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. Thank you all for joining me
here live. Those of you who are listening
online later to the podcast, thank you so much.
I can't strongly enough encourage you to go listen to
the other podcast that we've recorded in relation to engaging
the Bible. Doctor Chuck Quarles, as I've
mentioned before, he and I did one on the New Testament just to
hear a brilliant, brilliant human being speak and talk about
the Bible. There's probably not a greater
expert on some original language conversation.
You'll be astounded at some of the work that they're doing as
they're looking at thousands and thousands of original
manuscripts with what he does at the center of Southeastern.
So you want to listen to that one and then others that that
have been a part of this whole whole broadcast.
Now this this this, this is the end of Engage the Bible this
session for now. That doesn't mean we're
abandoning that essential of discipleship, but we're going to
move on starting next session to how do we abide in prayer with
anticipation and dependency. So, so it's going to be a
powerful time. We're going to, you might say, I
don't want to say about prayer. Well, then you should.
That's exactly the reason why you ought to be here.
We're actually going to talk about if your prayer life never
gets past the ceiling or you find yourself distracted when
you're trying to pray or I just can't seem to focus.
We're going to talk about some of those real practical things.
How do I become a prayer warrior?
Why do I pray? How do I pray?
What do I pray and walk through some of those very practical as
well as obviously biblical things.
So that'll start next time. And so look forward to diving
into that together. Plus we'll do some prayer
experiences here live and lead those of you who are listening
to this in some of those experiences as well.
So thank you for that. But now we want to talk about
how do I continue to engage the Bible with a humble and
teachable spirit? And especially how am I, how am
I going to share the text? Now?
I'm going to take you down a rabbit hole for a while that you
may not see the connection, but but there is a connection, I
promise down the road. At one time I was working when I
got to tell all these stories one of these days, but I try to
remember, I actually write down what stories I've shared.
So I try not to share the same story every single time.
But I was working on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma.
It was the the Wild Goose Ranch and it was a mixed breed ranch,
but it was a pretty good size operation.
And I was working there for some friends of mine and we were out
one early, early morning, I mean barely light morning and foggy
and cold. And they had these incredible
cattle dogs that could just amazing to watch them, you know,
herd, herd cattle. But anyway, so we were, we were
on horseback and, and there's a time when we needed to get ahead
of everybody very quickly to get ahead of the cows.
I'm making this story too long, sorry.
So we're, we're galloping on horseback, right.
So we're about as fast as we could possibly get the horses to
go through a wooded forest to get to another pasture.
So we could get ahead of where the dogs were driving everybody
and the guys in behind the dogs were driving everybody.
So I'm hanging on and you know, it's a cold morning and and
suddenly I find myself shifting to the right and so the entire
saddle is sliding around the horse.
Now, I did not put my saddle on. The disclaimer is a friend of
mine was supposed to have cinched up my saddle and
obviously did not cinch up my saddle completely or adequately
or at all. And so as I'm galloping,
suddenly I'm on the side of the horse and eventually there's
nothing else I can do but to let go at a full gallop and go
rolling along the ground. Now fortunately in those days,
this was the day of pre puffer jackets before the current trend
of puffer jackets. And so I'm thankful for that.
But this puffer jacket was probably from, you know, some
inexpensive store. And as I hit the ground, the
puffer jacket kind of fell apart.
And so there was this poof of goose down feathers as I hit hit
the ground. And so that I'm rolling and
rolling and feathers are going everywhere.
The ranch owner was riding along with me.
Tom sees me fall and he, you know, he's stopping as fast as
he can trying to catch the horse and he's assuming I'm dead.
And so I'll probably thinking about how he's going to get
these cattle dogs to dig a big enough hole to throw me in.
But, but, but sometimes things don't always go the way you
thought they would. And sometimes everything's not
connected real well. So I want to spend a couple of
minutes connecting a few dots since this is our last session
on engaging the Bible. But we're also going to get
extremely practical. So I want to start off by
repeating a quote that I shared in the last session from Howard
Hendricks. And I want to, I want to dive
down a road for a minute. You think, what does this got to
do with me learning or sharing the Bible?
But it does it, it'll make perfect sense, I hope.
Or just tell me that it did and it'll make me feel better.
So the quote was the Bible was not given to make us more
intelligent sinners, but to change our lives.
Now we talked about that last session.
So, so the questions that this creates for us as we try to
conclude some of the things that we've learned is then how does
God use his word to transform lives?
How does he do that and, and, and why and, and what happens in
that? And so why are we studying this?
Well, one of the one of the driving points and it and it
would be curious to ask you, but among Protestant churchgoers,
and that's the phrase used Protestant churchgoers.
So in other words, this would be non Catholic churchgoers in the
United States. Most say that they read
scripture on a regular basis. They don't define that, but only
31% would say that they have a daily habit of reading the
Bible. My suspicion is is the actuality
is lower than 31%. Probably because people lie on
surveys all the time. It's called the Halo effect.
They make themselves look like little angels.
There really is. That's the scientific
statistical term is called the Halo effect.
They lie about religion, they lie about money, they lie about
politics, they lie about sex. So whenever you see a, a survey
on TV where, you know, 30% of Americans said the most
important word was said, you know, that doesn't actually mean
they're doing anything. And so the same thing happens in
church life. But, but if only one third or
less, really less than 1/3 of churchgoers, these are people
who actually go to church. This isn't just the US
population. So only a third maybe read their
Bible every day. So if we, if we believe that
here, and hopefully we're above that at Inglewood, but if only
one third of us are reading our Bibles every day, then there's a
gap. There's a gap of discipleship
taking place. And so how does the Bible, how
are we going to best engage his word?
Why is this an essential to our discipleship?
How's God going to use this to transform us?
Well, I'm going to get very practical in a moment, but but
first let me make certain that we've laid or remember a proper
theological foundation. I'm going to use words that I've
never used with you before. Even though we've talked some
about this subject idea, I want to use it as a different angle,
a little different theological angle for a minute as to what
we're trying to accomplish as we wrap up this series of teachings
concerning the specific essentials of engaging the
Bible. And so how do we do this with,
you know, engaging the Bible with a humble and teachable
spirit? Because again, next week we're
going to start abiding in prayer with dependence and
anticipation. In fact, next week's session
will be about how do I become a prayer warrior?
So what's missing in your life? What are some things that would
help you to become a stronger prayer?
I think that's, I think that's a word.
So how could you reach that depth in prayer?
So, but for a few minutes, I need to make certain I need to
make these connections that and we understand what discipleship
is in a sense. But I'm not going to use that
word. I'm going to, I want to, I want
to talk about what does personal transformation or
sanctification? I'm going to use that word
tonight a little bit. What does sanctification really
mean to you, us? And how does the Bible play a
role in sanctification, Right? And so Doctor Scott Hildreth,
who's a dear friend of mine, we've worked together in many
different ways. He's a professor at Southeastern
and an elder at the summit, reminds us that now listen
positionally now that I'm not going to, I'm not going to get
too academic on you, but there's some words that we got to talk
about positionally. We are righteous in Christ.
Now just stop for a minute. So in other words, my position
in Christ, who I am in Jesus, my saved position in him make you
know, gives me the righteousness of of Christ.
He he gives me his righteousness.
He takes my sin I'm in I'm given that that big account transition
to transaction takes place. So I'm I'm righteous in Christ
and sanctification then is the work by which he brings our
experience into conformity with our position.
Don't let these words throw you. In other words, how am I living
my life and how does that match the fact that I'm saved,
covered, forgiven, righteous in Christ?
Am I actually living a righteous life that matches my righteous
position? You all with me.
That makes sense. All right, So don't let this
throw you, but but these two variations of positional and
experiential are are are often part of this conversation.
So sanctification demonstrates that God has not just saved us
from the penalty of sin. This is something we often would
say, but he's also saved us from the power of sin in our ongoing
life, which is part of the sanctification process.
We would we might also say that one day he'll save us from what
the presence of sin. So there's that kind of that
famous saying when we were, when we're with him forever.
So engaging his word, then this essential that we're talking
about must be a primary tool by which he does this part.
Part of what part of what makes reading the Bible important is
because it, it leads to this experience, it leads to
sanctification. It's not the only thing, but
it's a major tool, a primary tool of sanctification, right?
So, so just hang in there with me while I talk about this for a
few minutes, because when you, when you look in the original
language in the Hebrew or Greek, frankly, they both would end up
the same way. And you translate to sanctify.
You translate that idea of sanctify.
It basically means to separate kind of like my, my strap on my
horse. Did you know it's it's to
separate or 11 morning on Sunday morning when my, my belt did
that. But anyway, I told another story
and I'm reminded of that often. Thank you very much, wherever
you are. I'm sure you're in here and have
a comment. But anyway, so, so there's an
Old Testament word kadosh, which means to be consecrated, but it
just means to be holy. But it's from a root word, cod,
which means to cut. It means to separate.
So the idea of being holy means to be cut.
It means to be separated, means to be called out.
You're, you're over here different from everything else.
In a sense, the New Testament word hagiazo, which is very
similar to the same way you would just say holy if you said
Holy Spirit, you might very well say hagiaz.
Hagiazo sounds like the same word.
It's because it comes from the same word in Greek.
Greek does that to you, but it but it basically means to
separate or to set apart. Again, it's this idea of
holiness. So to be holy means you're set
aside, you're set apart. You're, you're, you're, you're
in some way encircled in a special way.
And sanctification is the process of that.
Now, that doesn't mean that we don't relate at all to lost
people. It doesn't mean that we don't
relate well to other sinners because we are those.
But but it does mean that in our spiritual life and, and in our
growth in Christ, we, we're, we are different.
We don't just act like the world.
We don't just act like like a non believer would.
There should be something different about us.
There should be something unique about us.
There should be something biblical about us, right?
So engaging the Bible is helping us do that.
And I'm going to lead us to the point of we're also supposed to
help other people do that in just a moment.
But it's interesting because in the Old Testament, the idea of
sanctification, and we could, we could go down an entire night or
session on the same concept of the Holy Spirit in the Old
Testament. Because the way the Holy Spirit
works in the Old Testament most often is different than the way
he works in the New Testament in the sense that you'll see the
Holy Spirit coming upon people for a season or a period or a
time frame in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we're
indwelled in a different way very often.
So in the Old Testament, sanctification is kind of that
way. So in sanctification, you almost
have this idea of you're doing it to yourself, sanctify
yourself. There's a lot of that in the Old
Testament, and it makes sense when you think about how the law
worked. In other words, there are
sacrifices I have to make. There are things I have to
rituals I have to go through. So there there were these works
that you did in the Old Testament in order to be
forgiven. And but it was still a
faith-based, as Hebrews 11 would tell us, they're still doing
this by faith. So it's the rituals themselves
were still not enough, but they were things that they did.
Joshua 35 says, then Joshua said to the people, consecrate
yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among
you. I love that verse.
But so this idea of there's certain things I need to do in
order to be ready for God to use me.
The New Testament kind of flips this and it and it emphasizes
more the fact that sanctification is a work that
God does to us. So instead of something I can do
to myself and prepare myself, now we're really on a different
level. Now God is doing this to me,
which is part of the role of the Holy Spirit.
First Thessalonians 523 Now may the God of peace himself
sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and
body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so sanctification for us today is where God is, is
staking His claim over us. He's redeeming us.
He's buying us back. We've been purchased with a
price and He has a claim over us.
And then it's the it's the ongoing subsequent process of
purification as His new possession.
God owns me. I belong to God.
I am not my own anymore. It is no longer I who live, but
who Christ who lives in me, right.
So we're not us anymore. We're different.
We're born again, we're a new creation.
The old things have passed away and all things have become new.
So, so there's different. So sanctification is this is, is
both this, this claim, but it's also this process.
So you have again, the positional, that's the claim.
That's the, that's where God first claims us in salvation.
He first sets us apart for himself from sin.
I'm saved. I'm now claimed by God.
I'm purchased by God, Right? And then you have the
experiential side of this where God is in cleansing me in a
progressive work by the Holy Spirit that never, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ends.
Maybe depends on your view, which is what I want to talk
about. So what we see then is several
questions arise. Now, one of the ways the the
Holy Spirit is going to do this two primary ways, his the God,
God's word. I mean, it's a primary way he's
going to purify us and continue to purify us.
I mean, how do I know how to live for Christ?
I got to study the Bible. He's also going to do it through
prayer. So these two studies are really
important for your discipleship. And so we recognize this, but
big questions come up and these questions separate Christians.
These questions create denominations, the answers to
these questions. So for example, think about
this. And we got to kind of go back to
theological triage, if you've been with me for the whole year,
to think about things, the primary doctrines and secondary
doctrines and tertiaries. But questions like how quickly
is a Christian sanctified and how thoroughly is he made holy?
Is it a sudden experience or a gradual process?
Is it possible for a Christian to completely cease sinning?
And if not, why not? And so these things become real
issues and they actually lead to theological conclusions which
have led to different denominations, frankly, over the
years. And, and these things, questions
become particularly important for those who believe that the
sanctification is part of the justification.
Now, I don't know what I just said.
Maybe you do. I'm getting ready to preach out
of Romans. We better get used to these
words on Sunday morning. So in other words, if you
believe that that your sanctification, the word, in
other words, this is a works righteousness description.
You believe that your sanctification is also a part of
your salvation. You have to be this in order to
get that. So there's a, there's a perfect,
there's a perfectionism involved in that, a sinlessness involved
in that. There could also be works
righteousness involved in the answers to these questions.
So spiritual perfectionism, works righteousness, certainly
all kinds of assurance issues can be impacted by this.
Now tonight is about engaging the Bible.
I promise we're going to get very practical in a minute, but
I want to share a couple of views with you because it really
does impact why and how we would share the Bible.
So there's a view called the perfectionist view.
Matthew 548 says you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect. Well, if I read that in English
and that's all I understand, then it would say to me, I can
never sin. I have to be perfect.
I, I must be sinless. This is perfectionism spiritual.
So I can never sin again. Once I've been saved, I can
never sin again. And if I do sin again, I'm
probably not saved. But think about what the
slippery slope I've just created.
If I do sin, does that mean I just lost my salvation?
So how many sins do I have to sin in order to lose my
salvation? When did I lose my salvation?
There was a 2 sins, three sins, 4 sins, a habit of sin, or just
the one sin? Oh, so let's talk about this for
a minute. This view believes that a
Christian can actually attain spiritual perfection in this
lifetime. We can become spiritually
perfect. And it also believes that a
Christian experiences sanctification.
Normally they believe this instantaneously.
Normally this is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
you're instantaneously sanctified.
And normally you know that's happened because in that same
context, you would be speaking in tongues.
And so there are people that this is the view.
And if this, and if you're not this, then something's wrong and
you kind of got to start the cycle all over again.
And if something's wrong, then you got to start the cycle
again, and you got in the sun, you got to start the cycle
again. And so there's a response that
we need to share because I don't believe in perfectionism.
I don't believe it's what the Bible teach you.
I know it's not. So the word translated perfect
back in Matthew Teleos can and often does mean mature or
complete. But it never carries the idea of
sinless perfection. Never.
That's not what that word means. So reading Matthew 5, believing
you have to be sinless is not a good interpretation of the
verse. You need to be mature, you need
to be complete, but it doesn't mean sinless.
It never has never. That word, that word can't be
that. It's because Greek so specific.
You can't make Greek words mean what they don't mean.
And so you can't do that. It didn't work that way.
So and then none of the passages normally cited by the
perfectionist view proponents actually support sinless
perfection. But that's that's often not
their main drive. The main drive for them is often
not scriptural, it's often experiential.
And so you've got what's called experiential theology.
It's not necessarily what God's Word says.
It's what I experienced and what I feel, what I think.
And so none of these passages actually teach sinless
perfection or that, and none of them teach that the sin nature
is eliminated, that none of the passages that are often quoted
ever do that. And if this was a theological
lesson, we'd look at all those. But that's not, I got to get to
the other part of this. So the Bible recognizes also
that the struggle with sin is an ongoing reality for Christians.
And the Bible promises that we can be forgiven, that we can we
can have victory over sin, that when we sin, we can confess our
sin, that we can be forgiven of our sin.
And so the Bible is really clear.
And these are passages written to Christians.
They're not written to lost people.
And so, for example, 1st Corinthians 10 says no
temptation is overtaking you. That is not common to man.
God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your
ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide
the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
So we're going to be tempted to sin.
That doesn't go away. The sin nature never disappears.
But the most, the most common passage we would probably refer
to as first John one. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
This is written to Christians. This is not written to non
Christians. And it's important to understand
the context. Thus you should know how to
engage your Bible and know how to observe and know how to
interpret and know how to apply. So don't take verses out of
context. This passage in first John is
written to believers. And so if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and the word is
not in us. So a healthier view is what we
would call the progressive view. And there's a reason I'm sharing
all this. It'll make sense in a minute
because this this will actually help us see why the seven of
essentials of discipleship are so important.
It'll help us to understand why engaging the Bible with this
humble and teachable spirit becomes so vital and even being
able to share it with others becomes so significant.
And I I promise I'm going to get you there because the Bible
presents sanctification as both a positional reality.
This is my position in Christ. I've been sanctified in Christ,
but it's also a a that's that initial saving setting apart,
but it's also going to be experiential.
So first Corinthians 6, for example, says and such were some
of you were notice that were some of you, but you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.
So that's our position. Our position in Christ now
enables us because I have been saved, because I have been made
righteous, because I have been purchased, because I have been
bought, because I have been born again, I am now able to engage
in what we would call experiential sanctification,
which is the the rest of my life and my growth, my discipleship,
my progress and maturity. And so positionally, we're
sanctified because we're holy in Christ.
So experientially, we're to live out this new reality as the Holy
Spirit dwells within us. That's the only way you can do
it. You couldn't do this by
yourself, you'd fail. So the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit is absolutely vital and crucial.
But his word then defines who we are as we engage the Bible.
This word also defines who we should become.
It's going to help us understand the gap between those two
things. You know, who I really AM and
who I should be. This this is where I get the
definitions. And then it's also going to
provide me with the destination that I'm trying to get to in the
direction to get there. And so it's it's absolutely
crucial for us to be in this word.
So I hope you're not 31%. You need to be in this thing
every day to understand your day.
So to positionally we rose with Christ, therefore put expert
experientially we get to live out that righteousness.
So think of Romans 6. He says we were buried.
This is what we would often that if we quoted verses during
baptism, This is what you would quote during a baptism.
It says therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death
in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
So often we'll talk about we're baptized in the name of the Holy
Spirit. You know, we're baptized in
Christ or are buried with Christ, saved by Christ, risen
to new life to walk with him. So we died, Therefore we we died
in Christ. In other words, I don't live
anymore. It's not me anymore.
The old me is dead. The old me is gone.
And crucial part of my testimony better be that thing needed to
die again. I've said a million times, I
think one of the keys to Paul was he remembered Saul, but Saul
was dead and so we've died with Christ.
Therefore experientially we are to die to sin.
Now that's our goal. We're trying to get there.
We want perfection. Don't, don't, don't, don't get
me wrong. We want to be perfect.
Jerry Bridges who wrote the pursuit of of holiness book,
it's a great book on discipleship.
He he would use the illustration when a soldier goes out to
battle, his goal is not to get shot once or twice.
You know, I only sinned once or twice today, only got shot once
or twice today. His goal is not to get shot at
all. And that'll be our goal with
sin. I entered the day praying I
don't sin at all. I don't say something, do
something or think something. That's the catcher.
Sometimes that goes against God's word.
So Colossians 3 then says, for you have died and your life is
hidden with Christ and God on in verse 5.
But to death, therefore what is earthly?
And he gives a list, right? So in other words, because I've
died in Christ, I'm dead in Christ.
That's my position. I'm in a I'm a new life in
Christ. And, and, and it's interesting
because we're born again and we also died and that that's the
juxtaposition of salvation. I die, but I'm also born again.
And that's that image. I've died with Christ.
Now there's a new me and this new me gets to experientially
progressively, step by step, get better, get closer, get more
like him is the idea. And, and the Bible's got to be
the key for this. So we strive for progressing
maturity because we're also striving for that ideal
perfection that Jesus models for us.
I mean, that's, that's the goal. That's that's what we're after.
And so these verses like Philippians 2 become really
important. Not that I've already obtained
this or I'm already perfect. Paul kind of just says it,
doesn't he? I'm not perfect yet, but I press
on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own
brothers. I do not consider that I have
made it my own. But one thing I do forgetting
what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I
press on to the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus. And that those of us who are
mature think this way and if anything, you think if anything,
you think otherwise God will reveal that to you also on only
let us hold true to what we have obtained attained.
So Paul says, listen, I'm not there yet.
I'm trying to get there. I can see it.
I can taste it. I see it out there.
I see the model. I see I see what we're after and
you got it. Now think about how how
different this was. He didn't have a whole Bible.
His Bible primarily was the Old Testament.
You know, he, he had heard, he knew stories, he, he knew of
Christ and of course the Holy Spirit walking with Paul in a
special way as this last apostle, so to speak.
But what we see is, is, you know, he, he didn't have all the
Gospels. He didn't have all the other
letters he wrote, you know, he, he write yet hadn't written them
yet, you know, so he's working through it.
And so it's fascinating. I, I don't, I don't have it all
yet, but I know this. I'm in a, I'm on a journey and,
and if you'll notice these verbs, I'm forgetting what lies
behind and I'm straining forward.
This isn't some passive, complacent, apathetic journey,
is it? This is a pursuit.
See, and that's the way discipleship works.
Discipleship doesn't just happen to you.
Discipleship is a discipline. Think about the word.
It's a it's, it's an effort. It's, it's that's when the when
the Bible talks about us working out our own salvation, this is
what he's talking about. He's not talking about her being
saved, being being born again. He's talking about how we're
then working out what it means. How do I become what I'm
supposed to become? How do I become the follower
that I'm supposed to become? And if it's just some passive
complacent, yeah, I'm, I'm doing my religious ritual check off
list. That's, that's not the same
thing. If I'm just scanning the Bible,
but not allowing the Bible to really engage with me to
transform, it's not the same thing.
Light reading the Bible is not the same as engaging the Bible
with a humble and teachable spirit.
You're expecting it with humility and teachability.
I want to learn something today. I want to feed on this.
I want to soak on this. In a couple of weeks.
We get to Nehemiah chapter 8 on Sunday mornings and it's
powerful. It's the passage we've been
waiting on to get to. So we see this so, so Christ
protects us along the way as well.
He's helping us grow. He's also protecting us from the
condemnation that sin brings. He's also trying to purify us
from this power and pollution of sin.
Philippians 16 says, and I'm sure of this, that he who began
a good work in you will begin. We'll bring it to completion at
the day of. In other words, this isn't over
yet. You're not done yet.
Now, that's important because I don't care how lousy you are
right now. I don't.
I mean, I do. I don't want you to be lousy.
If I like lousy food, lousy service.
So I get an eye shot. My eye.
I want to be very careful. I'm not going to name names, but
so Teresa, I have to get eye injections every now and then.
And because of the Friday night snow service, I had to postpone.
Normally I get them on Friday, so you all don't even know about
it. And so I get them on a regular
basis. So I had to go Monday and I get
there and there's not a seat in the house and my appointments at
3:40. This is in Wake Forest.
And so I sit down in a cup. Finally there's one seat opens
up, somebody goes back nice open up.
I sit down and the couple says you better get comfortable.
We've been here over an hour. Well, me too.
I've been there. So after an hour or so, Teresa's
out. Go shopping.
Teresa, you know, she had to go get some stuff.
So. But about an hour later, they
finally called me back to phase one.
There's three phases to this experience.
So Phase 1. So they put the painkiller in my
eye that's only supposed to be in there.
It's a lidocaine patch. It's only supposed to be in
there for a certain number of minutes.
Send me back up the waiting room.
Forget him out there. But then finally a guy kind of
comes out and looks at me, goes, oh, we need to get that out.
I'm like, yeah. I mean, it's like, I mean, you
don't understand. I'm, I don't want to be.
But I mean, my eyes on fire, it's just burning.
And so. And if you look at me tonight,
my eyes still red and swollen and it normally didn't last that
long. But anyway, fortunately it's
just one eye. But but anyway, so fine.
He calls me back and all he does is take the thing out, put some
more deadening drops in there, sends you back up the waiting
room. Now wait a minute.
I'm getting ready to an injection in my eyeball.
So there's only a certain number of minutes I'm supposed to wait
from when the deadening stuff gets taken out to when I get the
shot. I'm out in the waiting room.
Teresa comes back, hour and a half, whatever we were out
there. But you know, it's at 5:00 at
5:00 by now or whatever it is. Finally, they call me back.
Well, at that point, I'm like, my eyes just frying like a piece
of bacon. I'm telling you, it hurts.
And it's not normal for this experience.
And so my eyes hurting, Oh, we'll give you another deadening
drop. So they put another deadening
drop in. Then he gives me the shot.
Well, friends, I'm just going to share with you.
It's unnerving enough to have a needle coming at your eyeball
and normally you feel pressure. I'm not going to go any further,
sorry. But I felt more than pressure.
I felt like reaching up and grabbing a hold of someone and
explaining to them in the complaint department that I
didn't appreciate the way I had to wait.
But it was a, you know, he began this good and finally brought
it. It finally got to completion.
I went home, went to bed early Monday night, screamed like a
little girl in the middle of the night because I felt like I had
shards of glass in my eye and, and here I am.
So those of you on this side, I have no idea who you are.
No, it's fine. It's fine.
Everything's fine. It's just red.
But but the point being that it was a whole process and it
didn't go well. Well, that could be us and
sanctification. We can mess it up.
You can be saved and still mess up the process.
You can still mess up the progress.
And so we might know of people don't point at anybody.
We might know of people who've been saved, who've been
Christians for a long time, church members for a long time,
but but they've never got past milk.
They're not past a fairly low maturity level of service or
discipleship. So we can stunt this process.
But I'm sure of this, that he began a good work, we'll bring
it to completion. So this progression, this
progression, this progressive work of salvation, he continues
in this process is that experiential component of
sanctification. So, so we also see that this is
evidenced by a by a hunger for righteousness.
There's no complacency, there's no apathy in any of that.
The Bible shares that we that shares the truth then that we
need to help us satisfy that hunger.
We'll talk more about that Nehemiah in a few weeks.
So second, Peter 318 says, but grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen. We need to grow in the grace and
knowledge and it's a never ending thing.
Grow and continue to grow would be original language.
Grow and continue to grow. Continue to grow, continue to
grow. Never stop growing, always grow.
And that's the kind of emphasis you would see there.
So Doctor Hildreth uses this illustration because think of a
ball bouncing down a stairwell and says though it goes up and
down, it's general direction is down.
And he goes to Christian life is the similar but just the
opposite direction. It our progress may be up and
down, but the general progress needs to be up.
So we're going up the steps. So and that's, that's then let
me tie this back into what we were originally going to talk
about tonight. So, so that's why and that's the
purpose of spiritual disciplines.
That's why we're talking so much about these 7 essentials because
they're going to help us keep, keep moving up even when we
bounce a little and we'll bounce a little.
Everybody here ever bounce, I bounce a little.
I bounced a little Monday at about 5:15.
And so it's important for us to be engaged in these disciplines.
And the Bible not only holds the lessons.
Now this is where we get home here.
See, the Bible not only holds the lessons that we need.
And that's what we've been talking about over the sessions.
How do I get to the lessons that I need?
That's what we've been talking about over the last several
sessions. How did God preserve His Word
for me? Now, how do I get out of it what
I need? But we also got to recognize
that's not the end of this because not only does the Bible
hold the lessons that I must learn to be able to bounce up
successfully, so to speak, but it also contains the lessons
that others need for me to share with them.
Now, some of you are going to do that in a more formal way.
So let's talk about this for a minute.
Others are going to do this in a very relational, one-on-one kind
of way. Let's talk about this.
So, So the first thing we want to remind ourselves is as we
talk about how I can share what I've learned from the text with
others, first we review these previously discussed steps
because you never leave these behind.
All of these matter. You can't just start here.
Don't just start here at the end.
You got to start at the beginning and walk through these
steps so you have preparation. How did God prepare the Bible
for us? We talked about that and then
also how do I prepare myself spiritually to receive his
personal revelation for me that day from his text?
Now that revelation will agree with all the other biblical
texts and then observation. So what does the text actually
say? And we walk through questions to
ask and the way ways to think about the passage in the context
interpretation. What does the text mean, right.
So not only what does it just say, but also what does it
really mean? And then we talked about
application last time. What, what does the text mean to
me? How do I, how does, how do I
preserve? How, how do I not only preserve
it, but how does, how does this apply in my life?
How does it change me? So then, then I need to talk
about. So OK, so now I've got all these
great lessons. So I want to talk to you a
minute about some very practical logistical things in your
personal quiet time. So, So what I hope you don't do
is learn a lesson and forget it. That can happen.
You know, over the centuries I've been asked how do I
remember about everything I'm working on?
I mean, there have been times that I might have a lot of
people who report to me in a lot of different that moving parts
going on. Some of you, you know, some of
you are living that life right now.
And I have a secret. It's it's a magic secret.
It is, it's I learned it from Einstein.
So it's got to be good. I remember 2 things.
I remember to write it down and I remember to look where I wrote
it down. That's all I ever remember.
So, you know, you tell me something out here, bless you.
Write it down, send me an e-mail, let me write it down,
make sure I'm writing it down. If I write it down, we're good
because I move everything I write down to the same spot.
I have one spot where everything's written down.
Been doing this for years. And then I read that spot every
single day. That's I'm not, that's not
prescriptive, That's just. The only way I can function, you
figure out your system, but how am I preserving what I learned?
Don't forget what you learned. You need to be able to preserve
it. And then how am I going to share
that with somebody else? So we need to talk about
organization just for a moment, because here's the key question.
How will I organize my knowledge now?
Now don't zoom, zoom out on the practical stuff.
This is important because how are what are you doing every day
when you read, when you engage the Bible, I'm assuming you're
doing this every day because you are all what would that be 69
percenters? No, you're, you're 31
percenters, you're 100 percenters.
You're all doing it, whatever that meant.
I have no idea what math I was just quoting.
So how do you do this on a personal level first?
Well, here's what I do again, this, this is this is purely
descriptive. Started this years ago, stopped
for a while, shouldn't have stopped, started back now.
It's better for me. I journal.
It's what I do. So I have journaling Bibles that
have the big margins on the side with lines.
I do that, but also Teresa in Her Grace for me that there's a
big set that you can buy and they're not cheap, but there's a
big set you can buy where every single book's a separate book
and then one pages Bible, one page is just lines.
And so at home, that's what I'm using.
I have these little books that you know, like here's here's the
entire book of numbers. And that's what I do.
And so every morning I'm writing, I'm writing now there's
nothing, and I've shared this with you before.
There's absolutely nothing astounding special, nothing to
preserve for anybody else but me.
But it helps me remember. And then one of the things that
we do up here is every morning as we have, we start the day, we
have the staff gets together for a little Scripture in prayer
time at 8:15 every single morning.
And I usually lead that and I try to most mornings share
something that I just journaled out of my personal Bible study.
I want my staff to believe I actually read the Bible and I
believe God's hopefully saying something good for us for the
day, you know, But so journaling for me helps.
I don't know, you got to figure out what you're going to do.
Prayer lists are helpful for many and our prayer listing are
always going to be inadequate. I wish we could get, I wish we
could see all these prayer requests every midweek.
And then I wish we could get answers, you know, what happened
to every single one of these things every week.
But that would be virtually difficult.
So we have some digital things that we've had and we're trying
to continue to improve. But memory and testimony are
also important. See, if I share with somebody
else what I've learned, I'm also going to remember it more.
So let's. So here's the kind of professor
that I have been. So when I give a final exam, my
final exams are essays. I do not believe in true and
false questions. I do not believe in multiple
choice questions. I do not believe in fill in the
blank questions. They are.
They never appear in my level of teaching.
Every single final exam is a list of essay questions.
I give you the final exam in advance.
I give you the actual questions in advance.
I intend for you to take a week in to study those questions.
If I were you, I would rehearse your answers and writing.
And then when you come back into the room with me, no notes, no
anything, and you, you write out what you've already studied.
Because what I believe is, is that going, you know, there's
rules and science behind some of this.
It's going to reinforce what I've learned.
I've I've written it now twice. First I had to study it.
Now I've written it out twice. I ought to because my goal, I
know it's shocking, but my goal is that you actually might
remember something when the class is over and be able to use
it in life, especially at seminary.
Now, my students don't always like that.
They would much rather have true and false questions, fill in the
blanks, something that doesn't take them a week.
But life is really, really hard. So memory and testimony work the
same way. The more I try to memorize
something, the more I share that with somebody else, whether it's
a memory verse or it's a memory truth, the more I share that
with somebody else. So maybe I'm trying to memorize
a passage and the more I share that, which is why the Awanas
are the way they are. The fact that there's memory
going on with our children's ministry to where they memorize
versus they share it with other people, those kinds of ideas
reinforce them able to preserve. It doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to apply it, but at least they're preserving the
knowledge. And there's a sometimes a big
difference between preserving knowledge and actually seeing
life change. I understand that part.
So think about how am I doing that now in the corporate level?
When when I mean by that is you're in a more formal teaching
setting. And I also want some of your
connect group leaders and things like that.
And so you have lesson plans and outlines that you're working on
ahead of time. You know, I've, I've studied now
I have things written out, notes or a curriculum that they're
going to help me. So then let's talk about
presentation for a minute because here's the key question
here. How will I actually share what
I've learned with somebody else? Now, this applies to all of you.
This is not just for a teacher. This applies for all of us.
I promise I will make that stick in a minute.
So after you study, after you work through all of these
hermeneutical steps that we've discussed, you need to move
towards some version of homiletics.
Now what I mean, homiletics is the art of preaching or teaching
or sharing. So now I'm moving away from just
studying the stuff and learning how it works.
Now I'm actually going to verbally try to share or some
other medium, perhaps share with somebody else what it means.
And some of that's going to be formal, like preaching A sermon
or teaching a small group or or some Bible study someplace.
Others, likely the majority of us will be more, much more
informal. It'll be relational.
You're sharing with your family member, you're sharing with a
friend, you're sharing with a Co worker, you're sharing with a
classmate, right? And and this is going to sound
like evangelism. Well, good.
But you may not share the whole gospel that you may just be
sharing a verse, You may just be sharing a truth, right?
But it can be part of an evangelistic presentation, which
we'll talk more about in a minute.
So, so the Bible, the Bible's helping us in this.
So, so you share with that something you've learned and
applied in your life concerning with the Bible has taught you
about something both in some formal setting.
You might have, you might have gotten it from a midweek, you
know, you, you might have stayed awake during a sermon and heard
something then, or it might be through your own personal Bible
engagement, your own personal Bible study.
But there's a big difference between all the research you've
done and being able to actually effectively share or teach
something. So let me try to make a full
circle connection. Now I'm going to cinch back up
the saddle and get back up on the horse, which is what I had
to do. And it was quite hilarious
because not all the goose feathers had emptied out of the
coat yet. So as I still had to gallop on
down to get ahead of the cows even faster, now there's a
stream of of it probably would have been incredible to see kind
of an aura of feathers floating back behind me.
Would have been quite confusing to any cow.
So we finally got up ahead of there, but let me make a full
circle. So let's do go back for a second
to our personal evangelism training from the fall, just for
a second. Because the most natural way of
sharing what you're learning from the Bible and what the
Bible has meant to you is simply the overflow of your intentional
relationship with God, his word and his people into your
relationship. That a very intentional
relationship with the world and its people.
And so in my sections, we talked about before where I talked
about leading a conversation to Christ and your personal
testimonies, which are back in the fall.
For those who are not here or not have not listened to that,
go back and listen to what I shared back in those days about
leading a conversation to Christ and personal testimonies.
Because this is exactly where this stuff can plug back in.
So you can easily build bridges to the gospel by connecting them
to how you are personally engaging the Bible.
I've said this to you back then, but listen to it now in this new
context. After all this hermeneutical
study, right? Just this morning, the Lord
showed me in His word dot dot dot dot, you know, or just last
Sunday or in my small group, I learned this from God's Word and
it applies directly to our conversation right now.
It applies directly to your life need right now.
The issue that you're going with, and I promise you, I
guarantee it, the more you're in the word daily like that, the
more those things match up. But if you're not personally
engaging the Bible, you've got to have any fuel, you know,
because this needs to be honest. This needs to be very natural.
This needs to be authentic. You don't make this stuff up.
But it's only going to happen that way if you have the type of
personal study that we've outlined in this series.
So, so if you really have studied the way we've talked
about studying, God's going to give you opportunity if you'll
ask him, give you opportunities to share with that person at the
grocery store or share with your neighbor or share with that
family member. And it's amazing how they'll
match up just this morning in the book of Zephaniah or
wherever it was. So don't be afraid to quote and
share the truth from God. It's powerful, it's alive, it is
the truth and and just recognize our responsibility now
throughout biblical history, the early biblical history, the
family was the primary educational institution.
Think about Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Parents taught their children, there really were no schools to
speak of in many parts of the of the world.
And so you had to teach at home. You had to teach your children
these things. So think about your
responsibility at home with your family of not only to be a great
student of the Bible, but also to be a great sharer of the
Bible and how significant that becomes.
So if if you don't feel like you need Bible study for yourself,
other people need you to be in Bible study.
They do. And so later in biblical
histories, the, the the priest would share, sometimes in public
settings, the observance of the law in, in temple type or
Tabernacle type experiences. Then after the exile, the
written Torah, the law, and it's a little longer than the law,
but the law was taught along with the oral, the Mishnah,
which was oral tradition. So they taught these things in
the synagogue. So this is, this is where the,
what we might think more of church looking type things
started happening in the synagogues after the exile.
But then Jesus comes and Jesus came and taught with a whole
different authority. They, they even said that about
him. He teaches with a new, a
different authority. In fact, they questioned him
about it and his disciples taught with that authority
because they, they were. And then, and then we do the
same thing. So we're filled with the Holy
Spirit. It's different.
And so this isn't, this isn't just distributional, this isn't
just the distribution of information that we're trying to
get out there. This is transformational.
This is really not just a book. This is the word of God and it
changes lives. And so the privilege that we
have been given is as amazing. So we have this historical
privilege of holding the entire written word of God in our
hands. Now you can understand that that
generations never had that privilege.
People all around the world don't have that privilege.
And here we have this privilege of holding the written word of
God in our hands in a language we understand, and we have the
opportunity to engage it with sincere humility and eager
teachability. And so this privilege is not one
to be taken lightly. It it shouldn't be hidden
selfishly because it's not just for us.
He didn't just give you that so that you can keep it to you.
He didn't give you a light to hide it.
He didn't give you this word to, to keep it from people.
He's given you this opportunity. So you'll share with other
people. So, so it's given to us, sure
that we might grow personally, absolutely.
That we're, we're positionally in Christ and we're
experientially growing in Christ progressively, constantly, never
stopping. We never get there.
And like a bouncing ball, there are days and there are days,
right? But hopefully we're on a
trajectory of growth and maturity.
So for sure it's for us personally, but it's also for
those that we might help others grow.
Other Christians lost people as well.
So don't forget when you read the Great Commission in Matthew,
we often talk about going, and that's sometimes all we talk
about. We use it for missions, which is
fine. I'm a messiologist, so of course
I've used that passage. We talk about going, we talk
about making disciples, and we should, but we also recognize
that in that passage we're commanded to teach, to share the
word of God as we're disciple, right?
And not all of that teaching would have ever been in a formal
setting. In the early days of
Christianity, much of it would have been on a chariot on the
side of the road or wherever it might be along a river with
Lydia and a few others. So it could be a small group, it
could be a one, it could be one person, or it might be preaching
in front of thousands. But the fact that we've been
given this opportunity and this command, so it's not just the
truths that are found, but but how do we observe it?
How do we live it out? And that's what discipleship is.
That's, that's what the, the, that's what sanctification
reveals. The seven essentials of
discipleship will help help you to reveal the sanctification in
your life. And if you study each one of
these areas, I'm not saying it's perfect, I'm not saying it's the
the best model in the whole world, but it's one we're
working on right now. It's a good one.
It's biblical. We got it out of the Bible.
So, so that we're working through 7 essentials right now
and thinking through, thinking of it that way.
And if we, if we're all really healthy and strong in these
seven areas, your walk with God's probably not horrible,
it's probably not too bad. And then we'll continue to grow.
So let's not neglect the right thing to do as we continue to
progress. So Matthew 28, let me just, you
know, we know it. But go therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe. We, we don't just teach them, we
got to teach them to do. We're teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you and behold, I'm with you always
to the end of the age. Well, how am I going to know how
to teach them all that He's commanded me?
How, how, how are how, how our disciples, how are we, how are
we going to ever remember all that he commanded?
What do we have to do? Study the Bible.
We have to engage the Bible if we're going to, if we're going
to teach somebody else. Here's every single thing Jesus
ever commanded. That's probably not one sitting,
is it? But in that process, so it even
I really, I think it even suggests that idea.
This, this, this, this is not talking about a one time event.
This is talking about life. This is talking about mentoring,
this talk about discipleship. This is talking about life on
life with people to to help them understand.
Here's everything that Jesus taught.
And you got to remember that when Matthew's written, they
don't have the whole Bible. They don't even have all the
other gospels together. Not at that point, not when he
says this. And so they've got to work hard.
Now we have it. We have such a privilege, such
an opportunity, such a blessing to do that.
So let me share a couple models that aren't on your hand out,
sorry. And I have two models here that
I want to share with you. And, and these relate to the
whole series as well as some to this, but one of them is by John
Maxwell. And I'm not necessarily a
Maxwellian, but John Maxwell has written some good things on
leadership and some other things, but also on, on how to
develop people. And this is probably not even
original with John Maxwell, frankly, but the the words might
be, it doesn't matter. But I needed to say that out
loud so I don't just plagiarize. So this is what you would call a
developmental discipleship sequence.
In other words, how am I helping somebody progress, right?
But this also works in terms of the Bible.
So how am I going to show or share with somebody about the
Bible? Well, the first step is I model.
These are pretty simple sentences.
I model. In other words, I do it, I'm
showing them. This is how to live.
This is what to believe, right? Then secondly, I mentor, I do
it, and you watch me. 3rd, I monitor, you do it.
I'll watch you. That's a big turning point for a
lot of people in leadership development.
Fourthly, I motivate, you do it. And then the last one is we
multiply. You do it and train someone
else. So I'm, I model, I mentor, I
monitor, I motivate and we multiply.
And so this is a model that's been around for a long time and
we often talk about leadership development.
But this works in the sense of when I'm, when I'm gleaning from
the word, I need to be living a life that matches me saying that
I'm gleaning from the word because if my life over here
doesn't match anything the Bible teaches, I don't know who's ever
going to listen to me. You know, all I'm going to be is
a bad example. So I'm, I'm actually modeling
biblical life sanctification. Then I'm actually going to share
with you, I'm going to, I'm going to show you and you're
going to watch me do this or you're going to listen to me as
I teach you. And then, and then I'm going to
let you teach and I'm going to watch you and I'm going to
encourage you. I'm going to cheerlead you on,
I'm going to motivate you. And then let's find somebody
else. Do the same thing.
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse
and repeat. A doctoral student of mine used
to be the director of assimilation at Brook Hills
Church in Birmingham, which is where David Platt was when he
wrote Radical, before he went to the International Mission Board.
When David Platt became kind of known, he was the pastor of
Brook Hills. Jim Shaddix, a dear friend who
passed away a while back from cancer, was there on staff with
them, too. But this doctoral student of
mine was actually in charge of helping people walk through
discipleship and get assimilated into the church.
And I just want you to listen to the questions that they had to
answer. We should.
We should do this on noon member presentation day.
I should give this as a essay test a week in advance.
Every Connect group leader ought to have to answer these
questions for me. I know some of you here.
Anyway, listen to this. They call this the personal
disciple making plan. It's what they call it.
There's nothing flowery about the language.
You can probably still. Yeah.
I don't know. You might find it on their
website, The Church at Brook Hills Personal disciple making
plan question #1 How will I fill my mind with truth?
How am I going to do that? How am I going to fill my mind
with the truth of God? What am I doing in my life to
help me do that? Ties right in, obviously, to
engaging the Bible, maybe prayer.
Listen to this one. How will I fuel my affections
for God? How am I going to keep stocking
the fire? Let's see if these words make
sense. They're going to come up in a
partial sermon someday down the road.
But it's just follow me for a minute.
This will this may just make you fall asleep, but it may, you
know, you can thank me later. So I was teaching in our all
staff meeting on Monday about two terms.
One is constant. You ready?
Constant, dynamic, redundant progression.
How's that? These these are actually keys to
church health, believe it or not.
Constant, dynamic, redundant progression.
Think about those words. It never ends.
It's constant, It's dynamic. It's alive.
It's not boring, it's alive. These are church health
principles. Constant dynamic, constant life,
constant constant newness, constant freshness, redundant
over and over and over and over and over again.
And progression takes place versus static.
Redundancy. Static usually means no
movement. Static means nothing's
happening. Could be dead, it's lifeless.
There's just sitting there. Redundancy.
See, that's what most churches do.
Most churches just do the same thing every week.
Then they do the same thing every week, and they do the same
thing every week. And people are what?
People wonder why they're bored to death.
It's just rent and repeat every week.
There's no new life, there's no freshness, there's nothing new.
There's no progression taking place.
And so often the churches that I've worked with over the years,
they're just in static redundancy.
They're just repeating something on a calendar every single week,
just spinning in a circle without making any progress.
They are bumper cars. Well, in our life we want
dynamic progression. So how will I fuel?
How will I bring life into my affections for God?
The next question they ask is how will I share God's love as a
witness in the world? How am I going to do that?
They ask everyone that you're a new member.
You got to answer these questions.
How will I share my witness in the world?
The expectation from day one is that you're going to do that.
You don't just get to come sit and soak.
What are you going to do? You got to have a dynamic
spiritual walk with God and, and you've got to let that overflow.
So when God shows me something, when he fills my mind with his
truth and his word, and I'm fueling that with my affection
for him, I, it's just going to overflow.
It's fire in my bones. It's got to get out.
I got to tell somebody about this.
How will I show God's love as a member of a church?
We still got to take care of one another too.
We need to help one another understand.
We need to help others grow. We need to share the truth that
God has given to us with them too.
So I don't know some of that's one-on-one, but you know exactly
where I think most of that's going to happen.
What do I think most of that's going to happen in the church?
Thank you very much. 100% participation in Connect groups.
Had a great crowd Sunday morning in Connect groups.
Thank you all. We really did.
This Sunday's it's supposed to rain. 93% chance of rain only on
Sunday. I don't know why in the world
this is happening on Wednesdays and Sundays.
I want to know who still has stolen from Jericho and hidden
it in their tent. Because I'm telling you, it's
amazing to me. But Danny Akins preaching, so I
hope. Come on, be here Sunday.
It's just water. It's not snow.
Thank you. Couple questions.
How will I spread God's glory among all peoples?
That's a missions question. How will I spread God's glory
among all peoples? And how will I make disciples
among a few people? Good questions.
How am I going to spread the gospel and God's glory among all
the nations, all the peoples? But how am I going to make
disciples among a few? Who are you discipling?
Who are you personally disciple? How does that work in your life?
Have you ever even thought of such a concept?
What does that look like? And so I pray that you'll think
about that and God will continue to lead you to that point.
But more than anything, what I really hope is, is that you'll
engage the Bible with humility and teachability.
Go to it with an open heart. Go to it with an open mind.
Ask God, prepare yourself that he would reveal to you what
you're supposed to get out of his word that day.
Then read that text. Observe it.
Ask questions about a where is this, Who is this?
Why is this, What is this? When is this?
Ask these questions that we've talked about in previous times.
Then what in the world does this really mean?
Not what I wish it meant, not that I'm isagenically or
narcissetically trying to make it mean.
What does it really mean? And then what does it mean to
me? So what?
How does that affect my thoughts?
How does that affect my speech? How does that affect my actions?
And then how in the world, how in the world could I tell
somebody else that? How can I show them and how can
I share with them to say this is what God is doing in my life And
I want you to understand as a father, as a husband, as a
grandfather, I I don't know how you do it.
I don't know how you survive this world without this truth.
You like sports. I love sports, man.
I love sports competitions, a part of my life.
I love that. I learned a lot from sports,
learned a lot about getting together with each other.
But just this morning in the Bible, I'm not kidding you,
because it's got to be right there.
It's just right there. It's the most natural thing in
the world. If you know me, you know Jesus.
If you know me, you hear his word.
It's just right there. Because I once was Saul and he
changed that. So positionally, I'm somebody
else. That old guy's dead.
Positionally, I'm somebody else. So experientially, I just want
to continue to become who I'm supposed to till the very end.
And then one day, right, one day, one day, we'll see it all.
We're whole, we're restored. No more brokenness.
We'll understand, Father. Help us to do our best to
understand now. Grip our hearts.
Help us, Father, to fan the fuel of our affections for you and
Your Word. Lord, I pray that it will burn a
hole in us that, Father, we'll miss any day that we're not in
Your Word, That Father will know that there's a gap.
Father, I thank you for that. I was able to share that
testimony with somebody yesterday.
Thank you for that. That, that whenever I miss being
with you, it's like, it's like missing spiritual exercise.
It's like missing physical exercise.
I miss it. It's not the right day.
Something's off. I pray, Father, that we'll seek
it, we'll pursue it. We'll strain for the prize.
We're not just going to sit back and hopefully somebody force
feeds me. I'm not sitting in my high chair
in my diaper with a bib on anymore and somebody's trying to
get me to eat my my cream of wheat.
Father, help me to pursue the meat.
Pursue the real depths of your word, your truth.
And Father, you're going to show us and then help me to tell
somebody else. Show me somebody, give me
somebody. Put somebody in my path who
needs it. Father, I pray that you'll give
us wisdom. Thank you for that.
In Christ's name, Amen. God bless you all.
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.