Okay, I'm preaching to a sermon about reading the Bible.
And I want you to realize that as a church, we've really had a lot of growth.
And you know, this coming year, in terms of the calendar, there's a lot of events I plan
to do, and I'm excited to do.
However, I do think it's really important that we take our time to have our own personal
growth.
And that should be something that's year long, but I think it's good to start the year really
focused on that.
And that's what this Bible reading month in January is all about.
Now we're in 2 Chronicles 34, and we're gonna be reading a lot of Bible in the sermon.
And so bear with me as I cover this.
But notice what it says here in verse one to start off.
The name of the sermon is The Power in Reading God's Word.
Verse one, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem
one in 30 years.
So here's this man who starts to reign when he's eight years old.
I mean, not even a man, not even a boy at that point, right?
Eight years old, and he becomes the king.
And you know, he does a lot in his life because he dies in his 30s, right?
He dies at the age of 39, and he accomplishes a lot.
Notice what it says in verse two, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,
and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor
to the left.
And the Bible says here that he did that which was right.
Now look, we understand that there is none righteous, no, not one.
Nobody's perfect.
Nobody is without sin.
Nobody always does right, but by and large, as a king, he was doing what was right.
And look, that is unique, because when you're reading, you know, Second Samuel, First and
Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, he did that which was evil in the sight of
the Lord.
He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
He did that which was evil.
But then Josiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
He was a godly king.
Notice what it says in verse number three, for in the eighth year of his reign, while
he was yet young, he's basically 16 years old, he began to seek after the God of David
his father.
Now look, this makes sense because as you're raising children, when they are five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, they have to obey whatever you say.
You tell them to come to church, they come to church.
But once they start becoming a man, once they're 16 years old, they're starting to get to that
age where they better have their own spiritual walk.
Look, we need to teach our kids to grow up and love God as well.
We can't always be there to father them when they're 25 years old to come to church.
You know, son, are you coming to church today?
They need to already know how to do that.
He's 16 years old and he starts to seek after God.
And in the 12th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the
groves and the carved images and the molten images.
So he's basically 20 years old and what he's doing is cleaning house with all of the idolatry.
Now look, I watched the last presidential election here in the Philippines.
My wife and I watched and she helped me translate the stuff I didn't understand with the various
candidates.
And you know what?
I don't remember any of them saying, my platform is to drive by these Catholic churches and
smash all the idols and get rid of the wickedness, get rid of all the high places and these false
religions.
I better believe I would want to vote in that election, right?
If there was a candidate who said, I would get rid of all the idolatry.
That's what this person does.
That's what Josiah does.
And look, this takes guts because if you go against what the country is doing, even as
the ruler, you're likely to get killed.
I mean, during this time, many people wanted to become the king.
Many people would try to take the throne and try to kill you and usurp the throne.
But he wants to live for God.
He's 20 years old.
He's fired up.
He's zealous, and he cleans out all the idolatry.
Notice what it says in verse four, and they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence
and the images that were on high above them.
He cut down and the groves and the carved images and the molten images, he break in
pieces and made dust of them and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed
onto them.
And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
Now when he's burning the bones of the priests, he's basically insulting them by burning them,
right?
Instead of just giving them a burial, he's saying, these are wicked people, and I'm just
gonna burn their bones to show that they were wicked people, okay?
Verse six, and so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even on Dnaphthalai
with their Maddox roundabout.
And when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images
into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
Now I want you to realize about idolatry, because the more you read the Bible, the Bible
talks about that being such a terrible sin.
And if you grew up here in the Philippines, then it might just not seem like a big sin,
because you see idols everywhere.
Every day you drive, you see idols all over the place.
They're worshiping other gods.
And let me tell you something, the Catholic church worships many gods.
You say, why do they worship many gods?
Because they just took that from Roman paganism.
They took it from a polytheistic society, and they don't call them gods.
Well then why are you praying to them?
And this is the saint of this situation.
This is the saint of this situation.
Pray to Joseph here if you're going through this, right?
Pray to this one if you're going through this.
It's like, you know, you're worshiping multiple gods.
It's polytheistic, right?
Idolatry is strange, it's bizarre, and it's wicked.
And look, if a godly leader rose up, the first thing you do is get rid of all the idolatry.
That's what we're seeing in this story.
He cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
What's interesting about this is that at this time, they didn't really have the word of
God.
We're actually going to see that in this chapter if you paid attention while we were reading.
They really don't have the word of God at this time, and he's 20 years old trying to
serve God.
The word of God had gone missing.
No one knew where it was.
No one even thought about it, because it had probably been gone for so long, it's just
out of sight, out of mind.
And the word of God is gone, and yet this young man still wants to serve God.
Now look, I'm sure some soul winner gave him the gospel, and he got saved, and he's a saved
man.
And I'm sure he heard sermons about things about the Bible, but what I'm saying is this,
he did not actually have a Bible beside him that he was reading every day.
It was gone.
The word of God was actually missing, and yet he's already doing a lot of good things,
isn't he?
I mean, cleaning up all the idolatry, he is already doing a lot of good things, but there
was still something missing.
Notice what it says in verse 8, and the first point is this, that reading the Bible, reading
the Bible will make you realize the importance of reading the Bible.
See, many people are waiting until they realize the importance of reading the Bible, and then
they're going to start reading the Bible.
The problem with that is you learn the importance of reading the Bible after you start reading
the Bible.
I'll give you an example.
It works this way with everything, right?
When you get new knowledge about a situation, you're like, man, I need to apply this, okay?
It's my opinion that everybody, everybody should take the time to learn how to use Microsoft
Excel.
I think Microsoft Excel is like the greatest program in the world, and I use it every single
day for so many different things, and you say, Brother Stuckey, what made you have that
opinion?
What made me have that opinion is when I started using it on my job, and I was like, man, this
is awesome.
I can use this for so many different things.
I realized the importance once I actually started to use it, right?
Whenever you learn something new, whenever you have something new in your life, that
will make you realize, man, this is actually really important.
This is really valuable, right?
If you work out every day, once you start working out every day, you're like, man, I
realize the importance of this.
I realize the benefits of this.
But if you don't do it, you're not gonna realize the benefits.
Here's what I'm trying to tell you.
A lot of people, they don't read the Bible because they don't realize the importance,
and unfortunately for them, they won't start realizing the importance until they start
reading the Bible, right?
I mean, when you have a church full of this many people, and I'm not looking for a show
of hands.
We don't have altar calls and all these various things other churches have.
But look, the reality is many people in this room have never read the Bible cover to cover.
Many people don't spend time reading the Bible.
Many of you this past week, you didn't open your Bible, right?
And here's what I'm trying to tell you.
If you realize the importance of reading the Bible, you would have read it.
But once you start reading it is when you're gonna realize the importance, because here's
a man, Josiah.
Here's a man who loves God.
Here's a man who's trying to do what's right.
He's trying to serve God, and yet he doesn't have the Bible.
Here's the thing.
If I couldn't find my Bibles, do you know what I'd do?
I would look for them.
I would search for them, but that's because I regularly read the Bible.
Josiah was not regularly reading the Bible because it was gone, and he didn't realize
the importance like, man, we need to find the Bible.
We need to find the Word of God.
The reason why he doesn't realize the importance is because he's not actually reading it.
So what I'm trying to tell you is this.
If you take up this challenge in the month of January, what I challenge you to do is
to take up this challenge if you've never read the Bible, and then walk away and tell
me you don't think that it's important to read the Bible.
If you actually spend your time reading the Bible, spending time every single day in the
Word of God, you will realize, man, this book's important.
Man, I esteem this more valuable than my necessary food, as Job said.
He said, you know what?
It's better to go a day without eating physical food than go a day without reading God's Word.
Now here's the thing.
How many of you go a day without eating?
None.
Unless you're intentionally fasting, all of us, every single day, we might skip a meal
from time to time, but you know what?
We eat something, don't we?
And yet, many Christians, probably most, they go day after day after day, and they don't
even think to pick up the Bible.
There's a problem with that.
But what I'm trying to tell you is once you start actually doing what God says, you're
going to realize the importance of it.
Notice what it says in verse 8.
Now in the 18th year of his reign, so when he's basically 26 years old, now in the 18th
year of his reign, when he had purged the land in the house, he sent Shaphan, the son
of Azaliah and Messiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder,
to repair the house of the Lord as God.
And when they came to Helkiah, the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought
into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered over the hand
of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin,
and they returned to Jerusalem.
And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the
Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord to repair
and amend the house.
Verse 11, even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone and timber
for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers of them were Jehath and Obadiah,
the Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshalem of the sons of the Kohathites,
to set it forward, and other of the Levites all that could skill of instruments of music.
So they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the
work in any manner of service, and of the Levites, that there were scribes and officers
and porters.
What's going on is they're repairing the house of God.
Imagine if we had major problems at our church building.
And look, things break down over time.
We always have something we gotta fix around here, right?
That's just the way it works, okay?
And imagine we're having like a work day, because I've been a part of churches that
will cancel soul winning to do a work day.
We're never gonna do that, okay?
We're just gonna go soul winning and just work extra, okay?
But there's always stuff that needs to get fixed around here, and that's what's taking
place here.
The house of God is breaking down, and they're trying to fix it, okay?
Verse 14, and when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord,
Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord, given by Moses.
Now in verse 14, it says, Hilkiah the priest found.
And what that means is that it was lost.
I mean if you have to find something, it means it's lost.
And the word of God was lost.
It was gone.
Now look, I'm not saying the word of God didn't exist, because we know heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words, plural, shall not pass away.
I'm not saying the word of God was gone, but what I'm saying is the book of the word of
God, they just hadn't been paying attention, got misplaced, nobody noticed, nobody cared,
it was a famine of the word of God, right?
And look, there were people up preaching sermons and everything, but you know what, they didn't
have the whole Bible that they were using, because nobody was reading the whole Bible.
The word of God was missing in the house of God.
Can you imagine if I got up here behind the pulpit, and I didn't have a Bible, I didn't
have the words of God, so I just got up here and preached for 45 minutes and told you stories.
Now my bad, that was your old Baptist churches, you can't imagine that.
My bad on that, okay?
I mean, can you imagine that?
The reason why most people come to this church is because you learn, right?
I mean that's the big reason why people come to this church, everyone's like, man, I've
never been to a church where I learn so much information.
You go through so much Bible, you show so many things, you teach doctrines, you teach
on stuff other than money, it's like, man, I'm learning at this church, right?
That's why people come to this church.
Even if we didn't have the word of God, and I don't know how to tell stories for 40 minutes,
you'd have to find a new preacher, right?
They find the book of the law, and what that's saying is it was missing, right?
Verse 15, and Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book
of the law in the house of the Lord.
And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried the book to the king,
and brought the king word back again, saying, all that was committed to thy servants they
do it, and they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord,
and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.
Verse number 18, then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath
given me a book, and Shaphan read it before the king.
So they find the word of God, and nobody was looking for it, because they did not realize
the importance, since they weren't reading it.
Verse number two, when you start reading the word of God, not only will you realize
the importance, but it will reveal the problems in your life.
If you read the New Testament in January with our church, and look, I'm including myself
in this as well, I will notice it will reveal a lot of problems in my life of things I need
to fix.
By reading the word of God, not only will you realize the importance of reading the
Bible, but it will reveal to you your problems.
Notice what it says in verse 19, and it came to pass, and here's a king, keep in mind,
this is a king who got rid of all of the idolatry.
He's trying to serve God, and yet when the word of God is read in verse 18, notice the
reaction, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent
or tear his clothes.
That's a sign of mourning throughout the Bible, you tear your clothes, right?
And when he heard the word of God, basically he's saying, man, we're guilty.
This is a man who got rid of all of the idolatry, but when he heard the word of the law, when
it was read, he's like, man, we got a lot of work to do.
It's like, I thought we were godly before.
I'm sure he thought he was doing a great job, and he was doing a lot of good things.
I'm sure he thought he was a really good Christian, but when he heard the word of God read, he's
like, wow, I still have a lot of work to do.
And look, I don't care how many times you've read the Bible, I don't care how spiritual
you are, or how spiritual you think you are, when you read the word of God, it will reveal
problems.
It will reveal problems in your life.
Verse 20, and the king commanded Hilkiah and Hicham the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son
of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asiah a servant of the king, saying, go inquire of
the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words
of the book that is found.
For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have
not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book.
Now turn to Ephesians chapter five.
Ephesians five.
Now look, sometimes there are things that we already know, but there's just something
about reading the Bible where like, man, I knew this before, but wow, this is bad, right?
Everybody in this room, I hope, would say abortion is wicked, abortion is murder, right?
But here's the thing, when you read the Bible and you see verses that apply to that, you're
like, wow, that's powerful, right?
We all know that we should pray, but when you actually see stories about praying, you're
like, man, this is really important to God.
We all know that we should get rid of worldliness and sin in our life, but then when we actually
see what the Bible says about it, it's like, man, it's not, I mean, cause here's the thing,
a lot of us, we watch movies and listen to certain music and we know it's wrong, but
is it really that bad?
But then when you read the Bible, you're like, whoa, 20 times worse than I thought, right?
Notice what it says in Ephesians five.
Why is that?
Ephesians five verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove them for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of
them in secret, okay?
Now notice this, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, all things
that are reproved, all things that God would say are wrong, that we need to rebuke, they
are made manifest by the light.
What is that saying?
What it's saying is that as you draw closer to God, as you draw closer to the light, it
will reveal your problems.
And look, this ought to make logical sense to us.
See, some of you are going to go home tonight and it's going to be dark and it's going to
look clean when it's dark.
And then you're going to turn on your lights and you're going to see about 20 EPs crawling
around.
Like, oh man, I got a problem here, right?
It's going to be like midnight and you're going to hear some rat or some mouse like
crawling around.
You're like, oh man, I got a problem, right?
You're going to see the light reveals the problems.
I'm going to go home today.
Hopefully I don't see the EPs or the rats, right?
But I'm going to go home today and then I'm going to be like, man, my kids really did
make a mess this morning, didn't they?
You start seeing all the problems.
You see all the dust, you see all the clutter, you see all of the problems.
The light reveals the problems.
And look, God doesn't just give pointless examples.
No, he gives examples that make sense.
And what he's saying is as you get closer, you're going to see more problems.
And doesn't that make sense?
Because if it was really dark in here, but the light was kind of on, we would see some
things but not everything.
But as it gets brighter and brighter and brighter, everything that is not bright is going to
stand out, right?
All of the dust, all of the problems, it's going to stand out, right?
As we draw close to God, it is going to reveal the problems in our lives.
And as you read the Bible, you're going to notice problems after problem after problem
in your life.
And so will I.
It says, all things, not some things.
All things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest
is light.
Go to Philippians chapter three, Philippians three.
Philippians chapter three, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, right after Ephesians.
You say, Brother Succy, you know what, before I started coming to this church, I really
felt spiritual.
I really felt like I was serving God.
I really felt like, man, there's like nobody else here in Metro Manila that loves the preaching
of God's Word.
I'm really trying to serve God.
I'm really right with God.
And now since I started coming to this church, it's like I feel guilty all the time.
There's all these changes I have to make and it's like, why is that?
Well, it's because you're drawing closer to God.
And problems are being revealed.
And look, that's a good thing.
Don't be mad when God reveals problems in your lives.
And don't be mad if I'm the person relaying the message of problems in your life.
You should be happy for that.
I mean, think about this logically.
Nobody wants to turn on the lights tonight and then you see some mouse crawling behind
your fridge.
But isn't it better to know about that to prevent major problems?
I mean, imagine you're driving a car and then the light comes on low fuel and you say, man,
you know what?
This is terrible.
I don't have time to deal with this.
I'm going to unplug the light so I don't realize that I don't have much fuel.
What's going to happen 20 miles down the road?
Car breaks down, right?
Nobody likes that light to come on.
I mean, it's the worst thing when you drive.
I mean, car maintenance is like the worst thing, right?
It's so frustrating because it's like, man, things are going well.
And it's like, all of a sudden you hear that sound, like the flat tire, right?
I don't know how to do the sound, but you know what I'm talking about, right?
And it's like, oh, not a flat tire, right?
But here's the thing.
You can pretend to ignore it and think nothing's going to happen or you can deal with the problem.
And here's what you have to realize.
If problems are being revealed in your life, it's actually a good thing for you.
Look, if you get a headache, that's actually not a bad thing for you because the, not the Bible,
your body is signaling to you, hey, there's something else that's wrong, right?
If you have a major pain from something that happens, hey, it's signaling to you,
hey, something's wrong, right?
That's a good thing because it prevents a major problem from occurring
because you're like, man, I need to perform the maintenance and fix whatever's wrong.
And you're trying to figure out, hey, what's wrong, okay?
It's good when problems are revealed.
And here's the thing, if you start realizing problem after problem after problem
and you ignore them, you know what's going to happen?
You're going to destroy your marriage.
You're not going to raise godly children.
You're not going to serve God.
But you know, you can feel spiritual if you go to another church that will teach you nothing.
Go to CCF, go to Victory, go to the average Bible Baptist church, and you will feel spiritual.
But are you spiritual?
Are you reading the Bible?
I mean, Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
So here's the thing, if you're following God, you're going to be a fisher of men, the Bible says.
You might feel spiritual, that doesn't mean that you are spiritual.
I mean, good night King Saul felt spiritual when David just played some music for him.
That doesn't mean that he was spiritual.
I mean, he was still acting like a crazy maniac, right, throughout 1 Samuel.
Just because you feel spiritual doesn't mean that you are spiritual.
It is good to have your problems revealed.
And look, I get it, none of us like those problems to be revealed.
I don't like my problems to be revealed.
I've been in churches and you hear the preaching and you know what, sometimes it can offend you a little bit.
But then you have to ask yourself this question, is this what the Bible says or not?
Because the Bible says, search the scriptures, right?
And so look, you know, we need to search the scriptures and see, is this what the Bible says?
And if it's what the Bible says, we need to apply it.
Philippians chapter three, verse 14, I press, verse 14 of Philippians three,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Now this is a very, very famous verse, right?
Paul is pressing toward the mark, he's trying to serve God.
And notice verse 15, let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.
You say, what is he talking about?
Well, perfect does not mean sinless in the Bible.
It's not saying, you know, sinless are always right.
What it's saying is complete, right?
Various characters in the Bible were called perfect.
And what they're saying is that they were complete Christians or complete believers.
They're really fully trying to serve God.
They prayed, they weren't worldly, they came to church, they did everything, right?
And so what Paul's saying is, you know what, as many as are trying to be perfect, you're trying to be complete,
you're trying to be well-rounded, be thus minded.
Have the mind, have the direction in your life that you're pressing toward that mark.
Now notice what takes place if you're pressing toward that mark.
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, meaning that if you're pressing toward God,
but there's certain areas of your life where you're not actually pressing toward God,
but they're actually fighting against you.
And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this onto you.
What that's saying is as you draw closer to God, God is going to reveal to you problems in your life, right?
You have to picture it like this.
Imagine you're climbing a mountain, you're pressing toward that mark, you're climbing a mountain,
and all of a sudden you run into an obstacle, okay?
And the only way to get around this is to basically throw this thing down.
That's what it's like in the Christian life.
We're climbing and trying to reach towards God and we run into certain things in our life
where basically we realize this is wrong, God's not happy about this, I need to get rid of this in my life.
You know what most people do?
It's not worth climbing the mountain.
I'm okay at this level, right?
You know, I read the Bible some.
I know I'm somewhat worldly, but I'm not as worldly as most Christians.
Isn't that what most people do?
Basically they decide to compare themselves with other people
instead of fixing the problems that God is revealing.
Here's the problem.
If you don't fix this problem, you're not going to jump over it.
And if you decide not to climb past that, the next time you start serving God
and really are reaching toward that mark, you still have to throw that down.
And you can play this game of just kind of going up here and then turning around and then going back up.
Look, it's not moving.
You've got to make that decision.
You've got to throw it down.
So when God reveals a problem in your life, you have to fix it.
Otherwise, you're not going to press toward that mark.
You're not going to get any higher.
Turn back to 2 Chronicles 34.
2 Chronicles 34.
Now, I want you to realize a few things.
One, most people don't like this kind of preaching.
Most people do not like their problems to be revealed.
We know that.
Most people would rather go to a church where they feel spiritual
than to actually go to a church where they are spiritual.
But at the same time, last I checked, I'm not preaching to an empty room here.
Right, there's this attitude.
Well, I mean, in 2020 or in 2021, you can't build a church like this.
You can't preach this way in 2020.
I mean, the world is so against, I mean, you know, this sort of preaching and everything.
You've got to be nice to Vice Pangeet.
You've got to say nice things.
Last I checked, I've never said anything nice about Vice Pangeet.
And last I checked, it hasn't hurt our attendance at all.
Last I checked, there's people in the Philippines that are saying this world is insane.
They're like, man, thank you.
I have a church where I can go to and they're preaching against this wickedness.
They're like, finally, somebody's standing up and saying it.
This world's crazy.
And look, if you don't realize this world is crazy, then you're crazy.
And look, I don't care if 99.999% of people think everything's normal.
I don't care if everybody thinks it's normal for a guy to wear a dress.
That will never be normal.
It's weird.
It's bizarre.
It's sick.
And look, you know, this world is insane.
And look, all of us, we get brainwashed by the world.
If you watch the television, you're going to get brainwashed.
I mean, even when, you know, we allow our kids to watch various things.
But, you know, unfortunately, sometimes commercials come up and it's just like,
why is there this guy wearing a dress who's doing some cooking thing or whatever?
It's just like this wicked stuff.
And look, we're being subtly brainwashed by the world every day.
Even when we go to the grocery stores and everything, because everything is so
against the things of God in today's world, yes, you know what, we're brainwashed.
And so when you actually come to a church like this, it's like, man,
when you first start hearing this preaching, you're like, man, that's crazy.
But, you know, if you would read the Bible, you would say, man,
actually this isn't all that crazy at all.
This is actually exactly what the Bible says.
I've said before that the first sermon that I heard from Dr.
Jack Hyles, who was an old Baptist pastor from the past.
You know, I heard about him as a preacher.
And so I decided to check out his sermons and everything.
And so the first sermon, I looked at like hundreds of sermons and I was like,
I'm just going to pick like the most unique name for a sermon.
Like the strangest name.
And so the first sermon I heard was many skirts in light of the Bible.
And I'm like, many skirts in light of the Bible.
And look, I was a college student.
I got saved when I was 18 years old as a freshman in college.
So look, in a college town, West Virginia University,
which has always voted the number one drinking school in the nation.
It's like, guess what, guess how people were dressed, right?
Obviously not according to what the Bible would say.
And so I remember listening to that sermon and I was like, man,
that preacher's crazy.
I was like, what in the world?
I was like, I'm glad he was really serving God, but man,
he's like so over the top.
And then all of a sudden, you know what, I realized as time went by,
actually, no, I'm just brainwashed because every single day you see things and
you just start assuming it's normal.
Remember that series I preached a long time ago, Common versus Normal?
Just because it's something that's common and
it happens all the time, that doesn't make it normal.
Because here's what's normal, right here.
There's a lot of things that are common.
And when things are common, they will feel normal, but
that doesn't mean that they are normal.
They just feel normal.
What normal is, is what the Bible says.
What's common is, is what everybody's doing.
And guess what is common in today's world?
Craziness.
It's not normal, my friend.
Point number one, by reading the word of God,
by taking up this January Bible reading challenge,
you will realize the importance of reading the word of God.
Point number two, it will reveal the problems in your life.
And point number three,
there will be a reaction from you by reading God's word.
Now, here's the thing, that reaction that you have is completely up to you.
It can be a good or a bad reaction.
Notice what it says in 2 Chronicles 34 verse 22.
Let's look at a good reaction when you hear the word of God.
Here's Josiah, 2 Chronicles 34 verse 22, and
Hilkiah and they that the king had appointed went to hold of the prophetess.
Now, look, if that doesn't show you there's a problem in the location,
they've got a woman preacher that's the one teaching the word of God.
And I'm not even saying she was wicked, right?
But that's who they have to go to, to have the word of God taught to them.
Hold of the prophetess.
Can you imagine if I was sick on one Sunday, and we have our new ministry of,
I can't remember what I called it, but basically filling in to preach if I can't preach.
And then all of a sudden, no men in our church were willing to preach.
No, I can't do it.
Honey, can you just stand up there and say something?
There'd be a problem, wouldn't there?
That's the situation, and I'm not saying she's ungodly, I don't think she is.
I'm just saying that's the situation that there was literally no man that was
actually teaching the word of God accurately at this time.
Cuz I mean, they didn't have the word of God.
And when you don't have the word of God, you're gonna go off what seems right.
And what seems right is gonna be what you're taught, and
where you're raised, and the culture you grow up in.
I mean, if we were in India,
what would seem right is to bow down before a cow and pray to it.
And just offer whatever to the cow.
Well, that doesn't seem right here because we don't do that here.
But there's a lot of vain and
weird traditions that we do here that seem right just because you're used to it.
If you don't have the word of God,
you don't have anything to go off of just what seems right to you.
And the problem is, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death, the Bible says.
What seems right is not always right.
Second Chronicles 34 verse 22, and
Hilkiah and they that the king had appointed went to hold of the prophetess,
the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikvath, the son of Hazra, keeper of the wardrobe.
Now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college, and they spake to her to that effect.
And she answered them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
tell ye the man that sent you to me, thus saith the Lord,
behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof.
Even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before
the king of Judah, because they have forsaken me and have burned incense onto
other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands.
Therefore, my wrath shall be poured out upon this place and shall not be quenched.
Verse 26, and as for the king of Judah,
referring to Josiah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall you say on
to him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard.
Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God,
when thou hurtest his words against this place and against the inhabitants
thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes,
and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and
thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.
Neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and
upon the inhabitants of the same.
So they brought the king word again.
So she says that Josiah humbled himself, okay?
Let's notice this reaction in verse 29.
Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and
all the people great and small.
And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found
in the house of the Lord.
And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord,
to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and
his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul,
to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God,
the God of their fathers.
So Josiah makes everybody hear the word of God.
He makes everybody listen to the word of God.
And look, if you're the king, then you can make people do that, right?
He causes everybody to hear the word of God.
And then verse 33, and Josiah took away all the abominations out of all
the countries that pertain to the children of Israel.
Not just the idolatry, which is what he took out before he read the word of God.
He says, you know what, we got a lot of other stuff to clean up.
And look, I don't know exactly what that stuff is, but I'll tell you what,
there's a lot of bars that are around where people are getting drunk.
How about getting rid of those?
I know in the US that during the coronavirus in many states,
they made going to church illegal, but they kept bars and strip clubs open.
Now explain that one to me.
What you have is a wicked person ruling those states that wants to get rid of God.
What other logical explanation would you have to make church illegal?
Church is illegal, it's too dangerous, but
you're gonna keep strip clubs and bars open.
And look, that's a lot of states in the US.
It's like, what sort of justification could they have for that?
And then I listened to the governor, I think it was of New Jersey, and
he's like, we're just worried about the psychological effects if we
don't let people drink alcohol during this difficult time.
That's literally what he said.
He's like, it could make the situation a lot worse.
And it's just like, that's the world that we live in.
We got good churches in the US right now that literally,
it's kind of nerve-wracking because you know what, it's illegal to me for
church and all of these, I mean, it's difficult situations right now.
All around the world this is going on, this sort of craziness that's going on,
right?
Well, that's the sort of stuff you can get rid of.
How about getting rid of the bars and the strip clubs and all of those things?
Right?
And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertain to
the children of Israel and made all that were present in Israel to serve,
even to serve the Lord their God.
And all his days they departed not from following the Lord,
the God of their fathers.
Now turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 16, go back in your Bible to chapter 16.
That's a good reaction to the word of God, isn't it?
I mean, for someone to actually humble themselves like that,
it's tough for people to do that.
But he hears the word of God, he doesn't make excuses for a sin.
He just says, you know what, or the sins of the people.
He says, you know what, judgment is upon us, we gotta fix the situation.
And the Bible says he humbled himself and he got rid of all of the abominations.
This is the right reaction.
Let me show you the wrong reaction to hearing the word of God.
Who's heard of a king named King Asa?
Pretty good character in the Bible for most of it, right?
I mean, I've even seen those shirts, like vote for King Asa.
It's like, yeah, it's pretty cool, I'd vote for King Josiah.
Maybe King Asa could be like the vice president along King Josiah.
But King Asa is pretty good in the Bible, right?
Does a lot of good things.
But we're gonna see actually a saved person who hears the word of God and
he rejects it.
You as a saved person, you could hear the word of God preached and
see what God says.
And you have the free will to decide if you're gonna obey or not.
There's no guarantee just because you see what God says that you're gonna do it.
You have to actually make the choice, okay?
Second Chronicles 16, verse 7.
And at that time, Hanani, the seer, came to Asa, king of Judah, and
said unto him, because thou hast relied on the king of Assyria,
king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God.
Therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lublums a huge host with very many chariots and
horsemen?
Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to show himself strong in the behalf of them, whose heart is perfect toward him.
Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
So here the prophet of God is basically speaking to the king and saying,
you know what, you messed up.
You did wrong.
You would think that King Asa would humble himself, right?
What do we see in verse 10?
Then Asa was wroth, or very angry with the seer, which is a word for
prophet, with the seer, and put him in a prison house.
He arrested the man of God.
King Asa, a very godly person for most of his life,
he hears the word of God from the prophet, he doesn't like it, and
he arrests the man of God.
I mean, imagine if you had a really godly king or a godly leader of a country that
was an independent, fundamental Baptist, soul winner, serving God,
the whole nine yards, not worldly, and then he makes a mistake.
And I get up here and I preach a sermon, and I get arrested for it.
That's what we're seeing in this story, right?
Just because you're saved doesn't mean, I mean, there's lots of saved people that do
a lot of wrong things in the Bible.
Here's an example of this with King Asa.
Just because you're saved doesn't mean that when you hear the word of God,
you're just gonna, man, I'm so happy to hear that and apply it to your life.
No, you have your own free will.
You have your own choice.
There will be a reaction if you read the New Testament in January.
But what that reaction is, is completely up to you.
You could either say, you know what?
I learned something new, I'm guilty, I'm gonna apply it to my life.
Or you could say, you know what?
Here's my situation, it's different than other people.
Here's why I can't do this.
Here's why I'm, I know in other situations, but look, in my situation, no,
it's different, it's not wrong.
You could make excuses for what the Bible clearly says.
It's completely up to you.
I promise you there will be a reaction, because when you come in contact with
the word of God, there is going to be a reaction, but that reaction's up to you.
Because King Asa, he arrests the man of God.
This story just blows your mind.
This story blows your mind, but you know what?
I kind of see it because there's a lot of great churches in the US that have online
ministries, and people get mad at the churches or the pastors for whatever
reason, and then they try to tear them down and they hate them.
And guess what?
A lot of those people are saved people that are just bitter and
their hearts aren't right.
And here's an example of someone like that, King Asa, who hears the word of God,
and instead of just saying, man, I'm guilty, he's just arrests the man of God.
It says then Asa was wroth with a seer and put him in a prison house, for
he was in a rage with him because of this thing.
And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
Now go to Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews four.
Hebrews chapter four.
Why is it, and you know what's interesting about this,
especially about, you know, cuz we believe in our church,
we believe in the King James Bible, we believe it's the perfect word of God,
that every word of God is perfect, every word of God is pure.
And you know what's amazing about this is if you go soul winning, you know that's
true, because you literally see it in action when you preach the gospel to people.
When you explain the word of God, it will create a reaction.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they'll believe it and get saved, but
it creates a reaction.
I mean, I've seen people, I remember one time, you know,
I was preaching the gospel to someone in Ohio who was at either Akron or
Kent State's like student center, like me and my friends were preaching the gospel.
And I was talking to this guy, and you know, I didn't think he was interested,
and he really wasn't, but he was just, I don't know, he was bored.
And he said he listened, so I figured, well, you know, give him the gospel,
see what happens, right?
You know, he was like an evolutionist type of guy, or
an atheistic type of guy, or whatever.
And you know, I'm going through the gospel with him and everything, and
he's listening, and he's kind of like smirking, right?
He's kind of smirking like he's kind of mocking, you know, and
I thought about stopping the conversation, but I kept going.
And it was funny, when I read to him Revelation 21 eight, and
explained to him, he went from smirking and mocking, he was angry.
When I said that all liars shall have their part in the, I mean, he was angry.
He was mad.
And he was trying to hold it, but on his face, like he was mad, and he's,
I don't want to talk about this, like he was, it's like the same guy was like
smirking, mocking, and he was just, oh, he's so smart, right?
He thought he was so smart, the Bible's just a joke, the word of God's not true.
And then just, and look, I'm sure this guy was a very smart guy.
I'm sure that he's going to get every master's or doctorate degree or whatever,
but you know what, I'm sure he's probably an atheist, doesn't believe in God, but
you know what, when he heard the word of God, he went from being an atheist to
being very angry at what was said.
It's like, man, if you don't believe, because he told me he didn't believe
the Bible, if you don't believe the Bible, why are you so offended, right?
And I ended the conversation, well, I mean, he said he didn't want to talk, and
I told him this at the end, I said, well, hey, whether you want to listen to it or
not, it doesn't change reality, that you've lied and you deserve hell, and
you're going to go to hell if you die right now because you don't believe.
He was so angry with me.
It's like, if you don't believe, why do you care?
You know why? Because the word of God is powerful.
And it's unlike any book, right?
I mean, you could read whatever, but reading the word of God, it's powerful.
And what the Bible says is it's sharper than any two-edged sword.
Notice what it says in Hebrews 4, verse 12.
For the word of God is quick and powerful.
Now, look, this is a very simple verse to understand unless you're theologian, right?
Unless you're a scholar, a theologian, unless you went to Bible,
I mean, if you went to Bible college, maybe it's complicated.
But look, this verse is not complicated.
When it says quick and powerful, I literally remember,
because I read James White, this guy who hates the King James Bible.
I read his book about the King James, and he says it's so
confusing in the King James.
Quick, my Bible doesn't move around.
Powerful, my Bible doesn't lift weights.
It's like, are you Bobo?
I mean, like, what in the world?
It's like, what a stupid thing to say.
When it's saying it's quick, all you have to do is cross-reference in the Bible.
I mean, there's a movie called The Quick and the Dead.
It was a Western movie saying the alive and the dead.
It's a Makalumong word for life, right, in the English language.
So when it's saying quick, it's saying it's alive.
This book is living.
It's a spiritual book.
It's not just ink that's written down.
No, no, no, this is a spiritual book.
It's beyond human comprehension.
It's quick, it's powerful.
And look, I mean, everyone understands powerful, like, anyways.
It's quick and powerful, but I want you to notice this.
I want to explain this verse to you,
because part of this verse is kind of confusing,
until you really have it broken down.
But it's really powerful what it's saying.
And sharper than any two-edged sword.
So the word of God is sharper than any sword.
So imagine being pierced with a sword,
and it would be very painful, right?
But the word of God is more powerful.
It's sharper than any two-edged sword.
And what it's going to describe is that, see,
a sword can pierce you on the outside
and pierce through you and kill you,
but the word of God actually goes to the inside.
It can go where nothing else can go.
See, a sword will pierce through you and you die,
but when the word of God is read,
it actually pierces on the inside, okay?
It says this, piercing,
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
Now, look, everybody knows what a body is,
but we are comprised of three, a body, soul, and spirit.
Now, when it comes to the soul and the spirit,
look, it's a little bit confusing,
because they are very closely linked.
And what the Bible's saying is,
something that's so closely linked,
but the word of God actually divides
of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow.
The joints and the marrow
are very closely linked with one another.
But see, the word of God even divides on the inside
of the joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents.
Aren't your thoughts and intents pretty close?
They're not the exact same word,
but they're pretty close, right?
The thoughts and intents of the heart.
And what it's saying is the word of God
has an ability to get on the inside
that nothing else can possibly do.
This is not just a human book.
It's not just somebody wrote, no, it's a spiritual book.
It's a spiritual book, and it pierces on the inside.
And look, if you've read the Bible, you know that's true.
Now, look, sermons can pierce you,
but the word of God,
if you're reading and paying attention, it's like, man.
And you're really paying attention to every word God's saying.
It pierces you on the inside, but here's the thing.
When it pierces you on the inside,
you've got a choice to make.
You can say, you know what, I don't like that feeling.
It hurts.
It stings.
It's painful.
I'm gonna quit reading the Bible.
Now, you won't say that out loud,
but if you start reading the Bible and stop,
well, that's probably the reason why.
Because it was a little bit too painful.
You weren't ready to make the changes.
It pierces you on the inside.
You have your choice of what reaction
you're gonna have to it.
Now, I hope, because look, at our church,
you know, this is a church of people that love God.
There's no question about that.
There's so many people here that go sowing,
that come to church, that love this preaching.
You love God.
And so, look, I would say that people in this room,
you love to hear the word of God.
You wanna know what's right.
You wanna do what's right.
And you know what, when you read the Bible,
that is the attitude we always must have
is that no matter what it is, right,
the Bible says have an honest and a good heart.
No matter what the word of God says,
have an honest heart about it and admit,
you know what, if I'm guilty, I need to make a change.
Be honest about it.
When you hear the word of God, have the proper reaction.
So, I just wanna spend a couple minutes
explaining this chart.
And what we said here today was this,
that the word of God, by reading it,
you will realize the importance,
it will reveal to you your problems,
and then you have the choice on your reaction.
You can either obey what God says or just get angry
and just not apply it.
It's up to you, okay?
Now, there's two sides to this, okay?
One side, the nine chapters a day you see at the top,
this is the traditional one,
the one made by Pastor Menes.
This is what they use at Verity Baptist Church.
And if you go through this chart
and read nine chapters a day,
you'll see there that on Friday this week,
so in five days is January 1st, okay?
So, I don't know, maybe for some of you,
I don't like to stay up till midnight.
I like to try to go to bed early,
but maybe some of you just stay up till midnight
and just do your Bible reading before you go to sleep
at like 1230 at night, maybe, that's okay, right?
But on January 1st, on Friday,
you have nine chapters to read.
And once you read that, you can cross it off.
And then each day you have your chart
of the nine chapters to read.
And then at the end, you see two days
that are grace periods, meaning you will finish it
in 29 days and if you miss a day,
then you can make it up later on, okay?
So look, if you start this challenge
and then let's say you do it for five days
and you mess up a day, you don't have to just get mad
and quit and give up, right?
You can just keep going and you're gonna be okay, right?
And look, here's the reality.
If you set out to do this and then you end up
only getting through 25 days, you didn't fail.
If that's the most Bible reading
you've ever done in your life, that's a success.
That's great, right?
It's great, I mean, no matter how much,
my goal is that everybody says I will try.
And you know what, if you're not fully successful,
if you get through like 22 days,
hey, at least you're reading the Bible.
At least you're reading the Word of God.
So on this side, you got nine days
and this is the side for people
that are obsessed with math like me, right?
Where you gotta divide everything equal,
you can't have a remainder.
So 28 chapters in Matthew, four times seven is 28,
so seven chapters through Matthew.
Mark 16 chapters, so eight and eight.
And this one also you have one grace period at the end.
This is the chart I actually do for the New Testament.
And so this will get you through the New Testament
in 30 days.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey,
how much time is this gonna take me?
Well, you're gonna have to quit your job
and give all to God.
No, I'm just kidding.
It's a challenge.
And obviously it's gonna depend on your reading level,
how old you are and things like that.
It's gonna be a challenge for all of us, okay?
But look, it's not gonna take you eight hours in a day.
It's not gonna take you four hours in a day, right?
If you were to put this on Audio Bible
at normal speed with Alexander Scorby,
you'd spend less than an hour a day on average.
And depending on your reading level,
that might be a little bit faster, you know?
And so it's gonna be a challenge,
but it's a doable challenge.
See, the reason why people don't read the Word of God
is number one, they either don't realize the importance
or they don't have a plan to do it
or they don't set aside time to do it.
Look, you get through the entire Bible cover to cover
if you spend 15 minutes a day reading the Bible.
And to be honest, I would say if I read it 10 minutes a day,
I would get through the Bible cover to cover one time.
Depending on your reading level
and maybe how much you know the words
and everything like that,
because some of the words can be very kind of,
you know, difficult words or whatever.
But look, you're not gonna spend a crazy amount of time.
Now, this schedule basically gets you through the Bible
two and a half times per year
if you kept up that amount of pace
based on the amount of pages.
So, you know, on average,
it's gonna take you like 40 minutes.
Man, 40 minutes, Brother Stuckey,
I don't have any time to spare.
How long are you on Facebook every day?
How many text messages do you send?
Right?
And I get it, sometimes you gotta check up on stuff
and look, I'm not preaching it's wrong to be on Facebook,
I have a Facebook.
What I'm saying is though,
if you don't have time to read the Bible,
but you have time to be on Facebook for an hour every day,
you need to change your priorities in life.
If you have time for everything else in the world,
I mean, you've memorized every new strain
of the coronavirus, all 77 of them or whatever,
all the 59 different types of possible vaccines
we might have in this country,
but you don't have any time to read the Bible,
your priorities are off.
And you say, Brother Stuckey, what would be your suggestion?
How do I do this?
Well, we gave you the chart and here's what I would say.
And look, obviously it depends on what your work schedule is
and what time you work.
I would say, and what I do is wake up in the morning
before the day gets busy, set aside the computer,
set aside the cell phone.
It's okay not to check your text messages
at 5.30 or 6.30 or 7.30 in the morning, right?
It's okay to just spend 45 minutes
with all of your electronic devices away from you
and just sitting down at a desk
or sitting down at a chair and just reading the Bible.
And what I would say, do it first thing in the morning,
get rid of distractions and you'll find yourself
reading the Bible like you've never read it before.
Let's close in the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here in your house and in a church full of people
that love God, that are trying to serve you
and read your word and memorize your word
and go soul winning.
And thank you for allowing my wife and I and our family
to co-labor with so many people that love you, God,
and that want to serve you and help all of us,
including myself and my wife and even us that have children
to teach them at a young age to have a habit
of reading your word.
And once the problems are revealed in our life
to actually make the changes and have the proper reaction.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.