How Do I Share the Text? | Dr. John Ewart

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

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

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.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

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 [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.