Sermon Tone Analysis

1. 4/7 - Study part 2

2. 5/7 - Memorize

3. 6/7 - Meditate

4. 7/7 - Prayer

Recap

2 Assumptions

2 Assumptions

1. Possible to meet with God

2. We should meet with God regularly - even daily

We gave a Biblical theology of meeting with God.

We showed from the Scriptures how God has met with his people throughout redemptive history.

We have seen how Jesus, God incarnate, took time to be alone with the Father.

We read his prayer in .

We see this great, intimate relationship between the Father and the Son.

It is my strong desire.

It is a passion that we would be a church that would seek God together with others, during Sunday services, in Community Groups, in Bible Studies, in families.

And that we would be a people who seek God on our own time, early in the morning, throughout the day, late at night.

I want this class to become a part of the culture here at Spring Run so that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we value meeting with God both corporately and individually.

Then the 2nd week, we talked about something that Donald Whiney calls, Bible Intake.

Bible Intake

These are 5 ways in which we can take in God’s Word:

Bible Intake

Hearing the Word

Reading the Word

Studying the Word

Memorizing the Word

Meditating on the Word

So during the 2nd week we spoke about Hearing the Word and Reading the Word.

We talked about different ways to listen to the Word.

We established a biblical theology on the value of hearing the word spoken to us.

We talked about listening to sermons here at church.

Listening to the word through a Bible App, or Dwell.

Listening to sermons throughout the week using Sermon Audio.

We then spoke about the importance of reading the word for ourselves.

We talked about different ways to do that.

Read a Proverb a day.

Read 3 chapters of John a day and you’re done in a week.

Read through the Bible in a year.

Follow a reading plan.

Then last week we started our discussion on Studying the Word.

We talked about how hearing and reading the word can give us breadth.

They can give us grand, sweeping views of the Scriptures.

But study, studying the Scripture is different.

If hearing and reading gives us breadth, the studying gives us depth.

It slows us down.

And the key take-a-way from last week was that the only requirements you need to study the Bible are:

Study the Bible

1. Humble heart

2. Bible (pen and paper)

Before we dig in for this week on a continuation of study, we have some key verses for our class:

Key texts for our class include

Pray

Meeting with God through Studying His Word - Part 2

Last week, I tried to rush through a story.

I want to read the story again so that we can all get a good understaning of what study really looks like.

Show Picture of Fish

The Student, the Fish, and Agassiz; by the Student

It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the scientific school as a student of natural history.

He asked me a few questions about my object in coming, my antecedents generally, the mode in which I afterwards proposed to use the knowledge I might acquire, and finally, whether I wished to study any special branch.

To the latter I replied that while I wished to be well grounded in all departments of zoology, I purposed to devote myself specially to insects.

“When do you wish to begin?” he asked.

“Now,” I replied.

This seemed to please him, and with an energetic “Very well,” he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol.

“Take this fish,” he said, “and look at it; we call it a Haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have seen.”

With that he left me, but in a moment returned with explicit instructions as to the care of the object entrusted to me.

“No man is fit to be a naturalist,” said he, “who does not know how to take care of specimens.”

I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, and occasionally moisten the surface with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly.

Those were not the days of ground glass stoppers, and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all the old students will recall the huge, neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half-eaten by insects and begrimed with cellar dust.

Entomology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the professor who had unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish was infectious; and though this alcohol had “a very ancient and fish-like smell,” I really dared not show any aversion within these sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though it were pure water.

Still I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist.

My friends at home, too, were annoyed, when they discovered that no amount of eau de cologne would drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow.

The Student, the Fish, and Agassiz 183I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, and occasionally moisten the surface with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly.

Those were not the days of ground glass stoppers, and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all the old students will recall the huge, neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half-eaten by insects and begrimed with cellar dust.

Entomology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the professor who had unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish was infectious; and though this alcohol had “a very ancient and fish-like smell,” I really dared not show any aversion within these sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though it were pure water.

Still I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist.

My friends at home, too, were annoyed, when they discovered that no amount of eau de cologne would drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow.

In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in that fish, and started in search of the professor, who had, however, left the museum; and when I returned, after lingering over some of the odd animals stored in the upper apartment, my specimen was dry all over.

I dashed the fluid over the fish as if to resuscitate it from a fainting-fit, and looked with anxiety for a return of a normal, sloppy appearance.

This little excitement over, nothing was to be done but return to a steadfast gaze at my mute companion.

Half an hour passed, an hour, another hour; the fish began to look loathsome.

I turned it over and around; looked it in the face—ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways, at a three-quarters view—just as ghastly.

I was in despair; at an early hour, I concluded that lunch was necessary; so with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for an hour I was free.

On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the museum, but had gone and would not return for several hours.

My fellow students were too busy to be disturbed by continued conversation.

Slowly I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation again looked at it.

I might not use a magnifying glass; instruments of all kinds were interdicted.

My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish; it seemed a most limited field.

I pushed my fingers down its throat to see how sharp its teeth were.

I began to count the scales in the different rows until I was convinced that that was nonsense.

At last a happy thought struck me—I would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature.

Just then the professor returned.

“That is right,” said he, “a pencil is one of the best eyes.

I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet and your bottle corked.”

With these encouraging words he added—“Well, what is it like?”

He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me; the fringed gill-arches and movable operculum; the pores of the head, fleshly lips, and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fin, and forked tail; the compressed and arched body.

When I had finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment: “You have not looked very carefully; why,” he continued, more earnestly, “you haven’t seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the fish itself.

Look again; look again!”

And he left me to my misery.

I was piqued; I was mortified.

Still more of that wretched fish?