How to Study Your Bible

3:23 I'm sold. Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to 2 Timothy chapter 2 this morning for a different kind of a message. 2 Timothy chapter 2. We're going to be looking at one verse in particular. 2 Timothy chapter 2. we're going to be looking at verse 15 but let me give you just a little bit of context Paul is writing to Timothy it is Paul's last letter we believe before he dies he tells Timothy to take the truths that Paul has taught him and teach them to other young leaders that can pass them on also to other people. In verse 14 of chapter 2, he says, remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit or to the ruin of the hearers.

4:34 Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God. The old King James says, study to show yourself approved to God. Here, be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. I'd like to begin this morning with a riddle by way of illustration. I would like a job as your tutor, your teacher, and the advisor to your family. I'll never take a vacation. I don't drink or smoke. I won't borrow your clothes or raid your refrigerator. I'll be up in the morning as early as anyone in the house, and I'll stay up as late as anyone wants. I'll help solve problems. I'll give you the satisfaction knowing that no question your children ask will go unanswered. For that matter, I'll answer any of your questions on subjects that range from how we got here to where are we headed. I'll help settle bets and differences of opinion. I'll give you information to help with your job, family, and all your other interests. In short, I'll give you the knowledge that will ensure the continued success of your family. I am your Bible. Do I get the job?

6:07 my staff asked me to do a special message this weekend in light of that vision and Jesus people grow. They wanted me to touch on how to study the Bible, how to study the Bible. So we interrupt this regular program for a special announcement, and that is this message. Now, as you already know, My whole life has been dedicated to this idea. The first book I wrote, How to Study Your Bible and Enjoy It, was done, I think, in the late 80s, early 1990s. Every week, week in and week out, Wednesday nights, I have devoted myself to teaching people Scripture. It's what I love to do. It's what I think pastors are called to do. but my real success would be in not just teaching people the bible but teaching people how to teach themselves the bible how to fish for yourself in effect now the challenge for me is to do that in one message because what we're talking about is an entire course called hermeneutics i'm not going to even get into what that means, but there is an approach to breaking down a text of Scripture so that you walk away with a real, complete, and accurate understanding of that text. I am only going to scratch the surface. The first question is, why should we even study the Bible? Why should we do it? Well, you know the answer to that. You would tell me because it is God's Word, that's why. It is God's book, that's why. And I have a hunch that you believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, the theonoustos, breathed by the Lord Word of God, that it is inspired, that it is inerrant, that it is infallible. To put a fine point on it,

8:14 It's what Peter said. It gives us everything that pertains to life and godliness. Everything that pertains to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us. That is, it warns us about everything we should stay away from. It commends to us everything that will increase our joy, happiness, and spiritual success. Everything that pertains to life and godliness. us. The permanent expression of God's heart to your heart has come in writing.

8:53 God wrote a book. Yes, he used human authors to do it. He certainly superintended their writing. Yes, their personalities are all seen on the pages of the text, but behind it all, the Holy Spirit moved holy men to write and to speak. And I can say it works. That's the great thing about being a pastor is I know my product works. I know the teaching of the Bible works. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul said, the word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. The Amplify Bible renders that it exercises superhuman power in those who adhere to, trust in, and rely on it. One of the most effective claims of the Bible is that it will change people. It will change individuals. It will in turn change families. It will in turn change cultures and countries.

10:02 In the book of Isaiah, God speaks through the prophet and says, For as the rain comes down and snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth in bud that it might give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. The product works. The Bible works. It's not like the vacuum salesman who comes to the door of a woman out in the country and comes with his high intensity spiel to sell his product. He kind of barges his way into her house. She's out in the middle of the country and says, ma'am, this vacuum cleaner is the greatest thing you've ever seen. It'll take up anything that's on your floor.

11:01 And then he goes over to her fireplace, gets dust and ashes out of the fireplace, throws it on her white carpet and says, if this vacuum doesn't take every bit of dirt from your carpet, I'll personally eat it with a spoon. And she smiles and says, you better start eating because we ain't got no electricity. aren't you glad there's power behind all the promises that are in the Bible? We are plugged in to a power source. The promises given are plugged into the character, the nature of God himself. And so we tell people to get a Bible. We tell people to read the Bible. We tell people to study the Bible. The problem is we tell people to study the Bible, but many feel adrift. How do I exactly study this book? And some of us, as sort of alluded to in the videos, we kind of start the year with good intentions, don't we? Okay, it's a new year, new resolution.

12:04 I'm going to read through the Bible. So January is awesome because I'm in Genesis. And February is equally as cool because it's narrative. It's the book of Exodus. And then March is a little dicey because now I'm in Leviticus. And, you know, by April, book of numbers, I'm tapping out. It's quite a task to just approach it that way. So what I'd like to do is briefly look with you at one verse and kind of give you a little kind of inspirational template to this, being the right attitude, the right action, and the right approach. Those three items. The right attitude we need to have, the right action we need to take, the right approach we need to employ. So look at verse 15 once again. Be diligent to present yourself, approve to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. First, we need the right attitude. If this book is ever going to be more than a book, we need the right attitude. And what is the right attitude? Paul says, be diligent. Be diligent. The word is spudazo. Spudazo means eager. You're ready to work.

13:29 You are eager to give your best effort to something. And the fact that it says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God. Then it says, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Now that shows me that you are, you're ready to work. You show up to work. And so what this all tells me is you got to want it. That's your attitude. You have to want it. There are some people that have absolutely no desire to read the Bible. It's the last thing on their list to do. That would be an unsaved person. If you were to give me a Bible before I was saved and said, hey, you want to read this? I would have flatly said, no way. No way. I have no interest at all in reading or understanding this book. Of course, things dramatically changed after I came into a relationship with God. But I didn't want to at first. And that's because the Bible says the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Now, with most of you, that is not the problem. You're a church. You put clothes on, got in a car, brushed your teeth, put some kind a nice cologne or perfume on to show up with a Bible. You want it. You have a desire for it. In fact, let's just take a little survey again. How many of you brought a Bible with you? If you brought it, throw it up in the air. Throw it up in the air. Let's just look around at that beautiful sight of a Bible. Okay. Now, you carried it to church. Some people carry the Bible wherever they go. You don't do that with a math book.

15:20 you don't do that with a science text. You don't do that with a history book. You do it with a Bible. Why? Because you know this book is different. This book can do what no other book can do. All that pertains to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us. Psalm 19, David said, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony This book is different. the first time I carried my Bible to church, I may have told you this, it was the church I grew up in. I had just gotten saved by watching Billy Graham on television. I knew I needed a Bible. I got one. I started reading it. I knew I needed to go to church. The only church I knew was St.

16:21 Joan of Arc Church, the Catholic church that I grew up in. So I show up at church with my Bible in hand. It was a brown Bible like this one, not this one, but I have the original one. And I'm carrying it in church. I get stopped by an usher who actually looked at me and said, what are you bringing that thing in here for?

16:42 Can you imagine that question being asked in a church? What are you doing bringing that thing in here for? Really? What am I supposed to bring? A coloring book? This is the voice of God. This is how God speaks. God speaks through what he has spoken. So our attitude should be to be diligent, eager to give our best effort. Now on this little topic of attitude, I want you to turn with me to a book of the Bible. Turn to Psalms in the Bible that you brought. Psalm, the longest chapter in the Bible. Do you know what it is? Psalm 119. Turn to Psalm 119. It is the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses. It occupies six pages in this particular Bible that I brought this morning.

17:39 Six pages. Psalm 119 is called an acrostic psalm. That is, you have eight stanzas that all begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Then you have eight more stanzas that begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And it goes all the way through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Bab, Zion, Het, Tet, Yod, all the way through. So it was used in ancient times to teach children the Hebrew alphabet. It's quite a psalm to teach kids the alphabet. So I want you to just notice the attitude of the author, David, in this case, towards Scripture. Go to verse 9 with me in Psalm 119.

18:37 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. With my whole heart I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies. as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. Now we're gonna skip a lot. Go over to verse 97 now. You have to probably turn a page like I did. Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love your law. Listen, it is my meditation all the day.

19:33 You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your word. I have not departed from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. A few verses down, verse 111. Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. Verse 145. Don't worry, we're almost done.

20:34 Verse 145. I cry out with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord. I will keep your statutes. I cry out to you, save me, and I will keep your testimonies. I rise before the dawning of the morning and cry for help. I hope in your word. How's that for attitude towards scripture? That's the right attitude. That's the be diligent, be eager. that's the right attitude. I don't know if you've heard the name George Mueller, but George Mueller was a man of faith. Over a century ago in England, the Bristol orphanage, he took care of hundreds, thousands of children off the streets, believing God for the provisions completely by faith, very successful. But this is what he said. George Mueller wrote this, quote, the vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. I solemnly state this from the experience of 54 years. The first three years after conversion, I neglected the Word of God. Since I began to search it diligently, the blessing has been wonderful. Great has been the blessing from consecutive, diligent, daily study. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the word of God. That's attitude. That's the right attitude. There must be a hunger. It's never going to work unless you have a hunger for it. Only hungry people eat. People who aren't hungry don't eat. People who aren't hungry for truth don't read it. Somebody will say, well, look, I've already read it. I've read through the Bible before. How many times do I have to read Noah and the ark? Been there, done that. Well, that's sort of like saying, you know, I got apples off that tree last year. I can't imagine that I could get apples off that tree this year. You know how many times I've gone through

22:41 the same text of scripture and got something new out of it? Because the word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is always producing fruit, but you got to be hungry. I love the story about the gal who bought a book that she saw in a store. It was recommended to her. She bought the book, took it home, started reading this book. After a few pages, she put it down because it was boring to her. But then one day, that young gal met the author, struck up a conversation with him, became a friend with him, started a romantic relationship with the author. And then she went home and said, where is that book? And she started reading that book and it was the best thing she ever read. What changed? Relationship. Love changed. Love is now the interpreter of that book. She knows the author. The two disciples that we often talk about on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus, remember, just showed up, just poof, here he is. Walks alongside of them and expounded to them in the scriptures all the things concerning himself, they said, did not our hearts burn within us?

24:02 As he spoke to us, the burning of the heart in the voice of God comes when you have a relationship with the author. That's the right attitude. That's the right attitude. Be diligent. Second is the right action. The right action is also given in the same verse. Be diligent. here it is, to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Now, when you hear that little phrase, present yourself, when I hear it, my mind immediately goes to Romans chapter 12, where Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your body to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. So once our attitude is right, we then present ourselves. We show up for the process. We now make time for the process. That's the right action.

25:05 You got to set aside time for this. It is my belief that the first part of the day is the best part of the day for this. Now, not everybody's the same. This is just my belief. Some people have a better attention span at night. I can't imagine that after a workday, but some people do. We're all wired differently. I kind of think of it this way. The first part of my income belongs to God. The first part of my week belongs to God. And the first part of my day belongs to God. My mind is fresh in the morning. I get up early before anybody else. I quickly walk my dog. I then sit down in a chair, open my Bible, and it's God and me as I search his word.

25:54 If I spend the first part of my day with the Lord, I find that the rest of my day goes better and further. Now, you might be thinking, well, I've heard this before, but who has that kind of time? You don't know my schedule. I'm very overworked and overcommitted. Plus, I have kids and grandkids, and I've signed up for a bazillion things. well, I'm not going to argue with you, but I am going to tell you this. All of us make time for what we think are important things.

26:32 You might have a hobby. You'll make time for that. It might be a sporting event you like to watch on TV. You will make time for that. It might be a date night because you think that's important, you'll make time for that. We make time for what we think is important. If you're too busy to spend time with God, you're too busy. You're too busy. You say, well, the Bible is a big book. You're right. But I've told you this before. It would take 70 hours, seven zero hours to read from Genesis 1 all the way to the end of Revelation, 70 hours if you were to read it aloud at a moderate pace. 70 hours. That's 52 hours in the Old Testament. That's 18 hours in the New Testament.

27:27 Take that down to every day. That's one hour and 20 minutes per week or 16 minutes per day if you do it five days a week. Only 11 minutes a day if you do it seven days a week. 11 minutes a day. I'm not going to ask you if God is worth 11 minutes because I know the answer I would get. Okay, so Bible study, right? We have the right attitude. We show up. So we're going to study the Bible. What do you need first if you're going to study the Bible? You need a Bible. You need a Bible. Now, I'm just going to make this case. I've made it before. You need a real not a fake, a real physical Bible. And here's why you need one. Here's why you need one. A real physical Bible limits distractions. You know what? This is a Bible. It's all it is.

28:33 it's not a Bible and a phone and the internet and Instagram and eBay. It is, it is indistractable, indistractable. I can't, I can't get a notification on it unless it's the Holy Spirit saying, read that verse again. So I need a real physical Bible because it limits distractions. Number two, you need a real physical Bible because it limits translation choices. Now hear me out here. When I have the Bible app open on my phone, I have literally hundreds of Bible translations, and that can be a good thing sometimes. When I pick this up, the choice is already made for me. I am limited to this translation. It's easier to focus on what I'm reading in just one translation. It's easier to memorize something in one translation.

29:34 By the way, if you're going to get a Bible that you read every day, get a real translation. A real translation. There's a lot of paraphrases that can be good and can be helpful, like the message. It's called the message by Eugene Peterson. That is not a Bible translation. That's a little commentary. That's somebody else's idea of what they think would sound good for you to understand what's behind the text. That is not a Bible translation. The living Bible, not a real Bible translation. The New Living Translation is a translation. So get a real translation, one that you will stick with and read. Number three, a real physical Bible will teach you the structure of the Bible. What do I mean? Well, you can't turn to the book of Philippians unless you know where Philippians is. see if you just have this you're going to just going to scroll down and find Philippians and tap it you have no idea where that is in terms of the history and the layout of the scripture number four a real physical bible makes a statement now I will often carry my bible to a restaurant to a coffee shop and when I do I don't do it to like look who I am but it does make a statement because people recognize this book, right? They go, well, that's not a history book. That's a Bible, isn't it? Yeah. This makes a statement of where my authority lies, what I am under in my life. And I find it, it's an opportunity to share my faith because some people will go, hey, that's a Bible, right? You read that Bible. And so it just opens up conversations I have discovered. A quick little story. I was reading this week about a young pastor who was on a mission trip with his youth group. Another leader was teaching that night a session, a Bible study. This youth pastor had his phone and Bible app and was following along,

31:41 and he was taking notes while the speaker was speaking. But what do you think of when you see a guy over in the corner doing this while a Bible study is going on? You think he's texting somebody, right? So a leader next to him elbowed him and said, put your phone down. This is a Bible study. He goes, I know. I'm on my Bible app. I'm taking notes. But to students looking at that leader across the room, they just automatically get distracted by that and think, that guy's like our leader and not even on the same page. So it does make a statement. Let me give you a fifth reason why a real physical Bible is important. It grows as you grow.

32:23 You buy a Bible, it's clean, it's pristine, but after a while it gets marked up. It gets underlined. Notes appear in the margin. You put things in it that are important to you that you find, notes, et cetera, et cetera. Your Bible will grow with you. And it gets all marked up over time. It gets all dog-eared over time. And it is a spiritual journey or journal of your spiritual journey. And that's good for you to look back on from time to time. Number six, and I'll make this quick. A physical Bible leaves a legacy.

32:59 I have the early Bibles that I started with. I like to go back to them. oh, I remember that night when I read that and this spoke to me and where I was and what changes happened in my life. I then want to pass that on to kids and grandkids. I happen to have a couple Bibles from ministry leaders who have died and their family gave me their Bible and I can see what was important to them as well. Number seven, and this won't be important to some, but I threw this in because this is kind of a skip thing. A physical Bible is multi-sensory. There's a feel to a real Bible. There's a smell. Oh, you open up a new Bible box, smell that leather? Come on. It's no better smell than that. There's a feel, there's a smell, and there's a sound to it when people turn Bible pages. You know when I say turn in your Bibles too and I hear that going around. I've got to record that and play it back.

34:03 In other words, you have a physical relationship with a real Bible. And then finally, number eight, a physical Bible requires no battery. If your Bible's on your phone, cool. But have you ever been in a place where your battery dies on your phone? So if you're looking up a verse and your battery's dead, you don't get the verse. this comes with batteries. No battery required, actually. All analog.

34:35 So the right attitude, the right action. Now let me talk about the right approach. The right approach. And the right approach is also mentioned in verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Here is the approach. rightly dividing the word of truth rightly dividing the word of truth that's a phrase that literally means to cut it straight to cut it straight it was a word that was used of farmers who would look at a field and cut a straight line to build a furrow to plant seeds it was used of stonemasons to get a straight line to put their bricks down. And it was used of tent makers. And Paul was a tent maker. And he had to cut leather and cloth straight to patch those pieces together to make a tent. So the right approach is to rightly divide the word of truth. Why is this important? Because some people butcher it and cut it like this and cut out a little verse here and cut out a little verse there and throw a little verse from over there and they push it all together and that's what they believe. By the way, some preachers do the same thing.

35:56 So rightly dividing the word of truth. This is now the study part. So what do we do? This is the practical part. What do we do? First, we pray. First, we pray like David in Psalm 119, open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. That's our prayer. Open my eyes. Speak, Lord, your servant hears. So we want to pray before we read this book. R.W. Dale said, Study without prayer is atheism.

36:31 Prayer without study, no. study without prayer is atheism. Prayer without study is presumption. That's it. You're just presuming. Okay. So what do we do? Here's the three words. And if you are taking notes, write these down. Observation, interpretation, application. That's how you study the Bible. Observation, interpretation, application. You read any text, you read any chapter, you make an observation. Based on what you observe, you make an interpretation. Based upon how you interpret it, now you make an application to your personal life. Those are the three steps you need to take. Most people just open the Bible and immediately go to step number three. They think, what does this mean to me personally? You really can't do that until you know what it meant to the original audience.

37:28 You can't know what it meant to the original audience until you observe a few things in the text to make that assertation. So you observe, you interpret, you apply. Three pretty easy steps to do. Does not take long to do it. Observation, I open my eyes. I'm noticing things. Interpretation, I open my mind as I piece things together. Application, I open my heart and apply them to my life. We'll begin with the first. Open your eyes. This is observation. Now, when you're reading a Bible text, ask basic journalistic questions. You know what they are. You know what newspaper reporters are told to do. Who, what, when, where, why, how? Just ask those questions in the text. So let me give you a text as an example.

38:20 Don't even have to turn to it because I know you know it. John chapter 4, the story of Jesus going to the well of Samaria, meeting the woman, right? He goes to the well of Samaria, sits down. A woman shows up. Jesus says, give me a drink. She says, how can you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman? They have a conversation. Jesus gets a little bit deeper. Her answers are real short and curt and brusque till Jesus finally says, hey, go call your husband. And she goes, I don't have a husband. Jesus says, you're right, you don't. No, he didn't say it that way. You're right, you don't have a husband. You've actually had four husbands. in your past. And right now you're living with a guy who's not your husband. And she just goes, whoa. I don't know if she actually said, whoa, but she gets suddenly very religious at that point.

39:13 And she says, our fathers worship in this mountain. You say Jerusalem is the place that somebody ought to worship. Jesus said, actually, none of that matters. The hour is coming when God is looking for people to worship in spirit and in truth, not in a particular place. God is looking for those kind of worshipers. And then she says, well, I know that one day the Messiah is going to come. And when he comes, he's going to reveal all things. Jesus said, I'm him. I'm him. I'm the guy. So that's the story. Okay. So we're reading that story. We make observation. We ask basic journalistic questions. Who? Who is involved? Answer, Jesus is involved. Samaritan woman is involved. Keep reading. Disciples are involved. They get sent away into the other town. Later on, the villagers are involved as they hear what has happened. That's the who. When? When does all this take place? Well, it says in verse 1 of chapter 4, when Jesus knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus had made and baptized more disciples than John the Baptist, even though he didn't baptize them, but his disciples did, he left Judea to go to Galilee. So that's when it happened.

40:33 Where is the next question? Where does all this take place? In a region called Samaria, in a town of Samaria called Sychar, at a very famous geographical spot, a well dug by Jacob. Next question, what? What's going on here? Answer, Jesus sends the disciples away to buy food. He sits at a well. Why? So we can get alone with a woman who's about to show up. It's an opportunity for him to speak into her life. Next question, how? How does Jesus approach her? He approaches her with a very simple question or request. Give me a drink. her answers, as I said, are short and curt and brusque. So he goes deeper, touches a nerve. Next question is why? Why is Jesus there? And we go back to verse four of chapter four of John, and it says Jesus is going from Judea to Galilee, but he first needed to go through Samaria.

41:42 so now we discover this is not a coincidental stopover this is a pre-planned event so i'm just noticing all this as i as i notice it i'm making little notes are there any repeated words in the text well yes samaria samaritan samaritans often repeated seven times the word drink, drinking living water, drinking water from the well, is mentioned six times.

42:14 Worship is mentioned frequently. Are there any peculiar words in the text? Well, the word Messiah shows up. That's a Jewish word. That's also a Samaritan word. Are there any figurative expressions in the text? Yeah, living water. Living water. Speaking of continual satisfaction. Okay, I've opened my eyes. I've made observations. Next, I open my mind. I've read the text. I get it. I know what it says. What does it mean? What does it mean? This is the interpretation. When you get to this phase, what it means, you consider things like context. What is the context of the text? What do the words mean? What does the grammar tell me? What is the background? Is there any help there? so when it comes to context there's something called immediate context and something called remote context you can guess what that means right immediate context what is right around the verse you're reading remote context where does the author begin that thought and let me trace that thought all the way through so you have immediate and remote context so let me tell about this. The immediate context here is Jesus is going out of his way to bring salvation to a woman in Sychar. The remote context begins back in chapter one, when in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. And now we have a series of vignettes where Jesus meets people personally, all of them Jews, John the Baptist, Peter, Nathaniel, Andrew, Nicodemus, now in chapter four, somebody outside the boundaries of Judaism, a Samaritan woman. There's a shift there.

44:15 So his public ministry is changing. Now, furthermore, if I happen to have a Bible dictionary at home, and now you don't have to buy one because you can cheat with this thing. You could do a little bit of a background, and you could discover that the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other. They hated each other because the Jews figured that Samaritans were half-breeds because of something happening in the Old Testament when there was the intermarriage of the Jewish leftover population with some of the people that the Assyrians brought into their land. And so they were not purebred Jews. Moreover, the Samaritans built a rival temple on a different mountain than the one in Jerusalem. So they had been in odds for a long time. That helps me to understand when the text says the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. Now I know why.

45:10 Now I know why. Then I take a closer look as I'm interpreting this. And I notice this word living water. Living water. The water that I give, you'll never thirst. And I make cross-references now. I discover there's a cross-reference in the margin of my Bible that takes me back to Jeremiah chapter 2, where God says to the prophet, my people have committed two evils. One, they've forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they've dug out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've left spiritual satisfaction. They've gone over to idolatry, and they're never satisfied. Jesus is employing that familiar text or that idea. So what I'm learning and what this means is God is searching for true worshipers inside Israel as well as outside Israel. okay now i want to open my heart right i've made observation interpretation how do i apply this to my life i know what it says i know what it means what does it mean to me well now i start asking personal questions like how does that passage apply to my life and i'll tell you on a personal level as i read this what first struck out to me is this idea of worship jesus said woman it doesn't matter what mountain you worship on, whether here or in Jerusalem, the father is looking for true worshipers. And those are the ones that will worship him in spirit and in truth. So I'm struck with that, that it's not where I worship is the issue. Should I go to Calvary and worship today?

46:55 Or should I go to that church that's close to my home? Doesn't matter where it matters that you worship. It matters how you worship. How you worship? Yeah. Do you worship in spirit and in truth from the heart, from the core of who you are, embraced by your spirit? And according to God's truth, is it biblical worship based on scripture? True worshipers in spirit and in truth. So I apply that to my life. I further ask the question, what changes do I need to make in my life, and I could write those things down. I mentioned writing things down.

47:35 Next to a Bible, I'm going to recommend you get a notebook. I make a practice of carrying with me a notebook. I write things in it during the week. When I go to church and listen to a sermon, I always have a notebook and a pencil. I do it in our own church when I have a guest speaker. I write down what they say. D.L. Moody made it a habit to always have a notebook in case God was speaking. And the reason he carried a notebook is the same reason Skip Heitzig carries a notebook and the same reason you ought to carry a notebook, because your mind isn't as good as you think it is.

48:14 You swear, I'll never forget this. You will forget it by the time you get to your car if you don't write it down. So I close with what Wilbur Chapman said. He said, study it through, pray it in, put it down, work it out.

48:39 Study it through, pray it in, put it down, work it out. He explains, study it through. Never begin a day without mastering a verse from the Bible's pages. Pray it in. never lay aside your Bible until the verse or passage you've studied becomes a part of your being. Put it down. The thoughts that God gives you, put it down in the margin of your Bible or in a notebook, and then work it out. Live the truth you get in the morning through each hour of the day. Start applying it on an hourly basis. I hope you go through the Bible, but I'd rather have the Bible go through you. and let me give you three words. I've given you a lot. I'm going to give you three words to go home with. These I want you to write down or text down in your app. Three words, discipline,

49:40 desire, delight. At first, it is a discipline. It's not easy. It's the discipline. Okay, I'll do it. it will never become your desire until it first becomes your discipline once you make it your discipline you will start developing a desire once you develop a desire the desire will turn into guaranteed a delight a delight a real delight you'll be like david oh how i love your law it is my meditation all the day thank you lord for your word in jesus name