Study Scripture | Darren Rouanzoin

You're listening to GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is the story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.

11AM. Good morning.

Huntington, hi. Hi. How's it going, Huntington? Okay. Just can you guys grab the scriptures?

Let's raise these up. We bring the word of God this morning. We're gonna open yeah. Eleven. You're winning.

You're winning. You won. Go to Acts 19. I'm gonna sit. Oh, I'm tired.

No, I'm good. I'm gonna sit right here. I like this. It's cozy. Hey, you came back.

Hey, I I left you two weeks ago right here, but I was burning idols. You remember that one? Missed that talk. I brought some idols and put them in a fire pit and then took my idols home, unfortunately. Lord's been working on me.

We're in a series through the book of Acts. If you haven't been with us, we've been teaching through the book of Acts for over a year. And a couple weeks ago, my pastor pastor Bill, who taught me how to preach here at Vanguard, preached my first talk here for a grade years ago. He said, and I quote, if Darren preaches acts 19 correctly. And I was like, challenge accepted.

Six week series on Acts chapter 19. So we now have a three we're three weeks into this series. Here is in heaven, a revival in Ephesus. I'm trying to show you the revival culture that is present in this climatic moment in the book of Acts where Paul enters into Ephesus and sees this revival and the city riots and there's all these reasons for what's going on. And I'm I'm giving you six various things that kind of create a culture for revival or conditions for revival.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

But I've been thinking a lot about it. I love history. Can I give you a quick history lesson before I jump in? Is that okay? I'm gonna do it either way.

So why don't you just agree right now? Over the next several weeks, we're looking at what acts 19 reveals. It reveals the way a church, one local church embodies these habits, these characteristics that market community. And as a result of all of them, this this riot erupts. But each of these matter to our context that they're filled with the Holy Spirit.

They believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're they're following Jesus as disciples. They they live their lives around the scriptures and they do the ministry of Jesus, and they burn their idols. All of these things we're we're talking through over six weeks. But I've been thinking about the story in Ephesus has a lot of reruns throughout history.

This was the pilot episode. And I was just I was I was geeking out on this that there have been so many movements throughout history where individuals or small groups discover the scriptures and begin to embody and live the scriptures and movements come out of it. Like, let's go back to Wittenberg. That's how you say it. Wittenberg, Germany.

In 1517, a monk, a Catholic monk and priest and professor is tasked in the seminary to preach through the book of Psalms followed by the book of Romans. And it is he he had access to the scriptures in Latin. And in his discovery as a bible teacher, he come he comes across a passage in Romans chapter one where it says, the righteous will live by faith. And a bible teacher, not a rebel, a bible teacher doing his homework ignites a reformation. Couple hundred years later, a small town pastor named Jonathan Edwards outside of in in Massachusetts, in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1734.

He lived in a farm town, 1,100 people, very small. He begins to be convicted by the book of Romans. And on Sunday, he starts a series through the book of Romans to talk about the doctrine of justification by faith and revival erupts. And it begins with 300 of the 1,100 people in his hometown accepting Jesus in a short period of time, and the first great awakening takes off in America. Couple years later across the pond outside of Oxford where pastor Luis is going, a burnt out missionary and minister by the name of John Wesley, reluctantly according to his journal, goes to a bible study that was led by a Moravian pastor off of Alder Street.

He writes in his journal, I went very unwillingly to a society, a small group meeting in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther's preface to the book of Romans. Two hundred years before, Luther is ignited by the book of Romans. He writes a book on Romans and now John Wesley sits in a small bible study where Luther's introduction is being led and and and John Wesley writes, I felt my heart strangely warmed. On May, I think it was twenty fourth seventeen thirty eight. That day is remembered by the Methodist Church because that was the day the Methodist movement began.

It started with one man being convicted by Scripture and it creating a global movement that went around the world. Making disciples, raising up seminars, planting churches. It was the fastest growing movement in American history from 1776 to the eighteen fifties. More more people became Methodist than any other time in The United States. To this day, there are more Methodist buildings than there are post offices in The United States.

A move of God started with one pastor being convicted by the spirit of God, by the scriptures. 1965 in Costa Mesa, California, a man named Chuck Smith began to preach through Genesis to Revelation verse by verse every single year. Hippies came to his church and began the Jesus movement. We've seen movies about it. We've heard about stories.

Some of you were a part of it. We saw thousands of people get baptized in Corona Del Mar all because God began to move and people got convicted by the scriptures. Perhaps it could happen again. What I wanna get at today is the value and the the necessary role that scripture plays in the life of the disciple. I wanna talk about what scripture is and why that why scripture is so important for us in the life of the church.

Are you okay with that? When we go back to Acts chapter 19, I wanna read this story and then I'm gonna teach you teach to what it means to be a church that's anchored by the scripture. That's what we have today. If you are able, would you stand while we read this story in acts? I know you just got comfortable.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Sit. Stand. Sit. Stand. Acts chapter 19, I'm gonna read verses one through verse 10.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, no. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. So Paul asked, well, then what baptism did you receive?

John's baptism, they replied. Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

There were about 12 men in all. Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the way. So Paul left them.

He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

We say thanks be to God. Word of the Lord.

Thanks be

to God. Alright. Go ahead and grab a seat. This is the word of the Lord. And I wanna I wanna look at this because it's fascinating to me.

All these aspects are so important. I just wanna highlight some things to kinda challenge our preferences if that's okay. And then we're gonna dive into what the scripture is, what the word of the Lord is. We're gonna talk about ways that we can embody it today. But I wanna look at what Paul did first because it's not just history, it's theology.

We don't just know what happened, we wanna know why it happens and we wanna know why it happens so it shapes how we live as disciples. So Paul shows up to the wealthiest, most influential, idol filled city in all of the Roman Empire at the time, Ephesus. This is the climax. This is a 250,000 person city, a booming economy. It is an influential location.

It would be like Southern California. He shows up and he finds 12 people. Normally, goes straight to the synagogue. Remember the pattern. He goes to the synagogue, proclaims the kingdom, gets kicked out, and then to disciple his people until he gets kicked out of that town.

That's basically what Paul does for about ten years until he's finally arrested and then he goes to Rome. But in this story, Paul goes and finds some disciples and he's with 12 of them and he realizes there's something off. Apparently, there's observable characteristics for a life that's filled with the holy spirit. Apparently, in the gathering, he's like, hey, have you ever heard of the holy spirit? No.

We didn't even know there is a holy spirit. And then he corrects their theology. Well, when did you get baptized? Why are you a believer? We believe in the one coming.

And he's like, I gotcha. That's Jesus. Let's get baptized in Jesus name. He's come. He's raised from the dead.

He reigns and he's coming again. And once they get baptized, he lays hands. And this is the theme throughout the book of acts. It starts in Jerusalem with a bunch of Jewish disciples, a 120. The spirit of God comes and then it moves on.

It goes to Judea and Samaria. It makes it to the Gentiles. It goes out to Antioch. And then we read about what is the Ephesian Pentecost. 12 people are filled with the holy spirit, baptized in the name of Jesus.

And then Paul takes them to the synagogue where he proclaims the kingdom of God. He gets kicked out and he moves. I love this. He moves the church from the synagogue to a lecture, to a school, to a hall. The hall of tyrannus.

Now this is what's important. Okay? I love it because what we tend to do in the churches, we tend to emphasize our preferences. Don't we? We tend to judge the church by our preferences.

Do they got good kids ministry? Do they have amazing worship? We will judge the church by the worship set. Don't we do it all the time? We judge how much bible is too much bible.

There's not enough bible. It's too funny. It's too practical. It's not we it's it's it doesn't have iced coffee on the hot days. I'm out.

It talks too much about money. It doesn't talk about money. Like the the world we get is our preferences. But then it gets deeper and none of those things are necessarily bad because I want a place for my kids to be discipled. Kids ministry is a good thing.

Yes? How many of you have coffee on the way in? And it you know, it's free and it's good coffee. You know, it's it's not it's not free. Gotcha.

You know who you are. We have a camera out there. We have accountability in this church. Just kidding. I'm just kidding.

It is free. It is free. Somebody else pays for it. About 20% of the church. Anyways, can can I say this?

That was a little low. Some of us love the ministry of the spirit. And we're like, oh, we gotta be presence people. Some of us love scripture. Oh, we just gotta be bible people.

Some of us love the mission of God. We just gotta take this thing to the world. And what we love to do is we love to emphasize a portion, but what I would like to say is all of it matters. And that's what this text reveals. So all of those things are conditions for revival.

And if we begin to embody all of them, we'll see a move of God. I believe that. One of the things that you see though is in this verse. It says, he took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years.

So that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. They're having daily lectures as disciples of Jesus. How does that sound? Now, what does that mean? Okay.

Well, in first century context in Ephesus, you would go to work from the moment the sun would rise till about 11:00 at the heat of the day. So that was your first time of work. And then from eleven for five hours, you had a midday nap. So you would have a siesta in the middle of the day, and you would take a nap, and then you would leisurely walk into the marketplace and you would sell your goods, you would buy goods, you would trade goods, you would you would go into the marketplace and are surrounding the marketplace were philosophers hall. These halls connected to gymnasiums were sophists philosophers, Greek philosophers, epicurean philosophers would come around, stoic philosophers, and they would rent these very expensive halls to discuss their philosophy to the world.

And apparently, somebody in the church said, it's worth Paul renting one of these spaces to teach the word of God. And rather than the church napping during the midday, they use their five hours to study the word of God daily. John Stott, the famous pastor and author commentator in his book, in the book of acts calculated that amount. He says, here's his math, that's five hours a day, six days a week in tears. That's three thousand one hundred and twenty hours dedicated to studying the word.

No. But you keep doing your one one minute devotion every day and call yourself a follower. I know that sounds harsh, but isn't this the conditions we've created in the church? Right? Let's make it as easy as possible.

Just say a prayer, live your life so that you go to heaven when you die. That's nowhere in scripture. We've been convinced of something that doesn't exist. And we're wondering in a world of all this wealth, of all this mindfulness, of all these tools and commentaries and study guides and worship albums and podcasts, why we're so anxious, Why we're so defeated? Why we have recurring defeat in our life with sin?

Why we are losing the battle against Satan in our lives? It's because we're feasting on the wrong things. The Ephesians revival wasn't organized around a prayer room. It was organized around a bible study. A midday in the middle of the heat, no ice coffee or AC, they're all in with Jesus.

In this way, the word of God spread so that everyone heard the word of Lord. Isn't this amazing? This is the history. Now, here's what I wanna say because we we can what what Luke is referring to when it says the word of God is different than what we call scriptures today. And I wanna make this point because it's really important.

First of all, when Luke is writing, he uses the word scriptures in the book of Acts and the gospel of Luke. When he says scriptures, he's referring to the Old Testament. He's referring to Genesis, to Malachi the Old Testament because that's important. Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, the Old Testament. We did not have this leather bound beautiful three ribbon Bible to carry around.

I really like Bibles. That wasn't the word of God. What what he was referring to was the announcement of Jesus crucified, risen, reigning, spoken out loud by the witnesses. When he writes about the word, he's referring to the announcement, the proclamation that Jesus has been crucified, that Jesus has raised from the dead, that Jesus is currently reigning and he's ascended into heaven and he reigns and he's coming back again. And that is being spoken and preached and taught around the world through those who has bear with bear witness to who he is and speak it out loud in their everyday life.

That is how the word spreads, and the word of God is a main character in the book of acts. Here's a list of all the ways that Luke uses that word. I just want you to throw it up there. You can scroll through these so you can see them. The word of God is this dynamic concept.

It's the word logos in the the the Greek New Testament. In the Greek, we call it logos that that logos is the word. This is in the New Testament, it's the concept that's found in the Old Testament. And Luke is saying that the idea of the word in the Old Testament, the very word that speaks creation into existence. The very word that comes to the prophets and declares the truth to God's people.

The word that never returns empty in Isaiah. That very word is alive and active through the church right now. Right? And so this is the word and and he says all throughout the book of acts that the word is a is a main character throughout the entire story and he uses the subject of the word. He uses verbs to describe what happens.

He uses words like grew. The word grew. The word the word multiplied. The word prevailed. He uses farm language to describe the dynamic growth.

And at the end of acts chapter 19, it says in verse 20 that the word of God spread widely and grew in power. Which means this, the word of God is not information about God that sits quietly on a page. The word of God is active and unstoppable speech. And when you open the scriptures and it gets inside of your heart and into your mouth, the very word that built the universe now speaks through you if you allow it. Are you with me church?

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Now, me do a quick some theology real quick because I wanna correct some things because I actually think this sermon is perhaps one of the most important sermons we can have in all the sermons that I teach. I'm saying this with confidence right now. I think your view of scripture matters more than almost anything else we can argue about today. And how you treat scripture matters. Almost all of the debates that we get into as the church as people have to do with your interpretation of scripture.

So I wanna give you something. We have the dynamic word. When I'm preaching and I proclaim Jesus is risen and things start happening in the room, that's the dynamic word of God. But we have the scriptures. We have the holy scriptures.

Do we not? The canon scriptures. So when I speak to the word now, I wanna talk about the Bible. Okay? We have the Bible.

And the Bible is God speaking his truth to us in human words. Yes? Okay. Now hear hear this. I wanna give you a doctrine statement that we have at the Garden Church.

This is on our website. This is what we believe about the scriptures. And here's the deal. You can disagree with this, but if you disagree with this, then nothing I'm gonna argue when I preach on Sunday has weight for us. It comes down to where are we placing the authority of scripture in our lives.

Does that make sense? So we believe in the inspiration of the 39 old testament and 27 new testament books of scripture. That both the old and the new testament are the infallible word of God in all matters of life and doctrine. That the bible is completely relevant today for every area of the human experience because it is living and active. Let's go.

That the bible, Oh, this is a good one. The bible is the final authority for faith and lifestyle. Ouch. Is what you should say. It is to be believed, practiced, trusted, and hoped in.

The Bible is the final authority on all matters to which it speaks. So we have this view of scripture that we we hold scripture as more authoritative than tradition. Yeah? Then our own personal experience. So because culture says what I feel is the most important, we say, actually, what I feel is not most important.

What the bible speaks about is actually what I surrender and submit to. We'll talk about that in a second. Is this okay? I mean, look at what second Timothy says. And Paul says in second Timothy, and I love this.

It says, okay. Here we go. All scripture is God breathed and is useful. Alright. Listen to this.

For teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God, those who believe in Jesus, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Now I was talking to pastor Ramin in between. He's like, you know what we've done in Southern California? We've changed these words around. Keep that up there.

We don't when if I came up to you as a pastor and said, hey, I just wanna have a conversation because I'm about to rebuke you. Spiritual abuse, I'm out. Right? We change it. We like, there's the scriptures are for mindfulness and peace and affirming my lifestyle.

That's from pastor Rameen. Is that not true? Like the way we approach it is not alive and useful for correction. I mean, for correction and rebuking and training and righteousness, that's what the scriptures are for. To hold up a mirror and say, hey, hold on.

There's a standard now. It's not about perfection. You are in. There's because of grace and because of the cross. But now, hey, the bar is raised.

Righteousness is up like Jesus. Let's go. One day at a time. Are you with me? There's another way.

The Hebrew author, the author of Hebrews, he says this, he says, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Keep that up for a second. Judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

But you know what? Just pull up your scripture on your phone, read one verse, and then skip over to Instagram and get distracted by the oblivion of all the things that you have. Or it have you learned to treat scripture the way Jesus treats scripture? I think we have a quote from Ray. Let me see if I have it up here.

Oh, yeah. I love this. From Ray Lebec. To follow Jesus means adopting the same posture toward the word of God that Jesus had. We cannot claim to be his disciples if we neglect or refuse to obey what the scriptures teach.

How do you treat the scriptures? I'm not talking about, oh, I throw it on the ground. How do you treat the scriptures? I wanna show you the way Jesus treats the scriptures. So if you could go to Matthew chapter four.

We're gonna do one more story and then I'm have three points and how we as a church are gonna use scripture. And then a couple of things about way the way we can live it out and then we're gonna pray. That's all I got today. Short service. You ready?

We're in Matthew four verse one. This is the temptation narrative. Alright? You ready? HB, you ready?

They're like, we were already there. Why are you waiting? I don't know what's up with Centimeters. You know, we're like, we know. Like Matthew four, yeah, got it.

Let's go. It's well worn bible over here. Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. Can I just say amen?

Praise the Lord. There's one passage of scripture I deeply resonate with. He was hungry. Also, isn't this good news? Jesus is fully God and full fully human and after forty days of not eating, it says in the word of God that he was hungry.

Oh, thank God for his humanness. Yes. Okay. Now look at what happens. Check this out.

The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Now the story right before this, remember, never read the Bible without context. Context matters? Okay. Glad you answered that question for me.

Right before this, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan and the dove falls upon him. He's filled with the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven is heard. This is my boy. With you, I am well pleased. So before Jesus does anything, he's affirmed as an ident he's affirmed and validated in his identity.

And the very first thing that he's tempted to do is prove his worth and identity. If you are, prove it. How many of you have gone through that trial? It's it's the oldest playbook in the devil's hand. He says, if you really are, turn this bread turn this stone into bread.

Now, Jesus answered and look at this. It is written. What does that mean? He points the old testament. So this is a great battle between good and evil, and this is his defense against the dark arts.

Scripture is the defense against the dark arts. Amen. Hallelujah. So he's being tempted by the devil. If you are this, do this.

And he says, it is written, man should not live on bread alone, but on the very every word that comes from the mouth of God. Yes? And then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the temple. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. Jesus answered, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I give to you. He said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said, away from me Satan for it is written three times, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and the angels came and attended him.

How's that? Okay. What I would like to propose to you today is there's only two ways to read scripture according to Matthew four. You either read scripture like Jesus or you read scripture like Satan. According to this text, that there are two ways to use or read interpret scripture.

And every temptation in your life comes down to which reader you will be. Notice what Satan does. He first tries to tempt Jesus with relevance, his hunger. Hey, solve the problem. Turn this stone into bread.

And then Jesus responds, counter punch. Boom. Scripture. No. So he goes, you know what?

I'm gonna combat Jesus with scripture. So he quotes Psalm 91. Go to Psalm 91 real quick. Now, this is so important. Anytime you read an old testament verse in the new testament, go and read the whole chapter.

Okay? Don't just go to one chapter. Read the whole chapter because that will help you in moments of crisis. Psalm 91, the devil comes at him in verse 11. He says, for he will command his angels concerning you.

I'll wait for you. Thank you for bringing the word. I'll wait. There's no hurry. Psalm 91.

So if you need a table of contents, go to the the beginning, you'll find a number. It's totally fine. Some people are reading the bible for the first time. It's like the middle of the book. If you just open it about middle, boom.

You'll be good. If you get to like Isaiah, turn left. If you get to Ezra, turn right. Psalm 91, look at we're gonna look at verse 10 or verse 11. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. That's where he stops. He clips the text. Right? He clips the text.

He quotes Satan quotes scripture. The first classroom of hell is a bible study without context. Remember that. Because Satan quotes scripture. Satan has memorized scripture accordingly.

He he he distorts the meaning. He uses scripture for his purposes, but his interpretation is demonic. I love what R. T. Kendall says.

He says, I would go to the stake for my belief in the Bible. Either the Bible is true, trustworthy, and reliable, and totally dependable, or it isn't. The degree to which one trusts the Bible, to that degree, will he or she have peace, confidence, and rest for this of soul. Once belief in the Bible subsides, that person will struggle, fret, be unstable, confused, and vulnerable to demonic teachings. It's not enough to read scripture.

It's not enough to to to to do bible studies. We have to get this inside of us because if you were a student of scripture, you would know Psalm 91 doesn't end with that. If you keep reading verse 13, this is what he cuts out. You will tread on the lion and the cobra. You will trample on the great lion and the serpent.

His condemnation is the next verse. But we do the same thing. We weaponize scripture to attack our enemies. Meanwhile, we have planks of disobedience with greed and money and lust but we want to condemn that group over there. How dare us?

How dare me? Thinking that we can use scripture to manipulate other people to do what we want them to do. That we can use scripture to validate my sin. Under the blood of Jesus. Are you kidding me?

That's what Satan did. And Jesus responds with a better response. He challenges it with scripture. And can I just say, isn't it fascinating that Satan uses God's own word to pull God's own son away from God's own will? Want me to say that again?

Satan will use God's own word to pull God's own son away from God's own will. And what it what happens today is it comes through the lens of bad theology on TikTok or Instagram that you think is truth. But you don't know the difference because just scripts are being quoted and you're like, yep, without context. We have to stand in our beliefs. We have to learn the strength.

So what am I getting at? It's not enough to quote scripture. It's not enough to read scripture. We have to be formed by scripture. A better phrase might be we we have to be counter formed by Scripture because you are already being formed.

You're already being discipled by the world, the culture and the devil. You're already being discipled by the algorithms, the streaming platforms, the friendships that you have, the communities and context that you live in. What scripture teaches that we need to be counter formed, counter disciple to Jesus and live appropriately in response. So what are we gonna do? I love what Dallas Willard says.

He says to the to the content of the Bible is not just information about God, but the presence of God himself in textual form. So if we are to have the same mindset that Jesus has about the scriptures, what are we gonna do? I wanna give you three ideas and then we'll land. Does that make sense? Number one, we have to study the word of God.

I'm over trying to get you to spend five minutes in scripture. If you're only doing five minutes of scripture, can I just say, you will not be formed in Christ likeness over a long period of time? You need to immerse yourself in the word of God. Now you could start with five minutes for a year. That's great.

And then move on. But we gotta study the word of God and there are so many resources out there. We're not lacking, you know, content. We're just choosing not to hunger for God. So I want you to learn to study the word of God.

There's so many resources that are free and available. We have content as a church to help you study. I want you to approach this so that when someone gives you bad theology, you can combat them and go, that's not true. That's a demonic teaching. So study the word.

And one way you can study is, let's do this. Tomorrow morning, let's commit this. Alright. If you're you're like, alright, I'm in. How many of you are in the study?

Okay. You don't don't don't don't lie right now. Raise your hand. Think about it. Tomorrow morning, you're gonna pick one book in the New Testament to read one chapter a day.

Can we start there? One chapter. I don't care. Pick a book in your head. I'm not a magician.

Let's go. Pick a book in your head. Matthew. Alright. Let's go Matthew.

It was how many of you chose Matthew? I'm just I see. I do read minds. It's the first book in the New Testament. It's easy.

I want you to before you jump in to to get the chapter done, which it's gonna be genealogy, so good luck. But but genealogies preach, by the way. They preach. It's the gospel. It's so amazing when you study, you learn the significance.

You realize why Matthew included certain names and why he left somehow. Oh, it's so insane. But anyways, my point is before you open the word tomorrow, would you put the the the bible on your lap and would you say, holy spirit speak to me and wait on the Lord. And as you read, pay attention to the words that are repeated. We by reading acts over and over again, I saw that the word word is repeated all over the place And that logos is the word for that is a significant word all throughout the New Testament.

And when you when you recognize that you see the dynamic power that God has with the word of God. But when you when you when you get confronted by something and something pops out in your heart, something sticks out, pause right there and read it again. And write it down in a journal that one verse that stuck out. And then like the the Psalmist who pray that you would meditate on the word of God. That word for meditate in Hebrew is Haggah and it means like a lion growling over its prey or like a dog gnawing on its bone.

We are to do with the scriptures. I want you to have that image of a dog gnawing on a bone tomorrow morning when you wake up and open up the scriptures and say, holy spirit speak. That's meditate. We're not emptying our mind. No.

We're filling our soul so that the very synapse, the very cellular level quarks and atoms are infused with the power of God's word. So that that when we walk into lies, we can feel it vibrating because that's not true. And I've been immersed in the real thing because I study the word. I don't just read it one verse a day. I'm in it.

You with me church? Yes. Next one's way harder. Submit to the word of God. Oh.

Write that down. I love the heads. They went, yes. Submit. Wait.

I don't like that word. No. Erase. Select which things to believe. Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson, he he didn't like the idea of miracles so he clipped out all the miracles in the bible. Pasted it together. It's called the Jefferson bible. We do all the time. We might like the miracles.

We just don't like the challenge of generosity. We don't like the challenge of pure hearts. What's that? You mean my intentions have to be good? I wanna be judged by my intentions.

They're always good. I have pure thoughts towards people who wait. Could you imagine if your first response when being attacked and publicly shamed or challenged or manipulated was to bless and pray and love and not react with all the baggage you have. But you're like, oh, that's about you. Oh, Lord bless that person.

Bless their family. Bless their business. Bless their life. Bless their grandkids. They don't even they're not even married.

Bless their future. Could you imagine if the church looked a little bit more like that? How do you get there submitting? Doing what the word says not because you feel like it. Yeah.

Do you think I think it's interesting. Carl Truman says, when a culture abandons external authority, the self becomes its own bible. The result is not freedom but chaos. Think about our culture for a moment and think about your life. What is your authority?

Southern California would will let you have your bible. It just will not let you submit to it. So in the Matthew text, there's two readers. Satan read scripture. Satan uses scripture.

Satan quotes scripture. Satan clips scripture. He distorts scripture and Jesus submits to it. Now hear me on this. This is so powerful.

Did Jesus have the power to turn the rock into bread? But he limited his power to the authority of scripture. The living word submitted to the written word. What? How do you treat scripture?

Does it look like how Jesus treats it? If not, course correct. And the third point is the the hardest of them all. So I'm gonna preach from brokenness, not victory. Is that okay?

Live the word. Study the word, submit to the word and live the word of God. James says in his epistle, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. I don't think that we have a problem with laziness when we don't do what the word says.

I think we're just deceived. I think we're deceived when we choose to not live out the scriptures. And I think one of the problems today is that we we read enough or we have enough of the Christian life or content in our life that we actually never catch fire. It inoculates us a little bit. It's like the release valve.

I gotta do my quiet time. Okay. I did it. Keep on living the way I lived versus catching fire. I was thinking about it in the ending a couple weeks ago.

I preached this in verse 18 of acts 19. Go back to acts chapter 19. Acts 19 verse 18. Remember when there was this bonfire and all these people threw in their idols. We're gonna read that one more time, but pay attention.

Acts 19 · chapter mention Acts 19:18

It says in verse 18, many of those who believe now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. Remember to be Ephesian was to worship Artemis. So the Ephesians are now burning up cultural identities and idols of of controlling chaos and and consumerism habits and ways of managing the chaos of life. They're throwing it into a fire saying, it's not enough.

We have to follow Jesus fully. And then when they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came out to be 50,000 drachmas, about $10,000,000 today. Verse 20. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. In what way?

In what way did the word of God spread and go powerfully before others in Asia Minor? In the confessing way. In the submission to the word way. In the taking Jesus and his word seriously way. In the discipleship way.

In the spirit filled life way. In the doing the missions way. In living out the word of God kind of way. People didn't see their hermeneutics. They saw their life and they noticed a difference.

And it set a fire on an entire community dedicated to false gods. But let's just keep making it comfortable. Let's keep making it seeker focus rather than Jesus centered and see if God shows up. We don't know the difference. Put some fog machines in, dim the lights.

It feels like he's here. Do you know the difference? Have you learned to wait to hear his voice? Not just your thoughts but that silence, that whisper that causes Elijah to get on his face. He saw the earthquake, the fire.

He saw the thunderstorms and he's like, that's not it. The whisper. He was trained in the word. What if a spark of revival happened because one little house church in Costa Mesa or in Huntington Beach with a bunch of young people said, Romans, let's go and we live like it. And it just poured out all over.

Could you imagine being a part of a community that says we're not only gonna study, we're gonna submit and we're gonna live. Hey, all that imaginative stuff, here's the question I have. Where do you need to live it now? Where do you need to live the scriptures? Where have you, like Jefferson, kept your heart from the truth you know because it didn't fit the lifestyle or worldview you appreciate or have.

What are the things that if you were to say, well, scripture says this and I'm not doing this that you would have to realign and repent and reorganize your life around. Can I just lift out a list out a few of my own life? Yeah. Okay. Here we go.

With your money, what would it look like for you to study, submit, and live your life with money out the way scripture teaches you? Because there's this famous passage you could probably quote, you cannot serve both God and money except Orange County says, let me try. And what we do is we don't go to scripture and say, am I doing this? What we do is we go, and Zach, I'm just, you know, and then and that I'm not I'm not like this guy. I'm I'm kinda here, so I'm just gonna judge myself based on the proximity to the people that I think might be doing it.

Do you know what I'm saying? And it doesn't it maybe you don't do it that way. Maybe it's more like I've learned generosity and contentment, and then you grab your phone at night and you're feeling a little down because you're not hanging out with your friends and you start scrolling. And what happens on your phone is the very thing you talked about to your wife earlier in the week about a specific pair of shoes that were more classy than just the Vans tennis shoes or the Birkenstocks clogs that you want. All of a sudden, there's like seven ads for seven different loafers.

And you're all of a sudden now justifying in your head the generosity that you have. You're you're justifying the lifestyle that you've lived, the faithfulness in all the other areas in your life, and you've the value of what you can purchase. And now all of a sudden, it's not contentment. It's need. Mammon has an algorithm and you spend a lot of time with him.

By the way, Mammon is the only God Jesus names in the entire New Testament. The God of wealth in Aramaic. Orange County, how we doing with money? I joked about 20%. Someone put cash on the stage that's gonna be given away because we give I love this about our church.

We worship and people put cash on the stage, and then we give it away. No questions asked. Isn't that awesome? Yes. That's great.

I love that. Part of our the expression of the garden. What's up with the cash? People give cash and then we we give it to needs. Some of you have been not even tipping God.

But you're all about revival. Show up to that gathering again. You want God to move in your life, but you're not willing to obey what he says about your money. Oh, brothers and sisters, revival doesn't move until it touches your wallet. And then it goes into relationships.

You wanna grieve the Holy Spirit? Look at the list of things that happen to grieve the spirit. Has nothing to do with cursing people in the gathering space. It has to do with your relationships. You want God to move in your life?

Want God to bless you? And so you come in here, cool. We got the color guards and we got the flags. You're the front of the worship. But is your heart We actually had it today.

So this isn't about them. We didn't have it in the first service. So so regard okay. You go to all the worship, you're up front and you're worshiping, but you're still holding on to unforgiveness from the previous church. So glad you're here, by the way.

I'm glad God's moving and you found truth here and you're building community, you've moved. But do you speak well of the people you left or do you come up as a hypocrite? Because Jesus does say some things before you present your life in worship as an altar, go and work out the things that you have against people. Do I need to talk about sexuality? No.

We got that one down. What would it look like for us to simply look at the scriptures and say, hey, culture sells us a different view. Yes. It's biological. Guess who created sex by the way?

God. It's very good thing. There's little ones in here so I'm not gonna go details on that. But we are physical sexual beings and culture wants to give us a narrative that we feel if we don't follow that we are denying the truth of our self. And I can I just say you can submit to what those scriptures teach and have a fulfilled life with tons of desire and intimacy towards the Lord and others?

And I think we just this is a big one where what I I love it. Some guy came up to me and he's like, hey, I have a friend and he keeps confessing the same thing over and over and over and again. What do I do? I'm like, well, it sounds like this account that he says, accountability partner. It sounds like it's not accountability.

It sounds like it's just a release valve for him to feel better about himself. Why don't you hold him accountable to getting rid of Internet altogether? That's accountability. What would it look like for you to follow God and submit to the scriptures with your sexuality? I'll do this one too.

I've got tons, but I'm not gonna do all of them. We'll put the list up in a second. Can I talk about integrity for a moment? A lot of college students in here. Raise your hand, Gen z.

Yeah. Can I can I just say something to you? I don't mean to offend you, But let's give Gen z better PR. This is a gentle nudge. You're on your phone probably eight to twelve hours a day, and you don't text me back.

That's an integrity issue. That's not a I'm overwhelmed with information. No. It's it's an integrity issue. And someone needs to tell you that.

So here you are. Pastor Darren telling you, you either say yes and it means yes or no and it means no. And don't do maybe. And it's okay if you cancel. Just communicate before the event.

And if you cancel because you stayed up gaming, that's a whole other sin issue. What's the next slide? What do you do with your technology? With your anger? With your words about people?

With your rest? I could go off on technology. Go to the next one. With what you reach for to cope. Are you Yeah.

Take photos of these and then take them to your journal and process. Am I coping in a way that aligns with Scripture? Alright. I hope I don't know if I have more. I these are just off the top of my head the other day.

Where does it land for you? What I'm trying to create is just a vision for what's possible in a local church that we will be people who ruthlessly eliminate idols. We will be people who follow Jesus, and we will be people who study, submit, and live the word of God. Amen? Alright.

Let's all stand.

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