Read From Your Knees

March 12, 2017 Speaker: Jeremy Smith Series: Growing Up

Topic: Reading the Word Scripture: James 4:6– :8

Read from Your Knees

This is the second week of our growing up series and last week Tara talked about the G when she talked about how we gather together so that we can scatter the glory of God by making disciples.

We don’t gather together just so we can be fed and feel good and feel close to God, we gather so that we can be fed, feel close to God and go out and make disciples. If we are not pouring out onto people what God is pouring in to us, then we will become stagnant and stop GROWING UP!

Remember that Jesus first commands His disciples to leave everything and follow Him and then He commands them to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. It is a two part process.

Today we are talking about the R in GROWTH. We are talking about reading. I know I just lost some of you but stay with me. Believe it or not reading is not the terrible, miserable habit that TV came into the world to conquer. Contrary to popular belief, reading has some very good properties. Reading makes you smarter, it makes you think deeper, and even if there are no pictures, it can be fun.

Today, we aren’t just talking about reading; we’re talking about reading the Word of God.

In order to go out and make disciples, we have to be connected to God in a personal way on a daily basis. That means that we can’t expect to only show up to gather and then be used mightily by God. In the same way, we can’t expect to only spend time on our own with God and never gather with our church community.

Jesus did both: He spent time with people and He took time to get away and spend time with His Father. We have to do both as well.

The definition of the word read is “to look at and understand the meaning of written matter by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed.” There is a key word in this definition that is forgotten about when we do read… understand.

So Let’s Pray that we can do that today.

Not only are we talking about reading the Bible today, but we are talking about REALLY reading the Bible today. This means that we must be reading with a purpose. But what is that purpose and how do we do it?

Let’s read Jeremiah 29: 11-14

God knows you! But in the scripture, we see that He has some expectations of us in this relationship. He says that we have to seek Him and not just any kind of seeking but seek Him with our whole hearts.

1. Read to Know Him

Verse 13 says that when we seek Him we find Him.

The first reason that we read God’s word is so that we can know Him. We have to know who God really is. Not who we want Him to be or who others tell us that He is, but who He actually is. If we don’t know who God is, then the rest of this stuff doesn’t matter. We have to know what His expectations are, what his laws are, what He says about us, how much He loves us; we have to know His mercy and forgiveness and also His judgement and discipline.

The only way that we can ever know God is if we humbly draw near to Him. Only if we are reading from our knees; from a position of desperate need and humility.

James 4: 6-8 says, ” But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

The only way that we can understand God’s Word and in turn His identity, is if He reveals it to us.

When we make time for God and we are desperate for Him to speak to us through His word, He is faithful to do so.

When I was in early in the program and my walk with God, I was lost and desperate for God to reveal Himself to me. He did. I remember sitting on my bunk and reading through Romans with the mindset of, “If you don’t show yourself to me, I won’t make it.”

I got to Romans 5: 6-8 and read this, “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

At that moment, I started crying because the God’s grace became real to me. It wasn’t spoken by a preacher or taught to me in a class. It was revealed to me in God’s Word through the Holy Spirit because I was desperate to know God and have Him speak to me. God is faithful to meet with us when we are desperate for Him.

2. Read to be Changed

Verse 14 says that He will restore and gather you from where He has driven you and bring you back to the place that you were sent from. The Jews were scattered because of their disobedience and the same thing is still true in our lives.

We have been driven out of God’s will due to our disobedience and the way back into His will is through obedience and repentance.

Once we have truly and humbly sought out God, we will be challenged to change by His word.

Hebrews 4: 12,13 says, “12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

God is going to pierce our hearts. We must be seeking who He really is because if we seek out who God really is, then He is faithful to show us who we really are (Isaiah… woe is me)

This is when we take our journal out and ask the hard questions. Lord what are you trying to show me about me and what do you want to change? In His kindness He will lead us to repentance.

We ask the question and we sit quietly and allow the Holy Spirit to speak quietly to our hearts.

I sat down for my quiet time on Tuesday and I read Matthew 6: 1 and it says this, “ “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

I have been on a spiritual journey since October 13…. This is my journal from Tuesday.

God’s Word has to leave the page and enter into your heart. It has to be personal to you so that it will cause you to change. Otherwise, it is not living and active.

Once His Word is alive in us, God wants it to come alive leaving us.

3. Read to be used by Him

Verse 11 says that God has a plan for you.

That plan is to use you to advance his kingdom and make disciples. This is when you must have God’s word hidden in your heart.

Once you know God and you have allowed His word to change you from the inside out, you must start memorizing scripture so that you can share it with people who are in need of its power.

You never know when God will want to use you to change someone else’s life, and if you have not been reading His Word with the purpose of passing it on then you won’t be prepared.

I was in Destin last week at my brother-in-law’s youth bible study and one of the kids had just been punched in the face at school while standing up for someone else who was being bullied. You could see the embarrassment and shame on his face while he told the story and nobody really knew how to comfort him. But when I was in the program, we had to memorize 1 Cor 12: 26 and it says that when one member suffers, we all suffer with him. We were able to share that Matthew 5:10 says blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake, because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

There is no power in hey buddy, pick your chin up, but there is power in Jesus saying that if you stand up for Me, I’ll stand up for you. You could see his countenance changing as we were sharing with him.

I’ll close with this…

There are a ton of technical way to read scripture. There are study bibles, commentaries, and concordances. You can look up the original text in Hebrew and Greek and all of those things are important. Hopefully we can help you to be studiers of God’s word in those ways.

But the most important thing you can do is desire to know God and Have Him change you for His use. That is the purpose of the Word and that is why God desires to know you.

I would like to encourage you to start everyday by reading God’s word and journaling about how that Word impacts you personally. Commit 30 purpose-filled minutes a day to allow God to speak to you.

Then hide His word and His revelation in your heart so that you can share it and live it out for those in need of.

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