Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good Morning, Village Church. Morning. Good morning. If I have not had the joy to meet you, my name's Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church, and we are launching into a three week study on how to study the Bible, the Center for Bible Engagement. Uh, they did a study related to Bible reading, in Bible listening, and they disc, they discovered something very powerful, and they referred to this as the power of four. So the power of four is in reference to how many days a week a Christian reads or listens to the Bible. And what they found is they measured hundreds of thousands of Christians over a long period of time all around the globe, is that it doesn't matter how much you engage the Bible. The Bible will, generally speaking, if you're a true believer, the Holy Spirit have a positive effect and impact on your life.
Speaker 1 00:01:02 So like, if the only time you engage the Bible is when you come to church, it still is going to have a positive impact on you. And if you read the Bible two days a week and three days a week, it still has a positive impact on you. But there is something statistical and profound that happens the moment somebody shifts from reading the Bible three days a week to four days a week. The difference that Bible reading makes it's measurable, but by and large, it's not statistically enormous until you get to the power of four. And so if you engage your Bible four times a week here, just there's a brief overview of a long paper that they wrote. Drinking two excess decreases by 62%. Viewing pornography decreases by 59%. Intimacy outside of marriage decreases by 59%. Gambling decreases by 45%. Lashing out an anger decreases by 31%.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 Gossiping decreases by 28%. Lying decreases by 28%. Neglecting your family decreases by 26%. Overspending or mishandling food decreases by 20%. I wanted the food part to be higher, but okay, overeating or mishandling money decreases by 20%. Feeling bitter decreases by 40%. Thinking destructively about one's self or others decreases by 32%. Feeling like someone has, uh, has to hide what they do or feel decreases by 32%, having difficulty for giving others decreases by 31%, feeling discouraged, decreases by 31%. Experiencing loneliness decreases by 30%, Having difficulty forgiving, one's self decreases by 26%. Thinking unkindly about others, 18% decrease experiencing fear or anxiety, 14% increase, feeling spiritually stagnant. This decreases by 60%, feeling like they can't please God decreases by 44%. Can we just say, like, I, I would love to have a decrease in every single one of those. And statistically, one of the best, most measurable practices you can put into your life to see this benefit is reading the Bible four times per week.
Speaker 1 00:03:09 But they didn't just stop there. The Bible also had a even greater significant impact on positive biblical behaviors. If someone reads their Bible four times per week, they are 228% more likely to share the gospel. There's a 200% increase in giving 407% more likely to memorize scripture. 416% more likely to give financial to their church memorizing scripture. 407% more likely to do this, discipling others 231% more likely sharing their faith. We already said this, 228% giving financially to causes other than their church, 218% increase. That's the power of four. And again, all reading less than this is good for your soul. But it's so interesting that when somebody takes the word of God and they don't just do it kind of haphazardly and randomly, but they put it into the daily discipline of their life, the net result is unbelievable. So for the next three weeks, here's what we want to help you do.
Speaker 1 00:04:10 We wanna help you learn and know how to study the Bible better. So next week, um, we're gonna be looking at how not to read the Bible. We're gonna look at some of the most common mistakes that people make. I guarantee you there are gonna be probably one of those that everyone in this room personally identifies with at some time or another. The, the next week we're gonna talk about not reading the Bible, literally, we're gonna talk about something even better, how to read the Bible literal rarely. And we're gonna look at what that actually means. So this morning I'm gonna share with you five best practices for Bible readers. Um, my hope at this morning is that whether you are like brand new to the Bible or you've been reading the Bible for years, that the Lord would have something for you in this so that you could engage him through his word.
Speaker 1 00:04:55 All right, Best practice, number one, know the purpose. Why are you picking up your Bible specifically? Half the time, we have no idea why we're doing what we're doing. For example, you go to the fridge to eat. Why are you eating? Are you hungry? Nope. Are you anxious? Yes. Why did you have that drink? Because you wanted to relax and enjoy God or because you're overwhelmed and this is your coping mechanism when you go to the Bible, like why are you going to the Bible Actually? And and I just wanna encourage you because the Bible gives so many honorable motivations for reading it and picking it up. I wanna share with you just 10 of them very quick. Um, and so if you're taking notes, good luck. Ready <laugh> number one, to survive spiritually. Matthew four, four. Jesus says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.
Speaker 1 00:05:55 Number two, to revive your soul, you might be depressed and downcast, Psalm 19, seven says, The law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul. May maybe you just want to grow spiritually. This is a great motivation. Second Peter two, two says, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. Some of you, you're like, I just need to know the will of God. This is an admirable motivation. Romans 12, two, be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God. Uh, some of you, you want to teach and train others. This is noble and honorable. Second Timothy three says this, All scriptures breathe out by God. And it is profitable for teaching, for approved correction and training and righteousness. Not just the one reading it, but Paul's writing to a pastor saying, Use this and teach and train and reprove other people for righteous righteousness.
Speaker 1 00:06:50 Uh, maybe you need to test doctrine like the Beres did in the Book of Acts. And maybe you're hearing doctrine and you're like, I gotta really figure out if this is good. Acts 17, 11. Now, those Jews were more noble than those in Nikah. They received the word with all eagerness examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so, maybe you're just hopeless and you're looking for the Bible to give you some kind of hope. Roman's 15, four says, Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. Uh, maybe you are struggling with sin and you are hoping that engage in the Bible is gonna help protect you from sin. Some one 19 verse 11 says, I've stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Speaker 1 00:07:36 Maybe you sense you're in the middle of a spiritual battle. You are sensing a discerning demonic attack on your life. Ephesians six 17 says, Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. May maybe you are anxious about the future, and you need to know what the Bible says about how all of this ends to understand the future. Revelation one, one, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. There are a thousand incredible motivations to pick up the Bible and, and whatever brings you to the word of God, I am just so glad that you knew enough and had the impulse to open up God's word to resolve whatever is going on inside of you. I want, I wanna summarize in a word what all of these motivations are really at the end of the day about.
Speaker 1 00:08:30 And the word is sync. S y n k. Now, I wanna say something in the front end. I am going to use the word insync many times, and you memes will be made about this sermon. I concede <laugh>. So I'm gonna just let you know that I know what you are thinking. Whenever I say the word insync, let me give some synonyms. If it makes me feel better, union with God, togetherness with God, oneness with God, I think one of my other favorites is alignment with God. When you open up the word of God, here's what I want. I want alignment. I wanna be in sync with you. I want your thoughts to be my thoughts. I wanna take all my emotions and submit them to your word of God. I wanna be in sync with you emotionally. Uh, I want my life to be the life of Christ.
Speaker 1 00:09:18 I want my behavior to be in sync with the way Jesus lives his life. Uh, some of the scriptures say you walk in the spirit. Uh, I wanna be aligned. I wanna be together. I wanna be in sync with you. Now, if you're married or dating, et cetera, like I, I want you to imagine you go out on a date with your husband or your wife, or you go on a date with your boyfriend or girlfriend and, and let's just say your sole agenda was, I will learn data about you so I can put it in my data reservoir and brag to people about how much I know about you. Is knowledge a good motivation, by the way? Yes. But it, but really, do you want somebody to sit down with you so they can learn data about you only so they can brag about it later?
Speaker 1 00:09:57 No. What you want is relationship. You want togetherness, you want union, you want oneness. You wanna be aligned, not just theoretically, but you wanna be aligned relationally. And so when you come before God, one of the things I want to encourage you, whatever, motivational, whatever, thank got you here, let's rise above all of this. I want you to walk away from your time and God's word, pursuing to be one, to be in sync, to be aligned in relationship with your God. When I'm in sync with God, I bring God the most amount of glory. When I'm having the thoughts, the mind of Christ, that is when my mind brings God the most amount of glory. When, when my emotions are synced up to his truth in reality, this is when emotionally I bring God the most amount of glory. When my behavior is synced up to the word of God, this is when my life and my behavior bring God the most amount of glory.
Speaker 1 00:10:52 And and so if you want your life to bring God as much glor as possible, when you open up your word, look for sink. Look for alignment, look for oneness, look for togetherness. And if you, if you can pursue that, like the Lord can do unbelievable things in your mind, your heart and your your life, and I wanna give a warning to Christians who know the Bible well, your past alignment does not guarantee your current alignment, Your past alignment with God does not guarantee your current alignment with God. If I had an incredible first decade of marriage with my wife, that does not necessitate that the second decade is going to be as good. And so when you think about your relationship with God, when you think about ness, alignment, togetherness, unity, oneness, being on the same page with each other, like any relationship in your life, it is a fire that needs to be stoked.
Speaker 1 00:11:52 And what I watch happen all too often is that mature, quote unquote Christians who know the Bible better than anyone else who sit in their community group or their small group in their Bible study, and they pull out random texts from the Old Testament that nobody knows. And they say things like you, you know, in Psalm, uh, uh, three verse four, No, I I actually don't, I didn't. Right? You know, you know what I mean? That somehow whatever happened, maybe in the, the fires, the bonfire of their youth somehow that they think because I had that when I was young and I have a repository of information in my brain, I'm good. And, and I think one of the biggest challenge to those who are mature in Christ I is, here's my question. Are you in relationship with God? Are you, is your mind in sync with him? Is your heart and his heart? Are they in sync with each other? Is your life in sync with him? Are you relationally connected to God? Uh, is your time in God's word about knowledge acquisitions that you can give that away primarily? Or, or are you actually going to God's word because you love your God? Or because maybe you're struggling to love God and you're like, God, I'm coming to you anyways. Help me be one. Help me be one with you.
Speaker 1 00:13:07 One of the most dangerous things about being smart is that when you approach a text, we approach it as if we've already mastered it. And so, like one of the habits that I have as a Bible teacher is I will often teach on the same Bible verse or text, um, multiple times. And one of the things I've had to stop doing is I've had to stop going to my old notes. And so what's interesting is when I go to a text and there's some of them like the great commission, I've taught the great commission probably 30 separate times. And what I have to do is put aside all my notes in the past. And then what I do is I just, I let that text sit with me and I study it, and I I dig into it. And you know what is so interesting?
Speaker 1 00:13:46 It doesn't matter how many stinking times I read the same verse, there is always something new in it. There's either something I knew learn about God, myself, There's something in my heart, there's a conviction in me that like, wow, last time I taught this, I was really, really intense about sharing the gospel. I haven't shared the gospel with anybody in three months. And, and so even though I had this whole set of notes on this one text, every time I go to it, the Lord and I have different work to do in my mind, my heart or my life. And, and every time I go to a text, every time I hear a preacher preach something I have preached on 10 times over, I have to get rid of my arrogance that I have mastered this text. And I have to say, Lord, your may your Bible never become something I believe I have mastered.
Speaker 1 00:14:32 May, may, may you produce in me a humble heart because even though I might be able to tell you what the different Greek and Hebrew words say in different parts of the Bible, Lord, may I never presume that you and I are in sync, that there is nothing left, That there's no more gold left in a text as if me and my hubris, I've had the ability to mine the, to mine it for everything in it. And now we're gonna close the mind because there's nothing else to get May I never may I never be so arrogant to think that I have mastered your word or that it has nothing left for me, or that you and I don't have more work to do from this text. It requires a humility. So this is a warning to mature Christians. Never underestimate what God might have for you.
Speaker 1 00:15:12 In the same verse, you have studied over and over again. All right, best practice number two. Now this is all gonna go a lot faster honor the little a author and the big a author through Ex Exe Jesus. I will never forget the first time I heard the word exegesis. I was 19 years old and my college pastor was teaching on this subject. And when I heard it, I was like, Yes, you finally gave a word for what I wanted when I approached the text. And so here's what exe Jesus means. It's the process of discovering the original and intended meaning of a passage of scripture Exa means to pull out. So when I open up the Bible, I want to know what the little a author, the person who wrote this, what were they trying to communicate? But even beyond that, the big a author, the divine author, I wanna know what is God trying to do here as well?
Speaker 1 00:16:14 So, so then my college pastor contrasted this with another word, and that word is Isa Jesus. And Isa Jesus is the process of putting your own ideas, agenda or bias into a text Isa means into. And so he hit this really great illustration that I'll never forget. Uh, he called on a girl named Megan. And, uh, Megan, he looked at her and he said, Megan, uh, what does John three 16 mean to you? And she says, Well, to me, John three 16 means. And then he yelled, he goes, I don't care what it means to you. And everybody in the room goes, Whoa. And point made. And he goes, I care what the author meant and what God meant. And he said, I love that you're trying to apply and don't get me wrong, but this is, I said, Jesus, the moment you say, Here's what it means to me.
Speaker 1 00:17:05 And then we tend to import things onto a text that the author, the small, a author, and that big, a divine author never intended. And so one of the disciplines of being a good student of God's word is first and foremost, before you get to here's how it applies, or before we even put things onto a text, we are focused on pulling out exegeting what the little a author and the big a author meant when they put this, which means we have to under things understand things like context. I know that's crazy, right? I I can't tell you how many times as a pastor with a master's degree in divinity in the Bible, like I have thought, I understood a text only to learn the context, and then I realized I had it wrong. Like that still happens on a, a regular basis. Pastor Craig and I, we preach, uh, we co-teach together, we study most weeks together.
Speaker 1 00:17:53 How many times do this guy and I and Pastor Alex, uh, who preaches at Alliance Bible Church and other men we're like, Wow, we've never seen that before. In a little bit of context changes things and it helps us exegete more accurately. So how does somebody learn to do this? I'm gonna give you three tips, and there is no humanly possible way for me to train all of you to be the best exs in the world. I've been studying in teaching scripture for two plus decades now, and I'm still learning how to do it better. Three things. Number one, watch others watch others do it well, one of the most important parts, by the way, of being a recipient of a preacher or a teacher of God's word is that ideally they are exegeting accurately. And by watching sermons of preachers who are faithful to the text, you are passively learning how to do that.
Speaker 1 00:18:48 And so what I wanna make sure we do is that even when I parachute into a text and use it as an illustration, I wanna make sure that I am applying it in its context. That the application I'm giving to you is rooted in what the author actually meant. All of this is part of modeling for the church, what proper exit Jesus looks like. And so the first tip is find people who do it well, find people online that you listen to. If there are Bible studies and Bible teachers in your church, watch them and observe how they handle things. The second tip is this practice daily. I wanna give you a ton of grace. You're gonna get so many interpretations of scripture wrong. It's gonna be ridiculous. Future. You is gonna learn so much about the Bible that today you future, you are gonna be like, Yeah, you got that wrong.
Speaker 1 00:19:36 Practice, practice, practice, practice. The more you practice, the better you're going to get at interpreting and reading and studying God's word. And then, and then finally, number three, ask questions. I, I think this is one of the most important things when people come to me after a service and they say, Where did you get this in the text? How did you get from here to there? Those are awesome questions. Never lose your curiosity. Now I wanna go deeper into ask questions because what I found is there are three big attitudes that impact people as they approach the Bible. The first attitude is that of arrogance. And I already know what this means. Um, are you gonna get much new out of the Bible if you already assume you already know what it means? Probably not. And, and in fact, I would actually say rise above that.
Speaker 1 00:20:24 Arrogance assumes they know a whole lot more than they do. And it makes the point of Bible reading shely knowledge more than anything else. Don't approach reliable arrogantly the others insecurity. This is the opposite end. Uh, this says, I can't figure this out. So what happens with so many people is they kinda give up. And I wanna tell 'em, just don't, don't give up. Do not let insecurity prevent you from approaching God's word. I think there's a better attitude, and it's this, it's curiosity. I wonder what else is here. The the people who go deepest into God's word, they ask questions out of a heart that is truly curious. They don't presume to have mastered anything. Uh, they want to know what does that mean? What is the context? And then they go find people or books that can give them the answer. Never be ashamed that you don't know what nobody has ever taught you before.
Speaker 1 00:21:17 So when you read a book of the Bible and you don't know the context, there is no shame in that. In fact, I'll tell you, there is absolute awesome attitude, behavior, giving God glory when you understand the limits of your knowledge. This doesn't make sense. I'm missing something here. I'm gonna go talk to my pastor, my Bible teacher. I'm gonna get a commentary, ask questions and be insanely curious. All right, Best practice number three, choose your tools intentionally. Here, some must have tools. Number one, a Bible you can actually use. So some of your bibles are like this big, right? Like, can you really bring that anywhere? I don't know, get a Bible. You can actually use, get a Bible that is portable. Maybe you need a couple bibles, one for your study at home. Uh, maybe you put one on your phone. For those of you who hate digital Bibles, maybe you have one you can take with you.
Speaker 1 00:22:07 But here's the most important part. Find a Bible you can use. Find a space to read. If you haven't noticed, like your context can be profoundly distracting. One of the things that I greatly appreciate about some, um, particularly young moms and dads is that they get up before their children get up or they establish their Bible reading time during nap time so they can create an actual space where their brain can be present to be with the Lord. And, and I would say this a place to take notes. So for you to remember what God is doing in your heart, a place for you to even write prayers. For me, what I do is I'm a verbal processor, and so I take out the notes app on my phone. I have about, I think three or 4,000 notes on that sucker. And I just process what I'm learning into it.
Speaker 1 00:22:54 I pray nobody ever has to see those because sometimes there's confessions and it's very vulnerable. But that's helpful for me and I can go back anytime and look at some of the ways that I've processed with God. But for me, if you gimme a pen and paper kill me. Now. I don't want to, I I don't like writing. Okay, that's, um, here's some strongly suggested tools. Um, a Bible reading plan. So we have one as a part of Village church. If you go to the Hub, you can see that. And so we regularly monthly update that for you so that you can engage in a Bible reading plan. For some people that kind of structure, it's gonna be really helpful for you. Uh, there are Bible reading acronyms and so they're basically, um, simple like procedures if you will, particularly if you're the newer to the Bible, um, that allow you to help you like actually know what to do.
Speaker 1 00:23:38 Okay? First I'm going to pray. Uh, second, I'm going to read third, I'm going to apply. So there are just different acronyms that you can use that can remind you of the process you walk into when you're reading the Bible. Um, if that's something that would help you come talk to one of the pastors and we can help find a paradigm of Bible reading that helps you, uh, strongly recommended as a study bible. In fact, I'm gonna, I was tempted to put this in the must have tool, but I'm gonna put this in a strongly recommend tool, a really good study Bible. Every time you open a study bible at the beginning of a book, it tells you the data was written, the author, the audience, the context, all of that. But also throughout every chapter, almost every verse is gonna have an explanation. It'll give you some historical context, some cultural context.
Speaker 1 00:24:22 My favorite study bible is the ESV Study Bible. Um, uh, it is an app form. You can get it in hard back, you can get it anywhere. It's cheap. It is so excellently and well done. And we preach from the ESV English standard version here. So it keeps me in sync. Um, we have found this to be probably one of the most helpful study bibles. Um, here's another strongly suggested tool, uh, a pastor, although I'd prefer not to be a tool or well studied Christian to ask questions, I'll just, I'll say this. Uh, my pastors to this day are the, are are one of the greatest resources that I have. Um, I enjoy talking to my pastors more than I enjoy reading and talking to people I don't even know. And I never cease to be amazed at how helpful pastors and well studied Christians are.
Speaker 1 00:25:17 And then another strong suggested tool is a small group to study with, uh, a group of people to study the Bible with. This is incredibly powerful, will actually change your life. Uh, I wanna share with you a handful of great resources. Uh, I don't know if you've ever heard of this thing, it's called the internet and there is an unbelievable amount of really helpful resources. Um, some of the best articles I've ever read have been written by pastors and theologians. Many people dunno where to start. Talk to your pastor, tell them a subject you wanna learn about and let them direct you to some resources that are doctrinally sound. It could be really, really helpful. Uh, I'm gonna show you this book. Um, multiple people at Village Church have been either given this book by me or read it. It's called Systematic Theology by Wayne g Grham.
Speaker 1 00:26:00 There are a thousand systematic theologies. This guys is hands down, the best, most accessible, easiest to read. I've worked with two men particularly who came to Christ by reading this book. Do Not Get Lost By the Size. Okay? This is a reference book. And let me tell you what a systematic theology does. I think Wayne Greenham has sold I think almost a million copies of that today to show you how many Christians have used this. What it does is it takes a topic, pick any topic, angels, demons, believers, salvation, the end times, uh, doesn't matter, Baptism, Communion. And what it does is it pulls together all the relevant scriptures on that topic. Then what it does is it gives you the different major interpretations throughout church history of that topic. And then what they do is they kind of defend a position of their own.
Speaker 1 00:26:49 And, and what they do is they help you get your brain around any given topic in the Bible in one chapter. And lemme tell you there's a chapter on almost anything you could want. And if there's like a random word you're like, I wonder if it says anything on this word. You go to the end and there's this huge index of words and it tells you every single page where that word is used in the book, or there's an index of scriptures at the end of the book where, oh, I wonder if if Romans chapter seven verse one is mentioned anywhere in this book and relevant to any other subject in the Bible. And it will tell you every single page here in every subject that Romans chapter seven verse one or any verse of the Bible is mentioned. It is incredibly helpful, uh, tool and resource to take a subject and get your brain around the breadth of what is in that subject.
Speaker 1 00:27:36 I picked this book up when I was 19, 20 years old at Michigan State University. Um, and I began reading it throughout the entire year, and it was life changing. Do I agree with everything Wayne Gru says, Nope. But he's fair. And when he represents other people's opinions, he's fair to them. That to me, when somebody fairly represents a different view, that's helpful for me. So I'd encourage you to pick up something like that. Um, got questions.org. I don't get paid by any of these people, although I should. They have hundreds of thousands of answers to questions and I have found this resource to be so profoundly helpful and sound. I could not encourage more a website to get biblical straight answers to every question you can imagine. My favorite is village church digital.org, by the way. Um, where we have over a thousand episodes of questions.
Speaker 1 00:28:26 And this is from your own spiritual leaders here in your community to help you go deeper. Uh, if you do not know the right podcast access, let us help you. Um, and then YouTube is this endless repository of complete garbage and wonderful content. Um, and so we would love to help you there as well. Number four, be gracious with yourself and with others. Everything great is challenging at first. The best things in life are really, really hard work and learning how to read and study the Bible well, it can actually and often is hard work at times. And when you put hard work in at the beginning, it gets easier, right? For sure. And your knowledge grows, your understanding goes deeper. But the best things in life are hard work. So are you gonna make mistakes? You better believe it will others, Absolutely. Will you get some things wrong?
Speaker 1 00:29:20 Yep. So will others. Are you gonna struggle to understand so many things? Absolutely. And so are people around you are, are some of your friends gonna get it faster than you? Yep. And are some gonna get it slower than you? Yep. Is that okay? A hundred percent. Some of you, you learn by debating. Raise your hand if you learn by debating. Raise your hand if you hate debating. Right? Some of you love to just throw down and go back and forth. And some of you're like, For the love of God, leave me alone. Why are you so aggressive with me? Your identity's nodding in your idea. Yes it is. Okay, fine.
Speaker 1 00:30:07 Stop beating yourself and other people up. So I've, I've never seen anything good come out of self self abuse. Ah, never gonna, I'm never gonna get it. Like it, it's not really helpful. Somebody just give you two tips. Number one, if you're struggling, you can't get into it. You're not understanding it. Find what we call a gateway topic. A gateway topic is a controversial or emotional subject that you are immediately interested in. And this is where a book like systematic theology can come in handy. Find something that really gets your blood boiling and start studying that because there's nothing like a subject you're emotionally invested in for you to get interested in find a gateway topic. My freshman year of college, it was speaking in tongues. I was around a whole bunch of charismatics. I didn't understand it and it was so interesting to me.
Speaker 1 00:30:57 And this one subject was a gateway subject that I spent a good six months studying. And by the end of it, I had learned so much about so many other things just by studying this one singular subject. The second tip I would give you if you're struggling with motivation and if you're really not being gracious with yourself or others, is get into a small group Bible study. One of the best things you can do is study the Bible with others. If you are struggling, they hold you accountable. There are readings you have to do either every day or every week. And, and there's nothing like studying the Bible with the people of God. Best practice. Number five, be resolved to obedience. I wanna read Psalm one 19. Verse two says, Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. And verse four says this, You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
Speaker 1 00:31:53 Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. What is the point of reading the Bible? If you are not resolved to obey whatever it is the word of God says, and the Holy Spirit prompts in your heart knowledge without obedience. Its sin to know the right thing to do, the right next step to take and to not do it is sin. Spiritual intimacy without obedience, it will always allude you. Spiritual maturity without obedience is a facade. Ob obedience is this one singular thing. It is the primary difference between those who grow spiritually at unbelievable rates and those who don't, I'll just call it what it is. The person who reads the Bible two times a week and obeys it will grow exponentially quicker than the person who reads the Bible every day and does not obey God's word. What most people don't understand is the reason that we're growing so slowly is because we know the right thing to do it, but we don't feel like doing it.
Speaker 1 00:33:11 And so we don't. Do you want a recipe for spiritual stagnancy? Not feeling God, not being excited about being in God's word, refuse to obey the things that God says to do in his words. So even right now, I'm just gonna, I am confident as I say that the majority of us in this room have one thing, that the Holy Spirit is just putting onto the tip of our brain. It's the one secret we have. It's the one next step that we have been dreading to take. It's the one conversation we don't want to have. And if you know the right next step to do it, and you refuse to obey God in that, do not expect excitement or intimacy, whatever that next step is, I'm telling you, obedience to the word of God and the spirit of God is the key that unlocks accelerated spiritual growth.
Speaker 1 00:33:59 Amen. All right. Now there's some questions that you guys might have. I put down seven, I had initially 35, but I boiled it down to seven <laugh>. So where should I start? If I'm newer to the Bible, the New Testament start with a gospel and a letter. For example, the Gospel of John and the letter of of Ephesians. Great place. Read a chapter and each, both per day. And there's only six chapters in Ephesians. And so read it again and again and again until you're done with the Book of John. Then move maybe to a different gospel and to a different letter. Maybe Galatians or Colossians or Philippians. Find a gospel and find a letter and just start reading. How do I know if I'm interpreting the Bible correctly? Well, read a study Bible. Ask somebody that you trust and talk about it with your friends.
Speaker 1 00:34:55 If you will do those three things. You will quickly learn the interpretations and applications that are not consistent with the author. You'll learn where you're not exegeting, but where you're ise. How, how long will it take for the Bible to change me? Well, number one, let's be clear. It's not the Bible that changes you, it's God. But number two, it'll probably take as long as you're willing to obey. And so what most people, they function like this. They, they have this idea that somehow, um, my desires have to proceed my decisions. I can't do it unless I want to. But the people who experience the most amount of change in their life, in the relationship with God are the ones who do before they desire, the ones who actually do the right thing despite what they feel. I'm telling you, the vast amount of people don't read the Bible because they don't want to.
Speaker 1 00:35:51 But what mature people begin to do is they say, It doesn't matter what I want. Doesn't matter what my emotions say, I'm gonna do the right thing. And here's what we learn, that decisions create desires. The only way for you to desire the word of God is just decide to read the word of God. Let me just say it again. Decisions, they create desires. So as soon as you begin to decide to obey God, expect that in time, that's when your desires will change. Most people are like, God, change my desire. Give me a desire to read the Bible. And God, I think would look at you and say, Start reading the Bible and then I'll give you desire for it. <laugh>, why don't I feel anything when I read the Bible? Um, if you've been like married for a while, you know when you look at young couples and it's like pure infatuation.
Speaker 1 00:36:40 You look at kids and all they want is this like immediate high that look when you see them and your heart skips a beat and then you realize that like is really a weak foundation for anything that's gonna last. You know what I'm saying? And you realize there's actually something better than infatuation. It's commitment. It it's, it's the look that you give somebody that you know, come hell or high water, you are stuck with each other forever and you are committed to each other from the soul of your being. And there is a peace and security. You know that thing, right? Most people approach the Bible like infatuation. Oh, I want that feeling. I want that feeling. And, and sometimes it feels good, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's boring, sometimes it's exciting. Every times it's different. I don't know. Get past infatuation. And what you wanna build with the Lord is loyalty and commitment.
Speaker 1 00:37:24 And I'm telling you that is way better than seeking the high of reading the Bible every time. Expect that every time you read the Bible, you're not gonna feel something the majority of the time. But what's gonna happen over time is you commit to the word of God and you commit to getting to know God of being in sync with him. Emotions will flow. What version of the Bible should I read? Uh, my encouragement to most people is read the version of the Bible that your pastor preaches from. And if you can't understand that version of the Bible, find one that you can't understand. Um, in a week or two, we're gonna look at Bible versions and go a little deeper into that. When is the right time to read the Bible? If you ask morning people, they're gonna say, Jesus, I read the Bible and prayed in the morning, so we should, uh, I think that's more descriptive than prescriptive.
Speaker 1 00:38:09 So, um, what works? I hate the mornings. I'm a night owl. I would much rather read the word of God before I go to bed than when I wake up. I'm useless for about 90 minutes. Anyone else? And so like, I wanna give God my best. And so before I go to bed or during the day, I have these moments where I do this. How do Bible teachers at church know so much about the Bible is everyone of that they commit to reading God's word daily. They engage sermons on a weekly or even sometimes daily basis. They talk about what they're learning constantly and they give away what they're getting. I wanna read you cautions, chapter three, verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly let dwell. It needs to come alive inside of you. Listen to what Paul says, and he's not talking to a pastor when he says this.
Speaker 1 00:38:58 He's talking to the church, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. The people who learn the most about God's word give away what they're getting. They they learn with their friends or their children or their spouse. They learn with their small group to actually process out loud what God's doing in their life, what they've learned from his word. And, and what you'll find is that people who know the Bible really well have studied it. They've created disciplines. They're listening to other people. They're actually curious about some of these things. They talk about it and they give away what they've gotten. Start with this every day. Find one thing to share about with somebody what you learned about God that day. It could be your heart, your relationship with God, your mind one way that God is trying to sync you up with him or align you with him.
Speaker 1 00:39:52 Your life will begin to change as you talk about God's word. I've learned two things from watching Harry Potter fans and sports fans, even the simplest of people, and I mean like didn't get good grades, they don't like deep things. Just tell me what to do and I'm gonna do it. Just like the don't like to learn hate learning. They're just like, hate it. Holy moly. They can take Multivolume books, Harry Potter and tell you the most ridiculous nuance on page 295 from volume four. And I'm telling you, and if you get one thing wrong, actually, right? Or you get like sports fans and their unbelievable knowledge of five plus decades of sports statistics and putting it together and being like, Oh, based on all the trajectories, I'm pretty sure that Matt Ryan is gonna have this kind of game this week. And I'm like, You're telling me you can't read a narrative in the Bible?
Speaker 1 00:40:53 Oh no, I don't buy that at all. What I what I have learned is from sports and Harry Potter is that anybody is capable of taking multi volume, complex novels, putting it together, understanding it and applying it. And so I think for some of us, we have to get rid of some of the excuses and the insecurities or even the arrogance. And we have to approach the word of God with humbling and say, God, help me, pastor, friend, help me, small group, help me. This is worth it. All right, so to close what I wanna do is I wanna share with you, um, honestly just my own journey of growing in God's word. But what I have learned is that it's not just my journey, it's actually most people I know. And so I'm gonna walk through this briefly and then, uh, we're gonna celebrate communion together.
Speaker 1 00:41:39 My Bible milestones always, of course, and this is everybody by the way. It starts when you believe in Jesus. Because when you believe in Jesus, you get the Holy Spirit. And, and, and maybe I'm just gonna surmise, maybe you read the Bible and you don't understand it because you haven't trusted in Christ yet the Holy Spirit is your teacher, your guide, your helper, you need him and you only get him when you trust in Jesus. But I, I'll never forget, I was, uh, about seven years old and my mom started doing a Bible study with me and Mrs. Schwartz and her daughter Liz and the four of us started to do Bible studies. And this was so formation for me. And what I've learned is that most people just need to get into a small group. You might not know anything, but this can be, and I found for most people is really one of those catalysts that will launch you in your understanding of the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:42:28 Uh, the third kind of like, uh, wave of this was somebody challenging my beliefs. I had the opportunity to go to Catholic school for 12 years, all boys Catholic high school. I was taught by priests and uh, um, the Bible was teaching different things about salvation than the priests were. And so I had to deal with some of these challenges. And I think most people, what you find is someone's gonna challenge your faith. In fact, we're doing a five week series after this on the five biggest challenges culturally to Christianity. Why did God kill people? The Old Testament is God oppressive to women. The list goes on and on. We're gonna talk about these things because they're real, but you have to wrestle with these. And sometimes you, you go deeper in God's word when someone challenges you in the foundations of your faith. And that's really good.
Speaker 1 00:43:07 Uh, but there does come a point in every believer's life where they realize that they're a complete hypocrite. They knew what God's word says and now it's time for them to obey. For me, it was about my junior, senior year of high school. I realized that I was not obeying God's word and I made a commitment to the best of my ability to obey God's word. And my spiritual life accelerated from that point on. That for me was the linchpin, trusting in Christ in obedience. Then my freshman year in Michigan State, I started reading, um, the Bible every day. My youth pastor was the one who told me to obey God's word. He started calling out sin. He's also the same one who told me, read God's word daily, gave me a Bible, a study bible to read and challenged me personally on that. Well, after I was doing daily Bible study, the next kind of evolution was I was asked to lead a small group and I was asked to lead a small group of high schoolers who knew nothing about the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:43:57 So whatever I did know, I knew more than them. But when I took spiritual responsibility for somebody, it changed me. And, and I find this to be another lynchpin in in our, our relationship with God through his word. When you now have to have oversight of someone and then lead them through God's word, it actually makes you go deeper into God's word. Um, I then found myself in a position where I was asked to teach God's word. And it's one thing to lead a small group into kind of in a discussion based format, process to the word of God, go deeper. It's another thing to stand up in front of a people in monologue, fashion and present the word of God. It is a totally different head space and it makes you have to go deeper and deeper into the word of God. My sophomore year of college, I started studying theology.
Speaker 1 00:44:46 That's when I picked up Wayne Gru's systematic theology. And this was another just launching point. When I started to put together some of the big themes in scripture from Old Testament to New Testament, I started to find Bible teachers that were really helpful for me. So I remember the first time I heard, um, John Piper preach, I was enamored. And then I found RC sprawl and then I found Matt Chandler and I was younger in the faith at the time. And, and so, but it's interesting is I actually barely listened to those guys anymore. Uh, the guys who were most formative for me at the beginning, um, they kind of played their role in my life. And it's interesting cuz now the most formative people in my life are my pastors. Uh, they're the pastors in my life that we studied the Bible with together.
Speaker 1 00:45:25 And there are elders who speak into to my life. And then, and then finally I started to take classes. Um, I love this time and, and in this world because we can actually take Bible classes online. Isn't that amazing? And what I found in all these is that God used this kind of progression to transform my life. So what's your next step though? Um, you look at kind of this list. Is there like a next step that the Lord might have for you personally? Is there like a next step where you need to grow in your relationship with God in his word? I'm gonna encourage you, whatever the Holy Spirit presses in your heart, do that. Let me pray for you and then we're gonna celebrate communion together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your time together. Thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for revealing your mind and your heart to us. Thank you for not forsaking us. Thank you just for being so wonderful. We love you. I pray God that you would help each of us take the next steps so that we could be in sync with you. That we might have the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, and the life of Christ. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen little church. Amen.
