Instruments of Sanctification, Part 1 | Sunday, October 17, 2021

Welcome to Cross Connection Church online! We're so happy that you're joining us today. Before we get started, we want to let you know that if you want more information about Cross Connection Church and some of the things that we do, make sure that you check out our website at lifeinconnection.com.

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God of Abraham, the God of covenant, faithful promises, time and time again, You have proven You do just what You say. The storms may come and the winds may blow, but I will remain steadfast and let my heart learn. When You speak the word, it will come to me. Great is Your faithfulness to me. From the rising sun to the setting same, I will praise Your name. Great is Your faithfulness to me. Seasons change, but You remain the same.

God from age to age, the earth may pass away, but Your word remains the same. Your history can prove there's nothing You can do. You're faithful and true. Though the storms may come and the winds may blow, I will steadfastly let my heart learn that when You speak a word, it will come to pass. Great is Your faithfulness.

Good morning and welcome to Cross Connection Church online for this Sunday morning. I am Pastor Miles, and I am glad to be back with you today. Before we step into our study, we are currently in a series called "The Disciplines of a Disciple." I want to take just a moment to share my gratitude to the Lord for the ministry team that we have here at Cross Connection Church. I truly feel blessed and privileged to serve this church as the lead pastor, and I am genuinely grateful for the team that I have here serving with me.

We have a great group of staff, and not just a great group of paid staff, but also a wonderful group of volunteer leaders who have made Cross Connection Church what I believe is the best church you will find. I don't think I am biased at all in saying that. Sadly, over the last couple of years, we have watched a lot of people move out of San Diego County and out of the state of California, trying, as they say, to find greener grass—or maybe I should say redder grass—in other states.

Places have changed, and I honestly can't count how many times people have called, texted, or emailed me in the last couple of years to tell me some variation of the same basic story. The story is often, "Hey, we moved to this state, we moved to this place, but we're never going to find a church like Cross Connection Church. We're never going to find a church as good as Cross Connection Church."

People say things like, "You have the best team of leaders and servants at CC Church, and we've just not been able to find anything like it in the place that we moved to." There are so many things that people like about the different places they go to, but it is hard to find a church that you can really be a part of. There is nothing like Cross Connection Church. When people say that, I can't help but agree with them and tell them that they're probably never going to find a church like CC Church.

It really is a unique thing that God has been doing here. I am reminded of how great this team and this body of believers are every time I take time off. My family and I took a little two-week vacation, and as we were away, I found that this team and this church are a real blessing. I have a lot of friends who are pastors of churches in other places, and quite a few of them just can't take a real break for a vacation. When they do, they find themselves the entire time they are gone wondering how things are going, even putting out fires from a distance through email or phone calls, trying to take care of things back at the church they pastor while they're away. They just can't seem to get a break from the things that are going on because they don't have the team like we do here.

I am truly blessed that when I go away, as I did with my family over the last week and a half, I don't have to worry about the things that are going on here at the church. I wanted to begin today by giving a bit of a shout-out, if you will, to our ministry team. This month, you may or may not know, is October, which is Pastor's Appreciation Month. I am absolutely grateful for our ministry team, our leaders here at the church, our staff, our volunteers, but especially for our pastoral team, for Pastor Mark.

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude for our pastoral team. We have Pastor Jason, our Executive Pastor; Pastor Nick, our Family Ministries Pastor; and Pastor Garrett and Pastor Anthony, who are all associate pastors here at the church. They handle various aspects of our ministry, including media, ensuring everything runs smoothly every single week. I am personally blessed by their dedication, and I know our whole church is as well.

If Cross Connection Church is your home church, I encourage you to recognize the hard work of our ministry team. Often, I receive emails, cards, and text messages thanking me, but I want to emphasize that we have a great team of pastors here. I constantly praise the Lord for the group that God has given us.

This week, we are continuing in a series I have called "The Disciplines of a Disciple." We are about halfway through this series, even though we took a couple of weeks off while Pastor Garrett and Pastor Anthony taught in my absence. In the first three messages before my break, we focused largely on salvation. We have seen that in and through Christ Jesus, those of us who have trusted in Him have been redeemed, forgiven, accepted, and adopted by God into His family.

If you read the New Testament book of Ephesians, particularly Ephesians chapter 1, the first 14 verses drive home these truths as articulated by the Apostle Paul. If you have trusted in Jesus for salvation, then He has redeemed you and forgiven you. He has made you accepted and adopted you into His family. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, you and I have new life in Christ Jesus, and we are justified.

This is what we discussed several weeks ago when talking about salvation. We have been justified, which means that we are saved from the penalty and punishment of any sins we have committed or will commit in the future. Jesus, through His death, burial, and resurrection, has justified us. He bore our sin on the cross and absorbed the punishment for our sin in His body. Because we have received Jesus's righteousness through justification, the Bible says that when you are...

Saved when you are justified, it's as if Jesus takes that robe of His righteousness and puts it on you. You're clothed in His righteousness. Because we have received Jesus's righteousness through justification, we have hope and assurance of being glorified with Him. When we are ultimately saved from the presence of sin in eternity, that's called glorification.

So, we have justification; He has dealt with our sins by dealing with the punishment for our sins. We have the promise of glorification, being with Him for eternity in His presence. We will be glorified and removed from the presence of sin in eternity when we shed this body. When this body dies, we will be with the Lord.

In that gap between having been saved and justified in the past and being glorified in the future, we are now, as Christians—those who have trusted in Christ—in the process of being what the Bible calls sanctified. Sanctification is the process by which God, by His Holy Spirit, is transforming you and transforming me more and more into the likeness of His children. We have been adopted into His family, but He wants us to begin to take on His nature. He desires for us to show the world what it is to be the children of God.

God wants you, and He wants me, to be like Him. He is working in you and in me to desire and to do those things that are pleasing to Him. He wants us to work out our salvation so that what He has worked into us by the work of Jesus Christ will begin to be seen in us or manifested from us.

These verses come right out of my favorite passage of Scripture in the whole Bible: Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. In Philippians chapter 2, verse 13, it says that God is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure. The words just before that in verse 12 say, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

God worked salvation into us because of what Jesus did on the cross. He has given you that salvation as you have trusted in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. Now, in this sanctification process, He wants us to work out that saving work so that people begin to see His nature being worked out in us.

This gap between being justified—you have been saved—and being glorified—you will be saved—represents the sanctification process. God is working by His Holy Spirit. We talked about the Holy Spirit's work in our lives in my last message of this series a few weeks ago. Pastor Anthony followed up again last week. If you joined us for our message last week, Pastor Anthony, our worship pastor, talked a little bit more about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as followers of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is our helper in this sanctification period, in this gap between being justified and being glorified. As we are being sanctified, the Holy Spirit is the believer's helper in what I would call the sanctification workout routine. Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." In this sanctification workout routine, the Holy Spirit is our helper.

How does He help? What does the Holy Spirit do? One of the things He does is bid and encourage us to follow Him and to walk in the Spirit. There are a number of places in Scripture where we see this. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 and 16, that the Holy Spirit is our helper. That word "helper" refers to Him bidding or encouraging us to walk with Him. Then, in Galatians chapter 5, verse 16, Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh."

The Holy Spirit is in you if you're a Christian, and He is calling you to walk in the Spirit. He equips us and enables us with power to do what we, in and of ourselves, by our flesh, could not do on our own. If you've been a Christian for any length of time and you've tried to walk in righteousness by your own strength, you know that you can't do it. The good things you want to do, you don't do; the bad things you don't want to do, that's what you practice. Just like Paul says in Romans chapter 7, that is a major problem that I think every Christian experiences.

But the Holy Spirit, who is calling us to walk in righteousness, enables us and empowers us to do what we can't do on our own. Here's the thing: God is working in us. He is working in us by His Holy Spirit, and He wants us to work with Him in this sanctification process by working out the things of salvation.

Out of these things, this transformation process, the sanctification process, only becomes a reality as we walk in the Spirit. We also engage with a number of tools that God gives us to be able to get this sanctification work done. We not only need the helper, the Holy Spirit, to assist us in the gap between justification, sanctification, and glorification, but we also need the tools that God equips us with to do this work of sanctification.

The question is, how do we work out our own salvation? Over the next few weeks, including today and at least the two weeks following, I want to talk about the tools that God has given to us as Christians and believers. These tools are to be used so that we can work out our salvation with the Holy Spirit's help, allowing sanctification and transformation to become realities in our lives.

When you become a Christian and are justified, you have the hope of glorification. This hope makes you want to walk in a way that is pleasing and honoring to God. However, when you try to do that in your own strength, by your own flesh, we fall flat and fail. Therefore, we need the helper, the Holy Spirit, to assist in this sanctification and transformation process, along with the tools that God provides to equip us for sanctification.

In justification, you have been given Christ's righteousness, which has been imputed or transferred to your account. The Apostle Paul discusses this very thing in relation to Abraham, the first follower of God by faith, who is spoken of in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In Romans chapter 4, Paul talks about how Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. When Abraham believed God, righteousness that he did not possess was credited to his account.

That's what Jesus does when we trust in Him. When you trust in Jesus, just like Abraham did thousands of years ago, God sees you as though you are clothed in Christ's righteousness. This concept is echoed by the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus came, specifically 700 years before His arrival. In Isaiah chapter 61, this is articulated clearly.

Exactly what he foretold is what he looked forward to: the coming of a righteousness that was not his own. Let me read to you from Isaiah chapter 61, verse 10. There we read, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." God is the one who covers us with the robe of righteousness, so Jesus's righteousness is given to us. Isaiah was looking forward to that. He knew that through the law we cannot be made righteous, but we need someone to give us righteousness that is not our own, and that's exactly what Jesus does when we trust in Him.

As Christians, we all recognize that we have a righteousness that is not our own. Before God, we are, you might say, positionally righteous. We are in the position of being righteous because God has justified us. So, we are positionally righteous before God. However, if you're a Christian and you've trusted in Jesus, you are righteous, as the Scriptures say, because God has declared you righteous in justification.

You are positionally righteous, but you probably have realized that you are not practically righteous, though we want to be. We want to do the things that are good and pleasing to God. That's one of the first indications that you are a Christian: you have new desires that you didn't have before, a desire to be good and honoring to God. We want to be holy; we want to be acceptable to God and to show in our daily conduct the good, acceptable, and pleasing things of God in the way that we live.

For that, we need to develop some disciplines, which I am calling the disciplines of a disciple. When you become a follower of Jesus, you want to become an obedient follower, a disciple. For that to happen, we have to develop some disciplines with the help of the Holy Spirit.

As a preface to this message today, and perhaps the messages that will come in the next couple of weeks, this message is going to be theological. We are going to turn to the Scriptures and look at what the Bible has to say about some of the tools that God gives us to enable us to be disciplined disciples. However, this message is also going to be practical. I want to move from just theology—what the Bible says—to how we live that out.

Because the Bible says in Philippians chapter 2, verse 12, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." In the previous messages, I have shown you that you are justified and that you will be glorified. We are currently in this stage of sanctification. I have demonstrated this from the Scriptures, but how do we make that a reality?

I want to lay a biblical foundation for what this work of sanctification is, what tools God gives us, and how we can use these tools. Then, I want to move into the practice of how we make this a reality in our lives so that we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

I want to begin by talking about the first tool that God has given to us. Over the next three weeks, we will look at three tools, starting with the first one today. This first tool is essential for you to begin walking in righteousness before God and to be transformed. To do so, we must start with a couple of very important passages of Scripture.

If you've been a part of Cross Connection Church for a while, you have probably come in contact with some of these verses. The first one is found in Paul's letter to the Romans, specifically Romans chapter 12. If you have your Bible or a device, please turn to Romans chapter 12 and look at what Paul says in verses 1 and 2.

He writes to the Christians in Rome, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Listen, if you are a Christian, pay attention to Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Paul is speaking to Christians, which is why he calls them brothers and sisters; they are family. If you are a Christian today, here is a really important key point: you are called to be transformed in mind and body. We see that right here in this passage. Paul says, "I beg you, I am calling you, brothers and sisters, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

As a Christian, you are called to be transformed in mind and body. That is discipleship.

Sanctification, in a nutshell, is the call to be transformed in both mind and body. The word "transformed" comes from a Greek root word, which gives us the English word "metamorphosis." There needs to be a metamorphosis from what you were in your flesh and your old nature before you became a Christian to what you are called to be, what you ought to be. This whole metamorphosis is sanctification; it is the process that exists between being justified and being glorified.

This transformation is by God's mercy and grace. Notice what Paul says: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." This process is according to God's mercy and grace, and it is enabled by the power of His Holy Spirit. As we discussed a few weeks ago, the Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in this transformation. However, it also involves something more; it requires an intentional transformation in your thoughts, emotions, and behavior at both the soul and body levels.

When God saved you by His grace and you were justified, He put a new spirit within you or revived your dead spirit to be connected to Him. I believe we are three-part beings: we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. God has given you a revived or quickened spirit at justification, but He wants to transform your soul and your body. He desires to bring about sanctification and transformation in you.

The world we live in is constantly pressing us into a certain mold. We are often tossed about by various ideas and ideologies until we take on the form of this world. This world pushes us according to a certain current, forcing us into a specific mold. We are being tossed to and fro by different ideas and ideologies until we are conformed to this world. However, Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world; instead, be transformed."

So, how does this sanctification process happen after we have been justified, knowing that we will be glorified as we undergo this transformation? How does this actually take place? Notice what Paul says: "Do not be..."

Conformed to this world, but be transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. It begins here, in our mind. I believe it starts with a change of our perspective; it begins with a change in the way we process this world and our place in it. It begins in our mind, but then it needs to move from your mind to your behavior until we begin to see the work of sanctification in our lives—in our whole spirit, soul, and body.

That's the first important verse. Remember, very important passage of Scripture: Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may show in your practice and in your life what is that good and perfect, acceptable will of God.

This brings us to our second really important passage of Scripture in Paul's letter to Timothy. This gives us a little bit more insight into this first tool. Remember, this week, next week, and the following, we are talking about three tools that God has given to you as a Christian to see the sanctification process happen in your life. The first tool is found in this second passage of Scripture. Go to Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16.

In Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, we read: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

We are in this stage as Christians of sanctification. We've been justified, and we have the promise that we will be glorified to be with the Lord for eternity. We are here in this middle space, being transformed and sanctified. We have the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who equips us in this work, and He calls us to walk in the Spirit so that we do not fulfill the desires of our flesh.

But we need some equipping; we need some tools. The first tool that we need in the sanctification transformation process is this: you might want to write this down if you're taking notes. The Word of God is an essential tool in our sanctification. Again, it is so important: the Word of God is an essential tool in our sanctification.

Jesus prayed for His followers, His disciples, in what is called the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John chapter 17. This was the night before Jesus would be crucified, just hours before He would be betrayed by one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot. He prays.

For His disciples, in John 17:17, Jesus says, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth." This is really important. This is Jesus's prayer for you to the Father. We are in this sanctification process. How does God sanctify you? How does He sanctify me? By the truth of His word, just as Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth."

How does God do that? Well, here in 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul says, "All Scripture," the whole of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, "is useful." He states that it is useful for four important things. Note these four things that we see in this passage: all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable or useful.

The first thing is for doctrine. What is doctrine? Doctrine is how we know what is right, good, true, wholesome, and beautiful. Doctrine lays out for us, from the Scriptures, what is good, what is beautiful, what is true, and what is right before a holy God. The Bible tells you what God's standard is; it teaches you what God's desire, will, standard, and plan is. That is doctrine.

Secondly, the Bible is useful for reproof. What is reproof? The Bible tells us what is right, good, true, and wholesome, but when it does, it reproves us. It exposes all the ways that we are wrong, bad, false, unwholesome, and dirty. Not only does the Bible show you what is right, good, true, and beautiful, but it also shows you that you are wrong, false, unwholesome, and dirty.

Thirdly, the Word of God, all Scripture given by inspiration of God, is useful for correction. The Bible is able to bring us back into alignment with what is right, good, true, wholesome, and beautiful.

Finally, the fourth thing: all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is useful for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. It helps us, after we have been reproved and corrected, to maintain righteousness and to walk in righteousness. It helps us to walk in righteousness.

We have the Word of God given to us, inspired by God, to the intent that you and I would be, as verse 17 says, complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. God has given you His inspired Word so that you would know what is right, what is true, what is good, and what is wholesome. It allows you to see all the areas where you do not line up with God's Word, and it corrects you, helping you to maintain righteousness. This way, you would be complete and completely ready for all the good works, all the things that are pleasing to God.

Two of my favorite illustrations to show how this all works, how the Word of God is useful in this way, are as follows. First, if you've gone to Cross Connection Church for any length of time, you've seen me bring this before: this is a plumb bob, a very simple tool and one of the oldest tools in all of antiquity. We have proof in archaeological evidence showing that they used plumb bobs thousands of years ago, in places like ancient Egypt.

So, what does the plumb bob do? It uses simple gravity, with a heavy weight on the bottom of a string, to show us what a straight line is. When you're building something, like this building or any building, you need to ensure that the structure you are building is plumb, that it is straight up and down, or it will fall down. The Bible is useful for doctrine; it shows us the perfectly straight line. When you see that perfectly straight line, it becomes very easy to see where things are out of order.

The Bible is useful for doctrine, and that doctrine, that perfectly straight line, shows us where we are out of alignment. It reproves us and rebukes us, but this tool has no power to bring us back into alignment. The Bible does. The Bible is useful for setting the plumb line; it shows us where we are out of alignment, and then it has the ability to correct us, bringing us back into alignment and helping us maintain righteousness.

So, the Bible is like a plumb bob, but it is also like the navigation system you have on your phone or in your car, like a GPS—Global Positioning System. The Bible is God's Positioning System. It shows you the right line; in my car, it's a blue line that indicates the path you should maintain if you want to get to where God wants you to go, to glorification. If you want to get from where you are now to glorification, here is the perfectly straight line. Anytime you are out of...

Alignment recalculates your position and shows you how to get back to the line. It indicates where you are in relation to the line, and if you find yourself outside of it, it helps you return. This guidance is essential for maintaining the path that God wants you to follow, ensuring you are fully equipped for every good work.

Paul expresses this in one of my favorite passages of Scripture, Philippians 2:12, where he says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God has given us His Spirit to enable us to do this. He is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure, but He wants you to work it out.

One of the ways we can do this is by taking heed to God's Word, as it serves as a tool for our transformation and sanctification. This is precisely what the psalmist writes in the longest psalm in the Scriptures. If you turn to the middle of your Bible and go to Psalm 119, you will find this important message. In Psalm 119:9, it asks, "How can a young man cleanse his way?" The answer is by taking heed according to Your Word.

To walk in righteousness, we must cleanse our ways by observing God's Word, as it is essential for our sanctification. Paul discusses this in Romans 7, where he mentions that the good things he wants to do, he does not do, and the bad things he does not want to do, those are the things he practices. How can we make good things our practice if we find ourselves walking in the flesh instead of the Spirit?

Psalm 119:11 provides insight: "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You." This verse highlights how we can move forward in the spiritual walk that God has called us to. Psalm 119:105 states, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."

An important point here is that the Word of God is the user manual for the abundant life. Jesus came into the world to give you life and that more abundantly. How do you live out that abundant life? God's Word serves as a user manual, providing the proper answers to life's difficult questions.

Solutions to life's biggest problems can be found in God's saving work in your life. God saved you, and He is going to glorify you. If you want to see that salvation manifest itself in the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and so forth—you need to take heed to God's Word. You must make God's Word a part of your life because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is useful for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that you would be completely equipped for every good work and walk in righteousness.

If you are not seeing salvation worked out in your life, if you're not experiencing the fruit of the Spirit, it is because you are not using God's Word effectively. Without effectively using God's Word, you will not see the work of sanctification and cleansing in your life. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul says that God wants to wash us by the washing of the water of His Word. He wants to transform us so that when we are glorified, we stand before Him as a glorious church, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. God wants to do that work in you.

Every time I talk with someone in a counseling situation or interact with someone here at the church after a service, and they share that their life is not where they want it to be, I ask them a fundamental question: How much time are you spending in God's Word on a regular basis? It's similar to visiting a doctor. Before your appointment, the nurse will take your blood pressure, temperature, and weight, and they will ask you questions. One common question is whether you have been working out regularly.

You might stretch the truth a bit and say you work out four times a week for 30 minutes, even if that’s not entirely accurate. I find the same thing happens when I ask people about their time in the Word. They often respond, "Oh yeah, I spend time in the Word." When I ask how much time, they might say, "Oh, every single morning." But after they stop lying to me, the truth often comes out.

They will typically say, "Yeah, I've not been doing it as much as I should be doing," which normally means that they haven't been doing it at all. My immediate counsel is always the same. It always begins with this very simple thing: your spiritual health is proportionally related to your intake of God's Word. Let me say that again: your spiritual health is proportionally related to your intake of God's Word. If you are not seeing the fruit of the Spirit in your life, it is very likely because you are not spending any time in God's Word, or God's Word is not getting into you. That may seem like a major oversimplification, but it's not. There needs to be a regular input, if you will, of God's Word into your mind and into your heart.

So that's the theology. Remember, at the very beginning of this message, I said I was going to set the theological basis for the Word of God being a tool of sanctification. This is the thing in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, that renews our minds, starts in our minds, and changes our practice. It begins to be seen in our practice. It is given by inspiration of God, God-breathed. It's useful for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness so that you would walk in righteousness.

So that's the theology, but we need to move from theology and make it a practical reality in your life. I want to finish today with four practical ways for you to begin to make God's Word a regular part of your life. If you want to grow in Christ's likeness, if you want to see transformation and sanctification in your life, if you want to see power over your flesh and the works of the flesh in your life, if you want to experience love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control—all of these things that are the fruit of the Spirit—then you need to make the Word of God a regular part of your life.

So, four ways. I want to finish quickly, hopefully, because I'm kind of going longer than I planned today. Four ways that you can make God's Word a regular part of your life and begin to see transformation. The Bible needs to become consistent in your life, a regularity in your life. It is essential. It is not enough to take in God's Word one day a week by watching me on Sunday morning or coming here to the church on a Sunday morning. We need God's Word more than one period of time on Sunday morning. If you want to grow in your faith—your faith towards God and your faithfulness to God—then you must begin to make God's Word a regular part of your life. How do you do that?

There are four practical ways for you to read and study God's Word for your growth and sanctification. The first way to make God's Word a regular part of your life is to read or listen to it. Some people say to me, "Well, I'm not a very good reader." That's fine; I'm not a very good reader either. I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was in the fourth grade, and I've had a hard time reading for a very long time. I've gotten better at it as I've practiced over the years.

If you want to see God's Word have an effect in your life, you need to read or listen to some part of it prayerfully every day until God touches your heart through it. So, here's the first point: you need to read God's Word prayerfully. We must learn to read God's Word prayerfully every single day. When I say "prayerfully," what do I mean by that?

Here's a very practical suggestion: tomorrow morning, or whenever you're watching this, the first thing I want you to try to do is pray. Before you go to bed tonight, make it the last thing you do before you fall asleep. Pray, "God, help me tomorrow to spend the first moments of my day in Your Word." I guarantee you He will help you do that.

So, pray before you go to sleep tonight, asking God to help you spend the first moments of your day tomorrow in His Word. Then, when you wake up in the morning, the first thing I want you to do is pray a very simple prayer. This prayer is found in Psalm 119, verse 18, where the psalmist prays, "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law."

Before you open the Bible the following morning, remember to pray the night before, asking God to help you spend the first moments of your day in His Word. When you wake up, open the Bible to a specific passage. You can start at the book of Ephesians, chapter one; the book of First Timothy, chapter one; the book of Matthew, chapter one; or even the Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter one. Whatever it may be, pray, "God, open my eyes," as stated in Psalm 119, verse 18.

It is really that simple. That simple prayer is, I believe, an effectual prayer that God will answer, opening your eyes so that you may behold wonderful things from His Word by His Holy Spirit. Then, here's what I want you to do: I'm not asking you to read five chapters, ten chapters, or twenty chapters.

Begin reading after you've prayed that very simple prayer. Read until God, by His Spirit, causes something in His Word to stand out and speak to you. It may be that you read one paragraph or five verses, but you will get to something that stands out to you. God is going to speak something to your heart from His Word because God speaks primarily from His Word.

When you get to that passage, stop. This leads into the second practice. I told you I’m going to give you four practical ways that you can start making God’s Word a regular part of your life that will benefit your life in Christ. The first thing is that you’re going to pray and read the Word of God prayerfully. The second thing is that you’re going to read the Word of God meditatively.

So, we must learn to read God’s Word prayerfully and meditatively. What does that mean? I promise you this is not weird or hard. You’re going to start tomorrow. After you’ve prayed, “God, help me to see wonderful things from Your law,” you’re going to read from God’s Word until something stands out to you.

When it does, instead of just passing over it and moving on to the next thing, I want you to stop at that verse, sentence, or paragraph. Take a piece of paper, maybe a three-by-five card, and write out that verse or what seems to be sticking out to you. Write out the whole verse, sentence, or paragraph. Even write it on a three-by-five card and put that card in your pocket.

Then, commit just a couple of times—two or three times tomorrow—to stop and take five minutes to look at that card. Read back through it and think carefully. Who is speaking in that passage? What is the situation or circumstance of that verse? Who is being spoken to in that passage? What is the truth that is proclaimed in that passage? What is the promise that is revealed in that passage? What is the principle that that passage teaches? What is the question that that passage answers?

Just spend some time thinking about that verse or passage. Take five minutes to think about it. What is it about this verse that’s standing out to me? Even pray and ask God, “God, what are You speaking to me in this passage?”

Carefully think, repeatedly think, and deeply think about that passage. That's biblical meditation. I know when we hear the word "meditation" today, we think of mindfulness; we think of emptying our minds and all that sort of stuff. Biblical meditation is taking God's Word and putting it into your mind and heart, thinking over it carefully, repeatedly, and deeply so that God can speak to you from that.

The very first thing that we see is that we're going to read God's Word prayerfully. Second, we're going to read God's Word meditatively. Thirdly, once a week—maybe twice a week, and as time goes by, you'll build up to three times a week—I want you to read God's Word purposefully. We must learn to read God's Word prayerfully, meditatively, and purposefully.

What is reading God's Word with purpose? It is taking a chapter—maybe you do this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, reading through the Scriptures until God speaks to you. Then, meditate upon whatever it is that He spoke to you from that passage through the rest of the day. But maybe on Saturday, take some time and read through a whole chapter with a purpose.

Take a chapter, a section, or a paragraph of the Bible and read it with a specific focus, purpose, or question in mind. It can be something like this: on Saturday, I'm going to read Proverbs chapters 1 through 5, and I'm going to ask this simple question the entire time I'm reading: What does Proverbs chapters 1 through 5 say about wisdom? Proverbs 1 through 5 says a lot about wisdom, but you're going to go with a focus. What is this passage telling me about wisdom? Maybe write down on a piece of paper all the different things that you find about wisdom in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5.

While I was on vacation, as we were coming back from Colorado, we stopped in Kingman, Arizona. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Kingman. In the morning, my wife and the kids went down to get breakfast at the hotel, and I was putting all the stuff in the car, packing up to leave. As I was walking back into the hotel to go back up to the room to get the rest of the stuff, I saw a guy who looked like he was probably in his mid-60s. He was sitting there with a Bible open. I said to him, "Hey, what are you reading?" He said, "I'm reading the Bible." I replied, "Yeah, I know, but what are you reading in the Bible?" He said, "I'm..."

Reading Proverbs chapter 14, I noted that it is a really good passage of Scripture. In fact, Proverbs chapter 14 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death." He agreed, saying he loves Proverbs chapter 14. I then mentioned that Proverbs chapter 18 is one of my favorites. He responded that he would be reading through Proverbs chapter 18 today as well.

What was he doing? He was going through the Scriptures, spending time in the morning reading the Bible. As a pastor, I can't tell you how much joy it brings to see someone in a public place starting their day off by reading the Bible. I didn't even know who this guy was; I didn't ask his name, and I will probably never see him again this side of heaven. However, I have a feeling I will see him in heaven one day.

If you're going to read the Bible with purpose, take Proverbs chapters 1 through 5 and ask the question, "What does this say about wisdom?" Alternatively, you might choose a portion from the Psalms, picking one or two Psalms to read and asking, "What does this passage say about God the Father? What does it teach me about God the Father?" You could also decide to read through the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, and ask, "What is Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God in this passage? What does that have to say about the Kingdom of God?"

When you're reading the Bible with purpose, which is our third way of reading, we read prayerfully, meditatively, and purposefully. Reading the Bible with purpose means limiting your reading of the Scriptures to a specific purpose or question. For example, you might ask, "What does the book of Ephesians teach me about being in Christ?" or "What does the Gospel of John teach me about the way Jesus interacted with religious people versus the way He dealt with sinful people?"

We want to read the Word of God prayerfully, meditatively, purposefully, and devotionally. Now, regarding reading the Word of God devotionally, I want to give you a simple four-step process. I know I'm providing a lot of information, and you can listen to this five times if you need to. This four-step process for reading the Word of God devotionally uses the acronym TIPS. I didn't come up with this; a friend of mine did.

Mine did, so we wanted to use tips for Bible study and devotional Bible study. You don't have to do this every single day, and you don't even have to use this as a way to study the Bible. However, I found this to be really helpful, and I hope that you would find some of these four tools that I've given you so far to make God's Word a regular part of your life.

So, what are tips for Bible study? First, choose a section of Scripture, a chapter, or maybe a small book of the Bible, such as the Book of Philippians or the Book of Colossians. Pray before you read it: "God, open my eyes to see wonders from Your Word." Then, read through the passage and look for truths that teach you something about who God is or how God works. You're just looking for the truths in the passage. You might underline those truths or principles in the passages and write them down.

The tips for reading the Bible start with identifying the truths in the passage. The "T" in tips stands for truths. Then, the "I" in tips is for examining yourself in light of those truths. The Bible says this; am I living in this way? Here's the truth: do I believe this truth? Am I doing this truth? Am I following this truth? This is where I have doctrine—the truths—and then I examine myself. I'm being rebuked or corrected by the Scriptures.

So, T is for truths in the Scripture, and I is for examining myself by those truths. Then, if I see that I'm not walking according to these truths as I examine myself, I plan—that's the "P." I plan to obey God according to what He reveals in this passage. The "S" is for obeying God with the Spirit's help. So, the truths in the passage lead me to examine myself, plan to obey those truths, and do so with the Holy Spirit's help.

These are the tips for devotional Bible study. As we see, God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. It cleanses us from all the blemishes of sin, sanctifies us by the truth of Scripture, equips us for a life of faith and faithfulness to God, answers our deepest questions, gives solutions to our biggest problems, heals our souls, and provides peace to those who are anxious.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture that talks all about this is Psalm 19, verses 7 through 11. Maybe you can make this one of the places that you read through this week.

In Psalm 19:7-11, the psalmist David says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, your servant is warned

Make Your Word a part of their life. They will be changed and transformed. If they don't yet know You, they will come to know You. If they do know You, they will begin to know You better and see You work out Your will in their life.

So, God, would You work in us to will and to do Your good pleasure as we are working out our own salvation by taking heed to Your Word? God, do a work in Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for joining us for our broadcast today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our services at Cross Connection Church campus at 8:30 and 10:30 every Sunday. Also, if you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, go online at lifeinconnection.com.

Hey, Cross Connection, it's Pastor Garrett.

I want to invite you to check out our connect groups this week. Our church is all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. The best way to start living life in connection is through our connect groups.

Our connect groups meet in person at homes. We have food, fellowship, and dinner together, creating a great time for everyone. Most of the groups have kids running around and playing, which adds to the fun. It gives you an opportunity to connect with one another through Jesus Christ, prayer, and fellowship while enjoying good food.

If you can, check out our website at connect.lifeinconnection.com. When you scroll through, you'll find the connect tab. Just click on that, and it will open up to show you all of our current connect group offerings. We have a variety of groups available, and there's also a map feature that allows you to see all the different connect groups by location. Depending on where you are in Escondido or North County, you can find the group that's closest to you or fits your needs best.

We would love to get you plugged into a connect group this week. If you want to live life in connection, join a connect group!