Knowing is Half the Battle

I always look forward to the opportunity to get to preach God's Word. It is something that fulfills me. It excites me. I get amped.

It takes me back to high school and college days when I played football and getting called off when the coach would catch you after the last practice and be like, hey man, you're starting this coming week. And it would just amp, it just amps me up because I love preaching the gospel. It gets me going. So today I am diving into something that is, it's just a huge passion for me. And that is the study, the necessary study of God's Word.

That is the Bible. So if you guys, I know there's some in here that are much younger than me. I'm knocking on the door at 40. And there's a few in here that are a little bit older than me. But a lot of you guys will remember this.

And knowing is half the battle. I got one thumbs up in the whole place. Come on now. Tell me you do not remember G.I.

Joe and fighting the Cobra, the evil people. And at the end of every single one, that came on. There was always a little life lesson with like three or four kids and a couple of adults standing around. And one of the G.I.

Joe figures would, and I don't even remember their names anymore. It's been a long time. But they would give this little life lesson. They would all look at the camera and knowing is half the battle. But the truth is that in our Christian walk, knowing is half the battle.

And the reason that the study of God's Word, the study of the Bible is so passionate to me is because I see in our churches and in our world, it really has just been left to the wayside. Unless you're a pastor or a theologian or you're going to seminary, studying out God's Word has just kind of been left to the side. About three weeks ago, I was reading a book. And this quote was in that book. And this quote is by Greg Laurie in his book, Hidden Treasure.

And he says, ultimately, success or failure in the Christian life depends upon how much of the Bible you get into your heart and life on a regular basis and how obedient you are to it. If you are not reading the Word of God, then it will only be a matter of time until you will fall apart spiritually. I come from a charismatic Pentecostal background. And I love my background. I love the church that I grew up in.

I believe that the Holy Spirit is integral. It is necessary in our walk, in our life. But what oftentimes happens is we have this amazing gift that is the Holy Spirit. And it is a powerful gift. The Holy Spirit works in us, through us, works miracles, guides us, teaches us, comforts us.

And so we begin to lean on the power of the Holy Spirit to the point that we neglect our part. And so instead of diving into God's Word and feeding ourself on a regular basis, we leave that to Sunday morning. We leave that to the Holy Spirit. Spirit, fill me. Fill me, Spirit, fill me.

And we come and we have these experiential things that happen to us at church or these amazing conferences. And let me be very clear. I, as much as the next Bentecostal, that's what I call myself, love and desire powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit. I have witnessed miracles. I have seen demons cast out of men and women.

I have seen the Holy Spirit do works and amazing things. And I desire it. I want to see it. But what I also want to see is brothers and sisters in Christ that are on a solid foundation. Because what I watch and what I see happening around me is we have this experience.

We have a lot of people who are saved through an experiential salvation. They go to a, they come into a church and there's a move of the Holy Spirit or they're in a, they're in a conference and there's a move of the Holy Spirit. And they are saved and their salvation is secure. But they never get into God's Word. They never set a solid foundation.

And so what happens next is someone says, hey, you should read this book. Hey, you should go listen to this podcast. Hey, you should hear this guy. He's really good. And they get caught up in the winds.

And they get caught up in the waves. And they find themselves jumping from one thing to the next. From one movement to the next. And they never fully understand what it means to call themselves a Christian. What it means to be a follower, a disciple of Christ.

Pastor Leon actually hit on this. I don't know if it was last week or the week before when he talked about what is a disciple of Christ. You go Old Testament and you talk about disciples. Andrew, who was a disciple of Christ, was actually a disciple on the Baptist before he was a disciple of Christ. These are people who came and sat at the feet of a rabbi and who, who were taught and who were, who, who grasped the foundations of things.

And they followed the teachings. They adhered to the teachings. And so to call ourselves a Christian, to call ourselves a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, whatever term it is that you want, requires that we not only hear it, but we actually understand what is required of us. See, I can't fulfill a requirement if I don't really know what the requirement is. That would be like me hiring you saying, hey, I got a really good job and I'm going to pay you $50,000 a year, you get great benefits, hey, your office is on the third floor, there you go, and you show up in your suit and you got your, and you walk into your office and you're like, uh, what am I supposed to do?

You don't even know what, you don't even know what's been required, you just got hired, you just took responsibility onto your shoulders, but you don't even know what's required of you. And that's, that is what I see happening so often in the kingdom of God within the church. And we get tossed to and fro and to and fro because we never get into God's Word on our own. We never dive in and begin to read the Scriptures and understand the Scriptures. And let me tell you guys, the reason that's important is because how do we get to know who God is?

Anybody got a guess? It's called reading your Bible. Studying out your Bible. That's how we know who God is. That's how, not only do we know who He is, that is how we know God.

There's a massive difference. How many people here know who I am? Casually. You know, he gets up there and does announcements. We see him every once in a while run around like a chicken with his head cut off.

Sometimes Leon lets him actually preach. We know, I think he's got kids. His wife does work somewhere back there. We never see her either. He has a dog, I think.

I've seen him in his truck. He pulls the trailer. A lot of people know who I am. You may even know my name and I have no idea your name, so I apologize. I'm horrible with that.

It takes me a long time. But there's a lot of people who don't know me. You've never been at my house and sat at my table and broke bread with me. You don't know what drives me, what moves me, what causes me to come to this passion. You see me up here and you see me getting all heated and you're thinking this dude is a lunatic.

But if you ever came and sat down and broke bread with me, you would get to know me. You would get to understand the things that I've been through, the experiences that I've had. You would get to know my character. You would know me. And so many of us know there is a God.

We claim to be followers of this God. But we don't know God. We come to church. And we listen to preachers. And we take what they have to say as gospel.

I love you guys. And I study real hard. And I pray. I get on my face before God and I pray before I ever get up here. As does Leon.

As does did my dad. But I would challenge you. After every message you hear from any pastor, speaker, theologian, I don't care who it is. Take what they teach you and go back to the word of God. And filter it through his word.

And if, when you get home and you do that, you think, man, Chris, you were a little bit off. Please, come find me. Come find me. Hey, man, can we get coffee? What you preached on on Sunday?

I think you might have been wrong. I think you might have translated that scripture a little bit off. But it's really not about me. It's for your safety. It's for your safety.

It's for your life. Because to have a relationship with God, to call yourself a Christian, requires a true, deep relationship with the Most High God. You want to know why I'm so passionate about this? Because I am going through seminary right now. And I eat it up.

I love it. The reason I love it isn't because I get a whole bunch of useless knowledge. It's because every time I learn to study out God's word more, more deeply, more invested in it, I know God more. And the more and more and more and more I get to know God, the more excited I get, the more I want to get up here and jump around and shout and yell and scream from the rooftops that you need to know God like I do. I don't want you to have a casual relationship with God.

I want you to have the same relationship that I have with God, which is a best friend, a savior, an Abba Father. And I know who God is. But I know God. I've met with God. I've been on my knees in my quiet time, weeping with God.

And let me tell you, it's the greatest thing ever. So that is where this comes from. That's where this desire of mine comes from to show you the importance of being in his word. So I'm going to run some facts here by you. But first, I need help.

Normally we do this at the end. But I need everybody to close your eyes and bow your head and not cheat. Don't look around. This is just for me. If you have read your Bible one time this week, raise your hand.

Nobody is looking. Two times. Three times. Four times. Five times.

Six times. Seven times. And I'm just going to jump. 20. All right, we're good.

You can look up. If I told you guys what the statistics of this were, I'm glad we have an honest group. Because I really thought I was going to get in here and have to deal with this like super self-righteous group that was just going to keep their hands up because they were afraid everybody was looking. That's not the case, which is what I love about Salt Church. It's like, yep, I don't read the Bible at all.

Praise Jesus. That's why we're here. No, but I'm honestly, I am grateful for your honesty. That once we got past about four times of reading the Bible, most of the hands dropped off. There was a few that were still here at seven, a couple here at eight, nine, and ten, and one or two at 20.

But for the most part, it's just real casual. So let me read these statistics to you. Hey, Matt, can I get the wireless mic? This thing's driving me up a wall. The average person has five social media accounts.

This thing's driving me up a wall. This has looked over for not to Zott. But Dad, he. The average person baru was avoiding anything in scripting a way ever. And spends an hour and 40 minutes a day browsing these networks.

An hour and 40 minutes a day. Multiply that times a week. I'm not real great at math. Somewhere around 12 hours. Somewhere in there.

Maybe 11-12 hours a week on your social media page. This doesn't include TV. The older we get, the more TV we watch. And the average American watches more than 5 hours of TV every day. Alright, this is better.

So let's put that together. The average American watches 5 hours of TV and an hour and 40 minutes on their social media pages. That is 6 hours and 40 minutes. This was done 6 years ago. Anybody wanna hear, wanna guess what's happened in 6 years?

I read this and I said I'm not even gonna go find the new ones because I don't need to. That's bad enough. 6 hours and 40 minutes a day is for the average American. Now I understand that includes a lot of people who binge on TV and binge on social media. But guys, that's average.

So let's be real conservative and we'll say 3 1⁄2 hours a day Christians, good Christian people, spend on social media and TV. How many days, how many hours are we awake in a day on average? Somebody give me 16. How many of that spent at work? 8.

If you're lucky, if you're grady, it's like 12, 13, 14. He showed up to pick up his daughter at my house like 8.30 the other night and he's like, I just got off work. It's like, oh. And I know that he's not like, that's not way out of the ordinary.

I know people who do 12, 13 hour days every day. 6 and 7 days a week. So of your 16 hour a day, you're at work 13. You know, we'll say 10 is average. So you got 16 left.

6 left, I'm sorry. This is how the cold affects me. And you spend, of that 6, 3 1⁄2 and we're being really conservative here. Looking at your phone, looking at your computer and staring at your TV. Now, if you're single, still leaves you with 2 1⁄2 hours.

If you have a family, I'm hoping that you're spending some of that time with your wife and kids. Which probably leaves somewhere in the area of negative 1 to 2 hours for God. Right? He's only going to get that if lightning strikes the cable box on your house and you have no cable for 4 days. Because now we can binge, oh wait, no.

No, because we have our TV on our phone. We can watch Netflix and binge all the Netflix that, since our TV is out. So, no, we're still there. So here is God. Who's supposed to be our premier relationship.

He's supposed to be our covering. Right? He's supposed to be the top priority in our life. And yet, how much time do we give to Him? 45 minutes on Sunday.

Hour. Hour and a half, maybe. See, I didn't share all the statistics with you. Because part of the other statistics that I got that I'm not going to read verbatim was church people. And it was how much time per sitting they spent in God's Word.

60 to 70 percent said anytime they picked up the Bible, it was somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. So, when we look at our study, and we think that the average person in here read the Bible maybe twice this week, three times. If we get rid of our outliers. And they spend 15 to 20 minutes. If we give them some grace.

That means the average person of us in this room is giving God somewhere around 40 minutes a week. How do you think your wife would feel about that, guys? You wouldn't have a wife. Someone answered that, and I would agree. You might for a little while, but guess what?

You're not going to have one for long. I know that if you're dating, no way in the world is your girlfriend going to be cool with that. Uh-uh. And if you're not giving that amount of time to your kids, your kids are going to be in trouble. And yet we expect to walk around and live blessed lives, guided by the Holy Spirit, walking in power and authority and might.

It's cool, God. I'll see you Wednesday for 15 minutes. Can I fit you, if I can fit you in? The truth is, guys, we don't know God. Most Christians who call themselves disciples of Christ don't know God.

They have this abstract idea of who he is based on what other people have told them. There's something wrong with that. I'm trying to keep this lighthearted, so I've got a couple quick stories for you. And then I'm just going to dive in and pound you with scripture. So enjoy this.

Quick story. The new minister was asked to teach a boys' class in the absence of the regular teacher. He decided to see what they knew, so he asked who knocked down the walls of Jericho. All the boys denied having done it, and the preacher was appalled by their ignorance. At the next deacon's meeting, he told the experience.

Not one of them knows who knocked down the walls of Jericho, he lamented. The group was silent until finally one seasoned veteran spoke up. Preacher, this appears to be bothering you a lot. But I've known all these boys since they were born, and they're good boys. If they said they didn't know, I'd believe them.

Let's just take some of the money out of the repair and maintenance fund. Let's fix the walls of Jericho, and let's let it go with that. Thank you. How many people in here who can tell me who knocked down the walls of Jericho? That's the question.

It's God, right? Joshua just happened to be there walking around in obedience. But that's just truth. That's truth. We got leaders at church, people in authority positions who should know God's Word, who should know God, and they don't even know who walked down and knocked down the walls of Jericho.

But here's the deal, guys. That's not out of norm. That's the norm. I'm going to give you a quick story. I asked permission from this gentleman yesterday, and I'm not going to name his name.

Nothing bad here. But I want you to understand the reason and the importance of really reading God's Word and knowing God's Word and knowing stories like Jericho. I had a gentleman come over and hang out at my house the other day. Super excited. I mean, stoked.

He'd been reading Romans 9. And he was talking about how Paul was referencing the Old Testament and going back and forth. And he was excited. And he got me excited. And in the references in Romans 9, Paul talks about some Old Testament things that happened.

And one of them is Jacob and Esau. How many people here know the story of Jacob and Esau well? That's what I thought. So he starts telling me how excited he is because what he's getting out of this scripture is just awesome. It's like off the hook.

And he's telling me, again, the Lord's talking about Jacob and Esau and, you know, the things that he did in the Old Testament. And he's stoked. And a lot of the stuff that he got was good, but it was surface. And so I asked him, hey, do you know the story of Jacob and Esau? Have you ever gone back into the Old Testament and actually read the story that Paul is talking about?

Because it's kind of impossible to understand what Paul is talking about unless you first understand what happened with Jacob and Esau. He's like, no, I don't. And I was like, well, man, let me tell you about Jacob and Esau. Let me tell you about a brother who bought a birthright, who took the blessing, or it was sold to him, who deceived his father, but who from the womb was chosen by God. And so we began to get into Romans 9 and I began to show him, God, Paul is not talking about what you think he's really talking about.

He's going deeper than that. And what God is, is what Paul is telling these Jews that he's talking to is, hey, just because you are a Jew, just because you are of Isaac's line doesn't mean you'll make it to heaven. The only way you make it to heaven is if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ and you believe he was the Lord and Savior. Even though the Jews are the chosen people, even though Isaac's line was the chosen line, that was a physical narrative. And what Paul is talking about is a spiritual narrative.

And we sat there and it was like five hours we sat in my living room going back and talking about this stuff. It was awesome. And I was just telling him, this is, this is why I am so impassioned about you guys getting into God's word on a daily basis and studying out. Because if all you do is take what I tell you as gospel, if all you do is take what Pastor Leon tells you as gospel, you're skimming the surface. You're going to know who God is, but you will never know God.

You will never experience God in your life the way that you can if you dive in to his word. Man, time always goes fast. Jacob. Esau was hairy. I'll give you a quick rundown of this now that I've brought it up.

Jacob was the second born, born minutes after Esau. Please go read about the Jewish traditions of the firstborn. And the blessing that goes with that. Understanding that is huge in understanding a lot of Old Testament prophecy and a lot of the stories of the Old Testament. I'm like, I don't have time to go into that today.

I would love to. Jacob is second born. He buys his brother's birthright, but he has to deceive his father. His father gets sick, is essentially blind. And so his mother goes with him and they use wool.

And they put wool on his arms so that when his dad reaches out from his bed to bless him, he feels hair. Because the distinguishing thing between Jacob and Esau was that Esau was hairy and Jacob was not. And so when he reached out to bless his son and felt the hair, he thought he was talking to one. And so he gave his blessing, which belonged to the firstborn to the second. So that's just a quick rundown.

Go read it. It's a really good story. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of really good things in God's word. And the more you know him, the deeper you know him, the more you know God.

And I'm getting looks from people like, I get it. I get it. It's a book. No, it's not a book. I could name off a whole bunch of books.

Knowing God by J.I. Packer. That's a book. Some of these, I was just reading one with my daughters last night.

What's the, Chronicles of Narnia. Those are books. Just books. Good books, but just books. Harry Potter, evidently those are good books.

Never read them, but I hear they're great books. They're just books. They are only worth the paper they're printed on. The Bible is much more than just a book. Let's talk about the Bible.

What is God's word? First of all, God's word is perfect. The Bible is infallible. That means it is unfailing in its purpose. It is inerrant.

There are no errors in God's word. Guess what, guys? I know you're gonna hear from all sorts of people who wanna decry God's word and oppose God's word, and they'll tell you there's all sorts of crazy stuff. Let me help you out with this. In the totality of the Bible, it is perfect.

And the reason that I know it's perfect is because of who authored it. God. It is a God-breathed book. That is God. The Bible is God.

That is how we know him. That is how we know his character, his promises. That is how we know our God. God. It would be like your wife, or your husband, or girlfriend, or boyfriend handing you a book with everything you need to know about them, and you going, that's cool, I'll get to that later, but there's everything you need to know, their favorite color, their favorite flower, their favorite place to go on vacation, the things that they hate the most, that's really important, by the way, for those of you dating, all the other stuff is really, really just kind of surfacy, you really want to find out the things they don't like.

Those are the things that will cost you the most later on in life. It is complete, and it is authoritative. The Bible is the authority for Christians. It's it. That is where we go to learn who we're supposed to act like.

That is where we go to find out what we're supposed to do. That is where we go to find out how we're supposed to treat our husbands and wives, how we're supposed to act like. To raise up our kids, how we're supposed to raise up our kids, how we're supposed to work for God. That's it. It's the authority.

There are some really good books that can supplement it, but they are no more than a supplement. That is it. I could deal with no books, but if I had God's word, I could live according to it. I could live a godly Christian life if I had nothing but God's word. It is alive.

That's an important distinction for us compared to our other religious groups. Most other religious groups have dead gods. They have books that are archaic, that are not alive. They follow things that are tenants, and they follow all this other stuff, but none of it is alive. Our Bible is alive.

It is living. It is truthful. It is just as relevant today as it was with Paul. There is nothing in there. I challenge you to go find something in there and bring it to me and go, well, this was for back then and not for today.

And I'm not talking about customs. I'm talking about laws of God, commands of God. God, you're not going to find him. We're told to live holy and completely towards him. We're told to be of one wife or one husband.

We're told not to commit adultery, not to commit murder. And a lot of these things, you're going, well, those were all Old Testament stuff. Well, let me help you out. When Jesus showed up, all he did was up the ante. Don't even look at another woman.

Don't even think these things. Thinking those things is committing them. There's nothing in there. So I'm going to read some scriptures to you guys. The first one is this, 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be completely equipped for all or every good thing. Every good work. It has everything you need. All of it. There's nothing in God's word, but we take it for granted.

We set it aside on our nightstand and we look at it twice a week and we think, man, if I just do that, I'm going to be good. I know God. I know who God is. He's faithful. Well, that's great.

Do you know why he's faithful? Do you know what makes him faithful? Do you know the scriptures that back up so that when you're challenged by someone and they say, your God's not faithful, you can go, yes, he is. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he promises me these things.

Hebrews 4, 12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper. I love this. This is, this right here is like, makes me want to pull my Bible out and go slash demons. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit of joints and marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You want to know where your heart really is at?

Go read God's word. It will challenge you. You think, I'm good. I got this. I'm holy.

I've arrived. Seth, raise your hand if you think that. Okay, we're going to meet behind the curtains afterwards. Seth and I have some laying of hands to do. Every time I get in God's word, I'm challenged.

Every time I open up his word and I start to read, it pierces my heart. And God says, you're not right yet, son. I have work to do in you, son. That anger that you showed last week, that's not right. Right?

The way you responded to your wife or your children or to your brother in Christ on Sunday because he didn't put a curtain up right, that's not right. Every time I get in God's word, it pierces me to my very soul and then challenges me. But here's the beauty of it. It's not just some disciplinarian book that wants to come down hard on you. Then we can go back to 2 Timothy.

No, it challenges you. It pierces you. It shows you what you're doing wrong. And then it upgirds you and it lifts you up and it encourages you and it gives you what you need to walk out the life that God's called you to. But it is entirely impossible to do if you don't know God.

And you can't know God if you're not reading his word. I think one of the big reasons that we're like this as a society and especially as a church is because we take the Bible for granted. Who here reads the Bible on some sort of electronic device? Raise your hand. I do.

No shame. Who here reads from an actual like leather-bound book? That's encouraging. I'm glad to see that. Because I don't think that that's normal statistics.

How many actually read from that leather-bound book or how many use that as a book stop at the end of... No, I'm just kidding. Kind of. But here's the deal. The book of Isaiah.

In order for Old Testament, in order for the Jews to be able to read these books from the Old Testament, when the scribes were redoing these things, it would take five days. Five whole days. Sun up. Sun down. Sun up, sun down.

Sun up, sun down. You get the point. Five days to copy the book of Isaiah, but for us, it's like, hey, I feel like reading Isaiah. Select all, paste, or better yet, hey, I'm just going to plug my phone into the car and hit play, and I'm going to listen to it while I drive through Hampton Roads traffic. We don't grasp the importance of it.

These people, it was so important to them that they would spend days copying it word for word. Can you imagine that being your job? Here's one copy, and you're copying it word for word, so that that copy of the Old Testament could then be distributed so people could read it. It was that important to them. For us, it's just another app.

Man, you walk into a Christian bookstore, it's like walking into Baskin Robbins for Bibles. Let's see, I want a leather-bound pink, purple, and white with my name in shiny, you know, glittery stuff across the front. And I'm going to put some neat little scriptures down here in the bottom, dedicating this Bible to myself. And now, let's see, which one of the versions do I want to use? Oh, man, there's just so many to choose from.

We get, it's so easy. It's so accessible for us, that for us, it's just another book. If you have iTunes, like I do, or an iPhone, and you have iBook, I've got like eight versions of the Bible in my iBooks right next to all these other books that I read. It just looks right in line with all the rest of the books. It should be like eight times the size of all the other books, and every time you open up iBooks, it should like, an alarm should go off.

Read me, read me, read me, read me. And then maybe for a second that you would put down the Chronicles of Narnia and actually read the scriptures that inspired the Chronicles of Narnia, the Bible. How about that? We don't have to read a book and try to guess what the Bible was saying. We can actually read it and know.

That's legit, guys. I talk to people all the time. Oh, I read this really good book, and it really showed me a new view on the Bible. Well, have you ever read any of those portions of the Bible that that book gave you a new view on? Well, no, I haven't really studied that out, but now he did a really good job.

My question every time, and it's the same I'll ask you today, is how do you know if he did a really good job if you've never read it to begin with? If you've never studied it out to begin with, how do you know how good that guy did? He could be a liar. He could be a total fraud. But you would have no idea, because the New York Times gave it five stars and said that it was inspirational.

We have a warning in Acts 20, 29 through 30. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even men from your own number will arise and distort the truth to draw disciples after them. Here Paul is talking about what? False prophets.

Teachers that distort God's word. Teachers that take God's word and twist it to fit whatever their agenda is. Hey, I want more money, so I'm going to twist this so that it looks like you guys should all give me money. It's not tithes, offerings, giving. That's all biblical stuff.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about other people. You know who I'm talking about. We distort it. We distort it for political things.

I've read the Bible a couple times now. I can't find Republican or Democrat, either one in there anywhere. Neither one of them. I know I just offended some people. One of my best friends who was in the hospital last night with surgery.

I've offended him a lot with that statement, so I'm used to it. But guys, it's just so important. It is so important. God's word is protective. It talked about being as sharp as a two edged sword.

Like it is the sword of the spirit. I talked about that a few weeks ago. The armor of God. The sword of the spirit is God's word. That is how we defend ourselves.

That is how we attack the enemy when he comes in. If you don't know God's word, it's like running into battle without a sword. That's not a fair fight. You've just handed it to the enemy. You've got to know God's word.

You've got to dive into scripture and understand what he's saying so you can use it to protect yourself. God cares about us. And he cares about us so much that he breathed this book and said, this is me. The word was God. And the word was with God.

Seth's finishing it for me. Guys, this isn't just another book. It's not. We're starting a new year today. Happy New Year, by the way.

I feel like a standup comedian who gets halfway through his act and forgets where he was at. Happy New Year. Great opportunity for us to have all start those great, you know, tomorrow is a new year. I am going to get healthy. Maybe I'm going to start treating my kids better, my wife better.

I'm going to do better at my job. I'm going to find a new job. I'm going to start a new business. We're going to do all these things, right? How about this?

Leave all those things aside. Because your physical health is secondary to your spiritual health. You can be the healthiest person in the world. My dad had a heart attack. Cardiac arrest.

They found him in a hallway at the Pentagon. They didn't know how long he'd been unconscious, unresponsive. His heart was stopped. He was 61 or 62 at the time. Healthiest 62-year-old I've ever met.

Used to run six miles a day. Healthy, healthy, healthy. I mean, when you would see my dad as a chaplain with other chaplains, you could tell this guy was different. He took care of himself. And yet he had a heart attack.

And had they not found him. He would have died. Thank God if he'd have died, he'd have gone to heaven because his spiritual fitness, his spiritual health is worth far more to him than his physical health. But there's a lot of us that don't feel that way. Guys, I surf.

I love to surf. I'm not a very good one. There's some people here who can attest to that, but I love to surf. I love to steal waves from people and drop in on people. I love it.

Someone said, like, Lee Rat. We need to go surf together. I love being in the water. I love, I love paddling. I love being healthy.

I love to run. One of my favorite things is to get up at the crack of dawn and get on the boardwalk and watch the sun rise as I'm running four or five miles. I love it, but none of that would matter if I died tomorrow and I had to stand before God and he said, you don't know me. You taught. You preached.

I don't know you. That's scriptural. Someday there's going to be people that stand before God who said, I'm a Christian. I'm a disciple of Christ. I'm a follower of Christ.

And they're going to stand before God and he's going to say, I don't know you. And it's because they didn't follow the commands. They didn't follow the word that he had given them to follow for their life. Showing up at church doesn't make you a Christian. And I'm sorry.

I apologize. Maybe Leon will never let me preach again. And he listens to this. If that is news to you, it's good to be here. We need to have a body.

We need to come fellowship. Sunday mornings are awesome, but this won't do it. If you come here on Sundays, but you don't follow the commands that God has given us in his word the rest of the week, let me help you out. You won't make it. I know this is radical, right guys?

Like, what do you mean? Going to church doesn't send me to heaven? I've heard that my whole life. I thought as long as I showed up and sat down in my seat, like that was it. Yeah, you guys can come up.

I'm almost done. Where I come from, when you're a, when you're a Baptocostal or Pentecostal or charismatic preacher, you have three closings. So you'll say in closing, then you say in closing again, and it's the third in closing when the worship team comes to join you. Guys, I'm just trying to get across to you the importance of God's word. What I'm trying to get into you, so for you to grasp and hold on is that this is it.

God's word is it. It's living, it's alive, it's protective, and it's perfect. And you guys can live the most amazing good lives. You can give your money, you can go spend time at the soup kitchen, you can do whatever you want to do and call yourself a good person. But if you aren't in God's word, if you don't know God, it's all for naught.

Man, forget all the other junk tonight. When it hits midnight, wake up tomorrow and say, God, my commitment this year has nothing to do with what I'm going to eat or how I'm going to dress or who I'm going to talk to or being a better person. My commitment is that I'm going to get up and get in your word. I'm going to get to know you this year. And you know what?

Start small. I know I've been joking on how many minutes you spend in your word and how many times, but you have to start somewhere. But the idea is that you start somewhere and you grow to somewhere else. Don't stop it once a week and five minutes. Man, maybe this week, starting tomorrow, it's Monday, January 1st.

All right, Lord, I'm 10 minutes every day I'm in your word. Every morning I'm going to get up and I'm going to get in your word before I do anything else for 10 minutes. And then next week it's going to be 20 minutes or 15 minutes. And I'm going to do this incrementally until I'm in your word an hour every single day because God, I want to know you. It's not because I want to be self-righteous.

It's not because I want people to think I'm some holy Christian. I'm going to do it in the quiet of my house because God, I want to know you more. There's nothing better than knowing God. There's no greater joy. I love my wife and my marriage was great.

My wedding day was an amazing thing. My kids, I love spending time with my kids. I have amazing kids. But my greatest joy is when I dive into God's word and I get to know God because my wife's imperfect and we fight and my kids are imperfect. They are really disobedient some days.

But my God never fails me. He never fails me. So guys, please, I know I was kind of all over the place. It's because I'm so passionate about this. I just want you guys to get it and grasp it, man.

Get his word. Get in. Know God like I know him. Have him as your best friend, your Abba Father. Know God.

Don't just show up at church. Amen. Let's pray and then we'll stand up and worship with these guys. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the scriptures that you've given us that show us the way.

Lord, that challenge us, that equip us, that prepare us, Lord. Lord, I pray right now that as we go forward in 2018, Lord, that you would put a hunger inside of us for your word that would be unquenchable. Lord, that we would want to get deeper and deeper and deeper into your word. Lord, I pray that there will be so many people coming to Leon and to myself saying, I read this yesterday. I read this and it's so awesome.

Lord, I want to hear from people that they know you more. Lord, I know there's people today that are here that may not know you at all. And so I would be remiss to not give the opportunity. And I know today was not a super evangelistic over-the-top message. But Lord, maybe they've been challenged and today is the day.

So if you're here today, I'm just going to ask you to pray with me real quick. Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for opening the eyes of my heart today. Lord, I repent of my sins.

I ask that you forgive me of my sins. And Lord, I ask you right now that you come into my heart, that you take hold of my heart, that your Holy Spirit would indwell my heart today, Lord. Lord, I believe wholly that your son died on the cross. And after three days, he conquered sin and death. Lord, I want to know you more.