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Good morning. We are thrilled that you're here. Welcome to Hillandale. We are continuing a summer sermon series focused on Bible study 1st. John 5:3 says for the love of God is this that we obey his Commandments and his Commandments are not burdensome. I love the fact that he adds that little second part to love God is to obey his Commandments but understand this his Commandments are not burdensome. We've talked over the past few weeks how obeying God is kind of like keeping your bowels in in a marriage. It's a it's a natural response to the love that is exchanged in a marriage. And so it's not this I must obey God or he won't love me is this God has loved me all my love is due him as we just sang and because of God's great love. I want to love him back and scripture says one way. We love God back a primary way. We I've got back is by obeying him obeying him through the scriptures and that's very much like keeping your vows in a marriage isn't at the demonstration of Love Now any of these couples here that you might recognize This couple that's that's a very old picture. You can say I'm stunned that she said that she said yes. I'm like, I can't believe it. I'm the luckiest man in the world. 27 years for us this year or there's a couple you might recognize now. Is that is it two years? 2 years 27 or 2 or here's a couple you might recognize I think 72 years, right? 70 71 72 and that awesome. You know what? All three of those couples would tell you about marriage and everyone in the room who is married to give me an amen. It is hard. It is not simple and easy from start to finish their some Seasons that are simple and easy, but there are also always seasons that are difficult and hard and it even when we talk about responding to God's great love for us by obeying him through the scriptures as as similar to keeping our vows are wedding vows. That doesn't mean that it's easy. It's difficult as Jesus acknowledge this and Luke 14. It says large crowds were traveling with Jesus he turned and spoke to them. He said anyone who comes to me must hate his father and mother he must hate his wife and children. He must hate his brothers and sisters and he must hate even his own life unless he does he cannot be my disciple my students my learner anyone who doesn't carry his cross and follow me can't be My disciple suppose someone wants to build a tower won't he sit down first and figure out how much it will cost then he will see whether he has enough money to finish it suppose he starts building and he is not able to finish that everyone who sees what he does will laugh at him. Then he will set that. They will say this fellow started to build but he wasn't able to finish or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king and suppose he has 10,000 men while the other has 20,000 coming against him 21st, sit down and think about whether he can win and suppose he decides he can't win then he will send some men to ask how peace can be made he will do this while the other king is still far away in the same way. You must give up everything you have. If you don't you can't be my disciple salt is good with suppose. It loses its saltiness. How can it be made salty again? It's not good for the soil and it is not good for the trash pile. It will be thrown out those who have ears should listen. In the section Jesus delivers the reality that that we talked about it and marriage ceremonies. We say marriage is not to be entered into lightly, but soberly and it buys idli. It is a serious commitment and it is at times very difficult and challenging and Jesus here is saying look to be my disciple to be my follower is a challenge it means denying yourself when he uses hyperbole when he said hate your father and mother it's like when we say, you know, I've gained so much weight this holiday season. I'm as big as a house. Well, I'm not literally as big as a house. They hyperbole is making the point he is not with saying we literally hate our mother and father but he's making the point that the commitment is so high so great that that we have to think about it and we have to we don't need to be foolish to think I'm going to build something and then realize we never really understood what the commandant was and so the challenge is to accept God's great love and then to seek to love him back as his follower as his death. Bible requires from us and throughout scripture and throughout the gospels. We see Jesus again again say if you want to follow me pick up your cross and deny yourself and follow me now studying. The Bible is a part of our relationship with God. That's the fundamental premise of their Siri is Siri and the point of studying the purpose of studying is obedience. So the reason it's a viable to study the Bible is so that we can understand it and Obey it studying at end of itself as an end in itself without the intention of understanding and obeying is not the purpose God is calling us to he's calling us to be students of his word not simply to be students who say I know that but to be students who understand what scripture is teaching and seek to obey it so that our very lives are transformed so that we represent his character and his wisdom in our own life's thriving because of our obedience to his word and in our witness to this world, So it's a big part of being a disciple learning how to study the Bible. Well, all scripture is inspired. Timothy says Paul says in Timothy all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching for reproof for correction and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient equipped for every good work to see how the scripture say what I just said the reason we study scripture the purpose is so that God could use it in our life. We can understand it and we could be equipped for every good work that's obedience. We study for understanding in order to obey we learn what scripture says we put it in their life. We apply it so that we can do the good things that God calls us to do we can be obedient now just a little side here. You don't have to protect the Bible from study. Sometimes it slips into our own thoughts into the life of the church that we don't want serious study of the scripture for tough questions, or you can't ask that or just don't talk about that that sort of thing. Listen you do not have to protect the Bible from study. Okay, you do not you can bring all of your tough questions your doubts your concerns. You can bring them right to the scripture and study it without hesitation. You can study the word of God with the bandits and you when you study will find answers and nourishment for your soul and your mind alike. So do not be afraid of studying the Bible and don't just accept inherited assumptions about what it means without studying it yourself. It can handle the study of matter fact it welcomes the study. Look at what's what 7 acts 17:11 the Jews these Jews were more receptive than those in thessalonica for they welcome to the message very eagerly and examine to the scriptures everyday to see whether these things were so they are held up as a model those who heard what was top and said and then went back to scriptures and examine them to say is this what scripture teaches what I've been taught what I've been told you I find this in the scripture there commend. As examples are models held up for a so God not only requires and mandates and and organically puts into our relationship with him that we be students of the word in order to understand in order to obey its commended and held up as a model as an example. So I want to talk really practically cuz we talked about this the past few weeks about Bible study the key to good Bible study isn't simply a check list. It includes a skill set. Other than important thing to because if we're not careful someone will give us a checklist. Her favorite author will produce a book on Bible study and this will be the magic key to unlocking all the scriptures and we will just take their list of things to do and we'll go through and do those things kind of mechanically. Sometimes they work wonderfully when those steps match up with the scripture passenger study, but other times you end up forcing Square pegs into round holes and you just kind of force and push it in and so it's not really a checklist. If I do these 8 things it's really more of a skill set to be an ongoing growing student of the word and that's what's required of disciples. To be good students of the word of God for the purpose of understanding for the purpose of obedience not students alone. But students for the purpose of understanding and for the purpose of obedience, so that God can work his life change into our own heart. So here's the number one skill and bible study in my opinion. The number one skill in Bible study is thinking

taking the time to slow down read the passage think about what it says and pursue understanding it is easy to hit the ground running and read a passage and kind of immediately insert what we've always been told that that passage means or meet Lee insert what we assume or what we read previously and just move on but we want to cultivate the habit of having the skill of thinking reflectively about the passage were reading asking good questions pursuing meaning so that we can be confident about what scripture teaches confident about what God has revealed and guess what that confidence and understanding if you study something until you have great clarity about what it says about this being clearly what scripture teaches from Genesis to Revelation if you study at over and over if you compare other passages you look at it critically you look at it thought of Lee thoughtfully. Guess what that Clarity build in your own life Fitbit. Conviction when you know, that something is clearly what God is teaching conviction will build up in your own life. And guess what fruit conviction bears in your life. It Bears obedience in your life. If you're striving to be more of a disciple if you're striving to love God more because he has loved us so amazingly so self-sacrificial it so graciously while we were yet sinners he died for us until we want to return that love by being students of the word and learning from him and becoming like him when we do the work of being a good student of the word and not just assuming either way. Sometimes we assume negative critical things about scripture that aren't true somebody on the talk show somebody on the news somebody that's anti-christian said it was it well, I guess that's what it is. We need to be willing to be Discerning to search the scriptures and study and know first-hand for ourself what it teaches and we will discover again. You don't have to protect the Bible from studies. You will discover God himself revealed in his work and you will discover his goodness and his character in his love and his righteousness. And the more you study the greater you get clarity in your own mind about what scripture teaches about those who are lost about what scripture teaches about reaching out in mission to other about what scripture teaches about our own forgiveness in light of the cross the more you get clarity about those kind of things the greater conviction, you will build and the greater faith will build up and the greater obedience will rise because you are student of the word who understands with confidence what it teaches and what it says, and the number one skill is thinking in my opinion thinking Henry Ford said thinking is the hardest work there is which is probably the reason so few engage in it. And I can give a hearty amen now and I'm guilty of this as much as anybody. What do we do when we don't feel like thinking?

Is the universal answer we call it vegging out what we do we go plop down in front of the boob tube, right? That's what was called when I was growing up.

quick We just kind of veg out and we we give up that opportunity now. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with occasionally having that break. But we don't need to let that break dominate our free time. There might be a cost to discipleship. It might be watching less TV. Or reading less material that's not genuinely good for you. Just because you're reading doesn't automatically mean it's good for you. There's a lot of trash out there in written form that just like a TV show that they traditionally the guy may be watching, you know car crashes and but sometimes the wife can be reading stuff that's got no more nutritional value in it than what's being. So there we need to be students of the word of God as a primary part of our life as Disciples of the reason I say thinking is vital is because knowing is not the same as understanding. Sometimes we stopped short and we think what I know what the Bible says about that or I know what that verse says, and we could even repeat it. We might even have memorized it but the truth is we may not understand if I came across this this week new study of obesity looks for larger test group. So, what do you think that means? We can all say I know what that says. It says new study of obesity looks for larger test group, but can we all confidently say we know what that means? We can't it would require. Pun intended larger study wouldn't we have to know who wrote this? And why did they write it? And is there some context is there some paragraphs before and after this is there someplace we could understand he is actually looking for bigger people for the study or he's looking for more people for this study. So that'll impact his research this way or that way. So we might know something but just because we know what said there doesn't mean we understand it. And so one of the biggest skills that we bring with us when we look at scripture is reading and studying and researching toward the goal of understanding what a pass it says thinking and discernment is required in Bible study rumor last week. I talked about proverbs how we sometimes memorize the proverb that says you no trust in the Lord with all your heart all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and he will direct your path and sometimes we treat that like it's a line on a contract and we say, well I trusted or but I didn't get this clear answer about my path. So I'm frustrated and we treat a pass is like 1st John 1:9 that says confess your sins and People forgive you we treat that like, well, I sure hope that's going to happen as opposed to realizing that that is kind of coming at all or contract language in 1st John that's meant to give us a great shrewdness about our forgiveness. But sometimes we don't read on the way they are Proverbs is not a covenant book. It's not a contract book. It's a book of wisdom and the Very nature of a book of wisdom is designed for us to read it and use discernment in the midst of reading a look at these two Proverbs. Do not answer a fool according to their folly or you will be a fool yourself and look at the very next verse. Answer fool according to their folly or they will be wise in their own eyes. Which is it? There it is back to back to verses out of the Book of Proverbs that to me that the meatly illustrates that the author of Proverbs is not giving me contract language where I take every little verse and just isolated like a fortune cookie say here it is. It's a contract instead. He's giving me wisdom and he's assuming and challenging me to use discernment in applying that wisdom. And so I don't just get to read and use it like an instruction manual for contract. I have to read and I have to think. and discern and decide application of those verses when we study the Bible were asking questions were thinking about context we're forming judgments and we're looking for more information. The reality is it should be thought of as Bible research not Bible study. That's the invitation as a disciple to become somebody who studies the Bible on a regular basis not just for the purpose of saying I study my Bible but studying it for the purpose of understanding for the purpose of obedience. That's the invitation because that obedience to the word of God is the way in which God replaces false understanding handed To Us by our parents or our peers or our culture or those TV shows we watch are those books we read we get those false understandings replaced with the truth and it is the truth that sets us free. And that's what Jesus meant. He didn't mean simply knowing his name. He meant knowing him and knowing the truth that he knows and modeled in his own life about God the father's goodness and trustworthiness and gray said his plan for Humanity knowing those things and living our life based on those things. That's the truth that sets us free, which requires that we be good students of the word of God and we study it for the purpose of understanding it for the purpose of obedience. I'm going to say that so much that you say I know I know I know we study it for the purpose of understanding it for the purpose of obeng it we don't stop short and just study and we don't study just to say we did that or we don't study just to say I understand it. We study it to understand it 200 because it's the entryway of God's blessings in our life again and again and so when we study the Bible where asking questions were thinking about the context were forming judgment, and we're looking for more information. Research that's being a good student of the word. This is what we talked about the past couple of weeks. And here's the verse that lays it out for us. Do your best Paul says to Timothy to present yourself to God as one approved by him a worker.

Just like Luke. Jesus said there's a cost of discipleship. You have to look ahead and say what's it going to cost me am I willing to pay that price? Am I willing to love God back the way he has loved me so that more of his blessings enter my life. There's a cost to it do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightfully explaining the word of Truth CS disciples when someone says that any of us, well the way I understand it Christianity is anti this or anti that or they don't believe in this and when it's a falsehood we ought to be able to say to that person. That's interesting. Where is it that you That you see that in the scriptures. You know and they may say why don't know I just heard it, you know, and I just or maybe they'll stay right here it is and they make they make for the scripture to you. That sounds exactly like what they just said that the Old Testament or something about so well, that's a good that's a good would you meet with me again? Can I study that some and we can come back and meet again or if we've been studying on a regular basis? We might be able to say chewy if you look at a few verses before because I've seen this before in scripture. You'll notice that what you're quoting to me is actually the author saying this is not what to do. There's actually verses that have been taken out of context to meet swear when you read their water contact the author of saying hey, there's some out there who say that but I say to you don't think that way but somebody's just taking the quote that the author saying this is not the way to think and they said this is what Chris Tandy Advocates and you're like when a minute if we'll just think and discern and study a little more. It's actually saying this is what it doesn't advocate. But we should according to Paul be students of the word in such a way that we can understand the word of God accurately and we can tell the truth to others in an accurate way. So it even more practical and say Here's my recommendation. So if someone would come to me which we stepped into the area of a pigeon to a certain extent some of you might say why don't like what you said in that part, but if you if someone came to me after the sermon series and said, hey, I want to be a better student of the word of God. I want to study better than here would be my recommendation is okay and I'm getting super practical and it sparked get a good study. Bible would be my recommendation. Okay, if you don't have a good study Bible get a good study Bible this might be into that category of the cost of discipleship. You might have to spend some money on a good study Bible now if you're here this morning and you want study the Bible and cost is preventing you from getting a good study Bible. To me and we will take care of that. So don't let the adversary whisper in your ear. That's a great idea Robbie, but I can't afford that the church would love nothing more than to put a good Bible in your hands. That would be an excellent use of our resources. So get a good study Bible now. I don't recommend study Bibles that are super focused. Do not go get the prophecy Study Bible That's all about prophecy. Do not go get the men's Study Bible. It's all about men's issue. Do not get the woman's Study Bible for the John MacArthur Study Bible. The reason I don't recommend them is because they're Donnelly focused on one theme or one authors theology your perspective and I'm sorry if you're a John MacArthur fan, I'm not trying to pick on those study Bibles. I have many of those myself. I love study bible plan makes fun of me but I use those are supplements because they become quick and easy ways for me to say I wonder what some I like John MacArthur thinks about this birth. And so I flip over to my John MacArthur it's a good tool. But as your regular ongoing study, I recommend to study Bible that's been produced by more than one person or four more than one particular theme that is trying to highlight through scripture. I like the quest Study Bible and it's what I use and the reason I liked it so much is because all the notes are put in a question and answer form. So is your reading a passage and it says something weird in it your thinking? Well that makes sense now. So I I love it because of the way it study notes are put together. It is a good trustworthy mainstream Evangelical Study Bible put together by Scholars of the harpercollins study Bible is a good study Bible. The NIV Study Bible is a good study Bible. I recommend getting a good study Bible That's produced by a variety of people a full committee. That's not produced by certain denomination does not produce with a certain theme or agenda again. Those can be good. But as your main Study Bible I challenge you to get one that's produced by a variety of Scholars that's focused on understanding scripture as a whole. Here's my second recommendation read the notes in your study Bible. How many have a study Bible and you actually just treat it like it's just the Bible and there's that you just read the passage. You never read the notes do not turn down help. Okay good Scholars have spent years working on those Study Bible notes and they put them together and they've given us the gift of having them right there at the bottom of the page so that we can read the book introductions when you're studying the book. If you're going to read a passage out of Timothy read the introduction and find out all these things that help you understand the passages when you're starting it later. So read the book and read the footnotes don't turn down help when it's right there available for you when you're studying when you come across a place research it. Hey, that's my third tip of advice when it names a place and you can probably do this nine times out of 10 within your study Bible research it but this place is have histories and off an author's are siding places because they they know their audience will have certain connotations. If I say Las Vegas to some of you have certain connotations, right you do if I if I say Normandy Is there a history there that comes to mind and often throughout scriptures? There are there is a history to a location that's mentioned in a passage. So bother when you see that to see if is there a footnote is there an app? Is there an article in a good study Bible that I can learn a little more about that place that kind of learning you'll read it three or four times and then you'll start to retain it the next time you see that place be like, yeah, I know why you saying that Good Samaritan Good Samaritan. I know about Samaria because I read about it several times when I kept seeing it and I learned the history to learn about Israel and the Exile and how some became intermixed with other face and they became Samaritans of the Jews that you've given up the face. That's why it's so weird for Jesus to say, let me tell you the story about the Good Samaritan and the more we do that sort of stuff the more we're building this Reservoir that helps us whenever we're studying scripture that we remember those truth and can apply them more quickly read cross references in your Bible. Now you're like now you've quit preaching to go on the Meadowlands. I mean Robbie. Do you know how many cross-references there are my Bible? I mean, I'll see a verse that I love and I look over and who has time for that part of being a good student of the word is is look at letting the Bible interpret the Bible. That's what that's doing good Theology and and looking at unclear versus in light of clear teaching throughout scripture. And the way you do that is when you read a verse if there's cross-references you go look them up. I guess what again? You don't have to protect the Bible from study when you look them up and ask yourself. Is this a good cross reference? Is this a fair this really talking about the same thing that I was reading in Timothy. Is this really a or did they just find the words the same but the meaning is not be Discerning and read it to the maybe this time. So there's more than one place that Paul talks about this way. There's another cross reference Isaiah talked about this plate Matthew quoted this your building conviction and Theology and clarity about God is always championing this this protect you for the mistake to their whole theology build on 1 verse. Amina and I can tell you what it is and make a lot of people mad. The whole theology still not just wonder how this occurred people haven't seen a lot of that. I can build on that and my books will sell and so before you know it and you go where does that occur in scripture? Well, technically there's only one verse that mentions that but I believe it is this gigantic theme of God from Genesis to Revelation that all of us should build our theology at our churches and our worship and our practices around which I say

Let the Bible interpret the Bible interpret the unclear by the clear. It's a look at your cross references. Look at what themes are repeated throughout scripture again, and again, what is abundantly clear so that when there is something abundantly clear from Genesis to Revelation and I find one verse that seems to contradict that guess what? I don't grab that one person beat into submission the other 90% of scripture from boom boom so that I can say require that one. They look I need to interpret this unclear in light of the clear. There must be a way to read wider to read the contacts to see what Paul is saying. He didn't just arbitrarily undo everything you said and Romans when he worded something a certain way and Titus and I need to undo all the good theology enrollment in order to get Tidus to fit into my book to interpret the unclear and lot of the clear read your cross references and lastly and I'll invite to worship team to come forward. Listen. I want to give you an encouraging word. 5 minutes is a long time. Mere fact if I would get silent and require us all to sit here silently for 5 minutes you would agree with me with you.

Or if you've ever really had to go to the bathroom and found the door locked. Just wait 5 minutes for whoever's in there. You realize 5 minutes is a long time. You can start your journey. If if this is new to you, you can start your journey on being a more aggressive and a more fruitful student of the word of God with 5 minutes a day. I know you may be reading for your own nourishment. Now, you may be reading for the plan and all that is absolutely awesome. So do not miss hear any of what I'm saying. But you might say all right. I don't know when I'm going to watch this and I'm busy. I'm already spread thin than you might sound go start with 5 minutes. I'm going to I'm going to read my study Bible for 5 minutes. I'm going to I'm going to start with first John. That's a great book to go to the Greek festival book. I'm going to start and I'm going to read the introduction to 1st John and then I'm not going to feel guilty that I didn't read more than introduction to 1st John. I'm going to say I read the introduction the first John and maybe I'm going to read it three or four times so that I'm like what is he saying? They're what it say. Maybe I don't want a couple things and how do I add a couple things maybe read the introduction the first John every day for two weeks. You start with 5 minutes. And then you say I'm going to read the first couple of verses the first logical little section and I'm going to read not for completion form. I got that check for understanding. So that means you read the first verse Enoch and if I have to read that verse every day for a month until I finally go boom totally on that verse I know exactly what he was saying. I don't know. Why is that at the way did I know why is excited about it? I know why it anticipates what's coming in the rest of the letter those sorts of things and you alternate between understanding the big picture when you get the chance to read a whole letter and zooming in on the trees in the forest and not the forest and the more you balance doing both those things because we understand it the whole letter and you're reading the part you might say this because you going to repeat it in about 8 vs. It's something I've got greater Insight on this but you keep on doing those things back and forth and it creates greater understanding in your own life and again the more you give That understanding that Clarity the more you build conviction and the more you build conviction the more likely you are to obey and act on that because if you believe it's true. Right. If someone convinces you that the best gas in Lexington as at one particular gas station and they show you the evidence. They have the best inground tanks there new. There's no rust that got a system that prevents the sludge from getting in the bottom the way the tank the tankers deliver. The gas is different than any other gas station. It will never / up that stuff and give you a bad chug as you drive off that day. You know, you're not supposed to fill up when you see a tanker delivering gas don't you write is stirring up all the stuff in that tank. So they're delivering gas in your pumping your it's all just mixed up in there. Right because one gas station and your research it and it's not just a bunch of baloney or height. They actually believe that they built the best patients. They've got the best pumps that got the best liner if he became deeply convinced of that truth. When you start acting on it at the very least when you're close by and you saw Leo you like a let's go there. That's the one that does it better than everybody else. See when we build Clarity and conviction our actions follow until when we submerge yourself in the word of God and let his truth become something we study and wait we home and we know this is clearly what God is teaching. That that authority of God's word clearly known her mind clearly known in her heart will help us obey so that all scripture is useful for teaching and correction and reproof. So that those who belong to God could be equipped for every good work.

Last thought take your next step that that's your challenge this week. Maybe your next step is to research study Bibles and get one. Maybe you already have a great Study Bible and it's full of notes and you could teach me a thing or two and I mean that and hallelujah and amen and please pull me aside and teach me a thing or two that you've learned over the years of being a good student of that Bible. Maybe you've got to start reading your cross references or looking at places. Whatever the next step is for you or maybe you do all these things on a regular basis and maybe what you need to do. Maybe the next step is to invite someone else alongside and disciple them and what you've learned and practiced for years. Whatever your next step is ponder that this weekend and make a decision to take it so that you're that much closer to letting God Work His blessings into your life and therefore letting His blessings in your life work their way out to others. Let's bring father. We thank you for your word. We thank you that in James 1 you say that you are re-creating us through your word the way you spoke in Genesis and you spoke into out of nothing. You spoke stuff into being that you say your word can speak in our heart in such a way that new things are created. We thank you Father that your word can cleanse us and forgive us and remind us of your goodness and your Grace & I restoration to you and that you can create new Desires in our heart and then you can create a sureness of our own forgiveness and you can create alarm and a pain a hurt for the loss in our life so that we are moved to reach out to others follow that you can do so many things through your word in our heart. We thank you. And we pray father that we would carve out even even just five minutes a day. To spend time in your word seeking to understand so that we could obey. I saw this in Jesus name. amen

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