Following God's Instructions for a Fruitful Life

1. "Instructions are super important when it comes to life that we live so that we know what to do and I'll be honest sometimes instructions are very very hard to to read and define I mean I know this as I get older um when you get an item it seems like the instructions are getting smaller and smaller print and you gotta like read them and it's hard to read some of them you gotta scan a qr code and then you gotta your phone there and you gotta I just bought a new lawnmower last year and like there was no instructions in the box there was nothing all that there was was a sticker that I had to scan that sticker it took me the instructions and then it showed me a video on how to put this whole thing together and I'll be honest like sometimes as a christian someone that says they love jesus someone who says that we're a follower of god we read instructions in the bible and we're like god is this really what you're asking is this really what you're saying like or is that what you're that instruction even meant for me you know or what if i like god i did this before i tried to do" [05:20] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "When jesus was here on earth he understood that people like me would have a hard time either wanting to follow the instructions or understanding those instructions he knew people would misunderstand what he was saying he knew people would struggle with what was being said and you know we talked about it the last couple weeks that one way jesus would communicate was by telling stories he would oftentimes tell stories in order for people to understand what he was talking about and so we're going to tell another story tonight and we're going to walk through this and the story tonight is going to be a common story and again jesus told what we call" [09:10] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Jesus is simply saying listen when you hear instructions you have a choice on what to do with it you have a choice to follow it see what i love is this verse in uh it's found in psalms 119 it's a passage of scripture in the old testament that actually helps us understand really what's going on it says in psalms 119 verses 105 to 112 it says this your word is a lamp a light unto my a lamp for my feet and a light to my path i have taken an oath and confirmed it that i will follow your law i have suffered much preserved my life according to the word i accept the lord and i'm willing to praise of my mouth and teach you the word of god teach me your laws it says though i constantly take my life in my hands i will not forget your law the wicked have set a snare for me but i will not be straight away your statutes are my heritage forever meaning that the word of god is in me forever and they are joy to my heart my heart is set on keeping secret decrees till the very end what this psalmist says in the beginning is if you can go back to that verse verse 105 it says your word is a lamp for my feet and a light" [17:13] (65 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "In the darkness we can't see in the darkness literally there's there's no way of being able to see where you're going now i know that some of you have been to camp with us and we've got when we go to camp there's always an area where we have to walk from the field up into where the cafeteria is and during the night there aren't many lights that are there some of you know what i'm talking about that hill that goes down and if you are not paying attention you will run into a tree as you walk you will walk right into a tree you will walk right into a rock like you cannot see anything so a lot of times what everybody does is they bust out their phones and they have the flashlight and they begin to walk with the flashlight so that they can see where the path goes check this out this is what david the psalmist is saying in this verse he's saying the bible the words of god the words of jesus is a lamp to my feet so that i can see a path that is lit you can walk on a lit path and you can see a path that is lit you can go you can know exactly where you're going but as soon as the lights go out you might not know you might be thinking you're going the right way and you might run into the door you might run into the tree you might trip over something that you shouldn't you might end up somewhere you shouldn't and that's why it's so important that the bible that we take is that light that guides" [19:35] (78 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The bible is presented to you and then as it's presented to you you're invited not just to hear the words but to do something with the words that you hear why because god's word every time it goes forward it demands and invites a response from you so it's basically like what are you going to do with what you know what are you going to do with what you've learned see all of you that are in school you learned a certain subject and then you're tested on it and the testing of what is happening is based on what did you learn what knowledge did you retain how did you manage this it is the same thing with the word of god it's the same thing with the bible that the bible is something that when we read it and that when we hear it it's an it's an invitation to a response and what we do so when we talk about it are you the person who struggles to understand what god is saying are you the person who faced difficult times and you used to believe what god says now you don't are you the person that gets excited for what god says but then just allows life to distract you or do you feel like you're" [21:06] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Reading god's word in the bible it's really it's a place that we start to really understand who god is it's like it's a manual that says hey this is who this person is this is who you're serving this is how you can know them and so for us every one of us in this room we have to understand that we get this instruction that god gives to us and he says this is how you can know me better this is how you can know me better and as we read that we begin to know him better i'll tell you this if this was something that we could have with people that would be great like if i had a book that i could read that could tell me hey this is how you get to know zeth better this is how you get to know his inside outside everything about him his personality how he thinks like this is his character if i could read a book to get to know zeth better that would be amazing" [22:22] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "If you wanna know god you gotta read the instructions on how to know him better and that is the way that is the word of god the bible is that instructional book that says hey this is what you can know about god this is how you can praise him this is how you can live for him this is how you can know him because the word of god is so important to us as christians so reading god's word in the bible it's really where we start with everything because it inspires us by giving us examples of real people who dealt with real situations and responded to god in real ways guys you gotta understand the bible is not just some fake people that we make up the bible is actually historical figures that lived that had life and we were just talking about this the other day a lot of the characters in the bible that we read were teenagers they were actually teenagers when we talk about david when we talk about shadrach meshach and abednego" [23:47] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "When we hear the word of god we need to do this now we need to reflect okay what is it that is being said we've heard god's word we've heard what it says and now we need to reflect on that we need to consider what does this mean for us see my hope is this my hope is that when you come to refuge that you don't just pay attention to this message for the next 30 minutes and then go home and completely forget about it no i hope that i hope that it resonates with you i hope that you go home and think about it i hope that when you go home and you play video games or you watch netflix or you do your homework or whatever you're thinking about what we talked about tonight that you're allowing it to be a reflection and saying what is how does this impact my life how does this change who i am how is this something that i can apply" [25:22] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Respond to god's word the more you respond to god's word the more you'll find yourself falling in love with him why because i'm going to say this one last time god's word invites a response from you it invites a response from you" [31:00] (15 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)