Arrow 5, 2 Peter 3:16-17

In this sermon, Pastor Aaron teaches that the Bible is necessary for the Christian life. He explains that we are called to respond in humble obedience and worship. We must apply the Bible correctly, completely, and consistently. Correct application is connected to the meaning of the passage, applied to the whole person (mind, heart, and actions), and done in community. He concluded by encouraging listeners to view greatness in the Christian life in faithfulness, not in spectacular giftings.

Takeaways

• The Bible is necessary for the Christian life, and it demands a response from us.
• We must apply the Bible correctly, connecting our application to the meaning of the passage.
• Application should be done to the whole person, including the mind, heart, and actions.
• Consistent daily reading and application of the Bible are important for spiritual growth.
• Applying the Bible in community is essential for encouragement and accountability.
• Greatness in the Christian life is found in faithfulness, not in spectacular giftings.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Next Steps Class
00:38 The Word of God Demands a Response
04:47 The Necessity of the Bible for the Christian Life
06:36 Knowing the Gospel through the Bible
12:42 The Bible as Spiritual Food for Growth
21:03 Applying the Bible Correctly, Completely, and Consistently
23:54 Approaching Difficult Passages
30:11 Applying to the Whole Person
35:23 Consistent Application: Daily and in Community
42:58 Valuing Faithfulness over Spectacular Giftings

Creators & Guests

Host

Aaron Shamp

Lead Pastor of Redeemer City Church

What is Redeemer City Church - Lafayette, LA?

Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.

Aaron Shamp (00:00)
All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correction, for training and righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So one of the most famous verses of the Bible that says something about the Bible, there's a lot to unpack there. And that's gonna, and what this verse says really captures what we're gonna be talking about today. Because what we're gonna be talking about today is how do we respond to what we read in the Bible? Some words are words that demand a response. Have you ever heard this before? License and registration, please.

Have you heard? I've heard that quite a few times. So maybe some of those have been the one to say that. Right. Yeah, I've been on the receiving end. I've never said it, but I've been on the receiving end of that statement several times, more than I would like. And so you've heard that before. License and registration, please. Those are words that demand a response. You better give your license registration or it's going to set off some red flags. Right. There's other types of words that demand a response as well. Maybe there's certain things that your spouse says to you or.

When you were a child and your parents would say certain things to you that you knew, this isn't just something for me to hear, but something for me to, by hearing, show in my action and responding. God's Word is a word that demands response. The scripture speaks to us, and in speaking to us, it demands that we respond in humble obedience and worship. That is what's implied here in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. Paul says, you know, the Word of God,

is good for all these things. And all those things imply that there is an interaction between the Word of God and us, right? In teaching, okay, we learn and we respond to what we learn. For rebuking, okay, rebuking is obviously something that we do to change one's behavior, to demand a response. And so on, and he says to finish, the Word of God is, a scripture is inspired by God for what? To equip us in every good work. So the Word of God is something that we don't just...

you know, passively hear and not respond to. It's not something that we get together in small groups and talk about, but it's something that we respond to, right? In listening to the word talk, we listen so that we might hear in the biblical sense whenever the Lord says, hear, what he's saying is listen and respond, right? Not passive listening, but hearing, right? We hear the word talk and we discuss it in Bible studies so that we might apply it to our lives.

And that's what we're talking about today as we continue in this series. Today and the next two weeks as we continue are going to be heavy on talking about how do we apply the scripture to our lives. For this series on how to read the Bible, we've been using a method by two guys named Matt Rogers and Donnie Mathis called the seven arrows for Bible reading. So the first four arrows we looked at really help us learn how to interpret what the Bible is saying to us. For arrows five, six, and seven today in the next two weeks.

we're looking at how what we have read translates into how do we respond. Okay, so we're moving into the very application heavy section of this series. As we've done each week, we're gonna start with a foundational truth that informs what we believe about scripture and then therefore how do we approach scripture when we read it and then we're gonna look at the arrow and apply it. Okay, actually today I've got a lot to talk about in the application section so we might not.

look at Psalm 1 and Matthew and Colossians like we did. We might skip that. That'll be your homework. All right. So let's begin with the foundational truth. So, you know, we might ask ourselves, how can I know God? And how can I have a relationship with God? Can I?

just go out in nature and then by being out there in the beauty of creation know God that way. Can I have a relationship with him through his creation? I've experienced that as well. I love going on hikes and being out in creation and enjoying God's presence in his creation. But is that really how I know God? Or can I know God just based upon what I think he's like?

You know, kind of just what my heart tells me. Is that how I can know him? But how can I know him and have a relationship with him? The answer to that question is that we have to know him and have a relationship with him through his word. His word is necessary for this. So our first point today in our foundational truth that we're looking at is that the Bible is a necessary word. In systematic theology, we call this, can you guess it?

the necessity of scripture. That's what we call it, the necessity of scripture. And so we, once again, let's just ask the question, okay, well, really, is the Bible really necessary for anything? It is quite old, it's hard to understand sometimes, there's things in there that we don't know what to do with. Maybe there's some things that it says that we don't really like. There's things that seem antiquated or outdated. And so is it really necessary for anything? And if it is, what is it necessary for? The answer to that question is that what Christians believe,

based upon what the Bible says is that the Bible is necessary for the Christian life. We cannot know God just simply through his creation. We might know that there is a God by intuiting it from creation, right? We do that philosophically. We might know that there is a God, but to have a relationship with him, we cannot just do that through creation. We cannot just do that based upon what my heart tells me, right? Our heart can be deceitful.

We cannot just do it based upon what we would like to think about God because we all hold a lot of incorrect thoughts in our minds, not just about God, but about a lot of things. We can't just do it based upon what our culture says because all cultures throughout human history have gotten a lot of things wrong. And our culture is no different. We get a lot of things wrong. How do we know him then? How do we have a relationship with him? Through his word. His word is necessary.

for the Christian life. Let me give you three things specifically that God's word is necessary for. When we talk about the necessity of scripture, there's maybe some other things we can say, but really three big things in particular. The first one is this. The Bible is necessary. It is necessary for knowing the gospel. The Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, which is how we are saved.

So like I said before, to have any kind of true relationship with God where my sin has been atoned for and I now am in a covenantal relationship with him, reconciled to him, it has to happen through the gospel, okay? Do you remember if you've ever read passages of the Old Testament, I heard them talked about the temple? They had the temple, well, at first there was a tabernacle, it was just a tent, but then Solomon got to build a temple. In the tabernacle and in the tent,

You had the Holy of Holies. This is where they saw like this is where God's presence is. If you want to really go into the presence of God, here it is. Right. They believed, of course, that God was omnipresent and since he was everywhere, but to be truly in his relational presence, it was in the Holy of Holies. But no one could get there. Right. Only one priest one time a year after doing a lot of ceremonial purification could enter into that place. Everyone else for them, there was layers of separation.

So if you go back and you read about the tabernacle or the temple, there was the Holy of Holies, but then there was separation and only certain people could go in there and there was more layers of separation and so on. And this was to teach the people about how we are separated from a holy God because of our sin. Our sin separates us from him. Now, we no longer have a temple and sacrificial system or a tabernacle with all those layers of separation.

to remind us of the separation that exists between a sinful people and a holy God. But just because those layers are no longer there, it doesn't mean that separation no longer exists for us. If we are going to go into the presence of God, the holy of holies as we are all invited into, how are we going to do that today?

There's only one way. We don't do it through, let me tell you some ways we don't do it. We don't do it through church attendance. Being at church on a Sunday morning, and not just Redeemer, but any other church. Being at a church like Redeemer, or being at a church where you're offered sacraments, any of these things is not the way to bridge the gap between us and God. None of those things, none of those religious ceremonies can reconcile us.

to God the Father. In other words, they cannot tear down the walls of separation like there were in the temple. We can't do it through church or any religious ceremonies. We cannot do it through good works by just trying harder, by recognizing, you know, I've got a lot of things in my life that I need to clean up. Maybe some things that I need to get more disciplined about. Maybe some areas of life I need to start being more honest about. Maybe, you know, and things that I need to clean up and so on so that I can bridge that gap between me and God. You know, friends, that's like trying to bridge the gap.

between California and Japan and swimming across the ocean. You'll never make it. It is impossible for human beings by our own effort and good works and cleaning ourselves up to reconcile ourselves to God. We cannot through our own efforts tear down those walls of separation. All right? It is only done one way through the blood of Jesus Christ that atones for our sin. By his death on the cross,

God applies the consequences that we should have received for our sin onto Jesus. And as his blood was shed, that blood is taken and it wipes away the record of debt that stood against us. Whenever Jesus dies on the cross in the gospels, it says that in his last hour when he cried out in his finished and he let go of his spirit and he died, it says that the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom.

You know what that was declaring? It was declaring that once and for all that separation that stood between God and man for all those centuries and that the Old Testament sacrificial system had stood in place for a time so that through that sacrificial system, the people of God might be in relationship with God. It was only temporary and it could not fully remove the separation. But once the blood of the ultimate lamb of God was shed, and that's Jesus, once his blood was shed, the veil.

The separation was torn. It was torn. The only way to have access to God, to know Him, to be in relationship with Him, the only way to have your sins truly atoned for, your condemnation that you should have received for your sin before God, apply to someone else that you might be saved from that wrath and condemnation. There's only one way, and that is through Jesus Christ in the gospel. And how do we know?

the name of Christ and the gospel through the word. The Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel and therefore for knowing God and being in relationship with him. We see this in many places in Acts 412, the apostles declare that there is only one name under heaven by which men may be saved and it is the name of Jesus. Paul in 1 Timothy chapter two, verses five and six talks about how there is one mediator.

between God and man by a mediator, meaning one who can bring peace and reconciliation. There's one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. In Romans 10, 13 through 17, Paul says that we are saved by believing in the word, and we believe in the word by hearing the word, and we hear the word whenever it is declared to us, either through a teacher or through the Bible. The Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel.

Secondly, the Bible is necessary for spiritual growth. We do not just receive the gospel through the word and then move on with whatever we think is best. Right? And then we just try to do it right on our own or we start listening to a really good preacher who just tells us everything we need to know. No, after we have received the gospel and we are in relationship with Christ, we grow in that relationship. We continue to battle sin and repentance. We continue to work on clinging closer.

and firmer to the cross in the word of God. This is how we grow. In Matthew chapter four, verse four, Jesus says that man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He's speaking of the scriptures. He's talking about the Bible. He's saying that just as you and I need physical food for our growth and development, right? A lot of you guys, we've got a lot of babies over here at Redeemer right now, which is awesome.

And you guys know that if that baby doesn't eat, that baby doesn't grow. We forget that as grownups. We just get hungry and we eat. If you don't eat, you don't survive. We need that to sustain our life. The Bible is our spiritual food.

If you guys came in here this morning feeling spiritually weak, dry, if you have been facing defeat after defeat in your spiritual life, you are struggling to know the presence of God and his love in your life, or you are struggling to overcome sin, my first question is always this, have you been in the Bible?

nine times, nearly 10 times out of 10, the answer is no. Well, no wonder you are struggling. No wonder you feel so spiritually weak. How weak would you guys feel if you walked in here this morning after not eating at all this week? Right? We'd be struggling. We'd be feeling weak. What's the same thing in your spiritual life? If you came in here this week and the last time that you opened up your Bible was last Sunday, you cannot sustain a vibrant, growing spiritual life.

a growing, deepening relationship with God without the scripture. We need it daily, just as we need food daily. In 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter talks about how just like babies need the milk to grow, that we need the spiritual nourishment that comes from the milk of God's word, and that is how we grow. So the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, it is necessary for spiritual growth, and then finally it is necessary for knowing God's will. Of course, from

the first page of scripture to the last, we see God's will being revealed to us in prophecies and in the law and in stories and in teachings, right? We see it all over scripture. So I don't need to give you a lot of references for this, but just one I'll give you is one of the passages that we've been looking at every week here in this series, which is Psalm one. In Psalm one, the whole point of that Psalm is the blessed life that comes where we live according to God's will.

It's talking about how blessed is the man who does not follow the ways of the world and does not live according to the way that the wicked lives, but instead it says in verse two, his delight is in the law of the Lord. What does that mean? His delight is in God's will. He delights that God has revealed his will to him and he delights to obey and follow that will. And because he follows God's will, he has a happy life. He has a blessed life.

And so the Bible is necessary for knowing God's will. It's necessary for knowing the gospel, for spiritual growth, and for knowing God's will. It is necessary for these things. It's for these reasons, and it's because of the necessity of God's word that we're doing this series. You guys need the diet of God's word seven days a week. You need it in the morning, you need it in the evening, you need to have it written on your heart so that you can recall it during the day, right? And that's why we're doing this series, because I want you guys to be, you know, like...

We begin like babies needing the spiritual milk, but as we grow, we move on to solid foods. And so all of us, we need to move on to solid foods and not be dependent on milk. So if the Bible is necessary, and so we need it all week, what that means is that we're going to read it ourselves. And so when it comes to reading it ourselves, that's why I've been giving you the seven arrows over the course of this series, so that you know how to read it for yourself.

We've looked at arrows one through four and today we look at arrow number five. Like I said, we're moving into the area of application today. So arrow five asks this question. It asks the question, what does this passage demand of me? What does this passage demand of me? As we said before, there's some words that demand a response and so we recognize that God's word and whatever it is saying to us demands a response.

So in order to answer arrow number five, you're going to need a skill, and that is the skill of application. Every week I've been offering you guys a skill that goes with one of the arrows because we need to keep in mind that there is no quick fix solution, there's no tricks that I can teach you that's going to make all of us in here expert Bible readers overnight. There's no pill, but there are skills that you can develop. I love the metaphor that Alex used last week whenever he preached.

And he described how, you know, when we were children and we're learning to read, we have to sound out each syllable and it's kind of rocky and we struggle through it. But what happens after a lot of time and effort and working on it, we eventually get to where the reading comes more natural. It becomes second nature. It's something we can do more smoothly. We get to where we can just sight read words and instead of having to sound them out, we just see the word and we know what it's saying. Right. It's the same thing with developing these skills of scripture. OK.

It's okay if we start out slow and bumpy. It's gonna get to where it's gonna be second nature. It's gonna get to where it'll be easier. It's gonna get to a point one day where you might not necessarily have to work through all these seven arrows individually. You'll be able to read a passage of scripture and just have these questions and skills kind of in the back of your mind and your tool belt and be able to use them well. And so today's skill that we have to develop is a skill of application. I wanna give you guys this rule in...

scholarly circles and whenever we talk about, it's called hermeneutics in seminary, is reading and applying scripture. Whenever we talk about hermeneutics or interpreting the Bible, there's this general rule of thumb, which is this, that every passage of scripture that you read has one meaning but many interpretations. Okay, let me say that again. Every passage you read, whether it is like we read from 1st, 2nd Timothy this morning,

It's in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament. It has one meaning, but many possible applications. So you have to differentiate between the meaning of a passage, which is what we figure out by going through Arrows 1 -4. Why don't we just ask, what is this passage saying? What is it saying about God? What is it saying about the condition of man? What did it mean to the first people who were hearing this letter from Paul or so on?

What does this passage mean? It's going to have one thing that it's saying, but then once we figure out what a passage is saying to us, then there's a lot of ways that we can apply it. There's a lot of ways we can figure out what that meaning says to my individual life, right? Because we're all individuals and every individual living throughout human history has lived in different times and culture and places. And we believe that the Bible says something that is applicable to all those different times.

So the message of scripture never changes, but the application continues to be relevant. Okay? So it's important that we do not skip arrows one through four to go directly to application. A lot of the times when we read the Bible, that's what we tend to do. We tend to pick it up, read a verse, and just say, okay, what am I supposed to do now? Without asking those first initial questions of what does this passage mean? A lot of us have been in Bible studies like that before, where we sit together in a group and someone says, so what does this mean to you?

We skip the necessary work of saying, what is the meaning of this passage? What is it trying to say to us? And then move to application. But once you've done the work of figuring out what does this passage say? What is the meaning of it? Then we move on to application. In order to do application well, we have to do, I'm going to give you three big points here on application. We need to apply the Bible correctly. We need to apply it completely. And we need to apply it consistently. Okay?

So, correctly, completely, and consistently. And I don't want to rush through this, so like I said, we might not look at those three passages and that would just be your homework. Because I want to do this well because the application is important. Let's begin with applying the Bible correctly. Applying the Bible correctly. Like I said, I kind of got ahead of myself. Like I said before, we often try to start our Bible studies with error number five. And we pick up the Bible and we read a verse and immediately say, okay, what am I supposed to do?

without the work of making sure that we are understanding it correctly so we can then respond to it appropriately. If you don't do that work, it can get you into some areas where you don't properly apply the Bible. You know, as I said, there's one meaning, but multiple applications. That doesn't mean that whatever application we can come up with is right. We can have some wrong applications if we misread the Bible.

Consider a few examples in Romans 16, 16, Paul says to them to greet one another with a holy kiss. OK, if we misread that, that can lead to some awkward situations in church. Right? And there's a lot of other verses like that in scripture where if we misread it and if we just rush, we can apply it incorrectly. Right? In some ways that would just be awkward, like planting the wet one on someone that's not expecting it.

or in other ways. So we want to make sure we're reading it right so we can apply it correctly. Rogers and Mathis, who wrote the seven arrows book, said this, they said, in order to apply the Bible correctly, we must consider application as a direct result from the meaning of the passage we've considered. So the meaning should lead logically into the application that we infer from it. If there's no logical...

reference back to the meaning of the passage, then we're applying it wrongly. You see, applications are like if -then statements. In an if -then statement, you have two concepts that are linked by the if -then. If concept A is true, then B is true, right? That's how applications work. Let me give you a couple of examples, such as this. If I forget to pay my bills on time, then I will get a late penalty.

See, getting the late penalty is the logical conclusion of not paying my bills on time. Another example, if my team wins the final game of the season, then we will go to the playoffs. Two different concepts that are linked by if and then. If my wife tells me to pick up something at the grocery store and I forget, then she'll be frustrated with me. The logical next step of my forgetfulness happens a lot.

I haven't a lot in my case, I'm forgetful. And so what we do by working through what is this passage saying? What is the meaning of it? Asking, what does this passage say? What did it mean to the original audience? What does it say about God? What does it say about man? We're building the if part of that. So that we get the if statement right, and then our then will be correct. So for example, in Psalm one that we've been looking at, it tells us about,

the man who delights in God's will and how he is blessed and how God watches over them. So we would say, if the blessed life is for those who follow God's will, then I should humbly submit and follow his will. You see, it's not rocket science, it's simple, right? But we just need to make sure that our application is connected to the meaning of the passage and what it is saying. Now, like I said in Psalm 1,

That one's really easy. Sometimes you read a passage of scripture and there's a very clear, obvious one -to -one application. You don't need a seminary degree, you don't need to read commentaries, it's just, there it is. It's not difficult, we just need to apply it. Sometimes it's a little bit more difficult, it's a little bit more murky to figure out what is this passage saying and how do I apply it to myself? Some of the parables are like that. Some of Jesus' parables,

maybe it's a little bit more difficult. We have to think a little bit harder. And then there's other passages that are straight up very difficult to see. What is the application here in my life? It takes some harder thinking. So let me give you some practical suggestions for how to handle the difficult passages of scripture in the interpretation side as well as in application, because this really applies to both. But here's some suggestions for handling difficult passages. Number one, start simple. OK, start simple. After we finish this series,

Maybe don't go make the first book of the Bible you read through like Leviticus. Okay. Don't start with Leviticus or Numbers. Maybe don't start with Revelation. Right. I'm not saying we shouldn't read these books. Right. But let's start a little bit more simple. Don't start with the second half of Daniel. Maybe start with Psalms instead. The Psalms, there's some difficult ones, but the Psalms by and large are much easier for us to read and apply. Same thing with the Proverbs. Right. Much simpler. In the New Testament.

Like I said, maybe don't start with with with like some sections of Hebrews, a revelation that they're a little bit more difficult. There's a lot of debate over some of those passages. Maybe start with the Gospel of John. Start with the Gospel of John. Start with Philippians, first or second Timothy, even Romans. Romans is dense, but not as difficult as it seems if you if you sit with it for a moment and think about it. OK, so start simple. Really, obviously.

Don't jump into the deep end where it's gonna be confusing for all of us. Start simple as you are working and learning how to apply these skills. The second thing for when it comes to handling difficult passages is to think big. A couple weeks ago I talked about how the Bible is not a bunch of disconnected little stories. In the Bible we have all these little episodes and little stories and minor characters that are all connected to the big story that's being told from Genesis.

through Revelation, all the little characters are pointing back towards the main character of scripture who is Jesus and what God is doing to save humanity and the world from sin. When you're reading any difficult parts of scripture, especially if you're reading some stories that are hard to figure out, how do I apply this? Think big, connect it back to the big story. A lot of times we can make sense of an individual part if we connect it back to the big part.

even if it's not the overall meaning of Scripture, just connect it to the larger context of what you're reading. If there's a parable that you're reading in one of the Gospels that is hard to grasp, just zoom out and look at the context. What is Jesus saying before this parable? What does he say after it? Is he in an argument or debate with the Pharisees or someone else? And then he tells this story. Connect it back to the larger narratives of what's happening there.

what's happening in scripture and a lot of times that will help you to understand how to apply it. Third, use the arrows. If you're struggling to apply a patches of scripture, maybe you didn't start in the right basis of understanding it well. So go back to the arrows, go back to questions one through four and rework through those. Make sure you're grasping them well. And if that provides some illumination to know how to apply it. The last one and very obvious will be asked for help.

If you are reading through a passage, story, parable, prophecy, whatever else it might be, even a psalm or proverb that causes some confusion, and you've done all that you can, you've maybe even read some different resources, ask for help. That's what your church is here for. Come and ask for me to help. I love to help people understand and apply the Bible. That's why I do this. That's why I got into ministry. That's why I started a church. That's my passion.

Talk to one of our other leaders here. Ask for help. It's okay to ask for help. We all struggle. You guys, y 'all would laugh if you know how many times on a Monday morning I open up my Bible to whatever our passage is gonna be for that Sunday. I read the passage and then I say, what in the world am I gonna say? Almost every week, that's how I start my week. I read something and I say, what in the world? Right? We all need help. It takes some time for all this.

So make sure you're applying the Bible correctly. Secondly, we need to make sure that we apply the Bible completely. Correct application is done to the whole person and not just our actions. We want to make sure that we don't start using scripture as like a manual for just behavior modification to say, well, I need to stop doing this and start doing that. When we apply the Bible correctly, we apply it to our whole person and not just what we do.

What I mean by that is we apply it not only to what we do, but to how we think. We apply it to our heart, which means applying to our character, who we are, what we love, what we value. We should apply the Bible to our heart and then also apply it to what we do. Let's work through each one of those. Apply it to what you know, apply it to what you think. Whenever you read a passage of scripture and you're thinking about how to apply it, consider how the passage.

shapes what we know to be true about God and his world. Ask what it means for your thinking of how you think about God. When you read the parable of the prodigal son, for example, probably the most famous of all parables, and you read about how the prodigal son as he is returning home is nervous to see his father after all that he has done. He's rehearsing the speech and he's prepared to say the speech to his father, but before he can barely even utter out the speech,

The father wraps him up and kisses him. He welcomes him home. When you read that story, you shouldn't just try to say, what actions do I need to change? But ask and apply it to your mind. How does this change the way that I think about God? Do I think about God as a loving father who wraps me up in warm welcome every time that I return to him? Or do I usually put off repentance because I'm afraid he's not going to receive me that way?

You see, if I'm afraid he's not gonna receive me that way, I must be thinking about him wrong. I'm thinking that he's not like that father, but the Bible tells me he is like that father. So I need to change the way that I think about God. You see, apply the scripture, not only to your actions, but also to what you think. Am I thinking correctly? Apply it to who you are as a person, to the being that you are. Think about how it changes, not just the way that you think and what you do, but also what you love.

The greatest commandment, we end all of our services over here at Redeemer with this commandment is to love God with all of our heart and mind and to love our neighbors, ourself. You see, the Bible not only says you need to stop doing this and start doing that, it also commands us how we ought to order the loves of our heart, what we ought to love and what we ought to reject. The Bible commands us to love God with our heart and mind.

So the Bible also is applied to and speaks to the core of who we are as a person, our character, our affections, our emotions. So consider how this works out. In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter six, Jesus tells us that we ought to seek the kingdom of God first and everything else be added to us, right? Before that, he talks about how the birds of the air, they don't worry about where their food is gonna come from.

He said, the lilies of the field, they are clothed. They don't worry about where their clothing comes from. And so he says, how much more are you worth to God than the birds of the air, the lilies of the field? And he says, so don't worry. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Don't be worried about what you're going to eat or drink, what you're going to wear, for your father has all of these things in his hand. He says, seek the kingdom first. So we read that passage and it would be wrong for us to just walk away and say, well, don't worry. That's not a good application. We can do better.

We should apply it to our mind. What does it mean? It's telling us that God has my whole life in his hands, right? So we're changing the way that we think. We shift from saying my life is in my hands and operating upon that assumption to my life is in God's hands. We apply it to how we think. But then we also apply it to our heart. From if my life is in my hands and I'm anxious about.

this or that, about what tomorrow holds, about me working hard enough or making the right choices and being driven by that fear and anxiety of me getting things wrong. We apply what Jesus is saying to the heart to say, if my life is not in my hands but in God's hands, well then I can rest in knowing my life is in his hands and under his control. And then that changes the way that we act. Apply the Bible to the whole person, not just,

to what you do and your behaviors, but also to the mind and what you think, to your heart, and then to your actions. Finally, the last one is your actions. Consider what changes in your life a passage is demanding of you. Whenever you do this, do this in prayer. Ask God for his help to reveal to you in your heart how your life doesn't match up with what a passage is saying or what God has and how he's speaking to you in a passage.

to walk nearer to him. Whenever you read any portion of scripture, you need to have this assumption that as you're reading it and you pray to God as you're reading it, the Lord has an invitation for you in that passage, in that moment. I want you to think of it that way. God has an invitation for you. So pray that he might make the invitation obvious. Show me, how do I respond? How do I accept the invitation to walk nearer to you? So we need to apply the Bible correctly.

making sure that our application is connected to the meaning. We need to apply the Bible completely to the whole person. It's not just a manual for changing behaviors, but it transforms us from the inside out, heart, mind and hands. Lastly, we need to apply the Bible consistently. A few things. First, applying the Bible consistently means we need to be reading it and applying it daily. We don't do this just once a week. We don't just do this at.

summer camps we go to or conferences that we attend, we have to do this daily. We need consistent, deep, daily time in God's word. Have you ever had, have you ever eaten a good steak that was marinated or maybe dry aged or seasoned for a time and then it was cooked and you got to eat it and the flavors of that marinade or whatever else that, how it was prepared just soak into the meat and it is delicious through and through.

versus a steak that had no preparation, no seasoning, it was just cooked and then had like barbecue sauce thrown all over it. There's a big difference between the quality of those two steaks, right? One is delicious, the flavors are soaked through and through the other one, just got a surface level treatment. You need to be marinated in God's word. You gotta spend time in God's word. I don't want anyone here to assume that if you take what I'm saying and then you go,

Apply it tomorrow morning, it's immediately going to make the difference. I think sometimes we expect that. So we get excited by hearing a sermon, by hearing a talk at a conference, and we try it out once. We don't see the big effect that was promised to it in that moment. And so we say, I guess it doesn't work for me. And then we move on. You need marinating. You got to sit in the word.

You got to do this in the morning, you got to do it in the evening. You got to do it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, every day of the week for weeks over the course of years. And then the big change happens. It takes time. So apply the Bible consistently, daily, throughout the day. Continue. One way to do this is to continue to meditate on a text even after you've read it. So let's say that.

In the morning, you open up your Bible and you're going through a reading plan and you read whatever is in that plan for that morning. And one of those verses really jumps out at you or it sticks with you. It speaks to you that day. Like I said before, God had an invitation for you and you accepted it. Try to memorize that verse, even if you don't get it perfectly, read it enough so that you can correctly paraphrase it back to yourself. So throughout the day, you can keep thinking on it throughout the day while you're at work, while you're on your lunch break, while you're driving in traffic.

while you're dealing with screaming children in the home, whatever else it is, whenever you get anxious, you can recall that. Recall it to your mind and pray through it. Bring yourself back to it. Think on it. If you can't memorize it, write it down. Write it down on your phone. Write it down on a note card, on a piece of paper you can put in your pocket so that you can recall it throughout the day. Apply the Bible consistently. That means daily, throughout our days, over the course of weeks, months, and years.

Secondly, apply it in community. Throughout this series, I want to, as often as I can, bring us back to the need for community in reading the Bible and applying it well. A lot of what I'm teaching you, you're gonna do like on your own, right? In your quiet time. But it also should be something that we then take with us into the community. In our D groups, in our community groups, and then even on Sunday mornings here. What we are doing is, though I'm the only one speaking right now, we are as a community working.

to understand God's word and apply it to our lives, corporately as a body. But we also do that in our groups. The church was designed by God to be an aid to your application. So we work out application together. We encourage one another to apply it. We perhaps confess when we are struggling. We ask for help whenever we are confused and we speak to one another as God leads us.

That's what the church is here for. The Bible is necessary, first and foremost, in your Christian life. But if you do not pair it with the church, friends, I'm not saying that you're not a Christian, because you're a Christian based upon Jesus' work for you. But boy, you're missing out on like 80%, maybe 90 % of what God has for you in the Christian life. All of that's waiting for you in the community of the church.

That's one of the reasons that we value church membership so much over here at Redeemer. If I can just put in a plug for our next steps class. You see, we view being a part of a church, not as just a casual acquaintance. We don't view being a member of a church just like you would view what grocery store you go to. And you go to that grocery store as long as you get what you want to get out of it. Or as long as you...

make what you feel like is a good return on your investment from how much it costs to get those goods in return. But as soon as that return on the investment doesn't seem worth it, you go to a different grocery store. Whenever it comes to grocery stores, mechanics, or whatever else, that's a good rule to live by. But whenever it comes to your family, you don't do that, right? Parents, you don't view your children that way, as, you know, I'm only going to maintain this relationship as long as the return on investment is good.

No, in fact, whenever it's difficult, whenever you want to be able to sit and just listen to the sermon, but your baby's got other plans, so you've got to get up and walk around with them, right? You don't just go put them outside the door and say, all right, this isn't worth it for me anymore. No, if anything, it makes you dig deeper into those relationships, right?

You and your spouse, I hope you don't view each other that way. Y 'all dig deep and you remain committed even whenever it feels like you're giving a lot more than you're getting. We think that God has called us to a similar type of community in the church. That's why we call it covenantal membership. We don't view it commercially like we would a grocery store or a CPA or a mechanic. We view it as something covenantal, like we view our families, our marriages, our...

our relationship with our children. It's something that we commit to even whenever it feels like we're not getting enough return on our investment, whenever it's difficult, whenever we feel like doing something else, we remain committed to it. But guys, look, we do that not just because we believe that's what God calls us to, but because I've seen over the course of Redeemer here, the change that happens whenever someone goes from being,

marginally committed to wholly committed. And some of you guys in here can attest to that. How whenever we commit, you know, I'm not just gonna follow God on my own anymore and make church something on the periphery of my life. But instead, I'm going to make this community that I'm covenanting to at the core of my life. And I'm going to commit to this body and walk out my relationship with Christ in the context of this body. Amazing things happen, right? And some of you guys here can attest to that.

God gave us the community, He gave us the church to be an aid to that application and our walk with Him. Okay, well, as I predicted, that part took me too long. So as homework, you guys can go and work on application through Psalm 1, Matthew 21, and Colossians 1. Let me just end with this encouragement to you guys. So often in, not just in the church world, but even in the broader world, let me just talk about the church world. So often in the church world, in the Christian world,

We view greatness as those with just spectacular giftings. Maybe they have a spectacular gifting in music as a worship leader, as playing an instrument. Maybe there is a phenomenal speaker who can just capture the attention of thousands of people at once and so on. And we look at these people with spectacular giftings and we say they are the great ones. But friends, it's not necessarily true. We need to change our perspective.

of greatness in the Christian life from the spectacular giftings to greatness is faithfulness. Greatness is faithfulness. I used to think that greatness was, you know, the ones who had the gigantic churches and the spectacular giftings. And I'll tell you, the older that I get, the more and more that I want my greatness to one day just look like those older saints who have been walking with Jesus faithfully for decade after decade.

Maybe on the outside there's nothing impressive about them, but on the inside there's gold, there's treasure. We need to change our perspective. Greatness is faithfulness. Greatness is average men and women who faithfully walk with Jesus for decades and who love God, their families, and their church. How do you do that? How do you achieve that greatness? Reading and applying the Bible. Simply, faithfully, day after day, year after year. Let's pray.

So Father, we thank you that you have given us your word so that through your word, we might know you more. We experience the reconciliation of the gospel.

we receive your invitation to walk nearer to you and to behold your glory. So Father, I ask that through our time in this series, but then also our time individually, our time in our groups of reading and applying the word together, that we might behold your glory to a greater and greater degree, and that by beholding your glory, it will transform us into individuals and community that brings glory to you.

We pray all these things in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.