back to index2018-01-16: Wed Bible Study Lesson 2
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Alright, so you should have gotten a sheet from me. 00:00:06.560 |
So there isn't going to be a sheet for you every single week, but the weeks that, obviously 00:00:11.960 |
I'm going to give it to you, you'll have that, you have it for today. 00:00:15.200 |
Every week I'm going to give you some input on hermeneutic principles. 00:00:23.680 |
So as we're studying it, we're going to go over certain hermeneutical principles on how 00:00:28.360 |
you ought to study the Bible, instead of giving it to you all at once, we're going to review 00:00:34.760 |
So to start, do I need to stand aside a little bit? 00:00:44.920 |
Alright, so first thing, when we're studying the Bible, again, as I mentioned before, the 00:00:56.440 |
goal of this study is to get you to learn how to do inductive Bible study, not to simply 00:01:04.280 |
So interpreting a passage in harmony with its context, we talked about that last week, 00:01:09.740 |
If you take it out of the context, that's where bad doctrines come from. 00:01:13.360 |
So a lot of times, if you've ever had a discussion with a Jehovah's Witness about heaven, about 00:01:19.280 |
salvation, about the identity of Christ, they'll spit Bible verses at you, and if you don't 00:01:28.160 |
But once you actually go to the text that they're quoting, you're going to see it has 00:01:40.080 |
So interpret a passage in harmony with the context. 00:01:43.040 |
There's a logical connection from one section of the scripture to the next, just like if 00:01:46.940 |
you're reading any letter, you wouldn't start in the middle, you wouldn't start at the end, 00:01:52.200 |
So you must try to find the overall purpose of the book in order to determine the meaning 00:01:55.760 |
of the particular words or passages in the book. 00:01:58.300 |
So one of the first things I ask you to do is to know the four chapters. 00:02:04.160 |
I'm assuming 100% of you did that before you came. 00:02:10.660 |
You have to understand what he says in the whole letter in order for us to go back into 00:02:15.520 |
verses three to eight, and where does this fit in into his larger letter. 00:02:21.080 |
So you don't want to just go in there and then interpret a particular verse or a word 00:02:25.120 |
outside of the larger context of what he's trying to say. 00:02:30.320 |
So that's why I asked you, like we outlined chapter one, to take some time to outline 00:02:35.680 |
So if you haven't done that, I want to encourage you as a homework to go back this week and 00:02:41.480 |
I'm going to give you the general outline for the sake of time, but that's not enough. 00:02:47.420 |
You can't just take an outline that I give you and say, "Oh, that's what it says." 00:02:51.020 |
It's a world of difference in the way that you're going to understand the text if you 00:02:54.920 |
already know what he is saying instead of just regurgitating what I'm saying. 00:02:59.720 |
So each word must be understood within the context of the verse. 00:03:04.380 |
So if you interpret love, servant, grace, outside of the context of what Paul meant 00:03:13.820 |
and what he meant within the context of that letter and that verse, again, that's where 00:03:19.920 |
Each verse must be understood within the context of the paragraph. 00:03:24.420 |
So you need to know the word in the context of the verse, the verse in the context of 00:03:28.300 |
the paragraph, paragraph in the context of the chapter. 00:03:32.260 |
So verses three to eight that we're looking at, Paul is giving thanks in his introduction, 00:03:39.480 |
Where does this fit in, into the larger context? 00:03:42.200 |
And then each chapter must be understood within the context of the book, this letter. 00:03:53.880 |
Don't look at your Bibles, but based upon what you've read and the outline that you 00:03:57.340 |
give, if you were to give like one sentence statement of why Paul wrote this letter, what 00:04:03.340 |
is the main thrust of this letter, what would you say? 00:04:08.600 |
Please yell it out if you have an opinion on that. 00:04:22.440 |
So the centrality of Christ to the Christian faith. 00:04:24.440 |
So if you have anything similar to that, that's probably, if you've read through it and outlined 00:04:28.960 |
it, that's probably the essential theme that is connecting all these thoughts together. 00:04:37.040 |
So if you want to learn about Christology, the identity of Christ, what he did in redemption, 00:04:42.960 |
where he stands before the Father, where does he stand in context of creation, all of that 00:04:53.600 |
What's another book that's really heavy in Christology? 00:04:59.640 |
Hebrews is another book that's very heavy in Christology. 00:05:03.040 |
So Colossians in Paul's epistles is probably the heaviest in Christology. 00:05:09.440 |
And again, each book must be understood within the context of the whole Bible. 00:05:14.520 |
So where does this fit into redemptive history? 00:05:16.280 |
So Paul's epistles are very easy to figure out where it fits in because he straight up 00:05:20.440 |
tells you, this is the gospel, this is why Christ came. 00:05:24.620 |
But there are some other letters that you might read, like those of you who are memorizing 00:05:30.520 |
It's not as clear, so you have to ask that larger question. 00:05:33.400 |
Where does James fit in into the context of the larger redemptive history? 00:05:41.400 |
But where does that fit in into the context of the gospel ministry? 00:05:45.300 |
So that question has to be answered before you go and interpret what he's saying in the 00:05:52.020 |
So that's why it's important for us to do a larger study of the book before you jump 00:06:00.080 |
So Paul's main thing is about Christology, but why does he emphasize Christology to the 00:06:09.880 |
Now you didn't read the commentaries, I'm just assuming you didn't, but why do you think, 00:06:14.720 |
if you remember the outline of the letter, why does he feel the need to stress Christology 00:06:31.680 |
There's two different issues that he deals with, and you see it in the letters. 00:06:38.320 |
There is an element of semi-Gnostics, who are, again, they're messing around with Jesus' 00:06:48.680 |
First John deals with the Gnostics, who are saying that the flesh and the spirit is separate. 00:06:54.800 |
So Christ didn't come in the flesh, and what you do in the flesh doesn't matter. 00:06:58.200 |
So there's an element of that that he's trying to correct by teaching who Jesus is. 00:07:03.160 |
And then there's another element, the Judaizers. 00:07:07.200 |
He talks about how these elementary things have passed away, that it no longer applies 00:07:15.200 |
So he's dealing with both problems, the problem that dominated the Gentile world, and then 00:07:25.720 |
But the way he deals with it is by going back and teaching about who Jesus is and what he's 00:07:33.480 |
So that's the overarching theme of Colossians. 00:07:37.560 |
Can somebody tell me how Colossians is divided? 00:07:41.000 |
Just overarching, large, not just three verses and five verses, and hopefully you did that 00:07:47.920 |
Just for the sake of time, what is the large divide in the book of Colossians? 00:08:18.600 |
First two chapters mainly deal with Christology. 00:08:21.960 |
Who is Jesus, what did he do, and how did that affect us? 00:08:26.840 |
If you get to chapter three, what does the first verse, first line of chapter three begin 00:08:33.000 |
In fact, he'll mention it a couple times in the beginning of chapter three. 00:08:36.720 |
So he's taking all the things that he's taught about Christ, and so therefore this is how 00:08:47.920 |
In fact, large chunks of the New Testament letters are all divided that way. 00:08:55.480 |
This is who he is, this is what he's done, therefore you need to do this. 00:09:01.640 |
Adoption, election, his love, therefore live up to the calling that you've received. 00:09:07.880 |
And so Paul, before he gets to this is what you ought to do, he talks about why you ought 00:09:15.400 |
So that's the large division in the book of Colossians. 00:09:18.100 |
He's dealing with these two specific problems, but the way he deals with it is teaching Christ 00:09:27.380 |
So obviously the next couple months we're going to be in the first two chapters, and 00:09:36.560 |
Now a lot of these things may be new to you, for a lot of you who have been a Christian 00:09:40.960 |
for a while, none of these terms are going to be new. 00:09:45.080 |
But what I really want to encourage you is that sometimes the things that you think you 00:09:50.200 |
know are the areas that you are the most blind in. 00:09:54.700 |
Because you just assume, because you hear these terms so often, if you haven't taken 00:09:59.560 |
the time to ask questions and dig, you probably only have like first grade level understanding 00:10:06.880 |
And so the purpose of this inductive study is for you to go deeper. 00:10:13.680 |
Why does he open the letter this way in every letter? 00:10:16.340 |
Why does he address him this way but not the other person that way? 00:10:19.480 |
All of these things will help you to go deeper into what he means. 00:10:25.840 |
So we already went through, so the two words or phrases that are the most repeated in the 00:10:41.760 |
Next time you go through Colossians, just highlight every time it says Jesus or Christ, 00:10:49.100 |
And it's peppered all throughout the book of Colossians. 00:10:51.880 |
Or he, him, right, referring to Jesus, right, is also highlighted every year. 00:10:59.800 |
So if you combine it together, the most common phrase that you will see all throughout, maybe 00:11:03.920 |
like 20 to, anywhere from 20 to 30 times, it's mentioned where Jesus Christ, him, he, 00:11:10.640 |
he did this, he is our redemption, over and over again. 00:11:13.960 |
So just by highlighting these repeated words, you can automatically tell that that's what 00:11:22.440 |
That's the main thrust of this letter, just by seeing the repetition. 00:11:28.920 |
To give you a quick background of this letter, I'm not going to go too deep into this, but 00:11:39.760 |
Yes, but within the epistles, there's a specific title given to four epistles. 00:11:58.900 |
Remember at the end of the Book of Acts, Apostle Paul, remember we were studying at the very 00:12:04.420 |
end, tail end of the Book of Acts, how he prayed to come to Rome and be able to be a 00:12:10.040 |
witness and remember he ends up in Rome and he spends a couple of years there and he gets 00:12:15.720 |
And so during that period is when he writes this, one of the letters. 00:12:19.760 |
So the four prison epistles is Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and what's the other 00:12:26.120 |
They're called the prison epistles because he writes it most likely when he was imprisoned 00:12:33.360 |
In fact, God gave him all the freedom that he needed during this period and he writes 00:12:39.540 |
One of the questions that you guys asked was what's the background behind this? 00:12:42.820 |
If you look at Ephesians chapter 4, 12, okay, go to Ephesians chapter 4, 12. 00:12:52.060 |
Epaphras is mentioned here, right, as a bond servant, fellow faithful worker of Jesus Christ. 00:12:59.740 |
But in chapter 4, 12, what does it say about Epaphras? 00:13:14.500 |
Chapter 4, 12, what does it say about Epaphras? 00:13:49.040 |
So Epaphras was from Colossae and so he was the carrier of the letter. 00:13:55.320 |
So Paul probably heard from Epaphras what was going on in Colossae. 00:14:00.320 |
So what he says in the beginning, he probably heard from Epaphras and from other people 00:14:06.480 |
And he hears great things that are happening but he's also concerned about the false teaching 00:14:14.100 |
So Paul, concerned over that, knowing that Epaphras is one of his fellow workers, he 00:14:19.100 |
writes this letter and Epaphras takes it over there. 00:14:26.500 |
So the hermeneutical principle that I want you to remember, again, context, context, 00:14:32.300 |
context, but this is the one that I want you to remember for today. 00:14:37.620 |
So when you are interpreting something, if that passage contradicts something else in 00:14:42.540 |
the scripture, you're probably interpreting it wrong. 00:14:47.460 |
You have to understand that we're not studying Paul's letters and Peter's letters as if they 00:14:54.220 |
There's only one true author, the Holy Spirit. 00:14:57.860 |
We're not talking to non-Christians trying to debate the authorship of the Bible. 00:15:01.380 |
We're assuming that we all agree that the author is the Holy Spirit. 00:15:06.520 |
So if the author is the Holy Spirit, the author is not going to say something that's going 00:15:11.880 |
So the one principle I want you to pay attention to is whatever insight that you have, if that 00:15:19.580 |
contradicts something else that is written in other parts of scripture, you have to go 00:15:25.020 |
back and look to make sure that you're not interpreting it wrong. 00:15:30.740 |
And that's why typically when you're doing Bible study, if you have time, you always 00:15:36.100 |
So if there's something being said, does he say the same thing somewhere else? 00:15:43.040 |
That's why, like those of you, again, studying the book of James, right, or memorizing the 00:15:47.020 |
book of James, it says, "Faith without deeds is dead. 00:15:54.380 |
And one is saved not simply by faith, but by works. 00:16:00.860 |
It's like, well, James is saying that you're saved by works. 00:16:04.740 |
And then Paul is saying in other parts that he says. 00:16:08.720 |
So is this contradicting or are we not understanding what he is saying? 00:16:17.100 |
So I'm giving you an example of when you interpret scripture, you have to allow scripture to 00:16:23.260 |
I mean, you can ask Pastor Peter about the details, but James is not saying salvation 00:16:31.180 |
He's saying, "I will show you my faith by my works." 00:16:34.420 |
So faith can be evidenced, is something that you can see by how somebody applies what he 00:16:41.980 |
But if you say you have faith and there is no application of that, your faith is dead. 00:16:47.180 |
So he's not saying anything different than what Paul is saying. 00:16:50.260 |
He's just emphasizing this is what true faith looks like, right? 00:16:55.200 |
So that's an example of how scripture has to interpret scripture. 00:16:58.800 |
You can't just take scripture and say, it seems to say something. 00:17:11.860 |
So if you get to your, the handout, there's a section that I just kind of put the verses 00:17:18.500 |
So if you are comfortable writing notes on your Bible, I encourage you to do that. 00:17:23.440 |
But you know, one thing I found out is through years of jotting notes on my Bible, six, seven 00:17:28.460 |
years later, I look at my notes and it's just complete nonsense. 00:17:32.420 |
It's not nonsense, but these are things that I wouldn't need to see five years later. 00:17:38.900 |
So I've reserved making permanent notes on my Bible on things that I know that six, seven 00:17:44.720 |
years later, I'm going to look at it and say, oh, that's helpful. 00:17:48.460 |
But I see some of your Bibles and it's like red mark, yellow mark, green mark everywhere. 00:17:58.620 |
You were doing quiet time one day and you're just like, yes, this is so good. 00:18:02.340 |
And then years later you were like, you completely forgot why you highlighted it. 00:18:06.700 |
So if you're one of those people that are comfortable writing through in your Bible, 00:18:10.620 |
But I gave you this because I want you to take notes. 00:18:13.940 |
I want you to look at the way we're looking at these things. 00:18:17.060 |
So you've already done the interpretation, hopefully. 00:18:23.540 |
My point, the job that I'm going to do is just to kind of highlight and to show you 00:18:28.780 |
some insights that I saw and it may supplement what you guys talked about, but it's not meant 00:18:34.700 |
to replace it or for you to come and just listen to me. 00:18:40.540 |
So I look at this passage, Paul says, we give thanks. 00:18:47.540 |
Again, some of the things that I'm going to highlight to you may not be significant, but 00:18:52.740 |
you notice where he says we, a lot of his letter, he says I. 00:18:58.700 |
But Colossians and Thessalonians, he says we, where there's an emphasis on his ministry 00:19:08.020 |
Later on, he does talk about his particular ministry as an apostle, but at least in the 00:19:14.420 |
He gives thanks to God and then he says he prays always for them. 00:19:20.620 |
The first thing that I asked myself is I know that this is a typical opening of a letter, 00:19:30.140 |
Obviously the question, the answer has to be yes. 00:19:36.460 |
And you see that oftentimes like he's, this is a church that he's never met. 00:19:41.380 |
He hears about it and he says, I'm praying for you. 00:19:43.660 |
And obviously Paul's sitting in prison, but consider all the letters that he wrote, consider 00:19:47.980 |
all the people that he was with and then he just take time to actually pray for them and 00:19:57.260 |
The thought that I had was I think there is a disconnect. 00:20:03.140 |
Like sometimes we get excited about what's happening in our church and then you hear 00:20:07.660 |
what's happening down the street and we almost feel disconnected. 00:20:12.060 |
Like what we know mentally that we're all in the kingdom, we're all servants of Christ, 00:20:17.780 |
but the way that we oftentimes function is like this is the kingdom. 00:20:23.540 |
And we don't, we don't often rejoice over what's happening in God's larger kingdom with 00:20:29.180 |
And the reason why I believe Paul is able to say this because he is so committed to 00:20:34.420 |
And like he says in Philippians chapter one, some, some preach Christ out of envy, some 00:20:38.180 |
preach out of rivalry, some preach Christ out of, you know, good motivation, but whatever 00:20:43.500 |
it is that Christ is being preached and therefore I give thanks and rejoice. 00:20:48.500 |
And so it was because Paul is that committed to spreading of the gospel. 00:20:51.460 |
He wasn't committed ultimately in spreading his ministry, right? 00:20:56.380 |
His brand, but at the spreading of the gospel. 00:20:58.380 |
And that's something that obviously I think pastors struggle with that more than lay people 00:21:03.380 |
because we're so committed to building up of bringing community church and where I'm 00:21:10.580 |
We have a tendency to get excited, to get kind of tunnel vision about Berean, but not 00:21:17.340 |
So Paul, he says this quite a bit in all of his letters. 00:21:21.260 |
And the other thing that I want to highlight is he begins by thanking God. 00:21:26.340 |
He doesn't say, hey, I heard great things about you. 00:21:36.500 |
He recognizes all that is happening in Colossians is because of what God is doing. 00:21:42.580 |
And he gives credit to God in every one of these letters, even in the Corinthians. 00:21:48.220 |
Before he breaks into all of his rebukes, he begins by saying, I'm so thankful for you 00:21:54.220 |
Because it's evidence that God's grace is upon you. 00:21:57.060 |
And part of the reason why all this problem is because God is working in you. 00:22:03.020 |
So he recognizes God's work, even in the context of frustration. 00:22:08.500 |
If you notice here, he begins the father, the son. 00:22:21.860 |
So as he gives thanks, he gives credit to the Trinitarian God that he worships. 00:22:28.320 |
It doesn't say that triune God, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:22:31.980 |
And oftentimes you'll see that same reference. 00:22:38.900 |
But he realizes that ultimately, father is the initiator. 00:22:44.740 |
And the agent that causes people to do this is what? 00:22:49.820 |
So even in this short text, you can see Paul recognizing the Holy Spirit's work in Colossae. 00:22:56.700 |
He says, "Since we heard of your," and this is probably, if you studied this passage, 00:23:27.100 |
And out of these three, which is the greatest? 00:23:30.860 |
So Paul says he's recognizing God's work in them since he heard of their faith in Christ. 00:23:40.620 |
Faith specifically in the doctrine of Christ, which is what he's going to be talking about. 00:23:45.220 |
So when he says faith in Christ, that kind of sets the tone for what he's going to say 00:23:53.940 |
So remember I told you why it's important for us to have the bigger picture? 00:23:58.560 |
Because we already know he mentions Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, him, him, him, he, Jesus, 00:24:07.580 |
So his whole thrust of the letter is to teach Christ. 00:24:10.640 |
He begins the letter by saying, "God is doing great work in you," and he already sees the 00:24:15.580 |
Trinitarian work in them, and then he begins by faith in Christ. 00:24:20.540 |
And he's going to solidify this in this letter. 00:24:39.780 |
When he says love, he's not just talking about love for the people who are lovable, certain 00:24:48.460 |
This is agape love, covenant love, Christ love. 00:24:54.900 |
This is not the kind of love that the world practices. 00:25:02.900 |
Not hope that if you work hard, your job is going to get better, your relationship is 00:25:06.100 |
going to get better, but the hope he's talking about is eternal. 00:25:11.580 |
Because of his faith, that is evidenced by love, motivated by hope. 00:25:20.340 |
But if you notice here, he begins by saying this faith is evidenced by love, and then 00:25:37.700 |
He begins by saying your faith in Christ, love for all the saints, hope in heaven, right, 00:25:46.580 |
He also informed us of your love in the spirit. 00:25:49.140 |
So this section, verses 3 to 8, is a description of God's work in Colossae. 00:25:58.180 |
If you study any other part of the Bible, you probably have heard this many times before. 00:26:03.700 |
So it emphasizes for us that this is the backbone of Christianity that Paul's talking about. 00:26:09.460 |
He's talking about God's work in them, the Trinitarian work, and the way that the fruit 00:26:15.780 |
that he sees from that is faith in Christ, which is evidenced by love for all the saints, 00:26:28.580 |
So the first two chapters, he's going to be talking about Christ, his identity, the second 00:26:34.220 |
person of the Trinity, and then this chapter 3 and 4, he's going to be talking about the 00:26:49.140 |
So oftentimes when you're studying the epistles, you'll see an outline of what he's about to 00:27:03.180 |
Another thing he talks about, he says, "Which you previously heard of the word of truth, 00:27:32.980 |
Are there people sacrificing and risking their lives? 00:27:36.020 |
But the emphasis in Paul is God's working through what? 00:27:41.740 |
"Which has come to you, just as in all the world, as it is also constantly bearing fruit." 00:27:54.300 |
Since the day that you heard it and then you understood it, just as you learned it. 00:28:02.660 |
You see how the gospel, the way he mentions the fruit of the gospel, isn't like you heard 00:28:09.300 |
He describes it in the context of justification and sanctification. 00:28:14.460 |
Because he says, "It came to you, it is bearing fruit, and it is increasing." 00:28:21.580 |
You weren't just justified and you're done, but the gospel is continuing to bear fruit. 00:28:26.760 |
And then you heard it and then you understood it. 00:28:28.820 |
A lot of people hear the gospel, but then your understanding of the gospel is shallow. 00:28:34.580 |
And because of your understanding of the gospel is shallow, it's very elementary. 00:28:40.180 |
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." 00:28:45.540 |
That's a backbone of Christianity, but a lot of Christians, that's where they stay. 00:28:59.060 |
And so they kind of like, "God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. 00:29:04.660 |
So we have all these elementary things and verses that we regurgitate and we think we 00:29:14.780 |
And so if you look at the way he describes the gospel, it's ongoing. 00:29:20.940 |
It came to your understanding just as you learned it from Epaphras. 00:29:29.540 |
We're trying to learn the gospel we know, but deeper. 00:29:38.500 |
Alright, so everything that I said here, this is not coming from commentary. 00:29:48.940 |
If you take time to invest in studying the word of God, you don't need to go to seminary. 00:29:55.720 |
And that's one of the most valuable things that I learned early on in doing the inductive 00:30:01.360 |
All the years that I took theology classes and doing Greek papers and all this stuff, 00:30:06.080 |
the first time the Bible really opened up to me was I was doing inductive Bible studies, 00:30:13.920 |
And I remember I was cramming, because Bible study was coming up and I wasn't done. 00:30:19.060 |
So I went into the library at Biola and I spent four hours just going through the passage, 00:30:25.240 |
just asking questions, getting observations, and asking questions, getting observations. 00:30:29.600 |
And then by the time I went through about two or three passages like that, I started 00:30:38.280 |
And then afterwards, I went to read the commentaries just to compare. 00:30:43.860 |
And what I realized was that everything that the insight I got, it was in the commentary. 00:30:49.520 |
So it just kind of confirms, like, okay, this isn't heresy, it's in here. 00:30:53.480 |
But the biggest thing that I learned was that the commentators were not giving me any other 00:31:03.580 |
The only difference was they spent a lot of time in the verse. 00:31:08.160 |
So most of the insights from the commentary wasn't because they knew Greek. 00:31:12.520 |
It wasn't because they had this, like, lofty theology and had education. 00:31:15.760 |
It's just they spent a lot of time digging through that text. 00:31:20.880 |
And so they were giving insights that I was getting on my own, right? 00:31:25.120 |
So this is why I want you to go through inductive Bible study, because I want you to be able 00:31:32.440 |
to look at these verses and take time to ask good questions so that you can come up with 00:31:38.800 |
And eventually, you'll see that you become a student of the Word of God, not just hearers, 00:31:42.440 |
but you become a student of the Word of God, learning how to ask questions and gain insight. 00:31:46.160 |
And if you do that enough, Sunday messages, Bible studies, just a supplement for you. 00:31:56.500 |
Your main sustenance should be something that you're able to cook and read and study on 00:32:01.800 |
And then you come and you hear a proclamation, and it kind of reinforces what you're doing, 00:32:08.720 |
Instead of being dependent on it, it reinforces you. 00:32:10.760 |
And then your spiritual life will benefit tremendously if your God is more of a supplement 00:32:20.800 |
So have you guys take some time for the discussion time? 00:32:28.040 |
Again, like I said, it's going to probably take about three to four weeks for us to get 00:32:40.200 |
If not, hopefully as we're going along, you get in the habit of jumping into the text 00:32:44.600 |
yourself so that when you come, you have something to contribute, and then you'll get more out 00:32:51.800 |
When was the last time you really rejoiced over someone else's salvation or spreading 00:32:55.840 |
of the gospel in places you are not personally involved in? 00:32:58.760 |
Or do you only rejoice if it's a family friend or personal friend, right? 00:33:02.600 |
Do you really rejoice over God's kingdom, what God is doing, okay? 00:33:08.840 |
What is it that you look forward to when you think of eternity? 00:33:11.200 |
What are you eager to leave behind and what are you eager to gain in heaven? 00:33:15.640 |
And how often do you think about this and how does that affect the way you live your 00:33:21.720 |
And third, in what way do you see yourself actively engaged in bearing fruit in accordance 00:33:27.920 |
The gospel itself is bearing fruit, but what part do you play in the gospel bearing fruit 00:33:32.680 |
What tangible things are you hoping to accomplish in next week, month, or year? 00:33:37.220 |
So after you discuss this, I don't want you to take too much time, but at the very end, 00:33:41.760 |
at the bottom of the sheet, like we have questions for the next passage, verse 9 through 12, 00:33:47.280 |
okay, which Pastor Mark is going to lead because I'm going to be in India. 00:33:50.900 |
And so if you guys can take, just at the very end, we don't want you to take like 15 minutes 00:33:54.820 |
talking about this, just to get the group started. 00:33:57.600 |
At that tail end, after you've prayed and you've finished, take about five minutes to 00:34:01.280 |
look over that passage and then collectively see if you can come up with some questions. 00:34:08.400 |
Come up with some questions for your group to wrestle with, and then when you come back 00:34:12.160 |
next week, you'll try to answer that question in your small group, okay? 00:34:23.420 |
Instead of me giving you the questions, I want you to get in the habit in your small 00:34:28.020 |
groups of asking the questions yourself, instead of me looking at it and giving you the questions. 00:34:42.360 |
All I want you guys to do for the next passage is to just get started. 00:34:48.120 |
Like take five minutes at the end of your discussion, looking at this verse and say, 00:34:53.200 |
what are five, six questions that you can see from that text, just to get your group 00:35:14.480 |
I could ask it for you, but part of the inductive Bible study is for you to come up with questions, 00:35:23.080 |
So let me pray for us and then I'll get you into your small groups. 00:35:26.480 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the study of your word. 00:35:32.400 |
And I know, Father God, that many of us in here may have never studied your word in this 00:35:38.900 |
So we pray, especially Father God, through this study, you give us wisdom and insight. 00:35:43.780 |
Help us, Lord, not to be afraid to tackle the word and thinking that only pastors and 00:35:51.920 |
And I pray that all of us would truly be Bereans who will search the word to see if what they 00:35:56.920 |
are hearing on Sunday, Bible study, in sermons, Lord God, even on the radio, that we will 00:36:03.480 |
be able to discern ourselves, Lord God, with your living word. 00:36:07.400 |
And so we ask for your blessing over our discussion.