(upbeat music) - Today begins our 12th National Conference, and today we're here at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It's also our final National Conference, so it's pretty bittersweet. We've had a great response, and every hotel in downtown Minneapolis is filled up, so it should be a really wonderful weekend together.

The conference is titled, "Look at the Book, Reading the Bible for Yourself." The fun begins this afternoon with seminars from Jerry Bridges, Nancy Guthrie, Ben Stewart, John Bloom, Jason Meyer, and others. And this evening, Pastor John, you will deliver a message titled, "Scripture, the Kindling of Christian Hedonism." And for those of you who are listening who can't make it to Minneapolis, the conference will be live-streamed as well.

Speaking of reading the Bible for ourselves, we have a question from a frustrated podcast listener who asks, "Pastor John, I've read the Bible, "and a lot of it just doesn't make sense to me. "Why should I keep reading if I don't feel "like I know enough to understand it?" What would you say, Pastor John?

- Well, I don't want this person to go on reading without understanding, so I resonate. I love poetry, and I buy volumes of poetry, and I go online and read poets. But if I pick up a new author that I've not read before, and I've done this maybe three times in the last six months, and I try about 10 poems, and none of them makes any sense to me at all, I'm gonna lay the book down.

I am, I get it. I get this. I'm not gonna keep reading the book. You know, for poem after poem after poem, that is meaningless to me. But something else might happen, right? Someone who knows this author way better than I do might come along and say, "Oh, you read those 10?

"Mm, don't start there. "Those are the most obscure, "the most difficult poems he ever wrote." There's a whole world of poems that he has written that are clear and really interesting and really helpful. Here, start here, and maybe you'll even catch on to the way he uses language, and maybe someday those poems will make sense.

In other words, someone might rescue me from throwing away a great poet because I stepped into the deep end of the pool and went over my head right away. So what I'd like to do is help this person get over the hump of feeling like the Bible is over their head or from another planet or just totally irrelevant.

And the real answer to the question of why press on is it's worth it. The Bible has so much to give, and what it has to give only can be found in the Bible. If you turn away from it, it can't be found anywhere else, and nothing can compare to it.

So that Psalm 19 really is true. "More to be desired are they than gold, "even much fine gold, "sweeter also than honey "and drippings from the honeycomb. "Moreover, by them is your servant warned, "and in keeping them there is great reward." That's what I want for everybody who looks at the Bible and finds it to be too hard or confusing or irrelevant.

That's not true. It is better than gold, better than silver, better than honey, great reward. And so I want people to hang in there because in the Bible, we find truth that will save us eternally. First Timothy 4:16, we find truth that liberates us from sin and satan we find truth that gives peace with God.

We find truth that empowers holiness and love, truth that sustains in the hardest times. It really is the greatest book in the world because it's the only book inspired by God Almighty, the creator of the universe, and the only one that can make us wise unto everlasting life. So here's my encouragement.

I want to give six simple steps for this discouraged Bible reader to try. Number one, make sure you have a modern translation that's readable, like the ESV or the NIV. Number two, make sure you are in a church where the pastor explains passages from the Bible every Sunday. That's what preaching is, it should be.

If you're not in a church where the Bible is explained, probably need another church. And where you can be in a small group where folks talk about these things and you can ask all your questions about the Bible. Number three, get a good study Bible, like the ESV study Bible.

'Cause in a study Bible, there are these notes at the bottom of the page that answer a lot of your puzzling questions and give guidance for newcomers who aren't making sense out of it right away. Number four, read carefully and slowly, trying even maybe to write the passage. And I don't mean write out the long stories in the Old Testament.

I mean, if you're stumbling over verses or a paragraph in the letters or in the gospels, try writing it down. Number five, a little self-advertisement here. Join us online at Look at the Book, episodes that are gonna go public at our national conference and be online at least by October 1, I'm not sure exact date.

And there'll be there for me to help guide you through texts that I hope will instill habits of reading in you that will make the Bible live and make it understandable for you. And the last thing would be pray. Pray for God to give you light. God loves to make his son known.

He sent him into the world at the cost of his life so that he could be known and loved. He's not interested in holding back from you the light that he gave with his son and gave with his word. Amen. Thank you, Pastor John. And watch for more information about those Look at the Book video lessons by following us online at desiringgod.org/blog.

And if you're on your way to Minneapolis, we look forward to seeing you at the conference later today. If you can't make it, the conference will be live-streamed at desiringgod.org/live. Be sure to check out the schedule there to follow the conference remotely. Well, we have parenting questions like crazy piling up in our email inbox, and if everything works just right, we will welcome to the podcast a guest next week.

The guest will be Ted Tripp. To answer some of your most perplexing parenting questions, Tripp is the author of "Shepherding a Child's Heart" and "Instructing a Child's Heart." Two wonderful books. In either case, we'll be back on Monday. Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Enjoy the conference. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)