My wife Amber and I, right? Imagine
her and I trying to have a deep, meaningful, impactful, powerful
relationship with one another if we never talked to one another.
We just never talked. Lived in the same house or whatever
and, you know, put money in the bank or what have you and did
different things. But we never talked. Never communicated. Never
had that part of a relationship. It wouldn't be very deep. It
wouldn't be very meaningful. And so one of the primary things
that God teaches us about having a relationship with Him and growing
in that relationship is knowing the scriptures. If you want,
how many of us in here, I mean, I hear this all the time as a
pastor, I really want to know God's will for my life. I really
want to hear from God. How many of you in here want
to hear from God, right? Well, then read the scriptures.
I mean, really, he said, well, you know, God really has sent
us a text message. I hate this. That's kind of corny.
But it's true, right? I mean, like, he really has said
something to us. And what he has said to us is
an authority. And it's through what he has
said to us in the scriptures that we can actually know God,
that we can hear from God. Now, oftentimes, we look, we
go to the scriptures, and we sort of think that the Bible
is sort of like a magic book. And we sort of be like, open
it, and be like. Or we just sort of, like, what
does it say? And then we kind of look, and
it says, and then he walked out and hung himself. No. I mean,
for real, right? I mean, it's not a magic book. Don't over-spiritualize it. God
has given us the scriptures. But too often we're sort of just
like looking for a sign, right? We're saying, I just wish that
I could hear from God when he has given us everything that
we really truly need. He has told us everything that
we really need in order to know Him. But in order to truly know
Him through the Scriptures, you've got to see it as an authority
to your life. Meaning, in order to be wise
from it, you've got to submit to it. You've got to kind of
get underneath the weightiness of it. If I told Amber, my wife
again, right, that she was never allowed to disagree with me,
How good of a relationship is that going to be? In order to have a truly, a relationship
of depth, you have to be able to be willing to put yourself
in a situation where somebody can disagree with you. And maybe
you could be wrong. Any relationship of depth is
always going to be something where we're putting ourselves
at least in a situation where they're allowed to speak authoritatively
to some degree in our lives, to give us hard truths that maybe
other people, right, or maybe we don't even necessarily really
want to hear. And in order to have that relational
depth with God, We've got to, like what I would say, so that
it's sort of just got to be hammered. It's got to be hammered and hammered
and hammered and hammered into our lives. If you want to experience
a relationship with God and experience growth in that relationship,
it's something that's got to go deep down into your heart. And that's where the power is.