Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living How Does the Bible Apply to Me?

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Benjamin Clarence Miles
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1 1 Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living How Does the Bible Apply to Me? Roger Sodsod Scripture reading: James 1:22-23; Psalm 1:1-3 Message from Sept. 11, 2016 It's good to see you today We re concluding our series, Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living today with a very practical discussion on how we can get into the Word and how the Word can get into us. But first, a short story A young teenage boy had just gotten his driver s license. When he got home, he asked his father, who was a pastor, if they could discuss him using the car. His father took him into his study and said to the boy, "I ll make a deal with you. If you bring up your grades, study your Bible a little each day, and get a haircut, then we ll talk about you driving the car." After about a month, the boy came back and again asked his father if they could discuss him using the car. Again they went to the father s study where his father said, "Son, I m so proud of you. You ve brought your grades up, you ve studied your Bible every day, but you didn t get a haircut." The young man replied, "Dad, I ve been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses had long hair, Noah had long hair - even Jesus had long hair..." His father replied, "Yes son But they WALKED everywhere!" --- Over the course of this sermon series, we ve attempted to make the case for WHY one should read the Bible, study it, and apply it to our lives.

2 2 Today, I m going to talk about how to do that. There s a wonderful approach to the Bible developed by the Navigators that I think is helpful. It s the Word-Hand Illustration. <Hand image on screen.> <Pinky>: we Hear the Word <Ring>: Read the Word <Middle>: Study the Word <Pointer>: Memorize the Word <Thumb>: Meditate on the Word <Palm>: Apply the Word I m going to use this as a framework for how we can get into the Bible and how we can get the Bible into us. So let s dive right in. Hearing the Word For most people, their first exposure to the Bible is hearing it preached. For centuries, people didn t have Bibles to read, so they heard God s Word read at church or heard it quoted in conversations or sung. Today, we can hear the Word read and taught not just in church, but we have access to all kinds of preaching and teaching on the internet. I m going to be giving you lots of resources today. Don t feel like you have to write them down.

3 3 I ve posted all this info on my website, sodsod.com. You ll want to write that website down. Sodsod.com. Just go there and click on Bible Resources. So when it comes to hearing the Word of God, you can download the YouVersion app for your phone or tablet or you can access it on the web. It s an online Bible in all kinds of translations with all kinds of features, but the feature I like most is that it will read the Bible to me. My favorite is the British guy who reads the NIV-UK edition. It almost sounds like I m listening to the Lord of the Rings or something. So with that app, you can listen to the Bible being read while you go for a walk or while you re exercising or whatever. Another resource I highly recommend is RightNowMedia. As a church, we subscribe to this service. So you get access to it for free! It s like Netflix but with video-driven Bible studies, sermons, and teachings for your whole family. There s even a whole section just for kids and parents. We will give YOU access to RightNowMedia or to ANY of your friends. If you don t already have access and you d like it, again just go to my website, sodsod.com. I have an online form on there for you to fill out.

4 4 One of the biggest challenges these days isn t so much finding preachers and teachers to watch online, but knowing who is theologically sound and who won t lead you astray. It may surprise you to know that there are seminaries graduating students and pastors leading churches who don t believe in the virgin birth, they don t believe in Jesus resurrection, they don t believe in His Divinity, and they don t view Scripture as having Divine inspiration or authority - essentially teaching the Bible as myth. If you re ever wondering about a particular teacher out there, feel free to me their name. Give me a week or so to get back with you. If I don t immediately recognize their name, I ll look them up. Read the Word The second way we take in the Word is we read it. Many of us are visual learners and are used to learning by reading. There are some advantages to reading over hearing, such as being able to underline and make notes. I m a visual learner, and it helps me to read it because I begin to see the text in my mind s eye. I can sometimes even remember where I read something on the page - and that helps me to recall it. So how do we start reading the Bible? Well there are a ton of Bible reading plans out there. You can go to the Lifeway Christian bookstore and pick up a copy of the One Year Bible where it has you each day read a passage from the OT, the NT, a Psalm, and a Proverb. It takes about minutes a day and you get through the whole Bible in a year.

5 5 YouVersion, the app I mentioned earlier, has a number of Bible reading plans ranging from short topical studies to plans for reading through the whole Bible. When people ask me about reading the Bible for the first time and what Bible to get, here s what I tell them. Don t start out by trying to read the Bible straight through from beginning to end. You ll probably stop reading at some point in Leviticus. Rather start with the Gospel of John. Then read the other Gospels. That s a good place to start. I m a big fan of reading through whole books of the Bible at once. It might take you a few days, but if you do that, you start to see the bigger picture rather than individual verses taken out of context. As for Bibles, I always recommend the Life Application Bible. There are more technical study Bibles, but the Life Application Bible I think does a great job of introducing you to God s Word. At the beginning of each book is a timeline, a map, an outline of the book It tells you who the author is, when it was written, to whom it was written, and it gives you the cultural and historical context and a TON of footnotes that help you better understand the text. The Life Application Bible comes in several translations: New Living Translation (the one we use in here in our weekend services), the NIV, and the NASB.

6 6 The NLT and NIV are more thought-for-thought translations (and hence they re more colloquial and easier to read), whereas the NASB is more of a word-for-word translation. What translation do I typically use? Depending on the day, you ll probably see me reading from either the NIV or the ESV (English Standard Version) which is also more of a word-for-word translation. When you re reading devotionally, NLT and NIV are fine. When you start doing in-depth Bible study though, NASB and ESV work better because they re more word-for-word rather than thought-for-thought. Steve, Season, Jessica, and I are all students over at Midwestern Seminary over off of N. Oak. The seminary asks that we use either ESV or NASB translations for our studies, because they are more word-for-word. Studying the Word So we hear the Word, we read the Word, and then we study the Word. When we study Scripture, we start looking at the cultural and historical context of what was happening when this was written. We look at the context of what happened before and after the Scripture we re studying. We let Scripture interpret Scripture, meaning we never take a Scripture and extract it out of context but we look at each Scripture in light of all other Scripture. We ask, What did this mean to its original audience? Who WAS the original audience?

7 7 What are the nuances being communicated in the original language this was written? After we ve done that, THEN we can begin asking the question, What does this mean for us today? And not all truths in Scripture are for all people for all times. If that were the case, all you women would be wearing head coverings, and I wouldn t eat lobsters. So in this day and age there are TONS of Bible Study tools available. Many of them are free online. Blueletterbible.org Biblegateway.com Biblestudytools.com (Again, these are on my website, sodsod.com.) And the software that is available now is incredible. There are 3 primary Bible software packages out there: Accordance Logos BibleWorks I won t go into all the differences, but I ve used Accordance for about 13 years now, and I love it. I can run it on a Mac, a PC, an ipad, and even on an iphone. I have several sets of Bible commentaries that, if I had them in print, they d fill whole bookcases, and I have access to all of them even on my phone.

8 8 The coolest thing is to pull up a Scripture and then you can instantly look it up in the original Greek or Hebrew, you can look it up in any number of dictionaries and commentaries, you can look at it on a timeline to see WHEN it happened and what else was going on at that time, and you can look it up on a map to see WHERE it was happening. So all these tools are cool and you can study the Bible alone, but you will ALWAYS do better studying in a group with others. Most of us have good intentions, but we need the accountability that comes from being in a group with others to stay on track. There are many ways to do that here at Vineyard Church. Next week our fall semester starts and we have 6 new Vineyard Bible Exploration (VBX) classes starting. Sign up for one of those. Or if you want something more seminary-level, we have about 20 or so people going through the VI (Vineyard Institute) Biblical Studies track. There s a cost associated with that, and it involves listening to lectures and writing papers and such, but I highly recommend it. You ll learn a lot. If you don t feel like you re ready for the VBX classes or VI, but still want to learn about the Bible, I HIGHLY recommend our Alpha course. It s 10 weeks long and takes more of a topical approach through the Bible. They cover topics like: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, faith, prayer Why and How Should I Read My Bible?

9 9 How Does God Guide Us? How Can I Resist Evil? And more. They even give you a free meal every week, AND there s childcare (for a small fee). You CAN just study the Bible on your own, but you ll get more out of it if you do it with other people. You re more likely to stick with it if you sign up for a group or a class. This summer I took two classes at the seminary: Old Testament 1 and Old Testament 2, two 8 week classes back to back which together covered the whole OT. Not only did I have to read the whole OT, but all the readings ABOUT the OT - in 16 weeks! There were times I wanted to quit, because, hey, I work full time, I m a husband and a father, and I ve got a hundred other things I could be doing. But I finished them, both with A- s (you have to get a 96 or above to get an A.) I use structured programs to force me to have the discipline to keep learning and growing because I know that if I try to do it on my own, I ll just end up quitting. Ok, so I discussed hearing Scripture, reading Scripture, and studying Scripture. Next is memorizing Scripture. Memorizing the Word So, whenever I talk about memorizing Scripture, I often get people telling me how difficult it is and how they just can t do it. Memorization has fallen out of favor in our educational system.

10 10 Used to be that in elementary school we were made to memorize all kinds of things, and not so much anymore. However I want you to think about something. We are an entertainment-obsessed culture. We watch movies, tv shows, we go on Netflix binges and watch hundreds of episodes of a show. Do you know that every one of those actors had to memorize all those lines? So most of you know that before I was a pastor I was an opera singer. The first opera I sang was in It was Monteverdi s The Coronation of Poppea. It was originally in Italian but we did it in English. The role I sang had maybe 20 minutes of music. It must have taken me 6 months to memorize that role. Fast forward about 10 years I was about to sing Marcello in a production of Puccini s La Boheme - in Italian. Now that s a couple hours worth of music. And I m not fluent in Italian. So confession time: I procrastinated learning my music until the day before rehearsals would begin.

11 11 I started memorizing at 7am and by 10pm that night, I had the whole role memorized. Memorization is a muscle. It can be exercised and it can be strengthened. I primarily learned how to memorize doing summer theater. We d do 6 operas and musicals in 6 weeks. So when you weren't in rehearsal for one show you were memorizing for the next. I ve used the same principles I used to memorize opera to memorize Scripture, and I want to teach those to you right now. So different people learn differently. Some are visual learners, some auditory, some musical, some kinesthetic... Any of you educators out there I m sure have heard of Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences. Well I use that to memorize. So I think it s best to approach memorization from multiple angles. * Write it out multiple times and review it. * Make sure WHEN you write it that you write it the way you see it in the Bible so you preserve the visual structure. That will help you memorize it. You ll see it in your mind s eye. * Next practice reciting in chunks.

12 12 <demonstrate using Psalm The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.> * Short frequent practice sessions are better than long ones (don t follow my example of trying to memorize something huge in one day) Put the Scripture on a notecard and look at it throughout the day, trying to recite it from memory. * Record yourself reading it and then recite the Scripture with yourself. * Try this. Make a song out of the scripture. Add a melody and it will be easier to memorize. How many songs do you know the lyrics to just because you ve heard them so many times? * Here s another. Make up movements that go along with the scripture (sort of like an interpretive dance). I learned this from theater. It always got easier to remember my lines when we added movement. * Here s another. Review with another person, alternating verses. You say one verse; they say the next one; and so on. Now here s something you need to know about memorization... You ll work hard to memorize something, you ll get it memorized, and then you WILL forget it. Then you'll re-memorize it but it will take less time than before.

13 13 This process continues several times until you have it so memorized that you no longer have to "think" about what your next line is and it will stick with you forever. You re trying to move it from your conscious mind to the subconscious mind. One trick I do to see if it s in my subconscious mind is I recite it very fast - faster than my conscious mind can keep up. If I can DO it, there s a good chance it s in there. <demonstrate w/ Psalm 1:1-3> If you can do that, it's probably in there. Over the years, I ve incorporated memorization of Scripture into many of the groups I ve led. Each week we ll have a different verse to memorize, and we recite them to each other from memory. Any small group can do this. Just pick a different verse each week - or maybe every other week. If you re in a small group, encourage your group to do it together. It s better if you all pick the same verses in the same translation so you re able to help one another. If you have a kid in our AWANA program, they re already doing this every week - memorizing tons of Scriptures. You can do it too. Ok, so we hear the Word, we read the Word, we study the Word, we memorize the Word, and next we meditate on the Word. Meditate on the Word

14 14 Most of us when we hear the word, meditate, we think of someone sitting in lotus position and emptying his mind. Biblical meditation is more like a cow chewing the cud. The cow eats grass and swallows it, but later regurgitates it and chews on it some more to get all the nourishment out of it. That s meditation. We chew on the cud of God s Word. When I was a boy, my stepfather s brother, Dave, would amaze me with his special talent. At any time he could regurgitate into his mouth and show you what he last ate. Imagine me at 9 years old with my friends asking Uncle Dave Hey Dave, show us what you had for breakfast! So that s what meditation is like, chewing the cud. It s gross, but I bet you ll remember it! Just like a cow, we chew on the Word and get all that nourishment! We re filling our mind with God s Word. The Hebrew word for meditation is hagah and it is a low sound, like a moan or a growl. It also means, to mutter. Meditation is musing, thinking, pondering on something so deeply that you are muttering, almost talking to yourself.

15 15 The reason meditation is the thumb in the Word-hand illustration is that it ties all the others together. As we hear, read, study, and memorize God s Word, we can then ruminate/meditate on God s Word - getting it deep in our bones. What happens when we do that? Listen to Joshua 1:8. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. I ve already shared Psalm 1:1 3 with you, but let s hear it again: 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. In both Scriptures it says meditate day and night. If you have memorized Scripture, you can meditate anytime, anywhere. Just start thinking about it, mulling over each word and idea, chewing on it. Psalm 119: Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. 98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. 100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. Again: meditate all day long. If you have God s word in your heart, you can think about it anytime. So we hear, read, study, memorize, and meditate on the Word. And finally, we apply it (the palm).

16 16 Apply the Word As we ve mentioned earlier in this series, the Hebrew understanding of knowing something doesn t end with head knowledge but with application. You don t know something until you ve applied it. The point of all this is not information but transformation. Who cares if you know all this Scripture, but you re still a jerk, right? Is your Bible study making you prideful or more humble and dependent on God? Are you exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Over the years I ve figured out how to tell if someone is truly growing in Christ. Here it is. I don t ask them Bible trivia questions. I don t see if they can pray in King James language. I ask their spouse, their kids, their close friends They ll tell you if that person is looking more like Jesus. It is in obeying Scripture that Christ changes us. Jesus said, If you love me, obey my commandments. (Jn 14:15)

17 17 I ll even go so far as to say that it s better to know ONE verse of the Bible and DO it than to know the whole thing and NOT do it. Jesus put it this way: Matthew 7:24 27 Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. James said this: James 1:22 25 But don t just listen to God s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. The best vehicle I know of for spiritual growth is the small group. God designed us to grow in community, not in isolation. Here at our weekend services you will experience inspirational worship and preaching, but it is in a small group where you will spur one another on to love and good deeds. Where you will speak the truth in love to one another. So let s say you re doing a Bible study in your small group One of the questions we often end with is, What is one thing I can apply to my life this week from this study?

18 18 Then next week your fellow small group members will ask, So did you do that thing you said you d do? How did it go? And week after week, month after month, year after year, we find, through the power of accountability and small group community, we are transforming. We find we re not only growing spiritually but it s positively affecting our marriage, our relationship with our kids, our job performance, our finances everything! I want to show you guys a video promoting a DIFFERENT kind of small group - NOT the kind I m talking about but the opposite. Let s take a look. <show Shallow Small Group video> Funny huh? Fortunately, we don t have any of those groups around here. If you HAVEN T picked up a Grow Guide and signed up for a group this fall, it s not too late. They start next week - the week of the 19th. We also have all the groups on our website and on the Vineyard app. And, again, I ve put all the resources I ve mentioned today on my site, sodsod.com. Be sure to check it out. I want to close by reading a Scripture to you. It s Colossians 1:9-14.

19 19 I think it is a good closing to this message. So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Would you stand for prayer? Lord, we thank you for the gift of your Word. You have preserved your Word so that we can hear it, read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it, and apply it to our lives. Let Your Word, God, transform and renew our minds so that we can better love and serve people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

One Another Teach and Admonish Text : Col. 3: 12-16, Eph. 5: 15-19, Ezra 7:10

Sermon : One Another Teach and Admonish Page 1 One Another Teach and Admonish Text : Col. 3: 12-16, Eph. 5: 15-19, Ezra 7:10 INTRODUCTION : A. We are among the most fortunate people to have ever walked