I Read the Bible and Feel Nothing — What Should I Do?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - We close out the week with a very commonly asked question
00:00:07.840 | in the minds of many Christians,
00:00:09.480 | and it's a question that you, Pastor John,
00:00:10.920 | are asked a lot on the road,
00:00:12.760 | and it's one of the most common questions
00:00:14.280 | we get from our listener emails as well.
00:00:16.540 | Here it is.
00:00:17.600 | If I read my Bible, but I don't feel anything
00:00:20.240 | in my affections that resonates with the worth
00:00:23.000 | and the value and the preciousness of the words,
00:00:26.120 | of what those words communicate to me,
00:00:28.860 | is there anything I can do next,
00:00:30.840 | or do I just have to wait and let the experience
00:00:33.400 | happen to me in the future?
00:00:35.520 | How would you answer such a question?
00:00:38.080 | - Well, I am so glad for the question
00:00:40.840 | because it is something that I've been thinking about
00:00:44.440 | recently so much because I've been meditating
00:00:47.720 | on a section of the book of Proverbs,
00:00:51.720 | and I think this section of the book of Proverbs
00:00:54.640 | is introduced by the inspired writer
00:00:57.800 | precisely to answer that question.
00:01:00.060 | So the section is Proverbs 22, 17,
00:01:05.060 | down to 24, 22, I think it goes,
00:01:10.440 | and it's a section, in fact, I'll just pause here.
00:01:13.560 | No, I won't.
00:01:14.400 | You can pause. (laughs)
00:01:16.000 | So push pause if you wanna go get your Bible
00:01:18.680 | 'cause I'm gonna get everything I have to say
00:01:21.120 | from about three lines in verses 17 and 18 of Proverbs 22.
00:01:27.560 | So get your Bible.
00:01:29.200 | Okay, now you've got your Bible.
00:01:31.240 | And the section runs from 22, 17 down to 24, 22,
00:01:36.240 | and it's called, if you look at the end, verse 20,
00:01:41.280 | it says, "Have I not written for you 30 sayings?"
00:01:45.600 | Now, those 30 sayings are found in 22, 17 to 24, 22
00:01:50.600 | in groupings.
00:01:52.280 | Some Bibles break the groupings out for you.
00:01:54.960 | So every time a new theme starts,
00:01:57.960 | there's a new saying, and there are 30 of them in this unit.
00:02:02.960 | And in verse 17 is where they start,
00:02:06.040 | and it says, "Incline your ear
00:02:08.480 | and hear the words of the wise."
00:02:11.200 | So these are usually entitled the words of the wise.
00:02:16.200 | Now, what's so important about this
00:02:19.760 | is that I think the first two verses
00:02:21.920 | or the first three verses, perhaps,
00:02:24.960 | in this new section of 30 sayings
00:02:29.320 | are written precisely to answer the question
00:02:34.100 | that we've just been given, namely, how do you hear
00:02:39.100 | and how do you feel appropriately these words?
00:02:43.520 | So let me read verse 17 and 18.
00:02:47.620 | "Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise
00:02:52.620 | and apply your heart to my knowledge,
00:02:57.800 | for it will be pleasant if you keep them."
00:03:02.800 | These words of the wise, communicating that knowledge.
00:03:05.840 | It will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
00:03:09.880 | if all of them are ready on your lips.
00:03:15.080 | So two things, the first line,
00:03:17.620 | incline your ear and hear the words of the wise.
00:03:21.080 | So clearly, the point there is words are being spoken
00:03:29.100 | and you should lean in, incline your ear.
00:03:33.900 | So literally, if you can't hear them,
00:03:36.580 | what do we do when we can't hear?
00:03:37.580 | We kind of lean, we press in closer,
00:03:40.700 | but we do that with our attention as well.
00:03:43.100 | If you're reading words or if you're hearing words
00:03:45.480 | and the words are just going by,
00:03:47.640 | he's saying, don't let them go by.
00:03:49.680 | Don't let any of the words go by.
00:03:51.840 | Attend meticulously, carefully,
00:03:54.760 | attentively to the words themselves
00:03:57.780 | because the words, next line,
00:04:00.800 | are going to form knowledge in your mind
00:04:05.120 | because the next line says,
00:04:06.360 | "And apply your heart to my knowledge."
00:04:09.520 | So knowledge is what forms in the mind
00:04:12.300 | some idea, some communication of something valuable
00:04:17.200 | or precious or important or wise
00:04:19.700 | that he's going to communicate,
00:04:21.260 | coming through the medium of words that hit your ear,
00:04:25.440 | go inside, produce knowledge, and then here it comes,
00:04:29.920 | "And apply your heart to my knowledge."
00:04:34.560 | And the effect will be, it will be pleasant.
00:04:38.560 | And I take it that the heart is the organ of pleasantness,
00:04:43.560 | pleasure, and that's what the question is, right?
00:04:46.500 | How can I experience pleasure,
00:04:49.060 | an appropriate admiring and valuing and treasuring
00:04:54.060 | and loving and embracing and enjoyment and satisfaction
00:04:59.920 | in what I'm perceiving through the words?
00:05:04.920 | And he says, "The way you do it is apply your heart."
00:05:09.920 | Now, I'm going to talk for just a minute or two
00:05:14.540 | about what that means,
00:05:15.540 | but just know this writer,
00:05:19.740 | this inspired writer is answering your question, yes.
00:05:24.740 | Is there something you can do
00:05:29.220 | to move from ears attending to words
00:05:33.620 | and mind grasping knowledge
00:05:36.520 | to heart experiencing pleasantness of what is within?
00:05:40.960 | Is there anything you can do?
00:05:42.700 | And his answer is yes.
00:05:45.040 | And the words he uses are,
00:05:47.540 | "Apply your heart to what your ear has heard
00:05:52.100 | and the knowledge that's forming in your mind."
00:05:54.380 | What does that mean?
00:05:55.620 | And I've got here right in front of me on my screen,
00:05:59.700 | "Katashit," the verb, "apply."
00:06:03.360 | V'liv-ka-tashit.
00:06:06.680 | Your heart, apply, or literally put or set
00:06:12.640 | or stand or place.
00:06:15.940 | So you take your heart and you push it, you put it,
00:06:20.940 | you place it into what you've seen with your eyes
00:06:24.940 | or heard with your ears.
00:06:26.680 | You push the nose of your heart
00:06:30.980 | in the beauty of the knowledge.
00:06:33.520 | If the heart is not feeling anything,
00:06:35.260 | you say to heart, "Heart, wake up."
00:06:37.740 | And you take hold of the heart and you apply, you push it,
00:06:41.260 | you place it in the knowledge, you push on it.
00:06:44.100 | There is something you can do.
00:06:47.960 | So here's an analogy.
00:06:49.380 | Suppose you would like to taste a steak.
00:06:56.180 | You can hear it sizzling on the grill outside.
00:07:00.320 | So you go outside and then your eyes see the steak
00:07:04.360 | sizzling on the grill.
00:07:06.160 | And if you get close enough,
00:07:07.360 | your nose may smell the steak sizzling on the grill
00:07:11.200 | and still no taste in your mouth of that steak.
00:07:16.200 | Is there anything you can do?
00:07:18.520 | That is the question.
00:07:19.920 | It really is the question.
00:07:21.800 | Is there anything you can do with the steak of God,
00:07:24.760 | with the steak of Christ, with the steak of salvation,
00:07:27.160 | with the steak of the word of God,
00:07:29.620 | the word of the infinite creator God,
00:07:31.940 | is there anything you can do to taste it?
00:07:34.360 | And you know what the answer is.
00:07:36.740 | You take a knife and you cut off a piece
00:07:40.240 | and you put it in your mouth and you chew and you chew
00:07:44.040 | and then you swallow and you taste.
00:07:47.280 | So you say to your heart, "Eat heart, eat heart."
00:07:52.280 | So let me give some more examples.
00:07:54.480 | I'm walking to church.
00:07:56.200 | It's October, this happened last two weeks.
00:07:59.400 | The leaves on the trees in my neighborhood,
00:08:02.240 | unbelievably bright with yellow and orange
00:08:06.440 | and the sun was shining
00:08:07.840 | and it was a more mild October than usual.
00:08:10.980 | And it's 60 degrees, the leaves are flickering
00:08:14.760 | and it is absolutely stunning.
00:08:17.680 | But I'm walking to church to a prayer meeting
00:08:20.360 | and not noticing anything.
00:08:22.500 | My eyes are seeing it and I'm not seeing it.
00:08:26.360 | What has to happen?
00:08:27.520 | I pause, God's grace causes me to pause.
00:08:30.520 | This little podcast right here causes you to pause
00:08:35.520 | and you look at it, you look at it, you lean in
00:08:39.320 | and you say, "Heart, that's orange, that's yellow.
00:08:43.800 | "They were green and now they're orange and yellow and gold
00:08:47.980 | "and the sun is making them bright
00:08:50.260 | "and they are waving at you with the breeze
00:08:53.160 | "and God is trying to get your attention
00:08:55.420 | "and say the glory of God is shining here.
00:08:58.280 | "Look heart," and you push the nose of the heart
00:09:01.680 | up into the tree.
00:09:03.680 | When I came home several days,
00:09:06.120 | there were two or three afternoons that were so stunning.
00:09:08.240 | I would look out my window and say, "Whoa,"
00:09:09.920 | and I'd get up, go downstairs
00:09:11.240 | and I walk under the tree and look up.
00:09:13.040 | Then I walked across the street and looked back.
00:09:15.880 | Then I got out my camera
00:09:17.460 | and tried to get some different shots.
00:09:19.320 | Then I walked around the side of the house
00:09:20.780 | to see what it looked like from that angle.
00:09:22.780 | This is the pushing of the heart
00:09:26.280 | into the gold of natural revelation
00:09:30.260 | and you do the same thing with the word of God.
00:09:35.240 | A diamond is offered you.
00:09:36.600 | You see the diamond but you don't see the diamond
00:09:38.740 | and you say to your heart, "Heart, move around this diamond.
00:09:41.620 | "Look at the diamond from that side
00:09:43.240 | "and look at the diamond from that side."
00:09:46.320 | And you know, when a born again person
00:09:49.200 | is doing Proverbs 17b.
00:09:52.780 | Apply your heart to this knowledge.
00:09:55.560 | Apply your heart, apply your heart.
00:09:58.640 | You can't help but turn it into prayer.
00:10:00.800 | When you're preaching to your heart
00:10:02.360 | and you're saying to your heart,
00:10:03.700 | "Come on, heart, wake up.
00:10:05.080 | "Come on, heart, look at this.
00:10:06.440 | "Come on, heart, feel this.
00:10:08.040 | "This is beautiful.
00:10:09.220 | "Wake up, heart."
00:10:10.640 | Instinctively, you are praying
00:10:14.800 | and you're not just talking to your heart,
00:10:16.360 | though you are talking to your heart
00:10:18.240 | because that's what the text says to do.
00:10:19.840 | Apply your heart.
00:10:21.760 | But you are praying, "God, God help me.
00:10:25.180 | "God, open my eyes."
00:10:28.200 | So may I suggest that even if you listen to this right now
00:10:32.520 | and you say, "I've tried that and it doesn't work,"
00:10:36.040 | or, "I don't even know what you're talking about,"
00:10:38.880 | may I urge you, may I plead with you,
00:10:41.520 | you may be such a novice at this,
00:10:44.800 | like a little child who knows nothing about sex.
00:10:48.800 | You choose an analogy.
00:10:50.320 | You may be such a novice at this that you need practice.
00:10:54.580 | Please, don't give up.
00:10:56.560 | Don't say that you are beyond the capacity
00:11:00.480 | to feel the beauty of the knowledge of God in the Bible
00:11:05.280 | and the knowledge of His ways.
00:11:06.640 | This text is God's word to you.
00:11:09.620 | Apply your heart.
00:11:12.840 | - Amen.
00:11:13.680 | - That's Pastor John.
00:11:15.000 | And with that, another week comes to an end.
00:11:17.080 | And if you missed any of the episodes from the week,
00:11:19.280 | you can catch up with the daily Ask Pastor John podcast app
00:11:23.000 | or you can go online at our online home
00:11:25.840 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:29.440 | And there you can find everything related to this podcast.
00:11:33.320 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:11:34.200 | Have a great weekend.
00:11:35.200 | And we will see you back here on Monday, Lord willing.
00:11:37.900 | (upbeat music)
00:11:40.480 | (upbeat music)
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