-
Tim: You've got to have discipline.
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If you're going to get up
and read the Bible
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at 5 a.m. every morning
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or at 6 a.m. every morning,
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you've got to have discipline.
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Brethren, I am here today
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to talk to you about reading your Bible.
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And it is sloppy Christian life
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if you are not reading your Bible
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every single day.
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Lay it down.
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This is the food for the soul.
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This is our life. This is our health.
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This is where we see Christ.
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This is the Word of God.
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This is where God talks to us
-
and shows us Himself.
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If you are not reading
your Bible every day,
-
that is sloppy and there
is no excuse for it.
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Because if you're not
reading your Bible every day,
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you're doing other things every day -
-
thing that are not near as important
-
and you know it's true.
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Brethren, this is
where the Christian life -
-
healthy Christian life -
this is where it starts.
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If you're not in the Word
of God every single day,
-
there is no excuse for it.
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No excuse.
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And the discipline of the
Christian life has to start here.
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We talked last week
about Bible memorization.
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And I wanted to start there
because of how important it is
-
for the health of the church.
-
But now we're stepping back a step.
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We're talking just about
getting in the Word.
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And I'm not talking about reading
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four chapters every day.
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Listen, you should be working
towards something like that.
-
I'm not even talking about
reading a whole chapter.
-
And not all of us are cut out the same.
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Not all of us read as well.
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Not all of us like to read as much.
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For some it's more difficult.
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For some, our vocabulary
is greater or lesser.
-
Some of us are just more wired readers.
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Some love to read.
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I recognize we're all over the place.
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But brethren, this is our food.
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This is the food of the Christian life.
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And if there's any discipline
you've got to nail down,
-
even above getting to
Sunday School on time,
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it is this.
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You've got to be disciplined
-
in reading the Bible.
-
You've got to.
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When you walk into a church,
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and you see people who spiritually
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stand head and shoulders above the rest,
-
when you look throughout history,
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they were not Scriptural lightweights.
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When you come across William Carey's
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and Hudson Taylor's and John G. Paton's,
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Adoniram Judson's, Amy Carmichael's,
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Andy and Rebecca's,
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if you look at their saved life
-
and their relationship to the Word of God,
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they weren't lightweights.
-
They lived in that book.
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If you think that you're going to run -
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have some incredible spiritual life
-
and fruitfulness
-
and be a vessel fit for the Master's use
-
and you've got a shoddy
approach to Scripture,
-
you're sadly mistaken.
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You will never excel
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until you have excelled in the Word.
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I guarantee it.
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Why?
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Because that's where you draw the life.
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That's where you draw the power.
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That's where you see the Christ.
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It is sanctification by Your Word -
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that's what Christ said.
-
Sanctification is growth
in the Christian life.
-
It is maturing.
-
It is being separated further and further.
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It is achieving holiness.
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It is coming more and more
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to the image of Christ.
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And it comes through that Word
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and there is so substitute.
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So how do we do it?
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(incomplete thought)
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We've got the discipline.
-
We need to have this delight
-
and this desire and this trembling
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from the Lord.
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So you're up at 6 o'clock.
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You've got your cup of coffee.
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And you've got to factor these things in.
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Listen, whatever it takes to be wide awake
-
when you're in God's Word -
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you don't want to do it in a shoddy way.
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If you've got to drink tea,
-
you've got to drink coffee,
-
look, it might just require you
-
to get enough exercise in your life
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so that you're wide awake at 6 o'clock.
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It may require that
you don't eat after 6 p.m.
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Look, you've got to do what you've
got to do to make this work.
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This is really important.
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Discipline.
-
If you know that eating at 10 o'clock -
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I know every once in a while,
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we'll leave a prayer meeting
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and a bunch of us will go down to Denny's.
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Look, if you can't get
up the next morning
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after you do that, don't do that.
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Just pure and simple.
-
You say, well, other people do it.
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Well, so what what other people do.
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If you can't get up to get in the Word
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if you do that, don't do it.
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That's what discipline is.
-
Discipline is not always
doing what the crowd does.
-
Listen, typically the crowd
-
even in good churches
-
are not spiritually where they need to be.
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And so just doing something
because the crowd does it,
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I guarantee, Hudson Taylor
got to where he was
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because he was doing exactly
what the crowd wasn't doing.
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So there you are.
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You've got your Bible in front of you.
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Now what do you do?
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Look, once you make your first pass
-
through the whole Bible,
-
you'll get an idea that
there's some places
-
that are more exciting.
-
Usually, Joshua, Judges...
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they read pretty well, right?
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Numbers.
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That first chunk of 2 Chronicles.
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Those things can be difficult.
-
Leviticus can be rather difficult.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
I can remember as a new Christian
-
just starting to get out there
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into certain parts of Isaiah,
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certain parts of Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
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and it was just judgment,
judgment, judgment, judgment.
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It was just kind of wearing me out.
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But God gives it to us for a reason.
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Remember, He that is absolutely perfect
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designed this book perfectly.
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He put what truth in it
-
to the degree that He wanted it in there,
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He designed it.
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And look, Tawfiq is saying
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you need to read all of it.
-
Yes, you need to read all of it.
-
All of it is the Word of God.
-
All of it is profitable for
doctrine and reproof,
-
for correction, for instruction.
-
It definitely is.
-
It's all inspired.
-
I mean, if somebody just told me right now
-
there was a whole book of
the Bible that I had never read,
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I would go home right now and devour it.
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The Word of God thrills my soul.
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I want to be in it.
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But I know that there are some parts
-
that are more difficult to go through.
-
And so what you need
to figure out is this:
-
how to get through all of it
-
and actually make it through
-
without wearing yourself out.
-
Look, I know this,
-
that just what Hudson Taylor knew,
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there are certain parts of Scripture
-
that can tend to be
drier than other parts.
-
Or at least that we have
less expectation going in
-
that it's going to be helpful,
-
even though God can come
like He did to Taylor
-
there in Numbers 7.
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So it's very important that you pray,
-
but look, the reality is,
there's some parts of Scripture
-
that are going to thrill
your soul more than others.
-
And you've got to figure out
how to get through the hard parts.
-
And typically, if you're wired this way,
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and you can start at Genesis 1:1
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and go all the way through, do it.
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Do it.
-
You've got to do that sometimes.
-
I mean, try that.
-
You don't have to, but I recommend
-
that you at least try to do that once.
-
And look, if you're reading
it at a fairly average clip,
-
you ought to be able to go
through the whole Bible in a year.
-
Disciplined people set goals.
-
Set a goal for when
you're going to get up.
-
Be goal-driven.
-
Set a goal for how far you want to get.
-
I mean, make the goal.
-
I want to read through
the Bible once this year.
-
2013 is almost at hand.
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Sometimes there's a place
-
wherever you are just to stop.
-
Pick up the McCheyne Bible reading program
-
and just go through the whole Bible.
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I think that one actually takes you
-
through the Old Testament once
-
and the New Testament twice in one year.
-
And it has you reading
four different places
-
in the Bible all the time.
-
So the day you have to read Numbers 7,
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you also get to read several other places
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on the same day.
-
And you can kind of mix it up.
-
And when you read the
McCheyne Bible reading schedule
-
you're always in one of
the Gospels I believe.
-
I've gone through that a number of years.
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Please, brethren, don't just
open your Bible randomly
-
and read wherever.
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Read with a purpose.
-
Read with a goal.
-
Read to get through the Scriptures.
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Read to accomplish reading
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everything that God has written to you.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
When I was first saved,
-
I heard John MacArthur say
-
that he recommended
-
pick a book and read it through.
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Like 1 John.
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All the way through every day for 30 days.
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That's a great way too.
-
Sometimes it's good
to mix it up like that.
-
You don't have to do it
the same all the time.
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But be goal oriented.
-
Give yourself a plan.
-
Be disciplined and knock it out.
-
If you've never read
through the whole Bible
-
in one year, do it.
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If there's a certain book of the Bible
-
that you want to become familiar with,
-
do it, read Galatians once a day
-
every day for 30 days.
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That will be immensely profitable to you.
-
If it's a bigger book like Isaiah,
-
you might want to break that up
-
into quarters.
-
And try to a quarter of it a day,
-
or you might structure it so that you
-
read through Isaiah once a week
-
for four weeks.
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You do it four times.
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Something like that.
-
The McCheyne - McCheyne's
not the only one.
-
I just bring him up
-
because that's the one that
I've been familiar with.
-
Lots of people have created
Bible reading schedules.
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Get you one.
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Do it with purpose.
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Give yourself to it.
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Go through like that.
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Brethren, every day.
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Every day, make it a practice,
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and unless you have some fluke schedule,
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start your day.
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Wake up. Get your coffee. Get your tea.
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Brush your teeth. Wash your face.
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Take your shower.
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And then get in the Word.
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And brethren, I'll tell you
one thing that kills it
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is when you try to bite off
more than you can chew
-
and then you get discouraged
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and you drop out.
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Don't do that.
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You're better off starting out
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with ten minutes
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and doing it faithfully every single day
-
and continue to do it
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and then broaden to 15 or to 20.
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Or start with 20 minutes.
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If you suddenly start -
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I'm going to do it two hours.
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I'm going to read 8 chapters.
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There was a year when I tried to read
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a minimum of 8 chapters a day.
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I wanted to go through
the Bible really fast.
-
I just wanted the feel of that.
-
I wanted to get lots of it quick.
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Not that I was going to stay anywhere
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real long and meditate,
-
but I wanted the overall
view of the whole Scripture,
-
and I was trying to nail down at least
-
8 - 10 chapters a day.
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But you know what?
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That's the kind of thing you know,
-
you hear George Mueller
prayed a certain amount
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or you come across Leonard Ravenhill
-
and he said if you don't
pray two hours a day,
-
you're just basically
sub par or something.
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Listen, if you get wrapped up
-
in that kind of thing,
-
and you're trying to measure
up to somebody else,
-
that's not the way to do it.
-
The way to do it is, yeah,
-
2013's going to start in two months,
-
and I want to go through the whole Bible.
-
And you can create your own Bible schedule
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or you can look at some of these.
-
McCheyne's a good one.
-
Doesn't it have you in
four places at once?
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Yeah.
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You can be somewhere in the Pentateuch;
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you can be somewhere
in the minor prophets;
-
you can be somewhere in the epistles;
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and somewhere in one of the Gospel's.
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Tremendous way to read the Scriptures.
-
That's four chapters a day.
-
That's healthy.
-
Go at half speed.
-
Read half of each of those chapters.
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Or two of them.
-
And flip flop back and forth
-
and read the whole Bible in two years.
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Some are wired more
for one than the other,
-
but brethren, do it.
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And if you feel like, no, I
want to read repetitiously;
-
if you feel like I want to
read John till I know it,
-
do it.
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The most important thing
is that you're doing it.
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That every day you're getting in there.
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Every day you're getting in there.
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Brethren, read to understand.
-
(incomplete thought)
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Listen, every one of us
-
that have been saved
for any amount of time,
-
we know what it's like
to be trying to read
-
in Leviticus, and you're
like (nodding off).
-
And you have to go back and
read the last chapter over again.
-
Then you're like, falling
out on the thing.
-
Anybody been there? Where you've tried
-
to read the same paragraph like 10 times?
-
Finally, you just give up.
-
Brethren, if you're falling
off to sleep at night,
-
that might be an acceptable way,
-
but that is not acceptable in the morning.
-
That is not acceptable if it's
happening to you every day.
-
If it's happening to you,
-
you're not getting to bed on time.
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And you know, I'm recommending
that you do it
-
before you launch out into your family,
-
your work, your school,
-
interacting with others,
-
but give the Lord your best.
-
If you're just wired where
-
you've got a chunk in
the middle of your day
-
and you're a student
-
and you've got three hours between classes
-
and you can sit down and you're wide awake
-
at that time of the day,
-
I'm certainly not
going to discourage you.
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If you come in here and tell me that,
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I'm not going to call
you a godless wretch
-
because you didn't get
up at 5 a.m. and do it.
-
Brethren, the most important thing is
-
you're getting that Word of God
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into your eyeballs and into your brain
-
and into your thinking
-
and renewing your mind with it.
-
That's critical.
-
Read to understand.
-
Don't read when you're drowsy.
-
Don't read when there's distractions.
-
Brethren, it's no good
if you're over at the table
-
and somebody's trying to watch TV
-
and you've got one eye over there
-
and one eye in the book.
-
You need to read this book
-
with your whole-hearted devotion
-
and attention.
-
Don't read it where there's distraction.
-
Sometimes you can read -
-
I find I can sit at a Starbucks
-
with music on, people talking,
-
and I can lose myself in
the white noise of it
-
and be far less distracted
than if I'm at home
-
sitting in my office
-
where when I'm trying to read,
-
I keep noticing other
things that I have to do.
-
Wherever, brethren.
-
Typically I do most of my reading
-
before we have family devotions.
-
I try between 6 and 7.
-
From 7 till 7:30, I'm trying to study
-
for my family devotions,
-
but from 6 to 7 is that allotted hour
-
that I want to give myself to my own
-
personal and devotional Bible reading.
-
When I go out praying, I may take
-
my small testament for Bible memorization
-
or if while I'm praying,
a verse comes to mind,
-
and I take a small,
tiny little Bible with me.
-
But the big one comes out in the morning.
-
Tawfiq: Can I say something
-
to being careful of the distractions?
-
I know a lot of us have
Bibles on our phones
-
and that can be a good thing,
-
(incomplete thought),
-
because if you're reading your Bible
-
and you get a text message,
-
it can easily distract you.
-
So like Pastor Tim said,
-
you have to know yourself.
-
You have to know your limitations.
-
It's really good to have that paper
-
if that digital screen would distract you.
-
Tim: Yeah, I have a sleep
function on my Mac
-
and you know what?
That's good to kick that in.
-
I don't need to have a computer screen on
-
right in front of my Bible
-
if it's going to be a distraction.
-
You guys know what distracts you.
-
Be honest.
-
If your phone is
distracting you, turn it off.
-
If your computer is distracting to you,
-
turn it off.
-
If there's any distractions,
turn them off.
-
Brethren, pray.
-
George Whitefield.
-
Many of you know this.
-
"Above all, my mind being now
-
more opened and enlarged,
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I began to read the Holy Scriptures
-
upon my knees,
-
laying aside all other books
-
and praying over, if possible,
-
every line and word.
-
I got more true knowledge
-
from reading the book of God in one month
-
than I could ever have acquired
-
from all the writings of men."
-
I strongly recommend that you
do not have study bibles
-
if you are prone to go
look at the notes all the time.
-
Let God speak to you through His Word
-
without John MacArthur's interpretation.
-
You do not need that.
-
If you don't have discipline
to read God's Word
-
and to hear God's voice
-
and meditate on His Word
-
before you run to the commentary on it,
-
don't get a study Bible.
-
Whitefield is right.
-
The Word of God is pure.
-
John MacArthur's
interpretation of that Word
-
is not always.
-
The best men have wrong interpretations.
-
And I would just say this,
-
if you're going to read to profit,
-
ask questions of the text.
-
I mean, come to God's Word,
-
like I just read to you.
-
Here is Asa.
-
Ask yourself questions.
-
Asa is clearly - something about his life
-
is being pinpointed as not being good.
-
He sought doctors first.
-
You ask yourself this -
-
ask questions of the text.
-
Is Asa a godly example
or an ungodly example?
-
So you have to know your Bibles somewhat.
-
You need to be reading your Bible.
-
You need to know the context.
-
Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
-
What do you say?
-
What's that?
-
Yeah, he's one of the good kings.
-
He was one of the good kings.
-
And you would want
to compare this to 2 Kings.
-
Because when you get
these synonymous accounts
-
you can compare them.
-
Just like in the synoptic Gospels,
-
you can compare these accounts.
-
So he's a good king,
but he did a bad thing.
-
I mean, you're asking yourself questions.
-
Is he a good king?
-
Is this something I should imitate?
-
No, he's a good king,
but this is something
-
I shouldn't imitate.
-
It's kind of like Lot.
-
Is he righteous? Yes.
-
Scripture tells us "righteous Lot."
-
We brought it up the other day.
-
When he offered his daughters
-
to the homosexuals, the Sodomites,
-
was that a good thing?
-
So you have to be asking
questions of the text.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
When God finds fault with Asa
-
for not pursuing Him before the doctors,
-
what does that teach me about God?
-
Oh brethren, theology proper.
-
The theology of God.
-
If there's anything we want to find out
-
when we go to God's Word,
-
it is who our God is.
-
What does it teach us about God
-
when you find God finding fault with Asa
-
for seeking doctors before he sought God?
-
What does that teach you about God?
-
He wants to be sought first.
-
He wants to be trusted.
-
He wants to be looked to.
-
You read that text in the Old Testament.
-
If you're asking questions of the text -
-
I just threw down some questions
-
that I think are very
relevant for asking yourself.
-
This will help you.
-
Don't just read blindly.
-
Ask. Ask.
-
What is this teaching me about God?
-
What does this teach me or reveal to me
-
that I need to believe about God?
-
Does it reveal something
I need to thank God for?
-
Should something I'm
reading here produce praise?
-
Does it reveal something
I need to repent of?
-
Does it reveal sin in my life?
-
Does it reveal something
-
that should influence the way I pray?
-
(incomplete thought)
-
This influences me to pray.
-
Brethren, if all of a sudden I get sick,
-
or I get a headache,
-
or my child is ill,
-
or they get a disease...
-
Father, You find fault with Asa
-
for running straight to the doctor.
-
I'm coming to You, but Lord,
-
if You don't rise up and intervene
-
when Your people are coming,
-
then what good is it?
-
Lord, why would You tell
us to come to You first
-
if You never help us?
-
If when we come to You, You don't help us
-
and we have to go to the doctor then,
-
what good is it for You
to tell us in Your Word
-
that we should come to You first?
-
Father, why would You tell us that
-
unless You are going to do
what the doctors can't do?
-
And if we time and time and
time again go to You first
-
and You're not doing
what the doctor's can't do
-
and we have to go to the
doctors to get any help at all,
-
why would You tell us that in Your Word?
-
Do you think there's a place
to pray that way? I do.
-
I think there's a way
to pray definitely that way.
-
Father, You told us.
-
This is given to us,
brethren, for our doctrine,
-
for our teaching, for correction.
-
You know what correction is.
-
I'm going in a wrong way.
-
Correction is God's Word moves me
-
to the right way.
-
And so if I'm going to the
doctor without praying,
-
this is good for correction.
-
It moves me into the right way.
-
For instruction in righteousness.
-
This shows me how
to live a righteous life.
-
A righteous life is living by faith.
-
And God is telling us to live by faith.
-
Don't just run to the doctors
-
and don't just run to the nurses
-
and don't run to the medical authorities.
-
Don't just go to Texas Med Clinic
-
until you get on your face.
-
You've got a problem in your family?
Get the whole family on their knees.
-
My daughter had a serious problem.
-
We anointed her with oil
and we prayed over her.
-
And God wasn't pleased to heal her
-
and we took her to the hospital.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
There's some people who will never
take their kids to the hospital.
-
I'm not saying that.
-
That may be the way that the
Lord's going to deal with it.
-
But don't start there.
-
Start by running to the Lord.
Lord, what would You have me to do?
-
Ask these questions.
-
Does it reveal something
-
I need to change my thinking about?
-
Brethren, think with me here,
-
every single encounter with Scripture
-
ought to confront something about you,
-
about your sin,
-
about the way you think of God,
-
about your faith - everything.
-
Every encounter with Scripture
-
ought to be correcting.
-
It ought to be instilling something.
-
It ought to be showing you truth.
-
It ought to be causing you
-
to refine your thinking.
-
Something.
-
Scripture demands a response from us.
-
It is God's voice.
-
He's looking to us to respond to His Word
-
in praise, in awe,
in repentance, in faith.
-
Remember that.
-
I need to go to God's Word
-
and God is expecting response.
-
Trembling.
-
To this man will I look.
-
Trembling at His Word is a response.
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Believing His Word is a response.
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When you walk away
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feeling a thrill in your soul,
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brethren, I find that thrilling to my soul
-
that God doesn't want us
going to the doctors first.
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Don't you?
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I mean, I find that
something to rejoice over.
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I find that something that my faith
-
can lay its teeth into.
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I love that!
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God doesn't want us to go there first.
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But some response.
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As Donald Whitney in his
Spiritual Disciplines,
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he says if you can just come away
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from Scripture with one thing;
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(incomplete thought)
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I have a feeling that if we
really looked at it exactly,
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how many an hour after
they've read their Bible,
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don't remember anything they've read.
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It doesn't come into their mind.
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And they go through the day
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not thinking about what they read.
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But if you can shut your Bible
-
and remember one thing;
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if you can key in on one thought,
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let it really register in your mind
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and give enough time on that thought,
-
meditate sufficiently on it,
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and sometimes it may be 2 or 3 things,
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but if you can lay a marker down -
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a mental marker -
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one thing, one reality, one truth,
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if you can remember
at least that one thing,
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you'll typically be miles ahead
of what most people
-
leave their Bible reading with.
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And brethren, if you just do that
-
365 times out of the year,
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you come away from your Bible reading
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with one thing that you're
able to carry with you
-
into the day several hours
or through the whole day,
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brethren, do you know what that does
-
in a lifetime?
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Massively profitable.
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And I think it will really help
if you're asking questions.
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If you're asking questions:
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What does this teach me about God?
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You ask those questions.
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Those little markers are going to come.
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Because as you're
answering those questions,
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as you're saying what does
this teach me about God?
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What does this teach me about me?
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What does this teach me about the devil?
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What does this teach me
about my world I live in?
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What does this teach me
about the way man is?
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What does this teach me about sin?
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What does this teach me
I ought to be repenting of?
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How does this teach me how to fight
-
this good fight of faith?
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What does this teach me about Christ?
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What does this teach me
-
about how I ought to relate to Christ?
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You're just asking all these questions.
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How does my encounter with Scripture,
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what sort of response is demanded from me?
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You're asking that kind of question.
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It will be so helpful.
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And then you take one of those things
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that seem significant to you
-
and you just try to make
a mental marker of it.
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You give enough time to thinking about it
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right there at that moment
-
that when you walk away
and you're driving to work
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or you're walking to work
or you're going somewhere,
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you're on your way to church,
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it comes back to you.
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Wow! God taught me this morning
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He doesn't want me
looking to doctors first.
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That's huge!
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Tawfiq: Something I find
extremely profitable
-
right on the heels of
what he was just saying,
-
because after we read,
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there is a tendency to pray
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before and after you read,
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because if you don't think
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that the enemy of your soul
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is crouching at the door ready to grab
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the very things that you just read,
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desiring to distract you
with everything else,
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then you've forgotten that this is a war.
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So highly, highly encourage to pray
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before, even during -
-
you read something, praying that the Lord
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would help you to,
the Bible says, to hold fast
-
to the Word with patience and endurance.