GYC SE 2008: One

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GYC Southeast

Chester Clark - Diving Deeper: Studying God's Word with the Spirit

Chester Clark

The Practical Method of Bible Study

I just want to share this with you before we get started officially.

Why I think, well it's not why, it's a little bit of an interesting confirmation of why I think studying your Bible is so important.

Have any of you ever heard of mega churches?

Mega church is defined as a church I think with, I don't know if it's 5, 000 or 15, 000 members or more in 1 congregation.

There's quite a few of them in the United States now in that category, between 15, 000 and 30, 000 members.

The sort of the mother of the mega churches is Willow Creek, which is just outside Chicago.

Now, many Christian denominations have been going to Willow Creek for the last 20 years, learning how to do church, how to minister to their communities as it were, and grow their numbers and be more popular.

But this last summer a book was released which detailed a five-year multi-million dollar study that Willow Creek did on itself they were trying to figure out which the programs because they're sort of a program driven church which of the programs which they offered their members Which their members were drawn to which of them helped them grow spiritually now?

I'm not sure exactly how they Qualified spiritual growth, but it had to do with loving and serving God and loving and serving people more you know it was that was sort of their benchmark of spiritual growth and it's very interesting because while the Christian world has been adopting Willow Creek's model because it grew the numbers, Willow Creek's self-analysis revealed that the programs that they were focusing on were not helping people grow spiritually.

You have to give them some credit for being honest about it.

But the senior pastor, Bill Hibble, actually says this, and it's quoted in Christianity Today, so I'm just going to read this to you.

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much.

Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for now we know or if you are familiar with will agree you know some of the things they put a lot of money into, a lot of the programs and clubs and small groups and organizations.

But notice what he says, the senior pastor says, they should have done.

What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become self feeders we should have gotten people taught people how to read their Bible between services that interesting How to do the spiritual practices more aggressively on their own.

In other words, what Willow Creek discovered from a multi-year, multi-million dollar study analysis is that reading your Bible and praying helps you grow spiritually more than the popular programs they were having in their churches it's sort of a rebuke to those of us who have gone trying to imitate and duplicate when really we have had the answer all along especially since the evidence haven't we that's not to say that that's not to say that a program that encourages independent Bible study and prayer and real spiritual growth is going to necessarily attract hundreds and thousands of people.

To have a popular church with lots of people going, but even their own analysis says they're not really being helped spiritually or to have a smaller church where people are actually growing in the Lord I think we'd rather have the smaller wouldn't we in fact it's been typical and in history that the majority are not really that interested in the religion of Jesus.

So I just thought I'd share that with you because I thought it was very fascinating that the Christian world has discovered that Bible study and prayer and witnessing are keys to spiritual growth and that's what CYC is sort of all about, isn't it?

About how to grow spiritually and we do that by Bible study, prayer, and outreach and witnessing well let's go ahead and begin Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we are grateful that you've called us here.

We thank you that we can come to this quiet place and we can study and we can learn how to better study your word.

As we spend the next few minutes talking about some principles some basic habits perhaps some methods of Bible study.

I pray that the material that we share and the thoughts that we think would would be beneficial.

I pray that your spirit would be here to guide our hearts and to lead us into a closer walk with you.

We thank you for these gifts in Jesus' name.

I want to first talk about why we have devotions or why we spend time in Bible study?

There are many reasons, I suppose, that we could.

If those of you who are sitting in this section could just move to that side so people come in.

Then they could have a seat a little more comfortably.

Why do we spend time in personal devotions?

I suppose if you were a person who is seeking for truth, for answers in your life, there would be some really personal, very practical reasons that you want to find answers, find peace, find joy, find happiness.

But as a young person, you know, I grew up in the Adventist church.

And so I wasn't really trying to, I didn't find myself challenged as far as what I believed.

I didn't really come up against a brick wall where I was the bottom of the barrel and I had nowhere to look but up.

I didn't really come into a position where I doubted my doctrines.

And so the question I asked myself was, why should I study the Bible?

Is it just a habit that you should form you know you should form but is there a good reason for it I can tell you that for some of us especially new Adventists or those who didn't grow up in the Adventist faith what happens is when you when you go through an experience sort of like what Jeffrey described this morning, where you come into contact with Bible truth, doctrinal truth, like prophecy and state of the dead and the Sabbath and all these wonderful things, you're like, wow, yes.

And so Bible study becomes really, really exciting where you're just like, wow.

And your goal is to go out and share it with people because this is just revolutionary people don't know this they need To know this right and so when you're in that when you're in that environment you you you really do gain a thirst for Bible study.

Every new Adventist, if time lasts, becomes an old Adventist.

And it comes to a point where even a new Adventist is tempted to, shall we say, lose their first love.

It's as if they reach a plateau of spiritual knowledge.

And they know it well enough that they can share with others and there's a temptation to just sort of ease off of the intensity maybe of Bible study and maybe lose some of the fervor that comes when you're discovering new truth.

And So as I've examined my own life and as I've watched new Adventists and being involved in evangelism for the last 15 years or so, I've had the privilege of seeing many, many new Adventists come in and have that excitement and that fervor and that thirst for the Scriptures.

But the question is, what's going to keep that?

I've come to the conclusion that we need to have clear in our minds what our purpose for personal devotions really is and so I'm just going to share with you what I've concluded from my own experience and I'd present that to you as something for you to pray about, to ask the Lord about in your own life, in your own devotional life.

I've concluded that the purpose for me having devotions on a daily basis is not for me to learn my doctrines better.

It's not for me to learn something that I can convince somebody else with.

The purpose for me having my devotions, first and foremost, is that I might have a walk with Jesus for that day.

Now when I say that, I wanna back up just a bit, and this is not a seminar on soteriology or salvation.

We're not talking primarily about what it means to be saved or how to be saved.

But as I understand it, there are 2 things primarily, intellectually, that I need to be cognizant of, aware of, every single day, in order for me to have a consistent Christian life.

1 is the character of God, His love for me, His faithfulness, His compassion, His patience, His unconditional love.

You can have the first, but if you don't have the second, it almost becomes a little irrelevant because I become confident in myself.

I become comfortable with the status quo.

I'm an Adventist, I'm a vegetarian, I eat Loma Linda or Worthington or whatever it is, I become comfortable in the status quo and the only way that I know to consistently cooperate with the Holy Spirit in helping him to show me my need is for me to spend time in the Bible.

The 2 things that I need intellectually to know and to be aware of and have impressed upon my my reason on a daily basis, 1 is the character of God, the second is my need for Him that day.

I don't know about you, but did you ever have those days where you wake up in the morning and you just feel like studying the Bible?

It's just like you don't want to tear yourself away from the word of God.

I wish I was like that every day, but I'm going to be honest, I hope this doesn't discourage any of you from listening to the rest of this hour, but I'll be honest, I don't always feel that way.

I don't always feel like I just can't wait to roll out of bed and pray.

Some days I, you know, it just doesn't come to me that way.

I wake up and something else is on my mind, something else is on my heart.

I'm thinking of the burdens or the cares or distractions or I get a phone call or something takes me away and I don't even feel any great need to pray.

There was a pastor many years ago that...

Well, not that many, I'm not that old, so a few years ago, there was a pastor who said something that I really, really, really sort of stopped in my tracks.

He said, you know, we need to pray when we feel a need to pray.

But we also need to pray when we don't feel a need to pray.

He said ultimately we need to pray until we feel the need to pray.

I thought, wow, that's what devotions are for.

Devotions are to tell me in the morning, remind me of my weakness and God's strength.

It's to remind me that I need to keep depending upon Him.

That He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the author and the finisher.

And only when I have that reminder, only when I have that reminder, can I, every day, can I live a consistent Christian life?

Because otherwise, this is just my own experience, you can take it for what it's worth.

My own experience is that if I don't have that daily reminder, What happens is I become complacent, I become self-confident and I go throughout my day thinking I can do it all right and the devil backs off and he gives us freedom, room to go ahead and do things on our own for a while.

My Conscience Versus God’s Word

We're going to be talking about something that could be a very sensitive topic.

It's something that I think is not given enough attention, at least to find in my own experience as I studied this, I was quite surprised at the things that I learned.

And so I feel the need for an additional word of prayer that we might be able to have the Lord's blessing with us as we study.

Father in heaven today we come thankful for the promise that where 2 or 3 are gathered together in your name, you will be with them.

And we are here, more than 2 or 3 of us, gathered together in that name, for the purpose of knowing more about you and more about ourselves.

So I just want to pray that today in our few minutes that we have to share together, that you'll help us to not just have human thoughts, but to have thoughts inspired from the throne of God.

Lord, use me, but speak directly to your people today through your word and through your voice speaking of their hearts may we understand the conscience better and may we be able to be better people for having had this time together we thank you in Jesus name Amen This topic is perhaps even most important at the end of time.

I think it's become more important as I've studied Bible prophecy.

I've seen it as more important as I've studied Bible prophecy because of the description of what's going to take place in Christianity as we come closer to the end and so we'll talk about that a little more before we're finished but I first of all we want to agree on an answer to the question, what is the conscience and what does it do?

I've received quite a wide variety of answers.

Some people believe that it is the voice of God speaking directly to the heart.

Some people believe that it's just something that is sort of innately inbred in man that leads him to think second thoughts perhaps about something he's doing.

The bible doesn't specifically define the conscience there's no verse that says in a plain thus saith the lord that the conscience is but it does refer to the conscience in a number of places so I'd like for us to open our bibles first in john chapter 8 john chapter 8 we find a story where the consciences of men are being chronicled, described, the story you're probably familiar with, he went up early into the Mount of Olives and It was still early in the morning when Jesus came back to the temple and began preaching and there as he is perhaps the Sun was Just coming up the day was just beginning The scribes and Pharisees some of the rulers of the people dragged a woman into Jesus Presence who had been caught in the very act of adultery.

Now, there is probably no more humiliating place to be dragged from where she was dragged than to the church.

And no 1 more humiliating to be placed in front of than Jesus.

And so they asked him the question in chapter 8 and verse 5 now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned But what sayest thou now, you know that this was a trick question There was no good answer or at least they thought in any answer that Jesus gave he was bound to condemn himself if he said stoner they would immediately gather their witnesses and run to the Romans of the Roman authorities because the Roman government had prevented the Jewish leaders from exercising capital punishment.

So now he was inciting rebellion against the laws of Rome.

If he said, don't stone her, they would gather their witnesses and they would try him before their own tribunal as being contrary to the laws of Moses so either answer he gave was going to be the wrong answer and they had him a lot of questions we can ask about this story if you were here in the last section.

This they said tempting him that they may have to accuse him.

Jesus stooped down with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.

What they hadn't contemplated was that Jesus might have a third option after all he was God you know it is our pages it says the Lord has a thousand ways to provide for us of which we know nothing I suppose he had at least a thousand answers to this question they hadn't thought of yet so he stoops down and begins writing in the dust and it's fascinating what happened he He pretends to ignore them and that must have been a little annoying.

You know important people don't like to be ignored At least not for very long And so as they're pressing forward and as they're as they're trying to trying to get Jesus to answer their question He just tunes them out and keeps writing then and the natural thing for the curious human nature is going to be to try to see what he's riding, right?

And so they gather around, and when they're riding, I imagine the first person that looked over his shoulder, I can just imagine his face sort of turning pale and sort of his countenance dropping and him turning around and heading out and what would that do to the rest of them?

It would make them want to see what was being written even more and so they begin crowding around and the bible says that when they continued asking he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her And he stooped down and wrote on the ground and it says they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience Went out 1 by 1 beginning at the eldest even unto the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst amazingly enough Jesus not only was writing the sins the secret sins which nobody else knew about of these men but he chose to write them in order of their age beginning at the oldest, all the way to the youngest, 1 by 1, being convicted by what?

Now I want you to notice the role of the conscience as noted in this story.

It was Jesus' actions and the words that he wrote on the ground that convicted these men, right?

That as they were leaving the temple on that day...

Wow, my conscience is working great today.

Oh man, It's a good thing I came to church, right?

I don't think that's what they were thinking.

I think they were probably embarrassed or humiliated or at least afraid they were or going to be or someone else would know who it was written about.

I suppose by leaving an order they sort of gave it away too.

I don't know if anyone ever connected the lines.

Here they leave the temple on that morning, no doubt angry at who?

Now wait a minute, the Bible says they were convicted by their conscience.

Because they didn't even recognize the role of their conscience.

And they didn't realize that they were blaming Jesus when it was really their conscience that had caused them to leave.

We'll talk more about that in a little bit.

Believe it or not, our consciences are part of us from the time we first reach the age of accountability until we suppose breathe our last breath or at least are thinking our last rational thoughts.

I say the age of accountability because there's a time when I don't think that a young person really knows much the difference between right and wrong.

I remember when I was about 5 years old, I told my first lie, or at least I thought I did.

Because I think it was the first time I became aware of what was truth and what was falsehood, you know, what was telling the truth and what was telling a lie.

The problem was that I had climbed up into my mom's ornamental red bed tree with a limb saw that I found in the garage and decided to do some pruning.

We'd moved to Arkansas about a few years earlier and, and, and you know, it was a timber country and everyone was lumberman and I was going to be a lumberman so I started cutting these branches off and improving the appearance of the tree which some people didn't agree was an improvement and my older sister was 3 and a half years older than me was among those And so she went and she told my mom that I was cutting branches off the tree, which as I recall now, it probably did look pretty hideous by the time I was finished.

And my mom asked me the question, did you cut the branches off the tree?

And so I said, immediately when I said that, immediately I knew I had told a lie.

I mean it was just like, I felt terrible.

I wish I always had that sensitive of a conscience.

I mean it was just like, and I made it right.

And I remember I was miserating to my sister, who wasn't really that sympathetic, about my terrible disgrace I'd made of my life and how you know and and I said I said to her I said that was the first lie I ever told she said no it's not you've told lots of lies and I probably had But you see I hadn't reached an age of accountability.

I think there's a point in our lives where we come to know what is right and wrong and we become accountable then for what we do, what we say.

So, from the time we reach the age of accountability until we're not able to understand anymore or we die, the conscience is a part of our very being.

When we say things like, I just couldn't live with myself if I did that.

If you don't understand what you mean by that, it doesn't make sense.

Indeed, it's not improper to consider the conscience to be a sort of innate inner voice.

And if we look in our Bibles now to Romans chapter 2, we're going to see another passage which gives us some insight into what the conscience really is.

Romans chapter 2, and we're going to read verses 14 and 15.

It says this, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, they don't have the Bible, they don't know, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written...

In their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing 1 another.

In other words, just like we're going to be judged by what we know, the Gentiles are actually going to be judged by what they know too.

And Paul said there's this group of Gentiles who don't have the law, but they do by nature the things contained in the law, and they're living according to their own conscience.

They're going to be judged by what they know.

Their conscience is either going to condemn them or excuse them.

These people did not have the Bible as a guide for living, but they did have a conscience.

They actually are being contrasted to the Jews which had the Bible but weren't doing the things contained in the law.

Now when I read this passage and I sort of start to gather some insights about the conscience from it, I start having some real questions.

Because in our world today there's a system of thought we might refer to as moralism.

Do you know what I'm talking about when I say moralism?

Moralism is essentially the idea that you do what is right in your own eyes and it's right for you.

Series

Chester Clark - Diving Deeper: Studying God's Word with the Spirit

The Practical Method of Bible Study

Transcript

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