Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from His word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. All right.
So thanks for being here tonight.
Really, seriously, thank you for coming out tonight.
I know that not being here on Sunday was probably frustrating
for you, and it was for me too. There's nothing more enjoyable
than preaching to a camera. But I've done a lot of online
class stuff over the years, so it's a little too normal for me.
But I had flashbacks to COVID. But anyway.
So hopefully we'll be able to meet this week.
But thanks for joining us. Thanks for those who are
listening online later to this session.
Appreciate you being here. Let me just call your attention
to a couple things. There are some podcasts, Jean
mentioned that here live, there are some podcasts out that are
that are out already and some coming out that really do
dovetail with what we're talking about.
On Wednesday nights, Doctor Aiken and I did a podcast
together, Dylan and I've done some on the engaging the Bible.
Allen Mosley and I just did one on how do I personally study the
Old Testament? Well, we just did that the other
day. It's probably not out quite yet.
I've got another scholar coming in.
We're going to do the same thing with the New Testament.
So just walking you through this is all about personal Bible
study. How do I, how do I dive in
deeply in my personal Bible study?
How do I address some of these things like like I'm in the
middle of the minor prophets. Tony Vick and I were out making
a visit today and we were talking about this.
So you know, you're, you're, you're in a minor prophet and
this, this chapter says God's going to judge you and God's
going to judge all the nations. Then you go to the next chapter
and God's going to judge you and judge all the nations and you go
to the next chapter and God's going to judge you and judge all
the nations. I mean.
Just because because that's the whole almost all the minor
prophet work. So how do you make that
meaningful? What does that mean?
How do you apply that in your life?
So so there's some good podcasts out there.
I hope that I just kind of regulated and these guys.
I did so listen to those things as well as the other podcasts.
All that we're doing on on midweek as well, Sundays are
being podcasted out. There's also a good podcast that
Dylan does for students and parents of students.
And so listen to that one. Too, for those of you that that
would apply to. So here we are talking about
engaging the Bible, how to interpret the text.
I was asked last session about some.
Tools or some books? And I'm going to talk more about
those tonight, but I'm just going to share a few of them.
You won't be able to necessarily see them or keep up with it.
All those of you who are live all day my hair if you really
want to see them. These aren't the only ones in my
office. I could have brought probably
10, I think it was something like that probably, but these
and these are not the light reading some of them to be
honest with you. But if you really do want to
understand the Canon process, how the Bible came to be, the
canonization process that we've talked about a few sessions ago,
FF Bruce, the Canon of Scripture.
It's a detailed book, not light reading, but very informative.
If you're really interested in that, FF Bruce is there.
And then a couple of other books, some by my some friends
of mine and then some others. David Dockery.
If you don't know who David Dockery is, he's now the
president of Southwestern Seminary.
He's been the president at Union University in Tennessee.
Great scholar and wonderful man, a Southern Baptist leader.
He wrote a book called Biblical Interpretation then and now
Contemporary Hermeneutics and Light of the Early Church.
Doc anything by Dockery is good stuff.
And so he's a strong Baptist leader.
And so that one then these guys are friends of mine.
I served with both of them at Southern Seminary in Kentucky.
One of them is Robert or Bob Stein.
This is a very basic, if you want a basic hermeneutic, like
if you're a teacher and you want some basic guides to
hermeneutics, this would be the book I'd pick up first, A Basic
Guide to interpreting the the Bible, Playing by the Rules by
Robert Stein. Great, great tool to use.
And then this is out of a. Series.
Ben Merkel, who's a professor of Southeastern, is the editor of
this series, and different people write the different
books. It's the 40 question series.
If you don't know anything about the 40 question series, this
would be an interesting series to you because I don't know if
there's probably 20 something. Books.
Now Or something in this series. So you might have 20 questions
about the second coming, or 20/20/20 questions about heaven,
or 20 questions about hell. There's just all kinds of a
variety of subject matter. And what happens is, is they're
at the table contents is actually responding to.
I said 20, that's 40. I don't know why I kept saying
2040 questions. I don't know what I was saying.
40 questions, 40 questions series.
It's the 40 questions series. That's 40 questions.
Anyway, the table contents would actually be responding to 40
questions. And so Rob Plummer, who's an old
friend, a professor, smart guy, wrote on how to interpret the
Bible. And this would be an interesting
book to refer to because it would break it down to short
chapters and different topics. So there's just a few of them.
There are others. There's some classics out there,
MacArthur's written, John MacArthur's written in the field
as well as others. So if you're interested more in
interpretation and then and hermeneutics and you want to go
a little deeper and especially if you're a teacher, you might
enjoy some of that. All right, I'm going to break
out the Greek here later. So buckle up butter cups and
let's get going here on your listening guide.
So let's talk about we've been asking various questions.
To be honest with you, it may not seem that way, but that's
what we've been doing. And these these sessions build
on one another. So this is your first time here.
Thanks for coming. We're having a good time on
Wednesday nights. If you've missed some of the
sessions and engaging the Bible, I really would go back and
listen to them. You can listen to them online.
We have folks who are administering all around the
building right now in other ways.
And so we make sure we have these recorded so they can hear
them as well as other people. And, and I'd go.
Back and listen because they do build on one another.
Because if you missed some of the earlier stuff, I'll be
honest with you, I don't think this.
Works. The same way and so, and I'll
refer back to that and again, I'm assuming a few things as we
dive into this. I'm assuming that the Bible is
God's special revelation that is uniquely inspired.
That's an assumption. I'm not making that argument
tonight. I'm just assuming that I've made
that argument in the past. If you need to go back and
listen to a a lesson on the authority of Scripture, I did
that back in the summer and you can pick that up where I talk
about revelation and I talk about inspiration, things like
that. But Second Timothy 316, many of
you would know that verse. All Scripture is what yeah is,
is breathed by God and profitable.
And it's profitable for several things.
This wouldn't be the only things it's profitable for.
But in this passage, it's profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for the correction, and for training and righteousness.
And it's. Key that it says all Scripture,
not just parts of Scripture, not just the parts I like, not just
the parts I want to believe in, not just the parts that don't
challenge me, but all parts of Scripture are inspired.
And so this makes the Bible authoritative for all times and
for all peoples. And that's really crucial when
you start talking about interpretation, which we're
going to deny. This is not just an authority
for us. It's always been an authority,
and it will always be an authority.
And so it's the ultimate standard of truth, not only
about God, but about his plan for us.
And that's a crucial thing and an important thing to remember.
Jesus taught this in John 1717. He said sanctify them and the
truth, your word is truth. Jesus would often refer to
passages of Scripture and so God's word provides several
things for us and we recognize this, that it provides the
essential source for salvation. We we recognize that then Acts 4
bears that out says this. Let it be known to all of you
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
there's your gospel. By him this man is standing
before you. Well, this Jesus is the stone
that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the
cornerstone. And there's salvation and no one
else. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
So we recognize that Jesus is the only way to be saved with
the way we know. That is because the Bible tells
us this, this and, and we read it there.
The Bible also obviously is explicit instruction for how we
ought to live our lives. And there are many, many
passages obviously that we could read.
That's not what we're going to do tonight.
But Matthew 44 says, but he answered, it is written, man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. So we are to live in a certain
way. We're saved this way.
We're also going to live this way.
So. So in other words, there's no
equally authoritative revelation.
It's a good phrase. There's no equally authoritative
revelation given by God to us, which we must turn to for our
help and our guidance. So we better know what to do
with it. Now, in that session I shared a
long time ago about the Bible, about its authority.
I mentioned to you 3 views of Scripture.
I'm just going to review them very quickly.
You just have a let them listed there.
So there there are at least three views of scripture.
These are very generalized. 1 is the human constructivist view.
This is where people believe the Bible is just a human book.
It's no different than any other fantasy book.
It was written by man. There's nothing supernatural
about it. This is a work of fiction and
it's simply an expression of that fantasy.
So and this is would be a very liberal, non believing, you
know, view of the Bible. I've mentioned to you then I'll
just say it again that you could probably go to any one of our
major universities and take a class on the Bible as literature
best selling book of all time. Nothing about that is slowing
down. And so you have the greatest
book of literature ever written. For some that's all it is, but
it's worth studying just as a great book of literature, just
like you'd study the Odyssey or you'd study English LED or
something. The second one is human
response. This is more complicated, also
more common in the church as well as in some what we call
moderate theology to liberal theology.
So God spoke in part, man responded and wrote the Bible.
And so the Bible delivers God's word, but is not literally God's
word. And so the Bible contains errors
as well as God's Word in that view.
And that's a pretty common view out and a pretty sometimes a
common view in, frankly, to where people believe the Bible's
full of errors. I always find it fascinating
when people tell me that I've said this to you 14 times,
probably to where somebody says the Bible's full of errors.
I say I want. I look at them and say name.
Three of them for me. They've heard that, they've been
told that, and they're basing. A lot of eternal, you know,
frankly, life on it. And they don't even know what
you're talking about. And for some, the errors include
how come one gospel said there were this many angels at the
tomb and another gospel said there were that many angels at
the tomb. And they don't understand
perspective. You know, there, there's nothing
theological about that at all. So anyway, it's interesting.
The third view is where I stand. I pray most of you do.
I think you do. And that's just divine
inspiration. So I I do believe with all of my
heart, without any reservation, with complete faith, that the
Bible is infallible, inspired, inerrant, and the literal.
Word of God so to help us properly handle such a thing as
the Bible. Especially if you believe that
about it, it's a pretty big deal.
It's pretty important. So how do I properly handle this
word? Of truth.
Is a pretty big deal and we've discussed some things already in
previous sessions. Let me remind you, especially if
you haven't been here. So don't neglect these things
because interpretation builds upon these things.
Good interpretation depends upon these things.
So the first thing that we talked about was preparation to
where God has inspired and. Prepared the Bible for us.
We had a couple different sessions.
We talked about how do we get the Bible.
So it's a miracle story that you have the Bible then in the form
it's is and that is such a unified, consistent story
because of the way it was developed.
And so it's an amazing thing which ought to be a testimony to
its inspiration and its infallibility because it is a
miraculous story. But we also have to prepare
ourselves so we we recognize God has prepared his message for us.
God has prepared this revelation for us.
But I also have to be prepared spiritually.
I have to be prepared personally to be able to receive the
revelation that God has for me through his word.
And this is a much bigger deal than.
We might spend time on So we're talking about if we go all the
way back to my evangelism study. We're talking about.
Relationship #1 where we're intentionally involved in a
relationship with God and His people.
The closer I'm walking with God, the closer I'm abiding with Him.
The closer I'm abiding in Christ, the more this word's
going to speak to me, and I'm going to be.
Able to receive it and, and this is this is extremely important.
I'll talk more about that a little bit later.
So then we open our Bibles. We go to our personal Bible
study moment, our quiet time, our our personal experience with
God and the word and we open our Bibles and we focus on a
specific text. That's where we are.
So whatever we're studying, I'm studying this, this is the text
I'm in for the day, whatever happens to be.
So then I said, now the first, the first step is observation.
So what we talked about in the last.
Session and we were trying to answer the question of what does
it say? And so if you were here last
time, you heard several steps. If not, go back and listen to
that, because we discussed the questions that you ought to ask,
how you should be initially reading and observing, asking
certain questions. About the text.
Then you come that where we are tonight for this session and
that's interpretation. So I've I, I've prepared, I've
observed, now I have to interpret, and now we're
answering the question of not just, what does it say?
But what does it mean? What does this passage mean?
And this is a, this is the root, this is the core of
hermeneutics, the study of God's Word, the interpretation of
God's Word. Now, there are going to be
statements that I make that you frankly may not like initially
and and that that's OK. You have the right to be wrong,
but I hope you'll listen so. So I need you to understand.
That we need that a primary goal here.
And you may not think like this and I'll show you why in a
minute. I'll probably may nail some of
you to the wall, but I won't call out names.
I'll just stop you in the lobby and tell you but.
Because there's a. Situation that I think we fall
into that you're going to see in a minute, which is why we
believe sometimes not what I'm about to say.
Now let me tell you something. So what we're trying to do is
we're seeking to determine the author's original purpose,
thought and meaning. Now, most people don't really
want to do that. See what people want to do.
Many people, none of you all here on a midweek because you
know, you are the cream of the croppers.
You know what I'm saying? I mean, you wouldn't be here in
the cold, so I don't. You know, every single one of
you. Here would never.
Do what I'm ready to talk about, but so many people want to skip
the preparation. So many people want to skip the
observation. A lot of people even want to
skip the interpretation and they want to hop to the application.
You know, what's this got to do with me?
Now we're going to get there, but if you start with guess who,
me, you're often going to miss the purpose of what God wanted
to say. Say when you're me centric and
there's a name for that and we'll talk about it in a minute.
But if you're going to be me centric and that's all that
matters. And in our world today, that
that's our world today, right? Listen, over 80% of every single
social media post in our culture today is about the person
posting. It's not about anything else.
I, I, I, I know that some of you are deeply into that.
God bless you. I don't understand why I should
care about what you had for breakfast.
You know what I mean? I don't.
I've never understood that. Here I am eating this sandwich
at lunch. Yay.
Why don't you stuff it in your mouth and put your phone up you.
Know what I'm saying? But anyway, so so.
When you start off in that. Place it's just going to.
Lead you down the wrong Rd. So so we're.
Seeking to determine the author's original purpose,
thought and meaning, and the Bible's co-authored.
You think about it the right way, right?
So God's inspiring using a person.
To receive that inspiration and you know, somebody's actually
writing on a parchment or a papyrus or somewhere along the
way, writing down what's being said.
So a huge question, which often gets left behind.
And, and part of it is to be honest with you, is we're lazy
or we, we don't, I don't have enough time to do that in my
personal Bible study or that's think about that dangerous
statement. I don't have time to actually do
this the right way. I'm just going to skim over some
passages and then I can check off.
I read my Bible today. And that's not what we're here.
That's not what this study is about.
This study is I'm going to take my time and I'm actually going
to have a quality Bible study. All right, because what we
really want to do is how would the original recipients have
understood this message? The very. 1st.
People who ever read what was written, how did they interpret
it? How did they receive it?
And that's a far more important question and it's often
overlooked in our culture today because we don't care.
We don't care about them. Who do we care about me?
And that's our culture today. So there's this whole thing is
counter cultural. The whole idea of having a
quality personal quiet time with God is counter cultural in our
world today. And you can understand Satan's
going to fight you. Satan's going to the world's
going to fight. Everything's going to fight you.
This is this is about what I can get out of this.
This is what I need to get. And this and we got to think
differently than this. We got to reprogram.
Ourselves a little bit. So interpretations necessary,
but frankly, it's not always clear.
It's sometimes difficult in certain passages.
What did the biblical writer actually mean when he wrote what
he wrote? And so there are tools and
principles and practices we're going to talk about here to help
us figure that out. All right.
And you got to think about this. So God, through these human
authors, writes the biblical texts to be timely to their
original recipients. As well as to us through the
generations. So you got this whole double
whammy thing going on. He's originally writing to
people in the Middle East thousands of years ago.
And it's supposed to be meaningful to them in their in
their situations, right? And so these were these original
represents. So these biblical texts address
sometimes very specific situations and very specific
questions. And unfortunately, especially
when you get into some of the, the New Testament, for example,
we don't even know what the questions are.
When you when you read the Johns, I've mentioned this
previous sessions, so I'll just keep tagging to that.
You don't necessarily how do I know he's writing about
Gnosticism? The word Gnosticism doesn't ever
show up. So how do I know that?
So these are the kinds of things we're.
Going to talk through together. So often this makes
interpretation a challenge, frankly.
And because it's hard, sometimes we don't want to do it and we
don't do it because I'd rather just read and observe and apply
to my own life and see what I got out of it.
And then I often times I'll sit in a group of.
People. Hey, I've got to be nice.
Should be nice. So I'm not going to look at my
wife. So, So I've been in many, many,
and I've shared this before. I've been in many, many a small
group where frankly it was just group therapy.
It had nothing to do with the Bible.
It wasn't biblical interpretation.
It's not this is what I think this means.
Well, this is what I think this means.
And this is what and I'm sitting on the back row saying it never
meant that. That's not what it means at all.
But we're just applying so much and reading for ourselves.
There's a word for that. I'll give it to you in a minute.
So it can be hard sometimes to determine that original meaning
because there's so much distance between us.
I mean, you know, think about the multiple levels of
interpretation that are taking place.
You got a biblical culture, and then you got you and your own
culture and you got the culture surrounding you.
And you're trying to weave in and out of these three
different. Areas to figure out how this.
Is you know. So what?
Which is going to be, by the way, applications next session.
So what? So the Bible teaches truth in
the ways and the manners of expressing truth.
You got to realize this, that there were things, way words
were structured, the way things were put together.
These were ways of expressing truth in ancient times.
You don't necessarily speak in parables today, right?
You probably wouldn't call yourself a prophet or a
prophetess. Those of you who do come see me,
tell me about whether it's going to snow or not.
If you get that right, I might listen to what you have to say
next. So might or not?
So. But so we got to.
Recognize there's barriers to interpretation, and barriers can
include language because you're reading a translation for the
most part. I got the Greek right here.
I don't imagine too many of you could take this Greek New
Testament and read it. Maybe some of you could.
I don't imagine most of you know Hebrew or Aramaic or Syriac.
And so there's language that's a barrier.
There's there's geography that's a barrier.
There's culture that's a barrier.
There's time. That's a barrier.
But then we bring other. Things.
And then we'll harp on this even more later.
We bring presupposition, we bring prejudice, we bring bias
to where we already think. This is the, this is what I
believe. So now I'm going to make this
Scripture match what I already believe.
There's a word for that. So these barriers become
important. So This is why preparation is
crucial. This is why observation is
important. I need to be prepared
spiritually so that I can depend upon the Holy Spirit to help me
really understand what this passage is saying.
This is a supernatural book. I need supernatural help along
with some practical steps and tools.
It's a both end. So, so that's why it's easy.
When Paul writes in first Corinthians 214, the natural
person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are folly to him. You know, people like that.
I know people like that. This doesn't make any sense.
This isn't, this is just folly. This is just fiction and He's
not able to understand them because they are spiritually
discerned. We need the interpretation of
the Holy Spirit to help us in between.
So I need to make sure I'm walking with him well.
So we need the Holy Spirit to illumine, you know, that's a
called illumination where He's illuminating God's Word for us
and guides. Us to the proper study and
understanding. Of that word.
And it's also helpful on on. The practical level, because
there's a partnership at work here.
On the practical level, it's great to have good teachers and
resources to help us. Now, here's what I hear about
Inglewood Baptist Church. I hear that most of our Connect
group leaders are pretty good. I was waiting for any response
to that statement. Of course, that's not what I
heard. I've heard that all of our
Connect groups are great. Amen.
Yeah. If you like your Connect group
leader, say it. Say aye.
Thank you very much. Those of you who opposed, talk
to me in the lobby. Our e-mail, you know, go.
It's be easier to e-mail. e-mail.
See taylor@inglewoodfabulous.com.
He has nothing to do with any of that.
Would it be good? No, I mean, that's one of the
things that you know, of all the things I'm working through, all
the assessment issues I might worry about here.
I'm so thankful because I'm telling you it's not always the
case, not in Teresa Valance. It's not always the case when I
help. Churches.
I'm not sitting around here fretting and staying up all
night worrying about whether or not some connect group leaders
teaching the Bible or not, right?
What a blessing. And seriously, don't take that
for granted ever. And you test my preaching.
And if I don't preach the word of God, fire me because Hebrews
512 through 14 says this. For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the
basic principles of the oracles of God.
You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk
is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a
child. But solid food is for the
mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by
constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
So it's this interesting mix, you know, we're dependent upon
the Holy Spirit to help us supernaturally discern things.
We're also training ourselves in the right steps to to have.
Practices of discernment that are wise and right.
So there's spiritual maturity, there's discipleship that's a
part of this that's going on. So the more I interpret well,
the more I go through these steps, the more I take my time
and my personal Bible study, the more mature I'm going to bid.
That helps me even more the more mature.
I'm going to get it's. Going to help me even more and
you'll cycle yourself up. But remember that interpretation
is a part of your daily life whether you believe it or not,
because every English translation includes
interpretation and they don't let that scare you.
That doesn't mean that something's bad, but that's why
different translations are different because there are
there is interpretation taking place.
So it's helpful, like we talked about last time, it's helpful to
compare to have more than one translation that are solid good
translations that follow original language to be able to
compare them and to sit there and say, oh, that, so so that.
This committee of scholars made a choice here in this word to go
this direction, and this committee of scholars made a
choice in this word, and they went it doesn't mean the
meaning's different. It's not going to change
theology, ever. But it's like, it's interesting
that they use that word and they use this word, right?
Somebody's going to use anger. Somebody's going to use rage.
Rage is different than anger in my mind.
Wrath is different than just I'm upset.
So you can see there's interpretation taking place
along the way. A good sermon hopefully helps to
do that as well, frankly. So so so.
Then to find the original intent, which is where this
whole section started, what did the author originally mean to
say right? So we must think exegetically
and we got to ask the right questions.
Now, some of those questions are the questions we talked about
last time in observation. It's going to be hard to do good
interpretation without asking those who, what, where, why kind
of questions back. We talked about an observation.
If you missed that, go back and listen to it.
So we're putting that framework into place now.
We're trying to draw out meaning.
Not just facts, but meaning. So the goal needs to be to
understand what the author was trying to say to the original
leaders that readers, that's goal number one.
What did this originally mean? Because a couple of truths about
hermeneutics is that God's Word to us, God's Word to us today
was first, his Word to them back then.
And got a text can never mean what it never meant.
Now, you may not have realized it, but I've said that sentence
about four times in this study. A text can never mean what it
never meant. The reason I emphasize that so
much as I find people in churches guilty of something.
Else they're trying to make the text say something that it never
meant to say. OK.
And so this is hard for a lot of people because there are.
Frankly, some things that we're not necessarily supposed to be
able to completely understand or predict.
So the limits of revelation are things that we have to accept.
And people don't like that. People like to figure everything
out. When's the Second coming going
to happen? Not only do you not know, Jesus
says he doesn't know. And frankly, I don't know why
you're wasting your time trying to figure it out.
I mean, that's seriously my perspective.
I don't know why you're wasting your time trying to figure that
out. I've gotten over the years, you
know how many color code charts I own, how many predictions
books that were predicting this and that.
Our Job's not prediction our Job's proclamation.
Jesus said he doesn't know. Why are you trying to figure it
out? But there are people who
theologically treat theology like math, and they're letting,
they're trying to have facts prove their faith rather than
faith determine their facts. And that backward formula gets
them in trouble. That's why they don't believe
the word of God all the time because they're putting one
thing ahead of the other and they're trying to figure it all
out. I got a box it all up over here
so I can put it on the shelf. I know people in theological
circles who have certain theological bins who do that
and, and frankly, they reach the wrong conclusions.
I know people who are hyper in their views and they reach wrong
conclusions because they're they're treating math like
algebra. They're treating math like
trigonometry. I mean, they're treating
theology that way, not math that is math treating theology that
way. That may or may not make sense
to you. If it made sense.
You know exactly what I'm talking about.
If it didn't, don't worry about it.
But some people chafe at the idea that I'm not supposed to
know every single thing about every single thing.
OK, there are issues of faith in the Bible.
There are mysteries in the Bible, and we have to learn to
accept them. And for some of these can't do
that because that because their number one priority is their own
brain. Their number one priority is
themself and them trying to figure out the facts.
And it's dangerous. So our job again is not
prediction, it's interpretation and proclamation.
Some issues must simply be accepted by faith and it's hard
for some people. So what happens then is I'm
going to give you the words for this.
Your beginning presuppositions and assumptions can become
barriers and or become very inaccurate filters to prove to
proper interpretation. I'm bringing what I already
think into the puzzle rather than letting the text honestly
define what I think. See.
So I bring my doubts or I bring my strong opinions and I'm
laying it on the scripture rather.
Than letting the. Scripture determine my strong
opinions and actually determine my truth.
And it's really hard in our culture today because especially
the American culture, because we are so individual.
The word is individualistic, autonomous.
We are so individualistic in our our viewpoint here that we
really do think it's about me and it's not.
It never was, and frankly it never will be.
It's about him. So we create these theological
lenses and everything it might be perceived in a certain way
when in fact they were originally not intended to mean
that at all. There's an old proverb that says
if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
So if I start. Off with a hammer.
Everything I see, I'm going to figure it's going to all be
interpreted by my hammer. All right?
And there are certain viewpoints that are taught in churches that
are not the only viewpoint, but they're taught us the only
viewpoint. And sometimes it can lead to
some real. Issues and an honest
interpretation. So there are big differences.
Let me hear the words. I appreciated a brother who came
up last week and re emphasized one of these to me after the
after the session. But there are big differences
between exegesis. And eisegesis, These are
important if you've been asleep, wake up, put your coffee down.
If you're listening to this online and take a note or two.
There's a big difference between exegesis and isagesis.
Isagesis EISE exegesis is the careful systematic study of the
scriptures to understand the original intended meeting.
X means to pull out of. So I'm starting with the
scripture and I'm pulling out honestly what the scripture is
saying. That's exegesis.
Exegetical teaching or preaching pulls out of the scripture.
I said Jesus the word, the the prefix ice.
Means to put into. I'm starting off with a
presupposition over here, and I'm pretty pushing that into the
scripture to proof text what I already believe.
So the mistake of interpreting a text in such a way is to
introduce one's own presupposition, agendas or
biases you read into the text rather than allowing the text to
speak to you. This is probably the number one
mistake of it of good interpretation.
So I have a viewpoint of blank. I'm going to make every
scripture agree with my blank whether it really did or not.
I'm going to force that in there and there are a lot of different
ways that happens. I'll talk about more of that in
a minute. So.
So it's. Often done to justify.
It's often done to confirm the position you already had.
Now another one. Which may just be a subset of
isagesis. Is a term.
It's it's an informal, you're not going to find this in
academic text, but it's Narcissus and Narcissus.
Is where the. Bible is all about me in my
opinions and my interpretations and I think this is a leading
sin in American church. We have a lot of narcissistic or
narcissistic. How do you say that word
Narcissus narcissistic. That's but not bad
interpretations. We make it, we make move.
Put me right at the centre and everything has to be about me
and my issues and my problems and everything I'm going
through. Now, don't get me wrong, the
Bible speaks to your problems and everything that you're going
to, but it's got to honestly, and sometimes it might not agree
with where you want to end up. It might challenge you.
You got to be over here. Well, I don't want to be over
there. I want to be over here.
So I'm going to make the Bible prove I'm over here.
This is a great sin of the prosperity gospel to where I'm
going to I'm going to manipulate God.
I'm going to manipulate scripture.
I'm going to manipulate the text.
I'm going to proof text my way to where I get everything I
want. Out of this.
That's magic. I've said this to you before.
The prosperity gospel is magic. It's not theology.
Magic is where I have the power to manipulate the forces for my
own will. I'm going to, I'm going to do
something good or bad, and I can manipulate the forces to my own
whim and way. That's magic, the prosperity
gospel would say, and naming it and claiming it, it's just
magic. God might not want you to have
it, and he might have a better reason than you could ever dream
of for not having it. He might be protecting you from
something you think you want. But now I can, I can proof text
it. I can make it sound like I
should get everything I want, all right?
I know people who see things under every Bush in Scripture.
They're not there. They were never there.
That Bush is naked. They didn't have anything under
it. But they'll, they'll put
something in there. Because they already have this
presupposition, this idea of what I want the Bible, what I
want the Bible to say for me, for me or about me.
So the reader imposes these personal agendas, these
experiences, the perceptions into a biblical passage.
And so Narcissus treats every verse as though it revolves
around the individual producing the self focus lesson rather
than seeking the original lesson that God had intended for his
people. Sometimes the lesson I want is
not the lesson that God's teaching.
Sometimes God's lessons are things like stop it, repent,
confess, you know, But I can just make God love if I want to.
I can make God nothing but love if I want to.
And anything that says God's not love, I can, I'll just tear it
out. I don't like that part.
I don't like holiness. I don't, I don't want judgment.
I don't want accountability. I don't want any accountable.
I don't want accountability. I don't want accountability.
Wait till Sunday's sermon, you know, might not want to be here.
Not you all. Cream of the crop.
So we all bring our knowledge, we all bring our hopes, we all
bring our dreams, we all bring our wants to Scripture, we also
bring our culture and we bring our biases to the table when we
begin to interpret. And this can result not always,
but can result in eisegesis or narciegesis all right if I don't
understand certain principles. That must be.
Followed in interpretation, then I can reach wrong conclusions.
So we need to talk about some healthy practices, some sound
hermeneutical principles that will help you avoid some of
this. How can I reach an honest
interpretation, a real interpretation?
So one of them is literary context.
Now, this stuff may sound boring, but it's important.
And so the meaning of any passage is going to be
consistent, normally with what comes before it or after it.
Now, different kinds of literature are not always true
that way. There can be proverbs.
That one proverb has nothing to do with any of the proverbs.
It's all about wisdom. But this proverb has a
completely different statement than the one before the one
after. You can have that in the Psalms,
you can have that in certain literature, but most of the
passages are going to be consistent with what comes
before it or after it. So we don't proof text.
We don't take a verse out of context, quote UN quote.
You don't ever take a verse out of context to support an
argument or belief that is isagesis or it could be
narcgesis. So a danger.
It doesn't mean every single time, but to be careful.
The smaller the passage you're studying, the greater the
likelihood of it being taken out of context because I'm not
reading what's around it. And so we you need to graduate
out in your study of context and you're going to say, I don't
have time for this man. This is going to take an hour of
my life. This going so easy.
Learn the habits. You'll get them down to do them
quicker, but the immediate context, what verses are just
right around it. It's very helpful.
But then you got to go to chapter.
What's the whole chapter about? Because often to be able to
interpret that little passage, I really do need to understand
what is that? What has he been talking about?
There are many times I've mentioned Colossians 3 to you
have 1000 times in different things.
You can't read with Colossians 3 without reading beforehand.
In Colossians 2, he's talking about a description of the
Christian life. That's the context.
And so then you have the whole book context.
What's this whole book about? Very important to understand.
After Nehemiah, I'm going to preach through Romans.
It's going to take 12 years, but I'm going to preach through
Romans. It's not going to take that
long, but. There's a sermon in every phrase
in the book of Romans. But it's going to take a little.
While but I was. Reading through just.
What would I say about the introduction to the book of
Romans, even though this is still a few months or a couple
months away or whenever it is after Easter, because we're
going to do some Easter stuff too.
But I'm like, you know, how would I introduce to you in a
Sunday morning sermon A brief introduction for the book of
Romans? And I was reading about
everything. It's helpful to read that.
Every now and then it's helpful to write.
This is what this book's about. This is why Paul wrote Romans,
and there's a reason behind that.
There was actually a church at Rome, and he was writing to the
church at Rome about Roman issues that they had at Rome, in
Rome, for those Romans who were in Rome.
Don't ignore that. That doesn't mean that doesn't
have anything for me, that's the miracle of the living word.
But I better understand what it meant for those Romans in Rome
when they were in Rome and he was writing to Rome because they
were in Rome and they had Roman issues.
Because it helps me to understand and it will actually
help me apply better when I know that truth.
So that book context or the Testament, where does this fit
into the New Testament? This is especially true in the
Old Testament. So I've gone from Zechariah
context, Ezra, Nehemiah to Zephaniah and one day I went
from Zechariah to Zephaniah, my personal Bible study the next
sound exciting. Aren't you excited?
Once you, once you dive into the minor prophets with me,
Zechariah is condemning them, you know, talking about why they
were condemned in Babylon. And you better come back and you
better do what you're supposed to do because God sent you into
exile. If you don't know what you're
supposed to do, God's going. To get you again.
Happy, happy, joy. Joy.
Zephaniah has nothing to do with that.
Zephaniah was written in the time of Josiah the king, when
Judah was trying to go through some reform and.
When? Josiah finds the book, he's
reading the book. He's trying to be a good king.
He's trying to bring. Revival Zephaniah is written in
that time frame. Completely different story.
If you're you're reading through your Old Testament, you're just
going to hit these books in an order of size, not an order of
chronology, not an order of purpose, not an order of.
So the Old Testament is especially.
True. And how's this fit into the
whole Bible story? How does what I'm reading today,
what does it have to do with what we would call the meta
narrative or the grand narrative, the whole?
Story of Scripture. What does it have to do with
that? How does it fit into that?
How does it apply to that? And and how am I going to
understand it that way? So the best always reliable
commentary on the Bible is the Bible.
So understanding that the Bible will never contradict itself and
cross referencing passages is always helpful.
Some of you have Bibles that'll do that for you.
You got there used to be 1 called the Thompson.
Anybody ever have a Thompson chain reference Bible?
You remember that when some of it.
It was a really helpful tool if you know, it's kind of small
print in there, but man, you'd have a verse and then have all
these other verses that kind of tied into that verse and you
could just run that chain. I could go from this verse and
I'm going to read that verse and this verse and they're all going
to loop together in a, in a purposeful meaning.
It's a helpful tool, helpful study Bible.
A lot of them you'll have little things in your margins they'll
cross referencing, but study the the the the.
Purpose of the book? What?
What other time frame is it? Is there another book in the
Bible that was around the same time?
Be helpful to then cross reference those two books and
see what they're saying. Some of these books might relate
to, You might have a historical book and then you might have
more of an epistle or a prophecy, but they're actually
talking about the same place, same time.
That could happen in the book of Acts and Paul, or that could
happen in the Old Testament. You know, think about first and
Second Kings, first and second Chronicles, and some of the
stories that go along with it. So three types of information
from the context can help you correctly interpret.
Does the interpretation fit the stated or apparent?
Purpose of the book. And if it doesn't seem to do
that, you got to ask yourself why?
What am I? Am I right or wrong?
Am I missing something? Am I reading something into it?
Does it fit the flow of thought? We're going to talk more about
that in a minute. And do parallel passages shed
any light on the passage you're studying?
I hope that you're gathering from me that for you to have
this deep engagement of the Bible with a humble and
teachable spirit, which is one of our essentials of
discipleship at Inglewood, that this is more than you just
reading the Bible. I hope you're gathering that
this is this is how I'm picking the Bible apart.
This is how I'm, I'm actually actually understanding and
pulling out of this every single thing I can.
I'm ringing it for every. Ounce of truth I can get that
takes discipline it. Takes time.
It's not something that might come easily in the beginning.
So find parts of this at least that you can do #2 the
historical, cultural background. I've alluded to this, but.
All the books of the Bible were written in a specific time,
specific place, for specific people with specific issues, and
so these aren't just books. For us, these were books for
them, you know, and if we're going to understand what was
written, it's helpful to know as much as we can about this
historical and cultural background of the writing.
So try to spend the proper amount of time and observation
asking those basic questions and ask the right questions and this
is where good study. Bibles and commentaries.
Could be really helpful to you. To where they have some of that
information. About the book at the beginning
of your book or they have notes along the margins.
And so a good study Bible would be helpful.
But to understand some of the cultural elements, right?
And, and, and there'll be debates about some of those
cultural elements, right. There are some some things that
I could talk about right now that probably get me in trouble.
So let's just do that. So, for example, there are
things that Paul would write about women in the church.
I'm not talking about teaching or pastoring.
I'm not even going to go down the road of being silent.
I'm smarter than that. Might not look like it, but I
got good teachers at home. But should a well, should a
woman wear pearls and gold? You know, there are passages
about the way women adorn themselves.
Is that, is that still something we should talk about today?
Is that is that is that a cultural element of the moment?
Is that is that a more general lesson about modesty and
humility? What, you know, where's the
interpretation? Land cultural stuff is handy.
You know, there's some backdrops to some of these people who.
Came from very Pagan backgrounds.
And the temple worship that they were exposed to all the time and
the way people acted and the way people dressed and the way
people spoke. And some of the temple worship
infiltrated their pasts and they were bringing it to the church.
So what do you, what do you need to get rid of from that?
And what's OK to keep that would play a part in some of those
conversations. Understanding context is
important. I'm not here to pick on whether
women wear jewelry or not. I buy jewelry for my wife all
the time. So you can see how I interpret
the passage, but at the same time you.
Could talk about what does it. Mean for a camel to go through
the eye of the needle? Is that just an illustration of
how impossible it is for the? Rich man to go to heaven.
Is it really a literal needle? And the fact that the camel's
too big and it's absurd. It's just total absurdity.
Or is it the gate? There's a gate that was
referred. To as the eye.
Of the needle on the wall of Jerusalem and the and a camel
would have to stoop on his knees.
To crawl. Through that gate, it was so
small. What's he talking about?
Is that what he's talking about? You know, so when a when Jesus
spoke, spoke in parables, what kind of what kind of stories
would he often tell? Just shout it out?
What what were many of the parables?
What kind of, what kind of culture, what kind of background
were a lot of the parables agriculture?
Why? Because that's what they were,
right? A lot of you aren't farmers,
some of you are, some of you very skilled farmers, some of
you are not. And so these agricultural terms
to somebody who lives in a big urban centre might not carry as
well or be understood as well as others.
So, so what's cultural, what's historical, right?
I, I don't, I'm going to talk Sunday about shaking off your
garment and dusting off your sandals.
Well, many of you, many of you men are probably not wearing
sandals Sunday. You're probably not going to
wear a robe that you can shake the dust off of.
So what does that mean? What does that talk about, you
know? If some of you men show up in
robes and sandals on Sunday, please come see me in the lobby.
It's going to be cold. I'm expecting no snow.
I'm expecting to meet in in person on Sunday.
Yeah, that that's not prophetic. That's just I've been telling
God this Gene was alluding to this earlier.
I've been praying with the staff all week that I'd.
Appreciate it, God. So sometimes it's context, but
then let's get in. Let's get into something else.
What about #3 word meetings? In our last session, we talked a
little bit about words, but we got to go deeper than that.
So we talked about noting key or repeated words.
That's important. You're making notes of that.
Here are words that he repeats. These are seem to be keywords in
these sentences. These are key things he's
talking about because each word could have a possible range of
meetings. Greek is an incredibly rich and
expressive language. In English, you might have a
single word for something. In Greek they would be able to
spell that 14. Different ways.
In fact, one of the things you do in basic Greek is if you
actually learn to decline. It's called declension.
Don't worry about it. You take a common verb, and
here's every single form of that common verb.
And often they'll use a verb called Luo.
Which means to save it can mean physical salvation or spiritual
salvation. And so now it'd be a thing from
throwing a life preserver out to sharing the gospel with
somebody. So Luo, how do you decline every
single version possible of Luo? And you open up this 17 by 24
page and it's the IT goes down the entire.
Here's all the different. Ways a a form of speech, the
word Luo could be used. Because if it's used.
As an object, it's spelled one way if it's used As an active,
it's spelled a different way if it.
And so there, I mean literally it'll cover.
This whole poster. In, in single, in, in single
spaced. 8 fonts of all the different versions of a basic
Greek verb, right? In English we'd say save.
We could say saving, and we could say saved, but that's all.
Every part of that. Depending upon how it's used
when it's used. So this is a very rich
expressive language. So when you're translating or
interpreting, there can be some range of discussion.
So words you don't understand, words that seem to be central,
words that again that are cultural, and words that are
repeated that we said before should all be.
Examined and then after. Considering the possible meaning
of the words, choose the meaning that fits the immediate context.
This is why when I talked last time about translations, it's
always better to have a translation done by a group of
scholars, not a single scholar. Because that group of scholars
will argue and debate over that. They'll argue based upon the
context. This is how this word.
Ought to be. Translated, and you're just
going to get the better interpretation that way.
And so how does it fit the context?
Don't isolate one of these things from the other.
All of these things fit together.
And then again. Trustworthy resources.
Word studies can be very helpful.
Now let me really bore you and use the word grammar.
Isn't that an exciting word to you?
Laid on a on a Wednesday night listening to grammar?
But listen, this is important and I'll prove it to you.
Words are put together in a certain way in the Bible for
certain reasons, and they form sentences, they form paragraphs,
right? So you need to note punctuation.
You really need to note the. Lack of it.
And and don't allow, as I've said before, don't allow the
verse or the chapter numbers to stop you.
Always read Beyond and say, did the story actually end right
there? Is that really the end?
I've, I've preached one of my very first sermons to you
probably was Matthew 9 and 10. Matthew 9 doesn't end the story.
You got to go into chapter 10. It's a continuation.
That number shouldn't be there. The monk on the horse shouldn't
have stumbled. So, So what we see.
Is is that you need to look at all.
Of us so. Take your Bibles for a moment.
However, you can do it on a screen or in hard copy and turn
to Ephesians chapter 1. Want to spend a minute here?
Because your English translation will be different than the Greek
text, right? Ephesians chapter 1, beginning
in verse start and three. Now here's what I want somebody
to do real out loud. And whatever English translation
you have, I want you to real loud out loud.
Somebody with a booming voice, somebody who should be the
stadium announcer of the night. I want you to read beginning in
verse 3 until you hit a a period.
Just stop at the. Period Now it's important that
you stop at that you need to know what a period is.
Stop at the period. It's a little dot.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ, just as He chose in Him the born foundation of the.
World that we should be holy and blameless before.
Him. There's a period right there.
Now, here's what I want to do. So there's period #1 everybody
got a period right there in their translation.
OK, I want you to start looking. Don't say anything out loud, but
I want you to look at the rest of it.
All the way through verse 14. How many other periods do you
have between that first period and all the way through verse
14? Count all your periods in a
minute. I'm going to ask you for a
total. So all the way.
You got that one period. How many other periods till you
get to the end of verse 14? All the way.
To the end, 3-4 different translations.
They'll do this differently. 3-4 How many periods, really?
That's fascinating. I don't know what translation
that is. So I got to seven, look for an
8, looking for 8 1/2, looking at 8 1/2, getting for 9.
All right, so do you know how many periods are in the original
Greek language? Zero.
That's one sentence. Paul had a skill of run on
sentences and and it's a very Greek thing.
It's not, it's not uncommon in Greek.
You can also have double negatives in Greek very proper.
You can you have triple negatives in Greek at times very
rare, but double S are not a double negative in Greek is to
emphasize the negativity of it. So you can say no, not never.
And it would be very proper in Greek.
But there's from, from verse, the beginning of verse, from the
end of verse 2 to the end of verse 14.
There's no period. That's one sentence in the
original language. So the translators have to make
some decisions. It's not just words, it's also
punctuation. It's.
Structure because that would be way too much.
It wouldn't make sense to us, so they break it up into English
sentences now. None of the none of the
meanings. Lost.
None of the emphasis is lost. No theology changes, but there's
just structural decisions that they're making.
But it's also helpful when you think about when Paul's first
writing this, he's trying to get a point across.
And if I know that that's one long Pauline sentence, and I
would, because I'd be looking at Greek, I could sit there and
say, man, he's really driving something home here.
And you can even begin to interpret.
Emotion into that at times and so grammar matters how people
are saying things why they're saying things how they even
structure things so again it's helpful it's helpful to have a
good study Bible it's helpful at times to read commentaries there
are so many apps online today Tony Vick was telling me again
Tony and I had a good visit today and Tony was telling me
about an app he's using to help him with Hebrew words that
brought on his phone and so there's a lot of.
Tools out there now. Some of them are free, some of
them aren't. If you want to know more about
that, we can talk more about that again.
But then you also get the literature type.
We talked about this a little bit.
Alan Mosley and I talked about this on the podcast in the Old
Testament. A.
Different literature types actually have some different
interpretation rules. And so we discussed that so.
The way I interpret poetry, the way I might interpret wisdom
literature like the Proverbs, is different than the way I might
read a narrative like Kings or Chronicles or Acts or something
like that. And so.
There's, there's different rules that are at play there, but you
want to follow the logical order.
What's the plot? What's the plot of the story?
There's a, there's a story going on in the narratives.
What's the plot? What may be the prophetic
symbolism that's happening? Is is that symbolism just for
that moment? In time or is he projecting into
the future because that's where the exception of original
meaning and future meaning sometimes get get played around
a little bit in the area of prophecy.
I believe in their, I believe in double prophetic meanings to
where I believe that some of the prophets spoke to the people
right then about something going on right then.
But it also is because they're sitting, you know, I think this,
this is weird. Hang in there with me.
This has to do with God's view of time.
Again, I think the prophets are getting a little insight into
God's view of time. And so for them, when they have
this prophetic viewpoint, they're seeing a whole lot
sometimes. And it's not just there on the
timeline. They're seeing more like God
sees. And so it could also be
something for us. It could also be something about
the end of time all at the same time.
And so prophecy itself can be a little different.
So think about how things are. Paralleled, especially in the
ultimate when you want to see. Words.
Repeated. You'll see phrases repeated.
And that's that Hebrew parallelism is is strong
emphasis. I'm trying to get this point
across and but there's you'll still see some of that in Paul's
writing. Again, I I talked about this
last time, but rejoice. And again I say rejoice he's.
You know he's going to. Emphasize words.
He's going to emphasize ideas. Sometimes it's entire sentences
and so that. Poetry's there.
And the next time we get together, we're going to talk
about So what? So I've prepared myself
spiritually to receive the revelation.
God has prepared the revelation for me.
Now I have observed the revelation to where I'm asking
the right question, getting the basic facts together.
So I have some idea of the content.
I have some idea of what this is about.
Now I'm interpreting the revelation not only for myself,
not just for myself, but I'm interpreting as to what this
originally meant. I promise we're going to get to
you. And that's an application.
So. So what does this mean to me?
What does this mean to me? That's an honest part.
It can't be the first part that's narcissistic, but it can
be the output. So how does this apply to my
life? How is this going to help me
change? Hell, this is going to help me.
Grow How's this going to help me live my life in a different way
and so how do I know what to. Do and and how to do it?
And you've got to recognize for some of you here tonight, you've
been Christians a long time. And so some of this is old hat,
some of some of this is a refresher, some of this is a
reminder, some of this might be a.
Tweak to what you already do. And, and, and I hope that's
right, but you've got to understand this from the
perspective of a brand new believer who has no.
Idea what to do with the Bible. I have no idea how to interpret
this. I can't tell you the number of
times I've had conversations with brand new believers and
they're trying to read the Bible and they can't understand it.
Now, some of them, and I'm not knocking it, don't, don't throw
things at me. Don't say things. e-mail
c.taylor@inglewoodbaptist.com. But they might be starting off
in Genesis and King James or something and they can't
understand that language, that old English language is throwing
them off. They don't know what a thee or a
thou is because they weren't ever raised in that.
And I've had people come to me and say, I have no idea how to
understand the Bible, and I need help understanding the Bible.
The more fascinating stories to me are not that that makes
sense. We've got to help you.
And I've told you, I told you a story about a young man in
Asheville who couldn't believe that there would actually be a
small group in a church that would help him do that.
I told you that story one time. What's more fascinating to me
are new believers. It's like they've never really
ever read the Bible. And suddenly they're reading the
Bible and they begin to realize I'm not supposed to be doing
that anymore, am I? I need to quit that or I need to
start this. I didn't know that was.
I didn't know that was sin. I didn't realize that I should
not be doing that thing or I should be doing this thing.
And to walk with them in those early moments of walking through
some of the, it's like a light going and you can just see it.
It's like a series of lights that click on one after the
other, illuminating their way to where suddenly they're
recognizing this, oh, this is how I need to live.
This is what I need to give up. This is what I need to
surrender. This is what I need to confess,
or this is what I need so you can go to Colossians 3 because I
beat it to death. This is what I got to take off.
This is what I got to put on. And to walk with people who are
actually engaged in that process, who are honestly,
hungrily doing this and realizing this is the most
fantastic thing I've ever experienced in my life.
And it's a it's one of the greatest testimonies to me about
how living and active. This word is.
That it actually is life changing that this isn't just a
book, this is really the miraculous, incredible,
supernatural word of God because I watch them change their life.
Now, I've shared this story sort of with you, but let me share
this with you again because I want to share a.
Part of it that I don't think I emphasized enough for you.
So a few years ago, I was in Kenya and and we were we were
starting a church in the Coffee and Tea mountains of Kenya.
Long story, that doesn't matter. But I had a friend who was a
veterinarian. He was off in a village one day
and he's trying to show the gospel in the village.
And he goes in the village and he says, I want to meet the
meanest man in the village. I've shared part of this with
you before. I want to, I want the meanest
man in the village. And the guy says, no, you don't.
Oh, yeah, I do. I want to meet the meanest man
in the village. That's his opening line in the
village. That's not necessarily how I
would approach the village. But that's how he approaches the
village. The guy says, OK, I know where
he is, takes him to a bar and there's a guy sitting at the bar
and the guy walks up to him. This friend of mine was fairly
open. He says, I hear you're the
meanest man in the village. And the guy at the bar starts
laughing and he goes no. Thanks, but I'm not, but I know
who he is and I'll take you to him.
So then he takes the guy and they're walking through the, you
know, African mud homes, through an alley.
And here comes this woman screaming, half dressed, running
for her life, got some blood on her.
And there comes a guy run, running the corner right after
with a knife in his hand, screaming at her.
And the guy says, that's the meanest man in the village.
He's who you want to talk to. And so, you know, of course the
guy freezes because he sees this American standing in the back
alley where no American should be, and he freezes in his
tracks, kind of forgets the. Pursuit.
That he obviously was on and he says you know, what do you want,
etcetera. Guy shares the.
Gospel with him. The man's saved right there in
the back alley now. You know the.
Vet was the vet's telling me the story and he goes.
I invited him. To the church.
Service that night they were going to have a church.
Service that night they were inviting people to that thing
and the vet, the vet was going to share this a veterinarian,
not a military vet. I don't know if I made that
clear. Veterinarian and he and he's
going to share. And so the service is going on.
Service is going on me and this man's not there.
Service is going on Service, service is about over and we're
talking this is Kenya. Anybody ever been to a Kenyan
church service, you know, 3 1/2 hours long, something like that.
Every, every choir has choreography.
Every choir dances. It's fantastic.
And by the way, and this is fine, Jim, we should have done
this last year, They don't pass the plate.
They have a plate down front and they make everybody dance and
put their offering in the plate. And you keep dancing until the
elders think there's enough money in that plate.
Welcome to Stewardship 2026. Anyway, everything's going on,
it's about to close, the whole service is about to end up and
suddenly the back door busts open and it's the meanest man in
the village. Well, everybody knows the
meanest man in the village and he's got an arm full of stuff
and he comes running down the aisle, down the middle, there's
a centre aisle, comes running down the middle aisle and just
dumps all this stuff right in front of the Lord's Supper
table. And he goes, sorry I'm so late,
I had to. Gather up all this stuff.
He goes, I, I was reading the Bible that you gave me and it
told me that all this stuff is stuff I don't need in my life
anymore. And so he had his idols, he and
then, and this is African, so don't go off the deep end here
with me, but this is something that evangelicals in Africa feel
very strongly about. We could have opinions about it
and we do. He had his cigarettes and he had
his alcohol. So he uses the.
Alcohol to pour all over the idols and the cigarettes and he
lights it on fire right in front of the Lord's Supper table there
on the church floor. Because he's going to burn.
Because this is not just I'm not supposed to have this anymore.
He goes. I've been reading the Bible for
the last couple hours and I realized I'm not supposed to
have this in. My life anymore.
And, and, and, you know, he'd never read the Bible, never seen
a Bible, never had it, owned a Bible, but he's reading a Bible
in his own language. And I don't know what passages
he was hitting, but he was hitting the right ones.
I guess that just let him down this road.
He probably was talking to some friends too, I guess.
But he came to say this has got to end and this other stuff's
got to start. And they the other thing I
remember about the story, I wasn't there, but the the
veterinarian was telling me what was amazing after that, of
course, they were terrified of the fire and almost got the
offering plate on fire, but that's really threw him off.
But anyway, so, but after the service that he was just telling
me, they just swarmed this guy, you know, with with love and
hugs and welcome. And and of course in the
African, they're dancing and chanting and playing music.
There's so that they're dancing all around him.
He's in the middle and this whole circle of dance and joyous
celebrations all around him. That's the way we ought to be
every time we see somebody make a decision and we do that.
You all do that. Well, listen, gang, one of the
things you got to understand this weather is driving me
crazy. We've got as many as seven
people waiting to be baptized right now.
We, I want to be in here. So we can do that.
We've got new members who want to be presented to join the
church right now. And, and so every time we don't
meet, we're knocking this off another week.
We're putting this off another week, you know, and so we won't
baptize all seven in one service.
Well, maybe you'd prefer that. It'll leave me zero time to
preach. It might be the best Sunday.
But God's blessing and we need to one of those three hours
services. I listen, I'm used to it, I'm
used to it. I'm used to being in the service
an hour and a half and then going out with a preacher to
pray for 45 minutes and then coming in just about the time to
preach. So listen and and and doing it
in a full suit coat and tie in the middle of about 1000° and
150% humidity. Psalm 119, verse 25 here's what
it says listen to these words listen to his word.
My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your.
Word. When I am told of my ways, you
under you answered me. Teach me your statutes, Make me
understand the way of your precepts.
That's interpretation. Make me understand the way of
your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
Listen to this. My soul melts away for sorrow.
Strengthen me. According to your word.
Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me Your law.
I have chosen the way of faithfulness.
I set Your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies.
Oh Lord, let me not be put to shame.
I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my
heart. I just love that last part.
Make my heart big enough to receive it.
Make me. Make me.
Make me understand that without this I am at a loss.
Without this, I am weak. Without this, I have no real
food, no real sustenance, no real nourishment in my life.
I have no direction. I have no correction.
I have no training. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you that it is alive
and active. I thank you, Father, for these
people who come out on a very cold evening and those listening
online to learn more just how they might.
Just how they might study your. Word in a better way.
Some of these folks have been studying your word for many,
many years and and they don't even need these lessons.
Father they that they cherish them.
Father, they, they testify to me how it's nice to be reminded of
things. And for others here, they've
never heard any of this before or they needed to learn
something new. So father, whatever it is, help
us, Father, to not just skim over your word.
Help us to recognize Your Word as life, and Your Word is our
nourishment. Your Word is our strength.
Your Word is our guide. It must define us and make us
who we are. So, Father, thank you for it.
I pray, Father, in all seriousness, Lord, if at all
possible that we could gather together on Sunday here.
If not, You have a plan and purpose for that.
Father, I thank you for the couple that I'm meeting with
tomorrow who want to talk about baptism because they watched
online last. Week.
So, Father, I know you're at work.
And so, Father, we'll trust you in that.
Help us to have wisdom to make good decisions about it, and
we'll trust you. Thank you, Father in Christ's
name, Amen. Thank you so much for listening
today, and I also hope that you'll go to
ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless you and your families.
Thank you once again.