Reading The Bible

Have you ever been lost?

I have awesome sense of direction, let me just brag for a minute, I am pretty good at my directions and my maps.

It is pretty difficult for me to get lost.

However, I just bought a new house and the light switches are in the most stupid spots of this house, let me tell you one example.

The back deck light that is out side is located right beside the light for the inside of the bathroom.

This whole switch box is located inside of my kitchen...

it’s super dumb, and so when I need to get up and walk to the washroom in the middle of the night I bump into litterally every single wall, all the funiture. most of all the door ways are not the same sizes and so I bash my head in from time to time.

I get lost in my own home! it’s stupid, I hate it soooo much, and some of you are probablly like well just use your phone flash light.

Ha! that would require me having my phone beside my bed, something I don’t reccomend you doing and so I keep mine on my desk in my home office which is nowhre close to my bed.

All in all when it comes to my own house I can get lost in the middle of the night.

and we all have momments like that, something that is familiar can become so confusing or makes you feel lost.

Take mathmatics for instance, like why did they add letters to math...

or even art class when you learn something new, a new technique it makes art feel unfamiliar.

it makes you feel lost

We all feel like that from times to times.

The Bible feels like that sometimes, and that goes for me and the other leaders too,

The Bible can make even me feel confused or lost in reading it. But just because something is confusing or makes us feel lost in it, that does not mean that we should not try to understand it.

Kinda like math, but thats not about of this talk.

So lets agree that yea its confusing at times but hey we get to figure it out with other people and thats what youth group, the church and this retreat is all about, figuring God and his word.

So what is the Bible?

The bible is a guide book, like if we were traveling or site seeing.

IT’s going to tell us all about where we are going and what we will be seeing along the way.

see Psalm 119:105

Psalm 119:105 NIV

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

The meaning that it is a guide that shows us where to go.

like a map, the Bible is a guide book that can show us how to walk through life and it does this through giving life principles, advice or sometimes even rebukes poor life styles.

The Bible being a lamp light means that it is the brightness that helps you move through a dark work, and I don’t say that lightly because the world is pretty dark.

There are a lot of dangers out there, and we need some kind of light so that we don’t metaphorically trip.

The Bible is that type of light.

it tells us how to live with others, this helps us not trip in relationships with family, friends and others when things get sticky and we have all experienced

Or even living a life that is not focused on yourself but on other people. Jesus models this through the gospels, a life that is not about yourself.

See the Bible has all these lessons that you learn each time you read it.

Let me say this the Bible speaks to you, as you read God is working in the words on the paper to bring about a very personal connection to the teaching for you.

For example, I love the images of the Bible and if you say do you read the picture book bible imma leave.

See there are these images of who God is through the scriptures, different images too like a Lion, a Lamb, a King, a Servant, a Shepherd… the list goes on. They are fascinating to me and it’s how God speaks specifcally to me, he reveals himself in the Bible to me through these ways.

For you it might be different and thats just one specific example but God is trying to tell you about himself through the Bible.

You might say well the Bible was written by people and you’d be only partly right, it was written by both people and God as he spoke to the authors on what to write.

God knew that he had some great words to share with you and the world, so he had people write them down. Not only that but he has not changed what he said, it’s still comepletely true.

The only thing is, we need to know how to read it;

Reading Scripture;

reading scripture can be tricky, so first lets talk about litterally opening the book; the really tricky part.

See if we belive Hebrews 4:12

Hebrews 4:12 NIV

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

then we want to get there but we need to open up the Bible;

You got 1 of two options to either grab a phyiscal bible which if you don’t have one talk to me or Josh and we WILL get you one. We want you to have God’s words in your hands; case in point I have litterally told yall that I can lie to you and you should always be double checking my messages that I am talking about what God has said and not just what I want.

The Bible is go to #1, so if its a physical book or a Bible app that you use you gotta start with opening up.

My best advice is to find and time and place where you can focus on reading the bible. For some that is when your first wake up, making it the first thing you do in the day. For some that is opening it before you go to bed and in your reading time before sleeping.

Some even read it at lunch instead of chatting with others durning lunch.

Find a time and a place, the place should be consistant. make a prayer chair or a place in your house where you go to read the Bible and pray.

For my teens I always give this challenge;

My challenge for you to start reading your Bible is to read your bible at the dining room table or your kitchen island if you have one. When you read your Bible there you are doing a few things all at once;

reading your Bible and you have a place where there is not alot of distractions.

you are keeping yourself and your family accountable to read their Bible. Because they are noticing you read the bible and they see you read so that they can ask you about what your reading and they know thats your bible reading spot.

After that tho you need to know how to read your Bible;

So I am going to teach you how to use Soap;

Soap is not just a cleaning agent but actually a method to read your Bible;

Scripture - Just read it, start by picking where you are going to read the bible first. If you don’t know where to start ask someone, ask your parents anyone. If you ask me I like the book of John or I even know this strategy that is about the days of the month, so what ever day it is (June 3) you would read that in proverbs or June 15, proverbs 15

Observation - What stands out in the scripture? what did you not understand or have questions about. What was interesting? what was important?

The purpose is to understand the passage again and doing that can be re-reading, reading around that passage or even just making some notes and asking someone.

As a side note I am always around to take a text message on a bible question, I find them fun.

Application - find away to apply the words t your life. I like to think of it as a I will statement; what is something that you Will do because of the message that you read? maybe thats “I will be nicer, I will do the dishes and not be grumpy, I will share my lunch, I will pray for someone”

You want to take the words that you read and do something with them in the day or week.

Prayer - we already talked about this but end with prayer! you start start with it too but you should also pray about how

Take away from the Bible;

If there is one think I want you to take away from this message its that the Bible is the best source of wisdom for your life.

Isaiah 40:8 NIV

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

As leaders we all really care about each and every one of you and we deeply want to see you all become great men and women that love Jesus Christ, but I want to acknowledge that we might not be accessible from time to time to help you.

but God’s word in the Bible will be.

The Bible is a powerful tool that is always around and always there for you to look for answers or to seek comfort,

Paul who wrote the most books of the Bible even said this

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

if you want to be on life with God you have to get to know him and the best way to do that is not through hearing me talk or Josh talk, or hearing it from someone else but to go looking for him in his words already written on paper.

So I want to encourage you to go and look for him in the Bible, seek him out so that you might have wisdom and not be worried about life or the things that come in life.

When is the best time of day to read the Bible

Where is the best place for you to read the Bible.

What do you think of the soap method? is it helpful?

What is the hardest part of reading the Bible? How can you get past that?