Start the Scroll // Read

You know the best way to get to know someone? By spending time with them. And if there’s anyone that we should want to get to know better, it’s God. The good news? We can! God has revealed himself through the gift, His inspired word, the Bible. And as we read, study, and meditate on the inspired Word of God in print, we find ourselves getting to know the life-giving power of the Word of God in person—Jesus Christ—even better.

Hey, what's up, Cornerstone?  How is everybody it's good to be back. I think this is my third or fourth time preaching. And ya know, I'd like to kick Pastor Jacob and Rachel and the whole family down to North Carolina a couple more times out of the year. So I can come and preach with you guys. Think they would be alright with that maybe, I don't know. They love you guys too much. So thank you for being here. One of the things that I don't like to do is use a lot of scriptures when I preach, but today I'm going to use a buttload or a lot of scriptures to preach today. So as we get ready to as we get ready to jump in, let's pray real quick. And then we'll go.

Father, as we get ready to jump into Your Word I pray your spirit, guide us into that, that your inspiration throughout the world will change us, correct our lives, that will convict us where we need convicted. That it will, it will challenge us where we need challenged and encourage us when we need encouraged. We thank you for Your Word. And we pray as we get into it that you enlighten us. It's in your name we pray. Amen.  

So, so last week, Pastor Jacob talked about "Stop the Scroll" if you remember, he was talking about scrolling through the we scroll through Facebook with Instagram and everything. We spend hours. I think the stat was something like we scroll five miles a year through through stuff. And he said we got to stop that distraction. We got to stop those things that kind of keep us off off our game, so to speak, or from where we need to do. And today I'm here to give the other side. I'm I'm here to talk about "Start the Scroll." He said stop the scroll. I said start to scroll. We're not fighting. Okay. It's just we got two messages that go perfectly together. And I think he would be excited. We're excited just to bring that to you today. So when I was in seventh grade, I wasn't a Christian. And for those of you who don't know, my connection to Cornerstone comes from a personal friend, Aaron Carpenter, who I heard is referred to as Rachel's husband in this area. He is one of my best friends. He was one of my best men in my wedding. And I was in his wedding. We grew up from preschool basically. And we graduated college together. And in seventh grade we spent the night at each other's house all the time. He had this Living Bible. Everybody has this. I think it's the green one with the gold on the front. And I think it has a red, red little thing. Well, I remember having a conversation at his house. And we were just talking about how we should probably start reading this thing. It seems pretty good. And it was. And it was before we were Christians, right. And so at that moment, it felt like God was calling us to read this Bible. Well, then I became a Christian in eighth grade and started really jumping into the Word of God and I fell in love with the Word of God, I fell in love with it, because I saw it changing my life. Now granted, the main change is because I gave my life to Christ, placed my faith in him ask for forgiveness. And all of a sudden, the spirit inside of me started changing. But I started reading the Bible and learning what to do and how to change and it just became a huge part of my life. It changed me in ways that I never thought it would change me. And so I believe personally that God's Word is inspired right? I believe that the Bible is inspired. I believe that it's the inspired Word of God, though right here. And, and the Bible does it. 

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible itself confirms that it's inspired and Jesus confirms that it's inspired. And we're going to talk about these two things today and talk and show and point out why it says that, how it says that, and how it changes our lives. Because of this, we have an obligation. If this is true, if the Word of God is true, we have an obligation to allow it to nourish our lives daily. Isn't that good? Yeah, let's just start. Okay, this, this is what Pastor Jacob believes. This is what Cornerstone believes, this is what for 2000 years denominations actually agreed upon. And then you get to Hebrews 11:3, and, and I am a Bible nerd, Bible geek Bible, whatever you want to call me. I love to jump in it. I love to read it. I love to point things out. So as we go today is not so much a sermon as it is a Bible study together. 

But Hebrews 11:3 says something awesome. "Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of the things which do appear." This is where I want you to understand something. The worlds were framed through the Word of God, not the Bible, just God's spoken word. Can we stop for just one second? And think about that. That's huge. I mean, the God that we serve, the God that inspired the Word, the Bible, Word of God, that God when he spoke, he framed worlds. And yet, that word that he spoke, that framed worlds is the same word that we have available to us in Scripture, that can change our lives and speak worlds into our lives as well. 

That leads me to a question. When we think about it that way, how important is the Word of God to you? And what value do you ascribe to it, that you attach to it? That's a big question. We're gonna ask that a few times. Because personally, I think the Bible is the sole authority for living the Christian life. If we want to live the Christian life, the best way to do it is look at Scripture, right? If we didn't have it, if we just if we took the Bible off to the side and said, this does not exist, how do we know how to live out for Christ? How do we know how to be more Christ-like? How do we know to do this or not do that? How do we know to show love? How do we know anything? As a Christian trying to live a life of Christ? How do we know anything without scripture, right? It's that important. It's that sole authority for living the Christian life. I want my life to be framed by it. I want it to be the guardrails of my life that when I'm walking down, if I bump into it, it says get over stupid. And I go, okay. Like, that's how I wanted to do every step of my life. Anybody else in here want to do that? Yeah, well, I just, I get it.  

The Bible is full of phrases. The Word of God, or the Word of the Lord came to, in which all these things simply mean is that God spoke to somebody or through somebody, right? And so when that happens, that means every time that God spoke to Moses, every time he spoke to a prophet, every time someone said thus sayeth the Lord, anytime, Peter, anytime there was a preaching in Acts, anytime Paul and his two-thirds of the Bible wrote something for that, for the Bible, we are in fact hearing the Word of God, because God inspires those people. And then they write out. And so when we read the Word of God, we are hearing the Word of God, the Word that created and framed worlds. Isn't that huge? Don't you think? I got one, Amen. Thank you. Everybody is allowed. If you want, you know, if you're feeling it, just Amen. Go tell it on the mountain. I'll take anything.  

So, so now what I want to do is I want to jump into the Bible. What does the Bible say about it being inspired? So let's go to 2 Peter. This is where we are, "For prophecy never had its origins in the human will. But prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." This is crazy to think about, number one, the Holy Spirit was not inside of anybody in the Old Testament. So the Holy Spirit was moving them along as they would prophesy and speak what God told them to speak. And you go, well, why is that a big deal? Because it shows that God can use people to bring his inspired word, His Word to others, right? So that's something we need to know if we want to prove that, that the word of God is inspired, and it's good for our lives and it's active, and it's sharper than any double edged sword. It can change our lives and renew our mind. And we can do all that. We need to understand that it's inspired and how it's inspired.  

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says this. "All scripture is God breathed," which means inspired, "and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness, so that the servant of God, the follower of God, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." This is where the rubber meets the road. Why would God want to inspire a Bible, a book written? And don't get me wrong, if you remove the inspiration of the Bible, that Bible is just a book of words and writings. But when you bring it to the inspiration, you add the inspiration in it, it becomes something amazing, it becomes active, it becomes alive, it becomes something that can speak into your life. And what this says all scripture is God breathed, and what for? Because it's useful for those of us who want to serve God and live out God. It's going to teach us, it's going to rebuke us, it's going to correct us and it's going to train us in righteousness.  

My mom always taught that train of righteousness means right standing with God. So when I start to watch, read the scriptures, it starts to inspire me through the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. Then what I do is I begin to walk closer to God more like God making me more able to stand rightly in front of him. Ultimately, our righteousness is as filthy rags, right? So our righteousness will never ever get us there. But we're supposed to try to attain that. But what's great is when Jesus died on a cross for our sins, He gave us our righteousness. So even though our righteousness is as filthy rags, we learn, we grow, we accept this Christ guy that died on a cross. He gives us His righteousness, we can approach Jesus. But that's a whole other sermon series, right? 

So it is good for all of this. Now I don't I love the teaching. I hate the rebuking and correcting part, right? Anybody else? And I like the training and righteousness. But I feel like I'm like, oh, that's nice. No, God, I'm sorry, God. Why do I feel like your Word is rebuking me 100 times but teaching me once? Anybody else get that in their life? Yeah. So notice the purpose. That's the purpose for scripture. That's the purpose for inspiration. Everybody with me, this is so good. Now check out 2 Peter 3:15-16 says this, "Bear in mind that our Lord's patients mean salvation. Just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters." Here's what I want you to understand. Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. So if God gives me a gift, and I give you that gift, is that gift from me? No, it's from God. Right? So if God has given Paul wisdom, and Paul writes down this wisdom in Scripture, and you get that scripture, then whose wisdom is it? It's God's wisdom. So if I came up here, and I offered you do you want God's wisdom? Or do you want Scott's wisdom? None of you would take Scott's wisdom, and you would be super smart to not take that, okay? Because it's not wisdom.  

And so when when the writers are writing, they're writing inspired by God, and then sending that out to you and I so that we could read it and be inspired and be transformed by the word of God, that same word that framed worlds, that's huge, right? Is anybody getting how big God is? At this point? Can you, can we take a step back and go, wait a second, wait a second, you mean, that God Almighty, who does not have to talk to us or interact with us at all, cares that much about us? That he's going to inspire a book 1,000s of years ago, that's gonna make it around to us today. So that that inspired book, when we read, it can change our lives and make us more like Christ to all. By the way, he sent to die on a cross for our sins. Isn't that huge? It's so big, I get excited about it. Sorry. So one of the people that came here from the church that I pastored at the end of the sermon, he goes, you know what, I really missed how you preach, and it seems like you have ADHD. And I said, yes, I understand it. Yeah. So so I'm, I'm there. I appreciate that. For everybody else who struggles with that you guys are awesome, I love you. 

Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 21:3. This is a big one. "We also thank God continuously because..." so what's coming later, is what he's thanking God for. Okay. "So as we also thank God continually, because..." something big is about to happen, because they're thanking God for it continuously, and are continually. "...When you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe." So they're thanking God, because we received the Word of God, the inspired Word of God, which you heard from us human people. Which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as humans. How many times, it is so normal to hear people go, well, the Bible is just a book of words, human writings. But this scripture totally denies that. Totally demolishes that argument. If we believe in Scripture interpreting itself, it tells us that when these people from us spoke, they were speaking the Word of God. And people accepted it, not as their words, but as God's words. humongous. But what I love is this, "...which is indeed at work in you." Wow.When we dive into the Word of God, when we begin to scroll through the Word of God, when we begin to, whether it's on your phone or whether it's on the pages, when we scroll through that we start that scroll, it begins a work in us. That is unbelievable. 

So, seventh grade, I got put into LD classes because I had an issue with reading. I began to pick up the Word of God and then in eighth grade, everything started to change. The dyslexia issue that I had - gone. And so so I started to read the Word of God and I started noticing things change my, my schoolwork got better, I was a horrible student, my schoolwork got better. I started testing out these classes, things got back to normal, my life changed. And I attribute it to the Word of God, but not just this Bible book. I attribute it because when I read that Bible book with all those pages, and all those great verses, I was reading the Word of God that was inspired from God Almighty. And it changed and began to work in me something I never even knew needed worked out, right? And some of you right now, you're dealing with things and you don't know how to change, you don't know how to overcome. But if we would just jump into the Word of God and let it begin to work in you, you will see a change. I promise you that, right? That's where you guys say amen. Let's try this again. Hold on, hold on. I it will, it will bring a change in you. I promise you that. All right. We're there.

I don't know about you. But this stuff pumps me up. You guys, I get pumped up about this. Because I believe it's truth. I believe it's God. I mean, I believe that there's a God in heaven that loves us enough to do this. And that is amazing. God did everything he could to make sure you and I knew that the Bible, God's Word is inspired and life-giving. It's crazy to think. So I asked the question one more time, how important is the Word of God to you? And what value do you attach to it? Because that's the question we got to ask ourselves, I've had to ask it, I still to this day. And I personally think it's a huge part of our lives as Christians, and something that should be a part of our lives daily. Now, yesterday, the Word of God was not a part of my life at all. Just gonna be honest with you. So when I say it should be a part of your life daily, if you miss apart, don't go hide in the closet going good. I'm horrible. I didn't read that. That's not that legalistic stuff, right? If you miss, you move on. That's just how we go. That's life. Anybody ever been there? Not have a day full? Yeah, yeah. It's like, how do I fit it in today? 

So now we just looked at what the Bible said about it. But what's really just as important, if not more important, is finding out what Jesus said about it. So you guys ready to jump into that side of things. So now we know what the Bible said, let's talk about what Jesus said, Matthew 5:17-18, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappeared, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of the pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished." Here's Jesus talking about the Old Testament and in saying things about the Old Testament, he's saying he did not come to get rid of it. Why? Because it's inspired, it was pointing you, everybody to me. So it was inspired in the Old Testament, because it was moving everybody to be and I'm not going to abolish it, rather, I'm going to fulfill it. And when I fulfill it, nothing can be removed from it. And then I'm going to fulfill it. And I'm going to make whatever comes after it the Word of God as well, and inspired. And so I love that. 

So let's move on, I just wanted to show you. Another big God moment where God's going, hey, by the way, I inspired it in the Old Testament, and I'm gonna inspired in the New Testament. Let's go to Matthew 24:35. "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." My words will never pass away. Think about that. He has put this in here. He has put this inspired word in Scripture. All of Jesus's words are found, well, not all of them. But you know what I'm saying? They're found in New Testament throughout the New Testament where we can reach in and we can dive into it. This sounds like a living and active word. It's never going to pass away, because it can't pass away because it gets into your life, and it begins working on you. That's what's great. 

Let's jump to another one. 2 Peter 3:15-16. "Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth." This legitimately is a five week sermon series. For long winded people, it might be more for me probably four weeks, because I would just talk real fast and get through it but "Sanctify them." What's that mean? It means to make you holy. And it says sanctify them how? How do you make them holy? By the truth. We know Jesus has the truth. We know your Word is truth. So one of the ways that we become holy one of the ways we become sanctified is by jumping into the truth. And God, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. God's truth is there. It's inspired. So we crack open the Bible, and all of a sudden we begin to see ourselves becoming more like Christ. Why? Because God's Word is truth, and we're sanctified by that truth. Is anybody understanding the the complexity of the Word of God at this point? And how important it is to start the scroll? I love it. I love it.

 Let's read this. Matthew 15:3, "Jesus replied, 'And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your traditions?'" In this he says, For God said, "Jesus replied, 'And why do you break the command of God? For the sake of your traditions?'" He's talking about like God's talking about the commands, right? And he's talking about that. And does he call them just these normal commands? No, he's, he's calling them the commands of God. So when he's talking about that Old Testament commands, he's now bringing the commands back in to the New Testament, and he's calling them the Word of God, the command of God, he could have said, those nice little commands that God talked about in the Old Testament, he could have called them anything else, but he did not. He simply called them the commands of God to point out into show that those commands were inspired then, and they're inspired now. And I love that right? Now, let's jump to Matthew 22:41, "And while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 'What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?' 'the son of David.'" and I love this? Because David, everybody knows is an Old Testament person. "...they replied, he said to them, 'How is it then,'" Jesus talking, "that David, speaking by the Spirit calls him Lord? for He says, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit on my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet, speaking by the Spirit, David spoke.'" So if David could speak by the Spirit, then how can Jesus not be speaking by the Spirit? How could Paul not be speaking by the Spirit, if David was speaking by the Spirit, you see what I'm getting at? I'm talking about Jesus is pointing out time and time again, that David was speaking by the Spirit that these people get speed by the Spirit, and the Spirit can inspire people to speak and to talk. And that inspiration when they speak, when they write it in the Word of God can now go out to you and can change our lives, change our minds and change everything going on. 

And I'm trying to point this out, because I want everybody to understand the inspiration of the Spirit. The inspiration of God in the word is a life changer. One last scripture, well, not one, just one for this part, Mark 7:8-13. "'You have let go of the commands of God,'" again, we're seeing this commands of God, "and are holding on to human tradition. "And he continued, 'You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.'" So what's that talking about, again, ascribing the origin of God's commands back to God's inspiration. And when he's doing this, he's making a statement to us. The Old Testament commands were inspired. And now they're still inspired in the New Testament, which means your New Testament Scriptures are inspired. If they were inspired back then they are the commands of God. They're still the commands of God, even now into the New Testament. So there's this crossover. Right? 

Now, the Bible says the Bible says it's the Word of God says it's inspired. Jesus says, it's the Word of God. It's inspired. So why would we not? You know, why would we not incorporate it into our lives? Why would we not allow that inspiration to change? And some people want to say this, some people want to say, well, yeah, the Bible is inspired, and you gotta watch the terminology. The Bible's inspired, kind of like Shakespeare's inspired when he wrote it. But that's not what we're talking about here today. The Bible is inspired. But the writers were not inspired like Shakespeare, the writers were inspired because God Almighty, who has a huge plan for your life, and mine, came down and inspired those scriptures so that when they are shared with us, they can work in us, transform us do awesome things for us. And so so if you believe it's inspired by God, if you believe the Bible is inspired by God, you're naturally going to allow it to have authority in your life, to tell you what to do, where to go, how to go, how to do it, all of those things, right? And so one of the things I think is funny is when we when we jump into the Bible, and we begin to read Scripture, sometimes, has anybody ever pushed back? Is anybody better? Well, I don't know if i i don't know if i believe that I don't know if I want to go down that road, I'm not really dealing with that too much. We sometimes try to dismiss that or push that to the side, right? And so what, what we have to understand is, it's inspired. It's God's WWord that formed worlds and can change our lives. 

Let's jump into 2 Corinthians, if you can have a couple more last things. 2 Corinthians 10:3. "For though we live in the world we do not wage war as the world does." So now we're seeing a difference the world wage war this way, we're supposed to wage war this way. Here's the way they do it. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power. So if we have divine power, and there's our not divine, then there's our worldly so we have divine power to demolish strongholds." So we know that our, our weapons and our fighting comes from this divine power. But if you remember in Sunday school class in Ephesians, 6:10-11, it says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil schemes." Because there's an enemy that we're going to be fighting, right? There's an enemy that we fight every day. But what was the one thing in the armor of God, that was a weapon? What was it? Anybody online? Say it? Yeah, good. That guy in Akron, I saw I saw that. It was the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, right? That's how that works. So our our one weapon is the Word of God. 

And we've seen this used you guys. We've seen this used before. Right? And where have we in the wilderness with Jesus? So Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, he's hungry as can, be and the enemy comes to him. And what does he say? He says "Turn these stones into bread." Right? And then Jesus. Think about it, hungry. Great temptation. Hey, these stones are here. turn them into bread. You're the son of God, you can do whatever you want. But did he do it? No. What did he say? Anybody know those first three words? it Yeah, good job,  "It is written." So he said it is written and then he quoted a scripture in Deuteronomy, right? So then the devil, the enemy realizes, okay, that didn't get him. So he takes him up to this high point, and he looks down and he says, "Hey, throw yourself down. Because the Bible says in Psalms 91, that if you throw yourself down, that God will bring the angels to catch you," right, that I'm paraphrasing, but he quotes scripture at Jesus, which is probably not the smartest thing to do. And so then Jesus comes back and says, No, no, no. Deuteronomy basically says, Deuteronomy 6:16 says, this says not to tempt your, you know, not to tempt your God, all those fun things. And so Jesus understood the Scripture, he understood how to fight with the Scripture. But what I think is really important on that point, is the devil fought with it, too. He tried to use the scriptures to manipulate, to get Jesus to do what he wanted. That's scary. If you don't know the scriptures, and the scriptures coming to you, and you're trying to live out the Scripture, and you think you're doing something right. But yet God has gone well, you're taking that out of context. Because you don't know the inspired Word of God, I've done that. I've listened back at some of my sermons or remember conversations I've had with people, I'll go, gee, I shouldn't have said that. Yeah. 

And so so then the third temptation, right? He's in the wilderness. Satan takes him up on the highest point, and says, "All this is yours, if you want it, I can give this to you." And then Jesus comes back and says, what are the three words? "It is written," right? And then he quotes another Deuteronomy 6:13. "It is written" If it is good enough, if the Word of God is inspired enough and good enough for Jesus to quote it, and to use it in every situation, in every fight, I think it's good enough for you and I, but we have to know it right? What if Jesus didn't know scripture? What if? What if he didn't know scripture and then, and then all of a sudden, he takes him up here, and instead of doing scripture, he's like, whoo, that's a sweet city. I think I want that. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. And he doesn't know to fight back with Scripture doesn't know what Scripture says, Then he gives into these temptation and our lives would be totally different. We would not have a cross, we would not have a resurrection, we would not have forgiveness of sin. Why? Because Jesus didn't know the inspired Word of God, and he was not able to use it, and it would have affected our lives. 

It is very clear that Jesus thought the Word of God was inspired, and that the Bible was inspired. And he used it in his conflicts to use it in his fights. And so should we. Imagine what you can do when you get into the Word of God and it begins to inspire you. And then you reach out to somebody hurting with that same word. Or you reach out with that one scripture. Listen, I'm just dumb enough to believe, that every time I speak the Word of God, it will change somebody's life. I mean it. Someone going through depression? Here's the Word of God. Somebody's going through a tough time? Here's the Word of God. Somebody's going through a great time, you know, here's the Word of God, and encourage them and push that great time forward? Right? I just believe that. And when we're in the Word of God, not every day, it would be nice if it's every day, but not legalistically. But when we're trying to pursue the inspired Word of God, it will change us and work in us. And when it does, it's going to work out to other people, every time. Every time.  

I don't know where I'm at on my notes. Society is trying to break us of this idea that the word of God is inspired. And it's funny, because they're not the only ones that tried to do that. When we go to the creation account, with Adam and Eve, what did the devil say to them? "Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" You guys from the first day, the inspiration of God's word spoken or written, was under attack. The first day? Well, maybe not the first day, but like the third day or fifth week, I don't know what it was, but you get it. It was right from the get go. The enemy was trying to attack the inspired Word of God, and He ruined the world once by doing it. And now in society, people are trying to deconstruct this idea that God's word is inspired, and they have all kinds of reasons for it. And in my opinion, and Bible's opinion, and in Jesus opinion, it's wrong. And I don't say that too often. I'm not one to point fingers and say it's wrong. But I care so much about the inspired Word of God that I have to say it.  

Why such effort? Right? Why such effort from the enemy? Why such effort from this world? Why such effort to defame and remove the inspiration from the Word of God? Because it can change lives. Because it can work in you and me, because it can change a situation, it can change the circumstance, it can change, whatever the issue is, that needs changed, it can change, whatever the addiction is, it can change. You say, well, I'm just gonna give up everything and just read the Word of God, be smart, right? Keep going to therapy, keep doing whatever you need to do, you know, do whatever, keep going to couples therapy, if that's the issue, but with that, bring in the Word of God and allow two things to work together and empower. Because this is super powerful. And this can help on a practical level. 

Everybody good? That's good. Because I want to ask you a question. How important is the word of God to you? And what value do you attach to it? Claiming the Bible is not the word of God is stating that it has no authority, no inspiration in your life, right. But I want us to start to scroll. I want us to, just like pastor Jacob said, we need to stop the scroll because as we scroll, it distracts us from what we're supposed to do. One of the things that it distracts us from? Is scrolling through Scripture. Scrolling through Scripture. We did you guys, for those of you who listened, I had a moment that I wish I was sitting front row, right? So Pastor Jacob, he says, I want everybody to pull out their phones last week and said, I want you to start scrolling and he goes I see some of you have different styles, some scroll with your finger and some scroll with your thumb. And at that moment, I wished that I was sitting in front row because I was like I missed this opportunity. Because I wanted to be the one in the front row with my phone going. Like with my tongue scrolling through right? And like just see what Pastor Jacob like go, what is wrong with that guy? Like? Would he have said anything? Would he have not said anything? What do you just bypass? Would he have laughed? Like, the goal would be to throw him totally off. Like that's what I wanted to do. Yeah, just to do that scroll. 

But here's where I want to end, Deuteronomy 8:3 says this. It talks about Jesus and Jesus quoted this in Mark 4:4, this is what I love. "He humbled you, causing you to hunger for and then causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had known to teach you. That man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." It is so good. Yes. Because what that saying is, this Old Testament Deuteronomy scripture, we do not live on bread alone, but on the Word of God, the Word of God, the word that comes from his mouth, how they were to hear, a man does not live alone on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God of the Lord, right? And then, now, just like before, Jesus brings that back into the equation in Matthew 4:4, "So we don't live on bread alone here, but the word every word that comes from mouth of God," and He brings it back to us in the New Testament. And Matthew 4:4 says, "We don't live on bread alone. We live on every word that comes from mouth of God." And so he's re-establishing this idea for us to live out. So it wasn't just the Old Testament, it's the New Testament. It's today, it's next week, it's 100 years from now that it's our job to find ourselves in the inspired Word of God, and allow that inspiration to change our lives. Because without the inspiration, it's a book. With the inspiration, it's God speaking to our hearts and our minds, the God who framed worlds with his word, right? That's crazy.  

So what do we do about it? It's simple. Find time to read it. You know, you say that's not so simple. I agree. But we've got to build a Bible reading plan into our lives. That's the thing with us humans, right? We're just like, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. But if something comes up that we really want, we find a way to get to it right. And so no matter how busy we are, we just have to build it into that buisiness find a way to do that the Bible apps are amazing. And so we just have to read it, we have to study it, we have to go through those things, we have to embrace it. And most important, James tells us James 1:21-23 tells us this, this is the key to all of what we're learning. "Therefore get rid of all moral filth, and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you," love that, "which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror," and it talks about and then doesn't remember what it what it is. Think about this idea, except the word planted in you. And listen to that word, and don't don't merely listen to it, do what it says. 

Scripture is inspired. So that when we read it, it can tell us what to do, what not to do, who Jesus was, who God was, what God did for us, what Jesus did for us. But ultimately, the issue for me is that it is telling us what to do, I want to give you one little thing. John 16:13. The Holy Spirit, it says in John 16:13, "that when the Spirit that is promised will come, it will guide you in all truth." And so one of the things that I think, and trust me, I was feeling it, anybody else feeling it during worship today, like I was over there feeling it during worship, like feeling it. And I was like I knew that the Holy Spirit was here. I was feeling it during worship, I was like, this is awesome. This is amazing. But the Holy Spirit's job is not to give you those great feelings. It's part of it, like he will do that. But his job is to guide you into all truth and what we learned earlier is that the word of God is truth. And that when we, when we jump into the inspired Word of God, and we begin to read it, the Holy Spirit then goes, okay, here's what I want you to do. And he inspires you in that truth and he moves you in that truth. So you will live that out because he guides us in all truth. 

When we don't allow the Word of God to be a part of our lives. The spirit sits here and goes, well you don't, you're not in it. You're not a part of that. So I can't guide you properly if truth is not a part of your life, right? How's the Spirit supposed to guide? So then if the Spirit's not guiding, who is? Eek. And so so we have to find ourselves in this word for multiple reasons. But the number one reason is to find our way to be more Christ-like, to be sanctified. And to understand that that inspiration can change our lives and in through us, it can change other's lives.

 Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have planted in us seeds from your Word. And that Word has inspired us. And that it's inspirational just at the, at the mention of a word that you inspire worlds to be framed. And we thank you for that. We thank you that we can dive into this word and things can be changed into lives and our lives can be transformed. And addiction can end, and marriage problem can end, and personal opinions of ourselves can change because your Word is inspired. And so Father, I pray as we begin to move forward, and as we as people, and those online and those in this auditorium, get home and start to live our lives normally that we will, we will find a way to jump in your word, and be inspired. Help us. Because Father, sometimes we don't put a priority on this, like we should me and everybody in this world. So Father, we pray for all of this in your name. Amen.