Ep 12 - Scripture Intake: Built By The Word

Equipped to Lead Podcast: Welcome to the Equip the Lead podcast. I'm your host, Cory Couture. I'm glad you guys are here with us today and I'm excited. I got Josh back in the studio with us today. Daddy's home. He's been out the last couple of weeks. So I've been having to do this by myself. So we're glad to have him back. I'm sure the audience is probably glad to have him back too. told me not to come back. So said, man, you just stick behind the pulpit. Right. Right. So today we're going to be talking about scripture intake, ⁓ being built by word. ⁓ You know, if Guys, if you said you know that you don't know where to start when it comes to scripture, or you don't know how to stay consistent, or a lot of times you'll read something and it doesn't stick and you're not getting anything out of it, today's episode is for you guys. So we're gonna kinda keep it practical, keep it biblical for you guys. ⁓ not trying to guilt you or hype you up. ⁓ just gonna try and help and give you a plan that you can actually do ⁓ on consistent basis. You know, for a lot of us, our life is being shaped every day. by what we scroll, what we listen to, what we think about in our head. And ⁓ God's word isn't the loudest voice in our head, ⁓ else will be. Like we talked about in previous episodes, it'll be your work, your life, ⁓ life, whatever's going on there. That'll be what's taking over in your mind. And most us guys, we ⁓ don't typically into strength. drift into spiritual dullness, short temperedness, anxiety, temptation, most of stuff very subtly. You know, we'll miss a day ⁓ in Scripture and like we talked about before with that drift, ⁓ one day turns into two and two turns into four, four turns into a month and ⁓ before you know ⁓ we aren't in ⁓ like we're supposed be. And because of that, you know, we tend to start leading from stress, we start reacting instead responding. know, ⁓ faith becomes something that we mostly practice on Sundays, and tend to run the rest of a week running in our own flesh, under our own strength, trying to do things under our own power. And this you know, this is why Scripture intake really matters. It helps, ⁓ us grounded reality, in God's reality, ⁓ in His truth, in His standard, and in His comfort, and then also in God's correction. you said it there, if we're not in the Word when Scripture is missing ⁓ our lives, then everything else ⁓ of takes center stage and ⁓ whole foundation is off. ⁓ think of, I may have said this in our Sunday night class, when I miss a day, I recognize it. When I miss a couple days, my wife recognizes it. And then if I miss a week, everyone else will start ⁓ to that as well. And I also think of, you know, Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone. And I don't know, have you ever gotten hangry? When you're so hungry and you just got to get some food. That's us when we skip the word and the means of grace that God has given us. And we're more reactionary. We're not proactive. We're not leading the way we should. And so our soul, our hearts, they need feeding. Like our bodies need nourishment. And so today what we're going to do, we're going to talk through a couple of things. Like Cory said, it's going to be practical. We don't want to guilt trip you. We want to encourage you and then hopefully build you up. And so we're going to talk about what scripture intake is, what it's not, what does it profit a man of God ⁓ take in God's Word, why we fall off ⁓ in and why we don't maintain consistency. And then prayerfully, we'll equip you guys with a ⁓ simple if not daily ⁓ plan stay in God's Word. Yeah, you know, when we talk about scripture intake, we're not we're not talking about just reading scripture every day. could also include things ⁓ listening to podcasts, listening to different preaching, ⁓ could be the audio bible, I know some people that do that, just faithful teaching. And it know, it also is ⁓ reading scripture, you know, daily spending time in God's Word. We're talking about scripture, you know, digging deeper, trying to figure out the context and the meaning of what God's trying to tell us. it also includes meditating on Scripture, know, just the chewing, ⁓ just that Scripture, you know, kind of sink in and think about it. And it also includes memorizing Scripture, know, storing that Scripture in your mind so you can recall it when the devil's attacking you and you can use it to combat him. And then we're talking about obeying Scripture. ⁓ That's the real goal of all of this. The goal isn't to just get through the Bible. The goal is to let the Bible get through to you a man. We're gonna talk about what it's not. It's not a box so you can feel less guilty. It's not a competition to see who reads the most. It's not a personality test where you only read what you like. And it's also not vibe check just to see if you feel something when you read it. Sometimes when we read scripture, it's gonna impact us, it's gonna have immediate impact, it's gonna be like fire, you're gonna feel it right away. But then sometimes you're gonna study scripture and it's gonna be more like planting a seed, it's just something that's in there that's kind of growing and ⁓ and ⁓ time ⁓ begins to impact your life. And if a guy, most ⁓ of your growth is gonna be type of seed work, that quiet, slow, ⁓ unseen, but real work that's going on in your life because of it. Yeah. Well, I think there's very subtle trap that guys and ⁓ mean, women can get into this too. this, this all or nothing sort of trap. so I'm trying to get better at assuming the best about people. ⁓ I'm cynical and the Lord is working on my heart there. ⁓ And think when, when I encounter men who have difficulty staying in God's word, it's not because they don't love God. ⁓ I don't think any of those men would say, I don't love God. just have ⁓ struggle with it. And so I think ⁓ lot of people, men and women, but we're talking to men, I think ⁓ can get into this mindset that ⁓ I can't give ⁓ Lord an hour or let's just say 30 minutes, whatever it is, then, I'm not going to do anything. ⁓ And think that lie, ⁓ keeps us hungry. It keeps us starving. you think about that. I'm not going to eat. If I can't eat a bite, then I'm not going to eat it. Right. Well, that's not healthy, bro. So you got to do something. And so I think it's, you know, a lot of times people look at us to Instagram has, are you on Instagram? Yeah. Are you? Me too. We don't follow each other. We got to get a new follower today. I, you see some of these people, I see this mostly women, a lot of men don't do this, but they'll, they'll have this picture of their Bible, their coffee mug and the lighting is perfect. And I think a lot of times I talked to Courtney about this. She's got kids running around her. She doesn't have this pretty little scene set up and it's just chaos. And I think sometimes we can get into that though is, my Bible study doesn't look like that, guys. It's not 30 minutes. It's not 45 minutes. I'm not looking at the Greek or the Hebrew or whatever it might be. So I'm just not going to do it. Well, we want to encourage you all to heed is that consistency will be intensity. So you don't need ⁓ be heroic. You don't need it to be Instagram worthy or social media worthy. You just need to be steady. And so let's look at this text, Timothy. I don't know why I want to keep saying 2 Corinthians ⁓ but 2 Timothy ⁓ 3, verses 16 through 17. If you're familiar with the Bible, you're not surprised that we're looking at this text. ⁓ this is Paul's, what many believe, his ⁓ letter, ⁓ final one before he is ⁓ martyred for the faith. And this is what he says to young Timothy, ⁓ scripture is breathed out ⁓ God. I'd encourage you to circle that under that highlight that phrase and it's profitable for teaching for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work and so when we see this at the very beginning Apostle Paul says ⁓ scripture is breathed out by God ⁓ means that that this is God breathe this is the inspired word of God this is not ⁓ opinions this is not ⁓ forum where scholars got to together and said, this is what we think you need to hear. This is the very word of God. this isn't quotes or spiritual quotes. This is God's word to us. When we open up ⁓ Bible, when we open up this book, we flip through the pages, we are reading ⁓ very word of God. We're sitting under the word of God. To me, it's mind blowing that the God who spoke everything into existence, who named the stars, ⁓ Just think about that. Sorry. ⁓ know we're going to get off on this. I've just been thinking about, ⁓ was listening to John Piper last week and he was talking about the majesty of God. Every star, I don't know how many stars there are, but there's a lot of stars. He knows them all. He knows every hair on your head, unless you're John Bell. doesn't, he doesn't even got no hair. Sorry, John. And he desires to communicate with us. I think of Psalm 8, what is man that you are mindful of him, that you care to condescend to us, to reveal yourself to us. And so scripture is breathed out by God. sitting under the word of the Almighty God. And I think if we, when we grasp that, we'll start to view scripture differently. So it's not just something we do. It's not just a box we check off with, but we are communing and meeting with the triune God. And so before you open God's word, I think it's important in the Psalms, you'll read, open my eyes that I may behold the wonders of your law. And I think it's good for us to pray. second. Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, that's what I'm thinking, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the natural man can't understand the things of God. We have the Spirit, so we pray for the Spirit to illuminate, to make us known, or make known to us the Word of God. So we're praying for eyes to see, we're praying for ears to hear, we're praying for hearts to be humbled to receive what the Lord has for us. And so we just, we submit ourselves to the Lord and bow before Him when we open this book. that scripture you know that that It's good for teaching. know, the scripture teaches us, you know, who God is, who are, ⁓ what is, what matters, what our life is worth, what's worth our ⁓ which that's a one. And it also builds you know, ⁓ and ⁓ we see man doesn't have the word in him, he becomes easily deceived, easily influenced, emotionally driven, reactionary. Another big one is he becomes vulnerable to temptation he has no framework to ⁓ anything up or to understand anything he becomes spiritually confused. you know, the good is, you know, guys, if you want clarity, if you want discernment, if you want to have a backbone and be able to back up, you ⁓ what God's saying, Scripture builds it for us. Yeah. ⁓ Well, and he going. So it's breathed out by God. profitable for teaching, but he also says it's good for reproof and for correction. So look at those two words, reproof and correction. Again, 2nd Timothy chapter 3 in verses 16 through 17. And so we have this word reproof and when we look at that and it's kind of, you think of the rumble strips on the highway. Hey, you're getting off course here. You need to get back in this lane and that is what scripture is good for. But it's also correction. So it's not just here's where you're falling shorter, here's where you need to kind of come back, it's here's how you do that. So it's the path to getting back on the right lane. And then I think that's one of the most. loving, encouraging passages in Scripture. We may not think that naturally when we look at this, that Scripture is good for correction and reproof, but we're sinners, right? ⁓ wayward, our hearts are prone to wander. We sing that. And think it's important for us to be reminded that ⁓ correction reproof, that's not condemnation. That's not the Lord trying to heap guilt on his children. ⁓ That a loving father ⁓ directing correcting his children. I tell my kids all the time, or like baseball coaches used to tell me, when I stop correcting you, that's when you need to worry. Just enjoy me telling you how terrible you are right now. God doesn't do that, but that's what of my coaches have done in the past. it's the Hebrews 12, our father is a loving father and all good fathers discipline their children. And so God corrects his sons and scripture isn't just about trying to make us feel good. It's, it's shaping us. And so we're not just reading the Bible for information. We want to read it for transformation. Sometimes we have to prune, or the Lord has to prune us for that to happen. Yeah, for sure. You know, next we see that scripture is used for training. And what does training usually involve? Repetition. You as somebody that goes to the gym and works out, know that nobody gets strong from just one visit to the gym or one workout. Let me interrupt you. You know who's not strong? Clint Wayne right now. He listens to this. If you don't know, Clint's a massive man. So that's a joke. Clint just got called out. Just got called out. Yeah. So, you know, nobody gets strong from just going to the gym one time. Nobody becomes a steady Christian from just listening to one of Josh's sermons. Although he thinks he's the greatest thing. It's the repetition of it. They're doing it on a daily basis. You know, you get steady and you get strong it day in and day out consistently over time. And that process you see that ⁓ righteousness trained into ⁓ you. that you get ⁓ daily to truth, you see daily repentance, daily obedience, and we see that scripture is like a gem for your soul. Over time through that ⁓ repetition from doing day in and day out, you start to see that your life starts to change as men, ⁓ your reactions change. Your appetites change your speech changes and your leadership changes in that process. Yeah Well, and and I mean kind of just piggybacking off of that Paul just heaps phrase after phrase onto it So it's good for training and righteousness why that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work So you see that so that the man of God in context of the scholars or they kind of, I guess, argue, maybe they differ on the interpretation of this. Some say the man of God is only the pastor. mean, certainly it applies to the pastor. I think it applies to men. I think this also would apply to women as well, but that the man of God may be complete. And so, the Scriptures are designed for us to be more conformed to the image of Christ, to be the man that God desires for us to be. And that's a man that's steady, a man that's faithful, a man that's I mean, how does a young man keep his way pure according to Psalm 119 by guarding it according to your word? We're called to be strong, but we're called to be strong without being harsh. We're called to be strong in love and grace and mercy to others. This word tells us or shows us how to be humble without being passive and how to be equipped to lead our homes, to lead our families, to lead our wives. So this isn't, hey, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and figure out how to live your life, it's being filled with the truth. And so God ⁓ us his word, he applies it to us by the power of his spirit so that we'll look more like the Son. ⁓ if that's the truth, and I believe that it is, why men, this is the million dollar question, why do men still struggle to stay consistent? Yeah, and that's a great question. I think it's a ⁓ multitude different things. You know some of the I think some of the common reasons that we see a lot of times that that men struggle in this is is one they have no plan You just they just kind of open the Bible and say okay here I'm gonna read this today and read it and ⁓ no real no real plan in place ⁓ doing anything. ⁓ just gonna figure this out. Yeah, I'm just gonna wing it and go Yeah, know and that typically doesn't work out too. Well, a lot of times we see it's distractions like we've talked about a hundred times before ⁓ It's your phone, it's the things going on in your family, it's your tired from work, it could be a multitude of different things that we see, different types of distractions that keep us from doing it. And again, we go back to that all or nothing mindset that a lot of people have. If it's long, it's not worth it. ⁓ If I'm spending an hour doing this, then I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just gonna not do it. It could also be the guilt cycle. You you happen to miss a day, you feel bad about it, and you're like, ⁓ I'm not going to do that again. I'm not going to put myself through that and I'm not going to do it. ⁓ It could be confusion. I'd willing to bet that that's probably a big one. ⁓ I that's one that I've struggled with before. You read a passage of scripture you're like, what? What does that mean? What is trying say there? ⁓ like you get frustrated and you're like, man, I don't understand this. I'm not doing it. I'm gonna quit doing it. think another area that we see is ⁓ unrealistic expectations. There's probably out there that feel that every time you read scripture, you should get goosebumps or you should just- a halo. Yeah, have a halo ⁓ or should have some type of emotional response to it. And that's not realistic. That's not ⁓ how that It's like we talked about before. of times the way scripture is going to work in our lives is going to be like that seed that's planted and over time as you nourish it and water it, it's going to grow and change your life. It's not going to be something that happens right away. know, here again, you know, we talk about the consistency isn't about motivation. It's about a simple system, having a plan in place to it. ⁓ if you build a simple system, you're going to grow and you're going to be able to ⁓ consistently get into Word and study it. like we've about before, you know, the enemy doesn't have to make you hate the Bible. ⁓ All he's to do is just make you inconsistent long enough to where ⁓ you're just and you don't care. ⁓ You don't it. ⁓ That's all got to do. ⁓ And keeps out, keeps you out of scripture. Yeah. ⁓ Well, and think ⁓ if, you we about not having a plan and again, that doesn't work with ⁓ anything really. You to have a plan for ⁓ if you're trying lose weight, if you're trying to put on muscle, if you're going to go hunting and be successful, you want to have a plan of what you're going to do. And so ⁓ think through some plans. And again, there's so many different Bible reading plans that you can get. ⁓ We're going to give you a couple. And this one that I'm going to recommend is a simple plan. It's ⁓ the 3-3-3 ⁓ So think this three. ⁓ Take three minutes. You can read short passage. ⁓ If you are to the Bible, don't ⁓ really open up Word. I would encourage you to not probably jump into his or Leviticus or like revelation. maybe, you know, even some of the proverbs can be difficult. Any of the wisdom can be difficult, but ⁓ could read, you could read the Psalms ⁓ that to those speak to everyday emotions and kind of what we go through. If you're reading the New Testament, I do think Mark ⁓ is one the best gospels. It's short, it's to the point. John, I used to recommend people go to John and I love John. the first 18 verses of John chapter 1 are packed with deep theology. ⁓ the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. You just unpack it, and whoa, what is going on here? And so I like Mark. It's short, it's quick, ⁓ it's the smallest of four Gospels. I would encourage you just pick a short passage. It doesn't have to be 20 verses. It could be one verse, it could be two. ⁓ This past I think I spent two or three days on one verse, and that's okay. ⁓ But find short passage that you can digest and just stick with that. And then ask yourself three questions. So here's the second three. What does this show me about God? Or what does this tell me about God? Who he is? What kind of God he is? does he require of me? ⁓ does this say about me? ⁓ does this say about the sin that I might struggle with or the world I live in? ⁓ then what do I need to do ⁓ light of that? ⁓ so just think through three minutes reading a passage, three questions. What does it show me? about God, what does it show me about myself, what do I need to do today? And again, this is simple as you're getting started. Obviously you want to build on this the more you go. Maybe we do another episode on what that kind of looks like. But the last three is three sentences. So write these down or speak them, put them in your phone, in your notes app, whatever that looks like. But you can say God is in light of this passage, fill in the blank. I am, and then today I will do this. so I think that takes your Bible reading not just again for information, but for formation, for transformation. So that's just a simple plan. That's a good one. If you're like me, we have another structure here where we used the acronym SOAP, S-O-A-P. You can use this. The S stands for scripture. First write one verse down. The O is observation, what stands out. The A is for application, what do I obey today based on of that verse and then P is for prayer. know, ask God for help to reveal what he's trying to teach for you or what he's asking you to do in your life. You know, the goal here is to just keep it very simple. You know, one verse, one application, one prayer. And then, you know, once you do one of these two plans, you know, during the week, we also encourage you to do a weekly deep dive where you're gonna take 20 to 30 minutes and really dive into a passage of scripture, whether it's a chapter or whatever, and just spend some time doing that. I would encourage you to, ⁓ you know, read one full chapter in the Bible and then underline repeated words or themes that you find throughout that chapter as you're reading. You'll start to notice patterns or things popping up. Highlight and underline those And then once you do that, you know, then write one sentence, you know, this chapter is about, ⁓ fill in the blank, it is that that you read. then next you want to choose one obedience step. What are you taking away from that passage of scripture that you read and how are you going to apply that into your life and then actually do it. And then lastly you want to pray it back to God. Just pray that scripture nice and slow back to God ⁓ ⁓ him ⁓ help to apply it to your life or to reveal ⁓ he's trying to say ⁓ you. And you know when you do that, when you spend the time doing that, every week doing spending time with God, this is where your growth is gonna really start to accelerate. It's gonna be like compound interest. Once you start putting in that little bit every day, every week, over time that's gonna start building and building and get bigger and bigger in your life. Because if you stop living a random inspiration and start building conviction is what's gonna happen there ⁓ and see. So you're ⁓ gonna ask, ⁓ where do I start doing this? and here are a few ⁓ starter tracks that you can start on are powerful for as guys. The first, like ⁓ Josh has said, the Gospel of Mark. It's fast, it's direct, it's action-oriented. ⁓ We do have some Proverbs. ⁓ There's for decisions, for for work. for discipline. have the Psalms where we have honest prayers for dry seasons. ⁓ If you feel like you're in a dry season in your life, the Psalms is a great place to ⁓ And also James where we have a practical faith, real life obedience. So just pick one these, don't overthink it. ⁓ Just start you can get a win, something that's easy, ⁓ and ⁓ begin process today of spending time in Scripture. on that before we move forward to some more practical steps. Depending on where you are, who you are, I would say some resources that will help you are getting into a Bible, believing Bible, preaching church, prayerfully. ⁓ One my when I stand up and preach, I don't do this successfully every Sunday, I don't think. It's in my mind though, I wanna do this ⁓ when I preach. ⁓ hopefully as I'm ⁓ I'm showing you how this makes what I'm saying and I'm trying to pull that out for the people listening and how all these pieces kind of work together. So if you're not involved in a Bible believing, Bible preaching church, I would encourage you to do that and hopefully the pastor will walk with you in that and kind of show you here's how to study the Bible. I would say if you have Sunday school or a small group, that's another good resource to get into where you're sitting with some guys or girls, whatever that looks like, and studying God's word together where you're learning from each other. I just wanted to plug those if you don't have that, I would encourage you to jump in into those. So going on the practicality of the word of God, because Second Timothy is ⁓ lot of people will say this is about the inerrancy of God's word. It's God breathes, so it's without error. When reality, I think Paul is talking about the sufficiency of God's word. This is what it's useful for. ⁓ And getting practical, ⁓ does God's word produce in us? ⁓ Because we're eating healthy we're gonna have healthier bodies. So if we're eating God's Word, feasting on God's Word, which the prophet Jeremiah says, ate your Word, what does that look like in our lives? I ⁓ it... Man, we could spend a lot of time talking about what this looks like, but I mean, you are going to kind of going back to the beginning of the episode, you're going to be less reactive. You're going to be less controlled by your mood. You're going to stop being tossed around by opinions. That's what the apostle Paul is aiming for in the churches that he's writing to is that they'll know the word of God so that they're not tossed to and fro by the opinions and false teachers and everything else that's going on around them. But it also produces clarity. began to process decisions differently. see things more clearly, we recognize lies faster. I think that's one of the reasons false teachers are so prevalent in churches is because they don't have a good solid foundation on the Word of God. And then we begin to gain ⁓ as we're ⁓ God's Word and looking at the world around us. ⁓ also ⁓ strength against sin. Again, I quoted it, have stored up your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. ⁓ can't tell you how many times I've meditated on scripture, memorized scripture, and then in a moment of temptation, the Spirit is so quick to bring that scripture to my mind help me in that fight. kind of reading the Bible, man, it's like last couple of weeks, I was reading God's word, ⁓ convicted ⁓ just how I like suck as a parent sometimes. ⁓ I was praying about some of those things where I fall short and ⁓ happened one of my kids. I can't remember who, ⁓ and I to ⁓ jump at of the kids. not physically, but just like jump into this argument and kind of go back and forth. And it was as if the spirit punched me in the face as if, are doing? Like you've been brain about this. It slowed me down. And so it produces strength for us as, we fight against sin and temptation in our lives. And ⁓ think it also kind of going with that, it produces better leaders at home. ⁓ our patience grows, our love grows, our harshness is going to decrease, our confidence will increase. ⁓ going to start leading from conviction, not ⁓ pressure. if you look at the word, Psalm 1 is one of my favorite Psalms. It says the ⁓ man is the one who is like a tree planted by streams of water. He's stable and he's fruitful. ⁓ And is stable and fruitful because he's meditating on the Word of God. ⁓ He's twirling around ⁓ on tongue. That's what that word is in the Hebrew. It's just ⁓ a constantly. ⁓ And you chew on the Word of God, as you meditate, on the word of God as you dwell on it. You're stable. You're fruitful in your life. And so your kids not remember every lesson you taught. I say this all the time too. The churches won't remember ⁓ sermons I preached. I think I remember one or two sermons from certain preachers that I've heard ⁓ throughout years, but they're gonna remember the kind of man you became. ⁓ I was to John MacArthur's funeral service, ⁓ yeah, a days ago, ⁓ and his got up and I got real nervous because sometimes you'll hear these theologians and they're great pastors, great preachers, and their kids are like, he was a terrible dad, you know? it's like, I don't want to hear that about John MacArthur. I love John MacArthur, but ⁓ son got up and he said ⁓ he was ⁓ the pulpit is who he was at home. Like he was just a faithful presence in our home. He said, that's what I remember. Yeah. ⁓ And that so encouraging to me. I remember listening. I was like, that's what I want my kids. You know, they may not remember right now Sawyer says my sermons are boring. So prayerfully as she gets older, she'll learn to enjoy them. But I hope they know, ⁓ Dad loved the Lord and He loved us and they'll remember that and see that. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ You know, ⁓ we kind wrap this up today, I want to give you guys a challenge for this coming week. For the next seven days, I want you to do the 333 challenge. Same time, same place, ⁓ your phone you know, here again, you're not aiming for perfection, you're just aiming for consistency in doing that. And then once you go through that 333 of scripture reading, I want you to do one more thing. I want you to text a brother and let him know that you're doing that this week and ask him to hold you to it. Just for that accountability and to bring another guy on board with you. Because like we said before, we can't do this on our own. A lot of times we need other men around us to help support us and encourage us. I think it's very important that you have somebody like that in your life. Because ⁓ as we grow faster when we're not doing it alone, when we have somebody with us helping us. ⁓ And ⁓ if miss a day this week, don't spiral, don't fall out control. ⁓ Just pick up and start again tomorrow ⁓ and pick back up and go. ⁓ And don't The key is be consistent ⁓ in doing this. and spending time in God's word and studying his word and allowing his word to work in our lives and work in our heart to help ⁓ us to be the kind of men that God has called us to be ⁓ we go through this. I ⁓ you guys listening today have, this has helped you ⁓ I hope it, like Josh said, I hope it's encouraging you ⁓ ⁓ God's word and to be very and ⁓ intentional on a daily basis. ⁓ and spend some time reading scripture. Like we said, even if it's one verse for five minutes, just spend time in prayer with God and reading His word and allowing that seed to be planted in our hearts so it'll ⁓ to grow. And God waters that and nourishes it, ⁓ hopefully will become the men that God has called us to be on this earth for our families and our church and for those people that we work with and anybody that we interact with that we will be the godly men that God wants us to be. So Josh, got anything else that you want to add to that? I'll say this, again, you don't come to our church, even if you do, if you're saying, this is great, starting point, I want more, if you don't go to our church, go to your pastor, say, hey, I want some help studying the Bible, I don't know what to do, I can almost guarantee you ⁓ if he's any pastor a salt, he's gonna be excited about that and ⁓ come alongside of you. if you ⁓ go to our church Mount Olive, we would love to do that, you can talk to Corey or myself, we'd love to ⁓ walk beside you in but ⁓ yeah, I think that's So, all right, Josh, if you'll pray for us, we'll get out of here. ⁓ do pray that you would give us ⁓ hunger for your word, that you would give us a thirst ⁓ your word, and Lord, that you would be ⁓ and merciful when we drift, and Lord, when ⁓ allow other things of this world to distract us from ⁓ you have for us. And so God, would you train us? Would you correct us? Would you ⁓ us to lead our homes well, to lead in your church well, ⁓ us faithful, stable, men rooted and humble and obedient and God would you continuously draw us closer and closer to Christ. May your word be the loudest voice in our lives. We pray this in the name of Christ, amen.