August 30, 2024 • 24 mins
Have you ever wondered what it truly means to "train for godliness"? Join us in this eye-opening episode of the Pleasing God Podcast, where we uncover the profound impact of spiritual disciplines on the Christian life. Based on Paul's advice to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, we discuss why daily, disciplined practices are essential for achieving godliness. Just like Olympic athletes undergo rigorous training, Christians must also engage in these disciplines to foster personal growth and positively influence those around them.
But training doesn't end at mere knowledge—it's about transformation. This episode emphasizes the power of consistent Bible study, not just for acquiring facts but for allowing the Holy Spirit to mold us into Christ's likeness. We explore practical ways to integrate Bible reading into our everyday lives, from listening to sermons to personal study. By immersing ourselves in God's Word, we equip ourselves for spiritual maturity, ultimately becoming better servants of Christ and glorifying God. Listen in to discover how these transformative practices can reshape your attitudes, actions, and entire life for the better.
Stock Music provided by wolfgangwoehrle, from Pond5
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God Podcast, a
show focused on helpingChristians to think biblically,
engage practically and livefaithfully for the glory of God.
I'm your host, jonathan Soule,and on this episode and some
that will follow, I want tobegin talking through kind of a
list that I've created andfocusing on discipline,
(00:29):
specifically focusing onspiritual discipline and how
that works in the life of aChristian, what spiritual
disciplines are, how we canpractice them faithfully and the
difference that they can makein our lives as we pursue
godliness.
And so over the next few weeksI want to talk through a variety
of different topics andthoughts concerning spiritual
(00:51):
disciplines and from the outsetI just want to be clear one of
the most influential books thatI've read that's helped shape my
thinking on spiritualdisciplines is actually written
by Don Whitney and it's calledSpiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life and I just wantto plug it.
It's super accessible, helpsyou think through a variety of
(01:14):
disciplines that are helpful andthat we see in the scriptures
and you would benefit greatlyfrom reading through this book
and some of that's going to kindof influence how I want to talk
about these disciplines.
He goes through Bible intake,prayer, worship, evangelism,
serving, fasting, silence andsolitude, journaling and
(01:35):
learning.
And so I'm not going to talkabout all of those, but some of
the real important ones, andsometimes often neglected ones
that you know, whether we wantto admit it or not, are
realities in our lives.
And so, when we think aboutspiritual disciplines, why are
(01:56):
they important?
Well, let's root this in theBible.
Paul, in his letter to Timothy,1 Timothy, he's writing to him,
his pupil, his apostolicdelegate, who has gone to
Ephesus and he's in charge ofsetting an example, raising up
leadership, ordering the churchin the way it should function.
(02:18):
And so Paul writes to him,explains to Timothy some of the
challenges that he's going toface, some of the errors that he
needs to correct in Ephesus, aswell as what faithful ministry
looks like.
And in chapter 4, verse 6, paulwrites if you put these things
before the brothers, this is thegood teaching, the stuff that
he's been instructing him upuntil this point.
(02:41):
If you put these things beforethe brothers, you will be a good
servant of Christ Jesus, beingtrained in the words of the
faith and of the good doctrinethat you have followed.
And, he says, have nothing todo with irreverent, silly myths.
Rather, train yourself forgodliness or discipline yourself
(03:02):
for godliness.
For while bodily training is ofsome value, godliness is of
value in every way, as it holdspromise for the present life and
also for the life to come.
The saying is trustworthy anddeserving of full acceptance,
for to this end we toil andstrive, because we have set our
hope on the living God who isthe Savior of all people,
(03:25):
especially of those who believe.
And so, in this paragraph, paulis explaining to Timothy what a
good servant of Jesus Christlooks like.
This is one who puts sounddoctrine before the brothers.
This is one who has beentrained in the words of the
faith.
This is one who practices whathe preaches.
(03:45):
This is one who avoids thefoolish conversations, those
debated theological talks thatlead to nowhere.
This is the one that doesn'tget into it on Facebook or
Twitter or X and have theseconversations that everyone sees
and that no one benefits from.
(04:08):
This is the one who does nothingwith irreverent silly myths,
but instead focuses on somethingelse.
What are they to focus on?
What is this good servant?
Focus on Training yourself ordiscipline yourself for
godliness?
And so Paul's saying don'twaste your time on things that
do not matter.
(04:28):
Do not waste your time on theseendless theological rabbit
trails.
No, let it be clear Theologymatters.
It is the backbone, it is ofwhat we believe.
But he's saying focus yourselfon training, on discipline, for
the sake of godliness, not forthe sake of knowledge, not for
(04:50):
the sake of teaching others, notfor the sake of showing people
how good you are or how big thewords you know.
No, he says for the sake ofgodliness.
And so what is the end goal ofthe servant of Jesus Christ?
Godliness.
We sign off every episode.
This is the will of God, yoursanctification, your
(05:12):
Christlikeness, your godliness.
God delights in godlikeness orgodliness.
Paul says train yourself ordiscipline yourself.
When we think about training,training has to do with constant
practice.
Think about an athlete who istraining.
Just recently, the Olympics hadcome and gone.
(05:34):
You see the world's greatestathletes coming on the grandest
stage of them all and competingfor that one prize, that gold
medal, and they have spent theirlives training for that moment,
training for that opportunityto run in that race or play in
that game.
You see that they'vedisciplined themselves.
(05:54):
No one's running the 100 metersby just rolling out of bed and
saying one day I'm just going todo this without constant
training.
And what are they doing?
They're practicing their craft.
They're becoming the best atwhat they do.
All of their life is centeredaround that thing in which
they've set their mind to their.
Diet has to do with their sport, their sleep, their
(06:20):
conditioning, and so they trainday in and day out.
Maybe they have a rest day, buteven a rest day is not an off
day.
It is a recovery day.
And this idea of training has todo with a constant focus, a
mindfulness, a remembrance ofthis is what I am working
towards.
(06:40):
There's a goal in mind.
As Christians, heeding thewords of Paul to Timothy, we are
to train ourselves with a goalin mind, a daily discipline.
And what is that goal?
He says it godliness.
The end of spiritualdisciplines is for the purpose
of godliness, and godliness isof value in every way.
(07:03):
That's what Paul says.
Bodily training is of somevalue.
He doesn't deny that.
But godliness not only bringsblessing into our lives, it
blesses all the people around us.
It holds promise for this life,but also the life to come.
Our goal is godliness.
(07:29):
Our goal is Christlikeness.
Okay, so if that's our goal andwe're called to train or have
discipline ourselves, what arethe necessary components to do
so.
Well, that's what I read to youin Donald Whitney's book.
Here I want to focus theremainder of this episode on the
Word of God, bible intake, ortaking in God's Word, because,
again, it is vital that we feastupon the Word of God.
(07:52):
I think this is something thatmany of us can relate to.
Have you ever gone?
Maybe a couple days you've beenin the busyness of life, maybe
summer's just pulling you in alldifferent directions and you've
missed some Bible reading.
You've missed some days in theWord.
You've missed that time ofeither devotion, intentional
prayer, your Bible time.
(08:14):
Two, three, four days go by andyou find yourself feeling a
little famished, find yourself alittle more irritable, quicker,
frustrated.
Sooner the impatience that isin you starts to manifest out of
you.
I've experienced that and it'schallenging.
(08:35):
You start to realize, hey, thisdaily discipline, or this
discipline of being saturated orbeing immersed in the word of
God, or making that a part of myhabits, healthy habits of my
life, is good for me.
You know, it's kind of one ofthose things.
You don't realize that you missit until it's gone, or it's
gone through a period of time,gone through a period of time,
(09:01):
and so again if you're at alllike me and there's been times
where I've gone a couple of dayswithout being in the word,
prayer being pretty inconsistent, and it starts to show in my
life, I start to feel it even inmy spirit, that it feels
quenched, it feels drained,parched, and I need that
refreshment, I need thatrevitalization that comes
through being in the Word andprayer.
(09:24):
And so I think one of the mostvital disciplines, spiritual
disciplines, training ourselvesfor godliness, is the steady and
consistent intake of the Wordof God.
Now that comes through variousforms.
You know it doesn't necessarilyBible intake does not
necessarily mean daily pietism,quiet time where you must do
(09:46):
this every day and you miss aday, you're under the bondage of
legalism and you know God isupset with you.
We have to recognize andremember that before the
printing press Christians didnot have Bibles, and remember
that before the printing pressChristians did not have Bibles.
So how did they have the dailyintake of reading the Word of
God?
They didn't.
And so the last 500 or 600 orso years, yes, we've had printed
(10:10):
Bibles, but if we're going tomake something to be kind of law
and it only came into existencethrough relatively modern
technology let's be careful hereonly came into existence
through relatively moderntechnology.
Let's be careful here.
And let's only command what thescriptures command and let's
not forbid what the scripturesdon't forbid.
Now, when I say that, because wehave printed Bibles, because we
(10:33):
have opportunity, because Ithink this is a graced gift from
God for his church, we shouldmake use of that and we should
make use of Bible intake.
But I think this comes througha few different modes, and with
the continual growth intechnology it begins to expand,
(10:55):
and so we have different ways inwhich we can do Bible intake.
But I would say the first andforemost, the tried and true
manner of Bible intake ishearing the Word of God.
We understand that Paul says inRomans, chapter 10, that faith
comes through hearing, andhearing through the Word of
Christ, and so people can hearbefore they can read.
(11:16):
It's important to understandand realize that we can take in
God's word through hearing God'sword.
That's the means in which thespirit uses the word of God and
brings about saving faith inthose who hear.
And so I think it's importantagain to recognize Bible intake
(11:36):
comes through hearing God's word, but it's not limited to that.
Bible intake comes throughhearing God's word, but it's not
limited to that.
We hear God's word, we can hearGod's word preached.
We should certainly be sittingunder the preaching of God's
word on a regular basis, aregular rhythm.
God has ordained the means ofpreaching in his church, for his
church, for the growth of hispeople, and so preaching is a
(12:02):
fundamental means in which wegrow in the faith.
So, hearing God's word throughthe preaching, hearing God's
word through it being read, thatPaul tells Timothy to devote
himself to the public reading ofscripture, to stand up in the
congregation of the people, readGod's word.
The Bible itself testifies tothe effectiveness of the word.
(12:23):
Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12,.
For the word of God is livingand active, sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing to thedivision of soul and spirit, of
joints and of marrow, anddiscerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart.
It is said of the Bible.
It is the only book that, asyou read it, it reads you.
And again, in Paul's nextletter, his last letter that he
(12:43):
writes to Timothy, he remindshim of the effectiveness of the
word.
All scripture is breathed outby God and is profitable for
teaching, for reproof, forcorrection and for training in
righteousness that the man ofGod may be complete, equipped
for every good work.
The Word of God, the Bible, isholistic in the formation of
(13:05):
God's people.
That's why, to train ourselvesfor godliness, we must be
intaking the Word of God in thevarious forms that we can,
hearing God's Word.
But we can go beyond justhearing God's Word to the
privilege of being able to readGod's word.
But we can go beyond justhearing God's word to the
privilege of being able to readGod's word.
For most of you listening, Ithink it's safe to assume you
(13:25):
live in a country where theBible is not illegal, where
having and owning a Bible is aprivilege.
It is a right that you have asa citizen of the country that
you live in, and so, in God'skind providence and his common
grace to humanity, in manylocations across this globe we
(13:48):
have access.
We have access to many Bibles.
A lot of us probably havemultiple Bibles in our own home.
By virtue of that, we haveaccess to not just hear God's
word but to read it ourselves,and we can't overestimate the
value of reading God's word.
I think it was John Piper whosaid if you want to hear God
(14:10):
speak, just read your Bible outloud, Because as we read our
Bibles, it is God speaking to us.
I think another person I can'tremember who, but they said
prayer is us speaking to God,and reading God's word is God
speaking to us, and I thinkthat's just a great way to think
about the two.
(14:31):
As we pray, we pray to God andas we read God's word, it's as
though God speaks back to us orGod speaks to us through his
word, and that is very true.
Just again, some of thescripture passages I just
mentioned.
The word is profitable.
The word is God breathed.
It's expired, it has come outof the mouth of God.
God's word is living and active.
(14:51):
It's not a dead book.
We hear God's word, we get toread God's word, and I think
something that's important tounderstand and note is that the
more we read God's word, themore immersed we are in God's
word, the better we canunderstand God's word.
A concise guide to understandingand applying the Bible, because
(15:19):
I wanted to create somethingthat was accessible for
Christians, to kind of get a bigpicture of the Bible and not be
intimidated by the various, thevastness or the thickness of
their Bible.
You get somewhere in the middleof Isaiah, you're somewhere in
(15:41):
the middle of Numbers and you'rekind of like I don't know
what's going on.
There's all this informationand you can lose sight of the
big picture, and so the resourcewas to just try to make Bible
intake more palatable, moreaccessible and more
understandable for the people ofGod so that they don't get lost
in the pages of Scripture andthey know what's going on.
They know that and understandat least.
There's the big story, the metanarrative of the seed of the
(16:02):
woman crushing the head of theserpent and how that story is
traced all the way through.
You can see that through theChrist connections, how all of
scripture is one unified story,and so reading God's word helps
us to understand God's word.
And, like I said, there's manyresources, a ton of resources.
(16:22):
We have an embarrassment ofriches right now in the
Christian world for helping tounderstand and apply God's word.
Tons of companions, my book onthe books of scripture short,
little commentaries.
You can access a lot of stuffjust online through various
resources that are out there,and a lot of trusted resources
(16:42):
as well, and so I would justencourage you to think about
some of those things.
But reading God's word, this isa healthy discipline.
It's one of those you know,sometimes if you're committed to
working out or exercising, youwake up one day and you're
thinking I'm not feeling it, Ididn't sleep well, it's going to
(17:03):
be a rough day, maybe it'sraining outside and all you want
to do is pull the covers backover your head and just lay in
bed as you hear the rain hit theroof and it feels so nice.
But you know that you can't dothat.
You can't just disappear.
So you get up and you say I'vecommitted to this discipline,
(17:23):
I'm going to work out, it'swhat's my lifting day, or it's
strength training day, orwhatever it is.
You get in the car and youdrive off to the gym and you do
it anyways.
And if you can relate to thatfeeling, think about what it
felt like when you were walkingout of the gym that day.
No regrets, you never regret it.
You never regret and say, man,I should have slept in, I
(17:44):
shouldn't have gone and donethat discipline, that training.
It's the same thing withreading god's word, disciplining
yourself for bible intake.
You spend some time, quiet time, uninterrupt time, maybe your
cup of coffee, maybe it's in theevening, if that's what works
for you.
But you read through thescriptures you might not
(18:05):
understand everything you read,but you still commit yourself to
that discipline and praying thescripture as you read it.
We'll talk about that in alater episode.
But when you're done, you don'tlook and say, man, I could have
spent my time on much morevaluable things than reading,
listening and hearing from Godand his word.
(18:26):
You don't regret it.
So let me encourage you withthat Read.
And if reading is not adiscipline of your life, start
small five minutes.
Maybe five minutes turns into10.
Who knows?
But start small and just startthat habit of opening God's word
, spending a few moments, fewminutes a day reading God's word
(18:48):
.
Again, you are trainingyourself for godliness From
reading God's word.
One final way that I would sayis important for Bible intake is
studying God's word, and thistakes it to the next kind of
level.
You do this individually.
I would actually say that it'sprobably better to do this in
community.
A lot of individual studiessometimes end up in wrong
(19:10):
conclusions, but it is importantto not be an isolated Bible
reader but a community Biblestudier, because in reading
God's word and studying God'sword in community, it's it helps
to hear what other people aregleaning and some insights that
(19:30):
they might receive or thinkingabout as you're reading through
a passage and you start to hearother perspectives, or you might
have come to a certainconclusion about something that
was stated and you're listeningto someone else articulate and
you start to realize, okay,maybe I was a little off on this
, or that confirms somethingthat I was thinking as well, and
there's something uniting aboutstudying God's word with God's
(19:53):
people together.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
I have grown leaps and boundsin my own spiritual journey, my
own spiritual understanding, notby simply studying in isolation
, which I certainly do, just bynature of being a pastor and
preaching it's a part of my work.
(20:14):
But one of the great joys thatI get is to open Bibles with my
brothers and sisters and openBibles open hearts, open minds
to together receive God's word,and I've been blessed by it.
I've been encouraged and I'vebeen challenged in my own
thinking because of it.
(20:35):
And so spiritual discipline forgodliness.
Study the Bible in community.
How do I study the Bible?
There's a ton of resourcesavailable that can help you walk
through.
The inductive method isprobably the tried and true
method of Bible study.
This is where you observe thetext.
(20:57):
Whether you have a passage, youknow a couple verses, a
paragraph.
This is where you're lookingthrough and you're just
observing what is being stated.
Who, what, where, when, why,how.
Those are questions you askabout a specific text.
What, where, when, why, how?
Those are questions you askabout a specific text.
Look at repeated words, look atphrases.
What are some references?
If you have a Bible that doescross references, you can look
(21:20):
at parallel passages and startto navigate through your Bible
that way Observe, ask questions,ask tons of questions about a
passage.
These are things that I'm seeing.
I'm not saying this is what itmeans to me.
No, we're not doing that.
We're just observing what'sbeing stated and through careful
observation we begin to seek tointerpret the passage.
(21:43):
What is the meaning in thepassage?
The meaning is not what I sayit is.
It isn't what it means to me.
Meaning is not what I say it is.
It isn't what it means to me.
Authorial intent it's what theauthor intended the meaning of
the passage to be.
He controls meaning.
It's not reader's response.
Our job is to discover, notdetermine, the meaning.
(22:04):
It's already in there.
So, through observation,through cross-reference, through
sometimes other resources thatmight help us in Bible
dictionaries, certaincommentaries, any type of
background information, furtherinformation on phrases, those
are helpful.
But we seek to discover themeaning of a text through
(22:28):
observation.
We interpret that.
What did it mean to theoriginal audience?
What does it mean to them?
How can I then take thatmeaning and apply it in my
contemporary setting?
Because all scripture isGod-breathed and is profitable.
And so, as I seek to study,interpret this text, I then
(22:49):
apply it.
So observe, read, observe,interpret, apply.
Because if the Bible is justinformation and it doesn't lead
to transformation, we're notstudying it correctly, because
the end of our discipline, asPaul said, is for godliness.
So, as we study the Bible, thegoal is not simply I'm good at
(23:14):
exegesis, I'm good atunderstanding these things.
No, it's that, by God's spirit,this truth is being applied to
my life and I am beingtransformed into the likeness of
Jesus.
Feasting on God's word willhelp us grow in godliness as we
are beholding Christ, as we arebeholding God in his word.
(23:37):
Our prayer is God, transform meinto this likeness less of my
sinfulness and more of godlinessin me, and so that, through
reading, our attitudes arechanged, our actions are changed
and ultimately, our livesreflect Jesus.
(23:57):
That's our goal and in doing so, this is one discipline on how
we can be good servants of JesusChrist in these days for God's
glory.
I want to thank you forlistening to the Pleasing God
podcast.
If you have any questions, Iwould love to hear from you.
You can reach out at questionsat pleasinggodpodcastorg.
(24:19):
And remember 1 Thessalonians4.3,.
This is the will of God, oursanctification.
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God Podcast, a
show focused on helpingChristians to think biblically,
engage practically and livefaithfully for the glory of God.
I'm your host, jonathan Soule,and on this episode and some
that will follow, I want tobegin talking through kind of a
list that I've created andfocusing on discipline,
(00:29):
specifically focusing onspiritual discipline and how
that works in the life of aChristian, what spiritual
disciplines are, how we canpractice them faithfully and the
difference that they can makein our lives as we pursue
godliness.
And so over the next few weeksI want to talk through a variety
of different topics andthoughts concerning spiritual
(00:51):
disciplines and from the outsetI just want to be clear one of
the most influential books thatI've read that's helped shape my
thinking on spiritualdisciplines is actually written
by Don Whitney and it's calledSpiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life and I just wantto plug it.
It's super accessible, helpsyou think through a variety of
(01:14):
disciplines that are helpful andthat we see in the scriptures
and you would benefit greatlyfrom reading through this book
and some of that's going to kindof influence how I want to talk
about these disciplines.
He goes through Bible intake,prayer, worship, evangelism,
serving, fasting, silence andsolitude, journaling and
(01:35):
learning.
And so I'm not going to talkabout all of those, but some of
the real important ones, andsometimes often neglected ones
that you know, whether we wantto admit it or not, are
realities in our lives.
And so, when we think aboutspiritual disciplines, why are
(01:56):
they important?
Well, let's root this in theBible.
Paul, in his letter to Timothy,1 Timothy, he's writing to him,
his pupil, his apostolicdelegate, who has gone to
Ephesus and he's in charge ofsetting an example, raising up
leadership, ordering the churchin the way it should function.
(02:18):
And so Paul writes to him,explains to Timothy some of the
challenges that he's going toface, some of the errors that he
needs to correct in Ephesus, aswell as what faithful ministry
looks like.
And in chapter 4, verse 6, paulwrites if you put these things
before the brothers, this is thegood teaching, the stuff that
he's been instructing him upuntil this point.
(02:41):
If you put these things beforethe brothers, you will be a good
servant of Christ Jesus, beingtrained in the words of the
faith and of the good doctrinethat you have followed.
And, he says, have nothing todo with irreverent, silly myths.
Rather, train yourself forgodliness or discipline yourself
(03:02):
for godliness.
For while bodily training is ofsome value, godliness is of
value in every way, as it holdspromise for the present life and
also for the life to come.
The saying is trustworthy anddeserving of full acceptance,
for to this end we toil andstrive, because we have set our
hope on the living God who isthe Savior of all people,
(03:25):
especially of those who believe.
And so, in this paragraph, paulis explaining to Timothy what a
good servant of Jesus Christlooks like.
This is one who puts sounddoctrine before the brothers.
This is one who has beentrained in the words of the
faith.
This is one who practices whathe preaches.
(03:45):
This is one who avoids thefoolish conversations, those
debated theological talks thatlead to nowhere.
This is the one that doesn'tget into it on Facebook or
Twitter or X and have theseconversations that everyone sees
and that no one benefits from.
(04:08):
This is the one who does nothingwith irreverent silly myths,
but instead focuses on somethingelse.
What are they to focus on?
What is this good servant?
Focus on Training yourself ordiscipline yourself for
godliness?
And so Paul's saying don'twaste your time on things that
do not matter.
(04:28):
Do not waste your time on theseendless theological rabbit
trails.
No, let it be clear Theologymatters.
It is the backbone, it is ofwhat we believe.
But he's saying focus yourselfon training, on discipline, for
the sake of godliness, not forthe sake of knowledge, not for
(04:50):
the sake of teaching others, notfor the sake of showing people
how good you are or how big thewords you know.
No, he says for the sake ofgodliness.
And so what is the end goal ofthe servant of Jesus Christ?
Godliness.
We sign off every episode.
This is the will of God, yoursanctification, your
(05:12):
Christlikeness, your godliness.
God delights in godlikeness orgodliness.
Paul says train yourself ordiscipline yourself.
When we think about training,training has to do with constant
practice.
Think about an athlete who istraining.
Just recently, the Olympics hadcome and gone.
(05:34):
You see the world's greatestathletes coming on the grandest
stage of them all and competingfor that one prize, that gold
medal, and they have spent theirlives training for that moment,
training for that opportunityto run in that race or play in
that game.
You see that they'vedisciplined themselves.
(05:54):
No one's running the 100 metersby just rolling out of bed and
saying one day I'm just going todo this without constant
training.
And what are they doing?
They're practicing their craft.
They're becoming the best atwhat they do.
All of their life is centeredaround that thing in which
they've set their mind to their.
Diet has to do with their sport, their sleep, their
(06:20):
conditioning, and so they trainday in and day out.
Maybe they have a rest day, buteven a rest day is not an off
day.
It is a recovery day.
And this idea of training has todo with a constant focus, a
mindfulness, a remembrance ofthis is what I am working
towards.
(06:40):
There's a goal in mind.
As Christians, heeding thewords of Paul to Timothy, we are
to train ourselves with a goalin mind, a daily discipline.
And what is that goal?
He says it godliness.
The end of spiritualdisciplines is for the purpose
of godliness, and godliness isof value in every way.
(07:03):
That's what Paul says.
Bodily training is of somevalue.
He doesn't deny that.
But godliness not only bringsblessing into our lives, it
blesses all the people around us.
It holds promise for this life,but also the life to come.
Our goal is godliness.
(07:29):
Our goal is Christlikeness.
Okay, so if that's our goal andwe're called to train or have
discipline ourselves, what arethe necessary components to do
so.
Well, that's what I read to youin Donald Whitney's book.
Here I want to focus theremainder of this episode on the
Word of God, bible intake, ortaking in God's Word, because,
again, it is vital that we feastupon the Word of God.
(07:52):
I think this is something thatmany of us can relate to.
Have you ever gone?
Maybe a couple days you've beenin the busyness of life, maybe
summer's just pulling you in alldifferent directions and you've
missed some Bible reading.
You've missed some days in theWord.
You've missed that time ofeither devotion, intentional
prayer, your Bible time.
(08:14):
Two, three, four days go by andyou find yourself feeling a
little famished, find yourself alittle more irritable, quicker,
frustrated.
Sooner the impatience that isin you starts to manifest out of
you.
I've experienced that and it'schallenging.
(08:35):
You start to realize, hey, thisdaily discipline, or this
discipline of being saturated orbeing immersed in the word of
God, or making that a part of myhabits, healthy habits of my
life, is good for me.
You know, it's kind of one ofthose things.
You don't realize that you missit until it's gone, or it's
gone through a period of time,gone through a period of time,
(09:01):
and so again if you're at alllike me and there's been times
where I've gone a couple of dayswithout being in the word,
prayer being pretty inconsistent, and it starts to show in my
life, I start to feel it even inmy spirit, that it feels
quenched, it feels drained,parched, and I need that
refreshment, I need thatrevitalization that comes
through being in the Word andprayer.
(09:24):
And so I think one of the mostvital disciplines, spiritual
disciplines, training ourselvesfor godliness, is the steady and
consistent intake of the Wordof God.
Now that comes through variousforms.
You know it doesn't necessarilyBible intake does not
necessarily mean daily pietism,quiet time where you must do
(09:46):
this every day and you miss aday, you're under the bondage of
legalism and you know God isupset with you.
We have to recognize andremember that before the
printing press Christians didnot have Bibles, and remember
that before the printing pressChristians did not have Bibles.
So how did they have the dailyintake of reading the Word of
God?
They didn't.
And so the last 500 or 600 orso years, yes, we've had printed
(10:10):
Bibles, but if we're going tomake something to be kind of law
and it only came into existencethrough relatively modern
technology let's be careful hereonly came into existence
through relatively moderntechnology.
Let's be careful here.
And let's only command what thescriptures command and let's
not forbid what the scripturesdon't forbid.
Now, when I say that, because wehave printed Bibles, because we
(10:33):
have opportunity, because Ithink this is a graced gift from
God for his church, we shouldmake use of that and we should
make use of Bible intake.
But I think this comes througha few different modes, and with
the continual growth intechnology it begins to expand,
(10:55):
and so we have different ways inwhich we can do Bible intake.
But I would say the first andforemost, the tried and true
manner of Bible intake ishearing the Word of God.
We understand that Paul says inRomans, chapter 10, that faith
comes through hearing, andhearing through the Word of
Christ, and so people can hearbefore they can read.
(11:16):
It's important to understandand realize that we can take in
God's word through hearing God'sword.
That's the means in which thespirit uses the word of God and
brings about saving faith inthose who hear.
And so I think it's importantagain to recognize Bible intake
(11:36):
comes through hearing God's word, but it's not limited to that.
Bible intake comes throughhearing God's word, but it's not
limited to that.
We hear God's word, we can hearGod's word preached.
We should certainly be sittingunder the preaching of God's
word on a regular basis, aregular rhythm.
God has ordained the means ofpreaching in his church, for his
church, for the growth of hispeople, and so preaching is a
(12:02):
fundamental means in which wegrow in the faith.
So, hearing God's word throughthe preaching, hearing God's
word through it being read, thatPaul tells Timothy to devote
himself to the public reading ofscripture, to stand up in the
congregation of the people, readGod's word.
The Bible itself testifies tothe effectiveness of the word.
(12:23):
Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12,.
For the word of God is livingand active, sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing to thedivision of soul and spirit, of
joints and of marrow, anddiscerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart.
It is said of the Bible.
It is the only book that, asyou read it, it reads you.
And again, in Paul's nextletter, his last letter that he
(12:43):
writes to Timothy, he remindshim of the effectiveness of the
word.
All scripture is breathed outby God and is profitable for
teaching, for reproof, forcorrection and for training in
righteousness that the man ofGod may be complete, equipped
for every good work.
The Word of God, the Bible, isholistic in the formation of
(13:05):
God's people.
That's why, to train ourselvesfor godliness, we must be
intaking the Word of God in thevarious forms that we can,
hearing God's Word.
But we can go beyond justhearing God's Word to the
privilege of being able to readGod's word.
But we can go beyond justhearing God's word to the
privilege of being able to readGod's word.
For most of you listening, Ithink it's safe to assume you
(13:25):
live in a country where theBible is not illegal, where
having and owning a Bible is aprivilege.
It is a right that you have asa citizen of the country that
you live in, and so, in God'skind providence and his common
grace to humanity, in manylocations across this globe we
(13:48):
have access.
We have access to many Bibles.
A lot of us probably havemultiple Bibles in our own home.
By virtue of that, we haveaccess to not just hear God's
word but to read it ourselves,and we can't overestimate the
value of reading God's word.
I think it was John Piper whosaid if you want to hear God
(14:10):
speak, just read your Bible outloud, Because as we read our
Bibles, it is God speaking to us.
I think another person I can'tremember who, but they said
prayer is us speaking to God,and reading God's word is God
speaking to us, and I thinkthat's just a great way to think
about the two.
(14:31):
As we pray, we pray to God andas we read God's word, it's as
though God speaks back to us orGod speaks to us through his
word, and that is very true.
Just again, some of thescripture passages I just
mentioned.
The word is profitable.
The word is God breathed.
It's expired, it has come outof the mouth of God.
God's word is living and active.
(14:51):
It's not a dead book.
We hear God's word, we get toread God's word, and I think
something that's important tounderstand and note is that the
more we read God's word, themore immersed we are in God's
word, the better we canunderstand God's word.
A concise guide to understandingand applying the Bible, because
(15:19):
I wanted to create somethingthat was accessible for
Christians, to kind of get a bigpicture of the Bible and not be
intimidated by the various, thevastness or the thickness of
their Bible.
You get somewhere in the middleof Isaiah, you're somewhere in
(15:41):
the middle of Numbers and you'rekind of like I don't know
what's going on.
There's all this informationand you can lose sight of the
big picture, and so the resourcewas to just try to make Bible
intake more palatable, moreaccessible and more
understandable for the people ofGod so that they don't get lost
in the pages of Scripture andthey know what's going on.
They know that and understandat least.
There's the big story, the metanarrative of the seed of the
(16:02):
woman crushing the head of theserpent and how that story is
traced all the way through.
You can see that through theChrist connections, how all of
scripture is one unified story,and so reading God's word helps
us to understand God's word.
And, like I said, there's manyresources, a ton of resources.
(16:22):
We have an embarrassment ofriches right now in the
Christian world for helping tounderstand and apply God's word.
Tons of companions, my book onthe books of scripture short,
little commentaries.
You can access a lot of stuffjust online through various
resources that are out there,and a lot of trusted resources
(16:42):
as well, and so I would justencourage you to think about
some of those things.
But reading God's word, this isa healthy discipline.
It's one of those you know,sometimes if you're committed to
working out or exercising, youwake up one day and you're
thinking I'm not feeling it, Ididn't sleep well, it's going to
(17:03):
be a rough day, maybe it'sraining outside and all you want
to do is pull the covers backover your head and just lay in
bed as you hear the rain hit theroof and it feels so nice.
But you know that you can't dothat.
You can't just disappear.
So you get up and you say I'vecommitted to this discipline,
(17:23):
I'm going to work out, it'swhat's my lifting day, or it's
strength training day, orwhatever it is.
You get in the car and youdrive off to the gym and you do
it anyways.
And if you can relate to thatfeeling, think about what it
felt like when you were walkingout of the gym that day.
No regrets, you never regret it.
You never regret and say, man,I should have slept in, I
(17:44):
shouldn't have gone and donethat discipline, that training.
It's the same thing withreading god's word, disciplining
yourself for bible intake.
You spend some time, quiet time, uninterrupt time, maybe your
cup of coffee, maybe it's in theevening, if that's what works
for you.
But you read through thescriptures you might not
(18:05):
understand everything you read,but you still commit yourself to
that discipline and praying thescripture as you read it.
We'll talk about that in alater episode.
But when you're done, you don'tlook and say, man, I could have
spent my time on much morevaluable things than reading,
listening and hearing from Godand his word.
(18:26):
You don't regret it.
So let me encourage you withthat Read.
And if reading is not adiscipline of your life, start
small five minutes.
Maybe five minutes turns into10.
Who knows?
But start small and just startthat habit of opening God's word
, spending a few moments, fewminutes a day reading God's word
(18:48):
.
Again, you are trainingyourself for godliness From
reading God's word.
One final way that I would sayis important for Bible intake is
studying God's word, and thistakes it to the next kind of
level.
You do this individually.
I would actually say that it'sprobably better to do this in
community.
A lot of individual studiessometimes end up in wrong
(19:10):
conclusions, but it is importantto not be an isolated Bible
reader but a community Biblestudier, because in reading
God's word and studying God'sword in community, it's it helps
to hear what other people aregleaning and some insights that
(19:30):
they might receive or thinkingabout as you're reading through
a passage and you start to hearother perspectives, or you might
have come to a certainconclusion about something that
was stated and you're listeningto someone else articulate and
you start to realize, okay,maybe I was a little off on this
, or that confirms somethingthat I was thinking as well, and
there's something uniting aboutstudying God's word with God's
(19:53):
people together.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
I have grown leaps and boundsin my own spiritual journey, my
own spiritual understanding, notby simply studying in isolation
, which I certainly do, just bynature of being a pastor and
preaching it's a part of my work.
(20:14):
But one of the great joys thatI get is to open Bibles with my
brothers and sisters and openBibles open hearts, open minds
to together receive God's word,and I've been blessed by it.
I've been encouraged and I'vebeen challenged in my own
thinking because of it.
(20:35):
And so spiritual discipline forgodliness.
Study the Bible in community.
How do I study the Bible?
There's a ton of resourcesavailable that can help you walk
through.
The inductive method isprobably the tried and true
method of Bible study.
This is where you observe thetext.
(20:57):
Whether you have a passage, youknow a couple verses, a
paragraph.
This is where you're lookingthrough and you're just
observing what is being stated.
Who, what, where, when, why,how.
Those are questions you askabout a specific text.
What, where, when, why, how?
Those are questions you askabout a specific text.
Look at repeated words, look atphrases.
What are some references?
If you have a Bible that doescross references, you can look
(21:20):
at parallel passages and startto navigate through your Bible
that way Observe, ask questions,ask tons of questions about a
passage.
These are things that I'm seeing.
I'm not saying this is what itmeans to me.
No, we're not doing that.
We're just observing what'sbeing stated and through careful
observation we begin to seek tointerpret the passage.
(21:43):
What is the meaning in thepassage?
The meaning is not what I sayit is.
It isn't what it means to me.
Meaning is not what I say it is.
It isn't what it means to me.
Authorial intent it's what theauthor intended the meaning of
the passage to be.
He controls meaning.
It's not reader's response.
Our job is to discover, notdetermine, the meaning.
(22:04):
It's already in there.
So, through observation,through cross-reference, through
sometimes other resources thatmight help us in Bible
dictionaries, certaincommentaries, any type of
background information, furtherinformation on phrases, those
are helpful.
But we seek to discover themeaning of a text through
(22:28):
observation.
We interpret that.
What did it mean to theoriginal audience?
What does it mean to them?
How can I then take thatmeaning and apply it in my
contemporary setting?
Because all scripture isGod-breathed and is profitable.
And so, as I seek to study,interpret this text, I then
(22:49):
apply it.
So observe, read, observe,interpret, apply.
Because if the Bible is justinformation and it doesn't lead
to transformation, we're notstudying it correctly, because
the end of our discipline, asPaul said, is for godliness.
So, as we study the Bible, thegoal is not simply I'm good at
(23:14):
exegesis, I'm good atunderstanding these things.
No, it's that, by God's spirit,this truth is being applied to
my life and I am beingtransformed into the likeness of
Jesus.
Feasting on God's word willhelp us grow in godliness as we
are beholding Christ, as we arebeholding God in his word.
(23:37):
Our prayer is God, transform meinto this likeness less of my
sinfulness and more of godlinessin me, and so that, through
reading, our attitudes arechanged, our actions are changed
and ultimately, our livesreflect Jesus.
(23:57):
That's our goal and in doing so, this is one discipline on how
we can be good servants of JesusChrist in these days for God's
glory.
I want to thank you forlistening to the Pleasing God
podcast.
If you have any questions, Iwould love to hear from you.
You can reach out at questionsat pleasinggodpodcastorg.
(24:19):
And remember 1 Thessalonians4.3,.
This is the will of God, oursanctification.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!