How to Avoid Temptation Psalm 119:9-16 Rev. Min Chung (Large Group, October 16, 2015)

Transcription

1 1 How to Avoid Temptation Psalm 119:9-16 Rev. Min Chung (Large Group, October 16, 2015) Introduction Praise the Lord! Today, we ll talk about how to avoid temptation. And next week, next Friday I ll talk about things that s related to that; how to keep the Biblical line between a brother and a sister, male and female. We ll talk about that, couple weeks. We ll talk about avoiding temptation and keeping purity this week and next week. Today we re going to talk about how to avoid temptation. Psalm 119:9-16: 9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. 12 Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! 13 With my lips I declare all the rules [a] of your mouth. 14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. 16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. We ll look at this video about 2 min 30 second video of this dog, who s very smart and incredible in obeying his master. Very impressive, but throughout the video, look at the dog s face, it s hilarious. [Video] Video of a Rottweiler dog obeying its master and doing tricks. The master gives the dog a treat, but tells him to wait until he says Three, then he can eat the treat. Some dogs are smarter than some babies. This dog knows how to obey. Of course God does not treat us like dogs, we are His children, but we must learn how to obey our master. He always leads us to growth and what is best for us. There is always temptation to eat the cookies in the world, but those cookies will kill us. God

2 2 always commands us so that it would be best for us, so we must learn how to listen. There are so many temptations in the world; there are many poisonous biscuits in the world. He s training us how to avoid temptations in the world through the Word. In order for us to do that, we need God s Word. What is the goal of our life? In some sense, positively speaking, we want to glorify God: enjoy Him and love Him forever. Negatively speaking, we do not sin. By avoiding sin, we can love Him more, we can glorify Him more. In order for us to do that, we absolutely need the Bible. John Wesley said, I am a man of one book. Pray that the Bible will be the book for us. Andrew Jackson talked about the Bible like this, That book is the rock on which our republic rests. Not only does the Word of God build a person, it can build a nation, a kingdom for God. John Bunyan said, I was never out of my Bible. He was always in the Bible, thinking about the Bible, meditating on the Word of God. Know it, live it, both the highs and lows of scripture. As much as we could, we need to be in this book so we can be the people who represent the author of this book. What are some benefits? Philip Brooks says this, The bible is like a telescope: if a man looks through his telescope, he sees the world beyond. But if he looks at his telescope, he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond. Most people only look at it, at best they only see the dead leather. The Bible is a window in this prison world through which we may look into eternity. AS we look through the Bible, we can understand history, the world, and eternity. George Müller, who was known for his faith and prayer life agreed with that. The first three years after his conversion to Christianity, he said, I neglected the word of God. Since I began to search diligently, the blessings have been wonderful. I have read the Bible through 100 times, always with increasing delight. The Word of God is that incredible. The Bible has infinite wisdom in each Word because it is God s Word. More and more we read we re just understanding the layers. I have read the Bible 100 times, always with increasing delight. We re going to look at a portion of Psalm 119. This chapter is a nightmare for people who are committed to read 3 chapters a day because it is the longest chapter of the Bible. There are 22 sections, with 8 verses each. Each section starts off with the first letter of the Hebrew language. Across the way, all the sections talk about God s Word. When I read this chapter, two things happen. One, I get to love God s word; it somehow motivates me to read the Bible. It helps me to love God s Word and it helps me to love God, period. When you want to have a revival on your own, my suggestion is to read this chapter, because you get to love God s word and love God, period. This section, which is the 2 nd section of the 22 sections, which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Bet. It talks about how to avoid temptation and remain pure. Note: I didn t say how to overcome temptation, but how to avoid temptation. Overcoming is a prescription: you re already sick and you have to get out of it. Avoiding is prevention, not prescription. You can ask any drug addict which is easier: avoiding temptation before you get addicted or overcoming the temptation while you re addicted. There are people with great testimonies; they ve been addicted to things in the past, but God freed me from these addictions. If you grew up in the church, you might wish to have those types of testimonies but I ve

3 3 counseled a lot of those who have/have had addiction problems. Even though at times you can overcome your addiction, the memory of the pleasure you ve had in the past can cause you to fall easily. Although you think that kind of testimony is great, you don t know how hard it is after the testimonies have been told. They are much more susceptible to temptation because they remember the pleasure. Especially when you do bad spiritually, temptation becomes much stronger. That memory of sinful pleasure comes back and you re so tempted to sin again. So I would say, with resounding conviction, in my own life as well as having counseled hundreds and thousands of people for the last 30 years of my life, it is a lot better to avoid temptation than overcome temptation. There s so much pain even after you overcome temptation. There s so much pain in overcoming sin because you will have scars. Sin will be forgiven always, but it will always leave scars. Even though you re healed, it will still leave scars. Because memories of pleasure of sin can only be avoided if associated with that same sin or memory, is a memory of pain. Because God loves us, he allows us to go through the consequences of sin often. And there s pain involved. And only when that pain is associated with that memory of pleasure or replaces the memory of pleasure, then can we overcome our temptations to sin. Sin is addictive. Prevention is always better than prescription. Learn to avoid temptation. Let s look at the outline here: 8 verses, divided into 4 sections, 2 verses each. Outline I. General Principle What you absolutely need in life [9-10] What you absolutely need in life is God s Word. To win you can t just have defense. With defense, you may not lose, but you may not be winning. The Goal of Christian life is not just to not lose, but to win; we want to not just not sin, but glorify God. In our lives, we need both defense and offense. a. Defense You need to guard your heart with the Word [9] Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word. Somehow the Word of God has power to protect the heart from impurity. How can the young man keep his way pure? By living according to the word. As soon as possible, start young and start early. Again, associated with the principle of avoiding, not prescription, but prevention. Verse 9 10, this general principle is like a root, a foundation. Verses 11 and on, we ll talk about the past experience and future commitment. b. Offense You need to love God through the Word [10]

4 4 Psalm 119:10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! We must replace a love for sin with a love for God. That s why verse 10, with my whole heart I seek you. Not only does he say, with your Word I avoid sin. With my whole heart I seek you. I seek : we are pleasure seekers and we have two natures, spirit s nature and sin nature. You re born with a sin nature, but if you re born again, a spiritual nature and a desire for God is born. We are pleasure seekers, either sinful or spiritual pleasure. Instead of seeking sin, I seek you. I want to seek you who can overpower my seeking of sin: the offense. And God s Word can not only help you to hate sin, but love His Word. I seek YOU, with my whole heart. To hate sin, you need to fall in love with Him. And then he says I seek you with ALL my heart, not just a part of my heart. Less love for God means you have divided love for other things. Now, emotion is an indication of receiving pleasure. If you have a positive emotion, you received pleasure, negative emotion is when you receive pain; you did not get what you want. When you have less love for God, your emotion is being fulfilled in other places, which means your heart is divided. So emotion is not always an indication of love, but a lack of passion and devotion for God means you re getting the pleasure from somewhere else. You need to check those things so you have an undivided heart for God. I seek you with my whole heart so that you have undivided love for God, a pure heart. Sometimes seeking okay things, neutral things, neutral pleasures can divided our hearts. So we will seek all those things for ourselves, so with all my heart I seek you. It doesn t mean God is the only thing you think about and the Bible is all that you read, but God has to be the source of strength and the Bible has to be the reason for those things. When we study, we should pray, God, help me to study for your glory. He has to be the beginning and the end of whatever we do in between. How can I love God more and seek him with all my heart? V. 10 says, let me not wander from your commandments, through the means of God s Word can we seek Him. Our temptations are bad, bad biscuits out there that will kill our fire, passion for the Lord. Our hearts eat the pleasures of this world, but our hearts also eat God s Word. Our minds are like our stomachs, through the means of our senses, when we see and hear things. But when we read God s Word, we are eating God s Word. When we meditate, we digest with our hearts and our hearts distribute all the strength and energy into all the parts of our spiritual lives so that we can be strong in the Lord and overcome sin and live for God s glory.

5 5 Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Because our hearts are living and active, the Word of God comes into our hearts. No other words have this power like the Word of God. God s Word is living and active. The Word of God comes into our hearts, it does incredible things for our soul. The phrase, sharper than any two-edged sword talks about the Roman Empire. A sword with two edges was invented by Roman Empire. Historians say that the sword was as impactful to the Roman Empire as the atomic bomb is to our world now. This Hebrew writer is saying that the Word of God has incredible power as it gets into our hearts and minds. The Word of God is the primary means of giving us purity in our hearts; our intentions and motives are changed from the Word of God. It has an incredible, powerful effect in our hearts that helps us to hate sin and love God. II. Past Experience What you should have done [11-12] a. He stored up the Word [11] Psalm 119: 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. What is storing up? It s basically hiding the word, piling the word; I ve kept it, hid it. Unlike hiding a pimple, you don t want to show it so you hide it because you re embarrassed. Rather, hide it like a treasure, something SO valuable, I don t want to lose it, I want to keep it because I never want to lose it. He s saying, I GOT IT! I value it so much, I store it up in my heart. He stored up the Word of God in such a way he memorized it, chewed it, so that it can be easily recalled when he needs it. He hid it and stored it up. It s part of him, no one can take it away because it s a part of his system, spirit, world view, his memory; it will come up when temptation comes and it will give him power to stimulate his desires to overcome. It becomes a higher desire than his desire to sin. How do you know when you ve hidden the word of God in your heart? A couple things, for me, when the verses remind you of situations, you re reading it and you understand it. Oh it s like this. Oh, in those moments, this is what He means. As I teach God s Word, there s a science part and an art part. As I teach it, make it relevant, exciting, make it relevant for you, and you feel like I m just speaking to you. Teaching the Bible is like cooking, there s nutrients and flavors. The Word of God when you preach it accurately, like nutrients, but the flavor parts it makes you want to eat it. Illustrations and testimonies help season the message. Sometimes, situations will remind you of verses. When you see situations, verses come out, and life becomes an illustration of God s

6 6 Word. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, it says that if you re a parent, you need to teach your children the Word of God. We re talking about the journey of the Israelites in Egypt to Canaan, basically it s saying, Parents you need to teach your children God s Word. As you re walking with your children, as you re facing situations, teach them God s Word. When you have the wisdom of God s word, it is in your heart and will come out. Parents and spiritual parents must know God s word so well that as you re spending time with your children or spiritual children, people you are discipling, everything in life is an illustration of God s Word. Then you can become a parent or spiritual parent, so store up the Word in your heart. [Illustration] The Best Thing (Word of God) In the Best Place (Your Heart) For the Best Purpose (To not sin/to love God more). You need to store up God s Word now in the present time. You need to store up in prayer. V. 12 says, blessed are you Oh Lord, teach me your statutes. The whole thing is basically a prayer to God, in God s Word. Especially this verse, Teach me your statutes, the author is especially praying in this verse to learn God s Word. Prayer and Word must go together. Read and read and pray; prayer and God s Word must go together. In Luke 24, two disciples are discouraged after the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus resurrects and appears to these two disciples and they don t know that this is Jesus. Jesus explains to these two disciples who are discouraged about himself, and as he walks with them, he explains the Scripture, the Old Testament. Luke 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Jesus opened their minds with this verse. We should use this verse to pray, Lord help me to understand, internalize, chew, eat and digest the Scripture. Notice Jesus opened their minds. As they were walking on their way to Emmaus, when their minds were opened, the Word of God went into their hearts, and their lives were never the same after that. If you look at verse 12, it says teach me your statutes. Teach me thank you, teach me thank you. Please Lord, feed me. Praise you, Lord for feeding me. And then you get hungry for more of God s Word, because you get hungry for more of God. Teach me your statutes, you get to love God s word. That s why John Bunyan who wrote Pilgrim s Progress, testified and said this, Read the Bible and read it again and do not despair to help, to understand something of the will and mind of God. Though you think you are fast locked up from you, neither trouble

7 7 yourself, though you may not have commentaries or expositions. (Commentaries or expositions meaning books written about the Bible.) Don t worry. Pray and read and read and pray, for little from God is better than great deal from man. He s saying that Christian books are great, commentaries from the Bible are good, but those are still man s word. Little from God, the actual Bible, is much better than books written about God. Christian books are great to get to the word of God. I would say, Christian books are great; when you re younger, Christian books are good, but as you get older, maybe less Christian books, and more and more of the Bible. And as you understand it, meditate on God s Word. Our small group Bible Study system is all about that, so that you can meditate and share with other people, you internalize, it will feed you and become a part of your system so that you grow spiritually. While many small groups will be fellowship-oriented, we ll have the Word of God as the foundation of our fellowship. When you do something you love, you get lost. When you look at a good-looking cake, good looking guy or girl, watch sports, bag - hand bag, you get lost. You should get lost when you re studying the Bible. It happens to me often when I m studying the Bible for a couple hours. I wake up and my mind comes back to the present world. I m like, where am I? I don t know whether I m at home or a café. We should get lost studying the Bible. I want all of you to get to the place that only the Word of God can take you. When you taste this world, you will taste that this world is so cheap in comparison to the world you transcend into through the Bible. I remember when I was in high school, no one really taught me the Bible. Those were the days when I used to go to Korean youth group. I attended a youth group that was very, very primitive in its teachings. But somehow during one of the revival meetings, my heart became on fire. I don t know if I was a junior or senior in high school, but then I asked my friend -I didn t want to do this, but I was on fire- You re my friend, you do this with me. I asked my pastor, this was mid 70s, I asked my pastor, can we have the key to the church? Can my friend and I go there and pray all night? My friend didn t want to this but I beat him, I was stronger than him. I convinced him, and so we got to the church. He was at least motivated when the day came. We said, Let s pray all night if we need to so that we can see God. I really wanted to see God. We sang this Korean hymn, some song with twelve verses; singing, praying, crying out loud, Lord I want to see you. And then I heard about this Korean pastor in Korea that grabbed a tree and pulled a tree fighting against God, and if you pull this tree out God s going to answer you. I went to this tree outside of the church and grabbed it, Lord listen to my prayer. I couldn t pull it, and anyway we went back in and prayed out loud, we walked around, crying out to God. And that day, we fell asleep. We couldn t see God.

8 8 I don t remember what happened after. I don t know if we were disappointed or not. I thought about it, Was that prayer useless? No, because though I never saw him face to face then, I see God. I really believe that God is right here in this place, I see Him more clearly than I can see your faces. It s more real to me that God s in this place. You know how I know that? Because I see Him through the Word of God, it s about the perception. Whether it s your eyes or what you hear in God s Word and then you sense it, you sense it with your mind and heart, whether you see it or not. I know His presence in this place because God s Word says so. I know for sure, God s Word is so true and so real; I see him through the Word of God. So when I think about it, past hunger led me to present vision. Past seeking led me to the present understanding of the Word, therefore, led me to the present vision of God. See God, see God through the Word, and you ll know his presence. III. Present Application What to do now [13-14] a. We need to eat God s Word [13] Psalm 119:13 With my lips I declare, all the rules of your mouth. God s Word is precious because it comes from, God s mouth. God s Word is precious because it comes from His mouth, His lips. Matthew 4:4 But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The things written in the Bible came from the mouth of God. God s Word needs to be in our mouths, in our lips. Psalm 119:13 says With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth, with my lips. From his lips to my mouth, and how does that happe? When I declare. Declare here is less means of ministry to other people, but declare here means more of recount, declare to yourself, ministry to yourself so that you can understand and keep, internalizing the Word of God. This is almost like muttering, not necessarily more for ministry, but the ministry to yourself. As you re convinced by these worldly thoughts, you recount, you declare so that you would leave, so that you can be convinced and convicted of God s Word. You ll recount and declare to yourself, you ll build it into your system. As a result, you can declare it to other people. It s good to pray with Psalms, often it s good to share it and talk about it with other people. The more you declare, more is declared to you. We

9 9 think we re constantly talking to ourselves, but it is the Word of God that uses it to do that. Journal, if you re good at journaling, journal with God s Word. You ll get a lot more out by journaling, writing, declaring to yourself. Then declare to others, in the context of small group, share it with other people, friends, accountability with quiet times, and then of course, declare to nonbelievers, the Gospel, apologetics, the defense of the Gospel. Help them to understand logically. b. We need to digest God s Word [14]. Psalm 119:14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. This delight is the proof of our digestion of God s Word. Now as means comparison, as in all riches, I delight. I is singular because we all have different riches. Just as we cherish, a lover of money will cherish. We all have different riches, just as we cherish those things, we delight in those things, he wants to delight in God s Word. So if you digest God s Word and internalize, it means you are delighting in God. The misunderstanding might be let me have more love for God s Word than the world. It is totally different. Having delight in God s Word is a part of spirit s nature. We need to repent of sinful delight and be addicted to the delight in spirit s nature. We have emotions of love of God and love of people, that s why you need to distinguish your emotions. When your heart is constantly divided, you may not have emotion for God. Why do you talk to enemies and reconcile with them? Because you have love for God. You need to distinguish the two. You need to love, delight, and sometimes it could be seen as emotionless, yet you can have emotionless delight because you love God. You have the desire to please God and love God. If you digest the Word, it produces the fruit of love, and deep is the love of God that overcomes your emotions. Even though there s erratic emotion, I want to love God. I want to keep going because God is my life. I want to live for His glory. You keep going because there s a desire in overcoming these erratic emotions. Our problem is often that there s so many hindrances to God s Word. In the days when Psalm was writeen, there was much less competition. Now, we don t turn to the Bible, we turn on the Bible. What happens when you turn on so many things, even the Bible app. There are so many other apps, Ding, a text. Your demonic friend is sending you a text while you re reading the Bible. We are a multitasking generation. We have access to the eyes of this world, we re the Y generation. We have access to so many things in the world. It can be good, but not if it takes your eyes off of the Bible. We are divided, we are unfocused, we cannot commit

10 10 because we have so many options. There are always better options, we can t be committed, we are unfocused, divided, shallow. The worst thing is that it takes your depth, your deep love for God. We must redeem this. Social media, internet, we must redeem all these things. There are some things we need to focus on, learn to focus on the right things. God s word: the essential thing in life. Satan s been using all these different tactics. Different kinds of things, for Adam and Eve it was a fruit, for David it was a woman, and for us, it s a billion things. Satan has many tactics to distract us from the Word of God. As long as we are not serving God, Satan is succeeding. He constantly has to make adjustments. You know why? Because his tactics don t work anymore. He constantly makes adjustments. Similar to physical medication. You re constant to change; our bodies make adjustments and get used to it. Satan always changes tactics and has to make adjustments. Why? Because we have one weapon and our weapon can overcome any temptation. Our any method of Satan, we have one weapon, it has worked throughout the history of mankind, and we do not have to make adjustments. And the Word of God can overcome any temptation. That s why Satan constantly has to make adjustments, using what we have. The effectiveness of the Word of God will never be gone, the more we know Him and know the Word of God, the more we can overcome any temptation of this world. We must delight in Him through His word. We can delight privately as we read, we can delight publicly as we listen, share and declare. We can delight in worship as we ll hear God s Word, as we sing the songs related to Word of God, we ll explode into worship, meaningful worship. Our delight is not just emotional, our delight is deep, foundational, because Jesus Christ in our hearts. God is strengthening us, therefore we delight, and celebrate in the depths of our hearts. I feel like I really learned to love God s word when I started to go to Seminary. I went to this school called Biblical Theological Seminary. There were these old school pastors who loved God and loved God s Word. Whenever I asked a question, they d respond I don t know. Although they were smarter than most people, they were so humble and were afraid to be sure about God s word as if they know exactly what it means. Then they would give a 2 hour answer as to what they believe. I saw how they loved God s word. They were so careful to study each word; they d memorize it in English and Hebrew and Greek and they d look at it with me just to make sure they weren t wrong. And I learned to revere the Word of God through that. Jewish people would stand as they read the Word of God out of respect. I remember one time I learned this from my Korean culture: I was passing by the Pastor s room when I was

11 11 staying in his house, and the door was open. He was reading God s word on his knees, out of respect for God. He s on his knees, he s receiving every word that comes from the mouth of God. Present application: eat God s Word and digest it, and we ll become strong people that will avoid temptation. IV. Future Commitment What to commit to [15-16] a. We must commit to live according to the Word [15] Psalm 119:15 I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. He talks about the general principle: we absolutely need God s word toavoid sin and glorify God. He talked about his past experience, he stored up prayers. He talked about present application, he ate God s word and digested it and the proof is his delight in the Word. For the future commitment, we must commit to living according to the Word and to love the word. In verse 15 he says, I will meditate on your precepts fix my eyes on your ways. I will internalize the Word in such a way that he can apply the Word. We have to take time to let the Word linger in your mind. Don t click on something else; linger, on the pages of God s Word. Don t just pass by the Word, don t just let the Word of God pass by. Like a bad host who wants the guest to go home when he arrives, a sinful heart is a bad host to God s word. A sinful heart wants God s word and says That s enough but we must let the Word of God linger, let the Word of God dwell in your heart. Study, meditate, and it will feed you. My sermons are my meditations. Though I prepare months ahead, this week I m focusing on what I m preaching Friday and Sunday. For the 8 verses, I ve been meditating just under 60 hours this week. Immediately I try to understand it, meditate, and apply and I get depressed. How am I going to preach? What he says and who I am, there s such a discrepancy that I get depressed. But I pray about it and wrestle with it, and as the Word of God goes into my heart, I rise, I feel my heart rising. When we sing RISE UP, RISE UP, spiritual resurrection takes place. To me, these people say I heard it before, I heard that sermon before, I know that verse, those people will never grow. Arrogant, proud, shallow legalists. Each word of God has infinite wisdom and truth in it. There are so many verses I look at them a hundred times and I get more. Meditate in the connection between this book and your heart and your life. Some people ask about skipping text. They ask me, When I read, I get to a hard passage, should I skip this text? I would say this, the younger you are, with less understanding of the Bible you can skip more, but as you get older, you understand more and more, tackle the passages that are hard. Passages that are hard can mean that the wisdom s not in you.

12 12 As you study and meditate and understand, sometimes the greatest blessings comes from those passages that are hard to understand or hard to study. As you eat those verses, you ll have different nutrients of God s word. Signs of spiritual maturity are character and wisdom. Signs of spiritual health are love for the word of God and prayer. Some of you might be mature but spiritually unhealthy now. Some of you might be spiritually healthy but not mature. You need to mature character and wisdom as the Word of God piles up in your heart, but right now your spirit needs to be healthy in such a way that you need to have love for God s word through prayer. If your heart comes alive, it will give you spiritual taste but you will desire the Word of God in prayer. Learn to apply, if you fail, it s okay. You re on the rock solid foundation of your justification, you re forgiven. Every time you fail, you RISE UP; after you fail, you are experiencing the power of resurrection, you are declaring the power of resurrection every time you rise. So never quit. Go to the cross, receive forgiveness, and RISE UP. Every time you rise up you re declaring the power of resurrection. b. We must commit to love the Word [16] Psalm 119:16 I will delight in your statutes, I will not forget your word. i. Commit to your assigned times Have some time, it could be 5 minutes, morning or evening. I suggest morning and evening, it could be 5 minutes a day, 5 minutes in the morning and at night, hopefully a bit more than that. 30 minutes in the morning, 30 at night, an hour in the morning, 30 at night is good. Say I m going to read God s Word and assign times. If you don t plan it, a lot of times you won t do it. Commit to your assigned times. ii. Commit to your leisure times. Don t give God your leftover time like how you wouldn t give your guest a leftover meal. Spend time with God in the Word in the optimal condition. Study the Word in the morning when you re fresh. You need the Word to live and survive and grow and become spiritually strong. Either your mind or your heart will hinder your study of the Word. The younger you are, it s your mind because you don t know how to study the Bible and you can t focus. But when you re older, you can focus but your heart does not want to as much. Most of us have general knowledge of the Bible, but older people may not care as much because they are not in ministry and not teaching the Bible. If we continue to read generally and study generally, we will have a general knowledge of the Bible and cease to grow.

13 13 In order for you to grow and internalize the word of God, your mind needs specific concrete knowledge of the Word, understanding careful study of God s word. You need specific knowledge of the mind, and your heart needs time, reflection, meditation, prayer, and repentance, so that the Word of God has specific knowledge that goes into your mind, stimulates your spirit s nature that overpowers your sinful nature. Specific knowledge of the verses and an understanding of God s Word through the mind and the heart takes time. Operation: the Word of God goes in, divides the heart, and a powerful impact takes place. It doesn t take a minute, it takes time, but an explosion slowly takes place, dividing you away from your sins. Without these two processes, you re merely chewing and spitting it out. You re not eating the Word; you re like a spiritual bulimic or anorexic; old heart, clogged heart, a heart that is not hungry or a heart that is not pure, that s what you have, you have general knowledge of the Bible. This alum sent me a message time when listening to a sermon while jogging, P. Min, I was listening to your latest sermon online, Do you want to be used by God? While I was working out, by the lake here, your words of fire made me sprint harder, and tears actually started to roll down, because I so badly want to be used by God here. But often times feel like I have nothing to give and am not doing enough. Your sermon encouraged me, and reminded me that it is never me, but my great and big and awesome God who is doing the work. Thank you again and again and again, God is continuing to use you in my life. Past hunger leads to present vision. Past investment leads to present benefits. Your heart will be on fire. Through the word, fiery heart of God comes into your heart. You ll have a heart that is in love. One more video and we re done. Conclusion [Video] Haley Reinhart high school, Extra gum. The boy draws all the moments they had on the gum wrapper, then displays a short galleria of all the gum wrappers and finally proposes to her. Romantic relationship. Just a simple story of love written on a gum wrapper. There s a reality of love story: God is in love with us. The Greatest love story in the world, and obviously it s not written on a gum wrapper, but in the Bible. He speaks His love, He pours His love through His word, and as we read God s Word, we will fall in love with Him, that s what life is about. Then you will overcome sin and grow to live for his glory. Let s pray.