Scripture Meditation & Study pt 1- Spiritual Formations Series

Cling to the cross then put both arms around it Hold to the crucified and never let him go

I'm a fresh to the cross at this moment and rest there now and forever

Then with the power of God resting upon you go forth and preach the cross

Welcome to the truth and love podcast. Thank you for watching If you have not Registered for the labor's conference coming up at the end of April.

We would encourage you to do that We'd love to see you there. How much does that cost Rob? It costs nothing.

It costs nothing And that's fantastic. It does not reflect on the quality of the company or the speakers but it shows that we really care about God's kingdom and the local church that that we

We're tired of paying for stuff so you don't have to pay for this but what we would like for you to remember is that while You are not paying

Admissions to get into this conference. The speakers are having to pay their way and Lodging though.

We are in the process of helping those folks There is cost involved when it comes to travel so if you will keep that in mind and we have a way for you to help if you're so inclined if the

Lord Lead you to help but go to labor's conference comm slash Registration, we would love to see you at the labor's conference is gonna be a new

North Carolina vertical life Church but tonight this is the truth and love podcast with Dan and myself

Rob and we are going to be talking about or starting our spiritual formation

Series spiritual formation series stick with us I mentioned that the camera is the only glitch but I just found another one.

The mouse does not want to click tonight So I did some rearranging and there's always always gonna be glitches with technology

The comment line is open if you're watching it now listening now or watching listening later.

We'd love to hear from you Dan How's it going? It's going great

It started off cold and snowy this morning, right? It was

I thought it was one degree outside this morning because that's what my phone said and then

I hopped in the truck and I Went went down the hill and come to find out it was 10 below And then

I got down the road a little bit further and it says 7 below So I said why I better take a picture of the guys never gonna believe me

So that's actual temperature not bills, yeah actual temperature was 10 below tonight is supposed to be about one below tomorrow's a high of eight goodness and then

Tomorrow night. We're supposed to be Eight below and they're supposed to be some wind

It's supposed to make the wind chill somewhere around 25 below I Got the hoodie in the wood stove.

I've got here. I've got a blanket up over my door over here I got stuff. I got stuff insulated everywhere.

Just trying to keep everybody warm, but We're doing all right got snow on the roof that helps helps insulate stuff, right?

But my beard this morning was about as white as yours The driveway Well, I mean we're we're feeling that same

Arctic blast from the north but We've got the front end and we're nowhere near what you guys are but it's it's cool

But oh, hey, it's it's it's relative Like we're used to in January being in the mid 20s and lows and the teens and single digits and stuff

So we're only about 10 maybe 15 degrees colder than normal. Yeah now

There's a possibility it could be No, maybe 20 below on Wednesday morning just because I live a bit higher elevation

Yeah, 20 below is a magical temperature because at 20 below you can take boiling water outside throw it up in the air and Before it hits the ground it turns into snow and just It's really cool.

Wow, I may have to do that tomorrow We'll see I mean the same thing is true for us, you know, it's it's about that range of Difference in temperature between what it's been being but once it gets to a certain point,

I Mean cold school. Yeah for us.

That point is zero. What's it his zero? It's just cold. It's just go Let's let's start our spiritual formation series tonight

I think this is gonna be a good series because this is very practical

For us and for the local church For all Christians, and so I'm looking forward to this conversation about spiritual formations tonight

We're gonna be talking about scripture meditation and study You know, there's some wings of Christianity Dan that that think other wings of Christianity elevate scripture to a level that it shouldn't be raised to I know a story was told and and I don't want to I Don't want to paint him in in such a bad light because I I was never there.

I don't know the context I don't know what was said before or after I just know the little clip of what what

I was told about a professor to school that I went to and he One of his demonstrations in his class what he would take his

Bible He would put it on the floor and he would stand on it and he would say this is just a book

Because he was one of those who felt like there were some wings of Christianity that would elevate scripture to To a high level than it then it should be in some ways

I get his point because there was there's a prisoner in our church that recently asked when you have a an old worn -out

Bible What do you do with it? And and I can understand this the sentimental the

The question the heart where the question comes from, you know, what do you because this is

God's Holy Word? This is Holy Scripture. What do you do with with a Bible that is worn and torn and it you really just need to Use a different one because it's unusable anymore.

And so you you got to think through those things You so you send it to Jeffrey Rice and have a rebound you can do that.

You can definitely do that Or Troy Dickerson of the truth and love you do it, too He he does it kind of as a hobby right now.

I think he does do it. Yeah He does. Well, I got one. I may send it over to Knoxville.

There you go. There you go but we do want to remember and then this is kind of in my perspective when it comes to scripture that God has communicated to us and I want to hear from him and his his means is

And He's watching with us tonight. He says I'm not good just to clarify

I'll give you one. I don't care about the practice on once you get good. I'll give you a good one But but it's

God's it's God's means of how he chose to communicate to us so there's a you know

There's a level of respect that we do offer The the words on the page but it's also well, well the

Was a Hebrew says that in in various times of various ways God spoke to our fathers

You know through the prophets through angels through all sorts of different things But in these last days he's spoken to us through his son and we know that the

Son Jesus is the Word of God incarnate right and what we have in the

Bible is the word Inscripturated so it's written down and it's what Jesus has

Revealed to us in written form. So so while the Bible is not a fourth person of the

Trinity It does record for us what God has revealed to us, especially through his son. That's right.

That's right It's not an object to be venerated But it's God's chosen means to communicate his word to us

So there there is a sense in which we should we should honor that means. Yep Because he he has the words of life, you know to quote the song

Our only hope is found in those words and so these are these are the most important words that That we could find on this earth and he is he has chosen to to preserve them all throughout history

There you know, there's that argument on Translation when it comes to God preserving his word, you know throughout history

But But he has preserved his word for us and so it's important and And I think when it comes to spiritual formations

It's got to be the first place to start God's means of communication hearing from God God's Word Yeah, so Rob what is spiritual formation

So so I think when it comes to spiritual formation, I would say that it is how we

We are formed and molded into Christ's likeness and in all the different ways that that we do that as a

Christian Yeah, so you say it'd be just maturing in the faith and how we do that Yeah, how we mature in the faith.

I think that's a good way of putting it Yeah, and so a great place to start would be with the solid foundation of God's Word Absolutely.

It's got to be the foundation or else you are you're gonna Terribly steer off in the wrong direction now

We can still do that because we're humans and in our interpretation, but still yet Without the right foundation.

You're definitely going to go in the wrong direction Yeah, yeah, I was reading

I forget who I forget But my pastor brought it up as well that there there has to be a norm something that is is the standard and Then we can have other norms

But they have to be standardized or checked against The norm so so scripture is really called

Uh things are revealed by God, especially in scripture. It's called the norm that norms all other norms it's

Standard by which you hold up other standards. So if we have subordinate standards like say the

Westminster Confession or the London Baptist Confession the 39 articles the

Formula of Concord or the Book of Concord, you know, whatever it is that you hold to you can hold to those things

That's good to keep you in line Because you have the Tradition of godly men that went before you they're guided by the

Holy Spirit But ultimately if we find something in those things that is contrary to the Word of God We've got to you know be able to back up a second say hey

Maybe we missed it on this one. No, maybe we were no Guided by our history a little bit too much.

Maybe we were No Maybe we're off base a little bit. No, I mean it happens

I'm sure there's things in my theology. That's not right. I don't know what they are right now, but we'll figure it out.

I'm sure We anytime you get people who disagree somebody's wrong. Yeah, maybe both of them.

That's that's true I'm in the same boat. Absolutely Speaking of the the confessions

Would would your branch your denomination and other denominations I've heard the term or the phrase and I'm not

I'm not gonna butcher the Latin but the the phrase reformed always reforming and and to me that kind of Speaks to the confessions because they're they're not scripture.

They're not infallible and so They've been tweaked over the years

Yeah the the Americans Changed the

Westminster Confession a little bit they changed some things in there. They wasn't very very

Big but it was it was changed when it came over to America the the

RPC The RPC and a Specifically has a whole other document that called the reformed

Presbyterian testimony that Gives the the interpretation of the

Westminster Confession in certain points, you know certain clarifications Or here's what they mean by it

That's where you find certain things like like we only sing the Psalms.

We don't use the instruments things like that we we in the

RP testimony talk about the Westminster Confession, which then points back to the scriptures themselves, so This is what we understand the scriptures to say basically what our documents say, right, right

I think that's a good standard for all of us to hold to is the reform yet always reforming

Being humble enough to say that we can we can grow there's room for us to grow

Change where the Holy Spirit needs us to change or desires us to change that that's every

Christian every human being and And and hit them going back to our topic tonight

That's the means God's Word is the means for that to happen through his Word And we'll take a look at one of those verses in relation to that a little bit later, but I'm studying scripture the intentional examination and interpretation of God's Word So when we study scripture we want to intentionally and Examine it

To find the interpretation the correct interpretation and this kind of speaks to hermeneutics as well

What are some key key hermeneutic principles that you would share? For the first thing we have to understand is that scripture is inerrant

That it has no air in it. It's it's uh, it's infallible Everything that's recorded for us has been preserved.

Also scripture is it's called it's perspicuous

It's got purse perspective Perspicuity, but we have started these things earlier of a mouse

Properly, but what that means is that scripture is sufficiently clear on Everything that we absolutely

Need to know so That we are sinners that Christ died for our sins if we trust in him, we find salvation forgiveness of our sins

That he is returning one day to raise the living and the dead all those things are crystal -clear plain in scripture

So first start with that understanding that what you read is meant to be there yeah, and that The basics are crystal clear and then you just kind of let the things that are clear interpret the things that aren't clear and you allow the

Holy Spirit to Lead you and guide you Into into all truth, which means that first off we look at the scripture and then we look at what?

the church has believed throughout history to know if we're Coming up with something that the church hasn't believed throughout all of history

We need to back up and say well, well, you know, maybe I missed this when you re -examine some things we can if you just focus on those you can spend your whole life just Doing that.

Yeah. Well, let me define hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the art and science of studying

Scripture and There there's some basic principles that we need to understand when it comes to interpreting scripture

We've talked about this before Dan in other episodes the grammatical historical method

We we want to understand the context in its grammar its usage

Language usage and also also in the historical context of Scripture so that we are not

We're not interpreting with the glasses through the lens of our Context we want to understand that through their context to get the meaning and then therefore then after that we can begin to apply those things that God wants us to apply to our lives and One of the comment that I wanted to made on so that you said about being

The scripture being clear of the things that we he wants us to understand and know

We have to be humble enough to also say that you know There were times when Jesus was teaching everything in Scripture where things weren't always clear

There were some things that were unclear to folks and that was on purpose The disciples said why do you preach in prayer or teach in parables?

Will you will you help us to understand? These teachings why what you're saying?

What do you mean? And he said well I'm teaching in parables You know

I heard some so many times for so many years that Jesus taught in parables so that the the common man can understand well kind of but I Don't understand why

I when you get to the point where you when you read the text for yourself when you research for yourself and And you begin to understand things

Yeah, again, I don't want to paint in a bad light fateful men of God There's just some things that I don't understand

From my own personal experience growing up a pastor a teacher Behind a lectern behind a pulpit, you know say certain things like that when it clear in Scripture and when

Jesus says I'm teaching a parable so that they Don't understand

So that it's not heaping on them more judgment because of the knowledge that they have

Yeah, now he does say that to to the

Disciples they are given They're able to be given the understanding Mm -hmm, and then he interprets things for him so we can we can then we can look at the parables and understand them

Yeah But they were given at first to be

Sort of a veiled truth, right? Yeah, yeah, and and who's to say that the

Holy Spirit doesn't work that way today with us Teaching us at the place that we are where he wants us to be, you know

Maybe veiling some truth that we're not he's not ready for us to understand yet It he's worked that way in the past maybe maybe he works that way today

Well, there's there's a couple schools of thought on On This sort of thing one of which is scholasticism which brings in reason now you can do it rightly or wrongly you can bring in reason and Reason from the scriptures and back to the scriptures and have them be your norm or you can go off the rails and just use

Reason and twist the scripture all around. Oh, there's another vein of thought called mysticism where you you you

Understand that through your experience You gain wisdom and insight into the scriptures which you can do wrongly by having your experience

Trump and dictate what the scriptures mean or can rightly understand that that as you grow in the faith things that you are understanding through Experientially learning and growing in Christ.

You can understand things in scripture in a deeper and more meaningful way Yeah Landing right in the in the middle of those two the reason and and Experience And tradition would be a good place to kind of Dwell with the scripture norming all of those things we start with the scripture we end with the scripture.

We understand that that Reason can inform but it can't inform where the scripture doesn't speak

Experience can inform but it can't inform where the scripture is not informing and the same with with our tradition tradition can can be helpful to keep us on track with what

God has revealed to us and previously, but The scriptures Trump any tradition we have

See, that's the second time that you've used that word. We're definitely gonna get flagged by mr.

Z Because he was at the inauguration today. We're definitely get flagged because you use that word twice what word from?

Definitely go get flagged tonight. Oh Come on now, it's not my fault.

He's got a We're a verb for a name When you you talk about mysticism,

I think that's a good Transition into the the next bullet point which is which is meditation won't study scripture with good hermeneutics and we also want to meditate on scripture that we are studying and The the ditch that we can fall in You reminded me of it when you when you talk about mysticism it's this the the area of meditation that we don't want to fall into is the area of Emptying your mind.

Yeah You want to speak to that? Yeah, it's a pagan practice right

Meditation Oh Meditation can be done a few different ways the way that the pagans try to do it is

They will take their mind and empty it out in order to have something come into it

That's not Christian at all In fact, that's how several books have been written. They empty their minds completely put their hand out and Allow the spirits to guide their hand as they write down things.

That's how the book God calling and Jesus calling were came about.

Mmm step on some toes there. I'm sure but Yeah, just not that's not

Christian meditation that's that's opening yourself up to the spirit realm in a way that you shouldn't do

Christian meditation is taking the Word of God putting it in your heart to seek to understand it praying over it and Seeking to understand what it means and how to apply it to your life

It was at the David said in the Psalms Your word if I hid my heart that that what that he would change so that he might not sin against God It should form and change the way that we we live our lives

So when we read things in the scriptures about loving our neighbor we don't just empty our minds to get a whimsical idea of how to love our neighbor we

We pray we read the rest of the scriptures to say well, how is it that I should love my neighbor?

I should treat my neighbor with with respect and dignity to point them to Christ and show them the goodness of the

Savior So we do things differently

Because we we don't allow our thoughts to control

How we understand things we allow the scripture to control how we think

Right. Don't get it. Don't get it backwards, right? so Just to add to that from my understanding

Biblical meditation Good Faithful meditation on scripture is is feeling

Instead of emptying. Yep, and just to speak to the term that you used putting it in your heart

That sometimes we talk about Christianese Christian language Just want to be clear what we mean by that to put something in your heart put scripture in your heart.

I think That phrase to me is a word picture just saying in the center of your being

Well, it's interesting in Hebrew Or Hebrew thought the heart is your thinking organ

So so if you hide God's Word in your heart, it's where you think

The feeling organ which we would call the heart in our culture is actually the stomach the gut so when the

Cretans are called slow bellies and Lazy lazy beasts or whatever wasn't their call it's that they they are slowed down in their their actions and things because of their

They're led by their feelings. They're led by their gut their appetite is what is what some of the feeling

So when we hide God's Word in our heart It's the thing that we we think with that we would know how am

I going to act now? We're gonna act now because God has revealed himself to us in the scriptures. So we're going to because we understand and Words escaping me

Because because we think we understand and we want to please God and honor him with with what he is revealed to us

We then act accordingly Not of love and it's a love that comes from the head as well as the the heart

So it's the heart as well as the stomach I guess you could say Yeah, which speaks to what we're talking about before a good hermeneutic to know the historical

Language and phrases that they use and you give a perfect example. This is what this is our

Feeling organ, which is odd to say, but this is what it is. We talk about I love you with all my heart

But they wouldn't have said that then that's not the heart was like you said there the thinking organ It's good to know those those historical cultural context

Yeah, because I mean thinking thinking does Thinking does bring about emotion.

Mm -hmm. And so that I think that's why they they chose to use the heart

That it's it's a thought -based Emotional thing instead of a

Feelings or desires based emotional thing, right and another reason that we want to Study scripture meditate on scripture and another thing that brings forth emotion is

God's truth The reason one of the reasons why we want to study and meditate is to to know

God's truth John 17 17 says sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

So One of the main reasons why we want to understand or meditate study

God's Word is so that we we know his truth and this is

In our culture the world that we're living in today and of course has been this way for a while Truth is is relative

And you can't tell You can't tell someone that they're wrong

Whatever your opinion is that do what? Yes, I can And we can because we know

God's truth God is the standard and there is a truth and so yes once we understand that You know, we can we can speak and that's one of the reasons why at the end of the program

I say speak with the authority of Christ. It's not as an authoritarian but it it is as one who

Has been granted the truth by God, right and that's why the scriptures were given to to the church

So that's why a pastor's Authority in the church is an authority.

That's not not magisterial. So so not Like the magistrates have but it's a ministerial

Which means that when the pastor speaks to us and the pastor comes that say they need to correct us or they need to encourage us or they need to You know

Whatever it is their authority isn't in browbeating us and controlling our lives their authority is that they've been given the right to be able to speak the words of God into your life and Call you to repentance

Now there's there's things that they can do after that if you know, don't listen to scripture Which Really is just saying.

All right. Well, you're gonna not believe what the Bible says so go over there Here we listen to the

Bible, that's right. So it's All the all the things that go on in the church

Come back to what has God actually said, right? which is really weird to put it that way since that's what

Satan said, you know, what he got actually say, but But we asked that not assuming what

God has said was wrong or Misunderstood Because he revealed himself deceptively

But what has God actually said because God has actually revealed it to us So we don't go to this source or that source.

We don't go to the snake or the tree We go to the Christ the Son of the

Living God who's revealed himself to us in his word and through his spirit Well, and we say that too because of our in capabilities

What did God actually say? I'm saying that because of my own Shortcomings my own incapabilities.

I can only get so far. I Need the Holy Spirit. Well, I I can't get anywhere.

I Need the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to me and you're speaking of those who who have been given to us

To lead us to be over us Revealing truth to us teaching us

So is God's truth only for those who have those positions?

This goes back to our conversation about reformed Yet always reforming at one point

God's truth was delegated only to a select few But is that God's?

Is that God's will? Well, it's not God's will that that only the only a priestly class would have access to the scriptures and to be able to To deal with them

One of the big things with the Reformation was getting The the Word of God into the language of the people so they can read it and study it for themselves

Right now what a lot of people get wrong about that is that you can read it and study for yourself

Sure, but then they say well since I can do it by myself What do I need you for? What do

I need the pastor for? What do I need the the church fathers for what do I need? No interpretations from history for and I can really just put them aside and go on my own

And so while we're supposed to be holding to solo scripture where we have Scripture as our highest principle where that is where we draw our life and doctrine from we end up in practice going down the road of solo scripture where we take scripture and Ourselves and we sit underneath the tree and figure it out on our own which was never meant to be because the scripture is well given to While available to the individual we're given to the church

Collectively and we should that we do well to remember that if we could

Not that we should lose our Individuality, I mean we're still individuals but that we would do well to remember that that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and God deals with us on an individual level what he deals with us as a unit as well.

We are Christ Church We are his bride. He's not married to Billions of people he's married to the church and we do well to remember that that We need to submit ourselves to what

God has put in place Right, and and we can follow the the apostles example where we're

Peter says We should follow God rather than man

Well, how can how can I as an individual a member of a local church?

I'm not a pastor. Not a you know, not a teacher in the church. I'm just a regular member of the church

How can I do that if I don't know the truth myself? If the pastor is leading us

Down a road that is unscriptural. How am I ever gonna know that unless I'm studying?

meditating on God's Word Seeking God's truth for myself Yeah now on the flip side

While we're studying and reading the scriptures for ourself if our elders come to us and say

You have missed the boat Turn back We need to be willing to to look there as well

And that's why it's good to have a either a plurality of elders or or in some people's cases

There's some oversight there either mutual oversight of a plurality of elders or a bishop or something to where the the single pastor model is

From from reading the Bible it's not it's not there right because we are we're called to be a part of Something bigger than ourselves

Right. And so if you don't have if you don't have any oversight you have gone

Off -the -rails and that goes for pastors lay people alike, right? It works both ways.

Just like you said the The leaders the elders they should they should speak to Members and say you've gone astray

And because they're in that position You know, there's a sense of humility to listen, but also there's a sense of humility

From the elders. I think that's a good quality of an elder who is humble enough to say Thank you for coming to me with that let me study let me meditate on that so and I just a part of spiritual formation from the

Holy Spirit Growing in Christ is a sense of humility from both the congregant and in the elder and The the more

I look into this this idea of true biblical unity

We were told we're talking about people taking scripture Going going way off the rails and then leading or and pastors going way off the the rail

Into a train wreck and taking their congregation with them and and maybe in your mind.

I know in my mind I impossibly think of Places ministers that are doing this we think their theology is way off and they're they're going down the wrong path

And they're taking their congregation on the wrong path when it when it comes a true biblical unity, I'm I can't help but thinking and Maybe you can have some thoughts to this as well.

But I'm relating it a lot to Scriptural or scripture

Translations Transmission throughout history, you know, we don't have we don't have just one book

That was written by one earthly author that we go by God chose to to God chose for us to have the book that we have

Through the means of transmission through many different men copy after copy after copy and we have so many different and ancient

Copies and partial copies that we can Compare each one of those copies

Although each one of those ancient texts to to narrow down to see which was the original reading

And so we can be confident that we have the true accurate transmission inspiration from the

Holy Spirit to the original author to us because of so many different translations and I relate that to our our unity in that We come to the table with differing interpretations differing opinions

But we can use those Conversations we can use those different ideas different interpretations and opinions to kind of get to the truth

It's it's hard to steer a ship. That's not moving, right? So if you if you have

Differing opinions you at least have something to Look at and if you have a standard by which you're both going to to figure out the truth

Yeah, that's why you get some some some really keen insights into Doctrines when you talk to people of different faith traditions

You know Lutherans and Orthodox Eastern Orthodox to get together and talk about theosis you get some some wild stuff over here

It's a weird stuff over there. And then you find some really key points know that they draw from the scriptures in between You know you get a bunch of different stuff like this.

That's why I like our network I mean it is getting kind of Baptist heavy, but And and I like I said before that's not my fault.

That's not my fault Those these folks are being introduced by friends within the network

And and I'm just going with the flow. I'm going who God sends us. So I'm prayerfully

God will send other folks through You guys who are Presbyterian and Elias?

Yeah, I step it up Maybe he can bring some other high church folks into the group

Um all he has to do is is Introduce them to the network and in and to us and we can start going down that path but Elias from the

Reformed Brean he says Amy and we must recognize that we must know the truth ourselves at the same time

We must submit to our authorities that God himself placed over us to help us understand the truth

Absolutely. Thank you, brother the other Another important reason why we need to study scripture meditate scripture is so that we can grow in in wisdom and spiritual maturity

There and there's a distinction between wisdom and Knowledge or understanding

Yep Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit and wisdom is knowing that you don't put it in a fruit salad.

I Heard I heard that I heard that before and I was like, hey, you know, yeah, you know

I'm friends with Steven Anderson on Facebook. I follow him all the time he went on a cruise for the sole purpose of Evangelizing just just recently

So, yeah Bring them on. Let's see. See what happens. Leave it to Troy Troy Bond and a

Bible first then we'll talk about Steven Anderson Better be a King James version. That's right.

Better be King James Well, we want to grow in spirit wisdom and spiritual maturity

Second Timothy 3 16 17 all scripture is inspired by God and probable for teaching or proof or correction for training and righteousness

So that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work

Not some good work all good works Studying and meditating on God's Word is profitable for every good work

And that's why he he saved at that. That's why he's changed us for good works scripture says and he does that through us he

This whole process is the Holy Spirit living within us working on us using his word

This is why it's such a humbling experience because we

Ruined it all in the beginning we Carry those effects of the fall with us today and we need him the most humbling

Thing that we could acknowledge is that we need God not just for salvation but for growing in wisdom and maturity and understanding truth

I Was just watching with my wife a few minutes ago

I was trying to I didn't get to watch it live but we I played back just to get some of the highlights of the inauguration and I knew from some of the comments that I've read on Facebook that that great is that faithfulness was played

And so we caught that right before that they played for the beauty of the earth and then

Immediately following they played great is not faithfulness and my wife She she made the observation

We did not see anyone's lips moving

Singing along with either of those beautiful old hymns teaching us the truths of God and You you look at all the folks there some of them

Were handed money born with the silver spoon in their mouth Some of them

Who knows who knows how they got to where they are a lot of them are rich well off don't have to Worry about Anything for the next moment

Everything's take gonna be taken care of for the rest of their life. They have so much money. They don't know what to do with And they're smart

They they're brilliant. They run these businesses These these multi -billion dollar businesses making multi -billion dollars

They're smart, but they don't have wisdom from God to know humble themselves

At the foot of the cross Knowing that they need a Savior They may they need to be changed.

I Feel like if It would seem it would appear

I Can't judge their hearts, but it would appear that If God had changed

The folks that we had seen on TV today Because in my heart just hearing that him played great is that faithfulness

Caused me to reflect on the goodness and the greatness of God and that being where they were is a

Humbling experience a gift of God to be in the positions that they're in And It would appear that if God had changed if any of them had humbled themselves and received

Christ That they would be it would have been we would have seen someone

Sing that song to their self their lips moving praising God in the midst of all the worldliness all the self -reliance that was there

But that's just me reflecting on the difference between knowledge and wisdom true wisdom

It's humility Knowing that we can't do anything ourselves, but we need

Jesus we need we need his salvation. Yep We're 49 minutes, yeah, we are we've got like three three and a half pages of notes left to go

So I'll tell you what, why don't we pull an audible we'll do something like this It's been it's been good foundation to talk about To talk about you know

What about the scripture? How does it fit into our lives and everything? but What about what about somebody who doesn't know how to get started?

Maybe they they wanted to start reading their Bible more maybe they wanted to get into understand the scriptures Maybe they don't know where to begin

What would you suggest would be a good first off we'll be a great first book to start off with just for understanding sake and And for just just dipping your toes in and in the

Bible reading waters, what would you start with? You mean a book to help to study scripture?

No, no from the Bible. Oh, oh which book of the Bible. Oh, yeah No, we didn't enough talking about reading the

Bible let's talk about actually reading the Bible I got you I got you Yeah, um, so number one,

I would think this will be my first piece of advice would be because This would be consistent with everything that we've been talking about pray

We want we want to pray because we want to seek Seek that God would remove ourselves so and then reveal truth to us and only he can do that and that's a humble position, but we want to We want to seek that position of humility where we are praying and asking

God to to remove any bias Anything that that may be in our mind or in our heart that would that would get in our way and to reveal the truth that he would have

Revealed to us the truth that he wants us to know at that time when we begin to study so because it's all gonna come from him anyway, and So prayer is would be my number one piece of advice the first place to start when it comes to scripture

So what what book would you choose? So so they prayed up ready to go ready to go to the

Bible crack it open What book would you suggest they go to? I?

Think I would follow along with the advice that I've heard so many times Probably start with the book of John I want to eventually

I when I was working at a church one time and I was given a certain Sunday to preach and The pastor there.

He wasn't preaching exposition Lee, but there was my conviction to preach exposition Lee. So I started preaching through the book of John and hopefully one day if I'm able to re start that Finished preaching through the book of John But John is is so wonderful in the fact that he tells us why he writes the book

Now I write these things So that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ and In believing him you may have life He tells us why he's writes the book so that to me that is helping me with the overall context

I'm starting in verse 1 and he and he writes that towards the end of the book. I think it may be chapter 20

I can't Recall exactly. I think it's chapter 20, but but even starting in chapter 1 verse 1

I'm keeping that in the back of my mind this this is why John is writing this to us where the

Holy Spirit has inspired him to write this to us so that I may believe and So, what does he want me to believe?

What does he want me to understand about about God about his son Jesus? And so that's why where I would encourage folks to start is is the book of John To To seek

Christ and to seek your your faith To build your faith in him

And then the same thing is true for the other books that he written That he written that he wrote

I write these things to you who believe so it's almost like you're graduating from the first book

I'm writing these things to to you who believe you've graduated book one. Here's book two, even though it's

I think it's the first John I'm writing these things to you that believe So that you it's basically a reassurance

It's a reassurance of your faith You you will know that you are in him if you meet meet these things or you see these things in your life

It's a test of your faith so John John is a has some beautiful books beautiful author and That's where I would direct folks to go

But what would be your opinion? I would pick Luke for the exact same reason

Okay, because as he goes through he says I'm gonna compile a narrative Eyewitnesses from the beginning right?

It seemed good to me to write it down for an account for you That you may have certainty concerning the things that you've been taught

So I want you to have certainty about the things that you've been taught. So what's he gonna do? He's gonna give you a historical account of all the things that he's been taught

You know, what's the basis of the faith? Here it is. Now. Here's the next thing. How much should somebody read per day?

Or Yeah, how much does somebody read per day? Whatever they want to Well, I got

I got two people in mind right now People at our church. One of them is a is a math professor doc doc

Got her doctorate new PhD in mathematics. She teaches math over the college this other guy

He doesn't read very well, he can listen but he doesn't read very well, he's got some some reading issues

So my answer would be different from that for them Mm -hmm because the one She's got reading comprehension.

She knows how to go in and out and everything. I Say it really depends.

Yeah, but if you don't read well Read what you can they got these little paragraphs as little sections in there.

A lot of times they got little Like all the little headings in there and they break it up by what's called a pericope

It's a little section of scripture a lot of times that's what pastors will pick to preach from the preach from this one and then this one if that's all you can read and Understand if it takes you a while Read that that's fine.

Yeah, if you if you have a lot of brainpower for reading Read a chapter read to read from several places in the

Bible You know pick up something else. So I Say that to say this

If you have trouble with it do what you can because The Word of God is powerful to do

What God does? Yeah, well the Holy Spirit works through through the

Word of God. So You say oh man. Well, I didn't do that. Well today. I only got in like three verses

Who cares who read them three verses hide them in your heart memorize them if you can

Put them right there think about them as you go throughout your day and Those three verses will be to you the words of life because they came straight from the

Word of God I'll give you a little insight even in into my life when it comes to even

Preparing a sermon and my wife can testify to this. I can't sit and concentrate on The task at hand for a long period of time.

I'll dive into it I'll dive into it. I will

You know give it 100 % But it's never for a long period of time.

I'll have to get up and do something else But while I'm doing something else

What I was working on, you know is is working is working in my mind and I'm thinking of those things that I couldn't think of Or hear hear the

Spirit directing me while I was sitting there or Insights to the scripture that that just weren't revealing themselves

Will reveal themselves as I'm doing something else and meditating on scripture while I'm you know doing something with my hands or You know just stepping away for a few minutes and then

I can go back to it Yeah, no, that makes sense. A lot of people have some of the best ideas in the shower.

Yeah so Read read if you don't if you don't read well read a couple verses go take a shower

You should be cleaning on the end the inside and the out Choice as I say mark then the short this was short shorter books to keep their attention good advice

Yeah, and yeah, it's good I Will say this though Even if you don't take our advice on what book to pick

Have a plan Because if you don't have a plan and you just like well, I'll read

The Luke today. I'll read Proverbs tomorrow I'll eat read some from the

Psalms the next day Genesis the day after that You're gonna you're gonna wear yourself out trying to figure out what you're doing all the time and you're going to you're gonna drop off Now you may drop off if you have reading plan

But you're much less likely to if you have a set plan for what you want to do

So pick a reading plan if you don't in fact Well, cuz I'm we got to have a part two because we didn't even come close to get through we have prepared

So we'll come back next time with we'll do homework We'll come up with a couple reading plans for it for y 'all to kind of take with you

We'll get some links in the description and whatnot. We'll kind of Figure it out.

I'm gonna write write a note well back in December when I was I Definitely wanted to we have

Old Testament New Testament scripture reading in our in our services and we also have recited catechism in our services and So I last year

I made a calendar with the the catechism question and the scripture reading

So that would be available for the congregation, but I thought this year. I Wanted to provide along with that calendar verses for the week to read

But I wanted to also keep in mind knowing that when it comes to family worship a

Lot of times small children are involved and definitely with small children.

There's short attention span and so if you go to Which which

I recommend you version app our churches. I just recently put our church on you version app and There's plenty of plans that you can follow on the you version app and you can have it read to you

But a lot of times those plans, you know You're trying to you're trying to get the New Testament in in a certain amount of months

Are you trying to read the Bible through? the entire year and so there's gonna be times where you've got big chunks and I Wasn't I couldn't find at the time any

Any reading plan that reflected short attention span for little people that you could use maybe for family worship?

and so that's that's what I did I went through and I I did books of the

Bible but divided them up into Shorter readings so that you could so if you were on a

Monday, it would be a shorter reading Keeping in mind the little ones with shorter attention span.

So there's all kinds of different things that you can do Yeah, so is that the reading plan that you use?

They're just the one that you made up Yeah. Yeah, cool Yeah, I'd use

I actually utilize the the reading planet in the in the back of the 2019 book of common prayer from the

Anglican Church They have a New Testament reading and an Old Testament reading in the morning

There's a psalm selection that has you read through the Psalter once every 30 days

And then in the evening, there's a evening and morning or there's a there's a

Old Testament New Testament reading as well so that works well for me because I know that it has it per day and Say say

I wake up late or there's like this morning There was snow on the ground and I had to go out and shovel the driveway before I could leave.

Um, I know that Tonight I'll do my evening reading tomorrow.

I Can do my my morning reading from yesterday and today to kind of catch up, you know

Or if I know maybe I'm not gonna be able to get to tomorrow's nothing Get ahead a little bit it helps me to know that that It has it each day of the year set

And it's interesting because they kind of set it up to where the readings follow The liturgical calendar so yeah, you're coming up on Advent things there's

Advent things if you're coming up on The Easter season there's Easter stuff.

So it's neat. I enjoy it Maybe you can help me think of a better word than guilt. But it's the same thing.

It's saying something is true with fear there's a There's a healthy fear and then there's there's a negative type of fear

But when it comes to missing a day When it comes to missing a day

You don't want the guilt That turns into legalism, but you won't be the consciousness

The The tug that says but I do need to get back in. Yep that that that you're talking about There's a

I don't know that I will remember one thing from my psychology class in college It's this

Everybody has stress and what you're describing is stress Stresses when something happens and it affects you now you can have there's two different types of stress

There's distress, which is that type that makes you kind of freak out It's that Nasty guilt that you're talking about that kind of makes you spiral off into yeah, you never never land

Or there's you stress you meaning positive or good. That's the kind of stress that motivates you for positive change so What you want to?

What you want to to make sure that's happening is if you're starting to feel that guilt that stress from missing

Don't spiral thinking I'm terrible rotten and horrible, right because you already know that that's why

Jesus came to die on the cross for you But he's giving you the Bible to go to to read about him to remind you of your forgiveness in Christ So let it motivate you to say like like Peter did

Jesus said unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood You don't have a place in the kingdom of God and then everybody left.

It's like Peter. Where are you going? You're gonna leave to is like no Lord. Why would I leave like you have the words of life?

Where else would I go right? So if you miss and you're starting to feel terrible because you're a dirty rotten sinner

Where else are you gonna go? I mean you go to the world. You're just gonna be feeling worse The only way you're gonna get real true joy real true relief

From understanding who you are as a sinner is to recognize who you are in Christ and those things are found in the scriptures right and all those things that you just talked about as we wrap things up are

Also reflective of a conversation about the gospel We must realize we've broken all of God's law

Even if a person can say like James chapter 2 verse 10 says even if a person can say

I kept the whole law But he says if you stumbled at one point you're guilty of it all and that being guilty of even one sin against the

Holy God missing that mark just one time by even a millimeter is deserving puts us in a place where we're deserving of an eternal hell because Of the value of the one that we've sinned against that's what scripture teaches us.

That's the truth that it reveals That's the that's the common truth that is revealed to to all men whom

God enlightens with that truth We we may disagree on different secondary issues, but this is a core fundamental issue

The truth from scripture that we all must agree upon That in Adam, we all sin.

We've all missed the mark. We've all broken God's law and Because of the value of the one whom we've sinned against we deserve an eternity in hell

Which is Bible describes as a as a lake of fire eternal torment which

We can't even adequately describe But because of God's loving kindness mercy and love for his creation

He sent his one and only son that everyone believing in him will not perish but have everlasting life

That life that starts when we believe when we turn from our sins and we believe in him put our faith and trust in him it begins then and Just like his kingdom it lasts forever

And we want you to experience that and we want you to experience that that tug of Wanting to know his truth more

Wanting to pray and ask for understanding We want you to experience and know the love of God that we know and you do that by number one

Going to him in humility with in prayer turning from your sins

Pleading to him to save you Putting your trust and your faith in him to save you because of his his life his work in lacrosse his death burial and resurrection and He ascended he defeated death.

He ascended into heaven and he has sit. He is seated at the place of authority Interceding for those

Who call on him? We would call on you to do that tonight interview stands to put your faith and trust in Christ Then would you mind to close us in prayer?

Yeah Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your son has come and died in the place of sinners

Pray that you would remind us of that constantly Cause there to be a stirring of the people of this world to look into Your word

I hope there to be good godly teachers to teach them proper Understanding that we would know you we drawn to you in Christ.

Let me pray. Amen Amen. Thank you guys for watching. We really appreciate it so much and we hope that you will join us next time and Maybe next time

I'll have this glitch figured out where we're not flickering so much But as we go,

I want you to remember that Jesus is king You'll live in the victory of Christ Just speak with the authority of Christ and continue to go out there and share the gospel price.