The Word

There is a scene in Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood where he is sitting at the bedside of an elderly man who said, “ I have much to tell you about history…about your history.”  For the first time Robin learned of his true heritage which in turn shaped his future and ultimately the future of England.

For some reason, I have always related this particular scene to God and His call for every believer to know the Word, not just the history, but how it applies to the present and the future.  

We must not neglect spending time in God’s Word not just to read it, but to know Him and what that means for our past, present, and future.

Transcript

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Hey everybody, you were listening to Unfiltered with Jesse B on this late Friday afternoon, early Friday evening, which means one thing. We made it. Made it through the work week. And for many of us, this was only a four-day work week due to Memorial Day. And tell me I'm not alone in this, but it just seems like any time we have a holiday that falls on a weekday and therefore shortens the work week, those end up feeling like the longest weeks of the year. I don't know why. But anyway, if you're listening, congratulate yourself because you made it through. Anyway, before we get started on here, I want to extend a welcome to listeners in Stockholm, Sweden, who are the latest to join the Unfiltered with Jesse B podcast listening family. And for all listeners, if you are enjoying what you hear and think others might benefit from it as well, go ahead and share an episode or two with them, and also don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done so. John 1 1 tells us in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. John 1 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. So today I want to talk about the importance of spending time in God's Word and making it a part of your daily routine. And I know that with all of us we could probably stand to get in the Bible more than we do. We have different things going on. We have the verse of the day that may pop up on our cell phones or our social media. You may listen to a podcast like this one on the way to work or as you're going about your day, but it's important to get that one-on-one time with God and spending time in His Word. So I don't know if any of you are familiar with Rick Renner, who is a best-selling Christian author. He's also a Bible teacher and actually pastors a church in Russia. I read that he has pastored the Moscow Good News Church, and I think he actually started that church in September of 2000. So every once in a while I will watch his latest devotionals on YouTube, and I distinctly remember him saying that he does not eat physical food until he has had his spiritual food first. Meaning that spending time reading and allowing the Holy Spirit to minister to him through Scripture is the most important part of his day. So back in February, when I started this podcast, I was doing research on church attendance and saw statistics on that as well as Bible reading. And most people who were pulled by a Pew Research defined regular church attendance as once or twice a month, and regular Bible reading one to three times a year. And that's just alarming to me because Hosea 4 6 says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Now Matthew four and Luke four both give detailed accounts of Jesus' temptation when he spent forty days in the wilderness. When Jesus was at his weakest and lowest point, it was then that Satan came to him, tempting him in three ways. The first we know was appetite. Satan appealed to the immediate circumstance by challenging Jesus to rely on his own means to satisfy an immediate desire rather than to trust God for provision. The second was pride, and Satan misused Scripture to get Jesus to test God, suggesting that God's angels would catch Jesus if he jumped. The third was through power, tempting Jesus to obtain universal rule and power to align with the world and not God. If Jesus would only just bend the knee to Satan, he could have had it all and possibly could have avoided the cross. But Jesus saw the means to an end. And he knew that his allegiance was to God. But how did Jesus respond to all of this? Simply by saying it is written. Now you and I may not be wandering in the desert or wilderness like Jesus did, but there may be seasons where you have felt like it. Some of you may be in that season now, and I have to admit that I am as well. The enemy is going to try to get you to believe you're in a hopeless situation. He's going to say things like today is just the same as it was before, and the day will be the same after that. And it will be more of the same tomorrow and the next day. The Lord does not hear you, nor does he have time to care for you. You got yourself into this mess and you're going to have to get yourself out of it. God, after all, helps those who helps themselves, etc, etc, and on and on it goes, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the lies that we believe. And why do we believe the lies of the enemy because we haven't spent enough time in the Word? I have had people tell me that they do not believe all of the Bible or they only believe and read the red letters, Jesus' words, and the rest of it they won't even bother with. Well, the problem with that is Second Timothy three, sixteen through seventeen, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And then we have Hebrews four twelve, which says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of morrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And then there's Joshua one eight. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. And Psalm one nineteen one o five, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I heard a story about a guy who booked passage on a ship from England to America. At mealtimes the guy just stayed in his cabin only eating the food that he brought with him because he thought his ticket was only for travel. On the last day the captain of the ship finally asked the guy why he never saw him at any of those mealtimes. The guy told him he bought food for the trip, but when the captain said, Sir, your ticket also included meals. So needless to say, the voyage from England to America ended up costing the man more money simply because he did not notice the ticket included food. In other words, the man robbed himself because of lack of knowledge. And when we don't spend time in God's word, not only are we robbing ourselves, we are allowing the enemy to rob us as well. And how that happens so easily is by lack of knowledge. Deuteronomy twenty eight thirteen, God assures his people that if they follow his commands they will be leaders rather than followers. In fact, and the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath. If thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them. I'm going to end with this challenge to each and every one of you, including myself, which is to spend more time in the Word. Pray and ask God to give you a new desire to read the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how that word applies to your life. Okay, that's a wrap for this week, but I will be back on Monday with new content as the Lord leads. Love you guys. Have a good weekend.