Alright, morning everyone. Go ahead and grab a seat. We'll go ahead and get started. I want to give Pastor Rick the full time. So I've been excited about having Pastor Rick here throughout the month of August to talk about delighting in God's Word. We've been very blessed that he's offered to come here. And so it's going to be exciting to build our enthusiasm for scripture. So he'll be here throughout the month of August, and I believe join us for potluck today and the worship service. So hopefully you get to spend more time with him and with his wife, Diane. And she wanted to come up and say something? She will, later. OK. All right. You can give her the mic for that. And so pastor, how long did you pastor at Southwest? 34 years. 34 years. Yes. And he's still preaching there. He hasn't been able to get away completely. But we got him for August, but he's been preaching twice per month and trying to get down to once per month. So it seems like that's frequently what retirement looks like for people, pastors. They don't really seem to retire, which is a good thing. We don't ever retire from serving the Lord. Senator Brother, super happy you're here. Looking forward to sitting under your teaching. this month, and so thank you very much for what you're doing for us. Would you pray for me? Oh, I sure will, yeah. Father, thank you so much for Pastor Rick. He's a great example to me of faithfulness and consistency in pastoring. We thank you for him bringing his years of knowledge and wisdom here to help us grow in our affection for Scripture. I pray, Lord, that you look over this time, bless the conversation with Pastor Rick as he teaches, bless the fellowship he has with our church, and to help us take full advantage of any ways that he and Diane can serve us and minister to us. And give him a sweet time teaching this morning and over the coming weeks. And we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Scott. I'll tell you, since last time I was here, I think Scott's written 10 more books or something. I see all these books by his name back there, which is great. You are really blessed to have Scott, Nathan, and leadership. I actually like to go to gardens, and so we come up here to Woodland to go to Hilda Kleger's garden and the Holland American Tulip Garden. And so we really like Woodland. However, things have changed. Now when we come back from Seattle, we're getting all that traffic. I don't know what you guys have done to that bridge out there, but it's... Bad. Last time we had, it took an hour to go six miles to get down and pass through Woodlands. Anyway, the elders of our church sent Diana and me out to minister to other churches. That's what we've been doing the last five years. As Scott pointed out, I've been preaching more lately at Southwest Hills because the pastor who took over for me stepped down, he resigned, and so they asked me to come and still be doing some teaching, so that's what I'm doing. Now, this is not about me, this class. We're going to talk about delighting in God's Word. We had an African pastor who went to our church while he was studying over at Western Seminary in Portland. And he told me one day, he said, hey, Rick, if you ever come to Africa to preach, don't make the mistake that so many American preachers make. And he said, what they do is they'll come to Africa and they'll just want to launch right into their sermon on Romans or on Galatians or whatever they're preaching on. And that doesn't work real well in Africa. They won't listen to you unless they trust you and they won't trust you unless they get to know you. And so if you ever come over to Africa, make sure that you share a little bit about your life, who you are, let them get to know you, why you're there, and that helps them to trust you more and they'll listen to you. And I thought when I heard him say that, I thought, well, that's probably true in America too. You don't know me from Adam, so it'd be good to know a little bit about me. So I'm gonna ask Diane to come up, and we're gonna share a little bit about ourselves, and then we'll launch into our teaching today on delighting in God's word. So we're gonna share our love story with you today, okay? How we met. I was a school teacher at a Christian school down in California. I taught for five years there. After the, well, it was like the fourth year, there was a new teacher who came, a second grade teacher named Carolyn, and I got interested in her, and one thing led to another, and we got engaged, we were gonna get married. But three months before the wedding date, Carolyn was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was very, very serious. The doctor said she probably only had about 18 months to live. So that threw everything, you know, in confusion for me and for her. And she went through surgery and radiation and then chemotherapy. And she kind of went into some remission and we rescheduled the wedding and we did get married. And I stopped teaching school. I finished up seminary. I had already done quite a bit and I just finished it up then. And so I wanted to be a pastor. Because of her health, I didn't know how this was going to work. And so I thought, well, maybe I can find a church that just wants someone part-time or interim or volunteer, whatever, you know? So I wasn't the main person there, and then when she passed away, what would happen? I didn't know. So anyway, Southwest Hills, my brother was going to medical school in Portland, and so he said, You know, our church, the pastor just left. He's going down to Houston to plant a new church. Why don't you apply for the interim position? So that's what I did, and they accepted me, and Carolyn and I moved up to Beaverton from California, and I was the interim pastor there. After a month or two, they decided to hire me as the regular lead pastor, the teaching pastor, and then a month after that, Carolyn passed away. So I didn't know, that was, it was so hard. It was so hard at that point. But the church was so good to me, those people. And so they said, you know, you've only been our pastor for a month, you know, full time, but we're gonna give you a month off, go back to California to your family and you can kind of process things. And so then come back and be our teaching pastor. So that's what happened. So I came back and I just kind of really threw myself into the ministry there. And the people were really loving to me. And so just like you guys, you know, just really loving people. They brought meals to me, invited me over. There's one woman who came and picked up my laundry every week and she washed it, brought it back even ironed. I thought, this is great. So they really loved me. And that's probably one of the reasons I stayed there for 34 years, because these people are such loving people. Well, after about six months, they decided they were going to help me in another way. Yeah, you know, don't you? They were going to find a wife for me. So one of the elders wrote a letter. He was going to send this letter out to 50 different churches, asking them if they had anyone who could find a wife for their pastor. But thankfully, his wife was, no, don't do that, Dave. That's not a good idea. And I said, yeah, that's not a good idea. Don't do that, Dave. So he didn't do that. But when I would come to church on Sunday morning, a lot of the people would say, hey, I have a cousin, Rick. You really ought to meet her. I have a neighbor, you know, she'd be just right for you. And I was really uncomfortable with that. And so I was studying Genesis 1 and 2 at that time about Adam and Eve, you know. And I thought, this is great. You know, God gave Adam a ministry, take care of the garden, name the animals, and he just did his ministry. And then God brought Eve at the right time. So I said, that's what I'm going to do. When people would ask me or tell me about, you know, Jennifer or whoever it was, I would say, well, I'm not going to pursue her, but I will put her name down on a prayer list and I'll pray for her. And so I had this list of about, I don't know, 8 or 10 women I had never met before that I was praying for. And then one day, this guy calls me and says, can we do a Christian education conference at your building there at your church? And I said, sure. He said, well, let me come down to your office and we'll talk and go over the logistics of it. So we did that. And he showed me the list of the workshop speakers. And one of them was one of the women on my list, Diane Penner. And I thought, whoa, God is bringing one of these women that I've been praying for right here. So I'm going to go to her workshop on teaching missions to children. I wasn't really interested in teaching missions to children. I didn't have any kids at that time, but I'm going to go to her workshop. So I'm not only that, but I'm going to invite her to lunch. And not only that, but I'm going to make the lunch. I'm not much of a cook. But I knew that she'd been admissionary to Japan, so I wasn't going to make Japanese food, because she'd know what that's supposed to taste like, and it wouldn't taste that way. So I went to school in Israel. And so I made one of couscous. Couscous wasn't real popular back in this time, 1986. And so I'm going to make her a couscous. So I put couscous in a crock pot and went to her workshop, and she'll tell you what happened next. Get that, Mike? There you go. Well, I was a single woman teacher. I taught English as a second language in Portland. But before that, I was a missionary in Japan. And I loved that experience very much. But I kept praying for a godly husband. Kept praying, kept praying. I turned 30, and that was really a hard year for me. There was no man in sight, and I just kept teaching and just praying that God would bring a godly man into my life. I always thought that I would probably marry a missionary. My dad was a pastor, and I did not want to marry a pastor, just because of some of the experiences our family had when I was growing up. So I kept praying, and finally I said, OK, God, I am going to go back on the mission field. And I was 33 at that time. And maybe that's what you have for me, a single woman on the mission field. So I kept praying. And then I came out to Southwest Hills, as Rick told you. I was teaching a missions workshop to children, and the only thing I knew about Southwest Hills, because my church was Temple Baptist in Portland, we were the mother church of Southwest Hills, that was the church where the pastor had lost his wife to cancer. And so, you know, I didn't know anything about the church other than that. It was a church plant. And so I got lost. I lived in Portland. I got lost coming out to Beaverton, trying to find the church. And then the conference was actually a Friday night and Saturday. And when I saw Rick get up to pray, I figured out, Oh, so he's the pastor. He isn't, you know, 60, 65, or whatever, like I thought he probably would be. I am now. So the next day, I did the workshop. And then he invited me to have lunch with him. And I thought, hmm, that's interesting. Not only just to have lunch, like in a restaurant, but at his apartment, which is on the church property. And I'm pretty cautious. But I thought, you know, he seems like a really nice guy. And he's a pastor, so probably we'll be OK. And so we had lunch together. And the thing that we found out that is so amazing to me is that we were both at Seattle Pacific as freshmen and did not meet until that day 15 years later. So God really has his time. God had Rick go through the experience of marrying Carolyn and going through that whole cancer journey with her. And for me, I had to keep waiting and waiting and be patient. And so any of the single women out here today, don't settle for only God's best. Only God's best. Even if you have to wait to be almost 34 to get married. That's what I did. And God has really blessed us. But I know Rick wants me to say something about his couscous. Yeah, how was that couscous I made for you? So the couscous was kind of like porridge that has no flavor, not even salt or anything. It was just really blah. But I ate it. I was gracious about it. And so we met at the end of January, got engaged in March, and got married 38 years ago this past June. So God has really blessed us. And even though we were a lot older getting married, God blessed us with five children. One of our children is in heaven with Jesus. She was a stillborn baby. But the other four children are such a great blessing. And I never dreamed that I would have, right now we have 15 grandchildren. And so we are very, very blessed and very, very thankful. God has really worked. Thank you. Okay, thank you, hon. Should I use this mic, by the way? Is this one more consistent than the other one? This one goes out sometimes. Where's my mic guy? Well, anyway, okay. Well, we'll try it. I'll try this one again on here. Okay, so anyway, Do you guys like couscous or not? I told Diane that's the way it's supposed to taste, you know, bland. But anyway, she didn't know. I made her feel sorry for me so she'd want to marry me. So it worked after all, okay? So I really loved being a pastor for 34 years at Southwest Hills, but my biggest disappointment was getting to know a lot of fine Christian people only to find out that they weren't really consistent in the Bible reading. They didn't really do, maybe they read a couple times a week or maybe one verse a day or something like that. And that has caused me the last five years since I retired to really focus on this question, how do you help people delight in God's word? And that's what this class, these four Sundays in August is about, delighting in God's word. Psalm 1, Melanie, where's Melanie? She just was quoting it to me there, where it says, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 19, God's word is more precious than gold, than much pure gold, sweeter also than honey, and honey from the comb. Psalm 119, 103, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Jeremiah 15, 16, when your words came, I ate them and they were the joy and my heart's delight. And even if we don't delight in God's word like these verses reflect, we still need to read it. I mean, Jesus said, man shall not live or does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As Paul said it, all scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So it's really clear we need to learn to read God's word, to feed on God's word, and then if we delight in it, we're gonna do that, right? And that's why I've been trying to figure out how to help people delight. God's Word. So that's my goal in these four weeks, to help you. I'm not going to get you, you know, way further than you are now. I don't know where you are now. Some of you really do delight in God's Word. Some of you maybe are struggling. And wherever you're at, I want to help you have more delight in God's Word. And if I can move you along a little ways, I think that would be great. And my counsel to you is these four weeks is just try to find one thing, just try to find one thing each week that you can do or believe that will help you delight in God's Word more. Okay, don't worry if you don't get everything I say. Some of it might go past you. I'm gonna have to, this is a 14 hour class. I'm condensing into four hours. So I'm gonna skip over some stuff and I'm gonna go quickly through some things. So if you don't get everything, don't worry about it. So that's kind of what we're doing. If your Bible reading needs an upgrade, well that's what we're gonna try to do during these four weeks. Any questions before I get started about myself, about Diane, or about what we're gonna be doing this month? I've got a great mic guy here who's going to bring the mic around. So anybody have any questions at all? Okay, let's get started then. And do feel free to raise your hand and ask questions anytime you want, that's fine. You're obviously delighting God's Word if you're getting insights from God's Word as you read, right? And one day I was just kind of asking myself, okay, what do you do, Rick, to get insights? Because I've been reading the Bible pretty much every day, 50 years now. And I delight in it because I get insights from it, things that are practical, things I could put into practice in my life. And so I sat down and tried to figure out what do I do as I'm reading the Bible that helps me get insights. And what I did was I figured out there are 12 questions that I ask the text, 12 questions as I'm reading that I ask the text. Now I don't just go through these 12 questions, but these are the kinds of things I'm asking as I'm reading. This mic is really on and off, isn't it? Let me use that mic. I'm going to use this one. And then I'll give it to you when we have questions, OK? Okay, so I'm gonna give you five of those questions today. I call these the five basic questions. These are just really basic. And then over the next four weeks, I hope to teach you the five intermediate questions and then the two really advanced questions that you can ask the text that will help you get insight. So let's start by having a little bit of fun, okay? I'm not as smart as many of you are here, but I've been able to memorize huge parts of scripture by making pictures. That's how I do it. I make pictures. So I have some pictures that I'm going to give you that will help you memorize these five basic questions you can ask the text. So question number one is commands. What commands are there in the scriptures? And it's all in your notes here, so you won't have to write too much here. But the picture to help you remember is this. One rhymes with sun, the sun. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to close your eyes right now. Just close your eyes, just do what I say, and it will really help you, I promise, okay? So close your eyes and picture the sun up in the sky. and it's talking to you, and it's commanding you to put on sunscreen. Can you picture that in your mind? Just picture the sun commanding you to put on sunscreen. Okay, that's the first thing, commands. One, sun, commands. What commands are there? So when I read the Bible, that's the first thing I'm gonna look for, because it's very easy. What commands are there that I'm supposed to obey? Now, not every command in the Bible is for me to obey. Like God said to Noah, build an ark. That's not for me, that was for Noah, right? But love your neighbor as yourself, that's obvious, something I need to do because I'm commanded to do it, right? So one son commands. The second thing I look for are examples. This is also very easy to see. What examples are there to follow or examples to avoid? You know, if you see something like Jesus washing his disciples' feet, that's an example to follow. If you see King Saul and his jealousy about David, well, that's an example to avoid. So two, here's the picture, two rhymes with shoe. So close your eyes again. Now picture yourself going to your closet and getting your shoes, and someone has put a big X on each of your shoes. Can you see it in your mind? A big X. Examples. Got it? So two rhymes with shoe, examples. There's the big X, examples. So I'm always looking for examples. And there's so much you can get out of scripture just by looking at the examples. Because the Bible doesn't teach primarily by commands. It teaches primarily by examples. Most of the Bible, you know, the Old Testament and stuff, it's stories. Or the Gospels or Acts, you know, you've got all these stories and you learn from examples. Okay, three. Three rhymes with tree. Three rhymes with tree. Okay, close your eyes for a second. Picture a big forest of trees. And one tree is way bigger than all the other trees. Can you picture it? And it's pointing up to God. That's the third thing. So three rhymes with tree, God. What does this teach me about God? What is the main theme of the Bible? God, right? The very first verse, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. All the way to the end, the main theme of the Bible is God is the main character. So anything you're reading, ask yourself, what can I learn about God from this chapter or this verse or this section I'm reading, you know? You can learn so much just by asking that question. Do you remember when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, remember? And Saul says, who are you, Lord? That was his first question, right? Who are you, Lord? And then he was shocked to find out it was Jesus. He wanted to know who this was. That's what I like to do, too. Who is the Lord? What am I learning about God from this chapter? Okay, so what was one again? You tell me, what's one? One rhymes with sun? Commands, right? Two rhymes with shoe? Examples. Three rhymes with tree? God. Okay, four. Now, close your eyes again, number four. Four rhymes with floor. Picture yourself walking into your house or apartment and there are people sitting all over the floor. Can you picture it? Okay, if you picture it, you'll remember. Four rhymes with floor, floor. And the question to ask is what do others think of what I'm reading? What do others think? In other words, I'm just one person and I can easily think I have the right answer of what the Bible's saying and I might be totally wrong. And so I need to listen to other people. God has given us, we're not to be just individuals, we're a body, right? We're a family, a family. And together as a family, we help each other. And so I like to use a study Bible. You know, with notes at the bottom? And so I listen to what other people say. What they saw is they have studied this passage. Or I read a commentary or listen to a sermon. But I want to hear from others, too, to correct what I think the Bible's saying, but I might not get it right. There's been a lot of times like that. Or listen to what some scholars say who have studied the culture and the language and things that I don't even understand and know about. So, four rhymes with floor. You picture going into your house, all these people are on the floor. What do others say? And then five? Five rhymes with hive. Okay, close your eyes again. Okay, picture someone coming up to you to give you a gift. And the gift is a beehive. And they hand you this beehive and you're saying to yourself, what in the world am I going to do with this? Can you picture that? Five rhymes with hive. What am I going to do with this? That's the fifth question. And actually, that's the most important question you should ask when you're reading the Bible. What am I going to do with this? Because like it says in James, we are to be doers of God's word and not hearers only who deceive themselves. Lots and lots of Christians don't get much out of the Bible because they don't put the Bible into practice. And they don't get the blessings that come from obedience to God's word. So there are five, those are really basic questions. And if you ask those five questions of virtually any text, you can learn a lot and get a lot of insights. You really can. So let me just see if you've got it, okay? Try not to look at the notes. Okay, one is what? One rhymes with sun, commands. Two rhymes with shoe. Three rhymes with tree. Four rhymes with floor. Others, what do others say? Five rhymes with hive. What am I going to do with it? You got it. Is that hard? You got it. Now, if you do those pictures, you'll remember. You really will. So any questions before I go on to the next thing I want to talk about? Any questions here? I really want to be sure you guys get your questions answered. So anybody that has questions, make sure you ask. Okay, so let me talk now, we'll go back to these five basic questions. We're gonna actually take a section of scripture and try it out, okay? And see if we can get some good insights using these five questions. But before we do, let's just talk about the problem. Why is it that we don't delight in God's word? Do you think God wrote a boring book? No. I don't either. No. Do you think God is boring? No, no, no, no, no, of course not. So why do we oftentimes not delight in God's word? Why is it that there are other things that capture our attention more than the Bible does? Why would we rather watch a movie or look, check social media or go on our computer or phone or talk to a friend or go shopping or mow the lawn? Why do we want to do all these other things more than we want to read the Bible? Where does the problem lie? So that's where we have to start. Let's talk about this issue, the problem, and then what the Bible says we can do about this problem. So first of all, here's five things you can do today to help you move towards delighting in God's word. Number one, and it's all in the notes here, is own the problem. It's not God's problem. It's not that the Bible's boring. It's not. The problem is right here in my heart, and it's right there in your hearts, too. You know, the Bible says that we're born with a sinful disposition, and it affects everything about us, doesn't it? It affects our health, it affects our relationship with others, it affects our thinking, and it affects our desires. We are fallen creatures. and we need to be changed. The problem lies right here in my heart and yours. That's the problem, and we've got to own that problem. So you start right there. You own the problem. And that shows you what the next step has to be, and that is you have to go to God and ask him to change you and forgive you. And so the second step is to repent and ask God to change you. Now you can do this all your whole life. That's what I do. I used to have a real problem with anger. I couldn't change myself. I couldn't change my heart. Now, there's these techniques that counselors can teach you, you know, count to three or hold your breath, you know. But that doesn't really get to the real issue that's in the heart. And so what I decided to do is I'm going to start repenting every day about my anger. And so I did. I just lie down on the floor on my face. And I say, Lord, I have a problem here and I can't change it. Would you change it? And I did that every single day. I think it was about three months into doing that that I started seeing some real changes in my heart. And I'm not perfect or anything, but I don't really have that problem anymore. God has changed me, but it takes a lot of repentance to get there. It takes a lot of humility, going before God. And so that was quite a few years ago, and now every single day I have a time of repentance. Because there's still things in my heart that shouldn't be there, right? Whether it's selfishness, or greed, or lust, or whatever it is, jealousy, or envy. There's things in there that shouldn't be there. I have to own those problems, but I can't change my heart. God is the one that changes it. Now, I have a part to play, and I'll talk about that in just a minute, but the second step, after you own the problem, is to go to God every day and repent. Ask God. If you don't delight in God's word, ask God to change your heart. Change your desires. Ask Him to do a work in you. Ask Him to forgive you for for that sinful disposition, for desiring to do whatever you want to do instead of reading the Bible each day. Okay, so that's the second step. Repent and ask God to change you. One of the prayer requests, when I repent, I'll just tell you one of the things I pray over and over again. I say, God, God, I want to be less and less like Rick Elzinga and more and more like Jesus Christ. I pray that all the time. I want to be less like me and more like him, okay? And so do you, right? So do you. So pray, repent. And do you think God answers prayers like this? This is right up the line of what he wants. He wants us to delight in his word, right? This is right with his will. And the Bible says that when we humble ourselves before God, what does he do? God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Three times in the Bible, Proverbs, James, and 1 Peter, it's the same verse. God responds to humility, so humble yourself before God. This is such an important issue. I'm gonna talk about it more next week, but let's go on here. Okay, number three. Third step you can do is to act in faith. Okay, so you've owned the problem, you've asked God to change you, and now you get up from your knees or whatever in faith and you say, okay, now I'm gonna read the Bible. I'm gonna do it in faith. I have a part to play and I'm gonna do my part. I'm gonna read the Bible. And trust that God will use that then to change my desires. Well, how are we transformed? What does Romans 12.2 says, you know? Romans 12.2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We're transformed as God renews our mind. And as we read the Bible, God uses that. It's the sword of the Spirit, it says in Ephesians 6. It renews our mind. And so after I repent, and I don't spend a lot of time on repentance. Maybe it's just a minute or something. But then I get up and I read the Bible. I do my part while I'm waiting. In other words, I don't just sit back and say, well, I'm not going to read the Bible until God gives me a delight in the Bible. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. God will do his part, but he usually acts pretty slowly. He's not in a big hurry like we are. He doesn't have 80 or 90 years like we have. He's got eternity, and he takes his time. And while we're waiting for him to change our heart, we have a part to play. And so we get up and we read the Bible. We play our part and ask God to use that then to transform us. Nathan? I have one comment and then one question for you in particular. Along the same topic as far as change and progression, I just, I don't know where I heard this first, but God is more interested in the journey than the destination because he wants fellowship. It's knowing him and that's, or as the saying goes, easy come, easy go. The change that God does in our life is always going to be slow and sometimes painful if we want it to be lasting. But with your testimony, you prayed that God would address the issue or help you with the issue of anger. And you said you prayed for three months before you started to see some changes. What motivated you to persist for that long without seeing any changes or noticing any changes, I should say, for three months? And was there any particular passage of Scripture that was helpful for you, that you clung to, that you associated into your prayer life, seeking for that kind of change? Yeah, those are good questions, Nathan. So, what kept me going, praying like that, without seeing a lot of results, is that I knew it was gonna be that way. That's the way God's worked in my life. Now, sometimes, you know, there's some people that change just like that. So, we had two people in our church that were alcoholics. I mean, they were really, they were bad shape before they came to Christ. One of them was telling me, when I came to Christ, I changed just like that. I never desired alcohol again. The other person said, I came to Christ and I had to struggle every single day of my life. Now here's my question to you. Which one of those two do you think was more mature spiritually? The second one, yeah. You might think the first one was, because he was changed. No, God used that struggle in that second person's life. It was a woman in our church who had come to Christ, and God used that struggle to teach her to depend on him. And she was far more spiritually mature than the man was, the first guy, whose life changed just like that with alcohol once he came to Christ. So I just know that in my life, usually God works real slowly like that, so I didn't want to give up. I want to keep going. And it was just a slow change. As far as verses in the Bible that helped me, the verse I quoted before, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I knew that God had promised to give me grace if I humbled myself before him. So I just kept doing it, and I wasn't going to give up. Luke 18 is a good parable of the woman who just keeps going to the judge, and keeps knocking at his door until he finally does something. And then Jesus said, and will not God, will not God do the same for his children who call out to him night and day? So those things were helpful for me. Thank you for that question. Okay, so we have to act in faith. Now at this point, you're entering into a fierce spiritual battle. Let's just be honest. Satan doesn't want you to read the Bible. Satan doesn't want you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Satan doesn't want you to delight in God's Word. He'll do anything he can to distract you. So you're entering into a fierce battle at this point, and it's a battle you have to win. It's a battle you have to win. Let me go on and show you the next step here, because this helps you win the battle. And that's what Nathan is actually talking about. The next step is to persevere in your Bible reading. So Eugene Peterson said, the Christian life is a long obedience in the same direction. I think that's really true. The Christian life is a long obedience in the same direction, pursuing Christ, pursuing Christ. When you humbly repent and you act in faith, read the Bible, it doesn't mean you're gonna be changed just like that. God works slowly, but surely. And we need to persevere. So I'm going to give you an example of what happened to me. So I, how many of you like coffee? How many of you like to drink coffee? Okay, a lot of you. When I first drank coffee, I thought, this stuff stinks. This is the worst stuff. It's bitter. It's terrible. I don't like coffee. And then I went to college and I had to stay up late studying. So every night I would drink coffee to stay up late. I didn't like it, but it kept me up. I'm very sensitive to caffeine. And guess what happened? I developed a taste for coffee. I began to like it. I acquired a taste for something that at first was really bitter to me. The same can happen with Bible reading. As you keep reading, as you learn to read and get insights, as we're gonna be talking about more in this class in the next few weeks, you acquire a taste. It doesn't just happen like that. You persevere. It's a long obedience in the same direction. And so I would just want to encourage you to keep going at it. Now, it's better to read the Bible because you really delight in it, because you really want to. But that's not where we start out. Most of us aren't that way, because our desires are fallen, like the rest of us. That's the reason the culture is so wrong when it says, follow your heart. You don't follow your heart, because your heart, like the rest of you, has fallen. It's going to lead you the wrong way. You lead your heart. You see what the right direction is, and then you lead your heart that way. You don't follow your heart. So you persevere in Bible reading and learn to acquire a taste for it over time. To live by faith doesn't mean you sit back and do nothing, does it? You look in the Bible, and there's all kinds of commands, pursue, and turn from, and follow. I'll just read to you one verse of the Bible. This is 1 Timothy 4. It says, be diligent in these matters. Give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, 1 Timothy 4, 15 and 16. Action, something we need to do. So God has his part. He'll change our heart over time. He'll transform us by the renewing of our mind. But we have a part to play while we're waiting. So do your part. And by the way, if you're really struggling in this area, it does help to have an accountability partner. You might find somebody else who also wants to learn to delight in God's Word and have an accountability partner to encourage you and to be praying for you. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Ezra 7.10. It's great for any pastor or teacher. It says, Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach its commandments and ordinances in Israel." And I always looked at the second half of that verse and thought, that's exactly the way we should do it. You study the law of the Lord, and you don't just go to teach it, you study it and you practice it, and then you teach it after you've practiced it. So you study, practice, teach. And I really like that as a pastor, that's the order I try to go in. Not to just learn something in the Bible and go teach it, but practice it first, so that I'm practicing what I'm preaching. But just recently, God helped me see that the first part of that verse is even more important than the second part. It says, Ezra set his heart. That's the key right there. He set his heart, he made a commitment, and he was gonna continue on studying God's word, practicing it, and then teaching it in Israel. The final step here, five, the fifth one I want to talk about is learning the skill of Bible reading. There is a skill involved here, okay? You have to learn some things. And like I said, I've been reading the Bible for a long, long, long, long time. And I've learned from other people. Some of it I've learned from myself and a lot of it from other people. And we can learn from each other, and we can learn how to read the Bible. And that's what I want to be teaching you during this class. And God has gifted people like Pastor Nathan, Pastor Scott, and others, the elders of this church. God has gifted others to help us learn. And so I hope this will be helpful to you as well. Okay, so those are five steps you can take today to help you move towards delighting in God's word. So number one was what? I'm sorry, I'm getting mixed up now with the other five pictures. The first step you can take is to own the problem. The second step then is to repent and ask God to change you. The third is, I gotta look at my notes to even see what it is. What is the third note again? I'm sorry, what was that again? Act in faith, get up and read, and the fourth one is to persevere in it, and then the fifth one is to sharpen your Bible reading skills, okay? Any questions now at this point? Again, I want to stop and just see if there's any questions. Okay. Hey. Hey, buddy, I need your help. Oops. I caught it. There's a question right over there. So I was curious, this is a term, there's lots of terms that we hear in Sunday school and in church as we're growing up all our lives. The word repentance we hear a lot. I was curious if you could just put into your, how would you define in your own words repentance? What does it mean to repent? That's a great question. So I'm going to amplify this next week. I'm going to talk about repentance. So right now, I'm just going to give you a partial definition, and I'm going to complete it next week, OK? So right now, the repentance I'm talking about here is humbling yourself before God, admitting that I have the problem. It's not that the Bible's boring. I have the problem. I humble myself before you. I'm dependent on you. I can't change my heart myself. I need your help. I need you to work. So that's kind of my idea. Now, next week I'm gonna add something to that that's really important, so be sure you're here next week, okay? Good, any other questions before we go on? Okay, now let's review those five pictures. Okay, one rhymes with commands, right? Two, shoe, examples. Three, tree, God. Four, floor, what others say? Five, What am I going to do with it? Did those pictures help you? They helped me. They really helped me. OK, so let's actually try it, OK? If you have your Bible, go to Philippians chapter 2. We're going to test this out, see how it works. Philippians chapter 2, and we're just going to do the first 11 verses. And we're just going to ask these five basic questions. So like I said, there's seven other questions that are five intermediate questions and two really advanced questions. We'll get to that. But today, I just want to do these five basic questions. And I need to get my Bible. So let me get here. I asked Pastor Scott what translation they use here, you guys use. And he said, well, he uses the ESV. somebody else uses the King James and somebody else uses the new King James and so I brought everything with me today I don't know you guys are all over the place it sounds like and that's fine so Philippians chapter 2 and we're just going to do the first 11 verses so since I have the mic I'm gonna read it and I'm gonna read it from the I know, I'm gonna read from, I got all kinds of Bibles here. 1986 NIV, okay? Actually, okay, I'm just gonna, this is the one. I memorized it in this translation. So, let me get to it here. Okay, you ready? Now, as we're reading it, I want you to be looking for those five questions, okay? What commands are there here? What examples are there here? What do we learn about God? What do others say? If you have a study Bible, you might have some notes. I like to use a study Bible, but some people don't like study Bibles, that's fine. And then finally, what are we gonna do about it? Because we gotta do something, we gotta be doers of God's word, not hearers only. Okay, here we go. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, If any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with his spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wow, what a beautiful passage, huh? Let's just ask God to teach us, and then I want you to share. What commands do you see here? What examples? What do you learn about God? If you have a study Bible and you see some notes there, what do others say? And then finally we'll talk about how we can put it into practice, okay? Father, I thank you for your word. And we are dependent on you for everything in life. We're dependent on you to learn from your word. So I pray that you will open our eyes to see wonderful things in your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Excuse me. Okay, let's see, where's my mic guy? Mic guy, let's find out, what commands do you see here? Now there's several commands and you can't do everything, but is there a command in this section that really speaks to you? Let me just ask that, and he's gonna take it around and see. make my joyful uh... well uh... Being Christians, there's a thousand reasons to be full of joy, and God gives that to us in his word. So yeah, there's a fullness to be experienced here. And of course, Paul's gonna go on and talk about that in Philippians, doesn't he? Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I'll say rejoice, right? Okay, another command. Is there a command that really speaks to you? Okay, there's Nathan back there. This passage has become a household favorite in my home when you have a lot of tendencies to fight and argue and bicker, but it's kind of a both. It's a command and the example where the example or the command has so much weight behind it when he talks about verses three and four about we're not to allow anything to be done through strife or vainglory, meaning we're not trying to fulfill some empty conceit or pursuing our own agendas. But it talks about having humility, valuing others, esteeming them higher than ourselves, which is not natural for us to do. And being interested in other things or things that belong to other people, making sure that they're doing well, not just focusing on our well-being. And all of that, all those commands, can look so impossible until he gets to verse five, who when he starts talking about the example that we see in Christ, this is exactly what Jesus did for us. And so it just puts so much weight behind the commands that are given because now we have a model to look to who lived out those commands that we can follow. And like you said earlier in the discussion, he's the one we're asking for us to be more like him and less like ourselves. And so he's not only our model, he's our means by which we can be like that model. Yeah, these commands at the beginning of the chapter are really powerful, and I agree with Nathan. The one that really hits me is number three, verse three. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vacancy, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. That's something we all could work on, right? And we need God's help, as Nathan said. Okay, so we have a great example, too, in Jesus, don't we? Verses five through 13. So that's a very clear example for us, and we're supposed to have the same attitude or the same mind in us as was in Christ. Same mind of humility to serve others, to consider others more important than ourselves. Christ gave up his, well, he didn't give up his glory, but he was willing to leave all that glory he had in heaven and become one of us. and to go through a lot of rejection, a lot of suffering, a lot of pain, because he valued us. He wants us to be able to be part of his family, and he glorifies the Father through that. Okay, now what do we learn about God from this section? Does anybody see something about God? What do you learn about God from this section? Three, tree, God. What do you learn about God? Mike, man. There you go, buddy. Right over there. He's willing to give a great sacrifice to show his love. Yeah, here's another one. Yeah, and in that vein, he was the greatest example of humility. Just looking at what it means, really what it means to be a man is it's not about dominance, it's about service, servitude to others. And that being the example of Christ, he's the prototypical man of what God expects of us as his creation that bears his image is to serve. I'd say as much as He did it for His love for us, He also did it for His own glory, so that every knee should bow, and on heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. So He did it for His own glory just as much as He did it for His love for us. Those are the two most important things, that it's ultimately for His glory. Those are all good comments. So what does it mean, his glory? Let's talk about that just for a second. So whenever Jesus or whenever God shows his attributes, whether it's power or love, judgment, mercy, that's his glory, isn't it? when he shows his attributes. And so we see in Jesus here a humility, as someone mentioned. Wow, that God would be humble in the sense that he's putting others. He's doing what's best. Here's how I define love, OK? The Bible never actually defines love. It gives us examples of love. It gives us characteristics of love. But it doesn't actually define it. So here's how I define it as I read the Bible. Desiring and doing what's best for someone else, regardless of the personal cost. That's what God does. He desires and he does what's best for us, even though it cost him something, a lot. The father gave up his son. Jesus took the curse for us, right? It's more than he just died for us, he took the curse for us. So God desires and does what's best for us regardless of the cost. And ultimately, that brings him glory because it shows his attribute of love and mercy. and the judgment as well, all these different aspects of God. So let's go to number four, we're running out of time here. So the fourth question is, four, floor, what do others say? I know if you have a study Bible, you probably have some things there, I'm not gonna go into that, so let's just go right to five. Five, hive, what am I gonna do with this? This is the most important question. So what are you gonna do? You can't just read the Bible and then run off and you check a box that you read your Bible that day, and then you run off to do the other things you have to do in life. You gotta find how you're gonna put it into practice that day. So how can we put this into practice? Does anybody have any ideas? Now, I should say this. There are several commands here. There's a great example here in Christ. You learn a lot about God from Jesus Christ. Obviously, he is the image of the invisible God, right? Firstborn of all creation, as it says in Colossians. And if you have a study Bible, there's probably good notes with ideas there. So there's lots of different things you can do to put it into practice. You can't move forward on 10 different fronts at the same time. You gotta pick one. So what I do is I underline as I go through scripture. I underline commands that really speak to me. I underline examples that really speak to me. I underline things that show me something about God. And then I go back and I pray through each of those things I've underlined, and I choose one to put into practice. So for me, the one I wanna put into practice from this passage is to consider others more important than myself. I need to learn to do that. How about you? How would you put something into practice? Examining my motives. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why are you doing what you're doing? It's always good to look at our motives. That's right. Anybody else? How are you going to put this into practice this week? I hope you've got something. You've got to figure out a way to put it into practice. I think it's fundamentally important anytime you're trying to apply God's word. You're attempting to do something you cannot do. So it's got to really start with prayer. It's got to go to a dependence on His strength first. And starting with His power, leaning on His power, and then asking Him to help you carry out what it is. And then probably asking Him, what about this scripture are you wanting me to see? How are you wanting me to apply it and live it out? Tammy, yeah, thank you. I was thinking of in Isaiah 55, my word shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. And like God promises to bless his word, so we're wise if we honor that word and represent it as accurately and effectively as we can whenever we have the opportunity, right? And that's what I think about when you're saying, how are you gonna apply that? Like, that's the promise. That's a promise to us. He shall. His word's not going to return void. But again, I have to be a part of that picture. I have to cooperate. I have to obey. Whether I understand or not, it's trusting. Because I know God a little bit more, I can trust him a little bit more and know that that's going to work out. So I love. And there's another verse, the next verse says, this is a song that I know of, for you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. And I'm like, oh, like I love that because he gives us a way to go forward to forget about ourselves, joy in who God is and that peace is there. And I was thinking about when you were motivated, To keep the oneness with God, my motivation is that peace. If it's not there, there's something I've done. God hasn't done anything. I haven't. So I'm always asking, what have I done? What's in the way? I want to come back to that oneness. And I love that. It's right here in his word. He wants that for us. So anyway, I was all excited when you were sharing. What Tammy said just reminded me of one more thing I should say, is that when you come to the fifth question, what are you going to do about it, it's not always what are you going to do. Sometimes it's what you're going to believe. Sometimes as you're reading the Bible, God gives you insight, like who God is. And by believing that, that's what you need to do. That's how you're putting it into practice that day. So it might be something you just believe, a changed attitude, like, wow, God wants me to have joy. You know, things like that, or God's Word, as you said, doesn't come back void. So, this might be something you believe. Oftentimes, it is something to do. It depends on whether you're focusing on one of the commands, or on one of the examples, or maybe something about God. It might be just something you believe. Like, you've always thought of God as being harsh or something, and then you read the scripture, and you find out God is the most merciful and loving being in the universe. And it changes your thinking that way, and that transforms your life. So there we go. The time's up. I'll be back next week, Lord willing, and we'll get into the repentance thing and also give you some more of those questions to be looking for, but these are just five basic questions. Do it this week. I got homework for you. Oh, I forgot to tell you. There's homework at the end of your notes. Make sure you try to do that. I don't have the notes with me, but I'm gonna steal yours real quick. So memorize the five basic questions, those five pictures I gave you. Study 2 Timothy chapter 1 using those questions. And we'll start off next week by asking you what you learned from 2 Timothy chapter 1. We're going to go through 2 Timothy over these four weeks. And then share with someone your answer to question 5. What are you going to do about it? Or what are you going to believe differently? And then review the five steps for solving the problem of not delighting in God's word, okay? You know, understanding, owning the problem, repenting, et cetera. Let me pray. Father, I'm sorry to rush so quick here through this. When we talk about your word, as we read your word, and we read one of the most awesome sections in the whole Bible, Philippians chapter two, about Christ and what he's done for us. But Lord, please help us. Please help us to learn to delight in your word. So that it's not just what I say in these four sessions, but it's what we all do for the next many years of our lives. that we're in your word each day, that we're learning from it, that we're putting it into practice, that we're being transformed by the renewing of our minds. But as was pointed out, we can't do it on our own. We need your help, Lord. So we come to you and ask for your help. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, see you next week.