(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) All right. Amen. Habakkuk chapter number two. If you would, look down at verse number two. As the Bible says, And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run that readeth it. Now, tell the sermon today why you need the Bible reading challenge, why you need the Bible reading challenge. And really, this is about why you need Bible reading every day. Essentially, that's what this is basically about. You can keep your place there in Habakkuk, but go to Daniel chapter number 10. Go to Daniel chapter number 10. So obviously, we would never hold it over your head if you didn't do the Bible reading challenge. But I wanted to make sure and kind of explain why we do the Bible reading challenge the way that we do it, what the reasoning is for that. And a lot of that's going to come out towards the end. But I figured it was important because this is the last Wednesday before the new year before we start the challenge. And I know we're kind of in the middle of a series, but I figured we'll just put that on pause till next week. We'll pick it back up again. And so really, the question is, you know, are you reading the Bible to read or are you reading to lead? We all have somebody to lead, whether that be yourself, other people in your family, people out in the community, everybody in here needs to be working towards that role. And there is a difference, okay? I know people that I love that are saved, born again, and they read that thing every year as quickly as possible to simply check off some boxes, okay? Love them to death, but I don't want to do that here, okay? And I will get into why that is. Now, before we get into all of that, what I want to do is just review what the Bible says about scripture, okay? What does the Bible say about itself? What are the benefits of reading it? Because as you all know, it's not simply like reading any other book, okay? We'll get into that. But I want to just give you a few quick things here about scripture, a few quick hard-hitting points about scripture, and hopefully use this information to exhort you to read the Bible every single day of your life. So you're in Daniel chapter number 10. What you're going to see here is the first time that the word scripture is used in the Bible, and I want you to see this here. Verse 10, the Bible says this. This, of course, is the angel talking to Daniel about a vision, and he says this, But I will show thee that which is noted, and here it is, in the scripture of truth. And there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince. So the first thing that we learn when we see that word scripture in the Bible for the first time is the word truth, okay? So if somebody ever asks you, hey, what is truth? You know somebody pulls the old pilot card on you, okay? One thing that you could say right back to them is, well, truth is scripture, and just watch the emotions and the skin tone change colors in their face, but this is truth, okay? If somebody says, give me a quick definition. What's your truth? Well, I don't know what my truth is, but truth in general is scripture. That's what this says, okay? So that is the first thing that I wanted to bring up. The scripture is truth. Now there's a lot of things that you read out in other books. Obviously they have truth to them. There's some truth, whatever, but this is absolute 100% truth. So when we are fed something and we come across a scripture that contradicts it, we know which one we go with. We go with what the Bible says, okay? We go with what the scripture says because the Bible tells us that scripture is truth. And of course we know that Jesus said several times that the scriptures must be fulfilled. Now why is that? Why is that so important? Well, because it is truth. Again, that is key here this evening. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number three. 2 Timothy chapter number three. And we're going to come back to 2 Timothy three. So before I forget, make sure you'll just are able to find your way back there relatively quickly, okay? So the first thing, obvious, scripture is truth, okay? It's truth that comes from God. Scripture means sanctified. It's from God. It's not from man. It's not derived from man. It is from God. And of course that's one of the things that makes it very special. Now 2 Timothy chapter number three, look at verse number 15. So the Bible says, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So not only do we see that scripture is truth, scripture must be fulfilled, but scripture is holy. So again, it's set apart from all other books. It's set apart from all other sources of so-called truth or information, okay? And it's going to get much deeper than this. But look at verse number 16. Then Paul goes on to tell Timothy this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So when you hear so-called preacher say, well, you know, you really shouldn't be correcting people because if you correct people, then it's going to be hard for them to want to listen to you. And that is true, okay? That is true to a certain extent, but those are the types of people that you really don't want around you anyways, okay? People that won't listen, people that aren't going to take correction and things of that nature. They never last anyway. So we see here that scripture not only is truth, is holy, ordained by God, but it's living and it's given from God. That's what that means there, inspiration. Of course, there's been numerous fights in the world on what the word inspiration means. I've heard a so-called mega pastor say, well, God was just inspired. He was just motivated to give his creation some basic general truth. And that's what it means, okay? That is not what it means, okay? If you take that position, then you have to automatically default to the position that scripture is not truth, okay? Because if scripture is truth and it's from God, it's holy, then that means it is living. And just to give you a quick background on inspiration, because we always say it means God breathed, let's take a look at that. So keep your place there, but go to Genesis chapter number two. Genesis chapter number two. We're going to compare a couple of scriptures and divide them up. We're going to go to Genesis two and then John chapter number 20 to look at this. So Genesis chapter two and then John chapter number 20. So what in the world are you talking about here? Inspiration. Inspiration. Genesis chapter two, look at verse number seven. So the Bible says, and the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became, and don't miss this, a living soul. So go to John chapter 20, okay? So very quickly, what do we see here? Well, when God created man, what did he do? Well, he breathed into his nostrils. What was the result? The result was a living, thinking, breathing man. Okay? Somebody able to reason, make choices, but the important thing is man became a living soul. That is what that says. John chapter number 20, look at verse number 21. The Bible says this, then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you as my father hath sent me, even so send I you. Verse 22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. So what happens when God breathed on flesh, breathed on man? Man became a living soul. But what happened when Jesus breathed on those that were already living, already disciples? Well, they wound up turning the world upside down. They wound up receiving the Holy Ghost, having the Holy Ghost fall on them, and they literally completed or had chosen people like Luke to complete the written word of God. Go to James chapter number four. Okay? So again, I'm just going to run through these very quickly. The Bible says about itself, scripture is truth. Okay? Scripture and truth can be synonymous unless you're in the world or in some phony church. And of course there's going to be issues there. But the Bible says that scripture is truth, that it is holy, that it is living. Okay? That's what Paul meant when he instructed Timothy and told him that God gave us the word of God by inspiration. Okay? So let's take a look at one more thing here. James chapter number four, let's look at verse number five. So James says this, do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth to envy? And what I wanted you to see there are those four words, scripture saith in vain. Okay? And why that's important is because we need to understand that there is nothing in scripture. There is nothing in the Bible as just plain filler or empty or vain. Okay? Now go to Hebrews chapter number four, Hebrews chapter number four. Now just about any other book that you read out there. Okay? If it is written by man, there are filler words. There are words in there because we are not perfect. Obviously the best of men are men at best. Any book out there, I don't care how good it is. I don't care how well it was written. I don't care how well it was published. There are vain things in there and that is what distinguishes the word of God or scripture from these other books. And so understanding these very, very basic fundamental principles should start to motivate you to want to read the Bible every day because you're reading truth. You're reading something that is set apart from any other book on the planet. You're reading something that was literally given to you by inspiration of God, meaning it is alive. Okay? It's also referred to as the engrafted word, meaning when you take this word and you give it to somebody else and they receive it, what happens? That word changes them. That word saves them. That word causes them to be born again. In fact, you can see that here in Hebrews chapter number four. So we're going to look at verses 12 and 13 and I want to show you this here because this kind of goes back to what we're talking about, that the word of God is living. Okay? How many people live their lives and never receive the benefit of actually able or sitting down and reading the word of God? You know, it's a tragedy. Look at verse 12. The Bible says this for the word of God. Okay? So before we move on, understand what this is talking about here. This is talking about scripture. This is talking about the word of God. Very plain, very simple for the word of God is, okay, now look at these attributes quick and powerful and sharper than any two wedged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Okay? So when you read that, you see this division. Okay? The word of God does something. It divides something and what is that in this verse here? Well, it's soul and spirit. So it's the unseen and it divides that from the joints and marrow. Joints and marrow are a reference to the flesh. Okay? And obviously we all understand that the flesh is the old man. So the word of God on one level is what causes, it's what gets people saved. I mean, when you preach the gospel to somebody and you give them the word of God and they receive it and they call upon the name of the Lord, they are saved. The word of God has essentially divided the old man from the new man. But it also does so much more than that, doesn't it? Because when you read this and even people that aren't saved when they read this and they just get information from it, a lot of times that information hurts their feelings. A lot of times that information triggers them. Why is that? Because this book was given by God. It was written by somebody who knows man from the inside out. That is what this is saying. Okay? So back to the subject here in verse 12, the word of God. We're talking about the scripture here, what it does. Now look at this here in verse 13. Neither, so we're still talking about the word of God, neither is there any creature that is not manifest. Now look at this change up here. Okay? Look at this change in language here. Not manifest, in his sight. Okay? Notice that in verse 12, it says word of God. And then in verse 13, still talking about the word of God, the language changes to in his sight. What other book in the world can also be a his? Only the Bible, only scripture because Jesus is the word of God. Okay? That is what this is teaching us here when you really think about it. Then he says, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Okay? Now go to first Corinthians chapter number two. First Corinthians chapter number two. And again, while you're turning there, just a quick recap. Okay? Scripture is truth. Scripture has to be fulfilled. Okay? Scripture is holy. It is set apart from all other books on the planet. But not only that, the scripture is living. This is why man cannot mess it up totally. Yeah. I understand all the different versions. Man has messed with that, but we still have truth, don't we? We still have the King James Bible. We still have this going into other languages. We still have the word of God. Man cannot ever eradicate the word of God from the face of the earth. Man desires to do that, but man cannot do that. Why is that? Because this is a living book. This is a living breathing book that produces change and there is nothing inside of it that is vain or empty like unto other books. First Corinthians chapter number two. Look at verse number 14 says, but the natural man receiveth not and pay attention to these next two words, the things of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him and neither can he know them because they are spiritually discern. Okay? Now a couple of things about this before we move on. The natural man or the old man, the person without the Holy Ghost. This is important here. Okay? They cannot receive the things. Okay? So if you are saved, if you have the Holy Ghost dwelling inside of you, okay, there are things that you need to receive and that can only happen if you're saved. Okay? And they have to be spiritually discern. And before I, I explain that further real quickly, go to, you can lose, lose your place there, but go to Luke, Luke chapter number 24, Luke chapter number 24. If you need motivation to start reading the Bible on a daily basis, meditate on this verse here. Okay? Because there are things, plural, that God wants to give us, that he wants us to receive. But the thing is they're spiritually discern, meaning we have to learn how to discern them. We have to learn how to pull them and extract them out of the Bible. And you cannot do that unless you are reading it. Okay? Here's an example of this. So Luke chapter number 24, obviously after the resurrection, Christ is appearing unto his disciples. Look at verse 31. It says in their eyes, remember these guys are saved. Okay? These guys are saved. These guys are born again. And their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. Verse 32. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures. Okay? So again, just because you're saved does not mean that you are going to receive all truth just by osmosis. That is not how things work. You have to put in the work. You have to read. You have to learn to spiritually discern. Okay? So when you take Hebrews chapter four and you learn that the word of God, obviously very powerful by those two verses there, 12 and 13, you learn that this is a living book. You compare that to first Corinthians chapter two, verse 14. And you understand that the spirit wants to give us things. He wants us to receive things and those things being truth, those things being revelation. You're going to learn this. What I came up with here, which is a statement without the Holy Ghost, the Bible is just information. Okay? So without the Holy Ghost, a person reading the Bible is just getting information, not revelation. And by revelation, I'm not saying you're going to hear this audible voice speaking to you. Okay? But remember, the Bible is very clear. God has told us that he wants us to receive things. These things are plural. These things are revelation. These things are truth, deeper insights to his word. So without the Holy Ghost, the Bible is just information. It's not revelation. And we need that revelation in order to produce transformation. Now, how did you keep your place in second Timothy chapter three? I'm sorry. Yeah. Second Timothy chapter three, go back there. Second Timothy chapter number three, which by the way is a very good reason for us to also pray for insight and understanding before we begin reading the Bible, even in our own personal time. Okay? We want the Holy Ghost to be guiding us and to be comforting us and to be teaching us as we're reading it. The Bible says that you have not need of any man teach you these things that the Holy Ghost will teach you. Anything that I learned from reading the Bible, you can learn yourself on your own time, doing your own reading in your own study. Okay? Now that's not to say, well, then we just throw church away. I'll have to get into that another time. But again, without the Holy Ghost, the Bible is just information, not revelation. This is why so many people wrestle with the scriptures to their own destruction. Why so many people will quote it. You got guys like Jordan Peterson. Oh, he's conservative. And he, he talks about the Bible and you're listening to this and it's just like, that's just not right. That's not what it says. But yet he's influencing so many people, which is another reason why we have to be very careful at who we put our eyes and ears in front of. Okay. It, it, it's, it's a big, big problem. Without revelation, you will not get transformation. Second Timothy chapter three, look at verse 16 one more time. So it says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now look at this and is profitable for doctrine. Okay. For reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. We need all of these things. Okay. And so the question is, well, which doctrine, which were proof, which correction, what instruction in righteousness? Okay. Well, you get that from studying the Bible. You get that from reading the Bible and you can only get that from having the Holy Ghost inside of you, you and him reading the Bible together. Okay. Now let's go back to where we first actually look at verse 17. I'm sorry. Look at verse 17. Okay. Here's the whole goal here. Okay. The transformation part. Look at this verse 17. So we understand what that means. Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's truth. It's without vanity. It's holy. It's living. It is all of these things. Okay. It's given by God. Verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect. Okay. And of course hopefully we all understand what he's saying there. He's not saying that you're without any sins and you've ceased completely and you're thus perfect. No, that you're complete. Okay. Because when you're a babe in Christ, you're not complete. You need to work towards that. You got to put in the study. Okay. And that comes from the word of God. Again, verse 17 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished onto all good works. That word furnished there means equip. Okay. How do we get equipped? How do we get geared up for spiritual warfare? How do we get geared up to actually do good works that are acceptable in the sight of God? You see all these other places got it wrong. You know, one of the things that somebody tried to blast me on very recently, a couple of days ago, was I don't see you out in the community handing out food and feeding the homeless and it's cold right now. What are you talking about, man? We were out there handing them all kinds of bread every single week. It's this bread though. It's the word of God. Okay. But again, they don't have the Holy Spirit so they can't get that revelation to understand what the true mission of the church is. And I don't want to get too far into that because it's going to change the sermon. I'm going to miss everything. So go back to where you first started. Habakkuk chapter number two. Habakkuk chapter number two. And let's finish off here. Some things to motivate us to read the Bible. So quick background there. We got that on scripture. We're good to go with that. We get that. We understand that. And that should help exhort you to want to read every single day. Now back to Habakkuk. So Habakkuk was a prophet right before Nebuchadnezzar came in and basically took the southern kingdom of Judah captive in three different ways. Okay. And the whole book is basically centered around a couple of questions that Habakkuk had. One of those being him obviously trusting God. So you see a prophet of God, a man of God, he trusts God with his whole heart, but he has honest questions. And one of his questions is, Lord, how come you're allowing this iniquity to fill up Jerusalem? And furthermore, how come you're going to allow this wicked nation of Babylon to come in and destroy them? And that's really what the book is about. It's about those questions and it's about those answers. We'll study that deeper another time, but let's look here at something in Habakkuk chapter number two. So part of the response that God gives him is right here in verse number two. And look what he says, and the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. Okay. We're going to focus on that first part of the verse there where it says, and the Lord answered me. Okay. So getting into some benefits now, some benefits of doing Bible reading or actually doing the challenge that we have at our church. Okay. One of those benefits here is what you see in the beginning of this verse and the Lord answered me. Habakkuk has these tough questions. Now, before I give you this, look at verse three real quick. So God continues to tell him this for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry. Wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. The word tarry there means wait. Okay. Understand that it means to, to wait. Verse four, behold his soul, which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. And of course we quote that from the new Testament all the time. So the first benefit that you get from reading the Bible, we've already been talking about it is revelation. But what that means is that the Bible reveals the answers to life's questions, to life's challenges and life's changes. So Habakkuk here, he's going through life as God's prophet and he's seeing his nation plundered down and he doesn't understand the change that's coming. He doesn't quite get it. He's, you know, on one hand he's asking God, Lord, why is this, why, you know, why are you putting up with this? Why are you allowing the iniquity to, to, to keep filling up here in Judea? And then of course, you know, when God tells him, well guess what? The Babylonians are going to come in and put a stop to it. He's like, Whoa, hold on. That's not how I envisioned it. That's a change. That's a challenge I wasn't quite ready for. Okay. And so he's wrestling with this and he's trying to understand it. And of course all goes well with him, but we're in the same boat as Habakkuk in our nation, aren't we? We live amongst a very crooked and perverse group of leadership in this nation and as do pretty much everybody in the world. I mean, our day is literally becoming more and more like the days of Noah on what seems like an hourly, if not a minutely basis. Okay. Things are continuously getting worse. So the Bible reveals answers to life's challenges and changes. This is all part of Revelation. So if you're just reading the Bible for information, okay, hopefully you're starting to see what happens. You're going to miss out on transformation. And if we were to able, if we were able to really go through all of Habakkuk, you would see his transformation in his thought process and his wrestling with these questions. God solves that. God answers that for him. Okay. And he will do the same for us. Now go to first Timothy chapter number four, first Timothy chapter number four, very famous verse. Talk about this all the time. Look at verse 13. So we're talking about revelation. We're talking about getting deep insights in truths from what God has revealed to us. Okay. And that comes from spiritually discerning in rightly dividing the word of truth. And honestly, I'll just say this, the more that you read the Bible, okay, the more familiar you become with it. So when you run across things and you will, you'll run across things as you're reading that don't make sense. Okay. Now, one of the things I've struggled with since being a pastor is I start reading the Bible and this happens to me every single day. I'll be reading and then I stop and I'm like, I got to start taking notes here. And the next thing you know, I'm like, I'm nowhere near the goal that I had. You know, I find it hard now to balance those out, but I'm still getting it all done. Still getting it in. Okay. Now look at this here. First Timothy chapter four verse 13. So Paul says this, till I come give attendance to reading. And this is one of the reasons why we have the tradition in our church of reading the entire chapter before the service starts is because of this verse. It's how I learned it. It's what I passed on is it's what we do here, but look what he says next. Okay. To exhortation, to doctrine. So he says to both, and we've looked at other examples. Okay. Now exhortation, okay. Encouragement, edification, things along those lines, motivation, explaining, dedication, which we're going to talk about next. Okay. Both of these. So he says, give attendance to reading and to exhortation and to doctrine. Now I heard this clown the other day on YouTube and his name's Todd Friel. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this guy. He's the host of a program called Wretched Radio. Okay. And I'm pretty sure he's a Calvinist guy, but the title had caught my attention. So I was like, sure, I'll buy it. I'll click on this. And he's like, you know, over the Christmas weekend, I think it was on Tuesday. Yeah, it must've been on Tuesday. He's like, I went and I listened to a bunch of different Christmas sermons or whatever, and they were all lacking. You know, he's just really building this up. He just said, oh, they're all lacking. You know, yeah, they gave good points on how to live your life. They gave some doctrine, but they're missing the most valuable thing of all, which is the gospel. And the way he talks is just annoying. So you got to click it off and then come back and do it in chunks if you're like me. He's just like, oh, you just got this weird, he looks like Egon from Ghostbusters. Okay. And that's pretty much what he is. He's a Ghostbuster type preacher if you ask me. But anyways, you know, what he's saying there sounds good to so many of his viewers and so many of his listeners, but there's a huge problem with that statement. Okay. And that's literally what we've been talking about the last two Wednesdays in a row. We're not to get hung up on the milk. If you've been coming here for a while, you probably noticed I don't preach the gospel every single service. You know, and that is a criticism that I've had to deal with and that all of our friends have had to deal with. And the reason why we don't do that is because we have designated times throughout the week where we actually take that to other people and preach it. Okay. Or if somebody comes in here, we hope to give it a chance to preach them the gospel. Okay. But not every sermon has to have the gospel in it. Okay. That is literally what? It is the milk of the word. How are we ever going to get to exhortation and doctrine and revelation for transformation if we spend all of our time on the milk? Oh yeah, it won't happen. Which is why when you talk to that crowd, those types of people, you will be in for an unfortunate treat, which is you're dealing with somebody that has some information, but they have no revelation, have no understanding, no application of the Bible. So we are allowed to give attendance to not only to reading, but to exhortation. We're allowed to take the word of God and use it for sermons to motivate us, to have us better at life and so on and so forth as well as doctrine. We can do it all, which is one of the reasons why we have three services a week. Okay. So again, first point here on why you need the Bible reading challenge is simply revelation. Okay. It answers life's questions about the challenges that we have as well as the changes that come. And you know, I would say this about just about everybody, you know, some people like change, some people say they like change, some people don't. Okay. But what we know from reading the Bible is bad changes are coming and change on some level does produce anxiety. And one of the ways that we combat that, one of the ways that we fight that is how it's by revelation is by reading and studying and rightly dividing and preaching and teaching and exhorting one another so that we don't fall prey and victim to the devil's traps and all these changes and all of the fog put out by the media. Go to revelation chapter number one, revelation chapter one. Look at verse number three. I'm going to go back to the old Testament. Okay. Revelation one, we're going to go to second Chronicles 34. Revelation chapter number one. Look at verse number three. So what's the benefit of doing the Bible reading challenge or just, I mean your everyday Bible reading, look at verse three. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. Okay. Now somebody who is just basically maybe a newbie or just wants information, they might read this, they might read verses one, two and three and say, okay, well this only applies to the book of revelation. That's gravy. I mean, of course it applies to the book of revelation, but the book of revelation is the word of God. Okay. And read it like this. Blessed is he that only readeth revelation. Yeah. I mean that doesn't make any sense, right? Obviously we know because we have other supporting scriptures that tell us that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God, but all scripture is profitable for doctrine and proof correction. All the things that we've talked about. Okay. So there's three things here in this verse, three things that lead to my second point. Reading, hearing and keeping. Okay. Read, hear, keep. Meaning you read and you hear, you listen. Okay. You're in taking information, you're processing it, but also you're in church and you're hearing the word of God preached. Okay. So you read, you hear and you keep. These three things in this verse here explain the second point, the second benefit that you get from reading the Bible on a daily basis, which is dedication. Now let me show you an example of what dedication can do for you. Go to second Chronicles chapter number 34, second Chronicles chapter number 34. We're going to look at King Josiah here just real quickly. King Josiah here, great King, one of the, one of the greatest Kings I think that's ever reigned in all of Israel. Obviously we know David loved, loved the Lord and whatnot, but Josiah also was a very great man of God. Now his ending wasn't too good and we've talked about that in the past, but if you want to learn from somebody, this is definitely one guy you want to learn from because he was born after a time period where Manasseh had basically really done a huge number on the Southern kingdom of Judah. And of course we don't have time to get into that, but he didn't make it easy for his son for Josiah. Now in chapter number 34, basically what you're going to see here, and we're not going to take the time to read it. I'm just going to summarize it for you. They wind up finding a copy of the book of the law. The book of the law of the Lord is what it says, I think around verse 14. And what happens is these guys read it and they're like, we got to get this to the King. Okay. So they bring it to the King. Now look at verse number 18. So the Bible says, then Shaphan the scribe told the King saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book and Shaphan read it before the King. So now you hear the King. Okay. You see the King and he's hearing the word of God here. Look at verse 19. Now also keep in mind up to this point, this guy has been doing very well and trying his best to serve God, but now he's getting new information. I want you to see what he does with this. Look at verse 19 and it came to pass when the King had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes. Okay. Big deal there. We've talked about this. This doesn't mean he went down to rent a center and rented a pair of garments. Okay. This means that he tore his clothes. It means he was so convicted based off of what he heard that he tore his clothing. Okay. And why is that a big deal? Well, you couldn't just necessarily go to your local department store and just start picking out clothes. It wasn't as easy. So this is a huge sign, demonstration of conviction from what? From hearing the scriptures, from hearing the word of God. So we've all got that. Okay. Now look at, let's see here. Look at verse 21. So here's what he does next. So he hears the word of God. He intakes the word of God. Now look at what he does. Go. Verse 21. So he says this, he says, go inquire the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us because the fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book. Okay. So we see this process here unfolding. Josiah hears the book of the law of the Lord. He hears scripture. He hears it. He rents his clothes. Now what does he do? Well, now he seeks to get more information. So he wants to get a prophet involved, winds up getting a prophetess involved in this situation. So he sends Shaphan and some men to go inquire of her on what they should do. Okay. Now look at what happens next. Remember I said revelation equals transformation. So what the prophetess does is expounds upon that and sends that word back to the king. Now look at what the king does because of this process here. Verse 29 that the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Now here it is in verse 30 and the king went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people great and small. Now remember who was reading in verse 19. Who was reading before? Okay, it was the king being read to. Now look at who's reading. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. So it went from him being read to, him hearing, right? Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things that are written therein for the time is at hand. You see that same process play out in Josiah's life. He goes from being read to to actually hearing it, keeping it and now he's the one passing that on. Now he's the one reading it to all of his people. And this is so significant for us because we are kings. The Bible says that we are kings and priests. So it is not optional for us to read the word of God. It is mandatory. But it's a good mandatory, right? It's not just because God wants to give you chores. It's because there are things that God wants to give you. And the only way you're going to receive those things is by you and the Holy Ghost reading the word of God. And this needs to be a daily habit. Look at this transformation. So he gets the revelation. And that leads to this transformation. Verse 31, whom the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant, which are written in this book. So again, we are kings. And look at what it says in verse 32. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God and the God of their fathers came. So what I'm trying to say here is that Bible reading should lead you to take action. You know, I've read secular books before that have led me to take action. But how much more action can you take by you simply making the daily habit to read the word of God on your own? All right. I found something I think you guys might find interesting slash funny. Who knew that there was a center of Bible engagement? There is actually something out there called the center of Bible engagement. Now to this day, I've always said this, I've never met a pollster. So anytime I hear polls, I always take it with like a teaspoon to tablespoon of salt, depending on what it is. But I'm going to read this for you anyways, because I thought it was funny. So this center of Bible engagement, and again, I read the article, it didn't say which Bible to use. So you can probably just chalk that up in your minds. You guys know the deal. Okay. So what they did is they polled 40,000 people ages eight to 80 years old. And basically they kept track of them and followed up with them for a certain period of time. And what they found on people reading the Bible, I think it was four times a week or more. This is what they found. And again, take this with your salt. I've got some salt over here. Feel free to go up and get it, but just listen. Okay. And you can find all this stuff to be true or even beyond that. And just from reading the Bible itself. Okay. But this is what they documented. Feeling lonely drops 30%. Anger issues drop 32%. Bitterness in relationships drop 40%. Alcoholism drops 57%. The physical fornication drops 68%. Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%. Viewing images they should not 61%. And they say sharing faith jumps 200% and discipling others jumps 230%. And then they have the statement which reads like this. The research literally leaps off the charts. The findings hammer home the truth that there are profound differences between people who engage the scripture at least four times a week and those who engage with it less often. Okay. Now you could have learned all that and you have learned all that just from reading the scripture. The scripture tells you that there are things that the Holy Ghost wants to give you. They're not automatic. It requires effort on our part. We are commanded to read the Bible. Jesus said to the devil that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. We know that we need the daily manna. That whole picture in the Old Testament was a teaching aid that we need the word of God every single day. Not just on Christmas, not just on Easter, not just a couple times a week, but every single day. And this is why we have the Bible reading challenge. And so let's finish up in Habakkuk chapter number two here. We're getting close to being done. I've got one more for you though. Habakkuk chapter number two. This kind of just summarizes everything we've talked about so far. So when God is answering the prophet Habakkuk, it says, and the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and to make it plain upon the table. So make it plain, make it understandable upon the tables that he may run that readeth it. That's the goal from Genesis to revelation that we would understand that we would get revelation, internalize information and make it part of us so that we can run with it so that we can take what we have learned, not keep it as information, but actually transform it to application and get out there and put it to use. If we don't put what we're reading to use, it means nothing. All it is is information. And what did Paul tell you? Paul said that knowledge puffeth up. This is why you see people sometimes are good to go for a little while. They've watched all these documentaries. They watch 800 sermons. Yeah. They read the Bible in two days. They got that checked off, but they're dumb. They're literally spiritually dumb. You know, I can't believe you say that. I see it all the time. And I'm unfortunately, you know, somebody say, you're kind of rough around the edges. That's why you don't have as many listeners. I don't care. This is me. This is how I am. I will tell you how it is. And that is how it is. And I hate seeing it because I have to sit back and watch people literally destroy their lives because they think they're a hero when they're nothing but a zero because all they do is fill their head just all just gobbling up. They're just eating. They're spiritually obese, no application, no exercise, none of it. What happens every single time? Those people get so puffed up that like a helium balloon, they just float on out of their churches. And they just start looking down on everybody from cloud nine. That's what happens all the time happens all the time. Go to Joshua chapter number one. So benefits to reading the Bible on a daily basis. You've got your revelation. And then number two, we said you have your dedication. This is this is what happens when you decide I'm going to be like Josiah, I'm going to read the Bible, I'm going to hear the Bible, but I'm also going to keep the Bible that produces dedication that is producing taking revelation and turning it into transformation. Now there's a third one. And this is probably if you had to pin me down on the most important one, this is it. And it's right here, Joshua chapter one, look at verse number eight. God telling Joshua, as he's taken over from Moses already says this, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. But thou shalt remember this word, meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there in for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. Look, anybody telling you that you're going to be prosperous, that you're going to have success, if they leave out that daily Bible reading, and by Bible reading, I mean three things. I mean reading, I mean hearing, I mean keeping, I mean getting revelation, being dedicated, and this number three, meditation, okay? I'm not talking about some Buddhist junkie sitting on the side of the road in Indian style with his hands in some awkward position, you know, repeating some kind of a chant. I'm talking meditating, meaning thinking about these things, dwelling on these things, running them through your mind. Go to Psalm chapter 119. Psalm chapter 119. So we've got revelation, dedication, and meditation. These three things are benefits, okay? A person that is not saved, a person that does not have the Holy Ghost, they might tell you, I've meditated on this verse for a long time, but I'm sorry to break the news to you, that is impossible. All they've done is sat there and thought about it with their fleshly mind which will not produce anything because without the Holy Ghost you will never, ever, ever get revelation. We have the benefit, we have the privilege to be able to take what God is revealing to us as we're reading, as we're taking this in, and we can meditate on it. Paul told Timothy, and you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Timothy 4.15 he says, meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear unto all. So here's how important this is. Without meditating on the Bible, there is no profiting, okay? And so this is gonna lead into why we do the Bible challenge the way that we do. But you're in Psalm 119, look at verse 23. So here the psalmist says this, princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statues. You know another benefit that you get from meditating on the Word of God is no matter what, princes, leaders, people in your life come to attack you, say things about you, come after you, your family, it doesn't matter. When you meditate on the Word of God, guess what happens? That's your focus, okay? That's where it's at. That's what keeps your decision-making process, that's what keeps your bearing, that's what keeps your countenance in check and unmovable, unwavering. You're not gonna be like, well man, maybe they're right, maybe I ought to please them. You're not gonna be worried about pleasing them because you are meditating on these things. And if you're meditating on the Word of God, Paul promises you, you will profit, it is a guarantee, it is a promise, it is steadfast, it is sure. Meditation equals profitability. Now jump all the way down to verse number 78. So he says, let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause. Now we can all relate to this one here. But I will meditate upon, he says, but I will meditate in, I'm sorry, thy precepts. So again, okay, look at that benefit that you get there, okay? Number one, you get profitability. When you start to meditate on what you're reading, on what the Holy Ghost is giving you, the only thing that's gonna happen is profitability, okay? Good things is what I mean by that. So here it is, okay? If reading is eating, meditation is digestion, okay? That's how I want you to look at it. If reading, and so many of us, we say this, okay? And we can see this in the Bible, okay? Reading the Bible, you're feeding yourself the Word of God, you're giving yourself this meal, you're giving yourself this manna. Meditation is the digestion of that. And that is gonna lead me into my first point on why we do the Bible challenge the way that we do. Now let me just say a couple of things as a disclaimer so somebody doesn't clip what I'm saying and send it to all the other pastors. Oh, look, he's talking trash, okay? Look, some churches do the New Testament reading challenge in 30 days. We've done that here. There are times throughout the year where I do my own challenge and I just don't say anything. I just read it in 30 days, okay? I think it's good to go. There's no problem with that in the world. If you wanna do that challenge in 30 days, do it. But here is the thing. Not all of us are on the same playing field, okay? So what we decided to do a while back based off of things that I was seeing is we said, we're gonna slow this down here, okay? And we're gonna do five chapters a day and we're gonna stretch our challenge out over two months. That's what we're gonna do. No ill will. I'm not doing it just to be different, okay? I saw a need and I'm attempting to fill that need. And that need is to focus on meditation. And we've got people with small children working 12, 14 hours a day just moved here. I mean, half this church just moved here. There's a lot of people with a lot of busyness in their lives. And so what we did is we said, we're gonna shorten it down to five chapters a day because that's gonna give you time to meditate, okay? You are to read. We want you guys to read the Bible but to think, read a little bit, read a paragraph, read a chapter, stop, think about it, okay? Have you ever read something and you're like, what did I just read? I do it almost every day with books at work. I'm just like, oh man, I really need to learn this but what am I reading, okay? Take a walk, take a break. You've got all day to do five chapters. Look, when I used to do the nine chapter challenge day, this is what I did. Three in the morning, three at lunch and three at night. That's how I would do it. Sometimes I just bust out all nine. Sometimes I'd be super busy because I'm a busy dude. I'm busier than most people that I know. I work in like two jobs. And sometimes I would fall behind and have to get caught up and it's like, ah, you know, I'm not really meditating anymore. You know what I mean? So that's why we do it that way because we want to build a habit of meditation. But here's the other thing. We also want to build a habit of daily Bible reading and we figured if we could stretch this thing out over two months, there's a greater chance of you continuing on the rest of the year which is why at our church anniversary being in February, okay, that's when the challenge is over. It's our church anniversary. That's when we whip out this one, okay. And this is the Old Testament Bible reading challenge. The charts are on the table. No shame if you don't take it. Do whatever you want. There's no pressure here. I just want to exhort you and give you the benefits of doing this, okay. So Jessica did all this hard work here, lined them all up, worked it all out. You've got plenty of grace days. It'd take me 10 minutes to go through it. Pick it up. Take it with you if you want and this will get you through the entire Bible in one year, okay. Again, you want to do it more than that, that's fine. I have had years where I've read it four or five times because I used to be a government employee and there was times where we ain't got nothing to do and I'm getting paid 12 hours. I got my feet up on the desk and I'm reading the Bible. That's acceptable there though. That's okay. They don't care what you do as long as you don't kill somebody or do some perversion. They don't care. You could do whatever you want and so I took full advantage of that and that's what got me, got my time built up. That's great, okay. That's great but it doesn't work for everyone, okay. And I would rather just even it out, build a habit for those two months and then roll you right into the Old Testament. By the way, with this challenge, it still gives you enough time in the day to get that New Testament in, okay. See, this is what we're doing. We're trying to, we're not trying to trick you but we are kind of trying to like bend your mind still, oh okay, you know and to actually do this but it's a good bending, okay. It's good to go but again, maximizing digestion. That is my greatest, if you don't remember anything else I have said today, please remember that reading is eating and meditating is digesting. Remember that and you, look, it's clear in the Bible, meditation is equal to profitability because here's the thing, when you take something and you learn it and you use it, guess what, you're going to wind up becoming, you're going to wind up getting baptized in humility because sometimes you're going to do something for someone and they're not going to like it. You're going to go knock on someone's door like you're supposed to, like you read in the Bible or like you were told in the sermon. They're going to slam the door in your face, okay. That constant adversity is good for us. It's good for all of us because it keeps us humble, okay. But that's how we keep our heads down here, okay. That's how we stay on the ground because we don't want to get too puffed up with information. You start reading and checking out and quenching the Holy Ghost, I just got to check a box, I just got to check a box, I just got to check a box, okay. Look, you will see those people just levitating man, boy their head is big. I've seen people, their heads are so big they could barely get their head in that door there. I have seen it with my own eyes and I'm not saying that anybody in here is like that at all and I mean that, okay. But I've seen it and I don't want to see it ever again. So that's why we do things the way that we do them, okay. So we've got church anniversary is in February, okay. And it's a good time to be done with it, done with a challenge for the New Testament. We roll that habit for the, look if you could do it for two months you could do it for another 10. Easy, it's super easy. You have the time available. We make it easy to build that habit and to emphasize reading is eating, meditating is digesting. So I'm going to cut it off right there because I've taken enough time of yours already. So hopefully that answers any questions you might have about why we do it the way that we do it. Again, you want to read in 30 days, read it in 30 days. But just please do this for me. Please meditate on what you're reading, something, anything. Meditate because meditation leads to profitability which is application and all the stuff that we've been talking about. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much again, Lord, for this church, for all the people here, for everything that you've done for us. And just pray that you would reveal your truth to us, clear up understandings or misunderstandings that we might have and just motivate us and help us to turn that motivation into dedication for this coming year, Lord. And I just also pray that you would just increase our wisdom, make us more wise than we are. And I just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service. And of course, please bring us back safely this weekend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.