How to Study the Bible - Step 3: Taking the Right Approach - Skip Heitzig

you can open your Bibles tonight to wherever you'd like because I'm not going to follow necessarily a particular text although we're gonna look at a few texts tonight in just a few minutes but this is a study on how to study the Bible and enjoy it and as we get in tonight and we pray that God would open our hearts and minds I also am aware I want to make you aware that we have the understanding that we will remain seated for the remainder of this study if you don't think that you can pull that off if that's a big order on your agenda to actually stay seated and be in this room for the remainder of the study we would ask you to go to the foyer now and or as we pray you can move to the very back so that you could walk out without disturbing others so we're going to talk again about how to study your Bible and enjoy it tonight let's pray father we do ask that your spirit would now illumine the scripture to us make it fresh brighten up for us father the Word of God that we might understand it in a deeper fashion because Lord the Bible is something whereby we get to know your mind in your heart how you think what you love what you do not love it helps us know how to respond to you so that we start thinking in biblical terms and we would intuitively know your will in certain situations because those principles would be fixed in our hearts so help us Lord to know how to study your word how to approach it Lord that as we give ourselves to the Apostles doctrine as we read about in the book of Acts that there would be a great sense of enjoyment as we do that daily we would discover nuggets of truth and made this study tonight be very practical and hands-on in Jesus name let me begin by reading this advertisement I would like a job as a tutor a teacher an adviser for your family I will never take a vacation I will never be out of humor I don't drink or smoke I won't borrow your clothes or raid your refrigerator I will be up in the morning as early as anyone in the household and will stay up as late as anyone wishes I will help solve any problems your children might have I will give you the satisfaction of knowing that no question your children asked will go unanswered for that matter I will answer any of your own questions on subjects that range from how we got here to where are we headed I will help settle bets and differences of opinions I will give you information that will help you with your job your family and all of your other interests in short I will give you the knowledge that will ensure the continual success of your family I am your Bible do I get the job I am your Bible do I get the job I remember my very first Bible I actually had it before I was a Christian I don't know how I got it actually when I think about it I don't know why I had it but I put it on my motorcycle as I left my house and went up to the San Francisco Bay Area and it was a New Testament paperback edition of good news for a modern man it was a modern translation and the reason I liked it is because every few pages there were little stick figures that represented the teaching that went on and I liked I actually went kind of from stick figure to stick figure I didn't read it much but I did have it the night I asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior I was watching a Billy Graham crusade on television I made a commitment I took the Bible and I started reading through it that was my first Bible then I went to a Bible study with that Bible it was in a little house in a living room and one of the leaders in this ministry who eventually became a drummer and a Christian band that I was in looked at that paperback Bible and looked at the print in it and the version and he said you know you need a real Bible and I didn't know what that meant I didn't know you know is there a fake Bible so no you need a real Bible you have this translation good news for modern man you need a King James Version so he gave me a paperback Bible another paperback Bible but this was a King James Version the only difference is it was a little harder to read and the print was smaller but I was excited that I had the real thing so I went home and started reading it where I should say I tried to read it now I'm not gonna knock the King James Version because that's the version I settled on for many many years until just recently I switched to the new King James so I really enjoyed the version but I remember having this Bible and reading through it and underlining it and then I witnessed to my brother one afternoon with this Bible and he looked at that paperback Bible and he said why don't you use a real Bible now I thought I had the real Bible I had the real thing I was told this is a real Bible but what he meant by real Bible is the Bible we grew up with you know the thing that weighs about 5,000 pounds it takes two people to open the front cover because it's so thick and you mark weddings funerals birds and just mark notes in it you stuff papers in it but because I shared the gospel with him out of a paperback version and it wasn't the most holy gold gilded paged family Bible it had no authority in his life so when he said that I said okay fine hold on and so I got some help to lift the Bible out of the credenza and after blowing all the dust that was on it off I opened it up and I showed him the same verses of Scripture in that Bible as I did in the little one I have made it a regular habit of mine through the years to read a portion of the Bible to read through now all of the Bible I've been able to do it in the King James Version the new King James Version the NIV and sometimes other translations I try to pick my way through the New Testament Greek when I can and I have the extra time to move slowly and parse all the verbs and those that took Greek remember how difficult that was how should we study the Bible should we study it mystically like the Jewish Kabbalist did and still do seeing some mystic hidden meaning even between the words do we read it like the old Alexandrian Jews seeing several levels of interpretation from personal to practical to mystical to prophetical or do we read it simply academically like you would take the Bible as literature in a college class and simply compare it to other ancient literature how do we study the Bible well number one we study it unlike we study any other book right because it is God's Word after all and those of us who have a Bible understand that we approach it differently because it is God's Word we read it so that the great truths of the scripture will emerge and we can apply them to our lives so we not route we're not reading it academically as much as we are reading it application alee there may be academics in it certainly there are you have to use your noodle obviously and I don't think as a Christian you check your brain at the door unfortunately people think that you should have to do that but the purpose of our reading is that because it's unlike any other book we're applying it to our lives you don't read a college economic books book or a book on history or science the same way you read the Bible most of us carry our Bibles all the time we have little purse Bibles or if you're an executive you have one for the briefcase you might have a bigger one at home to study we're having a Bible all the time we don't do that with history books or science books or economic books we don't underline them in memorize passages unless you're in a class once you're finished the grade it's over so we read it unlike we read any other book but on the other hand we study it like we would study any other book that is we give attention to things like culture context certain words and phrases and all of the hermeneutical or interpretational tools and methods of studying it so that we can extract the richness from the Word of God tonight we want to talk about approach how do I go about it how do I go about studying the Bible on my own so that I can get all of the gems out of it I am often addressed after a message after a Bible study by people who will often say you know I have read that passage over and over again many times but I never really saw all those things that you brought out this morning or this evening how can I study the Bible so that I can see those same things well the good news is you can and there's ways that you can do that so that the Bible isn't just the reading and raking method or just whatever clogs of truth happened to get into the metal web you grab a hold of but that you follow a way a method if you will if you don't like the term method because that stumbles you come up with another word but some way of approach now to do that there's a few prerequisites first of all you have to have the right kind of heart I'm not talking anatomically I'm not saying you can't have mitral valve prolapse otherwise you won't get anything out of the Bible or that you have to have a certain rhythm or heartbeat or blood pressure I'm talking about the heart the internal you the you behind the flesh all that is your personality and the deepest part of you your heart the Bible speaks about that very often you need the right kind of heart to get anything out of Bible study now first and most obvious is you have to have a new heart you have to be saved the Bible in Jeremiah talks about God giving people a brand new heart every now and then somebody will say I can't read the Bible I don't understand it it's too difficult for me I open it up I can't figure out one thing it's even saying it could be not always but it could be that that person isn't a saved person he doesn't have a new heart it's clouded he doesn't understand it in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 Paul said the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God they are foolishness unto him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned or the as the NIV translates the natural man the man without the spirit and one of the reasons unbelievers scoff the Bible is that the Bible is taught us by the Holy Spirit who lives within us if you don't have the Holy Spirit living within you it's gibberish to you it is foolishness to you you cannot receive it or understand it completely so you have to have a new heart secondly you have to have a hungry heart a hungry heart you know there is a difference between a person who has a hungry heart when they read the Bible and a person who says I just gotta do this you know I'm gonna feel guilty if I don't crack this book today and read at least a couple verses when you have a hungry heart you get fed spiritually people who are hungry eat I know that's a profound statement the people who are not hungry don't eat you've all been in places where somebody says hey would you like lunch no listen I just ate I'm not that hungry don't bind me anything it wouldn't do me any good I won't partake jesus said blessed are those who do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled let's say you wanted to try your new cuisine on a group of people you are convinced man I did this food is so good I could open my own restaurant but first I want to try it on people so let's say you cook something up and you stand in front of a restaurant and as people come out of the restaurant you say would you like to try my new cuisine I think it's you're gonna really enjoy it I've disconnected it most of them are gonna say no I just left that building that is called a restaurant I went in there to appease my hunger its appeased I don't want your food but if you were to go in front of a gym where people just worked out or a school where they ran the track and had PE they're gonna go for that food they're gonna try it because they're hungry Peter and speaking of this said as newborn babes desire or crave the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby have you ever seen a baby when it's hungry let me rephrase that I've ever heard a baby when it's hungry it's unmistakable it's one word Wow and it's very loud and moms can distinguish the cry for food from the cry for I need my diaper change from the cry for whatever else I'm lonely a baby will let you know I'm craving it I want it and they cry out for it and they get it so as newborn babes desire crave yearn for the pure or sincere milk of the word that you might grow thereby Hebrews 11:6 puts it this way God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him it's those who diligently seek Him God rewards not the casual Enquirer's but the diligent seekers so you need first of all a new heart second of all you need a hungry heart third of all you must have an obedient heart you know the Bible is pretty boring when you read it to not obey it if you read it to just come up with some new tidbit but you have no desire to put it into practice it's a very boring book because you're not reading it as a life changing guidebook to your life or as a love letter from heaven weirder read it like an obedient servant waiting on the master for further instruction like Samuel who said speak Lord your servant ears in fact that's a good where I like to pray it every time I open the Bible speak Lord I am your servant I'm waiting on you for further instruction your servant is listening waiting to hear waiting to obey God told Joshua when he gave him the Commission to be the general over the Israeli army he said this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do all that is written in it then you will make your way prosperous then you shall have good success so there's a king of Israel and one thing I like about the ancient monarchy is that God told the kings of Israel that they each had to have a copy of his word at their side when they reigned not only that they had to write it themselves they had to copy it themselves so here they were copying the Bible and then they had to have it there so that those principles would be there for them to observe to do God said I'll bless your reign I'll bless your kingdom if you observe to do what is written in it see it's possible to be a Christian but not an obedient one there are carnal Christians and when you're not hungry you're not obedient you read the Bible intermittently rather than regularly and the satisfaction level drops each time it becomes dry it's not exciting you might pray for understanding but if you're not willing to put it into practice it's dry in James he said you do not have because you do not ask you ask that you don't receive because you ask amiss that you might spend it on your pleasures and sometimes they Oh God show me what you want but if we're not willing to put it into practice why should he we can ask a miss so we need the right heart number one that's the first prerequisite secondly I think you need the right kind of method you need the right kind of method Jesus said something interesting and I want to apply this right here take heed what you hear okay that's no problem if we're going study the Bible no problem we can hear this pretty well we can take off all of the filters that you would put on when you read any other kind of book commentary literature you take them off it's the pure Word of God but he also said this take heed how you hear take heed how you hear what you hear have you ever heard truth only to forget it shortly thereafter or read something and then you forgot what was it that I read it was really good but I can't remember all I know it was good the exciting part about Bible study is when we retain the information so we need the right approach the right method so that when we read something we can retain the information then it is useful information see a lot of times people get excited initially I'm going to read the Bible it's new years that's my new year's resolution no problem Genesis you're stoked you make it through Exodus you're great till you get to some of about chapter 30 some and the law is kind of bog you down and then you make it to Leviticus you know by Leviticus three or four you kind of drop it till next New Year's resolution comes around and it could be that well there's things I don't understand or be there's no real method by which to approach to extract the principles that God is trying to teach you in his word as we said some people like the read and rake approach that is and it's okay if you're an unstructured kind of a person this may be your approach you just open it up and you just read until you want to quit and there's no real method or systematic approach you just whatever nuggets you know come into the rake or captured at the surface by the mind you retain those the rest you let go the problem of course with that is that you'll have random bits of information and you might not know exactly where they fit like the high school who was tested on their knowledge of the Bible and they said the four Gospels were Matthew Maher Luther and John and the Jezebel was a Habs donkey rather than his wife and they just had the bits and the pieces mixed up a little bit they had no way to retain the information so we want to retain it the way we do that and we're gonna talk about this in the following weeks is by observing what it says observation interpreting what it means interpretation and by applying what it tells us application observation interpretation application in observation you open your eyes to see what it says in interpretation you open your mind to see what it means in application you open your heart to see what it means to you personally so that the truth can live in you now there's several effective methods that you can use to read the Bible if you have a Bible in the front of it or in the back of it there might be a Bible reading plan for the year some people like to read through the whole Bible in one year and so it will tell you on this day of the year you must read this portion of the Old Testament in this portion of the New Testament that's fine if you like that kind of structure go for it the problem is you get guilty because you may miss a day or two days or three days then you've got to catch up I got a cram and I got a read because I missed those two days I was off on the weekend I forgot my Bible or whatever whatever method you choose we're gonna go through this in a minute whatever method you choose and it really is up to you as you bring it before the Lord make sure that you read the Bible devotionally devotionally in other words that your own soul gets watered that your own spirit gets fed that you are nourished by it that's really the objective is it not read it so that your soul gets nourished when you have quiet time and I'm saying as Christians I'm sure I can't say if you have quiet time because if you love God it's a matter of when you do it not if when you have quiet time and you take a portion of the Bible and you sit before the Lord you read it you meditate on it you pray over it that you might apply it wouldn't you do that you're not approaching that kind of study academically as much as application Allah your design is not to examine the Bible as a textbook but to encounter God as a tutor to have a rendezvous with God to hang out with them to find out what he is saying personally to you now let me suggest to you a method if you don't already have one or if you found the list in the front of the Bible to be a little too restrictive the way I like to do it and I do switch my methods is I read different portions of the Bible on different days of the week on Sunday since it's Sunday and I have three services in the morning and one at night I read over the portion that the church goes through that Sunday in the morning in the evening that's my text for the day on Monday I read something from the first five books of Moses the legal books the Pentateuch as some like to call it it could be something out of Genesis it could be Exodus it could be leviticus and usually I like to start at the beginning and go through read paragraph chapter two chapters three chapters or the whole book at one setting whatever you like there's no guilt it doesn't say you got to read and stop at this point and then you got to read that portion tomorrow you just put a bookmark wherever you stop and you'll pick it up on the following Monday on Tuesday I like to read from the historical books in the Old Testament Joshua to Esther a portion from that book I'll read through it consistently but I might find that I read four chapters the day before in Genesis but something really sticks out to me and judges are Joshua and I may read a half a chapter and I'll meditate and mull over that and I'll put a bookmark there I'll write it in the front of the Bible this is where I stopped so that next Tuesday I'll come back to that point on Wednesday I'll read something from the poetical books from the book of Job through the Song of Solomon that's the portion I'll meditate on it now I'm in the Book of Psalms on that day of the way on Wednesday and sometimes I can read 10 20 Psalms other times I can read one because it's so rich and I meditate on put a marker and I go to the next day Thursday or read something from the prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi it's a big chunk then on Friday I'll read something from the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke I mean Luke or John I'm restricted to only four books on Friday which means I'm going to be reading a lot more of the Gospels than probably any other section of the Bible which I think is good and healthy because the emphasis is on the life of Christ then on Saturday I will read from acts to Revelation not in one setting usually but something from that I'll read something from the rest of the New Testament you can cover as much ground as you want long portion short portion you're gonna find when you do it that way at least my experience is instead of saying I'm still in Genesis I'm still in Leviticus I'm still in Isaiah is that you'll start missing those guys during the week you think you know I've been in Jeremiah on one of those I can't wait to get back to him oh great today's the day for songs man I miss them and you're gonna find that as you vary your reading that way you'll cover all of the Bible you'll cover the great sections of the Bible and it have enough variety that you won't be stuck on one book there are aids I just want to cover this there are devotional aids that you can get for your quiet time I'm gonna touch on them because I think they're only appetizers to the meal there are not the meal you can get Oswald Chambers my utmost for his highest that's a good little devotional one that I like a whole lot better is morning and evening by Charles Spurgeon to me he just kind of puts it better than anybody else can put it he'll write a truth and he'll comment on a verse of scripture that's like food for my soul there's Union Bible study notes there's our daily bread or daily life and that is where they take a scripture and then they'll have devotional thoughts or a narrative that are attached to that scripture they're okay but they should never substitute you studying on your own again it's like an appetizer before the meal it's I give me a little Mauri with my salad and my steak and my potatoes but that's not the main meal Martin Luther said the way he liked to study the Bible is like you shake an apple tree he says I like to shake first of all the whole tree and the ripe apples will fall first then I like to climb the tree and shake every limb then I like to shake every branch then after I've shaken every branch I like to shake every little twig and then finally I like to turn over every leaf that's a good way to study the Bible you can study it as a whole shaking the tree because they're salient points chapters truths that are in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation but then we ought to climb the tree of the Bible and shake every single limb every book of the Bible there's 66 limbs in that tree shake each one then we had a climb and shake each branch that's each chapter of the Bible then we had to shake every twig the paragraphs the sentence that finally turn over every leaf the words you say guys that takes a lot a long time well you've got a lifetime ahead of you you've got from now to the day you kick the bucket or get rapture so I see you know you're in for life and so we give ourselves to studying the Bible first of all let's look at the whole tree approach studying the Bible one book at a time actually this would be climbing the tree now and shaking each limb it is possible for you to study and read one whole book of the Bible at one setting now don't tune me out right now are you thinking Elford this isn't it forget it there are books that are small writes third John's start with that all right that's just a few verses then you can say I read a whole book today now I don't recommend this necessarily for brand new believers I'm not ruling it out but it can bog you down it can get a little bit weary but if you are gonna teach the Bible or if you're in some Bible study class for a particular book read it some times at one setting you yourself a couple hours to sit down and just get into a book when I taught for The Cove back in North Carolina a few weeks ago we studied the book of Hebrews even though I did just a few studies from the book I read through the entire book a few times just to get the whole sweep in one setting of the author it gives you the author's theme the author's point of view in perspective is seen better that way than any other way G Campbell Morgan whenever he would teach on any book of the Bible said he would never craft a sermon on any book of the Bible until he had read the book through 50 times in a row not in one setting but he'd read it once and he'd read it again maybe the same day maybe the next day but he'd read it 50 times and by then he had a real grasp on the theme and the message of that book other bible expositor x' while they're teaching a book will read through the whole book like every day and by the end of it they're just wired with that book if you teach first John for six months if can you imagine if you read first John every day for six months you'd have it memorized and it would be invaluable there's a great story that comes to us about dr. Harry Ironside he was a guy from the south who spoke with a thick accent but he lived in Southern California and he passed her to church then and a one day he was having a meeting with many pastors in the area and they got together and they started talking about quiet time what do you read in the morning let's go through the room at this conference and see what each of us read for our devotions and one guy said I read Psalm 16 today the other guy said oh I read two chapters of the book of Romans they came to Ironside they said what did you do for devotions today what did you read he said Isaiah can you imagine reading 66 chapters of Isaiah in one setting for quiet time he did he must have gotten up early secondly study the Bible by chapters now this is where most of us live and move and have our being is reading the Bible by chapters now fortunately chapters are nice little packages that have beginnings and ends and they're packaged just right it's perfect to take a chapter or two or three whatever how much time you have and let that be your study for the day the chapters by the way are not in the original originally if you lived in ancient times the Bible books had no chapters they had no numbers on the verses it was simply a running scroll from beginning to end but a guy by the name of Cardinal Hugo years later decided let's put chapters in this thing so I can say turn to such-and-such but it's great to just study the chapters of the Bible I found some interesting data on the sixth President of the United States John Quincy Adams now as I read this letter to you in a sane man I'd love to have some leadership like that today and so would I sixth President of the United States was writing to his son who was going to college in Massachusetts and he was telling him about his own personal experiences and this what he said quote I advise you my son in whatever you read and most of all and reading the Bible to remember that it is for the purpose of making you wiser and more virtuous I have myself for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year I have always endeavored to read it with the same spirit and temper of mind which I now recommend to you that is with the intention and desire that it may contribute to my advancement in wisdom and virtue my custom is to read four or five chapters every morning immediately after rising from my bed wouldn't it be great if all of our political readers could say I get up every morning and I read four or five chapters of the Bible and I read it through in one year it would be awesome it employs about an hour of my time and seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day but as other cares and duties and occupations engaged the remainder of my day I have perhaps never a sufficient portion of my time in meditation upon which I upon what I have read every time I read the book through I understand some passages that I never understood before and which I should have done at a former reading had it been affected with a sufficient degree of attention now there's 1189 chapters in your Bible if you were to take just one chapter today and not two three four or five you'd read the Bible through in three years it would take you three years to do it no problem if you want to do three or four or five you can cover it in a year depending on what you like to do notice I'm not saying if you're a Christian you must read from this portion to this portion I'm leaving leaving a lot of it open here's something else maybe you've never done this before but I'm going to encourage you tonight to do it as you read a chapter or two or whatever outline it learn to outline it it's an outline it that seems so hard listen it can come once you do it after a while second nature you'll just start seeing blocks of thought and it will come so easy to you you'll see exactly how it falls it doesn't have to be in detail let me give you an example this morning I was reading Jeremiah chapter 7 you don't have to turn there but here's my outline of it first of all in the first few verses God spells out the nature of their rebellion the nature of the rebellion of the children of Israel and the consequent judgment then after that he talks about an example of rebellion and judgment there's a city in Shiloh says go study this city that rebelled against me and see what they did and what I did to it then after that there is the history of rebellion of Israel as a nation and finally the chapter closes with the result of rebellion all of the valleys will be filled with the dead because the Babylonians will come against them each chapter does have a flow of thought as the author puts it together the author being the holy spirit the human author or whatever prophet or writer you have but if you start outlining it that way you will retain so much more and you can write it in the margins of your Bible or you can write it in an uppper but you can always go back to it and those things will be embedded in your mind you'll know so much more of the Bible when you're doing that you can underline main words main thoughts sentences and write notes in the margin of your Bible okay then we shake every branch of the tree now I'm giving you options here I'm not saying you have to choose all of these methods I'm saying you can choose one or two or you can bury them and try them all or you can stick to one but let's talk about studying the Bible by paragraphs have you ever said okay I'm gonna have my quiet time I got up early open my Bible I'm gonna read two chapters but you get into one chapter do you think man this is good I really don't know if I can cover two chapters because God is speaking to me in such an incredible manner that I've got to give a little more attention to meditating just on this paragraph or two or three sometimes there's so much there it's so rich that you just want to take a smaller amount each time now not everyone's gonna like this method others will love this method because number one it's a smaller portion but number two you can spend more time chewing on it and depending on the time you have or the circumstances in your life you may have lost a loved one and for you to just meditate on a paragraph that brings comfort would be more rewarding and better in the long run let me give you an example of looking at a paragraph and outlining the paragraph okay if you want to do that turn over to Acts chapter 4 now this may come up word to you at first but eventually it's going to come easier to you and this is something that I of course have a habit of doing every week whenever I prepare a study but I like to do it personally as well Acts chapter 4 let's look at just a little section of Scripture and I'll give you a simple outline verse 23 Acts chapter 4 here's the setup they've been persecuted they were told not to preach they did it anyway they got put in jail they're released and now they have a prayer meeting verse 23 and being let go they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them so when they heard that they raised their voice to God with one Accord and said Lord you are God who made the heaven the earth the sea and all that is in them who by the mouth of your servant David have said why do the nation's rage and the people plot vain things the kings of the earth took their stand the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ for truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done now Lord look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus and when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness now that's their prayer that's what they did and there's a theme of that section the disciples pray that's it in looking at their prayer there's a few important things that I notice first of all it's a prayer with perspective they begin by recognizing out loud who they are addressing Oh Lord you are God you made the heaven in the earth you're not talking to Joe Schmoe down the street you're not talking to the high priest of Israel or to Herod or to Caesar you're talking to the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it and when you begin your prayer by realizing who you're dealing with when you set your prayer up and you realize my God can do anything because he created the heavens in the earth you're setting yourself up for a powerful prayer it's prayer with perspective secondly it's prayer with balance there's praise there's adoration and there's personal petition it's not God here's my wish list I want I want I need amen it's Lord you're this you're wonderful you've done this and they quote a scripture and bring it in so it's a balanced prayer life adoration praise and petition then it's also a prayer with direction it's not vague they don't say Oh God just bless everybody everywhere amen they're very specific they say Lord first of all look on their threats secondly give us boldness to preach the gospel third let the healing and the signs and the wonders continue that you may be glorified and then of course finally it was a prayer that was answered the place shook God filled him with boldness and they went out and preached the gospel and nobody could shut him up so that's three ways three approaches could study the Bible by book study the Bible by chapter you can study the Bible by paragraph number four you can study the Bible by verses there have been times when I'll come across a verse that will like slap me upside the head verse that I've never I've read before but I never really saw it quite like that the other day I was reading something in Deuteronomy something that I've read many other times but it just grabbed me about God being the my father and it demanded a little more of my attention that morning so I studied it as a verse a small nugget let me give you example by the way you could find a paragraph you love so much you could spend a week on it just take verse at a time John 3:16 you know it by heart right for God so loved the world that he you do know it by heart that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life now you can also outline that it's speaking about salvation let me give you a quick little outline of it the origin of salvation for God didn't come from man we don't think of it so I've got to reach God it's God started it he initiated the motivation of this salvation he loved the object of God's salvation and loved the world the demonstration of God's love that He gave His only begotten Son the people to whom this salvation is offered whosoever whoever would call upon his name the requirement for salvation whoever believes and then the results of that salvation shall not perish but have everlasting life now you can just write notes like this on the side of your Bible that God gives to you personally nothing you heard in a sermon or copied from a book but that just has spoken to your heart learn to turn it around meditate on it like a cow chews its cud let me get very vivid a cow will take in grass to it swallow it regurgitate it chew on it some more swallow it again bring it back up into the mouth chew it a little more each time its extracting more juice it's taking every bit of nutrient it can suck out of that grass and sometimes you take a Bible verse and you look it over and you take it to harder then you bring it back up again you turn it over and ask a few more questions what does this say about man what does this say about my relationship to God what does this say about God and you see those things another example romans 8:28 we know that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose you can have an outline of that the certainty of God's care and we know that all things work together for good we know this it's certain the scope of God's care we know that all things not some not 90% all things that's the scope of his care the cohesiveness of God's care they work together for good the object of God's care for those who love God and are called according to his purpose so that's just a couple of examples of how you can look at a few texts take a small portion and meditate on then you can study the Bible by words see now we're taking each leaf and turning it over there are 6,000 different English words used in the Bible in an average English translation of course you've got many more Greek in Hebrew words but you've got about 6,000 English words some of them you're not going to want to study the you're not gonna look that up in a concordance but there are other words that in and of themselves prove to be a rewarding systematic study you could take the word believe grace forgiveness you could trace it through the Bible look into concordance see how God applies the word forgiveness versus how man applies the word forgiveness this gives you an in-depth look at an issue a doctrine a theme a truth all the way through the entire Old and New Testament it's very very rewarding there is a danger with this you can get imbalanced what I mean by that is invariably you're gonna pick out things that you like I doubt that many Christian who say what does the Bible have to say about money because that might like touch our nerve but the Bible is a lot to say about money you might just say no I want to find out what God's Word says about mercy because I need it and that's good but you can take a theme and go all the way through the Bible take the titles of Jesus Christ lamb light the word and look at them in the light of Scripture looking up the various texts look at the first time certain words are used that is very revealing there is something called the rule of first mentioned for instance the very first time the invitation is given in the Bible come it's fun to look at it's in the book of Genesis chapter 7 where God says to Noah come you and all your house into the ark it's an invitation from God to man and it forms a key to all of the other times the word come is used as an invitation by God we see that this invitation includes a shelter from the storm it's a invitation to accept salvation already provided in the ark and it's an invitation to escape from coming doom it's a beautiful invitation the first time the word love is used Genesis 22 we mentioned last week or the week before the very first time love is used it's to Abraham take now your son your only son whom you the reason it's significant is what kind of love is it it's the love of a father loving his only begotten son as he gives him up in sacrifice it sets the stage for the rest of the Bible and it culminates in John 3:16 other suggestions if you want more methods to study study biographies there's 2290 I think different men and women mentioned in the Bible you're not going to want to study all of them because some times are mentioned in a genealogy but there's several hundred key examples in the scripture you can just read the life of Elijah or Abraham and see how they're spoken in the Old Testament and mentioned in the New Testament study the prayers of the Bible find out who prayed it what were the circumstances how did God answer it it'll teach you how to pray study the fear nights of the Bible there's over 200 times where the Bible says fear not look them up it's rewarding study the questions of the Bible the questions that man asks God and find out the answers so first of all you need the right heart secondly you need the right method thirdly I'd say you need the right kind of time right because I've just mentioned a lot of different methods and some of you are busy businessmen business women you work in the morning you work at night and you think oh this sounds really great and idealistic I have not much time how can I do this well let me put it to you this way usually people live by a schedule that is you can't do everything in one day or you can't do everything all day long but you schedule your important stuff in you schedule meetings with important people well I'd like to meet with you but I can't tell 10:30 I've got appointments before that I'll meet with you at 10:30 question who's more important than God if we can schedule everybody else in on our day timer why couldn't we schedule God in for a portion of that if he's really important to you you do it and if extracting the truths of Scripture are that important you'll find the time be it get up a little bit earlier stay up a little bit later and of course that's a question when do I do this should I do it in the morning do it the I don't care I don't think you care depends on who you are most people find early morning the best unless you're a night person and I want to underline that because some people think right I'm doing what you said I'm getting up early in the morning to read the Bible you know I get up about 10:00 and I start reading the Bible right there I know that the guy's a night person his mind isn't really engaged till 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon for him to come the third service is like sacrifice Sunday morning it's okay maybe you're better when everybody's in bed and it's 12:00 midnight and you can really engage at that time it really depends on who you are no hard fast rules in fact I would say this don't let the time govern the experience let the experience govern the time that's what I mean by that instead of saying okay I'll get up at 5:30 and from 5:30 to 6:30 and I'm gonna time it I'm gonna read I'm gonna read for an hour or an hour and a half or 20 minutes instead of setting it read till your soul is nourished George Mueller who ran the Bristol orphanage in London said I read until I come to a verse upon which I can lean my whole weight and then I stopped read until your soul is satisfied maybe you're struggling with sin well read until you start finding a verse or a section that speaks about victory over sin and get that into your soul and stop right there perhaps or maybe you're discouraged read till you find encouragement maybe you're lonely read until you engage in fellowship with the Living God until your soul is satisfied in the next few sessions we want to look at how to observe how do you look at something to get stuff out of it how do you interpret find out what it means and how do you apply as we do there's a prerequisite that we left out we need to pray every time we open the Bible on one hand we want to study hard and apply ourselves in every human capacity but in the other hand we want to pray because it's the Holy Spirit that gives illumination to the Bible and I think what God has joined together let not man separate our W Dale said study without prayer is atheism prayer without study is presumption so we Lord open your word that I might understand it that I might apply it to my life so yeah that's gonna take a lot of time it's time well spent I found an interesting thing out a couple weeks ago in 1989 Americans purchased Harlequin romance novels at the rate of seven thousand one hundred and ninety one per hour if you are too busy to hear from God or for God to hear from you then you're just too busy and it's time for a priority check that your soul may be nourished and satisfied so that you will be able to present the light of Jesus Christ to this world because you can never give what you do not have let's pray Lord we remember the prayer of David who said open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from your word and that's how we close tonight by asking you that our eyes our minds our hearts would begin to be opened as we read books chapters paragraphs sentences phrases words as we meditate upon your truth Lord I prayed that we would understand it with our mind that we would be moved in our spirit so that our lives would reflect your heart we want to know you Lord the author of the scripture that's the purpose of studying it that we might know you personally and have the power to relate to other believers who need your truth and non-believers who need your truth but Lord we also need it as you said in your word it's the farmer who must first be a partaker of his own crops so lord help us to plant and to dig deep and to make a joyful noise in Jesus name you

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 5,548

Rating: 4.8431373 out of 5

Keywords: How to Study the Bible, Bible Study, Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermon, Acts, Calvary Church, Taking the Right Approach, Bible, Bible study, Bible study time, quiet time, prayer, Bible study approach, devotional Bible study, word by word Bible study, topical Bible study

Id: XbzPHg18Mw4

Length: 53min 28sec (3208 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 03 2018