Quick Answer
This teaching explains that spending consistent daily time in God’s Word, more than any other spiritual habit, reduces loneliness, bitterness, and destructive vices, and encourages believers entering a new year to build a simple plan, place, and people around reading Scripture daily.
Key Takeaways
- God is present with you wherever you are, whether alone, with family, or gathered as a church.
- Small consistent decisions, like saving loose change, can compound into monumental change over time.
- A study of 10,000 Christians found that daily time in God’s Word combated loneliness, bitterness, alcoholism, and pornography more than any other habit.
- Jesus himself treasured, obeyed, preached, and quoted the Word of God throughout His life, temptation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
- Psalm 119 shows someone who discovered the Word of God as a treasure and feast worth rejoicing over like great riches.
- Three practical steps to grow in Scripture intake are to have a plan, have a place, and have people doing it with you.
- Asking God to give you a hunger for His Word, paired with building a habit, is how He meets you in the middle.
Why does Ethos Church slow down for the first Sunday of the new year?
Happy New Year, and I’m so glad you’re choosing to join us this morning, or whatever time you’re watching. If you’re unfamiliar with our rhythm, every year we take the last Sunday of the year and the first Sunday of the new year to slow down in a season that can often be marked by busyness and hustle. We try to slow down with family and friends, aware that this is a unique way to gather and worship the Lord.
For some of you this might feel unusual, but I truly believe God is present with you whether you’re in a home, an apartment, with friends or family, or by yourself. Wherever you are, God is with you, and I believe He’s eager to move. Sometimes I think He just wants you to believe that, so take a moment, settle your heart, and acknowledge that God is with you right now, He’s here, He’s available.
With that in mind, I want to read Psalm 139 over you. Really listen to those verses about where we could go from God’s spirit or presence — the point is there’s nowhere we can go where He is not there. It’s such a gift that He is near, and we asked that His spirit would move among us, granting supernatural focus and attentiveness to His voice as we worship.
Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
Psalm 139
What is the story of John and the handful of change?
When I was 16 or 17, in the last couple years of high school, I had a mentor named John, a guy in his mid-60s, and I got to work for him for a couple of years. On Thursdays John would take me to lunch and use that time to pour a little wisdom into me. One day he bought my lunch, held out his hand full of change, and asked, ‘Dave, what do you see in my hand?’ I said, ‘I see change.’ He said, ‘I see my wife not being stressed out, I see my grandkids getting something they’re excited about, I see a more fun conversation at the end of the year.’
He explained that almost 40 years earlier, he and his wife were newlyweds without much money, and their first few Christmases together were stressed because they couldn’t afford gifts for family and kids. So one year they made a simple change: instead of losing the extra change after a purchase into a cup holder, junk drawer, or couch cushion, they intentionally saved it to get a head start on Christmas. He said he was astounded by what one small decision could do to bring about a cascading, monumental change in the life of their family.
He told me that next year they still hadn’t saved everything they needed, but they were no longer stressed about the Christmas conversation, and that little change started bleeding over into other areas of their life — relationships, physical health, spiritual health. That conversation with John, over 25 years ago now, began stirring a curiosity in me about what happens when we make small changes consistently over time and how they bring about really big changes in our life.
I was astounded by what one small decision could do to bring about a monumental, cascading effect of change in the life of our family.
John (the speaker’s mentor)
What is the ‘ambiguous ache’ and why do big New Year goals often fail?
When you think about walking with Jesus, a lot of times I come into the beginning of a year and think, man, I know I’m not quite where I want to be. Have you ever had that ambiguous ache where you can’t really name what’s off, but you just know you’re not where you want to be? I think a lot of us are haunted by that ambiguous ache in our spiritual formation — I want to pray more, I want to worship the Lord in my house more, I want to figure out how to slow down more.
A lot of times what we do with that ambiguous ache is make really big goals and really big plans, and if you’re like most of us, we run into the new year with those big goals trying to solve the pain of that ache, and a few weeks in we’re right back where we started. I’m curious what it would look like if you got really serious about grabbing a handful of whatever your spiritual change is and said, ‘Okay Lord, I want to give this back to you day over day.’
Maybe your handful of change is that one more episode you stream before falling asleep to numb yourself, or your morning commute, or that time you’re waiting on something at work. What would it look like this year if you took that handful of change and gave it to God first, in hopes that He might solve that ambiguous ache to know Him more deeply? It’s amazing what God might do if you got really serious about giving Him something small day over day in hopes He could do something big.
What one habit did a study of 10,000 Christians find most impactful?
About 15 years ago a group got really serious about figuring out what small changes followers of Jesus were living into day after day that brought about the biggest impact in their life. They studied about 10,000 Christians across a year and looked at eight to ten key habits in the lives of these disciples, then measured the outcomes those habits had.
Some of the usual suspects were on the list — praying each day, serving others, finding Christian community, keeping the Sabbath — and all of those had tremendous outcomes. But they found one habit, which felt smaller than all the others, almost like a handful of loose change at a counter, that led to more significant change than any of the other habits combined.
This one habit combated loneliness by more than 30% in the lives of those who practiced it day over day. It combated bitterness and anger, and helped combat alcoholism — 47% of people who leaned into this habit conquered vices that had held them back for years in ways others hadn’t. It also helped those struggling with pornography begin to reorient their heart. The one simple habit was making space every single day to get in the Word of God.
How did Jesus treat the Word of God in His own life?
John chapter 1 tells us Jesus was the Word of God made flesh — He was the fulfillment, the embodiment, the visible depiction of what this book looked like on perfect display in a human life. Jesus, the Son of God filled by the Spirit, sent to bring the kingdom of God, was literally the Word of God in flesh, and I want you to notice how He treated and revered the Word throughout His life.
We’re told that when Jesus was a little boy, in Luke chapter 2, He was sitting at the feet of the rabbis, curious, asking questions, digging into the Word of God — the fulfillment of the Word was curious about the Word. In Mark chapter 2 we’re told that whenever Jesus preached, He preached the Word of God, and in Matthew 21 we’re told He lived His life in submission and obedience to the Word.
When facing the devil in the wilderness, dealing with temptation and spiritual warfare, He didn’t use His own strength or wisdom — if anybody could have, it would have been Jesus — but instead He used the Word of God to stand strong. When He’s hanging on the cross in total despair, He’s quoting Psalm 22, quoting the Word of God. And even after His resurrection, in Luke 24, when He’s helping His disciples make sense of what their eyes were seeing, He doesn’t just appeal to their physical senses — He takes them back to the Word, because He knew it would anchor, fulfill, strengthen, and satisfy that ambiguous ache unlike anything else.
What does Psalm 119 teach about treasuring God’s Word?
We don’t know who wrote Psalm 119 — some think David, Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel — but here’s what we know: whoever wrote it had discovered for themselves the treasure that comes when the Word of God gets all the way down into the human spirit. They discovered the feast that comes when you take in the Word of God as the main course of the human appetite.
I love verse 9, which I was praying in early December for the young people in our church: how can a young person stay on the path of purity by living according to God’s Word. The psalmist seeks God with all his heart, hides God’s Word in his heart so he might not sin, and asks God to teach him. He says he will rejoice in following God’s Word as one rejoices in great riches — as though he would rejoice as if he got rich.
Honestly, that’s not always true of me — maybe on my best day it’s true — but I want it to be true, that I’d keep God’s Word like that. He goes on to say he meditates on it, considers all God’s ways, delights in His decrees, and will not neglect His Word. Over and over the psalmist writes not out of cold-hearted discipline but like a mentor holding out his hand, saying, ‘This thing you’ve overlooked — I figured out how to treasure it, and it has changed the course of my life. I want you to have some of this.’
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart— they do no wrong and follow all his ways. You have laid down precepts for us Lord that are to be fully obeyed. Oh that my ways would be steadfast in obeying your word. Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me. How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word, O Lord. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your word. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your word. With my lips I will recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
Psalm 119:1-16
What are three practical steps to grow in reading God’s Word this year?
As we come into a new year there are so many things you could do to level up your life, and I hope every good habit you go after — physical, relational, mental, financial — happens for you. But I want to encourage you not to neglect the most important thing, and not to overlook what might seem like just a little bit of change in the hand. So here are three practical handles for increasing your intake of God’s Word this year.
Number one: make a plan. It needs to be measurable and memorable — don’t just say ‘I want to read God’s Word more,’ because you can’t measure that, and if you can’t measure it you won’t sustain it. Maybe you’re five days into reading through the whole Bible in January with us, or maybe that’s too ambitious and you’d rather read through the whole Bible in a year, about 20 minutes a day, or one chapter a day, one story a day, or one gospel a month. Make it measurable and make it memorable.
Number two: have a place. For me that’s my couch in the mornings, where I light a candle to remind me I’m in the presence of God — His warmth, His nearness, His presence — and I open the Word. Some mornings it’s lifegiving, some mornings it doesn’t feel that way, but consistency over intensity brings about the gains.
Number three: have some people doing this with you. It’s amazing how much more likely you are to lean into this habit if you have one or two friends doing it with you, whether that’s your house church, family, or a friend group. I have a few friends where every time we’re together the first question we ask is, ‘What has God been showing you in His Word recently?’ Sometimes we admit we got out of the habit that week, and that’s a nudge to get back in.
How can you cultivate a genuine hunger for God’s Word?
I remember being in my early 20s, having just finished about six years of formal theological education, having spent a lot of time reading books about the Bible and spirituality — but the truth was Scripture had gotten kind of dull for me personally, and I was struggling to enjoy the Word consistently. I remember calling my mom because I had this memory of watching her, day after day as a kid, getting in the Word of God — I can still picture her spot in our house, Bible open, notebook open.
I asked her what the secret was, how she got in the Word. She said in her early 30s she was struggling just like I was, and an older woman in her church told her to start asking God every day to make her hungry for His Word again — just make me hungry. She said it didn’t happen instantly, but slowly and surely, as she asked the Lord to cultivate a hunger, she started longing for the Word of God. She told me, ‘David, I just want to encourage you — right now start asking that God would make you hungry. Ask Him to do His part, and then you do your part, and watch where God will meet you in the middle.’
As we end our time together, I want to encourage you to go back to Psalm 119, maybe those first 16 verses, and turn each verse into a prayer. Take verse one and pray, ‘Lord, blessed are those whose ways are blameless who walk according to your law — God, I want to be blameless, I want to walk according to your word, I don’t know how, Lord, would you help me.’ Maybe there’s somebody you need to call today to share your plan, your place, and ask them to be one of your people, as we come into the year as a people marked by the Word of the Lord together.
David, I just want to encourage you, just right now start asking that God would make you hungry. Ask him to do his part, and then you start developing a habit, you do your part, and watch where God will meet you in the middle.
The speaker’s mother
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Ethos Church slow down on the first Sunday of the year?
The church has a decade-long rhythm of taking the last Sunday of the year and the first Sunday of the new year to slow down with family and friends instead of rushing into busyness, trusting that God is present wherever you gather.
What is the story about the handful of change?
A mentor named John shared that decades earlier he and his wife were stressed about Christmas gifts as newlyweds, so they started saving their loose change every day instead of losing it, and that one small habit compounded into big change in their finances, relationships, and health.
What did the study of 10,000 Christians find was the most impactful daily habit?
Out of eight to ten habits studied, daily time in God’s Word had the greatest impact, reducing loneliness by over 30%, combating bitterness and anger, and helping 47% of participants overcome vices like alcoholism and pornography.
How did Jesus treat the Word of God in His own life?
As a boy He sat with rabbis asking questions about it, He preached it, He lived in obedience to it, He used it to stand against temptation in the wilderness, He quoted it while dying on the cross, and He pointed His disciples back to it after His resurrection.
What are three practical steps to increase Bible reading this year?
Have a plan that is measurable and memorable, have a consistent place where you meet with God, and have a few people you can talk with regularly about what God is showing you in His Word.
How can someone develop a genuine hunger for God’s Word?
The speaker’s mother was advised by an older woman to simply ask God every day to make her hungry for His Word, and over time that hunger grew as she asked God to do His part while she built the habit.
Watch the full Ethos Church At Home Worship service to hear this whole message and worship set for yourself.
Read the full transcript
Hey Ethos Church, happy New Year and so glad that you’re choosing to join us this morning or whatever time you’re watching. Um, you know, if you’re unfamiliar with our rhythm, every year we take the last Sunday of the year and then the first Sunday of the new year um to just slow down in a in a season that can often be marked by by busyness, by hustle and bustle. Um, we try to just slow down with our family, with our friends and just being aware that this is a unique way to gather and and worship the Lord for some, but I truly believe that God is present with you whether you’re in a home, apartment, whether you’re friends or family or by yourself. Um, wherever you are, God is with you and I believe he’s eager to move and and sometimes I just think he just wants you to believe that and so just just take a moment, settle your heart and and just acknowledge like right now as you’re listening to me talk, like God is with me, he’s here, he’s available.
And with that in mind, I just want to read Psalm 139 over you right now. It says, “Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and you’re acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. Altogether you hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it.”
And really listen to these next two verses: “Where shall I go from your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to Heaven, you’re there. If I make my bed and shell you, were there.”
I just want to take a moment to to just talk to the Lord and acknowledge his presence here and and where you are, God, it is such a gift that you are near. Thank you for the gift of your presence, thank you for the comfort of home right now. Lord, we just ask that that your spirit move among us. God, would you grant just supernatural focus and attentiveness to your voice? Speak to us. I believe you have a word for us that you want to to minister to us as we worship you. Lord, and just on behalf of of our church, God, we’re listening. Speak. It’s such an honor to worship you, to lift up your name and so we do that, God. We praise your name, Jesus, the King of Kings. We love you, we adore you and um just receive our worship in Jesus name. Amen.
Worship and singing 3 min mark
Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord. Open the Eyes of My Heart, I want to see you. I want to see you. Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord. Open the Eyes of My Heart, I want to see you. I want to see you to see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing Holy, Holy.
Holy, we sing Holy. Oh, Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord. Open the Eyes of My Heart, I want to see you. I want to see you. Oh, Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord. Open the Eyes of My Heart, I want to see you. I want to see you to see you high and lift it up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing Holy, Holy, Holy to see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. God, pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.
You Are Holy, Holy, Holy. I want to see you just sing that to him. You Are Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy. You Are Holy, Holy, Holy. I want to see you.
Oh, Jesus. You Are Holy, Holy, Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. I want to see you. One more time. You are. You Are Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy, Hool, holy, holy, holy. I want to see you.
Hear your people crying out. Holy Spirit, would you C? Hear your people cry loud. Holy Spirit, would you come? Yeah, hear your people crying out. Holy Spirit, would you come? Hear your people cry out. Holy Spirit, would you come? Would you come? We pray our prayers. We pray our prayers, but if you’re not in it, we don’t want it. Oh God, would you move? Only you can heal our Liv. Holy Spirit, come, come and F us. So God, would you move? We prayed our prayers, we made our plans, but if you’re not in it, we don’t want it. Oh God, would you move? Only you can heal our land. Holy Spirit, come and F us. So God, with you, Holy Spirit, come and fill us. Oh God, your people crying out. Holy Spirit, would you come? He your people crying out. Holy Spirit, you come. Oh God, we prayed our prayers, we made our PL, but if you’re not in it, we don’t want it. Oh God, would you? Only you can heal our Holy Spirit, come and fill us. So God, would you Holy Spirit, come and so God, with you, Holy Spirit, come and fill this so God, with you.
You can have it all, every part of my world, so take this life and breathe this heart that is now yours. Sing that again. You can have it all, every part of my world, so take this life and breathe this heart, heart is now yours. There is no greater call than giving you my all. I lay it all down. I lay it all down. There is no greater love, no higher name above, by the it all down are they it all down. There is no greater call than giving you my all are they it all down are they it all down. There is no greater love, no higher name above, above are they it all down. I live you can have it. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, every part of my world to take this life and breathe on this heart that is now yours. Oh, you can have it all, Lord, every part of my world, take this life and Brea on this heart that is now yours. My heart is yours, God.
All my heart is yours. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is B. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better. Oh, I’m at home in your presence. Oh, everything El come second. Oh, I could stay here forever. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better. Oh, I’m in home in your presence. Oh, everything else comes second. Oh, I could stay here forever. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better. I’ve searched the world and found nothing is better.
New Year message begins 15 min mark
Hey, good morning. Happy New Year, hope you had a great Christmas and whoever you’re with this morning, wherever you’re at, whether you’re on your own or with your house church or your family, really hope you’re taking advantage of this sort of slow roll into the New Year together. If you’re new to our church family, this may be sort of a weird rhythm for you. You’re like, why do we take the first Sunday of the year to do this? We’ve been doing this for over a decade now and we found there’s something really beautiful about ending the year and beginning the year in this place of rest. And so this morning, we’re going to continue to kind of slow it down just a little bit. Next week, we’ll be back together in person, but I want you to take advantage of this space that we have together in sort of a different kind of rhythm as we start a year.
So if you have a Bible, Psalm chapter 119 is where we’re going to be and I want to give you just a few simple things to think about as we come into the new year, uh, together.
Story about John 17 min mark
I remember uh when I was in uh kind of the last couple of years of high school, 16, 17 years old, and I had a mentor at that time, a guy named John who was in his mid-60s. And I had the gift of getting to work for him for a couple of years. And if you’ve been around Ethos for any amount of time, you’ve maybe heard me talk about John. God used him to really impact my life. But on Thursdays, John would come into that small shop that I manag for him and he’d take me to lunch or we’d go grab a snack together on the break. And he’d usually just kind of use that time to pour a little bit of time and wisdom into me.
And I remember this one day in particular, he had taken me to lunch and John was old school so he didn’t pay with a credit card or a debit card. He would he would pay with cash. And remember, he just bought my lunch and he holds out his hand and his hand was a bunch of change and he says, “Hey Dave, what do you see in my hand there?” And I looked down, you know, maybe 80 cents or something. I don’t know. I said, “See, I see change.” And he said, “In my hand,” he said, “I see U my wife not being stressed out um I see my grandkids getting something they really excited about. He said, “I see a a more fun conversation at the end of the year.” I’m like, “Okay, John, what are you talking about?” And he began to tell me this story that had started for him almost 40 years earlier when he and his wife were newly weds and they weren’t small business owners and they didn’t have much money at that time.
And and so they got to that first Christmas and they were stressed out of their mind because they didn’t have money for gifts for their family and their kids. And so that that happened the first few Christmases together. And so he said they rolled into the new year one year and he said, “What if we made a simple change?” And he said, “Every day when we make purchases, instead of losing the extra change after the purchase in the cup holder or in the junk drawer or in the cushion of our couch, he said what if we really intentionally saved that money and at the end of the year got a head start on Christmas so that way when we got to Christmas?”
Every year we weren’t stressed out freaked out and I’ll never forget he looked at me and he’s holding this you know handful of change and he said I was astounded by what one small decision could do to bring about a monumental like this cascading effect of change in the life of our family. He said that next year we got to the to Christmas and he said we hadn’t saved everything we needed to. He says but no longer were we stressed about the the Christmas conversation and he said that little change that brought about a big impact. He said it started bleeding over into other things in our life and our our relationships into our physical health into our spiritual health and that conversation with John really began to stir this curiosity in me 25 plus years ago about what happens when we make small changes consistently over time and the way they bring about really big changes in our life.
Um you know it’s it’s amazing to me when you think about walking with Jesus. I think a lot of times I come into the beginning of a year and I’m like man I know I’m not quite where I want to be you know sometimes it’s that sort of ambiguous ache have you ever had that ambiguous ache where you can’t really name what’s off but you just know you’re not like where you want to be and I think a lot of us we are haunted by that ambiguous ache of our spiritual formation we go I know I’m not where I want to be you know I want to pray more or or I I I I want to worship the Lord in my house more or I want to figure out how to slow down more I think all of us have sort of that ambiguous ache and so a lot of times what we do with that ambiguous ache is we make really big goals we make really big plans and if you’re like most of us if you’re like me um we kind of run into the new year with some of those big goals trying to solve the pain of that ambiguous ache and we get a few weeks into the new year and we’re kind of like right back where we started.
And I’m just I’m just curious as we start another year together um what would it look like if you got really serious about grabbing a handful of whatever your spiritual change is and you just said okay Lord I I want to give this back to you day over day like like maybe your handful of spiritual change is you know that that one more episode that you just stream before you fall asleep every night to kind of to kind of numb yourself to sleep maybe that’s your handful of change or maybe it’s your commute in the morning or or or or maybe maybe it’s that time when you’re waiting for that thing to happen at work what would it look like this year if you took that handful of change and you said Lord I want to give that to you this year first and foremost in hopes that you might solve that ambiguous ache that I have to know you um more deeply um I think it’s amazing what God might do if you got really serious about giving him something small day over day over day in hopes that he could do something big.
The daily habit study 21 min mark
You know about 15 years ago there was a group they got really serious about trying to figure out what were the small changes that followers of Jesus were living into day after day that brought about the biggest impact in their life and so they got about 10,000 Christians that they studied across a year was a pretty ambitious study and they looked at a number of habits in fact they looked at about eight to 10 key habits in the life of these disciples of Jesus that they were doing every single day and then they tried to measure what sort of outcome did this have in the life of the people that practice these things and some of the the usual suspects were on this list you know things like praying each day or serving others or finding Christian community or pausing one day a week and not working at all you know keeping the Sabbath and and all of those things had tremendous outcomes in their life but they found that there was this one habit in particular in fact it was a habit that seemed in some way smaller than all of the others in some ways it was a habit that felt like a handful of loose change at a counter it was it was a habit that that felt so small you would really be prone to overlook it but it was one habit that led to more um significant change in the life of all of these people than any of the other habits combined which is really fascinating to me.
They found that this one habit combed loneliness by more than 30% in the lives of those that did this habit day over day over day um this one habit combed bitterness and anger um this one habit helped combat alcoholism in fact they found that 47% of the people that that leaned into this one small habit um really uh conquered some of those those vices that had held them back for years and ways that others hadn’t um this one it helped those that were struggling with pornography begin to reorient their heart and I remember just reading the study going what in the world is this habit what is the change in the hand that addresses the ache at the end of the year that brings about the change and maybe you’ve already guessed it by now but here was the one simple habit it was making space every single day to get in the word of God that’s it just each and every day going to get the word of God and and what they found was this one simple habit that that feels so simple most of us are kind of prone to go yeah yeah yeah we get that what’s the the bigger thing um it was the thing underneath all of the other things that began to reorient the hearts it was the thing that began to satisfy sort of that ambiguous ache that was sort of gnawing at these 10,000 people that were going hey I think there’s more for me what is the more how do I get to the more.
Jesus and the word of God 24 min mark
And when you you look at the word of God in the life of Jesus it’s it’s really fascinating to me you know uh John chapter 1 tells us that Jesus was the word of God made flesh in other words he was the fulfillment he was the embodiment he was the visible depiction of what this book looked like if it was on perfect display in every moment of a human being’s life and so Jesus the son of God filled by the spirit of God sent to bring the kingdom of God who was literally the the word of God in flesh I want you to notice the way that he treated and revered the word of God in his life which is sort of like a a Christopher Nolan movie to me it sort of bends my mind I’m like how does the word of God you know like walk with the word of God it’s just kind of this like crazy mind-bending reality to me but I want you to think about this you know we’re told that when Jesus was a little boy in Luke chapter to he was sitting at the feet of the rabbis curious asking questions digging into the word of God and I go okay so the fulfillment of the word the guy that had spoke all of it into into existence was curious about the word.
In Mark chapter 2 we’re told that whenever Jesus would preach he would preach the word of God in Matthew 21 we’re told that um he lived his life in submission or obedience to the word when he was facing the devil uh in the wilderness when he was trying to combat uh temptation when he’s dealing with spiritual warfare he didn’t use his own strength or his own wisdom if anybody could have done that it would have been Jesus but what did he use we’re told he used the word of God to stand strong in that moment when he’s hanging on the cross in total despair what is Jesus quoting he’s quoting Psalm 22 he’s quoting the word of God and even after he he’s raised from the dead on the day of his resurrection he’s looking at his disciples in Luke chapter 24 and and the way that Jesus is trying to help them make sense of what their eyes were seeing he doesn’t just appeal to their physical senses he takes them back to what he takes them back to the word because he knew that there was something in this most basic building block of a disciple’s life that would anchor them and fulfill them and strengthen them and satisfy that ambiguous ache unlike anything else and so he just kept taking them back to the word.
Psalm 119 on the word 26 min mark
And this is what I love about Psalm chapter 119 we don’t we don’t know who wrote it we don’t know if this King David or Ezra or Nehemiah some think Daniel wrote it but here’s what we know whoever wrote Psalm 119 they were a person that had discovered for themselves the treasure that comes when the word of God gets all the way down into the human spirit they discovered the the feast that comes when you sit down and you take in the word of God as the main course of the human appetite and I just want to read the first few verses of Psalm 119 if you have it you can follow along if it’s not open you can close your eyes and listen to this this is Psalm 119 starting in verse one it says blessed are those whose ways are blameless who walk according to the word of God blessed are those listen he’s going to keep saying this over and over blessed are those who keep the word of God and who seek them with all of their heart they do no wrong and they follow all of his
Ways you have laid down precepts for us Lord that are to be fully obeyed. Oh that my ways would be steadfast in obeying your word. Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all of your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees and do not utterly forsake me.
I love this verse, verse 119. In fact, in early December I was praying this for all of um the young people in our church. It says how can a young young person stay on the path of purity? Listen to this: how can a young person stay on the path of purity by living according to your word? Oh Lord, so I seek you with all of my heart. Do not let me stray from your word. I’ve hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
So praise be to you Lord, teach me your word. With lips I will rec all of your laws that come from your mouth. I will rejoice in following your word as one rejoices in great riches. Listen to that—he goes, I will rejoice in keeping your word oh Lord as though I would rejoice if I got so rich like um just being really honest that’s not true of me. I i want that to be true of me like maybe on my best day that’s true of me um but man I i want that to be true of me that man God I want to keep your word like that.
He goes verse 15: I meditate on your word and consider all of your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. And over and over and over the psalmist he’s writing not out of this place of like cold-hearted discipline. He’s like a mentor that’s holding out his hand and he goes, this thing that you’ve overlooked, he goes, I figured out how to treasure it. And he goes, and it has changed the course of my life. And the psalmist is holding it out and he goes, he goes, I want you to have some of this. He goes, I i I want you to tap into this.
Habits for the new year 29 min mark
And you know, as we come into new year together, there’s so many things that you could do um to level up your life and I want to encourage you. Every good habit that you’re going after man I i i i pray to the Lord that you really get it this year. Like every physical goal, every relational goal, every mental goal, like every financial goal, I hope those things, I hope those things happen for you. But as we come into a new year, I want to encourage you: don’t neglect, don’t neglect the most important thing. Um, don’t overlook what might seem like just a little bit of change in the hand. Don’t overlook what it is that God might want to do.
So I want to give you just kind of three real practical handles for you as you think about maybe increasing your intake of the word of God this year. And so very quickly, if you want to increase your intake of God’s word this year, um number one I want to encourage you to make a plan—plan, make a plan. You know, if you’re going to make a plan it needs to be measurable and it needs to be memorable. Uh, you know, don’t just say I want to read God’s word more this year uh because you can’t really measure if you’re doing that or not. And if you can’t measure it you’re not going to be able to sustain it over time.
And so I want to encourage you, make your plan measurable. Maybe, maybe you’re five days into this 30 days of reading through the whole Bible with us in January and I want to encourage you like man keep going. For some of you maybe that was too ambitious and you go, I can’t do that, but you can do something. Maybe you want to read through the whole Bible in one year, not one month but one year. You could do that in about 20 minutes a day. Make it measurable, or maybe you want to do one chapter a day or one story a day or one gospel a month. Whatever it is, I want to encourage you to make a plan and to make that plan measurable and make it memorable.
If it’s so complicated that you have to pull out like a 15-page chart to figure out where you are in your bible plan you’re not going to make it very far into the plan. And so I want to encourage you, if you want to increase your intake of the word of God, uh, make a plan. Every year our family we just try to make a plan.
Number two, um, have a place. Have a place. You know, so for me uh that that’s my couch in the mornings. I i try to sit on that couch and I light a candle to remind me that I’m in the presence of God. Just light coming into the midst of the darkness, his warmth, his nearness, his presence, and I open up the word. Some mornings it’s great. Some mornings it’s lifegiving. Some mornings it feels amazing. Some mornings it doesn’t. But here’s the truth: consistency over intensity brings about the gains.
And so i’ I’ve just found you know there’s something about having a a plan. There’s something about having a place. Maybe that place for you is that nook at your office. Maybe it’s a place in your house or your favorite coffee shop. Have a place. Have a plan.
Number three, have some people that you’re doing this with. Um, it is amazing um how much more likely you are to lean into this simple habit if you just have one or two friends that are doing it with you. Maybe it’s your house church. Maybe it’s somebody from your family. Maybe it’s a friend group. Uh, maybe you’re not even doing the same plan but your commitment is whenever you’re together to just talk about whatever it is that God is stirring up in you.
I have a few friends that every time we’re together the first question we ask is, hey, what has God been showing to you in his word recently? And you know, sometimes we say, hey, I got out of the habit this week, and that’s a nudge to get back in. But it’s it’s amazing because what we believe is, you know, a lot of us are going, hey, we want to lower things like loneliness and bitterness and rage and we want to walk in purity and we want to get out of some of those vices. And there there’s that dull ache in the heart. We have these big dreams and these big goals.
God’s invitation to small moments 33 min mark
And I believe at the beginning of the year the Lord is handing out his hand, sticking out his hand, and in that hand is a handful of change. And he goes, hey, would you redeem these small moments? And would you get back to the thing um it’s just so simple, it’s easy to overlook. And would you trust that I could do more with a little bit of time in my word than you could do with anything else?
And so I want to challenge us this year as we come into into the year together as a church family—may we be a people of the word.
A story about hunger for scripture 34 min mark
As as we end our time together this morning I just want to end with this simple story. I remember being in my early 20s and I’d finished up grad school, had just finished about six years of formal theological education, had spent a lot of time reading books about the Bible. I’m spending lots of time reading books about spirituality and Christianity uh but the truth was the scriptures had gotten kind of dull for me personally. And I was really struggling to enjoy the word, to get in the word, to be in the word consistently.
And some of you heard me tell the story a lot of times but that’s okay, it’s really impacted me. So I remember calling my mom and because I had this this memory of just watching her as a kid day after day just like getting in the word of God. Like I can picture where she sits, her place in our house, Bible open, notebook open. And I remember calling my mom in my early 20s and I’m like, what was the secret? Like, how did you get in the word? And it’s just really simple. She said, you know, in my 30s, she said, in my early 30s, she said, I was really struggling uh just like you are to get in the word. And she said an older woman in church just told me to start asking God every day to make me hungry for his word again. Just make me hungry.
And she said it didn’t happen instantly but something happened as I asked the Lord to cultivate a hunger for his word. She said slowly but surely, she said, I just started longing for the word of God. And she says, she said, David, I just want to encourage you, just just right now start asking that God would make you hungry. Ask him to do his part. And then you start developing a habit. You do your part. And watch where God will meet you in the middle.
Invitation to pray through Psalm 119 35 min mark
So as we end our time together, as we come into this new year, I want to encourage you: go back to Psalm 119 and maybe those first 16 verses. I want you to take each verse and to just turn those into a prayer. You you know, you take verse one and you say, Lord, blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to your law. Oh God, hey God, I want to be blameless. I want to walk according to your law. I want to walk according to your word. I don’t know how to Lord, would you help me? Read the next verse. Just just turn it into a prayer.
And so I want to pray over you and send you into your time of praying through Psalm 119. Maybe there’s somebody that you need to call today and and share your plan with them, share your place. Maybe you need to ask them to be one of your people. But I want to encourage you, as we come into the year, let’s be a people marked by the word of the Lord together.
And so God, I just thank you u for the gift that you give us, the way that you can take small uh little moments in our life um things that feel insignificant, handfuls
of change and that God you can bring about compound interest on those things that God you can bring about monumental outcomes. God, I just pray that if we were only to live into one habit this year, that God you’d help us to make it count and that you would make Ethos Church a people who are grounded and hungry and obedient to and fulfilled in your word. And so God, would you help us to know how to make a plan? God, would you carve out places in each of our lives to encounter you in your word? And God, would you give us people who help the word come to life in new ways that that spur us on and that help us to go?
Trust in God’s word 37 min mark
Um, God, thank you, you, uh, for your word. Thank you that we don’t have to understand how it works in order for it to do its work. Just like I don’t have to understand why eating healthy and working out, um, sustains my body for it to work, I don’t have to understand why your word sustains my soul in order for it to do that. But God, um, would you help me to trust it? And so Lord, would you supernaturally increase our hunger this year? And God, would you give us the discipline to develop new habits when it comes to your word? And God, would you bring about great fruit in the year to come for your glory and for our joy and for the good of those around us in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Hey, I love you. Happy New Year. Can’t wait to see you next week.
