Learning to Feast on God's Word

Learning to Feast on God's Word

The Bible was never meant to be something we simply read—it was meant to nourish our souls. In this video, I'll show you practical ways to study God's Word so it becomes more than information—it becomes transformation.

Together we'll explore how to:

Grow deeper in your relationship with God.
Understand what the Bible says and how it applies to your everyday life.
Discover who God created you to be.
Learn to love others more like Jesus.
Find hope, wisdom, and direction as you follow the path God has prepared for you.

Whether you're opening the Bible for the very first time or you've been reading it for years, my prayer is that this teaching will help you develop a hunger for Scripture and learn to truly feast on God's Word.

"Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path." — Psalm 119:105

If this video encourages you, I'd love for you to subscribe and join me each week as we learn to renew our lives—one step at a time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Max Marcou, and this is Life with Max. My job here today is going to be to try to equip you to learn how to really feast on God's word. I'm going to read you a scripture I read in the last uh episode. It's out of John chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. Now I've had times in my life where I felt like I was walking in darkness. But as I grew closer to God through my relationship with Jesus, and again, we're going to talk about how we can practically do that in a real tangible way, when I got to know Jesus better, he lit up the path in front of me in ways that I just couldn't see before and made it possible for me to take steps of faith. I still had to do the work, but I could see that I was going in a good direction where before I felt lost. So learning to feast on God's word reminds me of having a great meal, a big meal, hopefully with somebody that you really enjoy being with. It could be Thanksgiving or out to dinner with a friend or family member, where you're just so satisfied after that meal. You got lots of good nutrition, you had great conversation, you were heard, you listened, beautiful. And time with God in the scriptures, especially having a study Bible, it will, I think, speed up your understanding of what God's trying to communicate to us through the scriptures. Second Timothy, a book in the New Testament, in chapter 3, verse 16 and 17 says, all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. And you're going to feel better at the end of each day when you're doing good work. You may have a routine that you maybe you've gotten to the point where you feel like you've lost your sense of purpose, a job or a relationship, whatever that may be. But you can recommit to having purpose and finding a way to be good and a blessing to the loving, even to the people that you work with and the people that you live life with. All right, today's main story is going to be found in Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 through 11. Jesus is tested in the wilderness. This is when Jesus fasts and the devil comes and tempts him. So let's get into it. Verse 1. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. And Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. If the devil's trying to basically get Jesus to uh change from who he is and what his identity and his mission is. And he's using uh this tactic, and Jesus comes right back with an incredible defense that you and I can use. Because when Jesus says it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, he's quoting scripture that's found in the Bible. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, you can find that. It's an Old Testament book. Jesus is using Scripture and He's giving us a big time play here. He's what I feel when I read this story is that Jesus is saying, watch everybody, watch what I'm gonna do when this evil thing comes my way trying to manipulate me. I'm gonna use scripture, not my feeling. It says Jesus was hungry, so it's stating that there's a feeling going on there. We all have feelings, but when you have truth of God's word in you, and don't worry if you don't feel like you have much knowledge of the Bible, it takes a little time, but a little bit each day, and a month from now, you're gonna know a lot about scripture. Anyways, my point is that Jesus uses scripture out of Deuteronomy chapter 8 to battle the devil. But the devil doesn't give up, and oftentimes the people or the enemies in your life often don't give up after one shot. So let's see what happens next. Then the devil took him up to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put your Lord God to the test. Now, Jesus again uses scripture. But what's fascinating about this is that the devil is also using scripture. And sometimes people in your life that are coming against you because they're trying to manipulate you, whatever it is that they're trying to do to you, harm you, whatever. Sometimes they can use a truth and use it out of context. And that's what the devil was basically doing here. That was taken out of Psalm 91. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. So Jesus is showing us in this story that even the enemy knows Scripture. So this is where you knowing your Father God, like we talked about in episode one, uh, and then in episode two here, learning that you are a child of God and He wants to equip you, educate you with good truths, you can combat the enemy. And whatever that enemy is for you in this season, biblical truth will help you to be stronger, to stay out of trouble, and to solve problems. All right, but he doesn't give up there. Again, the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give to you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And that's again of an old testament portion of Scripture, Deuteronomy chapter six. Fear the Lord your God, serve him only, and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow follow other gods. And then at the end of this short story, but powerful story that we can learn a lot from, uh, it says, Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. The devil left him, not after one little confrontation, not after two, but after three. And in your life, there are going to be enemies that come against you. It's just part of life. It's nothing to worry about. It's just you want to be equipped so that you can do your best to defend yourself in a way where you almost don't have to defend yourself because you're standing on God's timeless truth. Okay, so study Bible. I love that we live in a time where you can go online and look up all kinds of um things for free. Uh you go to Biblegateway.com as an example, and there's so many great resources there. But eventually I do hope that you find yourself a good paper uh Bible. Uh and the reason is because I think there is, you know, I am older, I get that. Uh a lot of people my age and older, uh, we do like, we still like paper books. Uh and I'm all for technology. I love technology. Look around. I love this stuff. I love technology. But um, when you have yourself a Bible, especially a study Bible, you can get out your highlighter and your pen and start to circle things, highlight things, and it becomes just such a great resource. And make yourself, you know, I don't know, a cup of tea or whatever you like, uh, and just immerse yourself in it for a little bit and then go back to it. It's fun to go back to it years later and see, like, oh, I highlighted that. Why'd I highlight? Oh, I remember that. And it's certain things are going to jump off the page and speak right into your heart. And that's really great when you can highlight that. I know you can do that on um an iPad or something, and that's great, but a good paper Bible is certainly a great investment. Okay, now let's move on to uh observing uh the story before we interpret. Slow down when you read the Bible. I encourage you to read the Bible in small chunks and really uh ask some good, healthy questions, like uh who who are we looking at here? Um, who is it written to? Uh what's happening? When was it happening? Why is it happening? What's the culture like? What's standing out? So when you read a story and you sit back and you try to put yourself there, I'm a very visual learner. So I try to put myself right there, like I'm out in the desert with Jesus and the devil, and I'm watching how they're going back and forth. And then I sit back and I think, what would I have done there? And I think that's the point, is that we are to watch Jesus or anyone in the Bible and see what works and what doesn't work, and save ourselves time of learning the hard way. Well, Joshua in the Bible, in the Old Testament, uh, Joshua chapter 1, uh verse 7 through 9. I'll read it for you and then we'll talk about it. Be strong and very courageous, be careful to obey all of the law my servant Moses, we'll talk about Moses in a moment, gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night. So really think about it. So that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. All right, who is this? This is Joshua guy. Well, Joshua was with Moses, and Moses, through God's power, led the slaves out of Egypt, out of slavery. And he says, I have a place for you. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. It's going to be a great future. But in between leaving Egypt in slavery and getting into the promised land, there was a lot of years and a lot of challenges. And the people that Moses was leading, uh, not all of them were easy to deal with. I can uh back up into the scriptures in the story a little bit to try to shine a little more light on this to explain why this is a big deal for Joshua, that he's uh listening to what God is speaking to him here. Moses had so many complaints and challenges of all the people. He's trying to manage all these people. Maybe you're trying to manage some people. And the it took him all day often to hear their complaints, and then the day would run out and he'd have to start the next morning. Well, Moses was married, and Moses' wife's father. So Moses' father-in-law came to Moses one day, and he cares about Moses. You know, he he's the father-in-law. Of course he cares for him. He's like, Moses, the the needs are too great for just you to try to manage. You need help. You need to equip other people to help you. Uh, what you're doing isn't good for you, and it isn't good for anybody else. And when I read that, I highlighted that. I mean, that that's a big leadership um uh teaching there. How we need to work as a team to really solve all the problems and to help the most amount of people that we can. And it's not, he said it's not good for you. In other words, it's not healthy for you, Moses. It's too much. And it's not good for them because they're all standing in line all day. That's not good. So sometimes we got to be willing to grow and and and learn how to lead better. Well, Moses dies and Joshua is put in charge. So now you see that Joshua doesn't have an easy job, even though God has always said, I've got a land for you. You just have to get everyone there. Uh, these are challenging times and challenging people that Joshua has inherited the leadership of. And so it's very important when he says, Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. And maybe you feel afraid or discouraged if you if you do, this could be a very encouraging portion of scripture. And you could dive into this and spend days on this, uh, really learning leadership and how to overcome fear and how to really get over being discouraged. I mean, we all get discouraged at times, but we can't stay there, we've got to get over it. I heard uh I always forget who it is. Um, but someone said. Because sometimes what is basic what I interpret, anyways, from that is that sometimes we get stuck in our head, and sometimes you just gotta go for a walk and clear your your head so that you can approach things with a new attitude. All right, let's keep going here. Um James chapter 1, verse 22 says, Do not merely listen to the word of God and so deceive yourselves. Uh do what it says. So I'm not ever uh encouraging people just to memorize scripture just for the sake of learning a lot of um cool truths. What I do emphasize is that people would take the time to get to know God through the scriptures. And that's why I'm uh always, I'm a broken record, I'm always saying read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over and over, really for the rest of your lives. And again, not trying to do this in one night, a little bit here, a little bit there, and allowing it to help you to grow in a relationship with God through Jesus. Then the rest of the Bible becomes much easier to understand and more exciting. All right. The Bible has some truths in it that are timeless. And if you've been to a wedding and heard this, um you you're gonna know as soon as I say it. Love is patient, love is kind. It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 through 8. I will read, even though there's lots of good stuff here. Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And this is a beautiful portion of scripture that is found throughout the scriptures. In other words, throughout the Bible, there is a common theme that God loves you. He does, he loves you. He is our heavenly father, and he loves you as one of his kids. But it is up to us. We have free will, and it's up to us to draw ourselves closer to God and get to know him. And the best way I know how is through studying the Bible. Not to pass a test, not to get an education, to get a relationship started and keep it going. Second, when you pray, your prayers will start to line up more with God's will because you'll start to know the heart of God. I remember when I was young, I would pray prayers, and now I think back and they were so immature because it was very self-centered. Like, God, just help me with this, help me with that. And really, God had much more to say to me, but I wasn't listening. I was just asking for things. And God wants to speak into your life. People say, Well, God, Max, how do I how do I hear God? For me, it's through the scriptures, reading the scriptures, hearing God speak, and accepting that he has a lot to say to us. And he wants to straighten out us out where we need straightening out. And he wants to equip us for the things that he thinks that would be the very best for us to put our time into. Um, if you look at your life and you say, well, Max, I've I've made a lot of mistakes, I've made a lot of enemies, I've I've I've certainly got a history of messing things up. I believe the Bible is fantastic. It's showing us that uh through God's grace and his help, he can help change us. I can't change people, but God can change us. He changed me. I believe he can change you. And it's not just gonna happen, I don't think. It's not very common that it just happens. It does take us actively participating. I own a gym, and and you can relate to this one as an easy one. Uh, you can want to get in shape and and want to have more endurance and better balance and all those good things. Um, but if you don't actually put the time in, then it doesn't really make sense that it's going to happen. But if you put the time in, anybody can get stronger, have better balance, and have more endurance. So it's the same, I think, with putting in a little bit of time and and just learning that God has already said a lot and it's not about works. 100% not about works. God loves you. You ask God to forgive you. He loves you. You it's free, salvation is a free gift. But a relationship can absolutely grow much faster when you spend time in God's word. And a Bible, a study Bible, getting a part becoming a part of a good Bible preaching church, getting involved in a Bible study. There's lots of great YouTube videos and podcasts. Whatever you use to just try to help yourself have a good um, it doesn't have to be every day, but a few times a week, or at least every Sunday, I hope you spend some time connecting with your creator, God. And I believe that you will be blessed. The um scripture I'm gonna end with is Psalm 119, verse 105. Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. We will benefit greatly by getting into God's word. And that will be like, as it says, a lamp to guide our feet. In other words, where are you going? Do you need some help? Do you need some clarity? Do you need a vision for your life? Do you want clarity on who you are, your identity as God, as father, and you as son or daughter, as a child of God, do you want help with that? It's available to you. And I hope that this has inspired you to uh take some steps for yourself and just grow closer to God uh a little bit each day and each week. I'm gonna say a short prayer for you. And again, thank you for tuning in. If you're ever in the area, we are just about 20 minutes west of Boston in Newton, Massachusetts, is this Elevation Chapel that I'm in right now. And you can go to the website, elevationchapel.org, to see more uh hopefully things like this that will help uh equip you. But thank you so much for tuning in. Let's pray. God, I thank you for every single person that's listening to this or watching this, and I pray that their relationship with you will become so beautiful over the course of the next month. I pray that as they show up to spend time with you, you will make yourself just vividly real to them through the scriptures and through prayer. I pray that they'd start to see you as their father in a in a really refreshing way. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Hope to uh hear from you and uh hopefully you'll tune in next time. Thank you so much.