- Five reasons why you should read your Bible regularly.
Prayer is when we communicate to God but the Bible reading
the Bible meditating, studying the Bible
is when God communicates with us.
The Bible is a collection of many books.
It was written over a period of 1,600 years by 40 authors
on three continents and in three different languages.
And it's God communicating to us.
When I was dating my wife, I remember before I was dating her
and she lived in Vancouver, Washington
which is about three-and-a-half hour drive from where I live
in Tri-cities, what I would do is I would text her.
Now, I was always texting since I got my phone
but I didn't text a lot. I think I would send about
maybe 700 text messages and receive about that amount
every single month.
The first month that I started to fall in love with my wife
that month I sent 9,000 text messages.
It's not that I loved texting, it's that I loved my wife
through texting I was able to communicate with her.
I was able to see her world, share mine.
And see, God texts; that text is the Scriptures.
We have 31,173 verses in the Bible. That's God's text to you.
God communicates through texting.
God communicates through text.
God communicates through Genesis, Exodus, Song of Solomon
and the prophets. God communicates through His Word.
Here are my five reasons why we should read the Bible
but before I do that, I'm going to share with you
five symbols of the Bible which will kind of tells us
more about why we should read the Bible
and then we are going to finish it with five reasons why
you should read the Bible.
The first symbol of the Word of God is the light.
And as the light in Psalm 119:105,
it brings illumination and revelation. It reveals to us Jesus.
As the light, it also directs our life.
The second symbol of the Word of God, the Bible is also water.
And we see this in Ephesians 5:25-27
that Jesus washes the Church with the water of the Word.
In fact, in John 15 Jesus says:
When I read the Bible, it's not me serving God
it's really God washing me.
Do you remember when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples?
That's really what happens when you read the Bible,
Jesus washes your feet.
He washes your heart. He washes your mind.
Disciples picked up the dirt while walking with Jesus.
You can get contaminated by going through the things in this life.
That's why a lot of Old Testament laws were purity laws
where if you touched the dead,
you were around somebody who died or something,
you will become not pure, you will become impure.
And impure did not mean sinful,
it just means you got contaminated.
You can't be going into God's presence in that state.
You had to be cleansed and there was a process for that.
Under the new covenant, the process of cleansing
that we need regularly is of course, the blood of Jesus
but it's also the Word of God. The Word of God is the water
that cleanses and quenches your thirst.
The Word of God is also a seed, as it says in Luke 8:4
In the parable of the sower, Jesus talked about how the seed
can bring forth fruitfulness in your life.
It can bring the fruit of the Spirit.
It can bring the fruit of godliness and righteousness.
The Word of God is also fire and hammer, Jeremiah 23:29
As the fire it purges, and as a hammer it breaks.
The fire it purges things that are not right
and the hammer breaks the hard things in our lives.
And the Word of God is also like honey.
It promotes healing according to Psalm 19:7-11.
The Word of God has a way to bring healing
to your emotions, bring healing to your heart.
What do you do with God's Word? Why should you read God's Word?
The first reason why you should read the Word of God
is because it will reveal Jesus.
Jesus says that study the Scriptures for they reveal Me.
So the purpose of the Bible is not that you fall in love
with the Bible, even though David says,
"I delight in your commandments."
And it's good to love the Bible but the purpose
why the Bible was given to you
is so that you will fall in love with God.
If you are knowing more about the Bible but not more about God
you're missing the point.
If you're falling more in love with coloring Scriptures
and taking photos of your Bible and posting on your social media
to tell everybody that you are reading the Bible--
I'm not against that, I'm not judging
but if you have more love for the Bible than for the Lord
you're missing the point.
The first commandment is, "Love the Lord thy God
and love your neighbor."
Pharisees, the studied the Bible - the Torah, the five Books.
They actually had it memorized yet when the author showed up
they had Him crucified.
So it's possible to know the Bible and miss God.
But if you study the Word, read the Word with the help of
the Holy Spirit, He will always guide you to love God more.
The second reason why you should read the Bible regularly
is it will help you to conquer sin.
In Psalm 119:11 it says:
Something happens to your spiritual life
as you live in the Word of God.
It gives you victory over temptation.
It gives you victory over sin.
It helps you uproot that sin out of your life.
The more Word of God you have in you, the less you will sin.
It's as simple as that. So if you are struggling with sin
let me ask you a question: What is your intake of God's Word?
What are you pouring and putting into you?
Is it God's Word or is it social media?
Is it Tiktok, Instagram,Twitter, YouTube, instead of God's Word?
I'm not against preaching,
I think preaching is like a supplement but it's not our source.
The source is the Bible. The source is the Word of God.
The third reason we all should read the Bible is because
it's a sword to the believer, according to Ephesians 6:17.
The Bible is your weapon.
A lot of Christians have a pacifier in their mouth.
They are complainers, they whine.
They always live by their feelings.
They are not warriors, they are worrying all the time.
Weary all the time. Exhausted.
The Bible says, "I will train your fingers for battle
and your hands for war."
He will give us a double-edged sword.
The Word of God is a living double-edged sword
but if you don't study your Bible, you don't know how to use it.
When temptations come, when the enemy comes at you
you're going to quote your feelings not the Scripture.
We have a generation today that lives with by this:
God told me, God told me, God told me
but Jesus said, "It is written."
I encourage young preachers and young believers
and you maybe mature believers live by this: "It is written."
Study your Word.
Live in God's Word so that it will come out of you.
And during the battle, during the temptation,
when the enemy is coming at you,
pull out the sword of the Spirit.
Remember it's the sword of the Spirit meaning the Holy Spirit
is going to be moving powerfully as you commit yourself
to the Scriptures.
The Spirit of God is the author of the Scriptures.
And when you don't feel the Spirit of God, study.
Feed yourself on the Scriptures and you will experience
fresh victory and fresh anointing in the battle that you are in
and that battle will become your breakthrough.
The fourth reason why you should read the Bible
is because it increases your faith.
It says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing.
It indicates listening to the Word of God
but you can also read the Word of God.
You can read it out loud.
You can have the Word of God being read to you via podcasts,
via audio version as you are working out
as you are going to work, as you are relaxing
that God's Word goes into your mind, into your mindset
your subconscious, and that it goes into the depth of your soul.
What it will do is it will build your spiritual man.
Now your flesh is not going to like the Bible, OK?
Because it's your flesh. Your flesh likes entertainment.
Your flesh likes to be tickled.
Your flesh likes to be entertained,
your flesh like to be amused, that's the flesh.
And if you are feeding the flesh all the time,
then you are destroying your faith.
But if you are feeding your faith, I'm going to tell you
the food for faith is the Word of God.
Now at first it may seem like, "Man, it's not fun."
People say, "Well, the Bible is boring. The Bible is old."
I'm going to tell you one thing: TV is boring
if you don't turn it on. The sun is old yet it's still hot.
The Word of God is the food for your faith.
The Word of God is not for your entertainment.
The Word of God is not for the amusement of the flesh.
That's why the flesh is not going to like it.
So, your spirit loves the Word of God.
Your flesh doesn't like it.
So just stop taking directions from your flesh
and get into a disciplined, healthy routine
of being in God's Word until your spirit begins to dictate
and direct your life; not your soul and not your flesh.
The reason why people don't read the Word is because
they gave into the excuses of the flesh
'cause the flesh does not like the Word.
The flesh likes the world, the flesh likes the culture
the flesh likes entertainment, the flesh likes all of that.
It hates the Word of God because the more you put
the Word of God inside of you, the more faith it will build
and the less control your flesh will have.
Your flesh will become the slave of your spirit
and the flesh doesn't like to be a slave.
And that's why if you're not reading the Word,
your flesh is your master and you are spiritually probably
on life support.
The fifth reason why you should read the Bible regularly
it actually guarantees your success, Joshua 1:8.
Study, meditate it, be in it,
don't let it depart from your mouth meaning,
constantly speak God's Word.
Get it inside of you, let it come out of you.
He's speaking this not to a pastor, a levite, or a priest.
He's speaking this to a ruler, a general,
an army-general- Joshua, and He says why.
So that you will be careful to live your life
in line with God's principles. Why would you want to do that?
Because God guarantees that these principles will help you
to make your way prosper meaning the way that you are armed
as a teacher, as a businessman, as a stay-at-home mom,
your way, God says, I will begin to guide you
because My Word is the light. I will begin to prosper that.
I will begin to give you success in that area.
The Bible clearly states in Psalm 1:2. It says that:
And whatever he does, not just whatever is trending,
whatever is popular, whatever is --
whatever he does, he shall have success in that.
God's Word is the seed that helps you to be successful.
I understand that many people focus on their education
it's important.
They focus on their health and fitness, very important.
They focus on proper relationship, also important
but God's Word guarantees and helps you
to navigate through life in a way that only God can.
You want to be successful according to God's successful
not according to the world?
I'm not talking about health, wealth bling and bling.
I'm talking about God's definition of success.
God's Word is the manual.
God's Word is your way to do that.
Do you read your Bible? How do you read your Bible?
Do you read it from the beginning till end?
How much of the Bible do you read?
What is your favorite translation?
Also, what is your favorite app that you use to study your Bible?
In my next video I'm going to share about how to study your Bible
and how to get the most out of your Bible.
Until next time, thank you for watching.