How do we Interpret 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. All right.

So thanks for being here tonight.

Really, seriously, thank you for coming out tonight.

I know that not being here on Sunday was probably frustrating

for you, and it was for me too. There's nothing more enjoyable

than preaching to a camera. But I've done a lot of online

class stuff over the years, so it's a little too normal for me.

But I had flashbacks to COVID. But anyway.

So hopefully we'll be able to meet this week.

But thanks for joining us. Thanks for those who are

listening online later to this session.

Appreciate you being here. Let me just call your attention

to a couple things. There are some podcasts, Jean

mentioned that here live, there are some podcasts out that are

that are out already and some coming out that really do

dovetail with what we're talking about.

On Wednesday nights, Doctor Aiken and I did a podcast

together, Dylan and I've done some on the engaging the Bible.

Allen Mosley and I just did one on how do I personally study the

Old Testament? Well, we just did that the other

day. It's probably not out quite yet.

I've got another scholar coming in.

We're going to do the same thing with the New Testament.

So just walking you through this is all about personal Bible

study. How do I, how do I dive in

deeply in my personal Bible study?

How do I address some of these things like like I'm in the

middle of the minor prophets. Tony Vick and I were out making

a visit today and we were talking about this.

So you know, you're, you're, you're in a minor prophet and

this, this chapter says God's going to judge you and God's

going to judge all the nations. Then you go to the next chapter

and God's going to judge you and judge all the nations and you go

to the next chapter and God's going to judge you and judge all

the nations. I mean.

Just because because that's the whole almost all the minor

prophet work. So how do you make that

meaningful? What does that mean?

How do you apply that in your life?

So so there's some good podcasts out there.

I hope that I just kind of regulated and these guys.

I did so listen to those things as well as the other podcasts.

All that we're doing on on midweek as well, Sundays are

being podcasted out. There's also a good podcast that

Dylan does for students and parents of students.

And so listen to that one. Too, for those of you that that

would apply to. So here we are talking about

engaging the Bible, how to interpret the text.

I was asked last session about some.

Tools or some books? And I'm going to talk more about

those tonight, but I'm just going to share a few of them.

You won't be able to necessarily see them or keep up with it.

All those of you who are live all day my hair if you really

want to see them. These aren't the only ones in my

office. I could have brought probably

10, I think it was something like that probably, but these

and these are not the light reading some of them to be

honest with you. But if you really do want to

understand the Canon process, how the Bible came to be, the

canonization process that we've talked about a few sessions ago,

FF Bruce, the Canon of Scripture.

It's a detailed book, not light reading, but very informative.

If you're really interested in that, FF Bruce is there.

And then a couple of other books, some by my some friends

of mine and then some others. David Dockery.

If you don't know who David Dockery is, he's now the

president of Southwestern Seminary.

He's been the president at Union University in Tennessee.

Great scholar and wonderful man, a Southern Baptist leader.

He wrote a book called Biblical Interpretation then and now

Contemporary Hermeneutics and Light of the Early Church.

Doc anything by Dockery is good stuff.

And so he's a strong Baptist leader.

And so that one then these guys are friends of mine.

I served with both of them at Southern Seminary in Kentucky.

One of them is Robert or Bob Stein.

This is a very basic, if you want a basic hermeneutic, like

if you're a teacher and you want some basic guides to

hermeneutics, this would be the book I'd pick up first, A Basic

Guide to interpreting the the Bible, Playing by the Rules by

Robert Stein. Great, great tool to use.

And then this is out of a. Series.

Ben Merkel, who's a professor of Southeastern, is the editor of

this series, and different people write the different

books. It's the 40 question series.

If you don't know anything about the 40 question series, this

would be an interesting series to you because I don't know if

there's probably 20 something. Books.

Now Or something in this series. So you might have 20 questions

about the second coming, or 20/20/20 questions about heaven,

or 20 questions about hell. There's just all kinds of a

variety of subject matter. And what happens is, is they're

at the table contents is actually responding to.

I said 20, that's 40. I don't know why I kept saying

2040 questions. I don't know what I was saying.

40 questions, 40 questions series.

It's the 40 questions series. That's 40 questions.

Anyway, the table contents would actually be responding to 40

questions. And so Rob Plummer, who's an old

friend, a professor, smart guy, wrote on how to interpret the

Bible. And this would be an interesting

book to refer to because it would break it down to short

chapters and different topics. So there's just a few of them.

There are others. There's some classics out there,

MacArthur's written, John MacArthur's written in the field

as well as others. So if you're interested more in

interpretation and then and hermeneutics and you want to go

a little deeper and especially if you're a teacher, you might

enjoy some of that. All right, I'm going to break

out the Greek here later. So buckle up butter cups and

let's get going here on your listening guide.

So let's talk about we've been asking various questions.

To be honest with you, it may not seem that way, but that's

what we've been doing. And these these sessions build

on one another. So this is your first time here.

Thanks for coming. We're having a good time on

Wednesday nights. If you've missed some of the

sessions and engaging the Bible, I really would go back and

listen to them. You can listen to them online.

We have folks who are administering all around the

building right now in other ways.

And so we make sure we have these recorded so they can hear

them as well as other people. And, and I'd go.

Back and listen because they do build on one another.

Because if you missed some of the earlier stuff, I'll be

honest with you, I don't think this.

Works. The same way and so, and I'll

refer back to that and again, I'm assuming a few things as we

dive into this. I'm assuming that the Bible is

God's special revelation that is uniquely inspired.

That's an assumption. I'm not making that argument

tonight. I'm just assuming that I've made

that argument in the past. If you need to go back and

listen to a a lesson on the authority of Scripture, I did

that back in the summer and you can pick that up where I talk

about revelation and I talk about inspiration, things like

that. But Second Timothy 316, many of

you would know that verse. All Scripture is what yeah is,

is breathed by God and profitable.

And it's profitable for several things.

This wouldn't be the only things it's profitable for.

But in this passage, it's profitable for teaching, for

reproof, for the correction, and for training and righteousness.

And it's. Key that it says all Scripture,

not just parts of Scripture, not just the parts I like, not just

the parts I want to believe in, not just the parts that don't

challenge me, but all parts of Scripture are inspired.

And so this makes the Bible authoritative for all times and

for all peoples. And that's really crucial when

you start talking about interpretation, which we're

going to deny. This is not just an authority

for us. It's always been an authority,

and it will always be an authority.

And so it's the ultimate standard of truth, not only

about God, but about his plan for us.

And that's a crucial thing and an important thing to remember.

Jesus taught this in John 1717. He said sanctify them and the

truth, your word is truth. Jesus would often refer to

passages of Scripture and so God's word provides several

things for us and we recognize this, that it provides the

essential source for salvation. We we recognize that then Acts 4

bears that out says this. Let it be known to all of you

and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ

of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,

there's your gospel. By him this man is standing

before you. Well, this Jesus is the stone

that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the

cornerstone. And there's salvation and no one

else. For there is no other name under

heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

So we recognize that Jesus is the only way to be saved with

the way we know. That is because the Bible tells

us this, this and, and we read it there.

The Bible also obviously is explicit instruction for how we

ought to live our lives. And there are many, many

passages obviously that we could read.

That's not what we're going to do tonight.

But Matthew 44 says, but he answered, it is written, man

shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes

from the mouth of God. So we are to live in a certain

way. We're saved this way.

We're also going to live this way.

So. So in other words, there's no

equally authoritative revelation.

It's a good phrase. There's no equally authoritative

revelation given by God to us, which we must turn to for our

help and our guidance. So we better know what to do

with it. Now, in that session I shared a

long time ago about the Bible, about its authority.

I mentioned to you 3 views of Scripture.

I'm just going to review them very quickly.

You just have a let them listed there.

So there there are at least three views of scripture.

These are very generalized. 1 is the human constructivist view.

This is where people believe the Bible is just a human book.

It's no different than any other fantasy book.

It was written by man. There's nothing supernatural

about it. This is a work of fiction and

it's simply an expression of that fantasy.

So and this is would be a very liberal, non believing, you

know, view of the Bible. I've mentioned to you then I'll

just say it again that you could probably go to any one of our

major universities and take a class on the Bible as literature

best selling book of all time. Nothing about that is slowing

down. And so you have the greatest

book of literature ever written. For some that's all it is, but

it's worth studying just as a great book of literature, just

like you'd study the Odyssey or you'd study English LED or

something. The second one is human

response. This is more complicated, also

more common in the church as well as in some what we call

moderate theology to liberal theology.

So God spoke in part, man responded and wrote the Bible.

And so the Bible delivers God's word, but is not literally God's

word. And so the Bible contains errors

as well as God's Word in that view.

And that's a pretty common view out and a pretty sometimes a

common view in, frankly, to where people believe the Bible's

full of errors. I always find it fascinating

when people tell me that I've said this to you 14 times,

probably to where somebody says the Bible's full of errors.

I say I want. I look at them and say name.

Three of them for me. They've heard that, they've been

told that, and they're basing. A lot of eternal, you know,

frankly, life on it. And they don't even know what

you're talking about. And for some, the errors include

how come one gospel said there were this many angels at the

tomb and another gospel said there were that many angels at

the tomb. And they don't understand

perspective. You know, there, there's nothing

theological about that at all. So anyway, it's interesting.

The third view is where I stand. I pray most of you do.

I think you do. And that's just divine

inspiration. So I I do believe with all of my

heart, without any reservation, with complete faith, that the

Bible is infallible, inspired, inerrant, and the literal.

Word of God so to help us properly handle such a thing as

the Bible. Especially if you believe that

about it, it's a pretty big deal.

It's pretty important. So how do I properly handle this

word? Of truth.

Is a pretty big deal and we've discussed some things already in

previous sessions. Let me remind you, especially if

you haven't been here. So don't neglect these things

because interpretation builds upon these things.

Good interpretation depends upon these things.

So the first thing that we talked about was preparation to

where God has inspired and. Prepared the Bible for us.

We had a couple different sessions.

We talked about how do we get the Bible.

So it's a miracle story that you have the Bible then in the form

it's is and that is such a unified, consistent story

because of the way it was developed.

And so it's an amazing thing which ought to be a testimony to

its inspiration and its infallibility because it is a

miraculous story. But we also have to prepare

ourselves so we we recognize God has prepared his message for us.

God has prepared this revelation for us.

But I also have to be prepared spiritually.

I have to be prepared personally to be able to receive the

revelation that God has for me through his word.

And this is a much bigger deal than.

We might spend time on So we're talking about if we go all the

way back to my evangelism study. We're talking about.

Relationship #1 where we're intentionally involved in a

relationship with God and His people.

The closer I'm walking with God, the closer I'm abiding with Him.

The closer I'm abiding in Christ, the more this word's

going to speak to me, and I'm going to be.

Able to receive it and, and this is this is extremely important.

I'll talk more about that a little bit later.

So then we open our Bibles. We go to our personal Bible

study moment, our quiet time, our our personal experience with

God and the word and we open our Bibles and we focus on a

specific text. That's where we are.

So whatever we're studying, I'm studying this, this is the text

I'm in for the day, whatever happens to be.

So then I said, now the first, the first step is observation.

So what we talked about in the last.

Session and we were trying to answer the question of what does

it say? And so if you were here last

time, you heard several steps. If not, go back and listen to

that, because we discussed the questions that you ought to ask,

how you should be initially reading and observing, asking

certain questions. About the text.

Then you come that where we are tonight for this session and

that's interpretation. So I've I, I've prepared, I've

observed, now I have to interpret, and now we're

answering the question of not just, what does it say?

But what does it mean? What does this passage mean?

And this is a, this is the root, this is the core of

hermeneutics, the study of God's Word, the interpretation of

God's Word. Now, there are going to be

statements that I make that you frankly may not like initially

and and that that's OK. You have the right to be wrong,

but I hope you'll listen so. So I need you to understand.

That we need that a primary goal here.

And you may not think like this and I'll show you why in a

minute. I'll probably may nail some of

you to the wall, but I won't call out names.

I'll just stop you in the lobby and tell you but.

Because there's a. Situation that I think we fall

into that you're going to see in a minute, which is why we

believe sometimes not what I'm about to say.

Now let me tell you something. So what we're trying to do is

we're seeking to determine the author's original purpose,

thought and meaning. Now, most people don't really

want to do that. See what people want to do.

Many people, none of you all here on a midweek because you

know, you are the cream of the croppers.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, you wouldn't be here in

the cold, so I don't. You know, every single one of

you. Here would never.

Do what I'm ready to talk about, but so many people want to skip

the preparation. So many people want to skip the

observation. A lot of people even want to

skip the interpretation and they want to hop to the application.

You know, what's this got to do with me?

Now we're going to get there, but if you start with guess who,

me, you're often going to miss the purpose of what God wanted

to say. Say when you're me centric and

there's a name for that and we'll talk about it in a minute.

But if you're going to be me centric and that's all that

matters. And in our world today, that

that's our world today, right? Listen, over 80% of every single

social media post in our culture today is about the person

posting. It's not about anything else.

I, I, I, I know that some of you are deeply into that.

God bless you. I don't understand why I should

care about what you had for breakfast.

You know what I mean? I don't.

I've never understood that. Here I am eating this sandwich

at lunch. Yay.

Why don't you stuff it in your mouth and put your phone up you.

Know what I'm saying? But anyway, so so.

When you start off in that. Place it's just going to.

Lead you down the wrong Rd. So so we're.

Seeking to determine the author's original purpose,

thought and meaning, and the Bible's co-authored.

You think about it the right way, right?

So God's inspiring using a person.

To receive that inspiration and you know, somebody's actually

writing on a parchment or a papyrus or somewhere along the

way, writing down what's being said.

So a huge question, which often gets left behind.

And, and part of it is to be honest with you, is we're lazy

or we, we don't, I don't have enough time to do that in my

personal Bible study or that's think about that dangerous

statement. I don't have time to actually do

this the right way. I'm just going to skim over some

passages and then I can check off.

I read my Bible today. And that's not what we're here.

That's not what this study is about.

This study is I'm going to take my time and I'm actually going

to have a quality Bible study. All right, because what we

really want to do is how would the original recipients have

understood this message? The very. 1st.

People who ever read what was written, how did they interpret

it? How did they receive it?

And that's a far more important question and it's often

overlooked in our culture today because we don't care.

We don't care about them. Who do we care about me?

And that's our culture today. So there's this whole thing is

counter cultural. The whole idea of having a

quality personal quiet time with God is counter cultural in our

world today. And you can understand Satan's

going to fight you. Satan's going to the world's

going to fight. Everything's going to fight you.

This is this is about what I can get out of this.

This is what I need to get. And this and we got to think

differently than this. We got to reprogram.

Ourselves a little bit. So interpretations necessary,

but frankly, it's not always clear.

It's sometimes difficult in certain passages.

What did the biblical writer actually mean when he wrote what

he wrote? And so there are tools and

principles and practices we're going to talk about here to help

us figure that out. All right.

And you got to think about this. So God, through these human

authors, writes the biblical texts to be timely to their

original recipients. As well as to us through the

generations. So you got this whole double

whammy thing going on. He's originally writing to

people in the Middle East thousands of years ago.

And it's supposed to be meaningful to them in their in

their situations, right? And so these were these original

represents. So these biblical texts address

sometimes very specific situations and very specific

questions. And unfortunately, especially

when you get into some of the, the New Testament, for example,

we don't even know what the questions are.

When you when you read the Johns, I've mentioned this

previous sessions, so I'll just keep tagging to that.

You don't necessarily how do I know he's writing about

Gnosticism? The word Gnosticism doesn't ever

show up. So how do I know that?

So these are the kinds of things we're.

Going to talk through together. So often this makes

interpretation a challenge, frankly.

And because it's hard, sometimes we don't want to do it and we

don't do it because I'd rather just read and observe and apply

to my own life and see what I got out of it.

And then I often times I'll sit in a group of.

People. Hey, I've got to be nice.

Should be nice. So I'm not going to look at my

wife. So, So I've been in many, many,

and I've shared this before. I've been in many, many a small

group where frankly it was just group therapy.

It had nothing to do with the Bible.

It wasn't biblical interpretation.

It's not this is what I think this means.

Well, this is what I think this means.

And this is what and I'm sitting on the back row saying it never

meant that. That's not what it means at all.

But we're just applying so much and reading for ourselves.

There's a word for that. I'll give it to you in a minute.

So it can be hard sometimes to determine that original meaning

because there's so much distance between us.

I mean, you know, think about the multiple levels of

interpretation that are taking place.

You got a biblical culture, and then you got you and your own

culture and you got the culture surrounding you.

And you're trying to weave in and out of these three

different. Areas to figure out how this.

Is you know. So what?

Which is going to be, by the way, applications next session.

So what? So the Bible teaches truth in

the ways and the manners of expressing truth.

You got to realize this, that there were things, way words

were structured, the way things were put together.

These were ways of expressing truth in ancient times.

You don't necessarily speak in parables today, right?

You probably wouldn't call yourself a prophet or a

prophetess. Those of you who do come see me,

tell me about whether it's going to snow or not.

If you get that right, I might listen to what you have to say

next. So might or not?

So. But so we got to.

Recognize there's barriers to interpretation, and barriers can

include language because you're reading a translation for the

most part. I got the Greek right here.

I don't imagine too many of you could take this Greek New

Testament and read it. Maybe some of you could.

I don't imagine most of you know Hebrew or Aramaic or Syriac.

And so there's language that's a barrier.

There's there's geography that's a barrier.

There's culture that's a barrier.

There's time. That's a barrier.

But then we bring other. Things.

And then we'll harp on this even more later.

We bring presupposition, we bring prejudice, we bring bias

to where we already think. This is the, this is what I

believe. So now I'm going to make this

Scripture match what I already believe.

There's a word for that. So these barriers become

important. So This is why preparation is

crucial. This is why observation is

important. I need to be prepared

spiritually so that I can depend upon the Holy Spirit to help me

really understand what this passage is saying.

This is a supernatural book. I need supernatural help along

with some practical steps and tools.

It's a both end. So, so that's why it's easy.

When Paul writes in first Corinthians 214, the natural

person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for

they are folly to him. You know, people like that.

I know people like that. This doesn't make any sense.

This isn't, this is just folly. This is just fiction and He's

not able to understand them because they are spiritually

discerned. We need the interpretation of

the Holy Spirit to help us in between.

So I need to make sure I'm walking with him well.

So we need the Holy Spirit to illumine, you know, that's a

called illumination where He's illuminating God's Word for us

and guides. Us to the proper study and

understanding. Of that word.

And it's also helpful on on. The practical level, because

there's a partnership at work here.

On the practical level, it's great to have good teachers and

resources to help us. Now, here's what I hear about

Inglewood Baptist Church. I hear that most of our Connect

group leaders are pretty good. I was waiting for any response

to that statement. Of course, that's not what I

heard. I've heard that all of our

Connect groups are great. Amen.

Yeah. If you like your Connect group

leader, say it. Say aye.

Thank you very much. Those of you who opposed, talk

to me in the lobby. Our e-mail, you know, go.

It's be easier to e-mail. e-mail.

See [email protected].

He has nothing to do with any of that.

Would it be good? No, I mean, that's one of the

things that you know, of all the things I'm working through, all

the assessment issues I might worry about here.

I'm so thankful because I'm telling you it's not always the

case, not in Teresa Valance. It's not always the case when I

help. Churches.

I'm not sitting around here fretting and staying up all

night worrying about whether or not some connect group leaders

teaching the Bible or not, right?

What a blessing. And seriously, don't take that

for granted ever. And you test my preaching.

And if I don't preach the word of God, fire me because Hebrews

512 through 14 says this. For though by this time you

ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the

basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk

is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a

child. But solid food is for the

mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by

constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So it's this interesting mix, you know, we're dependent upon

the Holy Spirit to help us supernaturally discern things.

We're also training ourselves in the right steps to to have.

Practices of discernment that are wise and right.

So there's spiritual maturity, there's discipleship that's a

part of this that's going on. So the more I interpret well,

the more I go through these steps, the more I take my time

and my personal Bible study, the more mature I'm going to bid.

That helps me even more the more mature.

I'm going to get it's. Going to help me even more and

you'll cycle yourself up. But remember that interpretation

is a part of your daily life whether you believe it or not,

because every English translation includes

interpretation and they don't let that scare you.

That doesn't mean that something's bad, but that's why

different translations are different because there are

there is interpretation taking place.

So it's helpful, like we talked about last time, it's helpful to

compare to have more than one translation that are solid good

translations that follow original language to be able to

compare them and to sit there and say, oh, that, so so that.

This committee of scholars made a choice here in this word to go

this direction, and this committee of scholars made a

choice in this word, and they went it doesn't mean the

meaning's different. It's not going to change

theology, ever. But it's like, it's interesting

that they use that word and they use this word, right?

Somebody's going to use anger. Somebody's going to use rage.

Rage is different than anger in my mind.

Wrath is different than just I'm upset.

So you can see there's interpretation taking place

along the way. A good sermon hopefully helps to

do that as well, frankly. So so so.

Then to find the original intent, which is where this

whole section started, what did the author originally mean to

say right? So we must think exegetically

and we got to ask the right questions.

Now, some of those questions are the questions we talked about

last time in observation. It's going to be hard to do good

interpretation without asking those who, what, where, why kind

of questions back. We talked about an observation.

If you missed that, go back and listen to it.

So we're putting that framework into place now.

We're trying to draw out meaning.

Not just facts, but meaning. So the goal needs to be to

understand what the author was trying to say to the original

leaders that readers, that's goal number one.

What did this originally mean? Because a couple of truths about

hermeneutics is that God's Word to us, God's Word to us today

was first, his Word to them back then.

And got a text can never mean what it never meant.

Now, you may not have realized it, but I've said that sentence

about four times in this study. A text can never mean what it

never meant. The reason I emphasize that so

much as I find people in churches guilty of something.

Else they're trying to make the text say something that it never

meant to say. OK.

And so this is hard for a lot of people because there are.

Frankly, some things that we're not necessarily supposed to be

able to completely understand or predict.

So the limits of revelation are things that we have to accept.

And people don't like that. People like to figure everything

out. When's the Second coming going

to happen? Not only do you not know, Jesus

says he doesn't know. And frankly, I don't know why

you're wasting your time trying to figure it out.

I mean, that's seriously my perspective.

I don't know why you're wasting your time trying to figure that

out. I've gotten over the years, you

know how many color code charts I own, how many predictions

books that were predicting this and that.

Our Job's not prediction our Job's proclamation.

Jesus said he doesn't know. Why are you trying to figure it

out? But there are people who

theologically treat theology like math, and they're letting,

they're trying to have facts prove their faith rather than

faith determine their facts. And that backward formula gets

them in trouble. That's why they don't believe

the word of God all the time because they're putting one

thing ahead of the other and they're trying to figure it all

out. I got a box it all up over here

so I can put it on the shelf. I know people in theological

circles who have certain theological bins who do that

and, and frankly, they reach the wrong conclusions.

I know people who are hyper in their views and they reach wrong

conclusions because they're they're treating math like

algebra. They're treating math like

trigonometry. I mean, they're treating

theology that way, not math that is math treating theology that

way. That may or may not make sense

to you. If it made sense.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

If it didn't, don't worry about it.

But some people chafe at the idea that I'm not supposed to

know every single thing about every single thing.

OK, there are issues of faith in the Bible.

There are mysteries in the Bible, and we have to learn to

accept them. And for some of these can't do

that because that because their number one priority is their own

brain. Their number one priority is

themself and them trying to figure out the facts.

And it's dangerous. So our job again is not

prediction, it's interpretation and proclamation.

Some issues must simply be accepted by faith and it's hard

for some people. So what happens then is I'm

going to give you the words for this.

Your beginning presuppositions and assumptions can become

barriers and or become very inaccurate filters to prove to

proper interpretation. I'm bringing what I already

think into the puzzle rather than letting the text honestly

define what I think. See.

So I bring my doubts or I bring my strong opinions and I'm

laying it on the scripture rather.

Than letting the. Scripture determine my strong

opinions and actually determine my truth.

And it's really hard in our culture today because especially

the American culture, because we are so individual.

The word is individualistic, autonomous.

We are so individualistic in our our viewpoint here that we

really do think it's about me and it's not.

It never was, and frankly it never will be.

It's about him. So we create these theological

lenses and everything it might be perceived in a certain way

when in fact they were originally not intended to mean

that at all. There's an old proverb that says

if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

So if I start. Off with a hammer.

Everything I see, I'm going to figure it's going to all be

interpreted by my hammer. All right?

And there are certain viewpoints that are taught in churches that

are not the only viewpoint, but they're taught us the only

viewpoint. And sometimes it can lead to

some real. Issues and an honest

interpretation. So there are big differences.

Let me hear the words. I appreciated a brother who came

up last week and re emphasized one of these to me after the

after the session. But there are big differences

between exegesis. And eisegesis, These are

important if you've been asleep, wake up, put your coffee down.

If you're listening to this online and take a note or two.

There's a big difference between exegesis and isagesis.

Isagesis EISE exegesis is the careful systematic study of the

scriptures to understand the original intended meeting.

X means to pull out of. So I'm starting with the

scripture and I'm pulling out honestly what the scripture is

saying. That's exegesis.

Exegetical teaching or preaching pulls out of the scripture.

I said Jesus the word, the the prefix ice.

Means to put into. I'm starting off with a

presupposition over here, and I'm pretty pushing that into the

scripture to proof text what I already believe.

So the mistake of interpreting a text in such a way is to

introduce one's own presupposition, agendas or

biases you read into the text rather than allowing the text to

speak to you. This is probably the number one

mistake of it of good interpretation.

So I have a viewpoint of blank. I'm going to make every

scripture agree with my blank whether it really did or not.

I'm going to force that in there and there are a lot of different

ways that happens. I'll talk about more of that in

a minute. So.

So it's. Often done to justify.

It's often done to confirm the position you already had.

Now another one. Which may just be a subset of

isagesis. Is a term.

It's it's an informal, you're not going to find this in

academic text, but it's Narcissus and Narcissus.

Is where the. Bible is all about me in my

opinions and my interpretations and I think this is a leading

sin in American church. We have a lot of narcissistic or

narcissistic. How do you say that word

Narcissus narcissistic. That's but not bad

interpretations. We make it, we make move.

Put me right at the centre and everything has to be about me

and my issues and my problems and everything I'm going

through. Now, don't get me wrong, the

Bible speaks to your problems and everything that you're going

to, but it's got to honestly, and sometimes it might not agree

with where you want to end up. It might challenge you.

You got to be over here. Well, I don't want to be over

there. I want to be over here.

So I'm going to make the Bible prove I'm over here.

This is a great sin of the prosperity gospel to where I'm

going to I'm going to manipulate God.

I'm going to manipulate scripture.

I'm going to manipulate the text.

I'm going to proof text my way to where I get everything I

want. Out of this.

That's magic. I've said this to you before.

The prosperity gospel is magic. It's not theology.

Magic is where I have the power to manipulate the forces for my

own will. I'm going to, I'm going to do

something good or bad, and I can manipulate the forces to my own

whim and way. That's magic, the prosperity

gospel would say, and naming it and claiming it, it's just

magic. God might not want you to have

it, and he might have a better reason than you could ever dream

of for not having it. He might be protecting you from

something you think you want. But now I can, I can proof text

it. I can make it sound like I

should get everything I want, all right?

I know people who see things under every Bush in Scripture.

They're not there. They were never there.

That Bush is naked. They didn't have anything under

it. But they'll, they'll put

something in there. Because they already have this

presupposition, this idea of what I want the Bible, what I

want the Bible to say for me, for me or about me.

So the reader imposes these personal agendas, these

experiences, the perceptions into a biblical passage.

And so Narcissus treats every verse as though it revolves

around the individual producing the self focus lesson rather

than seeking the original lesson that God had intended for his

people. Sometimes the lesson I want is

not the lesson that God's teaching.

Sometimes God's lessons are things like stop it, repent,

confess, you know, But I can just make God love if I want to.

I can make God nothing but love if I want to.

And anything that says God's not love, I can, I'll just tear it

out. I don't like that part.

I don't like holiness. I don't, I don't want judgment.

I don't want accountability. I don't want any accountable.

I don't want accountability. I don't want accountability.

Wait till Sunday's sermon, you know, might not want to be here.

Not you all. Cream of the crop.

So we all bring our knowledge, we all bring our hopes, we all

bring our dreams, we all bring our wants to Scripture, we also

bring our culture and we bring our biases to the table when we

begin to interpret. And this can result not always,

but can result in eisegesis or narciegesis all right if I don't

understand certain principles. That must be.

Followed in interpretation, then I can reach wrong conclusions.

So we need to talk about some healthy practices, some sound

hermeneutical principles that will help you avoid some of

this. How can I reach an honest

interpretation, a real interpretation?

So one of them is literary context.

Now, this stuff may sound boring, but it's important.

And so the meaning of any passage is going to be

consistent, normally with what comes before it or after it.

Now, different kinds of literature are not always true

that way. There can be proverbs.

That one proverb has nothing to do with any of the proverbs.

It's all about wisdom. But this proverb has a

completely different statement than the one before the one

after. You can have that in the Psalms,

you can have that in certain literature, but most of the

passages are going to be consistent with what comes

before it or after it. So we don't proof text.

We don't take a verse out of context, quote UN quote.

You don't ever take a verse out of context to support an

argument or belief that is isagesis or it could be

narcgesis. So a danger.

It doesn't mean every single time, but to be careful.

The smaller the passage you're studying, the greater the

likelihood of it being taken out of context because I'm not

reading what's around it. And so we you need to graduate

out in your study of context and you're going to say, I don't

have time for this man. This is going to take an hour of

my life. This going so easy.

Learn the habits. You'll get them down to do them

quicker, but the immediate context, what verses are just

right around it. It's very helpful.

But then you got to go to chapter.

What's the whole chapter about? Because often to be able to

interpret that little passage, I really do need to understand

what is that? What has he been talking about?

There are many times I've mentioned Colossians 3 to you

have 1000 times in different things.

You can't read with Colossians 3 without reading beforehand.

In Colossians 2, he's talking about a description of the

Christian life. That's the context.

And so then you have the whole book context.

What's this whole book about? Very important to understand.

After Nehemiah, I'm going to preach through Romans.

It's going to take 12 years, but I'm going to preach through

Romans. It's not going to take that

long, but. There's a sermon in every phrase

in the book of Romans. But it's going to take a little.

While but I was. Reading through just.

What would I say about the introduction to the book of

Romans, even though this is still a few months or a couple

months away or whenever it is after Easter, because we're

going to do some Easter stuff too.

But I'm like, you know, how would I introduce to you in a

Sunday morning sermon A brief introduction for the book of

Romans? And I was reading about

everything. It's helpful to read that.

Every now and then it's helpful to write.

This is what this book's about. This is why Paul wrote Romans,

and there's a reason behind that.

There was actually a church at Rome, and he was writing to the

church at Rome about Roman issues that they had at Rome, in

Rome, for those Romans who were in Rome.

Don't ignore that. That doesn't mean that doesn't

have anything for me, that's the miracle of the living word.

But I better understand what it meant for those Romans in Rome

when they were in Rome and he was writing to Rome because they

were in Rome and they had Roman issues.

Because it helps me to understand and it will actually

help me apply better when I know that truth.

So that book context or the Testament, where does this fit

into the New Testament? This is especially true in the

Old Testament. So I've gone from Zechariah

context, Ezra, Nehemiah to Zephaniah and one day I went

from Zechariah to Zephaniah, my personal Bible study the next

sound exciting. Aren't you excited?

Once you, once you dive into the minor prophets with me,

Zechariah is condemning them, you know, talking about why they

were condemned in Babylon. And you better come back and you

better do what you're supposed to do because God sent you into

exile. If you don't know what you're

supposed to do, God's going. To get you again.

Happy, happy, joy. Joy.

Zephaniah has nothing to do with that.

Zephaniah was written in the time of Josiah the king, when

Judah was trying to go through some reform and.

When? Josiah finds the book, he's

reading the book. He's trying to be a good king.

He's trying to bring. Revival Zephaniah is written in

that time frame. Completely different story.

If you're you're reading through your Old Testament, you're just

going to hit these books in an order of size, not an order of

chronology, not an order of purpose, not an order of.

So the Old Testament is especially.

True. And how's this fit into the

whole Bible story? How does what I'm reading today,

what does it have to do with what we would call the meta

narrative or the grand narrative, the whole?

Story of Scripture. What does it have to do with

that? How does it fit into that?

How does it apply to that? And and how am I going to

understand it that way? So the best always reliable

commentary on the Bible is the Bible.

So understanding that the Bible will never contradict itself and

cross referencing passages is always helpful.

Some of you have Bibles that'll do that for you.

You got there used to be 1 called the Thompson.

Anybody ever have a Thompson chain reference Bible?

You remember that when some of it.

It was a really helpful tool if you know, it's kind of small

print in there, but man, you'd have a verse and then have all

these other verses that kind of tied into that verse and you

could just run that chain. I could go from this verse and

I'm going to read that verse and this verse and they're all going

to loop together in a, in a purposeful meaning.

It's a helpful tool, helpful study Bible.

A lot of them you'll have little things in your margins they'll

cross referencing, but study the the the the.

Purpose of the book? What?

What other time frame is it? Is there another book in the

Bible that was around the same time?

Be helpful to then cross reference those two books and

see what they're saying. Some of these books might relate

to, You might have a historical book and then you might have

more of an epistle or a prophecy, but they're actually

talking about the same place, same time.

That could happen in the book of Acts and Paul, or that could

happen in the Old Testament. You know, think about first and

Second Kings, first and second Chronicles, and some of the

stories that go along with it. So three types of information

from the context can help you correctly interpret.

Does the interpretation fit the stated or apparent?

Purpose of the book. And if it doesn't seem to do

that, you got to ask yourself why?

What am I? Am I right or wrong?

Am I missing something? Am I reading something into it?

Does it fit the flow of thought? We're going to talk more about

that in a minute. And do parallel passages shed

any light on the passage you're studying?

I hope that you're gathering from me that for you to have

this deep engagement of the Bible with a humble and

teachable spirit, which is one of our essentials of

discipleship at Inglewood, that this is more than you just

reading the Bible. I hope you're gathering that

this is this is how I'm picking the Bible apart.

This is how I'm, I'm actually actually understanding and

pulling out of this every single thing I can.

I'm ringing it for every. Ounce of truth I can get that

takes discipline it. Takes time.

It's not something that might come easily in the beginning.

So find parts of this at least that you can do #2 the

historical, cultural background. I've alluded to this, but.

All the books of the Bible were written in a specific time,

specific place, for specific people with specific issues, and

so these aren't just books. For us, these were books for

them, you know, and if we're going to understand what was

written, it's helpful to know as much as we can about this

historical and cultural background of the writing.

So try to spend the proper amount of time and observation

asking those basic questions and ask the right questions and this

is where good study. Bibles and commentaries.

Could be really helpful to you. To where they have some of that

information. About the book at the beginning

of your book or they have notes along the margins.

And so a good study Bible would be helpful.

But to understand some of the cultural elements, right?

And, and, and there'll be debates about some of those

cultural elements, right. There are some some things that

I could talk about right now that probably get me in trouble.

So let's just do that. So, for example, there are

things that Paul would write about women in the church.

I'm not talking about teaching or pastoring.

I'm not even going to go down the road of being silent.

I'm smarter than that. Might not look like it, but I

got good teachers at home. But should a well, should a

woman wear pearls and gold? You know, there are passages

about the way women adorn themselves.

Is that, is that still something we should talk about today?

Is that is that is that a cultural element of the moment?

Is that is that a more general lesson about modesty and

humility? What, you know, where's the

interpretation? Land cultural stuff is handy.

You know, there's some backdrops to some of these people who.

Came from very Pagan backgrounds.

And the temple worship that they were exposed to all the time and

the way people acted and the way people dressed and the way

people spoke. And some of the temple worship

infiltrated their pasts and they were bringing it to the church.

So what do you, what do you need to get rid of from that?

And what's OK to keep that would play a part in some of those

conversations. Understanding context is

important. I'm not here to pick on whether

women wear jewelry or not. I buy jewelry for my wife all

the time. So you can see how I interpret

the passage, but at the same time you.

Could talk about what does it. Mean for a camel to go through

the eye of the needle? Is that just an illustration of

how impossible it is for the? Rich man to go to heaven.

Is it really a literal needle? And the fact that the camel's

too big and it's absurd. It's just total absurdity.

Or is it the gate? There's a gate that was

referred. To as the eye.

Of the needle on the wall of Jerusalem and the and a camel

would have to stoop on his knees.

To crawl. Through that gate, it was so

small. What's he talking about?

Is that what he's talking about? You know, so when a when Jesus

spoke, spoke in parables, what kind of what kind of stories

would he often tell? Just shout it out?

What what were many of the parables?

What kind of, what kind of culture, what kind of background

were a lot of the parables agriculture?

Why? Because that's what they were,

right? A lot of you aren't farmers,

some of you are, some of you very skilled farmers, some of

you are not. And so these agricultural terms

to somebody who lives in a big urban centre might not carry as

well or be understood as well as others.

So, so what's cultural, what's historical, right?

I, I don't, I'm going to talk Sunday about shaking off your

garment and dusting off your sandals.

Well, many of you, many of you men are probably not wearing

sandals Sunday. You're probably not going to

wear a robe that you can shake the dust off of.

So what does that mean? What does that talk about, you

know? If some of you men show up in

robes and sandals on Sunday, please come see me in the lobby.

It's going to be cold. I'm expecting no snow.

I'm expecting to meet in in person on Sunday.

Yeah, that that's not prophetic. That's just I've been telling

God this Gene was alluding to this earlier.

I've been praying with the staff all week that I'd.

Appreciate it, God. So sometimes it's context, but

then let's get in. Let's get into something else.

What about #3 word meetings? In our last session, we talked a

little bit about words, but we got to go deeper than that.

So we talked about noting key or repeated words.

That's important. You're making notes of that.

Here are words that he repeats. These are seem to be keywords in

these sentences. These are key things he's

talking about because each word could have a possible range of

meetings. Greek is an incredibly rich and

expressive language. In English, you might have a

single word for something. In Greek they would be able to

spell that 14. Different ways.

In fact, one of the things you do in basic Greek is if you

actually learn to decline. It's called declension.

Don't worry about it. You take a common verb, and

here's every single form of that common verb.

And often they'll use a verb called Luo.

Which means to save it can mean physical salvation or spiritual

salvation. And so now it'd be a thing from

throwing a life preserver out to sharing the gospel with

somebody. So Luo, how do you decline every

single version possible of Luo? And you open up this 17 by 24

page and it's the IT goes down the entire.

Here's all the different. Ways a a form of speech, the

word Luo could be used. Because if it's used.

As an object, it's spelled one way if it's used As an active,

it's spelled a different way if it.

And so there, I mean literally it'll cover.

This whole poster. In, in single, in, in single

spaced. 8 fonts of all the different versions of a basic

Greek verb, right? In English we'd say save.

We could say saving, and we could say saved, but that's all.

Every part of that. Depending upon how it's used

when it's used. So this is a very rich

expressive language. So when you're translating or

interpreting, there can be some range of discussion.

So words you don't understand, words that seem to be central,

words that again that are cultural, and words that are

repeated that we said before should all be.

Examined and then after. Considering the possible meaning

of the words, choose the meaning that fits the immediate context.

This is why when I talked last time about translations, it's

always better to have a translation done by a group of

scholars, not a single scholar. Because that group of scholars

will argue and debate over that. They'll argue based upon the

context. This is how this word.

Ought to be. Translated, and you're just

going to get the better interpretation that way.

And so how does it fit the context?

Don't isolate one of these things from the other.

All of these things fit together.

And then again. Trustworthy resources.

Word studies can be very helpful.

Now let me really bore you and use the word grammar.

Isn't that an exciting word to you?

Laid on a on a Wednesday night listening to grammar?

But listen, this is important and I'll prove it to you.

Words are put together in a certain way in the Bible for

certain reasons, and they form sentences, they form paragraphs,

right? So you need to note punctuation.

You really need to note the. Lack of it.

And and don't allow, as I've said before, don't allow the

verse or the chapter numbers to stop you.

Always read Beyond and say, did the story actually end right

there? Is that really the end?

I've, I've preached one of my very first sermons to you

probably was Matthew 9 and 10. Matthew 9 doesn't end the story.

You got to go into chapter 10. It's a continuation.

That number shouldn't be there. The monk on the horse shouldn't

have stumbled. So, So what we see.

Is is that you need to look at all.

Of us so. Take your Bibles for a moment.

However, you can do it on a screen or in hard copy and turn

to Ephesians chapter 1. Want to spend a minute here?

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Because your English translation will be different than the Greek

text, right? Ephesians chapter 1, beginning

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

in verse start and three. Now here's what I want somebody

to do real out loud. And whatever English translation

you have, I want you to real loud out loud.

Somebody with a booming voice, somebody who should be the

stadium announcer of the night. I want you to read beginning in

verse 3 until you hit a a period.

Just stop at the. Period Now it's important that

you stop at that you need to know what a period is.

Stop at the period. It's a little dot.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has

blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

in Christ, just as He chose in Him the born foundation of the.

World that we should be holy and blameless before.

Him. There's a period right there.

Now, here's what I want to do. So there's period #1 everybody

got a period right there in their translation.

OK, I want you to start looking. Don't say anything out loud, but

I want you to look at the rest of it.

All the way through verse 14. How many other periods do you

have between that first period and all the way through verse

14? Count all your periods in a

minute. I'm going to ask you for a

total. So all the way.

You got that one period. How many other periods till you

get to the end of verse 14? All the way.

To the end, 3-4 different translations.

They'll do this differently. 3-4 How many periods, really?

That's fascinating. I don't know what translation

that is. So I got to seven, look for an

8, looking for 8 1/2, looking at 8 1/2, getting for 9.

All right, so do you know how many periods are in the original

Greek language? Zero.

That's one sentence. Paul had a skill of run on

sentences and and it's a very Greek thing.

It's not, it's not uncommon in Greek.

You can also have double negatives in Greek very proper.

You can you have triple negatives in Greek at times very

rare, but double S are not a double negative in Greek is to

emphasize the negativity of it. So you can say no, not never.

And it would be very proper in Greek.

But there's from, from verse, the beginning of verse, from the

end of verse 2 to the end of verse 14.

There's no period. That's one sentence in the

original language. So the translators have to make

some decisions. It's not just words, it's also

punctuation. It's.

Structure because that would be way too much.

It wouldn't make sense to us, so they break it up into English

sentences now. None of the none of the

meanings. Lost.

None of the emphasis is lost. No theology changes, but there's

just structural decisions that they're making.

But it's also helpful when you think about when Paul's first

writing this, he's trying to get a point across.

And if I know that that's one long Pauline sentence, and I

would, because I'd be looking at Greek, I could sit there and

say, man, he's really driving something home here.

And you can even begin to interpret.

Emotion into that at times and so grammar matters how people

are saying things why they're saying things how they even

structure things so again it's helpful it's helpful to have a

good study Bible it's helpful at times to read commentaries there

are so many apps online today Tony Vick was telling me again

Tony and I had a good visit today and Tony was telling me

about an app he's using to help him with Hebrew words that

brought on his phone and so there's a lot of.

Tools out there now. Some of them are free, some of

them aren't. If you want to know more about

that, we can talk more about that again.

But then you also get the literature type.

We talked about this a little bit.

Alan Mosley and I talked about this on the podcast in the Old

Testament. A.

Different literature types actually have some different

interpretation rules. And so we discussed that so.

The way I interpret poetry, the way I might interpret wisdom

literature like the Proverbs, is different than the way I might

read a narrative like Kings or Chronicles or Acts or something

like that. And so.

There's, there's different rules that are at play there, but you

want to follow the logical order.

What's the plot? What's the plot of the story?

There's a, there's a story going on in the narratives.

What's the plot? What may be the prophetic

symbolism that's happening? Is is that symbolism just for

that moment? In time or is he projecting into

the future because that's where the exception of original

meaning and future meaning sometimes get get played around

a little bit in the area of prophecy.

I believe in their, I believe in double prophetic meanings to

where I believe that some of the prophets spoke to the people

right then about something going on right then.

But it also is because they're sitting, you know, I think this,

this is weird. Hang in there with me.

This has to do with God's view of time.

Again, I think the prophets are getting a little insight into

God's view of time. And so for them, when they have

this prophetic viewpoint, they're seeing a whole lot

sometimes. And it's not just there on the

timeline. They're seeing more like God

sees. And so it could also be

something for us. It could also be something about

the end of time all at the same time.

And so prophecy itself can be a little different.

So think about how things are. Paralleled, especially in the

ultimate when you want to see. Words.

Repeated. You'll see phrases repeated.

And that's that Hebrew parallelism is is strong

emphasis. I'm trying to get this point

across and but there's you'll still see some of that in Paul's

writing. Again, I I talked about this

last time, but rejoice. And again I say rejoice he's.

You know he's going to. Emphasize words.

He's going to emphasize ideas. Sometimes it's entire sentences

and so that. Poetry's there.

And the next time we get together, we're going to talk

about So what? So I've prepared myself

spiritually to receive the revelation.

God has prepared the revelation for me.

Now I have observed the revelation to where I'm asking

the right question, getting the basic facts together.

So I have some idea of the content.

I have some idea of what this is about.

Now I'm interpreting the revelation not only for myself,

not just for myself, but I'm interpreting as to what this

originally meant. I promise we're going to get to

you. And that's an application.

So. So what does this mean to me?

What does this mean to me? That's an honest part.

It can't be the first part that's narcissistic, but it can

be the output. So how does this apply to my

life? How is this going to help me

change? Hell, this is going to help me.

Grow How's this going to help me live my life in a different way

and so how do I know what to. Do and and how to do it?

And you've got to recognize for some of you here tonight, you've

been Christians a long time. And so some of this is old hat,

some of some of this is a refresher, some of this is a

reminder, some of this might be a.

Tweak to what you already do. And, and, and I hope that's

right, but you've got to understand this from the

perspective of a brand new believer who has no.

Idea what to do with the Bible. I have no idea how to interpret

this. I can't tell you the number of

times I've had conversations with brand new believers and

they're trying to read the Bible and they can't understand it.

Now, some of them, and I'm not knocking it, don't, don't throw

things at me. Don't say things. e-mail

[email protected]. But they might be starting off

in Genesis and King James or something and they can't

understand that language, that old English language is throwing

them off. They don't know what a thee or a

thou is because they weren't ever raised in that.

And I've had people come to me and say, I have no idea how to

understand the Bible, and I need help understanding the Bible.

The more fascinating stories to me are not that that makes

sense. We've got to help you.

And I've told you, I told you a story about a young man in

Asheville who couldn't believe that there would actually be a

small group in a church that would help him do that.

I told you that story one time. What's more fascinating to me

are new believers. It's like they've never really

ever read the Bible. And suddenly they're reading the

Bible and they begin to realize I'm not supposed to be doing

that anymore, am I? I need to quit that or I need to

start this. I didn't know that was.

I didn't know that was sin. I didn't realize that I should

not be doing that thing or I should be doing this thing.

And to walk with them in those early moments of walking through

some of the, it's like a light going and you can just see it.

It's like a series of lights that click on one after the

other, illuminating their way to where suddenly they're

recognizing this, oh, this is how I need to live.

This is what I need to give up. This is what I need to

surrender. This is what I need to confess,

or this is what I need so you can go to Colossians 3 because I

beat it to death. This is what I got to take off.

This is what I got to put on. And to walk with people who are

actually engaged in that process, who are honestly,

hungrily doing this and realizing this is the most

fantastic thing I've ever experienced in my life.

And it's a it's one of the greatest testimonies to me about

how living and active. This word is.

That it actually is life changing that this isn't just a

book, this is really the miraculous, incredible,

supernatural word of God because I watch them change their life.

Now, I've shared this story sort of with you, but let me share

this with you again because I want to share a.

Part of it that I don't think I emphasized enough for you.

So a few years ago, I was in Kenya and and we were we were

starting a church in the Coffee and Tea mountains of Kenya.

Long story, that doesn't matter. But I had a friend who was a

veterinarian. He was off in a village one day

and he's trying to show the gospel in the village.

And he goes in the village and he says, I want to meet the

meanest man in the village. I've shared part of this with

you before. I want to, I want the meanest

man in the village. And the guy says, no, you don't.

Oh, yeah, I do. I want to meet the meanest man

in the village. That's his opening line in the

village. That's not necessarily how I

would approach the village. But that's how he approaches the

village. The guy says, OK, I know where

he is, takes him to a bar and there's a guy sitting at the bar

and the guy walks up to him. This friend of mine was fairly

open. He says, I hear you're the

meanest man in the village. And the guy at the bar starts

laughing and he goes no. Thanks, but I'm not, but I know

who he is and I'll take you to him.

So then he takes the guy and they're walking through the, you

know, African mud homes, through an alley.

And here comes this woman screaming, half dressed, running

for her life, got some blood on her.

And there comes a guy run, running the corner right after

with a knife in his hand, screaming at her.

And the guy says, that's the meanest man in the village.

He's who you want to talk to. And so, you know, of course the

guy freezes because he sees this American standing in the back

alley where no American should be, and he freezes in his

tracks, kind of forgets the. Pursuit.

That he obviously was on and he says you know, what do you want,

etcetera. Guy shares the.

Gospel with him. The man's saved right there in

the back alley now. You know the.

Vet was the vet's telling me the story and he goes.

I invited him. To the church.

Service that night they were going to have a church.

Service that night they were inviting people to that thing

and the vet, the vet was going to share this a veterinarian,

not a military vet. I don't know if I made that

clear. Veterinarian and he and he's

going to share. And so the service is going on.

Service is going on me and this man's not there.

Service is going on Service, service is about over and we're

talking this is Kenya. Anybody ever been to a Kenyan

church service, you know, 3 1/2 hours long, something like that.

Every, every choir has choreography.

Every choir dances. It's fantastic.

And by the way, and this is fine, Jim, we should have done

this last year, They don't pass the plate.

They have a plate down front and they make everybody dance and

put their offering in the plate. And you keep dancing until the

elders think there's enough money in that plate.

Welcome to Stewardship 2026. Anyway, everything's going on,

it's about to close, the whole service is about to end up and

suddenly the back door busts open and it's the meanest man in

the village. Well, everybody knows the

meanest man in the village and he's got an arm full of stuff

and he comes running down the aisle, down the middle, there's

a centre aisle, comes running down the middle aisle and just

dumps all this stuff right in front of the Lord's Supper

table. And he goes, sorry I'm so late,

I had to. Gather up all this stuff.

He goes, I, I was reading the Bible that you gave me and it

told me that all this stuff is stuff I don't need in my life

anymore. And so he had his idols, he and

then, and this is African, so don't go off the deep end here

with me, but this is something that evangelicals in Africa feel

very strongly about. We could have opinions about it

and we do. He had his cigarettes and he had

his alcohol. So he uses the.

Alcohol to pour all over the idols and the cigarettes and he

lights it on fire right in front of the Lord's Supper table there

on the church floor. Because he's going to burn.

Because this is not just I'm not supposed to have this anymore.

He goes. I've been reading the Bible for

the last couple hours and I realized I'm not supposed to

have this in. My life anymore.

And, and, and, you know, he'd never read the Bible, never seen

a Bible, never had it, owned a Bible, but he's reading a Bible

in his own language. And I don't know what passages

he was hitting, but he was hitting the right ones.

I guess that just let him down this road.

He probably was talking to some friends too, I guess.

But he came to say this has got to end and this other stuff's

got to start. And they the other thing I

remember about the story, I wasn't there, but the the

veterinarian was telling me what was amazing after that, of

course, they were terrified of the fire and almost got the

offering plate on fire, but that's really threw him off.

But anyway, so, but after the service that he was just telling

me, they just swarmed this guy, you know, with with love and

hugs and welcome. And and of course in the

African, they're dancing and chanting and playing music.

There's so that they're dancing all around him.

He's in the middle and this whole circle of dance and joyous

celebrations all around him. That's the way we ought to be

every time we see somebody make a decision and we do that.

You all do that. Well, listen, gang, one of the

things you got to understand this weather is driving me

crazy. We've got as many as seven

people waiting to be baptized right now.

We, I want to be in here. So we can do that.

We've got new members who want to be presented to join the

church right now. And, and so every time we don't

meet, we're knocking this off another week.

We're putting this off another week, you know, and so we won't

baptize all seven in one service.

Well, maybe you'd prefer that. It'll leave me zero time to

preach. It might be the best Sunday.

But God's blessing and we need to one of those three hours

services. I listen, I'm used to it, I'm

used to it. I'm used to being in the service

an hour and a half and then going out with a preacher to

pray for 45 minutes and then coming in just about the time to

preach. So listen and and and doing it

in a full suit coat and tie in the middle of about 1000° and

150% humidity. Psalm 119, verse 25 here's what

Psalms 119:25

it says listen to these words listen to his word.

My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your.

Word. When I am told of my ways, you

under you answered me. Teach me your statutes, Make me

understand the way of your precepts.

That's interpretation. Make me understand the way of

your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

Listen to this. My soul melts away for sorrow.

Strengthen me. According to your word.

Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me Your law.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness.

I set Your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies.

Oh Lord, let me not be put to shame.

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my

heart. I just love that last part.

Make my heart big enough to receive it.

Make me. Make me.

Make me understand that without this I am at a loss.

Without this, I am weak. Without this, I have no real

food, no real sustenance, no real nourishment in my life.

I have no direction. I have no correction.

I have no training. Father, we thank you for your

word. We thank you that it is alive

and active. I thank you, Father, for these

people who come out on a very cold evening and those listening

online to learn more just how they might.

Just how they might study your. Word in a better way.

Some of these folks have been studying your word for many,

many years and and they don't even need these lessons.

Father they that they cherish them.

Father, they, they testify to me how it's nice to be reminded of

things. And for others here, they've

never heard any of this before or they needed to learn

something new. So father, whatever it is, help

us, Father, to not just skim over your word.

Help us to recognize Your Word as life, and Your Word is our

nourishment. Your Word is our strength.

Your Word is our guide. It must define us and make us

who we are. So, Father, thank you for it.

I pray, Father, in all seriousness, Lord, if at all

possible that we could gather together on Sunday here.

If not, You have a plan and purpose for that.

Father, I thank you for the couple that I'm meeting with

tomorrow who want to talk about baptism because they watched

online last. Week.

So, Father, I know you're at work.

And so, Father, we'll trust you in that.

Help us to have wisdom to make good decisions about it, and

we'll trust you. Thank you, Father in Christ's

name, Amen. Thank you so much for listening

today, and I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.