Holding the Table Holy: Scripture, Sacrament, and Spiritual Discipline

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:05:01] Unified City Church Family. How are we today? Anybody ready to worship Jesus? If you guys would stand, I would love to read Exodus 3.15 and to give you some quick context. Moses has just seen the burning bush and begins to talk with God. This is what God says to Moses. God replied to Moses, I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you.
[00:05:31] God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.
[00:05:45] This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations.
[00:05:51] And I just think it's so interesting that this is how God chooses to identify himself to Moses.
[00:05:57] He says, I am.
[00:05:58] And then he goes on to say, I am the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac.
[00:06:03] And he actually addresses himself like this a dozen times.
[00:06:07] And I just wanted to point out in that he's a relational kind of God because he could have said something like, hey, Moses, I am the most powerful, the most awesome, the strongest, the most beautiful.
[00:06:21] He could have said all that and he would have been right.
[00:06:24] but instead he goes, hey, I was a father to your ancestors. I led them. I took care of them and I think this morning as we fix our eyes on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the I am
[00:06:41] is saying the very same thing. He's saying I'm a relational kind of God. I am a father and I would like to have a relationship with you. He'd like to talk with you. He'd like to hear from you during
[00:06:56] this time of worship. So as we worship today, take off any veil in your mind that is separating you from God. And just imagine, would you, would you just imagine this morning you're in a living room
[00:07:07] and you're talking with your father. You're hanging out with your father. That's all we're doing this morning. Would you guys pray with me? Jesus, I am reminded of the Bible verse that says, who am I that you are mindful of me. We thank you that you call us friends, that you call us
[00:07:27] your children, that you've adopted us into your family, and that you are now our father, that we are now heirs with Christ. How is that even possible? Thank you, Jesus. So we look to you
[00:07:42] this morning, to your unfailing love, your goodness, your kindness, your mercy. We remember who you are and how you have been faithful time after time. This year, we remember how you have been so faithful and so good to us. We just love you, Jesus. In your name, I pray. Amen.
[00:09:09] never change. Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on you. Your love never fails, it never gives up, it runs out on you. It runs out on you. This morning,

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:09:36] some God worthy of it all. You are worthy of every ounce of energy that we have to praise you

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:36:43] this morning? Can we just lift up a victorious shout for Jesus because he is worthy of it all?
[00:36:51] Can we tell him how worthy? You are so worthy, Father, and we magnify you this morning.
[00:37:06] We lift you up. We glorify your name. We set you as the head of our families, our hearts, our minds, our year, our new year. We set you at the top, Father God. We look to you for direction and for
[00:37:22] wisdom, Lord God. We align our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and our souls with you this morning, Father God. Give us the power, Father, to walk in your strength, your ability, Lord God. Supernaturally, Lord God, give us the power, Father, this morning. Infuse us with your anointing, God.
[00:37:41] and God we will give you all the praise all the honor and all the glory for it Lord we bless you this morning can we just bless him this morning tell him from your heart
[00:37:52] just bless him this morning we bless you Jesus we honor you God we love you Lord you are so worthy you are so worthy and we honor you this morning be high and lifted up in everything that we do
[00:38:09] and say in our thoughts god be high and lifted up heal our hearts heal our minds god wash over us with your ability and strength god to do the things that we can't do on our own and we love
[00:38:24] you lord we bless you tell him you love him it's in jesus mighty name i pray amen amen what a sweet time of worship. Can we give our worship team a hand this morning? Yeah, you always do such a
[00:38:46] great job. Thank you, guys. So, I just have a few announcements for you this morning. We want to welcome you all here, those in person and online. We would like to connect with you guys, so you can,
[00:38:59] if you're new here, you can fill out a digital card by scanning the QR code on the screen, or if you would rather do it in person, you can come see us at the welcome desk in the lobby.
[00:39:10] but it's just a way for us to connect with you and and find out a little bit more about you so I just have a couple of announcements next Sunday we're having a welcome lunch for all of you who have not been through that
[00:39:24] Claudia has asked that you register sometime this week to let us know if you're gonna make it or not and if you need to help signing up we can do that in the lobby as well but that welcome lunch is next Sunday so if you'd like to
[00:39:38] attend, please sign up this week. We've got an Algol Moss mission trip coming up this year.
[00:39:45] The deadline to sign up is in February. So all the details are still to be determined. Well, Jodi probably knows, Jodi and Nikki. But if you have any questions, please see them. Or if you'd
[00:39:57] like to sign up, please see them. All right. Lastly, we want to take just a minute and bless our offering that we have, so if you'll pray with me. Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord God,
[00:40:08] for every gift and every giver that's represented here this morning, Lord God. We offer this sacrifice of tithes and offerings to you this morning, God, and we ask you, Lord God, to bless it abundantly and above anything that we could ask, think, or say, Lord. I ask you, God, that you would
[00:40:25] stretch it, Lord Jesus, to meet every need that we have and more, Lord God. I pray that it blesses the community, Lord God, and every person that's represented here this morning. God, we love you
[00:40:38] and we bless you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right. Well, let's take a minute and go say hello to somebody you haven't seen all week. All right. Well, good morning, everybody. Happy New Year.

[00:43:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:43:54] I haven't seen most of you since last year, but it's great to see you today. Glad you guys could be here. There's a lot of sickness going around. We've had some folks that were scheduled to serve
[00:44:06] this morning. They had to call out because they've got some sickness going on. I know many people do. I'm glad that you guys do not. Glad to see you all here, and we're praying that we all
[00:44:16] stay healthy. Amen. It is great to see you all. Our first Sunday of 2026, and we're going to have a really good time. Worship was, it was a great time. We had a great time already, and I believe
[00:44:28] we're going to keep having a great time today and a great year. It's going to be a great year.
[00:44:33] It really is.
[00:44:34] I got a couple of just updates here to share with you guys before I begin the message.
[00:44:39] So one, if you've been here, you know that we have just started.
[00:44:43] We had this kind of thrust upon us unexpectedly, but we've got to move out of our kids' building by the end of January, end of this month.
[00:44:49] I keep thinking January is to come, but now we are in January.
[00:44:53] And so we are renovating some space right behind this wall to be our new kids' wing.
[00:45:00] And I want to give you guys an update on how that's going.
[00:45:02] So we're still waiting on some things from the town.
[00:45:06] And the town, they're working hard.
[00:45:07] I'm not at all pointing the finger at them.
[00:45:08] They're doing what they need to do.
[00:45:10] But, you know, the government is just something, isn't it?
[00:45:14] Yes, amen.
[00:45:15] We all have our own stories.
[00:45:17] But we're waiting for their final determination about our floodplain restrictions.
[00:45:23] And it looks like they are going to be able to lift those.
[00:45:26] And hopefully we'll know for sure this week about that.
[00:45:29] And that will help us know how we move forward with our renovation back here.
[00:45:34] But I was thinking this week just about, you know, how it is working with government departments and stuff.
[00:45:40] It reminded me of a story I heard a long time ago about a man that worked for the DMV.
[00:45:45] And he worked for the DMV for like 35 years.
[00:45:47] And he was going to retire and it took him three days to retire because he kept getting in the wrong line.
[00:45:53] So that's how it goes, isn't it?
[00:45:56] But we are close to getting things, I think, figured out, and then we can get started with the construction part of all this.
[00:46:03] We've done a lot of demolition back there, a lot of cleaning.
[00:46:06] We've done really all that we can do until we get that determination from the town.
[00:46:11] So you guys please be praying with us about that.
[00:46:13] We will be out of the kids' building by the end of January, and we'll let you guys know where they will be and all that in the handful of weeks to come.
[00:46:22] And so, that being said, we'll go ahead and start our message today.
[00:46:26] And I see some new faces out there. It's great to see you all.
[00:46:29] I haven't had a chance to meet everybody yet. I look forward to meeting you all.
[00:46:33] But if you've been here for a while, you know that we have been in a series called Winning the War.
[00:46:38] And we've pressed pause on that series for a little while.
[00:46:41] We have kind of gone a different direction. I'm going to keep the pause button pressed a little bit longer.
[00:46:45] We are going to come back to our Winning the War series probably sometime in February.
[00:46:51] is what I'm thinking.
[00:46:52] And so what I want to do today is bring what I think will be our final message in the little mini-series that we started earlier in December about investing in God's Word, investing in the Lord's Word.
[00:47:08] And so if you've been here for the past handful of weeks, now we had Eric Bandy shared last week with us, and we had our Christmas service the week before.
[00:47:17] So it's been a few weeks since we've been in this little mini-series.
[00:47:21] But what we've done so far, we've talked about, and the reason we started this was the Lord woke me up early in December.
[00:47:28] You guys have heard me tell the story.
[00:47:29] And this really spoke to my heart, and I could hear a sadness in his voice.
[00:47:35] He said that so many of his people, and he wasn't talking about people in the world.
[00:47:40] He was talking about his people have become indifferent toward his word.
[00:47:45] And so we have started talking about how can we not be indifferent?
[00:47:50] to God's Word. And so today will be what I believe will be, if all goes according to plan, the final message in this little series. And we're going to begin some different things next Sunday.
[00:48:02] But we've talked so far, we've done three messages so far about not being indifferent to God's Word. The first one, if you guys have missed these, they're on the YouTube channel, they're on our Facebook page, you can find them on the app as well, on the podcast.
[00:48:16] But the first message we did was called investing in God's Word.
[00:48:22] And the Bible says about itself that it is profitable.
[00:48:25] And if we knew there was an investment that was guaranteed to pay off, if we had some money to put into it, we would, wouldn't we?
[00:48:33] If we knew this thing is guaranteed to pay off.
[00:48:36] I've kind of used the example of, man, if we just knew back in the 80s what Apple was going to do, we'd have put every penny we had into Apple.
[00:48:44] And I said, don't raise your hand if you ever sold any Apple stocks.
[00:48:47] I'm sure you're kicking yourself.
[00:48:49] But here we have God's Word that the Bible says about itself is a guaranteed payoff.
[00:48:54] It says it is profitable.
[00:48:56] And so our first message in this little mini-series was called Investing in God's Word.
[00:49:02] The second one, if you've missed this one, you want to go back and listen to it as well or watch the video, is called Understanding the Bible.
[00:49:10] We talked about the original text and how we read things and understand things in context, the original cultural context, and the various things that help us understand the message of the Bible better.
[00:49:25] Then the third message, which was a few weeks ago, I called it the message of the Bible.
[00:49:30] We looked at how the story, the whole message of this book is a message of redemption.
[00:49:36] It's a message of reconciliation and a message of restoration.
[00:49:41] And so, it would be great to go back and listen to those three or watch those three if you haven't, if you weren't here to experience those in person.
[00:49:51] And so today, in what I believe will be the final message in this little series, I'm going to title this, How to Study the Bible.
[00:50:00] So my plan is to be very, very practical today.
[00:50:03] Now, I try to be very practical every Sunday, But I want to give us a very easy, practical, simple game plan that we can walk right out of here and immediately put to work in our lives.
[00:50:16] And so we're going to answer these questions today.
[00:50:18] If we're going to study God's written Word, and I call this God's written Word because all of this book is God's Word, but this isn't all of God's Word because God still speaks.
[00:50:29] And we'll discuss that a little bit today, but we're going to talk about today primarily how do we study practically His written word. So we're going to answer some questions. We're going to discuss how do we start?
[00:50:42] Where do we start? Is there a certain place we should start over a different place in the Bible?
[00:50:47] How long every day should we read? How much every day should we read? We're going to try to answer all of those questions and again be very practical and get a game plan put together
[00:50:58] for how we can go and do this. And so I want to start by kind of reiterating something I talked about already. Just real quickly talking about some of the various and the different translations
[00:51:10] of the Bible. And I shared this early on in this series, and I was just pleasantly surprised at how much feedback I got from sharing that. And so I know it connected. It was helpful. And so I want
[00:51:23] to share this again. People ask me, I get asked this actually quite often, what is the best version of the Bible to read? And maybe you've wondered that as well. Is the one I have, is it okay?
[00:51:35] and I'm sure it is. There's a lot of wonderful versions, and let me just tell you in a nutshell why we have the different translations, because there are so many different ones, and it's easy
[00:51:46] to wonder, well, with all of the choices, which one should I pick? Which one is the one I should try to read? And so, the reason we have the different translations is because there were
[00:51:57] different reasons the translators wanted to give us that version. Now, they were all intended to be accurate. Now, we know the Bible was not originally written in English. As a matter of fact, it was not even an English language when this was first recorded. And so, the Old Testament
[00:52:12] was first written down in Hebrew. The New Testament was first written down in Greek.
[00:52:17] And like in the New Testament times, for example, the majority of people were speaking Aramaic. So, you have three different original texts. None of them were English.
[00:52:26] And so, now we have, though, all these various translations that have been translated from those original languages.
[00:52:34] Which ones are the best?
[00:52:35] Are there any that are the best?
[00:52:37] And so, here are the reasons why we have the varying translations.
[00:52:41] Now, if you can imagine kind of a spectrum here of the different translations.
[00:52:46] On one side, we have translations that were intended to be more accurate word for word with the original texts.
[00:52:56] That means that if you read one of those, there probably is going to be an equivalent Greek or Hebrew word for every single English word that's in the translation.
[00:53:05] And that was the intention of the translators.
[00:53:09] So then you have the other side of the spectrum where you have versions that were translated not to be so much word for word accurate, but to be more accurate thought for thought and idea for idea.
[00:53:21] And both of them are fine.
[00:53:22] Now, there are different translations and different objectives for them because we don't all think the same.
[00:53:28] And so some of us might connect better with the word-for-word translations.
[00:53:32] Some might say, man, I struggle to understand those, but I do understand the idea-for-idea translation better.
[00:53:39] And so if that's the case, that's the one you should get.
[00:53:42] That's the one you should make your primary translation.
[00:53:46] Then you have some in the middle that are a mixture of both.
[00:53:49] And so, let me share a little bit about which ones you're going to find where on this spectrum.
[00:53:55] Again, I've shared this already a couple of times, but I've gotten so much good feedback.
[00:54:00] It's generated a lot of questions.
[00:54:02] And so, I want to share this again.
[00:54:03] So, over here on this side, we'll call this the word-for-word side.
[00:54:07] You have the New American Standard.
[00:54:09] You have the English Standard Version.
[00:54:12] That's the ESV.
[00:54:13] Very, very popular version these days.
[00:54:16] You have the Amplified.
[00:54:17] They're all over here.
[00:54:18] They're going to be the ones where you're going to find, when you read through it, you're going to find a Greek or Hebrew equivalent for every single English word that is used, at least for the most part.
[00:54:28] You may not find one for the word and, but you're going to find everything else in there.
[00:54:33] This side, you have those ones that are more idea for idea, more thought for thought.
[00:54:37] That's where you find the NLT, the New Living Translation.
[00:54:41] That's where you find the NIV.
[00:54:43] You find the Living Bible.
[00:54:45] And so those you may not have exactly a Greek or Hebrew equivalent, but it is doing a really good job of communicating the idea or the concept of what the original author was talking about.
[00:54:57] If you connect better that way, that's where you should find your translation.
[00:55:01] If you connect better over here, that's where you should find your primary translation.
[00:55:05] Then you have some in the middle.
[00:55:07] So in the middle you have some that are a little bit of both.
[00:55:10] That's where you find the King James Version.
[00:55:12] You find the New King James Version.
[00:55:14] You find the New Revised Standard, and you find the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible.
[00:55:20] That's a more recent translation, but it's a very, very good one.
[00:55:24] That one does a good job of kind of getting both, the best of both sides of this spectrum.
[00:55:30] And so, I don't think there are any that are necessarily better.
[00:55:34] The one that's the best for you is the one that you can understand the best.
[00:55:37] Now, for me, my primary translation is the New American Standard.
[00:55:41] That's over here on this side.
[00:55:43] I just, I've always thought that way.
[00:55:45] I've learned to study that way.
[00:55:47] So that is my primary version.
[00:55:49] You may find that you like that one.
[00:55:51] You may find you like another one a little bit more.
[00:55:53] That's okay.
[00:55:54] Whichever one that you read and understand is the one that should become your primary translation.
[00:56:01] I believe the best thing to do is find which one is your primary translation and then also bring some others alongside it as well.
[00:56:08] Bring some others alongside it as well.
[00:56:10] And so there also are a couple I want to mention that are more meant to be paraphrases.
[00:56:15] The Message is one of those.
[00:56:17] There's one called the Passion Translation.
[00:56:20] Those are both great, but those are meant to be paraphrases.
[00:56:25] So I believe you benefit the most from those when you bring them alongside as a companion to another translation.
[00:56:33] So I love to read through the Message, but I understand it the best when I read it side by side with my primary translation.
[00:56:40] And so those, I believe, are very, very helpful when they are like study companions with the one that you read most often.
[00:56:50] So I believe this is the best thing to do.
[00:56:52] Find your, the one that connects with you the best, the one you understand the best, make that one your primary version, and then bring some others alongside of it as well.
[00:57:02] Now, since I have begun this series, I've had a handful of folks tell me, Mike, I ordered a new American Standard.
[00:57:08] They heard me say it was my primary translation, and it is.
[00:57:11] It is my favorite translation.
[00:57:13] They're going to be very well served by that.
[00:57:15] Now, my wife, she's out of town right now, but when she gets back, she has a brand new, new living translation that she just got.
[00:57:21] It came in the mail yesterday.
[00:57:23] She's going to come back and find that.
[00:57:24] And so, again, I think whichever one is the best one for you is okay.
[00:57:30] And so right now, if you could see, and again, this today is very, very practical, making this very simple.
[00:57:35] If you could see my desk at home where I've got my study.
[00:57:39] Now, this is my primary one.
[00:57:40] It's sitting right in the middle of my desk.
[00:57:42] But in easy reach, I've got a CSB.
[00:57:45] I've got an ESV.
[00:57:46] I've amplified.
[00:57:46] I have a New King James.
[00:57:48] I have a New Living Translation.
[00:57:49] And I have a Wiest Translation.
[00:57:51] And I reference them all almost every single day.
[00:57:54] And so that, I believe, is the best way.
[00:57:57] Find the one that you connect with the best.
[00:58:00] Make that one your primary translation.
[00:58:02] And you can go on the Bible app, read them all for free.
[00:58:04] Find the one that clicks with you the best, The one that your mind can process the best.
[00:58:11] And then I think with that, bring along a few others as well and read them all side by side.
[00:58:17] So with that being said, now again, that was a review, but I want to stick that back in because so many of you, that has just really provoked some really good thoughts, some good questions, some good conversations.
[00:58:28] So I think jump in, dig in, find the one that connects with you the best, make that the one you read most often, and then compare it to some others as well.
[00:58:38] In doing so, we're going to get a much better understanding of what the original texts were communicating to us.
[00:58:45] So that being said, let's start answering those questions of how do we practically study?
[00:58:51] Where do we start?
[00:58:52] And how much do we read every single day?
[00:58:54] And does it matter if we read the Bible cover to cover every year?
[00:58:57] Should we do that?
[00:58:58] Let's answer those questions together.
[00:59:00] Now, I'm going to start by saying something, and please hear me out.
[00:59:04] I think it's important to understand this.
[00:59:05] we don't have to do this.
[00:59:08] And the reason I say that is not so that you don't do it, but it's so we take that pressure out of the mix.
[00:59:15] Take that compulsion out of the mix.
[00:59:18] Now, if you're like me, you probably have had that pressure put on you before.
[00:59:22] I remember being a young man, being in Sunday school and being told, you have to read the Bible every single day.
[00:59:28] And because I was told that and it came from a place of pressure, it became just a chore to me.
[00:59:34] Now, think about your chores.
[00:59:35] Who enjoys doing their chores?
[00:59:38] Nobody.
[00:59:39] And so I approach chores this way.
[00:59:41] Okay, let me get these things done so I can go do what I really would rather do.
[00:59:46] And I found over the years, I kind of put the Bible in that category because I've approached it as being a chore.
[00:59:52] And so because I did, I would say, okay, let me get this out.
[00:59:55] Let me read my chapter a day and get it out of the way.
[00:59:58] That way I don't feel guilty when I watch television later.
[01:00:00] And that's really what I was doing.
[01:00:02] So instead, now we need to be doing this certainly, but let's go ahead and start by just taking the compulsion out of it, taking the pressure, taking the should out of it, and approach that God's written word from the place of,
[01:00:16] man, I get to do this.
[01:00:18] I want to do this.
[01:00:20] And we're going to see that whenever we do, we can't wait to get done.
[01:00:24] We never want to stop.
[01:00:26] That will be what results as we cultivate a lifestyle of regular study.
[01:00:32] But again, we don't have to.
[01:00:34] If you've received Jesus, you've received Him because He gave you a free gift of salvation by His grace.
[01:00:41] You and I never earned that by reading the Bible.
[01:00:44] But by reading and studying His written Word, we're better equipped to walk out our lives with Him.
[01:00:50] And we are going to get out of this what we're willing to put into it.
[01:00:54] Now, see, if I go to a gym and I want to get a six-pack, which I don't have one.
[01:00:59] I used to.
[01:01:00] Now I have a two-liter.
[01:01:01] But anyway, if I want to get a six-pack or get my six-pack back, I'm not going to get that by doing five crunches a day.
[01:01:10] I won't see any change at all.
[01:01:11] I'll see very little if I do five crunches a day.
[01:01:14] If I really want to know, okay, God, what are you saying to me through your word, I'm not going to get there in five minutes a day.
[01:01:22] Now, if five minutes is where we are right now, let's start there.
[01:01:26] But let's don't stay there.
[01:01:27] I believe as we spend that five minutes, again, not from a place of pressure, not from a place of, okay, let me get my chore scratched off the list so I can go do something I'd rather do,
[01:01:38] but let's look for, okay, God, what are you saying to me today through this?
[01:01:43] What is it you want me to understand?
[01:01:45] See, this was never meant to be a book of rules, but religion tells us that that's what it is.
[01:01:52] Religion, which Jesus never came, by the way, for the purpose of establishing a religion, He came to repair a broken relationship.
[01:02:00] And the message of God's written word is a message of that restoration process.
[01:02:05] It's seeing where we are in that process.
[01:02:09] That's what this is.
[01:02:09] This is a love letter to us from a loving Father.
[01:02:12] It's a treasure map that leads us into a deeper relationship with Him.
[01:02:19] So again, it's not a chore.
[01:02:21] But like so many other things, our level of benefit will be in direct relation to our willingness to cultivate discipline.
[01:02:30] And so, cultivating discipline in studying, reading the Bible is very important for us as God's people.
[01:02:37] Again, not because we're saved because of it, but because we are God's people, this will enable us and help us in our walk with Him.
[01:02:45] To overcome sin, overcome the enemy, overcome temptation, be better equipped to do what God's called us to do.
[01:02:51] All of that is here.
[01:02:53] And also, I mentioned how all of this is God's Word, and all this is, but God also speaks to us directly as well.
[01:03:00] I believe that our ability to hear Him speak to us directly will grow as our knowledge of what He's already given us here grows as well.
[01:03:07] We're going to see that we hear His voice better and more clearly when we have His written Word inside of us as well.
[01:03:16] Okay, so we're talking about here not pressure, not judgment, not condemnation, but the importance of being disciplined.
[01:03:24] And so we are going to get out of this what we're willing to put into it.
[01:03:27] My five crunches a day are not going to change my two liter back to a six pack.
[01:03:31] I've got to be willing to put in more.
[01:03:33] And so because we're so busy, because there's so many things that most of us are doing, we've had these certain kind of things pop up.
[01:03:40] Let me give you some examples here.
[01:03:41] Now, nothing wrong with these things, but maybe you've seen these before.
[01:03:45] And I made these titles up, but you've seen things like this.
[01:03:48] There's the five-minute devotional for the man on the run.
[01:03:52] That's great, but let's don't stay there, though.
[01:03:55] Let's not let that kind of thing become our total experience with God's written Word.
[01:04:01] Again, those five crunches are a place to start that will never get us the results that we probably want.
[01:04:07] Or there's the book of Bible promises for the soccer mom on the go.
[01:04:12] Now, my kids play sports. I understand it.
[01:04:14] Sometimes from week, we're running from this game to that game.
[01:04:18] I understand that, and there's nothing wrong with those things, but we've got to sometimes ask ourselves, okay, what are we prioritizing?
[01:04:25] Because there's something called time, and none of us seem to have enough.
[01:04:30] There's so many things that can fill our time.
[01:04:32] I'm not saying that we're doing the wrong things with the soccer games and all that.
[01:04:37] I understand that.
[01:04:37] I have two kids now playing basketball.
[01:04:39] I can't get to both games sometimes.
[01:04:42] But here's the thing.
[01:04:43] What we choose to prioritize is a great indicator of what really matters to us.
[01:04:49] And so let's think about that in terms of us as God's people not being indifferent to His Word.
[01:04:57] Now, I'm not talking, again, none of this is meant to be condemning or judgmental, but it's meant to challenge us, to encourage us, to maybe take a different approach than what we've taken.
[01:05:08] I said this in the first service, and just on this note of being challenged, We're here at the beginning of a year, a time when a lot of us make New Year's resolutions.
[01:05:18] If our New Year's resolutions did not include something about His written word, it might mean we have become indifferent.
[01:05:26] I believe God wants to lead us away from that indifference back to a place of passion again, back to a place of our willingness to cultivate and be disciplined in studying.
[01:05:38] And so again, nothing wrong with that five-minute devotional for the man on the run.
[01:05:41] I'm glad we have those things.
[01:05:43] Nothing wrong with the Bible promises for the soccer mom on the go.
[01:05:47] I'm glad we have those things.
[01:05:48] Let's start there, but let's don't stay there.
[01:05:51] Let's dedicate ourselves.
[01:05:53] Let's block out time every single day to prioritize His Word.
[01:06:01] We make time for what really matters.
[01:06:04] Now, let me share something here that might shock some of us, but make a lot of sense.
[01:06:09] most Americans, and a lot of us are in this category, we spend more than two hours a day on social media. Now, I'm sure if we were honest, we would admit most of that time is wasted. I'll
[01:06:24] sit down and I'll start scrolling through stuff I care nothing about, mindlessly scrolling. And after 20 minutes, I can't tell you what I just looked at. It was wasted time. And so here's the about wasting time. All of us, number one, have the same amount of time every single day. But how
[01:06:42] are we choosing to spend it? What are we choosing to do with it? What are we prioritizing with the time that we've got? Also, we all have a limited amount of time. See, right now you and I are
[01:06:54] living in time, but one day we're going to step fully into eternity. Now, where we spend eternity is based on whether we receive Jesus or not. But if we've done that, we know we're going to be in
[01:07:05] heaven for all eternity. Now, this is not about salvation, but so much of what our eternity looks like will be determined by how we spent our time, what we prioritized with the time that we had.
[01:07:21] Not whether we go to heaven or not. That comes from God's free gift. It comes from grace.
[01:07:25] But our relationship with Him and, to a degree, what our eternity looks like can largely be determined by how we choose to spend our time, what we allow to fill our time. Now, you guys
[01:07:41] wouldn't be here if you weren't serious about this like I am. I know you guys are. That's why we're here today. So let's now begin to answer the question, where do we go from here? So we've
[01:07:51] talked about the fact, okay, we want to do this, right? We want to spend more time. We want to understand this. We want to invest in God's written word. So how do we practically do it?
[01:08:01] That's what I want to spend the rest of our time together today talking about.
[01:08:06] We're going to answer those questions.
[01:08:07] Where do we start and how much time do we spend?
[01:08:11] So we're going to assume now that we have now found a translation we connect with.
[01:08:15] That's going to be step one.
[01:08:17] For me, it's going to be the New American Standard.
[01:08:19] Some of you are maybe a different one.
[01:08:21] That's okay.
[01:08:22] Okay, so let's pick that first of all.
[01:08:24] Again, we're getting a very practical game plan here.
[01:08:27] Number two, let's block out some time.
[01:08:30] Let's say, okay, I'm going to start, and it may be five minutes a day.
[01:08:34] That's okay.
[01:08:35] You start there, pretty soon you're going to say, man, I've got to have ten minutes.
[01:08:39] This five minutes is not cutting it anymore.
[01:08:41] I've got to have more.
[01:08:42] And that is going to result as we put forth that effort, kind of like a siphon.
[01:08:47] You start that siphon, next thing you know, it's flowing.
[01:08:51] That will result when you and I begin to study God's written Word.
[01:08:56] Okay, so how do we begin?
[01:08:58] And where do we start?
[01:09:00] Now, I'm going to answer the question in a few minutes, where do we start?
[01:09:03] Let me share a few things first before we get to that question of where do we start.
[01:09:08] Let me talk about some questions to ask ourselves when we start.
[01:09:13] So as opposed to where we start, we'll get there in a few minutes.
[01:09:15] Let's answer first of all, how do we start?
[01:09:19] Okay, so let's say we're going to read a specific book of the Bible.
[01:09:24] Now, I said a handful of times, it's going to be very practical today.
[01:09:27] Let's say we're going to read the book of Luke.
[01:09:29] Okay, I'm just taking Luke at random here.
[01:09:32] When you begin to read the book of Luke, as you start, here's how you start.
[01:09:38] Let me give you some questions to answer.
[01:09:40] All right?
[01:09:41] Number one, and I'll share this kind of systematically in case you're taking notes.
[01:09:45] You can jot these down.
[01:09:47] One, who wrote that book?
[01:09:49] That's really important to understand as you start studying.
[01:09:53] Who wrote that book?
[01:09:54] Whether it's Luke or whether it's Nehemiah, whether it's the book of Esther, whether it's Malachi, whatever it is, who wrote that specific book?
[01:10:04] Okay, answer that question first.
[01:10:06] Number two, who was that person's audience?
[01:10:10] Who was that book written to?
[01:10:13] See, all this is going to be very helpful in us understanding what it is that we're reading and studying.
[01:10:18] Who wrote the book?
[01:10:20] Who was that person, his or her target audience?
[01:10:25] All right, number three, when did they write it?
[01:10:28] What was going on?
[01:10:30] At what point in time in history did they write that book?
[01:10:34] And then number four, what was their reason or purpose in writing that book?
[01:10:40] All right, so number one, who wrote it?
[01:10:43] Number two, who was it written to?
[01:10:46] Number three, when did they write it?
[01:10:49] And number four, what was their reason or their purpose for writing it?
[01:10:54] That's a great place and a great way to start.
[01:10:58] If you want to deepen your understanding, you want to do more than the five crunches, okay, all right, let me read about this.
[01:11:05] The book of Luke.
[01:11:06] Obviously, we know that Luke wrote that.
[01:11:07] Well, why did Luke write it?
[01:11:09] Here he tells us why he did that.
[01:11:11] And who was he writing it to?
[01:11:12] We begin to read that and study that.
[01:11:14] There's all kind of study helps that are so beneficial.
[01:11:17] Most of them right now are available for free right here.
[01:11:20] Easy to find.
[01:11:21] It's never been easier than it is right now to find these things.
[01:11:27] Okay, let me give you some examples of how this kind of fits.
[01:11:30] Number one, we know that King David wrote about half of the Psalms.
[01:11:34] He didn't write all the Psalms.
[01:11:36] A lot of Psalms were written years after he has already passed away.
[01:11:41] We know that King David wrote about half the Psalms.
[01:11:43] So what was going on in David's life when he wrote some of those?
[01:11:47] Now, the Bible tells us in Ephesians that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood, that people aren't our enemies, but yet David prayed sometimes in the Psalms, God, let my enemy's teeth rot and fall out.
[01:11:58] So what was going on in David's life when he wrote that?
[01:12:01] That's important to understand.
[01:12:03] Where was David at?
[01:12:04] Was it okay that David prayed that?
[01:12:06] Questions to ask.
[01:12:08] Okay, we know that Paul wrote a number of epistles.
[01:12:11] He wrote about two-thirds of the books of the New Testament.
[01:12:16] Well, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
[01:12:18] He also wrote Galatians.
[01:12:20] He had very different reasons for writing both of those.
[01:12:24] It helps us to ask those questions.
[01:12:26] Okay, Paul wrote it.
[01:12:29] When did Paul write it?
[01:12:31] Who was he writing to and what was his reason for writing that?
[01:12:35] Those are things that will be helpful to us to study as we understand this.
[01:12:40] Okay, let's keep going here.
[01:12:42] The four gospel accounts.
[01:12:43] We have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
[01:12:46] Why do we have four?
[01:12:48] That's the question to answer too.
[01:12:49] Somebody's phone's ringing, by the way.
[01:12:51] So, why do we have four?
[01:12:54] Why was one not enough?
[01:12:56] Those are things to ask ourselves.
[01:12:58] We'll begin to study these four different gospel accounts of the life of Jesus.
[01:13:03] Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
[01:13:05] As we study that, let me throw this out there.
[01:13:07] Matthew and John are both first-hand accounts of the life of Jesus.
[01:13:11] Mark and Luke are both second-hand accounts.
[01:13:14] It's important to understand those things as we approach these things together.
[01:13:17] And digging a little bit deeper, doing more than five crunches, will give us that six-pack back.
[01:13:22] Okay, then ask ourselves these questions.
[01:13:25] I'm showing us practically how we get started.
[01:13:28] So we've determined, okay, Luke wrote this, here's why Luke did it, this is when Luke did it, and this is his reason for it.
[01:13:34] Now, as you pick a place to start, and we'll discuss that here in a few minutes, let's ask a few more questions about this to help us understand.
[01:13:43] What category does our specific book of the Bible fall into?
[01:13:48] Or what genre?
[01:13:50] We'll use the word category here.
[01:13:52] So here are some possibilities, and all this matters.
[01:13:55] All this is important for understanding it.
[01:13:58] Is it in the Old Testament or is it in the New Testament?
[01:14:01] It's good to understand that.
[01:14:03] Then once you answer that question, does it spell out for us mostly things under the Old Covenant or does it get into the New Covenant?
[01:14:11] Those things matter as well.
[01:14:12] You're saying, Mike, I didn't know all this stuff.
[01:14:14] He was even in here.
[01:14:15] But it is. It's all there.
[01:14:16] And it's important for us to understand where is the book that we're reading, where does it fall?
[01:14:22] What category does it fall into?
[01:14:24] And where does it fit in that whole entire story of restoration?
[01:14:30] And so it may be that God said something to someone in the book of Leviticus that no longer applies today.
[01:14:36] Some of it may still.
[01:14:37] Some of the things that were written there are now obsolete.
[01:14:40] So it's important that we understand that.
[01:14:42] We still read them.
[01:14:43] There's an important reason that we do.
[01:14:45] The Bible says in Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians 10 that all of that was written for our sakes.
[01:14:51] But we have to understand that and keep things in the context that they were intended to be in.
[01:14:56] Okay, I mentioned the word category.
[01:14:58] So we have all kinds of categories.
[01:15:00] There's the category of law, history, poetry, a wisdom book, a prophetic book, one of the gospel accounts, an epistle, also apocalyptic books.
[01:15:11] That sounds scary, but really it's not.
[01:15:13] We've begun to use that word apocalyptic in a scary way in our modern society.
[01:15:19] but really it just talks about the fact that one day this age is going to end and God's going to bring in a new one.
[01:15:25] That this earth one day is going to pass away, but God's going to bring a new earth and new heavens.
[01:15:29] That's what that's all about.
[01:15:31] And all of it points to Jesus every step of the way.
[01:15:34] And so we ask ourselves, okay, what category does the book fall into?
[01:15:39] So we have Genesis through Deuteronomy.
[01:15:41] They're all a combination of history and law.
[01:15:46] Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are both wisdom books.
[01:15:49] The Psalms, those are part history and part poetry.
[01:15:53] Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all gospel accounts.
[01:15:59] Then you have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah.
[01:16:03] Some of those, those are prophetic books.
[01:16:05] Also, they're part apocalyptic.
[01:16:08] Some spoke to the past, some speak to the future.
[01:16:10] And so all of this is at play in the Bible.
[01:16:14] And so it's important that we understand where is the part that we're reading, where does it fall in this story of restoration that we're reading here?
[01:16:25] Okay, one more question to ask ourselves here, just to be very helpful.
[01:16:29] Is the specific book I'm reading or part or chapter or verse, is it literal or is it symbolic?
[01:16:36] Because you have both in the Bible as well.
[01:16:39] Is it literal or is there symbolism I need to understand?
[01:16:43] So we know the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those are literal.
[01:16:47] Paul's epistles, those are literal.
[01:16:49] But now parts of Revelation, parts of Daniel, parts of Zechariah, those are symbolic.
[01:16:55] Now those symbols speak to things that we need to understand.
[01:16:58] They speak to things that either have happened or are happening now or will happen.
[01:17:04] So they are symbols that God chose to speak through to give us insight into things that are going on.
[01:17:11] But understanding, is what we're reading meant to be literal or is it meant to be symbolic?
[01:17:17] We get revelation, those four horses that are riding with the four riders, are those going to be actual horses or are those horses speak of something else?
[01:17:25] And obviously, we know those things are symbolic.
[01:17:27] These beasts that we see that come on the scene one day, there's one that comes out of the ocean, one comes out of the earth.
[01:17:33] Are those real animals?
[01:17:35] No, those are symbolic.
[01:17:37] There's a measure of allegory that God chose to use in that.
[01:17:41] Now, I'd love to have time to unpack some of those today, But we don't have time for that.
[01:17:45] But to understand though, okay, is what I'm reading meant to be taken literally or is God speaking through a symbol through this?
[01:17:54] And oftentimes He is.
[01:17:56] Okay, so now before we get to where do we start, let me keep building for a second on how we apply.
[01:18:03] So as we begin to study, we found a version that works for us, one that we understand.
[01:18:09] We brought some other versions alongside possibly to give us a much better glimpse into the message of the Bible.
[01:18:17] We are seeing these practical questions to begin to answer to give us a better understanding of this.
[01:18:24] How do we understand it and how do we apply it?
[01:18:28] Let me read a verse here.
[01:18:29] And this verse may not be on the screen.
[01:18:31] I didn't give it to Miss Tiana back there.
[01:18:33] I didn't plan to read this.
[01:18:34] Let me go ahead and read this to us though.
[01:18:36] I read this a couple of weeks ago or a few weeks ago.
[01:18:39] This is the reason that we read the Scriptures.
[01:18:42] It says here in 2 Timothy 2, verse 15, it says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
[01:19:00] So our goal in studying is that we can accurately handle, or some translations use the phrase, rightly divide the word of truth.
[01:19:09] Now let's remember, this is a lifelong pursuit.
[01:19:12] You know, the person that really has the six-pack doesn't just do 30 crunches today, doesn't tomorrow also, and the next day, and the next day.
[01:19:22] And so the person who makes that their lifelong pursuit, they don't have the two-liter I have, they have the six-pack.
[01:19:29] And so if we really want to have an understanding of the word of truth, it's not just, I'm going to read it today, and then I've got it.
[01:19:37] It's when we give ourselves to a lifelong study.
[01:19:42] And on that note, I've had people tell me before, well, I've already read it.
[01:19:46] Well, we shouldn't approach this as like seeing a movie, and now we've already seen it, so don't have to watch it again.
[01:19:51] We should approach this more as taking a bath.
[01:19:55] Yes, you took one a year ago, I can tell, but you need one again today.
[01:20:00] So this is more like that.
[01:20:01] It's more we need this constant every single day experience in His Word.
[01:20:10] There it is.
[01:20:10] Yes, sir.
[01:20:11] Ephesians 5.
[01:20:12] Chris has got it.
[01:20:13] Washing of the water of the Word.
[01:20:14] Taking a bath every single day in His written Word.
[01:20:18] And so it tells us here, be diligent and study so you can rightly divide the Word so we can accurately handle the Word.
[01:20:28] Now, as we begin to study or we continue studying, as we do this, let me give us a couple of words here.
[01:20:34] These are big, big theological words, but they have very easy definitions.
[01:20:40] Okay, and these are important for us to understand.
[01:20:42] The first one is the word exegesis.
[01:20:46] Now, you probably heard that word before.
[01:20:48] It sounds like I'm saying Jesus at the end.
[01:20:50] It's not.
[01:20:50] It's Jesus.
[01:20:51] Let me spell this for you.
[01:20:53] Exegesis is E-X-E-G-E-S-I-S.
[01:20:59] All right?
[01:21:00] There's another word, eisegesis.
[01:21:03] I'll spell it for you as well.
[01:21:05] Again, these are big theological words, but the meanings are very simple.
[01:21:10] Eisegesis is spelled this way, if you guys are taking notes.
[01:21:13] It's E-I-S-E-G-E-S-I-S.
[01:21:19] Now, you and I both have done both of these, and maybe we didn't realize we were doing it.
[01:21:24] And here's what they mean.
[01:21:26] The word exegesis and the word eisegesis.
[01:21:29] Exegesis is this.
[01:21:31] Whenever we read and study the Bible to find out what it says and to find out what it means.
[01:21:38] Exegesis.
[01:21:39] We read the Bible to find out what it says and to find out what it means.
[01:21:44] Now, here's what eisegesis means.
[01:21:46] And we're going to see we do this too.
[01:21:48] That's when we read and study the Bible to make it say what we want it to say and make it mean what we want it to mean.
[01:21:57] Don't raise your hand, but we've all done that before.
[01:22:00] And so here's how we have to approach this.
[01:22:02] Here's why I've shared those two great big theological words, which again have very simple definitions.
[01:22:08] Whenever you and I begin to study, we've got to come to God's Word not to make it fit what we want it to say, but to come to it for the truth that it is.
[01:22:19] We can't let our life experience dictate for us the truth of Scripture.
[01:22:26] We've got to instead let the truth of Scripture become the lens that we see everything else through.
[01:22:33] That's what exegesis is.
[01:22:35] Whenever you and I read the Bible to find out what it says and to find out what it means.
[01:22:41] If we're coming to the Bible to confirm what we already want to believe, we're not reading it the way we're supposed to.
[01:22:49] We're not studying it the way we're supposed to.
[01:22:52] Now, we're standing, I think, at a very crucial and important time in history.
[01:22:57] Right now, we see a lot of things changing around us.
[01:23:01] There are a lot of varying, differing worldviews out there.
[01:23:04] Let me tell you something about the truth of God's Word.
[01:23:07] It never changes.
[01:23:08] It never changes, and so here's what we have to do.
[01:23:12] We can't let our worldview become the lens that we read this through.
[01:23:17] We've got to let this become the lens that we build our worldview from.
[01:23:23] There's a lot of things out there that will give us a worldview that is very contrary to the truth of God's Word.
[01:23:31] And so, I said, Jesus, is when we come to the end, so we're going to find out what we want to say here.
[01:23:34] We're going to find out how to prove somebody wrong and this kind of stuff.
[01:23:37] We're looking for what we already want to believe.
[01:23:39] We already have this bias, looking for God's Word to confirm that to us when we need to be looking for God's Word to be the truth that we believe.
[01:23:49] And so you and I, as God's people, need to allow our worldview to be formed by the truth of God's Word and not bend His Word around our worldview or around the opinions that we have.
[01:24:04] And we all come to a time, we've all been there, We'll be there again before it's all said and done because we're imperfect people where one of us has to change, either God's Word or me.
[01:24:17] When we find the truth, the flower's going to fade, the grass is going to wither, but His Word is eternal.
[01:24:28] The grass and the flower speak of fads.
[01:24:31] There are things people believe today that cause them to question this, that tomorrow they'll be on to something else.
[01:24:36] That's why we start here.
[01:24:38] God, what does Your Word say?
[01:24:40] And the sum of your word is truth, the whole thing together.
[01:24:44] And so we come to the point where something needs to change.
[01:24:48] It's you and I that have to do the changing, not the Scriptures.
[01:24:53] Jesus said in John 10, 35, the Scripture cannot be broken.
[01:24:58] It can't be broken.
[01:24:59] And let me give another reason here why we read this.
[01:25:02] Now, we saw in 2 Timothy there how Paul said we read this so we can learn how to rightly divide the word.
[01:25:09] Well, also in this same book, in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, and these verses will be on the screens behind me.
[01:25:17] Let me start in verse 16.
[01:25:19] It says, All Scripture, again, every word of this, all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.
[01:25:39] So here we have the Scriptures for that reason.
[01:25:41] It's profitable, guaranteed payoff, and it says for teaching.
[01:25:45] So even though I'm one of God's children, I need teaching sometimes.
[01:25:49] It says for reproof. I need to be reproved sometimes.
[01:25:53] My worldview or my behavior may not be in alignment with what His Word says.
[01:25:58] Again, if it's not, it's not His Word that changes.
[01:26:02] I've got to change.
[01:26:03] My worldview has to be adjusted.
[01:26:05] My behavior has to be modified.
[01:26:07] if I'm going to be in alignment with the truth of His Word.
[01:26:12] Okay, so as we're approaching this, we're understanding we read the Word of God, His written Word, not to make it say what we want it to say, but to understand what it says, to understand what it means,
[01:26:26] and to align ourselves with the truth of it.
[01:26:29] Here are some things we've got to keep in mind.
[01:26:31] You and I, we use the Bible to establish doctrine.
[01:26:36] We use the Bible to establish theology.
[01:26:39] We don't use our own personal experience for those things.
[01:26:43] It's important that we not try to establish our theology, our doctrine, based on our personal experience.
[01:26:51] Instead, we use God's written word.
[01:26:54] Now also, we don't use prophetic words to establish doctrine.
[01:26:59] I said a minute ago, all of this right here is God's word, but it isn't all of God's Word because God is still speaking to us.
[01:27:07] God speaks to me, God speaks to you.
[01:27:10] However, if anybody ever says that God has spoken to them directly, something prophetically, if what they say God said, if it contradicts what God has given us right here, it is not a true word from the Lord.
[01:27:23] God never speaks anything to us directly that contradicts what He's already given us in His written Word.
[01:27:31] And so we cannot find ourselves in a place where we establish our beliefs, our theology, our doctrine on our own personal experience, or what somebody else said God has shown them.
[01:27:45] Instead, we come to what does the Bible say.
[01:27:49] It may very well be that what God shows that person confirms the Bible.
[01:27:53] And if God spoke it, it will.
[01:27:55] So God never speaks anything to us that contradicts the Scripture.
[01:28:00] Anytime we may hear, well, God gave me this word, God told me this.
[01:28:03] If it is not in alignment with this, it is not right.
[01:28:08] And so, I've been around the church long enough, many of you have as well, to see various moves of the Lord, various revivals and renewals and different things.
[01:28:17] And one thing I've noticed is they get off track when they start taking liberties with the Scriptures.
[01:28:24] When they start saying, okay, I can decide what this means.
[01:28:28] or I can use this to justify what I want to do instead of I'm going to come to this for the truth of God's word that never changes and bring myself to alignment with it,
[01:28:40] that's where those movements begin to get off track.
[01:28:43] They may start pure.
[01:28:45] They may start with God truly doing things.
[01:28:47] But whenever the leaders of those movements begin to take liberties with the Bible, they begin to get off track.
[01:28:54] And the same thing can apply in our personal lives as well.
[01:28:57] If we begin to think, okay, I can do what I want to do.
[01:29:01] I'm already saved and I can just...
[01:29:04] This part doesn't apply to me.
[01:29:06] It does apply to us.
[01:29:08] Every word of it applies to us.
[01:29:11] Especially when we see the sum of His Word is truth.
[01:29:14] And so it's important, again, that we not make it say what we want it to say, but we come to His Word for the truth that it is.
[01:29:24] Okay, let me begin to close here.
[01:29:26] And we're going to take communion together before we're done as well.
[01:29:29] We're going to pray here in just a minute.
[01:29:32] Let me answer the question, though, that I said I was going to answer of where do we start.
[01:29:37] And I've got a lot more I could share.
[01:29:39] And this has been fairly in-depth, I feel like.
[01:29:42] But even then, it's just barely scratching the surface.
[01:29:45] But we've talked about the different translations.
[01:29:47] We've talked about picking one and bringing some others alongside.
[01:29:51] And we've talked about setting some time aside every day.
[01:29:55] We've talked about just the way we approach it.
[01:29:57] How do we start studying?
[01:29:59] Let's talk about where do we start.
[01:30:01] I get asked that question a lot as well.
[01:30:03] Do we start in Genesis?
[01:30:04] Do we start in John?
[01:30:05] Do we start in the Psalms?
[01:30:06] Do we start in Luke?
[01:30:08] Or where's the best place to start?
[01:30:10] And here's the thing.
[01:30:11] There's not a wrong answer.
[01:30:15] Now, there are some places, though, that may be a little more challenging to start in, for example.
[01:30:19] I'm going to explain that.
[01:30:20] But you know what?
[01:30:21] Genesis is a great place to start.
[01:30:23] The book of John's a great place to start.
[01:30:26] Here's a great place to start also.
[01:30:27] How about you say, okay, Genesis has 50 chapters.
[01:30:31] John has 21.
[01:30:33] If I read two chapters a day in Genesis, one in John, I get them both done in about a month.
[01:30:41] And in that month, we have laid a really good foundation we can build on as we continue to study.
[01:30:47] So I believe that might be an even better approach, is doing it that way.
[01:30:52] That will lay a tremendous foundation.
[01:30:54] Now, so that's one place to start.
[01:30:56] Now, I mentioned there are some places that could be a little more challenging.
[01:31:00] They're not the wrong places to start, but Leviticus could be a tough place to start.
[01:31:05] You that have read the Bible, you understand Leviticus is a little tricky.
[01:31:08] Eric mentioned that last week as well.
[01:31:10] Leviticus builds on Exodus, which builds on Genesis, kind of like math.
[01:31:15] You've got to remember your 6th grade math before you ever understand your 7th grade math.
[01:31:19] And you get beyond that, I don't understand any of it.
[01:31:22] The stuff my kids do these days, I have no clue what it is.
[01:31:25] It's that new math.
[01:31:26] But anyway, so it might be just more practical to start in Genesis instead of Leviticus.
[01:31:33] Okay, so it might be a little easier to start in Matthew versus Hebrews.
[01:31:39] Hebrews is an awesome, I love the book of Hebrews, but Hebrews is a pretty deep book.
[01:31:43] It gives us a lot of insight into the entire Old Testament.
[01:31:47] So it might be a better idea to lay that foundation, get that foundational understanding before you jump into Hebrews.
[01:31:57] So I think starting in Genesis is a great idea.
[01:31:59] Starting in John, great idea.
[01:32:01] Starting with both of them, even better.
[01:32:04] Now, let's answer this question here as well.
[01:32:06] What about a chronological study?
[01:32:08] Because we just started one as a church, and everybody's invited to be a part of it.
[01:32:11] Aaron Southwell is leading us in that.
[01:32:14] So Genesis is the first book chronologically.
[01:32:18] There are places, though, in the Bible that talk about things that happened before Genesis 1-1 happened.
[01:32:24] And so Revelation is the final book chronologically.
[01:32:28] But the books in the middle aren't in chronological order.
[01:32:33] And so you can't approach this like it's a novel and just read page 1 to page, for me, I think it's 1196 is the final page.
[01:32:41] It doesn't read quite that way.
[01:32:43] You can do that, but starting out, if you're going to read the entire Bible, starting chronologically might be very, very helpful to understand.
[01:32:51] And here's some reasons why.
[01:32:53] You have books like Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
[01:32:56] They were grouped over here in this part of the Bible, but they happened after things over here happened.
[01:33:03] And so when the people that God used to put this canon of Scripture together, when they began to organize it, they grouped things by category.
[01:33:12] So it's not grouped chronologically.
[01:33:15] So I think a chronological study could be very, very helpful.
[01:33:18] If you guys are doing it with Aaron, you're going to really benefit from doing that.
[01:33:23] Let me answer one more question, then we're going to pray.
[01:33:26] Is it important to read the Bible cover to cover in a year?
[01:33:30] Now, people sometimes ask that question.
[01:33:32] Now, here's the thing.
[01:33:33] Let's remember, there's no pressure.
[01:33:35] There's no compulsion.
[01:33:37] Now, I think it's an awesome thing to read the Bible cover to cover in a year.
[01:33:41] You're probably not going to get it, though, your first try.
[01:33:44] That's okay.
[01:33:45] If you've ever tried that and didn't get there, don't feel bad about that.
[01:33:49] Just keep going.
[01:33:50] It's like riding a bike.
[01:33:51] If you fall off and you're going to fall sometimes, get up and keep riding.
[01:33:55] The thing we don't want to do is bring in compulsion and pressure and condemnation and make it a chore again.
[01:34:02] Now, so, there's no rule that says we have to read the Bible cover to cover in a year.
[01:34:07] I will say this, it's very easy to do, though.
[01:34:11] It really is.
[01:34:12] It might take a few tries.
[01:34:13] That's okay.
[01:34:14] But here's the thing.
[01:34:16] Let me show you how achievable it is.
[01:34:18] Three chapters a day get you through the Bible in one year.
[01:34:22] That's about 15 minutes.
[01:34:25] Don't forget now, we spend about two hours a day on social media.
[01:34:29] That's all just wasted time.
[01:34:31] Three chapters a day, and I can do this entire book in a year.
[01:34:34] I'll tell you something.
[01:34:35] If you've done it, you're going to do it again the very next year.
[01:34:38] Once you start doing that, you never want to stop.
[01:34:41] You want to keep going again and again and again.
[01:34:43] Now, this is not to boast, but I've read it cover to cover several years.
[01:34:48] I've read the whole Bible cover to cover numerous times.
[01:34:51] And I have more to learn than I've learned.
[01:34:55] And just five days ago, December 31st, I finished.
[01:34:58] And it was such an awesome feeling.
[01:35:00] Man, I did it again.
[01:35:02] But guess what?
[01:35:03] January 1st, I started again.
[01:35:05] Because once you start doing that, you're not going to want to stop.
[01:35:08] And it doesn't make you a super Christian.
[01:35:11] It doesn't put you in a different category.
[01:35:12] but what it does do is it ignites a hunger inside of you that you have to you don't want to stop you don't like man I'm five minutes a day is never gonna be enough I got to keep going I got a kid I don't have enough time let
[01:35:26] me share a few examples of folks that do read it covered or did these are all with the Lord now John Wesley may give you an example of John Wesley here John John Wesley read the Bible cover to cover three times a year
[01:35:40] on horseback, riding horseback.
[01:35:45] Now, if he could do that, you and I can do five minutes a day in a recliner, certainly.
[01:35:50] And people say, well, John Wesley didn't have Netflix.
[01:35:53] Right.
[01:35:55] George Mueller, wonderful man of God, who's also with the Lord, great example of a man of faith, estimated at least 100 plus times in his lifetime read the Bible.
[01:36:08] Again, you don't have to do it in a year.
[01:36:10] But we've got to get started.
[01:36:12] More recently, also with the Lord, but Derek Prince read the Bible about 120 times in his lifetime.
[01:36:19] Became one of the most influential Bible teachers of the second half of the 20th century.
[01:36:24] Not just because he studied it, but that definitely equipped him better for it.
[01:36:29] You and I also will be equipped through this.
[01:36:32] So, no, you don't have to.
[01:36:36] If you do want to, go for it.
[01:36:37] It might take building up to it.
[01:36:39] It's like trying to hold your breath.
[01:36:41] No one holds their breath for three minutes to start with.
[01:36:44] You start for about 10 seconds, then you keep going.
[01:36:48] That's what's important is we don't approach it as a chore.
[01:36:51] Don't approach it because we have to, but because we get to.
[01:36:56] So before we pray, I'm going to give you just some practical examples of what you could do starting today.
[01:37:04] You could do the Bible in a year.
[01:37:06] If you want to do that, go for it.
[01:37:07] You're never going to regret it.
[01:37:09] You're never going to get to the end of your life and say, man, I just wish I didn't read it so much.
[01:37:13] You're never going to think that.
[01:37:15] But here are some practical things you could try, anybody could try.
[01:37:18] Okay, Proverbs has 31 chapters.
[01:37:23] More than half of our months of the year have 31 days.
[01:37:27] Read one chapter a day, you've got it in a month.
[01:37:30] Psalms has 150 chapters.
[01:37:32] Do five chapters a day, you've got the entire Psalms read in a month.
[01:37:37] It's very easy to do one chapter of Proverbs and five Psalms in a day.
[01:37:41] Very, very doable.
[01:37:42] And you've got those two books in a month.
[01:37:45] Okay, I think it'd be great.
[01:37:47] Here's a great place to start.
[01:37:48] One chapter in Genesis, one of the Psalms, and one from Matthew.
[01:37:53] And just keep going.
[01:37:55] Get Genesis and go to Exodus.
[01:37:58] Finish Matthew and go to Mark.
[01:37:59] Finish the Psalms and jump into Isaiah.
[01:38:02] Just kind of keep going.
[01:38:04] Okay, you also could study a specific subject.
[01:38:07] You could study the word love and what the Bible teaches about love and go read every single verse where love shows up.
[01:38:13] It's a great study.
[01:38:15] I've shared before that several years ago, I sat down and I said, I'm going to read the Bible this year looking for the specific examples or the specific places where God gave specific promises to the nation of Israel.
[01:38:31] I sat down and read the Bible with that objective, with that intent, that goal.
[01:38:35] I took a purple highlighter and highlighted every one of them.
[01:38:39] And right now, flipping through, I got purple all through the Bible because it's all there.
[01:38:44] That's something you could do, something like that.
[01:38:47] I mentioned several weeks ago how the phrase, in Him, is a great phrase in the Bible.
[01:38:53] Look that up.
[01:38:54] Where does the phrase, in Him, show up and read every place where it says that?
[01:38:59] Begin to study those verses as well.
[01:39:01] You also could study a specific person's life.
[01:39:04] Jesus, obviously, but the life of David.
[01:39:07] Fascinating story.
[01:39:08] Study.
[01:39:09] The life of Esther.
[01:39:11] The life of Jacob.
[01:39:12] The life of Joseph.
[01:39:13] The life of Ruth or Miriam.
[01:39:17] Wonderful places.
[01:39:18] You start studying there, next thing you know, you're all over the place.
[01:39:22] You also, again, pick a word.
[01:39:25] Pick the word power.
[01:39:26] Pick the word peace.
[01:39:27] And look up where is every time the word power, where does it appear in the Bible?
[01:39:32] Oh, yeah.
[01:39:33] I'm going to see, too, that when I do that, there's at least four different Greek words used for power in the New Testament.
[01:39:39] There's the word dunamis.
[01:39:41] Where does dunamis appear?
[01:39:41] How does dunamis differ from ischus?
[01:39:44] Let me study that and see.
[01:39:45] The next thing you know, you're just studying.
[01:39:48] And that five minutes a day is no longer anywhere close to being enough.
[01:39:52] What matters is we get started.
[01:39:55] We get started.
[01:39:56] Here's one more fun one.
[01:39:58] Study every place in the New Testament where it quotes the Old Testament.
[01:40:02] Start with that.
[01:40:03] Say, okay, I'm going to go and see.
[01:40:05] Okay, here Jesus quoted the Psalms.
[01:40:07] Let me read what Jesus said.
[01:40:08] Read the Psalm right beside it.
[01:40:09] Or here in the book of Hebrews, it quotes all over the Old Testament.
[01:40:13] Let me start there and go to every place.
[01:40:15] And whether you get the whole Bible done cover to cover in one year or not may not be what's important.
[01:40:19] It may be that the quality of your study matters more than the quantity sometimes.
[01:40:25] And so just get started.
[01:40:27] So that's just some practical things of things you could try.
[01:40:30] What matters is pick one and go for it.
[01:40:34] Pick one and go for it.
[01:40:35] You're never going to regret having done that.
[01:40:39] So that being said, again, we're going to stop that little mini-series there, I believe.
[01:40:43] We're going to start with something new next week.
[01:40:46] And we're going to take communion to close today.
[01:40:49] Probably the best way to end any series.
[01:40:53] And I appreciate you guys hanging in there, and I'm going a little bit longer than usual.
[01:40:58] Let's go ahead and take our piece of bread here.
[01:41:01] And if you didn't get one of these coming in, they're going to come up the aisles and bring you, just wave your hands and Stevie or Holly can hand you guys a communion cup.
[01:41:12] But I want to pray for us and I want to pray what the psalmist prayed.
[01:41:17] We discussed this a handful of weeks ago how the psalmist in Psalm 119 said, Lord, open my eyes so that I can behold wondrous things from Your law, from Your Word.
[01:41:30] I want to pray that over and for you and me as we end this little series together today.
[01:41:37] Then we're going to also go into communion together.
[01:41:40] So let's just take our bread and let's just pray for a minute.
[01:41:46] And Jesus, I just want to begin by thanking You for the privilege of having Your written Word, the privilege of being able to study Your written Word.
[01:41:56] And I pray that You would continue to teach us, that You would show us truly how practical and simple it is just to get started and just to keep following You through Your written Word.
[01:42:15] And I thank You that Your written Word tells us in Isaiah 53, verse 5, that Your body that this bread represents, Your body was wounded for our transgressions, that it was bruised for our iniquities,
[01:42:31] that Your body was chastised so that we could have peace, that You took stripes on Your body so that we could be healed.
[01:42:42] And Jesus, you told us that every time we took communion to do this in remembrance of you.
[01:42:53] And so we remember right now what the breaking of your body has meant for us, what it has accomplished for us, and what it means for us right now.
[01:43:05] Let's remember that as we take this bread together.
[01:43:25] We are to take this juice together as well.
[01:43:27] This juice that we hold in our hands right now represents to us the blood of Jesus.
[01:43:32] that was shed for us when His body was broken.
[01:43:41] Let's remember what He accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood, what it means for us right now.
[01:43:49] The Bible tells us that by His blood you and I have been redeemed, been rescued from the place we used to be.
[01:44:01] We now belong to Him.
[01:44:04] The Bible tells us that by His blood we've been justified, we've been declared righteous.
[01:44:12] It tells us that we've been sanctified, set apart as belonging to Him and nobody else.
[01:44:21] The Bible also tells us that by His blood our sins are washed away, forgiven, and that we have access by His blood to the very presence of the Creator of the whole universe.
[01:44:36] Our loving Father welcomes us into His presence because of this blood.
[01:44:42] It also says that we overcome the enemy through the blood of the Lamb.
[01:44:47] So let's take this together remembering what it means for us now.
[01:44:59] So Lord Jesus, I just want to bless each person, each family represented here today.
[01:45:04] Those that are watching us online today.
[01:45:08] I pray that you would continue teaching us through your word.
[01:45:14] May we be those who truly do discipline ourselves and cultivate a lifestyle of regular Bible study.
[01:45:22] I pray that you would teach us through it, Lord, in Jesus' name.
[01:45:26] Amen.
[01:45:29] Well, friends, we'll see you guys next week.
[01:45:31] Now, by the way, these first two rows are not reserved, by the way.
[01:45:34] You guys feel free to move up here next week.
[01:45:37] My friend up here all by himself needs some company, don't you, my friend?
[01:45:40] So you guys come join us up here.
[01:45:42] Come closer.
[01:45:43] I use breath mints every Sunday.
[01:45:45] So we're going to have the prayer team up.
[01:45:47] They'll be either side of the stage.
[01:45:49] You guys come.
[01:45:50] Feel free to see them for prayer, and we'll see you next week.