If you wanted to watch this episode early, exclusive content and more, check out our Patreon. Our Patreon is the best place for you guys to support us. Keep us producing the podcast, keep producing the evangelism videos, sending us out on the street, and in return, you get exclusive content that will only be available on Patreon, early access to all podcasts, evangelism videos, our inner circle group chat, and more. So if you want to support us, go to patreon.com slash Bryce Crawford today. Join the Patreon, support the mission, get early access to podcast videos, exclusive content, and more. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce. And today I really wanted to talk about the importance of reading your Bible, the importance of the word of God. Why is this thing important? This is something that was on my heart this morning. I was praying when I was driving over to the studio and I said, man, God, like I just, I want to be cautious about what I say, what I talk about. And so I was like, God, would you just like reveal to me what you, what you want to focus on? And this got highlighted to me. And so I really want to talk about I'm going to be bouncing all over the scriptures, talking about some personal experiences in my life and things like that. Let's open up the word of God. The first thing I want to talk about while you're opening, open up to Matthew chapter four. If you're in Matthew chapter four, open up there in your Bibles. But I'll never forget, like before being a Christian and even now, sometimes like the temptation of being a Christian is, oh, I know what's best for my life. And so I'm going to make a decision that's best for Bryce because I know myself better than anyone else knows me. I'm going to make that decision. And I would consider that sometimes, not all the case, but operating in the flesh, right? That's the tendency, especially before a Christian, you're operating out of your own strength. You're your own shepherd. And obviously, the fruit of being your own shepherd is blowing your whole life up. And so I want to read Matthew chapter 4 and see why it is important to read Scripture towards the beginning. But before we do that, I want to release a verse to you that I want you to keep in your mind this entire episode, and it's Hebrews 4.12. The scriptures and the writer of Hebrews would say in Hebrews 4.12 that the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, which separates the soul from the spirit. meaning the word of God is the most powerful tool to not only change your mind, but change your actions by separating the soul from the spirit. What is the soul? The soul is the way that seems right to you and me and the spirit, the way that seems right to God. You know, Paul writes in Romans 12, opens up Romans 12, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. If you have a sinful habit or a struggle that you're trying to break, but you're not going to the Word of God, that struggle is probably never going to be broken. You know why? Because you're relying out of your own strength, and you need the Word of God to wash your dirty mind, to take off that dirty record of the flesh, and put on the Spirit in your mind through the Word of God, cleansing your mind, cleansing your actions, and changing the way that you think and act. Well, let's read Matthew chapter 4. So it starts off, it says, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. So Satan tempts Jesus. He was led by the spirit 40 days to fast. At the end of his fast, Satan comes to him and tries to tempt Jesus in his flesh. And he says, hey, turn these rocks into bread. But he answered, Jesus says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God Let stop right there When Jesus is tempted by the devil in Matthew chapter 4 he does the very thing that he is preaching in that moment He says man shall not live by bread alone. He was combating the lies of Satan with the word of God. Furthermore, encouraging you and I, whenever the devil tempts us to combat the lies of the enemy with the word of God. And if you keep reading down in these scriptures, Satan actually quotes a perverted version of the Psalms later on when he interacts with Jesus. And the only way, the only way Jesus was able to combat Satan when he perverts Psalms just a little bit, like just a little bit, he was trying to tip Jesus. So he quotes the scriptures and twists it in a perverted way. Out of context, the only way Jesus was able to combat that was with a correct understanding of the scriptures. Jesus, even again, once again, uses the scriptures, uses the scriptures to combat the lies of the enemy. You see, Satan is sly. He's got no new tricks. 2 Corinthians would tell us this. Satan has been using the same dirty old tricks for thousands of years. He's a total loser. He's a total old head, and he's using the same old tricks. So what are we going to do when he's using the same old tricks? We have to use the Word of God. This is a alive, breathing weapon, timeless literature that has affected generations before us, currently benefiting our generation, and will continue to impact generations after us. This piece of literature that is alive does not need to change and progress in society. Rather, we need to change our lives because of what is in the scriptures. The psalmist David writes that the word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. When it comes to walking in the day, whether it's good times, bad times, happy times, sad times, healthy times, suffering times, successful times, impoverished times, whatever it may be, the word of God, let it be your lamp. This thing's never going to change. Never going to change. In fact, there is new, I love what David Platt says. He says there is spoils for us every day in this word. Meaning we can pick this thing up every day and find something new in it every single day. We need this thing. This is bread. And I've used this analogy before, and I'm going to use it again. If you only ate one time a week, you would starve. In the same way, if you only read the scriptures one time a week, and that happens to be on Sunday, you're going to starve. No wonder that struggle isn't breaking in your life. No wonder you're not finding breakthrough in areas that you're trying to surrender to the Lord because you're not submitting yourself to the scriptures. And you know that the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life is actually submission to his statutes, the chastisement of him, meaning God corrects those whom he loves. He corrects his children, right? The same way a father would correct his children. And so in that same context, right, evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life is watching you conform yourself to the Word of God when you read it. Submission to the Lord. Your way is better than my way, God. Thank you, Jesus. Your way is better than my way. there is life in these scriptures. So many people, philosophers, psychologists, and things, they like to pull wisdom from the scriptures Why is that Famous trailblazers for hope and peace like to pull from the scriptures Why is that Were there just over 30 different offers from thousands over thousands of year time periods that just decided to all sit in a room one day and they're just super smart? Rather, the scriptures would say, all scripture is God-breathed, profitable for teaching and reproof. You know, a lot of people say that they want to hear a response from God. I need to hear God. God needs to speak to me. Every single page in this leather-bound Bible is God-breathed, profitable for reproof, teaching, correction, and rebuke. Meaning that answer or response you're eager to hear from the Lord is actually in your Bible on your nightstand collecting dust right now. And you're blaming God for not giving you an answer when in reality, you want to pick this thing up. And you know why I'm so convicted about this right now and why I really want to start this January off like, man, we need the Word of God. We need Scripture. We need to hone into it. This is the reason why we create the Luke series, the Proverbs series, is because the Word of God is so important in creating this rhythm. I just got married. Literally just got married. I've been married on the day that we're growing. It's about nine, 10 days, okay? And one of the things I'm learning, right, as a role of a husband, And my job is to lead, listen to the discernment of the Lord through prayer and fasting and scripture and understand what decisions we're supposed to make, what do this and what do this. And I'm going to be completely vulnerable right here. My wife and I, we don't have, we came back from the honeymoon and we didn't have a place to stay like our house or an apartment. And so I'm immediately like going, oh, you know, we got this issue and then we got a couple other issues. and I'm like, I'll figure it out. I'll do it on my own strength. I'm the husband. I'm the man. I'm the leader. I'm going to do this. And I found myself within 48 hours of landing back from the honeymoon with the weight of different decisions. Rumbling. Rumbling. Under pressure. And I remember I was driving. I got so easily frustrated at the smallest thing. And I got so easily frustrated and I got frustrated and I'm thinking to myself, why is this so hard? And it was so quiet. But I could feel the Lord prompting me, Bryce, you need to lean on the scriptures. Life is in this thing. You're starving right now. Because not only is this nourishment for our soul, wisdom to lead, wisdom to make decisions, wisdom for your character, wisdom for your integrity, but the scriptures are also a weapon. Ephesians 6 would tell us the sword of the spirit. It is a weapon against the lies of the enemy, against the slanderous lies, against temptation, against the powers and principalities that are against our souls every day in war. This thing is a weapon, and we need it. And I think sometimes, like even in this new season for me, like marriage, like trying to be a husband, it's intimidating because I'm like, this is my first time holding a sword in the season. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm supposed to, you know, how do I wield this thing? How do I fight? How do I do this? And I'm so encouraged even by King David. Sorry, I'm just like thinking about this right now. King David had these mighty men. They were like his secret service kind of. And he had this one named Eleazar. Eleazar was like the best of the best of his secret service. And they were running from an army of a thousand Philistines He nine foot six tall ginormous warriors ripped Goliaths like a thousand shacks They just like running from a thousand shacks, wielding swords, militant beasts. And Eleazar turns around, and he fights them in confidence with his weapon, knowing that he is a good warrior. and he defeats all 1,000 Philistines by himself. And the scriptures would tell us that there was so much blood on his sword because he killed 1,000 Philistines by himself that the sword was stuck to his hand. Whatever you're going through in life, suffering, trials, temptation, even good times, to know how many demons have been slayed through the word of God, How many battles have been won through his God-breathed scriptures? How many victories have been a triumph? We have so much blood on the sword. So much victory has been won. So much fruit has been won because of the word of God. And if you want to change the way you think, act, submit to the Lord, change the way you make decisions, change the way you lead, many different things that you do, you will want to cling to this word. And you know, we're rising in secularism and things come and go, but the one thing that will never change is the scripture right here. And the last thing I really want to encourage practically when it comes to reading the scriptures, how do we read the scriptures? How do we understand them? I could go down in many different ways, but I want to give what I believe is the number one most important piece of advice when it comes to reading the scriptures. I've learned the hard way sometimes. I've learned in beautiful ways. I've been blessed by many commentaries, many perspectives, many teachings of the scriptures, but there is no far greater teacher of the word of God than the Holy Spirit himself. as Jesus promised in John chapter 14 that the Holy Spirit would be given to us as our helper to teach us things and bring conviction. Every time you crack open this leather-bound Bible, before you turn to a commentary, before you turn to your favorite pastor or preacher, before you click on the podcast, pray and ask Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, thank you that you are the helper sent from God to teach us things and bring conviction. Would you reveal to me in context what you have to say through the scriptures? Holy Spirit, speak to me through the scriptures. Before you do anything, before you read a single word on that page, Holy Spirit, speak to me right now through the scriptures. Whatever you have in store for me, help me understand these scriptures. Let me pray for us right now that we would have a fresh hunger for the word of God, a necessity, an importance, a value for it. And that Holy Spirit would speak to us. Jesus, we thank you. We love you. God, we think you're so incredible and magnificent and perfect. God, we just ask for two things. One, a fresh hunger for the word of God. God, would you give us a hunger to read your word, a hunger to cling to it, a hunger to use it as a weapon, our guide, a lamp. The second Holy Spirit, would you just make it so easy to understand what you have compiled in this book for us that is more than just a book, this bread, this life. God, we thank you for the scriptures. We love you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
