Engaging Scripture: Building Resilient Faith Together

1) "We've defined resilient this way, the ability to recover quickly from setbacks or adversity. And the early church had to learn how to be resilient because they were up against persecution, lack of funding, being outnumbered. And ultimately, they were up against the devil, who never wants God's church to grow and advance. We are called to be resilient disciples. And today I want to talk to you about the rhythm of engaging daily with Scripture." [04:08] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "The early church was a learning church. I think some people believe that if you're filled with the Spirit, like the early church was at Pentecost earlier in chapter 2 of Acts, that if you're filled with the Spirit, then you have this very emotional experience with God. You become charismatic. You believe in the full gifts of the Spirit. Some people believe that then that will lead you to become anti-intellectual. Where theology and reading books and talking about the core doctrines of the church, that those things can seem less important than prayer and worship. But that's not what we see here in Acts chapter 2." [07:19] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "So a Spirit-filled church, is to be a Bible-believing church. And a Bible-believing church is one that submits itself to the Word of God. So we don't abandon study of the Word because the Spirit is at work. No, if you're full of the Spirit, you will be drawn to the Bible. Spiritual revival begins in prayer, but it only lasts when there's consistent and accurate teaching from the Bible." [11:24] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "The authority of God, the authority of Scripture, is really good news for the world that we live in today, where everything seems to be subjective, where truth is yours, where everyone is choosing their own adventure. And in the midst of that culture that we're surrounded with, we turn to the words of Scripture, to the words of Jesus, when we hear Him say in John chapter 8, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. And then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." [14:34] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "The temptation today is to be a selective Christian, to pick and choose which parts of the Bible we like, and to disregard or ignore the rest. But Jesus didn't give us this option. He says in the Great Commission, teach them to obey all that I have commanded, or everything that I have commanded. And the truth is, is that there have been false prophets ever since the time of Jesus who want to water down the truth to make it more palatable to the cultural moment that we live in." [15:03] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Research a few years ago found that among U.S. adults, 50% of Americans never or rarely engage with Scripture. So half of Americans pretty much never or rarely engage with Scripture. Now with the other half, there's three groups. There's 16% of Americans who engage with Scripture a few times a year or about once a month. So there's a little bit there, but not much. Then the other 18% read Scripture one to three times a week. And then there's 16% of Americans who engage with Scripture four or more times a week." [16:38] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "The point is, that level of engagement isn't enough to produce real fruit and transformation. The key is that it has to be the majority of your week, four or more times. And it doesn't say how long. It doesn't say, like, it's gotta be an hour or it's gotta be 20 minutes. It's just saying there's a daily touchpoint with Scripture. And one of the things that we've been highlighting with all seven of these rhythms is the importance of doing them in community. You're personally practicing them, but you're also doing them in community." [19:43] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Now, you know, we're living today in an era where it has never been easier to read the Bible. It's never been so accessible to us and more translations and more formats and more sizes. You can get a Bible study from any version, right? And you know, one of my favorite Bible versions is the YouVersion Bible app. And it has so many features in it. Like you can highlight verses. I think almost every translation's on there. You can compare versions. So you like highlight a verse. I do this every morning. I'm like, okay, what does it say in the NIV or the NLT or the New King James?" [27:10] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "The issue here in the Western world might be Bible engagement. That's what we've talked about most of today. But in many other parts of the world, the issue is still access. And of the more than 7,000 languages in the world today, more than 3,200 languages need a Bible translation because they have little to no scripture at all. And of that number, of the 3,200 number, 952 languages do not have a single verse translated yet. It's hard to fathom." [32:26] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "What a joy that it is to partner and participate in getting the Word of God to the farthest ends of the earth. And yet for us today, how I want nothing more than to see us engage daily with Scripture four or more times a week, daily devotion. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching, they gathered daily, and it says in verse 47, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. May this be true for us today. May we have a resilient faith that grows by engaging daily with God's Word." [35:20] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)