The Habit of Bible Study
The Power of Spiritual Habits

Transcript

Good morning, church. It is good seeing all of you here this morning. We are continuing our series, “The Power of Spiritual Habits,” today. This series is really a study of the Christian disciplines and practices that have been passed down from the earliest days of the church. It is a way of working out what God is working in us as believers.

I want to thank my son, Stephen, who has preached the last four Sundays. This sermon series was really his; from his heart. It was something he wanted us to preach, so I felt it appropriate to let him kick it off. I think he did a great job.

As his wife, Caroline, mentioned earlier, it is his birthday today, so, happy birthday to my firstborn son! Some have been asking, ‘What have you been doing?’ Well, we spent some time in Pachuca, Mexico with the Castros, preaching and teaching at their little church plant that they've started.

As you know, I have a heart for the nations. So, when I have an opportunity to allow you to have good preaching here from one of our teaching team, it allows me to go and visit our missionaries on the field. So that's part of what we did. We got some rest, we had a family reunion; different things like that. But know this, just understand something about our church.

We're not a personality- driven church in this sense: This is not “Gary's” church. This is Christ the Lord's church. The only personality that we want to receive glory is Jesus. A lot of you have told me, ‘Hey, I missed you.’ Well, I've missed you too. It's good to be missed,

but I want you to make sure that you know whose church it is, right? I'm no hero; I'm a sinner, saved by grace. Whatever I have to offer, the Lord Jesus has given me. We're thankful to be back.

Now, that's the first thing I wanted to tell you. Here's the second thing that I wanted to mention to you and it's this, church family. In recent days, our nation has experienced some grievous events. We've been shaken by some grievous events:

The tragic school shooting in Colorado. The brutal murder of a young Ukrainian woman on a train in Charlotte. The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk while he was speaking to college students at Utah Valley University. These remind us that we live in a world marked by sin and violence. If you didn't already know that, you know it well now.

As a result of these events, the ugliness of humanity is really visible. If you are on any kind of social media platform, you have seen the people's reactions. Yet, as followers of Christ, we are not hopeless. We are not to respond with violence or anger. We can grieve, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We're not to be fearful.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. So, we grieve with those who grieve. We pray for those who are bereaved and who have lost loved ones.

We are to shine the light of Christ in a dark world. So, let us recommit ourselves to being peacemakers, truth tellers and lovers and bearers of hope, so that even in days of sorrow, we can pray for national revival in this country that we love. So that we can share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and be the light of this dark world. Let's pray and then we'll dig into this message. Lord, I pray, first of all, for those that lost loved ones this past week; for those families and for those close to those families. Lord, I pray for our nation, as we just have seen this week, what it looks like for a land for a people to be far from God.

Lord, I pray for revival and renewal in our nation. I pray that the gospel would go forth, the Good News of Jesus would be a light and that it would start with us. It would start with each of us in this church, Lord, that we would be those that are preaching Christ and that we would be those who have been reconciled to God and called to the ministry of reconciliation in this world. Now, Lord, I pray that you would use me, a sinner saved by grace, to preach your word, that you would allow us as hearers of your word, to have hearing ears and open hearts. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

We're continuing this series. Our series theme verse is in Ephesians. It says this, Ephesians 4:23-24 (NLT) 23 “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” The Spirit is working in us, as believers, to renew us and to make us like Jesus. But, we're to put on certain spiritual habits and disciplines to help God work out what He's already working in us.

Now, to be clear, we can't change ourselves. There's a whole section in bookstores called “Self Help,” but the problem is, we can't help ourselves. The Bible is not a “self-help” book. It's a love letter from God to a people that need rescued.

So, when we talk about spiritual habits, what we're talking about is working out what God is working in, putting on what God has put in. Let's be clear about that. Here's what Dr. Donald Whitney writes in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.” He says, “Spiritual disciplines are those practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are habits of devotion, habits of experiential Christianity that have been practiced by God’s people since biblical times.”

These are habits that we've been talking about, and we're in week five of this now. They are really helping us to yield ourselves to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in us. We can't change ourselves, but God can change us as we yield our hearts, our minds, our bodies and our souls to him. Indeed, we're going to be looking at 2 Timothy today. The Apostle Paul writes this to his protégé, to his apprentice preacher, young Timothy, who he counted as a spiritual son in the Lord. He wrote to him about these disciplines.

He says in 1 Timothy 4:7 (NASB) “...discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” He told Timothy that physical exercise, it profits a little, but spiritual disciplines profit much. He urged young Timothy to do this. Now, spiritual habits are means, not ends. Our goal is not to say,

‘I'm really good at spiritual habits, so I must be a really good Christian.’ I'm not here this morning to put more on you, to give you the burden of Okay, now I have to add this to my list.

No, it's not that. What I want to offer you is an opportunity today to allow the transforming grace to permeate your life by becoming a student of God's word. Not one who's just learning intellectually, but one who's reading and applying the “love letter” that God's written to each of us and to work out what He's working in. Spiritual habits are a way of yielding to and cooperating with the Holy Spirit, who's already at work in us, instead of resisting His work by going our own way. Spiritual habits; here's some of them that we've talked about.

We have talked about a daily quiet time, having a daily quiet time with God. That was the first week. We talked about fellowship with other believers, getting together with other believers in community. We talked about serving. Last week, we talked about the habit of rest, that there's a rhythm to our lives. That God put a rhythm of rest that we need to follow. So, looking at these habits, they are not ends, but they are means to a goal.

What's the goal? What's God up to? What's God want to do in your life? Believer, He's making you more like Jesus.

That's His goal. Jesus is the model. He's the one that God is making us like so that we're becoming more like Jesus. The biblical word or the theological word is “sanctification;” making us more like Jesus.

That's the goal of these habits. Now, today in part five, we're going to be talking about the habit of Bible study. Now, Americans today have more access to Bibles than any generation who have ever lived. It used to be back in the day, if you wanted to read a Bible for yourself, first of all, people didn't know how to read. But if you were lucky enough to be educated and

if you wanted to read a Bible, you had to be wealthy to own one. Or, you went to the church and they used to have a pulpit Bible that had a chain on it chained to the pulpit and church doors were left open and you could go in and read from the pulpit Bible. People couldn't afford bibles. But with this generation, we have bibles everywhere.

We have bible apps on our phones. You just go to your phone and you can read the bible. You can push a button and have the bible read to you. In case you're just not feeling up to reading that day, you can just listen to it. People have bibles in every kind of version, every kind of English translation.

They have them with special covers. The woman's devotional Bible; it's pink, of course. Then, we have the camouflage cover for those who like to go hunting whenever they're also having their devotions. We have all kinds of Bibles. But, there's only one problem with all these kinds of Bibles.

Many of them are just like coasters on your coffee table, collecting dust and having water rings on top. If you don't read them, you can't get it inside you. According to Barna, only 11% of Americans read the Bible daily. That's one out of 10. If you're someone who reads the Bible every day, you're one out of ten Americans that do.

Only one out of three say they read the Bible once a week. Roughly 50% say they might read it twice a year. I'm guessing I know when that is: Christmas and Easter. The place packs out at those two times of the year.

Reading it doesn't necessarily imply that you're a student. You might just be reading it to check off some box. You are just picking a passage randomly; that doesn't mean you're studying. What does it say about that?

Well, I looked at a survey by the Pew organization. They said from their study that only 45% of the respondents who said they read the bible could tell you the names of the four Gospels. Could you do that? Do you know the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”

See, because Bible study also includes an intellectual endeavor. It certainly is, but partly only 50% could say the name of the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Only 2 out of 3 could tell you what city Jesus was born in, Bethlehem.

I could go on. Just because people read doesn't mean they are students. When it comes to you, when you think about where you're at, are you a student? I'm praying that, as the pastor of this church, we would be people of the Book, that we would be serious students of the bible, that we would be biblically literate people, that we would know the book. And more than that, we would “do” the book.

We would live and follow the word of God. That's my desire, too. Now, that was Paul's desire and he's writing this letter to his spiritual son in the Lord, Timothy. He writes two letters to Timothy.

You have to remember how this happened. Timothy was his son in the Lord, younger than Paul. He had followed Paul for many years. And Paul planted a church in Ephesus, and he was there planting that church for three years. And he built a great church.

Ephesus was the second largest city in the Roman Empire. Over 250,000 people lived in Ephesus. It was the most influential church during that day in terms of size and influence. Paul, who was a church planter, says that after three years, I got to go plant more churches. And he hands the keys to Timothy.

And Timothy's like, I can't do it. I'm too young. I'm too small. This week I was studying with my son Jonathan. And by the way, this month is the 10th year anniversary of our Rocky Mount campus.

Can you believe that? That's wonderful. Praise the Lord for that. It seems like yesterday to me, but I told him when we started this church, when we started out, we were part of an idea of planting churches. Nobody in eastern North Carolina was planting churches in those days.

And so we were way ahead of the curve. 33, almost 34 years ago. And so I didn't have anybody to talk to. There were no other pastors planting churches. And so I used to read first and second Timothy and I would rename it first and second Gary.

And I'd be like, I need somebody to talk to, Paul. Can you be my mentor? And he would be like, yeah, like I quoted this earlier. But when I was afraid he'd say, God has not given us a spirit of fear, Gary, but a spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind, I go, okay, thanks, Paul. That's good.

And he goes. And then when I would get feeling bad, you know, like I didn't feel up to the task or I didn't feel like I was, I would listen to one of my old sermon tapes because we used to record him on this thing called cassette tapes. Parents talk to the young people, explain to them what I'm talking about. But I would listen to one and I'd be like, oh, I'm terrible. And you know, I had too many ums and ahs.

And then I would read over here in second Timothy, chapter four, 1 “…I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
I'd go, yes, Paul, like that. And so he's talking to Timothy, his spiritual son in the Lord. He says, Timothy, I charge you to be a student of God's Word and to preach God's Word and to teach God's word so that the people of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

And I believe that's still true today, that we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work that God's called us to by being students of God's Word. I think that's what God's calling us to do. Church and as we look today, I think we'll see three steps on how we can be students, how we can have the habit of Bible study. Let me read two verses and then we'll unpack them together. Verse 16 and 17 of chapter 3.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) 16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
This is God's Word. Amen. We're looking for three steps on how to practice the habit of Bible study. Here's the first step.

1. LISTEN ––Read God’s Word as His life-transforming message to you.

Listen. Listen. Read God's Word. Listen to God's Word. Receive God's Word as his life transforming message to you.

His life transforming as his love letter to you, I want you to notice the first words we see here. All scripture is breathed out by God. All scripture, not most scripture, not pretty much all. All scripture. One of the ways that students study any book, not just the Bible, but any piece of literature, is to look at its internal evidence.

What does the book claim for itself? Well, what does the Bible claim for itself? It claims to be God breathed. It claims that all scripture, all writings from Genesis to Revelation come from God. This is an authoritative statement that it has the authority of God.

But it's not only that God breathed that, it's breathed out by God. The King James says inspired, which the word inspired from the Latin still has the idea of breath to be breathed out. We can't miss what this is really implying. You can't miss the fact that Paul probably has in mind what we see back in Genesis when it says that God fashioned Adam the first man from the dust of the earth and he formed a man and he breathed life into him and he became a living soul. That same breath of God, that same breath, that's what he breathed out through the apostle Paul when he's writing first and second Timothy.

That's where Scripture comes from. It's a really cool Greek word. You want to learn a Greek word today? It's theopneustos. It means God breathed.

All scripture is theopneustos Theo. It's the root word for theology. It means the study of God. Theo, it's the Greek word for God.

It has that silent P at the beginning, like pneumonia, which is a disease of the breath or of the lungs. Right? Neustos means breath or wind or spirit. All scripture, not most scripture. All scripture is God breathed.

It has authority and it has life giving transformational power for the believer. That's what, that's just the first few words. We just got started with this verse and that's what we can see. Why wouldn't you listen? Why wouldn't you receive such a word?

There's no other book like it. The Bible is the Greek word biblos, which just means book. So the name of it is the book. That's the name of it. It's actually 66 books written by over 40 human authors over a period of 1600 years.

There's no other book like it. It's God's book. It's God's love letter to you.

And here's what we see. Paul writing to the church at Rome in Romans 10. He says Romans 10:17 (NKJV) “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” You want to grow in faith. You want to have life, transformational faith.

It comes from hearing, listening, studying God's word. The psalmist says it like this in Psalm 119:15 (NLT) “I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways.” So when we read the Word of God, you might be thinking, well, it seems to tell me a lot about me. It seems to tell me a lot about humanity and nations and people.

What does. But the book is primarily about God. From cover to cover, if you look closely enough, you'll be learning not just what God says, but you'll learn his ways, you'll learn his character. You'll become a student of the Lord himself. I've been calling it a love letter.

It reminds me of the summer of 78. The summer of 78. I went on a mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. And I was part of a music trip where I played guitar and sang and gave my testimony and went around and visited different groups of college students and so forth that summer. And it was a great summer.

It was just. I picked a summer that was probably not the best summer for me because right before I went on this summer break, I asked this little girl named Robin Conner to marry me. And so, like a couple of weeks, like before I go on this mission trip, she said yes. I put a ring on her finger and went on this trip.

And boy, my little heart, boy, is just like missing her so bad. I was trying to live for Jesus and I was doing pretty good, but boy, I was missing her. And then I'd get a letter. Oh, my goodness. We had a post office box that we'd ride together.

I was staying in a house with several other men, and I would get a letter regularly. And soon as I'd open the post office box, it would have letters to all of us in there because we just had one box. And it would smell up the whole box with perfume. And the other guys would be like, oh, he got another one.

He got another letter from Robin. And I would not open it in the car because them boogers would be wanting to like, what's it say? Like, no, it's none of your business. And it would be like a thick one too, you know, and it would be like seal with a kiss on the outside with the. Where she, like, kissed it.

And I'm not even going to tell you what's in there because it's too juicy for me to tell you.

It was. For me, it was Robin kissed and Robin breathed into that thing. Man, it smelled like her. And boy, and I would just want to go back home to Virginia, where I was from at the time. I would reread them letters over and over again.

I missed her so bad. It was her love letter to me. And we talked about our future and getting married and someday having a family.

You know what I'm talking about. The God of the universe has written you a love letter. And it has the aroma of Christ on every page.

And have you ever read it? Are you a student of it? Have you allowed its life transforming God breathed power to permeate your soul?

Oh, I'm calling you to it. Have you begun a study habit of reading and allowing God's word to permeate your life? I've got some practical tips for you. One is to pray like, Gary. What should I be reading?

Well, instead of just skipping around, maybe pick a book. If you're a new believer, read the book of John, the Gospel of John. If you've been a believer for a couple of weeks and you've already read the book of John, go to the book of James. It's only five chapters. It's very practical.

I'd start with John and James. Don't start in Genesis. You'll get to Leviticus and give up. Okay, that's. You can do that later.

Start in the New Testament if you're new at it. Okay, new people say, hey, I started right at the beginning. Yeah, it's not that kind of book. Okay, so start with John, go to James and what. How much should I read?

Well, pray this, because remember, it's a letter from God. So God speak to me through your word. So pray. Pray that. And then read till he speaks.

Well, I just read one verse and I already felt. Well, okay, stop and meditate and study that verse. Well, I had to read a whole chapter. Well, good, you read a whole chapter. Now stop.

And God spoke. And so start with that rhythm. It's not like I'm trying to check off a box. I'm trying to read. No, you're reading a love letter.

And when you, when you feel the love, when you feel his presence, when the spirit begins to transform and call you to repentance and move you, then take a pause, be a student. If you've been a believer for a little while and you've never read through the whole Bible, I would offer you a trip on the Bible bus with me. It pulls out every January 1st, and we read through the whole Bible together. We call it The One Year Bible Club or One Year Bible Group. And so you can find us on Facebook.

We have a group, the One Year Bible Group. And I make daily posts on social media. I make a daily podcast on Spotify and on Apple podcasts and other places. And I've been doing this for over 20 years. Why do I do it?

Because I love the Lord and I love His Word and I want you to love him too. And I want you to go on this journey with me and knowing God's word. And so I would invite you to. That's a good way of getting through the Bible in a year if you've never done that. Okay, listen, here's number two.

Here's the second step. It starts with receiving, listening, reading. Number two.

2. LEARN ––Apply God’s Word to guide and shape how you think and act.

Notice what we've read so far. All scripture is breathed out by God. Okay, we've talked about that and now this is where we're at. Profitable. Profitable could be translated as useful, practical.

So it's not just some book that's so heavenly minded. It's no earthly good. No, you can. This book will help you live. This book will help you make good decisions.

It'll give you wisdom. It'll help you in every category of your life. This is the most important book ever written. People go to school and they get diplomas and they go to university and they never graduate from God's book. You're not truly educated till you know this book, the one who made you, wrote it.

Learn from it and apply it. It's useful. How is it useful? Well, Paul gives Timothy four ways. It's useful.

The first way, he says it's profitable for teaching. There's actually intellectual information here for you to know. The word teaching could be being taught, but it's also the idea of a doctrine or teaching to be received. So it contains teachings and it's profitable to know. It has instructions and it has doctrines and teachings for reproof.

It's profitable for reproof, which is to give evidence of or proof of. It also has the idea of rebuke to be reproved. It. It rebukes you. It calls you to repentance.

It's profitable for correction. For correction. Another cool Greek word here, epanorthōsis. Epanorthōsis. .

If you listen closely, you can hear in the middle of that word a Greek root word, ortho. Now, some of you know, a couple years ago, I got new knees. Okay, I had worn out my old knees. I got new knees. I tell people I'm 67 years old, but I got baby knees.

They're only like two and a half, three years old now. Got baby knees, just got new knees. I went to the orthopedic surgeon to get them new knees. The word ortho has the idea in the Greek to straighten out something that's broken or crooked. That's the Greek word here.

Correction means to straighten out that which is broken or crooked. And that's us. Oh my goodness, that's us. Every one of us. We've left the straight path.

We've fallen off to the crooked path. Our lives are crooked and we need the word of God and the spirit of God. Applying the word of God to us to straighten us out. It's good for that. God's word is profitable for that.

It's useful for that. And then finally training is the fourth area. And this has the idea of education. Literally has the idea from K through university, from kindergarten, university. It has the idea of bringing up to maturity.

And so it's profitable for all of this. In righteousness, in right living, in living the way God calls you to live in righteousness before God, a condition acceptable to God. Thinking about this, how might we apply God's word? Well, Paul writes to Timothy in chapter two, 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.” He says you should work at it. You should have a discipline. The root idea of being a disciple is discipline. They share the same root, that you should have a habit.

And this is not law, this is not legalism. This is a way of working out what he's working in, of putting on what he's putting in. It's a way of applying God's love letter. Study to show your approval that you're a workman that does not need to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth.

He uses a phrase here that literally means cut it straight. Rightly cutting straight the word of God. You got to give Paul credit. You remember his technical job. The trade he learned growing up was tent making, right?

And so he probably had Popeye arms from cutting those camel skin tents. And so he knew how to cut it straight. So he uses a verb that comes from that trade. You need to cut it straight when you study the word of God. Learn to cut it straight.

James, chapter one, we read, James 1:22 (NLT) “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” Be doers. Memorize it. Psalms 119:11 (NIV) “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

How do you hide God's word in your heart? You have to memorize it. In fact, Psalm 119:11 is a good theme verse for your first memory verse. If you've never memorized any verse of the Bible, that's a good starting verse. And I recommend you just get some little index cards or some little cards and write on one side the address, the reference, Psalm 119:11.

Then on the other side, write the verse. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11. Thy word I've hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119.

And you just go back and forth. You can learn one a week, one a month until you hide it inside of you. You memorize it. So then whenever temptation comes or a decision comes, the Holy Spirit can just reach down inside your heart, flip through the files, pull that one. That's it..

Oh, that's the one I needed for me. Oh, that's the one I needed to tell this person that's feeling beat up today or feeling discouraged today. But you got to put it in. You got to put it in. You have to put it on before he can use it.

This is not law. This is grace. This is the gift that he's calling us to. You can memorize it, you can meditate on it. Psalms 1:2-3 (NIV)

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” And so you can meditate on God's word.

And meditation is not, as the Eastern religions would claim, where they claim it's an emptying of the mind. But for Christians, meditation is a filling of the mind with the word of God. And so it's literally chewing on God's word, thinking it over until you,it 's almost like eating it until the point where you've chewed and gotten every morsel of it so that you've fully understood it. We use something called the hand illustration to teach this idea of this multifaceted way of studying God's word. And we kind of borrowed this from navigators.

It has the idea of saying, hear, read, study, memorize, meditate. And we kind of added another one, put it in the palm. We call it apply. And so we'll say like this, when we're teaching somebody in life on life discipleship, which is the process that we talk about in our church about raising up new disciples.

We'll say, okay, if you just do one, can you keep a grasp on your Bible and say, you know, if the devil tries to take it away from you? No. 2. No. 3.

No. 4. Almost. You did better. 5.

Okay, you're close. Apply now. That's yours. And so that's kind of a little illustration we use sometimes to help people get a grasp on your Bible. Use these different approaches to study God's word.

Don't just read the Bible. Don't just listen. Learn it, learn it. Become a serious student of God's word. And not just intellectually.

Not just so that, wow, Susie really needs to hear this. Well, Johnny needs to hear. No, Gary needs to hear it. Like, I need to apply. Here's another tip for you.

I'm trying to give you practical tips here because Paul tells Timothy, it's profitable, it's practical, it's useful. Here's another one. Do you use soap before you leave home every morning? Like, do you put some soap, like, soap up a little bit in the mornings? People around you appreciate it if you say yes.

And so what I tell people is you should use soap when you study God's word every morning. Like, you should put a rhythm in your life of scripture. Read observation, write down what you heard, application, write down how it applies to you and what you need to do about it. And then pray. S.O.A.P. Use a little soap every morning.

It's a good process. It's profitable. These are just tips. Try using that method. It's very helpful.

Here's the third step. We've said, listen and learn.

3. LIVE ––Remain in God’s Word to be equipped for every good work.

Here’s Timothy, he's like, you gave me this big church in this big city, and I'm just a little guy. I'm just little. And he says, you got all you need right here. You got all you need right here, Timothy. So preach the word in season and out of season.

And don't let people look down on you because of your youth. That used to mean a lot to me back in the day. I used to be young.

I'd be like, yeah, don't let people look down because I got God's word. Like that, you know?

Yeah. This is what he's saying here. Live in it. Live in it. Man of God.

This is every Christian man of God, woman of God, anyone who believes in the Lord. This. This is all you need, that we may be complete. The word complete could be thoroughly fitted out. Like, if you've ever been in the military.

I understand if you're in the military, they equip you. They give you boots, a uniform, helmet, a gun, things to carry in a backpack. They give you stuff. They fit you out as a soldier.

That's the language Paul's using here, that you're thoroughly equipped. God's word fits you out so that you have the complete armament in order to fully live for God. This is what he says, that you may be complete, fitted out, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Jesus said this when the evil one tempted him. He said, Matthew 4:4 (NIV) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

That's in Matthew 4:4. He's quoting Deuteronomy 4:4. In fact, he answers all of Satan's temptations, all three of them, by quoting Scripture. Did you know that he's quoted Scripture, the living word. Jesus is quoting the written word.

Apparently he hid God's word in his heart that he might not sin against him. He had memorized it, and of course it was helpful. Probably that he's the one who inspired it and wrote it too. That was helpful. But that's what he says.

Matthew 4:4 (NIV) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” And so God's word is to be like food for our souls. And we're to have this habit that helps us work out what God's working in. I've been saying this. Here's what Paul told the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter two.

He says, Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV) 12 “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Notice a couple of things. He says we are to work out something. What are we to work out? What God is working in.

How are we going to work it out if we don't let him work it in? So we got to get it in, and then he works it out in us. And he gives us these two benefits. To will. In other words, he gives us a new willpower, right?

And to act. He gives us a new due power, a new obedience, a new heart. So, to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. To work out what he's working in. Now, when I hear the phrase work out, it reminds me of the gym working out.

And for years, I always thought when you worked out, you were building muscles. Then I found out as I read some medical science behind it, I found out that working out actually tears down your muscles. Did you know that medical science teaches us this, that working out does not actually build muscle. It breaks it down. When you lift weights, you put stress on your muscles, creating tiny tears in the fibers.

And at first the muscle is actually weaker. In fact, they tell you when you're working out to work to muscle exhaustion, so you can't lift another one. And that's how you know when you walk out of there and you can't lift your arms. You've had a good workout.

And so what builds your muscles? Well, according to the miracle of God's design for the human body, it's during rest and recovery. It's actually the body that repairs those fibers, making them thicker and stronger than before, so it can handle the stress that you apparently are going to start putting on. The body's like, okay, if you're going to do that, we're going to build up. And so I start thinking about that, that when you study God's word, it's often like that.

It often tears you down at first. It often points out the things you need to repent of and change. And sometimes we can't handle just a small dose. I got it, Lord. And we start thinking, I got it, I got it. No, you don't have to do nothing.

You got to yield it to the Lord. You got to bring it to the cross because it's during rest. It's during the time when you're allowing rest and sleep and you're allowing the nourishment of a good diet. That's what builds up your spiritual muscles. But often he has to tear down our old ways of thinking.

And so God's word is like. It's like that. It's like developing a spiritual muscle, working out what he's working in. You see, I didn't create this bicep. I was born with it.

God gave it to me freely. If I want it to grow, I have to submit myself to a discipline of working out what he worked in. That's grace, and that's what he's calling us to in God's word. The same is true spiritually. It doesn't happen instantly, but it happens over time as we become students of God's Word.

Would you make studying God's Word a lifelong pursuit?Would you become part of us as a fellowship of believers saying, we love the Lord and we love his Word. It breathes life into me. Would you become a serious student of God's Word? Maybe you're saying, I want to, but I need a personal trainer.

Well, we offer that. We call it life on life discipleship, and we'd love to have you sign up for that. And what we would do is we would assign a mentor to you, to walk you through a process of growing to maturity in Jesus. It includes study of God's Word and other practices. And so we'd love for you to be involved in that.

It's the way Jesus discipled. It's one life on another life. Just talking to you about the process of sanctification, of growing to be more like Jesus. We'd love to see you take part in that. And also we are offering, it just so happens, this coming weekend, a seminar called “How to Study and Teach the Bible.”

It's Friday night and Saturday morning, and it's not too late to sign up for that. It's profitable. God's study. It's practical, it's useful. We've given you a lot of practical tips today.

But before you leave, I want you to hear this. I'm not trying to add to your burden of, oh, I got to do one more thing. I got to become a student of God's Word so that it feels like a burden. No, I want you to remember what I said earlier. I want you to read God's love letter to you that it's God breathed and that will change your life from the inside out.

And so make it part of the transformation of your life. You can't change yourself. And even studying God's Word doesn't necessarily lead to change. Yielding yourself to God's Word and to his Spirit's work in your life, that's what changes us. Grace transforms us, not works.

And so that's the gospel, right? To allow his work to change us, to open ourselves up to it. Will you listen? Will you learn? Will you live in God's Word?

When you make Bible study a spiritual habit, you are cooperating with the Holy Spirit and becoming more like Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, I pray first of all for those that are here. They're followers of Jesus, sinners saved by grace, desiring to grow in maturity to Christ. And I just pray for us, Lord, that we would become more serious about studying your Word, reading your Word, living in your Word, not just for intellectual knowledge, but for growth and to know God better and to know the Lord Jesus better.

I pray for that grace for us, Lord. And then I pray for that one who the Bible makes no sense apart from Jesus. But today you sense that Jesus is speaking to you. You've never given your life to Jesus.

I'm praying for you right now that today you could pray with me and say, I want the Lord of the Book in me. I need Jesus in my life. Can you pray with me right now? Dear Lord Jesus, Pray like that. I'm a sinner.

I've been walking my own way, living my own life. But today I surrender my life to you. I know Lord, that and believe that you died on the cross for me. That you were raised from the grave and that you're alive today. You're risen to new life.

And I pray you'd come and live in me by your Holy Spirit. That you'd forgive me of my sin. That you'd make me a child of God, adopt me into your family. And Lord, I want to grow in you. If you're praying that prayer of faith today, we want to welcome you into the kingdom.

You've just begun the journey. And we're so thankful, Lord, thank you that we can lift these prayers up to you now. In Jesus’ name, Amen.