Let's open our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4. It's the new year just around the corner and it's a time when all over the country people begin making preparations. In fact, if you have been to the different stores, they're just about sold out of all the athletic stuff. I mean, everybody says, we are going to exercise. I mean, all those treadmills and health club memberships and people with diets. I mean, we have plans. And if it's not physical, it's financial. People are deciding their financial goals and all their plans for that. And others are making plans for their activities. And that's normal. It's time for us to look at what we're going to emphasize in the year ahead. Well, 1 Timothy 4 is the marching orders, as it were, for us as believers. What we should make sure is in the mix. I mean, it's good to have family plans and financial plans and physical health and fitness and your diet plans. But listen to what Paul says. It's the second half of verse 7 of 1 Timothy 4. He said this. after we reject the profane and unwise fables, exercise yourself toward godliness, or discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. We are called of God to intentionally, volitionally, willfully choose to do things that will exercise and discipline and direct our lives toward godliness. Well, as you make your plans to focus on that, God has told us that we should discipline our lives and take up into our lives choices that lead to godliness. Now you say, which disciplines are you talking about? Should we discipline our money? We'll talk about that. Should we discipline our body? We'll talk about that. But this morning, the primary avenue of our discipline toward godliness we find to be getting time listening to God speak to us. And I call that the discipline of Scripture. Now I'm going to go through a whole bunch of disciplines in the days ahead, Lord willing, but this morning I believe all of them are built on whether or not you and I are listening to God. Now I'll start with my conclusion. So you turn right the middle of your Bible and look at Psalm 16 with me for just a minute, please. If you're new with us, you just open your Bible in the middle, you'll probably hit something called Psalms, and keep flipping in your Bible until you get to the 16th one, because all of the disciplines of the spiritual life begin with listening to God. When I read the Bible, God is speaking to me. When I pray, I am responding back and speaking to God. So the primary emphasis of our godly life is, I need to get God's input into my life. I need to get God... directing and arranging and showing me what should go on in my life. And that's what the scriptures are all about. It's the mind of God. It's the will of God. It's the plan of God. It's the revelation of God. It's the voice of God. It is God speaking to me, feeding me, and directing my life. Now, let me share just one person's testimony, King David, the last verse of chapter 16. Now, we're going to read this through three times. I'm going to point out to it, then I'm going to explain it, and then we're all going to read it together and pray that we'll live it. But look at Psalm 16 and verse 11. You, O Lord God, Almighty King of the universe, you might add in there, will show me the path of life. Do you know what the offer is that God says if you'll get into this book? Do you know what God's offering you this morning? God says, if you'll let me, I'm going to make all the arrangements for you in your life. I am going to arrange your life for you. I'm going to arrange it for you that the pathway of life that will be the most wonderful, the most fruitful, the most glorifying to me life you could ever have, I want to show that to you. You know what God said? He said, I want to make the arrangements for you in your life. I'll go through the rest of this, but I first discovered the meaning of that about 25 years ago on Thanksgiving. I was a ministerial student. I was in college and training in Greenville, South Carolina. being actually in the module where they were teaching us about hospital visits. And so I was out practicing on Thanksgiving, as a student, down in Greenville, South Carolina, hospital visits. And I remember getting assigned a person, and I went to the hospital to visit them, and I was walking down the hall, I had my Bible all marked, I knew the verse, I knew what I was going to pray about, I knew how I was going to try and encourage the person, and I was steaming down the hall, like you do in the hospital, healthy as you can be, and I was glancing in the rooms, just enjoying it, you know, everything I wasn't You know, planning to be in the hospital anytime soon, I was just going to minister, and I glanced in one of the rooms. You know how you're just curious, and just for an instant, I looked in that room, and I saw sitting up in the bed, the most forlorn face I'd ever seen in my life. I mean, if he wasn't dead, he was near it. like that, sitting in that bed. I didn't think anything of it. I just kept going to my call and I went right there and I read the Bible to the person and I prayed with them and they thanked me and I started back but on my heart I had such a burden about that forlorn, destitute looking person all alone in that room. So I retraced my steps back down the hall and lightly knocked and walked in and I said, you know, I don't even know who you are but I saw you look so sad. Could I share some scripture? And they said, oh sure. It was a man in there and so I actually shared the same scripture, and I prayed with him, learned his testimony, found out he was a believer, and he wasn't dying, he was just sick, and my heart went out to him. He looked so sad, and I said, it's Thanksgiving, and you're all alone. Is there anything I could do for you? Now remember, I was a poor seminary student. I shouldn't have asked that. And this guy looked at me, and he said, yes. He said, they're starving me to death in this hospital. He said, would you get me one of those Wendy's triples? You know, those cost $1.79. I only had $2.00. And I spent both of my dollars. It took me a whole hour. I went down to Wendy's and got one of those triples. And then I felt so bad. I thought, what if the guy's diabetic or dying of something, you know? Because I was sneaking in the hospital under my coat, this bag with this triple Decker Wendy thing. And I walked in and I gave it to him and he looked at me and he said, thank you. He said, you'll never know what that means to me. He said, that you just helped me. He said, you've never seen me before. You don't know me. You don't know anything about me. You just helped me. He said, thank you. He said, could I just have your name and address? He said, I'd like to send you a little thank you. I thought, sure. This is kind of fun, hospital visitation. So I gave him my address and phone number and everything. And I went home. Two weeks later, I got a call from this man. He was out of the hospital. He said, would you mind if I stopped by and took you out to dinner tonight? Well, again, I was going to have post-toasties. And I thought, anything is better than that. And so I said, yes. And at six-something that night, a great big long limousine pulled up in front of my little tiny one-room place where I was staying as a seminary student. And the driver got out, and I was escorted to a restaurant in that town. And there sat my friend, all well and quite dressed up. And we had a private cook at our table, and we had the most... there were no prices on the menu, I noted. It was one of the fanciest places I'd ever been. And at the table, this Christian man shared with me that he was an orphan, adopted by a Texas oil family, and the sole heir of their empire. And he says, only people who ever cared about me were the ones who wanted my money. And he said, you stopped, and I was in this town, and I was in that hospital, and you stopped to visit me for no reason except the love of Christ. He said, so I wanted to honor you with this meal. So I thought it was great. I hadn't seen a steak that thick in my life. And I just ate and enjoyed and everything. And he said, I just have a question. He said, would you ever want to go with some of my friends on a little trip? I said, what do you mean? He says, I'll make all the arrangements. Do you just want to come? I said, well, I'm in school. He said, I know you're in school. He said, after school, do you want to go with me? I said, well, I can't. And he said, afford? He said, I'll make all the arrangements. Let me do it. He said, do you want to come? I said, yeah, I do. I'll go. Seven months later in May, when school got out, I got my packet. Now some of you wonder how someone said, how could you have been to all those places? Now you're learning one of my secrets. Go on hospital visitation. You'll find out. I got a packet. I had tickets. I had everything. I met him in London. We were chauffeured. We went to restaurants. Have you ever been to a restaurant where the fish are in a tank next to you? These are saltwater tanks, and you point at the fish you want. They spear it and cook it. Boy, you talk about fresh. I mean, it was brought to us. And then we would go from there to the plays and the theaters. And when we got done with London and all the stuff in the British Isles, we went to Holland and did the same thing. Then we went to France. We went to every... I mean, Everything. We ate in one restaurant. It was a 20 course meal. They brought little French things to cook all the way around the table. We had waiters and they never stopped. Then we went to Switzerland. Same thing. Then we went to all the art galleries in Germany. Then we ended in Italy. Wow. I always remember what he said. I'll make all the arrangements. Look back at Psalm 16 with me, because I want to read it with you. Because I'm not talking about my friend Carl. I mean, the point of the story I just shared with you is that Carl made all the arrangements. But I'd never been to the places he took me. He had. He arranged everything. We were picked up. We were chauffeured to sites. We went to museums and restaurants and plays. It was an unbelievable experience of the world, the way the rich and famous travel. But more than that, it was a lesson for me. that someone with greater resources and experience and knowledge can do a better job at arranging events than I ever could. Now, the Lord says, if you will discipline yourself for the discipline of Scripture, which is God speaking to you, and you will respond in prayer back and say, speak Lord, your servant wants to obey you. This is the life that he offers us in Psalm 16 and verse 11. He said, if you will listen to me, speak to you through my word, then you can rest in my arrangements for your life. That's what he says. You will show me the path of life. I mean, if you think it would be neat to go for two weeks to seven countries with some mega-millionaire and have him pay everything and show you the world you've never seen before, Can you imagine what every day of life is like with the king of the universe and your creator, who knows you, who designed you, who built you for a purpose, if he gets to arrange your life? It's a whole different way of looking at life, isn't it? I'm not saying that you'll eat in exotic restaurants all the time. I mean, that was interesting, but it's kind of boring after a while. You know, the rich people eat strange stuff because they're so bored with normal stuff. And who wants to eat monkeys ears and stuff like that all the time? But you know what? What I'm saying is God says, I will make the arrangements for your life. I will show you the path of life. Keep looking at the 11th verse. He said, if you'll listen to me, speaking to you through the scriptures, you can enjoy my companionship through life. You know, I learned something. That guy had all the money. I mean, he told me story after story. He inherited a 10,000 acre ranch. They discovered oil. He said, they are putting those things down as fast as they can. And he said, it's just money. But you know what? How did I meet him? He was sitting alone in a hospital. Forlorn. You know, money can't buy you happiness. Just places to look for it. You know what Jesus offers you? He says, you can enjoy my companionship through life. He said, in your presence is fullness, Psalm 16, 11, of joy. That's what God offers. Finally, at the end of the 11th verse, He said, if you'll listen, if you'll discipline yourself in the Scriptures and listen to me, and let me speak to you through my word, you can rest in my... Look what it says at the end. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. You know what right hand means? Right hand spoke of the power and the authority. And so, at the right hand of the Father means that Jesus is with the power and the authority of the Father. And always the Son of my right hand is the Son that has my empowerment and my authority. You know what God says in the 11th verse here? He says, I want you to, if you will listen to me and let me arrange your life for you and accompany you through life, I want you to live in my power And I want you to have the boldness that comes of knowing that your life has been authorized by me. I've designed it. I am leading it. I am guiding it. I am paying and empowering for you to live my life here on earth. It's a whole different way to look at life. And it's such a powerful lesson. Well, that's our text this morning. Let's stand together for the reading of God's Word. And I'm going to read Psalm 1611. I'm going to pray that God will help us decide to have the discipline of Scripture. so he can do Psalm 1611 in our life. Here it is. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Let's bow together. Father, help us to understand the discipline of Scripture, and may we discipline and exercise ourselves for the purpose of godliness. And help us to remember that you said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God, And we are to pray that you give us our daily bread. And that's also a prayer to say, Lord, I want to feed on your scripture, on every word of God, every day of my life. Lord, you want to make the arrangements for our life. I learned a lesson. If I hadn't stopped and talked to that man, I never would have met him. And if I hadn't done something that he asked me to do, I never would have gotten to know more about him. And if I never would have picked up the phone when he called, and offered to arrange two weeks of my life. I never would have experienced the privilege of so many parts of this world that have impacted my life and ministry. But how much more you have to offer each of us today. Help us to realize that. More than wanting to win a lottery or get a perfect job and the right income, you want to arrange our lives for us. If we'll listen to you day by day and yield to you moment by moment and stay under your authority and to submit and live in your power through your spirit. Teach us what that means. Oh Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus we ask it. Amen. You may be seated. As you're seated, that little two weeks of my life was fun in an earthly sense, but it certainly taught me a lesson. When you think about an offer like Carl gave me, That's phenomenal. This guy bought anything in sight, had it shipped home. I never saw anything like it. But imagine an offer like that from God. And that's what Psalm 16, 11 tells us. And it's not just for ten days, but God says, I want to give you today and forevermore. The Lord God of the universe wants to arrange our lives. He wants to accompany us in the trip through life. And He wants to authorize everything that we need from now on. And that's the best life there is. And that's what the Christian life is all about. You say, does that mean I'm going to have a perfect life with no problems? Turn from Psalm 16 to Psalm 105 with me, because I want to introduce you to a few characters that believe this, and I want to show you what happened in their lives. The first one is Joseph. Joseph had a stress-filled life, and in Psalm 105, verses 17, 18, and 19, it gives his testimony. He was deserted by everyone, spoiled by his dad, hated by his brothers, abused, enslaved, sold, deported for the financial gain of his family members. He was used, and set up, and unjustly accused, and imprisoned by his own employer. He was chained, tormented, and forgotten in jail. And then God vindicated, elevated him, and used him. And here's his testimony of his life. Psalm 105, look at verse 17. He, that's God, sent a man before them, that's the children of Israel, Joseph, that's who we're talking about, who was sold as a slave, that's what I just described. Most people don't know the 18th verse. they hurt his feet. They tormented him. He was abused, tortured you might say. He was pained in his imprisonment. You know, you watch the Disney video of Joseph, it's not quite as bad as it was, really. He was tormented with fetters. He was laid in irons, the 18th verse says. But here's the key of his life, verse 19, until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord tested him. You know, God says, Joseph, I want to show you the path of life, and if you'll stick with me in my presence is fullness of joy, even in jail. And at my right hand, if you'll stick with me, what I have planned for your life will give you pleasures forevermore. I bet that was hard. I bet at times he wanted to take stuff in his own hands, but God didn't let him. Look at Psalm 139, just a little bit more to the right. Here's another famous person's testimony. And we could spend the entire hour on any one of these. I want to get to another one. But David in Psalm 139 wrote his testimony. David was a bloody man. He killed more people than anybody else in his era. He started killing predators when he was just a little tiny fellow. Bears and lions. He graduated to killing giants when he was a teenager. He went on to slay tens of thousands while he was in his twenties. Tens of thousands of humans he had killed. In fact, he was such a man of blood, as a swordsman, a slinger, a spearman, and a deadly warrior, that God said he was too much of a man of blood, and he couldn't build the temple of God. Yet, he was God's man. Why is that? Look at the last two verses of Psalm 139. This is the attitude we have when we pick up this book and when we spend time in it every day, when we get to read this book, when we get to sit before God in the time that we have reserved as our appointment and our date with Him. This is what's going on, Psalm 139.23. Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me. Know my anxieties. See if there's any wicked way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way. That is saying, Lord, I want you to arrange my life. Lord, I want you to accompany me all the way through this life. And Lord, I want to be under your authority and power, and I want you to guide me into those forevermore pleasures. David knew it. We go into Paul's life. Paul had a rough life, but he trusted the Lord. Let's go on to another book. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 15. That's where we're going to kind of almost finish up this morning. So it goes, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Okay. Jeremiah chapter 15. And what I want to show you there is that this works even if you don't have a happy going to seven countries in limousines life of leisure. Okay. because Jeremiah was anything but that. Jeremiah had a tragic life. He was called the weeping prophet. He wept more than anybody else we know of in scriptures. He was one of the neediest biblical figures. He was the weeping prophet, not only because he had compassion, but most of all because he had such a tragic life. And if you've never studied the book of Jeremiah, before we get to chapter 15, if you flip through this book, and I would encourage you to do it, Jeremiah's woes recorded in the scripture are unimaginable. We have such peaceful lives. He had a completely upturned, tragic, desperate life. He lived through the death throes of the final generation of the nation of Judah. In chapter 11, we find out that from an earthly perspective, Jeremiah's life was an absolute failure. During his lifetime, he watched God's people decay. They were horribly destroyed. They were deported to the nation of Babylon, and that is after he preached for 40 years. In chapter 11, from 19 to 23, he didn't have a single respondent. He didn't have a single person that was visibly, outwardly changed through his ministry. Not one that he could point to after 40 years. No visible results among those he served. Instead, his countrymen that he warned for God's sake sought to kill him if he wouldn't stop preaching to them. He had no one in chapter 12 to find joy and comfort in as his own family and friends were involved in plots against him. In chapter 16, God says you're never going to have the joy of a godly home because you may not get married. And he had agonizing loneliness his whole life. He saw everybody else. He was from a priestly family. In fact, did you know who his dad was? Hilkiah, the priest that found the scroll that was hidden during the reforms of Josiah. They cleaned the temple out when they were shoveling out all the debris and all the idols and everything else. Down in a box, they found the hidden scroll. The Word of God had been lost for one generation. They found that was his dad. But yet, he never got to have a godly home. God says, you'll be incredibly agonizingly lonely. Chapter 16, verse 20. He was under a constant death threat. Chapter 18, people plotted to kill him in secret. And that he had to live with. Chapter 20, he was in physical pain all the time from his many beatings. They were always beating his body. When they got done beating him, they put him in the stocks, you know, pillar and stock him. And so his joints were stretched out. Talk about arthritis, he had it. He had emotional pain, chapter 20, verse 10. People spied on him and they tried to deceive and deceitfully revenge against him. In chapter 20, verse 14, he was consumed with sorrow and shame. In fact, like Job, he even cursed the day he was born. His own life ended with no relief. He was falsely accused of being a traitor. He was arrested, beaten, thrown in a dungeon, starved for many days. If he hadn't been rescued with that cloth rope and pulled out of the muck, he would have died down there. And he ended up being taken off to Egypt and killed down there. I mean, the guy had a very desperate life, a tragic life. But what helped him through that life? That's where I had you turn. Look at Jeremiah 15 and verse 16. Because whether you have an endless joy-filled life of pleasures, or if you have an endless joy-filled life of trials, here's what God's Word offers us, Jeremiah 15 and 16. Your words were found. That means you have to take the Bible, you have to open the Bible, you have to pray that the Lord open your eyes, and you have to start getting into it, and I ate them. That's what his description of having his devotional time. That's the way he described it. He says, I found your word and I ate them. I made them personal. I incorporated them into my life. I didn't just read, I had my devotions, it's over with, I checked off my box, I did that already. No, no. It was like a meal. It was a feast. He just came and he prepared himself and he opened the grape basket of treasures and he began eating, he began making them his very own. That's how he described the Word of God. And look at this, and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Now wait a minute, what did he go through? Stocks, beating, dungeons, pits, never got to be married, agonizingly lonely, just totally deserted by his whole family, deserted by his whole countrymen, called from his mother's womb to be a prophet, and yet nobody responded to his 40 years of ministry? But look what he says. Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. What did you rejoice about, Jeremiah? Your family? You didn't have one. Your wife? You didn't have one. Your children? You never had any. Your ministry? You didn't have one. What did you rejoice on? Look at the end of verse 16. This is what I rejoice in. I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts." You know, Jeremiah lived after David, and Jeremiah knew the Word of God very well. And I'm sure that Jeremiah had taken that Psalm 1611 promise and said, Lord, you show me the path of life. You're going to make the arrangements for my life. And God arranged for him to be in Hilkiah's family. He arranged for him to grow up in the family that found the Word of God. And he probably was hearing his dad come tromping, yelling home, carrying that scroll, saying, I found the book. And I'm sure he was thrilled as his dad started reading to him from the Word of God. And God said, if you'll stay in my presence, I'll give you a fullness of joy. And that's what he testifies. Well, to make a long story short, how can we do that? find God's Word and eat it, and have it to be the joy and rejoicing of our heart. Let me suggest this. You need to make a plan, or you need to recommit to a plan, to spending time in this book every day. Every word of God is pure. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. And you and I need to never be beyond the inconveniencing of ourself to be with God. Now let me read you one testimony. I've read you this before, but I just love it. And I want to remind you of it, because a lot of people say, I just don't have time right now in my life. You know, I have small children, or I'm in school, or I'm just starting out my business, or in my career, or I'm so old my eyes aren't very good. You know, whatever. Everybody has an excuse. I just don't have time. Let me share with you one man whose life has touched mine. He was the most decorated general of the Korean War, Lieutenant General William K. Harrison. I could read his pedigree. This guy won the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He was one of the only generals ever wounded in action. He was at the head of the charge. He was an amazing guy. Do you know what this man did when he was 20 years old and in military training? He was challenged, as I'm challenging you, to make time for God, and before he was commissioned as an officer, He promised the Lord that he would give him, for the rest of his life, one half hour. Now think of what you get in a half hour. Fifty commercials on TV? No, not really. Half of a television show or one-fourth of a movie? Just think what a half hour is. One local newscast? Surfing the internet for tidbits of inane stuff? What can you do with a half hour? That's not very much, unless you give it to God. You know what he did with his? He found out, and listen to his testimony. He says, it only takes 80 hours to read the whole Bible. And so the program I commence in military school is, I will give God a half hour of reading his word every day for the rest of my life. What did that gain him? He found out in a half hour a day, he could read the Old Testament through once a year, and the New Testament through four times a year. So four New Testaments and one Old Testament, he got through the Word of God, four times new, one old, for 70 years. He did this until he was 90. When he was a 90-year-old man, he was still reading the Old Testament through once a year, and the New Testament through four times a year. Did you know, as his eyesight was failing at age 90, he'd read the Old Testament 70 times, and he'd read the New Testament 280 times. Do you know what that means? He had most of it memorized, because he'd read it so many times. This man was such an example. We need to realize that we can most listen to God by reading His Word. This is the voice of God and we must listen. It's an amazing thing that a Christian can imagine that they could live a Christian life without regularly reading their Bible. That's impossible. Our minds are such that we don't retain what we need to know. We need to be refreshed again and again. And there are some who have been believers for years who've never even read the Bible once. And that means for them there are truths of God that they have never inconvenienced themselves enough to discover. No wonder people are so confused. No wonder that they never know that God is arranging their life. They didn't even know that verse was in there. And they didn't know that if they stood in His presence all the time, that they would have fullness of joy. And they didn't know that if they yielded to His authority and allowed Him to empower their lives, they would have forever more pleasures. They thought they were in charge of that. And they were not doing a good job of it. God says, expose yourself to my word. You know what a great commitment would be for the new year? That you cut something out of your life to fit a half hour for God in. And in that half hour, maybe you want to be a General Harrison. You want to read the New Testament four times a year in the old ones. Or maybe you just want to spend half of it reading the Bible all the way through and memorize and meditate the other half of your half hour. But something. Why? Because, and here's the last verse I want you to underline, look at Psalm 119. This is the attitude that will give us this discipline of the Scriptures. Psalm 119, and starting in verse 97, longest chapter in the Bible talking about the wonders of God's Word, but Psalm 119.97 tells us the attitude that we must have in our life if we are going to have this discipline of Scripture, and this is what the psalmist says, Oh, verse 97, oh how I love your law. I love it so much that I meditate on it all day long. And so your commands make me wiser than my enemies, and they're ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers. I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders. I obey your precepts. Do you see the heartbeat of the man of God? Do you see the heartbeat of the servant of God? Do you see the heartbeat of those who take God up and say, I want to discipline myself for godliness, I love your law so much, that I want to know you well enough so that I can follow the arrangements you've made. You know, I've always thought, many times, I thought, what if when I was steaming along in the hospital, I saw that guy and I felt in my heart I needed to ministry, and what if I'd have said, are you kidding? I've already made one call, I don't need to do another. You know what? I would have had a happy, wonderful life, I just would have missed a great blessing of God in my life. And what if when I talked to that fellow, he laid in bed and got done with his scripture and he said, could you help me? If I said, no, I'm too busy or I'm too poor. I only have two dollars and you're certainly not going to get both of them. You know, what if I just said that? Just think what I would have missed. And what about if I hadn't answered the phone when he called my house and asked me out to dinner? And what about at dinner? If he'd have said, you want to go on the trip? And I said, no, I don't want to go on the trip. Just think what I would have missed. That's all nothing compared to if you miss God saying, I want to show you the path of life. I want to make the arrangements for your life. I want to teach you how to stay in my presence all the time, even when you're in a dungeon and a pit like Jeremiah. I want to give you fullness of joy through your pain and suffering and trials. And what if we never take the time to know what God wants us to do so we don't stay at His right hand? Then we won't enjoy pleasures forevermore. I would encourage you, make plans to make the discipline of Scripture in your life. Meet with God every day. Set aside a half hour and say, God, speak to me. Show me your arrangements for my life. Help me know your presence. Help me to yield to your authority and stay at your right hand forevermore. And I'll tell you what, you will live a life that is unbelievable. Because you'll live the life that God designed you to live with Him arranging it for you. Let's bow together and ask Him to help us to decide this morning we're going to have the discipline of scripture in our lives. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jeremiah's life. If Jeremiah could have joy eating your word in the dungeons and pillars and stocks and in all the danger he was in and adversity and abuse and loneliness and without wife or children, I pray that we would learn that you're the same God. Your grace is sufficient for us. That you want to show us the pathway of life. You want us to know your presence so we have fullness of joy, and you want us to stay at your right hand of authority and power forevermore. I pray that we would make decisions to that end for the days that you have for us ahead. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.