ASI Scandinavia 2018: IT IS TIME – To Be About Our Fathers Business!

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ASI Scandinavia

Vincent Bujor

How to Have a Vibrant Bible Study Experience?

Father in heaven, almighty God, we want to thank you so much for this beautiful day.

We want to thank you that you woke us up this morning, that we have the gift of life, Lord.

And as we're coming together to study your word, we pray that we may gain something new out of it, Lord, that it will be a life-changing experience for each and every 1 of us so that we can see the beauty and, well, the awesomeness of your word, Lord.

We pray that the Holy Spirit may be present right now with us and that he may guide us into all truth in Jesus' name, amen.

So before we talk about studying the Bible, we have to know what the Bible is.

All right, if you want to know how to study something, you need to know what you're studying.

What do you think is the Bible the Word of God amen that's true what else you know let me start simply all right the Bible is a text okay The Bible is not only a text, it is an old text, okay?

We have to remember that when we study God's word.

Was the Bible written in Stockholm, Sweden?

You know, when you go to other continents, it's even from another continent, if you will, right?

So it is not really common for us to know the culture and the context of everything that surrounds the Word of God.

So we need to understand that when we look at the text.

And also, this is the most important thing, obviously, it is divinely inspired, right?

We claim that the Word of God is inspired and this is what we believe at Sunday Adventist.

It's also sophisticated text if you look at prophecy, if you look at what the founders of our church have been studying, you know that it is very, you can go very deep.

And we actually gonna take a look at that today.

I'm gonna read this quote, it's from 1 of the favorite, my favorite books, it's called Patriarchs and Prophets, page 245, the author says, "'Moses was fitted to take preeminence "'among the great of the earth, "'to shine in the courts of its most glorious kingdom, and to sway the scepter of its power.

His intellectual greatness distinguishes him above the great men of all ages.

As historian, poet, philosopher, general of armies, and legislator, he stands without a peer." This is the description of the man who wrote the first 5 books of the Bible.

It was not just like a random guy who sat down and wrote some words.

This is, friends, this was probably 1 of the most intelligent people at that time, okay?

You have to imagine, God is like, I need someone to write the first few books of the Bible who am I gonna choose and he chooses this guy.

Okay then you might ask, okay do I really have to study the Bible?

Okay maybe we're all sitting here because we want to study the Bible, amen?

But I mean, some people are asking this question, should I study the Bible?

Isn't like a devotional thought, a spiritual thought in the morning enough?

You know, do I really have to read the Bible every day?

"'The Bible was not written for the scholar alone, on the contrary, it was designed for the common people.

The great truths necessary for salvation are made as clear as noonday and none will mistake and lose their way except those who follow their own judgment instead of the plainly revealed will of God.

So when you look at the Bible, should we see the Bible as a historical book that's only there for the scholar?

It's actually from the book Steps to Christ 89.

All right and now we're gonna take a look at how to study the Bible.

We need to remember a certain, I would say, well attitude, certain attitudes that you need to take into consideration when you study the Word of God, okay?

Reverence, when we study the Word of God, we should be reverent.

What else do you think is important besides reverence when you study the Bible?

You have to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.

Actually, I have here something important.

When we go to the Word of God and we only have 5 minutes, I'm like, oh, let me find something real quick, you know, and then oh no the time is running, okay I gotta go.

Yeah this is not patiently studying the Word, okay, so this is what we actually need.

I'm gonna show you that later and then what you already, I think what you already said, curiosity, right, and openness.

We should expect great things from the Word of God.

Let me explain that in a little more detail, okay?

How sometimes people are arrogant when they come to the Word of God.

And this is happening in our church, friends.

This is not something that is that is totally you know it's only happening other churches this is happening in our church too we have our own opinion and or expectations before opening the word you know we think on this story oh yeah I already think what's what this is about I don't you know this is this is the the context and I only believe this we just read superficially or we don't read at all have you have you experienced that Sabbath school someone says oh yeah oh no we don't need to open the text.

You know a crazy story, the church where my parents go to, my parents told me that a couple of weeks ago, the pastor from that church, this is Seventh-day Adventist church, okay?

The pastor was preaching, and when he was preaching the divine message, right, the sermon, at the beginning he said, oh, this text is from, I don't know, Luke chapter so and so, but yeah, you all know the story, we don't need to open it anymore yeah and he was just preaching like that do you really think you can get a blessing out of the Word of God if you're not even opening it from from your memory from the things that you kind of you know filter and then you remember just half of it but that's enough I'm just gonna you know this is not gonna work guys same thing right we believe we already know the text oh yeah I know the story of apraham yeah I don't need to I don't need to look at it anymore and then this is something very important friends we use the text for our own agenda I have had people preaching actually famous evangelists in our church who travel around the world, you know, and they have sermons.

They have an idea, they read 1 Bible verse, okay, and then they say, oh, this is perfect for this thought, you know, and I'm not saying that the thought in general is evil or not of God, You know, I remember 1 sermon, it was about the lukewarm Christian, okay?

Does the Bible say something about the lukewarm Christian?

Yes, okay, so we know what the lukewarm Christian represents and all that.

But he was taking that text, And then he was taking other texts about the same person in the Bible, just putting it together.

But the original text had nothing to do with all these other texts.

And he was just putting everything together, trying to glue it together for his own agenda.

I mean, you know, the core message afterwards was something that, you know, we can believe as Seventh-day Adventists.

It was not something that was not in line with our, with the beliefs of the Bible, but it was not the story that the Bible was telling.

We read a verse, and we're like, oh, yes, this applies.

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How to Have a Vibrant Bible Study Experience?

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