3ABN Today Live - “Photo-Theology: How To Study the Bible” (TDYL190013)

I want to spend my [Music] man [Music] moving lord hila hard on us then [Music] and they will and people [Music] hello and welcome to 3abn today live I can't believe it Jason this is my co-host my son the general manager of 3v ends dare to dream Network Jason Bradley James it's good to be here with you oh I'm so glad you're here and I'm excited about what we have in store this evening look I know it first of all we've been with our guests all week mm-hmm because we have because we have been taping recording our new salvation and symbols and signs series on Daniel mm-hmm tell our audience tell our viewers how it's going J oh it's been absolutely amazing seeing the book of Daniel in a whole new light I mean the way that Pastor Myers and pastor Rafferty really break down and and really extrapolate the meet yeah that's gained within the Book of Daniel is absolutely phenomenal and if you want to learn how to study the Bible like that well you tuned into the right program we are going to be talking about how to study the Bible we are we are I know that you've been watching and because we get emails every single day on salvation and symbols and signs and we know that you want to know how to study God's Word and so pastor IRA Myers is here this evening welcome pastor Ivor Meyer good to be here good to be here Jason good to be with you pass we've been together all week yeah hours but it's been going so beautifully and we are so grateful for the insights that you and Pastor James Rafferty share with us Jason and I are the students program and we kind of you know keep them on instead of being so cerebral which they are but we keep them like at yes so that's you know we asked questions that we think you would want to know and so we really really appreciate all that you do yeah thank you you are the founder of power of the Lamb ministries yeah and you have an interesting interesting journey after our music for this evening we'd like to hear about that journey yeah we have Stephanie dawn with us and she's gonna play the she's gonna sing and she's going to be accompanied by Dan Thornton she's going to sing speechless you [Music] I'm speechless [Music] by Joy into my heart almost too good to be true in this [Music] vehicle [Music] has bliss or shattering I couldn't get words there was comfort in knowing that [Music] it's out boys my amazement [Music] and faithful I'm sweet by Joy [Music] into my heart [Music] it's almost too good to be true [Music] in the York yes speech silence boy how could you [Music] instead of justice [Music] speech [Music] York I'm speechless silence [Music] speech [Music] speechless Thank You Stephanie dawn for that that lovely song lovely pasture Myers let's get to it as Danny says let's cut this melon you know you have a journey that in a sense it's kind of similar to mine and that we were both in the music industry tell us about your beginnings even before you got into the music industry did you grow up in a Christian home what was your home home life like so I was born in Jamaica I didn't grow up in you know we weren't a religious family like going to church every week or anything like that I mean we went to church sometimes but it was my parents you know good people taught us to be respectful all those things so we grew up in a good home my introduction to Christianity kind of came in stages beginning with one hours around twelve years old I had you know an experience with a cousin of mine who came over to the States and introduced me to the Bible introduced me to the book of Revelation and really like scared me to death the book of Revelation that was my I don't know if you want to hear this story but yeah so I was uh I was I was 12 and I was actually 11 sorry I was 12 my brother was 11 and you know like I said we didn't go to church too often or whatever and my cousin comes from England she's about 14 years old her name is Susan and Susan would talk to us about the Bible we just fell in love with her immediately I mean we just got really connected it was our first time meeting her and by this time we were in the States we were in America so Susan one one morning is talking to us about the Bible actually usually did but this time she's talking to us about this thing called the mark of the beast and my parents were not home at the time they were out where this is me my brother and Susan at home and you know she's telling us about this thing but the book of Revelation called the mark of the beast and my brother and I as she's talking my brother and I like oh no no this can't be happening this can't be happening why because that summer we had just watched a movie about a little boy who discovers he's the Antichrist Oh No and he was from England as far as I remember Oh No and he has 666 written in his forehead and so anyone that discovers his identity dies a horrendous just painful like just crazy death like getting hit by a truck and the truck doesn't kill him yet and then a crow comes out of nowhere and they're just like and like their death would just be so horrendous so after we saw that movie my brother and I decided that we never wanted to know what the mark of the beast is my cousins like I know what the mark of the beast is do you want to know the mark of the beast and then she proceeds to tell us that there are certain there's a certain company that produces soap I'm not gonna mention name a company uh-huh and all your soap boxes is this symbol of a circle with a Halfmoon and a man's face in it I don't know if you've ever heard that oh I know which one into and she was like that is the mark of the beast Oh we are about to die and my parents aren't home and then she's like do you have a soap box in your house and I'm like yes Susan we have a soap box in the house and she's like where is it and my brother not like it's in the basement and she's like it's cold and so off we go down the steps and the steps are creaking and in my mind I hear the horror music in the background like things are about to end we get down to the basement and we point to the soap box and we start backing up and she's moving to the Boxey picks it up she turns it she looks at it and she looks at us and she's like is my brother not see the circle with a half moon in the man's face in it we run out the house screaming in our pajamas in the middle of the street no laughing on the set please middle of the street this is in the Freeport Long Island we are screaming and crying and my cousin is laughing to death and I'm sure they're waiting outside we're looking for crows we're looking for houses to fall we're looking for the earth to open up and like after like five minutes of nothing happening and we kind of calm down and that was my introduction to the book of Revelation you know and the Bible it's funny but it's not funny it's funny in the way you're telling you but it's not funny in that it's it's such a distortion of what the truth mark of the beast yes and it's like but it's yeah yeah can just change her and foresee things yeah it planted a seed in my mind after I was like okay we're still alive nothing has happened maybe you can know what the mark of the beast is and live yeah so I remember a seed being planted and again it wasn't like wasn't like I suddenly got interested in the Bible it was just like a seed was planted and then I went on as usual you know just live in my life or whatever and so as a teenager my brother and I got really involved in a hip hop industry or into hip hop I should say breakdancing in just a whole culture and by the time we got to high school we had formed a four-man hip hop group we graduated went to college and in my second year of college enter the talent show at Howard University in Washington DC we came in first place in that talent show and that led to a recording contract with EMI records in 1993 the name of our group was the boogie monsters and we started recording we recorded an album and while we were recording that first album I was introduced to the gospel and that's where my whole life just you know took a turn and ended up leaving the music industry as well as my brother who was in the group with us both of us left the industry for the same reason and went into ministry now it was not my intent to go into ministry I just left the group because what the things that I had learned so impacted me that you know I was willing to walk away from you know eight hundred thousand dollar contract and basically went to work at Target you know making like minimum wage yeah and hadn't really thought about becoming a pastor just knew that I could not continue doing what I was doing and then from there the Lord just began to show me different things and one thing led to another and now Wow so what would you say to young people who feel as though they can listen to hip-hop and be Christian mm-hmm I mean what's what's wrong with it yeah you know I know like God uses different people in different places right so when I was getting my understanding of of this gospel of this truth it's a you know we were we were so excited about what we were learning that we were we said we're gonna take the three angels messages and we're gonna put it in our hip-hop music and we will go into clubs and we will be performing and we would pull out great controversy books out of our backpacks we were like who like who wants know the man of sin Easter people throw the hands in the air and we'd throw out great controversy books and so you know God used us for where we were he used us at our you know at our that level of knowledge that we had and he uses different people in those different places and so you know now when you you know you listen to the lyrics of a lot of these songs and it's just I mean it's rock music it's all kinds of different things and you know I think the more you you you you try to get the mind of Christ that's the key thing striving for the mind of Christ will show you how Christ wants you to walk and so you know like I said there are different people in different places but learning that's what I've learned over my years as being a Christian it's sometimes you can point to things and like you know you shouldn't do this so you shouldn't do that but that's why my passion has really become studying the Bible because I think once people learn how to focus on Christ all the other things you know that we typically like you know all those things begin to become self evident and so that's where my passion has become you know really teaching people how to get into the Word of God and you've even named your system has yes it's called photo theology and the meaning behind that name is basically the study of God through the use of pictures and we'll get into that definition a little bit more but it's interesting because you know when I became a seventh-day adventists I didn't come in through an evangelistic series I didn't come in through going to school it was I was you know a friend of a friend of Mines basically asked us a question one night very interesting he asked us what day we think the Sabbath is we're all you know like twenty to thirty of us we're all just hanging out this night talking and you know all dreadlocked down and smoking our marijuana and stuff and out of the blue this guy that we'd never met before just asked us this question I mean he was a friend of a friend of a friend of ours but we did not know him so it was our first time meeting him that night we were talking about something I can't remember and he it was kind of along the lines of spiritual things and at that time you know we were just mixing spiritual things like you know by being kind of eclectic rappers no man the New World Order Mandel to get you yo yo watch out beats man watch out for those soap boxes y'all you know and he asked us what day do we think the Sabbath is and we're just like that is a silly question what do you mean what day is a Sabbath everyone knows what day that is it's Sunday and from that one question in that moment this guy begins to break down to us Daniel chapter 2 Daniel chapter 7 and this whole change that that the Bible said was gonna happen and all these different things and that really changed it was that night that everything changed for us hmm so I didn't learn through an evangelistic series I basically I didn't even know the guy was Adventist you know for a while we were just like there is no one on the planet that knows the Bible as good as this guy yeah couple weeks later were like hey what are you he was like I'm a seventh-day Adventist what is that never heard of it before so we end up going to church with him for the first time and I shared this in my testimony all the time you know we went into that church and imagine like 20 of us walking up into this little church in Laurelton Queens Lebanon it was a Lebanon seventh-day Adventist okay and the people were just like like who who are these people walking up into our church like jeans and you know gum chewer oh so we we going to sit down and as a pastor is speaking we are like losing our minds we're like he just said that Jesus is the Lord and everyone else was sitting around like and we're like hold on dame was not just heard that the pastor just said that you have to pay tithe they must never heard that I've never heard that truth before and we would look around like what is the matter with these people and we just didn't care we were like we just lost it like literally everything the preacher said with and so that's where like you know sometimes people see me preach and they're like he gets excited when yeah yeah it's not something that's manufactured like that's how we came into the church yes and we were just kind of shocked to look around and see people like we're not getting this and it's been 24 25 years now you know however long has been stopping it since I've been in the church yeah and it is still the same issue like I don't get it yeah understand I'm saying how is it that we are not more excited about the things that God has shown us in the scriptures and so you know I this is how photo theology for me developed because I really didn't know like I said I didn't go to school to learn to study how the Bible because I didn't even know we had Adventist had schools so I was learning in a way that God was speaking to me and I did not even realize it you know so I didn't know there is a system to Bible study and this is I never had any of that yeah so as a hip-hop artist you know the thing about musicians and you probably you know this is that we're very artistic right music is a very creative thing it takes a creative mind to be a musician so in the hip-hop industry whenever you write rhymes you don't want to say what anyone else has said we don't want to we called it biting like in the day right so you had to write in a way that was uniquely your own style mm-hm and so we would always be trying to think of how can I put this in a different way how how can I see that in a different way that's how we wrote our lyrics so when it came to study in the Bible I didn't necessarily realize that that's what I was doing but that's what I was doing right and it wasn't an intentional thing it was just like okay I'm looking at these words in the script and I'm like huh ma'am that word is pretty interesting and I'd see that word like two hundred different ways like and I just get like wow that that's powerful yeah so photoed theology is basically what ended up coming becoming the way that God taught me how to study the Bible what was it like when that flip happened when you found out that the Sabbath was Saturday the seventh-day Sabbath well it was it was mind-blowing you know it was I felt like I was in the twilight zone right in a sense it was just like hold on how can this be true I remember at this time I don't know that there's a whole movement called called Adventism so I'm just thinking how can everyone have this wrong yeah and then you know for a few a little while I was like me and my friends and this guy are the only ones on the planet [Laughter] information and now it is up to us to let the world know a little while and then it was like okay there's a whole movement how many times you don't even know you have that void you know that something's missing or maybe you're just going through life and you don't really realize what's missing till you get it yeah and then when you get it what an amazing feeling that is like here you are just absorbing all of this information like a sponge and it's so exciting to you because this is something really new for you you're in church and you're here bring all the does yeah truth and the many times we as members take things for granted yeah you know you hear things and you hear sermons and all and you're you can take it for granted you can take the truths for granted if your relationship with the Lord is not remaining fresh yeah yeah I'll tell you I've heard you know before I became an Adventist as I was growing up as a young person and getting into college you know I would hear different religious groups really you know we'd had people come to our campus and you know speak and stuff like that now so I was like you know that message sounds stupid that's I'm stupid you know I was in a sense skeptical of religion okay I was like you know I'm not gonna become a religion because what's different between your religion and your religion you know you say be good you say be good so you know why choose one over the other and all of this is really just like you can never know what it would truth is so I was just I was kind of skeptical against all religions but when I heard this it scared me because it made so much sense mm-hmm and I was like how did this how did this escape me you know how is it that this is making so much sense it just had a ring of truth to it that a skeptical mind hearing it was like whoa this is true and I'll tell you you know when when I started studying I was the the amount of information I learned in about three months time I was just I was totally blown away and this is what I thought and I knew I was learning a lot I was like I cannot believe how much I have learned in three months so when I would go to church I would look at other people who had been in the church for 10 years 20 years and I almost would want to fall down and worship like what must you know if you've been in the church for a whole 10 years and I just pass out like I'll never catch up to them I will never because what I've learned in three ma no man and I'm just thinking everybody you know yeah this thing is so excited everybody in the church is just like you know don't even try to touch on that that's my boy Henry over there he's been an Adventist for 20 years don't touch it you can't touch him you know and little did I realize you were passionate about the gospel from from the moment you found out in the moment from the moment yeah so how did you begin to study it how did you in three months time you're saying that you knew more than you could have imagined there how did you did you have a system then were you good well let me go back for a second when you were in school were you a good student you know I was a good student and the thing is my I think my passion like I remember going on you know growing up I wanted to be like into psychology I liked how the human mind works I was you know really like a thinker I like to think about the way people think and and how to dissect the mind and that kind of thing you know people's thoughts or whatever and so that's where my passion was like really growing up like yeah I think that's what I'd like to do so I think there was always a leading towards just that creativity of the mind mm-hmm and as I said earlier when when I was writing lyrics you know just it you have to be poetical right so the way that I would write my music you know trying to find different ways creative ways to get across a certain point when I when it came to the Bible like I said I didn't have a system I didn't know that this is what I was doing because my mind just worked that way mm-hmm so I would read a text and something would jump out to me that I would be like whoa look at like this but I didn't I just thought it was uh normal like everyone saw this you know so when I start sharing some of this stuff with like you know other people who were Adventist they were like oh I never saw that that way before and I look at them like you never saw this this way before what you know what do you mean mm-hmm like yes kind of like right there don't you see no no I never saw that I started studying using amazing facts study guides okay I actually wasn't study guys it was Joe Cruz his little you know little pamphlets that he wrote those little pocket books and I would just get those those little books and I would read and I will highlight my Bible like my Bible was like a coloring book and that's how I kind of learned the basics as far as doctrine a doctrine doctrine but like I said I didn't realize that at that time is only as I look back that I saw that I was like I think the Lord called me in a certain sense because I was coming from the outside mm-hmm because I had a mind that you know had not been brought up in the church if you will so I was going to see things differently yes just naturally and he would eventually lead me to develop that into a system mhm mhm and so I think you know as I look back that's how I see this unfolding so it's not that I came in and I was like okay I have a new school of thought you know a new way of studying the Bible that was just the way that I approached the scripture and I thought it was just normal yeah but you had what's been called a tabula rasa the clean slate yeah you came in without any preconceptions really you know you just came in and like Lord just show me yeah and he did so I know people are probably saying why aren't they talking about the system so the hell is how do you start if someone's watching right now that's never studied the Bible before where do you start do you start in the New Testament you start the Old Testament where do you start so I'll share something practical right now okay I one of the things that I use right now when I study the Bible and I've been using it for years is Bible Software it's something called East sort so I don't know if you guys ever heard of East or before it's a free software now there are other software's out there that you can purchase and they're quite expensive mm-hmm some run like thousands of dollars and so it's pretty expensive a sword is pretty much free I think you you know some places that might cost like ten dollars or five dollars or something like that but II sword is a very powerful tool because it basically brings the Bible you know to your fingertips right you can have different translations you can have different commentaries dictionaries you know you can look up a word in Greek in Hebrew so that's a very it's a very technical aspect of Bible study but it's something that a lot of people really don't know about you know back in the day I'd study my Bible with a Bible and a concordance the big thick book that's all I had you know so I have my Bible my concordance and it would take hours like okay now what's this word or and you know you're looking I'm trying to find a word that is found in several different places in the scriptures well now you can do all that you know at the you know just it's right there at your fingers yeah so on the technical side I'd say get a good Bible software again I use a sword you can go to East sword - sword dotnet and you can just download it straight onto your computer so or whatever software you you choose you know get a good Bible software so that's the technical part aside you takes a little while to learn how to use it but once you learn how to use it it's really it really amplifies your Bible study and a powerful way yes so beyond that what you let me let me start this way hmm so I have a ministry another ministry called army Bible Camp yeah an Army Bible Camp I started it probably about 10 years ago now and it was because people kept asking me pastor how do you study the Bible how did you see that mmm how did you get that out I've read that story yes like a hundred times we've heard your sermon so with yeah we know and we say that yeah on salvation and symbols and songs do where did that how did you I've read the same scripture over and over again yeah but where did this inside besides obviously the Holy Spirit yeah but how did you come to that yes so you know when people would ask me I would never you know I never had an answer ready for them like it was just like well that's just how study the Bible you know and when people started asking me more and more like you know what I need to like I need to think about what I'm doing like how am I going through this process and this is the process that led me to this system called photo theology right the study of the of God through the use of pictures one of the and there are many different principles in this system mm-hmm but let me I'm going to share a statement with you and I'm gonna see what what comes to your mind when I share this statement so it's taken from review and Herald April 16th 1889 and here's what it says it says take your Bible and compare passage with passage and verse with verse and you will find the precious jewels of truth you should put the precious gems of light in a beautiful setting and hang them in memories Hall mm-hmm that's cool hmm what came to your mind when I read that a picture okay what kind of a picture um hang them in memories Hall yeah did you did you see nation did you see I don't know about you it's like hooks I see a halt memories halt memories well that brings to my mind a picture right now I'm seeing a halt in my mind so I'm a visual person yeah yeah I'm seeing a heart I'm a person that likes pictures mm-hmm right so I'm seeing a halt in my mind and I'm being told that I should take different truths different stories in the Bible and hang them in memories Hall now the this system of Bible study that I have full of theology so I'm now doing I'm not straining people this is how you you you do this right so like I said it's an entire system and one of the first things I share is this concept of memories Hall so when I was younger there was a card game I used to play called concentration oh yeah all the cards are facing down and you turn one card and then you have to find the matching card right right and you got to remember we're gonna see that card before we die and so you flip you flip ah that's a match yeah right in essence that is the art of Bible study that is the art of photo theology so let's play concentration okay I'm gonna give you a picture Moses goes on top of a mountain he tells Joshua you're fighting the Amalekites below you fight I'm gonna go up to the mountaintop and when I lift my hands with the rod when I lift my hands when I lift my hands with the rod in my hand you're gonna experience victory when I lift my hands when I lift my hands when my hands are connected to wood and I have lifted they're gonna experience victory yeah every time his hands come down no victory every time his hands go up those hands are connected to the rod to there is victory now you're saying wow and I'm you know I haven't said anything I'm just giving you a story I have okay so now the pictures not complete because remember Moses's hands begin to get tired mm-hm so Aaron stands on one side of him her stands on the other side of him Moses is is on a rock his hands are extended connected to wood on either side of him is Aaron and her and they are holding his hands up Wow now you're saying Wow and I haven't all I have done is giving you a picture of a story you already know yeah okay but something just happened because as I was explaining that story you were saying hold on hold on wait a minute and what ends up happening you ran down memories Hall and you were like I've seen that picture come on someplace else and then you're like hold on wait a minute and what are you thinking you tell me what you why are you smiling because you can see Jesus on the cross right with his arms outstretched between the two things right and now we know that because of those hands that were extended on the cross we can have victory in our fight that's never seen that before that's you can have victory in our fight that's right that's why we have victory in our battle against the flesh and our battle against you know the principalities of this world because of what Christ did on the cross and now I know something else too from this story it's not the nails that held his hands up that's right it was the sinner on either side of him that held his hands up hmm just as Aaron and her stood there to hold up Moses his hands it was the sinner on either side of him in other words Jesus died for the whole world those that would accept him and those that would reject him yes embodied in those two thieves on the cross and so what have we just done we just played a game the game is called concentration whoa I see this story in the Bible and I'm trying to I'm learning how to think in pictures mm-hmm that's all we just did like if you had a sermon to preach now and no one ever watched this you could be like hey you know what I'm gonna creep right don't be surprised if you preach but that's that's that's photo theology right it's a simple art of having these pictures in your mind and then learning how to match the pictures how to connect the pictures to reveal a story that is one of the principles and that's actually a major principle because the more you learn and here's a problem a lot of us you know if you don't have pictures hanging in memories Hall you're not going to be able to make these connections all right and that's why one of the first things you really want to do is learn how to just hang these pictures in your Hall right lock them in your mind because you may not you know even understand what the picture is about right now but put it there because something's gonna happen one day one day you're gonna be minding your own business washing dishes or and all of a sudden a picture is gonna come to your mind you gotta like wait a minute wait a minute that picture adds to that picture matches this picture one of my favorite pictures and I had this picture hanging in my Hall for a long time and I was just like I would always be like that's a messed up story a story of David and Bathsheba in this story of David and Ashley but David you know has Bathsheba's husband killed why because Bathsheba is pregnant and so Bathsheba is pregnant with David's child has he has her husband killed so that he covers it up and then the prophet Nathan comes to him and you know gives me this whole parable and then tells him you are the man in this parable basically exposing David I know what you've done right David repents he's totally sorry and Nathan says you will live and you know praise God like this is the power of repentance right mm-hmm David repents and God tells Nathan to tell David you're going to leave but the child thought that she was pregnant with is gonna die and I've always thought to myself messed up story messed up story like why how why would that be right so I had that picture hanging in memories Hall for a long time and then one day I don't know what or how but I was like wait a minute that child doesn't have a name we don't know who the child is the only thing we know about that child was that it was a male so this would have been the son of David hmm so the son of David was brought into this world because of somebody else's sin hmm and though he had done no wrong died while David got to live Wow all of a sudden I'm like whoa you mean that little boy who we don't know we don't know his name we don't that little boy was a type of the very work that Jesus was to do because Jesus we know in the New Testament he what does he call he's called the son of David David he was brought into this world because of our sin and though he was innocent and had done no wrong he died that we might live and so you begin to see these stories in the Bible that uh you know you think yeah that that story doesn't mean anything he just kind of throw it to the side but God wastes nothing so these stories in the scriptures that we that we tend to read and just kind of gloss over when we stop and begin to think okay what's God trying to show me here this Harv you the Bible one of the examples I'd like to give is this and as we're in a primitive society and a camera drops right in the middle camera right in the midst of our society and we're like what is that no one wants to touch it we don't know what it is we've never seen it before and then after a few weeks and months someone gets bold enough to go close to it and touch it and okay doesn't do anything it's not gonna hurt us and now this is an object that we just you know we just worship we do wow look at this thing we set it up on our Rock and everyone comes to look at the camera whoa look at the camera this is an amazing thing let me ask you is that primitive Society using the camera in the right way mMmmm no what is the purpose of the camera to take pictures to take pictures the stories of the Bible are cameras hmm that reveal the picture of Jesus Wow most of us approach these stories and just look at the camera what a neat camera wow that's a beautiful camera Hey look at this camera yeah look at that camera man look these cameras are great not realizing that these cameras were designed to show us Jesus so in essence we end up missing the picture picture wow that's what ends up happening we often read the Bible and miss the picture of Jesus like you guys remember it and this is this is one of my strong beliefs when it comes to photo theology photo theology is the art of looking for Jesus hmm it's the art of looking for Jesus so on the road to Emmaus mm-hmm you remember the disciples they were heartbroken because Jesus had just died right now Jesus comes to them but they don't know that it's him their eyes are holding so they can't recognize him and he begins they begin telling him he's like why you so sad they begin telling him all these reasons why they are this sad discouraged and all those things and then he he sets with them all fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said should not these things have been fulfilled and then Bible says beginning from Moses and the prophets he began to expound to them in the scriptures all the things concerning himself mm-hmm in other words he's given these discouraged disciples a Bible study they've just lost the guy that they thought was the Messiah right I don't know about you but you know someone dies and you that's you're close to you're probably not in the mood for your you want to just mourn yeah Jesus decides to pull them out of their mourning by giving them a Bible study that Bible study must have been so deep and powerful mm-hmm because after it was done they were like did not our hearts burn yeah people heard me say before heartburn yes we're horrible yeah when because Jesus began to show them himself in all the scriptures so beginning at Moses and the prophets he expounds on to them and all the Scriptures the things concerning himself that means that Jesus is on every page Jesus is all over the Old Testament it's like Waldo I love those Oh Where's Waldo books you know that Waldo is in there somewhere yeah right so when I read the scripture when you read the scripture photo theology is the art of looking for Jesus on every page of the scriptures mm-hmm right beginning from Moses and the prophets so in Genesis 1 God said let there be light ah whoa Jesus is light in Genesis 2 God brings the water to you know what it makes prominent the waters so Jesus is a water of life on that's I'm sorry as Genesis 1 on day 2 on day 3 the Bible says that God brought the fruits from the earth so on day 3 the first fruits came forth from the ground on the third day the first fruits you can read that and just not connect the dots mm-hmm because you're not you've heard us saying a picture is worth God is into pictures just look at the book of Revelation right it's all about images yeah right the book of daniel god is into pictures God is an artist yes God is creative by nature and so often we approach the scriptures with this you know narrow there's what the text says and we stop right there and you know I mean it is it is it is a challenge when you approach because you that what the text says is absolutely important okay but there's a dimension beyond that right that is beyond the ink on the paper right that God has to bring it so it's like when Jesus said except you eat my flesh and drink my blood the Jews were like what how dare you yeah do you not know our our you know Jewish customs what are you talking about eating flesh and drinking blood are you crazy they could not understand the spiritual significance of his words so they took literally what he meant to be spiritual or symbolic destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up again did you hear what this guy said he's gonna destroy the temple we've been building for 46 years not realizing he was speaking about the temple of his body right right so the way that Jesus approached the scriptures he approached it in a very creative because he is the creator right but the parables are the parables Jesus favorite method of teaching was through object lessons mm-hmm and that's one of the things that that you know I mean this is kind of you know bringing in when we need to learn how to see the Bible as God so as God sees the Bible right how to see the Bible as Jesus sees the Bible a lot of times you hear this term exegesis mm-hmm exegesis is they attempt to get into the mind of the author what was the artha thinking as he was writing right so when you're reading the book of daniel or when you're reading you know Isaiah you're trying to get into the mind of Isaiah what was the this what were the surroundings at that time and when Isaiah wrote this who was a letter to and you know what was he what did he mean by what he you're getting into the mind of the author and and that's you know praise God but guess what Isaiah is not the ultimate author of the Book of Isaiah right Daniel is not the ultimate author of the Book of Daniel mm-hmm right we're talking about the ultimate author which is God himself which is Jesus himself so I have to get into the mind of Jesus if I want to understand the full depth of the scriptures and whoa what better way to have this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus yeah that's why studying the Bible helps us to receive the mind of Christ listen ask Daniel if he understood half the things he wrote I'm gonna be right where Daniel was I understood not I understand right there was one greater than Daniel who understood okay what did god intent when he was telling Daniel to write hmm so that's where you know I really see a need for us to begin to try to get into the mind of God get into the mind of Christ to understand the scriptures yeah looking for Christ in the scriptures that camera that Bible story that text where is Christ in this story mm-hmm and that's so that would be a juice down version thus far that is amazing I mean really when you're looking for Christ on every page I remember you came you did a camp-meeting a 3abn camp-meeting you preached it was a serious heartburn as you mentioned earlier but you were talking about how to find Jesus on every page and you gave illustrations of that throughout the Bible a juice down version juice down VII yeah absolutely that that's amazing and it really paints the picture in a whole new light it makes you look at the Bible and a whole new light yeah well I like what you said about God never waste yeah anything any you know we know that we know the way he moves he doesn't waste he doesn't just accomplish one thing with one move he accomplishes many things with one move right so it bears to reason that he would have this whole multidimensional aspect in the word all right you didn't just say multi-dimensional did you I did you did didn't you oh wait a minute and and that's that's nice that you said that because God is that is one of the aspects of photo theology mm-hmm it's something it's another principle that I have called five dimensional Bible study I don't know if you want to you leave okay okay I do when we come back because yeah because I want to get started I want to start and then we take our little break and you know but when you think about when you think about God and the way the Bible is written like in our salvation and symbols and signs it's amazing to me how these new thoughts these these new aspects of the text just come into your mind the Holy Spirit brings you a whole new way to look at the text yeah I really in the second hour I really want you to go over Daniel the statue the amazing point that you brought out while we were recording with science I believe it was yes Daniel - yes yes with that statue absolutely we want you to make sure that you call people and tell them to tune in to this program one of the things that we found is that we all need to study the scriptures to get really into the scriptures deeply and many times we don't know how to do that so call your friends call as Danny would say I take his lines all the time call your friends your enemies everybody and tell them to tune in and watch this program stay tuned we're gonna be right back with some more freshest insights [Music] you [Music] and welcome back to our second hour of 3b and today live live programs are interesting because I was just taking a cough drop out of my mouth and it's live okay so you probably saw that don't think about it it's here in my fingers but anyway this is so interesting isn't it Jay because we really need to know about the people will say study the Scriptures read the scriptures but nobody really tells you how to study yeah and if you don't come from a background of really being a student then you kind of don't even when you are you know if you have been astute a good student or whatever you still you still want to know some great tips on how to study the word so this first one the overarching one and that you're talking about is pictures yeah taking pictures doing that Bible concentration game alright and that is so good because now you're looking for Jesus in every in every situation in the scriptures where is Jesus in this and you were just gonna talk about a five-dimensional yeah the five dimension is before you do that how about this segue before you do that we're gonna hear from Stephanie dawn again she has actually she's singing a duet nice with Pastor John lo McCain so let's let's hear from Stephanie dawn and Pastor John and then we'll get right to [Music] times like you need eat my Savior in times like [Music] we'd be very sure your anger and groups I was like me [Music] in times Oh [Music] your egg [Music] this rock is Jesus [Music] this rock is Jesus the only one be very be very soon your anger [Music] I can say and time [Music] I'm [Music] this rocket yes this [Music] we should be very true your leg [Music] ah thank you so much Stephanie dawn and pastor John Lowe McCain beautiful be very sure that your anchor holds because in times like these we really need a Savior we really need a Savior and in this book we can find the mind of Christ so tell us some more pastor Myers about the five dimensional aspects of study is that it so five dimensional Bible study and you know what before I touch on that uh-huh we were just talking over the break I wanted to bring something up about the importance of how to study the Bible oh good because what you know what I have seen in my experience is that you know I'm a pastor all right I pastored a Campbell you know seven day Adventist Church and Campbell give a shout out but what I have found in my experience as a pastor is that you know a lot of people in the church depend on their pastor to study for them mmm it's a good point you know it's it's I believe that they you know the pastor goes doesn't study puts together his sermon and then he preaches and the people receive it oh man that was great that was great where the pastor's feed the flock but sometimes a flock depends strictly upon the pastor in order to be fed I think one of the things that we as pastors need to be doing is not just feeding the flock but actually teaching them how to feed themselves yeah and you know I know that I had never had someone come to me and say listen this is how you study the Bible like it's almost as if that was reserved for the theology student if we're gonna teach a theology students how to study but for the rest of you you don't really know what lead to learn how to do that I mean you know kind of figure stuff out on your own and whatever but it's not that's not really your burden but I think the more educated our people are in terms of learning how to get into the scriptures for themselves yes you know it's almost like we have the this tool that this toolbox and you know the pastor's this is this is our tool of you know the tools we use to study the Bible but we need to be sharing those tools with our members so that they are not equipped to get into deep Bible study I think that one of the things one of the I think the underlying issue that we are facing in our church is how we approach the Scriptures because how we approach the Scriptures determines you know I mean look at all the the controversies we have going on in our church right now and I'm not gonna name any of them right these are all theological controversies right the bottom line is these controversies are coming up because there is a difference in opinion in view of how to approach the Scriptures and as long as that exists no this is the right way to study the Bible no this is the right way to study the Bible you're we're going to come to different conclusions now I'm not saying that there's a right way and a wrong way to study the Bible but I don't think there's any one right way to study the Bible okay I think there's several ways to approach the scriptures but the way that you you know some people are like well that way is you know this is the only way and that I don't believe it all because God the MA I mean I believe that God has a thousand different ways to reveal the same truth mm-hmm you know and that's how I approach the Scriptures so when someone approaches true gets the truth in a way that I may not be you know either familiar with or you know I'm not sure how they arrived at that particular truth but it's truth I'm not gonna knock the way that they got there you know so I'm saying it got them there to that truth and maybe that's how God spoke to them but yeah you're so you discover the truth about you know the law of God okay well hey praise God because you you came to that truth so we need to I think there is a hermeneutical crisis in our church interesting right and you know this person is I know you know you're reading the Bible wrong no no you're reading the Bible wrong and you have like two scholars right that have come to completely different conclusions on the same text both claiming we're scholars and yet you're coming to two different conclusions so there's a crisis in our church or hermeneutical crisis and I think that is something that we really need to begin to pay attention to how do we approach the Scriptures do our members even know how to approach the scriptures right right and oh go ahead yeah I was gonna say that's excellent like you know the members need to know how to do that if somebody wanted to get lessons from you how would they go about doing that so I have an online course that I've just created you can go to power of the Lamb calm power dilemma calm that's my website and you'll be able to see the different courses but this is all the fault of theology course okay and and you'll be able to see what I have online you can sign up for those courses or you can just sign up for our emails or give us your email and sign up for our newsletter and get more information on those courses but the purpose of that course is to basically instruct people how to do this themselves which leads me to my dimensions yes dimensions so most people there are five dimensions of Bible study in what I call photo theology so these are the five dimensions there is a literal dimension there is the Christ dimension that would be the second dimension the third dimension is the me dimension mmm the fourth dimension is the church dimension and the fifth dimension is the heaven dimension okay so what does that mean first dimension is this what is the text literally saying right Exodus 20:5 yeah I was gonna say can we take your text and run extension let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them okay so Exodus 25 verse eight is talking about this literal temple that was built back there in the wilderness it's literal sanctuary built back there and will by Moses had a holy place most holy place out of court etc that is the first dimension I'm simply looking at the literal building that was back there in the in the wilderness when the children of Israel left Egypt the second dimension is the Christ dimension hmm let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them Wow Wow Wow check this out the sanctuary was located in the center of the twelve tribes oh whoa Volvo anywhere the century the sanctuary was to lead the twelve so when God was leading the children of Israel the cloud would hover over them and the sanctuary would go before them so okay Jesus said destroy this temple and I'll raise it up again in three days the Bible says of Jesus that his name would be Immanuel meaning with let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell with among them ah so just as a sanctuary dwelt in the midst of the twelve in the Old Testament literal dimension in the second dimension Christ is the temple Christ is the sanctuary dwelling among the twelve disciples he got it now well what about the third dimension how does this relate to me ah no you not that you the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of God dwells in you ah I get it now in a literal sanctuary Shekinah glory in the temple in the second dimension the spirit of his father in him in the third dimension the Holy Spirit in me yes from one tech from one text that's amazing from one text uh-huh right what about the fourth dimension what dimension is that are we playing concentrate no the fourth dimension is the church dimension okay okay so now we all are lively stones that are brought together to form the temple of the Lord to form the house of God the entire church is a symbol of the others the center is a symbol of the entire church we are all building the Church of God the house of God we are stones that make up the house of God so first dimension Exodus 25 verse 8 literal temple second dimension price the temple third dimension I am a temple fourth dimension all of us together make the temple mm-hmm the fifth dimension is the heavenly dimension ah heavenly sanctuary [Music] so now check this out I can take from one text exodus 25:8 and preach five different sermons Wow I'm gonna preach just on the literal temple and all the symbolism of the literal temple but guess what after that sermon I'm gonna do a five-part series after that series I'm gonna do a whole message on how Christ was the temple and then after that I'm gonna do another whole message on how we are I am the temple and after that there's another message about how the church is a temple God's we have to work together because if we're not working together we cannot complete the building of the temple and now I'm thinking hey wait a minute what was nehemiah and you know these guys in the Old Testament called to do they were called to rebuild the temple because when the temple is finally built guess what Jesus the Spirit of God fills the temple when the temple is built and all of a sudden I'm thinking whoa so you mean when the church is complete Jesus the latter rain comes and fills the temple right you can now take from one text and here's the thing most people read the Bible in two dimensions yes what is it literally saying and what does it mean for me mm-hmm you are missing out to me the most powerful dimension is the second dimension the Christ dimension but think about how much you are missing out when you don't read the Bible in the second dimension the fourth dimension the fifth dimension so what I discovered is that I'm reading a text and someone else is reading the same text and I'm reading the text and I'm going while the other person's reading the text and they're like what and you know I'm not saying that in a you know like look at me type of way I'm the same because I'm reading the text in five dimensions mm-hmm whilst the other person is reading the text in one dimension maybe two you miss out on so much yeah and and all God is really trying to do is he's trying to open our eyes so that we can see all right I share this story very often when I was I remember once I was probably but not once I was 19 I remember one time at the age of 19 I was walking through the mall with some of my friends and we ended up walking by this group of people who were like oh look at that picture and I'm like look what it caught my attention so I walked over and they're looking at this big picture of nothing but zigzag lines and I'm like I think that's crazy like what are you getting so excited about and someone saw me like you know looking at them crazy and they were like you got to do this thing with your eyes and so I'm like do this thing with my eyes so I start trying to do all kinds of stuff with my eyes and suddenly my eyes focus in on one point of the picture and suddenly it became a 3d image and when I moved the image would move and I was like I mean I was like losing it like many of us when we pick up the Bible all we see are zigzag lines [Music] mmm-hmm why's a story in the Bible right I don't get this what what is it saying mm-hmm but when we do that thing with our eyes photo theology when we learn to focus our eyes in on Jesus all of a sudden that story that was like yeah you know what this is about all of a sudden it becomes a 3d image and now we're like whoa what in the world yeah yeah and that's the fire like if you were required to study something that you found no you know from what many of us study in the Bible's like that is a man I must now study the Bible yeah you know and it's a burden something to us like oh boy do this again the Bible should be it is the most exciting book that I have ever read mm-hmm and that's how we need to approach the Scriptures we need to approach the Scriptures expecting you know I'll tell people all the time hey when you read a scripture just get excited what just get excited get excited because God is going to show you something if you're open to it and here's the thing you know when I read the Bible and I tell people all this all the time I don't try to find new truth my objective is not to find new truth anything you've ever heard me say is probably something that you already know the end conclusion don't look at me like that it's something you already know right you already know that Jesus came into the world because of our sins and that he died so that we might live you already know that you just heard it in a new package mm-hmm so the new package is what was like whoa so you mean we just saw the same thing from the story of David this messed-up story of David and that's we can see the same thing there this is this is what I believe truth does this what God does he shows us the same truth from a thousand different angles it's not new light it's not new truth it's the same old truth but from a thousand different angles and we have to be careful that we don't go out trying to find new truth because that's how people end up getting in trouble right yeah I'm trying to find something new yeah that no one else has seen before yeah and one else is found before and now all of a sudden it's like yeah you know what I found this truth and if you don't believe it you know God is not working through you Yeah right and we have that sort you hear about that so often so this is not looking for new truth it's just saying God show me this the same old truths but from a new perspective yes yes which he which he willingly does I think one of the things that you said earlier and this is really really true you have to have something to hang these pictures online yeah you have to get in the word you're not gonna discover anything if you're not spending time in the word so even if you don't know how to study yet start reading the words because you begin to pick this and this and put it together the Holy Spirit will well show you how together yeah like fill your mind right I love listening your story our kid stories but guess what you listen to those stories and you're like and then what happened like that's one of the that's a very powerful way to hang these pictures and memories all right so whatever you need to do if it's listen the Bible stories just start throwing those stories in there you don't have to make sense of it now put them in there and you begin to see you begin when when you train your mind how to begin to think in pictures mm-hmm like it just comes to life in an amazing way in an amazing ways so touch on the the daniel statue you know i want you to get to that so this is an example of learning how to think in pictures right this is a paradigm shift if you will and let me say this I like to say this God has given everyone of us a camera and it's this right here mm-hmm now you know some of us have old cameras and I don't mean age I mean you remember how you know you used to have to develop a picture in the old days no it took like hours and hours yes some of us have those kind of cameras and others of us have like iPhones and you know say read something and you're like boom I see that right and so if you have an old camera don't be discouraged right because the more you train your mind to think photo Theology to think in pictures to think in dimensions the easier it's going to become you'll be reading a text and you will just see that text becomes living because and you guys have seen it on the set of you know yeah salvation salvation songs symbols yeah you know James and I are talking in while he's talking or while I'm talking one of us is like please stop mm-hmm we just read no everyone's no look at this and all of a sudden we all see something that we had not seen before yeah that's what we want we want to learn we want to see this Bible the text begin to just pop off the page yeah we're moving and it's moving yeah yeah it becomes not 3d but 5d yeah right and so I'm using the exact I'm not even gonna use that example because we will get in trouble so different example when you practice anything you learn different techniques right but really the art of that I am going to use this example and just just forgive me for using it but I was a martial artist back in the day okay and as a martial artist you study technique right you have different forms so you study this form you say this form you study this form for the purpose of when you get into a fight you're not going through you know okay this form right now this for know you're taking bits and pieces from each form to adapt to that particular situation mm-hmm right in the very same way Bible study is learning how to take pieces of the different techniques and bringing it together to handle a text that you're fighting with man how do i how do I get how do I break into an understanding of this text and so you're learning to use these different principles followed Theology dimensions the connection game and there are other principles that you're like okay now I'm seeing how this works and soon you begin to learn how do you like all of these things begin to bear on the text and you're not thinking okay now let me think in five dimensions it becomes fluid to you it becomes reflexive that's what they did in the martial arts you practice a form so much that when you got into a fight it was like okay I'm responding without even it's just reflexive yeah that's what we want on a spiritual level don't anyone write in to 3abn muscle memory so let's talk about Daniel and what I'm about to share here is just a combination of different techniques if you will okay so I'm gonna start with Genesis 1:26 and you're like how are you we just talked about Ganga how are you starting with Genesis 1:26 so in Genesis 1:26 in fact if you can can you go ahead and read when I got a chance to hear this on the set I had - I recorded you on the phone yeah and then I shared it with my girlfriend I was like oh no you have to hear this yeah then God said let us make man in our image according to our likeness let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over the cattle over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth okay so Genesis 1:26 and in in one of my online classes I actually just uses its this example a few weeks ago it's a live online class and so I was talking with my students and they were like oh you know and we just kind of walk through this and built it together Wow right so Dennis at power of the land and calm okay so and the class is called photo theology so I'm taking them to Genesis 1:26 right and basically here's the idea behind it we're looking at this verse in a way that we have not looked at it before we're using some different techniques we're using dimensions where you using this principle called crest questioning the text right we approach a text do you just read the text or do you ask the text questions a good detective is always going to ask questions right when you read Genesis 1:26 you should try to come up with at least 20 questions for that text Wow in our class because of a specific principle we used we came up with 20 questions first and then I introduced this this new principle and then we came up with a hundred questions for Genesis 1:26 100 questions Wow all right 100 questions each one of those questions can be a study in and of itself in other words you could be studying Genesis 1:26 for a very very very very very right so I'm gonna kind of juice down some of the things from Genesis 1:26 and bring it to the Book of Daniel so in Genesis 1:26 you have God created man in His image and in his likeness basically meaning that God that man reflected the character of God there are two kingdoms that you find in Genesis 1:26 there is the kingdom of man and then there's the animal kingdom mm-hmm God gave man dominion over the animal kingdom right when man is in the image of God he has dominion over the animal kingdom so what happens is that man ends up sinning and man sins through the influence of a serpent so when he sings under the influence of a serpent he now becomes subject he loses the image of God he's no longer in the image of God but now he begins to reflect the image of the animal I'm gonna use the word beast oh come on see what I just did yeah I didn't use a term serpent yeah look how my mind is thinking right I didn't use the term serpent it is a serpent obviously but the serpent is a beast right in my mind I'm thinking hmm hmm wow man lost his image lost the image of God so whose image is he reflecting now yeah he's reflecting the image of the beast hold on hold on doesn't the book of Revelation talk about the image of the beast so what happens is man begins to reflect the animal nature Cain killing Abel animalistic the that the condition of men's hearts before the flood yes evil continually animalistic and so we began to look Tracy's principle of this animal nature instead of the divine nature whoa inside of every one of us is this war between the image of God and the image of the Beast who we gonna act like who are we going to reflect then wait a minute so the reason that the Book of Daniel uses beasts to reflect the kingdoms of men is because God is trying to tell us this is what man has become this is what the kingdoms of men have become they have become brutal animalistic look at the characteristics of the lion the bear the leopard the forth terrible beast that the the Beast of Revelation these beasts in a certain way reflects certain characteristics of wicked humanity and so now no wonder Nebuchadnezzar was turned like a beast in Daniel chapter 6 mm-hmm right that picture is God saying you want you want to act like a beast all right you want to you want to this is what you dis name is you want to I'm gonna let you reflect this image mmm so now the idea of salvation really boils down to this God is trying to remove the animal nature and restore the image of God and when he restores the image of God look I want you to note the connections that I'm making right when the image of God is restored in man he will once again have dominion over the beasts but there's more because it's not just gonna have dominion over the beasts who did he have dominion over in the beginning the beasts from the sea the beasts from the earth and the beasts in the air I have been a great with it doesn't the book of Revelation talk about a beast from the sea a beast from the earth and the dragon was the Prince of the air who's the Prince of the power of the air whoa so in a sense when the church reflects the image of God hmm they have nothing to fear regarding the beast from the sea right or the beast from the earth or the dragon who is the Prince of the power of the air now I'm beginning to see now Genesis 1:26 is just pregnant with the gospel mmm this is what God is trying he's trying to give me dominion over the beast in me now I realized if I don't get dominion over the beast in me I am in no way shape or form ready to get dominion over the beast from the sea or from the earth I will I will receive the mark of the beast because I'm already reflecting his image Wow now take that back to Daniel chapter 2 again I want you to see how these connections are happening right if I'm just reading Genesis 1:26 and I'm reading it just what it literally says there's no way I'm making these connections right and I'm staying in the ink yep okay I'm just talking about you know this what happened in the beginning I'm not looking at the spiritual connotation of that text I'm not doing away with the literal right I'm not doing away with the first dimension right but I've just dimensionalized you see what I'm saying now I've brought that Genesis 1:26 I brought it into the fourth dimension mm-hmm how it relates to the church yeah I've brought it into the third dimension how it relates to me practically I've brought it in to the Christ dimension this is what Christ is trying to restore in me it's it's crossing all these dimensions I have dimensionalized the text yes now I'm gonna take Daniel to because in Daniel 2 we have an image of a man right right but in Daniel 7 we have that same thing in the image of of beasts so what does God trying to tell us again he's trying to tell us look this is the condition of the kingdoms of men right check out Daniel chapter 2 Daniel to Babylon medo-persia Greece Rome head of gold chest arms of silver belly and thighs of brass legs of iron toes of iron and clay right but these four medals represent different kingdoms now it's the kingdom these kingdoms are the kingdoms of men mm-hmm the image is the image of a man when we think about Daniel 2 we typically think these represent the nation's right and that would be actually the 4th dimension a prophetic dimension this is how this relates to the church as a whole but now let's take Daniel 2 and let's look at it in the third dimension how does this relate to me because you see it's the image of a man mm-hmm could Daniel 2 not just be about the result of kingdoms that reject God but could it also be showing us that this is the result of the man that rejects God mm-hmm the man that rejects God is gonna fall just like the kingdoms fell mm-hmm why pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before all so this kingdom representing represented by man also points to what happens to me when I reject Christ because notice how that image starts gold but then it deteriorates to silver brass I earn in other words the metals become harder the longer that I reject God oh that's good that's a state was trying to get us to be iron hearted and reject God all together which is what Rome did by the way they crucified Christ Satan's trying to get a Saku safai cries afresh so the longer we go without God is the more hardened we get mm-hmm look at the metals as they devalue as they go on Wow you know what what the longer I go without God the less valuable I that the Lord let me not say the less valuable the less valuable and but the more we lose value if you will for others around us and for ourselves mm-hmm now check out these four kingdoms right one kingdom represented by the head one by the chest one by the stomach in the thighs and one by the legs right four kingdoms kingdom of the mind kingdom of the heart hmm kingdom of the appetites kingdom of the directions hmm so what is God trying to do God is trying to conquer our kingdoms Wow now the Bible says a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand right so I want you to think about this if I'm serving God like ah I like Bible study it's all cerebral for me you know man I like the word and I like the word but I don't know how to treat my neighbor I don't know how to love God with my heart I don't know how to treat others with love I can claim that I'm a Christian all day long I can claim that you know I'm a Bible leaving you know three angels messages all day long and if my heart has hate if I despise if I have anger towards other people I can clean this all day long this kingdom is divided and Jesus does not dwell in a divided Kingdom he's not gonna rule the mind while Satan has the heart or he's not going to have the heart loss Satan has the appetites and desires and if you're not willing to direct your path give you a path to him and walk in his ways he's not gonna it's either the whole kingdom is his or it's none of his at all yes he does not share the kingdom with Satan oh that's good so I was sharing it in our in our study that when a person's baptized it's the fall of their kingdoms right it's that stone Jesus Christ coming and destroying that king those kingdoms all those kingdoms fall Lord I am all yours mind heart appetite and desires and path and direction everything is yours and I like how Daniel 2 puts it the wind comes and blew away the remnants of that old image that's what God wants to do with us he wants to make us a new creature or new creation in him it is rich this is Genesis 1:26 this is how he recreates us in his image it is what image daniel chapter 2 guys that image needs to fall why because that image is really an image of beasts Daniel 7 that's all these techniques taken together and the result is when I look at Genesis 1:26 I see something that is just like I'll share with you another example and this is one of my favorites that we talked about in the Book of Daniel Wright talking about finding Christ I just want to really just run through the whole Book of Daniel really quickly and you guys should so and we're just going to run through this very quickly so in Daniel 1 we have Daniel who the Bible says was was without fault without blame he enters into the kingdom of Babylon you know he's taken as a captive even though he was blameless he's taken as a captive with his people in order to get to Babylon he has to cross the river Euphrates so I want you to imagine Daniel one begins with with you'll cross in the Revue freidy's almost like this was a baptism into a new experience for him mm-hmm now the first thing that happens in Daniel 1 is he is tented over appetite right so here's my question for you did Jesus come to a world where he was guiltless but came to be a prisoner with his brothers and sisters with humanity yes absolutely did he have a baptism at the Jordan yes and what was his first temptation appetite Daniel 1 appetite Jesus presentation appetite in Daniel chapter 2 we just discussed there was an image there's an image of a man who represents these kingdoms why does this man fall he falls right and why does he fall because of pride and I goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall these kingdom exalted themselves they end up falling how are they destroyed I stone being dashed against before me right the feet right you know so Satan knows when Jesus comes he knows this is the stone that's supposed to destroy my kingdoms so what does he do second temptation hey here we have Jesus who represents the kingdom of heaven what does he say to him he's like hey if you're the Son of God why don't you why don't you fall mmm why don't you throw yourself down don't worry you will not - your foot - your foot against a stone Wow he's trying to do - Jesus what was done to the image yeah Daniel one first and Tatian Daniel - second temptation Jesus is first and Tatian second sensation Daniel chapter 3 Amy just set up Shadrach Meshach Abednego bow down and worship this image what was Jesus at Jesus's third sensation bow down and worship Daniel one two and three reflect the beginning of Christ's ministry his first three temptations what about Daniel chapter four Daniel chapter 4 is Nebuchadnezzar's dream of that great big tree which represented his kingdom and the tree was cut down and remember the language that was used right tree its branches lodged in the air and all the birds came and lodged where the branches reached out into the air all the birds came and lodged industry it was so great but God is telling Nebuchadnezzar your tree this tree Babylon representing Babylon your kingdom is not the tree that's going to last forever there's another Kingdom represented by another tree that is the one that's gonna last forever and when Jesus comes on the scene Jesus gives us parable the kingdom of God is like and it's almost as if he's quoting Nebuchadnezzar's tree the kingdom of heaven is like a tree a see that when planted in the ground becomes the greatest tree and all the birds of the air knowing that beacon eyes are not your tree the tree of Calvary that's the tree that set up the eternal kingdom of God that's the tree we come to to have life that's the tree that provides shade and covering for those who want salvation so Daniel chapter 4 points to the death of Christ on Calvary all right Daniel chapter 5 Daniel chapter 5 you remember what happened in Daniel chapter 5 riding on the wall any minute to kill you you Farson your kingdom is numbered and finished your Kingdom is numbered and finished why was it finished because Cyrus who is a type of Christ is outside the city gates the Bible says prophesied that he would dry up the riverbed the river Euphrates descending to the deep that's what the Bible calls it the deep and he would open the gates to set the captives free well guess what when Jesus was dying on a cross where was he dying outside the city of Jerusalem yeah what did he do in his death he descended mmm into the deep to open the gates of death and hell in order to set the captives free hmm Daniel chapter 4 Christ's death Daniel chapter 5 Christ's burial and then and then Daniel chapter 6 mm-hmm and what do we have happening in Daniel chapter 6 Daniel in the lion's den with a stone over the mouth of that den and the stone is sealed right make sure he doesn't come up out of that out of that that tomb that Tara yeah Daniel one two three at the beginning of Christ's ministry Daniel four five six his death burial and resurrection who would have thought that Daniel chapters one through six in another dimension reflects the story of Jesus Christ right right and it doesn't stop there because in Daniel 7 you have Jesus as high priest hmm so what you have happening Daniel 7 or Daniel 1 through 6 Christ's ministry on earth Daniel 7 Jesus is high priest Daniel 8 Jesus cleansing the sanctuary Daniel 9 is a prophecy about the close of probation Daniel 10 11 and 12 Michael stands up to deliver his people this is for the theology this is studying the Bible using pictures and images everyone can understand pictures yeah I don't have to be a scholar to understand pictures you don't have to have a degree to understand pictures like you know I believe that God is wanting all of his people to have this understanding of the scriptures because we're limiting God and we're limiting the scriptures you know we we kind of hover around the Sabbath is this day and not this day so let me prove that and you know we kind of people are like oh we don't but can you imagine having a Bible study with your fellow you know Christian from other places other denominations people who may not even be familiar with the Bible and just share with them look at this did you did you know that Jesus was in the story of Solomon or David and-and-and Bathsheba did you know that Jesus was in this story of and let me tell you when people begin to see to see this kind of wall oh it's tell me more you're like hey there's more to come but let's just let's just keep look you begin to have an avenue that I think is so unintentional but in a sense it's the very gospel it's the three angels messages it's everything but it's just in story format yeah people see they like how in the world like I never saw that before yeah and that's what gets people excited yeah because now you begin to see Jesus in the stories of the Bible yes so how do you prepare your sermons you mean this is amazing how do you prepare your sermons so the way that I prepare my sermons I also talk about that you know in my in on my own in my online course and we'll be talking about that because it is these are the principles that I've utilized that I utilized when preparing the sermons now I remember this I'm gonna tell something that's very very I think I may have told you this before but uh my first sermon I ever preached was like two hours long oh my people stayed stayed and it was two hours long is because I have put everything that I ever learned about Adventism into that one circle and I remember by this time I knew that I wanted to be a pastor and I remember being terrified because I was I that sermon took me like three months to put together and I put everything in that sermon that I had known how does a person put a sermon together every week like for life right and I was just terrified I was like if it took me three months to put together one sermon I don't have three months between seven days yeah and I I just was like I need to start thinking now right you know about the sermons I'm gonna preach and I started writing down sermon titles well that's a good sermon title right there that's why I did this day you still hear me like yeah that's a good sermon time yeah but this is where those principles really began to come into play because I had to learn how to do something which it's probably the last thing I would share with you in terms of this in terms of the principles here is some is what I call freestyling mmm many people struggle with having time to sit down and study the Bible mm-hmm and I realized that you know in the hip-hop world you know we would freestyle and part freestyling was you'd have to point you know point to an object and the person would have to rhyme about that thing on the spot and make it rhyme with the next object you pointed to and you have to make it make sense oh and I realized that I was doing something like that when they came to the scriptures like I would and I like to say this way I believe Jesus was a freestyler and here's what I mean by that I don't think he premeditated things he was coming up with I think he was in you know like talking to the to the crowds and he'd be like consider the lilies of the field yeah look at the sheep and the goats right he he would look at things and then come up with an object lesson from that thing mm-hmm so I that's what I found myself doing you know I would be looking and look at the grass wow look at the grass like huh you know what like when hurricanes come through the big things get toppled the houses the trees get uprooted but the smallest thing but mass it stays in place try goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before for the humblest things are able to withstand the greatest storms be humble thank you joy thank you lord you know so I would look for object lessons in just the everyday things of life and that began to teach me how to be studying the Bible all the time when you're driving what happens lessons can I pull from driving when you're washing dishes what option lessons can I pull from the dishes and look at this dirty dish ah Jesus trying to wash me try and get this start off and some of this start is so hard stuck on that he has to pot the brillo pad the whom the Lord loveth he chastens yea this brillo pad is not trying to kill me it's just trying to get this dirt off right yeah and ultimately he wants to lift up that that plate and be able to look at it and see himself and so now my dishwashing time becomes gospel time right object business you learn how to study the Bible not okay now it's time for me to sit down you're studying the Bible all the time you're training yourself how to see the Bible how to study all the time so in in your and this is so rich thank you and in your online school are the did the students come to you with their challenges and they tell you you know this is this is what I'm dealing with because it's it's so live it's live interactive so questions back and forth hey this is what I struggle with we go through these principles and and every week we're using we're doing examples alright we want to take Genesis 1:26 alright let's do this let's question the text let's dimensionalize the text let's and we go through and so people it's a very hands-on type of experience and you know I think it's it's helping people to really get tools that they've never been able to have access to before yes it's so important to have the tools it's so important you can't do it without the tools not effectively and nowadays accessibility is key to and and I love the fact that you have the online school and you also have an Instagram where people can follow you and it's it's what at Ivor Meijer yes okay IRA Meyers one word one word at Ivor Ivo are my ers that's up on the screen so okay and I'm virmire z-- I'm not that socially savvy like social media savvy so with the with the Instagram what do you do with I know it's pictures but yeah you know people follow you on Instagram you kind of let them know what you're doing what's going on with your ministry they like to know what's going on just what's going on you know as you continue to do what you're doing in the Lord and that's you know people that sign up will get access to material that I'm producing you know different Bible studies and different things of that nature so that's great what would you say are some of the greatest challenges that you face in bringing these principles to people I think people feeling that they can't do it themselves mm-hmm and that's my greatest burden is you know people go to a camp or something and they're like by the way come to an army Bible Camp if you want to get the full experience come to an army Bible Camp if you can't make to an army Bible Camp go to my website power the land calm and you can see the classes there we have recorded classes we have live classes so either way just check either one of those out but I strongly encourage you to come to Army Bible Camp if you can just google it online army Bible Camp and you'll see it but encouraging people letting them know listen you can do this yourself mm-hmm you know when people hear my testimony where they're like wait you weren't trained you know in the normal way to understand this stuff when they hear that I think that's one of the reasons why my testimony is special for those kind of people so I'm not saying you know there's something wrong with going to school anything like that I'm just saying for those people who are like yeah I can't get something like that they need to know that an ex hip-hop artist found this stuff yeah through the influence of the Holy Spirit amen yeah we're certainly grateful that you did absolutely and we're so happy that you joined us this evening what a blessing you are to the body of Christ J do you have any closing thoughts I'm just excited about studying the word like you're really helping to see it and even a whole new light thank you so much and thank you having me oh absolutely absolutely make sure that you tune into the new salvation and symbols and signs it's coming it's coming god bless you and join us next time have a great evening [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 130,581

Rating: 4.7910652 out of 5

Keywords: 3ABN, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, how to study the Bible, Ivor Myers, 3ABN Today Live

Id: rcIe_HNym4c

Length: 116min 0sec (6960 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019