a 12 week series called What Giants?

And you do not want to miss it.

So if that is something that you can work

into your schedule to come on Thursday nights,

six o'clock, you'll want to be here.

And then on Sunday, January 12th at 530,

you've heard Pastor Justin talk about this,

we're gonna have a chili cook-off.

And we want you to enter the cook-off, okay?

We wanna have so much chili, we gotta send some home.

So register in the app to bring your favorite pot of chili

and be a part of that.

And then at 630, this is very important,

this is a family gathering.

If you say Springhouse is your church,

I want you to plan to be here at 630

for our vision casting service that evening.

We have some new staff announcements to make,

some transitions that are happening

and new ministries that are launching.

And I want to make you aware of all of the wonderful things

God has in store for 2025.

So please come and make that evening a part of your family.

We will have kids ministry open that night.

So come, they'll eat chili with us,

they'll go have fun in the kids' rooms

and then we'll have a worship service in here

and we'll share with you everything God has.

Does that sound good?

All right.

We have many great teachers here at Springhouse

and Pastor Justin's gonna come out again this week, okay?

But we're gonna give him a break after this week.

Have you guys appreciated Pastor Justin and everything?

He's, yeah, it's been fantastic.

This one was actually on the schedule originally

so I said you're gonna continue to do this.

So welcome Pastor Justin, come on.

(congregation applauding)

Tired, tired.

So I tried to message Pastor Kevin last week.

I said, "Hey, I feel strongly in my spirit

that you're supposed to."

It's like wrong, it's not how this works.

I get to do that with you.

You don't get to do that with me.

I was like, "That's not how that works either."

So no, I am tired, but you know what?

Where I get refreshed at when you pour out?

That's the word.

As this is where I go.

You pour out, well, how do you get it back in?

You gotta receive back from the word of God.

So Pastor Kevin mentioned all the things

I was gonna mention in this.

I do wanna let you know for that chili cook-off,

we will have all the croutrement.

There will be crackers.

There'll be green olives, not green olives.

Somebody like no green olives.

Green onions, probably.

Shredded chili, who likes green olives, right?

All seven of y'all, right?

There'll be Rolaids, Tums, Pepto Chewables.

Don't worry, I got you covered.

Second thing, this is more importantly,

I want you guys to know,

and I want you to hear my heart when I say this, okay?

I don't mean this in any disrespectful way.

I appreciate your time.

I don't care anything about that clock.

I got something I gotta say today.

And if God moves in your heart,

I will go put on wet clothes and baptize you.

We've sent everybody home that wanna go.

I'll put on wet clothes.

Johnny G will come up, we'll release the band,

and that water's already warm.

So if today's the day that God moved in your life,

I will put them wet clothes back on and baptize you.

I have a word that I need to share

with you guys this morning.

It's probably one of the most important words

that I'm gonna share with you.

It's an honor to share this word.

And so I understand we have time constraints,

but we are not gonna stifle a move of God based on a clock.

(congregation applauding)

You hear what I'm saying?

Five minutes or 10 minutes or two, no, fine.

(laughing)

Listen, well, hang on, Pastor.

I don't know about two hours.

You're gonna hear the whole month of December.

If I couldn't say it in the whole month,

then I shouldn't have said it, right?

Each year at Springhouse, we close the year

and begin the next with this message.

Read the word and why.

Last year, I was able to bring the same message,

and I was joking.

I was like, you know, they brought me in

and relief pitcher after all of the good pitchers

have gone up and like the game's well out of reach.

You know what I'm talking about, like garbage time.

They just throw me out there.

This year, I feel like I need somebody

to come and relieve me,

if you've been with us the last month.

But in reality, I'm honored to bring this

because this is a powerful message.

This is one message that I live by.

If you've heard me speak anytime,

I wanna share what the word has to say.

I can get up here and I can tell you testimonies,

and I can tell you stories and make you laugh and cry,

but you're gonna forget about that.

And if I don't give you anything of substance,

I don't give you God's word,

then what have I really given you?

You know, you might not remember me in five minutes,

five months, or even five years from now,

but God's word is eternal

and has power to change your life.

And so if I don't, if I just get up here

and make you laugh and make you cry

and send you out into the world,

and I've not equipped you with anything

to fight the fight that you're in,

to see the goodness of God

played out in your ordinary, everyday life,

I have done you a disservice and I have made this about me.

So now you may laugh because I'm a good storyteller

and I just tell real life stories from my life,

and I'm gonna make you cry

because you can see the goodness of God

played out in real time in front of you.

But if I don't give you any substance,

I've not done anything for you, okay?

So if you're able to stand, would you please stand

and we're gonna get right into the word.

We're gonna read one passage out of the book of Hebrews.

Are we ready?

Here we go.

For the word of God is living and active,

sharper than any two-edged sword,

piercing to the division of soul and of spirit,

of joints and of marrow,

and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight,

but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him

to whom we must give an account.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the life that it brings.

God, I ask that your anointing would continue to rest on me,

that you would open the hearts of your people

to an encounter with you,

that the name of Jesus would be glorified and magnified

through the message today,

and through the power of the Holy Ghost

who would change and transform us

and create a passionate love for your word.

It's in Christ's name I pray, amen and amen.

You guys can be seated.

So like I said, I'm honored to bring this message today

and there's really two things we're gonna talk about, okay?

One, why should I study the word of God?

Why should I study the word?

And two, how do I study the word of God?

So why should I study and how do I study?

Before we get into this,

it's important to note several things.

How did we get the Bible?

Who wrote it?

Where did it come from?

These are all questions you have.

I don't care if you're a seasoned saint

or if you are new to the faith

and you're planning to read the scriptures

along with us this year

as we move into the greatest stories ever told.

And usually January is a great time

for people to start setting goals

and to start getting into things

and creating new habits and disciplines.

So this is a perfect time for you to get your mind right

and get ready and focused as we move out into this year.

The Bible is commonly referred to as the word of God

and this is true.

However, the word of God predates the Bible,

especially in its current form.

You understand what I'm saying?

The word of God predates the Bible.

Are you tracking?

Okay, I'm talking semantics here and this is important.

John 1, one through three says,

"In the beginning was the word

"and the word was with God and the word was God.

"He was in the beginning with God.

"All things were made through him

"and without him was not anything made that was made."

Now, who is this passage talking about?

Who?

Jesus, it's not a rhetorical question, okay?

So this passage out of John lets us know

Jesus Christ is the word of God.

Now, this echoes the opening line in Genesis,

"In the beginning, God created."

The word Greek here is logos.

It conveys the idea of divine self-expression or speech.

The first thing we need to understand about God's word is,

God's word is effective.

He speaks things into existence.

God speaks things into existence.

Genesis 1, three says,

"And God said, 'Let there be light.'"

And there was light.

He said it and then it happened.

Creation responds to the Creator's voice.

Are you hearing me?

"He said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

Psalm 33, six, "By the word of the Lord,

"the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth,

"all their hosts."

Have you ever heard Pastor Kevin

talk about this star breather God?

He, it's one of his favorite phrases and descriptions of God.

Have you heard him say that?

This star breathing God.

Where does he get that idea from?

He don't just make that up.

This is where he got that from.

"That by the breath of his mouth,

"the heavens and their hosts were formed and created."

Psalm 107, 20.

You guys have heard me mention multiple times

the one-year discipleship program

for men with life controlling problems.

You've heard of that, right?

This is my fancy way of saying there's a drug rehab, okay?

That I went to in 2011.

And the founding verse for Renewed Life Ministries

is Psalm 107, 20.

It says, "He sent out his word and healed them

"and delivered them from their destruction."

And this ministry is founded on this idea

that drugs and alcohol are not really the root problem,

but even when we find out what the root issue is,

God's word is capable of healing you

and delivering you from your destruction.

And so God sent out his word to heal them and deliver them.

Let me tell you guys, whatever you're going through,

God's word is powerful enough to heal you

and deliver you from your destruction.

And then in Isaiah 55, 10 through 11, it says,

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

"and do not return there, but water the earth,

"making it bring forth and sprout,

"giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

"so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.

"It shall not return to me empty,

"but shall accomplish that which I purpose

"and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent."

God's word is effective and he speaks things into existence.

God speaks things into existence.

You know, I love the way this plays out in the scriptures.

When he finds Gideon,

Gideon is hiding in a wine press threshing wheat.

If you don't know what either of those things are,

I'm gonna tell you right now,

you don't thresh wheat in a wine press.

The way this works is they would take and scoop up,

they would scoop up the wheat and the chaff

and they would throw it in the air

and the wind would separate it.

Are you following me?

There was no wind in this wine press.

He's in a wine press.

You're not supposed to do that there.

And when God meets him, he says,

"Gideon, you mighty man of valor."

And the guy is hiding.

Those two don't connect, do they?

But God has the ability, right?

To call you what he sees in you.

And he makes in you by his call, what he called you.

Do you follow me?

He said, "You're hiding and you don't feel

"like a mighty man of valor,

"but I'm telling you who you are

"and by me telling you who you are,

"you will become the thing I say you are."

Because that's how powerful his word is.

God's word is how he relates to his people.

This is how he relates to his people through the Bible.

"After these things, the word of the Lord

"came to Abram in a vision,

"fear not, Abram, I am your shield.

"Your reward shall be very great."

This is how God reveals himself to his people.

Simply, there is a difference between the Bible

and God's word, but since the Bible

is how we know the difference,

that means the Bible is God's word.

Does that make sense?

The word is eternal.

God's word is eternal.

The Bible has a beginning and history point, okay?

So while this is God's word,

God's word predates the scriptures.

God is the source of all information in the Bible.

2 Timothy 2, 3, 16, I don't like this side.

I'm gonna look at this side.

I'm sorry, y'all.

(congregation laughing)

"All scripture is breathed out by God

"and profitable for teaching," that's what I'm doing,

"for reproof," don't like that,

"for correction," like that even less,

"and for training in righteousness,"

righteousness, this is right living,

"that the man or woman of God may be complete,

"equipped for every good work."

I'm not adding woman there,

saying the word man here means

that the person reading would be affected by it.

"That the person may be complete,

"equipped for every good work."

The problem is we don't like the parts in the scripture

that do the reproving and the correction.

We don't like those parts, why?

Because I don't like to be corrected.

Who likes to be told you're wrong?

Any guy that, is anybody married in here?

(congregation laughing)

We was riding down the road yesterday,

me and my wife trying to figure out the three things

that you're not supposed to do with gremlins.

(congregation laughing)

And I was like, "Can't get them wet,

"don't feed them after midnight."

And she was like, "And sunlight."

I was like, "It's not sunlight."

She was like, "Let me just look this up."

And avoid direct sunlight, I was like, "I was wrong, fine.

"Is that what you wanted?"

(congregation laughing)

It's literally happened on the way to watching Moana.

Like, I mean, it's not like,

I didn't like it, I didn't even like being wrong

about what Mogwai, this is a made up story.

Imagine when the word says,

"Hey, the way you're speaking to people is wrong.

"The way you're thinking is wrong.

"The way you're acting is wrong.

"These are real life matters."

Like, care about what you can't do with Mogwai?

(congregation laughing)

I broke the little thing on this,

that's why I keep pulling on that.

The Bible in its current form was written by 35 authors

over a period of 1500 years.

Our codex contains 66 books,

39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament.

This contains history, poetry, wisdom writings,

prophecy, parables and teachings, love songs,

worship directives, laws and sacrifices, beauty, sin, death

and eyewitness testimony.

And we are a blessed people to have access

to the revealed character and will of God

in such a complete form.

You have no idea how blessed you are

to be able to have access to this in its complete form.

Now, why should I read and study the word?

Why should you read and study the word?

Well, the historical and cultural significance of the Bible

makes it a worthwhile read.

However, that is the least reason

you should read and study.

There are many reasons, but I just wanna highlight a few.

The first is the Bible is how God reveals his character.

This is how God reveals his character.

The Bible was written for us, but not to us.

The Bible was written for you,

but it was not written to you, okay?

This scripture here is probably one of the most famous

Christian hope verses there is.

How many people have this on a sign

in their house somewhere, right?

You go to any Christian bookstore and this is our,

this is where we plant our flag.

This is our hope flag.

I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans for welfare and not for evil

to give you a future and a hope.

Do you know who this was written to?

Israel, and they were in the midst of Babylonian captivity.

These people were in bondage, in slavery.

So their circumstances said one thing,

this was their reality.

Our reality is we are in slavery,

but the truth was that God had not forgotten about them

and was giving them a promise.

Do you understand that truth is different from your reality?

Your reality may say one thing about your circumstances,

but the truth says a completely different thing.

And so why do we hold on to this promise?

That this is not, this promise is not for me.

Why?

Because it reveals God's character.

The Bible shows us that this is the type of God we serve

that even though their circumstances were less than ideal,

He gave them a promised future and a hope.

And you can stand on that.

So the reason we claim this promise

is not because this promise is for us,

it's because that same God, if He did it for them,

He'll do it for me.

If He set that guy free,

well, Ross is up there, if he'll save us,

I'm like, shut up, don't tell everybody that, right?

Ross, don't align yourself with this, right?

That's the thing,

He understands what this verse is trying to say.

If God will do it for them, He'll do it for me.

That's how we can claim this.

This promise is not for you,

or it's not to you, but it's for you.

Does that make sense?

The lens through which we view the Bible

is based on our understanding of God.

Exodus 34, six through seven,

the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord,

the Lord God, a merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding

and steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for thousands,

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

but who will by no means clear the guilty,

visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children

and the children's children

to the third and fourth generation.

What He's saying here is,

you can understand who I am when you read

and interact with the scriptures.

There are consequences to our actions.

And have you ever felt like God is just waiting on you

to mess up so He can hammer you?

You ever felt like that?

Like any wrong move, or if I say the wrong thing,

the hammer's gonna fall on me,

and this is all gonna fall apart

as if it's being held together by you

and your behavior somehow.

Right, that's a wrong thinking.

The hammer fell on Jesus Christ.

And because of that, we can be set free.

How do I know?

It's in the words, what the word tells me.

God is full of patience, love, kindness, justice, and wisdom.

When you read the scriptures, look for Him first.

Most of us suffer from main character syndrome.

You think you're the main character of the story.

You think every time you open a Bible,

it's about how I'm supposed, what is this about me?

What is this about my life?

What do I need to know?

What if we started looking to see who God is

and God's story, and then He reveals to us

how we fit into that and stop making ourselves

the center of attention sometimes?

The next thing about God's word

is it gives instruction for our daily life.

2 Timothy 3.16, we read that all scripture

is breathed out by God.

It's a Rhema word, it's a living word.

And it's profitable for teaching, reproof, correction,

and training in righteousness.

Certain aspects of this daily life

are definitely tied to the cultural times

it was written in.

But there are things that transcend culture.

Are you ready for this?

Be kind.

Do good unto others, love your enemies,

pray for those who despitefully use you.

(man whistles)

That's not for Middle Eastern people.

He didn't just tell ancient Near East

or Western societies to be kind.

So many times we wanna read the word

or we wanna ask God, what is your plan for my life?

And He's like, how about you just do the things

I've told you to do first?

How about you be slow to speak and slow to get angry?

Let's start there.

Can we start with the basics of my will for your life?

Before we talk about the most detailed and nuanced

and if you should move to Montana,

how about stop talking crazy to your neighbor?

I'm just saying like we wanna go with the,

God teach me how to write cursive.

He's like, you don't even know your ABCs.

You don't even know your ABCs,

you asked me to do swirly letters?

Absolutely not.

Bible, understanding God's word,

why you should read the word.

The third reason is it guards against false teaching.

It guards against false teaching.

2 Timothy 2, 16 through 18 says this,

"Avoid a reverent Bible for it will lead people

into more and more ungodliness

and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus."

He called them out by name.

How would you like to be known?

How would you like to be known throughout history

for spreading false information about the gospel?

Who have swerved from the truth

saying the resurrection has already happened.

False teaching is a disease

and if left unchecked, it will spread and corrupt the body.

That's what he's saying here.

False teaching is a disease.

You should read the word so that you can know it.

It'll guard you against it.

And it increases wisdom and discernment.

Psalm 119, 11 says,

"I have stored up your word in my heart."

Maybe.

"I have stored up your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you."

Stored up your word in my heart.

He says, "I have taken your word

and I have hidden it inside of me

so that no matter where I go, your word is with me."

I don't always have access to the Bible,

but I always have access to the word.

That's why scripture memorization is so important.

Scripture is that you read it, write it and speak it.

Why?

You use different parts of your brain.

When you say something, you use one part of your brain.

When you read something, you use a different part.

And when you write something, you use a different part.

And you're more likely to retain the information

if you read it, write it and say it.

Put some water in the bucket

so that you'll have water when you need it.

And I don't care if you say,

"Well, you don't understand, I've got a bad memory.

I can't memorize stuff."

I say, "Well, some of you guys got a bad golf swing

and that don't stop you from playing golf, does it?"

(congregation laughing)

Does it?

Does it?

No.

There's a quote by Charles Spurgeon

when it comes to discernment.

Discernment is not just knowing the difference

between right and wrong.

It's knowing the difference between right and almost right.

I didn't share this in the first gathering,

but I feel like it's appropriate now, I wanted to share it.

Discernment is knowing the difference

between what's right and what's almost right.

To be almost saved is to be totally lost.

To be almost saved is to be totally lost.

This is a poem by Ezekiel Azzanwoo called "Almost."

One of the most dangerous words in English diction.

If it can be translated into audio, it would sound like,

(imitates drum roll)

from the saxophone of Lisa Simpson.

Two words combined and strategically designed

to create one of the biggest oxymorons

in the history of mankind, almost.

'Cause see, as far as the world's concerned,

you can live your life foul

and you could almost get away with murder

if you have a nice smile.

You could almost meet somebody just to almost sleep around.

Then you can almost go to your local clinic

where you almost had a child.

See, almost is no stranger to Satan and here's proof.

He only tells lies when it's almost the truth

and it's amazing.

In our incompleteness, we find complacency.

So if almost is one of Lucifer's many traits,

we're mighty good at Satan impersonations.

But on the contrary, Christ did his job fully

when he died on the cross like it was his duty

and pardoned my iniquity, which I committed rudely

and resurrected from the grave just to tell death to excuse me

but excuse me, this is your life

and that's something that I cannot impose on

but your body is God's home,

which is alone to get foreclosed on.

See, an almost Christian looks right but lives wrong.

We can't stand the conviction in Romans

so we sit down to be comforted in Psalms.

Never understood worship but we love to sing songs like

♪ I surrender almost ♪

'Cause it's far too expensive for you to spend your life

on something that doesn't appeal to your five senses.

See, nowadays Christianity is like a Louis rag.

No functional use but we'll rock it 'cause it's stylish.

Not righteous but right-ish.

So now all God sees is a pile of ish males

when he intended for Isaac's.

We're moved by how we feel

so we're saved when we feel like it.

So technically we never been saved, we merely tried it

and no wonder we're never sold out

'cause we return it after we buy it.

Let me break it down 'cause you need to be aware

that your life could lack the very standards

that need to be there

'cause on that final day of judgment

when God's receiving his air,

when he say, "Son, well done," or medium rare.

'Cause even by worldly standards,

it would be highly insane for you to spend all of your money

days before you almost get paid.

And parents, would you really send your kids

to a school that's almost safe?

Ladies, would you really date a man

that claims he's almost straight?

But this is the very thing about God

that we all try to get around.

Standards are between two mountains, no middle ground.

So a halfway life is unprofitable to you

'cause after all of these Sunday services,

Bible studies, alter prayer meetings

and everything that comes in between,

God would say, "I never knew you."

But that's not even the worst part

about living your life as neutral.

It's that you was once Arctic

but it's your warmness that's causing him to spew you.

And this is the very thing that had me bound and held down

by the unforgiving gravity of my spiritual reality.

See, I was a Christian or at least I portrayed the fantasy

with a filthy personal life.

God bless you, brother.

How you doing, sister?

Personality.

I was a male enveloped by sin 'cause I was stamped a sinner.

My message couldn't be received

'cause I didn't represent the sinner

yet I was almost delivered.

Until that one day when I absolutely,

totally, completely surrendered,

I took heed to a modern prophet

that proclaimed it was time for change.

Now I'm no longer bound to sin, point blank, off the chain.

You can ask Umar Abdul Mutallab

and he would tell you the same.

You don't almost go to jail if you almost blow up a plane,

just like you don't almost go to hell

if you almost get saved.

Despise the cross on which he was slain?

That's the cause for which he came.

Don't worry, I'm almost done.

But before I leave this stage,

we've all worked in sin and death was minimum wage.

I said we've all worked in sin and death was minimum wage,

but if it wasn't for Christ, we would almost got paid.

Discernment is not knowing the difference

between right and wrong.

It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.

And you will not get that anywhere in the world.

You will only get that in the Word.

You will only get it in the Word.

So now we know why we should read the Word.

I'm just gonna spend a few minutes closing

of how we study the Word.

There's a difference between reading and studying.

Reading is the act of understanding written words

while studying is a process of learning about subject.

Many Bible study books out there,

we got Christian bookstores you can go to and get lost in

and you don't know where to go,

but I made it simple for you, okay?

The first thing you need to do is make and follow,

oh, she put it up there, make and follow a plan.

Guess what?

I made you a plan.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

If you was like, hey, is my goal to lose 10 pounds in 2025?

Well, how you gonna get there?

I don't know, I'm just gonna lose it.

You ain't losing nothing.

You ain't got no plan, you don't have no way to track it.

You don't have any metrics, you don't have anything,

you've not practiced the art of showing up.

This allows you the ability to show up.

I've took all the hard part out of you.

You can go back there and you can grab one on your way out

and if those are gone, I'll give you mine.

I'll put it up on the website every month.

I'll put it on the app so you can download

so you ain't got no excuse, but you have to have a plan.

You have to have a plan.

Long-term, short-term.

This will help you build momentum in the plan.

Look at here, it's already laid out for you.

You can't see that.

You have to trust.

Is this real?

No, I ain't see that.

I don't even know why I was like putting my picture up there

and they're like, okay.

This is a reading guide.

And what you can't see is that's week one, day one.

There's a date by it.

There's a chapter that you read, okay?

And it's all right there.

You can mark it off.

I've created this.

A one year, if you're gonna do this and say,

my goal is to read it for the next year

to follow along with the greatest stories ever told.

Well, a year is a big bite.

That's a big chunk.

So you gotta break that down and say,

I'm gonna have the best day tomorrow.

And then that turns into seven days and that creates a week.

And then that week creates another week

and you build momentum and a day is a week

and a week is a month and months turn to months.

And then before you know it, you follow this plan, okay?

The next thing, study with others, okay?

Theology is best worked out in community.

If you go on the mountain top by yourself

and you feel like God has taught you everything

you need to know about patience

and you never come off the mountain down into the valley

where there are other people and potentially children

to practice that patience, you didn't learn anything.

What did you learn?

Right?

You learned about being patient.

You didn't learn how to be patient.

That's the whole thing about the word.

We can get in here and we can read all these things

about God, but I don't want to know God.

I don't wanna just know about God.

Connecting with others creates accountability

and connection.

The next thing you have to create godly habits, okay?

Create godly habits.

Carve out a time for you to spend time with God in His word.

I don't care what time it is as long as it's the same time.

Are you hearing me?

And for those of you to say, I don't have time to do this,

you make time for what's important.

That's the lamest excuse.

I don't have time.

I wish I had time to keep going.

I literally don't have time.

But you've got time in the day to carve out space

to spend time with God in His word, okay?

You can do as much or as little as you want.

This is also included in the online study I put together.

This is a monthly tracker.

And you can write down little things

and you see those little fill in bubbles

like the old school tests we used to have to take

to stress you out 'cause you didn't know

if there was actually a number one pencil

and it had to be a number two pencil.

You know what I'm talking about?

Those are habit trackers so that you can track new habits

and you can do it with other people.

I've included prayer journals in there

so you can spend time writing down the things

that are in your heart,

the things that you're hoping God to move on.

This is called a SOAP Bible study.

SOAP is an acronym.

Acronym stands for scriptures, observation,

application and prayer.

Get a little book like this, a little field notes book

or this is a pad from Nashville plywood

with face frame measurements.

I don't care what it is.

Get something that you can write these things down.

What are we doing with our life?

I spend way too much time arguing about college football

and about stupid stuff that don't even matter

and God of the universe has said,

"I have revealed myself to you.

"Will you spend time knowing me?"

He could have gone in any number of ways.

He came in the flesh.

He created a universe that displays his splendor and glory.

Everywhere you look, you see God's goodness

and he says, "I want to show you who I am.

"I want to tell you a story

"about the redemption of mankind.

"I want to show you how I took a people

"that was not even a people and I became their God

"and I brought them through tremendous trials

"and adversities and I gave them promises

"and there was ups and downs.

"They fell away.

"They worshiped idols.

"I had to go get them back.

"They kept going back, selling themselves

"and I went and got them back

"and eventually I went and got them for good.

"And then I brought you into it

"'cause you weren't in it.

"So I brought everybody and grafted them in."

And if God, the God of the universe said,

"I'm going to write a story

"and I want to include you, will you read it?"

I'll put it on the nightstand and open it when I need it.

Yes.

We got to limit the excuses and the procrastination.

The God of the universe wants to connect with us

and one of the ways he's chosen to do that is with his word.

If this thing was an ancient scroll

and you had to drive two hours

to hear somebody read it every week,

would you still show up?

If they could come and haul you away,

if they found pages of it in your possession,

would it have more prominence and importance?

I'm not trying to shame any of us.

The Holy Spirit has a way of convicting you of that.

My job is not up here to say,

"You're not doing this, you should be doing this."

What my responsibility is to say,

God has revealed himself to us

and I would like to invite you to read it with me.

I'm inviting you.

I spent time, look, this ain't got nothing to do.

I spent time just making you a plan

that way you don't have to do a lot of leg work

and get frustrated that you can't find the right thing

and I also made it to where we can all do it together

and we can talk about it and the women's ministry

and the worship team and the men's and the kids' man,

the JDQ he was talking about,

their memory verses are in here.

Why?

'Cause as a family, we want to go together.

So when I run into Marcus, he'd be like,

"Man, did you read Joshua 9 this week?

"Wow, that messed me up."

You know what?

I didn't, I need to go back and read it.

Thank you for holding me on that and doing it together

with me.

Is anything I'm saying makes sense?

Like, he gave it to us, man.

We could have been born in any time in history

where we didn't have it and yet here we are now

on the edge of 2025,

literally watching the whole back half of the Bible

come alive.

Like, I feel like at any time,

I feel like I literally got a good shot

of seeing Jesus come back.

Like, I'm checking stuff up on my pants, I don't know.

How would you know?

How would you know if you're just depending on me

to get up here and tell you?

How would you know?

How would you know?

I'm not crazy.

Well, that's a bad question.

(audience laughing)

We're gonna move into a,

we're gonna move into our altar call section,

and I would like to call the elders now.

If you're an elder or if you are a pastor,

if you have been anointed and appointed to pray for others,

I would like to ask you to come down.

Why do we do this?

Where do we get this?

Where do we get any of this from?

Where do we get these ideas from?

It's from the Word.

James chapter five, I wanna read this to you.

This is what it says in James five, it says,

"Is anyone among you suffering?"

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church

and let them pray over him,

anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick,

and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

He didn't even say come to get your sins forgiven.

He said, "Come and believe that I can heal you

"and ask the elders to annoy you with oil,

"and oh, by the way, I'll forgive you sins too."

Heck of a bonus.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

Pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person

has great power as it's working.

Why do we take communion every week?

Because the scriptures tell us,

as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me.

And by God, if we're gonna remember the Christ,

we're gonna remember him every week.

So every week you come in here,

we're gonna do it in remembrance of him.

And we're gonna gather down front

and we're gonna invite those that are sick or hurting

or need something broken off of them to come,

and the elders will anoint you with oil and pray over you,

and the prayer of faith will heal you.

And then what does he say?

I've invited you guys.

I said, "If you ain't got no problems in your life,

then praise God right now."

Have I not said that?

Where do you think I got that from?

From James.

If you're sick and you need God to move, come down here.

And if you're healthy and you wanna see God move,

then you praise him on that side.

None of us are exempt,

but we don't know that if we don't spend time

knowing God and his word.

So as I'm inviting you personally

to go on this journey with me this year,

to spend time, to carve out time,

reading the word, studying God's word,

connecting with his people, connecting with him,

let's close out this year by either praying or praising

and committing to journey together.

Amen.

Let's worship and pray.

(gentle music)

[music fades out]