Speaker 1: in Psalm, chapter 1 this morning, and if you're new here, you picked a great Sunday to come because we're starting a new series entitled Deeper Five Decisions you Must Make to Grow Deeper in your Faith.
Speaker 1: And here's what we're going to do over the next five Sundays.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about five habits, five rhythms that if you have in your life, I promise something will happen.
Speaker 1: You will grow deeper in your faith for some of us than ever before.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever met somebody that was really, really strong in their faith.
Speaker 1: Maybe you had a growth group leader around here or somebody you serve with, or something.
Speaker 1: In fact, how many of you would say I know somebody, I've met somebody?
Speaker 1: I saw a video on TikTok.
Speaker 1: Well, we're not watching anymore of those anymore.
Speaker 1: You know videos on TikTok, somebody that is really, really strong and mature in their faith?
Speaker 1: If that's, you go and lift up your hand, lift up your, okay, all right, I see two people know somebody strong in their faith.
Speaker 1: You met somebody and maybe you see them go through a trial and they go through a hard time.
Speaker 1: They just have like this stability about them and this grace about them and it's almost like how do they handle that trial that way.
Speaker 1: Maybe they know the word and you're like how in the world can they just know the scripture like that?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you see that person and you're like how in the world can they just know the scripture like that?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you see that person and you're thinking you think I can never be like that person.
Speaker 1: I don't have a past Like their past is not bad, my past woo.
Speaker 1: Or you think, man, if they had the upbringing and the family that I was raised in, there's just no way I can be mature and deep in my faith.
Speaker 1: But here's what I want to do.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you something that's going to bust some paradigms, that's going to change some perspectives in the room, and here it is is you can grow deeper in your faith and you can be like the person that some of you had in your mind if you'll choose to do what these people did, and this is what these people did.
Speaker 1: Now, here's the thing this is a secret Because not a lot of people know it and even fewer people embrace it.
Speaker 1: Here's the secret about those people is they have specific spiritual rhythms in their life that produce spiritual depth.
Speaker 1: The person that you know, the person that came to mind, the person that you think about, that you're like man.
Speaker 1: They're just mature in their faith.
Speaker 1: It's like they know the word.
Speaker 1: It's like they go through difficulties with grace and peace.
Speaker 1: How do they do it, grace and peace?
Speaker 1: How did they do it?
Speaker 1: They just had some rhythms in their life that allowed them to go deeper in their faith.
Speaker 1: And this is what we want to do over the next five weeks is we want to take all the mystery out of this.
Speaker 1: We want to put the cookies on the bottom shelf and we want to show you how you can grow deeper.
Speaker 1: And the reason why this matters so much is because, like we said last week, when you grow deeper, your hope will increase.
Speaker 1: When you grow deeper, your perspective changes, you'll have more peace in your life and you'll be more aware of God's presence.
Speaker 1: And the first rhythm that we're going to see for you to grow deeper is very simple.
Speaker 1: If you're ready for it, would you say amen here?
Speaker 1: It is Consistently taking time to read and meditate on Scripture.
Speaker 1: Consistently taking time to read and meditate on Scripture.
Speaker 1: And this takes us to Psalm 1, where we're going to see the power of meditating on Scriptures.
Speaker 1: Let's pick it up in Psalm chapter 1.
Speaker 1: If you're ready to learn about the power of Scripture in your life, would you say amen, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Here it is Psalm chapter 1, verse 1, the first Psalm.
Speaker 1: It says how happy is the one?
Speaker 1: You see how this begins.
Speaker 1: How happy is the one?
Speaker 1: Can we say that together, ready?
Speaker 1: How happy is the one?
Speaker 1: Do you want to be happy, yes or no?
Speaker 1: Of course you do.
Speaker 1: If you don't, you got something wrong with you.
Speaker 1: How happy is going to tell us who does not?
Speaker 1: Look what it says walk in the advice of the what's that word?
Speaker 1: Walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers, in the company of mockers, and instead of doing these things, in verse 1, verse 2, it says instead, his delight.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the word delight, ready Delight.
Speaker 1: Everybody say it nice and happy, like you're delighting, ready Delight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like delight.
Speaker 1: But his delight is in the Lord's instruction and he meditates, meditates on it day and night.
Speaker 1: Now, did you guys see the contrast from verse 1 to verse 2.
Speaker 1: See the contrast.
Speaker 1: Verse 1, the happy one is one who does not do certain things, but it's the one over here who does something.
Speaker 1: What do they do?
Speaker 1: They delight and meditate on the Lord's instruction.
Speaker 1: What's the word delight mean?
Speaker 1: Delight just means to take pleasure in, to enjoy.
Speaker 1: Last week I learned that there are some things that many of you delight in.
Speaker 1: In fact, we all delight in stuff.
Speaker 1: Our friend Donovan, poor Donovan, delights in the Detroit Lions, which is like prayers.
Speaker 1: You know it's tough.
Speaker 1: Some of us delight in the San Francisco 49ers, but we're not going to talk about that.
Speaker 1: After last week's message I learned that some of you really delight in In-N-Out Burger.
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness, if you were here last week, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I also learned last week that some of you let's just say how do I say this?
Speaker 1: Your palates haven't matured quite as much and some of you delight in McDonald's.
Speaker 1: I've been praying for you all week long.
Speaker 1: We all delight in certain things and the psalmist says certain things.
Speaker 1: And the psalmist says that the happy person is somebody who delights and meditates on God's word.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you go back to the verse, it says how often he meditates on it.
Speaker 1: Somebody tell me how often does he meditate on it?
Speaker 1: Day and night.
Speaker 1: So does this mean that the psalmist says take out your iPhone at 8.15 in the morning and then, at 8.15 in the evening, have an alarm go off.
Speaker 1: Do, do, do.
Speaker 1: Meditate on Scripture.
Speaker 1: What does this mean?
Speaker 1: Good, what this really means is that meditation on Scripture is a lifestyle.
Speaker 1: It's not just something that we come in on Sunday morning and I'm teaching the word or somebody's teaching the word, and it's okay.
Speaker 1: I need to meditate on the word Like I need to like for this next 30 minutes.
Speaker 1: I have to focus, but it's really hard because, tiktok, I got shut down yesterday and I'm kind of having withdrawals right now.
Speaker 1: And meditation is a lifestyle, and you know the word meditation here.
Speaker 1: What it really means is it means mumble to yourself.
Speaker 1: Can we say mumble to yourself, freddie?
Speaker 1: Mumble to yourself.
Speaker 1: You know anybody that mumbles.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid, my mom would ask me a question and I'd say something.
Speaker 1: She'd say stop mumbling.
Speaker 1: It really means mumble to yourself.
Speaker 1: And meditation is something where we're reminding ourselves of the truth of God's word.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this I want to give you guys a beautiful picture on a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: It's like a cow that's out in the field.
Speaker 1: You ever see a cow out there in the field.
Speaker 1: What are they doing?
Speaker 1: They're chewing the cud.
Speaker 1: And y'all know what those cows do they eat the grass, they eat whatever, and then they regurgitate it back up and they chew on it some more.
Speaker 1: I know beautiful picture for a Sunday morning and they chew on it some more.
Speaker 1: I know beautiful picture for a Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: This is what they do and really what this is.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful image of meditation.
Speaker 1: It's reading scripture, bringing it back up and chewing on its truth.
Speaker 1: And here's why this is so important Because the mind, what the mind repeats, the mind retains.
Speaker 1: Y'all ever have a parent growing up, or maybe a teacher, and they were constantly saying something.
Speaker 1: They were like reminding you of something all the time.
Speaker 1: And even right now in your mind you got something locked in from like 40 years ago Because you heard a teacher say it or you heard a parent say it all the time.
Speaker 1: I had an elementary school teacher.
Speaker 1: She would come up with the most ridiculous songs about things like adverbs and adjectives that honestly like that's when I was like in fourth grade.
Speaker 1: Really I don't care about this stuff, but she knew that if she could get it in a little song and we could sing it, then we would retain it.
Speaker 1: In fact, I remember I was in fourth grade and in fourth grade and in fourth grade I knew all 50 states in the United States of America because she came up with this silly song.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing I can still remember the song today.
Speaker 1: It's crazy why?
Speaker 1: Because I just retained it, I repeated it.
Speaker 1: She repeated it to us again and again, and again.
Speaker 1: And when we repeat things, when we repeat things, what happens is we're able to retain them.
Speaker 1: And here's what the psalmist says.
Speaker 1: The psalmist says meditate on scripture, mumble scripture to yourself, let it become a part of you.
Speaker 1: And when you do this, verse 3 tells us what will happen.
Speaker 1: Verse 3 says he is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruits in its season and whose leaf does not wither and whatever he does prospers.
Speaker 1: Here's the image A strong, rooted, fruit-producing, deeper tree.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because of scripture meditation.
Speaker 1: The wicked verse four are not like this.
Speaker 1: Instead, they're like the chaff that the wind blows away.
Speaker 1: So somebody meditating on scripture they're strong, they're rooted, but the chaff is just blowing in the wind.
Speaker 1: Whatever's out there.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is.
Speaker 1: This is what's politically correct, so I'm gonna blow over here.
Speaker 1: This is what's politically correct, so I'm going to blow over here.
Speaker 1: This is what my favorite celebrity or musician or athlete says.
Speaker 1: I'm going to blow over here.
Speaker 1: I mean, after all, taylor Swift said it.
Speaker 1: It's got to be right.
Speaker 1: He says they're like the chat that's blowing all over the place.
Speaker 1: Therefore, verse 5, the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous Friend.
Speaker 1: This is important and this is very sobering.
Speaker 1: At the end of our life, one day, every single person in this room will stand before God.
Speaker 1: In fact, hebrews chapter 9 tells us this it's appointed for people to die once and after this, the judgment and every one of us will stand before God and we will stand as either forgiven or condemned to a place the scripture calls hell, the very real place that a lot of people don't want to talk about, but it's a very real place, and we will stand condemned or we will stand forgiven, based on what we did with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Did we turn from our sin and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be our Savior, to be our Lord?
Speaker 1: Did we do that, or are we trusting in our good works?
Speaker 1: Are we trusting in our religious pedigree?
Speaker 1: Are we trusting in a churchy activity or are we just trusting in our own selves?
Speaker 1: If that's the case, when we stand before God, we will stand before God as condemned and be condemned to a place scripture calls hell, and this is very sobering.
Speaker 1: This is very sobering.
Speaker 1: But this also for those of you that maybe you're new to faith, you're new to Christ or you're just trying to check this thing out.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that Jesus has made a way where you can stand forgiven before God because of what he did on the cross for you.
Speaker 1: He can have forgiven.
Speaker 1: You don't have to have the wrath of God abiding on you Because of what Christ has done for you.
Speaker 1: And can I humbly say, you might be in this room and you might be like this towards God.
Speaker 1: You might be mad, you might be upset, you might say I don't believe I like this towards God.
Speaker 1: You might be mad, you might be upset.
Speaker 1: You might say I don't believe I'm going to do my own thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I feel that, bro, here's the thing One day you still will stand before God Like you, still will stand before God, and it won't matter what happened to you, it won't matter how strong you were, it won't matter how much to you.
Speaker 1: It won't matter how strong you were, it won't matter how much money you had, it won't matter what you look like, because at the end of the day, when you stand before him, all that will matter is what we did with Jesus, and Jesus' arms are open to everybody that will come to him and those that have come to Jesus by faith.
Speaker 1: Look what it says in verse number six.
Speaker 1: It says the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.
Speaker 1: Here in the text we see a really, really clear picture given by the psalmist is that spiritual strength and vitality comes from scripture, from meditating on scripture, and, for all of us in the room, our spiritual depth is directly related to our time spent meditating on Scripture.
Speaker 1: According to Psalm 1, your spiritual depth is related to your time spent meditating on Scripture.
Speaker 1: And what I want us to do in the few minutes we have together is I want us to look deeper at the power of Scripture and then, honestly, I want to get super practical with us, because I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes it's like this book can be a little overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you open it up and you're like I don't know what's going on right here and I want to get really practical and just show you how you can engage with this book, because when you engage with this book, you can grow deeper.
Speaker 1: Every single one of us can do that.
Speaker 1: So I want us to see this.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's check out, first of all, the power of Scripture.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the power of Scripture, ready.
Speaker 1: The power of Scripture, it's powerful.
Speaker 1: Scripture, it's powerful.
Speaker 1: We just saw in verse three, it's like a tree planted beside flowing streams.
Speaker 1: But it's also powerful because scripture guides us.
Speaker 1: Scripture guides us.
Speaker 1: Can we say that together, ready, scripture guides us.
Speaker 1: It says your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.
Speaker 1: Feet and a light on my path.
Speaker 1: Some of you are here and you're wondering what should I do next in my life and you're overwhelmed and things are difficult.
Speaker 1: You think what am I going to do now?
Speaker 1: I didn't plan for this.
Speaker 1: Scripture is a guide to help you Watch this.
Speaker 1: It's a lamp for my feet.
Speaker 1: Context A lamp would just give a little bit of light here to show you the next step.
Speaker 1: Listen, some of you want to know where you'll be in five years.
Speaker 1: God isn't concerned as much about that as he is concerned about you.
Speaker 1: You just take the next step of obedience to him, with a little bit of light that you can see from God's word.
Speaker 1: And this is what scripture is.
Speaker 1: Scripture guides us.
Speaker 1: Scripture, second of all, it matures us.
Speaker 1: It matures us.
Speaker 1: It says this in 2 Peter 2, verse 2.
Speaker 1: Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word so that by it you may what's that word?
Speaker 1: You may grow, grow up into your salvation, reach the maturity of who you are in Christ, of your identity in Christ.
Speaker 1: Here's the picture.
Speaker 1: Here you have a newborn infant, a baby, and they desire the milk to grow.
Speaker 1: You guys have seen little babies.
Speaker 1: They're so cute and cuddly and you take pictures with them and somebody's like oh, I love babies so much.
Speaker 1: Others of us, when it comes to babies, we're like I'm really scared because I don't want to break them.
Speaker 1: And you got a cute little baby.
Speaker 1: And imagine if the baby were to be the same size at one year old as it was at one week old.
Speaker 1: That's bad.
Speaker 1: Imagine if at two years old it was the same size at one month old.
Speaker 1: We'd say there's a problem, let's go to a hospital, let's go somewhere.
Speaker 1: Actually, let's be honest, we're pulling out our phones.
Speaker 1: We're doing WebMD first.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We're Google.
Speaker 1: What's happening here?
Speaker 1: There needs to be growth Now.
Speaker 1: This is why babies born give them milk.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: So they can grow.
Speaker 1: And this is what God says.
Speaker 1: This is what Peter says right here.
Speaker 1: He says you need milk so it will grow you the milk of the word.
Speaker 1: And watch this as we're growing.
Speaker 1: We go from milk to meat eventually.
Speaker 1: Now, some of us it's very possible that you could be a Jesus follower for years and years and years and you might know a lot of things, had knowledge about God, you might know the whole churchy thing, but you could still be a spiritual baby.
Speaker 1: And in the world, in real life, we'd be like there's something wrong with this.
Speaker 1: But some of us have just gotten used to being a spiritual baby and it's because we haven't spent time learning and meditating on the Word of God.
Speaker 1: And what scripture does is scripture matures us.
Speaker 1: Scripture also transforms our minds and our lives.
Speaker 1: It says in James, chapter 5, if anybody's a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.
Speaker 1: He looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
Speaker 1: Let's have a moment of honesty in the room.
Speaker 1: Can we have a moment of honesty in church is the best place to be honest.
Speaker 1: How many of you this morning you woke up, you rolled out of bed, you looked in the mirror and you said something's got to change.
Speaker 1: I need to.
Speaker 1: I need to fix some things up.
Speaker 1: Somebody else saw some little eye boogies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get those things out.
Speaker 1: James says what the scripture does.
Speaker 1: It shows us some impurities.
Speaker 1: So we know, oh, I need to change some things in my life.
Speaker 1: It forms us, it transforms us.
Speaker 1: It transforms us.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me.
Speaker 1: I can kind of nerd out on like studies and data and research and stuff, and it's super interesting to me how they have all these studies that are coming out about how our media consumption is forming us.
Speaker 1: Now, maybe you're a little younger and maybe you get most of your media consumption through your phone, or maybe you get most of your media consumption by watching something on TV.
Speaker 1: But all of us get media.
Speaker 1: All of us consume media and different things from things we scroll and see and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And I've shared this before and this isn't prescriptive for any one of y'all.
Speaker 1: This is descriptive for me.
Speaker 1: But if I watch too much news for me, it causes me to be fearful, anxious and negative.
Speaker 1: Now, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing by nature I'm not fearful, I'm not negative.
Speaker 1: Every now and again I can be a little bit anxious, but by nature I'm really not those three things.
Speaker 1: But if I sit there and just like, intake the news and news and news and news, or I get involved in the doom scroll you know what I'm saying what happens is I start being anxious, negative and fearful.
Speaker 1: What starts to happen is my media content starts to form me and transform me.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this and transform me.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this we form our media consumption and then our media consumption forms us.
Speaker 1: So nobody, for the most part, probably tells you who you need to follow on your social media.
Speaker 1: Nobody's like you gotta follow that person.
Speaker 1: Probably you don't have a lot of people saying you have to watch the news, this news channel, this, whatever.
Speaker 1: No, you choose that.
Speaker 1: You might have suggestions, but by and large you choose that.
Speaker 1: But here's what happens when we choose that and we intake this again and again and again.
Speaker 1: What ends up happening if we're not careful?
Speaker 1: Again and again and again.
Speaker 1: What ends up happening if we're not careful, is what we're intaking starts to form us.
Speaker 1: This is why, if I can be very honest, some of us live very anxious, fearful lives, because we intake content that is constantly promoting anxiety and fear in our lives.
Speaker 1: That is constantly promoting anxiety and fear in our lives.
Speaker 1: This is why some of us fully believe that if something makes you happy in the moment, then that's what you should do, no matter what it's the ultimate trump card, no matter if it hurts somebody, no matter what scripture says, if it makes you happy in the moment, you should do it, no questions asked.
Speaker 1: Where did you come to that place to believe that?
Speaker 1: For many of us, our media has formed us.
Speaker 1: What we watch, the shows we watch, the things we intake.
Speaker 1: It has formed us to believe that, for some of us, we think, man, there's nothing wrong with people having sex and sleeping around outside of marriage.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you think there's something wrong with that, there's something wrong with you.
Speaker 1: We think that how has that happened?
Speaker 1: Because our media has formed us into believing that.
Speaker 1: Now some of you think, pastor Nate, you're offending me.
Speaker 1: Can I say, if I teach God's word, I'm probably going to offend you again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here's what happens Our media consumption forms us.
Speaker 1: So we have to ask ourselves an honest question.
Speaker 1: Now, this requires self-awareness, which can be hard sometimes.
Speaker 1: How is my media consumption forming me?
Speaker 1: How does, after this amount of media consumption, how is this forming me?
Speaker 1: What do I actually believe?
Speaker 1: Okay, I say I'm a Jesus follower.
Speaker 1: Awesome, I am.
Speaker 1: What do I actually believe, based on scripture?
Speaker 1: And here's what happens as we immerse ourselves in God's word and God's truth, you're going to find this it's going to form you and transform you to be more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: This, it's going to form you and transform you to be more like Jesus.
Speaker 1: Scripture is powerful.
Speaker 1: It's the first and foundational rhythm to grow deeper.
Speaker 1: But how do we actually engage with Scripture?
Speaker 1: How do we actually get something from this?
Speaker 1: I don't have a ton of time, but I want to be super practical and I want to walk you through how you can engage with God's Word.
Speaker 1: I don't want us to talk about it.
Speaker 1: I want us to be about this.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is how we do it.
Speaker 1: Number one choose a time and place each day to engage with Scripture.
Speaker 1: So, to have this rhythm, there needs to be something in our life where we say at this time in this place, I'm going to engage with scripture.
Speaker 1: I know it can be challenging because some of y'all have like 50 million things going on and kids, I get all that, but you want to have just a rhythm of when do we do this?
Speaker 1: Number two find a good, readable Bible translation for you to read.
Speaker 1: Some of you may say, pastor Nate, what's the best Bible translation for me to read?
Speaker 1: I got it for you.
Speaker 1: You ready.
Speaker 1: The best Bible translation is the one that you read.
Speaker 1: That's the best one.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like me and you have a background in the King James Version.
Speaker 1: How many of you have a background in the King James Version?
Speaker 1: Okay, thou art like me, thou art like me.
Speaker 1: So he still used the King James Version.
Speaker 1: I love that for you.
Speaker 1: I 100% do, but for some of us, the vowels and the these and the old English is tough.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing Read a Bible translation that works for you.
Speaker 1: Number three try to take one thing from your scripture reading and meditate on it.
Speaker 1: Take one thing from your scripture reading and meditate on it.
Speaker 1: Instead of trying to get like 57 things, just try to get one thing.
Speaker 1: When I was in college, there was a professor.
Speaker 1: He said when you read your Bible, make sure you read with your specs on, your spectacles on.
Speaker 1: I said, dude, I'm like 19.
Speaker 1: I don't have classes, man, what do you mean?
Speaker 1: He said no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: When you read, if you'll put your specs on, it will allow you to get something from scripture.
Speaker 1: And he shared something that literally changed the way I read my Bible when I was like 19, 20 years old.
Speaker 1: He said when you read your scripture.
Speaker 1: He said this is what you need to look for.
Speaker 1: He said you need to look for is there a sin to be forsaken?
Speaker 1: Is there a promise to be claimed?
Speaker 1: Does God make you a promise?
Speaker 1: Is there an example in scripture to be followed?
Speaker 1: Is there a command to be obeyed?
Speaker 1: Is there a stumbling block to be avoided?
Speaker 1: And I wish I had more time to walk y'all through a little bit deeper with this.
Speaker 1: But when you're looking at scripture, try to get something from it and you can use this as a guide.
Speaker 1: Number four use a resource to accompany you as you read.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you'll read something and you're like what does that even mean?
Speaker 1: What's happening here?
Speaker 1: How do I?
Speaker 1: Okay, this is what I've done in our 40 days of growing deeper.
Speaker 1: Reading kind of what I've typically done is I like the old school Bible in my hand.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 1: Different people use the tablets.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 1: I love that for you.
Speaker 1: I love holding it in my hand right.
Speaker 1: But I also like to use some resources.
Speaker 1: So I'll have a tablet with like a commentary on it, kind of explaining some things.
Speaker 1: I'll spend time reading through a chapter, thinking through it, and then I'll look in the commentary to kind of shed some light on the passage.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll read a word and I'll say, man, what does that word mean?
Speaker 1: And I'll look in the commentary and I'll do some study on it and sometimes if you use a resource, it will help you as you read it.
Speaker 1: Number five ask somebody to help you stay accountable in your reading.
Speaker 1: Ask a family member, ask someone in your growth group.
Speaker 1: Say, hey, can you just like check up on me, not in like a weird judgmental way, like did you read your Bible?
Speaker 1: No, but like hey, how's it going?
Speaker 1: And sometimes that will help you stay accountable.
Speaker 1: That's one of the power of our groups, we are better than me.
Speaker 1: Ask somebody to help you stay accountable.
Speaker 1: And then, number six consider attending a free Bible conference this next week in Sacramento.
Speaker 1: We haven't said a ton about this, but last year I think we had 30, 40 people from FCC go and it's in the evenings this week with incredible sessions and things.
Speaker 1: This is what it's all about growing you deeper in your knowledge and understanding of God's word.
Speaker 1: If you go to SassoonChurchcom, you get more information about it.
Speaker 1: You can scan the QR code.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: What's amazing is it's a free conference with incredible, incredible, world-renowned Bible speakers and teachers, and that's something that might help you as well.
Speaker 1: I want to end with two quick thoughts, and we'll be done when it comes to all of this reading and meditating on Scripture.
Speaker 1: One is this fight to stay consistent in your growing deeper reading, in your scripture reading.
Speaker 1: Some of you I loved it.
Speaker 1: I talked to several people after 845 service Some of you, like you'll miss a day or two, or three or four in your Bible reading, your scripture reading, and you'll beat yourself up.
Speaker 1: Don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't beat yourself up, because this is what happens Two days turns into two months and it turns into like six months.
Speaker 1: You're like man I don't even know, like, where's my Bible app?
Speaker 1: Or you have to, like, re-download the Bible app.
Speaker 1: You know, don't listen.
Speaker 1: Fight to stay consistent in your Bible reading.
Speaker 1: I know it's a challenge, but try to stick with it and if you get behind, it's okay.
Speaker 1: Number two if you haven't joined Growing Deeper, it's not too late.
Speaker 1: We got 200 people going through this together.
Speaker 1: If you want to say, hey, I kind of want to go along with this with the church, we're reading the gospels together over 40 days.
Speaker 1: Guys, we printed out extra journals for you.
Speaker 1: Like, your name is on a journal out there Not really, but hey, we'll write it on there, but you can be a part of the Growing Deeper reading.
Speaker 1: Get more information at the Next Steps and Information Table.
Speaker 1: And this is what's going to happen over the next five weeks.
Speaker 1: Over the next five weeks, we're going to talk about one rhythm each Sunday, and what's going to happen is, if you will incorporate these rhythms into your life, you will be able to be like that person we talked about earlier, that you thought about and you were like man.
Speaker 1: They're so strong in their faith.
Speaker 1: Today it was the scripture.
Speaker 1: Next Sunday, we're gonna fill out this next bubble, here and together.
Speaker 1: This is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We are going to be spiritually strong.
Speaker 1: You are going to go deeper.
Speaker 1: 2025 is gonna be a year of incredible spiritual growth and incredible spiritual victory in your life.