So I want to preach this morning of course this is the Sunday prior to the
New Year's so you know we have to preach the obligatory New Year's Eve sermon
where you know I'm gonna get up and tell you about all the resolutions that you
need to make and how we need to you know do all that but you know there's a lot
of different things we could preach about and when it comes to New Year's
New Year resolutions but the one resolution I think we all need to make
and the one resolution that would probably in fact most definitely benefit
everybody the most is the resolution to read your Bible now this isn't a very
deep subject this as far as the actual reading of the Bible this isn't you know
a very profound sermon but I will say this it is probably one of the most
essential truths that we need to learn as Christians so many Christians live
their Christian life without reading the Bible they go years they'll go the whole
Christian life without getting in the Word of God and having read it one time
through you know I've heard it said and I agree with the statement that if you
read the Bible even one time through cover to cover you know you're going to
be in a very small percentage of people of Christians the vast majority of
Christians I believe today are not reading their Bibles I mean how else do
you explain the just how how how false doctrine has just taken off and goes
unchallenged in the world today how is it that so many Christians are just
getting duped by all these deceptions are getting conned by all these false
doctrines how is it that they're just going along with the world's
philosophies it's because they're not opening up the Bible and reading it for
themselves and you know it's really in the when we preach a sermon like this
it's really get up to it's easy to get up and just harp on it and say you need
to be revival and that's all true but I think sometimes when we preach sermons
like this we forget about the fact that you know Bible reading though it can at
times be difficult sometimes it takes just character to get ourselves up in
the morning and to get in the Word of God and force ourselves to read
sometimes I understand we all go through those seasons but let's not forget the
blessing that it is to read the Bible and that's the title of the sermon this
morning the blessing of Bible reading the blessing of Bible reading you know
it's a real privilege that we have to read the Bible of course here in
Proverbs chapter 8 we read about you know wisdom you know being personified
here and and really what is wisdom well it's the Word of God you know this you
know Jesus is the Word of God he was there from the beginning from everlasting
and he is all these things before the Lord ever created the heavens or the
earth you know the Lord was there with him and that you could say the same
thing about the very Word of God so we have in our hands tonight or this morning
in this book a very precious thing we have something that's very valuable and
something it says there that you know if we if we will harken unto it you know
we're gonna have we're gonna be blessed we're gonna find as it says there in a
in those latter verses we'll find life we shall obtain favor you know how are
you gonna how are you going to find life and obtain favor in your life you're
gonna do it by reading by taking heat according to this word by getting in it
reading and understanding what it says and understanding what you need to do as
a Christian in order to live a life that God can bless what is it that God
expects of you you know God saves us you know and he doesn't just leave us there
God wants us to go on and live a life for him God wants us to do things
certain things and not do other things and God wants us to think a certain way
and not think another way and you know that's that's a lot to try and cram into
just one sermon you know it's in fact it's a lot to try and cram into a whole
year's worth of sermons in fact you know we take a whole lifetime to get up here
and to preach everything that that God wants us to know and you know often many
of those truths have to be repeated over and over and over again let alone trying
to cover everything else that we all need to know as Christians and that's
why it's so important that we as individuals that we as Christians spend
the time that we need to spend individually ourselves in reading the
Bible and not just coming to church and relying on the preacher to just teach us
everything there is to know out of the Word of God that there's things that we
can learn on our own out of the Bible and that preaching can confirm and that
preaching can shore up or clarify but there's a lot in the Bible that we need
to just learn on our own how you gonna learn it if you're not opening it up and
reading it and of course you know that's you know getting more into the hey you
need to read your Bible and kind of you know getting after folks but let's not
forget along the way that it's a blessing that it's a real privilege to
be able to read the Bible that the and I want to just talk about a few things
tonight or this morning about why we should read our Bible and specifically
we'll get in and towards the end about how how to go about actually reading
your Bible you know and it sounds simple but I think there's some ways that we
can go about it that would make it perhaps more of a blessing to us so
again of all the resolutions you could be making this time of year I mean this
time of year a lot of folks are going over all the things that they plan on
doing in the new year and that's great you know I think that people should do
that and that it's it's helpful and that people it's good to set goals in life
and have things that we strive for and work towards and and things that are
causes to be better people but all those things are for not if we're not reading
our Bible all those things you know they pale in comparison to the benefits
that you can glean the blessings that will come to you if you read your Bible
daily so notice here you know that that you know he's saying here in verse 30 34
it says blessed is a man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at
the posts of my door whenever I've read that verse throughout my Christian life
I've always thought about Bible reading oh I thought that reminds me of somebody
getting up in the morning and waiting to hear from God a daily at his gates
getting up there early and getting with God and listening to what God has to say
out of his word it's be like opening the door waiting at the gates of the Lord's
house you know it's right here in this book and you know the reason why is
because it says here in verse 35 for whoso findeth me findeth life and shall
obtain favor of the Lord you know these he says in verse 33 hear instruction and
be wise and refuse it not you know the things that we're gonna learn out of
this book are the things that are going to make us wise people and not foolish
it's you know the Bible has wisdom and instruction for every area of your life
you know I've said that time and time again that there's no area in your life
that the Bible does not address you know you have some question about something
in your life the Bible addresses it whether it's you know our jobs whether
it's our families whether it's our church you know whatever area it is you
name it and God's got it covered in his book he has wisdom there for us to glean
the question is are we going there are we getting to his gates are we watching
daily to get that wisdom that we need if you would turn over to Psalm 119 Psalm
119 or minus of the words of Jesus he said Matthew 7 therefore whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and do with them I will liken him unto a wise
man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods
came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not you know
that's an analogy that he's giving there for life but we want to build our lives
upon the rock of Jesus Christ that we want to be founded upon the rock that is
Christ and that wolf will do that when the storms of life come when the waves
beat we are going to stand sure but how is that done it's through hearing these
sayings of mine it's not just doing them I mean how are you ever gonna know what
to do if you've never heard how are you ever gonna know how to you know if we
think about you know we as men we like to something what we don't like to but
you know I've had several children now and I've had the great pleasure of
having to assemble not only cribs but also bunk beds you know you go to the
you go to that Swedish torture place IKEA where they when they give you those
those everything comes in a tiny little box you know and it's this huge piece of
furniture and we as man we like that we pull out the instructions and we take a
look at the front page and then we just throw it aside I got this I can figure
this out you know and then you assemble it then you realize probably should have
built it inside the room you were putting it in because it won't fit
through the door ask me and then been there done that right yeah but I know so
often I get about halfway into it or not even that I'll be I've learned now to
just notes read the instructions you know figure out if we lay it all out get
an idea what's going on here and don't don't have this attitude that you just
can figure it out well it's the same way in life you know this is God's
instruction book how are you gonna assemble your life how are you gonna put
your life together how are you gonna keep it from just being some jumbled
mess with a bunch of you know leftover parts over here that never found a place
to go you're gonna do that by taking the time to open up the instructions and
read for yourself what they say you know and figure out what it is that you need
to do so you'll never know what to do if you don't first hear these sayings of
mine we always get so excited about how we're gonna live for Jesus we're gonna
do all these things and that's great we're very fervent about serving the
Lord but how are you gonna serve them if you don't know what it is that's
expected of you it's great to have that that that you know that fervency but you
know the zeal without knowledge is not good it's good to have zeal but you also
have to have the knowledge to Bible says in James chapter 1 I'll read to you it
says but be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving your own selves
for if any man be I hear of the word and not a doer he's like a man beholding his
face in a natural glass for he beholdeth himself and goes away and goeth his way
and straightway forget forgetth what manner of man he was so again we don't
want to go to the other extreme right where we're looking in the Bible we're
reading it we're in it but then we're not doing the things that it says we
have to find a balance in life you know we have to not only read the things and
actually hear the things that God has for us to do but then to also do them
you know and let's not put the the cart before the horse you know you got to
hear and then do that is the step there so look there in Psalm 119 verse 97 where
he says oh how I love I thy law you know apparently you know David was not part
of a you know neo-evangelical hyper grace Church that just wanted to
dismiss the law you know there's a little side note that he actually loved
the law that he read the Old Testament he read the things and Moses and said
these are good and I love them you know that's the attitude attitude we had to
have is oh how I love thy law it is my meditation all the day you know if you
love something you tend to think about it don't you we tend to think about
those things that we enjoy and love we let our minds dwell on those things well
can we say that about the Word of God can we say that we're meditating it all
the day we're thinking about it it goes in verse 98 he says the vow through thy
commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me you
know we have a lot of enemies in this Christian life and if the blessing one
of the blessings of the Bible is that you're gonna be wiser than your enemies
you know there's gonna be a lot of people are gonna oppose you in your
Christian life they're gonna try to stop you from living for God and you're gonna
need the wisdom to not let them stop you and how do you get that through his law
through his book by loving it by meditating it for keeping them with me
he says for they are ever with me speaking of his commandments you know
back then that was probably a little bit harder you know I think David's
probably speaking more in the sense that he carried these things about in his
heart he's you know he said thy word have I hidden my heart that I might not
sin against thee and you know that's how that's how David rather you know had
these things ever with him you know we do the same today if we're memorizing
and meditating upon the Word of God but we even have more of an advantage that
we have we can have the Word of God physically with us at all times and then
we think about our smartphones I mean there's you could have the Bible at your
fingertips at all at all times we have a physical copy at all times it's a
blessing to have he goes on to verse 99 he says I have more understanding than
all my teachers for that and testimonies are my meditation you know not only is
the Bible going reading your Bible and meditating upon it going to make you you
know be able to withstand your enemies but it's also it could even make you
wiser than your teachers you know those that would might get up and preach error
false doctrine that type of thing happens or make a mistake when they get
up and teach the Word of God you know you could be wiser in that area if
you've read the Word of God you know you could you feel over you know maybe some
false teachers come along and trying to influence you or pulling you aside and
trying to teach you some false doctrine and corrupt you if you've been
meditating and reading the Word of God one of the blessings is is that that's
not going to happen you're gonna be able to say hey you know what's your
teachings wrong and here's why and and separate yourself from from such he goes
on and says in verse 100 I understand more than the ancients because I keep
thy precepts I have refrained my refrained my feet from every evil way
that I might keep thy word I have not departed from thy judgment judgments for
thou hast taught me look at verse 103 how sweet are thy words unto my taste
exclamation point you know this is an exclamation he's saying look your words
are sweet to my taste now I don't think that obviously David wasn't you know
taking fork and knife and literally cutting up the Word of God eating it but
he's saying spiritually I devoured your word I ate it I thrived on it I survived
it was my meat daily and he said I loved it it was sweet unto my taste sweeter
than honey to my mouth through thy precepts I get understanding and
therefore I hate every false way you know maybe maybe we see somebody that
hates some false way and we say well I don't know how I feel about that well
maybe we need to learn to get understanding maybe we need to be found
in God's precepts more maybe when we spend our own time in the Word of God
but when we start reading the Bible for ourselves we'll start to agree with
people more who hate every false way it won't be so offensive when when when we
hear somebody get up and rip on some sin or whatever it is we'll say you know
what that is what the Bible says I agree with it because I love it it's sweet
unto my taste and I hate every false way so let's not focus you know so much on
doing let me just move on here that's a that's a dumb point to make right now
but reasons to read I want to get into reasons to read so we're talking about
the blessings of Bible reading what's the blessings of Bible reading you know
it's gonna make us wiser than our enemies it's gonna make us wiser than
even those that would instruct us it would make us you know it's gonna give
us wisdom and understanding so what are some reasons to read well number one is
because it's a blessing you know reading the Bible is gonna be a blessing to you
in so many ways but how about this it's a command to read the Bible you know
maybe maybe read Bible reading just doesn't you know it's not it's just not
gonna excite you it's just not something that's you're gonna be thrilled to do
you know especially if you're now you know if you're one that's new to it in
your and you haven't done it before the idea of reading it now a book I mean
this isn't this isn't some thin little book you know this isn't you know this
isn't something your kid you're gonna pick up in the children's section at the
public library you know this isn't this isn't that now this is a large print so
don't let this intimidate you okay so this is a rather thick Bible but it's
still a long book 1189 chapters it's a long book there's a lot to read and you
know what we might we might say I don't feel like David this morning I don't
love his law you know I don't I don't find myself wanting to get up and read
the Bible like I should in fact when I do it sometimes it's kind of it's kind
of hard to do I have to drag my eyes across and half the time I get to the
end chapter and I go what did I just read because I'm so distracted right but
here's the thing you need to read one because it's a command and here's what
you'll find the more you read the Bible the more you'll want to read the Bible
if we would just start reading it eventually some God will speak to us out
of this word you know maybe we're not getting we're not understanding some
section we're not getting something out of it maybe we wouldn't even you know
and that's where a lot of people stumble as they get to something in the
Word of God that confuses them and then they park it right there they try to
figure that out you know you just keep reading you know the answer might be in
the next page might be in the next book might be in the next Testament you know
it might be found the next time you read it through but you know don't get hung
up on things you understand just keep reading and get what you can out of it
and eventually you know if we do that we're gonna get something out of the
Word of God and God is going to speak to us and when the God of the when the when
you know the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords when the you know the Most High
speaks to you through the Word of God I mean that's a beautiful thing I mean
what what else on earth compares to that what other experience is going is going
to even come close to that to having you know the the true and living God speak
to you out of this book and if you if you've ever experienced that you know
what I'm talking I'm not saying obviously that God's speaking to you in
audible voice but you know our spirit bears witness with his spirit and the
Word of God begins to speak to us there's something in it that's that stands out to
us that speaks to some situation that we're in in life or encourages us or
convicts us or whatever it might be that's God speaking to us and that's a
great reason to read right there but even you know but you'll never know that
if you don't obey the command to read we've been going through Deuteronomy and
we're aren't there yet but I'll remind us from Deuteronomy chapter 17 where it
says speaking of the king right these are the commandments that he gave to a
king and he said it shall be and it shall be when he sitteth upon the
throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of the law out of the
book which is before the priests and Levites so back then God was commanding
the Kings and said look you need to take the law from the Levite and write out
your own copy you know because obviously didn't have the printing press back then
and he had to have it and why did God want him to write it you know just so
just as like some form of discipline you know like after school I have been a
very bad boy I've been a bit not that he wanted to read he wanted to write it
down so that he would read it he says in verse 19 and it shall be with him and
he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the
Lord is God and to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them
so why are why did he want him to write it so that it would be with him all the
days of his life and that he would read therein all the days of his life they
say well that's the Kings you know that's that's for Kings well God if the
Bible says God has made us kings and priests unto our God that we are we are
you know we are a peculiar people you know this applies to us today too we
should read all there in the days of our life we should be found reading it for
the exact same reasons that we would learn to fear God and to keep all his
commandments and his statutes and do them you know it goes back to the point
I was making earlier how are you gonna learn to do the things that God has
commanded if you're not reading them you know and often as Christians you know
how does it that someone who's born again it's saved so often can just drift
out of the word out of the will of God and go into sin get out of church get
backs backslidden I guarantee you that person's not reading their Bible you
know and probably what what might have kept them in church and kept them right
with God is that they've been reading their Bible maybe they were dealing with
some temptation they were in some situation where if they just read their
Bible that day God would have said hey don't do that and when that temptation
came they would have been able to recall I read about this this morning and
instead of getting pulled out you know taken aside by some false teacher or
getting involved in some sin you know they would recall the words of God and
say whoa I just read that this morning and you know what I'm gonna fear God I'm
gonna keep his commandments you know that's how important Bible reading is I
mean it'll make or break your Christian life that one thing right there it's
essential and it's such a simple thing to just think about you know the you
know I remember before I got saved some some guy was trying to get all clever
cute with me and trying to be all deep and profound and he was just messing
with me he says he said son you even know how to read the Bible I was like
man this is gonna this is interesting how do you read the Bible he's he's like
you start at the front you go to the back and he just smiled and walked away
and said wow deep man right it's such a simple thing to think wow just reading
the Bible page after page you know black letters on on white paper you know
it's nothing nothing real seemingly profound it's a real simple action but
it'll make or break your Christian life it'll lead to either you fearing the
Lord and receiving his blessing or not you know and you know so one of the
reasons to read the Bible is because it's a command that's one of the
blessings that we have is that if we will learn to obey his commandments and
not only that it's it's necessary you know for for study you know the Bible
commands that we are to study to show thy selves approved unto God that we need
to know what this book says that we need to so we may not be ashamed rightly
dividing the word of truth you know especially those of us that are going to
be teaching the Word of God you know in any capacity you know and we think often
when we say that oh if you teach the Word of God you should study it right
well yeah obviously you say well that's for the preacher well let me ask you
this are you a parent because we've been reading a Deuteronomy of God says thou
shall teach them you know when thou risest up when thou walkest by the way
when thou liest down you know that the parents are to be teaching their
children the Word of God as well it's not just the preacher that you know and
so we all have some area where we're teaching you know maybe it's a friend or
a co-worker whatever it is how are you gonna know what to teach them if you
haven't been reading it and what a blessing that is to be able to teach the
Word of God to somebody to have learned something for yourself and to be able to
share it with somebody else say hey you know I see you're going through this in
life you know I went through that and this is what I learned from the Word of
God can I share this with you or maybe this will help solve your problem that's
a blessing to be able to be a blessing to somebody else you need it for you
need to read it because it's it's it's a command because it's necessary for
studying you know we need it for spiritual strength you know that's
another blessing from reading the Word of God is that's going to strengthen you
spiritually it's going to keep you strong in the Lord now if you would turn
over to turn over to job job chapter 23 you know we're living in a culture that
that you know they put a lot of emphasis on being strong right they have this
this whole fitness culture and all of that and that's a good thing right I
wonder how many you know the you sometimes I like to watch these strong
man competitions he's ever seen these you know these guys that are going out
and like pulling semi tractors and planes they're putting a rope in their
teeth and like you know lifting up whatever and they do the Atlas stones
and everything it's pretty cool right real strong guys but I have to ask
myself sometimes I wonder I wonder how strong they are spiritually I mean sure
they can lift whatever off the ground but you know how strong are they
spiritually what's it going to take to give them to get them to give in to some
sin you know do they even know the Lord you know the real strength that we out
of Meyer are people that are spiritually strong those are the people that we
should be most we should most want to emulate you know not just some guy who
can you know you know deadlift a Volkswagen whatever you know as
impressive as that is right you know physically you know what's more
impressive though is to see somebody who's spiritually strong that can
withstand the you know Satan's onslaught that can withstand you know all the
things that come with taking a stand for the Word of God that's what's truly
impressive and that's you know you know what how you're gonna get there how
you're gonna be a spiritually strong person by reading the Bible it's
essential you know just like that you know that that strong man you know he
didn't get strong by not eating his Wheaties you know or whatever it is they
I'm sure they're eating that they're not eating wheeze but you watch these strong
guys what they eat some of these guys they're eating everything right and
they're like these 10,000 calorie a day diets and whatever it's it's like they
do spend more time eating they do working out it's crazy right they
wouldn't get that strong if they weren't getting in the daily nutrition and
getting in the the proteins and all of that that they need to grow those
muscles it's the same with us spiritually you know we need to take in
the Word of God spiritually so we can put on spiritual muscle so we can gain
spiritual strength the Bible says in John 15 I'll read to you says if you
abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what shall be done what
you will and it shall be done unto you I mean there's a whole nother point right
there you know you want your prayers answered let God's words abide in you
and he says if you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as I
have kept my commandments and abide in his love how are you gonna abide in God
and he have his strength by keeping his commandments how you gonna know the
commandments if you don't read the Bible he says there in job 23 look verse 12
neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips I have esteemed
the words of his mouth more than my necessary food now some people say you
know you should this is teaching us that you know it's more important to to read
the Bible than eat you know or or they'll say things like you know if it
came down to food or the Bible I'd take food well you know here's the thing it's
okay to go they'll say like well I won't eat breakfast until I've read the Bible
now I'm not gonna get up here and say that's what this is saying right but
what he's saying here is he's showing that you know hey more important than
what you're gonna put in your mouth is what you're gonna put in your heart that
day more important than what you're gonna lift up on some fork or a spoon
and shovel into your face is what you're gonna lift up with your two hands and
and lay your eyes upon and take in you know spiritually ingest that's more
important you know it's not saying that we should just never eat or something
some crazy like that but he's saying is look you I mean think about how
important food is it's very important especially as Baptists right we're gonna
have that party here later you know for the ladies the baby shower there's gonna
be food involved buddy right you can't have a good time without the food but
honestly though how long could you go I mean think about how important food is
to that to that that weightlifter you know that strong man it's essential got
to have it and we have to have it to to function go go a few days without food
see what happens and you know it's not fun you get weak you become anemic you
lose strength right you become a very weak person even if you don't get the
pride maybe you're eating but you're eating the wrong things you're getting
that you're not getting the proper nutrition you're gonna become weak and
sickly well it's the same thing spiritually you know if we're living in
a spiritual diet of you know sugar and and simple carbs you know we're not
gonna be strong Christians if we're just living our Christian life off of
you know would you eat one meal a week would you who here eats one meal a week
I didn't think so you aren't a Baptist Church right nobody does I mean there
might be times or something maybe people fast and things like that I understand
that's out there but nobody eats just one meal a week but a lot of us do that
spiritually don't we we come to church and we get one meal a week and then we
get to the end of the week and we wonder why am I spiritually dragging
why is this so hard to live the Christian life why am I so down because
you only ate one meal because you have no spiritual strength because you
haven't been eating for yourself you've been in just coming to church and
expecting to get the whole thing from the preacher you know and I've heard it
said I agree with this as well is that you know this is not where you get the
meat of the Word of God I mean we do give out strong meat you know as
preachers we endeavor to do that but this is like this is like additional you
know this is a supplemental to your spiritual diet where you're gonna get
the nutrition that you need on a daily basis is alone with God with the Bible
open yourself that's where you learn to feed yourself spiritually that's where
you're gonna grow the most I mean you can't survive on one meal a week you're
not gonna grow same way spiritually though you can't expect to thrive in the
Christian life to grow strong if this is the only meat that you're getting
throughout the week is when you come here and you get you know whatever it
whatever is being dished out that day it's like I said in the beginning there's
so much more in the Bible than I could ever preach I mean I could preach on I
could I could just say look I can't even if I said I'm never gonna preach in the
same thing again I'm never gonna repeat myself in my preaching and there's
nothing wrong with reprieve repreaching same truths but great truths bear it
neat bear repeating you know Paul said that you know that it's needful to put
you in remembrance you know though you once knew this to remind you again you
know not to rather than getting caught up and trying to learn some new thing
it's better to just relearn the things that we've forgotten right so what if I
were to get up and say hey I'm never going to repeat myself in my preaching
again I'm never gonna preach in the same topic again I'm never gonna repreach
the same passage again I could preach my whole act we could go through this book
and repreach you know we could preach something new every week out of the Word
of God there's so much more than we could cover in a lifetime you know week
by week so you know how are you gonna learn all those things all the other
things that might not get preached on or maybe you need to learn that but you you
missed that service you were sick you were out whatever you know maybe that's
that's where you're gonna have to learn to feed yourself why for spiritual
strength and how are you gonna do that when you begin to esteem the words of
his mouth more than my necessary food
you'll need it so what are the blessings of Bible reading one you know you learn
more you become more studied you become more astute with the Word of God you can
instruct others you can be a blessing to other people you know you're obeying the
command God's gonna bless you and speak to you if you if you obey the word or
you read the Word of God but how about this you need it for spiritual safety
you want to you want the blessing of safety spiritually in your life we need
to work read the Word of God go over to Proverbs chapter 30 Proverbs chapter 30
I'll read to us again from Psalm 119 I mean if you want to read a chapter about
Bible reading and why you should read it go home and read Psalm 119 I know it's
the longest chapter in the Bible but go home and read it every other word like
thy commandments thy statutes thy judgments thy commandments thy
statutes thy judgments all the way through it's just him that's a whole
chapter about him loving the Word of God reading the Word of God the benefits of
the Word of God it's a great chapter on Bible reading he says in Psalm 119 verse
9 wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy way thy word with my whole heart have I sought they will let me not
wander from thy commandments thy word have I hid my heart that I might not sit
against thee thou art my hiding place my shield I hope in thy word you know
there's gonna be times in life where we need God to protect us spiritually when
we are under attack when we are feeling defeated you know when we are gonna need
a place to retreat to that's the Word of God we feel like we feel like I'm gonna
throw in the towel I'm gonna quit this whole thing I'm done with church I'm
done with the Christian life it's too hard I don't like this it's not fun it's
not everything I thought it was gonna be well what's gonna keep you from doing
that is when you retreat to the Word of God when you get in God's Word look
there in Proverbs chapter 30 verse 5 every word of God is pure he is a shield
unto them that put their trust in him when we trust in God and we had the pure
Word of God we have a shield in life we have spiritual safety we have the we
have the the shield of faith whereby we quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
you know and it's another sermon and we've preached about it in the past but
you know when he got saved you got you got signed up for a fight you got put on
the front lines and don't be surprised when the enemy starts firing at you in
all in all these different ways trying to stop you from serving God you say
well why would the enemy ever try to do that because of the numbers that you
just read on that bulletin this morning the 400 plus souls I got saved this year
you know I didn't do that that wasn't just one man that did that I in fact I
played a very small port in that it was done by all of us you know that that was
a collective effort that we made there do you think the devil wants to see that
number go higher next year do you think he wants more people getting saved he
thinks want to see does he want to see more families in church and more
families growing and more people getting right with God and more people growing
and the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ do you think that's
what he wants absolutely not he wants to fight us he wants to stop us he wants to
get people out he wants less soul saved he wants to discourage us he wants to
put obstacles in our path and he can do it and he's good at it so here's the
thing how are you gonna withstand that attack by having spiritual safety and
where is that gonna be found in the Word of God you know he said there wherewith
shall young men cleanse his way you know with all the temptations that come at us
especially in our youth all the things that come at us you know how are we
gonna keep our lives pure and clean by taking heat according to thy word by by
memorizing and hiding our his word in our heart that we might not sin against
him so that's another blessing of reading God's Word isn't it the
spiritual safety that you receive from reading it how about to avoid error I
already kind of talked about this you know when people are bringing false
doctrine you're going to be able to correct them you know or to beaten are
you even more importantly you yourself will not be an error to avoid you being
wrong about the Word of God or some some thing in life you know that was what
Jesus was constantly rebuking the Pharisees about right they come to him
with some question they try to catch him in his words and how did he respond
so often have you never read did you not read I mean you go to Matthew chapter 21
don't go there but over and over again he just says it did you never read this
in the scriptures he said you do err not knowing the scriptures what was their
problem what was their hang-up why is it they didn't get it it's because they'd
never read that's why they were an error so another blessing out of reading God's
word is that you will not be an error you'll be right that's a good feeling I
mean that's that it's it's no fun to admit you're wrong is it I've had to do
it once or twice right but you know what sometimes we do and we say well I don't
want to have to do that again well getting with God's Word you know and
people can say you're wrong you're wrong you're wrong but as long as you're
lining up with this you're right and and and that's that's really what
matters so I think I've kind of made my case as to why we should be reading the
Bible you know we should be reading the Bible for all the blessings that it
brings in our life the protection you know the protection against error the
protection against false doctrine the protection that we get you know from
from sin and from temptation the fact that we're going to receive spiritual
strength to withstand the enemy to all these great blessings and there's
probably so many more that we could stand here and talk about and there's so
many other blessings that we receive from just reading God's Word so how are
we how are we gonna do they say you know what you convinced me you know hopefully
that was enough you know for me to to twist your arm and say you know what one
of my New Year's resolutions is and I'll say this if you don't make any other
resolution this year except this one it'll change your life if you don't make
any other resolution I don't care what it is if this is not on the top of your
list everything else is for not read my Bible every day I'm going to read my
Bible every day for the next 365 days starting the new year and you can even
start today you can even start tomorrow you don't have to wait to the new year
and you know if you said that that's gonna change your life you're gonna
learn so you're gonna be I mean think about it if you committed to that and
you actually accomplished it well how much do you think your life's gonna be
better or worse at this time next year or is it going to be the same I
guarantee you'll be better do you think you're gonna know more about God and
more about his word or less if you read the Bible every day between now and then
you're gonna know more naturally so why wouldn't we do that why wouldn't we want
that in our life so you know hopefully that's enough to convince you and you
know I want to just kind of get into the practicality and this is something I've
preached here before probably about this time of year last year but I'm gonna do
it again because you know it was a blessing to people then and hopefully
it'll be a blessing to people now so how do I read my Bible every day well I'm
just gonna give you some tips I'm just gonna give you some you know live it's
just gonna be my opinion but these are things that have helped me these are
things that'll help you hopefully you can take it or leave it you know but
whatever you do whatever works for you as long as you're getting the Bible
every day and getting some reading in you know great amen you're gonna be
better off for it you're gonna receive these blessings that we talked about so
how about just the practicality of when to read you know when is the best time
to see I'm gonna read my Bible every day what is the best time this isn't for
everybody I know some people they're probably do better at night than they do
in the morning for me and I think for the vast majority of people they would
probably do better to read it first thing in the morning you know maybe get
up get a cup of coffee out wake up a little bit you know in my house it's
really it's great because it's usually I mean my kids are pretty early risers
anyway but you know that at least it's quiet you know if they do get up they're
not ready to pull out all the toys and go bananas you know they want to sit
down they'll read a book they'll read their Bible so morning is usually best I
find at least for myself and I think for a lot of people and I think that's kind
of a principle you see in Scripture too I mean if we think about when when God
fed the manna from the in the wilderness right when did he give it to
him he gave to him first thing in the morning you know when the dew was upon
the ground that happens very early you know if you wake up too late you're not
gonna you're not gonna see the dew upon the earth you know if you think about do
we ever I don't even know do we ever get do down here in Tucson Arizona Phoenix
do they okay maybe because I just don't have grass I never notice anyway the
point being is that that happens real early in the morning and as soon as the
Sun comes up you know it evaporates very quickly but the manna is a picture of
the Word of God it's a picture of Jesus Christ and I believe that's a good
principle in Scripture now I'm not saying if you don't read the Bible first
thing in the morning that you're in sin you know if you wait to the end of your
day to read it that's good too the point is that you're reading it but think
about I think reading in the morning is best because that's the day you're gonna
need some spiritual truth to get you through that day that's the day that
maybe God wants to show you something in the Bible says hey I know what's coming
later and I need to show you something so that you can withstand some
temptation or know how to handle some situation so I think reading is best you
know before the day gets busy because once the day gets going it's so hard to
carve out that time you know to say you know and especially if we've worked a
long day then to come home you know when we're all we want to do is just eat and
you know see the family and go to bed I mean that's another hard time like well
I'll read right before bed well you do that your bedtime might come a little
quicker than you might anticipate you know and so I think morning's best
that's just a tip you know do with it what you will but one of the probably
the more important question that people need to ask themselves is how much should
they read how much should you be reading and this is different for everybody you
know I can't say there's a one-size-fits-all plan you know if you're
if you're a busy person you know you're a busy mom you're a busy dad you got job
you maybe even run a business you know you're raising several children your
homeschooling I'm not gonna get up here and say that you need to be reading your
Bible four or five times a year I mean that's great if you can that but that's
a lot of reading you know now if you're a preacher like myself or somebody you
know that's probably essential you need to be reading you know four or five
times a year now how you figure out how much you're gonna read well everybody's
at different reading levels but the typical person think about this if
you're just an average reader just average if you could just read an
average rate you have the average reading capability you could read the
whole Bible one time in one year if you just read for 15 minutes a day 15
minutes a day you know the average person a spends 50 minutes on Facebook
alone can you give up 15 minutes of your Facebook time to read God's Word you
know get your face out of Facebook and get your face in God's book and spend
some time there I mean just think about that hey that's a great resolution to
make this year that's a life-changing resolution I'm gonna read my Bible one
time cover to cover and if you do that you're gonna be in the high percentile
you're gonna be one of the rare Christians that have actually done that
you know and if you do that what's it gonna take well the average person 15
minutes maybe 20 minutes maybe it'll take 30 maybe you do 15 the morning 15
at night 15 the morning 15 of my lunch break 15 before it whatever it is but
you need to read some amount you know you determine that now the other extreme
people go to is they they get real you know this time of year everyone just
comes out with and I've been guilty of this in the past well this year I'm
gonna read the Bible once a month every month never happened never happened I
think the best I ever read it was like within two months you know that's that's
you know some people can do it I'm not saying it's not possible but you have to
understand if you're gonna make a commitment like that that's a lot of
reading that's hours every day of reading that you have to carve out and
quite frankly most of us just you know they don't have time for that they
really don't you know there's only so many hours in the day there's a lot of
other things we got to get done other important spiritual things that we need
to do other important and other things that are gonna or add to our quality of
life so you know be reasonable in the goal that you set if you've never read
the Bible one time through I think saying I'm gonna read it one time this
year is very reasonable and I think if a person just did that every year for the
rest of their life they're gonna be leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of other
people you know but maybe you've read it once a year for last several years maybe
maybe this is the year you say hey I'm gonna do it I'm gonna read it two times
you know you bump it up a little bit get a little bit more in but however much
you read you need to kind of well well let me just say this here this is a
helpful tip I think too that here's a good way to preach you say well I don't
know how much I can read or should read or what my goal should be how about you
just read what you can just say I have this amount let's say you have 30
minutes in the morning you know you get up get your coffee whatever and you got
a 30 minute you got a half-hour window where you can read the Bible instead of
saying you know I have to read X amount of Bible in this half hour why don't you
just read for a half hour it creeped track of how much you read you follow me
and then and then determine how much you can read every year and then say well I
had 30 minutes I can read this much you know and and then and then go from there
you know have a baseline to work off of see what you can read before you
determine how much you're gonna read if that makes sense so again about average
person 15 minutes a day they could have the whole Bible read now how now what if
you're somebody who wants to read the Bible you know multiple times per year
how are you going to do that well this is and you got to pay attention if you
want to actually put this formula into practice okay this is real simple math
but if you follow me this this could help you okay because some people just
don't think about about this so take the number say it say you want to read X
amount like this Bible you know I just put this one in the pulpit so I'm not
real familiar with this one but you know well the one I used to have was a
great example because the New Testament had 365 pages in it so I knew if I read
one page a day out of the New Testament I'll read the whole New Testament one
year right so but here's the thing you could take the number of pages in your
Bible and some of them they do Old Testament has its own count the New
Testament has its own count but take the total number of pages in your Bible
right so if you got your Bible maybe now is a good time to look if you're
thinking about this you know so there's 421 pages in the New Testament here and
then I'd have to add the Old Testament you know figure out how many pages are
in your Bible right take that total number of pages in your Bible and divide
it by 365 that number that you get is how many pages you have to read per day
to read it one time a year right so kind of the the easy example I had a New
Testament that was 365 pages long so I knew if I read one page a day I'd read
it one time now what if I want to read it multiple times all I have to do is
multiply that number by the number of times I want to read it so whatever
number you say hey you know what if I took the total number of pages I divided
by 365 and I got seven you know if I read seven pages a day I'm gonna read
the whole Bible in one year but I want to read it twice okay then you just have
to read 14 I want to read three times well you gotta read 21 four times you
gotta read 28 I'm not gonna go any higher than that cuz I'll probably get
wrong all right it's pretty simple math but I tell you what the last time I
shared that in a sermon people walked up said wow I never thought about doing
that thank you because here's what most people do they go by chapters a lot of
people will go well I'm gonna read X amount of chapters okay well happens
when you get to Psalm 119 and you read a hundred seventy eight verses I think it
is that's a lot that's a lot of verses that's one long chapter well I'm reading
five chapters a day well you got one down you got four more to go I mean go
read what Psalm 119 that's gonna take you a minute it's not gonna you're not
gonna knock it out in five minutes you know so I don't I don't I don't like to
read my Bible like that I don't read it by chapter I read it by page number the
number of pages that revolutionized my Bible reading it makes it you know
breaks it down it makes it possible gives you a good solid number of what
you need to work with so and another now that again this is all just suggestion
this is just all tips tricks on how to read your Bible now here's another
suggestion focus on reading the New Testament more than the Old Testament
now I'm not saying you should read the Old Testament okay but where do you
think God's put in the emphasis he's putting it on the New Testament the New
Testament is more relevant to us than the Old Testament I'm not saying the Old
Testament isn't relevant there's a lot of great truths in the Old Testament the
law the prophets it's all profitable but we should be I believe that we as New
Testament Christians should be spending more time reading the New Testament than
the old you know or at least becoming more familiar with it than the old maybe
not as much time but actually reading it more you know you could read the New
Testament well you know reading the New Testament once a month is a little more
practical you know it's still going to take a commitment but you say hey I'm
gonna read maybe you could say this year I'm gonna read the whole Bible one time
right but I'm gonna read the New Testament an extra time I'm gonna get
through the whole Bible and then I read the New Testament again you know because
there's a thing the Old Testament is much longer than the New Testament so
what we find especially when we and I'm gonna get into this a minute when we're
when we just start in the front and work our way to the back it's a long
time before you get to the New Testament you're reading a lot of you know you
know a lot of there's not a gets pretty bleak you know in the Old Testament too
if you've never read it there's there's some rough stuff in there or you could
just you know you're about ready to quit on humanity you know by the time you get
into judges and you're just like I'm done man then you read the prophets and
it's like good night what's wrong with people you know why does God even bother
with us you know and then you get a New Testament like oh God loves us right now
you'll see that in the Old Testament I'm being a little I'm joking a little bit
trying to lighten the mood but here's the thing you know the New Testament is
where it's at for us and I really believe that we should focus more of our
time on the New Testament you know maybe that's maybe that's a good goal just to
say hey you know what I'm gonna get the New Testament X amount of times this
year and you know and just get to the Bible once maybe that's how you could up
it so that's my suggestion is to read the New Testament more than you would
the Old Testament and I'm not saying a quantity amount of time but I'm saying
the actual times you go through it you should probably read it more than the
old here's another suggestion to help with your Bible reading don't you know
and it there's nothing wrong if you want to do it this way and I've done it this
way when you just read from front to back okay but like I just said it's
that's a long haul before you get to them before you get to the mercy and the
hope and the grace and all that good stuff that we love right there's a lot
of there's a lot of wrath and indignation you got to plow through but
and that's all important to understand and know so you know most Bibles they
come like this one with two ribbons in them right they do that for a reason so
that you can read in two different places so why don't why you know you
could be spending part of your devotional time say hey I got to read
seven pages to read the whole Bible you know so I'm gonna read three pages in
the Old Testament and for the new or I'm gonna read two pages in the New
Testament or the in the Old Testament and five in the new or whatever it is
you know you could work that out maybe you could say there's this many pages in
the Old Testament there's this many pages of New Testament if I read this
many pages the Old Testament I'll get through once a year if I read with this
many pages in the New Testament I'll read it once a year what I'm getting at
is that you could you should be reading both concurrently you know use make use
of both ribbons maybe one day this day I read the Old Testament the next day I
I read the New Testament whatever you know, but you got to switch it up
You know I would switch it up or be in both at the same time
instead of just trying to plow your way through because there's a lot of real important doctorate in the New Testament and
You know if you read it that way just front to back
It's like you spent all this time in the Old Testament, and then you get all to this just essential just
Important doctrine, and it's like yep. I mean the New Testament goes so much quicker than the old and
It's so, but it's so much more important
There's so many more doctrines that we have to understand in there
so we just go right through it really fast at the very end and
So that's why I really encourage people to to read it concurrently have a ribbon in the old and a ribbon in the new
Now one of the best ways to you know to read your Bible is to get a Bible reading plan and there are
Multitudes of these online you mean you can you can just search Bible reading plans
They can have a 90-day Bible reading plan 180 Dave. You know read read the New Testament X amount of times
There's just a multitude that are out there that you can follow along with and those are great
And I highly recommend that you know one Bible like my kids use they use the one-year Bible
Where it's a Bible that's already laid out to you're reading so much in the Old Testament
So many in the Psalms so much in the New Testament, and it's called the one-year Bible you know Amazon's cheap
It's just a paperback Bible, but it breaks up your reading
You know it has the dates, and it just takes you through the whole Bible in one year
You don't even have to think about it. You don't have to sit there and do the math or anything
It'll take you through it, so that would be another thing you could use
You know another thing you could do is you could and this gets a little bit more complicated
But maybe you're somebody who's been reading their Bible every day, and you know what you want to switch it up this year
You want to take you the next level?
You know you could break it up into this is something I used to do
I don't do anymore just for sake of time, but you could actually break the Bible up
And this is real interesting study actually that the cement is the the the symmetry of the Old Testament
And I really don't have time to get into it, but you could break even the Old Testament up into sections
I used to break up the Bible into seven different sections, and I would read out of each section every day
That was one thing
But what I found that was I spent a lot of time trying to figure out
How many pages in each section that's trying to keep track of that?
You know I could just spend that time reading so now it's just old and new right
So but if you wanted to do that that kind of keeps it interesting you don't get so bogged down in one area
Maybe I'll do that again later
You know maybe you do that one time this year
And then you read it another way and this year and a different in a different way
So you can read Genesis to do a Deuteronomy right that that's one section
Joshua to Esther would be another section and then you have a Job to Song of Solomon the poetic books
You got the major prophets the minor prophets you got that Gospels and Acts
That's another section, and then the epistles so you can break the Bible into seven different sections
You can read out of each section every day, but I find that if you just break it up Old Testament New Testament
You're probably gonna be good to go
Because require reading in that Bible you know that your Bible in that manner
You got to keep careful track, and you got to do a lot of
Calculating, but you know it could be worth it. How about this use an audio Bible?
Okay now again. This this isn't something. I said something. I've done. I'm not an I don't read
I'm not a very good audit. I get lost with audio
I'll drift you know and it takes I have to concentrate especially hard
To make sure I don't start just thinking about other things now some people they they they swear by audio
That they do better by audio, and I don't doubt it
You know I'm not gonna and I've heard people get up and say well
You're supposed to read it, and if you're not if you're just listening the Bible you're not getting out of it
And you know like well show me that in the Word of God
Well, you can't you can't just listen to the word spoke, and that's what they used to do
They used to come and used to hear the word spoken to them
But that the priests would get up and read the words of the law to the people
And that's how they learned it so they learned it through auditory learning
So I don't agree with that, but you could so I think using a smartphone
You know get you know get Scorby or the faithful word app whoever whatever voice you like you know except for
James Earl Jones, okay, I don't know how anybody could ever listen, and maybe you're listening to James Earl Jones
And I don't mean to offend you but to me
It's just like it sounds like Darth Vader reading me the Bible this doesn't seem right
Okay, now. I have an app on my smartphone, and it's great. It's called word project word project on Android only
You can't get it on Apple
But it's free you download the files. It's it's the interface is a little touchy, but it works. It's Scorby
It's free the whole Bible. It's audio. It's great
You know I know there's Alexander Scorby apps that are out there, and I think those work great, too
And here's the thing you know if you listen to Scorby you could even break down
How much time you need to spend listening, and I've already done the math for you, okay?
If you want to know about this I can give you the details here, but I'll fire. I know I'm kind of moving quick, but
Scorby reads the by the Old Testament in 54 hours. He reads the New Testament in 18 hours
So it would take you 72 hours of listening to listen to the whole Bible being read to you by Alexander Scorby
That breaks down to listening to 20 minutes per day
That's most people's commutes to work. I mean if you would just get in the car instead of turning on talk radio or
Death metal or whatever it is you listen to
You know say listen to you know the latest
Whoever's out there
I don't know you just listened for 20 minutes on your commute to the Bible being read to you
You would you would hear the whole thing in one year. I
Mean think about how easy that is
To just listen to the Word of God being read to you in 20 minutes just 20 minutes out of your day
You'd have the whole thing read you have you listen to the whole Bible
So that would be great another thing I highly suggest people it do is you know maybe try
Listening and reading along at the same time, you know, this is especially great
If you're gonna be somebody who reads the scripture, I highly recommend this
This will make you a better reader because there's there's words in there that are a little tricky
Aren't they you know when we get to our facts ad you know, or you know, it's very well above above, you know
Whatever it is, like there's some words in there that so if you've got Scorby playing and you're reading along
You know go. Oh, that's how you're supposed to say it, you know
And another thing too if you're even if you're just reading through don't ever skip over the hard stuff
The hard words in your Bible reading read those words out loud
Why does God give us, you know, all those chronologies and all those difficult names and first Corinthians or first Chronicles?
Excuse me. Why are all those there to make you a better reader?
Think about it. If you had to stop and sound out those names
You know, you're gonna get better at reading then Bible will make you smarter another blessing of reading your Bible
But you could read along and listen at the same time and maybe kind of use that transition to listening only
I don't know whatever works
So those are just some suggestions this morning, you know that you need to you need to do so
No, I in fact, I've even taken the time to print off
Two dozen of these checklists. This is what I use just a simple Bible reading checklist
So it's every it's every book and every every book has a little box with a chapter number in it
So as you read you can just cross out the box in Genesis 1 Genesis 2 Genesis 3 Genesis 4 and these are great
especially if you're gonna be somebody who wants to like
Break the Bible into sections. Maybe you could do that. You can make little lines
Here's section 1 here's section 2 how many pages per section?
And what I like to do is I'll actually like I'll sit down and say I've got to read X amount of pages today
You can see how far how far ahead that's gonna take you on your list and you can highlight it
That way you can look at it and say oh, I know I got to read from Genesis 1 to 10
You just take a highlighter 1 to 10 and then you can scratch it off as you go. So these are here
These are available for anybody wants them, you know, I just printed these off
But there's a lot of them out there those ones
I found that I found that to be just the simplest cleanest one I could find worked great for me
So help yourself to those but you know use it, you know have a plan
That's that's the thing you need to do
That's the most important thing if you're gonna read your Bible is to have
Some kind of a plan how are you going to accomplish it?
I mean, isn't that what resolutions are all about this time of year when we make these resolutions, you know
I'm gonna lose X amount of pounds now. I'm not saying that for myself. Okay. I'm just saying that's all right
You know, I'm gonna lose weight. That's my resolution this year, right? Somebody's saying that not me
Because I don't need to lose weight and then no don't even that
So, but if you did, you know, you'd have to say well, how are you gonna accomplish that?
Well, I'm gonna I'm only gonna eat X amount of calories
You couldn't just say I'm gonna lose weight and that's it. You'd have to have a plan, you know
You get whatever it is
You're gonna do you have to sit there and figure out how you're going to do it
And that's what this sermon is really trying to help you to do and that is that's what that tool
There is for is to help you accomplish that goal because I want people to
Receive the blessing that there's there for us if we would just read the Bible all those blessings I talked about
That you could be yours in 20 minutes of a commute in 15 minutes of Bible reading it's there and it's not a big ask
I think we I think the thing is we just look at it like this and it's just this giant daunting task
Yeah, but you're breaking it up in little sections. It's all it's over the course of a year
So I really encourage people to just make that resolution this year and do it now
I do want to close by just giving some warnings
okay, and the things that I've run into and seeing other people run into is
And one of them would be
Don't turn your Bible reading into a math problem, you know
That's what I kind of did there for a minute where it became more about trying to figure out how many pages per section and how
Many men you know and then it's just turns into this just like this equation to get the Bible ready
And you forget that you're actually supposed to be cleaning something out of the Word of God, you know, don't turn it into a race
Where you're just trying to you know, maybe one day maybe your goal is to read seven pages a day
But you know what it's a it's a harder chapter you got up a little late you got busy and you only got through five
Don't well now now next day. I got to read nine. No, you don't. No, you don't you just read seven again
You know don't turn it into this race
You know, maybe you'll get to this time next year and you'll still have
You know, you'll still have a few more books to go or you'll have a few more chapters you maybe you're a little bit behind
So what you're way ahead of where you are this year if that's the case, you know
If you're not if you haven't been reading anyway, so don't don't you know?
Like like like it's a marathon look at it that way and a marathon, you know, you don't sprint
You know, you have a pace you have a steady pace and it's okay
Sometimes to slow down and just and maybe maybe we're not always running. Maybe we're walking
But what we don't want to do is stop
We don't want to just stop her dead in our tracks
let everything you know because here's the thing of what a lot of people do is they if they get out of it they start
Out strong and then three months into it, you know something happens and then weeks go by they haven't read their Bible
And then they just say well try it again next year. That's nine months away
You know, we're six months away. Whatever it is. Whenever that happens. Don't do that
Just pick up where you left off and get through it and you know, as long as you're making progress, that's what matters
Yeah, so and the other thing would be be realistic and I already kind of talked about this I'm gonna read the Bible
every three weeks
Every four weeks every six weeks
This is out there laugh, but it's out there, you know, and some people can do it
Some people can read every 30 days and I don't know they must not do anything else
You know, they must not have a family. I don't know. I don't know what the secret is
But you know if that if you if that is a realistic goal for you great
But for the average person that's probably not I think 90 days is is is a pretty high that's aiming pretty high
You know and for some of us just aiming for one time this year
That's way high way higher than where we are this time last year
So that you know be realistic about your what you're gonna accomplish
This year with with your Bible reading
And you know that I've heard people say think don't let other people, you know discourage you from reading too much
You know, I don't mean to do that. If you're the guy in here and you say hey, you know what?
I can read every 30 I can read the Bible every 30 days great. I can read the Bible every 40 days. Amen
I don't mean to discourage you by all means do that
You know, I think that's fantastic that you can do that, you know, and I and I so I want to clarify that
I don't want because there's a here's another warning is don't let the abilities or inabilities of other people discourage you
You know, maybe you're not as good a reader as somebody else
Maybe you don't have as much time to read as somebody else
You know the the the busy mom or dad they look at you know, some single guy, you know
Who's just serving the Lord and he's like, oh, I read the Bible seven times this year
Oh, I need to read the Bible seven times. No, you don't
Okay, and you know what he's not gonna read the Bible seven times every year, you know
Hopefully eventually he gets married and has kids. You know what and he's gonna slow way down
He's gonna be just like the rest of us
Now it's great that a person's taking advantage of that time in their life that season in their life
You know and I would encourage you if you don't have that family if you don't have those responsibilities yet to you know
Up it up, you know, step it up. Do read it more do what you can
But don't let that discourage
Don't let that be a discouragement to you. Well, so-and-so is reading it more. I got to read as much as I can
It's not a competition
If you could be a totally different set of circumstances in life, they have way more time on their hands or whatever it is
So, you know don't let that be a discouragement to you
And I've even heard I've even heard preachers get up and say I've even heard up a preacher get up
Say well an hour is all anybody can read. Anyway, once you read an hour, you can't read anymore
I'm like think speak for yourself, buddy
Who am I to get up here and say that nobody can read for more than an hour a day?
Like maybe that's that might be true for me, but is that necessarily true for everybody in the room
No, and in fact, I know another guy and I heard another preacher get up say there is no such thing as reading the Bible
Too much. Do you think really think that's the problem? We have in this country now people are reading the Bible too much
Is that the problem most churches? Oh people are reading the Bible too much
They're reading more than an hour every day. It's it's it's a catastrophe
You know and the guy who said oh you can't read more an hour. He's not even in the ministry anymore
And the guy who said there's you can't read the Bible too much is doing great things for God
So, you know, let that be a lesson to you as well
Don't let other people discourage you from from how much you can or can't read
You need to find out for yourself. You need to be realistic. You need to set a baseline for yourself
And have a goal, but you have to read you say I want all these blessings. That sounds nice
You know the strength the the courage the wisdom the knowledge the blessings of reading the Bible. I want those for myself
You know the Bible says it's in Psalm 119 thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
You know, he's talking about life. It's not a literal lamp. It's not a literal light, obviously
You know, don't try don't pull this out and try to find you know, the the keyhole when you get home in the dark
You know, well, they said it was a lamp
Maybe if you catch the the light street lights off the gilded edge or something. I don't know maybe
What am I even talking about but here's the thing like it is a light a lamp unto our path of life I
Mean we wouldn't stumble if I if we walk it when we walk in a dark room
The first thing we do is turn on the light
We reach over we we know where it is instinctively. We find it we turn it on before we do anything else
That's what we should be treating our Bibles, you know every day in your life
You're waking up in a dark room spiritually. Let's get the light on before I walk out in a dark world
You know, we wouldn't
We wouldn't just go wandering around the dark in reality in real life
But do we do that spiritually you'd be surprised how many of people
Are want even Christians are wandering through life
with no light just trying to feel their way around and
They wonder why they stumble they wonder why they trip they wonder why they fall
They wonder why everybody else is so much farther ahead
Why so why they've got all the scrapes and bumps and bruises that come with stumbling and falling while everybody else looks
You know, so nice
You know, they don't they don't where's your band-aids
Well, I turned the light on you know, so I was like, oh don't step on that. Well, there's a pitfall there
There's a snare there. Let me avoid this. Let me avoid that because I got the light on
It's not me. It's this
so
Let's get in it, you know, let's get the blessings and that's the that's the encouragement this morning that I wanted to give you
That's the resolution. We all need to make you know, what are we gonna do?
But our Bible reading this year, are we gonna do it at all? Are we gonna up it?
Are we gonna is it gonna be more of the same? Maybe that's good enough
Well, let's let's have something and you know, let's get to this time next year
Where we because this sermon will be preached again next year
Where we can we maybe won't maybe it's convicting us a little bit this morning
But maybe this time next year will say, you know
I remember he preached about that same subject next year or last year and I did it and
I could testify I could say amen the preacher saying is right
That this is a light this isn't lamp that there are blessings to reading the Bible let's go ahead and pray