Resilient: It's Powerful

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We exist to awaken this generation to new life in Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

To find out more, go to awakeningchurch.com.

Awakening Church, great to be with you because of our, you know, stay at home and be safe and all the rest.

You know, I can't teach this at the office where most of things are coming from.

So this is our makeshift set in my office, right here in town, right down the street, not very far.

And I'm really honored to get to share in this series, you know, resilient.

I I love even on the top of the notes, the ability to withstand or recover from a difficult situation.

And we've learned it's tempting, we've learned it's emotional, and I want to share it's powerful.

Um and I'm gonna do something I don't normally do.

Uh I tend to do a fairly quick introduction, jump into the text, apply it all the way through.

I want to just get you to lean back and I want to talk about power because I think right now we feel powerless, right?

I mean, when are we gonna get to go back to work?

When can we go outside?

Uh, you know, what about the future?

What about my plans?

I mean, it it is really a challenging time.

I think God wants us to be resilient.

How do we overcome challenges and difficult situations?

And I think there's a number of things uh at play here.

So let me give you three very quick stories, all that have to do with the power of something.

And by the time we get done, I think those three stories will be bing, bing, bing.

Wow.

Maybe I want to remember them.

The story number one I'm a young pastor, I'm 28 years old.

It's my very first pastor.

We don't even have an office, and so there was a it's a small little town of under 3,000, not even a stoplight.

And uh there was an area where I could sort of office in the back of someone's place.

They just put up a little almost cardboard type thing.

Let me stay in the back, just a little place to study.

And it was a businessman, and um he, you know, was a Christian, went to sort of the main church in town, and you know, was trying to be nice to me, and he came and said, uh, hey, by the way, now what uh what version of the Bible are you using?

And so we're kind of talking about the Bible, and all I know is he's you know a person who goes to this church, very open about his faith.

We're talking about the Bible, and he gets a phone call, picks up the phone.

What?

What you tell that N-word?

I would never have an N-word, that blankety blank, blank, blank.

This is a well, we're not gonna have an N.

And I mean, I'm sitting there going, now, are you kidding?

And he hangs up the phone, and then he comes over and goes, uh, now the the version I was telling you about, I mean, there there was not a skip in the beat.

It's the power of deception.

There, there was absolutely no connection between him being a follower of Jesus, our conversation about the word of God that screams no partiality, and the words and the prejudice and the anger coming out of his mouth about a human being made in the image of God.

I mean, I was a young pastor, I'm 28, but I'm thinking, whoa.

Now, I now candidly, I grew up in Ohio and I grew up in the suburbs, and I was deeply offended.

I, you know, grew up playing basketball and so outdoor courts, and then, you know, very mixed racially college team.

And it was just like, I remember how could anyone be that deceived?

Powerful, powerful deception.

Story number two.

Um, a number of years later, uh, it was a young man, and from all practical appearances, was doing great, you know, been married, I don't know, seven, eight years, had like a five-year-old at the time, good job, good family, just bought a house, you know, attractive, he and his wife, came to church regularly.

I I mean, you would just think upwardly mobile, kind, generous, good dad.

And um I got a call and he said, I gotta talk to you right away.

And I said, Well, sure.

He says, Can I come down right now?

I said, Well, sure, go ahead.

And he he he comes to me and he goes, Uh, this is the note that was on the refrigerator.

I said, What's it say?

He says, I don't love you anymore.

I never loved you.

And I've taken our daughter and I'm gone.

And that guy, I mean, if a lightning bolt would have hit him, it it couldn't have been more drastic.

He was completely relationally deceived or unaware.

Whatever, if if I'd asked him, you know, I mean, you know, like a day before, how's that great at home, great with the wife, great with work, great with the family.

I mean, he was absolutely 100%, things are fine.

Well, obviously they weren't.

Obviously, he he didn't see, he didn't recognize, he didn't see the hurt, he didn't see the body language, he wasn't listening to what she said.

I mean, people just don't do that.

That was a long, slow burn that ended up in a dramatic ending to someone that, for all practical purposes, was oblivious.

Deception.

It's powerful.

And I'm I'm telling stories, but here's what I want you to get.

What would this have to do with like you or me?

What if deception is that powerful that you could actually be convinced you're in right relationship with God and things are super duper, or you're in right relationship with someone you love and you're completely wrong, completely deluded.

Third story about power.

This is a positive one.

This was during my uh college years, and I was a growing Christian, and uh I got into a Bible study, and then I was meeting one-on-one with a bricklayer who was discipling me.

Uh, then little by little I was meeting with one or two guys, and then I had a Bible study in my dorm, and I was just learning.

Everything was new.

I was getting into God's Word.

Um I I was I was a pretty slow learner.

I it was so hard to get up in the morning and spend time with God daily.

Took me about a year and a half, maybe two years before it became a habit, and and a little later became a joy.

Um I began to uh write down some verses that were meaningful to me on cards.

Um early on, they wanted me to memorize scripture, and I thought, that's stupid.

You know, it's in it's in the Bible.

I can look it up when I want it.

I I had no idea the power of renewing your mind, the power of the word of God, the power of meditating.

I was clueless.

But I was growing now and I was even starting to teach a little bit.

So it's about my my junior year in college, and I've been a Christian a little over three years.

And we had a guy uh on our campus who came, uh transferred in, and his name was George.

He wouldn't mind me using his name.

In fact, I've used it publicly before.

And um George was just there's no other word.

He was socially awkward, came from an immigrant family, his uh parents moved here uh in the New York area, a Slavic background, so he had a pretty decent little accent.

And then there's nothing like being like 19 years old and and you know, prematurely balding.

And um, you know, when you're in college, everyone wants to be cool, and George was not cool.

And so uh, you know, George did didn't really have a relationship with God.

He started coming to Bible study, he struggled, and then I'm confession, you know, when someone sort of joins your group and you go, oh, you know, if they break up into groups, I hope he's in another group.

You know, I just hope he's not in my group, you know, and that's terrible, but it was true.

And um, and so George, I got to know him for that first year, and then an amazing thing happened is uh he he heard about something in the summer and he went to some sort of conference, and in this conference, they were talking about God can completely change your life and his word is so powerful and all these verses, and they said the way it really works is by memorizing and meditating on scripture.

And I think George just got super desperate.

I mean, this is one of the most socially awkward people kind of pushing him away or to the fringes, and then the poor guy ended up, he ended up in a dormitory with the fraternity guys.

I mean, all they did is make fun of him all the time.

So George comes back after the summer, and I notice in his shirt pocket, he's got like a stack of three by five cards about this thick.

Very small, small print.

And I said, George, what you got there?

And he he said, Oh, you know, I went to this conference, I started memorizing scripture.

And you know, I I had started, you know, I got I got some little ones here, and you know, I got my first 60 verses, topical memory system, and yeah, it was kind of tracking, so I had maybe a hundred, maybe two, you know, I'm really spiritual, spiritual leader here, you know.

And and he said, Well, I started out and I memorized the book of James, and and then I did Matthew, and I said, No, you mean the book Matthew?

Is it yes?

And then so because and then I forget, I think it was the book of John and then first and second Timothy.

And I said, George, are you kidding?

He goes, No, it takes me, you know, that I spend like the first 45 minutes of my day just reviewing those verses.

And first of all, I thought he couldn't be telling the truth.

And then fast forward.

You know when you meet someone where there's an inner beauty that comes out of their countenance, that comes out of their speech, that there's an attractiveness that you can't even put your finger on, that's not physical, that just draws like bees to honey.

I watch this metamorphosis.

I I George got in one of my small groups, and just the calm, the wisdom, the I don't know, I can't even explain it.

The year goes on, pretty soon, fraternity guys are looking both ways and going down to his dorm room to get counsel about their girlfriend or something that's happened at home.

And pretty soon George is emerging as this leader, and everyone wants to be around him, and he's not socially awkward, he's just like one of the most winsome, attractive guys I've ever met.

And and all here, power, power, deception, lies, delusions, thinking everything's okay, super powerful.

God's word, super powerful.

And that brings us to our text.

And I think you're gonna see this played out.

Our text last week, uh, Ryan taught us that we should be what?

Quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

Why?

For the anger of man does not fulfill the righteous life that God desires.

And then we pick it up, I put it in your notes, we pick it up at verse 21 that Ryan ended on.

Therefore, here's the application.

This this anger that we have, this speech that we need to have, this listening and caring about people.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent.

It's the heiress tense.

That means make a radical step of faith and anything morally or the evil and the references to relationships that are not good and places where you shouldn't go and influences that are messing with your life.

Make a radical, radical departure and put that behind you.

So there's a negative command.

And humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

So we're back to the word.

And notice it's planted in you.

Literally, it says that you receive the word.

Remember the parable of the soils?

Remember, Jesus said, you know, to his disciples, I'll explain this to you.

The Son of Man went out and he cast the seed upon the ground.

It's the seed, it's God's word.

And the seed of God's word fell on hard path, that's a hard heart.

And the seed of God's word fell on shallow soil.

And that's someone who responds quickly, but when it gets tough to be a follower, they fade away.

And the seed of God's word falls on thorny soil.

And that's a person who they they love God and they're sincere and they start to grow, but the riches of this world, the deceitfulness of them, and other things and distractions choke out the word.

And so instead of the person becoming more and more like Christ and more and more loving and more and more transformed, they get stuck.

But then the last one, Luke 8, verse 15.

Luke 8:15

But the seed that falls in the good ground is the person with a good and honest heart who receives the word implanted and obeys it.

That's what he's talking about.

He's talking about when you receive the word of truth, the gospel.

1 Peter says that we are born again by an imperishable seed.

Verse 23 through 25.

That our new relationship with God happened because we responded to the gospel of grace, and the gospel of grace put the seed of new life in us, and this new life grows, and our heart is the kind of soil.

And so he says here, accept it humbly, literally with a teachable heart, which can save you.

And if you printed out your notes, circle that little word can.

It's a word for power.

It has the power.

The word implanted in you has the power to save you.

And the word salvation, I think we always think of, you know, like justification.

It's when I prayed to receive Christ, but the word means deliverance.

Your salvation is you're delivered from death.

You're delivered from the power of sin.

You're delivered from the penalty of sin.

And so what he's saying is the word of God implanted in our hearts when we trusted Christ has the power to deliver us from what?

Well, from all moral filth, from all evil, from are you ready for this?

Deception.

Remember earlier?

Earlier in the text, what's it say?

He says, do not be deceived.

We had the word of truth.

And so, as you'll look in your notes, uh, let me read the entire passage, and then I want to break it down, and then here's the deal.

I want you to think about how much power you'd really like to have.

You know, we're just, we're all in this together.

Um we all struggle.

We struggle with temptation, we struggle with uh emotions, anger, resentment, lack of forgiveness.

Um we struggle with discipline.

We struggle with a lot of stuff.

This passage is going to remind us there's an amazing power of deception over here, and there's a power in God's word that will deliver you, but it only does that if you do something with it.

Let's read it.

He goes on to say, Do not merely listen to the word, and so, there's our word, deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.

Illustration.

Anyone who listens to the word but doesn't do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Contrast.

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law, speaking of scripture, that gives freedom and continues to do this, so there's a practice, there's a habit, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, notice the result.

He will be blessed in what he does.

Now, when I study the Bible and when I prepare to teach it, uh one of the things I do is I'll study the passage, I'll break down, you know, uh the different verses in terms of grammatically how they fit, and then what I try and do for me, and I've given it to you, but uh normally I don't give this to people.

I usually give them just sort of my my big outline.

But, you know, we're kind of studying.

This is about God's word, so I thought I'd show you what I do.

So then what I did is I said, okay, what does it really mean what I just studied?

And then I want to put it in one clear sentence that accounts for all the words that really make sense.

And so what we learn from verse 21, the beginning of verse 22, is that freedom to become the joyful, mature, Christ-like person who lacks nothing.

Where did I get that?

Remember?

Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials.

Well, we're in a trial, right?

Knowing that testing of your faith produces what?

Endurance.

Well, allow endurance to have its perfecting, maturing result that you might be perfect, mature, Christ-like, notice lacking in nothing.

So freedom to become that kind of person requires a radical repentance from sinful practices and relational patterns.

That's exactly what verse 21 said.

Moral filth and the prevalent evil.

Then notice the positive and a wholehearted cultivation of the word implanted in our hearts.

And so you want to experience God's power, his life change.

I don't know about you, but regardless of circumstances, I want to have joy.

Regardless of temptations, I want to have great relationships and be connected.

Regardless of emotional issues and what might tick me off or what might make me feel resentful, I want to be a joyful, loving, winsome person, dad, friend, husband.

And he says, to do that, I have to make a radical repentance away from the things that are pulling me away from God.

And then I need to make a wholehearted, I mean, cultivation of taking this word that's written now, but the living word that's been planted in my heart and cultivated in such a way like you would a garden.

Ho ho ho.

Man, this is the most precious garden in the world, and that garden is your heart.

And that's why we learned, remember earlier in awakening, watch over your heart.

How?

With all diligence.

Why?

For from it flow all the issues of life.

And so he says you have to cultivate the seed of God's word in your heart.

And so the question becomes, right?

How do we wholeheartedly cultivate God's word within us?

Verses 22, 23, 24, and 25 are gonna tell us exactly how to do that.

Are you ready?

Number one, we must specifically apply God's word to our lives.

Okay, now let that sink in.

It doesn't say you must read the Bible.

It doesn't say just listen to the Bible in the car.

It doesn't say just log on and watch Awakening online.

It's not about just exposure.

It's we must specifically apply God's word to our lives.

There's a need, this is what God's word says.

Here's a sin, this is what God's word says.

Here's a problem, this is what God's word says.

This is a relationship, this is what God's word says.

This passage says if you want to be a joyful, winsome Christian who's not deceived, whose life changes, if you want power, whatever God's word says about that, do it, and you'll experience it.

Notice.

Why?

Because exposure without application is self-deception.

Exposure without application is self-deception.

Anyone who listens to the word, if you've downloaded the notes, underline the word listen, and this is an interesting word.

It means just to glance at.

This isn't looking deeply, this is just glancing at it.

Listens to the word but doesn't do what it says, is like a man uh who looks at his face in a mirror.

Now, during this time, mirrors were not made out of glass.

They were made out of metal and they weren't super clear.

And and so uh you if you really wanted to get a good look at yourself, you had to really gaze and stoop down and get a good look.

But this is the person who just gazes at the mirror and notices, oh, I, you know, there's a hair out of place, or boy, there's dirt all over my collar.

But it's just a quick glance, and then they go on.

They go away, immediately forget what they look like.

Um, especially my wife and I were talking about this, and yesterday she was saying, you know, I never really got that illustration because especially as a woman, when I look in the mirror, if there's something wrong, I want to fix it, right?

My lipstick isn't quite right, or there's a hair sticking up, or oh my gosh, you know, I got one of those zits or whatever.

You know, I mean, when you look into a mirror, most of us really want to address it.

The illustration that came to my mind, I don't know if this happens to you, let's say you get a text from someone, you're really busy, and you see it's a text and it's an important person, I mean someone you really care about, and you just look at your phone and you just glance at it quickly, you don't read it all that carefully, and you say to yourself, Oh, wow, that's an important person.

I I'll text them back, I'll get to that later.

Now, I maybe none of you have done this.

And then, like three days or four days or five days, and maybe you're laying in bed or you just wake up, and I mean, this is an important person.

And you realize, oh my gosh, I I didn't even text them back, and I remember there was a question.

I don't remember, but it seemed like it was really important.

I totally blew them off.

How do they feel?

What's really happened?

That's kind of the picture here.

This is a picture of someone who comes to a meeting of God's people.

It could be awakening, could be any church.

And maybe it's kind of a casual one so they can bring their coffee in.

And it's kind of like this is not bad.

Yeah, hey Ryan, you know.

That was a pretty interesting story.

Chris, that was pretty insightful, a little philosophy background.

I I I I kind of enjoyed that.

Then they leave.

There's no sense of God, what do you want me to do?

Lord, search my heart.

Father, how could I have violated that and offended you or offended someone else?

Oh, I I never saw that.

Me deceived?

I thought things were great.

And do you get the idea?

I uh remember years ago, um, I found it in some old notes, and this was, oh gosh, maybe 15 years ago, maybe more, and um, there was a group that had done a study that basically said that 71 million people in America claim to be followers of Christ.

And then they did further studies to say, wow, that's very interesting because in terms of morality, behavior, finances, character, only about one in ten of those people who claim to be believers live any different than the people who don't claim to be believers.

And I remember this will date me, but if you hear this name, you ought to read some of his stuff.

It's amazing.

Francis Schaefer was a theologian, philosopher, uh, started a group called Labris in Switzerland, and skeptics and intellectuals from all around the world would come.

And he created this place of dialogue and where you would just live out the faith and people could come with any questions.

And I remember getting to hear him.

I actually wrote one of my master's theses based on the trilogy of core books that he wrote.

And I remember he made this statement.

It must have been about 1976, 78.

He said, Christianity in the United States currently, this is 1976, appears to be all but bankrupt.

In other words, it so doesn't resemble the life of Christ.

It's so filled with either religion or rules or compromise, a lack of love.

I mean, these radical core messages of Jesus are sort of like on a salad bar.

Love your enemies, I don't think so.

Um pray for those who despitefully use you, no, I don't think that.

Um, sexual purity, uh, no, that's not in.

Uh love one another, meet as a group, have so you know, he just said the authority of God's word and believers sensing that submission to what he says is a non-negotiable because he is God, because he's the savior of the world, because he is the king of kings and the lord of lords.

And whether it's willfully now or someday later, every single person who has ever lived will bow the knee before the Lord Jesus Christ.

And every tongue will confess that he is in fact Lord to the glory of God.

And some, I don't know what happened.

I really don't.

And, you know, at living on the edge, sort of my heartbeat, the ministry, sort of as a missionary to America and around some places of the world.

It's helping Christians live like Christians every day in every way, everywhere, for the glory of God and for the good of all mankind, because um the people that helped me become a follower of Christ, they lived it out.

It was a bricklayer.

I mean, he wasn't eloquent.

In fact, the Bible studies were just downright boring.

But I'd never seen a man love his wife or date his wife.

I'd never seen a father invest in his kids.

And I I mean I got to see the arguments, and I mean, I I I lived with him at times.

I lived in a garage apartment in the back, I worked for him.

I saw a man that, you know, would would he was a bricklayer, and I still remember building, you know, it's called a footer.

When you're going to do a house, you have to put in a footer, and and then uh after you do that, you put these hayte blocks, and it was out like a half an inch on one area.

And I mean, it would have passed inspection, all the rest.

And I remember him walking through and with his foot kicking down all those hay dot blocks that I had carried and I had mixed all the mud.

Dave, what are you doing?

What are you doing, man?

What are you doing?

He goes, it's out of square.

And I said, Yeah, but it's only that much.

I mean, give me a break.

And I'll never forget he looked at me, he goes, Chip, you don't understand.

I don't make this house and build this foundation for you or the inspectors.

Whatever I do, it's my offering to God, and I'm not going to give him second rate anything.

And what I want you to know is that being around Dave, it wasn't his cool Bible studies, is after a few years, I wanted to be a man of God like Dave.

I wanted to be a husband like Dave.

I wanted to be a dad like Dave.

And and it all went back to this reverence for God's word, this sense that it's not casual.

This isn't an option.

I watched Dave after all these years still having all these little cards that I started doing, and I watched him live it out, and then I watched him when he blew it, and kind of humbly said, you know, I messed up, and would you forgive me?

See, there's power and the authenticity of walking with God and obeying his word.

What he was doing was he was humbly receiving the word implanted, and over the years and over the years and over the years, then God birthed fruit in his character, but then he also birthed it in ministry.

Dave is still a bricklayer.

Dave is still helping out on colleges, and I mean, you know, Dave's gotta be, you know, 80 now.

And he's he's helping Chinese PhD students.

And he's got a high school education, and he has them in his home, and he loves them.

And whatever he needs to learn so he can talk to them, I've watched him do this.

Are you ready?

I've watched him do this for over 30 years.

It's just amazing.

But he's a Christian that lives like a Christian.

And Dave has no sense that there's pastors and clergy and other people.

I learned from him, all of us are full-time ministers of the gospel.

But I got that from the word, not the culture.

And so he tells us that exposure without application brings death.

It kills our relationship with God, it kills the power.

In fact, one of my uh profs had a great line.

He would say the problem with most Christians is they're like a photograph, overexposed and underdeveloped.

And prof always had those great ones.

And what it was really saying was overexposed.

Oh, I heard this podcast, I heard this podcast.

Oh, did you hear this teacher?

Oh, did you know what's happening here?

Oh, I I read this book.

So-and-so says this.

Oh, I got news for you.

God would be a lot happier with you reading three verses and obeying all three verses today than reading 300 verses and going, hmm, that's nice.

See, the organ of transformation in God's kingdom is not knowledge and it's not just cognitive, it's obedience.

In fact, notice, number three, because immersion with application brings freedom and transformation.

Look at the text.

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.

Notice what he says.

The man who looks, this is a different word.

This is for pausing, stooping, gazing clearly into it.

What's he gaze into?

He doesn't gaze into his own heart or his own feelings.

How do I feel about me?

How do I feel about God?

Do I feel close to God?

What do others think?

In other words, there's a standard of truth.

What does the scripture say?

See, I don't meet with God every day because I think I get brownie points on a refrigerator.

I meet with God every day because I know the deception of my own heart.

And that I need the word of God to purify my mind and my thinking.

And see, when you look into a mirror, what's a mirror?

A mirror is a source of evaluation, isn't it?

I mean, you look in a mirror and you evaluate.

Well, looks good, doesn't look good, need to touch up here, missed a spot here.

Well, the word of God is a source of evaluation, but it doesn't tell you how you look on the outside.

It tells you how you look on the inside.

It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

You might chop down a verse and it's worth memorizing, Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword and piercing to the vision of both joint and marrow.

It's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

It's powerful.

And so he he looks intently to the perfect law of God's word that gives freedom.

Freedom, what?

Not freedom to do whatever you want, freedom not to sin.

Freedom to look to be all that God made you to be, freedom to have joy in every circumstance, freedom to be the man or the woman that God wants you to do.

Then notice he looks into it, he continues to do it, not forgetting what he's heard, but doing it.

And then notice he'll be blessed, he'll have God's favor.

I pulled out those words and looking intently, you know what that is?

That's me reading.

We're like in the first century, why it says those who listen, most of the people were illiterate.

And they would hear God's word over and over, they would repeat it to one another, they were oral learners, and most everyone in the church would have all the books memorized.

And then they would meditate on it.

And notice continues to look at it.

That's okay, I I I looked it, I read it.

Now I'm going to continue to meditate and ponder.

The reason that I memorize these verses is so that when I'm in the car, I can meditate.

When I'm waiting in line, I can meditate.

I can begin to think about where's God speaking to me.

And as you memorize scripture and you don't forget it, the Holy Spirit will then begin to pull it.

Answer to prayer, piece of wisdom, do this, don't do that, protection here.

I mean, you if you've never done this, you would just be amazed.

All the research you meditate on God's Word, heart rate, blood pressure.

I mean, physically, physiologically.

I I mean, when I started memorizing scripture very, very seriously, your your mind is like a muscle.

I I was shocked at how sharp my mind became as I memorized a few hundred verses and then some short chapters and then a few short books.

And and how I would go into a class and I would listen, and I mean, gosh, I think after my junior year, I never got to be.

And it wasn't because I was so smart, it was literally God refined my mind in a way that I could take in information and retain it.

He wants to bless us in every area of our life, but notice the key is application.

You do it.

And then you experience his favor, his happiness in your heart, satisfied.

And so I summarize sort of where we're at in this series.

In summary, in the midst of difficult circumstances, first 12 verses, and powerful temptations, verses 13 to 18, and emotionally challenging relationships, 19 to 21, the man or woman who regularly feast on God's word by listening, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating for the purpose of obeying what it says will be set free to become the joyful, winsome, loving person he or she longs to become with God's hand of favor upon all that you do.

What a promise.

You know, as I close, um I don't know what to say other than uh I've been asked by a lot of people, would you teach me how to do that?

And recently at Living on the Edge, because of you know all this sheltered in place in this sort of makeshift uh studio we've made, I did that and we called it Daily Discipleship with Chip.

It's absolutely free, and I take people through three weeks of learning how to meet with God to form the habit.

Um we also developed some short online courses, and I put the information in your notes that you know, if no one ever taught you how to pray, you know, how do you how do you experience God when you pray, not say words?

And well, how do you how do you get into the Bible where you hear God's voice?

I was just just from memory, I I paused and I thought, are you ready?

Just lean back, will you?

I mean, I just jotted these in just in the bottom of my Bible as I thought over the years of the power of God's word, 1 Peter 2, 2, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of God's word, that by it you may grow with respect to your salvation.

2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, for the word of God, what?

It's God breathed and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man or woman of God would be fully or adequately equipped for every good work.

Um, 1 Peter 1 23, for we have been born again by the Word of God.

Then he goes on to say, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God endures forever.

Jesus' own words, man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Jesus would say to a group of Pharisees in John 8.32, for those of you who have believed on my name, if you abide in my word, then you'll know the truth, and the truth will, you know the rest, don't you?

Set you free.

I thought of the great people in Scripture and their relationship with God's word.

Here's what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to get you to where you would say, you know something, more than my phone, more than TV, more than Netflix, more than my breath.

I'm going to make God's word, what I listen to, what I read, what I study, what I meditate, what I memorize, and what I will tell you, you will receive power.

You will receive power.

Issues, addictions, struggles, temptations, you're never going to be perfect till he comes back.

But you'll receive power.

Moses, in his farewell, he sends them into the promised land.

He says, Take to your heart all these words which I'm speaking to you today, for they are not an idle word, they are your life.

And by this word you shall possess the land that you're going into.

Joshua's going in in chapter one of Joshua, and God says to him, Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth.

But you should meditate on it day and night, that you might be careful to do according to all that's written therein.

For then you will have success, and then you will prosper.

Be strong and courageous.

Don't tremble, don't be dismayed, because the Lord your God is with you.

I think of Ezra who said he set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and teach its ordinances in Israel.

I just want you to know whether it was David, if your word had not been my delight, Psalms 119, I would have perished in my affliction.

I mean, all through Scripture, men, women, they hang on to the Word of God because the Word of God is powerful.

Lord, I pray.

I pray for my brothers and sisters in a world of distraction, in a world of temptation, in a world of noise and bombardment, that you would grant them the grace to meet with you first and foremost, to regularly, systematically begin to listen to, read, study, memorize, and ponder.

And Lord, I pray you'd give them the strength to make it through the early times when it's confusing and they don't get a lot out of it.

Lord, would you cultivate their heart?

There's an appetite that needs to be developed.

Just like tasting certain foods it takes time to acquire.

Would you give them a taste of your love and your power through your word in Jesus' name?

Amen.