You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. So we're gonna be looking at 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, in which, if you don't have a Bible with you, that's on page 996 in the Bibles that are in front of you, so you can take and turn to that. But as we reflect on this is we are going to see that Paul is going to remind Timothy that God's word is the ultimate speech that he needs to heed in order to remain faithful. In fact, what I would argue is that 2 Timothy is actually the second letter that Paul has written to Timothy, his protégé. So if you don't know, Paul and Timothy partnered together for much of their missionary journey, and Paul actually looks to Timothy very much as a son. And as you can see, we are in 2 Timothy. So what about 1 Timothy? Well, I'd say 1 Timothy is really more instructional, it's really more of equipping, it's really to give Timothy some basics to actually embark and to do really what he is called to do as a pastor. But then second Timothy is actually very much more personal. In fact, if we're considering Paul in this context, Paul's actually in his last imprisonment. And he is actually about to get martyred based on history. And so Paul, I think, recognizes, and this is kind of his last farewell letter to Timothy. But then Timothy is one who is truly struggling. Because as you read through, if you read the whole letter, you will find that it's pretty clear. You can infer that Timothy is struggling just in being faithful. In fact, you will find that he's actually struggling with the suffering that is occurring for the sake of the gospel. So he sees his teacher being in prison, and he himself is actually suffering and being persecuted. And so Paul has to remind him, hey, you need the power. You need the power to be strengthened, to be faithful, so make sure that you stay faithful. He also is struggling with some problems in his church. He's got some problem people. I know that's a surprise for church, problem people within a church, you've got to be kidding me. But he has some real ones. He has people who are trying to infiltrate the church and dissuade people away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, away from God's word. He also is just struggling to remain bold and courageous. In fact, as you see through this text, as you'll many times see the reoccurring phrase, do not be ashamed. And so I think what you see is Timothy. Timothy loves Christ, but he's shrieking back. He's not being as bold as he should in addressing the people of God as he is called to do. And so what we see is then Paul actually giving him a commencement speech. The commencement, the starting to go, hey, you need to remain faithful. But as we get to this text, I think Paul then expands. It's not only about the letter that I'm writing to you, but talking about the totality of scripture that he had in his hands. See, Paul is giving Timothy his own personal inspiration speech, but Paul reminds Timothy of something greater. He points to the Scripture as the ultimate source for Timothy as he seeks to take these next steps of faithfulness. As we're gonna see, as our big idea shows, is that the Bible should be the starting point for every pursuit of our life. Should be the commencement, the starting point for every pursuit of life. So since you have turned to 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, let's go ahead and read it. starts out saying, 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. So the first thing that we recognize as we read these verses is that we need to listen to the speaker. You see the phrase, all Scripture is breathed out by God. What we have to be reminded of, some of you have heard this verse and you might know this truth, but we still have to be reminded, the Bible that we hold is directly from God. In fact, when you see breathed out by God, that's an English translation for a compound word in the Greek. He actually combines two words that basically mean God breathes. So instead of saying all Scripture is breathed out by God, it's all Scripture is God breathed. It's direct from him. You're like, wait, but who wrote this? Didn't Paul write this letter? Didn't Peter? Weren't there other authors? Yes. But it was still from God, in fact. In 2 Peter 1, 19-21, it says, And we have the prophetic word, talking about Scripture, more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention. as to the lampstand shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man." Listen to that phrase again. No prophecy, no Scripture was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so the first thing that we will find is that this word is what we would say is inspired. It's inspired by God. What is inspiration? Well, inspiration is God's divine influence on human authors to write the entirety of the Bible in the exact words he intended. It didn't mean God inspired the thoughts of them. It didn't give him this hopeful purpose and then men messed it up. No, he inspired every word that we hold in Scripture. It's the entirety of Scripture in all of its parts, in each of its words. And we can have confidence in that. And the reason that's so important is because this speaker, being God, is qualified. As I mentioned, like with commencement speeches, you don't get a novice who gives that speech at graduation. It's not somebody who just started out. It's not even the graduate themselves, right? It's an expert who stands there. Based on their decorated qualifications, such as degrees, or their expertise, or their experience, like that's the reason they are able and qualified to give that speech. And so when we think about God's Word, He is qualified. more than qualified, then we can even comprehend of why his word is inspired and authoritative in our life. And what do you mean? Well, let's consider his attributes, let's consider his character. First, let's consider that he is holy and perfect. And him being holy and perfect, that makes him incapable of making a mistake, so his word is complete truth without any error. Psalm 1830. This God, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He's a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. So when we look at this Word and we consider that He is perfect, that He is holy, that His Word then is infallible without error. And that should comfort us, excite us. The second thing is God is creator and designer of humanity. So his word carries supreme authority over our life. It also means it's sufficient for how we need to live this life. Again, if you think about it, he is our maker. He knows exactly the intricacies that we need in our life. He knows how we operate. He knows the desires, he knows the thoughts, and here he is giving his word so we know. how to best operate with being His creation. Again, Genesis 1.27 says, so God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created him. So not only is it sufficient for Him to be our speaker, but He's actually authoritative over us. He has authority to tell us what we need to believe and what we need to do. But then God is also faithful. What's great about that is because God is faithful, so God keeps all of his promises that are contained in the Bible. And oftentimes when I talk to people and talk about what Scripture says, they really look at this as like an instruction manual. They're just looking at, oh, he gives lots of commandments. But you know what? This book is full of promises. In fact, 2 Peter 1 talks about this is written that we have great and precious promises. And so it's precious promises such as, you know, God is always present in our troubles. The promise that God comforts us when we find ourselves in trials. It finds that He is loving us, He loves us, that He gives grace to us, that He disciplines us when we sin. It's not necessarily one we like to talk about, but it's true. And so when we look at that, that God always is faithful, you can remember Deuteronomy 7, 9, it says, No, therefore, the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Another truth that we are reminded that he is qualified is because he's eternal. See, God being eternal means that His Word remains relevant for all of time. And you're like, wait, what? Like, this Bible that we hold in our hands was, like, completed 2,000 years ago. Like, how does it make sense for today? Well, it makes sense for today. It's relevant for today. Not because of the human authors behind it. It's because of the God being the speaker. Because when you consider that He's eternal, that does not mean He just lives forever. No, God is not bound by time. And so God's scriptures, as they came about, it wasn't that God could not see what was going to happen in 2023 in America, in your personal life. No, he knew it all and he saw it all. So when we consider that, yes, this was completed that long ago, yet it says here that we're going to find that sufficient, sufficient for every way you live. Jesus said he's responding to some challengers of who he is, and he basically unpacks to them in John 8 that, hey, you know what? Abraham was excited to see me come to earth, and they're like, wait, what? Dude, you're like 29, 30 years old. Like, how did you see Abraham, who died thousands of years ago? And he's like, I saw Abraham. I am the God of Abraham. In fact, he unpacks and says, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I was. No, that's not what it says, right? It says, before Abraham was. Again, showing that Abraham being bound by time, Jesus says, I am. Reflecting that he is not bound by time. So God knew exactly the totality of what man needed at the time of completion of his word. And so it's just as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. 3,000 years ago, it's always relevant. The last truth of many truths, as we could look and examine every qualification, but we just simply don't have time, but we also have to consider that God is omniscient. And what do I mean by omniscient? He is all-knowing. Like when you consider like doctors, I love doctors, I'm glad they make assessments that they are helping find cures and diagnosis, those are good things. But do you know That God, being the Great Physician, He knows exactly what causes every single disease. He knows what ultimately is every single cure. Like, that is not that God sees like, oh, I wish I would have known about that. I wish I knew about cancer. I wish I would have known what causes AIDS. No, He knows all those things. And yet, what you don't find is that this Word contains all those things. Why is that? There's not enough pages in this world to contain the knowledge of God. But what he did was he was able to provide the knowledge that we need to live this life and live in a way that's godly. And so he has taken all that omniscience and boiled it down to this resource. So we can have confidence. It should give us a great confidence. All these truths about God should give us incredible confidence in his word because we have the best ever. And there are times when you know you have the best ever. For example, sometimes you some of you have root for sports teams and hypothetically that there are times when you think you have the best ever. When you have that talent, when somebody has physical traits, when somebody has the mental capacity that just is amazing and that contributes to the game. And honestly, when you can start comparing them to the rest of the people that are his counterparts, like there's no comparison. That they're striving to be like this guy, the pinnacle. And that gives you such confidence as a sports fan because you could be down hypothetically by 10 in the biggest game. And all the other team is celebrating. They think that your team has beaten. But you know, not because of what your offense may be, or what your defense may be, or what the coach is, but you've got the guy, the who, being the best ever. And you know that you can come back and win that big game. Of course, you might know that I'm a Chiefs fan. Maybe I'm a little biased. Maybe Patrick Mahomes being the greatest quarterback ever, maybe others will argue with me. I really don't see your argument. I'm sorry. But what I can say is, yes, I have confidence that Patrick Mahomes is going to be great, that he's going to do great things as an athlete. But this is what I can tell you. I know Patrick Mahomes ain't going to win every game. I know that he is not going to and hasn't won every championship that's possible. I know he's going to make errors. He's going to throw interceptions. He's going to do things that are foolish. I know that because of why he's a man. And so when we look at God's Word, how much more confidence we should have because of the who behind it. Because God's not going to make mistakes. God doesn't have limits like man does. And so when we look at what we hold, it's truly precious. It's truly amazing. So God's Word is perfect, never falling short. So how much more confidence should we have in it? And then how should that inspire us to seek after it? So how should we seek after it? Well, as I was studying, as I was preparing, I just was thinking about, okay, how do we approach this word? And I was thankful, Friday morning, so one thing that you should know is I'm an elder here, also SN, and I have the pleasure of serving on an elder board with other incredibly wise men. One thing that we do before we ever get into business items and before we make plans, before we start discussing, is that we have an elder who leads the devotion. In this particular Friday, our elder Doug Besch actually led our devotion, and his devotion was very applicable to how we think about how we should approach the Word. He shared with us Isaiah 66, too. He said, and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." So I think this is an appropriate way to approach how you read this word. Verse is humble. Recognize your position before God. I think that is so important. Is that when we recognize our position before God, we recognize we need his word into our life. Because we are finite, fallible people who struggle with sin, and so we need the God of the universe to give us perspective, help us diagnose, help us understand who He is. We need His Word to do that. So be humble. Next thing is, you have to be desperate. Be desperate for His Word. See, it's the necessity for it to fuel our lives. And I'll be honest, this is not easy. In fact, I can struggle with this. Right? I'm thankful I have plans that I read through. But here's the thing is sometimes I'm like, well, if I miss a day, or even if I just let that be read at night, like that's going to still be valuable. Which is good, which is faithful, but it shows that maybe I'm not as desperate as I need to be. Because I guarantee when I woke up that morning, my stomach was saying I was in need. Need of food. Did I go and get food? Absolutely. I satisfy that need. But how much more do I need His Word? How much more? I can skip meals, but I cannot skip His Word if I'm going to live faithfully. So let's be desperate for it. But then make sure, as it says, we tremble at His Word. And I don't mean to be scared or fearful, but we need to be reverent and respectful. Because a lot of times, what I can hear people say, and even maybe what I've said at times, is that God, his word speaks this way to me. Or this is what it means to me. And I'll just be candid, this is not what it means to you is what's important. Because when you say, it means to me, is that you're saying what you believe, what your interpretation, that's what's primary. And it's not. What's primary is what God intended for it to say. And so what's hard about that is you live in the 21st century, you live with your own context, and so you bring all those influences, and you might not interpret it correctly. And so that means that you're going to have to do work. You're going to have to study. You're going to have to unpack. Again, it doesn't mean it takes hours to do it. It can, and you should, if you have the opportunity. But make sure that you just don't stop to use your own understanding to understand this word. Make sure you're considering what God wants that meaning to be. So we need to make sure we respect it in that way. So all that's important because what you hold in your hand is something very valuable. It's very valuable not because we find how much goodness it does in our life, or what it does to change us, or maybe because we find these certain truths really encouraging for us. That's not why it's valuable. The reason why the Word is valuable is because God has given it intrinsic value. He is the one that's assessed the value of this Word. So we need to value the content of God's Word because it is most valuable. So value the message. You can see the value that God says. He says it's profitable, useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. So you look at that and you're like, oh, great. Okay, so it helps me teach certain elements of teaching. It helps me recognize certain falsehoods or unbiblical doctrine or correction or training. And we want to make those little compartments and we want to say, okay, well, as long as it fits in there, that's what it's sufficient for. And what God's saying is like, no, it's sufficient for it all. This word that you hold is sufficient for all. And he's really putting this in, you have four statements that I would say are two categories. So what's the first category? Well, I really look, when you look at teaching and reproof, it's the category of really how it molds and changes our desires, our beliefs, our motivations and thinking. It helps have perspective. It's really talking about that internal belief that we function in this life with. So when you talk about teaching, he basically is unpacking it. It gives you the functional beliefs that you need for your life. What do I mean by that? Well, functional, there's a functional theology and formal theology. Formal theology is what you say. It might be what you write down. It might be what you tell somebody that you believe about God's word. That's good. It needs to be aligned with God's word. You need to proclaim that. But you know what? Your formal theology actually sometimes doesn't align with your functional theology. What do I mean by functional theology? It's the beliefs and the desires and the motivations that influence how you live. For example, I would say that many times when people come to me who are struggling with anxiousness, they have a formal theology that God is present, God is faithful, God is going to do good in their life. But when it comes to their problems, guess what? They're worried about it. They're out of control. They aren't good. You see, their formal theology and their functional theology don't mesh. And so you have to be taught of what your functional theology will actually be. And then he gives reproof. And I would say this word is actually referring to like convicting, or like when it's in a court system, it recognizes as wrong, and it's condemning. And so the reproof is also the thoughts, motives, and thinking that are wrong, that we hold onto. Because you all are inundated with messages, right? We have plenty of communication in our life. We listen to plenty of things. We have blogs. We read things. All these messages get filtered into our life, and we have our own hearts, what we ultimately think. And so what God's Word is to do is actually reproof any of those things, meaning like it exposes. It exposes that they are false, and we actually need to remove them out of our life. So what you need to be doing, are you actually looking to God's word and actually letting that challenge your own belief system? Because it's hard. Many beliefs get pretty infiltrated and have strongholds in our life. And so to actually let the word actually call it wrong and then actually teach us differently what we should believe is hard. But again, why wouldn't we want anything else? This is His Word, this is what's best. So don't miss the opportunity to use God's Word for what it's, to make sure that it's letting it work inside of you so that you can change. Then it comes back to then it's profitable. The second two categories is this correction, this training. What it's really talking about is the profit that it has in your life to impact the way you live and the way you live like Christ. This word correct actually means kind of straighten. And so I'm sure like most of you, there's times in my life where I am veering off path. Right, there's times in my life where I start succumbing to sin periodically and where it was, maybe I was here in my health and I just start wandering off. What's great about God's word is it actually calls us out and corrects us. It corrects us and straightens us back out to be on the path towards Christ. I love how Jay Iams puts this, he says, if the Bible convicts you of sin, parenthesis, knocks you flat on your face, Right? Have you been there? Like, the Bible, you're convicted, you feel wretched, you feel like you're just incapable, it knocks you flat on your face. What's great is it doesn't stop there. It also picks you up, dusts you off, gets you out of the trouble you brought on yourself, and heads you in the right direction for the future. It's incredible. That's an incredible opportunity we have. Then it's to train us. And really, this is referring to disciplined efforts. It's not a training like I've said in a lot of employer trainings. Any of you been there? Kind of boring, kind of gets over with. That's not what it's saying. It's like, no, it's actually going to help you in your disciplined efforts to live this life. And so it provides all we need to act and react in every circumstance and relationship. In fact, 1 Timothy 4, 7-8, Paul writes to Timothy and says, rather train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds the promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So what it's boiling down to is God's word is sufficient. It's sufficient for whatever you encounter. It's sufficient to give you guidance. It's sufficient to help you believe, think, give you perspective. Like it's sufficient for all those things. So we consider like this is what's contained right here in this book. All that. And what it's like is like what God's word says is like this word in Psalm 19 is more precious than gold. And so you're basically holding a treasure chest. But you know what's interesting about a treasure chest full of treasure is that, based on the audience, it could be received differently. Even though the value's there, even though the preciousness is there, even though there's jewels and wealth are there, not everyone sees it the same. So one way that it might not be seen the same, if I put a chest full of treasure in front of a toddler, What are they going to do with it? What they're going to probably do is maybe pull out coins and necklaces, dress up. They're going to be excited about it. It's nice and shiny. But if I came and gave them just a chest full of worthless toys, they are probably going to be more than happy to trade. Why? Because they don't recognize the intrinsic value that that treasure has. And sometimes that's how we are with God's word. We say, yes, it's valuable, but it's valuable like maybe a lot of other man-made resources out there or other authors. And we hold them on the same plane or even elevate that. And what it's saying is like, no, God's word is far superior. So we need to make sure we handle it that way. But if I put treasure in front of a billionaire, They're going to start saying, oh, yeah, I recognize the value. And they will assess that value correctly. But what they're going to do with it is they're probably going to either put it away, sell it. And what's it going to do to their life? Probably not a whole lot. They're a billionaire. They have plenty of money. They have plenty of wealth. And sometimes that's how we treat God's word, is that, yes, we read it. We recognize the value. We appreciate it. But it makes really no impact in how we live. So we should be humble enough to recognize that, and then recognize we should treat the treasure like someone who's living paycheck by paycheck would treat a treasure full of gold. That person is going to see that, and they're not just going to see the value of it, they're going to see the changes that they can make because of it. It's going to alter and revolutionize their life if they have a treasure chest full of gold. So do you value God's word as really the most precious treasure in your life? Are you allowing the word then to make impacts on the way that you believe and how you live? Because that is what's available, and you need to let it. You need to let it mold your thinking about God's character and his work. You need to let it affect how you commune with God, how you pray, how you worship. The word of God should impact that. It should influence how you love and relate to others. Like that should grow your love for them. And then how you actually speak to them. It should let you affect your personal dispositions towards life. It should affect depression, it should affect anxiety, it should affect anger, that it should lead to joy, lead to peace, and comes from his word. It should let be the guide for your trials and your decisions. Oftentimes we make decisions and never even consider what God's wisdom would actually impact that decision. So you need to be letting that filtrate into your decision making and guiding you through that. To change you. That's the thing. This word should change you. It should change you to be more like Christ. And so what we need to be reminded of is that being like Christ is a pursuit, and there's a purpose. So let's make sure we pursue the purpose. Look at verse 17. It says that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. I'm sure like you and me, when I see the man of God, I'm just like, all right, tell me what this is about. Tell me what it means to be a man of God, a woman of God. Tell me how this person acts. It's the what, what, what. I think before we start visiting the what, we actually need to visit the who. Because when you consider this phrase, the man of God, the one who's completely equipped for every good work, there was one. And that man is Jesus Christ. Being God took on flesh and was complete. Completely holy, completely righteous. And he lived the perfect life full of good works. Because you see what this word complete is referring to is actually the qualifications to meet, to be able to be called the man or woman of God. You see, when we look at God's Word again, it's not just to give us a bunch of to-dos. It's actually supposed to evaluate our identity. It evaluates our identity and gives us, for ones who believe in Christ, like before we were dead in our trespasses, showing that we lacked. But then it also talks about how we are transformed and give through the grace of God when we believe in Christ. He gives us a transformed mind, a transformed heart. It infiltrates that we have the power, the strength. It infiltrates that we can have patience, that we can have kindness. All those things make us qualified, but it's qualified because of what Christ has done within us. So that helps us be complete. And so we need to be actually thinking about how we can then use what God has given us to then live. And so one thing is, is that to be complete, we really need to let our desires and motivations be changed and transformed. We can't let those stay the same, because if they don't change, then we're really not going to do what the next thing is, and it says we're equipped for every good work. That the word of God will equip you for how to handle this life. When we look at good works, I don't know about you, I automatically start thinking of religious activity. I think about, okay, what can I do for the church? How can I be generous and benevolent to others? What can I do that are good works? And really when we think about Christ, his whole life was good works. Everything he did would fall in the category of good works. His life is a culmination of good works. There wasn't a time when he wasn't doing a good work. And so we need to remember that as we navigate this life, it's not equipped just for certain situations or how to be good in church, it's to equip us for every aspect. Every aspect of when you go through school, every aspect when you have a job, every aspect when you are a parent or married or single, like every aspect you can do and act in those seasons is a good work. And God, God's word will equip you for it. And so when we look at that, when we consider that the man of God is, oftentimes, again, we get into the activities and forget that it first starts with identity. In fact, recently, we had a leak in our water line, and it was leaking to the church. And as typical, and necessary, is we called a plumber. Because as qualified and as experienced as our staff is, which, by the way, don't have us help you do plumbing issues, it's not a good idea. I have probably the most experience, the most confidence, and that's dangerous. You don't want me doing plumbing. And so when this leak came about, we obviously needed to call an expert. We needed to call a plumber. And so we called the plumber, and he's a faithful man. And you know what? When he got here, You know what he did not do, surprisingly, is he didn't look at that leak and start assessing like, oh, yeah, this part's leaking. Oh, this is a problem. You know what? Let me open God's word real quick and find how to diagnose this leak and how to fix this leak. Why? Why did he do that? Because that's not contained in here. It's not going to contain me a modern plumbing part of how to fix it. Because when we look at that, we say, yeah, we smile, we laugh. But we honestly know, yes, it's not going to be sufficient for modern-day plumbing. Listen to what Heath Lambert says. He says, God has given plumbers a sufficient amount of revelation to know how to do their work in ways that honor Him. This does not mean But this does mean not that the Bible is a guide for all information about plumbing, because it is not. There is indeed very little specific information about plumbing. Listen, but a great deal of specific information about plumbing in this world. What is he saying? He's saying that this plumber that came, He came and no, he did not use the Bible to fix our problem. But you know what? His primary identity wasn't being a plumber. His primary identity was being a man of God. And so guess what? That affected how he interact as a plumber. For example, I saw how Scripture affected his work ethic. The guy is a diligent, hard worker who was resolved to fix the problem. And he did it effectively. It also affected his work or his business ethic. To be honest and generous, I actually had a great conversation afterwards. And he was just kind of telling me his role in the company. And you know what? What I heard was Scripture was superseding even what the company was saying that he must do for his own gain. But he was willing to not participate because he understood that he is a man of God and he represents more. He also, also I saw scripture affect his patient disposition. And I can tell you with confidence that my wife will say that some of my most sinful moments is when I'm doing repairs. Dad, I'm first. Thank you. But in the moment, I am pressured. It really pushes my patience. That's why I would love for people to just do the work and not have it on me. But this man, he was patient. Even when he started the leak, water sprays on him, he's just patient to handle the problem in front of him, reflecting joy, reflecting peace. And he was so gracious in his communication. Plumbing, there's no plumbing book out there that taught him how to communicate. That was truly God and his word. And so he was just gracious in our conversation, very kind. And so what I sat there with was not just a plumber doing plumbing. I sat there with a man of God who had been molded by God through the impact of his word to demonstrate what it means to be a Christ follower as he did plumbing in this world. So each of you do something in this world. You function in this world. And yes, it might not get to the specifics of what you do. Maybe you're in IT, or maybe you're a plumber, or maybe you're a stay-at-home mom, and there's things in this world, like how you operate, how you turn on your microwave, you're not gonna find in God's Word. But it is sufficient for you to be the man and woman of God to one who pursues and loves Christ and is seeking to be like Christ in all those areas of activities. So my question to you is, are you listening to God? Because honestly, if you don't open this word, or you don't even consider it like you should, or you don't read it daily, then you're not gonna listen. You're not listening. You're missing on such a valuable aspect of your life. When I consider that there's days I miss, it's not just because, oh, I didn't get the check mark. No, I missed an opportunity to learn about Him. I missed an opportunity for His wisdom to enter into my life. I missed the opportunity of grace. to give to me to live this life. But then it's not that, it's just that you have to abide in His word. This shouldn't just stop with a reading, but it shouldn't abide, it should be rehearsed, it should be affecting us, and we should rest in it and remain in it through our minds and through how it affects our desires and motivations. It lets you be shaped and molded into the likeness of Christ as you live in this world. Is that the role of God's Word in your life? Because that should be, and that's going to be the greatest thing for you, and that's the only way to really be able to handle this truth. So why don't you take your time, bow your heads, meditate on what you have thought. Meditate on what the Lord has used in your life to bring about teaching or conviction or to think about things that you need to correct or think about the ways you need to live for Him. So take that opportunity and just listen real quick. First, are you willing to hear from God? Because the Bible is God's communication to you, so you have to be willing to listen. And some of you are here and you don't believe what I have actually shared today. You don't believe that this is actually God's word. You believe that this is just more religion or some man-made ideas. But this isn't. It's not because I believe, it's because God says so. This is His Word. And so are you listening? So I would say I encourage you as one for you to pray. Pray right now. Pray and ask God, God help my unbelief because I don't believe. So help my unbelief. Help me believe. Help me to know that this is your word and I need to seek after you. and seek after you in such a way that He can transform. That means that you have to believe, not just believe in this word, but believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior. Next thing is then, are you listening to God? It's one thing to say, hey, we're hearing. There's one thing to have reading plans. There's one thing to do the exercise, but are you listening? Listening to actually have change. Because as you examine, just take a moment, examine your life. What impact did God's word have this week on you? What changes did it make because of what was spoken through his word through your reading? If you can't identify anything, pray. Pray that the Holy Spirit would actually help you. Help you understand we are finite people and we need help. And God has given His grace through His Holy Spirit to help you. Pray that it help and then find opportunities to take nuggets that you are learning to then actually live differently. Father, I just come to you today and recognize. Father, we are fine, we are fallible, we fall short. Even as I have tried to faithfully proclaim this word, Father, it's just not enough. We need to know the entirety of your word. We need to be searching the entirety of it if we are going to live like Christ will. I pray, I pray that we are challenged at our hearts, we are challenged at how we live, that we are challenged and we are willing to believe. And believe first of all in the who, believe in you, believe in you Jesus Christ, believe in you Father, believe in you and whisper that you are doing a work and that we would be faithful to follow. And then, not to have anything that keep us down, letting our own systems, beliefs, actually affect what your word means, but actually seek what the meaning of your word is, and let that impact our life. So Father, wherever stage we are, wherever thing we need to take away from today, I pray that you lay down our hearts, the one thing, so that we can live a life that reflects more of the man, the woman of God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.