<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2026: Growing in a Relationship With God

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Reality Check

02 To Know God

03 Pride Versus Humility

04 The Role of the Bible

05 How to Study the Bible

I'm Cameron DeBasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We are now, Pastor Howard, on the fifth lesson of our Growing in a Relationship with God lesson series here in the second quarter of the year.

This lesson is titled How to Study the Bible and it's a really handy follow-up on last week's lesson which was all about the importance of the Bible in our relationship with Jesus.

So where the last week's was more big picture why, this is now a closer narrow shot into how.

Okay we're talking a lot about devotional life and that kind of thing.

And again, we're gonna walk right by the fact that, you know, our viewers are like, what happened to the...

I wanted to keep the highest priority the highest priority, but if you do notice, thank you, there are some changes around in our studio.

We can say improvements, but then somebody else may be, you know, it's kind of a jarring like, wait a minute, this is so different.

But I have to assume that people are not tuning in for the aesthetic of Talking Points.

Hopefully the content is what drives them but we do want to make it pleasant and we do think that these are some improvements we've made and You'll probably see some more as we continue.

There'll be some tweaking but yeah, but I hope you like it However, there won't be any tweaking of our study of the word.

Amen unless it's just Getting closer to the Lord.

Well before we dive into this study, I did put the talking points together.

Yes Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word and the privilege we have of studying together in this talking points and helping to enable our Sabbath school teachers around the world to have good content and information in their lessons.

We thank you for the Sabbath school lesson that unifies us as a church worldwide and we ask Lord that your Holy Spirit would lead us through this study and be with our teachers and all of the participants as they go through this lesson that it would draw us closer to you and enrich our relationship with you for we ask it in Jesus name, amen.

Well as an introductory comment I live to the straight from Sabbath afternoon paragraph 3 with simple sentence.

This week we'll explore some practical ways to study the Word of God better.

And I should be clear and you kind of alluded to it earlier.

This is not deep exegetical study for scholarly academic pursuits.

This is a practical daily devotional type of study.

That's what we're really looking at and that's I think a very very good thing.

Which for some people can be deep exegetical and what have you but we're trying to give some practical tips on probably how to have maybe consistency is 1 of the words that we want to use.

How to stick with a devotional experience and part of sticking with it is feeling like you're getting something out of it.

Yeah, well and we're gonna dive into all of that.

We have 3 talking points this week and the first 1 is a devotional life requires devotion.

You gotta be committed to it, there's that consistency.

This was really a thread throughout the week, but primarily from Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday's lessons.

Talking point number 2, through Bible study, God speaks to us.

And this is from Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

So I want to emphasize that it's not just a checklist that we're going through, that they're going to get something out of it, to your point, and that's the voice of God to our lives.

And finally, I love this point that they brought in the lesson, talking point number 3, a great way to retain Bible truth is to share it and that's Tuesday and Wednesday so what do we do with the Bible truth we get we got to share it with somebody else.

So let's go back talk about number 1 a devotion to life requires devotion There's a couple of passages if you want to look up either Psalm 63 1 or Isaiah 26 9.

Okay then I'll go to Isaiah but the point we're looking at is that scripture repeatedly encourages us to devote time particularly in the morning to communion with God.

Psalm 63 verse 1 says, Oh God you are my God early will I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

So he said he's talking about how much he needs that connection with God and he says early I will seek you.

Similarly we see in Isaiah 26 verse 9 With my soul I have desired you in the night.

Yes by my spirit within me I will seek you early for when your judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." So again repeatedly the scripture invokes the desire to be with God and uses the word early.

Of course, Jesus didn't just know the scripture, he lived his life by it.

And in Mark 1 verse 35, we get a glimpse into his devotional life routine.

Mark 1 35 says, Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed.

So if the Bible writers like in Psalms and Isaiah talk about they desire the Lord and they seek him early, and then Jesus comes and embodies that truth and practice it in his own experience.

What is the Bible trying to tell us about our relationship with God through his Word?

That it should be consistent, daily, and if possible, early.

I put a couple of statements in from the book Education and 1 from another from Fenn Middles of Christian Education that talk about how Jesus came to have this established habit in his life.

Yeah, Education 185 says, In childhood, youth, and manhood, Jesus studied the Scriptures.

In his youth, the early morning and the evening twilight often found him alone on the mountainside or among the trees of the forest, spending a quiet hour in prayer and the study of God's Word.

During his ministry, his intimate acquaintances with the scriptures testifies to his diligence in their study.

I really want to 0 in on that last sentence.

During his ministry, so clearly the public mature ministry of Jesus in his adulthood, his intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures testifies not just to his divine nature but to his diligence in their study.

Have you ever considered how did Jesus know the Scriptures?

And it might be simple to say, well, he was the author of the scriptures, it was the spirit of Christ, but when he came to this world he left all of those advantages aside, not that he didn't have them at his disposal, but he met life like we meet it and he had to grow as scripture says, in wisdom and in stature and in faith, he physically, mentally, spiritually grew up.

He modeled the development of character through the obedience of God's will as the only way we can develop character.

And I was thinking of in Luke chapter 4 when he goes to the synagogue in his adulthood it says he went to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue.

Same place he was brought up they developed this custom in his life and he was a regular attender and a participant in Sabbath worship.

Apparently had the same thing with his daily devotional life, that he was regularly from childhood all the way through manhood, had a practice of setting aside a time in the morning to spend with God and study in prayer.

Now I would only push back on that a little bit by saying anytime we get into this, 1 of the things, the real point of this lesson is to try to encourage people in a devotional experience, and sometimes we're overly prescriptive, And so for example, mourning, why the mourning?

You know, when a person works second or third shift, guess what?

You know, and then it's like, well, can I not have a good devotional life?

Well, you can, but it's not gonna be as good as mine, or this kind of thing.

And so I think it's interesting in the statement here that I read from Education 185 in his youth, the early morning and the evening twilight.

What's unique about both of those is they're freer from distraction.

And I mean there are benefits to morning in that you generally have more energy, your thoughts are clearer because of that, you just woke up, that kind of thing.

So I think that's why we see that pattern in scripture.

It's not the only time you're allowed to study, though.

And the key, if you can't do a morning study, and I think it's recommended for some of the reasons I mentioned, the key would be to make sure that you have an uninterrupted period of study, that you are devoted to a time where you can get more into that.

So I think that's an important thing when you're talking about that the unencumbered.

This is why there's a lot of pushback on using a digital device instead of the Bible and you know some people like it's almost like if you read your Bible on your phone, it's not spiritual enough.

I think 1 of the main reasons for that is the distractions, texts and everything come in.

And so I would recommend 1 of the nice features I know that iPhone has, I'm sure the Android platform has something similar, is the do not disturb.

That I set to go on when I'm at church, that kind of thing.

But it's the same idea that we're talking about, being able to stay focused.

Make sure that you set aside a time where you can be clear-minded and focused without distraction.

I really am glad you brought that up and I think the lesson is a very good job of this because we don't want to, you somehow want to have less than a practical tangible things you can do but without creating an expectation of formalism and formulaic like it has to be this or it's not really.

These are principles with practical applications but they're not intended to be formulas that turn into formalism and then all of a sudden, because you're not, we're gonna come back to this over and over, but the Power of a devotional life is not just the unbroken record that I checked off today.

It's not that it's the It's the experience you get from it But you won't have as rich of an experience if you don't make practical Steps to make it a consistent practice in your life.

So they're always looking for that balance.

I think that's important You saw another statement from Fundamentals of Christian Education page 402 speaking of Jesus especially in his youth it says, he was faithful in the discharge of his home duties and the early morning hours instead of being wasted in bed often found him in a retired place meditating and searching the scriptures and in prayer." So Christ had options to sleep in, he was like, you know what, I'm gonna choose this day whom I will serve and I think that's the fact for every 1 of us.

Also, he did prioritize, he was devoted to his devotional life.

Back to Menu

Series

Talking Points 2nd Quarter 2026: Growing in a Relationship With God

05 How to Study the Bible

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Reality Check

30m

02 To Know God

30m

03 Pride Versus Humility

31m

04 The Role of the Bible

30m

05 How to Study the Bible

29m

Sound Doctrine