Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Reading-the-Ingredients-Observing-the-Te_Media

Transcript

Reading-the-Ingredients-Observing-the-Te_Media · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:01
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul once wrote to the people of Philippi
0:09
Speaker 1: words of a great significance to him in Philippium's Chapter three,
0:16
Speaker 1: verse ten, that I may know Him and the power
0:22
Speaker 1: of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. In
0:29
Speaker 1: the Amplified Bible, those words are amplified to say that
0:35
Speaker 1: I may know him. That is, that I may progressively
0:41
Speaker 1: become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him. What a
0:49
Speaker 1: great goal in life. And you may hear the words
0:54
Speaker 1: and think I'll never achieve that. I'll never know that.
0:58
Speaker 1: On the contrary, the Lord has made it possible for
1:04
Speaker 1: you to be even closer than near him. You can
1:13
Speaker 1: be in him and he and you. The transaction is
1:20
Speaker 1: really not mysterious or difficult. Doesn't require you to give
1:26
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars a week or somehow pay penance for
1:30
Speaker 1: your wrongdoing, or make him promises that will impress him
1:36
Speaker 1: with your sincerity. He's given us his son, Jesus, who
1:45
Speaker 1: paid the complete penalty for that distance between us and him.
1:53
Speaker 1: And when we trust in his son, we get all
1:57
Speaker 1: of him. The fact founder of the school where I studied,
2:01
Speaker 1: Lewis Ferry Chaeffer, many years ago wrote great words that
2:07
Speaker 1: answer to this song we heard nearer, still nearer, nearer
2:15
Speaker 1: I cannot be, for in the person of his son,
2:21
Speaker 1: I am as near as he. What a great statement.
2:29
Speaker 1: In Christ, you are as near as you can possibly be,
2:34
Speaker 1: for you are in Him, and when you have Him
2:40
Speaker 1: within you, he goes with you everywhere you go. He's
2:47
Speaker 1: a part of your every conscious and unconscious moments. He's there.
2:55
Speaker 1: But of course there must be that relationship. Maybe during
2:58
Speaker 1: some of the quiet moments, in a few moments when
3:02
Speaker 1: we pray together, and as you're thinking about these things,
3:07
Speaker 1: it would be a great moment for you to come
3:11
Speaker 1: as near as you can possibly be as you trust Christ.
3:16
Speaker 1: You're surrounded by those of us who have done that.
3:19
Speaker 1: The change it makes is literally revolutionary, and I urge
3:26
Speaker 1: you to do that well. In our time in the scriptures,
3:30
Speaker 1: we are going through a process of learning how to
3:35
Speaker 1: understand the Bible. And we thought about it last time
3:40
Speaker 1: we were together and looked at link at Psalm one
3:42
Speaker 1: nineteen and thought about what is involved in getting to
3:47
Speaker 1: know God's word in a way that we can get
3:52
Speaker 1: our arms around it. It really is not a mystery here.
3:58
Speaker 1: We have it in our own language, whatever size print
4:02
Speaker 1: you wish to get, You've got it available, whatever version.
4:07
Speaker 1: But the secret is not that you listen to someone
4:09
Speaker 1: else teach it. The secret in getting to know the
4:13
Speaker 1: scriptures is that you, on your own learn how to
4:17
Speaker 1: dig into it yourself as a child of God. I
4:20
Speaker 1: want to read for you just a brief section from
4:24
Speaker 1: Proverbs chapter two, verses one to five. So locate that
4:29
Speaker 1: and put your finger there, and then let me locate
4:31
Speaker 1: with you a single verse in Psalm one hundred and nineteen,
4:37
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. Okay, So I'll read Psalm one nineteen eighteen,
4:43
Speaker 1: and then we'll look together at the first five verses
4:46
Speaker 1: of Proverbs two. I'm reading from the New Living Translation.
4:50
Speaker 1: It may be a little different from the version that
4:53
Speaker 1: you use, but it's the word of God. May we
4:56
Speaker 1: stand together for the reading of the scriptures Verse eighteen
5:05
Speaker 1: of Psalm one nineteen. Open my eyes to see the
5:12
Speaker 1: wonderful truths in your instructions in the processed proverbs, too,
5:22
Speaker 1: my son or my child, Listen to what I say
5:26
Speaker 1: and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom and
5:31
Speaker 1: concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight and ask for understanding.
5:38
Speaker 1: Search for them as you would for silver. Seek them
5:44
Speaker 1: like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means
5:52
Speaker 1: to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.
6:01
Speaker 1: May the Lord help us see the truth of that
6:03
Speaker 1: in our time together around His word. Please be seated.
6:12
Speaker 1: Now is your moment. I'm going to pray. But as
6:17
Speaker 1: you listen, search your own heart. Consider the offer that
6:25
Speaker 1: God has made to forgive all those things that plague you, past,
6:33
Speaker 1: present and future, to come and live within you, that
6:40
Speaker 1: you might know His presence for the rest of your
6:42
Speaker 1: life and through death in the life beyond. About with me,
6:50
Speaker 1: will you please to have you, Oh God, as our
6:56
Speaker 1: own is far beyond having a wonderful friend. By having
7:03
Speaker 1: you within us, we have a power that we would
7:08
Speaker 1: not otherwise have. We have a peace, a peace no
7:13
Speaker 1: one else can give, no matter how much they love us.
7:20
Speaker 1: We have with you a hope that will take us
7:25
Speaker 1: beyond this life into an eternity with You, which no
7:31
Speaker 1: one else can provide. How gracious of you, Lord, What
7:38
Speaker 1: wondrous love is that? Were you so love us that
7:46
Speaker 1: you gave your one and only son, that if we
7:50
Speaker 1: would simply trust him, we would have, we would possess,
7:58
Speaker 1: we would be secure in the promise of eternal life.
8:06
Speaker 1: Teach us today, our Father, to go beyond a fear
8:11
Speaker 1: of you, so that we might know what you have
8:18
Speaker 1: written to us in such a way that a relationship
8:22
Speaker 1: with you is intimate and deep satisfying. I pray especially
8:32
Speaker 1: for those whose nights are marked by sleeplessness, whose worry
8:39
Speaker 1: list is longer than any other list in their lives.
8:45
Speaker 1: I pray for those who struggle concern over something physical
8:51
Speaker 1: or emotional, or something in the home that's troubling. I
8:58
Speaker 1: pray that the truth of your love will sweep over
9:02
Speaker 1: us and will come to realize that you can meet
9:07
Speaker 1: whatever may be the need as we lay it before you.
9:14
Speaker 1: Thank you, Father, for the challenge of living in a
9:17
Speaker 1: time like this. What a privilege it is to represent
9:22
Speaker 1: you in the midst of a world that is a
9:25
Speaker 1: wash lost in its own self, troubled by many of
9:32
Speaker 1: the problems that we have created. And today we pray
9:37
Speaker 1: that we might have relief and confidence that you are
9:43
Speaker 1: working out your will and that you do all things well.
9:49
Speaker 1: We count on you for that Our nation is in
9:52
Speaker 1: great need, our country living under the threat of those
9:57
Speaker 1: who would invade and bring harm and hurt to those,
10:03
Speaker 1: especially those who name the name of Christ. Protect us.
10:08
Speaker 1: We pray, watch over us, guide us, and guard us
10:14
Speaker 1: as only you are able to do. Minister to us deeply.
10:20
Speaker 1: I pray in the quiet moments of this offering and
10:25
Speaker 1: accept our gifts, which we give with confidence that they
10:29
Speaker 1: will be used wisely and well. May we as a
10:33
Speaker 1: church treat them as a sacred trust. May they be
10:38
Speaker 1: handled with integrity for your purposes. It is in the
10:45
Speaker 1: name of Jesus we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen.
10:55
Speaker 1: Don't you wonder some time how a person can stand
10:59
Speaker 1: and pull something from the Bible that you have looked
11:03
Speaker 1: at many times but weren't able to see what's being presented?
11:09
Speaker 1: Isn't that? But sometimes it can be discouraging, other times
11:13
Speaker 1: it makes you curious. My hope in this brief series
11:19
Speaker 1: is to help you work your way through the process
11:22
Speaker 1: of being able to do that on your own. Now
11:25
Speaker 1: I realize most are not called to preach, or even
11:29
Speaker 1: to stand and teach before an audience. But we are all,
11:34
Speaker 1: as God's people, called to become acquainted with what He
11:38
Speaker 1: has written for us, and that would be called the scriptures.
11:44
Speaker 1: And the first step in getting to know your copy
11:48
Speaker 1: of the Scriptures is observation. Through observation, we discover what
11:56
Speaker 1: the Bible says, and that is foundational. To be frank
12:01
Speaker 1: with you, that is the process I go through every
12:04
Speaker 1: time I prepare what I want to present. I start
12:08
Speaker 1: right here where we are today with observation. My goal
12:14
Speaker 1: is to discover what is written in these verses that
12:19
Speaker 1: we're looking at. Many people want to know the meaning
12:23
Speaker 1: of the Bible so much that they rapidly pass beyond
12:28
Speaker 1: observation and plunge into interpretation. And that is the formula
12:34
Speaker 1: for error, because you can never have a better interpretation
12:40
Speaker 1: of the scriptures than your observation of what the Bible
12:44
Speaker 1: is saying. The interpretation is stewed if you have misread
12:49
Speaker 1: the truth or if you have failed to see what
12:52
Speaker 1: is there. Accuracy of our interpretation hinges on how careful
12:59
Speaker 1: is observation. So let's think about observation for a few moments.
13:05
Speaker 1: What do what mean when I refer to observation. A
13:09
Speaker 1: definition would be a good place to begin. To observe
13:14
Speaker 1: is to inspect or to take note of something, to
13:19
Speaker 1: watch carefully with attention to details. Detective Sherlock Holmes from
13:27
Speaker 1: Scotland Yards was quick to point out, Watson, you see,
13:33
Speaker 1: but you do not observe. The renowned nineteenth century naturalists
13:40
Speaker 1: from Harvard named Lewis Agassiz was asked, what has been
13:46
Speaker 1: your greatest contribution scientifically? Without hesitation, Agassi's answered, I have
13:52
Speaker 1: taught men and women to observe. Yogi berra it right.
14:01
Speaker 1: You can observe a lot by watching. How we laugh
14:07
Speaker 1: at that, But the truth is when you failed to observe,
14:10
Speaker 1: you sometimes regretted. Came to mind when I came across
14:15
Speaker 1: this true account of Sir William Ussler, who was the
14:20
Speaker 1: distinguished Professor of Medicine at Oxford University back in the
14:25
Speaker 1: early years of the previous century. He was a stickler
14:29
Speaker 1: for detail, and he was concerned that his medical students,
14:34
Speaker 1: from the very beginning of their training become keen observers.
14:41
Speaker 1: On one occasion, sitting on Usler's desk with a classroom
14:46
Speaker 1: full of young, wide eyed medical students, was a small
14:50
Speaker 1: container containing human urine. He said, I want you to understand,
15:00
Speaker 1: men and women, that this bottle contains a sample for analysis.
15:06
Speaker 1: It's often possible by tasting it that you can determine
15:11
Speaker 1: the disease from which your patient suffers suiting action to words.
15:17
Speaker 1: He stuck his finger into the urine and then put
15:20
Speaker 1: a finger into his mouth as he continued, Now, I'm
15:23
Speaker 1: going to pass this bottle around, and I asked that
15:27
Speaker 1: you do exactly as I did. Every student cringed. The
15:34
Speaker 1: bottle made its way from road to row, from student
15:37
Speaker 1: to student, who gingerly poked his finger into the urine
15:41
Speaker 1: and then bravely sampled its content with a frown. The
15:46
Speaker 1: container finally made it back to the professor's desk, and
15:49
Speaker 1: he said, you will now understand what I mean when
15:53
Speaker 1: I speak about details. Had you been observant, you would
15:58
Speaker 1: have seen that I put my index finger into the bottle,
16:01
Speaker 1: but I put my middle finger into my mouth. Most
16:10
Speaker 1: of us think we're better at observing than we really are.
16:14
Speaker 1: I'll give you a quick test and let you grade
16:16
Speaker 1: your own paper. Let's check your observation skills. You spent
16:21
Speaker 1: this past week with a good friend, maybe as recently
16:25
Speaker 1: as last evening. If you're married, you certainly spent that
16:28
Speaker 1: evening with your spouse. What exactly was he or she
16:32
Speaker 1: wearing when you had time with them most recently? Here's
16:39
Speaker 1: another which inscription does not appear on the back of
16:42
Speaker 1: a one dollar bill. In God, we trust the Great
16:47
Speaker 1: seal emploribus onum. Oh, Come on, now, you've handled dollar
16:53
Speaker 1: bills all your life, surely you would know that here's
16:57
Speaker 1: a third. What was the exact title of my sermon
17:00
Speaker 1: the last time I preached? How many miles are on
17:08
Speaker 1: your car's odometer? Today? I sometimes say to Cynthia, where
17:15
Speaker 1: is the gas gage on the dashboard in our car?
17:19
Speaker 1: But that's between her and me? Was your mother right
17:24
Speaker 1: handed or left handed? How about your father? Was Moses
17:30
Speaker 1: an only child or did he have siblings? He had siblings?
17:34
Speaker 1: How many who traveled with Paul on his first missionary journey?
17:43
Speaker 1: Do all the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John include
17:46
Speaker 1: the record of Jesus birth? If not, which ones don't? Well,
17:52
Speaker 1: maybe I'm getting too biblical. What's the brand name of
17:56
Speaker 1: the stove you cook on every day? Some of you're
18:00
Speaker 1: going cook? How many steps lead to the second floor
18:06
Speaker 1: in your home you walk in every day? If not
18:11
Speaker 1: your home, how about where you work? How many steps?
18:16
Speaker 1: Thought about this? Just this last week and I was
18:18
Speaker 1: driving through a school zone. Yes, at twenty miles an hour, Relax,
18:24
Speaker 1: But I realized I did not know what time the
18:27
Speaker 1: light starts to blink yellow and when it goes off.
18:30
Speaker 1: Though I passed by there hundreds of times in a
18:33
Speaker 1: given month, and I see it, but I've never observed
18:39
Speaker 1: the details. Interestingly, now I've begun to notice the times
18:46
Speaker 1: change from one school zone area to another. I need
18:53
Speaker 1: to make a clarification too, between observation and interpretation. Observing
18:58
Speaker 1: is not the same as in PT. I notice on
19:03
Speaker 1: our kitchen cabinet we have a we have a small
19:06
Speaker 1: prescription container and it says on it, take with food.
19:14
Speaker 1: Just three words, take with food. What does that mean?
19:23
Speaker 1: I thought when I looked at it yesterday. How about
19:27
Speaker 1: a person from another culture interpret that? Should I take
19:32
Speaker 1: the pill and break it up and my food and
19:35
Speaker 1: swallow it when I'm eating my meal? That's exactly what
19:41
Speaker 1: it says, take with food. You and I know because
19:47
Speaker 1: experience that we were to take the medicine on a
19:50
Speaker 1: full stomach, so the stomach won't be upset when the
19:54
Speaker 1: chemical enters. That's what it means, but that's not what
19:58
Speaker 1: it says. Determining what the text of scriptures says is
20:04
Speaker 1: all together different than determining what it means. Turn, for example,
20:12
Speaker 1: to the verse we looked at a little earlier someone
20:14
Speaker 1: nineteen verse eighteen, just a single verse before we land
20:19
Speaker 1: on another for our time together. Now put your thinking
20:22
Speaker 1: caps on. I'm not here to entertain you. I'm not
20:26
Speaker 1: here to impress you. I'm here to help you learn.
20:34
Speaker 1: Now let's learn together. Look at the verse one nineteen eighteen.
20:40
Speaker 1: What is that verse? Open my eyes to see the
20:44
Speaker 1: wonderful truth in your instructions. Well, the first thing I
20:48
Speaker 1: would observe if I were to make a list on
20:50
Speaker 1: a piece of paper. This is a prayer. He's not
20:54
Speaker 1: writing to his brother or to a friend. He's writing
20:58
Speaker 1: to the only one who can open his eyes to see.
21:01
Speaker 1: So he's offering up a prayer to the Lord. Psalm
21:05
Speaker 1: one nineteen is full of him except for the first
21:08
Speaker 1: three verses and verse one point fifteen. Every other of
21:13
Speaker 1: the one hundred and seventy six verses is a prayer.
21:17
Speaker 1: It speaks to God as he's writing the psalm, a
21:21
Speaker 1: great psalm to become acquainted with. Here's another observation. The
21:26
Speaker 1: prayer is focused on one request, only one request. The
21:32
Speaker 1: request is in the opening words open my eyes. He's
21:40
Speaker 1: really asking the Lord help me see what is here?
21:46
Speaker 1: In your word, the prayer is specific. He's not interested
21:51
Speaker 1: in merely looking around and appreciating nature. He's not asking
21:56
Speaker 1: that he might look up and see the stars, or
22:00
Speaker 1: look around and see the people that are around him.
22:03
Speaker 1: He's asking open my eyes to see truth. And his
22:10
Speaker 1: prayer is also an acknowledgement. Look at the verse again,
22:14
Speaker 1: let me see, however, look at it the wonderful truths
22:21
Speaker 1: that are here. He's acknowledging the truths are wonderful. So
22:26
Speaker 1: the request is specific. Lord, I come to you today
22:31
Speaker 1: and I ask you to open my eyes as I
22:36
Speaker 1: unrolled the scroll as he did in that day. And
22:40
Speaker 1: I come across a section of the Torah, the Law,
22:45
Speaker 1: and I read it. I want to know fully and
22:49
Speaker 1: completely as best I can, what it is saying Step one.
22:57
Speaker 1: There is no earlier step than this. We were to
23:01
Speaker 1: take the time to look at the Proverbs two section,
23:04
Speaker 1: we would notice that it takes work. You dig into
23:08
Speaker 1: it like you would dig for treasure. Most of us
23:11
Speaker 1: have never dug for treasure. Most of us have never
23:15
Speaker 1: searched for silver or gold. I read about Ballard, who
23:20
Speaker 1: made a fourteen year search for the sunken Titanic. Fourteen
23:27
Speaker 1: years he searched for the ship, the work, the effort,
23:34
Speaker 1: the costs, the time, and then that great day Eureka.
23:39
Speaker 1: There it is on the base of the Atlantic, the
23:44
Speaker 1: North Atlantic. No one had found it before, and he
23:48
Speaker 1: found it. He had dug if you will, as if
23:52
Speaker 1: for treasure. Now let's change from this verse to the one.
23:57
Speaker 1: We'll spend most of our time with chapter one. So
24:02
Speaker 1: turn the New Testament, the first chapter of the Book
24:05
Speaker 1: of Acts. If you're not familiar with your Bible, there
24:08
Speaker 1: are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. At the
24:12
Speaker 1: very end of John is the Book of Acts. This
24:15
Speaker 1: is a study. This is a record, I should say,
24:20
Speaker 1: of the actions of those who took the message of
24:23
Speaker 1: Jesus and carried it to the people of their world.
24:27
Speaker 1: These are the acts of the Apostles. Look at verse eight.
24:33
Speaker 1: If there is a familiar verse in all of Acts
24:36
Speaker 1: to most Christians, it's Acts one eight. If I were
24:39
Speaker 1: to tap you on the shoulder, and you're a student
24:42
Speaker 1: of scripture memory and ask you what does Acts one
24:45
Speaker 1: eight say, you'd probably spit it out. But you shall
24:48
Speaker 1: receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and
24:51
Speaker 1: you should be my witnesses. Jerusalem Judea, Samaria and the
24:56
Speaker 1: uttermost part of the world you have stated. The verse
25:01
Speaker 1: reads that you have not observed carefully. What it says
25:09
Speaker 1: takes time. You have to dig into it. So first
25:14
Speaker 1: of all, we look for terms. Look at the first word.
25:20
Speaker 1: When I start like this, some of you are going
25:22
Speaker 1: this is going to be a long sermon. I can
25:25
Speaker 1: tell by the way we're starting. We're down to one word.
25:28
Speaker 1: We'll be on one word, and another word and yet
25:31
Speaker 1: another word. Not concern with time, but concern with understanding.
25:38
Speaker 1: The worst thing you can say to yourself is, oh,
25:40
Speaker 1: I've read that verse all my life, or I'm familiar
25:43
Speaker 1: with this. Let's go on to what's interesting. The first
25:47
Speaker 1: word is what, But we know it's a term that
25:54
Speaker 1: represents a contrast, a change of direction. You're moving in
25:59
Speaker 1: wonder but occurs and you move in another direction. You're
26:05
Speaker 1: changing from what has been going on to something that
26:11
Speaker 1: will now take place our will in the future. But
26:17
Speaker 1: what does that term force me to do? Well, I
26:21
Speaker 1: have to look back. It's called checking the context. You
26:27
Speaker 1: understand a text of scripture better when you understand the
26:32
Speaker 1: context the surrounding verses. Every verse is within a context.
26:40
Speaker 1: Even the first verse of a book or the first
26:44
Speaker 1: verse of a chapter. Surrounding this something is happening that
26:49
Speaker 1: causes the writer, whose name is doctor Luke, to begin
26:54
Speaker 1: this statement with, but well, let's go back up there
27:00
Speaker 1: where we're going. Jesus verse four is eating with them.
27:07
Speaker 1: He commanded them, do not leave Jerusalem until the Father
27:10
Speaker 1: sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before,
27:13
Speaker 1: John baptized with water. But there's a word again. But
27:18
Speaker 1: in just a few days you will be baptized with
27:21
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. So part of the context when the
27:25
Speaker 1: apostles were with Jesus that kept asking him, Lord, has
27:29
Speaker 1: the time come for you to free Israel and restore
27:32
Speaker 1: the kingdom? He replied, The Father alone has the authority
27:37
Speaker 1: to set those dates and times, and they're not for
27:41
Speaker 1: you to know. But now you've got a context. You
27:46
Speaker 1: know what we've done. When we read verse eight, we've
27:48
Speaker 1: interrupted a conversation. There's a discussion going on. Jesus is speaking,
27:55
Speaker 1: and then the apostles are responding, and he's giving a statement,
27:59
Speaker 1: and they're asking a question and he's correcting their assumption.
28:03
Speaker 1: It's a dialogue, and in the middle of the dialogue
28:08
Speaker 1: he says, but hold on, man, and if you are
28:12
Speaker 1: a Greek reading students, as I know you're not, you
28:15
Speaker 1: would understand this is a very emphatic contrast. But so
28:24
Speaker 1: let's look again at verse seven. The Father has the
28:26
Speaker 1: authority to set those dates and times. That means when
28:32
Speaker 1: I'm coming and when I'm establishing my kingdom. They're not
28:34
Speaker 1: for you to know. But since you're not to know
28:38
Speaker 1: that something is going to happen, that will play a
28:43
Speaker 1: role in your knowing that. So we have a contrast here.
28:47
Speaker 1: Let me remind you never isolate a verse, never go there.
28:53
Speaker 1: Isolated versus lead to error, especially portions of verses. Years ago,
29:03
Speaker 1: I had the privilege of leading one of my fellow
29:05
Speaker 1: marines to Christ. His family happened to live in the
29:09
Speaker 1: Bay Area, and since I got off the island before
29:12
Speaker 1: he did, was going to muster out their trace ryland.
29:15
Speaker 1: He said, when you're there, would you visit my folks.
29:18
Speaker 1: I know they would love to meet you. I've told
29:21
Speaker 1: him all about you. I said, sure, I'd love to.
29:23
Speaker 1: It takes a while to be discharged and a Sunday
29:26
Speaker 1: would pass, and I said, well, I'm there for Sunday.
29:29
Speaker 1: I'll look him up. He gave me their number. I
29:30
Speaker 1: called him and they said, oh, we've heard about you.
29:33
Speaker 1: You're a religious man who's been influencing our son. Well
29:37
Speaker 1: that's a good start, isn't it. Right Away, I'm marked,
29:40
Speaker 1: I'm a religious man. They said, we want you to
29:43
Speaker 1: go to church with us. I said, I'd love to.
29:45
Speaker 1: They happened to go to a liberal church. And I
29:50
Speaker 1: realized that when we first walked in, got into the
29:52
Speaker 1: vestibule of the northex, and they said, is this in
29:55
Speaker 1: this place wonderful? Marblus beautiful? Look at the pictures. And
30:00
Speaker 1: I looked at massive pictures that were they were beautifully done.
30:04
Speaker 1: A painting of Abraham Lincoln, another painting of Mahatma Gandhi,
30:11
Speaker 1: another painting of Abraham Lincoln and Jesus of Nazareth, and
30:18
Speaker 1: I think another president was in the group. And at
30:21
Speaker 1: the bottom in gold were the words you were all
30:25
Speaker 1: the children of God dot dot dot. That little dot
30:32
Speaker 1: dot dot is kind of important because it looks like
30:35
Speaker 1: everybody painted in the frames were children of God. But
30:41
Speaker 1: the verse goes on to say in Galatians, you're all
30:44
Speaker 1: the children of God by faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Suddenly,
30:51
Speaker 1: and I didn't correct him. I didn't go, how dong
30:54
Speaker 1: are you to think that all of these people that's
30:58
Speaker 1: not the way these share Christ? But I said, yeah,
31:01
Speaker 1: these are beautiful pictures. This is a lovely building. And afterwards,
31:05
Speaker 1: when we went to lunch, I had a chance to
31:07
Speaker 1: say a few things about a relationship with Christ. They
31:11
Speaker 1: had never heard any of it before. When you take
31:17
Speaker 1: a portion of a verse, you're headed for trouble. So
31:21
Speaker 1: as I take this verse apart, understand you need to
31:25
Speaker 1: understand and value the context. Let's go to the next
31:29
Speaker 1: word you. Now in English, you can't tell if that's
31:34
Speaker 1: singular or plural. Jesus is speaking and he's talking to
31:42
Speaker 1: his apostles, so we know because of that that the
31:46
Speaker 1: you has to be plural. Who would it be we
31:51
Speaker 1: just read it would be the apostles verse six. How
31:55
Speaker 1: do I know that? I look back, I locate that
32:00
Speaker 1: you goes back to the apostles, So we could say
32:05
Speaker 1: you apostles, you men who were followers of mine. Again,
32:11
Speaker 1: it's a question answer time. Now we get to the
32:14
Speaker 1: main verb. You will receive. Look at it right there
32:19
Speaker 1: in your Bible. You will receive. You're not going to
32:25
Speaker 1: cause this to happen you're going to receive something. Is
32:30
Speaker 1: it past or present or future? It's a verb. Every
32:36
Speaker 1: verb has a tense. Which one is this past, present
32:42
Speaker 1: or future? I'm not going too fast, am I? What
32:47
Speaker 1: is it future? Of course you will receive meaning what
32:52
Speaker 1: they do not now? Have the power? Very simple. But
32:57
Speaker 1: if you read it hurriedly, you wouldn't get that. And
33:00
Speaker 1: how many people read their Bible hurriedly so they can
33:02
Speaker 1: get through the chapter in twenty minutes or ten minutes.
33:06
Speaker 1: Forget your speed reading course. When you come to a
33:09
Speaker 1: serious study of the Bible, there's no hurry. But you
33:16
Speaker 1: will receive. What are they going to receive? If it's
33:20
Speaker 1: important enough for him to say, but you will receive.
33:24
Speaker 1: It's important enough for us to notice he uses the
33:27
Speaker 1: word power. If we had time, we would get a dictionary.
33:33
Speaker 1: We'd look up the meaning, because that deserves investigation. We
33:37
Speaker 1: would go there. When you get to words like that,
33:40
Speaker 1: notice the cause and effect. You're going to receive power
33:45
Speaker 1: when look at it. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
33:52
Speaker 1: I stop. They're not praying for the Holy Spirit. They're
33:58
Speaker 1: not bargaining that somehow they give up this then they'll
34:01
Speaker 1: get the Holy Spirit. They're not promising that they're going
34:05
Speaker 1: to be living good, clean lives, so that now the
34:08
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit always says you will receive This is a
34:12
Speaker 1: promise you can count on this man. You're going to
34:16
Speaker 1: receive power because it will come from the Holy Spirit.
34:21
Speaker 1: The Spirit of God is the cause and the effect
34:24
Speaker 1: is the presence of power in one's life. That's when
34:29
Speaker 1: it will occur. And that's not all he promises. Look
34:34
Speaker 1: at the next connective and look at it, and you
34:42
Speaker 1: will be my witnesses. If I were marking my Bible,
34:46
Speaker 1: I would mark both wills. You will receive power at
34:52
Speaker 1: the same time. You will tell the story, you will
34:58
Speaker 1: testify of me. You'll be my witnesses. There's more and
35:06
Speaker 1: more in my mind. I get this a pause and
35:10
Speaker 1: imagine that how amazed they must have been. You know why,
35:14
Speaker 1: because the previous setting, when they were with Jesus, they're
35:17
Speaker 1: all running away because he's being arrested before going on
35:23
Speaker 1: trial and ultimately nailed you across these are the same
35:26
Speaker 1: guys who run away, but they've not gathered back. They've
35:32
Speaker 1: seen him, They've heard his don't be afraid. They've received
35:36
Speaker 1: his assurance, and now of all things are being told,
35:39
Speaker 1: I'm not going to punish you for running away. As
35:42
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, something transforming is going to happen
35:46
Speaker 1: in your lives. You're going to receive power from the
35:51
Speaker 1: third member of the Trinity. You're going to have supernatural strength.
35:57
Speaker 1: You're going to have insight into the true of my word.
36:01
Speaker 1: You're going to have courage. You won't be intimidated when
36:05
Speaker 1: those come along that stand against you. You see my
36:08
Speaker 1: great tendency here it is to begin to apply it.
36:12
Speaker 1: But we're going to just observe it. I enter into
36:15
Speaker 1: their world, and I think of what it must have
36:17
Speaker 1: been like to have heard Jesus say to me as
36:21
Speaker 1: one of the apostles, I'm going to receive power, and
36:24
Speaker 1: of all things, I'm going to tell people about him
36:29
Speaker 1: as his witness everywhere. But the verse does an end
36:33
Speaker 1: before he gets specific where will they go with that witness?
36:38
Speaker 1: Look look at the end of verse eight, in Jerusalem,
36:44
Speaker 1: throughout Judea, in Saria, and to the ends of the earth.
36:52
Speaker 1: Where are those places? Well, they're not inside the United States.
36:57
Speaker 1: If you're a Canadian, they're not in Canada. Obviously you
37:03
Speaker 1: know they're in the land of Israel. So what do
37:06
Speaker 1: we need right now? Maps? Oh, I can't wait. Turn
37:11
Speaker 1: back to your maps. Find the map in your bible.
37:15
Speaker 1: Some of you are going, how long is this gonna last?
37:17
Speaker 1: Longer than you wish? So stay with me. I want
37:21
Speaker 1: you to get to the maps. And if your wife
37:23
Speaker 1: is carrying your bible, I told you last time, that's
37:26
Speaker 1: not going to work. So I'll let you look on
37:28
Speaker 1: one time. Next time you have your own. Each one
37:30
Speaker 1: of you find the map that says the Ministry of Jesus.
37:36
Speaker 1: Find that map that says Israel during the Ministry of Jesus,
37:40
Speaker 1: because there are other maps back there. Got it. You
37:48
Speaker 1: should see what I'm looking at right now, people staring
37:52
Speaker 1: at me, look at the map. At the top of
37:54
Speaker 1: the map is a body of water called the Sea
37:56
Speaker 1: of Galilee. At the bottom is another body of water
38:00
Speaker 1: that's larger, called the Dead Sea. Trickling in between it
38:04
Speaker 1: is a river called the Jordan River. The river flows
38:07
Speaker 1: out of the Sea of Galilee and down into the
38:11
Speaker 1: Dead Sea. When you get to the Dead Sea, go
38:14
Speaker 1: to the top of the Dead Sea and look to
38:16
Speaker 1: your left, which is west. Look to your left. Before
38:21
Speaker 1: long you will locate put your finger on it. The
38:25
Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem. That's home base. For these apostles. You'll
38:31
Speaker 1: be my witnesses right there in Jerusalem. He also said
38:37
Speaker 1: in Judea, Okay, you're looking in the right direction, not
38:41
Speaker 1: at me, but look at your map. Look around it.
38:44
Speaker 1: You'll see large letters that will say Judea. What's that.
38:51
Speaker 1: That's the county called in those days the province. Jerusalem
38:56
Speaker 1: is a city located in the province of Judea. Okay,
39:03
Speaker 1: Dallas is in the province of this Dallas County. Houston
39:08
Speaker 1: is in the province of Harris County. Jerusalem is in
39:13
Speaker 1: the province of the Judeon County. So you're gonna not
39:17
Speaker 1: only be a witness for me in the city, you're
39:20
Speaker 1: gonna take the message to cities around you. And you
39:23
Speaker 1: could pick out some of them right there on your own.
39:27
Speaker 1: How about Samaria. You thought Judea was tough to find,
39:31
Speaker 1: Look up north, same size print you will find Samarian.
39:36
Speaker 1: It's another province, see it, it's a county, it's a region.
39:42
Speaker 1: What you may not know is that is a place
39:46
Speaker 1: that Jews never wanted to go. Has a long history.
39:49
Speaker 1: I won't get into it, but most of them were
39:52
Speaker 1: so prejudiced they never wanted to be anywhere around it,
39:55
Speaker 1: and when they would come from Galilee down to Judea,
39:58
Speaker 1: they would go around Samaria. It wouldn't go through it.
40:02
Speaker 1: Stay out of Samaria. And Jesus of all things says
40:05
Speaker 1: to his apostles, when you receive power, you're going to
40:09
Speaker 1: be my witnesses where you live, and then outside where
40:15
Speaker 1: you live, and you'll even be taking my message to Samaria.
40:22
Speaker 1: And from there you're going to carry it to the
40:25
Speaker 1: remotest part of the earth. And that's so broad this
40:29
Speaker 1: map doesn't cover it. If you go a couple of
40:32
Speaker 1: maps further, you'll see the journeys of Paul, and you'll
40:36
Speaker 1: see a broader picture of the world. As the message
40:39
Speaker 1: began to spread, that carries us through the Book of Acts,
40:43
Speaker 1: and ultimately he takes it to the very end of
40:46
Speaker 1: the Book of Acts, where he's in Rome, Acts twenty eight,
40:49
Speaker 1: sixteen through eighteen. Now back to Acts one to eight.
40:53
Speaker 1: Let me tie this together in a way that may
40:55
Speaker 1: surprise you. What we have in the eighth verse of
41:00
Speaker 1: Acts one is an inspired outline of the Book of Acts.
41:04
Speaker 1: Do you know that for the first seven chapters they're
41:08
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, and they're witnessing, and they're suffering and they're
41:13
Speaker 1: going through persecution, and they're being misunderstood. Some of them
41:16
Speaker 1: are taken under arrest. They're going through difficult times. Others
41:19
Speaker 1: of them are watching God bless and the numbers are
41:22
Speaker 1: increasing as their witnesses for him. That witnessing begins in
41:26
Speaker 1: chapter two, and it carries on through seven, and then
41:30
Speaker 1: there's such a persecution they begin to be scattered and
41:33
Speaker 1: they move into Judea in chapter eight of this book
41:37
Speaker 1: of Acts. In chapter nine, Paul is born again. He's
41:42
Speaker 1: converted on his way to Damascus to put it in
41:45
Speaker 1: to Christians, and after he's changed and transformed, he takes
41:50
Speaker 1: the message far beyond. So between act chapter eight and
41:57
Speaker 1: the end of the book, we are going into Samaria
42:02
Speaker 1: and the remotest part of the world. If you were
42:05
Speaker 1: to ask people in that day, the most remote would
42:08
Speaker 1: be Rome, where the Emperor sat. And would you believe
42:12
Speaker 1: before Paul had finished his life, he had an audience
42:18
Speaker 1: with the Emperor, just exactly as they were promised in
42:22
Speaker 1: verse eight. The look at the verse again. It begins
42:27
Speaker 1: to take on a new light. But since I'm not
42:32
Speaker 1: able to give you the time regarding my return to
42:35
Speaker 1: this earth, let me tell you what will happen in between.
42:38
Speaker 1: You're going to be the recipients of an incredible power.
42:41
Speaker 1: It'll be power that will come from the Holy Spirit,
42:45
Speaker 1: and he will fill you with that power, and you
42:48
Speaker 1: will become changed men. You will no longer operate in
42:51
Speaker 1: fear and intimidation. You will in fact carry my message
42:55
Speaker 1: into the province around your city. You will carry it
42:58
Speaker 1: up into Samaria places in some area you've never been.
43:02
Speaker 1: You will become one of my spokespersons. And then from
43:05
Speaker 1: there you will take it on to the end of
43:08
Speaker 1: the year. Now right about now, you're starting to feel
43:10
Speaker 1: little smug man, I know this verse. Look at these observations.
43:18
Speaker 1: I remember the feeling when I took a course from
43:21
Speaker 1: doctor Howard Hendrix called Bible Study Methods back when I
43:25
Speaker 1: was in seminary, when the Earth's crust was cooling. Nineteen
43:29
Speaker 1: fifty nine nineteen sixty. How Hendrix taught this course and
43:32
Speaker 1: we were all on the edge of our scenes. No
43:35
Speaker 1: teacher like that man when he taught you how to
43:37
Speaker 1: study the Bible. And he said, all right man, that
43:40
Speaker 1: time we were only man in the seminary said all right, man,
43:43
Speaker 1: when you go home, go back to your dorm or
43:46
Speaker 1: your residences. Tonight, I want you to write down on
43:49
Speaker 1: a sheet of paper fifty observations from Acts one eight.
43:54
Speaker 1: My first thought was, you have got to be kidding
43:57
Speaker 1: fifty I'm doing good up ten or twelve. But I
44:01
Speaker 1: sat down in our little apartment and I wrote down
44:05
Speaker 1: fifty observations. Oh so please, I brought it back. We
44:11
Speaker 1: all laid our fifty observations in front of him. Good work.
44:14
Speaker 1: Now go home tonight and find fifty more from the Samer.
44:20
Speaker 1: You know what we did, and we could have even
44:24
Speaker 1: found fifty more. How could we, ladies and gentlemen. We
44:33
Speaker 1: have an infinite text. It is unfathomable. It's truths or bottomless.
44:42
Speaker 1: Plemn one hundred and nineteen, Verse eighteen opened my eyes
44:49
Speaker 1: that I may observe what is there. You could take
44:56
Speaker 1: a verse of scripture. You could take a section of
44:58
Speaker 1: scripture and keep yourself busy for the longest time, just
45:03
Speaker 1: digging into the words and seeing how they relieve. Now
45:09
Speaker 1: let's learn how to read. You thought I was basic before.
45:13
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to teach you students how to read.
45:15
Speaker 1: Here we go think of you, think of your head, okay,
45:21
Speaker 1: your eyes, and then we'll think of your ears. And
45:26
Speaker 1: then we'll think of your nose, and then we'll think
45:29
Speaker 1: of your mouth. All right, let's start with the eyes.
45:32
Speaker 1: We need to read as if for the very first time.
45:39
Speaker 1: The worst thing you can say when you start to
45:41
Speaker 1: study your Bible is oh, I've read this before, or
45:45
Speaker 1: I know what this is, I know what this means.
45:48
Speaker 1: No you don't. No, you don't. Or you may know
45:52
Speaker 1: the obvious, but you don't really know in depth what
45:56
Speaker 1: it is saying. You need fresh eyes. I realized that
46:02
Speaker 1: when for years I had looked at the fed X
46:05
Speaker 1: logo on the side of every FedEx truck you've seen it.
46:11
Speaker 1: I was riding along with my son several years ago.
46:14
Speaker 1: We were in his pickup. We were following a FedEx
46:17
Speaker 1: truck and we were talking, and we were talking about
46:21
Speaker 1: the truck. But suddenly he said, see the arrow, I go. Arrow. Yeah,
46:29
Speaker 1: in the FedEx truck. You see the arrow? I go?
46:33
Speaker 1: Or we looking at the same truck. He said, yeah, Dad,
46:35
Speaker 1: Look what's he saying. Observe between the E and the
46:41
Speaker 1: X is an arrow. Some of you go, I didn't
46:45
Speaker 1: know that. You did know it, maybe, but maybe there's
46:48
Speaker 1: someone around you that I didn't know it all these years.
46:52
Speaker 1: I've looked at FedEx and never seen an arrow. Now
46:55
Speaker 1: every time I look at FedEx, all I can see
46:57
Speaker 1: is an arrow. It's funny once you discover something like that.
47:01
Speaker 1: As you get acquainted with the scriptures, you will see
47:03
Speaker 1: things as if for the first time, because they will
47:08
Speaker 1: be One of the things that will help you will
47:10
Speaker 1: be a version that's not the version you use. For example,
47:15
Speaker 1: I've pulled up from the Message Acts one eight. Eugene
47:19
Speaker 1: Peterson handles it this way. He told them, you don't
47:24
Speaker 1: get to know the time. Timing is the father's business.
47:28
Speaker 1: What you will get is the Holy Spirit. And when
47:31
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit comes on you, you'll be able to be
47:35
Speaker 1: my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even
47:39
Speaker 1: to the ends of the world. Sounds similar, but there
47:43
Speaker 1: is some amplification there. It's helpful when you get to
47:47
Speaker 1: know your Bible and you begin to get serious about it,
47:51
Speaker 1: that you use other versions. Never a message prepared in
47:55
Speaker 1: my study without my reading other versions. It helps me
47:59
Speaker 1: see the words as it for the first time. Here's
48:02
Speaker 1: the second way you read it. Now we come to
48:05
Speaker 1: the ears. Read it as if you were reading a
48:09
Speaker 1: love letter. Read it as if it were a love letter.
48:20
Speaker 1: I remember when I was overseas and I was away
48:22
Speaker 1: from my wife those sixteen months, and i'd get a
48:25
Speaker 1: love letter from her. I would say, Oh, let them Cynthia,
48:30
Speaker 1: that's nice, and i'd go about my word. No, you
48:33
Speaker 1: know better than that, I'd go, whoa. First of all, oh, man,
48:40
Speaker 1: smells just like her fragrance. Now that's her. That's fabulous. Wow, man,
48:49
Speaker 1: look at this, and she begins, dear Charles. She used
48:53
Speaker 1: to call me Charles, dear Charles. Now her previous letter
48:57
Speaker 1: she began, my dearest darling Charles. Now she writes, dear Charles.
49:05
Speaker 1: What's she trying to say? What's happened? Are things different? Hey,
49:14
Speaker 1: I'm reading a love letter. There is no such thing
49:17
Speaker 1: as insignificance. The words she uses, you know what. I
49:24
Speaker 1: got alone, and I read them aloud, so my ears
49:27
Speaker 1: could hear what my mouth was saying, and I could
49:30
Speaker 1: hear her voice through the lines I was reading. And
49:37
Speaker 1: I read them repeatedly. Some letters I read eight, ten,
49:42
Speaker 1: twelve times. That's all I had from her. It was
49:47
Speaker 1: her love letter to me, and it told me more
49:52
Speaker 1: than just facts and events. It included words of affection.
50:00
Speaker 1: That's something important to me because I was in a
50:02
Speaker 1: lonely place, surrounded by all these fellow marines who couldn't
50:08
Speaker 1: have cared less about this love letter until they got
50:12
Speaker 1: their love letter. And for some of them it was
50:17
Speaker 1: a dear John letter where the wife doesn't even begin
50:21
Speaker 1: with deer. Maybe an attorney was writing altogether different. When
50:29
Speaker 1: you read a love letter, like when you read the Bible,
50:32
Speaker 1: you read words repeatedly, you read them aloud. If you
50:35
Speaker 1: could be in my study, you would hear me having
50:38
Speaker 1: conversations with God about what he's written. I talked to him,
50:43
Speaker 1: I read the words over, I interact with it. That's
50:47
Speaker 1: the way it is when I get to know the scriptures.
50:49
Speaker 1: That's why when I stand to teach the passage of Scripture,
50:53
Speaker 1: it's as if I've been there, because I have. And
50:57
Speaker 1: it takes time. Maybe you only have thirty minute observe
51:02
Speaker 1: what you're reading for thirty minutes a day. Here's a third.
51:06
Speaker 1: We've come down now to the nose. You have to
51:09
Speaker 1: have a nose of a detective, so you read it
51:11
Speaker 1: as if you were a detective. Remember watching one of
51:14
Speaker 1: the detective shows that you wouldn't miss every hair, every thread,
51:20
Speaker 1: every hint, every phone conversation that's been recorded in the record,
51:26
Speaker 1: every email message, what the computer has said, every handprint,
51:31
Speaker 1: every fingerprint, everything. The detective as he looks for these clues,
51:38
Speaker 1: is saying something important. You notice verbs and nouns, and
51:43
Speaker 1: prepositions and adjectives and add verbs and even pronouns. You
51:48
Speaker 1: think pronouns, what's the big deal? Well, because you ask,
51:52
Speaker 1: let's turn to Acts sixteen. Trust me, I'll be through
51:56
Speaker 1: in thirty forty minutes. Don't be nervous. I know what
51:59
Speaker 1: time it is. Look at Acts sixteen. Let me sure
52:02
Speaker 1: the difference in pronouns. Act sixteen is right in the
52:07
Speaker 1: middle of a journey of Paul. Verse nine. He has
52:11
Speaker 1: waited for the Lord to guide them, and nothing has
52:14
Speaker 1: opened up. He's tried different places, and all the doors
52:17
Speaker 1: have been slammed shut. So Verse nine. Act sixteen says
52:21
Speaker 1: that night Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia
52:25
Speaker 1: in northern Greece was standing there pleading with him. Notice
52:30
Speaker 1: the pronoun. Come over to Macedonia and help us. Notice
52:35
Speaker 1: the pronoun. The hymn is Paul. The us as people
52:41
Speaker 1: of Macedonia. Look at the next pronoun, so we huh.
52:49
Speaker 1: First time in Acts first time, the one who writes
52:54
Speaker 1: it enters into the narrative. Look at that. At this
53:00
Speaker 1: point Luke joins the travelers. So we decided to leave
53:06
Speaker 1: from Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling
53:09
Speaker 1: us look at the pronoun calling us to preach the
53:12
Speaker 1: good news there, not just Paul, not just Silas, not
53:17
Speaker 1: just the other companions. So we boarded a boat at
53:20
Speaker 1: Troaz and we sailed straight across to the island of
53:23
Speaker 1: samath Race. On the next day we landed in Minneapolis,
53:28
Speaker 1: and from there we reached Philippi, and on and on
53:30
Speaker 1: the journey goes. And by the way, when you've got
53:32
Speaker 1: a map, you can trace each one of those places
53:34
Speaker 1: along the way back to Acts one. When you've got
53:38
Speaker 1: the nose of a detective, those little details are all significant,
53:42
Speaker 1: and when you point them out to those you're teaching,
53:45
Speaker 1: they will love it. Not until today did some of
53:49
Speaker 1: you realize that the man who wrote the Book of
53:52
Speaker 1: Acts has not been engaged in the activities until chapter sixteen,
53:56
Speaker 1: and from then on he plays a very significant role
53:58
Speaker 1: as Paul's personal and private physician. There's one more. We've
54:04
Speaker 1: come to the mouth. We need to taste it. Read
54:06
Speaker 1: the text as if you were in it. Read the verse,
54:11
Speaker 1: Read the text as if you are there. That's why
54:16
Speaker 1: I say I identify with the apostles. I try to
54:19
Speaker 1: imagine what it must have been like when Jesus heals
54:22
Speaker 1: the sick. I put myself in the crowd and I
54:25
Speaker 1: watch him healing the sick. I put myself on the
54:28
Speaker 1: sick bed and try to imagine what it must have
54:30
Speaker 1: been like, not having been able to walk, and now
54:32
Speaker 1: suddenly I have the ability to stand up and move about.
54:37
Speaker 1: The remarkable feeling that comes over me as a result
54:40
Speaker 1: of entering into it. If you're going to teach Corinthians,
54:44
Speaker 1: join the church in corinth, imagine what it's like to
54:47
Speaker 1: be a church that's so filled with sism. If you're
54:51
Speaker 1: going to read and study the Resurrection, walk in the tomb,
54:55
Speaker 1: stand alongside Peter and John. Feel that eerie moment when
55:00
Speaker 1: you're looking at rappings that are still in the shape
55:03
Speaker 1: of a body, but they're flattened. There's nobody. What does
55:08
Speaker 1: this mean? When you're with Isaiah chapter six, where he
55:13
Speaker 1: sees the Lord High and Holy lifted up, and here's
55:16
Speaker 1: the angel saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God
55:19
Speaker 1: of Host stand alongside Isaiah. Listen to the angels as
55:24
Speaker 1: they say that. When I taught that, I had the
55:26
Speaker 1: congregation answer holy, holy, Holy, Holy, holy Holy. The only
55:31
Speaker 1: reason I thought of doing that is when I'm in
55:33
Speaker 1: my study, I'm saying the words, and I'm thinking, how
55:36
Speaker 1: can I get this across. I'll have everybody enter into it,
55:40
Speaker 1: and you become an angel in the text of scripture.
55:45
Speaker 1: You see, because of this approach, the Bible comes alive.
55:51
Speaker 1: That's what I want for you so much. Now I
55:53
Speaker 1: got one more important thing to add to all of this.
55:57
Speaker 1: But this one part has several parts. Okay, so students,
56:01
Speaker 1: turn your outline over and trace your hand. Some of
56:07
Speaker 1: you have not moved for thirty minutes, so move. Turn
56:12
Speaker 1: your outline over and trace your thumb, your fingers. There
56:16
Speaker 1: you go right down to the wrist on each side.
56:19
Speaker 1: Remember when you did that in kindergarten. I love doing
56:23
Speaker 1: stuff like this. All right, Now, we're going to remember
56:27
Speaker 1: five things to look for and I'm through. Here we go.
56:32
Speaker 1: You say, wait, Chuck, haven't found a pin, So I
56:34
Speaker 1: gotta get a pen going here. You ready, We're gonna
56:39
Speaker 1: write something on every one of those flangees. First, the
56:42
Speaker 1: thumb right emphasized. When you look at your Bible, look
56:50
Speaker 1: at what is emphasized. How do I know what that is?
56:54
Speaker 1: Amount of space provided? Genesis is about creation, it's about
57:00
Speaker 1: the fall, and then it's about the beginning of nations,
57:03
Speaker 1: and then it's all about Abraham. That's an emphasis of
57:06
Speaker 1: Genesis chapters twelve to twenty seven. You're studying about Abraham.
57:12
Speaker 1: Look at the space given to it. When you study David,
57:15
Speaker 1: you study books in the Old Testament. That's a life
57:18
Speaker 1: lived in emphasis. The amount of space tells you it's
57:22
Speaker 1: emphasized when a name is mentioned twice. Abraham, Abraham, don't
57:27
Speaker 1: slay your son or Saul, Saul? Why are you persecuting me?
57:35
Speaker 1: Why are you standing against what I'm trying to do?
57:37
Speaker 1: A double evocative like that says it's in emphasis. Look
57:42
Speaker 1: for climax, the climax that you find in a section
57:48
Speaker 1: of scripture where David lives a great life and is
57:53
Speaker 1: a warrior and becomes the king, and then he works
57:56
Speaker 1: his way all the way to Bethsheba, and his whole
58:01
Speaker 1: life looks like a rooftop up until Bathsheba. Everything goes up.
58:06
Speaker 1: From Bathsheba, everything comes down. It's built to a climax. Emphasize.
58:12
Speaker 1: That's the thumb on your index finger. Write the word repeated.
58:18
Speaker 1: Repeated words that are used back to back. I've made
58:25
Speaker 1: a whole list of them. I won't go into it.
58:26
Speaker 1: There's a whole section of the Book of Proverbs that
58:29
Speaker 1: is addressed to my son, my son, my son. Chapter three,
58:34
Speaker 1: verse one, verse twenty one, Chapter four, verse one, Chapter five,
58:38
Speaker 1: verse one, verse seven, Chapter six, verse one, verse twenty,
58:42
Speaker 1: Chapter seven, verse one, verse twenty four. My son, my
58:45
Speaker 1: son must say, you know what you know what he's doing.
58:49
Speaker 1: He's he's repeating that because this is counsel for your son,
58:55
Speaker 1: So repeated words need to be noticed. Third is the
58:57
Speaker 1: middle finger. Write the word read related. Look for things
59:03
Speaker 1: that are related. There are lots of them. Here's how
59:07
Speaker 1: they will appear. Questions, followed by answers. We've seen one
59:11
Speaker 1: of those in Acts one seven through nine. God's part
59:16
Speaker 1: related to my part. Trust in the Lord with all
59:18
Speaker 1: your heart, lean not to your own understanding in all
59:21
Speaker 1: your ways. Acknowledge him. That's my part, and he will
59:25
Speaker 1: direct your paths. That's his part. Proverbs three, five and
59:30
Speaker 1: six promises followed by rewards. Warnings followed by failure or obedience.
59:38
Speaker 1: These are things related to each other. Sin is followed
59:43
Speaker 1: by consequences, and then the last two Your ring, finger
59:47
Speaker 1: and your pinky write the words alike and unlike emphasize
59:55
Speaker 1: repeated related words that are alike. They're often in introduced.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: The thought is introduced with as and followed by soul.
1:00:04
Speaker 1: As the deer pants for the water brook so pants
1:00:07
Speaker 1: my soul for you will God. What a great word picture.
1:00:11
Speaker 1: These are things that are alike. These are analogies. I
1:00:16
Speaker 1: am the vine, you are the branches. These are alike.
1:00:21
Speaker 1: I'm the potter, you are the clay. These things are related.
1:00:24
Speaker 1: These things are alike. And then are other things that unlike,
1:00:29
Speaker 1: like the work of the spirit as opposed to the
1:00:32
Speaker 1: energy of the flesh, the acts of the flesh. In
1:00:35
Speaker 1: Galatians five, Okay, you've done very well. I'm proud of you.
1:00:42
Speaker 1: You have endured nicely. We started in Proverbs. I close
1:00:46
Speaker 1: with Proverbs chapter twenty, So go back to one verse
1:00:51
Speaker 1: and you're on your way to coming up with fifty
1:00:54
Speaker 1: observations on acts one eight. No, not really, I'll give
1:00:59
Speaker 1: you another look at Proverbs twenty, verse twelve, ears to hear,
1:01:08
Speaker 1: ears to hear, eyes to see. Both are gifts from
1:01:12
Speaker 1: the Lord. You have been given the gift of sight,
1:01:17
Speaker 1: but you've not been given the gift of observation. Until
1:01:21
Speaker 1: the Lord steps in and you, through prayer and time
1:01:26
Speaker 1: and discipline, begin to give yourself to the text, you
1:01:30
Speaker 1: begin to hear things you never heard, and you begin
1:01:33
Speaker 1: to see things you never saw, and it will all
1:01:37
Speaker 1: come to life. There's a key to unlocking all of it.
1:01:45
Speaker 1: The lady who wrote the words of this hymn had
1:01:47
Speaker 1: that in mind. Open my eyes that I may see
1:01:52
Speaker 1: visions of truth. You have for me, Open my ears
1:01:58
Speaker 1: that I may hear she talks about, and then she says, uh,
1:02:02
Speaker 1: and then give me the key that will unlock all
1:02:06
Speaker 1: of this and set me free. The key is observation.
1:02:12
Speaker 1: I want you to choose a verse of scripture between
1:02:14
Speaker 1: now and when we're together again. How about John three sixteen.
1:02:18
Speaker 1: Let's take one we all would know. Come up with
1:02:22
Speaker 1: your own list of, well, let's say fifty observations of
1:02:27
Speaker 1: the verse John three sixteen, and I will tell you,
1:02:31
Speaker 1: as a result, you will have found things you've never
1:02:34
Speaker 1: seen before, even though you can quote the verse from memory. Okay,
1:02:41
Speaker 1: next time, bring your Bible we'll go into interpretation. Let's pray,
1:02:48
Speaker 1: thank you Father for giving us truth to live by,
1:02:52
Speaker 1: truth to discover, truths, to see, to hear, to enter into.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: May they begin the process of changing our whole frame
1:03:04
Speaker 1: of reference, maybe for the first time in so many
1:03:08
Speaker 1: of our lives. See what you have written. Open our
1:03:14
Speaker 1: eyes that we may see, and then open our understanding
1:03:20
Speaker 1: that we may learn what they mean. In the name
1:03:24
Speaker 1: of Christ, we ask these things. Everyone said Amen. The
1:03:32
Speaker 1: preceding message, Reading the Ingredients observing the text was copyrighted
1:03:38
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
1:03:42
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen by Charles R. Swindell, Inc. All rights are
1:03:46
Speaker 1: reserved worldwide.