The Habit of Time With God’s Word
Col 3:9, John 8:31 - 32, 2 Tim 3:16-17, Rom 10:17, Mark 4:9, James 1:19, James 1:21,
Isa 55:11, Heb 2:1, James 1:22, 25
October 28, 2003
I. Last week I said we cannot be a disciple without being disciplined. There are four habits specifically that we need to look at, and we have already talked about the habit of fellowship.
A. The bible says that we are to be disciples.
B. So, how can we become a disciple? By developing disciple habits.
C. (Col 3:9 NIV) Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
D. Notice it says God is able to make us in His image when we choose to put off old habits and when we choose to put on new habits.
E. That s the way God changes us. God s number one goal is to make us like Christ. Remember that’s what spiritual maturity is, to become like Christ. He says here that it s by putting off the old habits and putting on new habits that we become like Christ.
F. There are four habits that we need to develop and replace our old habits with.
G. Time with God s Word, Prayer, Tithing, and Fellowship.
II. The habit that we are going to deal with next is, TIME WITH GOD S WORD. "(John 8:31 - 32NIV) To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
A. The Bible says that the first thing that a disciple is, is someone who continues in God s Word. So today we re going to focus on how do you get into God s Word on a regular basis?
B. We have to make getting into God’s word a habit. Let s look first at the definitions of "habit". This one comes from Webster’s Dictionary. "It is a continual, often unconscious inclination to do a certain activity, acquired through frequent repetition."
1. Or its "An established disposition of the character". What this is saying is character is simply a habitual way of doing things.
2. If you want to have a Christlike character, then you just develop the habits that Jesus had.
3. Character is simply your habitual ways of doing things. For instance, if I ve got the character of kindness, it s because I m habitually kind. If I have the character discipline, it s because I ve developed the habit of being disciplined.
4. The dictionary also defines habit as "A customary practice"-- meaning something you do over and over.
5. The fact is that all of us are simply a bundle of habits. If you were to look at your life most of the things you do in life you do by habit -- You get up, you brush your teeth by habit, you shave (if you re a man) by habit.
6. Guys I ll bet when you shave you probably start on the same side ninety percent of the time.
7. When you wash yourself in the shower I bet you habitually start with either your left arm or something like that. We are creatures of habit.
C. So, How many of you would agree that it s easier to form good habits than it is to get rid of bad habits?
D. That’s true. The way you get rid of bad habits is by replacing them. So the goal is to help you replace some bad habits with some good habits that will help you grow to be like Jesus.
E. So how do we get a handle on understanding our bible (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1. That means that the whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives;
2. The bible is to straighten us out and help us to do what is right. It is God s way of preparing us at every point, equipping us fully to do good to everyone.
F. That s the purpose of the Bible.
1. If you would like to be well prepared at every point and fully equipped to do good to everyone? The answer is in the Bible.
2. But we have to learn to feed ourselves. There s an old parable that says, "If you give a man a fish you ve fed him for a meal, but if you teach a man to fish, you ve fed him for a lifetime."
3. What I want to do is teach you how to feed yourself spiritually for a life time.
G. I stole this from somebody, but it is a good tool. Take the paper with the hand drawn on it, and label the fingers.
1. On the little finger, write the word "HEAR". That s one way we can get God s word in our lives.
2. On the next finger, write the word "READ". That s the second way.
3. On the third finger, your long finger, is the word "STUDY".
4. On the index finger, is the word "MEMORIZE".
5. On the thumb is the word "MEDITATE".
6. Down in the middle of your palm write the word "APPLY".
7. These are the six ways that you can get a grasp on God s word. Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, Meditate, and Apply.
8. When you get a grip on God s word you want to have more than just the little finger gripping it.
9. For most Christians the only way they take the Bible into their life is they hear it. They don t read it or study it. They come to church. They just hear it and that is as far as it goes.
10. Hold your Bible with just that little finger. It s not much of grip is it. It would be easy to pull it away from you. We need more of a grip on the bible than just hearing.
H. The Bible says that Scripture is the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. Using just your little finger, how can you fight the devil as hard as you can?
I. If you decide to not only hear the word of God, but read the Bible every day, now you’ve got two fingers to grip the Bible. The devil can still pull it out, but it s a little bit harder.
J. The third one -- Hear, Read, Study. If you re studying, you re getting a little bit better grip on the Bible. You can still take it away, but not as easy.
K. Four fingers -- Hear, Read, Study, Memorize. That s harder. How much do you forget when you memorize? Nothing.
L. Then when you add Meditate and Apply -- when you have it all, you have a grasp.
M. You get the idea. If all you re doing is hearing the Word of God, you re not getting much. But the more of these six things you do, the better grasp you re going to get on God s Word.
III. First we re going to talk about HOW TO HEAR GOD S WORD. (Rom 10:17 NIV) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
A. If you would like to have more faith, then make sure you get to hear the word of God as much as possible.
B. That’s the easiest way to get into God’s Word.. But it s also the way we can loose the most content.
C. Here are some ways to hear God s word:
1. The Bible is on tape. And, they now have the Bible on CD. Other ways are Church services, Bible studies, and sermon tapes.
2. Every day you can turn on the radio and hear great Bible teaches like Chuck Swindoll or Chuck Smith or Dave Hawking or John MacArthur or Jack Hayford. There are a lot of Bible teachers on the radio.
D. Those are all good. But the problem is, we tend to forget 95% of what we hear within 72 hours. If you want a statistic that will depress your pastor, that s the one!
E. Unless you write things down, you re going to forget 95% of what was said this morning by Wednesday. That s why people can go week after week, year after year to church and not really grow. They don t really remember it.
F. And how can you apply it if you don t even remember it. That s why I have started giving you and outline to fill in, and why I put all the verses on a screen every week.
G. I know some people don’t think that it is a good idea to put the verses on screen, because people don’t look them up that way. But the fact is that a lot of people don’t look them up anyway and at least if they are on the projector they get to see them as well as hear them.
H. So if you forget what I say I’ll cope, but at least you ve heard the Word.
IV. Since hearing is the way that a lot of people take in God’s word it is important that we do what we can to improve our hearing.
A. FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEARING.
B. BE READY AND EAGER TO HEAR GOD.
C. Jesus said, (Mark 4:9 NIV) "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
(James 1:19 NIV) My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
D. So when you come on Sunday morning or when you go to a Bible study, you ought to prepare your heart. Your attitude should be, "Lord, I want to be ready to hear."
E. Deal with attitudes that prevent hearing God.
F. In the parable of the sower, Jesus says "Consider carefully how you listen." In that parable, He talks about how we can have a closed mind.
G. We have to ask ourselves, is there any fear, pride, or bitterness preventing me from hearing God?
H. Or Maybe we have a Superficial Mind -- in the parable of the sower, the seed that falls the shallow soil springs up real quick, but it has a hardness under it that stifles growth. Are we really serious about hearing God speak? Or do we have a preoccupied mind or a hardness that keeps us from hearing.
I. Are we too busy and concerned with other things in life to concentrate on what God has to say?
J. We need to deal with those kinds of attitudes in order to hear.
V. The next thing that we have to be aware of is we need to CONFESS ANY SIN IN OUR LIFE.
(James 1:21 NIV) Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
A. If I have a glass filled with water, and I want to pour Dr. Pepper into it, the first thing I ve got to do is pour out the water. You can t pour two things in one vessel and get the full affect of either. He s saying get rid of all the garbage in your life so that God can fill your life with the Word.
B. Then it says"and humbly accept the Word". When we hear a pastor or a Bible teacher or somebody speak and we don t get anything out of a sermon, our first reaction shouldn’t be "What s wrong with them?" but "What s wrong with me?"
C. Even if they’re boring, if they’re at least quoting a scripture, we ought to be able to think about that and think, "What does that mean to my life?"
D. God says, (Isa 55:11 NIV) so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
E. So if I m not getting anything out of it when someone declares God’s word. I need to say, "What s wrong with me? Am I not tuned in to God?"
F. There are a lot of times that I am preaching about a certain passage that people get something from it that was different than what I thought they would.
G. That is because God uses His word in different ways for different people. If the word is proclaimed we should get something out of it.
VI. The next thing that we need to do is TAKE NOTES ON WHAT YOU HEAR.
(Heb 2:1 NIV) We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
A. I want to challenge you to keep a spiritual notebook. A spiritual notebook is a tool designed to help me organize and hang on to the blessings of God.
B. And, if you want to know if I do that you can come look at all the notebooks in my office. I have outlines on books that I have read, bible studies that I have done, and about 15 years worth of sermons.
C. I very rarely preach or teach or read, anything that I don’t put in print, and keep.
D. You need to keep a notebook. That s one of the basic disciplines that will help you hear the Word of God.
E. Studies have shown that writing something is equivalent to reading it 11 times. It is important that we do everything that we can to retain what we read and hear about God’s word.
VII. Then we need to ACT ON WHAT WE HEAR.
(James 1:22 NIV) Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
(James 1:25 NIV) But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.
A. Pay close attention to this, he will be blessed in what he does.
B. The Bible says that to really be blessed when you hear a Bible study or sermon you need to put it into practice. I ve had many people come out on Sunday morning saying, "That was a great message. Or that changed my life." Then you never see them again. They are moved but they re not transformed.
C. They have got a good piece of information, but they have not acted on it.
D. The bible is God’s guideline for living. It is important that we use it as the guide to live by, and put it into practice in our lives.
E. The goal of the Christian life is to be a good disciple, and the Bible says that the first thing that a disciple is, is someone who continues in God s Word.
F. But before we can put into practice or continue in God’s word, we have to know what it says and to know what it says we have to Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, Meditate, and Apply it.
G. It is vital to our Spiritual growth that we be ready and eager to hear God, that we confess any sin in our life, that take notes on what we hear, and keep a spiritual note book, and that we act on what we hear.
H. God’s Word is the food for our spirit, and if we don’t take it in then, the we weaken ourselves spiritually, if we let our body get weak because we don’t feed it then we are susceptible to all kinds of physical illnesses, and if we don’t feed our spirit then we become susceptible to all kinds of spiritual illnesses and sin.
I. A habit that we have to develop as Christians is to spend time with God’s word, and feed our spirits, if we never get to the point that we can take in food, we never develop physically, and if we never get to the point that we can take in spiritual food we can’t develop spiritually.
J. I hope that you will be here to hear God’s word in the services, and that you will make a commitment to be here for bible study, and take in God’s word, and you will make a time in your day to read, and study and meditate on God’s word.
K. Write down the things that you learn and keep a spiritual note book, and apply the things that God shows you to the way that you live.
L. To grow spiritually we have to take in spiritual food. We have to do everything that we can to improve the way we hear God’s Word, but we can’t depend only on what we hear, help us grow spiritually.
M. We also need to read, study, memorize, meditate on, and apply God’s Word, so that we can be equipped spiritually.
N. I hope that you will make a commitment today to make God’s Word an important part of your life every day.
