Chris McCurley: Good morning. So good to see you this morning. There's no place I'd rather be than right here with all of you on a sunny morning. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a dinner where one of my coaching heroes was the speaker. It was Coach K from Duke, Coach Mike Shashefsky. Many of you know that name. He's retired now, but at that time he was in the thick of coaching at Duke. And I got to sit and listen to him tell many stories about his time there. And one particular one struck me. He was talking about a player that he had named Mike Dunleavy Jr. He was a freshman on the team. The team was good that year, but they lost a game mid-season because Mike Dunleavy missed some free throws. And Coach K worried about how the team would react, thinking they might single him out as the reason for losing. decided that he was going to have a turn over the tables moment. So he let the team gather in the dressing room and he stormed in flailing his arms, yelling and screaming. He grabbed a poster that was framed of Carlos Boozer who was on the team. grabbed it off the wall and threw it on the floor and it shattered into a thousand pieces and he looked at him and he said when are you gonna start playing like this guy and he looked at Shane Badier who was an All-American and said when are you gonna pick it up and start playing like the player you're capable of being and he just went down the line every player calling them out making sure that they knew that we win as a team and we lose as a team and it's never just one person's fault And whether we're talking about teams and sports or individuals, it's easy to push automatic pilot and live life mechanically. We call it business as usual. And many of us are engaged in that from day to day. We get up and We shower, we eat breakfast, we get the kids ready for school, we head off to work, we come home, we cook supper, we help the kids with their homework, we get ready for bed, we go to sleep, and we get up the next morning, and we do it all over again. And that is our rhythm. That is our routine. We're carrying on business as usual. But as some of you know, there comes a point maybe where you have one of those turn over the table moments where you're carrying on life as normal, business as usual. and suddenly your chest starts to tighten and you have that shooting pain down your left arm and you go to the hospital and the ER informs you that you're having a heart attack. That grabs your attention. Or maybe you're looking in the mirror and you notice a spot on your skin that doesn't look normal and you don't think much about it. You decide to go to the doctor and the doctor doesn't think much about it, but he sends it off and you find out that it's malignant, that it's life threatening and now all of a sudden, not only are you scared about today, but you're scared about not having a tomorrow. But here's the deal. There is a sense in which interruptions like these can be good. If it brings you clarity, if it helps you to understand what's better, if it stops you dead in your tracks and helps you to focus on what's most important, if it does all those things, then turning over the tables can be a good thing. Sometimes we desperately need a disruption to our rhythm. Our heart gets an arrhythmia and it needs to be shocked. back into place so that it beats for the right things. And that's really what this series has been all about, about living in a godly rhythm, changing our tune if need be so that we live life in a gospel shaped rhythm. Because life is about tempo. We experience different harmonies. It's why we listen to music when we engage in certain activities, because it provides us with background noise to whatever it is that we're doing. It's why we keep a calendar. living in harmony with the seasons. why we schedule things to get in a flow, in a groove, at home or at work. Life is all about rhythm, but not all of our rhythms produce harmony. Unfortunately, many people are living out of sync because they have pitched their lives to the wrong tune. You may know what this is. Yeah, it's a metronome. A metronome is designed to help you keep tempo or keep pace with music or whatever it's used to measure and regulate. And there's a weight on the stem itself. You can lower up and down depending on kind of what tempo or pace you want to keep. And God is our metronome. God's Word is our pitch pipe. It's our tuning fork. And we're striving, at least we should be striving, to live our lives in response to the tempo that he is trying to set by the metronome that is going back and forth, helping us to keep rhythm and time. We find the right key for living life to its fullest when we follow this metronome. It's the disruption, maybe, that we all need to get us back on track. I want you look with me at Luke, Chapter four. Luke, Chapter four, starting in verse thirty one. This is what we read. It says, he, Jesus, came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were amazed at his teaching because his message was delivered with authority. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Leave us alone. What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, it came out of him without doing him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another, saying, What is this message? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the news about him was spreading into every locality of the surrounding region. I want you to take special note of that line. And they were amazed at his teaching because his message was delivered with authority. So apparently these scribes and these Pharisees, as they were teaching, they interjected a lot of their own opinions, the traditions of men, the oral traditions that they came up with, and they believed were as of highest esteem as the law. And so here they are teaching and in comes Jesus who speaks in a way that grabs their attention. Jesus speaks with authority. And they recognized it. know, it's fair season. Scribes kind of remind me of people who have mastered the art of saying nothing. Well, you know, people like that. Maybe you've heard teachers or preachers like that. They stand up and when they get done, you think, wow, that was eloquent. That was beautiful. But what did he say again? What were they saying? Because they never land the plane. They mastered the art of saying nothing. Well, that's how. I think of these scribes and these Pharisees as they're teaching and in comes Jesus and he starts speaking with authority because his words were not his words. They came from God and he was repeating them and they screamed authority. But it's not just the words of Jesus that were authoritative. It's the fact that he is the word. The word was giving the people the word. Jesus is the will of God in person and he came to show us What God looks like, he came to reveal the heart of God. Jesus is God's word, God's message embodied for us to hear and to see. He teaches through words and through actions. He articulates and demonstrates the very heart of God. is, is God's show and tell. You might remember in John chapter six, Jesus gives this sermon about how he is the bread of life and anyone who eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. and hordes of people were following him. And after he finished that sermon, many of them left and Jesus doesn't chase them down. He doesn't track them down and say, hey, come back. We can talk about this. He doesn't twist their arm. He doesn't say, hey, we can reach a compromise here. Let's negotiate a little bit. Just don't run off. No, he lets them leave. And he even turns to his apostles and says, basically, you can leave too. And Peter responds with Lord to whom shall we go? I mean, you have the words of life, right? Jesus had just finished pointing out to the crowd that he was the bread of life. And remember, in Jewish teaching and Jewish mindset, ⁓ bread meant teaching. And so when a rabbi sat down to teach, he was going to give you the bread of life. He was going to get to the core of the subject. Jesus. was the teacher. He was the bread, but he was also the teaching. He was the word. Peter had it right when he stated you have the words of life. But not only does he have the words of life, he was the word of life. His teaching. Was a manifestation. Of the words coming from God. It was God's word with skin on it, right? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. Have you ever noticed the parallels in the Bible between Jesus and the word of God? You see it over and over again. Here's some examples. Jesus is life. The word of God is life. Jesus is light in a world darkness, so is God's Word. Those who receive Christ receive eternal life. Those who receive God's Word do the same. Jesus was full of grace and truth. The pages of God's Word are filled with grace and truth. No one has ever seen God, but they've seen Jesus. if they've seen God revealed through Jesus and through the Word, then they've seen all of that, right? Jesus came to reveal the Father. Is that not what God does? Is he reveals himself? Through his word and through his son, Jesus came as the word incarnate, meaning that God gave his word a face and a body and a manifestation, and he brought a new word from God, one that would be written down and shared for generations to come and one that would quite literally change the world. But I say all of that to say this, and I think this is highly important for us to understand and internalize is to be Bible based is not to be people of the print, but to be people of the person and stick with me on this because we're going to tie this together so that hopefully it makes more sense. But there are a lot of people, lot of Christians in fact, that have an intimate relationship with God's Word, but not so much with God, believe it or not. They carry a Bible that is old and worn out and it has lot of underlining and highlighting and circling in it, which is absolutely fantastic. But in their knowledge of God's word, they have failed to recognize that that word is pointing to a relationship with a person. And that's what it's all about. We're not people of the print. We're people of the person. John didn't state in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God and the word became print on a page and dwelt among us, at least among those of us who are literate and educated. And then it was printed and made thousands of copies and pass along. That's not what John says. Let us not forget that people of the Word means the Word in flesh. Are we Christ followers or are we Bible followers? Well, we're both, right? We should be anyway. But may we never forget that the truth that sets men free is not merely doctrine. It's not a what, it's a who. The print points to a person. John 5, 39 and 40. You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is those very Scriptures that testify about me. And yet you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. Jesus says you're missing it. He's telling these religious leaders you're missing it. You've missed the whole point. You're using the Bible as a legal document. You're using the old law. The scriptures in the Old Testament, as we call it, you're using them as a legal document. And the whole purpose of the old law was to point to a person. Jesus Christ. The old law was meant to be a stepping stone, not an end. Jesus never tells these scribes and Pharisees to stop studying the Scriptures. He never tells them that. But He does tell them, you're reading it incorrectly. You're not using it for the purpose that it was given. It was meant to point to me. They were using Scripture as a code of conduct. as a protocol. This happens when we fail to comprehend that the Bible is not a standalone document. It's not a rule book. It's not a proof text for your arguments. It's not Siri. It's not a manual for how to get to heaven. The Bible is an autobiography about God. It's a story about God written by God and all of scripture functions to point to Jesus. We could boil it down like this. The Bible presents us with one problem. See it. It presents us with one villain, the devil. It presents us with one theme, redemption. It presents us with one hero, Jesus. And it presents us with one purpose, which is to glorify God. You might remember what Paul stated to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter three. All scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training and righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. Doctrine, which is teaching. What is right? Reproof what is not right. Correction, how to get right. Training in righteousness, how to stay right. That is the purpose of scripture as laid out by Paul to Timothy. And many Christians have a relationship with the word of God. They read it, they study it, they've memorized verses. Some know it like the back of their hand. But you've heard me say this over and over again. It doesn't matter how much you know if you don't do anything with it. It's not what you know, it's what you do with what you know. Don't idolize the Bible. Do think you can do that? I absolutely believe you can. You can make an idol out of Scripture. When you fail to recognize that it's not just about memorizing or about using it as a weapon or about winning arguments and things of that nature, it all points to Jesus. be Bible-based means that you take the Bible for what it is. You internalize it, you ingest it, and you allow it. to transform you because these are the words of life and they are pointing to a person. Notice what is written in Ezekiel chapter three, starting in verse one. Then he said to me, son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he fed me this scroll and he said to me, son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with the scroll which I am giving you. Then I ate it. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth. Now, Ezekiel is told to devour this scroll, to eat it all, eat it up, even though it contains lament and woe, ingest all of it, and it will be sweet as honey, which indicates that regardless of its content, it's ultimately beneficial in life giving. And of course, the act of Ezekiel eating the scroll is symbolic of him taking in every word and. allowing it to change him because you are what you eat, right? And the more you eat good things, the more that it's going to produce good in your body, the more the healthier you're going to be. You get the concept. Unfortunately, many Christians feel completely lost when it comes to studying God's word. Where do I even start? How do I even ingest this book? How do I process it? so that it sticks. And I think the first thing that we need to do if we're going to understand Bible study is determining what kind of animal you are. Because we're all different animals when it comes to how we approach Bible study. And whatever type of animal you are is going to determine your feeding pattern. For instance, You may be an early bird. Early birds are the ones who like to get up early in the morning. First thing, they read their Bible, they get in solitude and have a cup of coffee. They read and they pray because that is how they want to start their day. People like me, they want to start their day off with the word of God and prayer that just sets the tone for the rest of the day. Early birds, like the rhythm, of an early morning study session because it sets the tone. It sets the tune for the rest of the day. Not everybody's like this, and that's OK. Some are night outs. And they're not ours because they can't imagine. up first thing in the morning and studying scripture, they can't imagine doing anything first thing in the morning. My wife gets up every morning and runs five miles. That would be torture for me. The last thing I want to do first thing in the morning is run. I work out in the afternoon. Not al's get with their Bible at night because that's when they had the most energy. That's when they feel the most alive and so they like to study at night. dig into God's Word when it's fresh. But maybe you're not an early bird, maybe you're not a night owl, maybe you're a cow. And that is not to admit that is not meant to be mean or harsh. Being a cow when it comes to Bible study is actually a good thing. Cows grace. They graze through scripture. Until they find something to chew on. Cows have multiple stomachs and they they bring food up and they chew it and bring it back down and some folks are like that with Bible study. Throughout the day they just kind of grades. It would be great if. if you could find some time to be still and be alone with God. Maybe they do, but for the most part, they are grazing through the day. They graze through scripture until they find something to chew on. They write it down, they circle it, they highlight it, they bring it back up, they chew on it some more until they feel like they understand it, and then they just keep grazing. Maybe you're a cow. Maybe you're a python. Pythons eat one big meal, and then they don't eat for a while. And maybe you're like that with Bible study. You take a big chunk instead of small bites. It's a rather unorthodox way to do Bible study. But again, it's not wrong. At least you're studying. It would be best. If you studied every day. But some folks are not wired that way, and so they take in a big chunk and they chew on it all week. They let it digest all week and then they come back and do it all over again. Or maybe you're a bat. You know bats. read out loud. They listen to the Bible on their phone in their car. Bats are animals that are basically blind and so they use location, echolocation to find food. They're basically blind so they rely on hearing to survive. And when it comes to Bible study, bats use a learning style that is more of having it read aloud to them or reading it aloud. Some folks They dig into a book of any kind, not just the Bible, and they can't really process it. They're not readers. They read and then they have to reread it three or four times because it just doesn't sink in. But if they hear it read aloud or if they read it aloud to themselves, it sticks better. And again, that's perfectly fine. There's not just one way to do this. But then finally, you might have an anteater. And anteaters are driven by the things that bug them. Ant eaters like bugs. And so they go after the bugs. And maybe you're like that in Bible studies. Something's bugging you and you start searching the Scriptures diligently to try to find the answer until it stops bugging you. And maybe you go down a bunch of different rabbit holes along the way, but you chase these bugs that are eating away at you. You tend to have a lot of questions. You often start by seeking a passage or seeking an answer. to a question found in a passage and you work your way outward. Whatever type of animal you are, that type of animal will determine your feeding schedule and your feeding pattern. But it's important to understand that Bible study is not one size fits all. You may have been told all your life that the only way to really do this is to get up in the morning, find a place of solitude and start reading your Bible and read it every day until you get through it in a year. And that's just not true. There's many different ways to attack this. As long as you are seeking to eat, as long as you're hungry, how you go about it, there's different ways. It's not a one size fits all. There are many ways to approach this. So don't get discouraged when you feel like, you know, I'm not one of those early birds or I'm not a not owl or I'm not a bat. Find what works for you. Just do it. Just eat. You eat every day multiple times a day. You eat for pleasure. You also eat for nourishment. The same applies to God's Word. Eat it up in just these words and devour them and let them fill you until you become them because you are what you eat. Now, any lesson on Bible study really doesn't do you any good unless we talk about practical application. So we know it's needed. You know that there are different types of animals when it comes to approaching God's Word and how we feed. What are some practical things that we can do or that we can implement when it comes to Bible study? Here's the first one. Pray. Read. Stop. Pray. Read some more. Do you pray your way through Bible study? My fear is that many times with these year long Bible reading plans is we're trying to get through them. You got chunks that you have to read each day in order to get through the Bible in a year. And so we just read so we can check it off our list. If that's you, don't do a year long Bible reading plan. If it's hindering you from ingesting it fully and understanding it, then don't do it year long. There's nothing that says you have to. I mean, if it takes you a year just to go through the book of Genesis, it takes you a year just to go through Genesis one. That's OK. But pray through it. God, help me to understand. Help me to to internalize this. Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law. Psalm 119 and verse 18. If all scriptures, God breathed, then it stands to reason that we should seek God's help and guidance and understanding what he's trying to communicate to us. So that's the first thing I would say is pray. Secondly, you knew this was coming. Read bigger chunks. We have a tendency. We've had a tendency through the years to hunt and peck our way through scripture to proof text our way through scripture. We just find those really important verses right and we key in on those. ripping it out of context, not really considering the whole. A verse can seem to have an obvious meaning on the surface until you read it in context and understand that what you thought it meant is not really what it meant at all. And if you want to be a better Bible student, don't use a verse to prove a point unless the entire book supports that point, right? Secondly, ask better questions. We tend to ask this question when it comes to Bible study. What does the Bible say about blank? It's whatever we want to know. We fill in the blank with that. What does the Bible say about blank? And we try to answer that question by searching the scriptures for a verse or verses that seem to answer our question. And then we attempt to harmonize all the verses that we have found into a cohesive answer to the question. And this isn't horribly wrong. Sometimes it's adequate, but there is a better way. There is a big difference between deductive Bible study and inductive Bible study. Deductive Bible study is where you begin with an assumption that the Bible actually addresses the question you're asking. It may, it may not. All too often the answer to the question, what does the Bible say about blank is nothing. And yet we try to make it say something. The better question is what does the Bible say? What is God trying to say? Right? The Bible probably doesn't specifically address the question that you're asking. The better form of Bible study is inductive. And with inductive Bible study, you don't start with your own question. You begin with the text and you let it inform you of your questions and what they should be. So inductive Bible study has three steps. Observation. What does it say? Interpretation. What does it mean? An application. What does it mean for me? Observation application. Observation, interpretation, application. Here are some better questions that we could ask from the text. Who is saying this? To whom is it being said? What does the author mean by this? Why did he say that? What does this word mean? Why does he keep using this word or phrase over and over again? These are better questions instead of just starting with an assumption like, what does the Bible say about whatever topic I want it to say? Let the text inform you. If you do that, you will probably discover that many of your original questions are irrelevant. Fourth, seek understanding before application. I think we do this way too often. We jump to application before we have complete understanding and comprehension. Don't jump to application too quickly. We tend to believe that the scriptures are speaking directly to us. And you've heard me say this over and over again. The Bible was not written to you. It was written for you. And while there is definitely application for us to be made, there is an original audience. This was written to somebody else at a specific time dealing with specific circumstances. And then before you jump to application, figure all that out. Who is the audience? What is being addressed? What are the circumstances surrounding this? And then we jump to how can I claim this? How does this apply to me? Don't assume that every verse of the Bible is equally applicable to everyone today. Determine what the passage meant to the original audience before you start applying it to your life. Because every word of Scripture does have value, but no piece of Scripture is applicable without first understanding it in its original context. And finally, I would say read communally. This is so important. For the first 1500 years of Christianity, the Bible was read in communion as a church family. And we've gotten away from that. Find a friend or a group of friends that you can read the Bible with. Read communally. It's good to have an accountability partner. It's good to have somebody with you to say, yeah, I don't know that it means that. What about this? And you talk through it and you try to figure out what it means for you. We need other voices in the room besides our own. So find a friend, maybe it's your spouse or a sibling that can regularly meet with you and discuss what you're reading. I know we do that well here with our connect groups and with Iron Sharpens Iron and even in our assemblies. But if you're studying on your own, completely, totally without any sort of input from anyone on the outside, that can be an issue. And I know I said five, but here's a bonus. Be humble. You don't know everything. And you don't have to know everything. It's fine to be convicted. It's fine to have convictions about certain things. In fact, you should. Be convicted. Don't be a jerk. And too many people, too many Christians in fact, have taken the Word of God, they've studied it, they've internalized it, and it's turned them into something that God never intended for them to be. Which is just mean, callous, argumentative, a jerk. You've heard me say it before, first rule of Christianity, first rule of discipleship. Don't be a jerk. Be humble. Be willing to learn. Be willing to think about concepts that you have heard and thought about for long time and thought you made up your mind about. Be willing to read the Bible with fresh eyes and an open mind. The Word of God should make you more like the Word. What is revealed in these pages should point you to a person. And if you're ingesting this book doesn't cause you to be more like Jesus, then you're not reading it correctly. Leave the door open to the possibility that you may be wrong or that maybe you need to do more study. I would close like this, asking you a question. Are you a butterfly or a bumblebee? Because when it comes to Bible study, one is more preferable than the other. Which one are you? Butterflies are beautiful. They're majestic. They have these beautiful markings. But butterflies dance from flower to flower, and they just stay on the surface. Bumblebee is a worker. A bumblebee is willing to dig deep into that flower and go as deep as it needs to to get what it's after. Nothing's going to stop it from getting what it needs to get. The butterfly is aesthetically pleasing. She's pretty. She bounces from flower to flower in a very majestic way. That bumblebee is a little more hardcore, but he gets it done. And we all should be bumblebees when it comes to Bible study. Willing to dig as deep as possible to get what God is saying. God is speaking. The question is, are you listening? What is He trying to say? And will you apply that to your life? Can we help you this morning? If you've got a need. If you'd like to study this word with you with someone, we can certainly set that up. If you'd like to know more about discipleship, we can talk about that. If you'd like to, you know, have the prayers of this church family or if maybe you've thought about discipleship and you know that you are ready and you want to be baptized for the mission of your sins. And certainly we can take care of that this morning. Steve has a song. Why don't you come as we stand and as we sing?