Treasuring God's Word

Wow. Thanks, Milton. yeah, so, getting ready for this, message. I get a little bit nervous and Lynette kept asking me, are you nervous?

Are you nervous? a little bit nervous, but I keep going back. No, I've officiated 4 weddings, so that's, it's in front of people. I've spoken over 3000 messages to the youth.

150 times I've prepared, messages for our youth retreat. And so if I get nervous up here, just make your most youthful face possible and I'll feel great. It'll be no problem at all. but things I had to never deal with before.

in my life is word count, word count. And so it's a pastor word, I think, what's your word count up?, I don't know what's a word count? And so I had to type up my manuscript and my word count was not where it needed to be. And so, but see, and like the young people of today, you guys know word count, right?

Cause your teacher will say, Hey, I want your 3000 words in your essay. OK, well, I grew up without computers, OK, and so my teacher would say, I want 3 pages on your essay, and I would just make really big letters and be able to get through those 3 pages, no problem. And I was told that, hey, you gotta make eye contact, eye contact with people so you can connect with them. And so I have to make eye contact with you today and concentrate on that.

And then this morning I'm getting ready. I'm marking up my manuscript and Jay Jones is there. Coom, you gotta worry about your sock color. And sock color.

And see, I have, so I have beige socks, but I said, it's long pants. I'm not gonna be sitting down so they won't see it, but I have it all wrong because the, I didn't know this, but your sock color needs to mark your shoes. And so guys, I guess the Jay Jones rule is your sock color marks your shoes, but see, I think of Michael Jackson, he, how he had the white socks and did all the dancing, so maybe that's what influenced me. All right, but let's get started.

I'm, I'm excited. I feel like the Lord has taught me a lot this, these last couple of weeks, and then I have something that I can bring to you. So let's get started. Hidden treasures, hidden treasures are wonderful.

We all want to purchase something under value and later sell it for a huge profit. And here's an example from the art market. This painting. This painting.

This painting right here. This painting. This painting once sold in 1958 for $200. A person later in 2005 purchased this at an estate sale for $10,000.

Huge jump, right? From $200 to $10,000. That's like the Bitcoin thing going on. But that's quite a jump and a huge profit, but once it was discovered, so in 2005, they bought it for $10,000 once it was discovered that it was the Salvatore Mundi, the long lost Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ.

That was commissioned by King Louis the 12th of France more than 500 years ago, just last month, it sold for $450.3 million. So I would say that's quite a hidden treasure. But let's look in the sports world. I had to throw this in for Andrew Jones.

In the sports world, in the year 2000, Tom Brady was drafted in the 6th round of the draft with the 199th pick. So for those of you guys that aren't too aware of, of, of, sports and too much, that's really, really late. Like it's not somebody that you think's gonna make a huge impact on your team drafting them in the 6th round. But he has now developed into one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

He has been to 7 Super Bowls, winning 5 of them. He's been awarded the Super Bowl MVP 4 times, as well as the National Football League's Most Valuable Player 2 times. So I think the New England Patriots have been very glad to use their 6th pick on this player. You look at him at the combine, he looks goofy and now he looks like a big man.

But they found an incredible player from a pick they were probably pretty unsure of on the day they drafted him. Many of us love to watch Shark Tank, where we see the creativity of young entrepreneurs marketing their products and we love to see the sharks all fight for their share of a product they think will do well in the market. And that's actually the best part of the show is when they start fighting, oh, we're gonna be 10%, no, I'm gonna pay for 20%. And says, wow, this must be a really good product.

Well, back in season four, Laurie Grenier made a deal with a sponge company. She gave $200,000 in exchange for 20% equity in the company. And over the past three years, Scrub Daddy has brought in a total of $75 million in revenue, and $20 of that is from me because I bought Lynette some of those and they, and she kinda likes those. So I'm part of that 750 million or 75 million, OK.

But we love to hear about others finding diamonds in the rough. We love the idea that there may be hidden treasure buried in the backyard. So this morning we're going to look at how the word of God is a treasure and why we should treasure God's word. But before we begin, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you for being here with us. I pray that You would fill me with your spirit, fill all of us with your Spirit, to allow us to learn what you have for us this morning. Help me be an instrument used by you to communicate your word well, to represent you well this morning. And we just ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right. I want to start this morning's journey in the book of Job. I had studied this as I prepared for, was preparing for a message in one of our youth retreats and it hit me how calloused I had become to Job's plight.

Let's look at Job 1:13-19. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them when the Sabians raided them and took them away. Indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, the fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, the Chaldeans formed 3 bands, raided the camels, and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And suddenly a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.

7 sons, 3 daughters.

All but 4 of his servants, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, gone in an instant. I don't know how I would have responded had something like this happened to me. I think because of the succession of the events and one after another of his servants coming in, Job must have known that the Lord was involved somehow in these tragedies. But even in knowing this, he must have wondered why all this was happening.

How was he able to get up the next morning? How is he able to face another day? How did he, he survive during this dark time in his life? How was he able to say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.

We find part of our answer in Job 23:12. In this verse, Job says, I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. What is it in the word of God that makes, that would make a man value it above all of his children and all of his possessions?

What is contained, contained in these pages that are more important to Job's survival than his daily food? I found some of the answers to these questions in Psalm 19:7-8. In these verses, you will see 4 couplets of truth, where it has a synonym for God's word, and each of those couples with a pronouncement of what the word accomplishes in our lives. We're going to look at 8 reasons why we should treasure God's word.

The first reason the psalmist gives us why we should treasure God's word is because God's Word is perfect. Verse 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect. The word law comes from Torah, where the root word of the meanings, means to instruct. So it is speaking of instruction, teaching, or direction.

A better translation could be the teachings of Jehovah. When the Psalmist says it's perfect, he's saying, that three things as he says that the law of the Lord is perfect. The first thing he says is, is the word is sufficient. In other words, the Word of God is perfectly capable and adequate for meeting every need.

In other words, God's word is all God thought necessary to say to his people. And there is nothing lacking in what he said. The Word of God is sufficient. The second thing is the word of God is wholesome.

In other words, the word of God is perfectly helpful, and it is good for me. It is like the most awesome spiritual multivitamin that, that has all of God's recommended daily doses in it. And there are no negative side effects. Nothing in the word of God will bring you harm.

And another thought is you can't overdose on God's word. In the physical world, even if we eat too much of a good thing, there can be bad side effects. But that is not the case with God's word. It is absolutely wholesome in whatever doses you take it in.

In saying that the love of the Lord is perfect, the psalmist is also saying that the word is accurate. It is perfectly accurate. Everything that is stated in the Bible is in accordance with reality. We can trust what it says is true.

When the Book of Genesis tells us about God, what it tells us is accurate. When it tells us about how God created the heavens and everything on the earth during the days of creation. It is accurate. When it tells us about how God created Adam and Eve, it is accurate.

When it tells us how Adam and Eve sinned and how sin entered the human race, the word is accurate. When the law of God provides a system of sacrifices that all points to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus at the cross, that system of sacrifices points to him with perfect accuracy. When the Old Testament delivers hundreds of prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, and tells us the timing of his coming, and the manner of his coming, and even the details of his death, it was proved accurate in every detail.

The Word of God is perfect in every way.

And because it is perfect or complete in all these ways, we know that it can make us complete. In fact, Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:17. When he tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, so that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. A nice a verse, right guys?

He's our I verse. It is the word of God that will perfectly complete us for every good work that the Lord has for us. I can tell you if God calls you to do something, he will equip you to do that and he will equip equip you mostly through his word. And because God's word is perfect, what effect does it have on us?

In verse 7, it continues, God's word converts the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Converting has the idea of restoring. This word comes from the root which means to turn back or cause to return.

It has also has the ideas of reviving and rescuing. There are times in our lives when we all need reviving and rescuing and God's Word has the power to do that for us. God's Word can restore, God's Word can revive, God's words can rescue us. The psalmist is saying that there is no change that needs to occur in your life, or my life, that the Word of God cannot produce in us.

The instruction of the Lord can revive you from your fallen condition. It can restore your relationship with God when you fall into sin, and it can rescue you when you're heading in the wrong direction. Maybe you're in a bad place right now. Maybe you're caught in some sin.

Maybe you're far away from God and you're frightened at what you see yourself becoming. Take comfort from the statement of the psalmist in verse 7. God's word has the power to restore your soul. Pick up your Bible, read it, and ask God to use his word to restore your heart and soul to the place where it needs to be.

Maybe you're not a Christian. Read the Bible and let it point you to Jesus and bring you to salvation. God's word has the power to do this in your life, to give you life and cause you to be born again. In fact, in 1 Peter 1:23, Peter speaks to the Christians and reminds them of how the Word of God was instrumental in their salvation.

He speaks of them as having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to bring life and convert or revive our souls. And it should be treasured for this reason. And another reason why we should treasure the word of God is that God's word is sure.

Verse 7 continues, the testimony of the Lord is sure. The word testimony is a legal term that has the idea of bearing witness regarding something or someone. So if I was a witness in a trial, and I was asked to identify the person I saw that commit the crime in question, it would be my job to bear my testimony against that person. Brian did it.

I saw him, he was there. And so then that's my testimony of being an eyewitness of that account. So the Word of God is God's personal testimony about Himself. He is telling us that if we want to know who he is, he will testify about himself as we read his word.

And God's testimony about Himself is sure. This means that God's word is reliable, faithful, dependable, established and firm. Who else could tell us about God? And because it is God testifying about himself, we know that it is the truth.

It is something we can stake our life upon. In the New Testament in 2 Peter 1:19, The apostle Peter says, so we have the prophetic word made more sure. It's one thing for something to be sure. But Peter tells us that God's word is even better than sure, because of Christ.

In the New Testament, many of the prophecies about the coming Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And the result is that the word goes from being sure to be more sure because of all of these fulfillments. This is because of Jesus. In Hebrews 6:19, the writer of Hebrews says, this hope, speaking of Jesus, we have as an anchor of our soul, both sure and steadfast.

There's nothing more sure than God's word that reveals to us who Jesus is and why he came to earth and had to die on a cross to be able to save us from our sins. This reliable testimony from God about himself can do something for all of us when we feel too inexperienced to be used by God in some situations. The 4th reason, God's word makes wise the simple. I love praying this about God's word, and has, has the power to make wise the simple.

Making wise has the idea of giving us the practical skill for right living. how we can take some classes so that we can learn about, woodshop or how to fix cars, but nothing else can give us the practical skill of living that the word of God can bring. The word of God will make us competent to maneuver our way through the complexities of life. And who does the word of God make wise?

The simple Who are the simple This word literally means open minded or gullible or untaught. It does not refer to an imbecile, one who cannot comprehend, and it doesn't refer to a fool. One who despises wisdom. Instead, this word speaks of the person whose exposure to life and wisdom have been limited.

And because of this inexperience, he is gullible and easily influenced. When I think about simple-mindedness, I think about back when I was, I'm still coaching baseball, but it's a long time ago I was coaching and I had a stat girl. Well, first, let me explain a seriously Kumi role. So, at school, I like to joke around a little bit with the kids and, and tell them something that's not true and, and, and, and, but I say I don't want you to think I'm a liar cause I'm not a liar.

I'm a truth teller. But If I'm joking with you and you're not sure, we have this seriously Kumi rule. So I say, Kumi, seriously? And, and I'll either tell you the truth or I'll change the subject.

And so if you're, we're talking to each other and I'm telling you a story and you're, Kumi, seriously, wow, do how all these trees look so nice in here? Man, it just makes you feel like Christmas season is right upon us. So I changed the subject so you would know that I wasn't telling you the truth. So, there was one time, in baseball, you have to, manicure your fields.

You have to take care of them. And so, especially the infield with the clay, we always wet it down before practice and wet it down after practice, and you do that so it compacts, it doesn't get all dusty and huge holes in it. So we do that every practice. And so one day I was out watering the field and, and one of the stack girls came out and said, hey, Coach Cooney, why do you water the field?

And I go, what? Well, because of the claymates. She said, claymates? What are claymates?

I said, oh, you've never heard of claymates? Are you serious? Oh well, well, claymates live in the clay. They're microscopic, so you look at it and you can't see them.

But they live in the clay and as I wet them down, they, their, hunger is activated and they eat clay. And then when they poop out, they poop out more clay. And she's going, really? I go, yeah, I'm, I'm surprised you haven't heard of that before.

And she never said, seriously, King, so we just kept going on with it. And so then, so then we went on throughout practice and everything. We finished practice and then the players are all watering the field at the end and she's sitting in the dugout and she goes, oh, and she runs out and goes, Guys, do why we water the field? Field and I go, what?

No, Sammy, no, it's because of the claymates and the guy's like, what are you talking about? And she goes, no, no, Coach Kumi told me and I'm, no, no, Sammy, Sam, I was joking. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm sorry I didn't tell you.

I was joking. No claymates, it's, we compact the soil and, but see, Sammy was very simple-minded in her knowledge of field preparation. And so that's one example of somebody being simple-minded. Another is found here, a factory manager's assembly line was down.

So he summoned a consultant to, to suggest remedies. After inspecting a huge piece of machinery, the consultant produced a small hammer, reached between some gears, and gave a small tap. That did the trick and the assembly line was up and running again. The manager was very pleased until he received an invoice from the consultant for $10,000.

Shocked at this figure, he demanded an itemized accounting for the charges. When it arrived, here's how it read Tapping with hammer, $5. Knowing where to tap, $9,995. You see, the word of God will give us the skill and expertise to know where to tap when something in our life needs tapping.

Real wisdom is seeing the life, life the way it truly is. If you gain God's wisdom through his word, you'll know which choice to make, you'll know which road to take, and you will know something of the consequences of the choice you're making before you make it. And the ultimate thing we need wisdom for is how to be saved, and God's word gives us the wisdom for that. In 2 Timothy 3:15, the apostle Paul commends Timothy, that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

In our Sunday school curriculum this year, it has shown us what they refer to as a scarlet thread that is woven through the Old Testament, pointing to a perfect king and Messiah to bring salvation to Israel. This is a thread of redemption that points to Jesus Christ throughout the Old Testament. So it is the word of God that can make us wise, showing us our need for a savior to save us from our sins. If someone in the Old Testament times had truly studied the Old Testament with an open heart, he would have been made wise and ready for Christ's coming.

But unfortunately, most people were not ready for Christ when he came. The fact that we are told that, that God's word makes it wise the simple should really encourage all of us. Maybe you feel that you are simple minded, or think you're are simple minded compared to other people. Regardless, God's word is for you.

I know some people in this church who feel they are very simpleminded. And they think they don't have a lot to offer others. They struggle with nouns and adverbs and diagramming passages. But they read God's word and meditated on each day, and they memorize it.

And I have been amazed to watch some of these very same people speak incredible wisdom to others in moments of need. Where did they get that wisdom from? They got it from God's word, which makes wise the simple. So the teachings of Jehovah are perfect and complete, having the power to revive or restore the soul.

The testimony of the Lord about Himself is a sure thing that has the power to make wise or skillful, the naive or untaught, which brings us to the 5th reason why we should treasure God's word. God's Word is right. The statutes of the Lord are right. God's statutes or precepts are general terms for the responsibility that he has placed on his people.

It is, it is his expectations of his followers. God's statutes are right, meaning they are straight, morally upright or just. The psalmist is telling us that God's statutes are the standard of, of just and right behavior. If you're wanting to know how to live, go to the word of God and take your cues from there.

Don't let society develop your standard of justice and behavior. Society may tell you that sex outside of marriage is OK if you are in love. But the Bible is very clear when it tells us that sex is to be saved for marriage. God's word needs to be the ultimate standard of just and morally correct behavior.

The statutes of the Lord are right, and you are only as righteous as to the degree which you conform to the precepts of Scripture. God does not give us his statutes to make us feel restricted and miserable. He never requires things that are hurtful or unloving. His demands are always helpful, and always the correct thing to do.

Many times we feel that God is, I don't want to accept what God says to me because they're pushing me down, they're restricting my life, when it's completely the opposite. Living in, in, in, In line with God's word, has you live in a way that brings everything you need in your life. Philippians 4:8 instructs us, Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

So now as a teacher, you have a pop quiz.

So, let's see, something that is true. Honorable, right. Pure, lovely, of good repute and worthy of praise. hm.

What could that be? And so in my classes, I said, oh, kids, I'll give you a hint. It begins with G and ends in odds word. You guys got it?

Yes, God's word, OK? And so, so this, the Philippians passage is telling us and instructing us to meditate on God's word. See, there are many ways to do the wrong thing. But there is only one way to do the right thing.

A person that is disciplined enough to follow the statutes of the Lord will live a righteous life. And this righteous living leads to a joyful heart. So the next reason to treasure God's word is because God's word rejoices the heart. Verse 8 states that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

Rejoicing means giving pleasure to, and the heart refers to the deepest level or the core of one's being, it's who you really are, is your heart when the Bible refers to that. The psalmist is not saying that the statutes of the Lord rejoice the heart of a person who reads them and does not do them. Many people hear scriptures, but hate it and never give a thought to obeying it. God's word doesn't rejoice their heart.

In fact, it does the opposite. It angers them. What the psalmist is saying is that the statutes of the Lord rejoice the heart of the one who reads them and conforms his life to them. As he learns them and obeys them, they will bring joy into his life, a deep abiding joy that is real.

Not a counterfeit store by joy that only lasts for a moment. This joy can be felt even in the midst of personal tragedy. Those that have gone through a tragedy in their lifetime will testify the peace and joy that the word of God gave them through a dark time in their life. When I was in college, one of our missionaries, Shirley Morgan, was on furlough.

So she stayed in Riverside for a whole year. And I was friends with, some of her kids and so I would go over to her house a lot. And I just remember times sitting on her kitchen floor and just talking about life, and just, just hearing what she had to say and, and I was struggling with finding love and true love and Shirley, help me with this. How can I find this and what am I looking for?

But she would just tell me over and over how the Psalms, she just loved reading the Psalms. And so it inspired me. I gotta start reading the Psalms, man. So I, I go home and I'm reading the Psalms and it just didn't really kinda hit me.

I'm just like, really, she really likes reading the Psalms and maybe it's a different one, and there's a really big book, so maybe it's a different one I can find that, that really hit me. But I just had a hard time, catching where she was, getting this. But I came to understand that Shirley, Shirley's husband had died in a drowning accident as they're ministering in Alaska. And the psalms ministered to her, to her heart as she suddenly became a widow with 3 young children.

And it was after Lynette and I lost our first child who was born prematurely, when I fully understood what Shirley was talking about. I cannot explain the pain and heartache we went through, but I can tell you, it was the Psalms that really ministered to us during that dark time in our lives. On the other side of that heartache, we wouldn't change a thing because of all that God taught us, and how he caused our faith in him to grow. And a lot of that growth happened through his word.

The statutes of the Lord are right, and they do bring joy to our heart when we read and obey them. This is speaking of inner peace and tranquility. Inner peace and tranquility. If we could package the joy and peace of the Lord.

And sell them in a pill that someone could take to experience this. What would they be willing to pay? I bet we'd make a lot on Shark Tank. But I would dare to say that we would be trillionaires, with so many wanting to purchase a pill that could bring them the joy and peace of the Lord.

But what this passage is telling us is that joy and peace are found when we are reading and obeying God's word. Think of the joy that the Thessalonians experienced from God's word. In 1 Thessalons, wow. In 1 Thessalonians 1:6, Paul says, and you, Thessalonians became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit.

God's word brought joy to them. They received it with joy, even in the midst of the trials in which they found themselves. Think about the Thessalonian church. What type of word did they have?

They had scrolls coming to them, letters from the apostle Paul, open them up and reading them in church. We have the whole entire scriptures that we have at our, our bedside. But I love what the statement tells us in Psalm 19 about the heart of God for us. Please pay attention to this.

According to the statement of the psalmist, God gave us His word to rejoice our heart. This means that God, that God wants us to experience maximum pleasure and joy in this life. And he gave us his word to bring us into that joy. He didn't give us His word to steal our joy, but he gave it, but he gives it to us to bring us joy, especially the joy that is found in relationship with Jesus.

So never, never think of God as a killjoy. He is the ultimate giver of joy. And he wants to use this book to bring that joy into your life. Who better can bring and give you joy than the one who created you and knows exactly how you tick.

God can bring that to you. And even if you have sinned and lost the joy of your salvation, God's word tells you how you can return to God and confess your sins, and experience the forgiveness of your sins through Christ. The 7th reason why we should treasure the Word of God is found in verse 8. And it is because God's word is pure.

The commandment of the Lord is pure. Commandment is an instruction with the added insistence that we should follow it. The 10 Commandments are not the 10 suggestions. They are commands given to us by a Lord who has the sovereign right to command as he pleases.

But here's what's great about this. God command, could command us to do anything. But in the statement, the psalmist tells us that the commandment of the Lord is pure. Pure means without defilement or contaminants, absolutely clean.

Nowadays we have products that are labeled as fat-free, caffeine-free, sugar-free. But they are not actually completely free of those things. Even if a product has fat or sugar or caffeine in it, companies are still allowed to say their products are free of those things as long as it's under a certain minimum threshold. Sorry to break it to you, sorry.

But when the psalmist says that God's word is pure, he really means that it is free from anything that defiles or harms. Actually, the Hebrew word translated pure literally means to glitter. It's speaking of a metal that is free from contaminants that will dull its appearance. Saying that the commandment of the Lord is pure, the psalmist is saying that God's instructions are flawless and radiant.

They are free from all stain and imperfections. And the same can be said of the New Testament scriptures. This is why Peter can point to the gospel and the New Testament and say in 1 Peter 2:2, to desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. We need to be reminded that the Word of God is pure, because many are attacking the Word of God today.

Some say it is full of errors. And others say the morality taught in Scripture is harmful to people. God's word is pure, free from errors, free from defilement, and free from anything that will do harm to your soul. And because God's Word is pure, it has the power to bring light to the eyes.

So the last reason we will look at this morning to treasure God's word, Is that God's word enlightens the eyes. Enlightening the eyes speaks of enabling one to see what he needs to see, increasing one's spiritual insight. The Word of God will give you a 2020 vision of God. of the way you should live, and of the world around you.

You will have the insight or ability to see between the lines. You will have, you'll be able to unmask things that others cannot. You'll be able to see beneath things that are not what they appear to be. You have perspective on life that only comes from instruction of and obedience to the word of God.

And above all, you, you will have the ability to see God for who he really is. You'll be able to see your sin, you'll be able to see the truth about Jesus Christ, whom God sent to be your savior. The apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus that having the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, they would experience the hope and inheritance found in Christ. God's word is pure or radiant, and will give us light and knowledge.

Our heart and mind are enlightened by the truth of God. There's a story of a Persian farmer named Ali Hafiz. This is a true story. Ali Hafiz was a successful and contented man who owned a very large farm that had beautiful orchards, wide grain fields, and lush gardens.

One day, a wise man from the east told him about diamonds and how valuable they were. He told them how wealthy he would be if he owned a diamond mine. And that night, Ali Hafied, Went to bed a poor man. Poor because he was discontented.

He tossed and turned all night and could not get diamonds out of his mind. He could see piles of diamonds running in his hands through them and seeing them sparkle like the very stars of heaven. Soon, he sold his farm. He left his family in the care of a neighbor and went out to search for a diamond mine.

Ali Hafe spent the rest of his life wandering Africa and Europe, searching for diamonds without success. Finally, broke and desperate, he threw himself into a tidal wave in Barcelona and drowned. Meanwhile The man who had purchased purchased Ali Hafet's farm one day led his camel into the garden to find water to drink. And as the camel put his nose into the shallow waters of that garden's brook, he noticed a black stone in the water that sparkled.

He, he, he was interested in it, he pulled it out. It turned out to be a great diamond of enormous value. That man later discovered that his farm was covered with all sorts of beautiful and valuable gems. The largest diamonds on earth have come from this mine.

Had Ali Hafid remained at home and dug in his own fields, he would have had acres of diamonds. Every acre of that old farm revealed gems, which since have decorated the crowns of monarchs in different countries. You can travel and study for endless years in the greatest universities in the world in search of wisdom and knowledge. You can listen to successful people and try to find their secrets to success.

You can search all over the world to find wealth and riches in your search for significance. But you really need go no further than the Bible in your home to find the greatest treasury of wisdom since time began. The Word of God will point you to the Lord Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We live in a world where people are searching everywhere, looking for fulfillment and happiness.

They want to be significant, to make a name for themselves, to be remembered. I want to tell you that everything you need, everything pertaining to wisdom, to love, to success, to happiness, and to life everlasting, all of this can be found in God's word. You do not have to search the world for the richest mine because you already have it in your hands. But please be realistic also.

The Bible doesn't make you wise overnight. So wisdom is a harvest that takes time to reap. So you may be inspired today, man, I'm going home tonight, I'm gonna read a chapter of the Bible, and then tomorrow, boom, I'm gonna be making some great decisions. But you need to remember that it will take discipline time to grow in wisdom.

You need to develop a daily time to spend in God's word, that will be something that you can stick with. On your good days and your bad days, spend time in God's word. Even on your days of worst defeat, get back into God's word and keep reading and keep meditating. If you keep sowing seeds to the Spirit in this way, you will reap a harvest of wisdom and joy.

And please understand that when you read the scriptures, you must read with the intention to obey. You cannot ask God to instruct you and then decide if it's something that you want to obey. Hey, God, teach me something today and let me see if it fits in my schedule, if it, if it lines up with my worldview, and I will obey it, God. No, God's not going to speak to you then.

As you read the word of God, you need to say, God, teach me something today, and I will obey it because I know that's the best thing for me. It's increasingly difficult to know who you can trust today. I hate to break it to you guys. But everything you read on the internet is not true.

Oh. That back in my day it was, everything you see on TV is not true. And then, wow, really? Everything you hear from the politicians is not necessarily true.

And we cannot even trust how the news is reported to us to be completely factual and true. The only place we can find truth is the Bible. Every word in the Bible is true, and will always be true. It is the only thing we can read and know that we are reading truth.

I don't know where you're at spiritually this morning. Maybe you're sitting here realizing that you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. But I can assure you that as you read His word, it will make you wise unto salvation if you read with the intention to obey. Maybe the Lord, but you've lost your way.

I want to tell you that you're not alone. All of us in this room have experienced seasons where we have lost our way and made horrible decisions. But I want to assure you that Jesus is the way. And in reading his word, he will give you the wisdom and show you how much joy he wants you to experience in your life.

But you must read with the intention to obey what you're reading. In Psalm 1910 and 11, we read how David concludes this section of the Psalm. In summarizing his thoughts on the word of God, he states, more to be desired are they than gold. Yeah, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover, by, by them, your servant is warned, and in keeping them, there is great reward. And that reward is available to us all, if we are willing to read and obey God's wonderful word. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your word.

The power of your word. That it has in our lives to make the simple wise, to restore us, to revive us. But I also thank you for Jesus Christ, who is the word incarnate, who became flesh and dwelt among us. And that as we observed him, We saw you in the flesh.

So thank you for your word. I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would inspire us to develop a disciplined time that we can spend in your word, day by day, and grow in wisdom and joy. So we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.