April 26, 2024 • 13 mins
Support Hope In Him Today here.
In this episode of "Hope In Him Today", Gary Miller brings a compelling message about the importance of diligent scripture exploration using Mosiah 1. He asserts that prioritizing your relationship with scriptures gives your spiritual growth an unparalleled boost and increases your capacity to lead a profitable life.
Gary emphasizes the need to first remember the vital task of scripture study amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday demands, suggesting a morning study routine as an effective approach. He further highlights the significance of being purposeful and active in your approach, relating this to 'searching diligently' within the scriptures. This method, he says, promotes deeper understanding and increases the chances of uncovering valuable spiritual treasures.
In a bid to stress the importance of active engagement, Gary discourages a passive or perfunctory approach to scripture study, pointing out that we ought to come with questions, and earnestly seek answers. He likens aimless reading of scriptures to unguided driving that leads nowhere. Lastly, he impresses on listeners that pursuing scripture knowledge is not merely about cherishing the words, but about seeking profiting insights to guide our lives.
Through real-life experiences and solid biblical references, Gary offers valuable insights to listeners on how to maximize their time with scriptures to reap spiritual and life-changing benefits. Tune in to discover how you can build a more intimate, beneficial, and engaging relationship with scriptures.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey there, friends. This is Gary Miller, and the show is hoping him today.
Great to have you here. Turn in your scriptures to Mosiah chapter one, Mosiah chapter one.
And while you're going there, let me just say thank you. Thank you so much, man.
We've had a massive increase in listens and downloads and activity.
Friends, I've shared this in workshops and in my other sales and marketing life to people,
(00:25):
but the number one way to increase listeners on your podcast and have more people
click and play and share it and more stuff happening is simply to record more and do it faster.
So the more episodes you stack, the faster you do it, it provides an infusion.
Even if you've got a small audience to start, if you will do that, you will see an uptick.
(00:50):
And it's periodically exactly why we do this here.
Every now and again, we'll do a half month run or a month run where we infuse
a bunch of episodes that's done various strategically because we want to see
more listeners, more activity.
And so for all of you that are brand new to this party that have come in as
part of our daily devotional series this month, great to have you here. Welcome.
Make sure you go to HopeInHimToday.com.
(01:12):
You can listen to all of our previous episodes, listen to as much or as little
as you like. It's all free, of course.
You can support the show there and donate.
You can reach out to us with questions or comments.
You can do all of it out there at HopeInHimToday.com. So thank you for being
here, our new listeners.
And the same goes for you, veterans. Those of you who've been around,
(01:32):
huge thank you for continuing to hit play.
There's all kinds of podcasts that you can hit, and you keep coming out here
and hitting play with us. And we really appreciate that.
So veterans, same thing, HopeAtHymnToday.com, support the show,
leave a review, share an episode out with a friend.
You know what to do. And we appreciate you for doing that.
Mosiah chapter one, verse seven. I just want to read the front part.
(01:55):
And I never like partialing verses because that drifts us off into the land
of let's leave context to get crazy.
But I think we can stay sound in this because this one section is really important.
It says, And now, my sons, I would that you should remember to search...
Them diligently, that you may profit thereby. And I would that you should keep
(02:21):
the commandments of God, that you may prosper in the land according to the promises
which the Lord made unto our fathers.
And I want to talk to you about searching the scriptures today.
This verse sounds very Acts-ish, right?
It sounds very Bereans-ish. Search the scriptures daily, find out if these things are so.
But let's break this down, because I was teaching this to a group this morning,
(02:44):
and some things came out and I thought, man, I got to make sure that my friends
in the podcast audience get this.
So it says, and now my sons, I would that you should remember,
let's just pause right there.
The first thing we've got to do to really effectively know the scriptures and
implement them in our lives is we have to remember to actually study them.
(03:05):
Amen. We have to remember member to actually study them.
We have so many distractions and so many things that can pull us off in a million
different directions. It's an email notification.
It's a text. It's one of our kids. It's a dog. It's a cat. It's a spouse.
It's job. It's the commute. It's the thing. It's the task. It's a to-do list
(03:26):
that's ever growing and ever changing.
If you feel like I do sometimes with a big family, with everybody's different
practices and rehearsals and things that they're doing.
It is amazing. Now in my late forties, I find myself going, man, I forgot.
Like there was something that I was, someone allegedly told me I completely
forgot it because I'm over here doing all these other seven things.
(03:49):
And so it's very easy to get distracted and we don't remember to study and remember
to fellowship with God and his word.
We have to remember to do this. The best way and the easiest way to remember
to do it is to do it first thing.
Sow the first fruit into the day of your study. I'm going to make a statement.
(04:11):
There are people that disagree with me on this, and that's fine, but I'm right.
Listen, the very best time to study the scriptures is first thing in the morning
before you do anything else.
Before you've gone to work, before your spouse is talking to you,
before the kids ask the first question, before you pack a lunch,
before you get in the car, before you do anything,
(04:33):
any study time post first thing in the morning is always going to be inferior
to that morning first fruit study time.
I'm convinced of it. I'm convinced of it as a guy who's been studying scripture,
preaching, teaching, working in ministry for a very, very long time.
And it's not just a personal preference. I think we've got Bible for this.
(04:54):
I think we've got Bible that I'll say that we need to meditate on the word morning, noon, and night.
Yes, it's a continual thing, but the reality is in the morning is our best focus.
We're the least distracted.
So it's easier to remember to do it. Are you with me?
Because as soon as we drift into the day, oh, yeah, you know,
I'll read some at lunch. Yes, you can.
(05:15):
And yes, you should. And that's good. I'm not shouting you down.
But the reality is you're at lunch and you got to go back to work and you got
the thing. And oh, did I answer the phone? And what about that email?
Why did my boss say that to me? And we're less focused and less this other word
that comes up, diligent in our study, frankly, when we've got all this other stuff on our plate.
Do it as the first fruit of your day.
(05:36):
I'm not a morning person, Gary. Well, that doesn't matter. Study.
It's that simple. Get into it early and remember to do it.
When we remember to do something, that something by proxy becomes a priority
and it becomes the first thing.
What is the first voice we really want in our day? We don't want the first voice
(05:57):
being social media. Don't do that.
We don't want the first voice being a podcast. We don't want that.
I love this podcast. I think you'll learn a lot about Jesus by hanging out with
me, but I am not the first voice in your world.
Neither is somebody else's podcast, whether it's Come Follow Me or it's a church podcast or anything.
No, no, no, no. Just get into your word first.
(06:20):
There will always be time for the other stuff, but get into the word first.
We've got to remember. Then it says, I would that you would remember to search.
Many of us come to the scripture and we're not actually searching.
We're just checking off the plan.
I think I've come to realize in my life that one of the reasons I have seasons
(06:41):
where I'm not hearing from God in the word the way that I want to hear from
him, there's a simple reason for that.
It's because I'm not searching for particular things.
I'm coming to the scriptures like I've already arrived. I've come to the scripture
going, yeah, I've read the Book of Mormon 17 times.
I've already read the Bible 52 times.
(07:04):
I already know that verse. I know this. Oh, yeah, this one. Oh,
yeah. See, I'm not coming with questions that I need answers to.
I think we would hear so much more in the word if we were coming with questions
that we were seeking answers to.
They might be micro questions, like very specific, like how do I deal with my
wife today? How do I fix this argument I had with my kid?
(07:26):
What are we going to do about the bill that's due at the end of the month?
I don't have enough money for it. Like, there's the specific stuff,
or there might be bigger questions.
Like, what's up with this whole restored gospel thing?
Where am I supposed to work in ministry? Or are we supposed to still be here? Is it time to move?
Or, you know, it could be anything that has a larger consequence in your life. Yeah.
(07:49):
But we need to come with some questions so that we're actually looking for something.
I think a lot of us are coming to our study and we're just meandering.
We don't actually have a question. We're not seeking after anything.
Like if you got in your car and you just started randomly driving around and
didn't put an addressing that GPS,
you'll definitely be driving, you'll definitely burn some gas,
(08:11):
you'll see some stuff, but you won't actually arrive anywhere of any specific
location because you didn't have anywhere you were trying to go.
You can end up driving around in circles, right?
A lot of us are approaching our scripture study this way. We're just studying
around in circles because we're not actually coming, seeking something.
(08:36):
Listen, if I told you to, you know, if you started walking around your house
and you were just looking around and I said, what are you doing?
You say, well, I'm searching. Well, searching for what? I don't know.
Well, if we don't know what we're searching for, chances are we're not going to find anything.
So chances are, if we come to the word and we're not searching it out,
we're not going to find anything. So some of the enemies of searching is one, I know it all.
(08:58):
I've met a lot of know-it-alls in the last four years.
I've met a lot of people that literally think they have an answer to everything.
I mean, literally everything. They think they've got an answer.
Oh, yeah, I'm very familiar with that verse. Yeah, I'm very familiar with that.
That's the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And we come in and we come to a place
where we are acting as if we know everything, then we're not searching.
(09:23):
Our brain is already closed out.
Our heart is already closed out because we're acting like we've arrived.
And of course, we haven't. So we've got to be careful that we don't negate the
gifts of searching and what can come from that because we're acting like we know it all, right?
That can mess us up in our searching.
We can also just mess up the searching because we don't have questions.
(09:46):
We're not asking God anything. You know, I just read his word because I love his word. Really?
So you just read recipes in the cookbook just because you love to read recipes. piece.
You don't actually use them to cook something, to make it, to enjoy it.
I'm not reading this word just because I love the word.
I'm reading it because the best thing I can do to honor the one that gave me
(10:09):
this word is to do something with it and to use it.
Amen. So I got to be searching for the things that I need some help with,
and he will give us answers. Remember to search them. What does it say?
Diligently. If you want to have a diligent study, friend, man,
then have something specific that you're going after, not sloppy study.
(10:30):
Not study, well, you know, kind of, oh, I just flipped the page open to this,
and I'm just reading whatever, because, you know, no, come to the Word.
Prove this Word. Work with the Word.
You will be much more diligent when you've got a plan. What is your plan?
Not just the reading plan, but you know what you're looking for.
Now, in the midst of looking for what we may think, God can open up all kinds of other things to us.
(10:54):
But I think we're dialed in better when we're actually like,
I'm coming to this thing with an intention.
I'm not just coming to go, yeah, you know, I just love reading it.
Okay, really? You love reading genealogies that are boring as all get out?
You love reading endless war accounts that are just like boring as get out? Really?
(11:15):
Because I don't. I'm coming for the word that he has for me. What does the Bible say?
In due season, and rightly fit, right?
I'm looking for that word. I need to be searching. I need to be diligent in
my study. I don't need to be sloppy.
Here's what it says, that you may profit.
Well, I just read the word because I love the word. I don't.
(11:36):
I read the word because I want to profit.
I want to profit in my life. That means I want to add to what I have.
I want the super on my natural.
I want to be profitable in my marriage and profitable with my kids and profitable
in my work and profitable in my health and profitable in my relationships and
the things I'm doing. Am I going to get that right all the time? No.
(11:57):
Still a lot of natural man here, but I want to try. Why? And the way that I
do that, it get profitable as I get more word.
Start getting honest about why you're coming to the word. See,
if I told you that, you know what, if you will just flip through all these pages,
somewhere in there is a check for a million dollars.
Let me tell you something. You would know what you were searching for.
(12:18):
You'd be really diligent in checking all the pages and you would make sure you
would make sure that you found it.
And if I told you that the only time you could search for it was first thing
in the morning, and you wouldn't tell me I'm not a morning person.
No, man, you'd have all the energy in the world and you were looking,
well, he's got that and more. What does it say in the book of Psalms?
He's got a cattle on a thousand hills, right?
(12:39):
He's got everything to prosper us materially, spiritually, but we have to search
it, search it diligently and watch what happens when we do.
Are you with me? So take this verse into the secret place, give it some thought,
roll that around, See how it works in your life. Get into the scripture first thing.
(13:02):
Start coming with your questions.
Use a journal, man. Use a journal. You can use it as a hybrid prayer journal, but use it and go and go.
Okay, you know what? God, I got to figure this out.
Like I am looking for answers about my marriage. I'm looking for something here.
And you'll be amazed at how he provides those things. Write down those questions.
And when you get answers and verses, write down the verses.
(13:25):
Commit those verses to memory. Use them in your life, speak them over the issues
that you're having and watch how God will move. I will see you.
Music.
Hey there, friends. This is Gary Miller, and the show is hoping him today.
Great to have you here. Turn in your scriptures to Mosiah chapter one, Mosiah chapter one.
And while you're going there, let me just say thank you. Thank you so much, man.
We've had a massive increase in listens and downloads and activity.
Friends, I've shared this in workshops and in my other sales and marketing life to people,
(00:25):
but the number one way to increase listeners on your podcast and have more people
click and play and share it and more stuff happening is simply to record more and do it faster.
So the more episodes you stack, the faster you do it, it provides an infusion.
Even if you've got a small audience to start, if you will do that, you will see an uptick.
(00:50):
And it's periodically exactly why we do this here.
Every now and again, we'll do a half month run or a month run where we infuse
a bunch of episodes that's done various strategically because we want to see
more listeners, more activity.
And so for all of you that are brand new to this party that have come in as
part of our daily devotional series this month, great to have you here. Welcome.
Make sure you go to HopeInHimToday.com.
(01:12):
You can listen to all of our previous episodes, listen to as much or as little
as you like. It's all free, of course.
You can support the show there and donate.
You can reach out to us with questions or comments.
You can do all of it out there at HopeInHimToday.com. So thank you for being
here, our new listeners.
And the same goes for you, veterans. Those of you who've been around,
(01:32):
huge thank you for continuing to hit play.
There's all kinds of podcasts that you can hit, and you keep coming out here
and hitting play with us. And we really appreciate that.
So veterans, same thing, HopeAtHymnToday.com, support the show,
leave a review, share an episode out with a friend.
You know what to do. And we appreciate you for doing that.
Mosiah chapter one, verse seven. I just want to read the front part.
(01:55):
And I never like partialing verses because that drifts us off into the land
of let's leave context to get crazy.
But I think we can stay sound in this because this one section is really important.
It says, And now, my sons, I would that you should remember to search...
Them diligently, that you may profit thereby. And I would that you should keep
(02:21):
the commandments of God, that you may prosper in the land according to the promises
which the Lord made unto our fathers.
And I want to talk to you about searching the scriptures today.
This verse sounds very Acts-ish, right?
It sounds very Bereans-ish. Search the scriptures daily, find out if these things are so.
But let's break this down, because I was teaching this to a group this morning,
(02:44):
and some things came out and I thought, man, I got to make sure that my friends
in the podcast audience get this.
So it says, and now my sons, I would that you should remember,
let's just pause right there.
The first thing we've got to do to really effectively know the scriptures and
implement them in our lives is we have to remember to actually study them.
(03:05):
Amen. We have to remember member to actually study them.
We have so many distractions and so many things that can pull us off in a million
different directions. It's an email notification.
It's a text. It's one of our kids. It's a dog. It's a cat. It's a spouse.
It's job. It's the commute. It's the thing. It's the task. It's a to-do list
(03:26):
that's ever growing and ever changing.
If you feel like I do sometimes with a big family, with everybody's different
practices and rehearsals and things that they're doing.
It is amazing. Now in my late forties, I find myself going, man, I forgot.
Like there was something that I was, someone allegedly told me I completely
forgot it because I'm over here doing all these other seven things.
(03:49):
And so it's very easy to get distracted and we don't remember to study and remember
to fellowship with God and his word.
We have to remember to do this. The best way and the easiest way to remember
to do it is to do it first thing.
Sow the first fruit into the day of your study. I'm going to make a statement.
(04:11):
There are people that disagree with me on this, and that's fine, but I'm right.
Listen, the very best time to study the scriptures is first thing in the morning
before you do anything else.
Before you've gone to work, before your spouse is talking to you,
before the kids ask the first question, before you pack a lunch,
before you get in the car, before you do anything,
(04:33):
any study time post first thing in the morning is always going to be inferior
to that morning first fruit study time.
I'm convinced of it. I'm convinced of it as a guy who's been studying scripture,
preaching, teaching, working in ministry for a very, very long time.
And it's not just a personal preference. I think we've got Bible for this.
(04:54):
I think we've got Bible that I'll say that we need to meditate on the word morning, noon, and night.
Yes, it's a continual thing, but the reality is in the morning is our best focus.
We're the least distracted.
So it's easier to remember to do it. Are you with me?
Because as soon as we drift into the day, oh, yeah, you know,
I'll read some at lunch. Yes, you can.
(05:15):
And yes, you should. And that's good. I'm not shouting you down.
But the reality is you're at lunch and you got to go back to work and you got
the thing. And oh, did I answer the phone? And what about that email?
Why did my boss say that to me? And we're less focused and less this other word
that comes up, diligent in our study, frankly, when we've got all this other stuff on our plate.
Do it as the first fruit of your day.
(05:36):
I'm not a morning person, Gary. Well, that doesn't matter. Study.
It's that simple. Get into it early and remember to do it.
When we remember to do something, that something by proxy becomes a priority
and it becomes the first thing.
What is the first voice we really want in our day? We don't want the first voice
(05:57):
being social media. Don't do that.
We don't want the first voice being a podcast. We don't want that.
I love this podcast. I think you'll learn a lot about Jesus by hanging out with
me, but I am not the first voice in your world.
Neither is somebody else's podcast, whether it's Come Follow Me or it's a church podcast or anything.
No, no, no, no. Just get into your word first.
(06:20):
There will always be time for the other stuff, but get into the word first.
We've got to remember. Then it says, I would that you would remember to search.
Many of us come to the scripture and we're not actually searching.
We're just checking off the plan.
I think I've come to realize in my life that one of the reasons I have seasons
(06:41):
where I'm not hearing from God in the word the way that I want to hear from
him, there's a simple reason for that.
It's because I'm not searching for particular things.
I'm coming to the scriptures like I've already arrived. I've come to the scripture
going, yeah, I've read the Book of Mormon 17 times.
I've already read the Bible 52 times.
(07:04):
I already know that verse. I know this. Oh, yeah, this one. Oh,
yeah. See, I'm not coming with questions that I need answers to.
I think we would hear so much more in the word if we were coming with questions
that we were seeking answers to.
They might be micro questions, like very specific, like how do I deal with my
wife today? How do I fix this argument I had with my kid?
(07:26):
What are we going to do about the bill that's due at the end of the month?
I don't have enough money for it. Like, there's the specific stuff,
or there might be bigger questions.
Like, what's up with this whole restored gospel thing?
Where am I supposed to work in ministry? Or are we supposed to still be here? Is it time to move?
Or, you know, it could be anything that has a larger consequence in your life. Yeah.
(07:49):
But we need to come with some questions so that we're actually looking for something.
I think a lot of us are coming to our study and we're just meandering.
We don't actually have a question. We're not seeking after anything.
Like if you got in your car and you just started randomly driving around and
didn't put an addressing that GPS,
you'll definitely be driving, you'll definitely burn some gas,
(08:11):
you'll see some stuff, but you won't actually arrive anywhere of any specific
location because you didn't have anywhere you were trying to go.
You can end up driving around in circles, right?
A lot of us are approaching our scripture study this way. We're just studying
around in circles because we're not actually coming, seeking something.
(08:36):
Listen, if I told you to, you know, if you started walking around your house
and you were just looking around and I said, what are you doing?
You say, well, I'm searching. Well, searching for what? I don't know.
Well, if we don't know what we're searching for, chances are we're not going to find anything.
So chances are, if we come to the word and we're not searching it out,
we're not going to find anything. So some of the enemies of searching is one, I know it all.
(08:58):
I've met a lot of know-it-alls in the last four years.
I've met a lot of people that literally think they have an answer to everything.
I mean, literally everything. They think they've got an answer.
Oh, yeah, I'm very familiar with that verse. Yeah, I'm very familiar with that.
That's the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And we come in and we come to a place
where we are acting as if we know everything, then we're not searching.
(09:23):
Our brain is already closed out.
Our heart is already closed out because we're acting like we've arrived.
And of course, we haven't. So we've got to be careful that we don't negate the
gifts of searching and what can come from that because we're acting like we know it all, right?
That can mess us up in our searching.
We can also just mess up the searching because we don't have questions.
(09:46):
We're not asking God anything. You know, I just read his word because I love his word. Really?
So you just read recipes in the cookbook just because you love to read recipes. piece.
You don't actually use them to cook something, to make it, to enjoy it.
I'm not reading this word just because I love the word.
I'm reading it because the best thing I can do to honor the one that gave me
(10:09):
this word is to do something with it and to use it.
Amen. So I got to be searching for the things that I need some help with,
and he will give us answers. Remember to search them. What does it say?
Diligently. If you want to have a diligent study, friend, man,
then have something specific that you're going after, not sloppy study.
(10:30):
Not study, well, you know, kind of, oh, I just flipped the page open to this,
and I'm just reading whatever, because, you know, no, come to the Word.
Prove this Word. Work with the Word.
You will be much more diligent when you've got a plan. What is your plan?
Not just the reading plan, but you know what you're looking for.
Now, in the midst of looking for what we may think, God can open up all kinds of other things to us.
(10:54):
But I think we're dialed in better when we're actually like,
I'm coming to this thing with an intention.
I'm not just coming to go, yeah, you know, I just love reading it.
Okay, really? You love reading genealogies that are boring as all get out?
You love reading endless war accounts that are just like boring as get out? Really?
(11:15):
Because I don't. I'm coming for the word that he has for me. What does the Bible say?
In due season, and rightly fit, right?
I'm looking for that word. I need to be searching. I need to be diligent in
my study. I don't need to be sloppy.
Here's what it says, that you may profit.
Well, I just read the word because I love the word. I don't.
(11:36):
I read the word because I want to profit.
I want to profit in my life. That means I want to add to what I have.
I want the super on my natural.
I want to be profitable in my marriage and profitable with my kids and profitable
in my work and profitable in my health and profitable in my relationships and
the things I'm doing. Am I going to get that right all the time? No.
(11:57):
Still a lot of natural man here, but I want to try. Why? And the way that I
do that, it get profitable as I get more word.
Start getting honest about why you're coming to the word. See,
if I told you that, you know what, if you will just flip through all these pages,
somewhere in there is a check for a million dollars.
Let me tell you something. You would know what you were searching for.
(12:18):
You'd be really diligent in checking all the pages and you would make sure you
would make sure that you found it.
And if I told you that the only time you could search for it was first thing
in the morning, and you wouldn't tell me I'm not a morning person.
No, man, you'd have all the energy in the world and you were looking,
well, he's got that and more. What does it say in the book of Psalms?
He's got a cattle on a thousand hills, right?
(12:39):
He's got everything to prosper us materially, spiritually, but we have to search
it, search it diligently and watch what happens when we do.
Are you with me? So take this verse into the secret place, give it some thought,
roll that around, See how it works in your life. Get into the scripture first thing.
(13:02):
Start coming with your questions.
Use a journal, man. Use a journal. You can use it as a hybrid prayer journal, but use it and go and go.
Okay, you know what? God, I got to figure this out.
Like I am looking for answers about my marriage. I'm looking for something here.
And you'll be amazed at how he provides those things. Write down those questions.
And when you get answers and verses, write down the verses.
(13:25):
Commit those verses to memory. Use them in your life, speak them over the issues
that you're having and watch how God will move. I will see you.
Music.
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