Absolute #19 Prayer

Absolute #18 Reading the Bible

Alright, so I said in our last video that we would move this week into Bible Study, and then finish up next week with prayer...and that is what we’re going to do, sort of. I’ll explain shortly. First we need to ask, why is reading the Bible important? Is it important?

Last session I said that the primary method God uses for His word going forth is the preaching of the Word, which I believe is 100% correct. We need to realize that most people throughout the past 2,000 years of Christian history have been illiterate, that is, they couldn’t read or write. Add to this the fact that even those who had such capacities had no Bible in their own language to read, and you will begin to grasp the important place preaching would have for instructing people as to the contents of God’s word. And while our circumstances and culture have changed, the primacy of the preached word has not.

That being said, we do live in a different day and age. The vast majority of you watching this are very competent at the basics of reading and written communication. And the Bible is not only available in your language, it’s available in great abundance. There are so many translations available in English that if you don’t know what to look for, it might be really hard to make a decision. So we live in a time when reading God’s word for ourselves is an option that is actually on the table for us. I want to look at a couple of verses that might point us toward the benefits of reading God’s word for ourselves.

Pslam 1:1-2

Psalm 119:9-11 (suggest they read all of Psalm 119)

How are we to store something in our heart? Meditate on it? Well, one most excellent, basic, and important way is to be reading God’s word for ourselves.

But then we encounter the question of, how? What is the best way to read God’s word? Well, I want to give you an Acronym to keep in mind as you approach God’s word: CPRS

When I learned this I tried to rearrange the letters into an order that I thought put them in order of importance, but I found that I couldn’t actually remember them that way, so I went back to what I was taught, CPRS. We already know what CPR is, so adding an S to the end isn’t too much to ask our memory banks. So, what do these letters stand for?

C:arefully

P:rayerfully

R:epeatedly

S:lowly

And here’s what I mean when I said we’ll kind of do prayer separately next week: as we walk through these four things, I will skip over prayer and we’ll devote all of the next session to it. In doing so, our focus we be centered on how prayer and reading God’s word relate to one another, which I believe will be helpful for us. So today we’ll focus on those other four aspects, which are very important as well.

First, carefully. When we read the Scriptures, we need to pay careful and close attention to what is being said. Watch for patterns, the flow of thought. Watch for key words. Pay attention. It is so easy to just gloss over as we read so that we can say, “yep, read my Bible today.” But this is the very word of God Himself. It behooves us to listen, and to listen carefully. A few practical suggestions here: first, you need a good Bible, a study Bible if you can get one. By good Bible, I don’t mean expensive, but get a good translation. My favorite is the ESV; other good ones include the NIV, the NASB, the HCSB, the NKJV, and to a lesser extent, the NLT. The NIV study Bible and ESV study Bible would both good options to look at. You can also get many free apps that have the Bible, such as YouVersion. Also, if you have an Apple device, Crossway has their ESV Global Study Bible available for free download.

Second, have a journal or notebook. I’m not much of a journaler, partly because I am not that interested in recording my feelings, second because I lose everything. So my notes end up and scraps of paper strewn anywhere and everywhere. But having someplace where you can write down observations, questions that pop to mind as you read, ways that you think a particular verse might apply in your life--that can be really helpful. If you don’t write it down, there’s a good chance you won’t remember it, so having a notebook or journal handy can help with that. It also can be helpful if a verse strikes you to actually write the whole verse or set of verses out inside that notebook. We see things when we’re writing them that we often miss when we’re simply reading.

Third, ask questions as you read. What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about sin? How is God’s mercy and grace shown here? Is there a lesson for me to learn? A sin that I need to repent of? Why is this passage important for my understanding of Jesus? A lot of those questions will answer themselves as you continue to read in a particular area, but sometimes those questions will give you a resource where you can say, “hey, I need to look into this more.”

Next, (skipping prayerfully), we want to look at repeatedly. We want to read God’s word repeatedly. A quick skim or once over of a text will very rarely give you very much to work with. You won’t understand it, you won’t remember it, it will be in one ear and out the other. So we want to take our time, and read over and over. I once listened to a John MacArthur lecture on studying the Bible, and the method he suggested was this: take a book like 1 John, and read it, all the way through. That should take you less than twenty minutes, unless you’re really slow, in which case, still less than a half hour. Now do the same thing again the next day. And the next. And read all the way through 1 John every day for 30 days. Guess what? By the end of that month, you know 1 John like the back of your hand. What about a bigger book like John’s gospel? Divide it into bite sized chunks. Read the first 7 chapters every day for 30 days, the the following month do chapters 8-14, and the following month 15-21. That seems like it would take a lot of time, but if you were consistent in doing that, you would have really mastered the New Testament in less than three years. That’s a pretty remarkable thought. So often we’re frustrated with how little we know. Remember this: you aren’t shooting to be a Bible scholar tomorrow, but rather, aiming to fill your mind with the word of God right now so that 40 years from now, it oozes out of you. It was once said of John Bunyan that if you pricked him anywhere, he would bleed Bibline. Oh that that might be true of us. Read God’s word, and read it over and over and over.

Finally, we come to slowly. Read God’s word slowly. It’s hard to read carefully if you are speeding over the words. It’s hard for their full force to sink in when you run over and past them. Slow down and smell the roses. When I was in high school my Pastor would tell me that you don’t read the Bible to finish: you read the Bible to change. We won’t be changed by what we’ve missed.

You might say, how in the world can I read slowly when you just said to read 7 chapters a day!? Well, first of all, reading slow means different things to different people. We all read at our own pace. But if you can’t take a that 5-7 chapter chunk every day, that’s okay. Figure out what you can do. Maybe you can cover 1 or 2 chapters daily? That’s often what it is for me. There will be usually 1 or 2 days a week where I’ll get into that 5-7 chapter territory, and sometimes if I have a day off I’ll read even more. But most days it is 2-3 chapters. And that’s okay! But make the most of it. Go slow enough to see what’s there.

So, to repeat that Acronym to you again,

Read

Carefully

Prayerfully

Repeatedly

Slowly

And we’ll deal with the prayerfully part next time. Until then, I leave you with Paul’s words to the Colossians, “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.”









Helpful links:
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-prayer-in-the-bible1

https://www.crossway.org/blog/2015/04/why-were-giving-away-the-esv-global-study-bible-to-everyone/

http://www.blueletterbible.org/

https://www.biblegateway.com/

Absolute #17 Members of One Body

Members of One Body

Absolute Curriculum 

Year 1, Lesson 17

Introduction

In our last session we discussed the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ we must not only believe in Him for our salvation, but we must also work daily to put to death the sin in our lives. But how do we do that? In the final three lessons this year, I want to walk through three basic steps we must take toward becoming more like Jesus, three things every single one of you can and should do. First, become a part of the Body of Christ. Then next week we will look at reading the Bible for yourself, and finally we will look at prayer.

Members of One Body

To use the phrase become a part of the Body of Christ may have been a bit misleading. What I mean by that is that all who believe in Jesus Christ are by definition brought into the body, or family of God.

John 1:12

All who believe in Jesus Christ are called children of God. We have been adopted by Him, loved by Him, saved by Him.

Ephesians 4:4-6

Throughout the scriptures there is this emphasis on unity between all believers in Jesus Christ. Why? because we share One Lord and One Salvation. There is a spiritual unity that exists between every individual who is in Christ. But what does that look like on a practical level? So what if I have an abstract spiritual unity with people all the globe and history; how does this affect my life currently?

Well, the Scriptures are clear that we are not saved to be “islands” as it were. We were called to be a part of the local body of Christ, His Church.

Hebrews 10:24-25

How does the Body shape us?

So what is the practical effect of becoming part of the church locally? The first part we can see right there in Hebrews 10:24, being around other believers gives us the opportunity to stir them up to love and good deeds, and puts us in a position where we to can be encouraged and pushed toward living a life that honors God. But there are several other ways that the Church can draw us closer to Christ, and help us in our fight to become more and more like Him.

First of all, baptism. Baptism is one of the two ordinances established by the Lord Jesus before He left earth, which the church is to administer to those who become believers in Him. Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 6
Baptism publicly identifies us with the Triune God by showing that we have become one with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection to new life. Indeed, this should be one of the first things that we do upon believing in Christ is to be publicly identified with Him in baptism. And as we see in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, as well as throughout church history, baptism is something administered by the church.

Second, communion or, as it is also known, The Lord’s Supper. Jesus, in Luke 22 and other passages, commands His disciples to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the bread and the wine (or the crackers and juice as we often take it), in remembrance of Him. We are to join with other believers in commemorating the death of Jesus for us, and by doing so with other Christians, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that we proclaim the Lord’s death (and its saving effect) until He comes.

Third, preaching. The preached word is one of the main reasons we are to be in church Sunday after Sunday. There are other places that we can and should receive teaching. Obviously, right now you’re in youth group. There are also Bible studies you can join, you can read the Bible yourself, maybe your parents or grandparents teach you about God and the Bible. Those are all great things. But do you remember 2 Timothy 3:16-17 where Paul tells Timothy all of the uses of God’s word, how powerful it is? What is his next statement in chapter four? Preach the word! Timothy (and all pastors) are to preach the word, because in hearing the word preached, you and I are changed. God corrects us, rebukes us, trains us, encourages us, equips us: these things are what happens when you consistently sit under the preaching of the word of God with an attitude of humility and a desire to hear from God. Bible studies are cool. Youth group is good. Listening to sermons online is helpful (I do that a lot). But none of these is as important or valuable as sitting under the consistent preaching of God’s Holy Word by your local pastor.

Finally, encouragement. We hit on this a little already, but I want to look at another verse here

Colossians 3:16

None of these things are possible outside the regular gathering together with the local church. There is so much more to say about the church and its benefits, and what the church should look like, but obviously this introduction is very much aimed at showing how the church helps us toward growing in Christlikeness. I’ll cap it off with an analogical statement for you:

Sanctification is a team sport.

Absolute #16 Sanctification

Introduction:
Last session we discussed justification, the act whereby God declares us just and righteous. This comes to us by the grace of God, through faith alone. We Bring nothing to the table.

Sanctification: 
Romans 8:28-30

In that list of four things in Romans 8:30 we see four acts of God in the salvation process; predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. However, those who have in the past been justified, but have not yet been glorified, live in the process of another aspect of salvation: sanctification.

Whereas those four acts in Romans 8:30 are unilateral or sovereign acts of God, sanctification involves work and effort on our part. Wayne Grudem defines sanctification this way,

"Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives."

Romans 6:12-14

Let not sin reign. Sin is no longer our task-master, because God, in saving us, has freed us from our bondage to sin.

James 2:17-18

We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. We are saved by faith apart from works, but the faith that saves is not without works. (See also Ephesians 2:8-10)

Philippians 2:12-13

God is the one working in us--and this does not excuse us from action, it motivates our action!

Does this matter:

1 Thessalonians 4:1-3

This is the will of God for all who believe.