We have arrived, another day, another scripture, and our study begins right now. you Good morning, everyone. We have made it to day 13 and scripture number 13 for our series 30 Scriptures in 30 Days. Again, this is day 13. It will be scripture number 13. And if you've been with us for the previous 12 days, thank you so much for participating. I greatly appreciate it. I know you've got a million things to listen to. And not everyone, I know this is not the series everyone was clamoring for. This is not the series everyone necessarily, no one requested it. No one really wanted it, but it's something that I felt I had to do. And so I appreciate you giving me a little bit of mercy, a little bit of freedom to do what I want to do. And I mean that in this way. Obviously, I can do whatever I want, but you obviously are free not to listen. So if you chose to listen, what you're saying by listening is, hey, it's not necessarily what I want. It's not necessarily maybe the thing I would want to listen to, but I'm going to support you anyway. So I appreciate it. But it's something I had to do. I'm sorry. The book by Charles Stanley, The 30 Life Principles, I can't explain it. I don't know why. The book has always just baffled me, confused me. And then a book, a study guide, a DVD series, a Bible came out of it, Life Principles Bible. And I'm like, why? Why is so many people thinking this is the greatest thing? I just don't get it. I don't understand. It reminds me of my confusion. with the devotional, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I don't get it. Why is that devotional so beloved and so cherished and so reverenced as beings? And I've tried that devotional and I'm just like, what am I missing here? What is this supposed to be doing for me? I don't get it. So there are times where I'm baffled by the popularity of something. and I'm confused, but instead of just discount, I just discount it and forget it and disregard it and just move on, what I typically do is struggle with trying to figure out, so what is it? What is it about this particular thing? And I've not yet figured out the appeal to the 30 life principles. I guess the appeal is, here's 30 life principles and you can write them down and they're easy to teach. I don't know, but just to remind you, my problem is, I believe this is the way I believe. I'm not stating this as a dogmatic fact, but this is what appears to me, that Charles Stanley came up with 30 principles, and then he simply tried to find scripture to impose the principle upon. Because in almost every single case, I don't believe the principle is supported by the scriptures he provides. So what we're doing in this series is we're like, okay, here's the principle he gives for this particular day. We set it aside and then we're like, this is the scripture. Then we work on the scripture to see if a principle can be taken from it. Now, in our previous, well, the first 11 days, we came up with principles, lots of principles. In fact, the first 11 days we were able to come up with, Let me see here. I've got my notebook. I've got to open my notebook. 26 principles. So for the first, for part 1 through 11, you get 26 principles, not from Charles Stanley, but from what I believe the text is actually saying. So what I'm trying to do is look at the text and allow the principles to actually come from the text. So, it's a little bit of a hermeneutical exercise as well. And we're doing this in a fun way, or at least I think it's fun, because I'm not doing any preparing before I go live. I'm opening up Charles Stanley's book and then on the spot trying to come up with the principles in real time. So, you may like it, you may find it going, wait. you're listening to me try to talk it out in real time. And the goal to do that is to try to get you to talk it out and you thinking about what principles found in the text. Now, yesterday we had a problem. Yesterday we came to day 12, scripture number 12, and I didn't believe there was a principle that could be taken from that text. I thought any attempt to take a principle from that text was going to be problematic. By the end, I started possibly formulating one, but I decided not to, and I just left it with everyone else. I didn't receive a lot of feedback. But of course, yesterday was a crazy day with everything going on in the country and in the world. So people were probably distracted. Maybe someone will engage with that one. Well, I did have one person say it was their second favorite. No, that wasn't. Yes. Was that yesterday? Maybe it was yesterday. Time becomes meaningless after a while when you get so many, when you get, you know, different feedback for so many different things. But I believe yesterday they claimed that that was their second favorite episode. So their second favorite episode was the one where I didn't actually have a principle to give, but hopefully they're still working on it and thinking about it. But today we've arrived at day 13, principle number 13. Again, are you ready? Here we go. I'm going to reach over. I'm using a I'm using my iPad and I'm using the Kindle app. just tapped on the Kindle app, and it opens up to 30 Life Principles by Charles Stanley. And there it is, Life Principle number 13. So remember, we're not focused on so much on his principle, I'm still giving it, we're focused on the scripture he's going to provide. So are you ready? Here we go. Life Principle number 13, or we're going to say, Day 13, Scripture number 13, but here's the principle he gives. This is found in the book, 30 Life Principles by Charles Stanley. Here it is. Listening to God is essential to walking with God. Listening to God is essential to walking with God. That is the principle Charles Stanley gives. Now, on one hand, there's a part of me that could be like, ooh, that's a good principle, but because I'm so familiar with Charles Stanley's doctrine of theology, I've stated this before, I graduated from the Charles Stanley, what was it? The Charles Stanley Christian Institute, I can't remember what it was called, but I graduated from it. I've completed all the coursework and did everything that was required. Was it the Institute for Christian Living? Something along those lines, but I completed all the work. So I know when he talks about listening to God, it's very different. It's a very different theology than my theology. He is listening to God. He even wrote a book, I think, how to hear God or how to discover God's will. But it's all about, he talks about how you hear or listen for God, how you hear God. And it's this very you know, experiential feeling, inner voice kind of thing that you're trying to listen for what God is telling you. So when he says listening to God, it's different than what I would say. When I say you want to listen to God, you grab a Bible, you open it, and you read it. You want to hear God speak to you out loud? Read it out loud. Now, I'm not the first person to say that. There's many who've said that in similar ways, but that That is my idea of listening to God. Listening to God is spending time right here, opening a Bible and reading it, and studying it, and exegeting it, and taking it apart, and observing it, and interpreting it, and applying it, and all of those things, memorizing it, all of the things that come along with actually listening to God. I don't think listening to God is some experiential thing where I have to try to, is that God's voice in me or is that me? Is that, is that, you know, what's that still small voice? No. God speaks to me through his Word alone. If God is speaking to me outside of his Word, then the Bible—I don't care what you say—begins to lose its authority and power, because God is speaking to you outside of it. So, when he says, listening to God, I know it's going in a direction that I'm going to disagree with, but we don't have to worry about that, because we're going to set aside his principle. Listening to God is essential to walking with God. Let's set it aside. What we care about today is the Scripture he utilizes to supposedly support this principle. And remember, what we have found super interesting about this book is every principle so far, I think, he's supposedly taken it from an Old Testament text. In many cases, he's chosen texts that I would have never chosen for the principle that he supposedly was given. And in almost every single case, I think it's easy to state this dogmatically, the principle is being imposed on the text. The principle is not arising from the text, which is a massive biblical and theological error, and I completely disagree with. But we're going to set that aside. Here we go. The scripture for today, day 13, scripture number 13, is found in the book of Psalms, Psalm chapter 81. Psalm 81, verse 8. And again, man, some of these, I just, some of these, I'm like, why? That's the scripture you would pick? Like, if I was going to be listening to God as essential to walking with God, I think I know where I would go. Where would you go? If I gave you that principle, right? Well, that would be us trying to prove the principle. Let's set aside the principle. Let's just go to Psalm 81, 8 right now and see if a principle arises from, or if this principle is even found there. Psalm 81, verse 8. Let's go. Let's read this. Here we go. O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. Now the weird thing is he chooses verse, just verse eight, verse eight. Doesn't, verse eight doesn't really, the thought doesn't stop in verse eight, it continues. I'm gonna read this from a different Bible. I'm gonna go to this one, Psalm 81, eight. Again, it's so weird how so many Christian books, like sometimes even when they, even in devotionals, they'll give you a scripture and you'll be like, well, wait a minute, why did you just give me that one? Clearly, this is like the continuation of a thought that came before or the thought continues after, but let's see what they do in this Bible with this. Psalm 81.8. Psalm 81a, listen, my people, and I will admonish you. Israel, if you would only listen to me. Now, this one, at least this Bible has that verse ending with an exclamation mark. This is how, again, let me break this one down. This is how this Bible translates it. Listen, comma, listen. my people, comma, listen my people, and I will admonish you, Israel, comma, If you would only listen to me, exclamation mark. So this is the idea that God basically saying, Israel, Israel, listen to me. If only you would listen to me, listen to me and I would admonish you. The King James uses the phrase, I will testify unto thee. I will testify or I will admonish. Let's do this. I'm gonna go to the Blue Letter Bible app really quick. Blue Letter Bible app, if you're listening live and you use that app, this is a good time to open it. I'm gonna go to Psalm, where is it? Psalms 81. Okay, Psalm 81, verse eight. I'm gonna click on it, I'm gonna go to interlinear. Okay, here are my people, and I will testify, and I will testify comes from this Hebrew quote. Strong's H, 5749, Ud. Ood. Ood. Ood. Okay? I will testify. Ood. All right, now, it is used 45 times. Ood is used 45 times. It's used, it's translated testify 15 times. And when I say used 45 times in the King James, 15 times testify, six times protest, six times witness, three times record, two times charge, two times solemnly, and one time admonished. So the word typically means testify, and the King James translators went with testify, where the other Bible I have here, they didn't go with testify, they went, I will admonish you. I will admonish you, they didn't go with testify. I'm not saying this is the biggest thing in the world, but I just want to get the different ways that they look at it. The outline of biblical usage is to return, repeat, go about, do again, to surround, go around, round, to restore, relieve, to be restored, to bear witness, to bear witness, to testify, bear witness, to cause to testify, to protest. It seems to testify maybe the best idea to go with. That's what it definitely seems to. Yeah, I mean, the protest doesn't seem to work. I will protest unto thee. I will testify unto thee. So the idea is that Israel, I need you to listen. Listen to me. Listen to me seems to be the idea. Now, in the King James, it's interesting, it says, here, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, and then the thought continues, listen, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. So what he wants them to understand, it seems if we put the two verses together, Psalm 81, 8, 9, I think we need both. I don't know why Charles Stanley just focused on it. I think he focused on 8 because it says, listen to me, listen to me, and that's what he wanted us to hear, to listen to me. And remember, his principle was, listen to God is essential to walking with God. Well, the listening part here, okay, the essential to walking, I think you need the next verse. So here is what, let's read this all together. All right? Here, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall they worship any strange God. I want to continue reading, I want to continue reading, but let's just stop here and ponder this and consider this and see if we can derive a principle from it. I'm going, Let's see, I'm gonna grab my notebook. This will be principle number 27, or number one, if you haven't been with us the previous 12 days. Principle number 27. Now remember, I come up with these right on the spot because I want you thinking about what would you do with this? What would you do with this? I'll kind of give you a minute. I'm gonna read it again, Psalm 81, eight. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou will hearken unto me. What would you derive from this? What? I'm going to say we must never forget that we are called to listen to God's words. That's what I'm going to say. That's what I'm going to say. I'm not gonna, because I want to specifically include God's word there, because I don't, I completely reject the idea that I'm listening to some still small voice or trying to figure out what God is saying. No, God is not speaking in any other way other than his word. So I'm gonna make the principle, we must never forget that we are called to listen to God's Word. We are called to listen to God's Word because all Scripture is given by inspiration. In fact, I'm going to just go to the text because I was going to recite it, but I don't want to misquote it in any way, shape, or form. Let's go with 2 Timothy, you know, verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. We are called to listen to God's word because all scripture is given by inspiration. It comes from God. It is God-breathed. The scriptures are God-breathed. We must listen to it. Because listen, if we don't listen to it, we're going to listen to us. If we don't listen to it, we're going to listen to others. If we don't listen to God, you're going to listen to something. Every day you listen. You listen to your own heart. You listen to your own feelings. You listen to your own emotions. You listen to friends. You listen to culture. There are so many words coming at you per day. you listen to what people are saying on social media, and you think about how much of your day is spent reacting to words. Think on an average day, how much of your day is spent reacting to words, reacting to what you hear, whether it's news, whether it's gossip, whether it's slander, you spend so much of your day, your thoughts and your feelings are constantly driven by the words you hear. I mean, there's just no way to get around that. It would be if you could find a way to just to try to capture every time, like if you could just write it down or keep track of every time you're reacting, you're responding to what words you've heard, you're responding with your own words, with your thoughts, with your emotions. If you'll notice, you spend most of your day, think about it this way, being tossed to and fro with words. Words, words, words. You react, you react, you react, you react. What you have to do is realize, you know, what you need to be listening to and responding to is God's words, right here. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work. It is this that is profitable. This is what we should be responding to. Now, I really want you to think about this. I think this is an important concept. And I think this scripture, I'm not saying this is what's designed to get us talking about, but it's very relevant here. God is telling Israel, look, you need to listen to me. You need to listen to me. Again, hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. Listen, I'm gonna testify to you. You need to listen to what I'm going to tell you. Israel, oh, Israel, well, just even gonna set Israel aside. Just think about your life. Every day, in a sense, you need to be listening and reacting to God's word. God's word should be the thing motivating you. God's word should be the thing you're thinking about. God's word should be the thing that is impacting your feelings and your emotions. It should be God's words. but we spend every single day, probably every minute of every day reacting to something that we heard, something that we hear, something that we read. It is amazing to think about how much of your life is spent reacting to the words of others in some kind of capacity. You come home from work, and what do you typically do? You start telling, you start using your words to recount all the words that you are, someone said this, someone did this, but it's so much about words, words, words, words, words, so-and-so said this. And then this person said this, and so now you've come home from work and you're spending your day retelling the words that you've heard and you're reacting to those words. You may express anger, you may express frustration, you may express shock, dismay, whatever. Disappointment, words. And then you're at home and then your kids say something and then you react to their words and then they react to your words and then your spouse says something and you react to their words and then you get on social media and then you react to those words. We're dominated, our life is driven by words. It's driven by words. I don't know if you've ever even processed this concept, but it's there. Every day I'm reading something, I'm listening to something, and I just, man, words, I'm driven by words. But the word that I should be driven by is God's word. That's what I should be listening to. That's what I should be taking heed to. That's what I should be driven by. That's what I should be meditating on. That's what I should be thinking about. We hear that admonition, meditate on God's word day and night. In some ways, I think that if you wanted to talk about listening to God's Word, if Stanley wanted to go there, I think that the idea of meditating on God's Word, and people say, a lot of times people go, well, exactly how you do that. I think the idea of meditating on God's Word is I'm meditating on God's Word day and night when day and night I am driven, led, motivated, concerned with, talk about His Word. But you know what I typically do? I don't meditate on God's word. I meditate on the words of others day and night. You do as well. You get up, it's usually within seconds, someone's going to say something to you. You're going to read something. You're going to hear something. And then boom, you react. It may be a good reaction, maybe a negative. Words. And then someone reacts, reaction, reaction, reaction, reaction, reaction, reaction. You're driven, you're driven, and you listen, and you hear, and you motive, and you move, and you do this, and you do that. No, I'm not saying that we turn off the words of everyone else and we go live in a monastery somewhere. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that we have to, or as I placed it, as I wrote it down in my notebook, we must never forget that we are called to listen to God's words. We are called to listen to God's words. Listen to God. That's what God is telling Israel, listen to me. Listen to me. I think there's another principle here, but if I go to another principle, I think I'll have to go to verse nine, where it says, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. I'm gonna go ahead and add, I'm gonna add that verse. Verse 28, because Stanley's principle almost demands the next, because he says, listening to God is essential to walking with God, all right? We must never forget that we are called to listen to God's words. It's God's words that we must listen to. That's what we must be driven by and impacted by. And then I'm gonna put 28. God's word should determine our thinking, action, and feelings. All right? I think God's word should determine our thinking. I'm going to rewrite this because I can't read my own writing currently. Our thinking, I know that this is the most I know some of you listening going, why are you doing it this way? I'm doing this on purpose because as I'm trying to process it, I'm hoping you've got a notebook and you're trying to process it. Actions. actions and feelings. It has to be God's Word. See, so, because I look at it from the perspective of Psalm 81, verse 9. There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. We don't care what you think, don't care what you feel, don't care what anybody else says or thinks or feel. What you should be driven by, what you should be, what should determine everything should be God's Word. We must never forget that we are called to listen to God's word, and God's word should determine our thinking, actions, and feelings. It should be God's word. So what I want to do, and remember, I try to keep these close to 30 minutes. I know I haven't succeeded in all of them, but this one I think I can pull off, because I kind of want to leave this with you, because I think it's so important. And all I want you to think about today in these principles, and you can formulate your own principle and you can state them a little different way. So Psalm 81, eight through nine are going to be the scripture for today. Psalm 81, eight through nine. I know I added it, I'm not really supposed to do that, but I don't know how he could even hope to give that principle in verse eight when some translations, the thought continues right into verse nine. You gotta put the two together. So we're gonna put the two together. But here's what I want you to consider. And I want you to just, I really want you to spend the day. If you hear this on a Saturday, I don't know, or Sunday or Monday, whenever you hear this, I want you to just stop immediately and start thinking, okay, how had words of others already impacted you? Whenever you hear this, how have the words of others already impacted you up to the moment of hearing this? And then I want you to keep track of all the words and how they impact you. the rest of the day. I want you to be consciously aware of it. When someone says something and boom, you're reacting, or boom, you're saying this, or boom, you're saying this, and your feelings and your reactions, it's to other people's words. It drives you, it controls you. I think our walk is more determined by the words of others than the words of God, and just in a practical way. Most people don't get up and just start talking about God's word. And throughout the day, they're saying, oh, I just read this, or oh, I memorized this scripture. No. It's gonna be about the words that they hear, and they're gonna be responding to it. You know that, you know that. So that determines that we tend to listen to other words more than we listen to God's word. I know I do so. I do so all the time. I mean, if you think about it, the last live broadcast I did that was an hour long was me reacting to the words of others. Right? The words of others talking about abortion. I was responding to their words. So, I mean, I spent plenty of time turning on this microphone, reacting to the words of others. Now, I'm not saying we should never react. I'm not saying that we should have to stay away from, but it should be God's word that we listen to. It should be God's word that determines our thinking and our actions and our feelings. God's word must be the dominant thing in our life. It has to be this right here, it has to be God's Word. Why is it that other words take precedent? Other words have more impact, we react to them far more often, and we're bounced back and forth all day by the words of other people. Why doesn't this have more of a profound impact on us? That's why we're called to meditate on it day and night. If I'm meditating on a day and night, it should be the controlling factor. It should be the controlling thing. That means you've got to spend time with it every single day and not just leave it at the, you know, like I'm sitting at a table. I can't come up here and spend 30 minutes studying God's word and just leave it here. It's got to be at the forefront of my brain the rest of the day so that that's the word I'm thinking about. That's the word I'm focused on. And all the other words, I may hear them and have to respond to them, but they're not the controlling factor. They're not the determinant factor in my thoughts, actions, or feelings. All right, I'm gonna stop right there. You can email me, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com, newsifatyahoo.com. Now, Just for fun, I'm going to do something here really quick. All right. You just, you stay right there. I'm going to move from the microphone because I have to do something. I'm going to look out the window that's behind me. All right. Just stay right there. All right. Don't, don't, don't move. Okay. I, I don't, I, I love to give you like insights. Like I love to get like to pull the curtain back a little bit. All right. So I'm here. There's no one in my house. It's just me today. It's just me. But I would guarantee right now that there's someone in my house. While I was trying to talk to you, I kept hearing these sounds like there's someone downstairs in the kitchen. I don't know who's down there. I don't know how they, well, I know how they got in my house because I never lock anything. I think there's someone in my house. I do. And I'm like, how is there someone? I'm not, I'm not like worried, but it was like, Okay, I still think I'm hearing something. But I'm not like worried, it has to be probably someone I know, it has to be, right? It's gotta be someone. But I'm sitting here talking, I'm thinking, well, if there's someone there, they're waiting on me, so I need to hurry, but I've got to finish this. Then I start thinking, well, who came in the house? Did I hear the front door? How did they get in the house? So yeah, if at any moment in there, I sounded distracted, that's what was going on. just a little behind the scenes. So I'm going to go downstairs and see who's in my house, okay? Because there we have it. But hopefully, hopefully, you've got something from this principle that we just discussed. All right? I hope so. You can email me, newsif at yahoo.com. Newsif at yahoo.com. That's newsif at yahoo.com. And this concludes Day 13, scripture number 13. Now it's placed in your hands. Let me know what you think about the principles that we came up with. Let me know what you think about the scripture. Let me know your thoughts. Again, you can email me. Thank you for tuning in and let's go out with our epic music. God bless. so so