How to Be a Berean | Jackie Hill Perry | Acts 242

what's so interesting about this conference is that all of us from the back to the front ad men to to main stage to worship leaders all of us have been challenged in the area of our giftedness where the thing that should come easy has a bit of difficulty attached and I feel like that this morning I I text Pastor Phil I said I am the most unprepared for message that I have ever been in my entire life and when you got control problems that's uncomfortable but I think God is often wanting to sanctify you as

he uses you and so I'm leaning into that so if at any point I sound incoherent I now I I think it's safe to assume that all of us in one sense want to know God right like you you don't come to ask to there's some other conferences you go to you probably you kind of want to know them not really but this one you don't come to conferences like this if you don't want or don't have some kind of curiosity around the Divine when it comes to the concept of knowledge one of the primary

sources of information that we gather from nowaday is the internet we go to the Internet for everything we go to the internet to learn how to file our taxes we we go to the internet to learn how you know to get our concealer to not crease setting powder we we go the right setting po like Huda beauty or whatever like banana bread like put that right there there's tap tap tap tap tap don't like over Pat it a little bit cuz now you look dead like just calm down relax we even go to the internet

to find out stuff like how long Freeman been old that man been old my whole [Applause] life like methusa or something we we we we also go and turn the lights up a little bit I I I feel a spirit of sleep we need to just lift we also go to the internet to learn about God we scroll Tik Tock and we pause and engage with a sermon clip about Joseph and his brothers we we click on you Youtube sermons from our favorite preachers and teachers some of us are in awkward or uncomfortable positions even

when it comes to the local church wherein we we have to even join churches online because we can't join churches locally which means that in our generation it is not pastors that are the most influential spiritual voices in people's lives it is podcasters and preachers that we that we don't actually have access to it is the people who have the most compelling and clever sermon clips that are that are shaping the spiritual condition of thousands of men and women in the country which means that if the shape of our spiritual life depends on our access

to the internet it means that people we do not know with lives we cannot see are developing the Frameworks and the perspectives by which we understand God and the potential devastation that that causes is if you know me and my podcast schedule and my upload schedule and my sermons better than you know scripture that when I say anything you can't actually fact check if I'm true turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17 I know you got one and I didn't say click or scroll turn in your Bibles to acts it's right after Luke Matthew

mark Luke John no Matthew is mared after John where is where is acts where is it at it's after John okay I know it's after the Gospels it was written by Luke say Amen when you're in chapter 17 look at verse 10 it says as soon as it was night the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea upon arrival they went into the synagogue of the Jews the people here were of more noble character than those in thessalonica since they received the word with eagerness and examine the Scriptures Daily to see if

these things were so Paul's Paul Paul was just in thessalonica he went into a synagogue of the Jews start preaching Christ in the resurrection some of the Jews ain't like what Paul had to say they were envious of the influence that he had and so you you know they wanted to kick bucko out of the city overnight Paul travels to Berea Paul goes into a synagogue and preaches the same message and the text says that these Jews were a bit different than the other ones these Jews were more noble than the other Jews because of

the way that they engage with the scriptures the text says that they received the word with eagerness I think the interesting thing about that is that you could assume that eagerness is attached to the person who's preaching the word that they are somehow excited because this is Paul who you know you know met Jesus at Damascus this is Paul who is healing people there's miracles signs and wonder wonders coming out of his clothes and out of his hand this is Paul who you know he saw the little girl with the spirit of divination he got

irritated and still delivered her that's anointing like he just like you could think that the eagerness is attached to the personality but the text says that they were eager to receive the word and and I think that that is one of the snares of our generation is that we are eager to see people and not [Applause] scripture we get excited for the person and not the text and so if you are excited for the person then that person can lie to you and you might miss it just cuz you're in their presence it's kind of

like you ever been on the date before I'm trying to tell you none of this is written down so I'm a little scared some of it is this part ain't you ever met somebody who just made you excited made you feel she said yeah made you feel made you feel some type of way so much so that you are so eager to be in that person's presence that you miss the red flags that's what we doing all the time we we so excited to follow some of these people so eager to be in their presence

so excited to be at their conferences that they could tell us things that Satan gave them and you don't even see it the text says they received the word with eagerness and examine the scriptures that eagerness means that they were ready to believe so when Paul presented the scriptures they had their hands open they were not skeptical yet at the same time they did due diligence to examine and even what Paul had to say so what I want to bring before us is this this is the title of this whole talk is how to be

a Berean how to be a Berean knowing our Bibles so that we can engage Christian and so-called Christian content with wisdom let me pray Lord we thank you we thank you for your grace we thank you for your word word we thank you for your scripture we thank you for your son we thank you for even the way that you have constructed the body you have given us mind so that we can understand you you have given us imagination you have given us the ability to reason it is all because we are made in your

image so I pray God that a spirit of confidence would flow through the room that that people would feel not only excited but able to learn and understand your word I pray against every demonic attack that comes across says insecurity feeling as if they are insufficient to actually know the text as if you are hiding yourself from them but if if they are diligently seeking you I know for a fact they will find you so I pray God that you would make us diligent that you would make us bereans that you would make us reverent

that you would make us interested in you I pray that we would be curious about the nature of God so that we can love you with all of our hearts all of our minds all of our souls I am very vulnerable I like to to be perfect and I canot be in this moment so be strong in me in Jesus name amen my first introduction to the Bible was when I was little I would I would spend the weekends with my aunt Merl some of y'all have heard me talk about my aunt Merl before her

name is interesting ain't it can you imagine if somebody that's a millennial named their child Merl she would take me and her four kids to this Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday on the north side of St Louis and at 8:00 a.m. they would have Bible study don't nobody do that no more they have Bible study at 8: a.m. then they would have service at 10: okay at some point was children's church so I go to the basement they give us some popcorn um give us some crayons so we can color Jesus they was always beige

I don't know why and they open up this book and and the book didn't have any cartoon characters on it the book was really plain and uninteresting but on the front of the book had two words written in Gold that said holy Bible when they read that thing to me I had not a clue what they were talking about and it was KJV how you reading KJV to children I didn't know what the Bible had to say cuz I had only come to church because my auntie would give me Skittles during praise and worship so

as far as I cons was concerned the Bible was confusing but in God's kindness week after week when I would go to church I would hear the preaching of the scriptures the praying of the scriptures the testifying of the scriptures and even though I did not understand it all at once 13 years later when I found myself alone in a room confronted with the weight of my sin I remembered those scriptures I consider it a very simple one like for God so loves the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him

shall not perish but have everlasting life what the scriptures did for me in that moment which was the Holy Spirit bringing his word to remembrance is that the scriptures gave me the courage to repent the scriptures gave me the willingness to believe because the scriptures were a witness an assurance an objective source of truth that only if I believe what it had to say maybe just maybe I can move a couple mountains the biggest mountain being me I've been in Christ 16 years now and you can trust me it ain't me trust me to him

who was able when I say the word does work so in our conversation around how to be a Berean I want us to answer three very simple questions which are one what is the Bible two why don't we read the Bible three how do we read the Bible number one what is the Bible very simple answer it's a book it's literature it's words I love that God has given us documentation that we can reference to know him this book has two divisions first division is the Old Testament you have Genesis Exodus Deuteronomy numbers Leviticus this

is where we learned about creation this is where we learned about the history of Israel this is where we are introduced to the law we also see the prophecies concerning Christ we see foreshadow in the Old Testament then we have the New Testament where we have the gospels we have acts we have Romans 1 and I mean Romans and 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and Jude and Hebrews this is where we see the Fulfillment the revelation of Christ this is where we see the birth and the spread of the Christian church this is where we

see the establishment of the Apostles teaching and within these two divisions are 66 books total so starting in Genesis to Revelation how many books of the Bible do we have saints now with these 66 these books also have what we would call different literary styles are you following me which influence the way that they are written and read so Ezra and acts are historical books that give us insight into history the Psalms Ecclesiastes job they are poetic books that's why they are full of metaphor and and imagery you even got the Song of Solomon which

is a poetry book I'm glad it is because he says stuff like your breasts are clusters of grapes I think anything more explicit than that it needed to be a poem because it would get real nasty real quick so we also have Epistles which are letters like like Romans first and second Peter Jude Etc all of these books are in the same Bible but not all of these books have the same style we also have authorship so the Bible is a book with two divisions containing 66 books with several literary Styles but the question we

have to ask is how many authors is it one or many trick question both the Bible has 40 authors who contributed to the whole of scripture over the course of 1500 years you have Moses who wrote the tadak or the first five books of the Bible you have David and Kora who wrote many of the Psalms you have Paul who wrote 13 Epistles of the New Testament and you have Luke who wrote the book of Acts but you also have God who according to the scriptures is the main author of the book scripture says write

this down scripture says in second Timothy 3:16 all scripture is inspired by God the the New Testament was originally written in Greek so the Bible translations that we have in our laps and on our phones are actually translations Old and New Testament Scholars and linguist they go through the original manuscripts they translate the Hebrew and the Aramaic and the Greek text into English and because English is not the original language of the scripture to really get at the meaning of the text sometimes almost all the time it is usually usually helpful to deal with some

level of the original language so when you see that word inspired one of our Tendencies when reading the Bible is to read meaning into words instead of extracting meaning from words so we read inspired and we think influenced by we think impacted by we we think this song inspired me or her skinny jeans inspired me to wear Chelsea boots again stuff like that but in the original language the Paul or the word Paul here is using it literally means god breathe so csb and ESV have two different translations here this is why the ESV version

says all scripture is breathed out by God how does this speak to the question of authorship well if you go back to Genesis for a quick little second in Genesis chapter 2 God takes some dirt for forms a man out of it and at this point of creation the man does not speak the man does not walk the man does not talk the man does not move he does not think or create he does not have fellowship or have an imagination he is simply an organized piece of clay until God breathes the Bible says that

God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the Man became a living creature which establishes that the source of Adam's life was independent of Adam and creation it wasn't wind that gave adam life it was God it wasn't the Sun that gave adam life it was God God's breath was the origin the source of Adam's being so in the similar way Paul is saying that from Genesis to Revelation all of scripture though written with human hands and through Human Experience did not originate or originate from man God is the source second Peter says

no prophecy of scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man instead men spoke from God as they were carried Along by the Holy Spirit the life that exists in this book comes from a source that is independent of Moses independent of David inde dependent of Solomon and Elijah and Paul and Peter and look as these men as these men were communicating God was breathing which simply means that the Bible is of divine origin this is a spiritual book I've seen a lot of people struggle with the

idea that God's that the Bible is God's word and yet written by men and there are elements to that that are just also mysterious but I think one framework that I think could help us to to be a little more at ease with this subject is to consider the image of God from the beginning of all this God has always intended to use man to reveal God hence why when God makes Adam and Eve he makes them in His image so as they move about the Earth they exist as little reflections of what God must

be like human humans were created to be many sources of Revelation catch it so it should not surprise you that when God wanted to reveal himself back to man after the fall that in his Mercy he did not give up his original intention to use man to reveal himself so why wouldn't God use his people to communicate his nature why why wouldn't God use his people to communicate his law why wouldn't God use his people to communicate his promises if that is what he made us to do in the first place so instead of seeing

the human author ship and divine authorship of the scriptures as a reason to scoff at it consider the fact that when God breathed on the human authors and what they wrote was actually what God is saying that should actually tell you that the actual construction of the Bible is communicating how much God loves people so the Bible is a book with two divisions and different genres with many authors and one author but if God's word is God's word why are we not reading it which brings me to question number two why why don't we read

the Bible because surely we read books I remember when I was in high school I said why is all of us 14 reading Jane books there is something a bit problematic about that we're intelligent people we are in many ways addicted to information but why is it that we have a book that exists that is God's Own divine revelation written down once on Scrolls now on phones and we struggle with reading it consistently I think there are three reasons for this I think the three reasons why we don't read scripture is flesh fear and frustration

the flesh is because in Hebrews 4 4 chapter 12 it says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than every any two-edged store piercing to the division of Soul and Spirit Discerning revealing exposing the thoughts and intentions of the heart meaning the word of God Is Like a Knife that when read correctly or heard it cuts in the heart and mind and exposes what in it but because truthfully we are all very good at hiding we are all very good at or talented at concealing our deepest motives and to a certain

degree we are also ignorant of even our own evil intentions we be thinking we doing stuff just because until the Lord reveals until the Lord Cuts but when we get to this book it's hard to hide you start reading stuff like if you look on a woman with lust you've committed adultery in your heart it's like wait a minute I didn't know it was that deep you get to James and he says things like we're selfish ambition this is for Atlanta we're selfish ambition and envy exist there is disorder in every vow practice it's like

oh so my hustle might also actually be disorder I just thought I was a great business person but but James is saying that that's the wisdom that's not earth that's Earthly it's not it's actually not Heavenly we distance ourselves from the world word as a way to keep our thoughts and intentions away from our conscience we don't want to feel guilty we don't want to be confronted with reality and that is why it's easier to talk to a to a therapist to understand yourself than it is to read Romans cuz everything she's sharing with you

is the fruit of Romans 1 because it is only God's word that can Pierce and cut through it all you know that feeling when you when you listen to Pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell cuz he be slicing and dicing and then crying 5 seconds later now you feel all empathetic you know that feeling when you read a hard word what we call conviction that experience is not merely an internal response to self awaken Ness is that the scripture is showing you the you that God has always seen I'll say it again conviction is not just an

internal response to self-awareness is that the word is showing you the you that God has always seen and the in congruence between his character and our heart leaves us with two options we can either run from his scriptures or we can repent the second reason we don't read the scriptures is fear the Bible is intimidating it's big it's ancient it's full of names and people we can't pronounce doing things we don't understand one minute you're reading a genealogy and trying your best to get through that thing but all the scripture is God breathed even the

boring Parts all of scripture is God breathed cuz quick note quick note quick note when you read a genealogy make note of the fact that God loves these people so much that he wrote their names down these are families these are histories that if you just take a moment to honor them you might actually get a revelation that you didn't think you could get one minute you're reading through a genealogy the next minute you got priests killing animals and throwing blood all over the place meanwhile you just trying to pay off your student loans so

you have no idea how how him cutting up goats is going to help your finances we be in Leviticus like look I'm about to lose my mind and you got me reading about how the Priestly garments are supposed to be worn I don't know what to do they putting blood on their thumbs father then when you then when you bring in any intellectual insecurities you already carry into the conversation it starts to feel more convenient to offload the responsibility of studying to your favorite preacher to your favorite teacher to a podcast to an influencer where

you think that listening to the podcast was actually studying to show yourself approved that overlaps with the third reason we don't read the Bible which is frustration studying the scriptures takes work everybody say work the consideration of the original languages checking cross references and commentaries praying and and meditating not meditating like like spir new age I'm not feeling your mind and thinking over what you've learned all of this work is used to help you understand what God is trying to reveal cuz remember the scriptures are divine revelation God is trying to make himself known we

don't read the Bible to know stuff we read the Bible to know a person because biblical insight and interpretation takes work many of us are frustrated when it feels like the work ain't work it when you've attempted did all the things and haven't like like like some of us have gotten open in our Bibles we done sat up in our room we done sat Indian style or I don't know the technical term for it nowadays cross applesauce we we sat there we sit there in our bed we open up our Bibles we got our little

highlighters you know how y'all be excited y'all be going to the store y'all be getting highlighters and like a little I'm going to read my word that little snack little water you just turned off the TV put on some William austo instrumentals you know like you out here we make a whole ordeal out of it we make sure to take a picture and then we come back to God look at me and my word ain't read a lick look at me ain't even in it yet don't even know it you just opened it [Applause] up

we we open up the book we read a couple sentences and we have such high expectations we want the burning bush to appear immediately where is the Angel of the Lord to tell me thus saith the F like we we think Revelation comes without work we we think Insight comes without time but that's not how that works I I think honestly that social media is training us to have some of these these unrealistic expectations because when you watch a 30 to Second reel of someone founding or communicating some deep biblical Insight it can fool you

into thinking that it didn't take work for them to get depth the pace of the clip hear me the pace of the clip can communicate that that might have been the degree of the study but trust me when I say that if ever you have heard me Teach or if ever you have read anything that I have written I will spend weeks on one sentence I've heard a commentary say it's like wrestling the angel I will turn it over in my mind I will be praying I will be thinking I will be begging God to

make it make sense begging God for insight talking to people and inviting Community into the conversation what do you think this text mean until God illuminates and once he illuminates that 30 seconds you got took me 6 weeks to work for so why do you expect to see a burning bush in 15 minutes if we understand the scriptures to be divine revelation if if it is that God wants us to know him that God wants us to see him that God wants us to understand him to to have some type of uh confidence by which

we can put our our faith in if that is true then you're not working in vain it means that the work of interpretation and the work of study is also worship this is the means by which I get to know God because we work very hard for lesser things the frustration with scripture is is that some of us don't need more resources to understand scripture some of us just need more patience but I want to encourage you here I believe that one lie of the devil is to tell you he wants you to think that

you do not have the ability to understand understand God's word and that is because he'll say oh you're not a Bible teacher oh you didn't go to Seminary oh you got ADHD oh you're dyslexic that like he he will make it seem as if the word is off limits to you but that would be the same as believing that God doesn't want you to know him that was the point of the Cross so God was removing every hindrance to the knowledge of God so when his word is confusing when his word is hard when his

word is offputting do not take it as God is hiding understanding from you it is simply that you are a human being trying to understand the words of an infinite God is supposed to take work you are venturing into mystery the third point is how do we read the Bible what the Bible is we understand that why we don't read it how do we read it first point is we read it centrically everybody say that with me Christo centrically say it real fast it's going to sound like the most powerful tongue you've ever had in

your entire life reading the Bible Crystal centrically means that you are reading the scriptures with Christ in mind in John five Jesus turns to the people he says he he say that but you know you search the scriptures because you think that in let me start over he it again you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life but it is they that testify about me I'll say it again you search the scriptures because you think that in them you will find eternal life but it is they that testify reveal

talk about me you search the scriptures because you think that in them is eternal life but it is they that testify witness to me meaning the Bible ain't about [Applause] you plot twist because the way I want to rip every lock out of my head when I hear sermons they're not sermons they are very deceptive motivational speeches you you should be so concerned when you are listening to a lecture called a sermon where the scripture is referenced not preached referenced and Jesus is eliminated out of the picture there's something profoundly dark and satanic about people

opening God's word and hiding God from you [Music] do you know the degree of skill one must must take to use the scriptures and make it about you and y'all are probably heard me say this before y'all love that though and the reason you love it is because you love God more than yourself but you also have not all of you some of you have a form of godliness where you want to participate in what looks like the things of God so as to not ruin your own conscience you don't want to admit that maybe

I actually hate them so you want you want to love the world and love the Lord you want to love this and love that and so you participate in religious exercises without repentance so you listen to teachers you listen to teachers who accom domate the form of godliness that you are fighting so hard to maintain but what would happen What would happen if you saw that all God is really trying to offer you through the text is freedom in John five Jesus says you search the scriptures because you think that in them is eternal life

but it is they that testify about me what scriptures is Jesus referencing he is referencing Genesis Deuteronomy numbers Leviticus Psalms Malachi Kings what else we got Song of Solomon he in there somewhere in the Old Testament we see Christ as's a shadow for example in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve sinned against God God says to the serpent I will put IM enmity between you and the woman and bring her Offspring and her Offspring he pronoun he pronoun shall bruise your head and you shall bruise which in the Hebrew means crush his heel who do

you think God is referencing when he says that somebody is going to kill the devil You couldn't possibly think that text is about you in Exodus [Applause] 12 in Exodus 12 God says that every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die but for Israel if they take a male lamb male lamb without blemish and kill him and put his blood on the doorpost of their homes when death comes to R Havoc through the city death will pass over who do you think the scripture is foreshadowing it couldn't possibly be about you I'm getting excited

in Leviticus 16 in Leviticus 16 a ritual a ritual is described we be ignoring Leviticus Leviticus has some of the most beautiful gospel implications if you just take your time in Leviticus 16 a ritual is described where in Aon the high priest is told to take a living goat and to press his hands on the the head of the goat while confessing the sins of the people of Israel Over the goat which Sy which is symbolic of him transferring the sins of the people onto something that is innocent you couldn't Poss the the goat is

then taken out into the Wilderness to die alone something like gol [Applause] gotha in Deuteronomy 18 Moses says to Israel that the Lord your God will raise up from among you a prophet like me and it is to him you shall listen and then somehow when we fast forward past Deuteronomy past Psalms past Kings past uh Isaiah past Elijah past all of that when we get to Matthew and turn to chapter 7 you see Jesus transfiguring before his disciples and and a cloud wraps around them and out of it comes voice that says this is

my son listen to him anybody who knows the Old Testament is knowing that now the prophet that Moses was referencing is here in the flesh the Old Testament foreshadows Christ the New Testament documents his fulfillment and in both instances we are always to look for him so when I say read the Bible Crystal centrically I am literally saying read the Bible correctly he is the central character in the book we are not supposed to open the book and look for ourselves primarily and and don't don't get me wrong the Bible is a mirror the Bible

does reveal but even in Isaiah 6 Isaiah did not see himself until he saw God first It Is by seeing God that you can then discern your own ways accurately this is why I need you to be so much more mindful of the teachers you take in one of the problems is y'all listening to too many people ain't nobody supposed to have 35 rabbis it creates a spirit of confusion where you don't actually know what's true what's right how I'm supposed to do this how I'm supposed to do that and we're we're following people that

sound good right pray diligently for a local church a pastor that you can see a person that you can have access to whose lives you can also witness because a part of the discipleship when it came to Jesus and his disciples was not just the sermon of the mount but also how he lived his life discipleship is both hearing and watching so limit your consumption of too many voices let you end up more confused than you were in the first place some of us need a fast some of us need to take just a quick

second off of social media and get in our Bibles do you recognize that our ancestors didn't even go to school and they knew their Bibles better than we [Applause] do SEC second Point how do we read the Bible we read the Bible centrically we also read the Bible spiritually to read the Bible spiritually means we read the Bible empowered by the spirit because our culture is so heavily resourced with internet and commentaries and podcasts it can be tempting to think that when you open up your Bible all you need is your resources in your brain

you start to think that interpreting scripture is primarily intellectual but let's not remember what Timothy had to say who is the origin of scripture it is God breathed therefore this book is spiritual and you cannot be so arrogant as to think that you can understand the spiritual book with a natural mind the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God because he is not under aable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned you need the spirit of God to help you understand what the spirit of God wrote I don't care

how much of college you done had how long you've been saved every single time you open your Bible you need to pray that the Holy Spirit would give you the ability to understand his word I think of text like in Acts 16 where the Lord opened Lydia's eyes so she could understand Paul's preaching I think about Psalm 119 when David says open my eyes so that I might be able to see wonderful things in your law some of us are getting some of us are are getting in getting in our word and we're not getting

anything out of it because we're reading in the flesh all I'm advocating for is dependence all I'm advocating for is steadfastness because remember when I said some of us don't need more resources we need patience right here is where we get that power because in Galatians 5 the fruit of the spirit is what love joy peace patience we don't need the spirit just when it's time to not have sex we don't need the spirit just when it's time to cast out we need the spirit to read the text it it's the spirit that makes it

make sense it's the spirit that leads us into all truth it's the spirit that illuminates showing you something new in the passiones that you read 600 times it's it's the spirit that will even keep you awake I'm in somebody's business you don't find that all that you just scrolling away on Tik Tok just scrolling away just just up sending them to your friends girl just going in and then you just decide to get spiritual let me read my Bible all of a sudden you're more tired than you have ever been and your entire life it's

because we fight not against flesh and blood do not read without praying do not study without praying when you get confused Pray when you get stuck Pray when you get mad pray this puts us in a position of dependence as we seek God because it is the proud that God will resist but it is the humble that he always gives Grace too the third thing that we use to read our Bible is we read it Crystal centrically which means with Christ as a center we read it spiritually which means we read it in the spirit

empowered by the spirit we also read the scriptures biblically which means that we we use the whole Bible when trying to understand the Bible you probably heard it said that scripture interprets scripture so so when reading the text when you read the Bible Bible be curious ask the text questions but allow the verse the book that it sits in even the genre or the whole Bible to answer your particular question because when we have questions for particular text we are tempted to fill in the blank with our assumptions this is helpful all of us come

to the Bible with a set of Frameworks Frameworks is a grid by which you understand and see the world so it means that your frame work can become your primary interpretive tool rather than the scriptures themselves for example the simple fact that many of us are American means that we bring an American framework to how we read scripture which can hinder our ability to see how Jewish and Middle Eastern many passages are so when you read something in your Bible through your Frameworks primarily and not with the scripture you might come out of it with

an interpretation that makes a whole lot of sense to you but it's actually altogether different than the intention of the author does that make sense what I'm trying to say is our imagination is useful but it cannot be the primary way we interpret okay the primary way we interpret is scripture so we have to develop the discipline of looking to scripture to interpret scripture for example I keep using this passage on on purpose because we all know it John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in

him will not shall not perish but have eternal life let's let's ask this text questions and let's use the text to answer those questions okay okay it says for God pause who is God God depending on your framework depending how you're built depending on what religious upbringing you might have you might see God and think Allah you might see God and think Osan you might see God and think yourself you might see Buddha but what how do we let the text tell us who this God is like well anywhere where we see Yahweh in the

scriptures we can rightly discern that the nature of Yahweh is also the nature of the god in John 3:16 so we can use the scriptures broadly to understand John 3:16 so we can start at Genesis 1:1 where it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth which tells me that God is a creator of all things so that means that when he says for God he also means for the God who created all things or we can be particular to the book we can reference Genesis 1 or we can reference John 1

which says that in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God so it means that this God is not so not also just the Creator but this word I mean God is Not also just a creator of everything but he also created with someone are you following me so this God creates and he was not alone for God so loved oh we see love and we don't interpret nothing and it's because because we're familiar with love so we see love and we think butterflies we see love and we think romance we bring

all kinds of assumptions into this word because we think we know what love is as if love does not find its source and basis in the personality of God so we we get lazy we we start to think that it doesn't require our attention but the love we know best the love we know best is human we only know how to love lovely people but it hits different when you see how God's love is made manifest and who he chooses to love it says for God so loved the world which is this is agape love

this is what this is love that that Finds Its basis in the nature of God and not in the lovability of the recipient he did not love the world as in a planet he did not love the world as in the Earth he loved the world as in people enslaved to a system where they love everything else more than him when you go back to John chapter 1 you can also understand what he means by world he says he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know

him so God the Creator loves a world that does not actually love him back and how does he love the world the text says he gave meaning whatever comes after that world that word world is a gift meaning it wasn't earned meaning that the love this God gives is a function of Grace that tells me that the beginning of John 3:16 is all about undeserved favor what is the gift what is the gift that the God who loves gave for God so love the world that he gave his only son the son who was in

the beginning with him the son where the world was created through him that's Genesis 1 and John 1 the son who in Colossians this is me using the whole Bible who is the image of the invisible God even that only son should take you to Genesis 21 when God told Abraham to take his only son and offer him as a burnt offering foreshadow so that means that the way God is loving the world is by sacrificing that son why so that whoever believes so that whoever trusts so that whoever depends so that whoever relies would

not perish as and die would not leave or get what they deserve but if people if people that deserve death don't get what they deserve what is the god who created the world and loves the people what is he giving them instead for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him and I didn't even preach to whoever whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life does eternal life mean that I will never die but does eternal life mean something else the Bible answers that question

in John chapter 17 when Jesus says this is he defines it this is eternal life that they know you the only true God meaning eternal life is unhindered unbroken fellowship with God therefore eternal life does not start when you die eternal life starts when you believe I'm done I didn't write nothing else um I want you to I want you to I want to ask you you something I want to ask you something take survey of your heart take survey of your thoughts who are you thinking about most right now who are you thinking about

are you thinking about you or if you are are you thinking about you in relation to what God has done are you thinking about your season are you thinking about your purpose are you thinking about about your job your entrepreneurship all the things that are you or are you meditating do you do you start are you feeling inclined towards worship that's what happens when we read the Bible how it's supposed to be read is that the Holy Spirit comes alongside the word that he breathed out and he begins to do something new in us he

begins to renew our minds he begins to sanctify our affections he he begins to help us see Christ and it's in seeing him that we begin to live like him this is how I want you to read the Bible always is I want you to understand that God has given us his scriptures so that we would know him so that we would love him so that we would Delight in him so that we will understand him so that we can see him and so that we can discern error and so we can see lies because

what the enemy is after in Ephesians 6 is your faith without faith it is impossible to please God what the scriptures gives you is confidence for why he is faithful why he can be trusted why you can hope in him and so if you are struggling to believe you cannot convince yourself to have more fa Faith you have to get in your scriptures until you have more faith for for all of us life is not going to get easier suffering is a universal experience because of sin and the way our culture is headed how do

I say this one of the schemes of the evil one [Music] is to hide God from you and to have you think that everything else matters more your job your relationships your money your stuff your status and so for some of you life does seem easier because you are so fixated on your Idols the idols do offer some version of water it just won't last and what happens when you find yourself thirsty again what happens it's in that place of thirst that God is saying come to me come to me I am the source of

Living Water and the way you get that water is you turn to these scriptures and you look for him so I'm going to pray over us that we would be all six ,900 some of us would be people who know our scriptures do you understand how the world would change do you understand that if if you just knew your scriptures your families would change your children would change your friendships would change your mental health will change so Lord we are thankful that you have given us Grace upon Grace and that you've given us a book

that reveals you Lord I pray that you would you would help us to Delight in you more than we Delight in everything else that you would help us to seek you more than we seek everything else I pray God even now that your Holy Spirit would begin producing reverence that your Holy Spirit would begin if if he already hasn't began that work that he would take out hearts of stone and replace it with hearts of Flesh so that even as we read your word it's landing on good soil we pray God that we would be

people whose minds are malleable I pray that you would everyone with the spirit of fear as they read your Bible God I pray that they would push past it and I pray that they would press into to you I pray for everyone who does not read their scriptures by the spirit God I pray that they would begin to be more Reliant and I pray that you would honor their dependence that you would begin to show them wonderful things out of your law I pray even for those with the spiritual gift of teaching in the room

that you would reveal and confirm those gifts and create space for them to walk in it but I also pray for those in the room who might know the scriptures and walk around with a very critical and demonic Spirit where they are not gracious where they are not empathetic but they are always looking to expose looking to critique looking to rebuke and I think they are also missing you in the scriptures too and so I pray for humility that we would fill our minds not so we can be better people but that we would fill

our minds so we can be more faithful disciples we thank you I pray that you would send us all into good churches and whatever City we are in God send us into good churches where there is preaching and teaching and discipleship and instruction and training that your holy spirit will actually bless we pray this in Jesus name amen