So let's talk about how to hear from God through the Bible. This is like honestly, this is what makes Christianity fun. Just like Benjamin talked about, God knows what's going on with you and often I think we feel like, "Oh, if I, you know, I've got to tune in and I've got to hear the Holy Spirit and get a fresh word.
" And that's good, and you should honestly, that's fewer and farther between than just getting God to speak through the Bible. God speaks through the Bible, he will do it almost every day. Here's what I think goes wrong with a lot of folks: They read the Bible and at first, you know, they come to know about Christ and they're getting on fire and whatever, and then they get bored.
They're like, "Oh, I don't feel like God's speaking to me in the same way. " And we're going to talk a lot about that in the next seven weeks. But usually what's going wrong there is they're trying to redo the same thing they've been doing the whole time but the anointing is left because God wants us dependent on relationship, not on mechanisms to hear from him.
So what we're going to be talking about is going to the Bible, asking questions of just about any Scripture at all. As we get still and ask questions about it, the spirit of God will start to speak to us. It might not be that he answers every question that we have right that moment, but he knows what we actually need to talk about and what we need to hear.
So right now today, I just want to talk to you about the devotional way of hearing God through the Bible. This is the simplest, it is the easiest, and I'm going to actually do it on the screen so that you can see it and you can just see how super dog gone simple it is. Now obviously, the more that you know the Scriptures and the more you grow in your faith, it gets more robust because you understand maybe a little bit more about context or whatever.
But honestly dude, it doesn't even matter. God is not waiting for you to get smarter before He'll speak to you through His word. The word of God makes the simple wise and so that's what we're going to see here.
If you go to the second page of your little sheet, there, you guys are really going to do this. Okay, here's what's going to happen: Those four Scriptures right there on the screen, Matthew 6, Philippians 4, Psalm 37, 2nd Timothy 2. You're going to take one of those texts, just you, not your table, just you.
You're going to take one of those, look it up on your phone, you can go to the Bible app, you can go to Google, Google has it, so you just Google it, it'll be there. And you're gonna take a look at that text and we're gonna start asking some questions about it. Now here's three cheat questions or three, well, one cheat question and three things to do with the Scripture as you're exploring it.
Three prayers and a question. The question is, how is God being gracious in this passage? Meaning, in the entire Bible, God's always, no matter what story we're in, no matter what the letter is, God is seeking to demonstrate, "I know this even might look like my judgment sometimes, but even when it is my judgment, it's me being gracious.
" God is trying to show His gracious heart to us, so you can always ask that question. Another good question to ask in the form of a prayer is, what is the sin here to avoid? What is the promise?
Maybe there's another question, what is the promise God is making in this passage? What is the attitude that is wrong in this passage? So really, it's just a whole bunch of questions that we're asking to the text and that'll be in your sheet.
But here's some things you're praying as you do it: God, help me believe it. Sometimes you're going to see something like, "Really, is that really how it worked? " Oh, God, help me believe it.
Or, "Help me, I do believe it but help me believe it more. " It says you're that powerful, but I don't know if you really are, so help me believe that you're that powerful, make it more true of me. Oh, this guy's really being a bad guy here, you know?
Make it true that I'm not doing that the way that King Saul is, or make it more true that I'm doing what Paul is modeling here and help me avoid this sin that I see. Those are the kinds of questions and prayers that you can pray every time you read the text. So we're going to take a passage.
I'm not going to take one of yours, okay, because I don't want you to just do what I do. So we're just going to pick a different passage for me and we're really going to do this right now. And then you're going to do it right now and you're going to have some time alone with the Scriptures and then we're going to share amongst ourselves what God spoke to us through it.
I just want to show you this. Okay, so here's your little sheet. Here, this is on your third page.
You could write. I mean, if you're like a journal keeper or something, my journal is actually electronic. I wouldn't actually use this form, but you're welcome to use this form and we'll make sure that you get this electronic form.
But you might want to just write in. Your passage, right here. Hello.
So, I'm going to say I'm going to do Galatians 1. Now, what is it I'm doing? I'm going to do six through ten, so it's just these first five verses right here, Galatians 1:6-10.
I'm going to pray, so we're going to start off and I'm saying, "Jesus, I really need you to bless this Bible study. Would you come and open up my eyes? Without your illumination, I'm not going to see what I'm supposed to see.
Would you read me while I'm trying to read the Bible? Show me what you want to say to me. " Okay, so you don't have.
. . unless you know some of you a lot you like to check boxes, so you can check it if you want to.
Now, I'm going to look at this verse, and then we'll look at it again, and then I'm going to look at it again, and then I'm going to look at it again, believing that God is going to speak to me through these. Okay, so, and I'm going to be asking questions like the ones you've got listed right there. Are there any truths to believe, sins to confess, attitudes to change, commands to obey, promises to claim, and other types of questions like that.
Now, let's just do it together. Okay, so I know in the context of Galatians, Paul is warning the Galatians, "Hey, you guys are getting trippy, man. You guys are embracing a gospel that isn't even the gospel.
You're trying to do things in the natural that cause God to be pleased with you rather than just trusting Christ in simplicity. " So here's what he says, verse 6. "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.
" Okay, I'm going to read that again and just think about it. "I am astonished," so Paul's "Wow," that you are quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ. Okay, so one help is to look for verbs.
"You are quickly deserting. " That's a verb. That means these guys, what they're doing wrong is they are deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ.
That's one thing they're doing and then they're turning to a different gospel. So I might just highlight that just like that, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and trying to pervert the gospel.
So I'm thinking about that, "Oh gosh. " Okay, so if I slow down and don't just try to say all the words right, if I slow down, okay, these guys are deserting Christ somehow. What does that mean?
They're deserting Him and they're deserting Him for something else. Maybe I'm deserting Him in some way. Am I deserting Him?
Am I leaving simplicity, the gospel behind for something more complex? But even if we or an angel should preach a different gospel other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse. Okay, so whoa.
So He's saying if anybody else comes along and says, "Hey, you need more than just the gospel. You need more than just by grace through faith. " If anyone comes along, Paul is screaming, "May they to be damned to hell.
" That's a pretty bold language. May they be damned to hell for bringing you, even if it's an angel, for bringing you something that differs from what you've already learned. So I'm thinking about that.
Okay, are there messages in our culture that are telling me, "You need to be more. Carter, you need to be more than you are. The way you are is not good enough.
You need to be like, okay, I know you trust Christ, but you need to be, you need to trust Christ and you need to be up with all the trends. You need to be smarter than other preachers so when people come to hear you, they're like, "Dag, on that preacher's smart. " Are you trying to add to the gospel, Carter?
Are you just enjoying? I don't have to add anything. I'm not going to desert my God.
I'm going to rest in my God and I don't have to add anything to it. Verse 9, "As we've already said. " So now I say again, "If anybody is preaching you a gospel other than the one you accepted, let them be under God's curse.
" As we've already said, I mean, I've already told you guys this. I've told you, "Okay, what does that mean? " Hmm, well, maybe if I just reflect on it, God's already told me this before.
Like, I've already told you, "Carter, you don't need to be any more than you are. You don't need to add that thing. You don't need to buy that thing.
You don't need to show them that you're right. You can just trust me about it. You don't need to add anything.
All you need to do is not desert your King and rest in the fact that Jesus saves you without you. " And then verse 10, "Am I not trying to win the approval of humans or of God? Or am I trying to please people?
If I'm still trying to please people, uh-oh, I would not be the servant of Christ. " Whoa. I think there are places I'm trying to please people.
I'm trying to keep that church member happy with me. They're a little bristly about something and I'm like weird about that. Okay, that means though if I give into that, then I'm not even the servant of Christ.
I'm like disqualifying myself from really even being a servant because I'm actually their servant rather than Christ's servant. I guess I'm walking in the. .
. Fear of man, then. I need to resist that.
So now, let's go to your page, okay? There's a lot of sin to confess. One was deserting Christ.
So, I'm just going to write this down: deserting Christ for approval of others. I wouldn't think that that is deserting Christ, but Paul says it is. So, I'm just going to agree with him.
Um, there is not realizing that I'm trying to add to who he's made me. So, I might write something like, "Jesus is enough. " And I might even just put, "Relax.
" And then, maybe one more thing I was, I want to meditate on is if I fear people, I'm not fearing God. I'm less effective for him. I might do what they want instead of what he wants.
Now, I can take the next 20 minutes and just start testing my ask questions about this. And I'm going to go to the application section. And this section just means, how should I change based on what I just read?
What should I believe differently or what should I do differently? Well, one of the things I might want to do differently is, "God, I'm going to repent because I think that's true. I think I was worrying about what that church member thought and it really has been messing with me and it's added to my anxiety and that's sin.
So, I just need to repent for that, God. And by the way, I want you to make it more true of me that I just, I'm not really worried about being other people's servants other than unless it's serving you at the same time. So, I'm going to write that down.
Um, I'm going to repent for lack of simplicity. I'm going to repent for deserting Christ. And then, maybe I'll even write something like, "Every time I see her, I'm just going to pray something like, "God bless her, but I don't care what she thinks.
" And make that more true of me, God, because I'm Christ's servant. And then, I might, for that week, I might memorize verse 10: "If I'm still trying to please people, I would not be the servant of Christ. " Now, there's more steps in additional weeks.
But do you see how simple that is? My passage was actually a little bit more complex. It has more given circumstances than the ones you have listed in your page there.
But I actually just heard from God, like, just by going over that and asking those questions, God was beginning to reveal to me, "Yeah, you're fearing that chick. I don't know why you're doing that. That's all you're doing.
You don't have to force it. You don't have to reach for it. All you have to do is go to the text and think about it and look at it and ask the Lord to reveal anything else to you.
It is really that simple, guys. This is a feel it out as you go. So, this is a lot of practicum.
We're gonna, you got a lab. This is like high school lab. Okay, we're gonna go do the lab now.
So, you've got 20 minutes. You pick your own scripture and it'll be a little bit quiet in here. You can obviously talk, but then we're gonna share what you've learned.
And don't worry about getting it right. Just be honest as you do it.
