Life In The Word | Feb 8 2026

Several years ago, GAIL and I went down to Los Angeles to

visit our daughter who was living there at the time.

And we went to a Barnes and Noble bookstore and massive

bookstore. It was like a superstore, three

floors had escalators going up or whatever.

And so we were just enjoying ourselves.

Love just taking a look at all the books that were there and

just kind of notice you didn't see any books really on

spirituality, on Christianity. And so I asked one of the

attendants there, you know, do you have any Christian books?

And the person had to stop and think about it.

And they said, I think they're on the 3rd floor.

So we go up to the third floor, up the escalators, takes takes

an eternity to get up there. And we find out that the

Christian section is actually in the children's section in the

back of the store, like the furthest point away from the

doors around the corner and this little bookshelf.

And you have just a few Christian books and just a

couple of Bibles. And as I looked at that Bible

and I thought, how tragic that the value that was put on the

Word of God would be so low. Now, that's Barnes and Noble for

you. What about for us?

What kind of value do we place on the Word of God?

Most Christians would say, yeah, The Word of God, the Bible, the

Scriptures, they're important. They're very important, but do

we show that with the way that we engage those scriptures?

I think the statistics now are about 50% of Christians don't

even touch the Bible who who profess to be Christians and

about 30% are reading it on a regular basis.

So I, I think this is something that we need to sort of grapple

with and, and to, and to understand together how this,

this probably no more life giving practice that we can have

in our lives, then engage in the word of God.

This is where this is where we're given perspective.

We're given wisdom from the ages.

This is this is where we, we encounter what truth is and get

the guidance we need for our life.

But probably even far more significant than any of those

things, those things, and is that we encounter God through

his Holy Word. This is how we encounter God.

Now over the next, well, next week, we're gonna start a new

series on First Samuel, the book of First Samuel.

So we're gonna have a study that will walk us through that entire

book, and it coincides with Lent.

Now, we are not a heavily liturgical church, but it's good

to piggyback on some of these ancient practices every once in

a while. So Lent is the 40 days.

If you take out all of the Sundays, it's 40 days that take

us to Easter. And so it's kind of preparation

for the celebration of Easter. And it's associated with Jesus

40 days in the wilderness when he was fasting and when he was

being tempted by the devil. So it's, it's a time of of kind

of like self denial where we are, we are looking at ways that

we can sort of root out our self centeredness and get more

focused on the Lord. And I'm hoping that this time

period where we're walking through during Lent, the first

Samuel, that this is going to be a time of great spiritual

renewal for us, a great time of rooting out self centeredness of

of kind of increasing a hunger for more of God and to deepen

our faith in him. And so 40 Days in the Word is

going to start next week. So I'm giving a little

invitation and of a church wide, congregation wide invitation

that you would with me make a conscious effort to make more

room for the Word of God in your life.

And one of the things that we've done to help is to create a

journal. So GAIL and Sandra made this

journal that will help us walk through the book of Samuel every

day, just a little bit of Scripture each day.

And it guides us on how to reflect on Scripture together.

So it'd be good it be cool to do this as a congregation.

I think it's going to have a great impact if we're doing it,

everybody's doing it each day for 40 days.

Think of the conversations that we can have in our families and

our life groups and other fellowship circles.

I think it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be off.

Awesome. So but today is preparation for

next week, OK? Everything about what we're

doing today is preparation. It's sort of the setup.

Or if you want to use the kind of language of Super Bowl

Sunday, it's the lineup. It's the offensive lineup.

Everybody's, everybody's lined up already, already, right?

And then we're getting ready for the pass, for the play.

So today we're just gonna talk about the Word of God.

Every Sunday we are speaking from the Word of God to God's

people. Today we're speaking from the

Word of God. But we're we're talking about

the Word of God as we're speaking from the Word of God.

And there's probably no greater place.

There's a lot of great places to go in Scripture, but maybe one

of the best is Psalm 119. So if you got a Bible, why don't

you open that up with me? Psalm 119, it is the longest

Psalm. If you don't know where to find

it, the table of contents is up there on the screen.

We're going to step into the last 8 verses of this song and

just wear it for a while like a yoke and just let it shape the

way that we think and the way that we feel and the way that we

ultimately live in the presence of God and Father.

This is turned to him in prayer. Father, we, we thank you for

this life giving word of the scriptures.

I pray, we pray that you'd open our eyes to see wonderful things

from your law this morning. Holy Spirit, visit us in the

name of Jesus, Amen. Amen.

So some 119 and we're going to start at verse 169 and read to

the end of it. And you will notice that we

don't have the Scripture passage up on the screen.

This is very intentional. We don't do that because we want

you to open up your own Bible and get it in front of you and

engage with the Scriptures yourself.

The passages that we do put up on the screen through the

messages are just to help you so that you don't have to turn

flipping your Bible to find it and then kind of miss out on

what the rest of the message is about.

So very intentional. We're doing so Psalm 119,

starting at verse 169. May my cry come before You.

Lord, Give me understanding according to your word.

May my supplication come before you deliver me according to your

promise. May my lips overflow with praise

for you. Teach me your decrees, may my

tongue sing of Your word, for all Your commands are righteous.

May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your

precepts. I long for your salvation, Lord,

and Your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise

You, and may Your laws sustain me.

I have strayed like a lost sheep.

Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

Just that first line made my cry come before you.

That word cry lets us know that this psalmist is in anguish, and

it's a reminder to us that Scripture isn't just given to us

outside of a context. It's not isolated or somehow

detached from real life. This person's going through some

major trials. He's suffering.

In fact, in other places in the Psalm, he it, it tells us that

he's being oppressed, he's being attacked, and he is dealing with

a sorrowful heart. And yet he's turning to God's

word in the midst of it all. And in verse 71 of the same

Psalm, and we'll have that up on the screen.

You have to turn there. But he says this, it was good

for me to be afflicted. Never think of yourself that

it's good to be afflicted, to go through trials in life so that I

might learn your decrees. It was good for me to be

afflicted so that I might learn to trees.

In other words, my affliction is driving me to God's Word, and

it's there that I'm experiencing comfort and strength and the

direction that I need. This Salm Psalm 119 is all about

God's Word and there are 8 synonyms that are used for the

scriptures, one of them being the Word, the Law, The Word,

promise, commands, statutes, decrees, ordinances, precepts.

All these words are used interchangeably throughout the

whole song, and so sometimes it can kind of trip you up, but

it's all referring to God's for the scriptures that God has

given to us. And six out of those 8 are in

these last 8 verses of Psalm 119.

In it is an acrostic. If you know what an acrostic is,

that is that the 1st letter of the first word of each verse is

a particular letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And so, and so it's, it's really one of the reasons for doing

that. Is that how it aids memory.

It gives structure to a particular Psalm, but it also

aids in our memorization of that Psalm.

And, and so, but there's more to it than that.

As Rob shared last week, often the the the acrostic is

communicating something to us. In Lamentations last week we saw

that right dead centre in the middle of this heart wrenching

lament. We have the tender mercies of

God that are new every morning, communicating that God's with us

in the midst of all of that pain.

Well, this song, Psalm 119 is, is an acrostic on steroids

because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and there

are 22 stanzas of eight verses each in this Psalm.

And each stanza has a Hebrew letter that opens every one of

those lines. And so alphabet Gamma Dale all

all the way through. And we're at tab here at the

very end of the Hebrew alphabet. And so every line is going to

start with tag. Now what might that be

communicating to us? It doesn't come right out and

say it, but if you think about it, it's communicating in many

ways that God's Word, because that's what this song is all

about, speaks to the entirety of our lives.

There isn't a part of our lives where the Word of God is not

relevant and can't bring life. And as well, the psalmist is

praising God for his word. And it's like man, I'm gonna use

every word, every letter of the, of the alphabet in order to

praise God. I'm going to use everything,

every part of my being, every part of the of the language in

order to give thanks to God for his word.

In other words, the word of God is so absolutely vital to this

individual. And I think it's good for us

just to soak that in and allow it to minister to us.

So let's just walk through the Psalm briefly together.

So, so, so verse 169. May my cry come before you.

Lord, give me understanding according to your word.

So obviously he is disoriented whenever we're facing trouble

and we can't seem to get out of it.

It's a disorienting experience. And so he's looking for

understanding, but he's not. He's not going to.

He's not trying to figure it out himself and he's not going to

the current culture into the, you know, the modern day trends

in order to figure it out. He wants understanding according

to God's Word. He is going to God's Word for

understanding to make sense out of His current situation.

There's 1170 me, my supplication.

Come before you deliver me according to your promise.

When we're in trouble, we're always looking for some form of

deliverance. We want relief.

Who doesn't want relief when we're feeling pain and when

we're suffering? But we go to many other

deliverers that promise deliverance, but they do not

deliver. The Psalms are saying, no, I

want to be delivered according to your promise.

Because whatever you promise in your word, Lord, you always

deliver. You are a God who keeps your

promises. Verse 171 Me.

My lips overflow with praise for you.

Teach me your decrees don't fly over this kind of stuff.

Like so? It's his heart.

His lips are overflowing with praise.

He's just thanking God for His word.

Why? Because you teach me your

decrees like you are actually teaching.

I'm not just reading a book, he's saying for information is

I'm taking this in. You are literally teaching me

from your word. And we talked to a few Sundays

back about just visualizing when we're reading the scriptures to

visualize Jesus reading those words to us.

It's that personal, uh, back in the Psalm, a few verses, one

verse 137, it says he, he says you are righteous, Lord and your

laws are righteous. Actually, I'm gonna back up.

I'm back. We're gonna get there in a

minute. Hebrews 412 For the word of the

Lord is alive and active, sharper than any double edged

sword. It penetrates even the dividing

soul and spirit joints in Merrill and judges the thoughts

and attitudes of the heart. This word not just words on a

page. It is alive.

God is literally teaching us personally as we walk through,

it's like a knife. It's like it's, it's a double

edged sword. It goes to those places of our

heart and can lovingly confronts us in those places that we need

to hear the truth. Now you may not believe that and

that's OK, but I still encourage you to engage the scriptures as

best you can because even a knife that you don't believe is

sharp, if it is sharp, it's still going to cut you, right?

Regardless of whether you believe it's sharp or not.

That's what the word of God is. And so take it up, take it

seriously and allow it. Allow the Word to do ministry to

your soul, loving surgery to your soul, God rooting out all

the lies and all of the all of the stuff that's gonna cause us

to stumble and bring us into the kind of life that we were called

to live. Let's keep moving verse 172 may

my tongue sing of your word for all your commands are righteous.

This is what I was hopping into made my tongue sing of your

words. So we singing over to God's

word. Why because all of the commands

you remember commands it's referring as just a synonym for

all of Scripture. It's all righteous.

It's all right because it's a reflection of who God is.

Back to that one verse 137 You are righteous, Lord, and your

laws are right. Everything you see, Scripture is

God breathed. And so whatever the Scriptures

are reflection of who God is and God is righteous.

He is right. He is pure, He is holy, and that

means that everything that is in this book, the whole of the

Scriptures, are righteous. Now here's God revealing himself

to us in His Word. This is how we get to know Him.

So we get to know him, but we also get to know ourselves,

because in contrast to the righteousness of God, what we

see in the Scriptures is the brokenness of humanity.

We see ourselves in these texts and thank God that He is

gracious and kind towards sinners, right?

This is the good news, right? We're not getting what we

deserve. We get grace.

We get mercy. This is the kind of God that we

serve. But it's hard to read about the

righteousness when we know that we fall far short there.

There are areas of Scripture where like God is revealing His

Holiness to us. And some of it's like, man,

that's too bright. Like there's some things in the

Bible that offend our sensibilities, right?

We're gonna get into some of them.

And 1st in, in, in First Samuel that can turn us off of the

Bible. But my encouragement to us is

just just ease into it and allow God give God an opportunity to

reveal his righteous character to you in the reading of the

Scriptures. Take some time to acclimatize to

the word of God. That's what this this practice

is all about. You know, some Psalm 19.

So it's, it's interesting. Psalm 19, Psalm Psalm 19 is also

about God's word. But the psalmist says the law of

the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.

The fact that every aspect of God of the Scriptures are

perfect, it's ultimately getting us in touch with the giver of

life and it's going to refresh our souls.

So dig in and receive that life giving water. 173 May your hand

be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.

This is an interesting one. I've chosen your precepts, I've

chosen your word, I've chosen to go with your word, and I'm going

to live this word out. And because of that, I'm

anticipating that you're going to give me some assistance.

It's like, OK, OK. I, I'm, I'm gonna go live out

what I know I'm supposed to be doing according to God's word.

And I'm trusting that you're gonna be with me in this Lord.

Like I'm gonna go confess to my employer that I lied to them and

there's going to be some fallout, and I'm anticipating

that you're gonna assist me in doing what is right, no matter

how painful that might be. I'm gonna choose to tithe my

income, 10% of my income, because your word tells me that

that's a bare minimum. And I don't know if I'm going to

make ends meet by the time months end.

And so I'm trusting. I'm anticipating that you're

gonna assist me in this or I'm gonna go and restore a

relationship that is broken, and I'm not looking forward to that.

And it could get messy, but I'm anticipating that you're gonna

give me the assistance that I need in order to do that.

That's what that's what the song is saying.

I know I can have great confidence to do hard things

because it's in His word. And whatever he calls us to,

He's going to meet us in the midst of it, right?

That's the kind of God we have. Let's keep moving, 175.

I think we're at no one. No 174.

I long for your salvation, Lord, and your law gives me delight.

He's longing for God's salvation.

He's not necessarily talking about heaven.

He just wants God to save him in the middle of the the trouble

he's experiencing right now. He hasn't received it yet, but

he is delighting in the Word of God while he waits.

Absolute delight. He sees it as a joy.

He just sees This is such a gift and I'm gonna cherish it.

I'm gonna delight in it. And he says that in he said in

verse 72, just a just a probably a page back in your Bible.

The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of

pieces of silver and gold. Think about that in today's

terms. Thousands of pieces of silver

and gold. What would that be worth?

Now think of your the, the, your dream home, the house that you

always wanted. Think about your nest egg that

you're looking forward all of these things like no, that that

pales in comparison to the law of God, the living God, the one

who's created the universe and created us.

He is speaking to me and these are words of life.

I am not going to neglect this. I'm gonna cherish it.

I'm gonna cherish his words. This is what the psalmist is

saying. 175 let me live that I may praise you.

It's like, OK, I I know that the very reason why I'm living and

breathing right now is to give Him praise because He is

everything to me. And may your laws sustain me.

See, the word is meant to sustain us.

The laws that God gives, they're meant to sustain us.

We we, we are not saved by obeying the law.

Gotta make sure that's that's, that's clear.

We're saved by grace alone through faith, But now that

we've entered into a relationship with God through

Jesus Christ, it's it's his word that sustains us.

It helps us to maintain the relationship.

And so he recognizes this is real help.

This is gonna actually help me in my spiritual life.

Is anybody struggling in their spiritual life?

The word of God is meant to help us with that.

And that help comes from the outside, right?

The Bible is very different from self help.

Self help is just that, it's us trying to help ourselves and

that has limited potency. But the Bible, God's Word, comes

from outside of ourselves and speaks into our current

circumstance, and so it literally does help us and

sustains us through this life. Last verse, my favorite verse.

This, you know, this might be one of my favorite verses in the

whole Scripture. It it might, I don't think it

actually is the number one, but it's really close.

So close it's scary. No 176 I have strayed like a law

sheet. This, this is this is his final

words after 176 verses. I have strayed like a lost

sheep. Seek your servant, for I have

not forgotten your commands. That's a profound statement.

He loves God's Word, but he's wandering all over the place.

He's still straining, and the reason he knows that he's

wandering and that he's off is because he knows God's Word.

I've not forgotten your word and that's how I know when I'm off

course. The word of God is like a Plumb

line for a builder. I know what's straight,

everything else is crooked and I can see that that's what it

does. The word of God is like a lamp.

It's like a a, a light helmet for a miner in the dark.

I know which way to go and I know when I'm veering off

because I've got the light in front of me.

The word of God helps us to stay true.

We might think, well, is this really depressing because I

can't, I can't follow through all the time.

And this is exactly what the psalmist the same you're saying.

I know the commands, I just can't keep them the way that I

think I should. And who is not in that boat?

We're all in that boat, but that doesn't mean we just dump it.

And that's the easy thing to do. We say because if I can, if I

cannot read this, then I don't have to be confronted with the

things that I know I need to be confronted with.

I don't have to have someone to tell me that every once in a

while that I'm off kilter. But you see what the Bible does,

it's never meant to condemn us. It's meant to drive us to the

Savior who has come. You see, Jesus is the only one

who has obeyed the whole word. He's walked it out, He's lived

it. He has kept the law on our

behalf. This is the beautiful thing.

This is the gospel. Jesus literally lived that

perfect life for you and me because we have been unable to

do it. And he also died that

sacrificial death that we deserve to die for not being

able to, not following through on the law.

He's got us completely covered and so we can rejoice in what

God has done. So it's kind of pull a few

threads together here. This book is a gift from God to

us, and that gift came in person.

The author of this book came in person, took on flesh bone and

walked among us, gave his life for us, and now he's ascended

into heaven and he's sent his Holy Spirit to be with us

because we don't read this book by ourselves.

It is the Holy Spirit of God, God himself, who is teaching us

as we read this word. He's illuminating the scriptures

to us, and what we're meant to do is to reflect on it, to

cherish it, to cherish it and to reflect on it and to live it

out. To live it out.

How do we live it? How do we live it?

We immerse ourselves in it. Interwrite gave a great example.

I thought he he, he said, you know, if we had found you see

this back up a bit. What we have in the Scriptures,

the Bible is we have the history of humanity from the very

beginning, the day the first human beings were created all

the way up until the end of Acts, which is a few years into

the Christian Church. And then we have some letters

that are there, but in terms of narrative.

And then it's and then the next point is revelation, which is

when we meet Jesus face to face when he comes and he to restore

all things. And there's this gap in the

middle, and that's what we're living in right now.

And you and I have an opportunity to write that

history in the power of the Holy Spirit back to NT, right?

He said. Suppose that we were were found

in incomplete work of of William Shakespeare and we had the first

five acts and then a little bit of the last act, the 7th act.

How would we be able to write what came in between?

What's missing? Well, he says.

Well, we probably probably do is we would get some awesome

Shakespearean actors to immerse themselves in the first five

acts and the last little bit of the of the last act and then

improvise to join the two together.

And in many ways, that's what you and I are called to do as

followers of Jesus Christ, to immerse ourselves in the

Scriptures that we do have in order for us to live in many

ways without a safety net. Walking through.

We do have a safety net. We have the Lord.

But walking through this life in the direction of power of the

Holy Spirit that has been illuminated, that has been

illuminating our word. Now, the great thing that we,

you know, the great advantage that we have over any

Shakespearean actor is that we have the author.

And the author is with us and he's walking us through this

thing. And we can turn to him at any

moment and know we got this right.

We got this right. This is a call, so this is a

gift. And one verse, verse 16 in Psalm

119, the psalmist says this. I delight in your decrees, Lord,

I will not neglect your word. I will not neglect your word.

How do you not neglect his word? Daily reflection, just a little

bit every day. Just a little bit every day.

That's what the journal that I referred to earlier is all

about. Just to just to help us, to give

us that little nudge to get into the word a little bit every day

and reflect on that word. There's nothing that's going to

make a bigger difference in your spiritual life than that

practice right there, knowing that it's an encounter with God.

So I just wanna, I just wanna leave you with a couple things

to keep in mind as we engage the scriptures #1 start where you

are. This is the point that Jacob

actually made a couple of months ago.

But starting where you are, this is so important because we

think, oh man, I'm so guilty. I have like, if, if, if regular

daily Bible reading is not part of your practice, but you know

that it should be. You're maybe feeling quite

guilty right now. And that is not the intention of

this message. And usually what we do is we

say, OK, I'm going to read an hour a day, you know, which

would be awesome, of course, but just start where you are.

Just it might even just be a verse a day, but whatever is

going to enable you to get into the word daily and get that

habit going. Do that.

So don't shoot for the stars right away.

And then grow up, kind of grow with it and, and, and expand

that time. You know, it would probably take

about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how fast of a

reader you are, 15 to 20 minutes reading the Bible every day.

And you'd get from cover to cover in one year.

OK. So maybe work up to that, to

that place, but in the meantime, just take that small amount.

Small amount, just turn to God. Lord, I'm so sorry that I've

neglected your word. Thank you for forgiving me.

Now enable me to enter into this word on a daily basis.

Second thing, anticipate and encounter.

I don't know if I can emphasize this more.

Overemphasize this anticipate and encounter.

You're not just reading a book. This is an encounter with a

living God. This word is alive and active.

It's an act of faith to do that. That's why every time we read

the scriptures on a Sunday morning, we whisper a prayer to

God, open our eyes and that that, that that prayer.

What verse is that? Verse 18, Open my eyes that I

may see wonderful things from your law.

So, so significant. I'm going to expect that God's

going to meet me here and he's going to show me something and

that what he shows me may not be for today, it might be for

tomorrow, might be from years from now.

But I know that because all Scripture is God breathed, it is

useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and

righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped

for every good work. In other words, all Scripture is

breathed by God, anticipate and encounter.

And it may just be 5 minutes. And there's two ways that you

can approach 5 minutes in the word. 1 is to say, OK, I got to

get through this thing and I'm going to read it and then I'm

going to check it off and move on.

Pastor John will be really happy with me that I did 5 minutes.

No thank you. Or you can say, and this is I

think it's Sean. Sean said this is the life group

the other night. She says, or I can say, what

might God wanna speak to me in these next 5 minutes?

It's amazing what God can do in 5 minutes.

I remember being in a prayer retreat many years ago and I had

a whole long list of things that I was bringing to God that I

need answers for and I had the whole day.

And so I was bringing before God and I was kind of anxious, like

I only have a day, like how long is it going to take for you to

tell me what I need to know Lord?

And he assured me in that moment, kind of, you know, I

didn't hear an audible voice, but this is what he said.

John, I can tell you everything you need to know in 5 minutes.

Just be with me. Just be with me, slow down,

enjoy my presence, and I'll speak to you everything you need

to know. And I just open up the Bible.

It probably didn't even matter where I opened up in the Bible

and just started reading and God just poured out His will for me

in that season of my life. 5 minutes.

You can do miracles. Continue to expand it, but you

can start there. Next thing, keep it fresh.

Keep it fresh. There's a certain level of

perseverance to, you know, to adopt A habit and keep it in our

life. But if you've been, you know,

reading the scriptures on a regular basis and nothing seems

to be happening, the word seems dull or whatever it might be,

take that as a bit of a bit of a wake up call and change things

up a little bit. Maybe it might mean changing

translations. I've been recently reading

through the New Living Test, New Living translation, and there's

a lot of different translations. GAIL hopped off the NIV a few

years ago and went into the ESV. And just hearing God and a fresh

new way. Maybe, you know, especially if

you have trouble reading, have an audio, have someone read it

to you through an audio lab, you know, you version, you can get

that really great accents and stuff like that.

People speaking the word of God. You can just hear it in a fresh

new way. Follow along in your own Bible

or put on your ear pods and you know, walk the streets and just

let the word of God wash over you.

Whatever it is that's going to help you get into the Word of

God in a fresh new way. Do that last, last thing I'll

just leave with you, and that is to help yourself focus, help

yourself. But there's so many things that

we do that prevent us, make it difficult for us to focus.

A lot of things we can do to. And the one thing I'm just going

to leave with you is, is use a physical Bible.

There's a lot of digital technology that is very, very

helpful, but using a physical Bible, I, I think helps us in an

awful lot, an awful lot of ways, especially in our digital,

digital age minimizes distractions.

When I'm reading the Bible on the phone, there are text

messages coming in. People are doing posts and oh

man, look at that post. I got to go.

You know, it takes us out. That doesn't happen when we're

reading the the physical book slows us down.

You know, whenever in your phone.

Got it slows us down when we open up, open up this word if

it's you know, so if it's put in your sleep, then hey, maybe you

need some assistance from from from from your from your phone

and as well. I love, I love my love the

physical bottle because I can write all over it.

I can circle words and underline things and do my arrows and

connect the dots and, you know, highlight stuff and put notes in

my margin just to remember what has God spoken to me here?

And I have that history and things that I can keep coming

back to. Hard to do that on your phone or

on your tablet. Anyway, I leave that with you.

Whatever is going to take in order to get you into the word

of God, that's what we want to do.

Just think about it. Everything that God has

definitively spoken to humankind is in this book.

Everything that we can be confident that God has spoken to

humankind is in this book. Let us cherish this book.

Let's cherish this book. If you do not have a Bible, we

have a gift for you. Come and talk to me or you can

go to the welcome desk. We will give you a Bible as our

way of saying we value the word of God.

It'll be a gift. And as well, those journals that

I referred to that will start us off next week.

Those are in the in the foyer as well.

Pick one up. If you're a youth or an adult,

pick one up and take that home and that will be yours or gift

to you as well. I think we need to pray.

Let's pray, Lord, you've been gracious, so utterly kind to us,

and giving us the gift of Your Holy Word through which you

reveal yourself to human hearts. We are honored, Lord, that you'd

make this connection with us. Forgive, forgive us.

Forgive me, Lord, where I've neglected your word.

Thank you for your forgiveness and now empower me.

Empower each one of us, Lord, to take in a little bit of Your

Word each day. Immerse ourselves in this

glorious story of Your redemption over our lives and

lead us that we can make a difference for you, that your

name would be lifted up. We pray for your glory.

Amen.