 This simple habit will keep you spiritually strong. This simple habit will give you longevity, will help you to avoid deception, will draw you closer to the Lord. This simple habit is living by the word. And Jesus tells us exactly how to do that. But first, I want you to write in the comments section your public declaration for simple words. Write, I love the word. Whether you're watching live or on replay, write those four simple words right now. I love the word. Now go with me here, the scripture, a powerful portion of scripture. And I think really one of the more popular teachings of Jesus, of course, everything that Jesus said is significant. And everything that Jesus said is very popular. But I think this is one of the more familiar passages of scripture. The Bible says, anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. Verse 26, but anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish. Like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with the mighty crash. Now there are a few things I want to glean from this portion of scripture that I think that we can apply to our everyday lives. And we will look at how to live in the word. Jesus tells us very clearly here, but first I want you to take note that Jesus very clearly states that the rains and the torrents and the floodwaters and the winds, they will come. All of us will face difficult seasons. Now I know that's not popular to say. And if we're not careful, we won't be prepared for the difficult times to come. If we're not careful to apply the scripture, then we will not be prepared when deception comes. We'll be swept away by false teachings. We'll be swept away by popular ideas that contradict the truth of scripture. When the testing of our faith comes, we'll fall into doubt, we'll fall into cynicism, maybe even to some extent spiritual regression. Those winds will come. The rains will come. The storms will come. And again, I know that's not something that we want to hear. It's not popular to say. But if I'm not being honest with you, then I'm not preparing you as a teacher of the word for the reality that you're going to face. Jesus never promised that you would have a perfectly ideal life. Jesus never promised that every circumstance you face would be something that you enjoyed. Jesus never promised that you would have everything you want when you want it and how you want it. No, he promised instead that even in the midst of the storm, even in the middle of the trials, he'll be there. I will never leave you, I'll never forsake you. It's an eternal promise and that promise belongs to you and I. But if we want to stay spiritually strong, then we must develop the habit of living in the word, living by the word. So how do we do that? Well, Jesus says, anyone who listens to my teaching, it's the first part, and follows it, that's the second part, is wise. If you listen, but don't follow, then you're just hearing what he has to say, but you're not actually obeying him. And if you try to act or follow him without listening to him, then you're gonna make all sorts of assumptions about what God likes, what pleases him, what he desires for your life. If you're not in the word, then how will you know what God's will is? So you need to both listen to his teachings and follow. So we listen to that word by getting into the scripture, by pouring over the word, by being lovers of the Bible. Psalm chapter one, verses one through three says this, oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do, not in some of what they do. They prosper in all that they do. Now here the scripture is describing someone who doesn't just listen to the word, isn't just aware of the word, doesn't just have an idea of what God is saying, but rather the scripture is telling us that this individual delights in the law of the Lord. There's a passion and the love for the word of God. You see, many believers approach the word of God, treating it like it's some overbearing obligation that they have to fulfill, lest God be angry with them. But we have to recognize that it is a joyous opportunity to be able to open the scriptures and see what God is saying to us. The scriptures are treasures. Within the scriptures are truths that will transform your life, that will transform the way you think about God, about yourself, about the world around you, about the people around you. It is a joy. It is a privilege to receive the scripture. Your flesh may not like it. What is your flesh crave? Your flesh craves sin. Your flesh craves entertainment. Your flesh craves distraction. All but the spirit desires the meat of the word. That's the food, that's the strength. And if you're not in the word, if you're not listening, then you can't have spiritual strength. That's a fact that we cannot deny. So if you're wondering why you're spiritually weak, check your spiritual diet. Are you receiving of the meat of God's word or are you eating the junk food of the world? There is a love and hunger for the word in us that becomes a sign of spiritual vitality and strength. You know you are spiritually weak when your hunger is weak. If you look at the scripture, as I said before, just some obligation that you have to fulfill. If you look at the scripture as this boring text that you have to pour over just for the sake of intellectual gain, then you've missed the point here. But when you recognize that the scripture, the Bible is the revelation of God to us. My goodness, there's an excitement that begins to develop. And you know, once you begin to read the word, you'll begin to notice that the flesh becomes weaker. And as the flesh becomes weaker, the cravings of the flesh also weaken. And those spiritual desires that are already in you begin to have greater influence in your everyday life. So now you start to pour over the word. And maybe at first you can get to a chapter before you start to squirm or start to look for a distraction. Especially if you're just beginning to read the word, you'll notice this. You'll pull out the scripture, you'll start reading. And your mind will look for all sorts of distractions. You'll begin to try to seek out something that will pull you away from what your flesh thinks is boring, but what your spirit knows is life and strength and vitality. So you'll notice this battle that begins to happen. You read one or two verses. Your mind is distracted. You seek entertainment. You're wondering what else is going on. Worry begins to flood your mind. Distraction begins to flood your mind. Insecurity begins to flood your mind. Doubts about God begin to flood your mind. And so as you continue to read the word, you begin to grow and strengthen in this area of discipline. You begin to read the word where maybe the first couple of weeks where you commit to daily reading the word, you'll notice that you can get to a chapter or maybe just 10 or 12 verses before your flesh starts to really put up a fight. But after a while, when you begin to implement this daily discipline, you will notice that your hunger for the word increases also. So now you're not just reading a chapter and then squirming and going, okay, what else can I do? What else is there for me? Now you become fascinated by the word of God. There's this spiritual pool on you. Now the Holy Spirit will give you the desire for the word, but you must make the choice to implement the discipline of reading the word. This is all part of listening. Remember Jesus said, you have to listen to his teachings and then follow his teachings. So if you're going to listen to his teachings, you have to be in the word. Psalm 119, verses 46 to 50 say this, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and I will not be ashamed and I will delight myself in thy commandments. I love that verse. Listen to the passion for the word. Listen to that love for the word and I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift unto thy commandments, which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes. Remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort and my affliction for thy word hath quickened me. So Jesus said that if you listen to his word and follow his teachings and follow that word, then you're going to be like one who built his house upon the rock. And as I said just a few moments ago, those storms will come. But just because you're experiencing a storm around you, doesn't mean that you have to lose the peace within you. Just because you're experiencing chaos all around you, doesn't mean that you have to lose the love and the joy within you. And that's what the word of God does. It strengthens you. It stabilizes you. People of the word, people who practice this very simple habit of devoting themselves to the word every day, you can recognize certain traits about them. In the midst of the storm, they're quite calm. This doesn't mean that they don't have fears, but rather that those fears don't have them. And you'll notice that in the midst of tragedy, they have perspective. In the midst of chaos, they are grounded spiritually. In the midst of everything coming against them, they have this strength, this stability, this consistency, this spiritual calm and confidence about them. That's what happens when you're a person of the word. And the scripture says here in Psalm 119 verse 50, thy word hath quickened me. That strength, that quickening, that vitality comes from knowing the word. So the Bible says also in 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So here in 2 Timothy 2.15, we see that when we study the word, we are doing so seeking God's approval, not man's. Many times Christians study because they like to debate or they study because they like to arm their criticisms or they study because they like to show others how much knowledge they think they have. We don't study to impress people. We don't study to puff ourselves up, rather we study to show ourselves approved unto God. And he is pleased when we know his word. He's pleased when we understand the scripture. And we have to rightly divide the word. And this implies by the way that there's a right way to divide the word. So many treat the word of God like it's a fortune cookie. They'll open the book of Psalms or they'll open an epistle of Paul and they'll read the scripture and they'll say things like, well, this is what it means to me. Or this is the way I interpret it. And that's wonderful if you're working to interpret the scripture but you have to at least start from the place of recognizing that when the Holy Spirit inspired the words of scripture he did so with his own intentions. And so many of us try to find our reflection in the scripture and validate our preconceived ideas and validate what we've already come to believe instead of going to the scripture to say, okay, God what are you speaking? What were you trying to communicate in this particular book of the Bible, this particular section of the scripture? I don't wanna attach my meaning to it or force my meaning upon the word. Rather I know that there was an intention that you had when you inspired that portion of scripture and I wanna find out what you meant by it not what I get out of it. This doesn't mean that you cannot be personally encouraged by the word. And by the way, this also doesn't mean that you won't find multiple truths within a single portion of scripture. Rather I'm saying that we have to rightly divide in that we have to ask ourselves what was the Holy Spirit originally communicating in this particular portion of scripture? So we have to receive balanced teachings of the word of God. We have to make sure that we're going to teachers who rightly divide the word. We have to make sure that we're in taking the word on our own, reading daily, reading constantly that we're studying on our own, pouring over the scriptures looking for what God was saying, finding the correct interpretation. It has to become somewhat of an obsession and it's a passionate obsession. It's not a torturous one. It's not a tedious one. It's not one that we're just obligated to do as I said a few moments ago, but rather this is a joy. This is a privilege to be able to feed upon the word of God. His words are spirit and life to where we're now being consumed by the word and we're consuming as much of the word as we possibly can all the time in the morning throughout the day before we go to bed, the word, the word, the word, the word. You can never have too much of the word. I don't care what anybody says. You can never have too much of the word. You can have too much pride in how much of the word you know, but you can never have too much of the word itself and even to memorizing it. Well, notice here that the scripture talks in Psalm chapter one about meditating on the word and we become so afraid of words like that and even in Psalm chapter one and one 19, we saw those words, that word I should say, being used twice, meditation, meditating on the word and we become freaked out by terms like that because the world twists words like meditation but meditation is not evil unto itself. There's ungodly meditation that tells you to empty your mind, empty your mind, empty your mind and then there's godly meditation where we fill our mind, fill our mind, fill our mind with the word. Well, what is meditation? Meditation is not some mysterious mystic thing. It's actually quite simple. Meditation is simply repetition in thought. Meditation is repetition in thought. Memorize the scripture. Think about the scripture. Study the scripture. Let it become a part of you and that's the first point that Jesus was making here, anyone who listens to my teaching. So you have to hear it first. That's number one, listen. And then he says and follows it. So again, we have to apply both truths here. It's not just about listening to the word. It's about listening to the word and following it and by doing those two things, then we become people who are actually implementing that simple habit of living in the word. So how do you live in the word? You listen to the word. Part of listening to the word is studying it. You listen to the word and then you follow the word. So the Bible says in James chapter one, I'll read verses 22 through 25. But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. If you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. Look, it's wonderful if you memorize all sorts of scriptures. It's wonderful if you memorize large portions of the Bible. You should do that. As Christians, we should be experts on the word. Every Christian should be an expert on the word. No exceptions. Every Christian should be an expert on the word. God never intended that just a small, elite group of people know the word. Now, he of course selected some in the body of Christ for preaching and teaching. Yes, of course, that's a different form of ministry that not every believer is called to do. Not every believer is called to be a pastor. Not every believer is called to be a teacher as in someone with a leadership position who teaches the congregation, if you will. All of us, of course, should be able to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us, but that's different than the leadership position that's a different lesson for a different time. So all of us should know the word. All of us should understand it, even though we're not all called to be pastors and teachers. We should all memorize it. We should all obsess over it. Every Christian should be an expert on the word. Sadly, in my estimation, at least in my personal experience, I don't claim to have any statistics that represent any real solid numbers on this, but in my estimation, it seems to me that some atheists know the Bible better than some Christians. In fact, many atheists know the Bible better than many Christians. In fact, many people from other religions, not that Christianity is itself a religion, but many people from religions of the world know the Bible better than some Christians. Now, I'm not saying this to condemn you. I'm saying this to challenge you. You should not just have the superficial knowledge of the word. And again, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or bad. I wanna show you that there's a standard to which you can aspire, and you don't have to settle for living without the word. You don't have to settle for a superficial relationship with God's word. Every believer has an obligation to know the word of God, to love the word of God, to live by the word of God. So if you receive the word and then don't apply the word, you're like someone who just looks in the mirror, forgets what they look like, and just goes on about their day. And yes, it's good to memorize, as I was saying. It's great to memorize the word. But so what? If you memorize a thousand scriptures, but never apply one. So what if you understand all of the study methods, you understand the context, the historical backdrops. You understand the situation surrounding the writing of certain epistles. So what? You don't apply it. What good does it do? If you don't live by it, and actually walk in a very real relationship with God, then it's all religion. It's purely just the letter, no spirit. So be someone who doesn't just memorize it, memorize it, but who lives it? Be someone who lives the word. I don't know about you, but I pray that God would make me someone who lives consistently with what I see in the word. As I pour over this, I mean, I'm just gonna be honest with you here. As I read the scripture, I very often say to the Lord, Lord, there's so many ways I'm not like Jesus. Please help me be more like Jesus. There's so many things I have to fix. As I'm going through the word, I'm constantly, constantly being corrected and confronted. And that's good because it's like looking in the mirror and seeing all of the things that need improvement. And I plead, Lord, help me live it. Lord, help me live it. Only application of the word brings transformation. John 14-15, Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commandments. Listen, you're not always going to get this right, but if you listen to the word and then follow the word, you'll be like that wise one who built his house upon the rock. And when the floodwaters of deception come, your house will remain standing. When the winds of trials and tragedies come, your house will remain standing. When the storms of chaos and confusion rage, your house will remain standing. This is something that's so simple. So simple, yet the enemy fights us on this. The flesh fights us on this. Why do they fight so hard? Because this is the key. This is a primary key, I should say. To living a spirit filled spiritually strong life. This simple habit will keep you spiritually strong, but you have to choose to apply it. Don't wait till an ideal day. Don't wait until an ideal situation. Many of us say things like, well, once I finish with school, once the kids reach this age, once my relationship reaches this point, once this happens on the job, or this happens in my life, or this happens in my health, then I'll make it a habit to really devote myself to the word, my friend, that's a mistake. The word is the foundation, and the foundation comes first. The word is the foundation, and the foundation comes first. You need to put that as the priority. Build first on the word, and then begin to add all of the different components of your life. Because if you don't build on the word, it doesn't matter what situation you reach, or what ideal circumstance presents itself. It'll all collapse when the storms come. So be someone who says, I'm gonna build on the word. I'm gonna build my life on the teachings of Scripture. I'm gonna build my life on the sayings of Jesus. And then when the storms come, you will remain standing. There won't be seasons of back and forth, up and down, but consistency. That foundation will hold. That foundation will hold. So Father, I pray, for that one who in their heart right now is making a commitment, I really sense that, someone watching right now, even as you're hearing this, you're saying, okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna stop putting this off. I'm gonna do it now. Lord, I thank you, that you're giving them the desire for your word. And Holy Spirit, I pray you would be their constant reminder every day that they need the word. Teach them to practice the spiritual discipline. Teach them to walk in your word. And Lord, help us to not only hear, but also to live your truth. And Father, I pray also, for those who need healing in their body, I pray that your healing virtue would flow like a river right now, touching each one who's crying out for a miracle. You've not turned to death, your Lord, we thank you for that. Nothing is impossible, only believe, have faith. He's able to get you through it. And Lord, bring deliverance from bondage and addiction, sinful cycles, let them sense your presence in peace even now. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. If you'll make a commitment to the word, tell me that in the comment section right now. And if you enjoyed this message and you want others to hear it, make sure that you leave a like on the video. That actually helps to spread it even further. And also, while you're at it, make sure you subscribe to my channel so that you can receive more content like this. 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