How to read your bible

Intro

Does anyone know what the Psalms are?

Psalms are songs

of worshipping God.

Now the longest psalm is 119.

It is so long

that it is longer

than entire books

in the Bible.

Now

What do you think

God

chose to make the longest song

of worship

about?

His Word.

So let’s open

and turn to

Psalm 119

So this Psalm is so long

it has what are like

it’s own chapters

within it.

It is divided

into 22 chapters

each chapter

has the heading

of a Hebrew letter.

In v.33

it’s the later hey

or h.

So the first word

in v.33

is the word

hore

which means teach.

Read Psalm 119:33–40 “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, And not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way. Establish Your word to Your servant, Who is devoted to fearing You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your judgments are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness.”

So from this Psalm

let’s learn

how to read your bible.

1. Ask God for understanding (v.33-34)

The key

to this is in v.33

the first phrase

‘teach me’

Here the Psalmist is asking God

to teach him

the Bible.

A lot of you feel

that at times

you don’t understand

the Bible.

It’s a massive book

with a lot

of complex

and deep

teachings.

How are you supposed

to learn it?

Thankfully

as it says here

God

will teach

you

the way of his statues

statues

refer to His Word.

And that will enable you

to keep

and follow

his words

all the way to the end

of the book.

v.34

‘give me understanding’

you don’t have understanding now

because God will give it

to you.

And God will

so that you keep his law and observe it with your whole heart.

What matters

to God

are not

the motions

of obeying

but the attitude

and heart

behind

obedience.

If you come to church

but you don’t love

coming,

if you read your Bible

but you don’t love

God

it’s meaningless.

Matthew 15:8–9 (ESV)

“ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Does anyone know who the Pharisees were?

Jesus quoted the OT,

this verse

to rebuke them.

What do you think

this verse means?

It means

you can’t

fool God.

And that God

cares most

about your heart

than your actions.

How does knowing that God will give you understanding of his word help you?

It helps me

because I can come to the Bible with confidence.

When you do things without confidence

it becomes difficult.

Sport example

So all you have to do is ask God for understanding.

2. Ask God to love your bible (v.35-37)

Speaking

of the heart

and love

God helps you

with that too.

v.35, ‘lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it’.

Does anyone here own a dog

or a pet?

Sometimes you want your pet

to follow you.

But often it will just do it’s own thing.

What’s a guaranteed way to make it follow you?

Food!

Why food?

Because animals love food.

Now for Christians

what makes us want to follow God’s leading?

His commands.

Food to the dog

is God’s commands to us.

As the dog loves food

Christian’s love

God’s commands.

Mochi illustration.

Now you might be thinking

honestly I don’t find God’s Word as exciting

as a dog

finds food.

Well look at v.36, ‘incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!’

The good news

is that God

moves your heart

towards his commands!

Because of our flesh

we love

ourselves

rather than God.

But God moves his

children’s

hearts towards him.

You either

love God

or yourself

but God helps you

to love him.

That’s why

v.37 says, ‘turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.’

What kind of worthless things do people look at today?

materialism

more things to buy

porn.

But how

can one stop looking at those things?

By loving God’s Word.

When you love God’s Word

you lose interest

in worthless things.

And instead

you receive life

in following God’s way.

A lot of those things will never satisfy you

will never give you

life.

But His word will.

What makes people today not love his word?

So students

if you don’t feel particularly

in love with God’s Word.

Ask God to help you love his word.

3. Ask God for hope (v.38-40)

Look at v.38, ‘confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared’.

To confirm

is to be made certain of something.

And here

it’s God’s promises.

So that we would fear

or be in awe of him.

One of God’s promises

that still amazes me to this day

is in Isaiah 45:1

Isaiah 45:1 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:

Isaiah was a prophet

who was prophesying

a future

where Israel would be captured

by the Babylonians

but then brought back

by a Persian king

called Cyrus.

Now this was prophesied

300 years

before

it happened.

And indeed

300 years later

it happened.

Cyrus also known as Cyrus the Great

the greatest king

in Persian history

and one of the greatest kings

to ever exist

brought Israel

out of captivity.

This is like predicting

that Trump would be president

in 2016

back in 1776

when the US first became a nation.

Imagine being in colonial America

with the funny hats

and wigs

saying Trump

will be the 45th president of the US.

That is how awesome

the Bible is.

It tells of things

even in the far future.

And in the far future

we will all face judgement.

v.39, ‘turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good’.

If you know Jesus as your savior

then He

will turn judgement

away from you on that final day

because His rules are good.

The Holy Spirit works within Christians

to follow and love

God’s rules.

Usually people don’t like rules.

But imagine

playing basketball

with no rules.

Is that fun?

No the rules

make it fun!

v.40, ‘behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness give me life’.

Because God’s commands

make life more fun

we look forward to the ultimate

fun

and joy

eternal life.

Because as Christians

we have hope

certainty

that in the future

we will have eternal life.

Titus 1:1–2 (ESV)

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

God promises you eternal life

before

the world ever existed.

More importantly

God never lies

any promise

he makes

you can trust.

If God gives you certain promises of the future how does that motivate you to read your bible?

So students

ask God for hope.

Practical section

Now before we end

I wanna share a couple

tips

to help with Bible reading.

The first is another reason

why Bible reading and prayer

is better

the earlier

in the day.

Mark 1:35 ESV

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

And secondly

someone mentioned bible plans

last week

so I want to show

you one

I’ve been using.