Rich Tozour: We’re going to go tonight to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. How many of you have ever made a New Year’s resolution?

Anybody ever make one? Okay. How many of you have made a resolution, I will never make a resolution again?

Have any of you kept this year’s New Year’s resolutions? Anybody kept one? The people that said, I vow to make to eat more chocolate.

Okay, they probably kept it. But interesting, most New Year’s resolutions typically center on two areas, especially among Americans. What things do you think of with New Year’s resolutions?

Weight, yeah. So typically diet and exercise. We’re going to talk about diet and exercise tonight, but not the kind you thought about during New Year’s.

Spiritually, let’s go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy 4. I want to pick up, let me read verse 1 to get initial context here.

I want to go verses 4 through 9, or 6 through 9 tonight, but let me get verse 1 as some context. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, That in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Okay, so we know we’re living in such days.

Drop down to verse 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Now let me just pause on the idea of remembrance.

You’ll find in remembrance often in the scriptures. In fact, 2 Peter 1, you’ll see the expression, in remembrance, in remembrance, in remembrance, repeatedly in the latter part of 1 Peter 1. Here Paul uses the expression, in remembrance.

You’re probably not going to hear anything new this week. Well, you’d figure after I’ve been here 10 years, what new thing is there to preach? If I were my first time ever here, there’s nothing new under the sun.

But you know, so much of what we hear in preaching is putting us in remembrance. He said, if you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister, a good servant of Jesus Christ. Notice this expression, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

I circled the expression nourished up, okay? Nourished up, fed up. Then notice verse 7, but refuse profane and old wives’ fables and exercise thyself.

I circled that expression, exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

I want to give you a message I’ve entitled, Daily Disciplines. Daily Disciplines, the key to being a disciple. The word discipline, our English word discipline, actually comes from the term, or I’m sorry, the word disciple comes from the term discipline.

And discipline has to do with routine or regular, Okay? Habitual. When I was a high school kid, I went to a conference with a preacher that everybody knew at the time.

Well, well-known preacher. And he said, there were about 5,000 people at this conference. And he said this, nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life.

Nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life. Now, I’m going to say somebody’s name. You tell me what dominates his or her life.

Okay? Michael Phelps. Swimming.

Michelangelo, painting. Hope Solo, soccer, some of you would know. Okay.

I was going to say Hillary Clinton, but we could go a lot of ways there. If I name the person, you think of, okay, this is something that they’re known for because it’s a daily part of their life. You know, I have painted on occasion, but I’m not a painter.

I built with my dad, but I was no builder. My dad was a builder. I worked for him.

But whatever you do daily, that’s what dominates your life. Okay? What about as a Christian?

When I was in high school, I remember hearing in some cultures, it is against the law to practice Christianity, to read the Bible even personally, to disciple, try to reach others with the gospel. Now think about this. If you lived in a culture where it were illegal to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Pretty powerful thought. If you lived in a culture where it’s illegal to be a Christian, Would there be enough evidence to convict you? What you say, the authority says, well, on what basis do you defy our laws?

Well, we ought to obey God rather than men. Where do you get that from? Well, the Bible.

So you’d say the Bible is your authority. Yes. Have you ever read the Bible?

Have you read it all the way through? That’s a compelling thought. We claim the Bible is our authority.

Have you ever read the entire thing? I’m not suggesting in one setting, but have you ever taken a year or so to read through your Bible? Have you ever read it?

Cover to cover. You say the Bible is your authority. How often do you read it?

Well, I go to church. But is it just something the pastor preaches, or it’s something that you embrace daily? So how do we become disciplined in the things of God?

Well, let’s take a look. Verse 6 again, be nourished up in the words of faith. So I wrote down, get proper nourishment.

Really, two key areas here. Get proper nourishment. Now, how do we nourish ourselves?

Interesting, the scripture is very clear. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Under Get Nourishment, I wrote down, Read your Bible daily. Read your Bible daily. Let’s go over to Psalm 1 for a minute.

Psalm 1. Many of us know this psalm. I would hope you would know it by memory.

It’s only six verses long. If you want a good scripture memory passage for the month ahead, do Psalm number 1. Verse 1 says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

It is law doth he meditate day and night. I never come here without mentioning meditate is like chew the cud for a cow. Meditate, that’s how I always say it, so I think of it, cow chewing the cud, all right?

We’re not just to devour the word, speed read it. We’re to chew it, break it down, think about it. Okay, he shall meditate therein day and night.

and he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Now notice the word prosper there.

Okay, the man who delights in God’s law, who meditates on it daily is going to prosper. That corresponds to the one place in all the Bible you find the word success. This is nothing new.

Where’s the one scripture that has the word success in our Bible? Anybody know it’s in Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that’s written therein.

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Good success. In fact, we’re in Timothy.

Go back to our text, 1 Timothy 4. I haven’t read down this far yet, but let’s jump ahead. Go to verse 15.

1 Timothy 4, 15. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all.

Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Okay, this is at the end of the passage that’s telling us we’re to get nourished up in the words of faith.

See, I’m going to borrow one of the choir chairs. I brought my bag of supplies tonight. I want to give you some very practical things on how to meditate in God’s Word.

One of the things that has really helped me over the years is I keep a journal. I think I’ve mentioned this before. Every year, I’ll buy some of these.

I guess these books I buy now, they’re off a supply store. These probably cost me $15. Now, I’ve been doing this so long, I want something nice because I write it every day.

It’s got to hold up. You could get a simple composition notebook. I mean, they’re less than a dollar.

Get you some kind of notebook. And the reason I went to notebooks, Jonathan Edwards, who was Princeton University president at one time, he was so used of God in the second great awakening. He said, my father taught me, do your thinking with a pen in hand.

Do your thinking with a pen in hand. So I will open up my notebook each day, and I’ll jot down three things in here when I’m reading the Bible. I have a section called read, then one called reflect, and one called remember.

Read, reflect, and remember. And what I write down is, okay, what chapters of the Bible am I reading? Most years I’m reading through my Bible in the year, so I’ll read about three or four chapters a day.

How many of you have ever read through your Bible on a year program? Anybody done that? Have any of you done it shorter than a year?

Okay. Anybody read through the Bible multiple times in one year? Okay, that’s it.

It’s powerful. Boy, you’re going to glean a lot from doing it. But you can read through your Bible in a year’s time.

It’s going to take about three or four chapters. There are all kinds of plans for that. Some involve just straight reading through.

Some are chronological. The Bible is not set up in chronological order necessarily. It’s set up by topics or by major themes.

So you have the law and then you have the prophets and you have the New Testament. But you can read through it chronologically. Another good way to do it, some will read portions of the Old Testament and then portion of the New Testament plus Proverbs and Psalms.

That’s a good way to do it. One good teenager is, look, if you’re not in the habit of reading the Bible every day, let me give you a very simple practice to start with. Take a chapter of Proverbs and read a chapter of Proverbs every day.

If you take the chapter corresponding to the month, So today’s the 12th. So today I would be reading Proverbs 12. You’ll always know what chapter you’re in.

And get a notebook and jot down some things. So read. I wrote down.

This was January 1st. I wrote down 1-1-17 Sunday, Spring Hill, Florida. I always write where I am because it’s different every year.

And so I wrote down, read Matthew 1 and John 1. And then I wrote this note. I’m reading through the New Testament this year and doing some book studies.

I’ll begin with John. I hope to memorize sections of it. So that was the start of my year.

So read, all right, I wrote Matthew 1 and John 1. And then reflect. And so then I’ll write something down.

Now sometimes it’s just a paragraph. I had two paragraphs here. Matthew 1 and John 1, each of these gospel accounts opens with a declaration of Jesus Christ and an explanation of where he came from.

Matthew starts off with a look at Jesus’ human lineage. Being heavily Jewish in perspective, the converted tax collector, and thereafter one of the 12, shares details showing that Jesus met all of the necessary requirements to be the prophesied Messiah. John focuses on the deity of Christ.

Compare John 20, verses 30 and 31. And he enters into the arena of this subject matter by declaring the eternal existence of Jesus, his equality with the Father, his status as God, and his earthly incarnation. And that’s kind of what got me going on the message I prepared this morning, was focusing on, yeah, John’s whole look is at Jesus’ deity.

And then remember, and I wrote down, we began our new year in Spring Hill, Florida, and pretty much I’m doing a journal entry there, okay? So this is just an idea. I’m not saying, hey, format it after me, but this has helped me for so many years.

I’ve been doing this. Jason, I think I’m getting a little ring, brother. Sorry, in my heart there rings a melody, and in my mic there rings one too.

Thank you. This is a habit I’ve used for years, and it has helped me. One that my pastor gave me might help you is an ABC method for meditating on Scripture.

There’s an A, B, C, A is analyze. So when you read the passage, let’s say Psalm 1. Okay, you can quote it, you can read it, But analyze means go back and chew on it.

That’s where the meditating comes on. Chew on it. Think about it, okay?

You might look up key words. I got thinking, okay, Psalm 1.1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the callous of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

Think about this. He doesn’t walk in the way of the ungodly. He doesn’t stand in the way of sinners.

He doesn’t sit in the seat of the scornful. Usually in our interactions with people, We’re either traveling with them somewhere, or maybe we’re standing out in the hallway talking around the water cooler, like back here or at work, or we’re sitting down with them, we’re having a meal. He doesn’t sit with scoffers.

His time that he spends in enjoyable company or influential company even is not with people that are anti-God. It’s not with people that are mocking God. No, his delight is in the law of the Lord.

In that book, he meditates day and night. Hey, think about this. If you did something day and night, how often would that be?

All the time, right? In fact, I wrote down, and you might want to jot these two down, Matthew 4, 4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And with that, I put down Matthew 9, verse, I’m sorry, Matthew 6, verse 11.

Matthew 6 is the Lord’s model prayer. Matthew 6, 11 says, give us this day our what? Daily bread.

Okay, so how often is daily? Every day. Now that context gives us our daily bread.

It’s talking about physical food. How many of you eat at least two meals a day? Would you hold up your hand?

How many of you eat three meals a day? Okay. How many of you, like me, like to graze all through the day?

Okay, three meals plus whatever else I can squeeze in there. Hey, all right, ladies are telling it too. I like that.

All right. Yeah, I’m kind of a grazer, so I don’t eat necessarily a huge portion at once sometimes. But a lot of times I just eat my one plate, but then I’m grazing throughout the day.

Man, I don’t know. just burning energy all the time. Well, think about it.

If your body needs physical food every day, how much more do you need spiritual food every day? Here’s another good reference. Job 23, verse 12.

I’ve esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. I’ve esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. That’s not the in-between meal snacks now.

That’s just what’s sufficient to keep you alive. All right, so having a notebook. A is analyzed.

B is best verse. Best verse. So in Psalm 1, man, it’d be hard to pick out a best verse.

If I had to isolate one, I’d probably pick verse 2. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and His law doth He meditate day and night. A lot of good verses there, but if I’m singling out one verse, and a lot of times the reason for picking out the best verses, that’d be a good one to memorize.

If you didn’t memorize all six of those verses, that’d be a good one to memorize. And then C stands for commit. What will you commit to do based on what you’ve read?

Okay, so, Baron, let me put you on the spot. If I’m reading Psalm 1, would you mind opening up to Psalm 1 for a minute? Psalm 1 there.

And I’m meditating on Psalm 1. What are, and I’ve pretty much been touching on it, but what are some key practices or a key practice you would come out of that Psalm with? What do you think God might have you commit to do based on that?

Okay, so one is delight in it. Yeah. What’s it mean to delight?

Yeah, right. You can delight in one person so much you decide to marry him. You did that, didn’t you?

Yeah, so Lisa’s glad. And so you say, she is the one person for me. I’m choosing her to the exclusion of others.

Well, you know, to delight in the Lord is saying, I put him in the preeminent place in my life. And the man who delights in God’s word, see, that’s the key. If you delight in God, you’re also going to delight in his word.

Angela played a new offertory tonight. I was enjoying my wife’s piano playing. Angela always plays with heart.

This is just personal commentary. but I’m sitting over here thinking, yeah, boy, that was good. I really liked that.

Well, I don’t just delight in Angela as a performer. She’s my spouse. She’s my wife.

And one of the keys of being husband and wife is we talk. We communicate. And, you know, I’m a typical guy.

Give me the headlines. And Angela likes the fine print. She likes all the details.

And so typically she talks. I listen. You know how that goes.

But she wants me to open up. And I’m a pretty open person. But you have to work at communication in marriage.

Do you work at it with your walk with God? How much time do you spend talking to Him?

how much time do you listen to him so read the scripture daily nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life just think about that nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life so get nourishment read your bible every day then i wrote down memorize god’s word memorize god’s word psalm 119 verse 11 thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee.

Proverbs 3 verse 1, my son forget not my law but let thine heart keep my commandments. John 15 7, 15 7, if you abide in me my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. You know one of the keys to getting answers to prayer?

Getting God’s word abundantly hidden in your heart. So why seems like I pray and I’m not getting anywhere. One of the keys is to know that you’re praying in line with the will of God.

How do you know the will of God? You got to spend time in the word of God. So John 15, 7, if you abide in me, my words abide in you.

Ask what you will, it’ll be done unto you. Colossians 3, 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Pull some more stuff out of my little bag over here.

I recently was out at West Coast Baptist College and I was, no, no, I’m sorry, this I picked up at a camp. Yeah, I was at camp, I think it was at Camp Kobiak up in Michigan. And I saw this book, Scripture Memorization, sitting on the shelf.

And it was co-authored by John Goetsch. Oh, Charlie Hatchett. This was Camp Joy.

Okay, Camp Joy in Wisconsin. Not when I was there recently, but last year. And John Goetsch is an evangelist.

How many of you have ever heard John Goetsch preach? Brother John Goetsch knows scripture by volumes. The man is a walking Bible.

Some of you’ve heard Ron Comfort preach. Dr. Comfort knows scripture volumes.

Brother Goetsch works at it about 45 minutes a day.

So he has a little book here on scripture memory which was really helpful to me uh i i preach on the topic of scripture memory and he said you know there are really he points out here i thought this really good there are really several levels to hearing god’s word to memorizing god’s word.

First level is hearing like with sermons second level is reading that’s when you get into it yourself third level is study fourth level is memorization fifth level is meditation huh all right think about those levels okay first level is hearing okay you come to church and you Now, that’s like introductory level.

Most of you wouldn’t be satisfied to live in first and second grade the rest of your life, right? You want to get through grade school. Well, the next level is reading.

Okay, so that’s like getting third, fourth grade. You get to the reading level. You start to spend time with God.

Third level, study. And really, from later elementary years into your junior high years, you really are getting prepped to study. By high school, you’ve got to figure out, okay, how am I going to study?

When you go to college, it really shows up quickly whether you’ve learned how to study. Then there’s the next level, fourth level is memorization, memorizing. It’s amazing to me how many of us, I should say how few of us, memorize Scripture.

You know, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? How are you going to keep a clean life? No telling how many times somebody comes to a pastor and says, I’m really having a struggle with sin.

Man, our marriage is under attack and I am having such a hard time controlling my thoughts. You know, one of my first questions to you would be, are you memorizing Scripture? It’s almost like we consider that a bonus discipline.

You know, if you memorize scripture, you must be a super Christian. Let me tell you, if you don’t memorize scripture, you are a disarmed Christian. The Bible says, take unto you the whole arm of God.

And I know what some of you are thinking, Rich, I’m not real good at memorizing. No, in fact, I’m telling you, I’m finding it harder. You heard one of my resolutions this year was to work on at least good sections of the book of John.

I got John 1, 1 through 14 down easy. I knew that pretty well. So I breathed through John 1 through 14.

But I’ll tell you, from 15 on down to verse 28, I’ve been working on that since the start of the year. We’re now the middle of March, and I’m still working on John 1, 15 through 28. You know why?

Because I’m getting older. It’s just not as easy now. And you know, one of the things I find with memory, go over it and over it and over it.

Two weeks ago, we were in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Emmanuel Baptist Church, and a couple of my acquaintances from college, one of my former floor-leading partners is there, Joan and Wes Parker. Wes was my floor-leaning partner. His wife, Joan, was a nursing major in college.

Very joyful couple. And what do they have? Eight or nine kids.

They have a busy life. And we were talking and she said, hey, do you remember so-and-so in college? And I, yeah.

She said, you know, when we were in school, we three, my husband-to-be and he and I made a pact that we would memorize a verse of scripture every day. Every day. And she said, it seemed so easy back then.

She said, I was relating to what you talked about tonight. Memorizing scripture is not nearly as easy as it used to be. You know, I’ve been doing this for a long time.

A verse a day. You know what I find most of my time spent on now? Review.

Review, review, review, review, review. That’s okay. Brother Goetsch, in this little book that he prepared, has a stack of cards on various topics.

And he always likes to memorize by topics. In fact, a lot of people like to do that. They’ll memorize four or five verses on a given topic.

Rand Hummel at the Wilds has some books called Five Smooth Stones. So any of you kids go to the wilds for camp, you can pick up one of the, or order it off their website. And he gives you five scriptures dealing with any area, any number of topics.

Jerry Savinsky has one called the Two-Edged Sword Memory Plan. And he uses a packet of cards. I’ve used that before.

Some of you may have heard of J.O. Grooms. He has the treasure path to soul winning.

And he uses cards like this. The Navigators, for years people use the Navigators for memorizing scripture. You know, I find this can be a good system.

Now, John Gutch is the type of guy, he’ll have a whole briefcase full of cards, and he likes to walk the hotel, and he’ll audibilize it. He’ll say it out loud. There is some benefit to that.

He says, you know, there’s something about memorizing in cadence with your Scripture. It is interesting that a lot of teaching that Jesus did to his disciples was in transit, was when they were on the move. If you read, they went from this place to that place, and while you’re reading, they went from here to there.

He’s teaching them. And they spend a lot, that’s a good time. The Bible talks about teaching the word when you lie in your house, when you rise up, when you walk by the way, when you sit down.

Something about, you know, even family conversations in the vehicle. Or we were out on a hike the other day. And good opportunities to teach.

Yesterday we’re coming back from our soul winning time. And the Lord prompted me to say to the boys, hey, good job for going out there and giving out these scriptures. I hope you’ll be doing this when you’re older.

I hope you’ll be sharing the gospel. Just looked at a couple of verses and we prayed that God would work in the hearts. There are good teachable moments all throughout the day, but one of the keys is getting Scripture in your own heart so you can share this with others.

So memorize Scripture. I have found I’m not the real rigid, always have my cards with me kind of person. That was true when I was in college.

But nowadays, most of my memory is right at night before I go to bed. And it is a powerful thing, the last thing before you put your head on the pillow, to go over Scripture. And I try to work on it about five minutes a day.

I mean, it’s not like I start the clock and go, okay, click, click, click, click, click. But I spend about five minutes and try to go over, and typically I’ll read through a section of Scripture, maybe three, four times, and try to burn it in my brain. But memorize Scripture.

Okay, how do you get nourished up? If I were to talk to you about diets, we could talk about the Atkins diet or the South Beach diet or whatever. Okay, we’re talking spiritually.

How do you do it? Read something from God’s Word every day. Memorize God’s Word.

So meditation, memorization. Also, pray every day. Pray every day.

Jeremiah 33, 3, call unto me, I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Luke 18, verse 1, Jesus spake a parable to this end. In other words, with this end in mind, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4, I will therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth.

That’s a really good one you ought to jot that down if you didn’t 1st Timothy 2 1 through 4 he says pray for all men and the reason he says because he wants all men to be saved.

How many of you have ever seen somebody trust Christ for whom you had prayed a long time anybody They see somebody in your family or your realm got saved after you prayed a long time.

Yeah. And you know what? Sometimes it takes decades.

And I’ve shared this story many times here. George Mueller. George Mueller had a people on his list, five people he prayed for every day.

And the first one got saved within a year and a half. And the next one, it took like five years down the road. And the third one, it was like another six years.

So in the first 13 or so years, he’d seen half his list of five come to Christ. But he kept going and going and going. There are two more that didn’t get saved.

36 years into it, he wrote in his journal, well, the remaining two aren’t converted yet, but they will be. And he kept praying. Shortly before he died, A.T.

Pearson, who was a good friend of his, said, George, have you ever asked God something that he didn’t answer? He said, yes. He said, in fact, I’ve got two acquaintances I’ve been praying for for 60 years to be saved.

I think it was 62 years. And he said, not only have they not been converted, but they show no interest in being. Pearson said, do you expect God will convert them?

He said, certainly. Do you think God would lay in the heart of one of his children to pray for somebody if he had no intention of their conversion? And he kept praying.

Not long after that, Mueller died. A.T. Pearson was preaching in Mueller’s pulpit in Bristol, England.

He mentioned this conversation he’d had with George Mueller. A woman came to him and said, one of those two that you mentioned was my uncle. He’s a friend of Mueller.

He got saved after Mueller died. The other was a fellow from Dublin, Ireland, also got saved after Mueller died. It had been over 62 years.

He had prayed every day and every one of them finally came to Christ. Look, let’s not be weary in well-doing. In due season, we shall reap if we faint not.

Prayer is absolutely essential. Now, this is old hat, so forgive me those of you that have known of this little system I use, but for years, I have used a system of praying for people. And Farron, I’ll use you.

I was telling you today that I was praying for you. One of the areas that God worked in my heart is to pray for people in business. I appreciate people like Farron.

Chris Johnson’s on my list here too. People who have the business specifically to make Christ known, to honor him with their means and with the message. So I told Farron last time, I’m gonna pray for you.

I’ve got a list of, I don’t know, 12, 15 business people that I try to pray for every day. So here it is, businessmen. You’re right in the middle there, Farron.

Farron Moss, you’re above. Darren Wiggins, friend of mine in North Carolina, owns a Chick-fil-A who’s very philanthropic. Another guy named Tony Cates that I met down in Florida.

He’s got a heating, air conditioning business, and he’s super evangelistic in this. And Chris, you’re on the page before that here. And I know you’re all going to come and ask if you can be on my page.

Yeah, I’ll pray about it. So I’ve added people to my page. But here’s the thing.

Don’t wait for some evangelist to put you on the page. You get your homepage. You start praying for each other, okay?

And man, prayer changes things. The most important part of my prayer list is praying for my family, praying for my own walk. Here is a list of pastor friends I pray for.

Here’s Pastor and Liz and Tyler and Heather and John and also put Mary on there now. And then Kate and Noah and Triumph Baptist Church. And I try to pray for you every day, okay?

So as a rule, I put across the top January through June on one side, and then I go July through December on the other side. And I often will walk. One of the things I like to do here is just walk down the parkway and I’ll take my list and I’ll just, I’ll pray.

Sometimes it was cold last night. I sat in my chair last night and prayed. I decided I wasn’t gonna walk last night, okay?

but find a spot to pray. Sometimes if you say, man, I kneel, but I fall asleep. Yeah, I usually do a lot of kneeling and praying in the pre-service prayer meetings.

Sometimes at night, it’s not a good thing for me to kneel because my best praying is nighttime, so I’ll walk and pray, and that’s okay. You know, even sometimes you can walk around the room. Some of you are the pacing kind of person.

Well, hey, just get up and wear out the carpet. Talk to the Lord. When do you pray?

Do you pray? So prayer, prayer changes things.

That’s been a help to me not only that but read good books letter d read good books look at chapter 4 of timothy verse 13 well let me get 12 we didn’t read 12 earlier let no man despise thy youth.

Somebody said that timothy was about 40 years old when that was written i’m glad to hear that okay let no man despise that not that i’m 40 but let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity.

Till i come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

All right, now we have the conversation around our house, you know, readers are leaders. And somebody says, I hate to read. I’m more than mechanically inclined.

Always cracks me up. The guy said, I’m done with school. I just want to be a mechanic.

And then they have these volumes they have to pour over, reading, you know, manuals and all kinds of information. You know, like it or not, reading’s involved in most everything we do, so we got to learn to read. But I want to challenge you, learn to read books that are really going to help your understanding of the Bible.

They’re going to help you in your walk with the Lord. I’ve got a number of them. Our friend Harold Vaughn put together a book called Deep Fire.

This is a daily challenge from writings of great men of God. And it’s just, it’s not meant to be your devotions, it’s supplemental to your devotions. But I went through this a couple years ago.

A lot of really powerful quotes for those of you who teach, who instruct others. Super stuff. Deep Fire.

And then I’ve been reading recently a book called The Watchman, which is by a fellow named Mark Cahill. This is really good on the topic of soul winning. When I read, I typically highlight and mark and circle things in my book.

I put aside for a while, I’ll get back to Hudson Taylor. There’s a two-volume book of Hudson Taylor’s life. These are just some things I’ve been recently reading, but I’m always reading biographies because I’m challenged by other people’s lives.

I’m encouraged, too, when I see they struggled in areas that are no different than where you or I struggle. And so how did they get through it? What did God deal with them?

God was very patient. And a lot of times I’m marking up these books like I mark my Bible, you know, because I’m going to go back and refer to that again, sermon illustrations or whatever. Now, again, you don’t have to be like me, but I would hope you’ll find some way to read some things that are going to help your life.

I just picked up one off the shelf I hadn’t finished yet. It’s called The Christian’s Daily Challenge. And so, okay, this is a good one.

It’s, again, goes along with your daily Bible reading. I’d gotten about halfway through. I do that.

I kind of lose interest after a while. So I figured I’ll pick up in the middle here and I’ll finish the book. It’s a read it every day kind of thing.

But those are good tools to help me. And then for my own personal study this year, I’ve been going through the book of John. And I started off with Warren Wiersbe’s commentary.

If any of you want a really good, simple way to get started in a little more depth in your personal Bible study, Wiersbe years ago started off with a study called the B series. I think he started with Philippians. What was it?

Be Joyful. Have any of you ever read the Be Joyful from Philippians? It’s really good.

Warren Wiersbe is very practical, and he’ll give you some good meat too. So he has the whole series on the New Testament. It’s called the Bible Exposition Commentary.

You can buy the two-volume set for, I forget. I looked on Amazon recently. I think it’s under $40, hardbound.

It’s well worth having. I’m going to get a set for my daughter, Brianna. She loves to get into the meat of the word.

I just gave Heather the one volume set on Be Joyful from Philippians. That’s a really good one. So I took Wiersbe’s book on John, and I read through that.

Now I’m going through the book of John again. Right now, I’ve been in chapters two and three for the last couple of days, and I just read chapters two and three over and over. Now I’m using a John Phillips commentary.

No, not his John Phillips, but John Phillips was a preacher who knew really how to dig apart the scripture. And this one’s exploring the gospel of John. He has a whole bunch of these on the whole Bible, basically, exploring whatever the book is.

But this has been a helpful one. And again, commentaries are not the Bible, okay? But they’re a good way to stir your thinking, give you insight.

These guys have time to go into background study that I didn’t even know where to find this stuff. And I think, oh, that is really helpful. So that’s been a good way for me to just devotionally study the Bible.

This isn’t sermon prep. The message I preached this morning, who is Jesus? Obviously, I got stirred as I got thinking about John and all, and it did provoke me into a message prep, but that wasn’t why I was studying the book of John.

I’ve been studying the book of John for my own life. It’s been incredibly helpful, very invaluable. So read good books.

Also look at 2 Timothy 4, verse 13. 2 Timothy 4, verse 13. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with me, and the books, but especially the parchments.

Now, this is very practical. Paul says, hey, Timothy, last time we were there at Troas, I left my coat. It’s getting cold.

I want you to bring my coat. Would you bring my books, too? Especially the parchments.

Now, the parchments are the Scripture, okay? The Scriptures were written on parchment. But there were other books, too.

And here’s the point. Some people say, well, there’s only one book you need. That’s the Bible.

I absolutely agree. The Bible is the book of books, okay? The Bible is the thing I read every day of my life.

There is no other book I read every day. This is the book of all books. But it’s not combative to the Bible.

It’s not competing with the Bible to study other books like this that are going to get you to dig. Paul evidently used books to help him study the Bible, to know God better. In fact, it’s very interesting.

He was read even in secular areas. For instance, you remember the Cretans are always slow bellies. And he said, one of their prophets said, and he quotes one of the poets, Epimenides is the fellow.

Paul knew literature. Paul knew poetry. Paul knew other than the Bible.

It’s not wrong to be well read. But I hope above all, you’ll be a person of the book. So reading, give yourself to reading.

I’m always reading something. In fact, I’m usually reading, I don’t know, two or three books at a time. And that’s okay.

You know, if you’re the kind of person that’s like juggling plates, I like the challenge of it. But I also, because I get bored and I read slowly, I’m usually reading a couple different books. And it just keeps me, right now I’m doing this one on John.

I’m doing this one on The Watchman. I’ll soon get back to the Hudson Taylor. I’m going to do this on a daily basis.

I’ve got enough to read right now to keep me interested. What are you reading lately? I remember when I was in college, we heard a guy say, look, you will be the same person you are right now, five years from now, except for two things, the books you read and the people you meet.

That’s an interesting concept. You’ll be the same person five years from now you are right now, except for two influences, the books you read and the people you meet. Well, I mean, is that a generalization?

We get influenced by more than just books, okay? There are other media forms that we can be influenced by. Of course, I was in college in the late 1980s.

Maybe that’s why it was so simple. But you think about this. You’ll be the same person except for the books you read and the people you meet.

Okay. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Evil communications corrupt good manners.

You know, it really is true that people influence your life. How many of you have ever been profoundly influenced by somebody, whether good or bad, through an association, through friendships? Would you raise your hand?

I was hearing a story of a young man on Unshackled, the Christian broadcast. And this kid was a teenager, and he got in with the wrong crowd. And one day his buddies asked him for a ride, and they went to this convenience store.

And they said, just wait here, we’ll be right out. Well, he didn’t know it. They robbed the convenience store.

And when they came out, they got guns and the shots are being fired and they said, drive. Well, in the moment, what’s he going to do? He drives off.

Well, he didn’t even know they’re going to do it. He ends up spending years in prison because he was an accomplice to robbery. Let me tell you, the people you hang out with really can affect your life, can’t they?

And you know, the way to, I heard this adage when it comes to marriage, the way to get the right person is to be the right person. We know if you want to get the right friends, the way to get the right friends is to be the right person. You can’t be the right person unless you’re having the right influence.

First, it ought to be God’s Word. And then books. I mean, what have you read lately that has really challenged your life, that has really provoked you to love and good works?

Books are really helpful. So, read your Bible daily. Memorize God’s Word.

Pray every day. Read good books. And then, have family devotions.

Now, I’m going to tell you, this has been one of the most challenging times of my life to live up to what I’m challenging you to do right now. So I’m going to give you a full disclosure disclaimer right now. It has not gone well in the Tozer household since the Westbergs left us to have family devotions.

Now that sounds lame, but I will tell you why. Angela and Heather are now involved in kids’ class. And when they come home, our normal time to do something as family devotions was after they were done, kids’ class at night.

And before they were contributors. Now they are all in. And don’t worry, I get more pressure than ever to keep things brief, okay?

Because my poor wife and girls, they’re pretty tired when they come home. That would normally be our family devotion time. So I have been praying about it.

It’s on my prayer list. If you looked at my list, you will see family altar is one of the things I pray about. How am I going to work this?

We’ve got to do something, and we’ve not been doing much lately, okay? So I’ll just give you that because sometimes it sounds like, oh, it’s so easy. You guys are in ministry or whatever.

With my little ones, there are some really good tools. I remember, it’s easy to start with kids. And one of the keys is keep it brief, just a few minutes.

When mine were little, we used little Bible stories like this one. And this is just one I picked up at Ollie’s bookstore, I think, somewhere. Lots of colorful pictures and brief stories.

With our kids, we memorized scripture going A to Z. A, all have sinned and had a picture of an alligator. B, had a bear.

Be sure your sin will find you out. C, had a cow there for C. Christ died for our sins.

D had a dog. Draw an eye to God and he’ll draw an eye to you. And we worked our way on going through the alphabet, memorizing scripture.

Simple little things with kids. One of the writers I’ve recommended over the years for parents with small kids is a fellow named Gilbert Beers. Yeah, like two beers, okay?

And you’re legally drunk. But Gilbert Beers. And he wrote, he’s written several.

There’s a series called The Muffin Family. And he does this story of Minnie and Maxie Muffin. and he has a Bible story.

And he’s pretty good scripturally, as I’ve read through the stories. Pretty good. He’s a Wheaton College graduate.

He’s in evangelical circles, but he’s good to scripture. And he’s got some good storylines in here too. And then he’ll do a story that teaches the kids.

He wrote another one called My Bedtime Anytime Storybook. And my kids love this. When they were little, they had the same characters over and over again.

There was Brew the Bear and there was McWhiskers the Mouse and there was the hippo, Puddles. Puddles was the hippo. And there was a koala bear.

And so I would always give the same voice. Brew, you know, he’s like the braggadocious bear. And then there was Puddles.

Puddles, he’s a hippo and he’s under the water all the time, so he was kind of stuffy. And there was koala because he was down under. How are you doing, koala?

And Mick Whiskers, he’s a Scottish mouse, so I gave the callum talk to Mick Whiskers. And we would go through these stories, And the kids always liked it. They, oh, dad, read the story.

But always taught a good Bible principle. So we do the Bible story, then we do this and sing a song. You know, simple, simple when they’re kids.

But if you get them started early, it’s easier to maintain the habit. So those were some for children. As the kids got older, one of the things I found, we could use hymn stories.

Here’s one called Heartwarming Hymn Stories, Lindsay Terry. And so we would read, it would give you a scripture passage to read. And then there’s a story about one of the hymns that you’re familiar with.

Where did that hymn come from there is much to be learned in hymn history so those are those are some ideas.

As my girls got older one of the things we used to do we’d go out once a week and we do dad and daughter date and it would be teaching time they wanted to learn the the major doctrines of the bible.

So i kind of put a bunch of things together i had a bible doctrines book from A Beka that my teacher had written that the bible doctrines book from becca was mike bear and i kind of walked him through that and then jim shetler had a series that he had done my former pastor on the nine major doctrines, and it was a video series.

We’d watch it. It was a half hour, and then we’d talk about it. Find a way, whether it’s a half hour or five or ten minutes, to get together with your family, to pray, to teach them God’s Word.

Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 through 9. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might.

These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, when thou risest up. The idea is all the time, not just in formal settings, but informally, teach them the word of God.

All right, let’s go back to 1 Timothy. So that’s the get nourishment. Let me just wrap it up with this then.

Not only get proper nourishment, but get sufficient exercise. Number two, get sufficient exercise. Look at verse seven, back in 1 Timothy 4, 7.

but refuse profane and old wives’ fables. What’s he talking about? They’re people who are teaching things that are supposedly doctrine, that they’re no more Bible than they are old wives’ tales.

You know, in our day, there are those who say, God wants to make you rich. I remember hearing this guy when I was a teenager. He’s a TV preacher.

He said, if you send me one thin dime, I will pray over it for your financial prosperity. I will send you one of my prayer aprons. You spread it across your lap and God will bless your life.

I’m a teenager, I could see through that. You know, the health, wealth, and prosperity message? Hey, look, there are plenty of them out there that have all kinds of divergent doctrines.

But how do you develop discernment? You’ve got to be in the truth. You’ve got to be in his word.

So look, refuse that, profane and old wives’ tables. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

Parents, you’ll see this as your kids go from elementary school into junior high from junior high into high school, all of a sudden, with many of them, fitness becomes more of an interest. You know, boys want to be tough. They want to be in shape.

And sometimes it involves hitting the weights. Sometimes it’s running. Sometimes exercise.

They got energy to burn. And all of a sudden, exercise becomes an interest. You get older, it gets a little tougher.

But you find out more than ever, boy, if you don’t get some kind of exercise, you’re going to become a couch potato, right? God didn’t say exercise is profitless. He said bodily exercise profiteth little.

He’s not saying it’s worthless. He’s saying in the comparison of spiritual exercise, it’s a minute thing. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run.

It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work out. In fact, right in the office door here, I carry with me one of these total gyms, you know, one of those Chuck Norris type gyms, the slider board. I started carrying that because a brother-in-law of mine gave it to me free.

Their church was giving it and nobody was using it. And it was compact. I could put it in my trailer and carry it with me.

Now, I’m no workout guru. I just want to do something to stay in shape. My daughter to Linnea is six.

I’m 50. By the time the kid graduates from high school, you know, I’ll be, I could claim social security. So I got to do something to be able to stay in shape so my poor kid doesn’t have to talk about her grandfather instead of her father, right?

And I would like to have a long ministry. If the Lord has not come for you and me, I’d like to still be doing this when I’m in my 70s plus. If he hasn’t come yet, I suspect he will.

But in the meantime, I’m going to try to stay in shape. Exercise is not being diminished here, But the Lord’s saying in the grand scheme of things, that’s minimal compared to exercising yourself to godliness. Okay, so get proper nourishment.

Tell me, let’s talk about some ideas from you. What are some practical ways we can exercise our faith? Can you give me some?

Give me some feedback. How do you put your faith in practice? I’m hearing a murmuring.

Share with others. That’s right, Patty. That’s the first thing I wrote down.

Tell others about Christ. Mark 16, 15 says, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Okay, Acts 1a, ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Yesterday, it was not easy to get out here at 10 o’clock in the morning when it was windy and bitter cold. But, you know, we had just under 20 people show up. And yesterday, we were just doing door hangers.

But I’ll tell you, you’ve got to have boots on the ground. And so going house to house, Pastor was saying, now this is an area we haven’t ever covered before. Jameson Farm, where were we in yesterday?

And he said, yeah, we haven’t covered this before. And it’s up and down. It’s like a two-minute walk between houses, you know.

And so one of the ways, well, by the way, I said I feel like I walk nine holes of golf. In about an hour and ten minutes, we did a lot of up and down and walking. I’ll gladly walk nine holes of golf.

Hey, will I gladly walk a couple hours in the cold for Christ? Well, I hope you will. I will, you know, and I hope you will.

So I’m getting good physical exercise. More important, I’m exercising my faith. Does anybody know why the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea?

Anybody know where that term came from? You remember her? Yeah, it’s full of minerals.

Nothing lives in it. Anybody know why that is? Why did it become dead?

It’s all inlet, but no outlet. The Jordan River flows into it. Tributaries flow into it from the side mountains.

Water flows into the Dead Sea, but there’s no outlet. It’s 1,300 feet below sea level. That’s at the surface.

And then it goes down another 1,300 feet deep. So it’s the lowest point on the earth. All the water runs there, but there’s no outlet.

What a picture of so many Christians. If you’re just taking in Scripture, you’re memorizing Scripture, you’re doing your prayer time, but you’re not giving out, you’re going to stagnate. And it’s just like the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is so full of minerals, it can be a benefit to people. All over the world, cosmetics have been derived from the Dead Sea. Mineral scrubs, et cetera.

There is so much value in the Dead Sea, but somebody’s got to get it out of there to be able to pass it on to somebody else. You’ve got inestimable wealth in you from all that you’ve been taught, all that you’ve been trained, but you need to get out of your comfort zone. Give it to others.

So tell others about Christ. Also, how’s another way? I’ve got them written down, but Patty was right online with the first thing I thought.

Evangelize. How else can we exercise our faith, exercise ourself unto godliness? Can you think of any?

Yeah serving others thank you carolyn that’s another one i was thinking of serving others.

How let’s say you have a widow in the church my mom’s a widow now and i know her church is campus church down in florida all the time they’ve got teenage groups coming over raking leaves cleaning out the gutters blowing the leaves on the sidewalk stuff that i do when i’m around but i’m not there very much man it’s a blessing to my mom who lives by herself to have somebody come and do that kind stuff for serving.

You know matthew 7 12 as you would therefore that men should do to you do even so to them i’m all the more aware now that my mom’s a widow of thinking about the needs of people that don’t have family around to help them.

Serving is a great way to exercise uh your faith how about well i don’t i want to tell you you’re all thinking you’re going right in the order of the way i wrote them down what else is a good way to exercise your faith The next one I had written down was giving.

Okay, Luke 6, 38. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, and press down, and shake it together, and running over will men give in your bosom.

Okay, so when the economy’s tight, boy, you look at your budget and you think, I can’t afford to tithe. You can’t afford not to tithe. Okay, now I am of the persuasion that tithing was a pre-law principle, that it wasn’t just, Tithing was established when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek.

That’s before the law. You may remember that. And tithing is not just the net, it’s the gross.

When the law was instituted, the Lord said you tithe the seed, and then you tithe when you bring in the harvest. I mean, seed didn’t all produce something. You tithed off the seed, and then you tithed off the harvest.

You know what? You can’t out-give God. So Angela and I started tithing when we got married, and it wasn’t long we started double tithing, and then we went above and beyond that.

We tithe now not only off of our own personal money, but we tithe off our business as well. Business, I say. It’s our ministry, okay?

So we tithe what the ministry brings, and then we tithe again off of what we get. I mean, I’m just telling you what we do. I’m not just telling you to do it.

We all need to do it. But the thing is you cannot out-give God. It’s incredible.

God will burden your heart to help somebody. I remember as a college kid, and we had this missionary. He had come home from, I forget where he was, some culture where it was really a primitive culture.

He came back to the States. His son had an emergency surgery. They didn’t have American medical insurance.

And the college was telling us, you know, pray for this family. They don’t have means to take care of their kids. I had $20 in my wallet.

That’s all the money I had to get me through the next couple weeks. That $20 was an expendable income. That was for my laundry, which I know my roommates would really care that I would do my laundry.

And the Lord put on my heart, just give that money to the missionary. Patty, this might have been when your brother, Adi, was a roommate of mine when I was in college. I mean, it was, I think, my freshman year.

And so I remember I put that money in the offering plate, and for me, 20 bucks was a sacrifice. It was my all. It was like the widow’s two mites.

I remember a few days went by. I thought, man, my laundry’s piling up. I don’t know how I’m going to do my laundry.

And sweating it out and thinking, Luke 6, 38, you give, it’ll be given unto you. I don’t know how God will do it, but he did it. A letter came from my grandmother.

There was some money in there. Later on, I forget how, somebody else gave me some money. and you know, God took care of the needs, but I had no idea.

All I had was faith. I was exercising myself to godliness. So evangelizing, serving, giving, and by the way, exercise your body too.

I have a daily checklist. I’ve been using this for years. And I started this back, I think it was about 2000, and I call it goals, whatever the year is, goals 2017.

And I got about seven different things. Each day I’ll check these off if I get them done. My first one is study scripture.

I will never go a day without checking that one off. And the reason is I promised God when I was a teenager that I would read the word at least five minutes a day. Now, I have gotten occasionally an email from a person and said, well, now, isn’t that rather legalistic?

Nobody made me do it. I chose to do it. And you know why?

Just like I chose to get married. I made a vow to Angela, till death do us part. You know what that means?

I will never have a romantic, intimate relationship with anybody else ever but her so long as we both shall live. That’s what that vow means. Vows aren’t bad.

They are sacred. Well, I chose to make a vow to God that I would read His Word every day. I’m not preaching to you.

You’ve got to make a vow. But I am telling you, you need to spend daily time with God. And when I made that commitment as a teenager, it changed my life.

So I got this checklist. Okay, study Scripture. Every day that one gets checked off.

Now, prioritize prayer was another one. Prioritize prayer. and I was counseling a young man yesterday and I told him, I’m going to tell you, the other night, Friday night, we’d been with the Phillips.

It was late. It was about 2.30 in the morning. I’d been catching up on some writing and journaling and all and I came to bed and I propped up on bed.

When Angela’s sleeping, I’ll often use a headlamp because I don’t want to wake her up. So I got my little, I use my camping headlamp all the time, right? And she rolls over, what are you doing?

I said, well, I haven’t prayed yet. She said, Rich, you’re tired. Just give it up.

I think the Lord will understand. Okay. So I listened to the counsel of my wife.

You didn’t pray? Yeah, I didn’t. The other night, I was whooped.

And so I’m telling you, I’m not legally bound to all this, but do I need to pray every day? Yeah, I do. Do I need to read the word every day?

Yeah. Now, the other night, I knew it was the better part of, okay, I’m going to put my prayer list aside. I prayed for a couple of critical things, a few people that I know need to be saved, and next minute I was out.

I’m trying to be transparent with you, so I’m not coming across as, boy, bless God, you better have your personal devotion, to your family devotion there. Look, we all have to work at it. But I’m going to tell you, you start doing, if you just did the two here, study the scripture and pray, your life will be transformed.

Memorize scripture. Told you I’d try to do that about five minutes a day. That’s the third one on my list.

Memorize scripture. Witness daily. At least give out a tract or try to talk to somebody about the Lord.

At least plant some seed. I try to do that every day. My tracts are in my wallet.

So I always carry tracts with me and I’m looking for opportunities. Who can I speak to today? Read daily.

So I told you, beside my Bible, reading. I try to read maybe a chapter of a book or at least a section of a book every day. Lead in family devotions.

That has gone unchecked for too long. And so that’s been one I’ve been really praying about. And then exercise consistently.

And I have, I’ve never been the kind of guy that runs every week or, you know, I like to play golf. I like to take walks. I do like to bike or play tennis when I can get somebody to do it with me.

I’ve got the total gym, push-ups, something. Okay, so I’m not a gym rat, but I’m going to do something to try to stay in shape. Hey, listen.

Goals are essential pointers in your life. They help give you direction. If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.

So how about this? It’s not the new year now, okay? We’re a quarter into the new year.

What are you going to do this year that’s going to be different than last year?

What you’re going to do this week what you’re going to do tomorrow that’s going to make a different habit in your life.

Paul’s writing to his young son timothy he says get nourished up in the words of faith and exercise yourself to godliness.

That’s my challenge as we go into yet another year of revival meetings it’s not just to sit here and listen politely like charlie brown’s teacher what are we going to do with what god says and i’ll tell you when you throw yourself into obeying what God says.

These habits, these disciplines will change your life.