WEBVTT 00:00:04.687 --> 00:00:09.773 Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan and thanks for downloading the FBC Elderado Sermon Podcast. 00:00:09.773 --> 00:00:17.100 We hope today's message will challenge and help you take the next step as you follow Jesus. 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:36.789 It all begins when a mom or dad brings their child into their lap and they open a book, a picture book, and they point to the page and they say something like A is for Apple, b is for Ball, c is for Cat. 00:00:36.789 --> 00:00:47.981 And then, as the months and even years pass, that same child learns how to recognize certain words upon sight and still other words. 00:00:47.981 --> 00:00:52.331 The child learns how to sound out, syllable by syllable. 00:00:52.331 --> 00:01:09.427 Four months and even years pass and that child goes to school and, sitting alongside a teacher and some classmates, that child learns how to string together a series of words and how to begin to comprehend a sentence. 00:01:09.427 --> 00:01:28.688 So, finally, after the child learns the alphabet, learns to see and recognize a word, learns how to sound out words and learns how to string together words and comprehend them, finally, that child is able to pick up and to read a book. 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:31.825 Do you remember the very first book that you read? 00:01:31.825 --> 00:01:34.465 I remember the first book I read. 00:01:34.465 --> 00:01:38.930 I don't remember the title of it, but I remember reading it in that very first day. 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:46.442 I remember holding it in my hands and opening it and the first time being like oh, wow, I can read this now. 00:01:46.442 --> 00:01:51.168 And I read it once, and I read it twice and I read it three times. 00:01:51.168 --> 00:01:54.688 I wanted to tell my mom, I wanted to tell my dad, I wanted to tell my sister. 00:01:54.688 --> 00:01:57.808 It was a Wednesday night and I remember this. 00:01:57.808 --> 00:02:00.728 It's weird what memories stick in your mind, isn't it? 00:02:00.728 --> 00:02:10.229 I remember it was a Wednesday night and I took that book with me to church and we had a fellowship meal in our fellowship hall at Holland Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. 00:02:10.229 --> 00:02:17.485 There was a kid section and an adult section and I sat in the kid section at the kid's table with that book and as I ate my fried chicken, I read the book again. 00:02:17.485 --> 00:02:25.110 I wanted everyone who was there to know finally, I can read and I can read and I can read. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:29.668 There's great joy when a child learns how to read. 00:02:29.668 --> 00:02:32.884 Reading opens a door to new worlds. 00:02:32.884 --> 00:02:38.563 Worlds where there are these fantastic characters and you get to travel to foreign lands. 00:02:38.563 --> 00:02:42.032 Worlds where there are heroes and there are villains. 00:02:42.032 --> 00:02:48.931 Worlds that, when we visit them, they expand what we believe is possible. 00:02:48.931 --> 00:02:57.031 Every parent and every teacher wants a child to experience that joy of reading. 00:02:57.031 --> 00:03:01.246 Because we know this, we know that reading is fundamental. 00:03:01.246 --> 00:03:08.570 It's a predictor of like future academic success and even of career aspirations. 00:03:08.570 --> 00:03:13.269 Sometimes Reading nurtures our social and our emotional maturity. 00:03:13.269 --> 00:03:19.129 Learning to read it helps us develop critical thinking skills and communication skills. 00:03:19.129 --> 00:03:27.251 And in this instance, what's true in the classroom is also true of the church. 00:03:27.251 --> 00:03:33.269 Reading is fundamental for a child of God. 00:03:33.269 --> 00:03:40.510 But as children of God, we must learn not to just read some book or a book. 00:03:40.510 --> 00:03:45.889 We have to be people who learn to read the book. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:51.388 When I use the phrase the book, I'm talking about the Bible. 00:03:51.388 --> 00:03:57.109 Some people may say that the Bible is just a book, but it isn't. 00:03:57.109 --> 00:04:01.889 The Bible is the book. 00:04:01.889 --> 00:04:05.729 The Bible stands in a class all of its own. 00:04:05.729 --> 00:04:21.209 I mean, consider this fact it's estimated that worldwide, over five billion copies of the Bible have been sold, and that number may be closer to seven billion copies. 00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:28.391 That number makes the Bible far and away the world's bestselling book of all time. 00:04:28.391 --> 00:04:34.189 And every bestselling book also has a what a bestselling author. 00:04:34.189 --> 00:04:40.149 And that's truly where the Bible begins to distinguish itself among all the other books. 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:49.673 Second Timothy, chapter three, verse 16, says all scripture is inspired by God. 00:04:49.673 --> 00:05:02.146 The word inspire tells us something very important about the nature and about the character and origin of the Bible. 00:05:02.146 --> 00:05:09.124 The word we translate, inspire, is this Greek word, theonouestos. 00:05:09.124 --> 00:05:15.398 It only occurs, well, in this single verse and all of Scripture. 00:05:15.398 --> 00:05:35.735 That unique word that occurs one time, though it's a compound word that brings together two more familiar words, the word Phaos, which means God, and the word Numa, which you can translate Spirit or wind or, in this case, breath. 00:05:35.735 --> 00:05:52.375 So to say that all Scripture is inspired means that a breath of God brought it about, that it reflects the very essence of who God is. 00:05:52.375 --> 00:06:02.865 That Scripture, from front to back, reveals to us the character of God, the will of God, the ways of God and the heart of God. 00:06:02.865 --> 00:06:30.877 And God gave us the Bible because he wants people, people like you and me, and get this, people who are totally opposite from you and me, people who live on the opposite side of the world, have an opposite way of life, have an opposite family of origin, people who actually have really very little in common with you. 00:06:30.877 --> 00:06:41.276 He wants people like you and people different than you to know him, and that's why he gave us this book, the Bible. 00:06:43.245 --> 00:06:46.755 If I were stranded on a desert island and you were asked that question. 00:06:46.755 --> 00:06:47.829 Sure you know a desert island. 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:50.382 If you could have only one book, would you choose the Bible? 00:06:50.382 --> 00:06:50.904 Maybe you would. 00:06:50.904 --> 00:06:56.384 Maybe you would choose the book and you'd think, man, I'd have plenty of time to read it. 00:06:56.384 --> 00:06:57.968 I'm stranded on a desert island. 00:06:57.968 --> 00:06:59.112 Maybe I have a volleyball. 00:06:59.112 --> 00:07:00.295 Who's my very best friend? 00:07:00.295 --> 00:07:13.355 It's a reference to a Tom Hanks movie for those of you who are unaware, but I have all this time on this island, all by myself, to read the Bible and to get to know God. 00:07:13.355 --> 00:07:15.887 Or would you? 00:07:18.528 --> 00:07:37.153 Most likely, you're never going to find yourself alone, stranded on a desert island, but you will find yourself alone, sitting in your chair, alone, lounging on your porch, alone, laying in your bed, and maybe, when you're all alone, you decide I'm going to what? 00:07:37.153 --> 00:07:41.870 Open my Bible and you read your Bible. 00:07:41.870 --> 00:07:56.795 But instead of the Bible, in that moment, when you were all alone, being the very breath of God washing over you, it's really just a list of names that you really don't know how to pronounce. 00:07:56.795 --> 00:08:01.132 Or it's a series of really strange stories. 00:08:01.132 --> 00:08:03.898 You're not sure what any of them are about. 00:08:03.898 --> 00:08:09.524 Or there are these commands that, like, seem really irrelevant to your life? 00:08:09.524 --> 00:08:15.298 I mean, what does not boiling a goat in its mother's milk have to do with you? 00:08:15.298 --> 00:08:23.846 I mean, especially considering, in fact, you're lactose intolerant, like you just stay away from milk all the time, you know. 00:08:24.166 --> 00:08:37.245 I think, if we'll be honest with ourselves, some days, or maybe most days, while you believe that the Bible is the book, it sure does seem like it's just another book. 00:08:37.245 --> 00:08:56.840 You believe that the Bible is living, an active and a double-edged sword, but what you really experience in your daily devotional life is a book that seems like dull and dry and more like just a double dose of melatonin that puts your eye to sleep. 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:01.239 I think many of us feel that tension in our lives. 00:09:01.239 --> 00:09:13.543 Our doctrine is the Bible is the book, but our lived experience, our daily devotional life, says it's nothing more than a book. 00:09:13.543 --> 00:09:28.884 And here's the thing when the Bible isn't living, an active in your life, that's why God feels so distant, and when the Bible isn't a double-edged sword, that's why unconfessed sin lingers in our hearts. 00:09:28.884 --> 00:09:34.591 But we know the disconnect is there and I think many of us. 00:09:34.631 --> 00:09:41.225 We want to reconnect what we believe and see it lived out in our daily devotional lives. 00:09:41.225 --> 00:09:56.884 So this morning I want to lay out, for you and for our church, two principles that, if we adopt them, we'll connect doctrine to the daily what we believe is true about the Bible, to our daily devotional habits. 00:09:56.884 --> 00:09:59.091 It will connect them. 00:09:59.091 --> 00:10:04.245 And here's the thing, because we want the Bible to be the book that your family turns to. 00:10:04.245 --> 00:10:14.985 We want the Bible to be the book that you look to when you're making a decision or seeking guidance for who, the choice you need to make. 00:10:14.985 --> 00:10:23.485 The Bible to be the book that shapes the way you see the world and what you believe in. 00:10:23.485 --> 00:10:30.139 You see the world and what you believe is good, right and true and beautiful in it. 00:10:30.139 --> 00:10:35.504 And so here are the two principles I want to lay out for you this morning. 00:10:35.504 --> 00:10:39.576 Principle number one is this the garden is where I meet God. 00:10:39.576 --> 00:10:43.695 Principle number two the goal is to see Jesus. 00:10:43.695 --> 00:10:47.272 The garden is where I meet God and the goal is to see Jesus. 00:10:47.272 --> 00:10:51.873 So let's reflect on that first principle. 00:10:52.394 --> 00:11:03.062 Genesis, chapter three, verses eight and nine when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. 00:11:03.062 --> 00:11:06.932 So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 00:11:06.932 --> 00:11:11.620 And then the Lord God called to the man where are you? 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:14.565 There's a few observations about those two verses. 00:11:14.565 --> 00:11:17.664 I'll start with the most obvious observation. 00:11:17.664 --> 00:11:22.780 The garden of Genesis three is the garden of Eden. 00:11:22.780 --> 00:11:23.745 It's a specific garden. 00:11:23.745 --> 00:11:36.114 If you consider the description in Genesis two, it locates that garden somewhere in the Middle East, somewhere between or near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 00:11:36.114 --> 00:11:39.519 Here's just what I want you to notice. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:51.221 The Garden of Eden is a specific place and it's in that specific place that Adam and Eve met with God. 00:11:51.221 --> 00:11:57.745 That observation, I think, begs the question where is your garden? 00:11:57.745 --> 00:12:00.559 Do you have a garden? 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:08.256 Where's the place that you daily go and when you arrive you know you will meet with God? 00:12:09.815 --> 00:12:14.898 For me, it's a chair that's in our living room, not a fancy chair, not an all too comfortable chair either. 00:12:14.898 --> 00:12:17.700 I go there every morning. 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:20.702 Well, me and my dog go there every morning. 00:12:20.702 --> 00:12:33.756 He sits on the couch across from me and stares at me and snores a little bit more, but when I sit in that chair, it's my cue to know that I'm going to meet with God in this moment. 00:12:33.756 --> 00:12:50.537 This is the place where we come, and not that I don't pray throughout the day, not that I don't think about and talk to God during the day, but like this is the scheduled place where we always have our you know time together. 00:12:50.537 --> 00:12:57.347 When I read my Bible and I'm not in the chair, I'm often. 00:12:57.347 --> 00:13:13.280 Here's the thing I'm often inclined to let my mind wander, or I'll doze back to sleep, or I'll read things too quickly, or I will forget to read God's word altogether when I sit in that chair. 00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:14.424 It's the cue. 00:13:14.424 --> 00:13:18.398 You know what you're supposed to do when you come here. 00:13:19.061 --> 00:13:23.082 Right, you have those places in your life for other relationships. 00:13:23.082 --> 00:13:42.124 It could be the couch at your parents' home, like you know, we're going to talk when we sit down here, or the family dinner table or a coffee shop where we always meet a friend, and if that friend's not there, it just feels weird to sit in a chair or a booth at that coffee shop, because when you go, they are always there. 00:13:42.124 --> 00:13:46.485 That's your spot where you spend time with them. 00:13:46.485 --> 00:13:50.966 And the same is true of our relationship with God. 00:13:50.966 --> 00:13:53.981 Remember what we said he is personal, he is intimate. 00:13:53.981 --> 00:14:00.883 So the garden is where I meet God, and my garden is my chair. 00:14:00.883 --> 00:14:02.626 And where's your garden? 00:14:04.174 --> 00:14:09.466 A second observation is this God meets Adam and Eve at a specific time of day. 00:14:09.466 --> 00:14:12.381 He meets them at evening, we're told. 00:14:12.381 --> 00:14:27.496 I don't know how much to make of this, but the Spirit just kind of impressed upon me this week that what mattered was there was a moment labeled in that day, when God came to them. 00:14:27.496 --> 00:14:35.523 Yes, we talk to God throughout the day, we pray without ceasing, honoring that command. 00:14:35.523 --> 00:14:57.620 We discern God's presence in our life he is always with us but that there can be moments within the day that we set aside and that we schedule, that we know this is the time when I am more intently, more purposefully focused on hearing to and listening to the voice of God. 00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:01.740 It was evening in this story. 00:15:01.740 --> 00:15:04.984 It doesn't have to be evening in your life, mine's in the morning. 00:15:06.274 --> 00:15:09.725 King David spent his mornings with God, psalm chapter five. 00:15:09.725 --> 00:15:14.063 Each morning I bring my request to you and wait expectantly. 00:15:14.063 --> 00:15:30.517 I prefer morning because, quite honestly, if I don't meet with God in the morning, it'll be the end of the day and I'll be exhausted and I'll be like I'll have to try again tomorrow because I'm so tired. 00:15:30.517 --> 00:15:32.945 Just real life. 00:15:32.945 --> 00:15:39.505 I prefer mornings because it shapes my outlook on the rest of the day. 00:15:39.505 --> 00:15:50.167 God, in his perfect knowledge, has this uncanny way of preparing me for what is coming that day, to minister to me in that moment. 00:15:50.167 --> 00:16:00.642 So, no matter what I face, he's given me the tools and the empowering of my spirit, through his spirit in me, to face them and to overcome them. 00:16:00.642 --> 00:16:06.238 The garden is where I meet God. 00:16:06.238 --> 00:16:07.922 My garden is my chair. 00:16:07.922 --> 00:16:11.398 I visit my garden in the morning, wendy, visit yours. 00:16:13.477 --> 00:16:22.605 A third observation is this you may be aware, you may not be aware of kind, of the context of those two verses. 00:16:22.605 --> 00:16:31.902 The beginning of Genesis three tells us how sin entered the world, the story of a serpent tempting Adam and Eve. 00:16:31.902 --> 00:16:40.236 The story of Adam and Eve falling into that temptation, disobeying the explicit command of God. 00:16:40.236 --> 00:16:45.842 So keep that sequence of events in your mind and notice what happens. 00:16:45.842 --> 00:16:53.865 God comes to the garden and calls out to Adam and Eve. 00:16:56.514 --> 00:17:05.701 I think one reason that the Bible can seem like nothing more than a book is because I'm a sinner, like Adam and Eve. 00:17:05.701 --> 00:17:08.277 I hate to break it to you. 00:17:08.277 --> 00:17:16.509 Every day I sin and the shame of sin causes me to believe. 00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:28.019 It tells me the lie that God doesn't want anything to do with me, he doesn't want to speak to me, he doesn't want to listen, he doesn't want to meet with me. 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:31.018 That's not who God is. 00:17:31.018 --> 00:17:38.685 God still enters the garden and asks the question where are you? 00:17:38.685 --> 00:18:01.544 There have been seasons in my life when I wasn't spending time in God's word and I would convince myself that I had to be sober from sin for a certain period of time before I could read God's word and meet with God in that garden area. 00:18:01.544 --> 00:18:04.805 I had to figure some things out. 00:18:04.805 --> 00:18:11.787 I had to get my life straight before he'd want to spend any time with me. 00:18:11.787 --> 00:18:16.924 Has anybody else ever told yourself that lie and believed that lie? 00:18:16.924 --> 00:18:21.564 But listen, that's not who God is. 00:18:21.564 --> 00:18:24.160 It wasn't who he was to Adam and Eve. 00:18:26.796 --> 00:18:29.144 When you enter the garden, god is there. 00:18:29.144 --> 00:18:30.941 He is searching and seeking. 00:18:30.941 --> 00:18:33.520 He's calling you out of hiding. 00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:38.304 We can hear him in that moment with Adam and Eve. 00:18:38.304 --> 00:18:46.515 What he's doing is he's kind of asking them to name their sin right, or he says where are you? 00:18:46.515 --> 00:18:55.243 And as he calls us and lays upon us to confess our sin, we also hear him speaking words of forgiveness and grace in his love. 00:18:55.243 --> 00:19:07.365 The garden is where I meet God and even though I'm a sinner, I still hear God call me when I am there. 00:19:07.365 --> 00:19:17.439 Second principle the goal is to meet Jesus or to see Jesus, matthew 5. 00:19:18.996 --> 00:19:22.525 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. 00:19:22.525 --> 00:19:26.482 I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 00:19:26.482 --> 00:19:39.747 For truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law, until everything is accomplished. 00:19:39.747 --> 00:19:48.465 Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. 00:19:48.465 --> 00:19:54.763 But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 00:19:56.416 --> 00:20:00.586 Did you know that during Jesus' lifetime there wasn't a New Testament? 00:20:00.586 --> 00:20:05.515 There were just the books that we called the Old Testament. 00:20:05.515 --> 00:20:08.484 But they didn't even call it the Old Testament. 00:20:08.484 --> 00:20:11.433 They called it the law and the prophets. 00:20:11.433 --> 00:20:16.959 Two sections, the largest two sections of the Old Testament were given the title. 00:20:16.959 --> 00:20:18.944 That kind of summarized its contents. 00:20:19.996 --> 00:20:26.067 Apparently, some people were accusing Jesus of ripping pages out of the law and the prophets. 00:20:26.067 --> 00:20:29.515 But here's the thing Jesus loved the law and the prophets. 00:20:29.515 --> 00:20:31.474 He lived according to it. 00:20:31.474 --> 00:20:34.515 He was like any other devout Jewish boy. 00:20:34.515 --> 00:20:40.515 From an early age he would begin to memorize and recite significant portions of God's word. 00:20:40.515 --> 00:20:49.306 He would pray the Psalms, he would hear the stories of the kings, he would learn the wisdom of those sages and he would hear the voice of the prophets. 00:20:49.306 --> 00:20:53.904 Jesus was such a devout student that he's only 12 years old. 00:20:54.996 --> 00:20:55.919 You remember the story? 00:20:55.919 --> 00:21:06.865 He stays at the temple in Jerusalem, his parents go back home and he has a discussion, an argument, with the rabbis who are at the temple. 00:21:06.865 --> 00:21:14.806 You see, jesus believed and knew that the Bible is the book. 00:21:14.806 --> 00:21:18.759 So Jesus in his ministry. 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:22.467 He is in no way abolishing the Old Testament. 00:21:22.467 --> 00:21:26.303 Instead, he uses the word fulfill. 00:21:26.303 --> 00:21:36.046 And when he uses the word fulfill, it means this that the entirety of the Old Testament anticipated this moment. 00:21:36.046 --> 00:21:41.125 Jesus is going to be the one who dots every eye and crosses every T. 00:21:41.125 --> 00:21:46.105 He will explain every detail and bring to conclusion every storyline. 00:21:46.105 --> 00:21:56.798 He's on every page of it and in that teaching what Jesus reminds us of when we read the Bible. 00:21:56.798 --> 00:21:57.782 The goal is to see him. 00:21:57.782 --> 00:22:01.515 The goal isn't to know more information. 00:22:01.515 --> 00:22:07.394 The goal isn't to find a promise, even that we can claim, or to check the box on our reading plan. 00:22:07.394 --> 00:22:12.178 The goal is to see Jesus Right. 00:22:12.178 --> 00:22:19.518 The goal is to see that he is there, that he is alive, and have an encounter with the living God. 00:22:21.201 --> 00:22:33.096 Just this last week, my Bible reading plan took me through over the course of a couple of weeks, first and second chronicles, just so you know it's super boring, like it's a real snoozer. 00:22:33.096 --> 00:22:38.667 At points All the characters sound alike and it gets really confusing. 00:22:38.667 --> 00:22:48.845 There's Rehoboam and Jeroboam, there's Joash and Josiah, there's Amaziah and Uziah and then you have to keep track of, like, the king Is it a king of Judah or is he a king of Israel? 00:22:48.845 --> 00:22:52.778 And honestly it's kind of hard even for me to keep it all straight. 00:22:52.778 --> 00:22:55.729 Like I have to go back and reread portions like who's this talking about? 00:22:55.729 --> 00:22:56.450 Who's their mom? 00:22:56.450 --> 00:22:57.256 Who's the prophet? 00:22:57.256 --> 00:22:59.019 Where did they live? 00:22:59.019 --> 00:23:00.842 What did they do right, what did they do wrong. 00:23:00.842 --> 00:23:06.057 I can keep a lot of it straight, but not all of it. 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:11.778 It reminds me of a question that was asked of one of my professors in seminary. 00:23:11.778 --> 00:23:22.483 She was asked at the end of the semester how a student should best, how she had memorized and learned all the kings of Israel. 00:23:22.483 --> 00:23:24.835 How did you organize them? 00:23:24.835 --> 00:23:26.118 How did you put them on the timeline? 00:23:26.118 --> 00:23:27.162 How did you know what they did? 00:23:27.162 --> 00:23:27.723 And she goes. 00:23:27.723 --> 00:23:30.439 I really kind of think that's a waste of time. 00:23:30.439 --> 00:23:32.102 I've never done that. 00:23:32.102 --> 00:23:39.143 Like she has a PhD from Yale and that was her response. 00:23:39.625 --> 00:23:42.836 Her point was this like that's not the point of it. 00:23:42.836 --> 00:23:51.799 The point of it is to not have every name memorized and to have every name in order and to know what they did right and what they did wrong. 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:58.657 The point, the goal, is to see Jesus Even in second chronicles. 00:23:58.657 --> 00:24:12.115 In second chronicles five, the glory of God fills the temple of Solomon and in that moment, as followers of Jesus, we shouldn't just see a past historical event. 00:24:12.115 --> 00:24:22.303 We should be reminded that Jesus is the one who brings the glory of God, the fullness of God's glory, to this earth. 00:24:22.303 --> 00:24:27.497 And so that story of the past becomes a present reality in our own lives. 00:24:27.497 --> 00:24:35.819 Because I know Jesus, I've encountered the glory of God, the same glory that filled the temple of Solomon. 00:24:38.222 --> 00:24:44.778 Or, in chapter 20, god gives this man named Jehoshaphat a victory, a great victory. 00:24:44.778 --> 00:25:01.828 And then Jehoshaphat leads this victory parade into the city of Jerusalem, and reading that, I couldn't help but remember how Jesus entered in on his own parade at the beginning of Holy Week, as the people cried out Hosanna. 00:25:01.828 --> 00:25:19.844 As I think about this victory that happened thousands of years ago with Jehoshaphat and his armies, I'm reminded there's a far greater victory that was won by Jesus Christ, that God won for Jehoshaphat and that God has won through us by sending his own son, jesus Christ, to die for us. 00:25:19.844 --> 00:25:36.037 And so, instead of thinking like what do I do with this crazy battle that happened, where God just decimated the army and will God, you know, knock down every Goliath or every army that I face? 00:25:36.037 --> 00:25:38.241 But what at the point is this like? 00:25:38.241 --> 00:25:45.765 We're to be reminded of the salvation we have in Jesus Christ, that he won the greater victory for us. 00:25:45.765 --> 00:25:52.641 The past historical event becomes a present reality in our own life. 00:25:54.425 --> 00:25:57.252 In chapter 27, a king named Jotham. 00:25:57.252 --> 00:26:02.827 He's described this way as steadfastly walking before the Lord, his God. 00:26:02.827 --> 00:26:05.055 That was his life description. 00:26:05.055 --> 00:26:12.467 He steadfastly walked before the Lord, his God, and Jesus he's like, greater than Jotham. 00:26:12.467 --> 00:26:16.880 He's never deviated from the will of the Father. 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:20.926 He prayed not my will, but your will be done. 00:26:20.926 --> 00:26:36.259 And that's just three examples found in the book of Second Chronicles of how Jesus does, what he explains every detail, how Jesus concludes every storyline, how he is on every single page, old and new. 00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:41.489 And the goal when we read our Bibles is not more information. 00:26:41.489 --> 00:26:46.298 The goal is to see Jesus. 00:26:46.298 --> 00:26:48.521 Jesus, I see you. 00:26:48.521 --> 00:26:50.806 Jesus, we met together. 00:26:50.806 --> 00:26:52.689 Jesus, you are alive. 00:26:52.689 --> 00:26:54.096 Jesus, you are still speaking. 00:26:55.999 --> 00:27:00.787 All the way back in second grade my class had a reading competition. 00:27:00.787 --> 00:27:06.384 I didn't start off too hot in the reading competition, I didn't take it all too seriously. 00:27:06.384 --> 00:27:15.729 And then I found out what the prizes were and I found out how other kids in the classroom were going about competing in this reading competition. 00:27:15.729 --> 00:27:30.438 So one day I just decided I'm all in, I'm going to win this thing, and so, starting that day a week into the competition, every afternoon when I got home I would read from like 3.30 in the afternoon until I went to bed at 9.30 or 10. 00:27:30.438 --> 00:27:36.756 And I would take a break for dinner and then I'd go back and read some more. 00:27:36.756 --> 00:27:41.126 On Saturdays I read from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to bed. 00:27:41.126 --> 00:27:44.867 On Sundays, the only break from reading that I took was when I went to church. 00:27:46.493 --> 00:27:47.355 How much did I read? 00:27:47.355 --> 00:27:50.222 I read Laura Ingalls Wilder and I was in the second grade. 00:27:50.222 --> 00:28:01.055 My sister had all those books and I was looking for something to read and they were so boring and I ended up. 00:28:01.055 --> 00:28:02.258 I won that reading competition. 00:28:02.258 --> 00:28:07.895 It really wasn't even close Like I obliterated everybody else in my class. 00:28:07.895 --> 00:28:11.503 But you know what and this is true. 00:28:13.106 --> 00:28:18.261 At the end of it I had lost the joy of reading. 00:28:18.261 --> 00:28:22.844 Reading had just become this competition. 00:28:22.844 --> 00:28:31.409 It had become a duty, it had become like a means to an end, for some prize at the end of the journey or the road. 00:28:31.409 --> 00:28:38.227 And I think, when it comes to the Bible, many of us are like me when I was in second grade. 00:28:38.227 --> 00:28:43.821 We've lost the joy when we read the Bible. 00:28:43.821 --> 00:28:52.378 It feels lifeless, it feels irrelevant, it feels boring, it's not inspiring, it just tires us out. 00:28:52.378 --> 00:28:55.221 It's a duty and never a delight. 00:28:55.221 --> 00:28:58.442 But it just doesn't have to be that way. 00:29:00.055 --> 00:29:02.461 The Bible is life giving. 00:29:02.461 --> 00:29:08.060 It is not just a book, it's the book. 00:29:08.060 --> 00:29:14.846 The Bible is relevant, no matter the generation or the situation. 00:29:14.846 --> 00:29:17.178 It's not just a book. 00:29:17.178 --> 00:29:23.255 The Bible is the book. 00:29:23.255 --> 00:29:30.246 It should be anything but boring to us because the Bible tells the story of Jesus. 00:29:30.246 --> 00:29:35.803 And the story of Jesus is anything but boring. 00:29:35.803 --> 00:29:38.820 It's the greatest story. 00:29:38.820 --> 00:29:42.201 The cliche is it's the greatest story it's ever been told. 00:29:42.201 --> 00:29:43.826 And it is true it really is. 00:29:43.826 --> 00:29:47.755 But the Bible tells the story of Jesus is better than any other story. 00:29:47.755 --> 00:30:05.125 His life is greater than any other life because by his perfect life, by a sinitoning death on the cross, salvation is offered to the world and the Bible is the one book that tells the story of Jesus. 00:30:05.125 --> 00:30:08.938 It's not just a book, it's the book. 00:30:08.938 --> 00:30:16.722 It's God breathed, and that breath of God reveals to us the truth of who Jesus is. 00:30:18.855 --> 00:30:29.948 So next week, here's my challenge to you If you already have kind of a Bible habit, keep it up, but integrate these two principles. 00:30:29.948 --> 00:30:32.119 The garden is where I meet God. 00:30:32.119 --> 00:30:33.798 Set a time, set a place. 00:30:33.798 --> 00:30:50.567 Know that, even though you're a sinner, god's going to call out to you and remember that the goal is to see Jesus and so just walk into that time saying Jesus, I want to see you. 00:30:50.567 --> 00:30:53.478 Where are you in this as he calls out? 00:30:53.478 --> 00:30:54.435 Where are you Call out? 00:30:54.435 --> 00:30:55.459 Where are you, jesus? 00:30:55.459 --> 00:31:00.469 And my promise and my belief is that Jesus will show up. 00:31:00.469 --> 00:31:05.500 If you take the time to call out to him, he will meet with you in that garden. 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:12.345 And if you don't have a habit of reading the Bible, start one. 00:31:12.345 --> 00:31:14.936 Start one today. 00:31:14.936 --> 00:31:37.759 Don't watch all the Dallas Cowboys game or the Saints game, like they're going to disappoint you and read God's word for 15 minutes and then decide in that 15 minutes. 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:39.365 This is where I'm going to go. 00:31:39.365 --> 00:31:44.805 This is the time it's going to be, and this is what I'm going to read tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night, or tomorrow at lunch. 00:31:44.805 --> 00:31:59.311 This is how it's going to roll and build that habit in your life and let those principles guide you that the garden is where I meet God and the goal is to see Jesus. 00:31:59.311 --> 00:32:08.949 I promise to each and every one of us in this room, if we put those principles into practice, I promise to you, the Bible will come alive. 00:32:08.949 --> 00:32:28.323 Let's stand together and pray, spout your head for a moment and close your eyes. 00:32:39.619 --> 00:32:40.804 Psalm 119,. 00:32:40.804 --> 00:32:46.125 How can a young person stay on the path of purity, a living according to your word? 00:32:46.125 --> 00:32:49.164 I seek you with all my heart. 00:32:49.164 --> 00:32:51.425 The lot me stray from your commands. 00:32:51.425 --> 00:32:55.525 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 00:32:55.525 --> 00:32:57.423 Praise be to you, lord. 00:32:57.423 --> 00:32:59.027 Teach me your decrees. 00:32:59.027 --> 00:33:03.548 With my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. 00:33:03.548 --> 00:33:08.700 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 00:33:08.700 --> 00:33:11.388 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 00:33:11.388 --> 00:33:13.940 I delight in your decrees. 00:33:14.821 --> 00:33:17.248 Now listen to the last phrase of verse 16. 00:33:17.248 --> 00:33:22.886 I will not neglect your word. 00:33:22.886 --> 00:33:33.192 So, father, those words of David are our prayer this morning. 00:33:33.192 --> 00:33:39.268 Let us not neglect your word. 00:33:39.268 --> 00:33:47.109 We know you are calling to meet and want to meet with your children. 00:33:47.109 --> 00:33:48.602 Where are you? 00:33:50.619 --> 00:33:57.834 We know, we know that Jesus wants to reveal himself to us in the pages of your word. 00:33:57.834 --> 00:33:59.707 It's living and active and he is alive. 00:33:59.707 --> 00:34:01.163 He is active in this world. 00:34:01.163 --> 00:34:09.822 So, jesus, in your mercy, leap off the pages of the Bible that we would see you, we would grow closer to you. 00:34:09.822 --> 00:34:15.905 Jesus, we thank you for the gift of your word. 00:34:15.905 --> 00:34:22.547 We thank you that you want to be known by us, that you don't want to hide from us. 00:34:22.547 --> 00:34:24.503 You want to be with us. 00:34:24.503 --> 00:34:38.581 And so now I just want you to commit, if you're ready, commit to reading God's word in a way that is life-giving. 00:34:38.581 --> 00:34:55.340 This next week, just say, father, this is where I'm going to go, I'll meet you there. 00:34:55.340 --> 00:35:05.925 Say, jesus, I'm going to open your word. 00:35:05.925 --> 00:35:07.561 Help me see you. 00:35:07.561 --> 00:35:25.422 Jesus, we believe and we trust that you will hear and answer these prayers this morning, in Christ's name, amen.