Sermon Tone Analysis

CENTRAL IDEA

No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.

Nothing can substitute for it.

There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture.

Bible intake is not only the most important Spiritual Discipline, it is also the most broad.

It actually consists of several subdisciplines.

It’s much like a university comprised of many colleges, each specializing in a different discipline, yet all united under the general name of the university.

Love Whitney’s statement on page 27 -

No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word.

Nothing can substitute for it.

There simply is no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture.

The reasons for this are obvious.

In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God.

The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it.

There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God.

In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord.

We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves.

None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible.

Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God—intimately.

Whitney, D. S. (1991).

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p.

28).

Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Some wag remarked that the worst dust storm in history would happen if all church members who were neglecting their Bibles dusted them off simultaneously.

So even though we honor God’s Word with our lips, we must confess that our hearts—as well as our hands, ears, eyes, and minds—are often far from it.

Regardless of how busy we become with all things Christian, we must remember that the most transforming practice available to us is the disciplined intake of Scripture.

Bible intake is not only the most important Spiritual Discipline, it is also the most broad.

It actually consists of several subdisciplines.

It’s much like a university comprised of many colleges, each specializing in a different discipline, yet all united under the general name of the university.

Let’s look at the Subdisciplines:

Hearing God’s Word - Easiest - Dont Neglect is - Be intentional about being in church

- Be intentional about being in church

Hebrews 10:

Hebrews 10:24-25

1 Tim

Need for us to be disciplined about being there to hear …

pp.

30-31

If someone says, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God; I can worship Him on the golf course or at the lake just as well, if not better, than in church,” we may agree that God can be worshiped there.

But the ongoing worship of God cannot be separated from the Word of God.

We are to discipline ourselves to go and hear the Word of God.

Not just passive listening … but a discipline to be cultivated:

How should we prepare ourselves to hear God’s Word???

Internet, Cd’s MP3’s

Time to Discuss

Reading God’s Word

Recent Stat heard through PK

5% of Christians read their bible Daily

6% weekly

These stats include while at church

Jesus’ comments in gospels … “Have you not read?”

Matthew

Get that verse … Blessing for the one who reads, hears, and keeps

The main reason, remember, for disciplining ourselves is Godliness.

We have learned that the Spiritual Disciplines are scriptural paths where we may expect to encounter the transforming grace of God.

The most critical Discipline is the intake of God’s Word.

A 1980 survey by Christianity Today and the Gallup Poll supported this when it concluded that no factor is more influential in shaping a person’s moral and social behavior than regular Bible reading.

If you want to be changed, if you want to become more like Jesus Christ, discipline yourself to read the Bible.

Whitney, D. S. (1991).

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (pp.

32–33).

Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

OK then … How Often?

Love Blanchard Quote:

How often should we read it?

British preacher John Blanchard, in his book How to Enjoy Your Bible, writes,

Surely we only have to be realistic and honest with ourselves to know how regularly we need to turn to the Bible.

How often do we face problems, temptation and pressure?

Every day!

Then how often do we need instruction, guidance and greater encouragement?

Every day!

To catch all these felt needs up into an even greater issue, how often do we need to see God’s face, hear his voice, feel his touch, know his power?

The answer to all these questions is the same: every day!

As the American evangelist D. L. Moody put it, “A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week.

We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.”

Get a Plan:

Find a time - Best time of day for you?

Find a Bible Reading Plan - CBC Website - www.navigators.org

Meditate each time you read - Mortimer Adler “How to Read a Book” suggests - Read 20 min; Meditate/Think 10 - Look for insight; pray

Story on Page 35 - Humbling

We should all have the passion for reading God’s Word of the man in this story.

Evangelist Robert L. Sumner, in his book The Wonder of the Word of God, tells of a man in Kansas City who was severely injured in an explosion.

His face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands.

He had just become a Christian when the accident happened, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.

Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips.

Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille.

But he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been too badly damaged to distinguish the characters.

One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them.

Like a flash he thought, “I can read the Bible using my tongue.”

At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times.

If he can do that, can you discipline yourself to read the Bible?

Whitney, D. S. (1991).

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p.

35).

Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

Studying God’s Word

Reading Gives us breadth, studying gives us depth.

Reading is like mowing your lawn, study takes a shovel and you need to start digging

ezra

Note sequence:

Dedication - Discipline - Set Heart to

Study -

Object - Law of the Lord

Objective - Practice - Do it