The Verses Many Christians Get Wrong! | Forged with Zach Fontaine & Andre Fontaine - 4K

If I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to go for dinner with Andre tonight, like, I hope that I get something from it. None of us treat our relationships like that, right? But we treat our relationship with God through his word like that, where it's like, well, I hope I get some wisdom. And it's like,

what

if you don't?

What

if you just get closer to Jesus and you understand more about him? Or what if you're like, you know what, I'm going to mull on that and figure out what I'm going to do from now on, but I don't really know what I can directly apply. That's okay. Welcome back to Forged. It is good to be back.

We're

going to be chatting a little bit today, me and Andre, about the series that we've been on for now five weeks that we just completed, which is going to be, it's been a fun one, How to Read Your Bible. And I'm looking forward to it because it was one of those kind of series that I felt,

it

was almost too simple. Sometimes it felt like, should I do something so simple? People are going to just think like, I don't know really exactly where he's going with this. But I also felt like very called to make sure that we all understood, at least to the degree that we could, that how important it is to read the Bible and what it all means. Because you see a lot of people right now

taking

the Bible more often than not, reading the Bible more often than not, especially the young, the young, what is it, 18, someone's told me a stat, it was 18 to 38 or 18 to 40 or something like that, that the amount of Bible sales that are going on with them right now is through

the roof apparently. Yeah, it's like a 20

-year high or something like that.

It's

crazy, yeah. So

I

just don't like the idea of someone having the Bible, reading it, and then misinterpreting it, or misapplying it, or not fully understanding it, and then just giving up. It's like if we're in a field right now where a lot of people are getting the Bible, then you want to go with that momentum and make sure they know how to use the Bible too. 100%. So

how

have you enjoyed the series for the last four? How have I

enjoyed

the series? Oh, you're putting me

on the spot here. I'm

interviewing you. Okay. I have quite enjoyed the series. I think at the base of it, I thought that it might be a little more basic. Like at the beginning of it, I was like, yeah, yeah, that's good. It's going to

be

a bunch of good reminders, you know? Yeah, a bunch of real good reminders, but it was honestly a lot more than that. Like just, I don't know.

But specifically

the one talking about old and new covenants, I think is huge, because I think the misconceptions there are big.

I

wouldn't say that there was anything that I was like, oh my gosh, but like

putting

everything

into

the right perspective is huge, because if you aren't reading that part correctly, you're reading the Bible incorrectly, and you're going to apply it incorrectly. And then you talked about context, and then that

whole

thing,

which,

again,

context

is almost the same thing. Like

one

of my favorite

things

that you talked about is Philippians 4.13, and how like you're at your football game. Philippians 4.13, baby.

I

can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Thank you, Lord, that you give us this win or whatever, you know? It's like doing

that. The enemy into our hands.

Yeah, exactly. It's so funny. But like so many people believe that, though,

because

they have this idea that,

which

this goes deep into so many different teachings, but this idea that the Bible,

you've got

to be careful how I say it, but like

that

it's just the prosperity gospel. Like God just wants you to be,

that

he just wants you to have everything that the world says is valuable.

And

that's not true. And

like

Philippians 4.13 makes that clear, that Paul's like,

whether

I got it all or I got nothing,

I

can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Right. Because he's not talking about

getting

something specific or having something. He was specifically making the distinction that

none

of that actually matters and only God matters. And if I have God, I can do it all.

So

I don't know. Yeah, believe it or not, the Bible isn't pointing towards consumerism. Hard to believe for some

people. Consuming the word and consuming,

yeah,

but no. Hard to believe

for a lot of people, though. Well, yeah, the culture pushes that all the time, is get more and more and

more and more and more and more.

Yeah. All right? And it doesn't ever lead you anywhere good. So it's interesting for sure. And yeah, I think,

that

was definitely my favorite message of the bunch that were done. Personally.

But

I didn't even go into like half of

the

other, the other like examples that I could have got into.

I

was going to ask you today, actually, I was going to be like, do you have

a

few verses that are like,

these

are the biggest misconceptions, like scripturally

that

I want to just like

bring the truth to? Well, I think Philippians 4

.13 was a big one. Jeremiah 29.11 was a big one. Right. That one too. Jeremiah 29.11 wasn't meant to take away anything that people stand on. It was just meant to realize that if you need Jeremiah 29.11 to, to remind you that God has a plan for you, then you're missing the entire plan that God laid out through Jesus. that was a plan for you. You know what

I

mean? So it's not that one promise that is, that you have to hold on to. Right. Exactly. I don't remember the exact reference of the verse, but there's one that, that was irking me for a while when people always used to say, we're two or more gathered there. I am with them.

Oh yeah.

and they would, they would,

they,

some people, they reference that verse in regards to a more powerful prayer.

Yeah.

And,

and I've heard that a

lot. Yeah. And that, and it's not, it's not what that verse means. So let's say,

well,

the verse is talking about like rebuking the church, rebuke with your brother. So he, so it says like the verse basically lays out the fact that it's like, Hey, if your brother does something against you with a person, a friend, whatever it might be, let them know what happened. Tell them, it says, take them, into private and tell them what went on. Like, Hey, you did this and this and this. And if they say no, then it says

bring

in counsel, one or two of your friends that were also witnesses. And then it says after that, if he still denies that he did something for you, then, then, then bring them to the church. And then if in the church and everything like that is still, he's saying, no, that, that didn't happen or no. I'm like basically denying what was done, even though he has now witnesses and the church that have all said, no, no, you've done this. Trying to steer this, this man or woman to a correct route. And then, then God says, basically, there's not much more you can do, but wherever you gather, there I am with you.

And, and what, what he was trying to say was that like, if you do it the way that I've called you to do it, you're not going to do harm in doing it. Like I'm, there I am with you. I'm backing you up. I'm here with you. And again, it's, it's not to diminish. Now people are going to go, Oh, that diminishes the fact that when me and someone gather together in our basement, we pray, there's power in prayer. I'm just saying that for, for that, that lady or that man that's at home in their basement by themselves right now, who feels like I don't have a friend, I don't have a believer beside me. And, and my prayer is not as strong as the rest. No, that's not how it works. Never was that way.

But people like to just go, well, two more gathered. Let's make this happen. It's like, well, where one is gathered, you can pray and you can see God's amazing, what Jesus accomplished on the cross actually come to fruition in your life. It's a faith and a doubt thing, not in a numbers thing. But I want the pastor to pray for me. You could do

that

too. Then I, then I'll get what I want.

Yeah. And

that's where I go straight back to the centurion and, and his servant at home.

I

love that story.

Cause it's like,

he didn't base anything off. He literally told Jesus, you just say it's done from here.

Say it's done.

He just didn't, didn't try to get God or Jesus into his home. He didn't try. And then Jesus is like, wow, I've never seen this much faith in all

of Israel. And you're like,

isn't that crazy?

Yeah.

Because people, yeah, it's just, it gets a little bit, yeah, it gets hard when people make their own religion based on, on what you see and what you hear about in the Bible. Yeah. Yeah. That is crazy.

Well,

even just like most of those stories of

like,

incredible works.

It

was all based off of their faith. Like the same thing, the woman that touched the hem of the garment.

It's

like,

he

didn't do anything. He literally just stood there and he had no idea it was even happening. I mean,

at

that moment, as Jesus on earth,

and

she touches his garment

instantly

healed

woman

of great faith. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I

know that's the beauty of, of the gospel. And it's, it's, it's meant to be for everyone. That's why when there's verses that seem like it singles out a certain way of doing something, um, like two or more gathered, or I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, or like, and, and, and the meaning of those things are really beautiful though. That's the thing. It's like, I'm not tearing down meaning to say that, that it, it maybe is out of context.

I'm

actually, and I said this, and I think, I think week four, I think I said this where it's like, no, no, no, actually when you get the, it in a right context, it solidifies and strengthens what you can stand on and how much confidence you have in that. It's not meant to tear down anything like that. The, the promises are yes and amen in the Bible. And

the

Bible is very clear that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. The Bible is very clear that it says you will do better things than what Jesus did on the earth. So we know the promises are pretty, pretty amazing for, for the believer. It's just when we confuse them and start to stand on something that was never meant

for

us to, to stand on. Right. I guess that's the tough part.

So

that was what I was trying to do with this entire series. Um, and it's been a long series. I don't typically do five week series. Um, I typically like to stick to like three because three is digestible, typically applicable, easy to get through

and,

and stay intrigued by it. Five weeks gets a little longer, but the series for five weeks was meant to be a foundational so that it'd be something I could refer back to when I do go into a lot of these other series that are coming up. When it comes to like three weeks and different things like that, then I can just mention context. I can just mention old new covenant.

I've already taught it.

And everyone goes, Oh, okay. And it's like, Oh, remember this is not written, uh, for us. It would, or it was written for us, but not to us. Right. And then, and then everyone goes, Oh yeah, we taught on this in January and February. I get that. Right. It just makes my job easier

because,

because when you get on stage and you, and you preach,

you

have a lot of people that are hearing week three as week one, and they haven't heard week one and two, but they're here for week three. And then you have some people that have been studying the word for 30 years and some that have barely opened a Bible. They've been saved for two weeks. And so you have this constant side where you want to create, I kind of did that with offering to and tithing and, and, um, the kingdom economy series. It's like, I can't always teach about offering every single Sunday to the degree that I will leave no one,

um,

confused or questioning. So it's like, Hey, this is the bare minimum of, of what offering and giving and tithing is, but to get a way more general or more specific view of it, just go to this series and then just get what we believe. Cause I spent how many hours would that be? 45, probably 45 minutes, at least a message times four. Right. So you're at like three hours of content.

Yeah.

So it's like, that's a lot of content that you can do offering. So there's a little bit of strategy in the,

how

to read your Bible series because of that. Cause I wanted everyone to, to know and me easily reference that. Cause I mean, you preach at youth and stuff. So you, and, and, and other places too, but it's, you've gotten to sometimes understand that just because you say something or you glaze over something doesn't mean I want to go in depth on that. So I really want everyone to understand what I just glazed over. And the only way I can do that is by referencing back to other teachings, hopefully, or steering someone who goes, I want to know more about that, but haven't heard that series. Go to that series, you know, cause

it'll help you.

I guarantee it. So yeah, that's why. Yeah. That's a hard,

a

hard dynamic of always constantly feeling like I can't go too deep because people aren't going to understand. So

a hundred

percent. I see the vision. I'm on board

for

the, for

five

weeks. Yeah. I'm glad. Okay. My turn to ask you a question. Okay. You might have to think about it for a second, which is okay. Okay.

If

you could crush one stumbling block

that

you see so many Christians

stumble

over

from

a scriptural biblical standpoint

of

like, they either take this out of context, they don't understand this correctly and

it

causes people to stumble. What would it be? Believer's authority.

All

day long.

All

right. Now you have to dive deep into that because no one understands what you're talking about.

I'm

just kidding.

The,

the authority we have as a believer in the sense of what the cross actually meant and not just what it earned us, but the authority that it gave us. Right. So Jesus gave us all authority, right? Over the devil, over the evil demonic things of this earth, over the fallen world. Um,

so

that, uh, the believer's authority, and this would be like a subcategory under it, but would be like how to pray in the believer's authority where it's like, I'm not asking if I'm praying for healing, I'm not asking God to heal cancer. I'm not asking God to, uh, whatever it might be. I I'm, I'm speaking to whatever that element is because we've been given authority over that element. Right. I'm not looking for God to move anymore. What Jesus did on the cross, it is done. He's now seated at the right hand of the father, which signifies and symbolizes the fact that his work is done. And if his work is done, that means he's not pulling strings up in heaven.

Um, when you ask, that means that you've been given, if he's, if he bore your sickness and disease on that cross, that means it's done. So the biggest thing is the believer's authority. And with religion, um, people slip back into, uh,

the

fact that

you

have to go to a priest or you have to have someone to intercede or it be the bridge between you and God to get your miracle. You don't need a pastor to pray for you. You don't need a pastor to visit you in the hospital. You don't need, um, any of that. Is it encouraging? Yeah. Does it show support in the church? Yes. Does it show, uh, does it show the, the personality of Jesus having pastors go into, into hospitals and pray for the sick? Absolutely. It does like there, there's benefit to having it happen, but the benefit isn't this guy will be healed because finally the senior pastor walked in and nothing could be further from the truth.

And nothing can put more pressure on your senior pastor than he's the guy who walks in doing the miracles. It's like, no, no, no, every single person can do miracles. And then, and then you have to take that further for me too. It's like, okay, if that's what you believe in every single person who has, who is not in either walking distance, driving distance, or flying distance to a pastor that believes the same thing we believe in the word of God doesn't get their miracle.

Yeah.

You know what

I'm

saying? So it's like, okay, so let's just start ruling out a lot of the third world countries and different things and different tribes and all these different questions that we've had before. So I get a little annoyed with that, not because it's done out of, it's done out of ignorance. It's, it's, it's not like, it's not purposeful. It's

just, people are trying to

do their best and they're scared and they don't know what to do and they don't know where to turn. And then they just think someone else will, we'll do this. And it's like, no, no, no. But if, if we were to just grasp onto what the Bible says about your authority, people would realize they have no fear of Satan, no fear of demonic possession, no fear of demons, period, no fear of walking into a house and buying a house. And then someone's saying, Oh, that one had a guy die in the basement. So yikes. Like, it's like, yeah. And it's like the world wants you to focus on that goal. There's so much power. No, there's not, there's no, there's no power in that. It just, it boggles my mind.

Um, and I, I sound annoyed. I'm not annoyed at all. I'm just passionate in the sense that that is

the biggest stumbling block. I feel like,

and then I, if you ask me in a year, I might say something different. Like, but as of right now, believers authority is one of the biggest things that Christians, um, we all struggle with. It's like, no, we have authority over it. Cause when you go through it yourself, um, the authority, I always say it's easy to walk someone else out of the fog that they're in. But when you're in that same fog, sometimes you do need someone to walk you out of the fog. You see this with a lot of different things in the world. Um, you see this with pastors where they pray for the sick, they get healed, then they get sick and they, and they forget what God's word says about them. It's just different.

It just, it just changes. Cause when you're in the middle of the fight,

you

fight differently than when you're on the outside, looking in on someone in the fight and helping them and encourage them in that fight. So I think it's very important for us to realize, um, that pastors are important. Don't get me wrong. I think,

um,

encouragement is important. Prayer is important. Um, a hundred percent. But again, long, long roundabout answer to say believers authority is, is

like

the ticket for

someone

realizing that God's given you everything you need, right? For life and godliness. You don't have to worry about,

you

don't have to worry about the devil. You don't have to worry about any of that. Um, that would be my answer. Yeah, I like that. I think, uh,

part

of what you said too, because some people

take

you off into the ditch and they're like, oh, so then pastor, we don't even need pastors because you know, I'm just gonna,

I

got it all under control. Right. But what you said about, um,

like

needing to be walked through the fog, I think that that, that makes a lot of sense. Cause when you're in the midst of tragedy, when you're

in

the midst of devastation, it's okay to need someone else to help you out or to

help

refocus you. It's, it's almost like

the

analogy that came into my head is like

a

football team. It's like, you got the coach and you got the players

and

you need both. Yeah. Right. If you're on the field and you're playing the game, you're not seeing everything that the coach is seeing,

but no.

So then you still need the coach. Yeah. But the coach isn't the one executing the plays. It's the players.

Right.

Exactly. Yeah. It's, it's, it's nice. Yeah. it's nice that way. Yeah. There's a massive need for pastors and I'm glad that there is pastors out there, obviously.

Yeah.

Um, because they bring a lot of, yeah, they're, they're literally employed to bring encouragement through scripture and truth and, and take care of the people, the believers and teach them and train them.

And

obviously salvation, like there's a lot that, that pastors do. Um, and I'm thankful. Cause then I, even with me, it's like, I get to ingest a lot of other, other pastors, stuff that they take hours and hours and hours of, of studying and they write commentaries. And it's

like,

we better believe that, that, that, that we better be very, very happy that the world has this set up through charities and, and organizations that further the gospel, but also further the believers understanding of the gospel through someone who, who has studied it for a long time or gets to go into the word a lot. I'm blessed that I get to get in the word a lot. And my full-time job is to just understand, teach, apply, encourage, pray. Like, I love that. I get to do that. And, and I think that,

and

I see the benefit of it when I get to be coached by other pastors too, where I'm like, I'm so glad that for the last 40 years, some of these guys have been doing it. And it's just like, and you get to encourage someone else to keep going in their faith. Who's a pastor as well. Who's encouraging a flock under them. And then in that flock, there's other, you know what

I

mean? It's just like, it's, it's a beautiful ministry that has been set up for that.

A

hundred percent. Agreed.

I

was going to ask you,

I

was going to say

a

lot of people just come to church on Sunday.

They'll

hear the word from your mouth. They'll hear the word in different areas. churches. Why is it important for them

to

get into the word themselves?

So

that you're not

sheeps

to the slaughter.

Yeah.

I mean, there are going to

be people who

don't speak the word correctly or have,

I

mean, we've seen it through churches for a long time. Like, like churches has,

they've

historically it's, they've been created to help people. They've been created to help the needy. They've been encouraged in the Bible. It says that the orphans, the widows, right? Like we've encouraged to do that, which is very important for us, but that doesn't mean that there's not weird people out there that go, Oh, like I'm just going to do it. Cause it seems to be easy to start a charity. And there's, there's guys in the States that I think one of the biggest things that happened recently, which was crazy is, is a mafia boss that was like in prison said, if you had to do it all again, what would you do? And he's like, I'd be, I'd be a, I'd be a church.

And

you're just like, Whoa, like that's insane. And that just goes to show that there's going to be people that start churches that are pastors that aren't called by God,

you

know? And I'm not saying it's my job to, I think, yeah, I don't think, I think everyone gets stuck a little bit when we start judging, they're speaking this and they're doing, it's so easy to take a snippet out of, I mean, it happens to me too, like on a reel. And people just saying that you don't really believe the right gospel. And I think that we all have to do our best to understand and read. And

to

a certain degree, you have to believe people's intentions are pure, but their actions start to show and the actions kind of help you with that. So for me, I think that's a,

that's

a big one too. I just,

I

just want to make sure people are

like,

we're, we're called to go continue to do these ministries and help people. But that doesn't mean just because that's the definition of church, meaning every church actually does that. I think a lot of churches, not a lot of churches, but I think there's definitely churches out there

that

do it for the wrong reasons.

And it's sad. I mean,

historically

there's

a lot of corruption in church and like the word of God becoming available

and

becoming

translatable to

the mass population

was

one of the biggest reasons that things changed. Like that's crazy. I think it's surprised. I think it surprised people in week. I think it was week three. I think it was week three where I said the homework was reading Hebrews eight, nine, and 10. I think it was the homework.

Yeah.

And I think, and people came out to me after they're like, it's crazy. It's exactly what you preached about.

And

I'm like, I know that's why I gave the homework. Like, like verbatim. That's in the Bible. Some of my points were literally out of those three chapters. And so I'm telling people to go read it to him

to

show them. I'm plagiarizing from the word of God. This is what it says.

This is what

we are teaching. Yes. It's not me making it up. This is not my doctrine, but at the same time, this also opens up for good conversation. Not everyone can have a conversation with me, obviously.

Yeah.

But I

do my best to have conversations with people in the halls and different things. When questions are asked where it's like, I read this,

I

don't understand this. And I don't understand everything I'm studying. And sometimes the questions I get in the halls make me go great. I'm going to study that this week to make sure I'm read up on that too. So I have somewhat of an answer or something. But wisdom also says, and maturity says,

I

don't know is okay.

Yeah.

You don't need to be the expert. And I think we've, sometimes Christians always think they have to have the most

nice

answer ever to give to someone. And you're just like, Oh my gosh, like you're not God. So it's like, if you don't know, you don't tell like, if you don't, okay, if you were to, if we were in like some place in a city and you said, Hey, how do I get to, uh, how do I get to the Eiffel tower? We're in Paris, let's say.

Yeah.

And it's like, I'm a tourist and I have no idea.

And

I looked at you and said, why don't you just like, I think if you turn left up there, head that way, and then head down that way for a couple of kilometers. And I think if you take a right around there, there should be the Eiffel tower somewhere around there.

Why

would I ever say that? Yeah.

I

mean, I would, the dumbest thing I could ever say to you because

I don't know how

to get to the Eiffel tower, but so many of us do that because we want to seem like we are someone who has information to be sought after or understanding or wisdom beyond our years. and it's like, yeah, it might, it might make that one person in the hallway think, wow, this guy knows what he's talking about. But then down the road, at some point you'll be found out to realize you knew nothing about what you were talking about

because,

because you just led everyone astray because you cared about your own pride than the actual leading of God. So it's like, I don't like that. If someone comes up to talk to me, I will give my best understanding of what I know in that moment. And I 100% have said, can I get back to you on this? Or 100% have said, you know what? That's a good question. I don't know. But what I do know is this. Right. And that kind of

is

the best way you can do it.

I

think sometimes

is

to, is to be

honest.

Honest is the,

humility

too. That, that as well, but you don't see it often these days and it's refreshing. That's why I like

for

you to be able to give them a rundown on what you think it could possibly be versus just being honest and being like, I actually don't know. And I got to get back to

you.

Like

it

just shows that you're a human being. I don't know.

So

it's the, Well, and it's, and when you go to the,

how

to read the Bible series now, it's like, okay, well, what, what did you find that in Ephesians? What, what chapter four, what verse? Uh, it was in the passages from 12 to 16. Okay. Sounds good. What is he talking about? And I started asking them questions. Well, he's talking about this. I'm like, how much have you read of Ephesians? Well, I only started in chapter four. Okay. Why don't you come back to me next Sunday and go read from chapter

one to four

or one to five or the whole Ephesians, right? And see if your understanding grows. And if it doesn't, then maybe you're reading new King James, which is great, but maybe your understanding is a little bit like tough on that. So let's go to like an NLT or an amplified or an ESV or whatever it might be. And just see if that helps further your understanding, then compare new King James versus, versus an NLT. Those are going to be different because you have word for word, basically in new King James, and you have more of a thought for thought kind of in NLT, meaning it's going to be a little bit more expanded to intrigue the reader more on NLT than it is on NKJ, New King James. Easier to read.

Way

easier to read. Way easier to just open your Bible before bed and just do your thing. You know what

I

mean? Like I can take from it.

And

that's what I like, I don't know, that's what week five is like about too in this series is the fact that it's like, sometimes we think the Bible is, if I don't get something from it today, then it didn't do its purpose. And that's not, and if you view everything as something you gain from it, it's like you're missing the entire purpose of just getting close to Jesus, right? Like if I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to go for dinner with Andre tonight. Like I hope that I get something from it. None of us, none of us treat our relationships like that, right? But we treat our relationship with God through his word like that, where it's like, well, I hope I get some wisdom. And it's like,

what

if you don't?

What

if it's, what if you just get closer to Jesus and you understand more about him? Or what if you're like, you know what, I'm going to mull on that and figure out what I'm going to do from now on, but I don't really know what I can directly apply. That's okay.

It's

the, it's the habit of getting into the word every single day. That's going to do you good. That's going to give you wisdom beyond your years to, to give understanding and application way beyond what you can comprehend through the, the discipline and the diligence of just getting into the word, despite not enjoying maybe Monday nights reading, but then loving Tuesday nights reading and then being like, yeah, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was a little bit meh, but Saturday, man, I learned so much on Saturday. And then maybe you go two weeks without learning much, but, but you can say I've been diligent every single day to get in the word, even if it's just for one chapter.

It's like, that is something amazing. And that will lead you to huge

success. I think that is

what we should talk about

is

the, how do I get into the word? Because we know how to read it now. Like you should know how, if you haven't

listened

to the messages, but if you've listened to the messages, like, like what do you do to get into the word? What keeps you coming back? What, what is constantly that fire or that hunger on the inside to be like,

I

need more of this. Or do you even have that? Is that a real thing? I've said this before. I said, do comes before desire. Right. So,

and

we know that we've taught that from, I think it was like a message from Furtick or something a long time ago that he brought

out this due

desire and we, and we were using it for grade 12s, uh, Cedarwood for a long time to understand the will of God. Yep. And I loved that. I love the due desire thing. And, and it, and it's instantly applicable to every single person where it's like you do, then you desire. So yeah, you get into the word

diligently.

If you start,

I

mean, working out is the same thing. It's like, you don't like the first one, maybe the second one, maybe the first week you're not a huge fan of. Then slowly you start to get out of the gym and you, and now on your drive home or maybe on your walk back upstairs, if you have a home gym, you're like, man, that feels pretty good. I'm actually feeling pretty good. And the next morning you wake up a little sore and you're like, I'm like perfectly sore. Like I, it feels like I did a workout. Right. And then you start to desire to work out more. And, and that's the same thing with the word of God.

So I think all of us get stuck in, in, in little things that, um, little, uh, gaps, I guess, where, where we fall off the bandwagon or we stopped, we stopped reading or whatever it might be. Um, but the goal for me is always, I want to make it enjoyable. Like what makes it enjoyable. Right. So in the beginning for me, it's like, okay, like

getting

into a, uh, a translation that's actually,

I can read and understand.

Right. If I can read and understand, it's just way more enjoyable for me. Cause now I'm like, Oh, that's really cool.

And

then there's going to be things that you stop at. You're like, Oh, that's interesting. And then when you're, when you're looking into one verse,

I

just simply have something else open, like a Bible gateway or my Bible or Google or an AI even, and just go like, Hey, what does this mean? How does this work? What, how does this apply to different verses? What's the, what's the word of the new King James uses for the word that NLT decided to use? There are going to be differences and people just think the differences are, are, are scary and the enemy. And it's like, no, I think it's beautiful that we've had people that have translated the Bible into easier to read, um, verses and, and translations so that we can enjoy it. Um, so my, my, my style of reading is different all the time.

I

typically like just

reading

whatever, um, like I like NLT. I've, I say it all the time. So I have an NLT study Bible at home. If everyone asks me what Bible to buy,

I

say, I like the NLT study Bible. You can get them off Amazon, wherever it might be. NIV is fine too. ESV is fine too.

I'm an amplified

guy. CAB amplified.

I

mean, they're all, they're all very good. NIV people have troubles with because there has been certain books of the Bible where they've omitted

verses. Some might

consider it heresy. Yes. And that's fine.

Some.

Yeah. And, and, and that's fine because I, I'm not saying it, uh, I think there's a problem when people are translating and taking verses out. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I, I agree with that. Um, but your relationship with, with Jesus is not going to be hindered because, uh, the Bible is, is, is 99% truth instead of a hundred percent the way that it's written. Like, obviously it's all truth.

It's still a

hundred percent truth. It just might be missing a piece or two. Yeah. Missing a

piece or two. Whoever wrote it,

took it out and find it, go find it. Yeah. And so, and I think, so to answer the question too, it's like, and even the older question that you asked about why people should read their Bibles, it's like,

so

that you know what the truth says. Don't

take

the truth from my mouth, take the truth from the word of God and then allow my messages on a Sunday just to, to further, uh, further deep dive or further instill or secure you in the promises of the word of God. Like that's, that's where, where for me it's like, okay. And that's what I, sometimes I listen to pastors. I'm like, Hmm,

that

sounds a bit odd. Yeah. And sometimes I'm like, Oh, it does say what they said. Oh, that seems to be a pretty good, like

translation

in there or, or, or application they brought into

it.

Or I'm like, Huh, I don't think so. It seems a little odd. And that only comes from our understanding of the word. So I think like, um, step by step, how do we return back to the Bible? We have to regard it as the highest truth. And if it's not the highest truth, then you probably won't care much. Um, but for me, and, and that's what week five is about a little bit more too. Um, is, is about that. It's, it's about understanding the Bible as actual truth and what it means to you and how we get into it and how being led by our emotions isn't very great. And, and, uh, I touch on judges in judges, uh, 20 chapter 21 verse 25, I think it was.

Um,

and at the end of that chapter, it says that the people

started

to do whatever they felt was right or whatever they saw to be right or something like that. And it's basically taught, explain this chaos that happened when people weren't guided by the truth of the word. They were guided by their own feelings and own emotions. And, um, and I unpacked that far more in, in, uh, in, in week five, but, um, that's the biggest thing. So get a study Bible of a translation. You're like, well, what's translation? Go to Bible gateway.com. Like it boggles my mind. Unless you're 80 and you're like, I don't really want to like,

do

technology anymore. That's fine. Okay. Then I'll explain it to you. But most of us know where the, the technology lies to go figure out which translation

Bible

gateway.com. Go read through John on Bible gateway.com. Read through it. Read through chapter one on NKJV. Read through chapter one on NLT. Read through chapter one on amplified. Read through chapter one on ESV. Just read a bunch. And then you'll start to go, this really resonates with me, at least for the time being. Um, and realizing that there might be some things that are a little bit.

That

changed in there to help our understanding. Greek and Hebrew

are

not like English. There is so much depth in one word of one of those languages where the English language tries to translate it into the one word. We can make sense to it, but there's multiple meanings and deep meanings and pictures and imagination you can use. And that's why I say it's important to understand and get into like the root words and Greek words. but for someone to attack the, the, the reading of the Bible through that,

that's

why I say, you know, just get to the gospels. If you don't know the whole story of the Bible, one day you'll read it. But if you haven't fallen in love with Jesus yet, I said this all through week four, just get into the word to fall in love with Jesus, which means you're just going through the gospels. Malachi ends old Testament. Matthew starts the new Testament and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all eyewitness accounts about Jesus's life told through very similar stories, but different vantage points, which I think is really cool. And you have John, which I, again, I discussed in week four. Um, he doesn't tell you, uh, about what Jesus did. He tells you who he was through what he did.

And I think that's really beautiful too. So if you don't have a love for Jesus, you just say, I love Jesus. But if you don't like really love Jesus, start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

over and over

and over and over again. Yeah. I mean, you might know him, but

because

once you fall in love with

Jesus, the rest of the

Bible becomes much easier to understand because you realize everything points to him. That's what he says. Is it Matthew 25 or 24? He says to the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders of that time, like you, you read, you memorize, you've, you, you teach the Bible and you miss who it's pointing towards,

which is

unbelievable. But

you

still don't see. Yeah.

And I'm right here.

Yeah. That's, that's, that's my 20 minute answer

to

your question. But yeah, yeah, no, I think I was like, you know what?

This

guy's got some thoughts. Um, yeah, I, I completely agree. I think

sometimes I

think that we fall into this thing where we feel like we have to desire something in order to do it. And like you said, first you got to do it, then you're going to desire it.

But

even beyond that,

are

you willing to do something that you naturally don't desire that you know is going to benefit you? Like the word is going to completely benefit you. If you truly believe that it's the truth, if you think it's the word of God, I'm sorry, but you're an idiot not to read it. Like that's ridiculous. Right. Um,

I

was an idiot yesterday then. Well, I think there's some days where I am an idiot and I don't read it.

Yeah.

A hundred percent. Easier said than done, but for sure I get what you're saying. Yeah. But like in that same way, I don't know for me, I, I'm now

for,

for the last little while, like

I

will sacrifice a lot to make sure that I have my Bible reading time and

I get it.

I'm in a stage of life that's very,

I

don't know if easy is the right word, but easy.

I don't think

you need to justify with that. Cause I think everyone says that. And I get really annoyed when people say, yeah, but you haven't had kids yet. Yeah. But you have,

well,

that's the thing.

I don't have kids. I'm just

like, Oh, let's just keep making reasons as to why someone is, it's easier for them. No, it's a discipline. Everyone has the same amount of hours of every single day and we all prior to prioritize it differently. And we all, if I told you to write down your entire day on a Saturday, you'd show me what you prioritize.

Right.

Like a hundred percent. So, so yeah, exactly that. Prioritize the word.

But seriously, what

boggles my mind. And I touched on this in week five is the fact that if you just, if you just exercise the muscle of reading the word and not go into the word thinking that it's always, it always needs to give you something, you'll get a lot more from the word, not expecting to get something every single time. Now, don't take me off in the ditch. I'm not saying don't expect greatness from God's word. Absolutely expect what it says to be true and you can apply it and change your life. I'm just saying,

I

don't hang out with someone like I've already said to you

to

benefit from them. I hang out with someone because I appreciate them. I love them.

I

want to get to know them more and we have a good time. Not because I'm like, I hope I get something from tonight. So if we treat the word of God, like we treat every other friendship, just get into it. And if it's 15 minutes you can give to every day, I bet you every single person listening here can give 15 minutes to read in the Bible at some point in their day. Some point. A

hundred percent. my kids,

then get up before your kids. Well, it's seven 30, get up at seven. Well, it's six 30, get up at six.

Get

up at three. I'm just saying 15 minutes for the truth of the word of God to transform not

only your life, but your kids life.

I know it isn't. How do we make this important? How do we make,

we can't.

Yeah.

And

that's, ain't that the truth?

It's

like, I

can preach

the word and I've had people coming to me after, after, after the series.

And

I look at them like, are you even listening to the series that we're on? Like, and I don't say that rudely, but I'm just like, you weren't listening to the message. Legitimately not even a little bit. And I'm just like, you're, yeah. Hey, we're here for you. Of course we are. And of course we're always going to show up and always going to preach. But at the end of the

day,

I can't control what, whether people take notes or, or not. Right. So

it just gets

difficult.

The

world, the word will change your life.

It

changed mine. I know it to be true.

I

just don't think, uh,

I

don't know. Maybe the, the change, I think sometimes is something that people don't,

they

think it's minuscule or that it's like not a big thing, but it's like a really big thing. It's like the way,

so

we talk about feelings. It'll play into the way that you feel mentally. It'll play into your mentality. Um, in the physical work that you do, it'll play into that. Like literally everything. I notice a complete change.

And

again, when you don't read the word here and there, because I don't know, there's no good excuse, but you're an idiot, I guess. Um,

when

you're still consistently getting into it all the time,

because

that's been something for me for so many years, I was so inconsistent. It would be like on fire for a week. And then a month of

maybe

once a week, or like, maybe I read the verse of the day and it's cool. And I don't want to make reading scripture into a thing that you have to do every day to check it off your list, because that's also the wrong attitude because I've done that many times as well. And it doesn't last very long,

but

almost bringing it back to like your first message, when you talked about the fact that the word is like almost one, it's one big story. It's all a part of the same thing.

It

was almost too daunting for me to start reading.

Like it

seemed like my goodness, there's so much here that that doesn't make sense for me to read. I might as well just look it up on chat GPT and look for the promises that I'm looking for and cool. Yeah, that can help you, but never let that replace your like physical Bible reading time. And I'm the kind of person that I will tell people

you

have to have a physical Bible. I

think

if

you

have a digital Bible, you're just setting yourself up for failure. Cause I had one of those for many, many years and I sucked at it because

it

was like two minutes on the Bible app and then you get a notification, whatever. But, um, the transformation that you will experience,

it

cannot be explained. Like we can try to explain it. It lacks like everything that I'm saying doesn't sound that

deep, but

it's a revelation that you will eventually have. And when you have it, you're not really going to be able to explain it to many other people, but it's going to change your life.

And

that's, that's it. That's why I need the word. Yeah. I think, um, if, uh, if someone wants to get into Bible reading right now and they're like, where do I start? Pick up a physical, a physical Bible. If I can push you to do one, find a translation you like and get a study version of it. That's it. What a study version means. It means there's footnotes on the bottom of every single page where if you read something that goes, what does that mean? There's some commentary based on some pretty amazing theologians that will give you a lot more understanding of what this means. secondly, don't like, like

it's

not, it's not a check mark you need, but schedule it in. Like what helps me is, is, is what, what does tomorrow look like? I'm going to get up at five 30 or six or whatever it might be. and I'm going to open my Bible at six 30. That means before that I want to make myself a coffee, make it fun, make it enjoyable. Well, Zach, I work at six 30. Then, then like, you're just looking for excuses at this point. Whatever time works for you, do it. So get yourself a coffee, a tea, a whatever it is, a Coca-Cola in the morning. No, I'm just kidding. Don't do that. That won't leave you anywhere. Um, it's pretty much coffee. Yeah.

So it's like getting the word, get a physical Bible, order it off Amazon, whatever it might be, or go to your book, your, your bookstore in the city.

Yeah.

get a study version of the Bible. If you don't, if you don't really know who Jesus is yet, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over and over and over again. You can't read those four, those four books enough because every time you read it, you will further your understanding on God, further your love on Jesus and understand what the entire Bible points towards, which is Jesus. Right? So you are reading the middle of the story, which sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but

it's

nice to know them. It's like almost like seeing a trailer. Like I don't like watching movies that I have never seen a trailer for, you know, I just don't like it. I'm like, I have no idea what this movie is about. Nothing. I have no idea. Like, what is this about? Is this, is this an action? Is this a comedy? Is this a, is this a drama? I don't know. Right. So I like, so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it's kind of, it's kind of like the trailer for, for everything that's going on. And it gives you a little more. There's some spoilers in there, obviously. Um,

but then it's

the beginning of Jesus's life.

It's not

like we're starting with the crucifixion.

No, it's

the whole thing. Yeah. But so read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And then if you want to focus on one, read John over and over again, because I just liked the depiction that John gives of his very beloved friend, Jesus of, of who that is. I love it. Exactly. Um, and so I think that's really good and it's not hard. And then just get up every day, bring that Bible with you, put it in

your

truck, put it in your car, have it with you so that bring it with you. There's times that you're waiting all the time that you can get 10 minutes of Bible reading if you really want

to.

Like we, we, we scroll for days and don't get me started on that. I have a whole new series coming up right away here, which

I

should probably tell our media team because they've been asking me for it, but I just figured it out yesterday night. So it's okay. Um, all about that and all about the

tree

of, of, of the knowledge of good and evil and, and, and, and, and the capacity that, that God did not give us to, to handle that information,

but

how we get the knowledge of good and evil every single day while we scroll all the time. Right. And so it's like, there's a lot of different things in there that even go. So instead of scrolling for 10 minutes, open your Bible in your truck for 10 minutes for five minutes. Well, what would

I

read? Just read John chapter one. You know, well, I don't know what to read. Go to John, go to John, default to John. I don't care. Like just go somewhere. Right. Once you finish John,

read

it again or read something else. See, for me, I'm somebody that I totally understand why people like why we preach the gospel and read the gospels a thousand percent. So important.

Um,

but the word came alive to me almost after the gospels. It was like after I understood Jesus.

Yeah.

Then you read

all

the rest of it. Like you read acts great full of stories. And then you get to Romans and you get to like all of Paul's letters

and

do like it is literally,

it

is so relevant. Like I had this,

this

thing where I just thought the Bible wasn't relevant. It's incredibly relevant. Like

you

will realize that the truth that is in there is the truth that you needed this entire time, but you just didn't know it. And you didn't know it because you were ignorant to the fact that you couldn't wake up early enough for, you know, instead of scrolling on your phone, open up the word of God and let it absolutely

destroy

your life and rebuild something that you actually want to be

in. but

yeah. Oh yeah. And the epistles is great. Paul's awesome. I love Paul. And I like,

that's what I read a lot

now is, is the epistles. Same. Um,

but if

someone's asking, where do I start?

I would never say the epistles. Yeah.

If you're brand new, you got to understand the gospels.

Oh

yeah. You got to fall in love with the man himself. I don't want to fall in love with Paul. I want to fall in Jesus. You know what

I

mean? And Paul

makes

it pretty hard for you to fall in love with him because he does push to Jesus a lot. If you don't love Jesus, you're going to hate Paul.

exactly.

So it's like, it's good for us to get into, into the gospels. I just, the gospels is what saves the gospels, the

truth. Like that's, that's where I

always, always push because yeah, people can, don't go to revelation. Don't go to, that

should be the last book that you read.

Yeah. And then even when you read it, like don't focus on interpreting everything that you read, just get through it and see what the, start to see like just how it all flows together and like, just, just understand the reading of the book before you try to interpret all these little things that are going

on in

the book.

But it's like,

finish the gospels. Then you go to like Romans. Holy smokes. You're gonna be set free, like grace and all of that. It's like for you not to understand that. Well, Paul kind

of explains

the gospels basically pretty much. He's

just going in depth. Yeah.

Yeah. He's just like, don't forget what Jesus did. Don't forget when this happened. And don't forget the grace that he brought. And so it's, it's great in that sense. But yeah. So, so if, if epistles are always going back, like everything's pointing forward or pointing back to what Jesus did.

Right.

So it's

like,

let's get to Jesus and then go into that. And then old Testament, you can get by a long time without reading it. Honestly, you do have to read it.

I'm going to say that. I'm not saying you should

just ignore it because that's just the stupidest thing you could do, but get to know Jesus first. And then you can tackle old Testament, and understand the story and God's goodness and God's blessings. And, and you can understand what Jesus saved us from. And there's so much. And reading the new Testament is like,

it's

like reading a chapter book. It's not that long. Like when you look at a Bible, you think like, Holy smokes. And then you realize what all the new Testament is. And it's like

maybe

a quarter, maybe a quarter. And like, and

it might, it

might depend on, it might depend on.

I feel like there's

44 books in an old Testament, right?

Yeah.

Is it 44? I don't know the exact word, the exact number, but which would mean that, that that would put you at almost a quarter. Right. But

it's how long

are the books though? True. Right. So then like,

like

you're reading through Philippians, baby.

What do you got? Like

five,

six pages. Second

Timothy is two pages.

Like

these books aren't very long. And the amount of truth and freedom that you will find in them is insane. Like

I was reading

second Timothy this morning,

read

the whole book and it was just

such

a great way to start the day. Like,

yeah,

yeah, I don't know. I just think there's a part of it that we, we don't fully realize almost how easy it is and how much,

yeah,

like there's a lot of truth out there, but the new Testament's not that long and you could fully read it in a year. Easily, easily the whole Bible in a year. That's kind of tough. You're doing a lot of reading. You can still do it, but new Testament

done.

I think what needs to also be said is the fact that people are, they, they, the teaching they gather from social media sometimes is, is,

is

more than they put a lot of weight on it. Like you're like, you'll see, they'll see like this trendy little reel with like some good, some good background music and like some profound statement about one line taking out of the Bible and what this means. And they'll go, wow, that's really

cool. They'll base

their faith on it.

Yeah. And

it's like that, but that's not even what that means. And that's why another reason to go back to why you read the words that, so that you're not swept off your feet when the enemy's using a person to, to depict a wrong picture of the Bible. Right. That seems so amazing to you at the time. But in reality, if you read the word, you'll go, that doesn't seem very right. Or that doesn't seem the way that it should go. There's lots of social media stuff that, that helps and it's cool and it's awesome, but people use it.

And, and I've talked to a lot of people and answered a lot of questions of people that are completely confused because one simple seven second reel that that came up on their Instagram where they're like, oh, this is kind of cool. Wow. I never thought about it that way. And it's like, okay, great. But you have to understand people either are trying to get views

and

let's just pretend they are genuine and everything's genuine about what they're trying to push. And it's God's word.

A

lot of the time people are, are also giving what they feel this verse to mean. And they could be way off because they're in their own understanding of the word, right? Their, their own, their own journey of what this actually means. And that's why it's so incredibly important to attach yourself to a local church and, and, and get under teaching that you feel is biblical and, and strong. And that's why I'm like, just get into the word. And then, and then you'll start to see like, uh, it's the typical, everyone always says this. How do you, uh, a guy a long time ago said, how do you, um, how do you know counterfeit money? Right. And he said, I studied the real thing.

I studied the real thing so much that the second the counterfeit came up, I knew it was a counterfeit. Same thing with the word of God. There's a lot of counterfeits in preaching, in teachers, in, in Instagram, in Tik TOK. There's a lot of counterfeit versions of the word. So if you don't actually read and study the word, you'll never know what's a counterfeit. What's the truth. That's a bar right there.

I'm just saying that.

And again, I guess I'm answering for the last 30 minutes, different lines about the fact of, of why we should read the word. There's so many reasons why we should read the word, right? Like if it's the truth and it'll set me free, then I am better. You better believe I'm going to the book to get that truth. That's going to set me

free by the

book. Yeah. I'm not going to hear it from you and just apply it. I want to hear it from the word of God. Yeah.

For you will know

the truth and the truth will set you free. You still got to know the truth. Yep. And

yeah,

I think sometimes we live in fantasy land that we know what we believe and we absolutely do not know what we believe. And

I think as

you get to know what you believe,

when

it comes to Christianity, slowly you begin to understand the depth of what you believe and you will go down a rabbit hole.

Like

you'll, you'll never be able to walk away from it. Like it, it is

Christianity

and faith in the Bible has

hit

me in such a deep way

that

everything I do in my life

reflects

it. Like I can't not,

I

can't live any other way because it's the way

right.

And just,

and,

and I don't know. I, I feel like for a long time I wasn't there and I heard people say stuff like that. And I was like,

that

sounds really cool and really good, but what am I missing? I was missing the word.

Well,

it's Jesus as salvation. It's Jesus as savior versus Jesus as Lord. Yeah. I think it's really good to bring in Jesus as savior. That's the, the whole basis of what we believe in. What does that mean? It means that Jesus came, was sent by God because he loved the world so much to die on a cross for us that we would forever be in right standing with God that one day we'd get to heaven. Um, and that our sins will are forgiven, that we have grace that covers us for when we do sin again, which happens daily for most people. And if you think that you're higher than thou, you ain't. Yeah, you really aren't. Um,

and

that's the salvation promise. And that's Jesus as savior. And Jesus as savior is a very beautiful man.

And,

and, and at the very least you need to know Jesus as savior. Yeah. I mean, now the Jesus is Lord part that comes when you start to read epistles and Paul and these different things that show you how to live in the world that we live in as now a righteous believer. You know what

I

mean? Not deserving of it, but given because of grace. And now you learn to submit to Jesus as Lord, not just as savior. Savior is great. You're going to heaven. You believe in Jesus. And that's a,

that's

the biggest, one of the biggest

things.

That is the

biggest. Yeah. So

it's, it's, it's important to know that. But then at the other side, it's very important to, to know that

your

life in this fallen world

can

be made much better when you submit to Jesus, not only as savior, but also as Lord. Yes. That's what changes everything. Any other questions before we end it?

Trying

to make sure we got through

it all. Let me just

make sure I got through my, my big ones. Um,

it's

funny cause we answered a bunch of them just within. Yeah. I figured it would because it's just, and that's like the crazy thing is I could have done 10 weeks

like

pretty easily.

Probably

do every week.

Every

week is a little bit of a how to read your Bible, but I wanted something that people could,

yeah,

could push people back to. Okay. I thought that this, this isn't a question. It's just a thought that you had and you can expand on it if you want to.

Um,

but the Bible is not self help.

It

transforms the heart.

Yeah.

And grace doesn't just forgive.

It

changes. Yeah.

Um,

what do you want to know about that? Nothing. I just thought that that was incredibly good.

And I was

just like, yeah.

So

the best story is week four that, that, that can go back to week four message that that is the best description of how grace can change you. It's the story of the adulterous woman. Um, and I could tell that because when I finished telling that story, you could tell everyone understood now what we meant by when we said grace gives you the power to change. Right. Like, and that was, that's what I kind of, I kind of like knowingly did the whole, like that adulterous woman didn't walk away and go, I'm going to go commit adultery again. Right. There's no way she felt that way. There's no

way

the grace that Jesus just showed her literally made her go. I need to change. She should have been dead. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And, uh, what was the first thing you read? Um, the Bible is not self help. Yeah. And, and that's, and that just goes back to what I was saying before, where it's like, if you're always looking like we buy self help books right now to get help on something right. Every time we open it, we read it, we're expecting to be helped by something.

Yep.

And if we apply the self help book, um, uh, strategy of reading to God's word, then we will stop reading it. The moment we get to a scripture that we feel it doesn't help us in the moment. But a lot of, a lot of what scripture does is get something in you that Holy Spirit can bring back out of you when the time's right. So if it's not in you, it's, it's difficult for the Holy Spirit to bring something back out of you. So that's why I'm saying just read. And if you go through a chapter going, Oh, that's a tough one. That was a hard one. Well, at least you know the story. You might not fully understand what, what is meant behind that story, but you know it now.

And now Holy Spirit will work in wisdom and strength and application in your life. Like you got to view your, your Bible reading as now till dead. You know what

I

mean? Like what are you going to do now till dead? Like, that's crazy. You know what

I

mean? And I, my now till dead is much better when I have some type of basis of the word of God that I can apply to my life and I can, it can lead me to where to, to all truth. The Bible says, um, and, and it also helps us like act like Christians. That's a goodness of God that leads me to repentance. Not, not the judgment of man, not the, like it's, it's beautiful that way too. So for me, it's definitely, if you view it like a self-help book at, it might work, it might work good in the beginning when you get a self-help book, like when you, when you read through a,

a

proverbs and you're like, wow, this is really helping me. Yes, it will. Absolutely. But then when you get to like Job, it's going to be a hard for a self-help book. You know what

I

mean? And then when you get to whatever else, you might even get to acts.

It'll transform your

life if you let it.

But

if you just look

to

get, get, get, get, get, it's, it's the wrong way to do it. Get the word in you every single day. Stop looking at what you get from it and realize that you will get something from it. But, but going in with that heart posture kind of sets you up for failure. It just goes back to the, the, the typical North Americans consumerism mentality. What am I going to get from reading the Bible? And it's like, we have, we can't, we can't view it that way. It's, it's, it's not going to help you if, if, if, if that's the case. And it will, it will help you. like the, the, the, the word of God has a, an incredible way, obviously. And, and I've heard stories of people that are like,

they,

they read it as an atheist trying to prove it wrong. And the, and the,

and they,

and they turn into a Christian, right? Like you hear stories all this all the time. So obviously the power of God reading it in any, in any place with any heart posture has the ability to change you because it's the truth. But I just think that if you can go in there with a heart posture of like, I just want to get to know Jesus more. And I just want to get to know my savior and my Lord.

It

will set you up for success. And it'll also build a desire within you to get to know him more every single day. And then one day you'll look back when you're like 80 and you'll be like, wow, I'm so glad that I started five years ago. I'm so glad that I started a hundred years ago, 50 years ago, 30 years ago, whatever it is. Right. Because the best day to start is today, whether you're 75 or whether you're 15, like it doesn't matter. So

anyways,

I think that that should wrap it up. Hey, you good.

Okay.

We're done. Well, thank you everyone for, for tuning into this episode of forged. I hope you guys enjoyed it. We just, it's just chatting. It's just chilling. It's just, uh, going deeper on some of the things that we've been talking about for the last, uh, five weeks now on the,

how

to read your Bible. So like I said, your support, um, helps us with it within this podcast. So make sure, send it like directly texted to someone right now. That's on your mind. Like this episode, uh, subscribe to it.

If

you haven't already subscribed to it, share it on your social medias, on your stories, um, follow us everywhere that we can, because this is what we're, we're, we're here to just glorify God and, and here to grow in our understanding, um, and be forged legitimately by the word of God. And so that's what we're going to keep doing every single day, every single episode. And so do that for me. That would be so incredibly important if you did. Um, and apart from that, we will see you here next episode, pray God's blessing and favor on all that you do. And, uh, we'll see you here soon again. See you later. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.