00:00:00 You know, I remember moving into San Francisco Bay area several years ago. We used to live in Germany and uh when we lived in Germany, uh we didn\'t have a car. We would have to we just had two bikes. We commuted everywhere through that. And then soon as we came here, of course, you need a car. So, we got a car. And in my workplace, I was working at IBM Almaden up on the hills. So, we can\'t come down for lunch. So, we used to eat in the cafeteria. And that was the first time I saw in the cafeteria at 00:00:33 IBM back in the day, I don\'t know if they still do it, they were uh grilling steak every day. And the first time I was seeing steak getting grilled and um and the and the and the sizes of the drinks, as you know, are humongous, like you know, a bucket of Coke. Uh well, if in Germany, people are very healthy. You know, they\'re riding, they\'re walking, food sizes are small. It\'s like you um when we get to eat at the cafeteria, it\'s like you know a nutritionist made that food for you. There\'ll be some 00:01:04 veggies which I never liked but I had to eat. There\'s some protein and all of that. Here it was just I enjoyed eating steak every day and drinking a bucket of coke every day for 6 months and in 6 months I put on 20 lbs which I\'m still struggling to lose. Nutritionists tell you a very simple equation. calories in, calories out. What you feed your body with, it grows based on that, isn\'t it? It\'s not very different with our minds either. What you feed your mind with, it grows and it 00:01:38 shows up. How your body is getting formed uh and how we turn spiritually. So, we\'re doing this new series called spiritual formation. I wanted to first define for us what we mean by spiritual formation. When you talk to people at workplaces or elsewhere, you will see this is very common. People are actually now become very spiritual no matter you know who they are or what faith they become they believe in especially after co but you will see three kinds of understanding in how people want to experience 00:02:14 spirituality or how they want to form themselves. The first category you can say is by emptying your mind. you know there\'s this huge um awareness or desire for yoga or meditation which is basically you know how to just empty your mind and do empty breathing exercises um so you can escape from the reality of your daily pressures and and and and and get some rest. The other thing is filling your mind by reading different books and ideologies. If you\'re ever in an airport and you see those bookstores 00:02:53 in airports, they have all these books of um you know how you can be better, you know, how you can be a great CEO, how you can do wonderful things. Or if you\'re a little religious then you there\'s a third group of people who are not talking about emptying your mind or filling your mind but disciplining your mind you know which and and they have rules like you know um pray more or read the Bible or other books more I was talking to someone on the east coast when I went last time and and u this 00:03:28 person wouldn\'t identify with any particular religion but this was a young girl in college she said every day when she rides the tube in New York, she recites the Hanuman Chalista, which is like a kind of a Hindu equivalent of rosary, you know, and and so and and every religion has that uh and and and if you\'re not religious, it\'s about, hey, let\'s practice kindness, be nice to people, do an act of uh generosity. But if you look at the Bible, it doesn\'t talk about any of these. Spiritual 00:04:00 formation is not about emptying your mind. Spiritual formation is not about filling your mind with worldly ideas and ideologies. Spiritual formation is not about disciplining your mind and your body or doing things. And here is a definition that I came up with which I hope will be helpful for us to remember. Spiritual formation is about the forming of Christ within us through his word by his spirit. We want to see Christ being formed within us. That to me is a good understanding of spiritual formation. Again, spiritual 00:04:39 formation is about the forming of Christ within us through his word by his spirit. Nothing very fancy about it. It\'s not about me becoming a better version of myself or a different version of myself, but it\'s about Christ being formed within me. And how will this happen? And how does this happen? You know, it happens not by following a bunch of rules and regulations. It happens by loving him more and wanting him more in my life and in my heart and letting him form me to be like him. And it happens primarily 00:05:23 by what we talk about as ordinary means of grace. And central to the ordinary means of grace is his word. So today in this passage that was read to us, the title of the sermon is the word feeds us. The word feeds us. We\'re going to look at three things from this short passage. It\'s short but explosive. It\'s pregnant with significant spiritual truth and meaning. First is the necessity of God\'s word. Second is the characteristics of God\'s word or rather the character of God\'s 00:05:59 word. And third is the transformation by God\'s word. Look at the first point, the necessity of God\'s word. We read in 2 Timothy 3:14. It begins with a phrase. We\'re going to go through. We\'re going to parse this verse slowly, phrase at a time because it\'s loaded with meaning. It says, \"But as for you,\" you know, here is the Apostle Paul. He\'s sort of like a spiritual father to Timothy. He calls him my son in many places. And today is a day to be thankful for all of 00:06:35 our spiritual fathers that God brought in our life. And he is writing this letter towards the end of his life kind of a passing the baton kind of a moment. and he wants to encourage Timothy who\'s facing tremendous pressure and uh persecution. There\'s all kinds of teaching against him. People are against him. So he gives him this encouragement and he says, \"But as for you, he wants to remind Timothy of doing something different.\" You know, we are always being formed spiritually for the best or the worst. 00:07:20 It is contrasting a group of people just before he talks about those who are feeding on something else and becoming something else. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Timothy chap 3 2 5. It says for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure. rather than lovers of God having the appearance 00:08:14 of godliness but denying its power to avoid such people. You see the word lovers repeated many times in this passage. It says first they are lovers of self, they\'re lovers of money. They\'re lovers of pleasure but not lovers of God. How does someone end up there? It\'s not usually all happening at once. Slowly we become what we feed. You know, I didn\'t go, I didn\'t put on 20 pounds in one day. It took 6 months for that to happen. We become what we feed. If we keep feeding the self, you know, the self 00:08:58 grows. If you keep feeding greed, greed grows. If you keep feeding lust, lust grows. If you keep comparing, jealousy grows. If you keep feeding fear, anxiety grows. If we keep feeding bitterness, resentment grows. Ultimately, all of these things are about fueling our own self. You know, our self, that\'s what lovers of self mean. Because all these things are about myself, my pleasure, my priority, my rights, my needs. You know, our self does not need more fuel. It already wants to sit 00:09:45 on the throne, isn\'t it? And much of our digital world is designed to inflate the self. The reals, the feeds, the likes, the opinions, the comparison, all of it keeps us saying look at yourself or promote yourself, protect yourself, project yourself, fulfill yourself, express yourself, trust yourself. So he says that is what happens when you feed yourself with all these other things. Remember what you feed as you grow. On the positive side, the next chapter he\'s going to give his own personal 00:10:28 example. In 2 Timothy 4:7 is the verse that we hear read at every funeral when someone dies. Right? Where he says, \"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.\" So he\'s telling Timothy, he\'s giving him a final life lesson on how to live your life so you can finish well like me. You know you know if we don\'t want to feed ourselves the opposite to that is self forgetting you know self forgetting is important both in our relationship with God and in our relationship with 00:11:07 others whether it\'s marriage, friendship parenting or whatever it may be and the only way you will be able to ease into self forgetfulness is to be reminded how God is bigger and better and more beautiful. So you don\'t want to be more like you. You want to be less of you and more like him. That\'s the essence of loving God and loving others better than ourselves. And that\'s where the word of God comes in. You know Jesus Christ experienced the same temptation to direct all attention to himself. 00:11:50 to feed these basic innate human desires for power, pleasure, fame, control. And when we were tempted in the wilderness to love power or pleasure or to be proud, what did he say? He said, \"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\" You know, Christ himself was feeding on God\'s word to overcome the temptation to love himself. And if he himself needed that, how much more do we need it? And and this doesn\'t happen like I said in a day, this is 00:12:32 where we come to the ordinary means of grace, which is the word of God. to get the word of God into our hearts slowly, consistently over time. You know, Eugene Peterson talks about this as being a long obedience in the same direction. As you\'re continuously and slowly and meticulously feeding yourself over time, whether you like it or not, you know, you\'re told to eat your veggies, kids especially, right? Because the long range will have its effect. But most of us want spiritual endurance without spiritual nourishment. 00:13:19 We want to fight temptation. We want to love our families. We want to endure suffering. We want to resist discouragement. We want to forgive people and finish well. But we often try to do it while being spiritually underfed. You know, Hadri has this quote. I\'ve said this many times. You learn to navigate a ship when the sea is calm so that when the storms come, you\'re able to use the controls to get yourself out. You know, I\'m following um Kelsey right now. She is uh aspiring to be the first 00:13:55 American woman to row solo from California to Hawaii. She started from Mter Ray in May and um she is posting daily updates. She\'s alone on the rugged Pacific and just rowing. No motorized things, but she does have all the GPS and access to weather conditions and all of that. So if you you can go and look her up later. So she starts from Mterrey and you know Hawaii is here but as soon as she starts heavy winds from the north come and make her go off course. She starts going south and what she does I was trying I was 00:14:36 curious to find out who she is, how does a woman have the audacity and the boldness to ride solo in the Pacific. You know I\'ve tried to swim in the Pacific for a while. Rajan and I did the cold just scares you. Remember we both went in one time and came running within 2 minutes about how cold it was. We had to train our mind to go back in and get acclimatized. Here is a woman riding solo and there are storms that come and waves that come and then I found out that she is actually a rafting 00:15:10 guide in Grand Canyon and she\'s raising funds to support that community. So guess what? She\'s acquired a special set of skills over a long period of time in her life which she\'s now able to use when she faces those similar conditions to overcome the waves, overcome the storms and to stay the course knowing that she\'s going to make it. you know he says um so so in this next part of the verse Paul is giving a map of how you know and that\'s that\'s a lesson for us you know when we have a 00:15:48 calm life when there\'s nothing major going on you know no layoffs no health conditions life\'s going great what do we do we chill we we just drop guard and we start feeding on anything and everything and especially nowadays with the temptations with doom scrolling and social media and then suddenly when a tragedy or or or a challenge comes you want to flip the switch and hope you can make it. You have all kinds of questions. Why did God allow this? Why God? Why me? Why now? It doesn\'t work that way, isn\'t it? So 00:16:28 he gives Timothy three principles in the same verse 14 says what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it. You know it says but as for you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you have learned it. The word continue is the command to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again consistently. And he says continue doing these three things. Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you have learned it. 00:17:16 So firstly he talks about what you\'re learning. You know what you feed your mind with it grows and controls. So first the learning is what are you learning? Second is believing just how you believe it\'s firmly and third is knowing from whom you are learning. So learning what he is encouraging Timothy to learn what you and I need to learn from God\'s word. You know we learn different things, don\'t we? children who are in school, you learn science, your math. If you\'re at 00:17:47 work, especially when a new technology comes and is disruptive like AI, you try to upgrade your skills and you\'re learning all of that. But what he wants him to learn is from God\'s word. Are you learning as a result of whatever it is you\'re reading something new and beautiful or deep about God and who he is and finding Christ in all of scripture? That\'s what made their hearts burn on the road to Emos. If you read the Bible as an instruction manual or a discipline manual or or or just a 00:18:30 literature text, it\'s not going to do you much good. Because when you find Christ in all the pages of scripture, that\'s going to make your heart burn and come alive. You\'re going to see how he is so much more beautiful than anything else. How he\'s so wonderful. You know nowadays young people um they are using dating apps to find their life partner and most of them have 75 to 80% of them I hear have stopped using that cuz it really doesn\'t help to know or reveal the true person. 00:19:16 But one of the important things for us is not just learning Christ. The learning should move into knowing him. You know in marriage what draws you is to know your spouse. Marriage grows when you continue to know and understand and accept the other person. You know I was recently talking to a friend and he said he\'s going to become an empty nester. his last um son is leaving home and um and he said he took his wife and said, \"Hey, you know, we have to figure out to be better friends 00:19:54 now. Um we are going to figure it out and he said they\'re trying to figure out what are some things they can do together to keep their marriage going. So long they were busy with children and now boom, they\'re gone. Now you\'re looking at a stranger once again, right? You know, but sometimes knowing about even your friend or your spouse may not always be a great thing, isn\'t it? There are things that you know about them that you don\'t want to know because we learn about their rough edges. But only about 00:20:28 Christ when you begin to learn more of Christ, it can be exhilarating. And that\'s why Paul who is writing this letter he writes in Philippians he says in 3:8 indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He says knowing Christ was so profound than any other knowledge he has acquired in the world. You know he went through the elite institutions of his time. He was doing incredibly well in his career. But he says all of them were a loss compared to knowing Jesus Christ my 00:21:08 Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ. the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain attain the resurrection from the dead one singular 00:21:48 focused on the burning desire for Paul which was to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and this Christ is revealed to us in his word in every single page from Genesis to Revelation. He is our heavenly daily manner and it\'s not just about what we learn. Second point is that he says you have to believe. You can know all about Jesus. A lot of people know about Jesus but he says you have to believe. And how do you believe? How do you believe what you learn? He says to believe firmly, steadily. You know we are in an age where 00:22:27 Bible and science are made to compete against each other and we know science is not very absolute isn\'t it? It cannot be believed because scientists are constantly revising ideas and knowledge and empirical facts. You know when I was a new Christian a challenge for me was evolution and creation which still kind of undermines everyone\'s assumption that the world evolved and that affects how they think about everything else. You know the odds of the world being formed through evolution. You know, if you\'ve heard this blind watchmaker 00:23:04 theory where you just take all the parts of a watch and put it in a box and give it to a monkey and ask it to shake and then the watch forms. That\'s how absurd it is. And we like to believe that it\'s so unscientific and we tend to believe scientifically you know you know one of the molecular biologists Michael Behe. It\'s a great book kids should read. um it\'s still irrefutable even by the world\'s best scientists how at a molecular biological level at the level 00:23:38 of DNA. He proves that evolution is untenable and impossible. And if that\'s something you don\'t know and especially as you\'re learning this in your schools, please talk to your parents or your small group leaders. They should be able to explain that. But then what happens is you tend to then believe, oh, science is true and the Bible is not. It\'s the exact opposite. You know God\'s word can be believed not just because it states random facts what they call as propositional truth. 00:24:12 God\'s word is true because it has put a face to truth and that face is the face of Jesus Christ who is a person and this person Jesus Christ lived in this world. But he said, \"I am the way, the truth, not a truth, the truth, and the life.\" And so it can be believed. So Hebrews 11:6 says, \"He who comes to God must believe that he exists, and he is a rewarder of those who seek him.\" You don\'t have to go and try to prove to anyone that God exists. Everybody knows God exists, but they don\'t like to 00:24:50 believe, and they keep suppressing the truth. You don\'t have to beg anyone to believe in God or try to convert anyone to believe in God. You cannot do that. It\'s just human pride that resists this inherent knowledge of God no matter where they are, which tribe or which end of the world. But he says if when you read from God\'s word, how you treat God\'s word is not it\'s not competing with science. It\'s not competing with worldly philosophers philosophies. You can believe it firmly because 00:25:23 it\'s about Jesus and he\'s the truth. So he talks about what to believe and how to believe. And thirdly, he says about knowing from whom you know the message and the messenger matter. Mothers, you matter. Timothy came to know all of this through his grandmother and his mother. He says we\'re the ones who helped him to know the truth. And that\'s a wakeup call for us as parents. If we say we put God first but practice education first, your message loses its credibility. You say you will do family prayer and 00:26:13 read the Bible for 10 minutes at night but the rest of the day go about putting faith in education or career or other things and worship that your children will also put faith in that than in God which is again putting faith in self-p producing the kind of people that we read earlier. Your children will read your life more than what you read to them at night for 10 minutes and that will stick. It may even be okay for you to skip reading the Bible in the night for a day or two, but they can see the rest of 00:26:52 your life throughout the day and see that, oh, my dad and my mom, they walk the talk. That sticks. That will stick. And he says, \"So you have been acquainted from childhood the word alone which is able to make us wise for salvation because knowing from whom you have received it.\" And it\'s not talking about going to 10 different Bible studies and knowing a lot or memorizing all of the Bible. But still, if you do not know Christ, then it\'s a loss. And the written word alone can point us 00:27:36 to the incarnate word of God Jesus Christ. And putting faith in him alone will enable us to experience salvation. Says make us wise for salvation. And the Greek word is sophius. So Sophia comes from that. It\'s a constant reset of our desires, thoughts and attitudes. We need that every day like our daily meal. So ask yourself this week, friends, what am I feeding on most? What is shaping my imagination? What is forming my desires? What is making me more self-focused or anxious or proud or angry or distracted? 00:28:14 What would it look like for me to continue in his word? Not occasionally, visited. Visit it. And one of the things um commentators say is Timothy for him he had an exposure to God\'s word from when he was 5 years old onwards. And and and that\'s the reason we encourage children to sit at church. You don\'t have to wait till you\'re older to know Christ. Timothy knew the sacred word from childhood. God\'s word is for everybody to make us wise for salvation. Some of you may never have this 00:28:53 lightning moment in your life, but as covenant children, as you\'re within the body of Christ and you\'re hearing God\'s word, God\'s word is powerful to do its thing. And so, parents, do not outsource spiritual formation. We are here to help as a church, but your home is your primary place of disciplehip. Let your children see you treasure more than anything else. and and don\'t confuse being busy for God as being nourished by God. Secondly, let\'s move on. We\'re going to 00:29:29 talk about the characteristic of God\'s word. It says, \"All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.\" That\'s an exhaustive list of God\'s the character of God\'s word. The word it\'s uses the first phrase all scripture is breathed out by God. You know the question some of us may have is how who wrote the Bible as children they ask us how did we get the Bible? This is the only place where this word is used 00:30:02 literally God breathing and that makes the Bible a very unique book in the whole world. You know you can read all kinds of books. Some books can inspire us. You can read great poems that can move us. Some amazing biographies that can challenge us and read some exciting scientific news that just informs us. You can read world history. Some it\'s important. It warns us. But scripture alone is God breath. There\'s no other book like that. And sometimes as children, you know, when you love reading fiction, which is 00:30:41 great, you need to ask yourself, do we have that same love to read God\'s word? I want to take a couple of minutes to describe what is God breath mean? How did we get the Bible? And you know there are three views did God one view is that it\'s called the dictation theory where God literally dictated every word to those who were writing it as and that means that God was treating people just as machines. That\'s not how he did it. Another view is called the dynamic view in which the thoughts of 00:31:14 scripture are viewed as inspired but God let the choice of words to be determined by individuals. That\'s not right too because if if the choice of words is given to human beings who are fallen there is a possibility it can have errors. But the real meaning of God breathing is what we call as God verbally plenarily inspired his word which is the result of this inspiration that God produced in all scripture the very words he wanted. So we can go into the details of that some other time. But because the word of 00:31:53 God was breached by God through human beings who lived across thousands of years and still the whole Bible carries this one uniform message throughout. It gives it its character. A word that we don\'t use much. It is inner and infallible. And we we we talked about that before. Inherent means that the Bible contains no error and infallible means let\'s see here you\'re finishing the sentence. How many of you know remember that the Bible what does infallible mean? You guys are all drawing a blank 00:32:37 infallible means the Bible cannot have any errors. It cannot because it is breathed by God. It\'s very important. All right. But it says it\'s profitable for four things. Teaching. First of all, you know the word teaching Paul uses 15 times in his pastoral epistles. The entire rest of the New Testament is used only six times. Why is teaching so significant? Why is the primary means or or blessing we get from God\'s word is teaching? Because first of all, scripture teaches us who God is. It teaches us who we are. 00:33:12 It teaches us what sin is. It teaches us what salvation is. It teaches us who Christ is. It teaches us what the world is and what truly matters. Secondly, he says it\'s useful for rebuke or reproof, which means that it calls out where our thoughts, words, or actions are out of place, out of whack. You know, when you read your word, you will it becomes real to you because it will say, \"Oh, that attitude is wrong. That desire is disordered. That bitterness is sinful. That fear is ruling you, is not godly, 00:33:47 that ambition that you have has become an idol and it\'s driving you. That relationship needs repentance. That secret sin is not hidden from God. You know, this reproof is grace because God loves us too much to let sin destroy us quietly. And thirdly, it just doesn\'t reproof and leave you. Says it corrects. It offers course correction, which we don\'t like sometimes, isn\'t it? You know, I hate it when I\'m driving on the freeway to an unknown place. I\'m relying on the GPS and and it shows an 00:34:23 exit and then I\'m talking to my wife or kids and then I miss the exit. Then it takes me on this long detour to get back. I I hate that. I\'m like, I wasted 5 minutes or 10 minutes. We don\'t like correction, but that\'s God\'s gracious way of bringing you back. Sometimes he lets you take a long detour. Sometimes the detour may have a desert. Sometimes it may have hills. Sometimes when you\'re taking a detour, you may get a flat tire. But he brings you back. Because God\'s word says, \"Here\'s the way 00:34:57 back. Confess, repent, believe, forgive, seek reconciliation, put off your old self, put on Christ, walk by the spirit. It brings you back says so that and training in righteousness results in making us more like Christ. And this training as we said is not instant. It\'s repeated ordinary discipline formation over time. You do not become patient by reading one verse on patience once. If that were so, it\'ll be so wonderful, isn\'t it? You become patient as the word uses the as the spirit uses the word over time to 00:35:44 reshape your reactions, desires, and habits to help you dig down to see why am I losing my patience now? What\'s the sin beneath the sin? You do not become forgiving through listening to one sermon or maybe even after listening to 10 years of sermon. Sometimes some people don\'t forgive someone. You become forgiving as the gospel keeps humbling you and reminding you about how much you have been forgiven in Christ. And you do not overcome fear and become courageous by one emotional high moment. 00:36:19 You become courageous as the promises of God sink deeper than the fears of man. And that\'s why daily scriptures matter. The word trains us. And all scripture ultimately, as we said, leads us to Christ. Jesus told the disciples that the scriptures testify about him. After his resurrection, he opened the scriptures and showed how Moses, the prophets, and the psalms point to him. So when scripture teaches what is it teaching? It teaches us Christ. When scripture reproves, it shows us where we are 00:36:55 unlike Christ. When scripture corrects, it brings us back to Christ. When scripture trains us in righteousness, it train it forms the life of Christ in us leading to spiritual formation. The written word of God leads us to the incarnate word. And you can use this grid in your daily devotions as an application when you read your Bible, whatever it is that you\'re reading. You can ask, is this doing all these four things? First, what is it teaching me? New about God or me or my life or this world or 00:37:34 this sin or whatever I am going through. Where is it rebuking me or confronting me? what or where is the Holy Spirit showing about something in my life? And then don\'t stop there because then you will end up in just all guilt and shame and and it\'s worse if you stop there. You need to plow through and ask yourself what is the correction. What does God\'s word say about what, where, why, or how I should change? And lastly, seeking Christ\'s help in becoming more like him. And we can see 00:38:12 where or how does Christ exemplify this and make it a prayer asking him to do this for you as he is in you. That leads us to our third point says you want to do all this verse 17 that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work. three powerp packed words, complete, equipped, or some translations says thoroughly equipped every good work resulting in two-fold blessings. You know, being complete or ready and equipped for every good work. It\'s going to help you interpret and go through any life situations. Life is not 00:38:59 always great, isn\'t it? It accept it equips us when we are sad. The psalms can be a healing bomb in those moments. It equips us by giving us direction in life. The wisdom in the book of proverbs. It equips us by seeing how people in history have experienced knowing God so we can trust him more. We can see how Old Testament saints dealt with all things from pain, sin, suffering, treachery, deceit, death, loss and how Christ equips us to live for him. This does not mean we become flawless. It means the word prepares us for the 00:39:43 life God calls us to live. The word equips us for suffering, for temptation, for parenting, for marriage, for singleness, for work, for grief, for mission, for worship, and above all it equips us to finish well. Whenever remember when the times you were sad, when we were sad, how the word gives us the psalms of lament, you\'re confused, the word gives us wisdom. When we are guilty, the word takes us to the cross. When we are afraid, the word gives us promises. When we are proud, the world word of God humbles us. When 00:40:21 we are weary, the word of God reminds us of grace. When we are tempted, God\'s word reminds us and gives us truth. When we are dying, the word gives us resurrection hope. Now Christ is this incarnate word in whom we get all of these things and he has left us with his written word through which we can taste and see that our God is good. And I want to leave you with something that I\'ve shared before when our Hebrew professor said he said read your Bible until something happens to you. You ask 00:41:00 how much time should I read the Bible? Just read your Bible until something happens to you. And you know what needs to happen? You can know when when you can stop reading. When you begin to love Christ more, that\'s when you know I\'ve read my Bible enough today. I found something amazing about Christ. It has just enhanced my love for Christ so that my self love can fade away. The worldly love doesn\'t compete or even come close.