How Do I Apply 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. So thank you all for being here.

Seriously, on a cold, wintry night, I think we'll be safe

getting home a little wet. Y'all be careful after

Snowmageddon and hope that everybody has survived.

Well, I, as I shared this morning and our staff devotion,

I do feel like it's important for me as an official citizen of

Nashville, NC, to offer a sincere apology to the citizens

of Rocky Mount for accusing you of stealing our water.

But that's a whole nother story. You either know exactly what I'm

talking about or or not. But we're still, I think,

boiling. We're still boiling, right?

Yeah, yeah. So I'm used to that.

Feel like I'm on one of my trips, so that's good.

But anyway, glad you're here. And so and also for those of you

who are listening online, we obviously this was recorded

during a winter time experience. So hope you got a hand out.

This is a very important lesson, one of my favorites, I think.

And so let's dive into that. So basically, let's just talk

for a moment about where we've come from.

If you haven't been here, you haven't been listening.

Either way, we've been walking through what does it mean to

engage the Bible in a perhaps a little deeper way or more

thorough way anyway. And we've talked about

preparation that included both God preparing the Bible for us

and we talked about how we got our Bible.

But it also includes me being spiritually prepared to receive

the revelation that God wants to give me through His Word.

I was in a great conversation earlier today about Old

Testament prophecy and how that compares to now the way we

receive revelation from the Word.

And, and so God has given us this word for us to have to

teach us and to show us. And so we need to be ready to

receive that. So we need to be walking with

him. We need to be praying to him,

asking him. Help me to understand your word.

Show me from your word today what I'm supposed to get out of

this. Some of us who have been

believers for a minute or two and have read the whole book

more than once, when you go back again, it's like, I want, you

know, what's the new thing or what's the old thing I need to

be reminded of. And both of those are valuable.

And so that preparation is really important.

Then we, we talked about observation.

What does the text say? And we walked through some

questions to ask. And so you need to go back and

listen to that. If you missed that, then last

time we talked about an interpretation.

So what does the text mean? And we walked through some

principles for that, but now we're on application and now

we're asking the question, what does this text mean to me or, or

as I like to say, So what? And so how, how does this affect

me? How should my life change

because of what God says in this particular passage?

And, and so this is where we we see the end result to some

degree. We have one more session next

time that we're going to talk about.

That's very important as well. How am I going to share this

with some of the people? But in other words, how should

my life change? Howard Hendricks, who's a well

known writer, author, professor, teacher in the area of Bible

teaching, reading and and Christian education.

He says the Bible was not given to make us more intelligent, to

make us more intelligent sinners, but to change our

lives. And so when we read the Bible,

we don't want to just read it like a textbook.

I was actually talking to a seminary student a couple of

days ago yesterday, yesterday, 3 weeks ago yesterday, and we were

talking about the struggle. I actually have a lecture that I

used to give at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY, and

the lecture was the hypocrisy of teaching seminary students how

to have a personal quiet time because they can find themselves

in an Old Testament class or a New Testament class or a book

study where they've got to read, you know, they're reading 1000

pages a week with all their classes, including the Bible.

And the Bible just becomes kind of like a textbook instead of of

God's Word. So we've got to be careful that

even in the midst of that kind of reading or study, we're still

drawing from it what we're supposed to.

And so the, the Bible does demand a response.

It's a supernatural thing. And God expects us to not only

understand the Bible, but to live by the Bible.

We'll read some verses about that in a minute.

So the goal is not to make us just more knowledgeable.

We want to learn, we want to be educated.

We want to, we want to learn those things.

But but actually it's to make us more holy.

How can I be closer to God because of His word?

A few passages that you probably know.

You may not know these reference references, but when you hear me

read the passage you'll you'll remember them.

Joshua 18 The book of the law shall not depart from your

mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you

may be careful to do according to all that is written in it,

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will

have good success. Not just because I meditate on

it, but also because I am careful to do according to what

is written in it. James One says, But be doers of

the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a

man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he

looks at himself and goes away, and it once forgets what he was

like. But the one who looks into the

perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no being,

no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be

blessed in his doing so. It's pretty direct there.

We actually deceive ourselves when we think that all we need

to do is is hear and not actually act upon it.

And so, you know, that would be true of a lesson or a sermon or

a Bible reading as well. Anytime the word of God is is a

is a part of that. Don't just listen, don't just

hear, but actually act upon it. Romans 213 says, for it is not

the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the

doers of the law who will be justified.

So you see in various passages we could read more.

There's one in the Psalms that we might add, the Lord is my

portion. I promise to keep your words.

And of course, Psalm 119, the whole, the whole Psalm could be

read about applying and living out the word of God.

So, so we recognize that this is more than just a book to read

this. These are more than just lessons

to hear one ear and out the other that we actually need to

apply them. They need to have they need to

change us. They need to have impact upon

us. They need to have influence upon

us in some way or the other. And so it's interesting then as

we begin to think about the Bible and how do we apply it.

We're going to look at some fairly significant principles

tonight. But the Bible is timely, but

it's also timeless. In other words, it was written,

as we've been talking about over the previous sessions.

It was written in a specific time for specific people, often

for specific purposes, but it also still was written for us.

And that's part of the, the wonderful life of the word of

God is living and active in the sense that it can apply to

somebody 2000 years ago, but it also still applies to us today

or 2000 years from now. If the Lord were to tarry that

long, which would surprise me greatly.

And if I'm still around 2000 years from now, I'm going to be

a little irritated. So, but I don't think that's

likely. So, so, so the Holy Spirit then

can make it intensely personal for us if we are well prepared.

But that's a big if. In other words, the Holy Spirit

will help me understand the Bible.

The Holy Spirit will help me apply the Bible, but that's only

if I'm walking in accordance with him.

That's where that preparation part still comes in very

strongly. So it's very, very important for

us that we're, we're preparing ourselves to actually receive

the word of God in that way. So, so we don't want to ever

forget the best practices, principles and questions that

we've already studied. Don't just take this session.

If you're listening online, go back and listen to the other

sessions about preparation, observation and interpretation.

And I'm also going to be recording another podcast

tomorrow. So it'll be interesting to see

when it goes out. I, I've done one with Alan

Mosley already on how best to study the Old Testament.

I actually have Doctor Chuck Quarles going to be on a podcast

with me tomorrow to talk about the New Testament.

And Doctor Quarles is a research professor and expert in Bible

translation in the New Testament.

He in, in my opinion, he would be one of the top experts on

translation right now, probably at least in Southern Baptist

life. And so very knowledgeable man

who also has I think TikTok or YouTube videos of him throwing

axes. So there you go.

Because you needed to know that. So watch out for those podcasts

that supplement we've already done with Doctor Aiken, we've

got Doctor Mose, they've got Doctor Quarles.

I've also done one with Dylan here.

And so just make sure that you're you're listening to all

these things that are really supplement a lot of what we're

talking about in these sessions together.

So, so let's talk about these levels of application because

this might not be something you think about.

You might in here. You know, those of you who are

coming to these sessions, you are, many of you are established

believers with established spiritual disciplines in your

life. But the new believer and often

the more immature believer doesn't, doesn't think about

both of these application levels.

And they're really important. I won't spend a lot of time on

one of them, but if they are important because we need to

work through both of these, but many don't, many just skip to

the individual application. And that's a real mistake

because you've got to recognize when you read this Bible, you

look at this whole Bible, much of what is written here is

applying to the people of God as a body, as a group.

There's a corporate application that I don't want you to ignore.

And so when you, when you're thinking about what does this

scripture mean to me, and we're going to talk about that and how

to do that, We also need to be asking the question of how does

this apply to all of us together?

How does it, how does this apply to us as a church?

How does, how does this apply to us as a body?

And that's important because sometimes the application will

affect this as an entire body. Especially think about you're

studying, say, First Corinthians 12 through 14 spiritual gift

conversations, a lot of spiritual gift conversations in

those passages. And so you're thinking about,

well, this isn't just about me learning about my spiritual

gift. This isn't just about what how

special I am in God's Kingdom. It's also about how this

spiritual gift affects the body and how it affects the whole.

And so throughout, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament,

you're going to see passages to where you know, the sin of

somebody doesn't just affect them, it affects the whole

nation. Think of, think of what happened

to him at AI after Jericho or, or you see some of the judgement

of the prophets. It's not just about individuals,

it's about an entire nations. And so think about that

corporate side as well. It's often harder for some

people, especially in a culture like ours where we're marked by

such individualistic autonomy, which means that we like being

us. Some other cultures are much

more corporately community driven and that would be a

common concept for them to think about.

How's this going to affect my whole village?

How's this going to affect my whole group of people?

Sometimes in our culture it's a little harder.

So maybe not for those here because you are all incredibly

mature and spiritual and spiritual, but for others it

might be a problem. So always remember, this takes

us back. Everything connects, believe it

or not, building an old train back when we were talking about

our theological triage months ago and we were talking about

what are primary doctrines, what are secondary doctrines, and

what are tertiary doctrines and how important they are.

There are some some things that are worth dying upon, heels upon

which we would die. And then there are also issues

that we can disagree but still maintain unity and show grace to

one another. And this begins to apply as I'm

applying this verse to my life. And you're going to see this a

lot more in a moment that that the way I think it ought to be

applied. I might want to project that on

you and force you to apply it that same way.

And sometimes that's right. It's primary.

We we all should be doing the primaries.

But there's some tertiary things to where I I don't think you

ought to to wear tennis shoes in church.

And so I don't think you know that.

How come he didn't have a coat and tie on, you know, and I'll

be glad to explain that to you up close and personal anytime

you want to ask that question. But but, but you know, or

whatever it is. So you get down into some of

these layers, but for some they elevate them to primary.

We've talked about that in the past.

But to think about that because that theology not only carries

over into our actions, but actually often determines our

action. And so personal preference

versus the harmony of the body, where's that balance in terms of

no, no, this is a primary doctrine.

We we have to believe this, this is a command of scripture versus

this is much more of a preference or, or an opinion.

And so to work through that. And so I may not like the way

somebody looks or acts, but is it non biblical or is it

personal? Is it cultural or is it a

traditional bias, right. And this becomes really

important. So be aware of the influence of

these traditions versus honest application based on good

exegetical information like we talked about in interpretation.

This is why all these things need to be together.

Don't separate, don't isolate them.

They flow 1 into the next if I've done good I exegesis and

not isages, and I've actually pulled from the text so that I

can honestly, honestly understand the difference

between what this might be my tradition.

I mean, some traditions are good.

Don't get me wrong. Not every tradition is bad.

Sometimes things are traditions because they were good things.

They're still good things. They're biblical things.

They're supposed to be good. And then sometimes traditions

can get in the way. So be careful because we have

always done it that way does not necessarily mean it was the

biblical way or should it be the way for today or for tomorrow.

That's hard for people in church.

You may not agree with me right now, but I promise you that my

life experience with a lot of churches, it's a problem in

churches and people will get angry and people will be upset.

People will leave, people will divide, people will split,

people will cause disharmony because that's not the way we've

ever done it before. And so we need to be careful

about our judgment of those things.

So it might be, might not be, which is why a famous motto that

our staff knows well, assessment never ends because we're always

assessing why are we doing what we're doing and how we're doing

it. But Jesus had to deal with this.

You remember Jesus and the religious leaders kind of went

head to An easy, well known passage of the traditions of men

versus the obedience to God is in Mark seven.

Let me just read some of this to you.

Now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes

who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his

disciples ate with hands that were defiled.

That is unwashed. For the Pharisees and all the

Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to

the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the

marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.

And there are many other traditions that they observe,

such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and

dining couches. And the Pharisees and the

scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to

the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?

And he said to him, well did. And he said to them, well did

Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites?

I was like Jesus subtlety as it is written.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far

from me. In vain do they worship me,

teaching his doctrines, the commandments of men.

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of

men. And he said to them, you have a

fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to

establish your own tradition. And then he gives an example of

honoring your parents and what not.

Then in verse 13, he says, thus making void the word of God by

your traditions that you've handed down and many such things

you do. So we've got to be careful that

that traditions don't get in the way.

And part of my part of my personal struggle, I think at

this point in life is I've been so many places and I've seen so

many churches that have different forms and different

ways and different methods and different styles that it would

be hard for me to do not recognize that there's a great

diversity in this thing called the church in many ways, and God

still blesses it. Again, I'm not talking about

primary theological issues. I'm talking about secondary and

tertiary and also what we would call forms of church and not

necessarily the theology. So let us make sure we're

focusing on the primaries and we're gracious with one another

on some of the others, because I'll be honest, I, it's seminary

life. I would often tell people in

leadership classes, you know, you're probably not going to

fight over real theology. You're going to fight over

perceptions of theology. And so you're going to have more

fights about whether or not you ought to have one of those sets

in your, in your sanctuary or not, or whether where's the

organ? What happened to the organ?

You know, and, and why aren't we singing blank And that, and I

promise you, it's, it's funny, I've had to say this in church

life where there were fights going on, people will say, why

aren't we singing blank? And I promise you as many people

are thinking of another blank than the blank.

You're thinking of blankety blank.

You know what I mean? They really are.

Why aren't we singing something over here?

And I'm telling you, just as many people are talking about

singing something over here, and it's amazing how we don't

recognize that there are actually other people in

congregations who have legitimate opinions that might

be the opposite of ours. And so sometimes that's hard.

That's hard for human beings in in general.

So then you go to the personal application, which is where

we'll spend most of our time, obviously.

So how does this apply to me individually?

So the scripture must be the basis of our faith and practice,

obviously, but we need to be careful.

And I'm going to go off on a little tangent for a moment.

I'm looking for a soapbox for a second.

And some of you might not like what I'm about to talk about

because some of you are probably guilty of it.

So get ready. You OK, So where are your toes?

No, none of you all. Not the spiritual elite people

on Wednesday night. But we need to be careful, very

careful about claiming God told you to do something.

Now I'm going to talk about both sides of this in a minute.

Just wanted to pause for dramatic effect.

So throughout the centuries, many have claimed God told them

to do things that were neither biblical nor helpful, but they

hyper spiritualized the conversation and blame the Holy

Spirit and God for something that they've manifested in their

own minds, frankly. And we need to be really careful

about this. I'm not saying that hopefully

God does say something to you. What God will tell you though,

should be borne out scripturally as well as however else you

think you're receiving it. And it should bring glory to him

and not you. And so I I've had people come to

me here. Who say, well, God told me to

come tell you this and I'm like, well, let's just see whether

that's true or not. You know, now sometimes it is

and and there's no question. And so we all use that language,

don't you? I feel like God showed, told me

something. I felt like God spoke to my

heart and led me to do things. So, so there's a side of this

that's absolutely valid and wonderful and sensitive to the

Holy Spirit and how we actually know how to make decisions, how

we do things. That's obviously not what I'm

talking about God speaking to you.

And special revelation is also how it cults and other religious

groups have started. Thank you, Joseph Smith.

And So what God tells you must be borne out in his word, and it

must also edify the body. And so it must be consistent

with everything else He does and has said.

So what I refer to as prayer projections cannot be different

than the word of God because some of them become much more

like a prosperity gospel perspective than they do a

biblical perspective. And people want to manifest

things. I'm going to manifest this in my

life. You hear that on TV all the

time. Now I've manifested this to take

place. I'm embracing a spirit of, of

gratitude and I'm manifesting. I'm manifesting happiness in my

life. You can't manifest anything you

don't manifest. God manifests OK, and you

receive what He gives you and you seek His manifestations.

Don't create your own. So God does that.

So trusting God's word, which will be consistent and God's

word is always going to be consistent with God's will and

vice versa, they will not contradict one another.

God will bring about what matches both of those and what

brings Him great glory, what will bless you, but will also

edify the body. And so I will speak strongly

about trying to isolate yourself from the body.

There's nothing in this Bible that says that's right.

Everything is written in the context of local church and

community. And so we need to learn some

some specific principles. I can't say that word.

If I ever talked to you about how much I used to stutter as a

kid, part of my life story, I still stutter.

I just hide it more. I should sing more.

That way I could hide my stutter.

But principles of application, some of these things you may

have never heard before, some of these things you might have

thought about before, been exposed to.

But let's let's talk about these for a moment.

The first one is what we would call the prescriptive versus the

descriptive principle. So these are really important.

I walk through these categories with almost every church I've

ever worked with in consultation or pastoral life or seminary

life or whatever. So hundreds of churches where

I'm asking them, how are you making decisions?

How do you actually decide things as a church?

How are you interpreting the Bible and applying it to help

you make decisions? These principles help give a

matrix. This is often called a

hermeneutic of ministry. I appreciate Aubrey Malfours,

Dr. Aubrey Malfours who taught at Dallas Theological Seminary

for many, many years. He was a Southern Baptist,

taught at a non Southern Baptist, but a wonderful

evangelical seminary. DTS died a few years ago, had

the privilege of serving on a board with Doctor Malfours.

He probably wrote 30 books and he wrote a lot about this in a

book that I always appreciated. But here's the here's the

prescriptive versus descriptive principle.

Is there a command for a certain action in the Bible, or is it a

description of a behaviour that's not enough to help you

understand? Let me keep going then.

Is there also a subsequent explicit teaching that supports

the principle? In other words, this isn't the

only place you find it. There's other teaching that

supports it. And so are these commands that

transfer from culture to culture with little or no alteration, or

are these commands that embody timeless principles that that

find varying expressions in different cultures?

So in other words, is this command actually going to going

to fit in one place in time or does it fit across time?

And what's interesting about these, what's interesting about

this is that different things happened and still happened in

different churches, but there are also divine commands that

apply to all the churches. And so we've got to sort this

out. Is this prescriptive?

Is this just a descript or this is a command?

It's a prescription. You have to do this.

This is something you must do. Or is it just descriptive?

This is just a description. I'm going to give you some

examples. Don't worry, they'll help you.

Robert Plummer, I mentioned his book last week.

Great guy, he says this, beware of deceitful human hearts that

would use hermeneutical principles to rationalize

disobedience to Scripture. And that happens.

It's a truth you can make the Bible say about anything you

want it to say. You can find a piece over here

or a piece over here and don't match it.

Don't take it out of context. And you can you can proof text

your life just about all you want, which is why we have to be

better than that. And so let me let me give you a

couple of examples in Acts chapter 2, which we studied

Acts 2 · chapter mention

months ago. Just listen to Acts 246.

And day by day attending the temple together and breaking

bread in their homes, they receive their food with glad and

generous hearts. Or Acts 311 goes on a little

further while he clung to Peter and John.

This is the person that was healed.

All the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them

in the portico called Solomon. So they were gathering at the

temple. So does that mean that it's

wrong for us to have this building?

So is it wrong for us to have a building to meet in because the

early church didn't have a building?

The other church met in homes, they met in catacombs, they met

in caves, they met wherever they could.

Here they're still meeting at the temple because persecution

hadn't broken out yet. So is it wrong for us to have a

place to meet? Let me give you a better one.

Romans 1616. Greet one another with a holy

kiss. All the churches of Christ greet

you. Did you all sin when you walked

in? I didn't see you all kissing on

each other. So in other words, is this, is

this prescriptive? I must greet you.

Now, listen, this, I kid you not, I know of a church that did

an entire study on the biblical proper way to greet one another.

You think I'm boring? Listen, it was a study.

So we're not wholly kissing each other.

So what does that mean? How would we, how would we apply

that today in our world? What does that mean?

Anybody have any clue? Any suggestion?

Joyful toward one another. Sure glad to see you.

Honestly glad to see you. We might shake hands, we might

hug. There might even be a physical

touch like that. But it was more than that.

This whole, you know, you got to think of a Middle Eastern

culture. They're kissing each other on

the cheek. It was a very common, every time

you greeted somebody, you would do that.

It was common, common hospitality and courtesy.

So some of these things are prescriptive and some of these

things are just descriptive, right?

So how do we tell the difference?

Well, one of the ways you tell the difference is watch for

imperatives. In other words, command verbs.

So example, when you go to the Great Commission verses in

Matthew 28 and you look at verses 19 and 20, it says go.

Therefore these are imperative commands.

Go, disciple, baptize, teach. So there's not a lot of

suggestion that that's not for everybody.

That's for everybody, right? Or you think of a Hebrews 10/25.

You shall not give up meeting with one another.

Some of them are in the habit of doing you.

You should be in church. You should be a part of a body.

You should be part of a community.

You shouldn't isolate yourself. These these are imperative

commands that would translate beyond culture.

They would translate beyond the time and apply it a timeless

way. Or Second, Timothy 42 says we

should be able to teach the word.

And so there's these imperative verbs.

Always watch those. You can see them in English.

You don't need the original language for them.

The translations are really good about carrying them out because

some of these things are going to be more descriptive of

something that happened at a certain time, certain place in a

certain way. But there may be a very, very

strong principle that comes out of it that actually applies to

us today. We'll see a little more of that

later. Perhaps an easier one is the

negative versus positive principle.

And this is an issue of, of presence or absence.

And this is tricky for some people.

If you saw this, 1/2 of this, you might say, oh, that's right.

When in fact it's not. And so the, the negative issue

says this, that if it's not found in the Bible, we can't do

it. And that sounds right, doesn't

it? If it's not found in the Bible,

we can't do it. And I mean that.

That makes sense to me mentally. It makes sense to me

cognitively. If it ain't in the Bible, it

ain't right. We ain't going to do it right.

But we also have to ask ourselves, is it legitimate if

it's not found in the Bible? So the negative argues that if

it's not found there, we can't do it.

The positive side of this states that the church is free to

pursue practices that are not necessarily found in the Bible

as long as they're not prohibited by clear teaching of

Scripture. See, and this gets tricky

because I know of groups that are stuck in time and some of

their doctrine and some of their practice are stuck in time.

I, I have friends, and I don't mean any offense because these

are friends. I believe they're going to be in

heaven with us. They might be surprised I'm

there, but I think I they're going to be there.

I have friends who come from a certain tradition that don't

believe that any musical instrumentation is allowed.

They would only sing acapella or Acapulco, as we would say back

home. And the reason they don't

believe musical instruments are allowed is because they don't

find them in the New Testament. And it doesn't matter how, you

know, I can go back to the Old Testament.

I can even go to the Book of Revelation, but I can go back to

the Old Testament and I can find this.

That's not good enough because they also have animal sacrifice.

So we're going to sacrifice animals, too.

I mean, this is actual conversation.

I'm quoting an actual conversation now.

I always find it fascinating because they have buildings, air

conditioning, you know, microphones, padded seats,

tennis shoes. So but buildings, you know,

buildings aren't in the Bible like that.

Budgets aren't really in the Bible like we would have them

today. Ministry schedules, again, using

technology, you know, you're not obviously that's not in the

Bible. They didn't know what a

microphone was. So we shouldn't use these.

So is it negative or positive? How are you making group

decisions as a church, which is something I dealt with a lot,

but also, how does this apply to you personally?

Aubrey Malfours in his book Writes Common Sense, tells us

that some, if not most of the practices of the New Testament

church aren't even mentioned in Scripture.

We're told what's so important. We're told what we needed to

know. We don't know every single thing

when they're, when they're in their homes, what did they eat?

How did they eat? When did they eat?

We don't, you know that. Then you have the pattern versus

principal approach. And I felt like these are little

redundant, but the pattern argues that the practices or

patterns of the apostles and the early church are universal and

binding on all congregations. Now run into this.

It's called patternism. There's actually a name for it,

patternism, and it assumes that we're that all of these churches

and that all of these apostles and that everything they did and

the early church was consistent. And that's just not true at all.

The church at Ephesus and the church at Corinth were very

different. The church at Rome was very

different than they were. The way they practice, where

they met, how they met, when they met, all very inconsistent,

all very different. The way they had their polity

structures, the way they made decisions, they're all

different. And so we can, you know, I hear

we want to be like the early church.

Well, you are. You fight over food, you fight

over money. So but but but the.

Thought that there's only one kind of church at all times.

Is is that's fiction? It's fiction.

I once had a APHD student. Now you'd think they're pretty

smart. I've known a lot of dumb smart

people in my life. And this PhD student, I just, I

was forced to humble him because he had been taught by a

professor who I know well who did not teach the right thing.

That all you know there's only one way to have church and I

began to describe to him the global church around the world

that I knew about and so we listen listen I I could take you

to church you wouldn't have a chair you'd sit on a rug and.

Men would be on one side and. Women would be on the other and

and you couldn't even touch. You couldn't touch one another.

Teresa and I got in trouble one time for holding hands in the

wrong place, and it's hard. To get me away from.

Her SO. You couldn't even.

You couldn't touch each other. You couldn't do that.

There there'd be a a divider between you kind of like a

mosque because guess what background they were coming out

of. See, I'm in churches to where,

listen, tonight is nothing, you know, because we didn't have a

prayer list. I got more time tonight.

So I'm going to talk for, you know, longer than some of you

wish I would. Man, I'm in services 4.

And a half five hours long there's get.

Started. I mean, they've walked.

Miles to get there they got 10 choirs that are going to sing

and they've all practiced their choreography they're dancing and

they're singing and so. And you you don't like?

Those you listen don't go to some places where I go because I

mean, they got a, they got a whole orchestra of just drums.

One of the greatest skillful instrumentalist I have ever met.

Some of you in here instrumentalist, because I see

you here. But listen, one of the most

talented instrumentalist I ever know was probably a 12 year old

kid who played a flywheel off a truck, off a truck.

He they had it taken a piece of this truck off and he played it

like a drum and a cymbal. And that was one of the most

talented things I'd ever heard. You don't know how to dance.

Some of those. Churches won't work and and not

just one sermon. I've been sermon #3 before so.

You know they saved the. The best for the last, for the

last or something. So, so which early church are

you going to follow? Is it Rome, Ephesus, Colossae?

Which one is it? Because they, they, they all did

different things. So the principal approach then

argues that the church is obligated to follow only the

principles, not necessarily the patterns and practices of the

early church. So we have to determine if the

author's intent for including a particular Apostolic Church

practice in the biblical account was to establish a precedent

that applies to all of us or not.

Does it become a principle the the practice that's described?

Does that then become a principle that we have to live

out in our own lives or not? And these are some of the

questions, some of the things we're working through.

Our ecclesiology is also going to be formed from this.

And unfortunately, unfortunately, there are a lot

of people in church life now. I really do appreciate,

seriously, I appreciate Inglewood and the fact that you

all have worked through this a lot.

I'm sure that some of you have some hang ups with what happens

here. The music's too loud or the

seats aren't right or something. But you know, I don't want to

hear it so. But over the years I've been in

places. Where they haven't been

resolved, you know, and people are arguing over little things

that really aren't the primary things at all.

But, but, but I also know some people and I refer to them as

Baptist Amish. And no, no disrespect to the

Amish, but the Amish have zeroed in on a specific German time

frame basically. And so they live at a from a

certain time frame. It's fascinating, you know the

way, you know the how the Amish are no zippers and and so

they've kind of landed on that and that's the right way to live

and that's the only way to live according to a very specific

time frame that comes out of a Germanic, sometimes Dutch

background. And I.

Know Baptists that way that I call them the Baptist Amish and

they don't realize that in order.

To reach A next generation, in order to keep reaching

generations, in order to reach a lost world, you're going to have

to recognize that that's just foreign.

That's just foreign to entire generations if you want to reach

them. So we've got to figure out what

the balance is. So you have purposes or

principles. They're like the train tracks.

There are certain principles that are timeless.

They're unchanging. They're non negotiable primaries

that are based on scripture and our mandates for all the

churches to pursue if all for all time.

For us, for them, for all of us. There are certain things we got

to do. We got to pray, we got to share

the gospel, we got to worship. We got to make disciples for

things that we have, we have to do.

The seven essentials are a good example.

And then there are. Practices or.

Forms that's kind of like the train building much more

specific much more contextual some of those will be timely

some of those might change some of those are negotiable some of

those are cultural they're not absolutes then they fulfill

certain functions so the way we do things the fact that we have

a midweek service is a practice there's nothing in the Bible

that says we should have church on Wednesday night and so

that's. A practice.

Our ministry schedules are practices that we put into place

that that work for us in this moment, in this time.

It doesn't mean that some point that couldn't change.

We've already changed some of them.

When I first got here, what the midweek was compared to what the

midweek is now is very different.

That was a change, and I appreciate the fact that you all

have pretended like it was all OK.

Thank you. So let's talk about then some.

Application so here we go let's do some exercise now for most of

our time here so I want us to take an example passage now I

didn't list it on the paper I have one I'll give it to you but

I also thought well maybe you're in the middle of a study and you

want to actually use your own that's fine if not Romans 12 so

if you have a Bible turn. The Old Romans 12.

I could have picked anything, this is fairly.

I'm going to. Start preaching out of Romans

soon. Been looking ahead Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. At least three, probably major

sections, if not more, but at least a few major sections here.

About Romans. 12 And so as you think about Romans 12 and you're

looking at Romans 12, here are a series of questions.

How should my life change as a result of the truths in Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12? Or if you have another passage,

that's fine. And then here are some.

Basic application questions, several of them that are listed

here for you. Now you've just got to think

about if you put this whole thing together, you put the

preparation section together along with the observation

section together along with the interpretation section together

along with this application session together.

You recognize that I am suggesting to you that a 5

minute personal Bible study is probably not adequate that

you're going. To need more time than.

That so you're going to have to figure out how do I carve out

the time that I need to work through as much of this as I can

in order to get the most out of God's Word?

It's amazing. I've, I, again, I've shared this

sort of with you before, but sometimes I'll have a group of

pastors and I'll be talking to them and they'll talk about how

they don't have time for something, something important.

I don't have time for that. I'm going to have to, how am I

going to get make time for that or whatever.

And then I will make them fill out a week long 5 minute time

chart. Here's what.

I did every 5. Minutes for a week and I bet you

anything I can find hours of fascinating times on screens and

on social media and on various podcasts, etcetera.

And so we got it. We just we got to make a

decision. Who are we going to be?

We say we're a people of the book.

We say we're a people who love the book, but do we actually

show that by the amount of time we spend in the book?

And so this is going to take a few minutes.

So when you begin to walk through that, I just want you to

so, so here's what I'm going to do.

Let's do it this way. So verses say all the way,

verses one through 6 could be a section.

All right, so those of you on over here, this aisle right here

over you all look at verses one through 6.

Get ready. I'm going to look for some

volunteer answers a minute. Those of you in the middle, you

all look at did I say 6? I meant I meant not 6.

I meant 2, just one and two. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,

sorry. Just verses 1 and 2.

Easy, easy, easy. Short passage.

Lots there. Verses 1 and 2, middle section.

Verses 3 through 8 right here in the middle, You all over here.

Verses 9 through 21. Don't worry, some of those

verses are short. 9 through 21. Just take a look, read it for a

minute, then start skimming through these questions.

See what you can pick out. We obviously we don't have time

to do them all, but let's just talk for a few minutes.

Let's alley some things. I'll be quiet now, believe it or

not. I know group three would not be.

Done yet you just keep working. Group One over here verses one

and two shorter section. Talk to me a little bit.

Which one of those questions might have hopped out at one of

you going to speak loudly? I'll have to repeat it for

people listening online. Which one of those questions

might have popped out at you that you said this?

This rings true. Yep.

And what do you say? That's good.

So the very first. Question, what must I do?

So I've got to got to got to reject the world's value system

and I've got to offer myself my body as a living sacrifice.

I've got to be who God wants me to be.

It's very good. Anybody else have one?

Any one of those questions will work.

I'm going to be more specific but these other groups because

they have more verses real loudly for me.

OK, say that again. OK, what is it?

Yeah, that's good. So there's no doubt there's.

An imperative there. So is there a command here?

Yeah, there's a command here. Do not be conformed to this

world, but be this other way instead.

And so you see these imperative command words and you recognize

most of the time when you see a command verb, unless it's in the

context of a story where he's telling you, you know, go fetch

a, a, a horse or, or, you know, go take a, you know, grab the

spear. But in these, these teaching

passages, you see those command verbs.

That's usually something you got to stick with.

Who it somebody else had something back here.

Yep. What is it?

Yeah, I promise to claim. That God's will is pleasing that

perfect. The other thing that basically

says that we can, we can understand that we can prove it

if we offer ourselves this way. This is often a passage I would

go to when somebody says I'm trying to fill out figure out

God's will for my life. Well, here's step one.

Are you offering yourself completely to him so that you're

ready to receive from him what his will really is?

You know that that's that's when God might actually speak to you

in an authentic, genuine biblical way.

So do that. Very good.

All right, let's go to the middle group.

You all have more passages Verses 3 through whenever it was

done. I can't remember verse 9, verse

8, verse 8. So do some other ones.

How about anybody have a a prayer to repeat or a a

condition to meet or in some of these other questions?

Anybody have anything? What do you got in the middle

section? Yep, I got What must I?

Believe OK good fellowship It's it's it's.

A partnership not necessarily changeship.

It's a partnership. That's great.

So what must I believe? And he talked about that

partnership of working together, not just not just not just the

relationship, but actually what we do together.

That's good. You have to think of him.

Yep. So, so an example to follow that

idea of humility, not to think of myself too highly.

That's good. Anybody, anybody else further

back or the back looking back and looking back.

Yeah. Sin to avoid.

What's the sin to avoid? Pride.

Yeah, that's right. So.

So obviously you can answer more than one question, often with

the same phrase or or verse, right.

Yeah. The church body has different.

Yeah. So this idea of using your gifts

for the body, these different pieces, this example to follow.

Yeah. Or a challenge to fate.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, some of these same

things. That's right.

It could very well be the challenge that you're facing.

But see, that's the whole idea. So in other words, you know, and

that's what's going to happen in it.

I'm going to be reading through this isn't my problem.

This, this passage is speaking to something.

I got this one, I got this one under control.

The next verse there, there's where I'm there's where I need

to, I need to pay attention. This is what I'm challenged.

This is what I'm not doing. This is what I need to learn to

do. And so as you're generating

through in all of these sessions, these series of

questions that you're walking through to help you to think

through, to think through what it is that I need to do or how I

need to change is part of it. What do I need to confront in my

life? And the more I'm doing that, the

more the word becomes alive, the more this becomes fascinating

for me. It also slows me down.

In other words, this is again, and I'm not again, I'm not

knocking reading through the Bible, but this just slows me

down and the number of verses that I'm trying to walk through

on a daily basis to where I'm chewing on the meat a little

more perhaps. All right, we may come back, but

let's go over here to the Group 3 because you had the longer

section. Thank you all for taking the

hard work, but I knew the A students could handle it.

So. Don't get mad.

Wow. Disgruntlement.

All right. Anything over here from?

Verses 9 through whatever it was 100 and 621 what must.

I believe it's not about. Me.

What must I believe? It's not about me.

It's pretty good lesson, isn't it?

When we need in our culture, what must I do?

What must? I do what is it all?

About love, All about love. It's good.

My life change in 1921 makes you reflect.

On am I really being like, yeah, that's good, so.

The so the entire about what? What must change in my life?

You you read that entire passage and it makes you reflect on am I

really this person or not? That's good.

Yeah, it's very good. A.

Challenge to face, never avenge. Yourself.

That's hard, yeah. A challenge to face.

Say that louder. For everybody to hear it.

Never. Avenge yourself.

Yeah, Never avenge yourself. The reason I yeah, the the

reason I'm making you say it again is just listen to Sunday

morning. So coming up, Yeah, dovetails

right into Nehemiah. Nehemiah had a had a spirit

about him that was hard. Frankly, it's difficult to

emulate because he was attacked. He was blatantly attacked, but

he left it up to God. It's pretty amazing.

Anybody else? Anybody else?

Across the whole room now. Let me just come back.

Any other thing from your passage or any other part of

Romans 12 or you, are you in another passage altogether, You

over in something else? Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. And that's important.

So a condition to meet here. You got to remember, in Romans

12, who's he writing to? Who's he writing Romans 12 to?

Yeah, the church at Rome. And it's important.

It's the church at Rome. And so often times we we neglect

the context of a passage. This is for believers.

This is not for non believers. And your theology can really get

messed up that way. Kind of like a James problem

when you talk about faith without works is dead.

If that's if that's actually written to non believers and you

get into almost a works righteousness mode.

But that's not who James is writing to.

He's writing to people who are already saved.

And so the issue here is not how are you saved, but what do you

do after you're saved. And that becomes really

important. So those context elements that

we've talked about in previous sessions come into play all

along to help you answer these questions.

Anybody else? With any of it, we're ready.

To get 100. Percent 6 it says having them

different gifts different according to the grace that are

given to. Us.

Yeah, that means 100%. Of us.

Have been given a. Gift yeah, and we're.

Commanded to use. Them I don't have any money,

Doug, but. I'll so if you didn't hear that

in the back he was talking about that the the way that it was

verse 6 is that what it was. It talks about that we all have

gifts given to us as the Holy Spirit determines that.

So 100% of us, this is the quote 100% of us have this giftedness

that we're supposed to use. Now you're keying in on maybe

why I think the way I do. I don't believe you are are

supposed to be a part of the body and not function.

That didn't even make any sense. So when I was in college, I was

going to share this story later, but I'll do it now.

So when I was in college, I was playing basketball and, and, and

a guy, I took a charge. A guy runs into me, those who

don't know anything about basketball, a guy runs into me

real hard. And, and it shouldn't have

really hurt me, but it did. And suddenly my arm was killing

me and, and I had I had a broke, I broke my arm.

And yet it really shouldn't have broken my arm.

It wasn't that hard. And so a friend of mine takes me

to the hospital and I'm man, I'm, I've, I've broken, I've

broken part of my testimony, which by the way, is going to

come up after Easter. I've broken 15 bones in my body

at least. And not in not in any accident,

not no car accidents, no falling off cliffs, just behavior.

So, but my arm gets broken right here and I go to the hospital

and I'm in the emergency room and, and suddenly the doctors

come out with this really horrified look on their face

and, and, and I had a massive tumor in my, in the bone of my

arm, which made it like an eggshell.

They told me later I could have bumped into somebody in a

hallway that would have broken my arm.

It was just that fragile. And they thought I had bone

cancer. And so they took X-rays, in fact

my X-rays of my arm for years because my brother told me that

my for years were on file at the Oklahoma University Medical

School is the best example of an X-ray of a large cell benign

tumor. So fortunately.

It was benign. You know, I went through this

bone cancer scare, but and they said I could probably have this

someplace else too. So, you know, if I just fall

down one day, then, you know, just shoot me in the head.

It'd be good. But but So what they did was,

you know, this is back in the 1980s something or other when

some of you don't know anything about that time frame.

And I was in a cast from right here to right here like this and

I'm right-handed. I went through finals like this.

I'll never forget writing long papers with my two fingers and

was in a sling and was like this for weeks.

And some of you have obviously been in a cast before and some

of you have had parts of your body immobilized, etcetera.

Well, you know, after several weeks like that, when they

finally take that cast off, the word is what the medical word

atrophy, right? So you have mass.

I mean, this arm was half the size of this arm and just

shriveled up. And the first time, the first

time we did this number, oh, man, how about scream like, you

know, and it was just useless. Well, that's how I see people in

the church who aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing.

I mean, I just do it. They're like this.

They're just frozen in place, atrophying, getting weaker and

weaker and weaker. So it's not just the fact that

I'm somehow, somehow. Trying to manipulate.

You into helping us do stuff. It's because this is horrible

for you. Atrophy's bad for you.

And so you'd have a gift, you have a calling, you have a

usefulness in the church. Use it, live it out. 100%

participation. Thank you, Doug, for the

softball. And so we recognize that these

are things we ought to do or we're just going to shrivel up

and church after church, after church after church.

I'm going to talk about it Sunday morning.

Some more are just shriveling up thousands.

Will shut their doors. This.

Year Thousands of churches will shut their doors this year for

one of the first times in recent history.

We're not planting and starting enough churches to keep up with

the closures. And so there there will be.

Somewhere between 70 and 100 churches who shut their doors

this week for the final time in the United States of America

just shrivel up and die. Well, what?

Listen. The church isn't just this.

The church is the people who. Atrophied.

For one reason or another, some a lot of reasons for that.

And so thank you. Thank you, Thank you.

A first of all, I'm preaching to a choir.

Thank you for being here at midweek.

I'm serious about that. Thank you all very much for

being here on a cold, rainy, maybe snowy night at midweek.

For those listening online, shame on you.

You should have been here. No, I'm kidding.

We're just glad you're listening.

I understand completely why people wouldn't come tonight.

Frankly, I would and so appreciative of those who

listened later because you couldn't be you're working and

you're serving in our choirs and our children's ministry.

Thank you so much. But but seriously, and for those

of you who are in in connect groups and and working through

those core issues, thank you very much.

So it's very, very important. So, so we see this atrophy that

takes place when we're not active in Romans 12 tells us a

lot. So just think, we've been in one

chapter here for several minutes now, you know, and we haven't

even scratched all the questions.

Think about how much there is. How how many?

Days how? Many weeks you could probably

spend just in Romans 12 so when we get to.

That in my. Sermon series look forward to

the 22 sermons on Romans 12. No, it won't be on, but but to

think about how how rich it is, right.

And then the cool thing about it is, is this is what I get out of

Romans 12 today, a year from now or whenever it is, and I'm back

in Romans 12 again. It'll just be amazing.

One of the things that I do is I journal not for anybody.

There's nothing worth anything in there except for my own

thoughts. There's nothing spectacular.

Nobody would ever read them and no reason to.

But you think about what I said last time, what I might see this

time it's living in active. And that's the cool thing about

God's word. Any other any other example

before I move on to a couple things?

I've got a passage I want to spend a couple minutes in, but

no rush. So what I want?

You to do I want. You to take these ideas home

with you if you don't have any other passage to work through

Romans 12. Now you think I'm going to

forget? Don't mean that this doesn't

mean you don't want to come back next time because we have

another session. But I am going to ask you about

your homework next time we're together.

And so Romans 12 is fine. Or whatever passage you might be

working through, use it in your quiet time.

Answer some of these questions. Be ready for a few of you to

share some some of those responses next time we're

together. OK, you all get it.

All right. And I hope that you'll make this

a habit because that's what I need to talk about.

Because application in its best form should lead to a consistent

repetition. What we're trying to do is

create habit. We call them spiritual

disciplines for a reason. And So what we're looking for is

the these habits of discipline, these patterns of behavior,

almost an addiction of sorts to where I can't not do this.

I'm hungry for this. I feel bad when I don't do this.

I need this. I'm empty if I don't do this,

right? And so this addiction to the

word of God, and not just to the word of God, but to the actual

study and application of the word.

Because again, you and I both, and of course, coming out of an

educational world that I have, I know a lot of people who know a

lot of things about things, but that doesn't necessarily mean

they're living those things. And that happens in church life.

I know people who go from study to study to study to study to

study in the old days in Southern Baptist life.

And this is the old days, some of you doesn't matter, but in

the old days you used to used to read these books and you could

actually send them in and you can get a certificate.

If I read a certain number of bit books, I could get a

certificate for my discipleship training stuff.

And then people would have these certificates.

And because they had their certificates, I guess they were

disciples, you know, they'd. Read books, they'd gone.

Through studies. But did that really mean

anything? Did it change anything?

So a lot of people there are spiritual sponges and they just

keep sponging it and sponging it and sponging it and getting

fatter and fatter, but there's nothing going out of it.

There's nothing being applied to it.

And we've got to be different here.

That's what will make the difference.

Two things are going to make the difference at Inglewood in our

future. 1 is that our testimony of life and word match and that

people see that there's see a consistency in what we say we

believe and how we live. That will make a difference

because I promise you one of the greatest problems in the United

States of America toward Christianity or Christians.

And so, and that's not a guess, that's a statistical study.

I've been a part of studies where we talked to lost people

in all 50 States and Canada for over 2 years and their biggest

issue wasn't what we believed. The biggest issue is we said we

believe stuff, but it didn't seem to change any way we lived.

That was the the hypocrisy. And so for us to be consistent,

that will make a huge difference in this community for them to

see that at Inglewood, we don't just talk a talk, we walk the

walk, right? That'll be a big deal.

And then the other part of it is we actually share why?

And and that's where we got to take the step.

Of of getting to the gospel with people to say here's why I

believe what I believe and here's why I live the way I do.

And This is why it makes such a difference in my life to where

I'm very different than I would be without Jesus, Aristotle of

all people. I don't quote him as a

theologian, but the philosopher said we are what we repeatedly

do, excellence. Then is not an.

Act excellence is a habit, and so there's a reason why I'm I'm

I've written a couple of books and I'm writing two more right

now. All of them have the same title,

which is a little funny, but they're all called A New normal

with subtitles. I have a new normal about

revitalization. I got a new normal for small

groups. The next one's a new normal for

personal evangelism. The final one's going to be 1 on

leadership. I might want, I might do a fifth

on missions one day, but I got a team of people that work with me

on that. And so we're getting ready to

try to finish the personal evangelism book next.

And basically it's more or less what I taught this fall with

some added things to it. But I reason I write that is

that it's the title. We've got to do things in a new

way that become normal for most churches.

You all don't have as far to go as a lot of churches do because

you are already healthier than a lot of churches.

And so for us to be able to take those next new normal steps,

that's normal. If you encounter somebody from

Inglewood, it's normal to hear the gospel.

It's normal to be cared for. It's normal to be loved.

It's normal to be invited, dragged, kidnapped and smuggled

into connect groups. You know, they're going to make

you come and they want you here and and they think it's good.

They're they're they're actually happy people who are enjoying

the thing called church right. And so these habits a new

normal. So just recognize it.

All right, I want to spend a couple minutes and we got a

couple that's good. John 14 if you have a Bible, go

ahead and turn to it. But I just want to spend a

couple of minutes here before we we finish up.

But this will take a couple minutes.

John 14 beginning in verse 21. This could be.

The passage if you want to. Do this for your homework.

That's fine. Pick a passage.

Romans 12, John 14 will be good. Any of the other ones I've I've

shared on this paper or something your you might be

working through, you might be in the study and you're working

through something. Pick one of those.

It's fine. I just want to watch you see the

exercise come next week ready to share so you can all get A's.

John, 1421. Whoever now notice that word,

we're going to we're. Going to take this easy.

OK, don't. I'm not.

We're going to take this easy here.

Whoever. Who does that mean?

Whoever. Who?

Yeah. Who, who?

Who's? Whoever.

Yeah, any of us. Me, you, anybody, who all of.

US. Has my commandments all right so

that's important so we have them what does that mean how would we

how would we translate that what does it mean to have his

commandments what does that mean what does that mean I know them

so I've got the knowledge now this is where a lot of folks are

in church life. Some of some of you have been

Christians a long time you know the commandments you know these

things I know the right thing to do but I still don't do it

Romans. Paul would talk to himself about

it so. I have them.

I know him, I've studied him, I've studied him.

I can't believe he's talking about it again.

I've studied him. Has my commandments and keeps

them. So it's not an or.

It's and every single word matters.

And Kai and not not doesn't mean that I get to do 1 and not the

other. It doesn't mean that I can just

come study. It doesn't mean I can just come

learn. It doesn't mean I can just

listen to the next sermon and say nice sermon, pastor.

It can't. It doesn't matter.

Doesn't work that way. OK.

And. Keeps them.

In other words, I'm doing something with this.

I am applying this in my life. I am living them.

I am obeying them. I am observing them.

These are commandments. These, these are not

suggestions. These are not.

Now I don't have to wonder whether or not this applies to

my life or not. These are commandments, you

know, this isn't just some cultural description of

something. This is a commandment.

And I keep them. He it is who loves me and not or

both. That's when you really show your

love. Not just that I'm studying you,

Lord, now that's great. I'm glad you're doing it.

I'd rather you do that than nothing.

You come and learn. You come and sit and soak if you

have to, and you come keep learning.

But it's the and that makes the difference.

The Kai in Greek Kie or Kai Sorry, Kai, Kai it's and you're

not just studying, you're doing this.

You're the one who really loves me.

You're the one that has agape for me.

And he who loves me. Will be loved by my father and I

will love him and manifest myself to him.

In other words, if you're that person now, don't just start.

See though, you can't just start with that second hand.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will

love him and manifest myself to him.

Now I'm not saying that he won't love you because He'll love you.

So that first part might still be true.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will

love him, because God loves you no matter who you are.

But to be, to be somebody where He manifests himself to you, He

really does show you. He really does reveal to you.

He really does speak to you. And you can say God said

something to me accurately and biblically.

It's because I've studied his commandments and I'm obeying his

commandments. You don't get to have Jesus as

Savior without Lord. There's nothing in the Bible

that says you get to do that. The word belief, the word faith

indicates a trust and a dependency upon Christ.

Lordships built in to salvation. I hope it was explained to you

that way. Then we have this.

Illustration. Judas I mean, it's happening in

real time, but Judas not Iscariot.

So this isn't, this isn't Judas the bad guy, Judas not as

Scariot said to him. Lord, how is it that You will

manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

So not everybody gets to see. Everything.

Not everybody gets all the revelation.

Not everybody will understand exactly who he is.

I mean this from the beginning. We've known this and Jesus

answered him. If it's a big word, if anyone

loves me, look at that next phrase.

He will keep my word. In other words, if you really.

Love me. He's just repeating what he just

said before in a different way. If anybody really thinks they

love me, he's going to obey my word.

He's going to live differently. He's going to be differently.

He's going to actually demonstrate this.

And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our

home with him. That Trinitarian, incredible

mystery there. And whoever does not love me,

guess what does not? What obey or keep my words and

the. Word that you hear is.

Not mine, but the Father's who sent me in other.

Words. There's real.

Evidence here. I love Jesus.

Really. OK.

Your life ought to show it. Your life needs to show it.

You need to demonstrate that this is a true statistic.

Most lost people in the United States of America.

Now, there'd be certain parts of the country that would be

different than others, but as a totality, most lost people in

the totality of the United States of America don't know

anyone who identifies themselves as a born again Christian.

Now the other statistic is. They likely actually do.

But they don't know it. So, in other words, the

testimonies. Go something like this.

I don't even know anybody who identifies themselves as a

Christian now. I bet if you went.

To their workplace or their neighborhood or even their

family or somebody. And you did a survey of all

those people. There would be multiple people

who would claim the name Christian, but there's.

No evidence. There's no fruit.

There's no, there's no indication that I'm in love with

Jesus, right? Because they're too scared or

they're too apathetic or whatever.

Whatever the cause is, there's a million causes.

And so we need to demonstrate this to others.

So Augustine writes. Or Augustine if you're from

South Carolina. If you believe what?

You like in the gospel and reject what you do not like.

It's not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

So in other words. You know, I like this part, so

I'm going to do that, but I don't really like that part, so

I'm not going to do that. Who's Who's the King?

Who's making? The decisions on the.

Throne of your life at that point see and so we recognize

that this isn't a pick and choose Thomas Jeffersonian.

I tore out the pages of my Bible kind of thing.

This is a totality of this word of God.

So we need to study all of it. So part of the reason that we

try to cover the whole council of God as a church, you need

that diet. We need to see all these

different pieces and how these different pieces move together

in the Bible so that we can apply the the whole Bible, the

whole council of God, not only in our.

Minds, but in our. Lives and to live it out in such

a way that that it that it impacts other people you know my

friend Sam James he preached for us for those of you who are

members here and active here on Sundays.

He's 93 years old legendary missionary and administrator of

our international mission board for well over 50 years was in

Vietnam. He and I, he used to be my boss

and then we've travelled together and then several

projects together over the years and, and when we were, when we

were dedicating the seminary. I've told you part of this.

Already, But when we were dedicating the seminary in

Vietnam in what we would know as Saigon, what is now Ho Chi Minh

City, we had a. Packed house I have.

Photos of this. And I talked.

To you about an American pastor who was in tears, who was

listening to Sam. You may not remember that story,

but he was. He was so overwhelmed by Sam's

passion that he was in tears sitting next to me in the Pew.

What I didn't tell you was what one of the Vietnamese pastors

told me later, who is bilingual, and he just.

He just said to. Me and, and, and he was the son.

So he was a leader of the convention and his father was

the leader of the convention before him.

And his father was a leader when Sam was still active there.

He was an older man. And and he was telling.

Me, he goes. My whole life I've known Doctor

Sam. My father knew Doctor Sam his

whole life. His father eventually went

blind. It's a long story, but godly man

who had to give his son, you know, son became the heir

apparent, etcetera. And he said, all I heard my

whole life was how much Sam loved the Vietnamese people and

how much Sam loved Jesus. Heard that my whole life.

That's all I heard over and over.

And Doctor Sam loves the Vietnamese people and Doctor Sam

loves Jesus. Heard it, heard it, heard it,

heard it, heard it. Kind of sick of it, heard it.

He was telling me this story. Until I got to be the leader.

And I was spending one-on-one time with Sam.

And he looks at me and. Tears just start pouring out of

his eyes. And he says.

I don't know that I've ever met anybody.

Who shows me? That he loves Jesus as much as

Doctor Sam. And they have that kind of.

Impact that kind of influence with people who are with you for

years. People who see you and they see

you when you're tired and they see you when it's hard, They see

you when you're arrested. I don't know if I've ever met

anybody. Who showed me that he loved.

Jesus as much. As Doctor Sam.

Oh, to have that kind of testimony.

You know, to have that kind of testimony.

So part of what we want to think about is not just again, let's

reflect for a moment. It's a very important I go back

and make this connection, not just what does this mean to me,

but. What does this?

Mean to us? Because what you?

Believe and how you live affects me and it affects her and it

affects him and it affects them and it affects the kids over

here. It does.

It affects all of us and you're like, no, I nobody cares about

what? That's not how it works.

We're connected. And whether or not you love and.

Trust in Jesus and you're not only studying His Word.

Every single person ought to be in a connect group.

What percentage ought to be in a connect group?

Everybody. And that's.

Not because I'm. Trying to build up numbers in a

connect group. It's because you need to be in

that community of Bible study together.

Because as I've said. Before, it's not just the fact

that you need that they need you to be there.

They need that they need to watch you listen.

There's been no greater blessing in my life in ministry, Whatever

the ministry was that God has led me to.

There's been no greater blessing in my life than to watch

somebody go from zero to 100 spiritually.

Nothing is more encouraging. It has nothing to do with me.

I'm just watching this person grow and grow and grow.

Listen, there have been people that I've watched who then

served with me in ministry and I've told them to their face

I've said, listen, the whole reason I might have been born,

the whole reason I might have been on this planet was to see

you grow and to encourage you and to help send you out because

you're going to do far greater things than I ever do.

It's amazing. It's not just about me, it's

about us. So I pray that we'll become not

only hearers of the Word, but that we will truly become doers

of the Word, so that we can demonstrate not only the fact

that we have His commandments. But we are keeping them.

That's the testimony, that consistency, that truth in our

life. That's what this world needs and

that's what we need. Nothing will encourage each

other more than that on Sunday morning to see somebody

worshipping God with their whole heart, with passion.

To be in a Bible study where people are really hungry, I

mean, they're really diving in. The discussion is fantastic.

The teachers, you know, they're good too.

But the discussion that we're having with each other, it's

fantastic, you know, and then you tolerate the preacher, but

to recognize that together. He wants us to impact not only.

US but them. So let's see what happens.

Father, we thank you so much for your word.

I thank you, Father. That we're in this together.

I thank you, Father, that there's there's no me, there's

no one. Sometimes, you know, and I know

Father, sometimes we're going through hard times and

sometimes, Father, we feel buried by life and we can't

really think about anything but that.

I get it. And you know that you understand

that. And so there are moments when we

are really focused on just what we are going through.

And sometimes I sometimes it's, that's just the season we're in.

But Father, I do pray that we'll also feel the encouragement of

the body, the help. Of your spirit.

As we. As we.

As we are revealed, we're revealed of who you are in your

word. So help us to feed on it.

Help us to seriously take some passages this next week and, and

work through some of these things.

We can go all the way back to observation.

We can work through all these steps.

And then next week we're going to talk about it a little bit,

not only about what does it mean to us, but how are we going to

share that with other people. And so, Father, bless us,

please, Lord, I pray seriously that you'll keep us safe tonight

and keep everybody safe on the way home.

I pray, Father, the weather will not be severe tonight or

tomorrow. And Father, thank you so much

for those listening online. Thank you for those who are

serving and all the other ministries.

Instead of being in here with us physically, they're listening

now online. Thank you for your service.

Thank you so much. And Father, I look forward to

this coming Sunday. Father, the weather's supposed

to be OK. I pray, Father, we'll celebrate

baptism. We'll celebrate and welcome new

members. We'll worship you.

We'll learn from you. And Father, we'll go out to

impact this world. Thank you, Father in Christ's

name, Amen. 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.