Delighting in God's Word: A Journey of Joy

"blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners doesn't sit in the sea discovers his delight is in the law of the lord you know there are two ways in which you can read the bible one is because you're told no bible no breakfast okay a law from childhood no bible bro breakfast i have to read my bible today it's not delightful it's like your mom is king asking you to eat brussels sprouts or broccoli or something you just don't if they're asking you to i scream or something a bit different how do you approach god's word that's the point his delight is in the law of the lord and in his law he doesn't read the law day and night no there's no we got a lot of other things to do the whole day he meditates that means in between his work sometimes the word comes into his mind that's how we meditate" [00:05:23]

"and the result will be he will be like a tree firmly planted he won't shake have you seen these trees some of these trees down there the redwood forest from the time of jesus they've been there two thousand years you can't shake it a tree firmly planted and in its season it yields fruit its leaf never withers that means never discouraged always green and here this is the best part of it whatever he does he prospers i remember reading that years ago and i said lord i'm not thinking of material prosperity here the bible is not given to us to teach us how to become rich but that in every situation i must prosper in what i do it means i must do the will of god and finish my earthly course before i leave this earth whatever he does will prosper imagine if that word can be said about you dear brothers and sisters whatever you do whatever you put your hand to somehow the other the blessing of god is there let's put it like that the blessing of god will be on whatever you put your hand to bringing up children the blessing of god will be there and what you do even your earthly work the blessing of god will be there it's not a question of becoming rich the blessing of god will be on your work even if you never become rich your needs will always be met" [00:06:30]

"the wonderful thing about jesus was not his bank account but he never lacked he never lacked money when he needed it he could god would provide it even for the mouth of a fish to pay his taxes right you know that is he he never lacked anything what he could he would always prosper even though he wasn't having a big bank account or any such thing people like judas could steal his money it doesn't make a difference to him he lived by the word of god and the fact that the age of 12 he could discuss scripture with the greatest scholars in the temple how is that i've often said that i think personally they never had a bible at home the only bibles those days were in parchment scrolls very expensive to buy there'd be one copy in the synagogue and as a little five-year-old boy he'd go to the rabbi and say can you please read something from the scripture to me and the rabbi would be delighted that a five-year-old is coming to hear scripture and he'd read something and then just say stop that's all i can remember for today go home meditate on it come back next day and say rabbi can you please continue with the next verse and like that over seven years he really got to know the scriptures by the time he was 12" [00:08:15]

"boy imagine if our children began to love scripture like that he wasn't doing that all the time he was helping his mother and doing so many things at home going to school he had to study all that but he found time in between to take a little bit of scripture every day and meditate on it that's all you need just a little bit of scripture every day and think about it and jesus would think about it during the day and the father would speak to him through the holy spirit so that by the time he was 12 he could explain things i believe that's what happened in the temple when the priests were all saying different things and jesus would explain this is what it means and they were amazed how does this little child explain to us verses which we found so difficult to understand because when jesus heard those scriptures he got the breath of god from it not just an academic you know information in his head like those priests had so that's how it was for jesus and that's how it can be for us" [00:09:40]

"like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word the reason i wanted to come here first because i told you how i got this assurance of salvation in my heart i dropped an anchor way back in july 59 and my ship was never drifted from that day assured god has accepted me but another thing happened after that day i found in my heart a tremendous thirst i used the word thirst for the milk of the word of god it says you're like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so being born again is like becoming a newborn baby it cannot open its mouth to ask for anything but it cries and even a dumb father like me if i hear a little baby crying i know what he's crying for it's milk the mother knows this my kid needs milk and after a few hours it's growing again it's not crying for anything for milk now when a child is born a baby is born and it doesn't cry for milk something is seriously wrong with that child the doctors will say i'm sorry your child is underdeveloped and didn't grow properly in the womb it's not a healthy child never crying for milk it goes a whole day without crying for milk you know like people say i didn't get time to read the bible today uh-huh are you born again that's what i would ask no cry in your heart for milk that's serious if a baby doesn't imagine if your mother has a baby and it never cries for milk or goes just one day forget two days one day it goes without milk go to a doctor something's wrong with my child dog you say that next time to yourself when you can when you say i didn't get time today to read the bible uh-huh ask yourself whether you know the lord i'm not condemning anybody i'm not trying to condemn anyone i'm just asking you to check up are you really born again" [00:11:26]

"i know what happened to me nobody taught me to study god's word i'll tell you this honestly no church taught me that i in the church they didn't teach me to read or meditate but when i got that verse him that comes to me i will not cast out god breathed that into me and i was born again from that day i had a great desire to read god's word and i said lord i've been i'm 19 and a half years old born in a christian family and i've never read the bible once i read the newspaper but i haven't read the bible once i decided that day that i'm going to read through the whole bible first whether i understand it or not at least read through it and in six months i read from genesis 1 to revelation 22. i read the whole thing a lot of things of course i didn't understand but at least i read through it and then i also meditated on small portions of scripture ever since then i've had this habit of a dual way of studying the bible one is reading large sections when you have time that may not be every day once in a while you can read it when you're going for a walk or doing exercise or something like that and then more important meditating on a small portion that's more important so because we get a lot out of meditation" [00:13:56]

"so this is the first thing i wanted to mention about one way that we know our new birth is genuine that you're a healthy child is you have a desire to know the word of god the milk of the word of god and it'll be a cry in you every day i want the milk i want the milk and those are the people who grow that's how our baby grows and i began to grow and i began to have more and more of a hunger to god's word to meditate and i bought books you know i was single those days and i had time on my hands i would buy books that would help me to study the bible not there are two types of commentaries i find one are commentaries that give you information i would read it two three pages might say i'd throw it away i don't want that there were other things that spoke to my heart that's one reason i wrote through the bible because i found very few commentaries that are practical applying it to our daily life which is how the bible is supposed to be and so but i found one or two commentaries not very good ones but a few that spoke to my heart and i tried to read scripture along with them to try and hear what god is speaking to my heart" [00:16:22]

"coming to luke 24 in luke 24 we read the whole bible being mentioned in these words verse 27 moses and the prophets the phrase moses refers to the five books of the bible genesis the first five genesis to deuteronomy written by moses and then the rest of the books uh the remaining 34 books in the old testament are called the prophets it's a historical and prophetical books so the old testament is called the moses and the prophets now jesus was walking with two disciples after the resurrection from jerusalem to emmaus and when i read in verse 13 it tells me the distance was seven miles they were not running it was a leisurely walk i reckon it would have taken them about three hours three hours they took to walk from seven miles leisurely from jerusalem to a maze and what is happening in those three hours it said jesus walked with them and began with moses and the prophets explained to them everything concerning himself from genesis to malachi you know what i got from that verse there's something about jesus in every book in the old testament" [00:18:47]

"and i used i went to the lord and i said lord you're still there you're alive the same yesterday today and forever you've given me the holy spirit will you ex teach me also like you taught those disciples do you think the lord will say no to you if you go to jesus i challenge any of you to go to jesus and say lord i want to leave 15 minutes a day many of you mothers are busy okay 15 minutes a day or whatever time you have say lord jesus i want you to explain to me through the holy spirit exactly like you walked with those disciples and opened up the old testament and showed yourself in every book i want to see jesus in every book of the bible today we have 66 books i didn't want to get doctrine i never went to a bible school i'll tell you honestly in my entire life i have never been blessed by a preacher who came from a bible school never all the preachers who blessed me whether it is tozer or watchmanny or dl moody or charles finney or boxing or they've all been people who never went to bible school those are the ones who bless me the most different ones like this and i said lord i want you to open the scriptures to me just like you opened it up to those people he'll do it for you if you believe that he loves you he he doesn't love you any less than he loved those two disciples" [00:21:01]

"i personally believe those two disciples are a married couple they were living in the same house and when jesus went there they prepared a meal for him it must have been a married couple the thing is uh we men are so arrogant then when we read two disciples we think there must be two men why should it be two men why can't it be a man and a woman two disciples walking through miz and so it's a wonderful thing that jesus explained to them the scriptures and every book there was jesus and that gave me a hunger to find jesus in every book of the bible in every page of the bible to see jesus here and jesus there and little little things i've shared that with you different different times that we see something of jesus in different things for example forgiveness i'll give you one example in matthew chapter 12 we read that the pharisees when jesus cast out a demon the pharisees said that's because he's the prince of devils bielsa bull matthew 12 24 this man casts out demons because he's the ruler of the demons and he tells the demons to go and they obey him that's a very serious thing" [00:23:19]