How to Read the Word F.R.O.G

WK 1

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Guys over the next several weeks we are going to be looking out How to Read the Bible or the word of God.

We spoke sometime before we took a break for summer on “Why do we read the bible?”

Helps us to know Him. He is Perfect, Holy, Honest, love, Just, Lord, and King.

Helps us to know us.

Seeing who God really is makes us see that we are not like Him and we have sinned and fall short of His standard of living, but His word….

Helps us to know we need Him to save us.

God’s Word reveals to us God’s actions to save humanity by giving His Son to defeat darkness and save us, but not just that, His word grows and shapes us to be complete, and equipped for every good work.

So now that we know this How do we read the bible?

Why is it even important that we know how to read the bible?

1 Timothy 1:3–7 CSB

As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith. Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.

It is important that we know how to read God’s word so that we don’t end up believing something false and wandering away from the faith.

In order for us to know How To Read the Word, I want to talk for a moment about some mistakes we make when going to read the bible because this will help us to see maybe what we are doing that isn’t effective, and then learn how to read the bible well.

So here are some things we have done or do that can hinder us when reading the bible:

We think the bible is about us instead of about God.

Nathan Finochio said this, “The Bible is God’s Self Revelation, without the bible we make up who God is.”

We read the bible led by our emotions instead of by our understanding.

If we read the bible this way we can be lead to approach/study the bible by these poor methods:

The Xanax Approach - To read the bible as if it only exists to make us feel better.

Instead we should study and learn all of the Bible even the parts that make us uncomfortable or are hard to understand.

The Pinball Approach - Read whatever scripture I happen to turn too.

Instead we should study and take into account how the passage we read fits in to the bigger narrative of scripture, honoring the context, authorship, style, and more.

Magic 8-Ball Approach - Shaking and then Opening the bible hoping that is God saying “yes” or “no” to your specific question.

The Bible is not magical and it does not serve our whims, nor is its primary function to answer our questions, The Magic 8 ball approach misconstrues the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the word, demanding that the bible tells us what to do rather than who to be.

Instead understand the bible is more concerned with the decision-maker that with the decision itself. It’s aim is to change our hearts so that we desire what God desires, rather than to spoon-feed us answers to every decision in life.

The Personal Shopper Approach - looking for a specific topic that suits you.

Instead of just picking out topics you like, address topics as they arise in scripture.

The Telephone Game Approach - We only read or listen to what others have to say about a specific passage, rather that reading the passage and studying for ourselves.

The problem is God has called us to love Him with all our heart. soul, mind, and strength and not just the Pastor.

Instead make the bible your primary source of truth, not secondary to what others have said or written.

The Jack Sprat “NURSERY RHYME” Approach - You are a picky eater and only read books in the bible you like and can understand.

Instead read and learn the whole council of God and not just parts of it.

WK 2

Last week we learned some ways or methods that if we are not careful with them can lead us into danger thinking the bible is more about us than it is about God, which will lead us into error or not understanding how to apply.

So tonight I want to quickly walk through 1 Timothy 1 and then let you guys go and talk about it some more.

1 Timothy 1