 Last week I started talking about a secret place when I talked about warming yourself with the wrong fire and This morning we're gonna continue to talk about a secret place The scripture says in Psalm chapter 1 in Psalm 1 verse 1 2 and 3 is that the blessed man He does not walk according to the console of the ungodly He doesn't stand in the path of sinners and he doesn't sit in the seat of scornful But he delights in the law of the Lord and in that law he meditates day and night And then it says this and he is like a tree somebody say tree He is like a tree Planted by the rivers of living water and it says that he will bear fruit in his season and That his leaves will not wither and whatever he does Shall prosper. I don't know about you, but that's that's good for me I want to be a tree Who has roots that are planted in the soil of God's word? That my leaves don't even wither my happiness my attitude my job my career my family and Also that I will bear fruit in every season of my life and That whatever I do will prosper I might not do what you do and God didn't call me to be the next this or that person God called me to be the first Vlad Sometimes young people walk around and say I want to be the next God doesn't want you to be the next God wants you to be you The best you God wants you to prosper in what you do Somebody say a man. I want to encourage you today that God wants you to have a secret place according to Psalm 91 verse 1 it says that He could dwells in a secret place or most high God shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty God wants us to have a secret place with him secret place meaning he wants us to have a quiet time Or a devotional time or a prayer time a time where we are alone with him Why is that important because as a Christian your secret to success is determined by your secret place The secret place is your secret to prosper in all that you do Because your strength doesn't come like the strength of people people who don't know Jesus They rely only on their abilities under education. They rely only on their connections They rely only on their ability to impress and connect and to make deals you and I are a tree Every tree relies on its root system to hold the fruit You and I rely on a secret place on an intimacy with God to be able to have a fruit To be able to have green leaves and to be able to flourish in every season of our life Beautiful tri-cities has so much to offer But one of the things that tri-city has abundance of is tumbleweeds But those of you who move to tri-cities you probably were surprised with how gracious our town with tumbleweeds They grace every single household Especially if you're in the new developments tumbleweeds are They multiply like crazy tumbleweeds they can be a hindrance to your life tumbleweeds they could block highways Especially if you got the new car from a dealer and you see a tumbleweed in all a flood of tumbleweeds on the highway You don't go raise your hands and praise the Lord. I can't wait to drive on the tumbleweed No, you swept through the highway So you don't have that tumbleweed scratch your bumper because nobody wants a tumbleweed in Their backyard and in their life See you're as a Christian you can be a tumbleweed or you can be a tree a tumbleweed according to Jeremiah chapter 17. Let me just give you a little difference between a tumbleweed tumbleweed is ruthless Trees have roots need the water tumbleweed has no home tumbleweeds they go from one person's backyard to another person's backyard so many people live like tumbleweeds they church hop every single two weeks They marriage hop every single two months They're constantly they're everywhere, but nowhere. It's just been there been there been there been there It's a tumbleweed trees don't hop every single two days Trees are planted trees have a home home church trees have a marriage that that is Stable a tumbleweed is all over the place and doesn't have a root system a tumbleweed not only it has no root It has no home, but tumbleweeds are dry trees produce Shade they don't die in the in the summer tumbleweeds are aimless and tumbleweeds one of the worst things about tumbleweeds And for those of us who live in cities we found out if you take them to take a picture with them They will poke you They poke anyone who come comes close to them Are you a tumbleweed? Do you poke people in your family? Do you feed people or people are fed up with you? Are you a tree that other people can hide in your shade in your good attitude in your character in your integrity in your generosity? There are people who thank God for your life because in your shade they find comfort Are you a person whose presence whose life? Benefits your workplace it benefits your family it benefits your world or are you a tumbleweed anybody who gets close gets hurt Your root system is non-existent your prayer life is only before tests when you get pulled over or when you're in trouble That kind of a prayer life is this deep it might have been fine when you were in a kindergarten But when you have a job when you have a mortgage when you have schooling that kind of a rude is no longer Going to sustain that kind of fruit God has for your life Somebody say I'm a tree Somebody say I'm a tree Don't be a tumbleweed tumbleweeds don't have a secret place tumbleweed don't have a prayer life and Because they don't have a prayer life because they're not rooted in the soil of the scriptures touching the river of the Holy Spirit Because they're all over the place. They are aimless rootless pointless Ruthless and every other ass that you can add to it They have no point and many Christians live like that. They say I feel like my life has no meaning I feel like my life has no aim. I feel like my life has no fulfillment. I feel like I'm no benefit to nobody I would honestly examine if you're feeling these feelings Maybe you just described a tumbleweed Because if when you were a tree you're planted your roots go into the soil of God's word and into the soil of the scriptures You don't live by the pastor sermon on Sunday. You live by the scripture on Monday You don't rely on the weather to be good for you to be green you say even if the weather is bad I got my roots in my prayer life. I got my roots in my quiet life. I got my roots in the scripture I got my roots in some me podcast I got my roots in the soil touching the river and I can survive in any season of my life Because I am rooted and I am planted somebody give God some praise Every person who has a secret place give God some praise right now Every person who has a prayer life Give God some praise right now Your secret place is your secret people will ask you why are you flourishing people will ask you? Why are you prospering people will ask you? Why are your leaves green when everybody is trying you say my secret is not that I went to university though That's good. My secret is not that my daddy loaned me some money to help me start a business though That's good. My secret is not that I belong to hungry generation though That is great. My secret is a secret place. I dwell in the secret place of most high God I hide under his shadow. His river sustains my roots. His presence feeds my soul and feeds my spirit Come hell and high water. I will make it through tough times don't last tough people do why? Because they got the root in the soil They're planted They're flourishing they're green and not because everybody treats them well not because everything is always all right Not because they don't have a sickness. They're battling not because they never have a nightmare Not because they never have disappointment. It's that their their support system doesn't depend on the rain on the tornado and on the cloud It depends on something that's solid something. That's immovable. It's called the word of the living Jesus Hanto hallelujah hallelujah I'm happy and I'm preaching this message to myself. So just enjoy it. Please hallelujah, hallelujah, and so The secret place is our secret. We don't want to build a church where you rely on Sunday morning gathering Sunday morning gatherings are very important. It is such a blessing. We want to create this to be such a gathering Where demons are nervous? Sickness leaves people are saved people are healed and people are delivered But if you don't develop your own root system with God after Sunday morning You cannot make it as a Christian Trees are planted in the soil. They don't show up there for prayer line They don't go to soil on a conference. They don't go to soil for a mass. They live in that soil God wants you to have a devotional life a quiet time or a loud time However, you like to call it a time that you spend time with him And that time has to be nourishing to you. I come on Sunday morning not to receive I come on Sunday morning to give if you keep coming to Sunday morning to receive and you switch churches Because you're not being fed in the other church my friend sooner or later You will leave our church because you will stop getting fed in our church because you're spiritually fat God didn't call you to come to church on Sunday morning only to get fed God calls you on Sunday morning to come and to serve But what about me is where Monday through Sunday? You are a tree planted by the rivers of living water I am not at hungry generation because Sunday morning feeds me I am at hungry generation because my prayer time feeds me so I can be a blessing to hungry Jen Don't get me wrong. I get blessed by worship and the first service the worship was out of this world The testimonies they inspire me, but if the service goes dry, I don't go dry Why because my roots are in something bigger than the service It's in my prayer life and God wants you to have the same thing give God some praise right now Come on, let's get on our feet. Give God some praise right now Touch your neighbor and say get yourself a prayer life That's your neighbor say get yourself a Bible reading plan that your neighbor say get yourself a secret place Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord Thank you Lord in Psalm One three it says they shall be like a tree Can I remind each person in this room today that a tumbleweed? cannot be changed into a tree through the venue of nurture You can't change Something that's dead Through the means of spraying perfume on the corpse a corpse doesn't become alive Because you put a suit on it Can I get a witness a Corpse has to become alive through the power of a miracle a Tumbleweed cannot become a tree just because you prophesy over it Spray it with anointing water, holy water, whichever water that you want to spray it with The tumbleweed has no ability to become a tree. It it needs to die. The tree is A tree by nature today. I want to talk about just that identity amnesia The new nature that we get as Christians makes it possible to hunger and thirst for God and live holy for God It breaks my heart to see Christians who are not hungry for God. I Believe you can't be a Christian and not pant long thirst yearn and Pursue God now you you might pursue God different than I am You might pursue God different than your neighbor your pursuit of God might be loud. It might be quiet. It's not the volume It's not how but the very act of Not having hunger for God is not healthy As a Christian in easy keel in in Jeremiah in Hebrews It says that God speaks of a new covenant that will come he says in the old covenant I dragged people in the old covenant I gave him tablets and put the laws on a tablet in the old covenant I pushed people I disciplined them so they could do it they followed rigid discipline But God says there is a new covenant that's coming. He says in this new covenant I will do a surgery on the hearts of people I am gonna give him a new heart and a new spirit and I will place my spirit inside of their spirit and My spirit will motivate them to do right. I no longer will pull them by the hand They will no longer need to tell another person to know God because they will instinctly Naturally have a gravitation and a pool toward Almighty God Jesus comes on the scene on the last supper He takes the cup of communion of the Passover he picks it up and said this is the blood of a new covenant He says a new covenant has come. What does that mean? It means something new has come where God now No longer pushes hunger desire for him. He gives us a new nature He doesn't try to cultivate the tumbleweed. He burns the Tumbleweed and creates a tree from the inside and it might be a small tree that doesn't have any fruit yet But it has all the fruit in its branches already. Just give it some time It might have small roots that could fit in a small bucket, but the potential of those roots is enormous It will go all the way to your neighbor's backyard if you give it some time and God says I will give them a new heart and Jesus announces this new covenant Which brings a new nature which makes it natural to hunger and thirst after God. I believe if a Christian doesn't have a hunger for God there is two Explanations number one he or she is not real Christian they're hypocrites Meaning they only have a skin of a sheep, but inside there's still a wolf Inside there's still a tumbleweed. They're not genuinely born again. They're never been born again. They've never known God They knew about God, but they never had a moment where they surrendered their life Surrendered their pride gave up the worship of idols whatever those idols are materialism Selfishness pride and gave the whole life entirely to the mercy of God. I said Jesus without you I am nothing and once you're born again God gives you a new heart and that new heart makes it possible to hunger for God naturally If you notice that there is no hunger in God for you and you don't remember where you ever had a hunger for God I don't want to be I want to be nice to you, but I want to tell you something you're spiritually dead But there's Holy Spirit in this room and today we're gonna have an opportunity where Jesus can rise you again My encouragement is not for you to subscribe to Bible plan and start praying That's like putting perfume on the corpse. It doesn't make him alive The advice the scripture has for every person who has no hunger has no desire is we must be born again Are you with me? The second explanation and this is where many of us fit is you can be born again You can be genuinely born again. Your name is written in a book of life your child the most high God But your mind or our mind collectively is not in Updated renewed what the scripture says therefore the new nature that is given to us doesn't have this natural Thing that is expressed because it's jammed. It's it's blocked by our soul That's not being renewed. See we have a new nature right here We have our soul our mind right here, and then we have our reality or our flesh The new nature cannot affect your reality unless it goes through your soul The soul is the place of our mind which has to be renewed With the word of God Let me give you another example of that. Have you ever gotten a new phone? Anybody had a new phone recently? Okay, you got a new phone. Praise be to God if somebody blessed you with a new phone. Amen Somebody you went to God on your phone and Then you had your sim card on your old phone How many of you know that even if you paid for your new phone? Your new phone is not going to call anybody until you remove the sim card from the old phone and put it into the new phone So what the Bible says is that the new nature that you have is brand new by God paid on the cross It has a potential to connect with God is a has a potential to receive text messages from God It has a potential to do video It has a potential to take 4k video and 4k pictures. It has a great potential This new nature has a natural tendency toward God But you have to stick your sim card into it for it to be activated and the sim card is your mindset You got to renew your thinking to who you are in Jesus and that Naturally flows the new nature flows into the hunger for the Lord It is natural for a Christian to hunger after God the same way It's natural for a child to want to thirst to want to drink water That is it's natural for you and I to get thirsty if you hike up the Badger Mountain and come down You are gonna naturally thirst not because you had an AA from CBC on the thirst class You're not going to thirst because you went through Bible classes You're not going to thirst because you have been disciplined to make yourself thirst It is a natural response of being alive to thirst after water You don't teach thirst you're born with it and if you don't thirst something is not right Hunger for God is as natural as thirst for water When your new nature is inside of you and your mind is renewed by the word of God What do you mean renewed by the word of God? What I mean by renewed by the word of God is when you identify yourself with how God sees you Not with how the world sees you When we ask right now each person so who are you and people begin to respond? I'm a doctor. I'm a preacher I'm a husband. I'm a man. See that is what the world labels us at by our Responsibilities by our status by our position and those are good There's nothing wrong with that and their doctors are sitting here nurses that are sitting here There are husbands and wives children CEOs that are employees janitors teachers all of these are titles But our identity is not that My father who is sitting here in the presence of Jesus his identity is a son When he comes to prayer kneels his knees he doesn't kneel before God as a father He kneels before him as a son. I Am a pastor, but in the presence of Jesus my identity is a sheep Not a pastor. I am a husband to my wife, but in the presence of Jesus. I am a wife It is kind of weird, huh? You switch from a husband to a wife and it's not because we have a gender confusion It's that our identity is the bride of Christ and it's natural for the bride to spend time with her husband It's natural for the kids to long for the embrace of their father It's natural for the clay to be in the hands of the potter It's natural for the branch to be on the vine. It's natural for you to long hunger and thirst of the God Come on somebody It's natural When your kid runs to your embrace that is not a miracle That's normal You don't know pledge your kids that you were radical today. Why you ran to me? No, you you think your kid is crazy if he doesn't rest it. What's wrong with you? I'm your dad When the husband is drawn to his wife, that is not a miracle. I know in our culture probably it's a miracle now But that's natural. That's normal when a man dressed up build Athletic educated get kneels before God. That's not radical. That's normal Why because his identity is a creation Worshipping a creator his identity is a son longing for a father his identity is a bride Responding to the passion pursued of the husband. His identity is a branch abiding on the vine His identity is a clay saying oh my father hold me mold me and change me Identity precedes intimacy Identity comes before intimacy. That's why most of the prayers Jesus said pray like this our father Why father because Jesus wanted to make it clear your prayer Comes out of a place of who he is as a father Which right the way makes it very easy for you your son Your son last week we had a meeting on Monday with some leaders and me and my wife were running some errands And then we were early for the meeting and Larissa one of our leaders here the meeting was in her house She's not my mom So I'm not gonna go in an hour before unannounced without knocking sit down on the couch and go through a refrigerator But you know who I can do this to my parents house Go to my parents house. They're not even there. I don't need them to be there. I Know the code I go in none. No knocking no alarm No ringing the door you go in sit on the couch and For what reason am I there absolutely? No reason and then after I said for a little bit got bored got up And I didn't call my dad said that is it okay if I open the refrigerator. No, I went in I open it I only call him. Why is there not my favorite drink here? Okay, I didn't do that But I could do that. Why do I enjoy the intimacy? It wasn't because that for 19 years I slaved my life for my father The intimacy that I enjoy is not because of my worth. It's not because I earned it. I was born into it your identity is not a Behavior reward, it's a birth That's why practical Santa is came to his father say father. I'm not worthy to be your son and the father stops the whole thing because You're not a son by worth. You're a son by birth You don't become you don't earn. It's not like a graduation where you work for the father for nine years And then you become a son It's not like becoming a citizen in America. You start with a green card and for four years You leave you take a lot of tests and then you become a citizen You were born into that kingdom and therefore that identity is something that's a part of my birth and it right away Gives me a free access to the intimacy with my father. I cannot do that to your parents They will call police now if they come to our church, they will just call probably our pastor and say if everything's okay with Vlad Why did he come to my house unannounced? Why is he going to my refrigerator refrigerator? What is happening with him? They wouldn't probably call police But they will ask if everything is okay with me because that intimacy is not reserved for me because not because I'm not a Good person. It's because I don't have the identity of a son to them You can enjoy the presence of the father you are Expected naturally to be drawn to your father as you are come to your father's house because of your identity Identity precedes intimacy Come on somebody. Are you with me? Let's put our hands together for the Lord It's natural to long after God if you know who you are if you if you do not live a life of prayer Perhaps you forgot who you are Perhaps there's an amnesia with your identity you just for God that you're a child of God I want you to disconnect yourself today from being defined by your career Being defined by your employment being defined by your status in this world or lack of connect yourself to Who Jesus is? That's why we worship. I don't worship. It's not my duty to worship worship is an identity It's who I am. I'm a worshiper to worship for me is as natural as it is for a bird to fly Because it's part of who the bird is it's part of who the trees are to go into the ground and it's part of who I am I am a worshiper. I am a son. I am a bride. I am a branch. I am a clay. I am a stone He's the cornerstone. It's part of who I am and it becomes naturally. I don't pray because I'm a pastor I don't pray because I'm a preacher. I don't pray because I'm an author. I pray because I'm a son I don't pray so God can bless the sermon. That's the secondary thing I bless pray because I am created in his image and likeness and all of us in here. We are his children We have different titles. We have different positions But all of that they go down on the altar when we step into his presence Whether you're a businessman in his presence, you're still a clay Whether you're rich or you're poor in his presence. You have all the blessings given to you in Christ Jesus Connect yourself with your identity and it will be natural to be hungry and thirsty and penned after the Lord The second thing that I see is the tree is by nature Has roots and by nature it goes into the soil But Psalm 1 verse 1 it says blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly Does not stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful And that tells me that as a man who wants to spend time in a secret place I must understand that I don't do it to earn God's love. I do it because of my identity I do it because of my new nature, which makes it natural to be drawn to pray Natural drawn to read the word. It is natural for me But the second thing that I must understand as a son as a child of God as somebody who wants to spend time in a secret place is this our life before our prayer affects our prayer and our prayer affects our life Your devotion to Jesus throughout the day greatly affects your devotions with Jesus whether in the morning or at night a Lot of times when a believer born again has a new nature actively intentionally chooses to walk in the council of the ungodly meaning to be engaged in activities that compromise their conscience hurt other people and are contrary to the scriptures engaged in activities that compromise their conscience that hurt other people and are Violating the scriptures these activities what they do is they will hinder at best Your relationship with Jesus your prayer time, but typically they don't hinder that They hijack that a lot of times people don't show up to their time with the Lord Because of the sin that they engaged actively throughout the day We know that from Adam the time that the Lord came to meet with Adam. Why did Adam not show up? Because he was ashamed. Why was he ashamed because of who he walked with? He walked in the path of sin when we walk in the path of sin throughout the day Many of us do not pray for that reason as Christians is because some kind of a guilt some kind of a shame creeps in Let's be real when you stay up till 2 in the morning Watching what you should not be watching. There is no way on the green planet earth. You will show up to morning prayer at 5 That's never gonna happen. I heard a teaching by John Bivir one time when I was younger that forever changed How have you prayer? He said any minute you take after 10 p.m. Is a minute you're taken from Jesus Next day and I said, oh, there's no way, you know, there are people there are people in here who barely sleep You know and you can still wake up in the morning and that's maybe true But for most of us if you go to sleep after 10 and you're planning to spend time in the morning with the Lord Most of you know the reason why you can't wake up in the morning is you can because you stay up late Not doing something. That's godly pretty much usually wasting time on social media or browsing through TV shows So guess what happens? It's where I walk determines whether I'm gonna spend time with him or not And so I made a decision at the young ages not a decision. I always live by But if I want to spend time with the Lord in the morning, my morning prayer doesn't start at 5 in the morning It starts at 9 30 the night before I Decide if I will spend time with God by what activities I'm going to do before I go to sleep What things I'm going to watch what things I'm going to read and I started to implement Memorizing verses in the Bible before I go to sleep so that my mind Stimulates automatic talk in here about the scriptures instead of automatic things about people It helps your prayer life. It helps my prayer life Then I go in instead of the TV show instead of a movie instead of somebody's posts on Instagram Your mind is rehearsing the scripture You cannot have devotions with Jesus if it's not followed with devotion to Jesus somebody say amen if You want to change your prayer life if you want your prayer life to change you prepare for your prayer life By aligning your life with how God wants you to live it It doesn't mean that you have to be perfect But you have to be in the pursuit of living your life for Jesus walk Stand standing meaning who am I becoming every single day am I becoming more bitter? Am I becoming more generous? Am I becoming better? Am I becoming kinder toward people? Am I becoming a better husband? Who am I? Where am I standing affects deeply how my prayer life is going to be but there is one more thing the Psalm 1 1 said Not only what I walk not only what I stand but also where I sit It's who I sit with Who I chill with who is my squad Who is those people that are my closest that I open up with you may say my association Affects directly my intimacy with God you won't believe how deeply it affects The Bible says bad company corrupts good habits The scripture says is that we are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses and then it says cast down your weight and run After Jesus that means you can't run after God until you change what you're surrounded by Because your crowd creates your cloud and your tribe creates your vibe What you surrounded with will come upon you There is this atmosphere that you will carry by the surrounding that you choose. Are you with me? Your friends have Influence over you your friends our friends have influence over us word influence has this this thing called flu Influence, you know how flu works You catch it Somebody who has a flu doesn't have to come down to you and say in the mighty name of Jesus Christ I import the grace of flu on you No, you have a weak immune system you come in contact with somebody who has a flu and next thing that happens What happened you picked it up from somebody who had it flew you catch it and that's exactly how a lot of times we can catch alcohol Cussing immorality is because we're surrounded by closest friends who carry that virus Our immune system is low and it comes down on us That's why the psalmist says be careful who you sit with Because it will affect whether you will pray or not if you want to have a secret place watch where you walk Watch where you stand and watch where you sit Sit in the life group on Tuesday night Sit in a home group on Tuesday night sit with some believers Sit with some people who would challenge you and hold you accountable And you will see your appetite and your hunger for God will begin to be awakened somebody give God some praise right now Anybody here has some good friends that help you to go closer to Jesus Give God some praise for your friends Give God some praise for your family members that help you to get closer to God Give God some praise for your husband or your wife that helps you to get closer to Jesus The iron sharpens iron and they bring you closer to the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah Hallelujah The new nature makes it natural to hunt off the hunger of the God New nature needs to be nurtured and the way it's nurtured is when I am watching actively what I'm Involved in what I stand and where I sit and lastly new nature needs to be nourished nourished means it needs to be fed new nature That produces natural hunger needs to be fed spiritually This speaks of the word Psalm 1 verse 2 it says but he delights in the law of the Lord and he Meditates in it day and night How can the person naturally? enjoy the scripture For those of us who read the scripture at least once If you're not born again the scripture holds information that's not worth repeating it It's like having a math book or a history book you went you read it once You're so glad the history class is over and you never take that history book with you for the rest of your life And every day you're reading the history You're like what is that gonna do to me and many people treat it like that? Why because The flesh sees the Bible as a source of information The new man in you the new nature in you sees the scripture not as information, but as food and Therefore it longs for food for the scripture. I want to Say something the reading of the scripture has to be accompanied with prayer and prayer has to be accompanied with reading of The scripture in our life group we started to do a Bible reading plan together with the whole life group of reading through the New Testament for few reasons. I've noticed most people in my generation Believe in God go to church have never in their life read the New Testament from beginning till end They've read Harry Potter from the beginning till end They've read books and vampires from the beginning to to end they read 50 shades of stupid from the beginning till end 50 shades of Graham, sorry They've read a lot of things they watch TV shows that have nine to ten seasons 24 episodes in each from beginning to land They've watched Game of Thrones from the beginning to land twice Stranger things from Netflix from beginning to land twice But when it comes to the scripture completely illiterate when it comes to the Bible now And these are the people who do have a prayer life Which usually consists of before the test when the police officer pulls you over and when somebody just dumped you and your heart is broken You really need some help What difference is that prayer from the way Muslims pray? What difference is that prayer from the way Buddhists pray? What difference is that prayer from the way atheists pray when they're hit with a problem? The difference between our prayer life is there our prayer life is By a kiss principle keep it Scriptural saints our prayer is grounded Fueled by the scripture So we tell I tell our life group is that read the Bible through like soap S for scripture all for observation a for application and p for prayer When you read the scriptures read it daily and pray through it observe ask what it speaks to you Why because the scripture has the power to change your life The Holy Spirit is in the scripture it says in the scriptures Jesus says that you are clean because of the words I've spoken to you Jesus says that abide in me and let the Hillsong latest album abide in you No, he says and let my words abide in you Jesus wasn't quoting some Hollywood artist when he was rebuking the devil. He was saying it is written There is power in the Bible Can somebody say man I Want to challenge you to come back to the scripture I want to challenge you to brush off the dust from your Bible pick it up and choose a systematic regular consistent reading Memorizing meditating on the scripture you may say but I know what it says There's nothing new there. You know this week. I went to a restaurant with my friends I can tell you that I know how steak tastes. I Chose the steak again, and I will choose it again not because I have never had a steak It's because I've tried the steak. It tastes good, and I want some more The reason why we read the scripture is not because well, I know what it says So you also know how the coffee tastes except every day you have a new cup and a new sip Why because there is a thirst and there is a hunger for that which you taste it and for that which is good Come on somebody It is a natural to have hunger for the word of God if you're born again Today we've replaced reading books from reading the scriptures Charles Spurgeon said visit many books, but live in the Bible It's not right when we live in every book that is produced on the bookshelf, and we barely visit the Bible We have to live in the scripture every book is gonna be burned to ashes this book This word is the only book in the world that communists fought against that couldn't stop it They didn't fight against the book of Mormon I didn't fight against the book Quran I didn't fight against other books as much as they fought against the holy Bible Why because they knew there's something there that has the power to change the life of people If they fought against it you all to read it you all to study it You all to memorize it you all to abide in it somebody give God some praise right now for the Bible Hallelujah It is natural to hunger for the word of God, you know, we have a dog my wife has a dog and This dog it is natural for him to have hunger to eat very natural He's currently been fasting for the last week Hasn't been eating first three days that he started to eat and the last two days He's he doesn't eat. He has no appetite whatsoever, and if he doesn't have an appetite. It's not normal But it does happen, and there's one explainable reason. There's one reason why he would not have an appetite. It's when he's sick If a Christian doesn't have an appetite for the holy scriptures, it's because they're not healthy They're not healthy now in Jaco's case Usually 99% of the problem is usually one Jaco has eaten something we typically wear and if he has eaten something that we wear in next three days he loses Appetite for the food that he's supposed to eat He's become slow. He becomes weak, and then we usually wait for him to throw up And when he throws up then he gets the appetite back I believe same could be applied to us as Christians You can have a new nature that hungers the word of God, but when you begin to eat something that others wear When you begin to eat something that you should only enjoy but not nourished be nourished by when you begin to eat From something that God says we shouldn't be eating from trees of knowledge of good and evil other things external things It clogs up our hunger We become weaker and what needs to happen today is you need to have a holy throw up It's called repentance Repentance meaning you open your mouth and you confess all of that to Jesus and say Jesus I'm so sorry. I misplaced my source in something else Jesus. I repent Jesus I confess I confess I repent and when that comes out your hunger comes back One time I was reading the scriptures and I felt so proud, you know felt so happy content I was like gee I almost felt like when I read the Bible that it's like I did got a favor Do you know they are people who do your favors like for example? If your love language is acts of service as it is mine And if somebody brings me a cup of coffee on Monday morning and it's exactly that coffee that I like You know karma Macchiato ground the blonde beans half of vanilla a light caramel drizzle on the top The moment they bring that exact same drink Seeing that drink my happiness just increases. I look at that and you're like, you know what? What can I do for you up to half of my kingdom? I? Will give you everything Because they did a favor It you feel you feel so open to them and when I used to read the Bible I used to feel like God looks in heaven and he kind of feels bad because he wrote this book Half of it is like some stuff that people don't like to read and God looks at somebody who picks up this book plows through the book of Leviticus Grinding it through the book of numbers and God looks and God this just gets this high this this Finalist somebody is reading my book. I wrote it. Nobody wanted to read and you're reading it and God says This just makes me very happy you reading my book God didn't write the book So that you give him pleasure reading it God wrote the book So he can wash you with it according to Ephesians 5. It says Jesus washes the bride by the water of the word This is the book through which God serves me not I'm serve him And I remember the image that one time my God that changed the way I read the scriptures and pray He says I felt the Lord impressed him hard This is the way I wash disciples feet every time you read the Bible. You're not giving me a favor I actually go down into your situation and I wash the feet that follow me I wash the consciousness that has been dedicated to me. I wash you I serve you when you read the Bible. You're not giving me a favor by reading the Bible I give you Cleansing I give you power I give you straight because when you hide that word You will not sin against me when you have the sword of the spirit You will overcome the devil when you have the seed in your soil You will have fruit in your life somebody give God some praise for the Bible for the word of God That's all Stan That's all Stan as the team comes up. I want to remind you in Matthew 13 It says when the sower went out to so the bird of the air Snatched the seed There are demons on assignment to rob you from the scripture reading The bird did not steal the soil. They just stole the seed But today we are going to feed our spirit and starve the bird When you read the scripture you feed your spirit and you starve your situation you starve your problem You starve your flesh in Jesus mighty name. I want you to place your hand upon your heart right now Thank God for the new nature. He's given to you Thank God for the new heart that he's given to you and begin to right now Ask God to help you renew your mind so that you awaken your identity So your identity will lead you to intimacy so that this new nature will make it natural to love God father We just pray for that right now in the name of Jesus. I pray for every Christian that lost her hunger I pray for every porn again believer that lost their panting that lost their thirst for the Lord I pray today God that everything that's been jammed in their soul through unrenewed thinking is going to be unjammed right now In the mighty name of Jesus precious Holy Spirit I ask you that that hunger will be awakened and that thirst will be quickened in the name of Jesus I'm asking you take your Bible right now take your physical Bible Or if you read your Bible on the phone or on an iPad and you have it with you Could you take it right now in your hand? Put it up like this right now. I want you to begin to pray right now The God will give you fresh hunger for his word the God will quicken fresh hunger some of you This is the moment to repent for something that you've been eating off That's messing you up and you have lost that hunger for the scriptures You found scripture completely distasteful begin to repent of that as a newborn believer Peter said as a newborn baby Desire the milk by which you can grow begin to pray right now for your hunger to be in God's word every day If you have not opened your Bible in the long time begin to ask God to forgive you and invite Jesus to wash your feet Invite Jesus to wash your consciousness invite Jesus to serve you because that's exactly what happens when you read the holy scriptures Lord, I know that you gave us this book not so that it could take up our time But it so it could change our heart it could change our life right now We yield our heart we yield our mind we yield our thoughts and our attitudes We ask you in the mighty name of Jesus let everything that we have eaten that has caused us to lose our appetite That everything that we've been engaged in that are caused us to lose our hunger that everything that we have been Participating in that a cause does to lose our thirst for your word let that stuff We repent of that right now God and we ask you for your precious grace to quicken a delight to quicken a hunger And there's gonna be a drawing for your word watching this content I hope this was a blessing to you if you're like me and you like to click on things Click on this subscribe to our channel and the content will come to you every time we post it and remember The best is yet to come