Exercising
James 1:22, Acts 15:20, Rom 14:19, 21, Ecc 6:7
November 13, 2003
I. Today I want to look at the sixth way to get into God s word. We ve talked about Hear, Read, Study, Memorize, and Meditate. If you remember that drawing that we did of the hand, the palm is Apply.
A. You need to APPLY GOD S WORD. The first are the five ways you get it into your life and then Applying it is what you do after you ve got it in there.
B. Notice (James 1:22 NIV) Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
C. There is no doubt that this is the hardest part for many people. How do I apply Scripture?
D. Getting from "What did it mean then?" to "What does it mean now?" is the key to understanding scripture.
E. Built into every story in the Bible there is a principle that we are to apply to our lives.
1. There s no story in the Bible by accident; even the most seemingly insignificant stories are there to teach a principle.
2. So you look beyond just the story and find out what the general principle is that the story is teaching, and then apply that principle to the time that you are living in.
F. There are three questions you ask:
1. WHAT DID IT MEAN TO THE ORIGINAL HEARERS?
2. WHAT IS THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE THAT APPLIES TO ANY TIME PERIOD?
3. WHERE OR HOW COULD I PRACTICE THAT PRINCIPLE TODAY?
G. For example, in Acts 15 there is a verse that says "Don t eat meat that has been strangled or offered to idols?"(Acts 15:20 NIV) Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
H. Now tell me when was the last time you ate meat that you knew was from strangled animal or that had been offered to idols?
I. I really don t think I ve ever eaten any meat offered to an idol. You have to figure out, What does this mean to my life? You ve got to find the principle beneath it. Here s how you do it.
J. First you go back and find out, What did it mean then? Get out a Bible dictionary, read about meat offered to idols.
K. You d find out that what happened in those days is people would take meat and offer it to idols. Now obviously a piece of stone doesn t eat it. So after it s left there for a day or two they d take it back out on the street and they d sell it.
L. So they’d make a profit on it. The priests of these pagan religions were taking the meat that was being brought in, out the back door and putting it back out on the market.
M. For a Jew to eat that kind of meat was a violation of their religion. They re saying when you eat meat that s offered to idols, you re in essence partaking of that religion.
N. Paul comes along and he says, "You know as well as I do that meat is no different than the meat down at McDonalds. The idols aren t real so there s really nothing wrong with that meat, but because it offends people (those who are Jews who ve become Christians) you ought to not eat it.
O. In Acts 15, when you study the context you find out that they had a big conference in Jerusalem. The first Christians were all Jews who obeyed the Jewish laws.
P. Then they found out that there were all these people outside of the nation of Israel in Antioch and other Gentile areas that Paul was leading to the Lord.
Q. They had to decide at the Jerusalem conference does a person have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian?
R. Do you have to first keep all the Jewish laws to be a Christian? They were asking, since we re keeping all these laws, does everybody else have to accept Judaism in order to become a Christian?
S. The final answer was No, you don t. And aren t you glad you don t have to keep all the Jewish laws to become a Christian? That would mean no pork chops, or ribs.
T. But, they said, let s send them this suggestion. Don t commit immorality, don t eat meat offered to idols. The first one is real clear -- don t commit immorality.
U. But the second was not that clear, don t eat meat offered to idols. What they re saying is if you have some Jewish Christian around who, if they saw you eating meat offered to idols would be offended by it, even though we know that there s nothing wrong with it, for the sake of not offending them and creating a stumbling block for them don’t eat it.
V. The principle then is don t do something that would offend your Christian brother. That s a principle that applies to all times.
II. In fact, Paul applies the same thing again in Romans 14.(Rom 14:19 NIV) Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
A. And he goes on to let us know what he is talking about.(Rom 14:21 NIV) It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
B. Paul applies this same principle again. Make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification.""It s better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
C. So whatever you believe about these things, keep them between yourself and God. He s saying there are some things that aren t legitimately wrong, they re not sin, but when you re with other people who would be offended by them, or drug down by them you don t do it.
D. Now we’re getting to the application.
E. He says it s better not to eat meat or drink wine. I could make a good case in scripture for moderation in drinking. Personally, I don t think that the Bible teaches total abstinence from drinking alcoholic beverages.
F. I think it s very clear that Jesus drank wine. In fact, it says that even when He made the wine at the wedding, it said, most of the time they give the best stuff at first but you ve saved the best stuff, the best stuff was the most fermented, until last.
G. But I don’t drink at all. Why? Because the principle says it s better not to eat meat or drink wine if it offends your brothers. I have also seen alcohol ruin people’s lives, and I have better things to spend my money on than something that ruins lives.
H. So I don’t drink and we would not allow an alcoholic beverage at a church function. Why? For the same reason we don t use wine in communion cups. One out of every seven people in America is an alcoholic.
I. What if someone comes to church and they ve been on the wagon for nine years and they take communion and that one sip leads them to fall back again? Don t do anything that causes people to stumble.
J. I believe I would have a right to drink if I wanted to. But, I have limited my rights, because I don t want to offend or hinder the people I m trying to minister to, and I don’t want to support an industry that ruins people’s lives, and I don’t want to do something that can alter my thinking process.
K. And that is the an example of application of a principle behind a story.
III. AFTER YOU VE DISCOVERED THE PRINCIPLE, THEN YOU WANT TO WRITE OUT A SENTENCE THAT DESCRIBES AN ACTION YOU LL TAKE TO APPLY THE TRUTH. I ve come up with an application, now what am I going to do about it?
A. MOST APPLICATIONS WILL FOCUS ON ONE OF THREE RELATIONSHIPS.
1. MY RELATIONSHIP TO GOD.
2. MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MYSELF.
3. MY RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
B. When you re trying to apply the Bible to your life, think relationships.
C. THERE ARE FOUR MARKS OF GOOD APPLICATION ACTION.
1. IT S PERSONAL
2. IT S PRACTICAL
3. IT S POSSIBLE
4. IT S PROVABLE -- YOU CAN PROVE YOU VE DONE IT.
D. Let’s say that you are reading the Bible and you come on (Eccl 6:7 NIV) All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.
E. All of a sudden the timeless principle you get out of that is we need to control our appetite -- which is a timeless principle. Then the personal application might be "I need to loose some weight".
1. The personal part would be, I , I need to. When you write out an application in a quiet time or when you re studying the Bible then you need write out what you re going to do about it, put it in the first person.
2. "I need to". You don t say, "My parents need to... My kids need to... My husband needs to... My wife needs to..." It s about I.
3. The Practical part is, I need to loose some weight.
4. The Possible part is, I need to lose ten pounds. Make it possible. Let s say you read the verse, "Pray without ceasing" and you say I m going to pray for every missionary in the world, every day. You re going to get discouraged. But you could say, "I will pray for ten missionaries every day." The main thing is that you set goals that are possible.
5. The Provable part is making it measurable. Set a deadline. I need to loose ten pounds in a month.
F. The goal is becoming a doer of the word. The Bible says we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Many times we go and hear studies but we don t go home saying, "What am I going to do about it?" We have to apply it to our lives here and now.
G. Write out these applications. Then if you really want to be brave, ask a friend to check up on you. They will be more than willing to check up on you to see if you re following up on becoming a doer of the word.
H. The bible says that we are to be doers of the word, and that if we become doers of the word we will be blessed.
I. The only way to become a doer of the Word is to first know what it says. That why it is so important that we learn to improve our hearing, and develop the habits of not only hearing the Word but reading it.
J. But we can’t read it in a scattered way, we have to read through books of the bible to be able to understand what we are reading and get the full message that God wants us to get.
K. And when we read it we have to study it. We have to learn to dig into the meaning and to do that we need to get the tools that we need to get the job done.
L. We also have to learn to memorize God’s word so that it will be available to us at times when we need it most, so God will be able to bring verses to mind at times that we are tempted and stressed. To be more like God we need to make God’s Word a part of us.
M. And we also need to meditate on God’s Word which is focusing on and thinking about a Bible verse, and digesting it so we can become more like Jesus, and learn to live life successfully
N. But all that learning and studying is not going to make us a better person , or more like God until we start making a practice of applying what we have learned to the way that we live.
O. All these things are keys to another very important thing and that is learning how to apply God’ Word to our lives, and make it something real in our lives. To let God’s Word guide us in our actions, decisions, and choices, because that is where real life is, not just a physical existence, but a spiritual living that takes us to a higher level than we have ever been before.
P. We have to become doers of the Word. And as we become doers of the Word we will become more like Jesus, and that will improve our lives in ways that we have never imagined.
Q. One of the biggest problems with Christianity today is that too many Christians are hears, and readers, and studiers of the Word and not doers of the Word.
R. I hope today that you will decide to become a doer of the Word and make a commitment to put the time and effort that is needed into it to making it a reality in your life.
S. I want to challenge you to be a doer of the word and learn to use these simple things to make it happen.
