SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, my uh mentor really encouraged me to get into the practice, the discipline of journaling.
SPEAKER_00: You know, using a pen and write out my thoughts and feelings every day as part of my time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, uh, I was not a fan at first.
SPEAKER_00: Just not a fan at first, uh, let's get this done, slow me down, Didi the Speedy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it just was hard.
SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me.
SPEAKER_00: But he kept encouraging me to do it, and the reason he kept encouraging me is that I had to get out of the mindset of thinking of it as something that was useful for me, and I had to recognize that this was a practice that was more important because of what it did to me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we deal with a world that puts high value on things that are useful for us, many times at the cost of thinking and considering what's it doing to us.
SPEAKER_00: Think about handwriting.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, handwriting does something to you.
SPEAKER_00: Scientific evidence out there that shows that that if you if you learn use handwriting, it's a good tool to improve memory and learning.
SPEAKER_00: When you're handwriting notes in in class, it helps you be able to really understand concepts better and to remember what you've learned.
SPEAKER_00: Handwriting is one of the best things you can do to teach children.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it helps their brain development, teaches them to focus, teaches them patience, aids in comprehension and attention span.
SPEAKER_00: Handwriting is an important piece in developing the dexterity of your hands, fingers, helps with coordination.
SPEAKER_00: Handwriting helps creative expression.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the things that that I come to realize there's there's really not a sermon that I don't have some sense of writing out by hand, uh, doodling notes, drawing pictures.
SPEAKER_00: You looked at my notes for sermon writing, you're like, this is absolute chaos, arrows, circles, all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: But that's just that's the creative process.
SPEAKER_00: It's often considered formalized thinking because it causes you to slow down, to ponder, to process your feelings.
SPEAKER_00: So handwriting is one of those things that are more valuable, not because it's useful for you, but because of what it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: So I brought to you some of the my journals.
SPEAKER_00: You can see this was a fancy one, it was given a gift to me, leather bound, looks pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but by and large, I use these simple journals, and and what I do is I every morning I start the day, open up my page, I write down the date.
SPEAKER_00: I write down my life day number.
SPEAKER_00: Today is day number 20,682, if you're interested.
SPEAKER_00: And I write down the day number of the year.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's something I've added, the day number of the year.
SPEAKER_00: Today's uh day number 116 of 365.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I do that is a discipline for what it does to me.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me that this is the day that the Lord has made.
SPEAKER_00: I will rejoice and be glad in it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a psalm, but it's a reminder that each day is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm also reminds us to count our days as a way to understand uh how God is working, that he calls us to live where our feet are.
SPEAKER_00: Because we have a tendency to move forward in arrogance, thinking we can control our future.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, many times, we get gripped by the things of the past that we can't change.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I go through this process.
SPEAKER_00: And so I write these things down and then I read the Word of God, I read scripture, and I use my pen to write out my reflections, my thoughts on that, and my summary of the day and any major issues that I might have from the day that's passed as my reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've taken to using these kinds of pens a lot.
SPEAKER_00: These are pilot varsity precise fountain pens.
SPEAKER_00: And the thing about a fountain pen is that when you use a fountain pen, you have to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta make sure that the tip, the point is down correctly, otherwise it won't work well.
SPEAKER_00: You can't rush, because if you rush, what are you gonna end up with?
SPEAKER_00: Big blobs of ink all over the paper.
SPEAKER_00: And this is another practice for me to kind of not be hasty in my reflections, to really focus on making sure I write clearly, succinctly.
SPEAKER_00: It's good for me to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is a practice of saying something to me, slowing down, be with God, ponder his words.
SPEAKER_00: So there are a lot of things that we have in life, and things that are useful to for us is very much a part of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be people that that are useful, we want to be people that are productive, we want to be a people that that do things quickly and efficiently.
SPEAKER_00: Those are good things, but uh many times the practices that we engage in, the things that we we we do in order to be productive, in order to be profitable, in order to be able to get our voice out in the world, the things that we do, the things that that we are useful for us, uh, we don't contemplate what's it doing to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, hey, you can gain the world, but you can lose your soul.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think about I think about knowledge, I think about all the things that we have access to these days, all the things that we can simply discover by pulling out our phone in our pocket and doing a search and finding the answer to the question that we have.
SPEAKER_00: I think about the rise of AI, which has just really sped up this ability to access knowledge, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: It's a powerful tool that's useful for us in so many things which are good, but at what cost?
SPEAKER_00: As artificial intelligence increases, is human intelligence increasing?
SPEAKER_00: Is our growing dependence on AI what's that doing to us?
SPEAKER_00: Now the Bible has ancient knowledge, we could call it truth.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God, what the word of God teaches is that what's most important is who we are becoming over what we're doing and how we're doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Bible teaches that when it comes to knowledge, who you are is more important than what you do.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing God is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about knowing God, we're talking about knowing God in relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible teaches that when you're in a place where you know God, you become in the right position in order to use the knowledge that you have in life, the truth in life, in a way that's beneficial to you.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 9, verse 10 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord, it's a it's a place, it's a it's a condition of who you are, is the beginning of being able to use knowledge, to use the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is using truth in the right way at the right time for the right purposes.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is that?
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's living in such a way that you know God so well that you are you are aware of the things that would displease him as well as the aware of the things that that that makes him smile, but the things that you know would displease him causes your heart to drop in many ways as if you were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You know God so well that you know what how what would offend him.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about this, and I think, well, this is kind of how it works in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that I can think of, scenarios that could happen, that I think about it, and I know that it would really displease, would really upset my wife, and it causes my heart to drop.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, she has a favorite mug that we she has tea every day with.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mug that I got her in 2015 from Zimbabwe.
SPEAKER_00: And if I was careless, if I was foolish, if I was not paying attention and one day dropped that mug, I know, I know the feelings I would feel.
SPEAKER_00: My heart would drop, my heart would start racing, my hands would get sweaty at the thought of having to tell her I would be giving all the signals that says, your life is in danger.
SPEAKER_00: And my life would be in danger.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, it wouldn't be because I was in danger, it was because I would be in danger of sharing something that would break her heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of my love for her and how much she I know that she loves that mug and loves to have tea out of that mug is the reason, is the emotion behind that fear.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what what this proverb's talking about is the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the starting position, the place you need to be of what?
SPEAKER_00: Of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The ability to do the right thing in the right way at the right time for the right results.
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is knowledge that that you're into that's that's not just useful for you, but it's more importantly, it's powerful because of what it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: It changes you to be a better person, it changes you to be better in your marriage and in your parenting and in your work and as a neighbor and as a citizen and all the roles you play in life.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is knowledge of God, knowing God.
SPEAKER_00: That's best because of what it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we're gonna be talking about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Peter is talking about as we go through this passage of scripture, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, so verse 5, if you do, let's do a little recap of what we've been talking about the past two weeks as we're going through this series, bloom.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, verse 1 through 4, he says, Because you made right with God, God has given you everything you need.
SPEAKER_00: By his divine power, his supernatural power gives you everything you need for what?
SPEAKER_00: To have life and to live in a manner that honors God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what godliness means.
SPEAKER_00: For this very reason, he says, make every effort.
SPEAKER_00: You, your response to God in your life is for you to make every effort to add to your faith goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about what it means, this goodness last week.
SPEAKER_00: If you missed that, you can look at again online.
SPEAKER_00: But goodness basically is the word arete in Greek, which means moral excellence.
SPEAKER_00: It means being a straight arrow.
SPEAKER_00: It basically means living your life in a way that demonstrates that God is in it.
SPEAKER_00: You live a life, your life knowing that that demonstrates that confirms that you believe God exists, and not only is he existing, that you love him and that you are following him and you will live consistently to those commitments.
SPEAKER_00: Make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and then he says, and to goodness knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: As you go along, make every effort to add knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna, before we get deeper into what knowledge is talking about here, I'm gonna go back to the question that we asked last week.
SPEAKER_00: What does every effort mean?
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm saying this is because we have to understand that this is not a list that you add to your to-dos because they're useful to you for you.
SPEAKER_00: You add it as if this is all on you.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is something that you practice because of what it does to you, and it's a partnership that's energized, that's powered by the Spirit of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's the activities that you do that bring about transformation in your life.
SPEAKER_00: See, God has provided divine power for godliness because of what they do to you, not because of the fact that they're only useful for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's living by the Spirit, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: It's submitting yourself to practices that that align your life to God's spirit in you.
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about living by faith.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about prayer, we're talking about being part of your church family, we're talking about serving, we're talking about learning to be generous as you're prompted by the truth that you know God owns all things, and he has called you to be generous, to be a partner in the work that he's doing in this world by resourcing his work through the church and through ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And our focus here it's learning to live the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think when Peter talks about adding knowledge, what he's talking about specifically is adding the facts about your faith in Jesus to your life.
SPEAKER_00: Learning about Jesus, learning about God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say this is because the word knowledge here is a different word than the word knowledge that's referenced to earlier verses.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we said in the earlier verses, Peter says, Hey, you will grow in your knowledge of God, and that word knowledge is epinosis, which means knowing God from the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's a relational term.
SPEAKER_00: It's living with God, it's knowing God as a person, as he gets to know you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a relationship term.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this word is different.
SPEAKER_00: This word, knowledge, simply is knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: It's gnosis, it means facts, it means data, it means information.
SPEAKER_00: We would say it's the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so practically, what I what I see here is that Peter is talking about giving yourself to what we would call Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: But Bible study is more about just sitting, sitting down and reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: No, Bible study is recognizing that the information that God has given to us, speaking directly to people over time, about who he is, about how we can who we are and how we can know him and live with him, how we can know him, epinosis, that's contained in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And so I've got this statement here.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: It's a commitment to learn God's word, learn the Bible, so that you can do what?
SPEAKER_00: Live God's word so that you can be confident you're doing God's will.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn God's word so you can live God's word, so you can be confident you can live in a place where your life is solidly built upon God's will, God's works.
SPEAKER_00: Learn God's word so you can live God's word, so you can be confident you're doing God's will.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question then needs to say, okay, then, Dee Dee, how can you make every effort to add knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: And here's a few practical steps I'm going to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: First, get a Bible that you can understand.
SPEAKER_00: Bible is the most published book in all history.
SPEAKER_00: And we live in a time of great opportunity when it comes to Bible, because we have access to the Bible like no one else.
SPEAKER_00: We've got all these different versions.
SPEAKER_00: We can access it on our phones, we can buy books whenever we want, order them up, and get them into our houses.
SPEAKER_00: We have stacks of Bibles sitting on our shelves, as well as the family Bible many of you might have sitting on the living room, you know, right there in the in the living room.
SPEAKER_00: Our Bibles are made up of two parts, right?
SPEAKER_00: You got the Old Testament, the Old Testament is 39 different books, and you got the New Testament, 27 books, I believe, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament is the story of God raising up a people to be his own, the Israelites, in order to take from one of those people, take the Messiah from the Israelites to be the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, you've got all sorts of kind of literature.
SPEAKER_00: You got history and you got poetry and you've got prophecy and you got what's called apocalyptic literature, all different types of literature that that really are God speaking to men of God so that they might record that and share that with the people of God, so they may learn how to live with God in relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the New Testament, the second part of our Bible, is is all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: God said, I'm going to send one who will bring about the fulfillment of my revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you need to know about me will be encapsulated, will be finished when Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_00: And so the New Testament, also made up of letters and made up of history and made up of apocalyptic literature, which is basically the book of Revelation, where you've got all these strange pictures and stories that have a message behind them.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament is all about Jesus, and all of Jesus is what the Bible says is everything we need to know about God is now finished in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, the language of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament was written in what was called Common Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Greek was the language of the Roman Empire, it was the language that everyone from all different countries that were conquered by Rome learned to speak so they could communicate and trade and do business.
SPEAKER_00: So modern English Bibles are translations that have come down to us from the original languages that have come into English.
SPEAKER_00: And in translation, there are just basically two approaches.
SPEAKER_00: There's what's called the word-for-word approach.
SPEAKER_00: You can say, okay, for the Greek or the Hebrew or the Aramaic word, we're going to go translate one English word for each and then put them in a construction of English that we can understand.
SPEAKER_00: The other approach is called a thought-for-thought approach.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where you say, okay, we want to take this statement in the original and we're going to say it in our Greek language the way we would say it.
SPEAKER_00: Thought for thought.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we regularly over the years get questions from folks who say, okay, what kind of Bible do I need to get?
SPEAKER_00: Is there an official Mount Carmel Bible?
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have an official Mount Mount Carmel Bible, but we have recommendations.
SPEAKER_00: I sat down with the teaching team and I said, okay, guys, let's let's give me give me some four basics that we can tell people, four basic versions that you would recommend folks here to get to understand the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna start with those that are more word for word, right?
SPEAKER_00: In the translation philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: The first is the English Standard Version, the ESV.
SPEAKER_00: Encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's more of a word-for-word basis.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's no version of the Bible that's perfectly all word-for-word, because if it was all word for word, we wouldn't be able to read it because it will be jumbled.
SPEAKER_00: Because the construction of the Greek original doesn't follow English construction of sentences.
SPEAKER_00: The New American Standard Version, I I recommend the 1995 edition, the NASB is what it's called.
SPEAKER_00: The New International Version is a kind of a hybrid between thought for thought and word for word.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Bible that we primarily preach out, that we teach out here.
SPEAKER_00: We've got NIV Bibles available for you if you want one for your own to pick up at the information center.
SPEAKER_00: Get it, take it if you need it, right?
SPEAKER_00: But the NIV Bible is kind of the Bible I use for my personal Bible study and my personal time, my quiet time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, there's the new living translation.
SPEAKER_00: Living translation is primarily this thought-for-thought version.
SPEAKER_00: Again, there's no such version that's perfectly that way, but the Living Translation is really a good, easy reading Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So which Bible do you need to use?
SPEAKER_00: The one you will use and the one you'll understand.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Be aware that there is some versions of the Bible out there that are not grounded in truth, that are coming out of cults that change the meanings of the Bible in order to fit their crazy theology.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking of the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible, the New World Translation.
SPEAKER_00: I would not recommend you get that.
SPEAKER_00: Buy a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And I would also say buy a Bible that you can mark up, a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This is mine.
SPEAKER_00: You can see how marked up and worn out it is, right?
SPEAKER_00: Over usage.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, pieces are fallen off.
SPEAKER_00: I find it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: The pages are bent, there's marks and stuff in there.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a testimony of my faith walk.
SPEAKER_00: Find a Bible that you can wear out, mark up verses that touch your, write notes in the margins.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying that you don't need to use the wonderful technology we have with Bible apps, whether on your phone or an iPad.
SPEAKER_00: I would recommend using those tools as an aid.
SPEAKER_00: You can notice.
SPEAKER_00: They say, oh, Didi, you use what looks like a book, but it's actually an iPad.
SPEAKER_00: This is because it's a tool.
SPEAKER_00: I I use this and I read scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is primarily I use this because I'm at the age where 20 point font double space is really important.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: It's easier to read.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of me going like, what?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Also remember that in ancient times, people didn't have Bibles like.
SPEAKER_00: Like we have Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: If you had a Bible, you scroll the scripture yourself, you're a very wealthy person, you're a very important person in religious circles.
SPEAKER_00: So, what did people do?
SPEAKER_00: People of faith went to gather together where they would hear the word of God spoken, read out loud, whether in even the Old Testament and then into the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This was this was it.
SPEAKER_00: And they would hear it read out loud and repeat it over and over and memorize it.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they would take little notes, but but that's how they did it.
SPEAKER_00: And I think about that, and I think about that process.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God, spoken by the Spirit of God to men of God, who then communicated to the people of God at their time, but they also recorded it for us in Scripture so that we could reference it, know it, and have it over time, over the ages.
SPEAKER_00: And that word of God is contained in the pages of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't come back to life until they're spoken out again by a man of God, by a man of faith, by a woman of faith, a person of faith.
SPEAKER_00: They speak it out again and it's heard, and when it's heard, it's received, and then by the Spirit of God applied to the life, and that's where the power is.
SPEAKER_00: And so I write this down here.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that the Bible was written to, was written to be read out loud.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's the most powerful thing when people read the Bible out loud.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it reading out loud in your own personal time.
SPEAKER_00: You're quiet, you don't have to shout it from through the house, but you can read it out loud so you can hear yourself say that.
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of you have a hard time reading.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you are like, uh, you know, reading, uh, not so good.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we have the technology, we have the ability with Bible apps to be able to listen to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Someone else reading the Bible as you go to work, as you work out, as you're sitting quietly, perhaps, even as you have your own Bible with you and you listen to someone read and you follow along to help you hear the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: When I say this, the Bible was meant to be read out loud.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me that our faith was not meant to be lived alone.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important that you get into groups where you learn to live scripture together.
SPEAKER_00: You get groups where you read out the Bible together, and you have people that are called and gifted and trained in teaching the Bible who can help explain what the Bible's saying so that all of you can encourage one another to love and good deeds, as the Bible says, so you can encourage one another to learn to live it out.
SPEAKER_00: And this brings me to our last bit of advice.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible was written to be understood, but it takes work.
SPEAKER_00: Now I say this because some of you come from a background, a religious background, where you were told only the priest can explain to you the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Or only the anointed preacher can.
SPEAKER_00: That's no, the Bible was written to be understood.
SPEAKER_00: Two of the three languages were trade languages, meaning they were meant to be communicated to multiple people groups so they could understand the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: God's word was meant to be understood by every person of faith.
SPEAKER_00: That means that that He wants you to know this truth, and He wants you to understand the truth because of what the truth does to you.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible was written in a specific time and a specific culture and a specific language, which means that you're gonna have to work at it to understand, because there's things in the Bible that are hard to understand, and stories that you might be confused by, and things that you might like, what in earth are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Or what?
SPEAKER_00: They did what?
SPEAKER_00: They married who?
SPEAKER_00: How many times?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: It takes work.
SPEAKER_00: I would say the very first question you always have to ask when approaching scripture is not what does this say to me?
SPEAKER_00: You need to ask, what did this say to the people who first heard it?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because once you decide what it said in that culture and that a context and within the situation there, then you get the truth that then can it be applied to your specific culture, context, and life.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the best tools I've found, there's many out there, is a simple, it's a little book called the Bible Handbook.
SPEAKER_00: Zondervan puts it out.
SPEAKER_00: Zondervan Handbook of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There are pictures.
SPEAKER_00: I love pictures, there are timelines, there's histories, there's articles that provide insight that help you understand what it meant to the original hearers.
SPEAKER_00: But it takes commitment, it takes work.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter, I think, said make every effort.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this bluntly.
SPEAKER_00: I hear people say, well, the Bible is confusing.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says things that are hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't agree with this part of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: How did this happen?
SPEAKER_00: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: And what they do is they use the difficult parts of the Bible as the reason why they totally ignore the rest of it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are things that are hard to understand in the Bible, but don't let the hard things disqualify you ignoring the simple things.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot more simple things in the Bible to understand and apply.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, don't let the hard stuff be the excuse for you to dismiss the straightforward stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: There's some pretty straightforward things in there.
SPEAKER_00: Do not murder.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's hard to comprehend, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't murder.
SPEAKER_00: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Hard to do.
SPEAKER_00: But not so hard to understand.
SPEAKER_00: So my friend Rick Lowry shared about an exercise that he used to uh come up with that he developed, came to him.
SPEAKER_00: Help folks develop a way to approach learning scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And I've taken what he had and I've added some bacon to it.
SPEAKER_00: Because we all know that everything is better with bacon, right?
SPEAKER_00: So here it is.
SPEAKER_00: So steps for adding the knowledge of the word of God to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at your hand, you go five fingers.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to start with the pinky.
SPEAKER_00: The pinky represents the most basic place we're all at.
SPEAKER_00: We all begin with this.
SPEAKER_00: We all begin by hearing the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's read out loud, spoken, preached, taught, shared with by a friend.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with the pinky, right?
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to get a firm grip of the Bible, you can't really hold it well with a pinky.
SPEAKER_00: You got to add more fingers.
SPEAKER_00: What's the next finger?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the next finger is when you move on and you become a person that begins to read it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You go from being a hearer to someone who now uses your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You buy yourself a Bible, you start reading it, you begin reading the story of Jesus in one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_00: Don't start with lamentations, numbers, or revelation, please.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: You read it.
SPEAKER_00: But even then with two fingers, well, do you have a firm grip on the Word of God in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting there, but it's not quite there.
SPEAKER_00: So you have to add another finger, and I call this the understanded finger.
SPEAKER_00: This is where you start to study the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You you move, uh, the word of God becomes something that you you get into your head, the information, and you become someone who's now hearing it, you're reading it, and now you're doing Bible studies, and you're getting into podcasts of your favorite Bible teachers, and you're listening to the word, you're reading the word, studying the word.
SPEAKER_00: Now you actually now try Lamentations, Numbers, and Revelation, because you got different Bible versions and you got commentaries and references, and and yet, even though you're still there, you you're it's only three.
SPEAKER_00: And you got a grip on the word, but but but you don't have a full grasp.
SPEAKER_00: And we just say this with our love for data and knowledge, this is where a lot of people stop.
SPEAKER_00: They become great Bible study people, but really not good Bible living people.
SPEAKER_00: Spend all their time studying the Bible and none of their time living the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've got to add another finger, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to add another finger.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I call the internalize it finger.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to move from the head to the heart.
SPEAKER_00: You got to bring down what you're learning and make a commitment to it.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to make it a heart thing.
SPEAKER_00: Memorizing scripture is a good way to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Praying scripture is a good way to do this.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the Spirit of God comes in and activates the Word of God into your life, and you begin to change the way you think, and you begin to change the way your attitudes and your habits.
SPEAKER_00: And now all of a sudden, the Word of God becomes active and useful and powerful in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And the four fingers are strong, but if you didn't have the final one, you wouldn't be able to grip the word of God really well.
SPEAKER_00: What's the last one?
SPEAKER_00: It's the thumb.
SPEAKER_00: And the thumb has always got to be there.
SPEAKER_00: And the thumb's always got to be there so you can have a firm grip of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the thumb represent?
SPEAKER_00: The thumb represents when you live the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, look, you can hear these words of mine, but if you don't put it into practice, you're like a man who built your house, your life on sand, unstable, solid, vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: But if you put these words of mine into practice, then you're a man who built his house on a rock.
SPEAKER_00: Greatest tragedy is a lot of people that know the Bible but don't live the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: They know all the verses about love, but they're not very loving.
SPEAKER_00: They know all the verses about obedience, but they're not very, they're disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: They know all the verses about how a person's may ride with God through faith in Jesus, but they won't make that commitment to submit their lives to follow Jesus and to live for Him.
SPEAKER_00: Live it.
SPEAKER_00: And so look at your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, do I have a firm grip of the word?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's a process.
SPEAKER_00: You got to go through all of it.
SPEAKER_00: You might be at a point where you're like, I'm still to listen to it.
SPEAKER_00: So then get a Bible, start reading it, and get in Bible study, and so you can understand it, so you can internal it, so you can start to live it.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, what's the purpose of this?
SPEAKER_00: Peter lays it out in later verses, verse 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Well, if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, if you continue to grow in your knowledge, if you continue to get a grip on the Word of God, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge word here is epinosis, this is relationship knowledge, in your relationship of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
SPEAKER_00: I think the word of God is meant to be lived out by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gripping the Bible as strongly as you can in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you just stuck at one or two or three fingers?
SPEAKER_00: Keep at it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that this knowledge is powerful not just because it's useful to you, but more importantly because of what it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it like exercise, right?
SPEAKER_00: You exercise, you start exercising a routine because it's useful for you.
SPEAKER_00: You have a goal, you want to lose weight, you want to be healthy, you want to live long.
SPEAKER_00: But as you keep at it, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The exercise begins to do something to you.
SPEAKER_00: Your body changes, your muscles grow, your heart gets stronger, the lungs become more efficient, mitochondria in your muscle cells becomes more so you can fight infection and neutralize inflammation.
SPEAKER_00: And so your exercise is not just because it's useful for you, but now you exercise because of what it does to you, the good it does to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's how making every effort to add knowledge of the Bible works in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's the power and of the knowledge of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So get a grip on a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you so much for this time that we can be together.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your word.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the promise that says uh in the one of the prophecies, your word does not come return void.
SPEAKER_00: That that means that when when when you speak and your words are lived out, they do something to us that is supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Lord, those of us who've made that commitment, to not settle with gripping the word of God with just a few fingers, but instead to really give ourselves to everything we can to hold on to the word of God with everything.
SPEAKER_00: To hear it, to study it, to understand it, and to internalize it so that we can live it.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take our communion packets and be ready.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take communion together.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this is something that comes from the Word of God that we're called to do, a practice that's not only useful for us, but more importantly, because of what it does to us and the results of this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that we are one in our faith by God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Live under one word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Let's drink of the cup, remembering that we are now right with God so we can live for God by His Word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for this time.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for uh just this moments that we can share.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for being a God who speaks, and we have what we need contained for us in Scripture, uh encapsulated, all coming together in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we can know him and we can love him and that we can walk with him by your spirit in in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, guys, up here available, the two ricks.
SPEAKER_00: Stereo Rick.
SPEAKER_00: Rick and stereo.
SPEAKER_00: Double barreled Rick.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I will stop.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh two ricks are up here available to pray with you, to talk to you about your next steps of faith.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.
SPEAKER_00: Have a great Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So good to be with you.