Bible Boot Camp: Transforming Lives Through Scripture

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)**: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."
2. **Philippians 1:6 (NLT)**: "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."

#### Observation Questions
1. What are the key takeaways from the sermon about the importance of community and service at The Father's House? ([32:09])
2. According to the sermon, why is it important to choose a Bible translation that you understand? ([47:24])
3. What practical steps were suggested in the sermon for positioning yourself to hear from God during Bible study? ([56:06])
4. How does the sermon describe the process of reflecting and responding to the Bible? ([42:21])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does 2 Timothy 3:16-17 describe the purpose and usefulness of Scripture? How does this align with the sermon’s message about the Bible being alive and active? ([38:18])
2. In Philippians 1:6, Paul expresses confidence that God will continue His work in believers. How does this assurance impact your understanding of spiritual growth and transformation? ([12:34])
3. The sermon emphasized the importance of having a structured plan for Bible study. Why do you think having a specific time and place for study is crucial for spiritual growth? ([56:06])
4. Reflecting on the sermon, what are some ways you can ensure that your Bible study time is not just informational but transformational? ([54:28])

#### Application Questions
1. The sermon highlighted the importance of community and service. How can you contribute to your church community this week, especially with the upcoming resource distribution? ([32:35])
2. Choosing a Bible translation that you understand is crucial. Have you found a translation that resonates with you? If not, what steps will you take this week to find one? ([47:24])
3. The sermon suggested setting a specific time and place for Bible study. What time and place will you commit to for your daily Bible study, and how will you ensure consistency? ([56:06])
4. Reflecting on the process of studying the Bible, what tools (study Bibles, journals, highlighters) will you use to dig deeper into the Word? How will you incorporate these tools into your study routine? ([52:29])
5. The sermon emphasized the importance of prayer in Bible study. How will you incorporate prayer into your study time to ensure that you are hearing from God and applying His Word to your life? ([54:28])
6. The sermon encouraged reading, reflecting, and responding to the Bible. Can you identify a specific passage from Philippians that you will focus on this week? How will you reflect on and respond to this passage? ([01:00:03])
7. The sermon mentioned the joy found in a growing relationship with Jesus. How can you cultivate joy in your life through your Bible study and daily walk with Christ? ([01:05:44])

Day 1: Unity in Community and Service
The Father's House thrives on the collective effort of its members, emphasizing that the church is not about any one individual but about the community coming together to serve and support one another. This unity is exemplified through various outreach programs, such as the upcoming resource distribution, where volunteers are needed to help unload a semi-truck of resources arriving to aid the community. This act of service not only meets practical needs but also strengthens the bonds within the church, making it a special place where everyone plays a vital role. [32:35]

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (ESV): "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many."

Reflection: Think of a way you can contribute to your church community this week, whether through volunteering, offering support, or simply being present. How can you embody the spirit of unity and service in your actions?


Day 2: The Accessibility of the Bible
Many people feel intimidated by the Bible, believing they need to be experts to understand it. However, the Bible is accessible to everyone, and it is crucial for spiritual growth. The key is to find a translation that resonates with you and start reading. The Bible is God's Word, alive and active, meant to guide and transform us. By approaching the Bible with an open heart and mind, anyone can begin to understand and apply its teachings to their life. [39:20]

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV): "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Reflection: What translation of the Bible do you find most understandable and engaging? Take some time today to explore different translations and choose one that speaks to you.


Day 3: The Importance of a Structured Study Plan
Having a structured plan for Bible study is crucial for making it a consistent part of your life. By choosing a specific time and place for your study, you create a disciplined routine that helps you truly absorb and apply God's Word. This consistency allows for deeper reflection and understanding, transforming your study time into a meaningful and transformative experience. [56:06]

Psalm 1:2-3 (ESV): "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."

Reflection: Identify a specific time and place where you can commit to studying the Bible daily. How can you create an environment that minimizes distractions and fosters a deeper connection with God's Word?


Day 4: Reflecting and Responding to God's Word
It's not enough to just read the Bible; we must reflect on it and respond to what God is saying. This involves analyzing the text, drawing out lessons, and applying them to our lives. By engaging in this process, we allow the Bible to transform our hearts and minds, leading to a life-changing experience. Reflecting and responding to God's Word helps us grow spiritually and align our lives with His will. [42:21]

James 1:22-25 (ESV): "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Reflection: After reading a passage from the Bible today, take a few moments to reflect on its meaning and how it applies to your life. What specific actions can you take to respond to God's message?


Day 5: Praying for Guidance and Application
The Bible is not just for information but for inspiration and transformation. By praying for God to speak to us through our study and applying what we learn, we allow His Word to shape our lives and draw us closer to Him. Prayer is a vital component of Bible study, as it opens our hearts to receive God's guidance and wisdom, enabling us to live out His teachings in our daily lives. [01:14:04]

Colossians 1:9-10 (ESV): "And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Reflection: Before you begin your Bible study today, take a moment to pray for God's guidance and wisdom. Ask Him to reveal His will to you and help you apply His teachings to your life. What specific area of your life do you need God's guidance in today?

Well, good morning!

Wow! It's great to see you guys. Where you been? Where you been?

So, we had a great opportunity to minister to several churches in the last month as we do at the Father's House, helping other churches to build and grow. And had a little time to do a little R&R. But didn't our speakers do an amazing job every week? I was just blown away. I mean, just amazing! Some of them, that was the very first time they've been up here, and we just rejoiced.

The Father's House is not about me and Anita. It's not about who's going to show up and preach that Sunday. If you're looking for that kind of church, you're looking at the wrong church. Here, it's all about us. It's all of us together that makes the Father's House what it should be.

And we love to help our community. One way we're going to do that is that we have a semi-tractor trailer truck of resources coming into our community, and it'll be here tomorrow at noon down at the Salvation Army. If you can, at noon, if you've got some strong backs and you'd like to help unload, Pastor Tim will be there and Pastor Chris to get those resources to help our community.

But it's all about—and that's what the church is all about. The church is supposed to be about our community. And of course, in our community, we had a tragic incident happen, and I'm going to have Lieutenant Travis give you an update because we need to specifically pray about one issue.

Yeah, thank God for Bible Boot Camp! Hope we brought you boots today. It's going to be a great four-week series that we're starting. And by the way, didn't our speakers do awesome in the month of July? Some of those speakers, it was the first time they've ever been on stage, and I just—we listened, and I just cried and thought, "Man, how blessed we are at the Father's House."

With somebody you see at the Father's House, it's not about when I teach or Anita teaches or Tim, but it's about the whole. It's about you. That's what makes the Father's House. It's the culture of the Father's House—it's loving and caring. And then we have great speakers, so it doesn't matter who shows up on Sunday. You know that you're going to be fed.

So if you're looking for that church where only the lead pastor teaches every week, well, you need to go down the road because that's not here. Because that's not who we are. Because God's given so many different gifts into this house, and we are so blessed.

And listen, if you've got strong muscles in the back and you'd like to help with a need here in the community tomorrow at noon at Salvation Army, there will be a tractor trailer truck bringing in supplies and resources for our community. And so we need help in unloading that. Good News Church has sort of put that together. I'm not sure what all they have. I think they got clothes and food. I think he said washer-dryers. I don't know what all that they got, but we just thank God for Pastor Mark and all that he's doing.

So if you're able to do that at noon tomorrow, meet Pastor Tim or Chris down at the Salvation Army just down the road.

All right, let's pray.

Father, we love you today. How humbled we are that you would love us enough to die for us, but also that you would send your word—that your word is alive and active. And so we thank you today, Father. And we ask you to, Holy Spirit, anoint me today. Help me to say what you want me to say. Don't let me say anything you don't want me to say. Teach us, Lord. Teach us. Teach us about how your word brings life to us and give us a fresh hunger for your word. Amen.

So what if you got this note in the mail from one of your friends, and it said, "Uzza wuzza jazza wuzza Surfus Murfus trufus"?

Yeah, you look at that and you say, "Hmm, is this a secret code? Is this a language that I've never understood? Is there a special meaning to this?" And at the end, you would simply say, "Unless someone explains this to me, I don't understand it."

And I think that's how a lot of people think about this word. It's like you don't really have a time of reading the word yourself. You don't really have a time of studying the word yourself because you feel like that you need to go to seminary or you need to be an expert. You need to know languages of how to understand this word, but that's really not true.

You don't know. There are several categories that are here today. Some of you would simply say, "You know, I really don't believe the Bible. You know, I've been to college, and they've taught me that it's just writings of a bunch of men, and you can't trust it."

And I know a lot of times when we get to witness to somebody, they'll say, "Yeah, I know the Bible says that, but the Bible can't be trusted."

Listen, week after next, you've got to be here. Pastor Ben's been working on a teaching now for months from a secular point of view of how that we can prove that the Bible is God's word and can be trusted.

Now, we all have heard the inspirational things. It's the word of God, you understand. But what he's going to do is he's going to go into those that have tried to debunk the authenticity of the scripture, and he's going to twist that around.

Now, you can only do so much in 30-40 minutes on a Sunday, so I'm hoping he's going to make that a life group that you might want to be part of because we want to understand.

But what I'm here to say is that it is God's word. Second of all, there are those of you that are here today and say, "You know, I've tried reading the Bible. I started with you guys when you started reading."

How many of you are reading with us on the YouVersion plan through the Bible every day? All right! Man, where are the rest of you? How are you going to get to heaven? What are you doing? Do you have a plan?

Now, if you have a detailed plan, that's fine. But we're reading through the Bible every morning. We're reading. Where are we now, Tim? Zechariah? Zephaniah? Haggai? Macaliah? Some place in there.

Go to the website, go down to the resources, and find the YouVersion plan that we're reading because we're going to tell you another two that we're doing today. But you got to get into the word.

How can we say that we're Christ followers and we're growing with him unless we're in the word? I know somebody said, "Well, I started. I started in Genesis. It was pretty cool. I loved Exodus, but I dropped out at Leviticus."

Anybody ever been there? Yeah, I know. And you wonder, "Why is Leviticus in there?" Well, there's a lot of reasons, and if you study, you'll know.

But I'm just saying that you can grab this. And then some people say, "Well, you know, I don't read the Bible because I can't get it to apply to my life."

But I think the main reason that people would say, "I don't have a really study plan" is because they simply say, "I don't know how to start. I don't know where to begin. How are you doing that?"

So what we're going to do in the next four weeks, we're going to do everything we can to help you learn how to study the Bible.

Now, for some of you, this is going to be so basic. You're going to say, "Well, you know, it's just really below me." Well, just bear with me because share with somebody else and encourage them.

Because it's not enough just to read the Bible, but we have to get the Bible into us. And the only way we can get the Bible into us is through study and meditation and application.

I mean, it would be like say that, say for instance, that you need to go to a doctor, and you need to get a knee replacement. And so the doctor says, "Well, I'll read about it, and I'll watch a few videos, and then I'll do that for you."

How many of you would sign up for that doctor? Or you say, "You know what? I need a house to be built." Sean's a master builder. Say, "Hey, Sean." And Sean says, "Well, you know, I never really studied how to build, but I'll watch a few YouTube podcasts, whatever those things are, and I'll know how to build you a house."

I'm not going to use that builder.

Now think about that. How can we, with our statement of faith, our mission, a growing relationship with Jesus? You see, to be a doctor, it's not only you read about it, but they study, and then they practice and they apply it. It's the same way with anything.

And so what I'm saying is I hope that in the next four weeks, I can stir us up enough with a love for God's word for where you are.

Now, for some of you, when I get into a minute of going deep and taking notes and journaling, it's going to go like over your head, and you're going to say, "You know, that's not for me." But don't panic.

I just want you to start somewhere. I'm telling you, revival will happen in this church when we all get a fresh love of God's word, and we don't just read it, but we study it.

We read a passage and then say, "God, what are you saying to me?"

And so in these next four weeks, I'm going to do my best to help us all. I know it's helping me as I've restudied this, and so I hope that it will help you.

And I hope you got a plan. Hope your plan is not like one guy I read, and he said, "I opened the Bible and said, 'God, I need a word from you,' put my finger down there, and it said, 'Judas went out and hung himself.'"

So he said, "I opened my Bible and turned it and pushed again, and it said, 'Do thou likewise quickly.'"

No, no!

Hey, in honor of the word, would you do this for me? Would you stand? Let's read this scripture. That's the opening scripture in your notes. Would you read it with me?

I love this word:

"All scripture is inspired by God. It's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right."

Look at your neighbor and say, "That's my book! I'm a person of the book."

You may be seated.

I'm telling you, this is not just a book that you study. This book is living. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And through the centuries and the years, the words of God—you see, a lot of people look at the Bible as, "Well, it's my manuscript to get out of this world and get to heaven." Or somebody will say, "Man, I need a word from God."

So they say, "I'm just suffering with depression." So you go to the back of your Bible to the concordance. I hope you know what that is. And you look, "Okay, encouragement, peace." And you look at those scriptures, and then you go back and you say, "Okay, I'm going to read those scriptures."

Yeah, we can get a word from this, but I'm going to tell you, this book is more than just a manuscript to get us out of this world. This is the story of God.

This book tells us the characteristics and the heart of God. Now, there are some things I don't understand. I don't understand why God lets certain things happen, why God rules and reigns the way it does so many times.

But I'm going to tell you, there is living word. So every time you sit down in this book, don't just think that it's another book. Don't just casually look at it or as you listen to it.

But Lord God, this is your word, and it's alive, and it's active, and it's powerful, and it speaks to me. It guides me, it protects me, it empowers me.

It's not really how quickly you read through that passage this morning with the word and a growing relationship with Jesus, and I want to help us with that.

So number one, if we're going to study the Bible, the first thing—this is so simple, so simple—choose a translation that you understand.

Choose a translation that you understand. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. And through the years, Bible translators, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—so these Bibles, like the Spirit-Filled Study Bible I'm using, they have a whole list of editors that worked in putting this together and specialized.

And so each translation has a purpose and a meaning. Watch this graph. This graph—it will be hard for you to see, but it will be on the post this afternoon on Facebook when we post about the teaching. Lisa is going to put that on.

So we start from over here. These are what we call formal translations. It's word for word, most often used for in-depth study or personal development. And you have the interlinear translation, you have the New American Standard, you have the ESV, you have the King James.

And right here, you sort of have the New King James. And then you have Bibles that are thought for thought. They're more dynamic, most often used in in-depth study and personal development. So there you have the New American Bible, you have the NIV, you have the NLT.

And then you have the paraphrase. It's most often used for devotional reading. Like you've got the Good News, you've got the Living Bible, you've got the Message, you've got the Passion to some extent.

So all of those have a different purpose. So you say, "Okay, which of those should I read from and use and study?"

Well, I'm going to give you my opinion because when you go online, you'll see people that say, "Well, you shouldn't read anything but the Old King James," or "You shouldn't read anything but the New American Standard," or "You should stay away from the New Living Translation."

You know, you should because this is left out and that's added, and this is left out and that's added.

Listen to me: find a translation that you understand and begin reading that. Starting there.

Starting there.

So my opinion—just my opinion—let me recommend four different translations that I really think that are good. Of course, the New King James. I use the New King James and the New Living Translation, and most of the time that I study and teach, I use the New Living and the New King James because no matter where you are in the parameter, if you're reading from some of those that are thought for thought or word for word, somewhere in the middle, the New King James and the NLT is sort of right there.

So I'd say the New King James, the NLT, the NIV, and the ESV. I use all of those. Those are my favorites that I use.

Now, when I'm studying a word study, something really in-depth, I'm going to look at different translations, see how they interpreted that. That doesn't mean one is better than the other. They just all, as I said here, have a different purpose.

So if I get up in the morning and I say, "You know what? I just need a devotional thought today. I don't need to do something in-depth." You know, it's been one of those mornings.

Anybody ever had one of those mornings? Go deep and study and like look—all the tough stuff. I just want to come over here. I want to just read something from Eugene Peterson's book, The Message. He wrote the Message paraphrase translation actually for young people in his church so they would be able to read the word.

Can I remind you? It's there in your notes. Read it with me:

"The Bible is a collection of 66 different books written in three languages across three continents over a 1500-year time period with 40 different authors. It's a collection of poems, prophecies, letters, laws, and histories and biographies written by people inspired by God telling one unified story that shows us our need for Jesus and teaches us to become like Him."

I would recommend that you get a good study Bible. There are a lot of good study Bibles out there. I have a—I don't know—probably 10 study Bibles in my library. I have the NIV Study Bible. That's a good one. I have Chuck Swindoll's Study Bible, John Maxwell's Study Bible, Lusa Lee's Study Bible. No, that's not really one.

But one of the things that I would really recommend is what we carry here in our church merch. Did I get that right? I was rebuked in the last service because I said the Resource Center because it's church merch—stands for merchandise.

Yeah, it's like resources, but it's cute, isn't it? Church merch! Say that with me: Church merch!

So when you go out there to get something, just say, "Church merch, people," so that I'll get an A today and I won't flunk out, okay?

But there we carry the new Spirit-Filled Life Bible Study Bible. Now, study Bibles are good because they have a lot of good notes, and they have a lot of helps to help you. But they also can be bad because if you just take a study Bible and instead of studying it yourself, what's that scripture saying, you're cheating and checking out first of all and see what the contributors said, you're going to miss out.

But I really would recommend if you don't have a good study Bible to get the new Spirit-Filled Life Bible. You don't have to get fancy leather. I think we have them out there in hardback. I don't know if they come in softback or not. Mine, if you want. But we have some out there.

But get those. And the reason I like this one is because most of the contributors, a lot of them I know, are Spirit-filled, and they also give you an understanding. Like some Bibles you read, like the old Scofield, leads people down the wrong line about this term rapture.

And there is a coming of Christ, but the way Scofield teaches rapture and a lot of the traditional churches is really not even found in the Bible. That was something that he added when he began doing his translation.

So you got to be careful in those that you're not led astray by just one area. But I love what I love about the Spirit-Filled Bible in end times. It says you may be a pre-millennialist, you may be a post-millennialist, you may be an all-millennialist, you may be a tri-millennialist.

And it gives you—it simply says here are different options to believe about the coming of the Lord. I like that because what I've decided a long time ago, nobody really knows. And when it comes, I'm going—how about you?

So get you a good study Bible.

Number two: position yourself to hear from God. Get your spiritual senses awakened. We study the Bible not just for information but for inspiration and transformation.

It's the living word of God. Say that with me: It's the living word of God. Say it again: It's the living word of God.

Now, if I were the devil—I've been called the devil before, but anyway, that's neither here nor there. Why did that come up? I don't know.

If I were the devil, I would do everything I could to teach you, number one, you can't trust the Bible, and number two, to do everything that I could do to make it so confusing that you never read it. You don't get that life.

It's like a life—Renee, it's like a life force that comes in when we read it. So if I were the devil, that's who I'd do.

But you know what? I'm not the devil, and so I'm encouraging us in the next four weeks to do everything you can to be here every Sunday because we're just going to try to practically look at these.

So choose a time and a place. Now, that's important because if you don't have a set time and a set place, it becomes random.

I would recommend of the morning, first thing. Anita and I, when we get up in the morning, we grab our coffee, we do the YouVersion Bible reading plan, we do a couple other things of praying for people that are lost, and we listen to the scripture.

We personally meditate on the scripture, and then we each have our own plan of study that we do after that at different times.

But I really would encourage you to set a time and set a place. Set a place.

And look, the place where you study the Bible doesn't have to be Facebook or Instagram-able. You know what I mean by that? You've seen those pictures of people that are in the coffee shop. They have their Bible study Bible laid out, they have their Hebrews coffee mug sitting there, and they have their pen ready, and they take a picture and said, "My present position studying the word."

And you look at that and you think, "My study place is the bathroom. It's the only place that the kids don't bother me, and I can get some study time."

Or you say, "My study time and reading time is listening as I'm going to work."

And listen, I know that some of you do that. Somebody really blessed me this week. They said, "You know what I'm going to do? As I listen to that, you know it's hard to drive and take notes. Please don't do that. I want you to be around next week."

So he said, "You know what? I'm going to grab my phone, and I'm just going to go to voice notes." Is that what it is, Anita? Voice notes? And just talk off what I'm hearing God say to me.

So don't just read the word, but at the end of it, say, "God, what are you saying to me? What are you saying to me?"

So anyway, choose a time and a place. Tozer said this: "The person that does not expect to hear God won't."

So when you open up your Bible, when you start the YouVersion plan, I know you're going to speak to me.

Number three: choose a study plan that works best for you. Choose a translation you understand, position yourself to hear from God with a time and a place, and then choose a study plan that works best for you.

What's your plan? What's your study plan?

Next week, I'm going to talk about how to study a book. And by the way, for the next four weeks, we're going to study the book of Philippians. Say Philippians!

We have four weeks that we're going to study. How many chapters are in Philippians? Four! You guys are brilliant! How did you know that?

So every week, like this week, I'm going to ask you to do your best to read. I'm going to ask you to read all of Philippians. You can probably read that in probably, what, 15 minutes? 20 minutes?

All of Philippians, four chapters. It's really, really good. You can read it. It's really easy, and it brings some joy into your life.

And then every week, like this week, we're going to study chapter one. Next week, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four.

To help you with that, we have some resources. Get out your phone. Get out your phone. I see that we already have about 30 people signed up with me, and I've been looking over who you are because I've been praying over you.

So if I don't find your name in here, I'm going to wonder what you're doing as a study plan. So if you have an alternate study plan, you need to let me know because I don't want you to go through life and not have the word.

So when you QR that—I guess I just used that. When you scan it—there you go. I'm a yellow pad guy, but I do know how to do that.

What that will take you to are two resources. And these resources are so important. We're going to study the book of Philippians. Some of you have never studied a book in your life and taken notes and journaled on that.

So we're going to study the book of Philippians. Short, good, to the point. These resources are two YouVersion Bible study plans on how to study the book of Philippians. One is just so good, how to study the book, and the other is a little bit more detailed as you look at that, how to get through.

So I'm going to ask you to get your Bible out, and when we go through chapter one, I'm going to ask you to underline that, highlight things in the Bible, meditate on that.

But please don't take the next four weeks and think that I'm going to give it all to you on a Sunday morning. I'm going to ask you to sign up for the gym and never show up. You understand what I'm saying?

I can't pour it into you. You have to let it pour into you. But I can give you a few helps that will help you.

So use those resources. Sign up. I'm going to look for your name this afternoon. And if you didn't do it now, go on the Facebook—I mean website—scroll down through there to resources.

Now, this is not in your notes. It's a side note. So somewhere in your margin, I want to give you the three R's for Bible study.

The three R's for Bible study. The first one would be read. Isn't that brilliant? Say read!

Your neighbor will say, "You need to read!" And if you don't read, listen. Okay, I'm not against listening, but don't listen and watch TV at the same time.

Don't listen and be scrolling on the internet at the same time. It's like God saying, "Time out! Are you with me?"

Yep! Then why aren't you focusing on my word, even if it's listening?

So in reading, what we're doing is that we're making observations. Say observation!

We're looking at this passage and we're saying, "What's here in this?" But you want to be careful to keep things in context.

What is the context? You don't want to pull it out of context. That's where a lot of people get in trouble. They just open their Bible.

So when a verse jumps out at you, you should always read the verses before it and the verses after it to be sure that you're keeping it in context. Do you understand that? Does that make sense?

So what I'm doing is I'm doing the analytical stuff of observing who, what, when, where, why.

Right? So when I start with the book of Philippians, open your Bible, and I hope that in the next weeks you'll have the Bible with you that you write in.

Now, if you write in your digital Bible, that's fine. I don't know how to do that. I know how to read it, how to find it, but I don't know how to do all those fancy stuff.

But I tell you, I know how to write in my Bible. Okay?

So bring your Bible in the next few weeks as we're going to be going through the book of Philippians.

So who wrote the book of Philippians? Paul!

How do you know that? Philippians chapter 1, verse 1 is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, writing to all of God's holy people in Philippi.

So right there at the beginning, two things. When I'm doing a book study, I'm going to find out who wrote it and to whom did he write.

Paul is in prison. He's been there, but he's writing a letter to the church at Philippi saying thank you for the offering that you sent. Thank you that you're always supportive of me.

And I just—this whole book is about joy. And he's saying, "I just want you to know no matter what you're going through, there is the joy of the Lord that's going to carry you through."

So he's writing to Philippi, which was a Roman colony at that time in Macedonia, and he's writing this from prison about 61 AD. He is strapped to two Roman soldiers. There's a Roman soldier on this side, a Roman soldier on this side, and he's chained to them.

And Paul, in Philippians, says, "Now I know you think that what I'm going through right now is just really sorry and it's not God's will. Yes, I'd like to get out of here. I don't like to be in prison. I don't like to suffer."

Anybody here like to suffer? No, we don't. But some of you are suffering today, and the book of Philippians is so good.

Paul says, "Let me change to these two Roman soldiers. They change every 8 to 12 hours." And he said, "In Philippians, and many of them have come to know Jesus, and all the prison guards know that I'm here because of Jesus."

And Paul said, "And not only that, but he said because of my imprisonment and because of these Roman soldiers getting converted, the church around here in Rome has become bold in their witnessing."

So he said, "What the enemy looks like, he's throwing sorrow at me. I've been able to find joy in the midst of that."

And I'm telling you, you're going to find joy all through the book of Philippians. You've got to read it.

And so to whom was it written? And so when I look at this, let me tell you, when I studied the book of Philippians, I said, "Okay, what's the theme?"

So you can write this down if you want. You can come up with your own theme of the book of Philippians. It is this: "By centering our lives around Christ, we can experience true joy."

By centering our lives around Christ, we can experience true joy.

So Paul, as you're reading this week, you're going to find he says, "When I think of you, I'm filled with joy, and I'm encouraged."

And he says that no matter what's happening to me, it's prison. True joy is found in a growing relationship with Jesus.

And then he goes on to say in that chapter, "I've learned to be content in all circumstances." That's the theme of this book.

And every week, I'm going to ask you to write a chapter title. I want you to study that book, and when we come back, I want you to write a chapter title.

So chapter title number one, I'll give you mine, would be this: "Joy in living for Christ." There's joy for living in Christ, for living for Christ.

And then chapter two, I'm not going to give you that, but we'll compare notes in the next few weeks.

So number one, read. Say read!

Number two, reflect. What does that mean? It means that I begin to analyze and interpret what's there. I begin to draw out lessons and say, "What's in this passage?"

So you see, it's not about quickly reading through chapter one, but when I read through chapter one, sometimes a verse just jumps off the page.

Like for me, it was chapter one, verse six, and I'll share that in a minute with you what the Lord said to me, and you can look at that.

So you begin to look and say, "Okay, what's in this passage? Here's some things to ask: Is there a promise for me to believe? Is there a principle for me to live by? Is there a command that God is telling me?"

So number one, read. Number two, what? Reflect.

Number three is respond. Respond to the text. This is application. Say application!

This is application. This is like when Pastor Tim and I and Anita at the gym in the morning, and Al's driving us, he'll say, "Okay, Tim, it's time to go over there, and you got to do some leg presses and all of that."

And he's simply saying, "You got to apply for this to work." What's God saying to me? What's God saying to me?

So what then we begin to do is that we begin to underline. You see, I'll show you a picture next week in my Bible. You'll see there's a lot of colors. I've underlined a lot of stuff. I've highlighted stuff. I've written things in the notes.

So let me share with you. So in our church merch place, I always look for pens that don't bleed.

How many of you have written notes in your Bible? I make notes in my Bible because one of these days after I die, my study Bibles will be given to my kids and my grandkids because it's the journey of my life.

And so I want to make sure that what I write down—now they probably can't read it because I scribble. I'm a doctor at heart.

But you got to know that what you write down—you ever had a book that you read and you underline, underline, underline, and when you go back to look at it, you think, "Man, I've underlined everything. Why did I underline that?"

So when I write in my Bible or underline something, I'll write out to the side why that's important to me.

So in our church merch, we've got these book study kits. These are pens. We also have the highlighters that don't bleed through. We also have the dry markers that don't bleed through, and they're there for you to purchase.

Or there's a link online for those sources. You can go to them. And then you need to have some sort of journal. If you're going to study the book of Philippians, you can't keep all of your notes in the Bible because unless you got one of those wide margin Bibles, but I don't.

So they have out there, they have the scribe. It's a scripture journal. They have it in a different color. I think they got prettier colors than I do.

You can just pick up a journal on your own. You can just get one of those memo pads, but some place that you can write down what you're studying.

So when I write down what I'm studying, then I use different colored markers and pens to tell me. I don't just use all one color, but when you use different colors, guess what?

You need to be sure that somewhere you have a little code. So for me, things that are very important, like I said, I'll show you these in a couple of weeks.

Like verses 1-11, I've highlighted that. That's a prayer of thankfulness, and I put a box around that. And then there's a scripture in verse 6 that jumped out at me, so I put a box around that.

So in my little key code, it'll say box—things that are important. And then I use the color blue for promises from God.

So when I look at my Bible, there's a blue, and I know it's a promise from God. And then yellow I use because to me, yellow is important.

And then red is for a memory verse that I might want to memorize. Purple for the promises of God and green for actions to be taken.

But it's your study plan. It's your Bible. You make a choice of how you're going to do that, but make sure you have a key that you know what it is.

But now some of you, I just lost you because you're saying, "There ain't no way in heaven that I'm going to get that detailed."

Well, just get one little pen and one yellow marker so that you can underline verses that jump out to you and then write in the margin why.

Now we also have free sermon notebooks out there that you can get blank sheets of paper. We have those out there in church merch. Say church merch!

Thank you! You're free!

So we try to help you out as much as we can. So you understand.

So back to this. So when I restudied Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6, the verse jumped out at me, and it says this: "I'm certain God who began what kind of work?"

Now, if you have a Spirit-Filled Study Bible, good! It's highlighted, it's bold, and then right over here is word wealth, and it'll tell you the Greek word there is—and it gives you the understanding of that, a synonym for that to help you to understand.

So it said, "God who began a good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day that we see Jesus."

So I looked at that, and I'm thinking, "Okay, God, why is that verse standing out to me? What is it saying to me?"

So in my journal, I wrote this: "Terry, God began a good work in you at salvation, right? And he promises—and I underline that—he promises to continue the process of spiritual growth until you see the Lord Jesus. He wants you to reflect his character."

So I look at that and I think, "Wow! It's not all my responsibility. It's not all the pressure on me. But when I cooperate with God, when I read, reflect, and respond, that word becomes life to me, and he is going to finish the work that he started."

Wow! I love that!

Number four: pray to God to speak to you and apply what he shows you. Pray that God will speak to you through that passage.

So it's just simple. I'll open up the word. "Okay, God, what do you want to say to me out of chapter one?"

And this jumped out at me just a few minutes ago on the way to church this morning. There were a lot of people preaching and making Paul feel bad because they had wrong motives.

But in verse 19 of chapter one, Paul says, "But it doesn't matter whether their motives are false or genuine. It's about Christ as being preached either way. So I rejoice, and I will continue to rejoice."

He said, "They're trying to make life hard on me, and they're very divisive. But he said, 'You know what? When they preach Jesus, I'm going to rejoice because it's being preached.'"

What are you saying to Lord? What are you saying to me?

So when you open up Philippians today and you start reading, "Okay, God, what are you saying to me?"

You see, God is writing your story as I speak. He's writing your story as I speak.

But the question is, will you cooperate with what he's writing?

Someone I heard this week said, "Well, I can't believe God would let this happen to me." And I'm thinking, "Heck!" Another word came to my mind, but I won't say it.

"Didn't do that to you. That happened because of wrong choices over a long period of time, and now you're blaming God for that."

Nope! God was writing your story, but you didn't cooperate with him.

So I'm telling you, let's get back to the word. Remember when you first became a believer? It's a long time for me because I'm 74. I became a believer when I was about 5 or 6, so you calculate that.

But some of you, you recently, in the last 10-15 years, became a Christ follower. Remember when you first picked up the word? Remember how you read it? You thought, "Oh man, that's cool!"

It's like Howard Hendricks once—I was in a meeting with him. He was a great professor from Dallas Theological Seminary, and he was also the Bible—what do you call him? For the Dallas football team? Chaplain! That's the word!

And he said in one of the Bible studies, one of the big old linemen came to me, and he had a—his hand engulfed the New Testament.

"Look at what I read this week! It looked like God said this to me, prof!"

I bet he never said that to you, did he?

Howard said, "I looked at that big old lineman and said, 'You got that yourself! You read that and understand what God was saying to you! What a way to go!'"

How many of you would do your best to choose a translation you understand, position yourself to hear from God, to choose a plan that works for you, and pray for God to speak to you the best you can?

Would you raise your hand because I want to pray for you?

Let's bow our heads.

Father, I pray for those who have raised their hands. Lord, I raise my hand. I raise my hand, Lord. I've been a believer all these years, but Lord, I want to be more effective in studying your word, especially as we move into these dark times we're in today.

So Lord, I pray for those who've raised their hands.

Now, as every head is still bowed and every eye is closed, I want to also pray for some of you today.

Let me tell you a story. In the beginning was the word. The word was God. The word was with God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and his name was Jesus.

Who is Jesus? He's the perfect lamb of God. You know, if you've ever been filled guilty of your sins, it's because you sinned against God.

And the only person who ever lived and walked the face of this earth that never sinned against God is Jesus. But yet the word says God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus, that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

So if you're here today or watching online, it's time for new life. Maybe you've just been so sick, but I believe the story is God wants you healed.

Maybe you've been addicted, but I believe God wants you to be sober and clean and free. Maybe you're depressed and anxious. I believe he wants you to experience his peace.

Maybe you've been lost, but he wants you to be found.

So as everyone is praying, if you're here today and you say, "I need to be found. I've been running my life, but it's not been going well."

Or maybe years ago you made a decision for Christ, and you've gone away from him. But today you say, "You know what? I want to get back on track."

Would you raise your hand and make eye contact with me, and I want to pray for you today?

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Others today? Thank you, sir. Others today? That's me. That's me.

Pray this prayer with me today:

Father God, thank you for sending your son, Jesus, to die for my sins. I confess I am a sinner in need of a savior.

And I believe you died for my sins, and so I appropriate your death to pay for my sins. Fill me with your spirit.

As best as I know how, I'm going to live for you. I'm going to study your word. I'm going to live for you.

In Jesus' name.

Well, I hope that made sense for you. Let's give the Lord a hand clap as Anita comes to lead us.

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "The church is supposed to be about our community. And of course in our community, we had a tragic incident happen. And I'm going to have Lieutenant Travis to give you an update because we need to specifically pray about one issue." [32:59] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "Revival will happen in this church when we all get a fresh love of God's word. And we don't just read it, but we study it. We read a passage and then say, 'God, what are you saying to me?' And so in these next four weeks, I'm going to do my best to help us all." [44:19] (19 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "I'm telling you, this is not just a book that you study. This book is living. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And through the centuries and the years, the words of God... this book tells us the characteristics and the heart of God." [45:54] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "God is writing your story as I speak. He's writing your story as I speak. But the question is, will you cooperate with what he's writing?" [01:15:06] (16 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "Remember when you first became a believer? It's a long time for me because I'm 74. I became a believer when I was about 5 or 6. So you calculate that. But some of you, you recently, in the last 10-15 years, became a Christ follower. Remember when you first picked up the word? Remember how you read it? You thought, 'Oh man, that's cool.'" [01:16:13] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




### Quotes for Members

1. "It's not enough just to read the Bible, but we have to get the Bible into us. And the only way we can get the Bible into us is through study and meditation and application." [42:21] (13 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




2. "So what if you got this note in the mail from one of your friends and it said, 'Uzza wuzza jazza wuzza Surfus Murfus trufus.' Yeah, you look at that and you say, 'Hmm, is this a secret code? Is this a language that I've never understood? Is there a special meaning to this?' And at the end, you would simply say, 'Unless someone explains this to me, I don't understand it.' And I think that's how a lot of people think about this word." [38:51] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




3. "So if I get up in the morning and I say, 'You know what, I just need a devotional thought today. I don't need to do something in depth. You know, it's been one of those mornings.' Anybody ever had one of those mornings? Go deep and study and like look all the tough stuff. I just want to come over here. I want to just read something from Gene Peterson's book, The Message." [50:55] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




4. "So when you open up Philippians today and you start reading, 'Okay God, what are you saying to me?' You see, God is writing your story as I speak. He's writing your story as I speak. But the question is, will you cooperate with what he's writing?" [01:15:06] (26 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)




5. "So when I restudied Philippians, chapter 1 verse 6, verse jumped out at me. And it says this: 'I'm certain God who began what kind of work?' Now if you have a spirit-filled study Bible, 'good' is highlighted, is bold. And then right over here is word wealth. And it'll tell you the Greek word there is and it gives you the understanding of that, a synonym for that, to help you to understand." [01:12:34] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)