October 8, 2025 • 46 mins
We walk through a simple, faithful way to interpret Scripture—moving from the original audience to our lives—using Joshua 1 as our guide. We trade coffee-cup slogans for context, test principles across the Bible, and finish with clear next steps and a prayer.
• why interpretation must be faithful before creative
• the five-step interpretive journey explained and modeled
• grasping the text in their town with Joshua 1:9
• measuring cultural, historical, and covenant differences
• naming a timeless principle: God’s presence fuels courage
• testing the principle across Scripture’s whole map
• correcting common misreads of popular verses
• turning principles into concrete, humble application
• starting with prayer and relying on the Holy Spirit
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined again withPastor Tim.
And uh Tim on Sunday, we kickedoff uh our brand new series for
October.
We're calling it ReformationRoots.
And uh man, taking a deep diveback into some pretty
foundational doctrine, I guess,for the church.
(00:48):
Um, and so looking at the fivesolas uh that came out of the
Protestant Reformation andMartin Luther when he nailed the
95 thesis on the church doors inWittenberg, Germany.
And so each week we're gonna bediving into one of those, really
trying to build that foundation.
And so I told the the church onSunday, if man, if you haven't
been to church in a while, ifthis is your first time here, if
(01:09):
you've you're new toChristianity or following Jesus,
this is, man, what a greatseries to just really start
laying down a solid foundationbecause man, so much of what we
believe and how we operate as achurch is built off of these
beliefs, these ideas.
And then, man, for a lot ofpeople, they've been following
(01:29):
Jesus a long time, uh, coming tochurch a long time, and really
have never never talked aboutthis stuff.
Maybe not don't really even knowwho Martin Luther is, you know.
Um so uh excited to give alittle bit of history in that.
SPEAKER_02 (01:43):
Yeah, that's actually you did a great job
preaching that sermon.
Um, this is gonna be a greattime for the church, I think, to
get back to the roots.
Yeah.
And uh, but uh one of the thingsabout scripture is we we need to
learn how to interpret it.
And uh so you've got this uhlittle little thing geared up
(02:03):
here that'll help people ontheir uh interpretive journey on
how to interpret scripture.
Yeah, there's so many things wedon't take into, and I don't
either, until I'm studying it.
You know, when I'm reading it, Idon't think about my culture
versus their culture, you know,uh their laws against my laws,
(02:23):
their idea of freedom, my ideaof freedom, you know, no
democracy, you know, just allkinds of things that I it
doesn't play into the pictureuntil you until you sit down and
you look at the scripture andyou use this uh interpretive
journey to find out what it saysbefore you can figure out what
(02:44):
it says to you.
SPEAKER_01 (02:45):
Yeah, this is uh this is so important.
And it's what I told in thesermon on on Sunday I told the
church, if you listen to theMidweek podcast this week, I
want to I want to teach you howthat you can begin to study
scripture um responsibly so thatyou can understand what it means
and apply it faithfully to yourlife.
(03:05):
And I this I I will say thisthis is a deeper dive than just
casual reading of scripture,which is still good and there's
still benefit to just readingscripture.
Um and I'm not saying every timeyou, you know, if you're putting
on the Bible on the way to work,um, you're probably not gonna be
able to walk through all five ofthese steps that we're gonna lay
(03:26):
out today.
This is more for that in-depthBible study.
But then as you you startgetting familiar with these
steps, as you listen toscripture on the way to work or
when you're mowing the grass orjust in that casual Bible, it
Bible reading, it starts tobuild the frame for you a little
bit.
SPEAKER_03 (03:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:43):
Um, because you begin to understand some of
these principles.
Um, and and you make sure that,oh, I can't read too much of my
my situation into this becausethey weren't dealing with my
kids in 2025, you know.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:58):
They weren't worried about their kids being on social
media all day and and uh weren'tworried about you know sending
your kid off at 16, driving topick up your daughter at school,
and you know, that they didn'thave any worries like that, but
they had plenty of worries ontheir own.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Right.
And so it's uh this is a greatmethod uh that we're gonna walk
you through um to begin, like Isaid, to to understand and apply
scripture responsibly.
And in in the message on Sunday,I I asked this question whose
word is guiding your life?
And there's a lot of competingvoices uh in culture, in
(04:36):
society, definitely, you know,social media, a lot of people
competing for your attention,trying to speak words um that
influence us.
And you know, John Maxwell hesays leadership is is influence.
And there's a lot of people thatwould love to have influence
over you.
Um so it matters.
(04:57):
The voices that we entertain,um, and particularly the ones
that we we build our lives on.
And you know, I think one of thethings I talked about in the
sermon on Sunday was you know,what's true today might be
outdated tomorrow.
It seems like that's how fasttime is going right now.
No, this is true.
Trust the science.
(05:17):
We didn't mean that.
It's something else.
We need something that's solid,uh a foundation that that we can
trust in God has promised.
He's the same yesterday, today,and forever.
His word never returns void.
Um, it's never gonna fade away.
This is the solid thing that wecan build our life on.
And so the question thenbecomes, well, then how do I
(05:39):
read it?
How do I read it faithfully?
How do I make sure that whatwe're actually hearing is what
God actually said and heintended for me to hear, not
just what I want it to say.
SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
So if you're uh at home listening to this podcast
and you're not mowing the lawnor something, get you a notebook
and uh get your Bible and turnit up to Joshua chapter one.
We're gonna use that littlepassage of scripture there and
uh walk you through um how we doit, how we how we actually think
(06:11):
our way through the scripture tofind out um what it means
finally to us.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Yeah, here's here's an important distinction.
The Bible was written for you,but it was not written to you,
it was written to a group ofpeople in a specific place in a
specific time, dealing withspecific circumstances.
Uh, you know, when you look atPaul's letters, that was written
to a real group of believers ata real church in a real city
(06:39):
facing real issues.
And Paul wrote it to them.
But we talked about this onSunday.
All scripture is God breathed,all scripture is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting,and training in righteousness.
So script, all scripture is foryou, but it doesn't mean it was
written to you.
It was written to real people.
And so these five steps allow usto begin to cross that bridge
(07:03):
from the original audience andthe people who heard it, the you
know, who it was written to, um,the words that the prophet
delivered, who the law was givento, and what the situation was
to cross from there over topresent day your life, your
family, your kids, your job, youknow, whatever you're dealing
(07:24):
with, and faithfully apply ittoday.
And so I'll give you uh just anoverview of all five of them
real fast.
And uh, this is coming from uh abook I actually had to read in
seminary.
Uh, I think the book is calledThe A Journey into God's Word or
The Journey into God's Word,something like that.
But they they lay out theinterpretive journey, and it has
(07:45):
five steps.
First one, grasp the text intheir town.
In this step, you're asking,what did the text mean to the
original audience?
You're trying to figure out,man, when these guys heard it,
what did it mean to them?
Not to me, to them.
Second step, measure the widthof the river to cross.
This is asking the question,what is the difference between
(08:06):
them and us?
Culturally, um, you know, if itwas in the Old Testament,
they're under the old covenant,you were under the new covenant.
You know, what are thedifferences that exist?
SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Step three, cross the principalizing bridge.
What are the time what is thetimeless theological principle?
What is that thing that God saidback then that carries over and
holds true today that stillapplies?
Um and trying to find out, andthat it takes some mining.
It does.
We're gonna work through that.
SPEAKER_02 (08:36):
And it's um a lot of times it's more than just one in
a single scripture.
Yeah, don't think when you'reasking yourself these questions,
uh obviously when uh we'regrasped with the text in their
town, there's gonna be a lot ofdifferences between us and them.
But also the timeless truths ofthe Bible are thick and it and
(08:56):
it can show up in just onelittle verse.
You might get three or four outof it.
So uh be watchful for that.
Because when you get that one,it doesn't mean next year when
you're doing your read throughthe Bible and you get there,
you're like, oh, there's thatdoesn't mean you're done doing
it.
SPEAKER_01 (09:13):
Um yeah, I you know, one of the examples, perfect
example of that would be youknow, Martin Luther, you know,
he read Romans chapter one, andI would bet that wasn't his
first time reading Romanschapter one.
Right.
Um, but man, that this time whenhe read it, it changed
everything.
The righteous shall live byfaith.
And so, yeah, just because youget one doesn't mean you have
(09:35):
unearthed and mined outeverything in that that passage.
I think today you sent me a textand you said, what was it, first
Peter chapter two, fivedifferent ways?
You're laying out a whole sermonseries, and that was from one
small passage of scripture.
Um, there's what is thosetimeless theological principles?
(09:55):
Then step four, consult thebiblical map.
How does this principle fitwithin the rest of scripture?
So scripture is 66 separatebooks, but it all is one giant
narrative, right?
Um telling one story about howGod sent his son to redeem
mankind.
Um, and so something that youread in Leviticus has to, if
(10:22):
this is one of those timelesstheological principles, there's
gonna be other places inscripture that support that
principle.
SPEAKER_02 (10:29):
It's like a um a puzzle.
It's like a big puzzle.
And um, and we're as we readthrough the Bible, we're placing
these it's like a big piecepuzzle.
And you're putting that thesebig sections together, but it's
all telling the same story.
Right.
But sometimes you gotta yougotta work at how it how it
(10:50):
comes together.
And that's that's the fun partof studying the Bible.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
Yep.
And then finally, uh, and thisis really what we're all hoping
to get out of it when we readscripture, I know, but we want
to grasp the text in our town.
And and the question we'reasking here is how do I live
this out today?
And that's what a lot of us wantto know.
You know, God, what what doesall this mean?
You know, I'm reading all thesecrazy principles and and all
these crazy laws, and you know,this one was talking about um,
(11:18):
you know, uh the Israelitesweren't allowed to wear a
garment made of of two differentcloths.
Does that mean I'm supposed toonly wear 100% cotton?
Like what what are you trying tosay to me?
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
Oh, go on to ancestry first, find out how
Jewish you are, and then you'llknow.
SPEAKER_01 (11:35):
You have to check all your tags from here on out.
Um, and so how do we how do welive this out today?
And so that's that's the bridge.
Um, grasp the text in theirtown, measure the width of the
river to cross, uh, cross theprincipalizing bridge, consult
the biblical map, grasp the textin our town.
And so this podcast is gonna bea little bit different.
This is definitely one of thoseones that uh, as Tim said
(11:57):
earlier, it'd be good to sitdown with a a sheet of paper and
your Bible open.
Um but it won't be long.
SPEAKER_02 (12:03):
It's it looks like oh my gosh, what are we gonna
do?
But it it's not like that atall.
It's not like that at all.
It's it's pretty quick.
And and once you uh get thosefive down, um like Ryan said,
once you've done it a coupletimes, it becomes easy for you
because they all start toconnect.
Because there's a timeline, andthese guys were doing this, now
(12:25):
they're doing this, and youknow, so you you kind of figure
out what those things are and asyou're putting the puzzle
together, and then once you getit, yeah, you're you're pretty
good.
Oh no, this is what they werelike when Jesus was in.
No, this is what they were likewhen Moses was there, this is
what Abraham was doing.
And uh so once you get that inyour mind, it becomes a lot
(12:47):
easier.
SPEAKER_01 (12:49):
So let's start uh with one of the most well-known
passages in the Old Testament,Joshua chapter one, uh verse
nine.
The Lord tells Joshua, be strongand courageous, for the Lord
your God is with you whereveryou go.
Beautiful verse, it's on coffeemugs, graduation cards, probably
a bumper sticker or two.
(13:10):
But what does it actually mean?
And what am I supposed to do?
How do I how do I apply this tomy life?
And so the very first thing ifthat if we're gonna take this
scripture, we're gonnaunderstand it, apply it
faithfully, is I gotta grasp thetext in their town.
What does not what does it meanto me, but what did it mean in
context?
In context.
(13:31):
Now, thankfully, most Bibles,especially if you get yourself a
good study Bible, you know, Iknow you and I, we usually use
the the CSB study Bible.
Um, ESV is another greattranslation.
NIV's still good, New KingJames.
There's there's some good onesout there.
But if you get a study Bible,usually right before you start a
chapter or book in the Bible,it'll have a page and it'll give
(13:53):
you a bunch of that context foryou.
SPEAKER_02 (13:55):
It'll lay out the the context.
Sometimes it'll tell you what'sgoing on in nations around them.
Um it it really helps.
SPEAKER_01 (14:03):
Has a lot of times a timeline along the bottom of it
so you kind of know where wherethis book is falling in the
history of other scripture andother events in the world.
And so I would I would encourageyou if you're gonna spend some
time studying scripture, readthrough that.
It's usually one page.
Yeah, maybe two, if it's gottencrazy.
But one or two pages, you canreally start to get a good idea
(14:25):
about who this was written to,what was going on, what was the
point that this guy decided towrite this thing down.
So read that page.
Joshua chapter one opens rightafter the death of Moses.
Israel's been wandering in thewilderness for 40 years.
Moses is dead.
Joshua is stepping intoleadership, and the people are
(14:47):
standing right on the edge ofthe promised land.
They're nervous, they'regrieving, they're uncertain.
And God speaks to Joshua andsays, Be strong and courageous,
for I am with you.
For them, this was a specificcall to trust God as they
prepare to enter the land thatHe had promised, to face enemies
and to lead people and tobelieve that His presence was
(15:07):
enough.
It's not just a motivationalslogan.
God wasn't just saying, Man,this would look really good on a
piece of artwork hanging in yourliving room or in your office.
Yeah.
This was a divine command for aspecific leader stepping into
his God-given mission.
SPEAKER_02 (15:24):
Now we know um what they were facing giants.
They make us look likegrasshoppers, um, walled cities.
Uh they were living out oftents.
And um, so we we have this umidea that they had it all
together.
These these are like um say ageneration before they they had
(15:49):
lived as slaves um and they werewandering the desert.
Uh basically they're um oh,what's the word I'm looking for?
Bedouins and now they're gonnago fight armies that have cities
with walls, and Joshua's uh theLord tells him, Hey, be strong
(16:12):
and courageous.
I'm gonna take care of this foryou.
That's that's a little bitdifferent than when we're
thinking I'm gonna face my bosstoday.
He's he's been really mean, youknow, and the Lord's telling me
be strong and courageous.
We're no, we're talking aboutwar.
We're talking about death.
unknown (16:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
And and how do you know?
So Tim just laid out a couplethings.
You know, these are people whowere slaves, they were living in
tens, they've been wandering inthe woods.
How do you know all that?
Well, you had to read the bookof Genesis, you know, and so
this is the context to keep itin.
Yeah, they're not driving aroundand you know, a traverse and you
know, hopping from soccer gameto soccer game.
That wasn't what was happeninghere.
(16:51):
And so we, yeah, we read our owncontext into this and we try to
pull that out and make it applydirectly to us.
And there's things that aregonna apply.
We're gonna talk about it, butwe gotta start there.
Um, and a authors, uh, Fi andStewart, and I think their book
is How to Read the Bible for allit's worth, maybe.
Um they said this.
(17:12):
They said, a text cannot meanwhat it never could have meant
to its author or his readers.
I'm gonna say that again.
A text cannot mean what it nevercould have meant to its author
or his readers.
So you can't pull out somethingand say, well, this is what this
means.
If it didn't mean it to the guywho wrote it and to the people
he wrote it to, it doesn't meanit.
(17:34):
Now you might learn something,you might glean some wisdom, but
that's not what that meant.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (17:40):
Um, and so in other words, this didn't have anything
to do with dealing with politicsand a constitutional republic.
Nothing like that had everexisted before.
They couldn't even dream it up.
This is so when you take thatverse and you say, Okay, this
verse means that we should dothis and this political
situation, no, it can't meanthat.
(18:02):
Because it couldn't mean itthen.
Now you can take some truths outof that to help you face the
situation, but they didn't knowanything about constitutional
republics, they didn't knowanything about democracy.
Um they they just knew that Godhad asked them to do something
and it was scary.
SPEAKER_01 (18:19):
Right, right.
So before you can applyscripture, we have to understand
it in their context.
Um, if you don't have a studyBible, you can hop online.
There's lots of really great umresources out there, and and you
can find out.
Um Blue Letter Bible, BibleStudy, Bible Gateway.
Um I think even the the UVersionBible app on most of our phones
(18:42):
has started putting in somestudy notes and stuff for books.
So take a second, get an idea,let you know, wrap your head
around the context that theywere in will really help you
start figuring out what was whatwas being communicated to this
group.
The next question that we haveto ask is well, what separates
their world from ours?
And this is when we measure thewidth of the river.
(19:05):
Um, we are not ancientIsraelites, we're not standing
on the border of Canaan, thepromised land.
SPEAKER_02 (19:11):
Um, getting ready to conquer a territory.
Yep, and if you lose, you andall your family will be slaves
to whoever you're supposed toattack.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
My boss's been so mean, and if I go, Yeah, he's
gonna give you an extraassignment, you know, or you
didn't get your vacation thatyou wanted.
Right.
You're not the same.
SPEAKER_02 (19:31):
You are not, you are not um, you don't have any
rights back then, you you know,you didn't have any labor laws,
um, all that kind of stuff.
Uh, but we do have spiritualbattles here, right?
And sometimes the Lord says, bestrong and courageous uh in this
area of your life.
(19:53):
He's not telling you to, youknow, go walk around Jericho um
or to chase the giants down inthe hill country or anything
like that.
Um, but sometimes you can youcan see uh a spiritual battle
that they're having, which is abattle of faith, right?
And you have battle of faith, abattle of faith.
(20:14):
Now, the context is context iscompletely different, but you
can you can reach in there andyou can measure the width of the
river.
And if you're not getting this,the width of the river is they
needed a lot more faith than youdo.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
So here's some some things to think about as you
begin to to pull out that tapemeasure, measure the difference.
We're gonna look at differencesin time and culture, differences
in covenant.
Like I said, they were, youknow, if it's old testament,
they were under the oldcovenant.
If it's new testament, they'reunder the new covenant, starting
Acts chapter 20.
42.
Acts chapter 2.
(20:52):
Right.
Added a zero there.
I was like, no, 20 is way toolate in the story.
It's over.
22.
SPEAKER_02 (20:58):
So and listen to this.
When we say um we use thoseterms old covenant, which is the
old testament law, it's not old,it's just the old testament law.
And we talk about the newcovenant, which is the new
testament.
Um, we will conflate old andnew.
The old covenant was very new tothem right here.
(21:21):
It had just been laid down.
SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:24):
And so they're still struggling with man, I I gotta
do what and when?
And okay, we're going to war.
Uh, aren't we supposed tocelebrate that party?
What was that party?
Something about, you know,bringing in the feast.
I don't know.
Does anybody remember what Mosessaid?
Did someone keep a track of thatbook?
(21:46):
So uh yeah, so not only are theygetting ready to do something,
but their God showing up,talking to them, and guiding
them was new to them too.
SPEAKER_03 (21:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:58):
Um, they had it going on for about 40 years,
just one generation.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
And uh so Yeah, and I mean imagine hundreds of years
before that, they were slaves.
Right.
And so Moses shows up and says,Hey, God showed up in this
burning bush, told me to comeget you guys out of here, and
they're like, He did what?
And who are you?
SPEAKER_02 (22:21):
And we're going where?
Correct.
And then they're there.
Yep.
So you got to remember there'sthere's some of that going on.
The whole thing is, man, I don'tknow if I like my they got some
pretty cool gods back in Egypt.
Um, maybe this isn't the thing,but I think God used those 40
years to teach us some seriouslessons about uh what following
(22:42):
God was gonna mean, and I thinkI think they started to fall in
love with him.
So here they are, and this istheir situation, and it's we've
got 3,500 years of a book totell us all about that stuff,
but they lived it.
And so the the the bridge thethe width of the river is really
(23:05):
wide between us and them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
And that it's important to remember that um
the situation in context isdifferent.
And so, yeah, sometimes you'regonna read a verse and a truth's
just gonna pop out, and youknow, Proverbs is great for
that.
There's a lot of um of greatgreat truths in Proverbs that if
you would just apply, it'd begreat.
Um, and your life would bebetter if you did it.
(23:27):
But when we're studyingscripture, it is so important um
for us to figure out what didthis mean to them?
What were they dealing with?
What what was the context?
Um, even the geographicalsetting that they were in, and
and why did that matter?
I remember when I went toIsrael, we went to the Valley of
Allah where David foughtGoliath, um, and just seeing
(23:50):
where the armies were positionedin that valley and what that
looked like and and where Davidwould have probably gone when he
was looking for stones.
I mean, it it begins to changehow how you read that story.
You're like, oh man, these guyswere staring at each other right
across this field, like, oh mygosh, this is crazy.
Yeah.
Um, those things matter.
(24:10):
And then you start to say, well,what is well, I, you know, I'm
living in a suburb of Cleveland,got a you know, decent job.
I'm not worried about, you know,dying in war today or you know,
even losing my job, and I canfeed my kids.
And the the context isdifferent.
And so that's we're measuringthat width.
(24:31):
So what's different between theoriginal reader and audience and
me today?
SPEAKER_02 (24:36):
And once you do that enough times in the Bible and
you remember where you are inthe Bible, um, that becomes
easier and easier, and you don'tspend a lot of time there.
You wouldn't even spend as muchtime as we have trying to
explain it to you.
SPEAKER_01 (24:49):
That's correct.
SPEAKER_02 (24:50):
And uh then you get to that number three where we
cross that uh principalizingbridge.
What are the things that we candraw from that?
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
Yeah, those timeless theological principles that
apply in every age.
God looked at Joshua and said,Be strong and courageous.
I am with you wherever you go.
Joshua's getting ready to stepinto a new land, step into a new
position, fight a bunch ofbattles, and he needed to know
God was going to be with him ashe did that.
(25:21):
We're not Joshua, we're nottrying to conquer a land and
we're not going to war.
But there are some principles,and I can look and say, Well,
man, you know what?
God was with Joshua, God is withhis people.
And so I can live courageouslyand obedient as I follow his
word today.
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
There's a theological principle that I can
pull from what God told Joshua,and it's true today, and it
crosses that divide from 3,500years ago.
That was yeah, 37, about 3,700years ago until today.
That is a theological truth.
And that's that's what you'relooking for.
(26:01):
Now there might be um othertruths that you can dig out of
that, and I'm sure somebody'spreached on that verse and did
three points on it.
Easy, easy, and uh so we uh thatsee how simple that was?
That is just simple.
How wide is the river?
What crosses it?
(26:21):
Well, God's people don't have tobe afraid because he's with me.
SPEAKER_01 (26:27):
Yep, and so get that picture in your mind.
I I love how they uh use thisprincipalizing bridge, it's a
mouthful to say, but you get theidea like this picture in your
head where there's somethingthat connects from back then,
Pastor Tim just said that was3,700 years ago, and then
there's this bridge thatconnects and it lands squarely
into your life today.
(26:49):
That bridge is the thing thatconnects what God was doing and
saying to those people and howit connects with us today, how
we're supposed to livedifferently because of it today.
And this is when scripturebecomes useful for teaching,
correcting, rebuking, andtraining in righteousness.
Right.
We start to find these thesebridges.
SPEAKER_02 (27:10):
That truth is the spine of the bridge.
It is it holds it together allthe way into our time.
That's good.
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
God's presence produces courage for obedience,
that's the principle.
I see it in Joshua's life.
And then we're gonna talk in asecond about step four.
Um, I'm gonna see it in a lot ofother people's stories
throughout scripture, and soit's true for us today.
God's presence produces couragefor obedience, and so I take
(27:40):
that principle and I say, okay,that's what I think applies
here.
I God was with Joshua, he wasgiving him the courage to obey
what he had asked him to do.
I can see how God was going tobe with me as and give me the
courage to do what he's askingme to do today, to be a good
husband, to be a great boss oran employee, um, to steward my
(28:02):
resources well.
SPEAKER_02 (28:03):
And so now we have to take that biblical principle
and we have to try it againstthe word.
Yeah.
Just like when Paul said, tryspirits to see whether they are
God.
We have to take this this truththat we have ascertained, the
bridge that bridges the 3,700years that applies to both
(28:24):
Joshua and me, and then we gottalay it to our truth uh so we can
see if it's actually true.
And we do that bycross-referencing.
And um which is great.
If you got a modern Bible, youjust look in the middle of the
(28:44):
columns and where someone saystrust God, where someone says
courage uh be courageous, you'regonna find little uh uh
annotations of differentscriptures that use those kind
of words, and you can justsimply open it up.
And Matthew 28.20 says, I amwith you always to the end of
(29:06):
the age.
Romans 8 31, if God is for us,who can be against us?
Hebrews 13 5, I will never leaveyou or forsake you.
So the Bible, that truth that'syou humanly with your human
brain and most likely theguiding of the Holy Spirit has
um has been proven with the restof the word.
(29:31):
If you can find something inthere and you think you found a
principle that um crosses thatbridge and it's the spine of
what that is, and you can't findanything else in the Bible about
it.
And especially if you findsomething that refutes it, then
you need to take another look.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
Yeah, and and the danger is a lot of people will
do just that.
They'll find something andthey'll build some bridge.
And then they they won't findanything else to support it.
It, but they'll go aroundproclaiming it like it's some
core doctrinal truth.
Um, and as best Tim just said,you need to be very careful
about doing that, especially ifscripture refutes it.
(30:11):
Then you know, man, I got thatone wrong.
And that's okay.
It's okay to get it wrong.
It's okay to miss the mark.
You go back and say, God, youknow, I was consulting the rest
of scripture.
I looked at the rest of thebook.
It does not say what I thoughtyou were trying to say right
here.
What were you trying to say?
And it's an opportunity to divedeeper into it.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
Um, but we've got to be, even if it's cool, we've got
to be able to let it go forreal.
Right.
The uh I think it was Aristotle.
This was laid at Aristotle.
I don't think they ever provedit, but he said the mark of an
educated mind is to be able toentertain the thought without
(30:54):
accepting it.
You've got to be mature enoughto say, I can't find any more
proof.
I think it's cool, it might beright, but there's no evidence.
So I and I tell every time, I'dnever preach on that.
You know.
SPEAKER_01 (31:11):
And if this is the first time you've ever done
something like this, um, you'regonna start this process and
you're gonna get to step threeand you're gonna start building
this bridge, and it's gonna beexciting.
Yes, you're gonna love it, like,oh my gosh, this is what they
were talking about.
SPEAKER_02 (31:28):
I'm figuring it out.
How come my pastor never talksabout this?
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
And then if you don't go anywhere else, you're
gonna go and think, well, that'sgotta be true, and you're gonna
be excited.
You'll and you've talked aboutthis before, you'll start
building emotions around itbecause God spoke to me.
The Holy Spirit spoke to mehere.
Right.
And man, I I've heard peoplesay, Well, the Holy Spirit told
me I should leave my wife.
(31:53):
Wrong.
No, that never gonna happen.
How do I know?
Because the rest of his booktells me that is never gonna
happen.
And so we can't just, like Isaid, it's okay to get it wrong.
And you're going to.
If if this is your first timetrying something like this,
you're gonna get it wrong.
There's even times today whenI'm studying, I'm thinking, oh
man, that's kind of interesting.
(32:14):
I wonder what that's all about.
And then you go and you startdigging around and looking in
scripture, and you're like, ohno, and it it wasn't even
heading close to the path I washeaded down.
SPEAKER_02 (32:24):
Right, right.
See, well, here's a goodexample.
In Acts, I think it was Felix,and they were trying Paul, and
he said something that soundedreally spiritual, but God did
not breathe those words, he putit down for our use so we can
(32:44):
understand the context.
He says something like this Ithink it's Felix.
I should have written that downwhile we were putting this
together.
But anyways, he says, um if Godis for it, it'll happen.
If God is not for it, it won'thappen.
Well, there's a lot of thingsthat happen that God is not for,
right?
And we we hear that, well, it'llit'll just it'll be if God wants
(33:08):
it to be, you know, but theworld is set up differently than
that.
We all know that.
And uh for us to take that veryI don't know, use uh shallow,
immature view of God'ssovereignty um would be would be
(33:32):
crazy.
But I've heard people use that.
Yeah, but God didn't say that.
Paul didn't say that.
Some dude named Felix, and hewas a governor, and he said it,
and uh it sounds good, but it'snot truth.
So you can't build a a bridge ofspiritual truth on something
that some guy said that wasn'teven a believer.
SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
As I talked about this in the sermon, it's so
important.
We have got to we've got toconsult scripture.
You know, they say consult thebiblical map, and that just
means you gotta dig in and makesure whatever bridge you've just
built, it can be supported up.
You know, we got the spine ofthe bridge.
Well, now we need some columns.
We got to hold this thing up andmake sure that it can stand the
(34:17):
test of time.
Um, and so I've got to findthose those other places in the
scripture that support thatprinciple, or I gotta lay that
principle down and say, man, Igot it, I gotta go back to the
drawing board on this one.
But the same promise that Godgave to Joshua finds its
fulfillment in Jesus.
God was with us, God is with us,He's Emmanuel, right?
(34:40):
And so the God who who looked atJoshua and said, I am with you
wherever you go, well, man, wesee that Jesus is, he lives
within us.
Um, he's with us wherever we go.
He will never leave us norforsake us.
So when we live courageously infaith today, we're walking in
the same truth that Joshua did.
We're just doing it under a newcovenant.
(35:00):
So now we've we've measured thewidth of the river, we've we've
got the bridge, we've supportedthat bridge.
And so we come to step five,which is grasping the text in
our own town.
And this is the question we'reasking here.
What does this mean for me?
So now I've done all of thiswork and I've got this river,
I've got this bridge, I've gotsome pillars and some support.
(35:21):
What am I supposed to do withall of it?
And so here's an applicationjust from Joshua chapter one.
And Peston talked about itearlier, might be more than
this.
Um, but here's an application.
When you're facing a difficultdecision, when you're stepping
into the unknown, when you'reafraid to take the next step of
(35:42):
obedience, you can be strong andcourageous because God's
presence goes with you.
This is not self-help courage,it's God-dependent confidence,
not just coffee cup slogans.
This is foundational truth Ibuild my life on.
God is with me.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
And it's been 3,700 years, and the narrative in the
Bible plays that out over andover again.
And uh from you mentioned Davidand Goliath, from David getting
his stones and going out in theface of Goliath to um facing his
(36:24):
people when he sinned and himhaving to confess, um, all the
way through um the disciplesfailing and running away during
Jesus' crucifixion, it just umit just plays all the way
through, all the way up to 2025,where God says go over there and
(36:47):
make up with your neighbor.
You guys have been going at itand you know what's going on,
and you don't want you want yourrelationship to be loving.
That's the law of Christ, theNew Testament.
So go over there, tell themyou're sorry, ask him to forgive
you, and don't be afraid.
I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:09):
Here's here's why all this is so important, and I
and I reference this on onSunday too, is we have a
tendency to just pull thoseverses out and and read in the
scripture what what we want.
And a lot of times I think it'sit's innocent.
I think a lot of us we've justnever been taught this, what
(37:31):
we're talking about today.
We've been told you should readthe Bible.
And so we just go and we startreading it, and then we we find
a verse uh like the one that youpulled out, uh, you know, that
Felix said.
We're like, oh, well, that'sgood.
And we highlight it and we startquoting it and building truce on
it.
Um but man, it even if it'sinnocent, it can also be
(37:53):
dangerous.
I quoted Philippians 4.13, I cando all things through Christ who
strengthens me on Sunday.
But Paul wasn't talking aboutwinning football games or
landing a promotion.
He was saying that even insuffering and scarcity, he can
endure through the strength thatChrist gives him.
Well, that's a little bitdifferent than pushing up some
iron.
Right.
You know, Jeremiah 29, 11, howmany times have we heard this
(38:16):
quoted?
For I know the plans I have foryou, and plans for good and a
future to give you, you know,hope and and all these.
Well, listen, this was writtento exiles in Babylon.
You know, you're like, well,God's gonna give me dreams and
I'm gonna get a smoking hot wifeor husband or whatever.
You know, God's got great bigplans for my life, and he does.
(38:39):
Again, what who was he writingthis to?
It's not a promise of personalprosperity, but a message of
God's faithfulness even inhardship.
That's what he's saying.
Listen, I know guys, this isreally tough, but I'm I'm with
you.
I've got plans to give you hopein a future.
I know right now is reallytough, but if you just keep
(39:00):
following me, if you keepwalking my ways, I've got plans
that are gonna do somethingincredible.
Matthew 7 says, do not judge.
But Jesus wasn't telling us notto make moral evaluations.
And man, how many times have weheard that?
Well, uh, do not judge.
Judge not lest you be judged,and all that's true.
But we start pulling thosethings out.
(39:20):
But what he was doing waswarning against that
hypocritical judgment.
He talks elsewhere, you know,instead of worrying about the
speck in your neighbor's eye,why don't you pull the plank out
of your own eye?
Right?
But the same chapter, Matthewchapter seven, he tells us to
discern false prophets.
Right.
So there's some things that I'msupposed to discern, some things
that I'm supposed to judge.
The wool looks and say, Well,no, I just we can't judge those
(39:42):
things.
Well, no, scripture talks about,you know, you'll know a tree by
its fruit.
SPEAKER_02 (39:47):
He also said, uh, do not judge unless it's a
righteous judgment.
And you can test all those samethings, just like he did there
with those few verses, um,backing up what that meant in
that context.
Um, and that's that's how you doit.
That's how you do it.
Yep does that mean this, or isthere more to it?
(40:10):
And in the scripture, thereusually is quite a bit more to
it.
The goal of interpretingscripture is not to be creative.
Right?
It's to be faithful to what waswritten.
That's good.
And and that's uh, I think itwas that one Duvall and Hayes,
(40:31):
they came up with that.
Don't it's and we want to becreative, especially if we lead
a Bible study or teach a Biblestudy.
SPEAKER_01 (40:38):
Life group leader, kids pastor, you know, you write
sermons or Bible lessons, youknow, you you like to blog.
We want it to be creative.
SPEAKER_02 (40:46):
Yeah, this is this is kind of boring, but what if I
you know, and as soon as you getthere, it's like, no, you need
to be faithful.
Yeah.
All right.
Uh, what does it really mean?
I think um there was a book outyears ago.
Now I can't remember it.
But uh anyways, he took oneverse out of the so-and-so beget
(41:10):
so-and-so and so-and-so be it.
And this one guy prayed to havehis uh territory increased.
Increase my territory.
And out of all the begets, hegrabbed a hold of that and and
wrote a book about it.
He was creative, but he actuallystayed faithful to the text.
(41:30):
And in the book, he's saying, Wedon't even know what's going on
here, but we know that he lovedGod and wanted his territory to
increase so that more peoplewould love God.
SPEAKER_01 (41:42):
Yeah.
And that's that's the goal.
If you can be creative, that'sgreat, but it's not the goal.
The goal is to be faithful,right?
Um and if you'll you'll applyall the stuff that we've we've
been talking about, if you'lltake these five steps, then you
can be faithful to scripture andyou can understand what it meant
for them, you can understandwhat it means for you, and
(42:03):
you'll know how to apply it,what you're supposed to do with
that.
Um, Martin Luther said this andusing a lot of Martin Luther
stuff because it's Reformationuh month, I guess, but he said
the Bible is alive, it speaks tome.
It has feet, it runs after me.
It has hands, it lays hold ofme.
(42:24):
But I'll tell you, it only doesit when we let it speak, not
when we speak over it.
SPEAKER_02 (42:30):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (42:31):
I man, when we read carelessly, we end up shaping
scripture around our livesinstead of the other way.
That's the truth.
But when we read it carefully,scripture begins to shape our
lives around Christ.
SPEAKER_02 (42:44):
And the Reformation didn't call people back to the
book.
I think it called people back tothe Christ of the book.
Amen.
And that's where we need to be.
Are we being faithful to him inour interpretation?
And we can beat the dead horsehere, or we can let you take
(43:04):
these five things.
What did it mean then?
What's different now?
What's the timeless truth?
How does it fit with the rest ofscripture?
And how does that apply to metoday?
So take those five things and goplay.
SPEAKER_01 (43:22):
Yeah.
This is your homework.
Pick a passage of scripture thisweek.
Maybe it's Joshua 1, Psalm 23,pick one.
Wherever you want, just pickone.
Um, maybe you're already doing aBible study, and then just say,
man, on this one chapter, notthe whole book, but just one
chapter or one paragraph, answerthose five questions.
Take your time, go slow, pray asyou do it.
(43:44):
Um, that was one thing we didn'ttalk about, um, because it's not
part of the five steps.
But before you do any of thosefive steps, you need to ask the
Holy Spirit to illuminate thescriptures for you.
Um, it's the Holy Spirit thatleads and guides us into all
truth.
And so anything you do outsideof his spirit, you're just not
going to get the results.
Um start in prayer.
(44:05):
God, what do you want to saytoday?
Open up your word to me.
Say yes before you even getstarted.
Um, and and as you do that,remember the Bible is not just
about information, it's abouttransformation.
D.
L.
Moody said this (44:20):
the Bible is not given to increase our
knowledge, but to change ourlives.
Wow.
And so don't be conform to thepatterns of this world.
Paul said it that way, but betransformed by the renewing of
your mind.
That is the goal.
And so hopefully these fivesteps will uh arm you and give
you the resources that you needuh to faithfully start applying
(44:40):
uh scripture to your life andunderstanding it.
And so um, Tim, I'm done.
I'm gonna shut up and let peopletake all this stuff and go do
something with it, unless you'vegot anything else you want to
add.
SPEAKER_02 (44:50):
No, I I'm with you.
We can talk about it all thetime and and all the things that
the Lord has taught us.
Um 2 Corinthians tells us thatit's the Holy Spirit that
teaches you the deep things ofGod, not your pastor.
unknown (45:03):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (45:03):
And uh when you're doing this with you and God,
he's gonna speak to you, andthat's exciting, and we want
that to happen.
So we're gonna let you go.
Let me pray.
Yeah, Father, I want to thankyou, um, Ryan, putting this all
together for us.
This is so important.
And Lord, I pray that um you'llteach people quickly how to do
this as they read and as theyapply uh the scripture to their
(45:27):
lives.
Um, Lord, we want to be faithfulbefore we're creative.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(46:00):
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We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode
of the Midweek Podcast, broughtto you by a Fresh Wind Church.
Each week, our team brings younew content to help you take
steps towards Jesus and discovermore in Christ.
Today's episode is hosted byPastor Ryan.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast.
Pastor Ryan joined again withPastor Tim.
And uh Tim on Sunday, we kickedoff uh our brand new series for
October.
We're calling it ReformationRoots.
And uh man, taking a deep diveback into some pretty
foundational doctrine, I guess,for the church.
(00:48):
Um, and so looking at the fivesolas uh that came out of the
Protestant Reformation andMartin Luther when he nailed the
95 thesis on the church doors inWittenberg, Germany.
And so each week we're gonna bediving into one of those, really
trying to build that foundation.
And so I told the the church onSunday, if man, if you haven't
been to church in a while, ifthis is your first time here, if
(01:09):
you've you're new toChristianity or following Jesus,
this is, man, what a greatseries to just really start
laying down a solid foundationbecause man, so much of what we
believe and how we operate as achurch is built off of these
beliefs, these ideas.
And then, man, for a lot ofpeople, they've been following
(01:29):
Jesus a long time, uh, coming tochurch a long time, and really
have never never talked aboutthis stuff.
Maybe not don't really even knowwho Martin Luther is, you know.
Um so uh excited to give alittle bit of history in that.
SPEAKER_02 (01:43):
Yeah, that's actually you did a great job
preaching that sermon.
Um, this is gonna be a greattime for the church, I think, to
get back to the roots.
Yeah.
And uh, but uh one of the thingsabout scripture is we we need to
learn how to interpret it.
And uh so you've got this uhlittle little thing geared up
(02:03):
here that'll help people ontheir uh interpretive journey on
how to interpret scripture.
Yeah, there's so many things wedon't take into, and I don't
either, until I'm studying it.
You know, when I'm reading it, Idon't think about my culture
versus their culture, you know,uh their laws against my laws,
(02:23):
their idea of freedom, my ideaof freedom, you know, no
democracy, you know, just allkinds of things that I it
doesn't play into the pictureuntil you until you sit down and
you look at the scripture andyou use this uh interpretive
journey to find out what it saysbefore you can figure out what
(02:44):
it says to you.
SPEAKER_01 (02:45):
Yeah, this is uh this is so important.
And it's what I told in thesermon on on Sunday I told the
church, if you listen to theMidweek podcast this week, I
want to I want to teach you howthat you can begin to study
scripture um responsibly so thatyou can understand what it means
and apply it faithfully to yourlife.
(03:05):
And I this I I will say thisthis is a deeper dive than just
casual reading of scripture,which is still good and there's
still benefit to just readingscripture.
Um and I'm not saying every timeyou, you know, if you're putting
on the Bible on the way to work,um, you're probably not gonna be
able to walk through all five ofthese steps that we're gonna lay
(03:26):
out today.
This is more for that in-depthBible study.
But then as you you startgetting familiar with these
steps, as you listen toscripture on the way to work or
when you're mowing the grass orjust in that casual Bible, it
Bible reading, it starts tobuild the frame for you a little
bit.
SPEAKER_03 (03:43):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:43):
Um, because you begin to understand some of
these principles.
Um, and and you make sure that,oh, I can't read too much of my
my situation into this becausethey weren't dealing with my
kids in 2025, you know.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (03:58):
They weren't worried about their kids being on social
media all day and and uh weren'tworried about you know sending
your kid off at 16, driving topick up your daughter at school,
and you know, that they didn'thave any worries like that, but
they had plenty of worries ontheir own.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Right.
And so it's uh this is a greatmethod uh that we're gonna walk
you through um to begin, like Isaid, to to understand and apply
scripture responsibly.
And in in the message on Sunday,I I asked this question whose
word is guiding your life?
And there's a lot of competingvoices uh in culture, in
(04:36):
society, definitely, you know,social media, a lot of people
competing for your attention,trying to speak words um that
influence us.
And you know, John Maxwell hesays leadership is is influence.
And there's a lot of people thatwould love to have influence
over you.
Um so it matters.
(04:57):
The voices that we entertain,um, and particularly the ones
that we we build our lives on.
And you know, I think one of thethings I talked about in the
sermon on Sunday was you know,what's true today might be
outdated tomorrow.
It seems like that's how fasttime is going right now.
No, this is true.
Trust the science.
(05:17):
We didn't mean that.
It's something else.
We need something that's solid,uh a foundation that that we can
trust in God has promised.
He's the same yesterday, today,and forever.
His word never returns void.
Um, it's never gonna fade away.
This is the solid thing that wecan build our life on.
And so the question thenbecomes, well, then how do I
(05:39):
read it?
How do I read it faithfully?
How do I make sure that whatwe're actually hearing is what
God actually said and heintended for me to hear, not
just what I want it to say.
SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
So if you're uh at home listening to this podcast
and you're not mowing the lawnor something, get you a notebook
and uh get your Bible and turnit up to Joshua chapter one.
We're gonna use that littlepassage of scripture there and
uh walk you through um how we doit, how we how we actually think
(06:11):
our way through the scripture tofind out um what it means
finally to us.
SPEAKER_01 (06:18):
Yeah, here's here's an important distinction.
The Bible was written for you,but it was not written to you,
it was written to a group ofpeople in a specific place in a
specific time, dealing withspecific circumstances.
Uh, you know, when you look atPaul's letters, that was written
to a real group of believers ata real church in a real city
(06:39):
facing real issues.
And Paul wrote it to them.
But we talked about this onSunday.
All scripture is God breathed,all scripture is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting,and training in righteousness.
So script, all scripture is foryou, but it doesn't mean it was
written to you.
It was written to real people.
And so these five steps allow usto begin to cross that bridge
(07:03):
from the original audience andthe people who heard it, the you
know, who it was written to, um,the words that the prophet
delivered, who the law was givento, and what the situation was
to cross from there over topresent day your life, your
family, your kids, your job, youknow, whatever you're dealing
(07:24):
with, and faithfully apply ittoday.
And so I'll give you uh just anoverview of all five of them
real fast.
And uh, this is coming from uh abook I actually had to read in
seminary.
Uh, I think the book is calledThe A Journey into God's Word or
The Journey into God's Word,something like that.
But they they lay out theinterpretive journey, and it has
(07:45):
five steps.
First one, grasp the text intheir town.
In this step, you're asking,what did the text mean to the
original audience?
You're trying to figure out,man, when these guys heard it,
what did it mean to them?
Not to me, to them.
Second step, measure the widthof the river to cross.
This is asking the question,what is the difference between
(08:06):
them and us?
Culturally, um, you know, if itwas in the Old Testament,
they're under the old covenant,you were under the new covenant.
You know, what are thedifferences that exist?
SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Step three, cross the principalizing bridge.
What are the time what is thetimeless theological principle?
What is that thing that God saidback then that carries over and
holds true today that stillapplies?
Um and trying to find out, andthat it takes some mining.
It does.
We're gonna work through that.
SPEAKER_02 (08:36):
And it's um a lot of times it's more than just one in
a single scripture.
Yeah, don't think when you'reasking yourself these questions,
uh obviously when uh we'regrasped with the text in their
town, there's gonna be a lot ofdifferences between us and them.
But also the timeless truths ofthe Bible are thick and it and
(08:56):
it can show up in just onelittle verse.
You might get three or four outof it.
So uh be watchful for that.
Because when you get that one,it doesn't mean next year when
you're doing your read throughthe Bible and you get there,
you're like, oh, there's thatdoesn't mean you're done doing
it.
SPEAKER_01 (09:13):
Um yeah, I you know, one of the examples, perfect
example of that would be youknow, Martin Luther, you know,
he read Romans chapter one, andI would bet that wasn't his
first time reading Romanschapter one.
Right.
Um, but man, that this time whenhe read it, it changed
everything.
The righteous shall live byfaith.
And so, yeah, just because youget one doesn't mean you have
(09:35):
unearthed and mined outeverything in that that passage.
I think today you sent me a textand you said, what was it, first
Peter chapter two, fivedifferent ways?
You're laying out a whole sermonseries, and that was from one
small passage of scripture.
Um, there's what is thosetimeless theological principles?
(09:55):
Then step four, consult thebiblical map.
How does this principle fitwithin the rest of scripture?
So scripture is 66 separatebooks, but it all is one giant
narrative, right?
Um telling one story about howGod sent his son to redeem
mankind.
Um, and so something that youread in Leviticus has to, if
(10:22):
this is one of those timelesstheological principles, there's
gonna be other places inscripture that support that
principle.
SPEAKER_02 (10:29):
It's like a um a puzzle.
It's like a big puzzle.
And um, and we're as we readthrough the Bible, we're placing
these it's like a big piecepuzzle.
And you're putting that thesebig sections together, but it's
all telling the same story.
Right.
But sometimes you gotta yougotta work at how it how it
(10:50):
comes together.
And that's that's the fun partof studying the Bible.
SPEAKER_01 (10:53):
Yep.
And then finally, uh, and thisis really what we're all hoping
to get out of it when we readscripture, I know, but we want
to grasp the text in our town.
And and the question we'reasking here is how do I live
this out today?
And that's what a lot of us wantto know.
You know, God, what what doesall this mean?
You know, I'm reading all thesecrazy principles and and all
these crazy laws, and you know,this one was talking about um,
(11:18):
you know, uh the Israelitesweren't allowed to wear a
garment made of of two differentcloths.
Does that mean I'm supposed toonly wear 100% cotton?
Like what what are you trying tosay to me?
SPEAKER_02 (11:28):
Oh, go on to ancestry first, find out how
Jewish you are, and then you'llknow.
SPEAKER_01 (11:35):
You have to check all your tags from here on out.
Um, and so how do we how do welive this out today?
And so that's that's the bridge.
Um, grasp the text in theirtown, measure the width of the
river to cross, uh, cross theprincipalizing bridge, consult
the biblical map, grasp the textin our town.
And so this podcast is gonna bea little bit different.
This is definitely one of thoseones that uh, as Tim said
(11:57):
earlier, it'd be good to sitdown with a a sheet of paper and
your Bible open.
Um but it won't be long.
SPEAKER_02 (12:03):
It's it looks like oh my gosh, what are we gonna
do?
But it it's not like that atall.
It's not like that at all.
It's it's pretty quick.
And and once you uh get thosefive down, um like Ryan said,
once you've done it a coupletimes, it becomes easy for you
because they all start toconnect.
Because there's a timeline, andthese guys were doing this, now
(12:25):
they're doing this, and youknow, so you you kind of figure
out what those things are and asyou're putting the puzzle
together, and then once you getit, yeah, you're you're pretty
good.
Oh no, this is what they werelike when Jesus was in.
No, this is what they were likewhen Moses was there, this is
what Abraham was doing.
And uh so once you get that inyour mind, it becomes a lot
(12:47):
easier.
SPEAKER_01 (12:49):
So let's start uh with one of the most well-known
passages in the Old Testament,Joshua chapter one, uh verse
nine.
The Lord tells Joshua, be strongand courageous, for the Lord
your God is with you whereveryou go.
Beautiful verse, it's on coffeemugs, graduation cards, probably
a bumper sticker or two.
(13:10):
But what does it actually mean?
And what am I supposed to do?
How do I how do I apply this tomy life?
And so the very first thing ifthat if we're gonna take this
scripture, we're gonnaunderstand it, apply it
faithfully, is I gotta grasp thetext in their town.
What does not what does it meanto me, but what did it mean in
context?
In context.
(13:31):
Now, thankfully, most Bibles,especially if you get yourself a
good study Bible, you know, Iknow you and I, we usually use
the the CSB study Bible.
Um, ESV is another greattranslation.
NIV's still good, New KingJames.
There's there's some good onesout there.
But if you get a study Bible,usually right before you start a
chapter or book in the Bible,it'll have a page and it'll give
(13:53):
you a bunch of that context foryou.
SPEAKER_02 (13:55):
It'll lay out the the context.
Sometimes it'll tell you what'sgoing on in nations around them.
Um it it really helps.
SPEAKER_01 (14:03):
Has a lot of times a timeline along the bottom of it
so you kind of know where wherethis book is falling in the
history of other scripture andother events in the world.
And so I would I would encourageyou if you're gonna spend some
time studying scripture, readthrough that.
It's usually one page.
Yeah, maybe two, if it's gottencrazy.
But one or two pages, you canreally start to get a good idea
(14:25):
about who this was written to,what was going on, what was the
point that this guy decided towrite this thing down.
So read that page.
Joshua chapter one opens rightafter the death of Moses.
Israel's been wandering in thewilderness for 40 years.
Moses is dead.
Joshua is stepping intoleadership, and the people are
(14:47):
standing right on the edge ofthe promised land.
They're nervous, they'regrieving, they're uncertain.
And God speaks to Joshua andsays, Be strong and courageous,
for I am with you.
For them, this was a specificcall to trust God as they
prepare to enter the land thatHe had promised, to face enemies
and to lead people and tobelieve that His presence was
(15:07):
enough.
It's not just a motivationalslogan.
God wasn't just saying, Man,this would look really good on a
piece of artwork hanging in yourliving room or in your office.
Yeah.
This was a divine command for aspecific leader stepping into
his God-given mission.
SPEAKER_02 (15:24):
Now we know um what they were facing giants.
They make us look likegrasshoppers, um, walled cities.
Uh they were living out oftents.
And um, so we we have this umidea that they had it all
together.
These these are like um say ageneration before they they had
(15:49):
lived as slaves um and they werewandering the desert.
Uh basically they're um oh,what's the word I'm looking for?
Bedouins and now they're gonnago fight armies that have cities
with walls, and Joshua's uh theLord tells him, Hey, be strong
(16:12):
and courageous.
I'm gonna take care of this foryou.
That's that's a little bitdifferent than when we're
thinking I'm gonna face my bosstoday.
He's he's been really mean, youknow, and the Lord's telling me
be strong and courageous.
We're no, we're talking aboutwar.
We're talking about death.
unknown (16:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (16:30):
And and how do you know?
So Tim just laid out a couplethings.
You know, these are people whowere slaves, they were living in
tens, they've been wandering inthe woods.
How do you know all that?
Well, you had to read the bookof Genesis, you know, and so
this is the context to keep itin.
Yeah, they're not driving aroundand you know, a traverse and you
know, hopping from soccer gameto soccer game.
That wasn't what was happeninghere.
(16:51):
And so we, yeah, we read our owncontext into this and we try to
pull that out and make it applydirectly to us.
And there's things that aregonna apply.
We're gonna talk about it, butwe gotta start there.
Um, and a authors, uh, Fi andStewart, and I think their book
is How to Read the Bible for allit's worth, maybe.
Um they said this.
(17:12):
They said, a text cannot meanwhat it never could have meant
to its author or his readers.
I'm gonna say that again.
A text cannot mean what it nevercould have meant to its author
or his readers.
So you can't pull out somethingand say, well, this is what this
means.
If it didn't mean it to the guywho wrote it and to the people
he wrote it to, it doesn't meanit.
(17:34):
Now you might learn something,you might glean some wisdom, but
that's not what that meant.
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (17:40):
Um, and so in other words, this didn't have anything
to do with dealing with politicsand a constitutional republic.
Nothing like that had everexisted before.
They couldn't even dream it up.
This is so when you take thatverse and you say, Okay, this
verse means that we should dothis and this political
situation, no, it can't meanthat.
(18:02):
Because it couldn't mean itthen.
Now you can take some truths outof that to help you face the
situation, but they didn't knowanything about constitutional
republics, they didn't knowanything about democracy.
Um they they just knew that Godhad asked them to do something
and it was scary.
SPEAKER_01 (18:19):
Right, right.
So before you can applyscripture, we have to understand
it in their context.
Um, if you don't have a studyBible, you can hop online.
There's lots of really great umresources out there, and and you
can find out.
Um Blue Letter Bible, BibleStudy, Bible Gateway.
Um I think even the the UVersionBible app on most of our phones
(18:42):
has started putting in somestudy notes and stuff for books.
So take a second, get an idea,let you know, wrap your head
around the context that theywere in will really help you
start figuring out what was whatwas being communicated to this
group.
The next question that we haveto ask is well, what separates
their world from ours?
And this is when we measure thewidth of the river.
(19:05):
Um, we are not ancientIsraelites, we're not standing
on the border of Canaan, thepromised land.
SPEAKER_02 (19:11):
Um, getting ready to conquer a territory.
Yep, and if you lose, you andall your family will be slaves
to whoever you're supposed toattack.
SPEAKER_01 (19:22):
My boss's been so mean, and if I go, Yeah, he's
gonna give you an extraassignment, you know, or you
didn't get your vacation thatyou wanted.
Right.
You're not the same.
SPEAKER_02 (19:31):
You are not, you are not um, you don't have any
rights back then, you you know,you didn't have any labor laws,
um, all that kind of stuff.
Uh, but we do have spiritualbattles here, right?
And sometimes the Lord says, bestrong and courageous uh in this
area of your life.
(19:53):
He's not telling you to, youknow, go walk around Jericho um
or to chase the giants down inthe hill country or anything
like that.
Um, but sometimes you can youcan see uh a spiritual battle
that they're having, which is abattle of faith, right?
And you have battle of faith, abattle of faith.
(20:14):
Now, the context is context iscompletely different, but you
can you can reach in there andyou can measure the width of the
river.
And if you're not getting this,the width of the river is they
needed a lot more faith than youdo.
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
So here's some some things to think about as you
begin to to pull out that tapemeasure, measure the difference.
We're gonna look at differencesin time and culture, differences
in covenant.
Like I said, they were, youknow, if it's old testament,
they were under the oldcovenant.
If it's new testament, they'reunder the new covenant, starting
Acts chapter 20.
42.
Acts chapter 2.
(20:52):
Right.
Added a zero there.
I was like, no, 20 is way toolate in the story.
It's over.
22.
SPEAKER_02 (20:58):
So and listen to this.
When we say um we use thoseterms old covenant, which is the
old testament law, it's not old,it's just the old testament law.
And we talk about the newcovenant, which is the new
testament.
Um, we will conflate old andnew.
The old covenant was very new tothem right here.
(21:21):
It had just been laid down.
SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:24):
And so they're still struggling with man, I I gotta
do what and when?
And okay, we're going to war.
Uh, aren't we supposed tocelebrate that party?
What was that party?
Something about, you know,bringing in the feast.
I don't know.
Does anybody remember what Mosessaid?
Did someone keep a track of thatbook?
(21:46):
So uh yeah, so not only are theygetting ready to do something,
but their God showing up,talking to them, and guiding
them was new to them too.
SPEAKER_03 (21:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:58):
Um, they had it going on for about 40 years,
just one generation.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
And uh so Yeah, and I mean imagine hundreds of years
before that, they were slaves.
Right.
And so Moses shows up and says,Hey, God showed up in this
burning bush, told me to comeget you guys out of here, and
they're like, He did what?
And who are you?
SPEAKER_02 (22:21):
And we're going where?
Correct.
And then they're there.
Yep.
So you got to remember there'sthere's some of that going on.
The whole thing is, man, I don'tknow if I like my they got some
pretty cool gods back in Egypt.
Um, maybe this isn't the thing,but I think God used those 40
years to teach us some seriouslessons about uh what following
(22:42):
God was gonna mean, and I thinkI think they started to fall in
love with him.
So here they are, and this istheir situation, and it's we've
got 3,500 years of a book totell us all about that stuff,
but they lived it.
And so the the the bridge thethe width of the river is really
(23:05):
wide between us and them.
SPEAKER_01 (23:07):
And that it's important to remember that um
the situation in context isdifferent.
And so, yeah, sometimes you'regonna read a verse and a truth's
just gonna pop out, and youknow, Proverbs is great for
that.
There's a lot of um of greatgreat truths in Proverbs that if
you would just apply, it'd begreat.
Um, and your life would bebetter if you did it.
(23:27):
But when we're studyingscripture, it is so important um
for us to figure out what didthis mean to them?
What were they dealing with?
What what was the context?
Um, even the geographicalsetting that they were in, and
and why did that matter?
I remember when I went toIsrael, we went to the Valley of
Allah where David foughtGoliath, um, and just seeing
(23:50):
where the armies were positionedin that valley and what that
looked like and and where Davidwould have probably gone when he
was looking for stones.
I mean, it it begins to changehow how you read that story.
You're like, oh man, these guyswere staring at each other right
across this field, like, oh mygosh, this is crazy.
Yeah.
Um, those things matter.
(24:10):
And then you start to say, well,what is well, I, you know, I'm
living in a suburb of Cleveland,got a you know, decent job.
I'm not worried about, you know,dying in war today or you know,
even losing my job, and I canfeed my kids.
And the the context isdifferent.
And so that's we're measuringthat width.
(24:31):
So what's different between theoriginal reader and audience and
me today?
SPEAKER_02 (24:36):
And once you do that enough times in the Bible and
you remember where you are inthe Bible, um, that becomes
easier and easier, and you don'tspend a lot of time there.
You wouldn't even spend as muchtime as we have trying to
explain it to you.
SPEAKER_01 (24:49):
That's correct.
SPEAKER_02 (24:50):
And uh then you get to that number three where we
cross that uh principalizingbridge.
What are the things that we candraw from that?
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
Yeah, those timeless theological principles that
apply in every age.
God looked at Joshua and said,Be strong and courageous.
I am with you wherever you go.
Joshua's getting ready to stepinto a new land, step into a new
position, fight a bunch ofbattles, and he needed to know
God was going to be with him ashe did that.
(25:21):
We're not Joshua, we're nottrying to conquer a land and
we're not going to war.
But there are some principles,and I can look and say, Well,
man, you know what?
God was with Joshua, God is withhis people.
And so I can live courageouslyand obedient as I follow his
word today.
SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
There's a theological principle that I can
pull from what God told Joshua,and it's true today, and it
crosses that divide from 3,500years ago.
That was yeah, 37, about 3,700years ago until today.
That is a theological truth.
And that's that's what you'relooking for.
(26:01):
Now there might be um othertruths that you can dig out of
that, and I'm sure somebody'spreached on that verse and did
three points on it.
Easy, easy, and uh so we uh thatsee how simple that was?
That is just simple.
How wide is the river?
What crosses it?
(26:21):
Well, God's people don't have tobe afraid because he's with me.
SPEAKER_01 (26:27):
Yep, and so get that picture in your mind.
I I love how they uh use thisprincipalizing bridge, it's a
mouthful to say, but you get theidea like this picture in your
head where there's somethingthat connects from back then,
Pastor Tim just said that was3,700 years ago, and then
there's this bridge thatconnects and it lands squarely
into your life today.
(26:49):
That bridge is the thing thatconnects what God was doing and
saying to those people and howit connects with us today, how
we're supposed to livedifferently because of it today.
And this is when scripturebecomes useful for teaching,
correcting, rebuking, andtraining in righteousness.
Right.
We start to find these thesebridges.
SPEAKER_02 (27:10):
That truth is the spine of the bridge.
It is it holds it together allthe way into our time.
That's good.
SPEAKER_01 (27:18):
God's presence produces courage for obedience,
that's the principle.
I see it in Joshua's life.
And then we're gonna talk in asecond about step four.
Um, I'm gonna see it in a lot ofother people's stories
throughout scripture, and soit's true for us today.
God's presence produces couragefor obedience, and so I take
(27:40):
that principle and I say, okay,that's what I think applies
here.
I God was with Joshua, he wasgiving him the courage to obey
what he had asked him to do.
I can see how God was going tobe with me as and give me the
courage to do what he's askingme to do today, to be a good
husband, to be a great boss oran employee, um, to steward my
(28:02):
resources well.
SPEAKER_02 (28:03):
And so now we have to take that biblical principle
and we have to try it againstthe word.
Yeah.
Just like when Paul said, tryspirits to see whether they are
God.
We have to take this this truththat we have ascertained, the
bridge that bridges the 3,700years that applies to both
(28:24):
Joshua and me, and then we gottalay it to our truth uh so we can
see if it's actually true.
And we do that bycross-referencing.
And um which is great.
If you got a modern Bible, youjust look in the middle of the
(28:44):
columns and where someone saystrust God, where someone says
courage uh be courageous, you'regonna find little uh uh
annotations of differentscriptures that use those kind
of words, and you can justsimply open it up.
And Matthew 28.20 says, I amwith you always to the end of
(29:06):
the age.
Romans 8 31, if God is for us,who can be against us?
Hebrews 13 5, I will never leaveyou or forsake you.
So the Bible, that truth that'syou humanly with your human
brain and most likely theguiding of the Holy Spirit has
um has been proven with the restof the word.
(29:31):
If you can find something inthere and you think you found a
principle that um crosses thatbridge and it's the spine of
what that is, and you can't findanything else in the Bible about
it.
And especially if you findsomething that refutes it, then
you need to take another look.
SPEAKER_01 (29:50):
Yeah, and and the danger is a lot of people will
do just that.
They'll find something andthey'll build some bridge.
And then they they won't findanything else to support it.
It, but they'll go aroundproclaiming it like it's some
core doctrinal truth.
Um, and as best Tim just said,you need to be very careful
about doing that, especially ifscripture refutes it.
(30:11):
Then you know, man, I got thatone wrong.
And that's okay.
It's okay to get it wrong.
It's okay to miss the mark.
You go back and say, God, youknow, I was consulting the rest
of scripture.
I looked at the rest of thebook.
It does not say what I thoughtyou were trying to say right
here.
What were you trying to say?
And it's an opportunity to divedeeper into it.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
Um, but we've got to be, even if it's cool, we've got
to be able to let it go forreal.
Right.
The uh I think it was Aristotle.
This was laid at Aristotle.
I don't think they ever provedit, but he said the mark of an
educated mind is to be able toentertain the thought without
(30:54):
accepting it.
You've got to be mature enoughto say, I can't find any more
proof.
I think it's cool, it might beright, but there's no evidence.
So I and I tell every time, I'dnever preach on that.
You know.
SPEAKER_01 (31:11):
And if this is the first time you've ever done
something like this, um, you'regonna start this process and
you're gonna get to step threeand you're gonna start building
this bridge, and it's gonna beexciting.
Yes, you're gonna love it, like,oh my gosh, this is what they
were talking about.
SPEAKER_02 (31:28):
I'm figuring it out.
How come my pastor never talksabout this?
SPEAKER_01 (31:33):
And then if you don't go anywhere else, you're
gonna go and think, well, that'sgotta be true, and you're gonna
be excited.
You'll and you've talked aboutthis before, you'll start
building emotions around itbecause God spoke to me.
The Holy Spirit spoke to mehere.
Right.
And man, I I've heard peoplesay, Well, the Holy Spirit told
me I should leave my wife.
(31:53):
Wrong.
No, that never gonna happen.
How do I know?
Because the rest of his booktells me that is never gonna
happen.
And so we can't just, like Isaid, it's okay to get it wrong.
And you're going to.
If if this is your first timetrying something like this,
you're gonna get it wrong.
There's even times today whenI'm studying, I'm thinking, oh
man, that's kind of interesting.
(32:14):
I wonder what that's all about.
And then you go and you startdigging around and looking in
scripture, and you're like, ohno, and it it wasn't even
heading close to the path I washeaded down.
SPEAKER_02 (32:24):
Right, right.
See, well, here's a goodexample.
In Acts, I think it was Felix,and they were trying Paul, and
he said something that soundedreally spiritual, but God did
not breathe those words, he putit down for our use so we can
(32:44):
understand the context.
He says something like this Ithink it's Felix.
I should have written that downwhile we were putting this
together.
But anyways, he says, um if Godis for it, it'll happen.
If God is not for it, it won'thappen.
Well, there's a lot of thingsthat happen that God is not for,
right?
And we we hear that, well, it'llit'll just it'll be if God wants
(33:08):
it to be, you know, but theworld is set up differently than
that.
We all know that.
And uh for us to take that veryI don't know, use uh shallow,
immature view of God'ssovereignty um would be would be
(33:32):
crazy.
But I've heard people use that.
Yeah, but God didn't say that.
Paul didn't say that.
Some dude named Felix, and hewas a governor, and he said it,
and uh it sounds good, but it'snot truth.
So you can't build a a bridge ofspiritual truth on something
that some guy said that wasn'teven a believer.
SPEAKER_01 (33:55):
As I talked about this in the sermon, it's so
important.
We have got to we've got toconsult scripture.
You know, they say consult thebiblical map, and that just
means you gotta dig in and makesure whatever bridge you've just
built, it can be supported up.
You know, we got the spine ofthe bridge.
Well, now we need some columns.
We got to hold this thing up andmake sure that it can stand the
(34:17):
test of time.
Um, and so I've got to findthose those other places in the
scripture that support thatprinciple, or I gotta lay that
principle down and say, man, Igot it, I gotta go back to the
drawing board on this one.
But the same promise that Godgave to Joshua finds its
fulfillment in Jesus.
God was with us, God is with us,He's Emmanuel, right?
(34:40):
And so the God who who looked atJoshua and said, I am with you
wherever you go, well, man, wesee that Jesus is, he lives
within us.
Um, he's with us wherever we go.
He will never leave us norforsake us.
So when we live courageously infaith today, we're walking in
the same truth that Joshua did.
We're just doing it under a newcovenant.
(35:00):
So now we've we've measured thewidth of the river, we've we've
got the bridge, we've supportedthat bridge.
And so we come to step five,which is grasping the text in
our own town.
And this is the question we'reasking here.
What does this mean for me?
So now I've done all of thiswork and I've got this river,
I've got this bridge, I've gotsome pillars and some support.
(35:21):
What am I supposed to do withall of it?
And so here's an applicationjust from Joshua chapter one.
And Peston talked about itearlier, might be more than
this.
Um, but here's an application.
When you're facing a difficultdecision, when you're stepping
into the unknown, when you'reafraid to take the next step of
(35:42):
obedience, you can be strong andcourageous because God's
presence goes with you.
This is not self-help courage,it's God-dependent confidence,
not just coffee cup slogans.
This is foundational truth Ibuild my life on.
God is with me.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
And it's been 3,700 years, and the narrative in the
Bible plays that out over andover again.
And uh from you mentioned Davidand Goliath, from David getting
his stones and going out in theface of Goliath to um facing his
(36:24):
people when he sinned and himhaving to confess, um, all the
way through um the disciplesfailing and running away during
Jesus' crucifixion, it just umit just plays all the way
through, all the way up to 2025,where God says go over there and
(36:47):
make up with your neighbor.
You guys have been going at itand you know what's going on,
and you don't want you want yourrelationship to be loving.
That's the law of Christ, theNew Testament.
So go over there, tell themyou're sorry, ask him to forgive
you, and don't be afraid.
I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01 (37:09):
Here's here's why all this is so important, and I
and I reference this on onSunday too, is we have a
tendency to just pull thoseverses out and and read in the
scripture what what we want.
And a lot of times I think it'sit's innocent.
I think a lot of us we've justnever been taught this, what
(37:31):
we're talking about today.
We've been told you should readthe Bible.
And so we just go and we startreading it, and then we we find
a verse uh like the one that youpulled out, uh, you know, that
Felix said.
We're like, oh, well, that'sgood.
And we highlight it and we startquoting it and building truce on
it.
Um but man, it even if it'sinnocent, it can also be
(37:53):
dangerous.
I quoted Philippians 4.13, I cando all things through Christ who
strengthens me on Sunday.
But Paul wasn't talking aboutwinning football games or
landing a promotion.
He was saying that even insuffering and scarcity, he can
endure through the strength thatChrist gives him.
Well, that's a little bitdifferent than pushing up some
iron.
Right.
You know, Jeremiah 29, 11, howmany times have we heard this
(38:16):
quoted?
For I know the plans I have foryou, and plans for good and a
future to give you, you know,hope and and all these.
Well, listen, this was writtento exiles in Babylon.
You know, you're like, well,God's gonna give me dreams and
I'm gonna get a smoking hot wifeor husband or whatever.
You know, God's got great bigplans for my life, and he does.
(38:39):
Again, what who was he writingthis to?
It's not a promise of personalprosperity, but a message of
God's faithfulness even inhardship.
That's what he's saying.
Listen, I know guys, this isreally tough, but I'm I'm with
you.
I've got plans to give you hopein a future.
I know right now is reallytough, but if you just keep
(39:00):
following me, if you keepwalking my ways, I've got plans
that are gonna do somethingincredible.
Matthew 7 says, do not judge.
But Jesus wasn't telling us notto make moral evaluations.
And man, how many times have weheard that?
Well, uh, do not judge.
Judge not lest you be judged,and all that's true.
But we start pulling thosethings out.
(39:20):
But what he was doing waswarning against that
hypocritical judgment.
He talks elsewhere, you know,instead of worrying about the
speck in your neighbor's eye,why don't you pull the plank out
of your own eye?
Right?
But the same chapter, Matthewchapter seven, he tells us to
discern false prophets.
Right.
So there's some things that I'msupposed to discern, some things
that I'm supposed to judge.
The wool looks and say, Well,no, I just we can't judge those
(39:42):
things.
Well, no, scripture talks about,you know, you'll know a tree by
its fruit.
SPEAKER_02 (39:47):
He also said, uh, do not judge unless it's a
righteous judgment.
And you can test all those samethings, just like he did there
with those few verses, um,backing up what that meant in
that context.
Um, and that's that's how you doit.
That's how you do it.
Yep does that mean this, or isthere more to it?
(40:10):
And in the scripture, thereusually is quite a bit more to
it.
The goal of interpretingscripture is not to be creative.
Right?
It's to be faithful to what waswritten.
That's good.
And and that's uh, I think itwas that one Duvall and Hayes,
(40:31):
they came up with that.
Don't it's and we want to becreative, especially if we lead
a Bible study or teach a Biblestudy.
SPEAKER_01 (40:38):
Life group leader, kids pastor, you know, you write
sermons or Bible lessons, youknow, you you like to blog.
We want it to be creative.
SPEAKER_02 (40:46):
Yeah, this is this is kind of boring, but what if I
you know, and as soon as you getthere, it's like, no, you need
to be faithful.
Yeah.
All right.
Uh, what does it really mean?
I think um there was a book outyears ago.
Now I can't remember it.
But uh anyways, he took oneverse out of the so-and-so beget
(41:10):
so-and-so and so-and-so be it.
And this one guy prayed to havehis uh territory increased.
Increase my territory.
And out of all the begets, hegrabbed a hold of that and and
wrote a book about it.
He was creative, but he actuallystayed faithful to the text.
(41:30):
And in the book, he's saying, Wedon't even know what's going on
here, but we know that he lovedGod and wanted his territory to
increase so that more peoplewould love God.
SPEAKER_01 (41:42):
Yeah.
And that's that's the goal.
If you can be creative, that'sgreat, but it's not the goal.
The goal is to be faithful,right?
Um and if you'll you'll applyall the stuff that we've we've
been talking about, if you'lltake these five steps, then you
can be faithful to scripture andyou can understand what it meant
for them, you can understandwhat it means for you, and
(42:03):
you'll know how to apply it,what you're supposed to do with
that.
Um, Martin Luther said this andusing a lot of Martin Luther
stuff because it's Reformationuh month, I guess, but he said
the Bible is alive, it speaks tome.
It has feet, it runs after me.
It has hands, it lays hold ofme.
(42:24):
But I'll tell you, it only doesit when we let it speak, not
when we speak over it.
SPEAKER_02 (42:30):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (42:31):
I man, when we read carelessly, we end up shaping
scripture around our livesinstead of the other way.
That's the truth.
But when we read it carefully,scripture begins to shape our
lives around Christ.
SPEAKER_02 (42:44):
And the Reformation didn't call people back to the
book.
I think it called people back tothe Christ of the book.
Amen.
And that's where we need to be.
Are we being faithful to him inour interpretation?
And we can beat the dead horsehere, or we can let you take
(43:04):
these five things.
What did it mean then?
What's different now?
What's the timeless truth?
How does it fit with the rest ofscripture?
And how does that apply to metoday?
So take those five things and goplay.
SPEAKER_01 (43:22):
Yeah.
This is your homework.
Pick a passage of scripture thisweek.
Maybe it's Joshua 1, Psalm 23,pick one.
Wherever you want, just pickone.
Um, maybe you're already doing aBible study, and then just say,
man, on this one chapter, notthe whole book, but just one
chapter or one paragraph, answerthose five questions.
Take your time, go slow, pray asyou do it.
(43:44):
Um, that was one thing we didn'ttalk about, um, because it's not
part of the five steps.
But before you do any of thosefive steps, you need to ask the
Holy Spirit to illuminate thescriptures for you.
Um, it's the Holy Spirit thatleads and guides us into all
truth.
And so anything you do outsideof his spirit, you're just not
going to get the results.
Um start in prayer.
(44:05):
God, what do you want to saytoday?
Open up your word to me.
Say yes before you even getstarted.
Um, and and as you do that,remember the Bible is not just
about information, it's abouttransformation.
D.
L.
Moody said this (44:20):
the Bible is not given to increase our
knowledge, but to change ourlives.
Wow.
And so don't be conform to thepatterns of this world.
Paul said it that way, but betransformed by the renewing of
your mind.
That is the goal.
And so hopefully these fivesteps will uh arm you and give
you the resources that you needuh to faithfully start applying
(44:40):
uh scripture to your life andunderstanding it.
And so um, Tim, I'm done.
I'm gonna shut up and let peopletake all this stuff and go do
something with it, unless you'vegot anything else you want to
add.
SPEAKER_02 (44:50):
No, I I'm with you.
We can talk about it all thetime and and all the things that
the Lord has taught us.
Um 2 Corinthians tells us thatit's the Holy Spirit that
teaches you the deep things ofGod, not your pastor.
unknown (45:03):
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (45:03):
And uh when you're doing this with you and God,
he's gonna speak to you, andthat's exciting, and we want
that to happen.
So we're gonna let you go.
Let me pray.
Yeah, Father, I want to thankyou, um, Ryan, putting this all
together for us.
This is so important.
And Lord, I pray that um you'llteach people quickly how to do
this as they read and as theyapply uh the scripture to their
(45:27):
lives.
Um, Lord, we want to be faithfulbefore we're creative.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (45:37):
Thanks again for joining us for this episode of
the Midweek Podcast.
We'd love to hear from you.
Let us know how God is usingthis resource in your life or
send any podcast questions ortopic ideas to podcast at a
freshwind.org.
If you would like to supportthis ministry financially and
help us continue offering newresources that equip you to
discover more in Christ, simplytext any amount to the number
(46:00):
84321.
We're so grateful for yoursupport.
Make sure to tune in next weekfor a brand new episode of the
Midweek Podcast.
Be blessed and have a greatweek.
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