Practices: Devotionals

Intro: Habits

We are in our series Practices where we are diving into converstations about why do Christians practice their faith in ways like, worship, communion, such and such.

today we are going to be looking at, why do Christians read their bibles daily and how do I do that.

When I graduated in April I got this dope watch. It’s a Apple Watch and the reason that it is cool is becuase it encourages me to keep on walking or to take a break at my desk and to stand up or to make sure that I have time to meditate and get a clear thought.

I put it on everyday on habit, where if I do not have it on now I kinda am lost. I am always aware of it when I do activties. If I am playing dodge ball I know I cannot do some crazy moves becuase I don’t want to wreck my watch.

See like my watch I am in this habit and I have actually began to structure part of my life around it. What I do, what I do not do.

I need to wear it, even when I forget about it in the morning I’ll still seek for it. However the same can be said about spending time with God daily.

What is something you do by habit?

Why?

Why do we read the bible on our own? What use is it?

Here is my favourite, I already get spiritually feed at church, why do I need to read the bible on my own through the week?

Do you ever wonder why read the bible through out the week if we go to youth, or church, etc?

Well what if I told you that Jesus wants to talk with you. Kinda like a text message, we can recceive messages from Jesus. These messages are actually different and important in other ways then just attending youth or church.

What????

well let me introduce you to my little friend:

Special Revelation

See special revelation is this theolgoical idea that God talks through special means

Special meanign special and revelation meaning revealing

God reveals himself through special means.

“But Liam what is so special about words in a book”

to that I would say: “What is not special” See we read in the book of Timothy that all scripture is God breathed and useful in teaching.

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

So, its special because it’s God breathed.

So when we read scripture should be expect to get a personal message from Jesus, the awnser is....

No! thats not really how that works.

God can reveal himself through scripture is crazy ways yes! However we cannot read scripture expecting that, rather we need to hang on to the end of the verse.

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

each of you are on a trainign journey. Start the rocky sound track and start the prep.

When you read scripture you are training your mind, and your heart on how to live for Jesus. you are teaching yourself how to live and love like Jesus did. you are studying how to defend your faith against someone who wants to take you on. You are preparing yourself as you read.

and if you have trained already then you would know these passages about God’s word being the one thing that will last forever.

Isaiah 40:8 NIV

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

1 Peter 1:25 NIV

but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

When people train for a race they run further or they run faster, what does it mean to train by reading the bible?

In your life how does training by reading the bible look?

How?

The only question that you are asking now is;

“Liam how do I do this?”

Well it is not to hard. It is as easy as using soap.

Who uses soap here? Ok wait not that soap

I mean

Scripture

Observation

Application

Prayer

I want you all to take on soap

Scripture, pick the passage read it over, if you dont understand read it again.

Observe, what stands out from the passage? what is unqiue about it? what is important to you about it? is there something that you are confused about, write it down.

Application, what does the passage mean for my life? how does this change me? how do I need to change after reading this? what do I need to do now?

Prayer, pretty easy, pray over everything. What is on your heart that came through the passage, what is on your heart that is still unawnsered. what do you need to thank God about.

The how can be hard at first, where do I start is the hardest question. We need to get into a rythm of going through our bible daily. We need to start somewhere, maybe that is the soap method, starting with somethign simple then moving on to something different when you have the skills and practice to do it.

Today in small groups we are going to discuss devotions but we are also going to dive into this practice like we did last week. I am going to send you all off into small groups now.

Hand out the S.O.A.P document.

Do you guys have any questions about S.O.A.P?

Head into the sanctuary and scatter out, don’t sit beside your buddy. Find a quiet spot where you can practice Soap on Matthew chapter 7.