[MUSIC PLAYING] Spirit Hacks, Tips and Tools for
Mastering your Spiritual Life. Would you turn in your
Bibles this morning to the book of Acts Chapter 2-- the book of Acts,
Chapter 2 this morning in the New Testament as we
look at a few verses together. When we were children life
was a whole lot easier than when we're adults. It was just less complex. Decisions were easier. It was as simple as
eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Mistakes were easier. When you're a kid, you
just shout, do over. And it's like get
a whole new slate. You were so impressed when
your dad removed his thumb. Remember that, you just
thought that was magical when he would do that. It didn't take much
to impress a child. Entertainment was easy. And the worst thing you could
catch from the opposite sex when you were a kid was cooties. Remember cooties? You have cooties. I loved being a kid. But I had three older brothers. And they loved to tell me
grow up, which I did sort of-- physically I did. And in many ways I did not. But growing up is important. It's natural. But it's also supernatural. That is, we should
grow up spiritually. Paul the Apostle said,
"When I was a child, I understood as a child. I spoke as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I
put away childish things." So there's a place for youth. But there's a place for
growing up, growing strong. Then the apostle Paul
told the Ephesian church, growing up in all things in Him
who is the head even Christ. We are doing a
little short series that has been called Spirit
Hacks, Tips to Making Spiritual Growth Easier. And the most fundamental
aspect of spiritual growth is what you eat
spiritually speaking. It's been said you
are what you eat. To grow spiritually, you
have to be spiritually fed. Now, we have always
believed a core value here at this church has always
been that the Word of God does the work of God. Or if I can unfold
that a little more, we believe the Word of
God does the work of God as the Spirit of God
works on the hearts of the people of God. We believe that to be true. However, the Bible,
which was once a focal point in our culture
is far from that today. It has been relegated to the
coffee table or the bookshelf. Nine out of every ten households
in America own a Bible. Very few actually read it. Somebody once said
if everyone decided to read their Bibles
at the same time, we would experience the
worst dust storm in history. Dust that thing off. It's a book that people
write family names in, births in, deaths in. We record stuff in it. We press flowers in it. But to actually read it and
apply it is a different thing. According to the
Gallup organization-- Gallup poll-- one
third of Americans don't know who gave the
Sermon on the Mount. In fact, a large number said it
was preached by Billy Graham. Now, Billy just died
and went to Heaven. He was old. But he was not that old. Fewer than half, fewer than
half could name the first book in the Bible. And so the Gallup
organization said Americans revere the Bible. But we have become a nation
of biblical illiterates. According to one source, the
most widely known Bible verse is-- ready for it-- God helps those who
help themselves-- not even in the Bible. Ben Franklin said that,
not the scripture. Sadly, 82% of Americans
believe it's scripture. And according to the
same source, 81%-- so 82% of Americans
think is in the Bible-- 81% percent of those who say
they are born again Christians think it's in the Bible. Uh-oh. Houston we have a problem. What I'd like to
do with you today is look at one
half of one verse. That's pretty simple. We're going to drill down
and dig deep and unpack one half of one verse-- that is part of verse
42 in just a moment. And I'd like to share
with you three aspects of your relationship
to the Bible-- pretty straightforward. They're written in
your worship folder. To grow, you must learn. To learn, you must hear. To hear, you must commit. Those are the
three principles we want to look at--
three statements, three decisions all of us must
make about our relationship to this book we call the Bible. Now, I want to give you the
context before we actually read it. The context is it's
the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has
come upon the church. It has filled them
in a very unique way. Peter is out in the
temple courtyard. He is preaching the Gospel. And get this, 3,000 people
respond to his sermon. Not three people, not 300
people-- that'd be awesome-- 3,000 people in Jerusalem
respond and give their lives to Christ. So they are new converts
to the Christian faith. But they find that
they're Jewish believers in a very hostile environment. Their Messiah leader, Jesus, has
been crucified six weeks prior. They believe Him to be
raised, because He was raised. But not everybody in
the community at large believes that. So they are under
tremendous pressure, soon to be persecution. So now what? Now what do they do? What priorities will they
keep to ensure their survival so that they survive and
thrive in that kind of culture? Well, we have the
answer to that. Let's begin in chapter 2,
beginning with verse 40 where we read, "And
with many other words, he testified and exhorted
them saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation." That's Peter preaching. "Then those who gladly received
his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000
souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking
of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs
were done through the apostles. "Now all who believed
were together and had all things in common, and sold
their possessions and goods and divided them among
all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house, they ate their food with
gladness and simplicity of heart, praising
God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added
to the church daily those who were being saved." That's the greater context. Now, let's narrow it down. Let's look at our text. And that is verse 42,
just the first part. "and they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine." Stop right there. Out of that phrase alone, let
me give you three statements. And we'll apply it. Number one, to grow,
you must learn. I want you to look at one word
in that verse-- one word alone. That's the word "doctrine." Do you see it? Doctrine-- if you have a more
modern translation than the one I'm reading out of,
it might render it teaching or instruction. That's all doctrine is. Didaché is the Greek word. It simply means teaching
or instruction-- or perhaps even simpler, truth taught,
truth conveyed, truth imparted. That's the word "doctrine." That's what it means-- truth or instruction
that is given to others. I have to say, I feel sorry
for the word "doctrine." There's a few words that I
feel sorry for by the way. I feel sorry, for instance,
for the word "awesome." I feel sorry for it because it
is so overused it doesn't even mean what it means. Another word I feel sorry
for is the word interesting. People go, oh,
that's interesting. Well, it might
really be mundane. But it's suddenly
become interesting. And there are certain words
that are so overused that I just feel bad for them. Well, I really feel sorry
for the word "doctrine." And the reason I feel sorry
for the word "doctrine" is because it has become
minimalized or marginalized by believers-- by
Christian believers who might say
something like this, oh, I'm not into doctrine. I'm just into Jesus. That sounds so
utterly spiritual, like you are so much
more spiritual than I am. The problems is it's
a lame thing to say. You wouldn't know
anything about Jesus unless there were
doctrines about Him that gave you information
for you to love Him. But it has become marginalized
as if it's not important. I sometimes think that
we treat our lives like we treat our gadgets. You know we get gadgets. And with every gadget comes
a manual of some kind, whether it's electronic
or in hard copy. But nobody reads the manual. We just start
trying to figure out the gadget we're good to
go until it doesn't work. When it doesn't work,
where's that manual? I got to find out
why it doesn't work. If you to read it first
you'd have been OK. God has given us a manual for
our lives called the Bible. And we're going to explore
that a little bit today. It's the manual of
truth that I have to say has been largely
disregarded by the church. The church of Jesus Christ-- and
I'm painting with a broad brush here-- has generally, for the most
part, been absent of doctrine, absent of theology. It's like we're
ashamed of theology. It's not about theology anymore. It's about me-ology. You're to make me feel
better about myself. Or it's about be-ology. Be your best you. Be your best self. Your best life now. There's no real theology. They devoted themselves to
the apostles' doctrine-- doctrine. Dr. Michael Vlach said--
and I agree with him-- "There is a crisis of biblical
knowledge in the church." The prophet Hosea, God
said to that prophet, "My people are destroyed
because of lack of knowledge." And the apostle Peter
in the New Testament said, "Grow in the grace and
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Solomon wrote to his son and
said, "Also it is not good--" Proverbs 19:2-- "it is not good for a soul
to be without knowledge." So get this. The early church,
they have to survive. So they believe this. They believe that to
grow, you must learn. Doctrine was important. John Stott who wrote a
commentary on the book of Acts, among other books,
said, "One might say that the Holy Spirit opened
a school in Jerusalem that day. The school teachers
were the apostles whom Jesus appointed and trained. And there were 3,000
pupils in kindergarten." So this was a learning church. Jesus said, "Learn of me. Get knowledge of me
imparted to yourself." God in Deuteronomy 5, regarding
His laws and commandments said, "learn them." Learn them. Psalm 119, the
Psalmist writes, "Give me understanding that I might
learn your commandments." So to grow, you must learn. Now, get this. This is what I
want you to notice. Verse 42 begins a list,
a list of priorities-- a to do list. We need to do these
things in order for us to survive spiritually
and to grow up and not give up. So notice what is
first on the list. Of the entire list
that is given, the first thing on
the list is doctrine. Now, I'm pointing that out
because that is not necessarily what we would put as
first on the list. Not everybody would put that
on their list as number one. Others would put singing on
their list as number one. Others might put
prayer as number one, or serving one
another as number one, or missions as number one. But the early church,
number one on their list was the apostles' doctrine. They were devoted to doctrine. How many people do you know
who are devoted to doctrine? Can you name ten off the
top of your head-- devoted to doctrine? Even five? Ask the average Christian--
try it this week-- hey, are you devoted to doctrine? Be interested to find out what
feedback you get from that. Devoted to doctrine. Most books in
Christian bookstores are not doctrinal books. You want to know why? Very, very simple,
basic reason-- they don't sell. They don't sell. Books about you sell. Self-help books sell. Doctrinal books don't sell. And yet, Paul said to Timothy
that in the last days, people will not
endure sound doctrine. But they'll turn aside to
those who will give them what they want to hear. From time to time, I am asked-- and not a lot, but I'm
asked from time to time-- why do you always preach
expository sermons? Why do you feel the necessity,
Skip, to be so tied to-- tethered to the text? It's all about what
the Bible says. You look at this word and
that word in that context. And moreover, I've been
on Wednesday nights, why do you spend a
whole hour in the Bible? I've been to some
other churches. It's a lot more exciting. More of a pep rally,
more of an exhortation. Let me tell you why. I want to answer that question. Because when you come,
essentially what I am doing is asking you to place your
life into the hands of God. That's basically
what we do at church. I'm encouraging you, trust Him. Place your life into His hands. You need to know the one
in whom you are trusting. To know your Bible
is to know your God. You will not know
him without it. It is the portal
for knowing Him. I read a book when I
was a new believer. And I saw it on the bookshelf,
and titles grab me sometimes. And I loved the title. It drew me in. It was called Knowing
God, by J.I. Packer. It has since become a classic. And I'd recommend the book-- Knowing God by J.I. Packer. But as I began to read it,
I was very disappointed. Because what it was essentially
is a theology book-- all the doctrines of the Bible. But it was written in
a very unique style. And the more I read
it, the more I got it. It's like, yeah. I have to know the
doctrines of God to know the God that
I am asked to trust. So Peter says, "Like
newborn babies, desire the pure milk of the
Word that you may grow thereby." To grow, you must learn. If you're not taking
in spiritual food, you might be a Christian. You're going to Heaven. But you're weak
and malnourished. So to grow, you must learn. Number two, to
learn, you must hear. To learn, you must hear. How often did Jesus say--
and you're going to finish the verse-- Jesus said, "Whoever has
ears to hear let him hear." Let him hear. He said that a lot. That's a Bible way of saying,
listen up or pay attention. That's what my teacher used
to say to me a lot in class. Heitzig, listen up. Pay attention. Listen to what I'm about to say. He who has ears to
hear, let him hear. Now, here's what I want
you to look at in verse 42. Go back to that, and
look at the word that modifies the word "doctrine." Placed in adjectival
form, the word apostles. They devoted themselves
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine-- not any kind of
doctrine, a very specific kind. Because there were
other doctrines, other teachings, other
forms of instruction. There were the doctrines of the
Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, the Essenes, the number of
different political groups, all had their teaching,
their doctrine. No, it was a very narrow focus
on the apostles' doctrine. What does that mean? Well, you know who
the apostles were. They were the closest
friends of Jesus-- the 12 who followed Him along. And for 3 and 1/2 years
they actually heard Jesus and saw Him close up. And they got to convey
to the early church everything they knew. But I think the best definition
of the apostles' doctrine is this. It is the apostolic
explanation and comments on how Old Testament scriptures
related to New Testament believers. They took the scriptures-- at that time it was
only the Old Testament-- and they brought them to bare
on New Testament believers. I want you to see
this for yourself. So look in chapter 2. Look at verse 14. Peter standing up with
the 11, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea
and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and
heed my words for these are not drunk as you suppose--"
since it's only 9 o'clock in the morning-- "but this is what was spoken
of by the prophet Joel." And in verse 17
down to verse 21 He quotes the Old Testament
biblical book of Joel. Verse 22 makes application. Now look at verse 23. "Him being delivered by
the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you
have taken by lawless hands, crucified and put to death. Whom God raised up, having
loosed the pains of death because it was not possible
that He should be held by it. For David says concerning
Him--" and notice what he does, quotes Psalm 16 to show
that Jesus' death was part of God's plan. That that was a scripture
that is now fulfilled. So apostolic preaching-- the
doctrine of the apostles-- was expository preaching. In other words, it let
the text speak for itself. Peter didn't stand
up and go, you know, I was just sort of thinking. And I kind of feel like. He says this is what the
Bible says about that. So the apostles'
doctrine, it was rooted in the power of the
text not in the personality of the preacher. Peter wouldn't
spout little sayings that he thought were cool and
getting people to rally around it and say amen to whatever. It was the power
of the text itself. Now, God uses preachers. He sent Old Testament prophets. He raised up New
Testament apostles. He sends preachers even
to this day to speak. Ephesians chapter 4,
"God gave to the church some to be apostles,
some to be prophets, some to be evangelists,
some to be pastors, teachers for the
edifying of the church, building up of the
body of Christ." 1 Corinthians 1, "It pleased
God through the foolishness of the message preached to
save those who believe." And the classic verse, Romans
10, verse 14, "How then shall they call on Him in whom
they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher?" So the general rule is
people grow by learning and learn by hearing. Right? That's a biblical principle. Romans 10:17, "Faith
comes by--" tell me-- "hearing. And hearing by the word of God." But it's the voice
of the preacher in the ears of the
people speaking the text of the scripture,
the text of scripture. Al Mohler, whose writings I have
come to really love over time, wrote this. "Rarely do we hear these days
that a church is distinguished primarily by its preaching. When we hear people speak
about their own congregations, generally they speak about
something other than preaching. They might speak of
a church's ministry. They might speak of specialized
programs for senior adults or young people. They might speak of
a church's music. Sometimes they might speak of
things far more superficial. But rarely do you hear a church
described first and foremost by the character, power, and
content of its preaching. This is because," says
Mohler, "few preachers today are true servants of the Word." Peter and the apostles
were servants of the Word. They were saying, what is this? He goes, this is that, which was
spoken of by the prophet Joel. And gave a textual,
scriptural explanation. So to grow, you must learn. To learn, you must hear. It is the apostles' doctrine. Third, to hear, you must commit. Now, look at verse 42. Remember, we're only doing
one half of one verse. "And they continued
steadfastly." It doesn't say, and they
did this and they did that. No. What they did, they did it and
they continued steadfastly. Two words here. One word in the
Greek, I'm not going to tell you the Greek word. You wouldn't care. You wouldn't remember it. Who cares? It's good enough in English. They continued steadfastly. The word means to
stick to something or to get stuck on something. Or it means to be diligently
attentive to something. Other translations say
they devoted themselves, or they gave constant
attention to, or they were regularly present
at, or they were loyal to. The Amplified
Bible, listen to it, "And they steadfastly
persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the
instruction and fellowship of the apostles." That's powerful. This isn't something they did
at first and then stopped doing and moved on as times
changed and they got busy. They didn't say, yeah. I used to be into the
apostles' doctrine. I used to go to the
apostle's church. But that's just not exciting. I found something more exciting. That's as dumb as
saying I used to eat. Mom's cooking was cool. But I've moved on to junk food. They continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine. Jesus said, quoting
Deuteronomy, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but
every word that precedes out of the mouth of God." We live by it. Every word-- every
word that precedes out of the mouth of God. So continue in the truth,
continue in the Word-- hearing, learning, growing. Why? Why make such a
big deal out of it? Why were they so
attentive to this? Well, let me give
you some benefits of regularly, constantly,
continually reading, searching, growing, learning,
hearing scripture. Number one, you'll
know God better. You'll know God better. You read the Bible, and God
is saying this is who I am. This is what I'm like. This is how I'm going
to handle this or that. You discover the mind
of God in scripture. You won't take long. You'll figure out pretty
quickly what God likes and what He doesn't like
as you read your Bible. You go, oh, I get it. I get a picture of who God is. I see what His plan
and purpose is. So you'll know God better. There's a second benefit. Not only will you
know God better, you will know yourself better. You see, the Bible doesn't just
give you a correct theology, it gives you a
correct anthropology. It shows the nature of man
page after page in our best times and our worst. Fully disclosed, you will see
our weaknesses, temptations, tendencies, flaws,
strengths, creativities-- all seen in scripture. You'll know God better. You will know yourself better. Third benefit-- you'll
live life better. You'll live a better life. You start reading
the Bible, it will show you the meaning of life. All the big questions
everybody has-- why am I here? What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose of life-- all answered on the
pages of scripture. That's why the Psalmist
said, Psalm 119, "Your Word is a lamp to my
feet and a light to my path." I've always loved the imagery. God's word is a flashlight. The Bible is my flashlight. In a dark world, I can navigate
and make good decisions. I can live my life better by
the flashlight of God's Word. This is why Jesus prayed
to His father in John 17, "Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth." You'll live life better. Now, I'll confess to you
when I was first saved, I bought me a Bible. I bought me a King James
Bible, Old King James. And because of that, I
just have to confess also I love the Old
King James version. I read it a lot. I don't mind the
thee's and thou's. Used to. But when I first started
reading it, I didn't get it. I said, OK. I'm going to read through it. And go, I don't get it. I don't get that name. I can't pronounce that. That's weird. What he just said, I couldn't
figure out what that means. And so I was highly confused. But I kept reading
and I kept at it. And I noticed that it
got clearer as I did it. And I got stronger
as I kept doing it. Pretty soon I could even
remember things I read. I could call to
mind certain verses. And so I come up to a situation
or an issue, and I go, hey, I know a verse about that. So now I could apply a verse
that I read to this situation. And things were different. Things started to
change because of that. I found out I'm
living my life better. So you'll know God better. You'll know yourself better. You'll live life better. Fourth, you'll pray better. You'll pray better. One of the hardest disciplines
in the Christian life is the discipline of prayer. Am I right, brothers
and sisters? All of us, self included, that's
one area that's like, yeah. I need to strengthen that area. And one of the problems is
like it says in the Bible, we don't always know what
we ought to pray for. The Holy Spirit helps in that. But we don't know what we
should pray for like we ought. So when I start reading this
book, God's book, the Bible, I start finding
out what God wants. And so I start praying
for what God wants. Now I suddenly know
how to pray better. Because now I'm
praying according to His will more and
more, which means I'm going to get yes answers
more and more, rather than no. That's an answer by the way. God didn't answer my prayer. No-- that's an answer. Or, I didn't hear anything. OK. Wait is an answer too. But when you start finding
out what He wants and you pray for what He
wants, you start seeing the fulfillment of that. And you start reading
how people prayed. You read how Jesus prayed. You can even take their
prayers and pray them back. Jesus even said, hey, pray
like this-- our Father who art in Heaven. He gives instruction. You'll pray better. So you'll know God better. You'll know yourself better. You'll live life better. You'll pray better. Fifth-- you'll
help others better. If you know your Bible,
you'll be a much better help to other people. You see, the Bible won't
just help you live your life. It'll help others live
their lives through you by knowing what the Bible
says on different subjects, you can counsel others. You become a great
benefit to others who have marriage
problems, problems at work, problems getting
along with their boss, problems dealing with whatever. If you know those principles,
you can teach them. And that is a healthy
New Testament church. Paul wrote to the
book of Romans, Romans 15, one of the key
verses in that chapter. And he said, "I,
myself, am convinced, my brothers, that you
yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge,
and competent to instruct one another." One another. And number six-- you
will discern better. You will discern better. In other words, the Bible
will keep you from error. It'll keep you in
the right lane. Why is that important? Here's why. We live in a
pluralistic culture. And in the culture we live
in, there are lots of voices. There are lots of opinions,
lots of world views, lots of ideologies. You come back to the Bible
and you go, oh, yeah. Not their way, but this way. This is the right way. Because all of that stuff is
being broadcast and transmitted 24/7. And this keeps you
in the right lane. We live in a world that seeks
what is worthless and scorns what is priceless. We live in a world that embraces
what is foolish and spurns what is righteous. So when we come back to
the Word like Psalm 1 says, we're not going to listen
to the voice of the ungodly, the council of sinners. But our delight is in
the law of the Lord. In His law, he
meditates day and night. He'll be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. You know the verse. You know the Psalm. So a couple quick tips,
since this is supposed to be a practical message. Tip number one about
Bible study-- ready? Here it is, really profound. Get a Bible. Well, I have one on my phone. No, get a Bible. On your phone, it's cool. I get it. I can understand. I can search for things
on my iPad, my Bible. But when I have an
actual one like this, I can smell and touch and feel. I open it up to. I can get like a page opened up,
sometimes a chapter and a half opened up. I know if the verse is on the
left side or the right side. I know what the context
is before and after. I see the bigger picture better. So get a Bible. Which Bible? Whatever one you'll read. I use New King James. I read a lot of
different versions. If New Living is better
for you, or an NIV is better, or the Message-- whatever one you will read
the most, get that one. Second, make time-- make time. Now, I'm going to
give you grace here. Don't be slavish about this. I'm not going to say you need
to be up every morning at 4:30. Oh, please. You ought to be
sleeping at 4:30. If you're a morning
person, get up. If you're an evening person,
read your Bible at night. If you want to split it
up a few times-- morning, evening, noon, whatever,
just whatever time, just keep doing it. Or mix it up. Or-- or I should say
and another option. If you're less into reading
but more into hearing, there's the audio Bible. So on your commute-- I have something called
the dramatized Bible where the people
take different voices and you hear music
in the background. It's like you're
living in that chapter. And from Genesis
through Revelation I can listen to a
dramatized version of the scripture being read. It's quite fun. And when you're walking your
dog, cleaning your house, the commute to Santa
Fe, if you go that far, or around town in
bad driving, you can always listen to something
that takes your mind off of that. Third-- get help. You can download Bible
reading plans ad nauseam. Everybody and his
uncle has them. Every ministry has them. How to read through
the Bible in a year. You can get the One Year
Bible as has been mentioned. And I'm not doing
this to plug my books. But the first book I wrote was
called How to Study Your Bible and Enjoy It-- how to observe a
text, how to interpret a text, how to apply a text. And I give you samples and
work your way through it. So oh, I get it. I can do that myself. Or the Bible from 30,000 feet-- I'll give you principles of
what every book of the Bible has to say. Those are helps. Get help. And fourth-- tell
somebody what you learned. Teachers are always the best
students because the teacher has to learn it. And then once you
say it to somebody and you give that away, it just
reinforces what you've learned. So that's a tip. But I love what Paul
said to Timothy when he said, "From
childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures--"
here's the part-- "which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus." True story-- do you know
who the Gideons are? So the Gideons put those
Bibles in hotel rooms. I love the Gideons. I love their commitment to it. I love to support them. I'm behind them. And so one time a man
asked a Gideon for a Bible. But here's the reason. He says, the pages of the
scriptures are that fine paper. They're perfect for
rolling cigarettes. The Gideon said, tell you what. I'll give you one
under one condition. Before you roll
your cigarette, you have to read the
page front and back. Then roll it, smoke it. Guy said, deal. So when the guy had smoked
his way through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, by the time he got
to John reading front and back, reading the words of
Jesus, he was so convicted, he prayed and received Christ
as his Lord and Savior. [APPLAUSE] If you'd do that, I'd
recommend smoking to you. I want to close
with something I was given by a Bible binding
company, a book binding company. I had a Bible sent
away to be rebound. It came back with
this little note. "This book contains the mind
of God, the state of man, the way of salvation,
the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy. Its precepts are binding. Its histories are true. Its decisions immutable. Read it to be wise. Believe it to be safe. Practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct
you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. "It is the traveler's map, the
pilgrims staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword,
and the Christian's character. Christ is its subject. Our good, its design, and
the glory of God, its end. It should fill the memory, rule
the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently,
and prayerfully. It is given to you in life. It will be open in the judgment
and be remembered forever. It involves the
highest responsibility, rewards the greatest
labor, and condemns all who trifle with its holy precepts." Good, isn't it? Father, your book, the Book-- as one put it on his
deathbed, bring me the Book-- is what we have
considered this morning. A church, the early
church, the first church, the prototype church, that
devoted themselves constantly, continually, regularly, loyally
to the apostles' doctrine. Lord, whatever means that is-- whether it's through audio
format, computer format, dramatized format, one year
Bible format, however, it is-- I pray that we would
be as determined as that early church, so that
we might know you better, know ourselves
better, pray better, live life better, help other
people in a better form, and be able to discern what
is right and what is wrong. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
