Knowing Scripture

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. So if you would, please turn to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And the title of this morning's message is The Spiritual Disciplines.

The Spiritual Disciplines. In order to maintain a healthy walk and close relationship with the Lord, it's helpful, if not essential, to be practicing the spiritual disciplines. What am I talking about?

Well, this morning, we're going to be looking at what I call the big three. The big three. Bible reading, prayer, and church attendance. Bible reading, just knowing your Bible, memorizing verses, prayer, and then church attendance.

Another time, we might talk about things like serving, giving, evangelizing, fasting, meditation. There's a lot we could talk about with the spiritual disciplines. But we're going to focus on these three most basic of the spiritual disciplines.

Before we begin, let me just put it this way. Consider a little child for a moment. If you have a little child who's given no structure in life, no boundaries, no discipline. If a parent neglects those basic disciplines and structure in their life, what's that going to lead to?

Well, it's going to be kind of chaotic. It's going to lead to bad behavior. Well, as children of God, we need structure too. We need structure. For the believer, if we neglect the most elementary practices of the Christian religion, if we ignore the spiritual disciplines of the Christian life, it may lead to several things.

It might lead to God. We have this feeling that he's distant. Or we might become indifferent. Maybe it leads to a dryness of our spirit. Have you ever felt that way in your Christian walk? You just feel a dryness in your spirit, like there's something missing.

Well, you probably know this, that the most rewarding things in life don't come easy. Do they? You really do have to put something in. You have to put a lot in to get something out. It's sort of like marriage.

If it's going to be good, it takes a lot of work to raise responsible children who love and obey God. It takes a lot of time and effort. To build anything wonderful and valuable, it takes a great amount of labor.

And you have to keep at it every single day. So it is with the Christian walk. Maybe there are times where you don't feel like reading your Bible. Maybe there are times you don't feel like going to church.

And here's the thing. If you don't, that will make the situation worse. Sometimes we just have to push through and, yes, do the things that we sometimes don't want to do. Look at 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 and 25.

The Apostle Paul says, do you not know that those who run in a race all run? But one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. So the Apostle Paul here is talking about the ministry and how he is serving God and he's serving others. The word temperate in verse 25, if you look at it, the word temperate refers to self-control.

We all need to practice. This is one of the fruit of the spirit, self-control. And he's using the analogy of someone who's running a race, something like a marathon. And in order to run a marathon, you have to train, right?

You have to train. You have to exercise. You have to eat right. You have to avoid certain things that are going to hinder your performance. Paul goes on to talk about how he disciplines his body and brings it into subjection.

It's really the same spiritually. Of course, he is trying to make a spiritual point, but we need to keep up and maintain our spiritual walk with the Lord. It's not just going to happen. You sit around and kind of wait for the feeling to come.

That's typically not the way that it works. And we need to maintain the walk and we need to feed the spirit. Okay, we all feed the flesh. We do that every day. Are we feeding our spirit? Because we need to feed the spirit, because the spirit needs to be healthy and in control.

If the spirit is not in control, the flesh is going to get out of control. Galatians chapter 5, verse 17, you can make a note of this. Galatians 5, 17, and some of you aren't writing. So I'll assume that you've got this memorized.

Galatians 5, 17 says, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are what? Contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish. So let's talk about the spiritual discipline.

You say, Pastor, this morning, I think you're going to be stepping on some toes. I know I'm intentionally trying to step on toes. The spiritual disciplines are what? Biblical practices that a believer does to grow spiritually in Christ.

When we discipline ourselves, not only does our character grow, we bear more fruit. We also build our relationship with Christ. Spiritual discipline allows you to dive deeper into the heart and the mind of God.

And then once we do that, our desires begin to change. Because your love and your yearning for the things of the Lord, it begins to grow. And then, and only then, will you begin to seek him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then God reveals more of himself to you. And then it kind of snowballs, and then you're doing good, and you feel good, and the spirit's in control. I think this is true. Human beings are creatures of habit.

I guess every creature is probably a creature of habit. But human beings are creatures of habit, right? A person might have their morning routine, right? You get up, what do you do? You get up, you make coffee.

Wrong! No, no, no. You get up, you should pray. You should pray first. But you get up, you pray. You make coffee. You read the newspaper. You walk the dog. You brush your teeth. Whatever it is that you do every morning, you understand.

We start to build habits. And then if something happens in the morning that we don't get to do the things we normally do, it can feel like it throws off our whole day, right? And we understand that we are also, at times, we can build bad habits.

And bad habits are hard to break. But here's the thing. Good habits are hard to break once you start to build them up. So that's kind of what we're talking about with the spiritual discipline. Building good habits.

And then once you do it, then it becomes sort of second nature. And that's where you really start to benefit. So turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

Speaking of the first spiritual discipline. Knowing your Bible. Knowing your Bible. Bible reading, Bible memorization. It's all under this category. One basic thing every Christian should learn is where to find the books of the Bible.

So when I say 1 Thessalonians 5, some of you, you know where that is. And listen, I understand some of you don't know where that is. And if you're new to this, everybody has to start somewhere. So that's totally fine.

But we should get to learn where the books of the Bible are. You think of 1 Thessalonians. You say, okay, instantly I know that's in what? It's in the New Testament. Okay, that's a start. And then we know about where it is.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians. So here are two spiritual disciplines we're going to look at all in one. Bible memorization and prayer. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. What does it say?

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. Pray without ceasing. There you go. You just memorized the Bible verse. See how easy that is? 1 Thessalonians. Say it along with me. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17.

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. Good job. Let's do some more. John 11, 35 is what? Jesus wept. John 11, 35. Jesus wept. John 11, 35. See, that's two. You're on a roll. So there you go. Now we go from there and we start learning more verses, maybe longer verses.

And then we can memorize a whole chapter of the Bible. Who knows Psalm 23? If you know Psalm 23, say it along with me. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me on the paths of righteousness. For his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil.

For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Good job. Good job. What's the benefit of memorizing Bible verses? Well, there are many benefits. Psalm 119 verse 11 says, Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

You remember when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. How did he fend off those attacks? He did it by quoting scripture. So in order to quote scripture, you need to memorize scripture.

The word of God calls, the word of God is called what? The sword of the spirit, right? The word of God is called the sword of the spirit. It is our only offensive weapon in fighting spiritual war. So when you find that you have a few minutes with nothing to do, maybe you're walking from your house to the mailbox.

First Thessalonians 517. Pray without ceasing. First Thessalonians 517. John 1135. Jesus wept. John 1135. So you have a few moments in your day and you can, you can memorize scripture, quote scripture.

So it helps in fending off the attacks and temptations of the devil. We're learning. Learning is always good, right? It helps to keep your mind sharp. That's important. And you know, I just find it can lift your spirits.

It can just lift your spirits. So maybe you could take a notebook. There's just some basic advice. Make a computer file, whatever. Just write it down. Write down the verses you have memorized. Go through them.

Add to them. Here's the thing. No Christian has ever memorized scripture and then later on regretted it. That's never happened. Another thing, reading the Bible cover to cover from Genesis to Revelation.

No Christian has ever read the Bible cover to cover and then later regretted it. And I said, well, it's so hard. I get to Leviticus and Numbers. I just can't get through it. Start with the New Testament.

Read through the New Testament and then go back. I promise you, if you read the Bible cover to cover with an open heart, it will change your life. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.