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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