Plead for the Insight You Need: Word + Spirit in Pastoral Study

0:00 We praise you, Father, that you have laid such a foundation for us. Nothing can shake it. Nothing can shake us standing on it. We praise you together. Receive our praises in the name of Jesus, Father. And please come and help me now to be faithful to your word. Grant that these friends would be attentive and docile to your truth.

0:35 And, Grant, I pray more than ever before we would study in the power of the Spirit and that we would have insight, we would get insight for the sake of our people and for the glory of your name. Through Christ we pray. Amen. from the age of six to the age of 28 I was in formal education to school non-stop 12 years public school in Greenville South Carolina four years in a Christian college in Illinois, three years in seminary in California, three years in graduate school, secular university in Munich, Germany, and thought that I had arrived because I got a job as a college professor at Bethel College here in town.

1:50 and it seemed as though, at least from the perspective of those around me, that, well, you've got your last degree, you've got a job in higher education, and this surely is the best place to get insight. That's what I did for a living. I studied, I thought, I wrote, I taught. One of the great things about the academic life is that there's so much, comparatively, leisure time for reflection, thinking. My summers were free, and once you had prepared your courses once, the preparation time was relatively small.

2:52 oh my goodness, this just can't get any better for leisured reflection and a lifetime of insight. That's what this message is about. It's about insight. and while I was studying and thinking and writing and teaching, I was going to church. I loved Olivet Baptist Church, and something between the age of 28 and 34 was happening.

3:30 I would hear a weak sermon, and on the way home, I would say to Noel, we've got to do better than that. And I would hear a really strong sermon, and there were a lot of them. John Hokey was a very good preacher. And on the way home, I would say, God, I'd like to do that. Then came October 14, 1979, and it was one of the most pivotal moments of my life, and I'm going to read you an extended section from my journal because it is so relevant to this topic. I am closer tonight in deciding to resign at Bethel and take a pastorate than I've ever been before.

4:40 The urge is almost overwhelming. It takes the form I am enthralled by the reality of God and the power of his word to create authentic people. But I'm not wholly deluded. I know, I really know, I would despair as a pastor. I would despair that my people are not where I want them to be. I would despair at ruptured study and writing goals. I would despair at barren administrative details I would lose the simplicity of task and routine in the college My life and my time would be less my own I would lose the serenity of undisturbed hours of study I would lose the quiet of the study and trade it for hours in the car on the way to the hospital and to homes I would lose the uniformity of responsibility and be swamped by dozens of different tasks, many of which would no doubt be distasteful unless God changed my palate.

6:01 I would lose the collegial stimulation of fellow theologians in return for a draining ministry to the hungry. I would lose an almost total occupation with theological subject matter and inherit the press for programs and functions. but is this any way to make a choice? Great God, what is faith for?

6:31 If not trusting you for the life-transforming work of your spirit through the ministry of the word, and oh, I would learn to pray. I am such a babe in prayer, but of late it has felt so crucial to me but then what demands would be put on me to lay hold on the resources of God to serve in the strength which God supplies? Would I really lose the occasion for growth in insight? Would sermon preparation really be an abandonment of discovery of God in the word? It is ridiculous to think that way. There we go. but it would all have to be real, living, life-changing insight. All my energies would be on finding reality in the text, for only what is real, deeply, movingly real, can be fed to really hungry people, really needy people.

7:43 Oh, no. to leave the lecture hall for the pulpit would not be to leave burgeoning theological insight for some sterile managerial slot. The demands of the pulpit on me, I speak not for others, on me would be the demands of God on my mind and my heart to penetrate like never before into the heart of the word and to abound in understanding.

8:21 My last word tonight is this. It's now midnight, October 14, 1979. The last word is this. I cannot decide now. But I know which side I want to win. The pastorate.

8:45 And it did. And in 2013, I completed 33 years of pastoring one church, Bethlehem Baptist. And brothers, I can say today, there never has been a regret. Ever. I never looked back once and said, that was a mistake. Ever.

9:15 Now, here's the point of reading that long excerpt of one of the most pivotal moments of my life. Top three. The fear of sacrificing insight by moving from the more leisurely pace of academic life to the pressured life of the pastoral preacher was misplaced. That fear was misplaced. The main reason, just as I thought, is that I was made desperate again and again. As never before in my life, I was made to feel over my head again and again because the demands on me were unpredictable, unexpected, imponderable, often. I was thrown back as never before on the Holy Spirit, on prayer, to find food for the flock, guidance for inscrutable problems.

10:32 And the upshot of that spirit-dependent desperation and prayer was not the loss of insight. It wasn't. Oh, no. That desperation proved time and time again to be an occasion of supernatural breakthroughs. in understanding biblical texts, the ways of God, and its application to reality. And I think the reason for that is that God loves his people. He loves for them to get good food. Rich food. He knows how to put his shepherds in the vice of affliction and squeeze out of us authentic, prayer-soaked, desperation-flavored insight.

11:38 the unsearchable riches of Christ for the joy of his people. Listen to Paul give voice to this. He comforts us, us apostles, us pastor preachers. He comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we are comforted by God. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

12:14 There's no direct correlation between a life of leisured reflection and rich insight. None. but there is a correlation between a pressured, desperate, spirit-dependent, prayer-soaked, hard-working preparation to feed God's people and insight. God delights to open the eyes of shepherds whose heart cry is to open the eyes of their people to the glories of Christ. Psalm 119, verse 71. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

13:11 there are things your people need to see that you will only see in the pressures and the hardships of the pastoral life. Now, I don't mean to glorify affliction or pressure. I believe in days off, brothers. I took them. I believe in the Sabbath principle. I believe in vacations, especially for the family's sake. I believe in sabbaticals. They all have their place in the process of perseverance and discovery and insight. What I'm saying is that in those other seasons, that's most of the time.

14:12 You don't need to be bereft of insight. And I would venture to say, from my own experience, most of what I have seen in the Bible and delivered in my preaching for the good of others, most of it has come not in seasons of leisure, but in hours of pressured, often desperate preparation. Deadline after deadline after deadline, and what a strange word. Crazy strange name for something so life-giving. so productive for God's people So let's spend our time now.

15:13 That's a long introduction. Let's spend our time now talking about what is insight and why is it important? What are the obstacles to it in the pastoral life? Why is the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit so essential along with conscious dependence on it.

15:42 And what is the role of study and thinking in gaining insight? That's where we're going. What is insight? I'm using the word insight. You can do a bunch of word studies, different words in Hebrew and Greek. They're very broad. I'm using the word insight to cover the whole spectrum from awareness of a thing to observation, to understanding, to discernment, to wisdom. So that whole spectrum I'm calling insight because the Bible uses it in all those ways. In other words, an increasing grasp of reality and its proper application to life. A grasp of reality and its proper application to life.

16:43 We could describe insight as what connects reality out there and the soul in here. the bridge between truth and reality, and my soul is insight into that reality. and you can see immediately how massively essential it is for life and ministry, especially Christian life in ministry. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, John 8. Another word for knowing is having insight, right? You will have insight into The truth and that insight into truth will make you a free person from sin. Satan.

17:44 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. that is lack of insight into the reality of God. Your people die. Your people die without insight. His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. How?

18:15 Through the knowledge of Him. Insight into God. Through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1.3 Insight into God is the channel by which divine power for godliness flows to the soul. That's what 2 Peter says. So not surprisingly, the Bible pleads with us over and over, get insight.

18:49 Proverbs 4, get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget, do not turn away from the words of my mouth. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. and whatever you get, get insight. Leave your simple ways and live. Walk in the path of insight. Now what complicates things for pastors and glorifies our job is that our job is to gain insight into God. Ephesians 1.17 Paul prays that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here because we're going to talk about this a little bit later.

19:50 But at this point, in order to feel the force of this challenge to get insight into God, we need to realize that's impossible. A human being, get insight into the creator of the universe, absolute reality? That's impossible. Jesus said, Matthew 11, No one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. That's the only way you get it. It's a gift. If he doesn't give it, you don't have it. the insight we need, the insight we're pursuing through supernatural and natural means, we can't get unless he gives it.

20:58 And yet it says over and over, get it, seek it, find it. your people are going to die without it This means that in all of our study, in all of our pursuit of insight, we are studying to be amazed. to do the impossible, to get insight into God. Listen to the rest of Ephesians. That prayer goes on. I pray that you may know, that is have insight into, that you may know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. riches of glory of inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe Paul is praying that we would know stunning reality right?

22:14 riches of glory immeasurable greatness. So plead for this. We are studying to be amazed. two chapters later chapter 3 verse 4 when you read this this is Ephesians 4 4 when you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ a few verses later the unsearchable riches of Christ our job brothers our job is to search out the unsearchable. our job is to grasp and know what surpasses knowing. I mean, it says that.

23:09 A few verses later, this prayer, 18 of chapter 3 of Ephesians, may you have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know, to have insight into the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

23:40 Our people, and many of them don't know this, are hungry for us to gain this impossible insight and tell them about it. feed it to their souls they need us to do the impossible it is true they have the Holy Spirit your people have the Holy Spirit and yes many of the mature among them can see these things can experience this miracle some of them better than you can but if that were the primary way or the only way by which God had appointed for people to see, to gain insight into God, he would not have appointed shepherds and teachers for the church.

24:49 He wouldn't have. This is our job. The longer I live, the more I believe in preaching. People arrive on Sunday morning. I arrive on Sunday morning. expecting a miracle to happen because one has already happened if he's done his job. feed my sheep Jesus wouldn't have said that if every sheep could feed himself God has designed the church so that pastors, shepherds, teachers, heralds get insight into God's reality and then they're blown away by it. Studying to be amazed.

25:44 They're just blown away by what they see and they stand in the pulpit and they exult over what they've seen for the good of the people to feast. on what they've seen. So gaining insight is the work of the pastor to know the unsearchable greatness of God. Psalm 145, Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Our job is jaw-dropping. That's what study is. It's jaw-dropping. the cry of every psalmist over and over in one form or another is, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your word.

26:43 The only reason you pray that is because your job is to see wonders. That's your job. That's why we pray that way. To see wonders. in our study we're not just pursuing boring facts it's a sin to be bored by the Bible And it's a sin to be boring while preaching the Bible. It's wrong to bore people because we haven't seen wondrous things, because we've been lazy, or we depend on AI. God curse it if it replaces your heartfelt, desperate preparation. The goal of all this pursuit of insight is that your people would worship God aright and love people aright.

27:46 That's the goal. Philippians 1.9, Paul prays that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all insight. because you can't love people the way you ought if you don't have any insight. If you don't know God, if you don't know what love is, if you don't know the dynamic workings of the Holy Spirit, if you don't have insight into the workings of God through the Bible, you can't love people as you ought. And we want our people to love people. I mean, church is just pointless if our people go out and don't love people. If they just respond to the political situation the way everybody else responds, what do you say that same with worship chapter 4 verse 23 the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth because the father is seeking such to worship him God is seeking worship with insight he's not seeking worship with no insight it doesn't honor God when people worship without insight into God What are they even worshiping?

29:00 They need to know God if they're going to love and if they're going to worship. So I conclude this first point by insight matters infinitely. Pursuing it, finding it, being amazed by it, preaching it belongs to the essence of your ministry. Your people die without it. Second point, what are the obstacles to this? This miracle, this amazing, jaw-dropping task of gaining insight. What are the obstacles? And they are massive.

29:40 Satan and sin and weaknesses in reading and thinking. Those are the four that I'm going to focus on. Satan, sin, weakness in reading and thinking. Satan is a liar.

30:01 He's a liar. He's a deceiver. John 8, 44. He does his best to prevent insight. he doesn't really care if people hear the gospel. If he can blind them to the light of the glory of Christ in the gospel.

30:26 This is read this morning in my devotions. King of God is like a net that is cast into the sea and pulls all kinds of fish. and then at the harvest, the judgment, separate them. Your church, your gospel gathers unbelievers. who don't know him, they don't love him, they use him. Satan is so happy with churches filled like that The God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing, not the gospel, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God that's what he keeps people from seeing he doesn't really care what they hear he cares what they see what insight they have into it but if you are born again and if your people are born again you can say with joyful confidence He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world.

31:47 brothers he's going to keep you he's going to keep you now unto him who will keep you from stumbling but how does he do that?

32:08 He does it by helping you put on the whole armor of God, right? Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Like there's a battle to be fought, and you've got to put on the armor. lift up the shield of faith and take the sword of the spirit and put on the helmet of salvation and the shoes of readiness for the feet and the belt of truth you go to war every day you don't just say I'm saved eternally secure you're not without the use of means Satan's dealings with Job and Peter are still going on.

33:02 behold Peter Jesus said Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat squish you squish you through this so that you come out here and faith stays up here that's what we're going to do tonight going to squish you through the sieve. Satan has demanded to have you. They may sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. And he's still praying for us. When you turn, not if you turn, strengthen your brothers.

33:44 Every day we fight. we must quench the fiery darts of the devil every day when Paul came to the end of his life and said I have fought the good fight he didn't mean it ended when I was 60 I don't know how old he was when he died I'm 80 it doesn't end when you're 70 or 75 if you're going to make it and you are going to make it you will use the means he has appointed to make it put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil so that's the devil what about sin oh my goodness this is bleak Our people do not have a horrible enough grasp of what sin is, so help them in this.

34:55 Let me give you this awful litany of the condition of the human heart, apart from redemption, and even after redemption, the battle is great. Apart from Christ and the Holy Spirit, the heart is foolish and slow, Luke 24. The heart is darkened, Ephesians 4. The heart is dead, Ephesians 2. The heart is futile in its thinking, Ephesians 4. The heart is dull, Matthew 13. The heart is hard, Romans 11, 25. The heart is debased, Romans 1. The heart is impure, Acts 15, 19. The heart is hostile to God. the heart is blind the heart is adulterous and wicked that's you apart from free grace in new birth and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit therefore Paul concludes the natural person does not does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned the natural man cannot penetrate to true spiritual insight.

36:25 He cannot. And when we're born again, these barriers, Satan, sin, are decisively overcome. We have a new heart. God is writing on our hearts with the pen of the Spirit and the ink of his word. Read 2 Corinthians 3. But, oh, brothers, don't underestimate or overestimate the ongoing effects of indwelling sin in your life to make insight impossible. blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matthew 5.8 everything impure every impurity anger you dealing with anger?

37:25 I think anger kills more than sex greed lust every impurity will diminish your insight into the unsearchable riches of Christ. He leads the humble in what is right. He teaches the humble his way. The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place gaining insight near him, he who has clean hands and a pure heart. If you want to spread a table of insight for the nourishment of your people, keep your heart and hands clean. Now I'm only going to mention the obstacle of weaknesses of reading and thinking because when we get to how to overcome them, the nature of them will be obvious.

38:32 So I'm going to pass over that and move to how do you overcome Satan and sin in the gaining of insight. the unsearchable riches of Christ is what we're after and what we need to see them is fill our minds with the word of God embrace them as precious and trustworthy and cry out to them in prayer for the fullness of the Holy Spirit those three number one sanctify them in the truth your word is truth Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for training in righteousness. God defeats the devil by the Word.

39:31 God defeats sin by the Word. But, second, He doesn't. If we don't believe it. Isn't it good to read your Bible? and walk away unbelieving. So I'm reading my Bible this morning, getting ready for this, right? This is life.

39:53 And I read in Psalm 32. Raise your hand if you read Psalm 32 this morning. Okay, not many people on my plan. There you go. Or maybe you're behind or maybe I'm behind. I can't remember. So Psalm 32, which verse? 16. The steadfast love of the Lord surrounds those who trust in him. And I said, God, I so want to enjoy the surrounding power of your love for me. And he whispers through the Bible, trust me. the eyes of the Lord run to and fro looking for pastors who trust him so he can show himself mighty on your behalf I just I have this sense that trust reliance a treasuring of Jesus as a trusted savior for the fulfillment of all of his promises is a vague thing in a pastor's mind instead of a specific thing.

41:02 I see a promise. It's right there in front of me. I just read it. I'm going to get up and talk to my wife or write a committee report or evangelize a neighbor or prepare a sermon. And in those, I'm trusting him. It's a conscious experience. I'm trusting him. It's a felt experience. I wrote a whole book to argue for this. I don't really have any conception in my head for what trust without feeling is. None. Thank you. trust is a feeling I trust you wife I'm going away for a week to my reunion down in Barnesville I could commit adultery I could waste all your money I could drink myself drunk and if I look her in the eye and say Noel I trust you beyond anything under Jesus you think I don't feel anything what good is that? Trust is so crucial. Get specific. Take a promise. Squeeze it and say, I'm walking out of this chair, getting off my knees by trusting this promise.

42:13 trust in the Lord with all your heart do not rely on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight to insight trust him when you set yourself to prepare a sermon and God says I will help you I'll strengthen you. I'll guide you with my eye upon you. You believe that?

42:47 You believe him? Or you say, no, that's not going to happen. He doesn't like that. Distrust dishonors Jesus. his eyes run to and fro to look for pastors who trust him and third prayer if you call out for insight insight and raise your voice for understanding if you seek it like silver search for it as for hidden treasures then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Thank you. James 1 if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God and he gives generously to all who without reproach and it will be given to him so start your study with prayer you sit down at your desk to work on the sermon you start with prayer oh God please help me is what I did on Friday to write this.

43:55 Please, Father, a thousand pastors need something from you. Help me, please. And then every few minutes, pause and say it again. if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him that's the Luke version how many times have I prayed that I need you Holy Spirit the Bible says if I ask you're as likely to give me the Holy Spirit as a father is likely to give a fish instead of a snake. so give it to me please and then through your hours of study over and over again send this prayer up open my eyes open my eyes open my eyes I'm stuck on this verse I'm stuck on this problem I'm stuck on this application I need help right now open my eyes that I may see wonderful things out of your law now the last section overcoming natural weaknesses of reading and thinking This is what we usually think of when we think of study, right?

45:27 Reading and thinking. And I'm arguing natural weaknesses in reading, natural weaknesses in thinking are a obstacle, a significant obstacle to spiritual insight.

45:48 That's because God has connected, he has ordained a connection of supernatural revelation of spiritual insight with natural acts of reading and thinking. God set this up this way. A connection between supernatural revelation of spiritual insight and natural work of thinking and reading. To the degree that you try to dispense with thinking and reading in order to gain insight some other more mystical way, to that degree will your preaching lose depth and authority. we have one infallible source.

46:44 This is it. It's not our brain. It's not the world. It's not natural revelation. It's the Bible. We have one infallible source. We may get insight from the world. The Bible says we should. But it will only have authority if it agrees with the word. I'm going to talk to you blue in the face about natural law. And I'll say, maybe.

47:14 But if it's in the book, I won't say maybe. I'll say, that's right. That is confirmed in natural law. 1 Samuel 3.21 gripped me years ago. It goes like this. The Lord revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. You want to know God?

47:43 The Lord revealed Himself to Samuel. Himself. Himself. The Lord revealed himself by the word of the Lord. Do you meet him? Do you know him that way? Does he mediate his reality through this? That's our goal. That's what we're after. That's the supernatural dimension. We know the living God. We see the living God. We commune with the living God through words. Amazing. The Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And listen to Paul's confirmation. This is Ephesians 4.3.4.

48:36 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. apostles had access we don't but we can when you read Ephesians when you read you can know my insight into the mystery of Christ which a few verses later he calls the unsearchable riches of Christ Wow. Jesus expected that reading God's word would lead people to true and wonderful insight into himself and the ways of God.

49:31 And when it didn't happen, Pharisees and scribes and lawyers, his jaw dropped. Six times that we know of, he said, have you not read? Have you not read? Have you not read? Have you not read? And of course they must have said that's all we do.

49:56 We're professional readers. And Jesus just said you don't know how to read. You don't know how to read. Otherwise he wouldn't have said have you not read? You guys talk like you've never read. I mean, this must have been absolutely insulting. I wonder if he'd say it to you. You read it. How can you preach like that?

50:27 How can you be so flat? How can you be so unmoved? What is reading? the kind of reading that we're after for week after week decade after decade feeding of the flock by reading the Bible is a reading that becomes thinking a reading that becomes thinking there's passive reading and there's active reading passive reading is when your eyes move over page. Your eyes move over the words on the page, and you expect, by passing your eyes over the word on the page, that something will happen to you.

51:25 And we train ourselves in this by videos and entertainment, because when you watch a video, almost all of you, only those who write for magazines and have to write critiques of movies do the otherwise. But most of us, we watch a TV show, we watch a movie, and we're just passive. I'm just tired. I want to be entertained. And so you're passive. You're very vulnerable at that point. You're passive. You expect, do something to me. Make me feel good. Give me a new thought, a new idea about reality. I'm just sitting here. That's not active reading. there's not even reading Active reading is very different. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 7, Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

52:27 What I say. What I say. Think over what I say. When does that happen? Reading. think over what I say and the Lord will give you. What a beautiful combination of natural and supernatural. You think God reveals. Don't you expect anything from God if you're just passive. That's what it says. Think over what I say and the Lord will give you understand. It's exactly what Proverbs chapter 2 said. If you seek for it as for silver, he'll show you.

53:09 Passive pastors get their back up about God not showing up. It's not a good idea. You think. God gives understanding and don't expect without it, don't expect him to do it. without your thinking.

53:35 And then Paul says to underline it in 1 Corinthians 14, brothers, don't be children in your thinking. be babes in evil but in your thinking be mature I'd rather speak five words with my mind to instruct than 10,000 words in a tongue wow could you elevate thinking any higher because Paul loved speaking in tongues he spoke in tongues more than anybody and he said better five words with my mind. That's amazing. Good night. How high can you elevate thinking? What is thinking? If reading is active and becomes thinking, what's thinking?

54:36 We're almost done. I like this part right here. I like all of it. What is thinking? Thinking is asking questions and trying to answer them with the truth at your disposal.

55:00 That's my definition of thinking in this case. It made a huge impact on me in seminary when Dr. Fuller, quoting John Dewey, said one day in class, Nobody thinks until he has a problem. I thought, yeah, huh, that's right. Problems are simply unanswered questions. so to go deeper and deeper into the reality revealed in biblical texts you train yourself in having problems seriously you train yourself in being troubled by what you see you train yourself in asking questions And I mean humbly asking questions.

56:10 you're asking questions mainly to yourself. This is not an insult to the perspicuity of the Bible. It's not an insult to the clarity of Holy Scripture. The problem is with us.

56:30 The problem is with us. Asking questions is an acknowledgement of how dense we are. We're so dense! There are all kinds of reasons. We see through a glass darkly. How dull, how slow our hearts are, our minds are. How little we know of life and reality. We don't know anything. We're just little children jabbering away. We should not ask questions the way Zechariah did. Zachariah impugned the veracity of the angel and he didn't like it. I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God Almighty. You're dumb in more ways than one.

57:28 We rather ask questions like Mary, same chapter. How can this be? I'm a virgin. And he answered her. It's not indicting the scripture to ask questions like that. It's saying, I don't even understand what you're saying. I'm going to have a baby. I'm in that position all the time it seems like I gotta give birth to a sermon I can't even make heads or tails of this text I'm not telling God he's got a problem I'm telling him I've got a problem and I've got loads of questions and I need his help to answer those questions we ask questions because we love God and we want to know him we ask questions because we want to be amazed and we're not seeing it we know there's wonderful things here we're not seeing it we ask questions because we want to feed our people what's true. We ask questions because we want to worship as we ought, and we can't worship without insight. We ask questions because we want to love people as we ought, and we can't see the way clear to what love is. The text is not making any sense. I'm stuck. We're just talking with the brother from Iran, bless you brother, about a man who got saved in Iran, and finally he admitted, I've got two wives.

59:17 He's been a polygamist. Now what do I do? He calls on the phone. What do I do? I say, boy, what did you tell him? He banged your head against the desk and said, God, I need help. This man needs help. He loves you. It's not easy. And there are many such things in life. We grow in insight by thinking, that is, by asking questions. Rudyard Kipling. I keep six honest serving men. They taught me all I knew. Their names are what and why and when and how and where and who. And I would say especially why and how. When I finished teaching at Bethel in 1980, my students gave me a going away present. It was a t-shirt.

1:00:12 And on the back of it, it said, asking questions is the key to understanding. And I said, yes, success. Six years and I got it across. asking questions is the key to understanding I felt like I'd succeeded listen to John 16 verse 30 the disciples say to Jesus now we know that you know all things and do not need for anyone to ask you any questions Let's go. I'm just full of questions when I read that. What? That doesn't make any sense. No offense. This is my problem. I mean, wouldn't you expect him to say, now we know you know all things and you don't need to ask anybody anything.

1:01:18 That makes sense. But why did you say, nobody said, he said, we know you know all things and do not need anyone to ask you any questions. Thank you. It's what I do with my, it's all my life I do with this. Like, what? I just spend all my life saying, what? and I propose that what he means is this asking questions is not just a way of learning it's a way of teaching people what they need to know asking questions is a way of teaching people so if you know everything you don't need to ask yourself any questions got it all I know everything and he did he knew everything He didn't need anybody to help him along by asking more Socratic questions.

1:02:16 Not himself or his disciples. Well, you're not there, right? If you need to learn something, you need to ask a question all the time, over and over. And you try to answer them. Before you go to a commentary, that's cheap. It's just short-circuit thinking. Before you go to a teacher, before you call me on the phone or write to Ask Pastor John, You figure this out. You do the best you can. Spend an hour. Bang your head on the table and pray and search the context and think and think and think. And when you can't get any farther and get help, get help. That's right.

1:03:07 That's humble. Let me close with a practical suggestion. And I say this with, it'll sound like I'm saying it with great authority. And I feel that way, but I'm not. Like, I have an idea. I want you to do it, but you don't have to do it. And it may be that you have some better way to do it. the key that turns question asking into insight and into sermons, the key that turns question asking into insight and into sermons, is a half a sheet of paper. I always use scrap paper. You lay this down in front of you like this on your desk. You can get one of these. This is a pencil, not a pen.

1:04:02 Pencils have eyes. Pens also have eyes, but not as many. This is a .5. You can get 24 of these for $6 at Amazon. I go through them like crazy. Get done, throw it in the garbage. And you get ready, and your Logos program is open here, or whatever, and you start reading your text for Sunday. And as soon as you get to a word, a phrase, a connection that puzzles you, you write that down. What's puzzling? What's the question? And you jot it down right here. and when you jot that question down, you use your mind to think, well, what are one or two or three plausible answers to that question? Well, it might be this, or it might be this, and as soon as you write that, there's eyes in this thing. More thoughts come to those three plausible answers.

1:05:01 That will never work. It contradicts the other verse in three verses later, or this one might work. Oh, my goodness. There are three other verses in Romans that say the same thing, and suddenly your eyes are seeing. you keep reading and reading now why why would you do that why do I think this is so important because you're not Einstein they say that Einstein could take an idea like a diamond and hold it in his mind for a week and come at it every day afresh and look at it from dozens of angles and assimilate each day all those angles into a coherent vision of the diamond. Guess what? You're not Einstein!

1:06:02 I mean, seriously. I mean, here's this other thing I brought along. This is just another version of this. This is called a field book. It sits on my table by my devotion bed. It's got a date on it. I go through these maybe once every three months. And it's just to capture things. I don't lose them. I read my Bible. I get an idea. I'm going to lose it. I know I'm 80 years old, for goodness sake. I'm going to lose it.

1:06:34 So I was reading the other day, and I never noticed before that in Philippians 4.19, of course it says, my God will supply all your needs according to the Christ's glory. And over in the first part of the chapter, it says, I have learned how to have needs. I've never connected those in my life. I know how to be abased. I know how to abound in every and all circumstances. I know how to have needs. And over here, every need is met. Wait a minute. Question. Problem.

1:07:06 I would have lost that. Now I've got to work with that. That's going to be a devotion in a class someday. The reason for this is that you're not Einstein and you're not God because ideas tumble to your mind once you start doodling. This page, I brought them along. So here they are. These are my four preparation pages for this message. They're just scribbles. They're just scribbles. Page one's where I began. Just all kinds of random ideas there. And page two, I tried to get, I did a search on insight. Page three, I don't even know what that is.

1:07:48 Page four, it started coming together. And here's my outline. One, what is insight? Two, a whole bunch of obstacles. those three supernatural ways to overcome. Four, what is thinking. It took me at least six hours to get an idea of how this message would shape up. And I did it by doodling. I just did it by doodling. I don't know any other way. I mean, if you're an Einstein, you don't need a piece of paper. But if you're not Einstein, the 30 things God's going to show you on your first pass through a text, what are you going to do with them? What are you going to do? They got to go on something because they're not going to stay in your head. And I promise you, once you get that thing scribbled and you maybe use a color, you can see that down here in the right-hand corner, there's a thing that you just saw. And oh my goodness, I did see that three hours ago up here.

1:08:42 And you draw the line like this, you draw the line. And by the time you're done with this, God, the Holy Spirit, causes there to emerge off this a sermonic approach. which is why I don't believe in teaching homiletics like you've got to have three points baloney look at this it's just crazy complicated it's not three that doesn't work four, ten you had ten right today ten, Sam had ten it was awesome Okay, that's my... I never throw paper away until both sides are full. Okay, let me finish. as you jot down your God-given thoughts, so you don't want to be a bad steward of them, you write.

1:09:47 You find yourself, I'm writing. I'm writing things. Francis Bacon he wrote an essay called Of Studies in it he said a very famous thing most of you know it he said reading makes a full man conference meaning conversation makes a ready man writing makes an exact man and here's my paraphrase reading and talking without writing leaves you model-headed. so focus on your text for as many hours as you need to and ask question after question jot them down, jot down possible answers more and more ideas and with every one pray, pray, pray that God would give you light how to use these thoughts that are tumbling to your mind and grant that you would see glorious things out of his word.

1:10:55 Study is a glorious process. It is supernatural and it is natural. The horse is made ready for the day of battle. Victory belongs to the Lord. It is carried out in pressure and desperation of pastoral life. And again and again he fulfills his promise. My God will supply, brother, My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in Christ Jesus. I close with a quotation that was very guiding and life-giving to me for 33 years as I thought about my task to feed my sheep, John. You love me? Feed my sheep. And this is the word from Matthew 24, 45. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food, food of insight, at the proper time?

1:12:01 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. So don't grow weary, brothers. Don't grow weary. in due season you will reap if you do not faint if we do not give up so father as we close now and sing out our consecration to be better students of your word better studiers better thinkers better readers better appliers better preachers of your word grant I pray that these friends would get insight. And with all their getting, get wisdom.

1:12:52 For the glory of your name and the good of your church, I pray.