 This morning. I want to speak to you on the topic called a book that reads us Come on come on There's many books that we read and then the Bible the word of God this light blue Bible come on or the phone Whatever you read it through don't judge, you know Some people like it the old-fashioned. They like the they like to read on through a book others You know technology is better for them. So whatever it is as long as you read it, right? You know, it's Whatever floats your boat better as long as you don't drown We we are church that will be a church of prayer and reading God's word Because whatever God said in his word He said that in Matthew the heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will by no means will pass away God says if I speak my word I make sure that it never comes back void that means it will bring fruits in your life So it is worthy of attention. It is worthy of your time It is worthy of your day to be able to put your focus on to that I like what this one man of God said he said whatever has your attention will give your direction So if you put your attention on the word of God, it will never Mislead you if you put your attention on social media and your friends on Rumors on this or that it will misguide you it will give you direction to that and if people like well My life is miserable. I want to ask you what has your attention What do you pay attention to because that is the thing that is giving you? direction and there are the Scripture that we that we will be able to read this morning is Joshua 1 8 it says keep this book the word of God Keep this book of law always on your lips. Somebody say always On your lips meditated on a day and night so that you may be careful to do somebody say to do Everything that is written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful prosperous and Successful, I love the testimony of Roger as as he shared This is a proof to show us that the word of God is not just a history book But it is a book that can change your life for the better Some things you might not understand. I agree with you if you get stuck in the book of little viticus or the numbers However, you pronounce it did erotomy he might get a little dry. I understand But the whole book of the Bible it gives us direction it purifies our lives. It gives us a lot It gives us direction. It gives us healing to our body. It gives us encouragement It gives us peace. It gives us joy that no other book Can give us and men church so it is worthy of my attention somebody say it is worthy of My attention come on somebody I'm gonna need your participation here So there's a study that it is so awesome I believe pastor lot shared it once and I want to share it again a study that was done by Center for the Bible Engagement send this when we read our the scriptures where we are in the scriptures at least four times a week It has to be four times a week. That's when it makes it more of a difference the feeling lonely drops by 30% So if somebody comes up to you Matthew lonely tell him get in the word homie No, I'm serious. This is straight up. There's like they're like I need advice and you're like this is my advice get in the book, right? Anger issues drops 32% Wow wives to your husbands just be like You better get in the word. I'm gonna get the word on you One or the other somebody's gonna get in the word. It's either the easier the hard way bitterness in Relationship in marriage to your kids and so on drops by 40% when we read the word of God at least four times a week alcoholism alcoholism drops 57% Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%. This is key. I want to highlight this is that I've seen a lot of times where We're spiritual. We feel depleted or we feel dry or what we feel like we're going through a rough season Get in the word of God begin to memorize it begin to study it begin to Begin to meditate on it begin to quote it to yourself because this will give you fuel for your soul It will equic in your spiritual life with God View and pornography drops by 61% On the positive note sharing your faith jumps 200% Discipling others jumps 230% So reading the Bible is not just so we can get head knowledge. It actually will by its very nature Change your life. I want this next year that we are going into I know there's many other books that we can read that that you know self-health books, you know Money management, you know how to raise your kids how to get better and in marriage Those books are important, but no book can change your life like the word of God No book can transform can bring healing can bring direction sense of peace in your life like the word of God and we need to give it Attention we need to give it time. We need to give it the most important time out of the day that we can because That book will bring you success and prosperity According to Joshua 1a. They meant church There's why the book why the Bible just want to read something that's You might know this or not why the blood the book of the Bible is so important why it's so Unique why the Bible is different from any other book in the world because of its unity It was written in the span of a thousand six hundred years through 40 different authors three continents and three languages and still manage to have the Uniformity throughout its accounts. There are three hundred thirty three prophecies of Christ mentioned hundred years before ever he came to earth a hundred fifty of them occurred in Six hours that he hang on the cross the probability of just eight of three hundred thirty three coming to pass is Equivalent to covering the state of Texas two feet deep and silver dollars and one of which has a special mark on it With only one chance to pick up the right one. So the probability is just insanely just it's not possible basically history science and geography confirms it scientists and the day in the back of the day some still believe the earth is flat, but They believe that the earth was flat while the Bible said it was round in Isaiah 40-22 Noah's Ark the wall of Jericho and Jesus tomb were all Found this is to show you the word of God is unique You the word of God is still the best-selling book till this day And you know you might not carry the Bible with you all the time Maybe that's doesn't fit you maybe the color. I don't know what it is But maybe it is on your phone, but it's still deserve your time. We have to understand if Where is that there's a we as humans we spend about I believe it was like 33 hours a week on TV and 14 hours a week on social media, which I think now it's a little different I think it's like 33 hours on your phone and 14 on your TV You know and you are already Spending that time into something it's just right now redirecting your Attention and your focus on the word of God that can give you back energy Can give you back love can give you back peace? You know sometimes you wake up in the morning they make your coffee wrong your days already ruined. You know how it is The word of God sometimes you get on social media and you see somebody got promoted and you lost your job But already it crushes you breaks you down, but when you get in the word of God, it gives you strength It gives you energy it gives you enduring power to walk with God saying God you are my side You are faithful you have never left me. You never forsaken me You are still by my side every promise you said in your word still is true to my life. I Know so many times. I like you know I like to read books and I like to do more of our audio podcast because I drive out I drive a lot and for me that's the best use of time. You know, I'm listening to this one book It's like ours just wasted and rambling stuff this thing is like I'm depressed after listening to that book You know, I'm not I'm serious You know, sometimes we pick up a book and I'm reading I'm like man This thing is just but the word of God many times you pick it up and you start reading and it begins to read you It begins to talk to you it begins to give you a hope like in the darkest situation You are able to have peace and people like how do you do it? It's because the word of God has given me life The word of God is giving me direction It's giving me a hope not to give up on my marriage not to give up on my kids Continue to pray to stand and believe it. It gives you power that no other book can do It is worthy of your and my attention Whatever has your attention will give you Direction for your life and like Roger said he said like look, I'm not worthy I don't deserve to have what I have but when he took the word of God and made it made it a part of himself Made it a part of his life. It is by its very nature Begin to change his marriage begin to change his business begin to change things around him that he had no control over But the word of God gave power it begins to change things. You're like wow I'm different people around you look at you to say you acting different you talk different wise because the word of God Changes our lives and men church If you if you want to be taken notes I'm just gonna go through a few things and we're also gonna go through a few practical things that the word of God That we can make it part of our lives, you know This is not just like a I'm gonna run to just to do a check mark It has to become part of your life just like you know for someone's it's part of our life to drink coffee You know, it's like without coffee. Our life is not complete That's how the word of God has to be that if you don't read the word of God that that day you're different You know with your wife. It's like you're angry. I didn't read the word of God, you know, I use that with my wife sometimes It's like get in the word bro. So We have to be that that if it's not part of your life people see it's different If people notice that you know, you need to you need to get you need to get yourself in in the word of God Amen, so we have to understand that Jesus Christ and the word they are one The word of God takes a place of unseen Christ When we read the word of God, it is Jesus Christ Jesus Speaking to us be Jesus Christ was speaking through us and to us amen church So the first point is whatever dominates your mind will dominate your life Whatever dominates your mind will begin to dominate your life We'll give you direction will make you talk in a certain way will make you walk in a certain way It makes you do certain things your life So we have to understand if we feel our mind with the word of God It will like it says in Joshua give you success and prosperity It is simply what you you filled your mind with a sooner later It will begin to come out of your mouth It will begin to dominate your thoughts whenever a failure will come you're in your mind You're right away say whatever my hand touches will be blessed. I walk in I'll be blessed and I will walk out I will be blessed my business will be blessed my family will be blessed my marriage will be blessed So there is no room in your mind for failure why because the word of God is dominating your mind But if failure is dominating your mind failure already gave you direction Some people like well we well what we think that's what we're going to do So if failure you know you got a flat tire then you got a speeding ticket Maybe your time has expired you got a ticket for that You know you went to your job and you're late and boss gave you You know said one more time happens you're fired all these things are piling up And your mind is already filled with failure guess what failure will follow You know there's just that's how it happens But if you know if the word of God is dominating your mind Sooner or later The success and prosperity will begin to flow with you and anything that you touch will begin to prosper And people will see you like they saw Joseph and say that God is with him. Yes. He was a slave Yes, he was betrayed. Yes this this happened to him, but I don't know what happened But he's successful. Why because God is with him Jesus and the word are one and if the word is in you, christ is in you amen church So I challenge you I challenge you Let the word of God begin to dominate your mind It's it's not that you you have to be like oh the scriptures here No, is you take one how I do it practically for myself as I take one scripture a day And I try to quote it to myself sometimes up to a hundred times I remember one time that um I came to morning prayer just a lot of things were not adding up, you know Failure here failure there and I took the scripture that whatever your hand touches will be blessed And I was walking for like an hour and I was saying it to myself So much until everything that afterwards came into me right away I said it's going to be blessed. It's going to be blessed. It's going to be blessed Like you couldn't tell me it's going to fail. Why because Logically, I'm like it's going to work. Why because God said that whatever my hand touches will be blessed And you know I'm not the smartest cooking the jar, you know all these things Barely did this this graduate there, you know, whatever struggles real, you know what I'm saying But certain things begin to follow me that I look back and some people like oh You guys accomplish these things that people take four years to you guys just did in three months. How come? Well, I don't know maybe whatever your hand touches will be blessed. Could that be a reason why? Could that be a reason why my family is strong today because you know, you took the scripture that me and my house Will serve the Lord could that be a reason could that be a reason why you have health in your body by his stripes Do I heal doctor said you're supposed to die but you're still living could that be a reason? Why because God's word gives us power to do what we were called to do in my church Jesus at the weakest point of his life Referred back to scripture not to logic When he was when he was at the weakest point, you know being tempted in the wilderness. He always said it was written It was written Many times when our failures happen we go to logic We go to reasoning we go to statistics. We go to oh, I deserve it. Why because I messed up there Oh, you know because of my family. This is why we don't we we try to reason for God We started to say God is doing it because of this no God wants you go back to scripture at your weakest point of your life Why because that scripture will give you power at your weakest point of your life When we make God's word the standard for your life you'll be able to see a life that is successful Certain things might not seem a success But like I said with God certain times he takes your step back so he can take you 10 steps forward He prepares us for the destiny that we have ahead of our lives Now even yesterday I was walking around this quote came to me is that you know only a fool compares his Or somebody else's failure or success Because he fails to understand the destiny that lies behind those failures or mistakes You know, it'll be very full to compare your life to Joseph when he was in the dry pit It'll be very foolish of you to be like oh my life is good. At least it's not like Joseph. He's in dry pit. He just got betrayed But then Joseph got to the throw and you're still you're normal you you know God many times take you through a place where it feels like he has left you But God's like the destiny that lies ahead of you. You do not even imagine The the germine 29 11 the thoughts I have towards you is its thoughts of good and not of evil This this dark season might seem evil But the plans I have for you is to prosper you to give you hope and to give you a future come on somebody To the extent to which we think the thoughts of God the word of God Is to the same extent we will have the power of God in your life It's like stents You know, some people choose to dominate their mind with self thoughts, you know, oh just do better be better Go into the word of God You're still using the same amount of energy from the on those other, you know You begin to dominate your mind with the word of God and God says Oh, this guy is talking my words and and I said it that my word cannot come back void I got to make sure this boy is taken care of I got to make sure this marriage is taken care of I got to make sure this business is taken care of because they're speaking my words You know, and that's how it is And when when God begins to see that you're saying the same thing that he said he you catch his attention You don't sit there and say god, I deserve it. You got to give it to me. No, you said god, you said it God says, okay, you got my attention It's not like oh god, you need to heal me because you know, I've been going through so much No, this is god by your stripes. I am healed and god says I like that now Now this is what I'm saying. This is what I'm thinking now I got to go into his life It might not be the time that you want it, but god's word will never come back void in your life Time and season will different for each and and every one of us What might take you a year might take me five years. I don't know your destiny But I know one thing is god said that I'm faithful. I was faith I was faithful to Isaac I was faithful to jacob. I was faithful to april. I was faithful to so many things. My name is faithful I know that if I said something your word, it will come to pass. Amen church second point is that is to know god is to know his word Because god does nothing without his word If god is to do something in your life He will do it through his word in your life when god created the world. He spoke it into existence It was his word that made it come to pass I want to this morning. I want to strike a hunger for you for god's word I'm not saying that you have to you know, have the word of god in front of your face the whole time and walk around No, I'm taking this as you take practically a scripture too and you begin to make it a part of your life You begin to quote it for yourself. You begin to memorize it You know for me like when I come to prayer, I just concentrate on on the one You know, it's not for me like oh read 10 chapters and that's it for me Is I read until something speaks out to me and then I stop and I say god help this scripture read me And then I quote that scripture I read I say more and more and more and then it begins to talk to me throughout my day It begins god begins to reveal himself through his word God will speak and do things in your life through his word. Amen church And the last point is the word of god will change your life by its very nature And Joshua 1 8 it says do according to what is written in it and then you shall have prosperity and success in your life many times we we Think about the word of god, but the doing is like the final part the final part of it It is it's kind of like the hardest part, but without it It will have no meaning it will just become another history book to you the word of god has to come to a place where where doing according to it You know living a holy life living a righteous life and to me what is doing According to the word of god is when when it talks about to love your neighbor Even though those who curse you is actually loving them It's sometimes hard when there's the best people that are around you that hurt you, but it's it's doing those things And it's and it's not that That god knows that it's hard and he wants to punish it god just wants you to be Prosperity do you have prosperity and you have success in that area in the area of forgiveness and the area of health It's when we do god's word It's not that god wants to punish us because we have no other thing That's like, oh, I don't want you in social media. I want you to be in my word So you can have a boring life. No, it's not God says I want you to succeed in everything that you do and and and you know these other things will not bring you success As my word will bring success Doing the word of god is what brings the changes in our life It is actually, you know when you are encountering certain difficulties in your life Doing the word of god is actually standing on his promise and says god you set me in my house will serve the lord I know i'm losing my child to drugs, you know There it looks like it's been years But doing the word of god is standing upon the word of god and not letting any other thought Say my child would die out of drugs Doing the word of god is fighting for your marriage and believing that god is the is the love and and bring Unity bring chemistry in that marriage that is doing the word of god is loving them And not expecting nothing back like the scripture says we love Their wife their spouse as christ loved the church It that is that is the the final and the hardest part about it, but that is what makes everything complete with god In this year In this year that's coming up I want us to to start off as for someone's already reading And you see maybe you're stagnant and you're reading the word of god try to switch certain things up Maybe start like you're only reading Begin to read and memorize For someone that are not reading at all. I challenge you to maybe find one scripture Don't don't do a chapter find one scripture a day and memorize Just take those small steps because I remember sometimes I'm like I'm going to read five chapters a day I'm going to finish the book in 72 hours You know likes to be if you read the whole 70 charge you can actually read the whole bible And it's it's not you can't really repeat it for the the word of god to be affecting your life has to be systematic And it has to be continual and it has to be kind of like an everyday thing You have to make have to make a decision for it to become part of your life Just like brushing your teeth taking a shower. That's it's it's it's not like oh, I didn't have time to shower today You stink, you know You have to make time for it's Without it you have to just put in your schedule. So, you know, I wake up Five minutes. I'm a dedicated Just for reading the word of god Maybe for something you read for an hour stretch it to an hour to 15 minutes. Whatever it is I want to give you a certain tips on On something that helped me out six ways that we Can make god's word into our life number one is actually reading it I Would challenge if you're reading by yourself to get to read in the group like many of us we have live groups That somebody can check up on you. Hey, how are you doing with your reading plan? Maybe once a week Maybe once in any every couple days that you read it that you begin to To see and give it your best time Don't give the word of god the time that nobody else needs like oh, um, I have five minutes to spare Let me just just squeeze in the scripture. No when you wake up when your mind is fresh Give that five minutes 10 minutes 30 minutes an hour. Give that to the word of god Let it let it read you As you read it Let it read you in the back of every every person's pew there. We put in a year yearly bible plan where you can read Um, can you wave it and wave your hands so the back of your pew you should have one It's just an example. You don't have to use that one many bible apps have its own plans This is just an example like that This coming year as we're going to dedicate time to prayer and reading the word of god. Let it be at least a one verse Let it be that maybe that the few phrases from the word of god that can challenge you to become better than yourself Holy spirit will empower you to do better than you ever ever done before The second one as I encourage you to listen to it We spent a lot of times driving how many you guys at least drive five minutes today at least five minutes One chapter is about three minutes to listen to One chapter is three minutes So what I do many times when I drive from from my house to work place about 15 minute drive I listen to one chapter around five times So with the more you listen to it the more it begins to reveal itself You know how many times you heard a certain phrase so many times and then one time somebody said it you're like What now I understand you know what I'm saying? That's how that is with the word of god When you listen to it so many times It will come to a place where that same verse will mean a whole different book to you Like I'm saying many times. I'm like reading the certain things. I'm like Until somebody says it again. I'm like Now I understand what the word of god says so first one is what read it second of it is Listen to it. So if you say well, I don't have a way to listen on our if you download our hunger gen App it's called the hunger gen app. I don't know if we have it You can actually play the chapter that you're reading it will actually read it to you On the lazy side But it actually can read it to you can read it and it can actually read it to you So challenge you the first one is actually reading it yourself Second of all is try read try listening to it. Let it let it read you Third one is memorize it Memorize it Oh, maybe we know lyrics from from songs that nobody needs to hear right Sometimes an accident during prayer comes out, right? So What I do many times when I when I read When I read during that thing during the morning and uh one chapter I see a scripture or maybe I don't find it. So maybe I don't have any scripture from that I try to find a scripture that I can memorize It helps you to replace that fear the junk That's the worry the anxiety out of your life Sometimes people come in says oh I have so much worry in my mind replace it You can remember you can never delete something you can only replace in your mind You can only replace it And sometimes you're you're worried about certain things and so much in your mind begin to shove that scripture until that worry leaves That's how it was for me the one time I literally spent one hour walking back and forth saying the same thing Everything my hand touches will be blessed. I was walking back and forth and said god make it make it a part of me because Right now what's part of me's failure? And literally took an hour to get it out of my mind But now if you ask me some people like why are you so positive? I don't know God's word is it's it's stuck in there really well So it's because because you made it so much part of you that you're not allowing failure to have part in your mind The more it sits in your mind the more power it has over your life So the more you let the word of god sit in your mind the more it will give you power Over the same situation that crushed somebody For you it just excelled you to go faster So begin to memorize it Fourth one is meditate on it as you're gonna need to memorize as you're gonna memorize it It will it will be replaying your mind It will begin to replay in your mind It will begin to be like that And then and then you'll see that the more you think about it the more it becomes part of you The more becomes part of your habits then against into your actions and sooner or later you begin to act like a righteous man It's like I don't know how this happened. Why because it's part of your meditation I love what tb joshua said is meditation and the word of god is a visit to him The word becomes a part of us by meditation The word of god becomes part of you when you begin to meditate meditate on it fifth one is Speak the word Speak in that situation When the moment somebody tells you certain things or the moment you do something and then It didn't work or or fail or this and those thoughts right away come into your mind That's the time when you memorized That's the time to speak it And that's the hardest time to do it When you have that I have a chase app and there's this one red button appears in the chase app I'm like devil you're a liar Nothing has bounced today You know whenever you see your bank account and it's negative begin to speak the word of god The moment your child begins to be sick begin to speak the word of god The moment you you have you know tension your marriage. This is where you speak the word of god the moment somebody hurts you That's where you speak the word of god. You don't speak the word of the situation You don't speak the word that's you know a failure all this thing. This is the time to speak the word of god It says the word of god that that our tongue has has power of life and death The word of god is power The word of god is life in itself So when you begin to speak you begin to reverse the situation that devil has created and some people like well I spoke it, you know for a day didn't go away. Some of us have been speaking it for five years We're still waiting And what you have today in this church as this church right now the hungry gen thousands local mess globally You know all these things that god has done. We've been speaking it so many times I mean even when we had one pew just just one pew full of people We were saying we're gonna have thousands locally We're gonna have people are gonna be saved every service And it was creating life it was creating life It was creating life It was speaking the dry bones and sooner or later those bones came to life and god was faithful for his promises Amen church At the last but not least Is obey it obey it somebody say obey it I want you to when you read the word of god ask the holy spirit To make the scriptures real real to you for me before actually before I read the bible. I actually pray and I ask god Help me to understand what I'm reading Help me to apply it in my life Because for me it I'm told you it's not easy Sometimes you're like man. I read the scripture so many times. It's just it's boring But if you ask holy spirit, give me a fresh love for the word of god god will begin to quicken that fresh love God will give give you that desire to wake up in the morning and to spend time with him God will give because it will it will but it's very nature change your life because we as human beings we we begin We repeat the things that bring us reward right the things that give us success. We continue to do So begin to ask god god, you know, it's it's not with the word of god It's not like a one-time thing. Oh, I'm gonna come today to church and everything should be great. No, you have to it takes time It's like a seed when you put in the ground it takes time You don't you don't sow it today and then tomorrow you like you better you better bring me fruit Or I'm gonna dig you up type of thing It's it's like You you lay the seed and you begin to pray it you begin to say it in your in your family You begin to say to your kids you begin to say to your finances You begin to say to your health and sooner or later you begin to reap the reward of god's word in your life Amen church. Let's put our hands together for jesus christ Charles spurgeon said this visits many books But live in the bible Visit many books. It's so right to read other books, but live in the bible Yeah, I'm telling you for me for my life The word of god has has been is the been the biggest Let's support the biggest push through and then when things have seemed impossible And then back of mind the old scripture was ringing you'll be blessed as you walk in you'll be blessed as you walk out You'll be blessing the fields. You'll be blessing your house You'll be blessed Just everything that you do will be blessed because god god's like you think your thoughts towards you are good Said my thoughts for you are like senate. You can't even count the thoughts I have towards you It's it's not it doesn't compare to any Self-book any this or that book which they are important. They do help us But the word of god gives you power It gives you life And with the reward of that It gives you success and it gives you prosperity. I want us to rise up on our feet And right now we're going to spend just a little bit of time and worshiping god And also we're going to pray that god's gonna give us grace To make the word of god a standard for life. I meant church. I want you to raise your hand I want you to begin to say it's father. I thank you for the word of god Father, I thank you that you say your word and every promise that you spoke into my life is for me It's every word father that is written was paid through the blood of jesus christ It's for my life for me to have a good life to me to have a prosperous life for me to have a healthy life For me to have a good marriage for me to have a good ministry that i'll be used by you father We thank you and we give you grace Hey, this is pastavlad and thank you for watching this sermon Please click on the subscribe so that you can be a part of our hungry generation The youtube community and click on the bell as well so that you can be notified when we upload the new sermon Thank you for watching and god bless you