SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Welcome and thanks for joining us on this episode of the Midweek Podcast, brought to you by a Fresh Wind Church. Each week, our team brings you new content to help you take steps towards Jesus and discover more in Christ. Today's episode is hosted by Pastor Ryan.

SPEAKER_01: 0:27

Well, hey, welcome back to the Midweek Podcast. Pastor Ryan joined again with Pastor Tim. And uh Tim on Sunday, we kicked off uh our brand new series for October. We're calling it Reformation Roots. And uh man, taking a deep dive back into some pretty foundational doctrine, I guess, for the church. Um, and so looking at the five solas uh that came out of the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther when he nailed the 95 thesis on the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. And so each week we're gonna be diving into one of those, really trying to build that foundation. And so I told the the church on Sunday, if man, if you haven't been to church in a while, if this is your first time here, if you've you're new to Christianity or following Jesus, this is, man, what a great series to just really start laying down a solid foundation because man, so much of what we believe and how we operate as a church is built off of these beliefs, these ideas. And then, man, for a lot of people, they've been following Jesus a long time, uh, coming to church a long time, and really have never never talked about this stuff. Maybe not don't really even know who Martin Luther is, you know. Um so uh excited to give a little bit of history in that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43

Yeah, that's actually you did a great job preaching that sermon. Um, this is gonna be a great time for the church, I think, to get back to the roots. Yeah. And uh, but uh one of the things about scripture is we we need to learn how to interpret it. And uh so you've got this uh little little thing geared up here that'll help people on their uh interpretive journey on how to interpret scripture. Yeah, there's so many things we don't take into, and I don't either, until I'm studying it. You know, when I'm reading it, I don't think about my culture versus their culture, you know, uh their laws against my laws, their idea of freedom, my idea of freedom, you know, no democracy, you know, just all kinds of things that I it doesn't play into the picture until you until you sit down and you look at the scripture and you use this uh interpretive journey to find out what it says before you can figure out what it says to you.

SPEAKER_01: 2:45

Yeah, this is uh this is so important. And it's what I told in the sermon on on Sunday I told the church, if you listen to the Midweek podcast this week, I want to I want to teach you how that you can begin to study scripture um responsibly so that you can understand what it means and apply it faithfully to your life. And I this I I will say this this is a deeper dive than just casual reading of scripture, which is still good and there's still benefit to just reading scripture. Um and I'm not saying every time you, you know, if you're putting on the Bible on the way to work, um, you're probably not gonna be able to walk through all five of these steps that we're gonna lay out today. This is more for that in-depth Bible study. But then as you you start getting familiar with these steps, as you listen to scripture on the way to work or when you're mowing the grass or just in that casual Bible, it Bible reading, it starts to build the frame for you a little bit.

SPEAKER_03: 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:43

Um, because you begin to understand some of these principles. Um, and and you make sure that, oh, I can't read too much of my my situation into this because they weren't dealing with my kids in 2025, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 3:58

They weren't worried about their kids being on social media all day and and uh weren't worried about you know sending your kid off at 16, driving to pick up your daughter at school, and you know, that they didn't have any worries like that, but they had plenty of worries on their own.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

Right. And so it's uh this is a great method uh that we're gonna walk you through um to begin, like I said, to to understand and apply scripture responsibly. And in in the message on Sunday, I I asked this question whose word is guiding your life? And there's a lot of competing voices uh in culture, in society, definitely, you know, social media, a lot of people competing for your attention, trying to speak words um that influence us. And you know, John Maxwell he says leadership is is influence. And there's a lot of people that would love to have influence over you. Um so it matters. The voices that we entertain, um, and particularly the ones that we we build our lives on. And you know, I think one of the things I talked about in the sermon on Sunday was you know, what's true today might be outdated tomorrow. It seems like that's how fast time is going right now. No, this is true. Trust the science. We didn't mean that. It's something else. We need something that's solid, uh a foundation that that we can trust in God has promised. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word never returns void. Um, it's never gonna fade away. This is the solid thing that we can build our life on. And so the question then becomes, well, then how do I read it? How do I read it faithfully? How do I make sure that what we're actually hearing is what God actually said and he intended for me to hear, not just what I want it to say.

SPEAKER_02: 5:51

So if you're uh at home listening to this podcast and you're not mowing the lawn or something, get you a notebook and uh get your Bible and turn it up to Joshua chapter one. We're gonna use that little passage of scripture there and uh walk you through um how we do it, how we how we actually think our way through the scripture to find out um what it means finally to us.

SPEAKER_01: 6:18

Yeah, here's here's an important distinction. The Bible was written for you, but it was not written to you, it was written to a group of people in a specific place in a specific time, dealing with specific circumstances. Uh, you know, when you look at Paul's letters, that was written to a real group of believers at a real church in a real city facing real issues. And Paul wrote it to them. But we talked about this on Sunday. All scripture is God breathed, all scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. So script, all scripture is for you, but it doesn't mean it was written to you. It was written to real people. And so these five steps allow us to begin to cross that bridge from the original audience and the people who heard it, the you know, who it was written to, um, the words that the prophet delivered, who the law was given to, and what the situation was to cross from there over to present day your life, your family, your kids, your job, you know, whatever you're dealing with, and faithfully apply it today. And so I'll give you uh just an overview of all five of them real fast. And uh, this is coming from uh a book I actually had to read in seminary. Uh, I think the book is called The A Journey into God's Word or The Journey into God's Word, something like that. But they they lay out the interpretive journey, and it has five steps. First one, grasp the text in their town. In this step, you're asking, what did the text mean to the original audience? You're trying to figure out, man, when these guys heard it, what did it mean to them? Not to me, to them. Second step, measure the width of the river to cross. This is asking the question, what is the difference between them and us? Culturally, um, you know, if it was in the Old Testament, they're under the old covenant, you were under the new covenant. You know, what are the differences that exist?

SPEAKER_02: 8:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 8:16

Step three, cross the principalizing bridge. What are the time what is the timeless theological principle? What is that thing that God said back then that carries over and holds true today that still applies? Um and trying to find out, and that it takes some mining. It does. We're gonna work through that.

SPEAKER_02: 8:36

And it's um a lot of times it's more than just one in a single scripture. Yeah, don't think when you're asking yourself these questions, uh obviously when uh we're grasped with the text in their town, there's gonna be a lot of differences between us and them. But also the timeless truths of the Bible are thick and it and it can show up in just one little verse. You might get three or four out of it. So uh be watchful for that. Because when you get that one, it doesn't mean next year when you're doing your read through the Bible and you get there, you're like, oh, there's that doesn't mean you're done doing it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:13

Um yeah, I you know, one of the examples, perfect example of that would be you know, Martin Luther, you know, he read Romans chapter one, and I would bet that wasn't his first time reading Romans chapter one. Right. Um, but man, that this time when he read it, it changed everything. The righteous shall live by faith. And so, yeah, just because you get one doesn't mean you have unearthed and mined out everything in that that passage. I think today you sent me a text and you said, what was it, first Peter chapter two, five different ways? You're laying out a whole sermon series, and that was from one small passage of scripture. Um, there's what is those timeless theological principles? Then step four, consult the biblical map. How does this principle fit within the rest of scripture? So scripture is 66 separate books, but it all is one giant narrative, right? Um telling one story about how God sent his son to redeem mankind. Um, and so something that you read in Leviticus has to, if this is one of those timeless theological principles, there's gonna be other places in scripture that support that principle.

SPEAKER_02: 10:29

It's like a um a puzzle. It's like a big puzzle. And um, and we're as we read through the Bible, we're placing these it's like a big piece puzzle. And you're putting that these big sections together, but it's all telling the same story. Right. But sometimes you gotta you gotta work at how it how it comes together. And that's that's the fun part of studying the Bible.

SPEAKER_01: 10:53

Yep. And then finally, uh, and this is really what we're all hoping to get out of it when we read scripture, I know, but we want to grasp the text in our town. And and the question we're asking here is how do I live this out today? And that's what a lot of us want to know. You know, God, what what does all this mean? You know, I'm reading all these crazy principles and and all these crazy laws, and you know, this one was talking about um, you know, uh the Israelites weren't allowed to wear a garment made of of two different cloths. Does that mean I'm supposed to only wear 100% cotton? Like what what are you trying to say to me?

SPEAKER_02: 11:28

Oh, go on to ancestry first, find out how Jewish you are, and then you'll know.

SPEAKER_01: 11:35

You have to check all your tags from here on out. Um, and so how do we how do we live this out today? And so that's that's the bridge. Um, grasp the text in their town, measure the width of the river to cross, uh, cross the principalizing bridge, consult the biblical map, grasp the text in our town. And so this podcast is gonna be a little bit different. This is definitely one of those ones that uh, as Tim said earlier, it'd be good to sit down with a a sheet of paper and your Bible open. Um but it won't be long.

SPEAKER_02: 12:03

It's it looks like oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? But it it's not like that at all. It's not like that at all. It's it's pretty quick. And and once you uh get those five down, um like Ryan said, once you've done it a couple times, it becomes easy for you because they all start to connect. Because there's a timeline, and these guys were doing this, now they're doing this, and you know, so you you kind of figure out what those things are and as you're putting the puzzle together, and then once you get it, yeah, you're you're pretty good. Oh no, this is what they were like when Jesus was in. No, this is what they were like when Moses was there, this is what Abraham was doing. And uh so once you get that in your mind, it becomes a lot easier.

SPEAKER_01: 12:49

So let's start uh with one of the most well-known passages in the Old Testament, Joshua chapter one, uh verse nine. The Lord tells Joshua, be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Beautiful verse, it's on coffee mugs, graduation cards, probably a bumper sticker or two. But what does it actually mean? And what am I supposed to do? How do I how do I apply this to my life? And so the very first thing if that if we're gonna take this scripture, we're gonna understand it, apply it faithfully, is I gotta grasp the text in their town. What does not what does it mean to me, but what did it mean in context? In context. Now, thankfully, most Bibles, especially if you get yourself a good study Bible, you know, I know you and I, we usually use the the CSB study Bible. Um, ESV is another great translation. NIV's still good, New King James. There's there's some good ones out there. But if you get a study Bible, usually right before you start a chapter or book in the Bible, it'll have a page and it'll give you a bunch of that context for you.

SPEAKER_02: 13:55

It'll lay out the the context. Sometimes it'll tell you what's going on in nations around them. Um it it really helps.

SPEAKER_01: 14:03

Has a lot of times a timeline along the bottom of it so you kind of know where where this book is falling in the history of other scripture and other events in the world. And so I would I would encourage you if you're gonna spend some time studying scripture, read through that. It's usually one page. Yeah, maybe two, if it's gotten crazy. But one or two pages, you can really start to get a good idea about who this was written to, what was going on, what was the point that this guy decided to write this thing down. So read that page. Joshua chapter one opens right after the death of Moses. Israel's been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses is dead. Joshua is stepping into leadership, and the people are standing right on the edge of the promised land. They're nervous, they're grieving, they're uncertain. And God speaks to Joshua and says, Be strong and courageous, for I am with you. For them, this was a specific call to trust God as they prepare to enter the land that He had promised, to face enemies and to lead people and to believe that His presence was enough. It's not just a motivational slogan. God wasn't just saying, Man, this would look really good on a piece of artwork hanging in your living room or in your office. Yeah. This was a divine command for a specific leader stepping into his God-given mission.

SPEAKER_02: 15:24

Now we know um what they were facing giants. They make us look like grasshoppers, um, walled cities. Uh they were living out of tents. And um, so we we have this um idea that they had it all together. These these are like um say a generation before they they had lived as slaves um and they were wandering the desert. Uh basically they're um oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Bedouins and now they're gonna go fight armies that have cities with walls, and Joshua's uh the Lord tells him, Hey, be strong and courageous. I'm gonna take care of this for you. That's that's a little bit different than when we're thinking I'm gonna face my boss today. He's he's been really mean, you know, and the Lord's telling me be strong and courageous. We're no, we're talking about war. We're talking about death.

unknown: 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:30

And and how do you know? So Tim just laid out a couple things. You know, these are people who were slaves, they were living in tens, they've been wandering in the woods. How do you know all that? Well, you had to read the book of Genesis, you know, and so this is the context to keep it in. Yeah, they're not driving around and you know, a traverse and you know, hopping from soccer game to soccer game. That wasn't what was happening here. And so we, yeah, we read our own context into this and we try to pull that out and make it apply directly to us. And there's things that are gonna apply. We're gonna talk about it, but we gotta start there. Um, and a authors, uh, Fi and Stewart, and I think their book is How to Read the Bible for all it's worth, maybe. Um they said this. They said, a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his readers. I'm gonna say that again. A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his readers. So you can't pull out something and say, well, this is what this means. If it didn't mean it to the guy who wrote it and to the people he wrote it to, it doesn't mean it. Now you might learn something, you might glean some wisdom, but that's not what that meant. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 17:40

Um, and so in other words, this didn't have anything to do with dealing with politics and a constitutional republic. Nothing like that had ever existed before. They couldn't even dream it up. This is so when you take that verse and you say, Okay, this verse means that we should do this and this political situation, no, it can't mean that. Because it couldn't mean it then. Now you can take some truths out of that to help you face the situation, but they didn't know anything about constitutional republics, they didn't know anything about democracy. Um they they just knew that God had asked them to do something and it was scary.

SPEAKER_01: 18:19

Right, right. So before you can apply scripture, we have to understand it in their context. Um, if you don't have a study Bible, you can hop online. There's lots of really great um resources out there, and and you can find out. Um Blue Letter Bible, Bible Study, Bible Gateway. Um I think even the the UVersion Bible app on most of our phones has started putting in some study notes and stuff for books. So take a second, get an idea, let you know, wrap your head around the context that they were in will really help you start figuring out what was what was being communicated to this group. The next question that we have to ask is well, what separates their world from ours? And this is when we measure the width of the river. Um, we are not ancient Israelites, we're not standing on the border of Canaan, the promised land.

SPEAKER_02: 19:11

Um, getting ready to conquer a territory. Yep, and if you lose, you and all your family will be slaves to whoever you're supposed to attack.

SPEAKER_01: 19:22

My boss's been so mean, and if I go, Yeah, he's gonna give you an extra assignment, you know, or you didn't get your vacation that you wanted. Right. You're not the same.

SPEAKER_02: 19:31

You are not, you are not um, you don't have any rights back then, you you know, you didn't have any labor laws, um, all that kind of stuff. Uh, but we do have spiritual battles here, right? And sometimes the Lord says, be strong and courageous uh in this area of your life. He's not telling you to, you know, go walk around Jericho um or to chase the giants down in the hill country or anything like that. Um, but sometimes you can you can see uh a spiritual battle that they're having, which is a battle of faith, right? And you have battle of faith, a battle of faith. Now, the context is context is completely different, but you can you can reach in there and you can measure the width of the river. And if you're not getting this, the width of the river is they needed a lot more faith than you do. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 20:31

So here's some some things to think about as you begin to to pull out that tape measure, measure the difference. We're gonna look at differences in time and culture, differences in covenant. Like I said, they were, you know, if it's old testament, they were under the old covenant. If it's new testament, they're under the new covenant, starting Acts chapter 20. 42. Acts chapter 2. Right. Added a zero there. I was like, no, 20 is way too late in the story. It's over. 22.

SPEAKER_02: 20:58

So and listen to this. When we say um we use those terms old covenant, which is the old testament law, it's not old, it's just the old testament law. And we talk about the new covenant, which is the new testament. Um, we will conflate old and new. The old covenant was very new to them right here. It had just been laid down.

SPEAKER_03: 21:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:24

And so they're still struggling with man, I I gotta do what and when? And okay, we're going to war. Uh, aren't we supposed to celebrate that party? What was that party? Something about, you know, bringing in the feast. I don't know. Does anybody remember what Moses said? Did someone keep a track of that book? So uh yeah, so not only are they getting ready to do something, but their God showing up, talking to them, and guiding them was new to them too.

SPEAKER_03: 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:58

Um, they had it going on for about 40 years, just one generation.

SPEAKER_01: 22:04

And uh so Yeah, and I mean imagine hundreds of years before that, they were slaves. Right. And so Moses shows up and says, Hey, God showed up in this burning bush, told me to come get you guys out of here, and they're like, He did what? And who are you?

SPEAKER_02: 22:21

And we're going where? Correct. And then they're there. Yep. So you got to remember there's there's some of that going on. The whole thing is, man, I don't know if I like my they got some pretty cool gods back in Egypt. Um, maybe this isn't the thing, but I think God used those 40 years to teach us some serious lessons about uh what following God was gonna mean, and I think I think they started to fall in love with him. So here they are, and this is their situation, and it's we've got 3,500 years of a book to tell us all about that stuff, but they lived it. And so the the the bridge the the width of the river is really wide between us and them.

SPEAKER_01: 23:07

And that it's important to remember that um the situation in context is different. And so, yeah, sometimes you're gonna read a verse and a truth's just gonna pop out, and you know, Proverbs is great for that. There's a lot of um of great great truths in Proverbs that if you would just apply, it'd be great. Um, and your life would be better if you did it. But when we're studying scripture, it is so important um for us to figure out what did this mean to them? What were they dealing with? What what was the context? Um, even the geographical setting that they were in, and and why did that matter? I remember when I went to Israel, we went to the Valley of Allah where David fought Goliath, um, and just seeing where the armies were positioned in that valley and what that looked like and and where David would have probably gone when he was looking for stones. I mean, it it begins to change how how you read that story. You're like, oh man, these guys were staring at each other right across this field, like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Yeah. Um, those things matter. And then you start to say, well, what is well, I, you know, I'm living in a suburb of Cleveland, got a you know, decent job. I'm not worried about, you know, dying in war today or you know, even losing my job, and I can feed my kids. And the the context is different. And so that's we're measuring that width. So what's different between the original reader and audience and me today?

SPEAKER_02: 24:36

And once you do that enough times in the Bible and you remember where you are in the Bible, um, that becomes easier and easier, and you don't spend a lot of time there. You wouldn't even spend as much time as we have trying to explain it to you.

SPEAKER_01: 24:49

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02: 24:50

And uh then you get to that number three where we cross that uh principalizing bridge. What are the things that we can draw from that?

SPEAKER_01: 25:00

Yeah, those timeless theological principles that apply in every age. God looked at Joshua and said, Be strong and courageous. I am with you wherever you go. Joshua's getting ready to step into a new land, step into a new position, fight a bunch of battles, and he needed to know God was going to be with him as he did that. We're not Joshua, we're not trying to conquer a land and we're not going to war. But there are some principles, and I can look and say, Well, man, you know what? God was with Joshua, God is with his people. And so I can live courageously and obedient as I follow his word today.

SPEAKER_02: 25:39

There's a theological principle that I can pull from what God told Joshua, and it's true today, and it crosses that divide from 3,500 years ago. That was yeah, 37, about 3,700 years ago until today. That is a theological truth. And that's that's what you're looking for. Now there might be um other truths that you can dig out of that, and I'm sure somebody's preached on that verse and did three points on it. Easy, easy, and uh so we uh that see how simple that was? That is just simple. How wide is the river? What crosses it? Well, God's people don't have to be afraid because he's with me.

SPEAKER_01: 26:27

Yep, and so get that picture in your mind. I I love how they uh use this principalizing bridge, it's a mouthful to say, but you get the idea like this picture in your head where there's something that connects from back then, Pastor Tim just said that was 3,700 years ago, and then there's this bridge that connects and it lands squarely into your life today. That bridge is the thing that connects what God was doing and saying to those people and how it connects with us today, how we're supposed to live differently because of it today. And this is when scripture becomes useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. Right. We start to find these these bridges.

SPEAKER_02: 27:10

That truth is the spine of the bridge. It is it holds it together all the way into our time. That's good.

SPEAKER_01: 27:18

God's presence produces courage for obedience, that's the principle. I see it in Joshua's life. And then we're gonna talk in a second about step four. Um, I'm gonna see it in a lot of other people's stories throughout scripture, and so it's true for us today. God's presence produces courage for obedience, and so I take that principle and I say, okay, that's what I think applies here. I God was with Joshua, he was giving him the courage to obey what he had asked him to do. I can see how God was going to be with me as and give me the courage to do what he's asking me to do today, to be a good husband, to be a great boss or an employee, um, to steward my resources well.

SPEAKER_02: 28:03

And so now we have to take that biblical principle and we have to try it against the word. Yeah. Just like when Paul said, try spirits to see whether they are God. We have to take this this truth that we have ascertained, the bridge that bridges the 3,700 years that applies to both Joshua and me, and then we gotta lay it to our truth uh so we can see if it's actually true. And we do that by cross-referencing. And um which is great. If you got a modern Bible, you just look in the middle of the columns and where someone says trust God, where someone says courage uh be courageous, you're gonna find little uh uh annotations of different scriptures that use those kind of words, and you can just simply open it up. And Matthew 28.20 says, I am with you always to the end of the age. Romans 8 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? Hebrews 13 5, I will never leave you or forsake you. So the Bible, that truth that's you humanly with your human brain and most likely the guiding of the Holy Spirit has um has been proven with the rest of the word. If you can find something in there and you think you found a principle that um crosses that bridge and it's the spine of what that is, and you can't find anything else in the Bible about it. And especially if you find something that refutes it, then you need to take another look.

SPEAKER_01: 29:50

Yeah, and and the danger is a lot of people will do just that. They'll find something and they'll build some bridge. And then they they won't find anything else to support it. It, but they'll go around proclaiming it like it's some core doctrinal truth. Um, and as best Tim just said, you need to be very careful about doing that, especially if scripture refutes it. Then you know, man, I got that one wrong. And that's okay. It's okay to get it wrong. It's okay to miss the mark. You go back and say, God, you know, I was consulting the rest of scripture. I looked at the rest of the book. It does not say what I thought you were trying to say right here. What were you trying to say? And it's an opportunity to dive deeper into it.

SPEAKER_02: 30:33

Um, but we've got to be, even if it's cool, we've got to be able to let it go for real. Right. The uh I think it was Aristotle. This was laid at Aristotle. I don't think they ever proved it, but he said the mark of an educated mind is to be able to entertain the thought without accepting it. You've got to be mature enough to say, I can't find any more proof. I think it's cool, it might be right, but there's no evidence. So I and I tell every time, I'd never preach on that. You know.

SPEAKER_01: 31:11

And if this is the first time you've ever done something like this, um, you're gonna start this process and you're gonna get to step three and you're gonna start building this bridge, and it's gonna be exciting. Yes, you're gonna love it, like, oh my gosh, this is what they were talking about.

SPEAKER_02: 31:28

I'm figuring it out. How come my pastor never talks about this?

SPEAKER_01: 31:33

And then if you don't go anywhere else, you're gonna go and think, well, that's gotta be true, and you're gonna be excited. You'll and you've talked about this before, you'll start building emotions around it because God spoke to me. The Holy Spirit spoke to me here. Right. And man, I I've heard people say, Well, the Holy Spirit told me I should leave my wife. Wrong. No, that never gonna happen. How do I know? Because the rest of his book tells me that is never gonna happen. And so we can't just, like I said, it's okay to get it wrong. And you're going to. If if this is your first time trying something like this, you're gonna get it wrong. There's even times today when I'm studying, I'm thinking, oh man, that's kind of interesting. I wonder what that's all about. And then you go and you start digging around and looking in scripture, and you're like, oh no, and it it wasn't even heading close to the path I was headed down.

SPEAKER_02: 32:24

Right, right. See, well, here's a good example. In Acts, I think it was Felix, and they were trying Paul, and he said something that sounded really spiritual, but God did not breathe those words, he put it down for our use so we can understand the context. He says something like this I think it's Felix. I should have written that down while we were putting this together. But anyways, he says, um if God is for it, it'll happen. If God is not for it, it won't happen. Well, there's a lot of things that happen that God is not for, right? And we we hear that, well, it'll it'll just it'll be if God wants it to be, you know, but the world is set up differently than that. We all know that. And uh for us to take that very I don't know, use uh shallow, immature view of God's sovereignty um would be would be crazy. But I've heard people use that. Yeah, but God didn't say that. Paul didn't say that. Some dude named Felix, and he was a governor, and he said it, and uh it sounds good, but it's not truth. So you can't build a a bridge of spiritual truth on something that some guy said that wasn't even a believer.

SPEAKER_01: 33:55

As I talked about this in the sermon, it's so important. We have got to we've got to consult scripture. You know, they say consult the biblical map, and that just means you gotta dig in and make sure whatever bridge you've just built, it can be supported up. You know, we got the spine of the bridge. Well, now we need some columns. We got to hold this thing up and make sure that it can stand the test of time. Um, and so I've got to find those those other places in the scripture that support that principle, or I gotta lay that principle down and say, man, I got it, I gotta go back to the drawing board on this one. But the same promise that God gave to Joshua finds its fulfillment in Jesus. God was with us, God is with us, He's Emmanuel, right? And so the God who who looked at Joshua and said, I am with you wherever you go, well, man, we see that Jesus is, he lives within us. Um, he's with us wherever we go. He will never leave us nor forsake us. So when we live courageously in faith today, we're walking in the same truth that Joshua did. We're just doing it under a new covenant. So now we've we've measured the width of the river, we've we've got the bridge, we've supported that bridge. And so we come to step five, which is grasping the text in our own town. And this is the question we're asking here. What does this mean for me? So now I've done all of this work and I've got this river, I've got this bridge, I've got some pillars and some support. What am I supposed to do with all of it? And so here's an application just from Joshua chapter one. And Peston talked about it earlier, might be more than this. Um, but here's an application. When you're facing a difficult decision, when you're stepping into the unknown, when you're afraid to take the next step of obedience, you can be strong and courageous because God's presence goes with you. This is not self-help courage, it's God-dependent confidence, not just coffee cup slogans. This is foundational truth I build my life on. God is with me.

SPEAKER_02: 36:02

And it's been 3,700 years, and the narrative in the Bible plays that out over and over again. And uh from you mentioned David and Goliath, from David getting his stones and going out in the face of Goliath to um facing his people when he sinned and him having to confess, um, all the way through um the disciples failing and running away during Jesus' crucifixion, it just um it just plays all the way through, all the way up to 2025, where God says go over there and make up with your neighbor. You guys have been going at it and you know what's going on, and you don't want you want your relationship to be loving. That's the law of Christ, the New Testament. So go over there, tell them you're sorry, ask him to forgive you, and don't be afraid. I'm with you.

SPEAKER_01: 37:09

Here's here's why all this is so important, and I and I reference this on on Sunday too, is we have a tendency to just pull those verses out and and read in the scripture what what we want. And a lot of times I think it's it's innocent. I think a lot of us we've just never been taught this, what we're talking about today. We've been told you should read the Bible. And so we just go and we start reading it, and then we we find a verse uh like the one that you pulled out, uh, you know, that Felix said. We're like, oh, well, that's good. And we highlight it and we start quoting it and building truce on it. Um but man, it even if it's innocent, it can also be dangerous. I quoted Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me on Sunday. But Paul wasn't talking about winning football games or landing a promotion. He was saying that even in suffering and scarcity, he can endure through the strength that Christ gives him. Well, that's a little bit different than pushing up some iron. Right. You know, Jeremiah 29, 11, how many times have we heard this quoted? For I know the plans I have for you, and plans for good and a future to give you, you know, hope and and all these. Well, listen, this was written to exiles in Babylon. You know, you're like, well, God's gonna give me dreams and I'm gonna get a smoking hot wife or husband or whatever. You know, God's got great big plans for my life, and he does. Again, what who was he writing this to? It's not a promise of personal prosperity, but a message of God's faithfulness even in hardship. That's what he's saying. Listen, I know guys, this is really tough, but I'm I'm with you. I've got plans to give you hope in a future. I know right now is really tough, but if you just keep following me, if you keep walking my ways, I've got plans that are gonna do something incredible. Matthew 7 says, do not judge. But Jesus wasn't telling us not to make moral evaluations. And man, how many times have we heard that? Well, uh, do not judge. Judge not lest you be judged, and all that's true. But we start pulling those things out. But what he was doing was warning against that hypocritical judgment. He talks elsewhere, you know, instead of worrying about the speck in your neighbor's eye, why don't you pull the plank out of your own eye? Right? But the same chapter, Matthew chapter seven, he tells us to discern false prophets. Right. So there's some things that I'm supposed to discern, some things that I'm supposed to judge. The wool looks and say, Well, no, I just we can't judge those things. Well, no, scripture talks about, you know, you'll know a tree by its fruit.

SPEAKER_02: 39:47

He also said, uh, do not judge unless it's a righteous judgment. And you can test all those same things, just like he did there with those few verses, um, backing up what that meant in that context. Um, and that's that's how you do it. That's how you do it. Yep does that mean this, or is there more to it? And in the scripture, there usually is quite a bit more to it. The goal of interpreting scripture is not to be creative. Right? It's to be faithful to what was written. That's good. And and that's uh, I think it was that one Duvall and Hayes, they came up with that. Don't it's and we want to be creative, especially if we lead a Bible study or teach a Bible study.

SPEAKER_01: 40:38

Life group leader, kids pastor, you know, you write sermons or Bible lessons, you know, you you like to blog. We want it to be creative.

SPEAKER_02: 40:46

Yeah, this is this is kind of boring, but what if I you know, and as soon as you get there, it's like, no, you need to be faithful. Yeah. All right. Uh, what does it really mean? I think um there was a book out years ago. Now I can't remember it. But uh anyways, he took one verse out of the so-and-so beget so-and-so and so-and-so be it. And this one guy prayed to have his uh territory increased. Increase my territory. And out of all the begets, he grabbed a hold of that and and wrote a book about it. He was creative, but he actually stayed faithful to the text. And in the book, he's saying, We don't even know what's going on here, but we know that he loved God and wanted his territory to increase so that more people would love God.

SPEAKER_01: 41:42

Yeah. And that's that's the goal. If you can be creative, that's great, but it's not the goal. The goal is to be faithful, right? Um and if you'll you'll apply all the stuff that we've we've been talking about, if you'll take these five steps, then you can be faithful to scripture and you can understand what it meant for them, you can understand what it means for you, and you'll know how to apply it, what you're supposed to do with that. Um, Martin Luther said this and using a lot of Martin Luther stuff because it's Reformation uh month, I guess, but he said the Bible is alive, it speaks to me. It has feet, it runs after me. It has hands, it lays hold of me. But I'll tell you, it only does it when we let it speak, not when we speak over it.

SPEAKER_02: 42:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 42:31

I man, when we read carelessly, we end up shaping scripture around our lives instead of the other way. That's the truth. But when we read it carefully, scripture begins to shape our lives around Christ.

SPEAKER_02: 42:44

And the Reformation didn't call people back to the book. I think it called people back to the Christ of the book. Amen. And that's where we need to be. Are we being faithful to him in our interpretation? And we can beat the dead horse here, or we can let you take these five things. What did it mean then? What's different now? What's the timeless truth? How does it fit with the rest of scripture? And how does that apply to me today? So take those five things and go play.

SPEAKER_01: 43:22

Yeah. This is your homework. Pick a passage of scripture this week. Maybe it's Joshua 1, Psalm 23, pick one. Wherever you want, just pick one. Um, maybe you're already doing a Bible study, and then just say, man, on this one chapter, not the whole book, but just one chapter or one paragraph, answer those five questions. Take your time, go slow, pray as you do it. Um, that was one thing we didn't talk about, um, because it's not part of the five steps. But before you do any of those five steps, you need to ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the scriptures for you. Um, it's the Holy Spirit that leads and guides us into all truth. And so anything you do outside of his spirit, you're just not going to get the results. Um start in prayer. God, what do you want to say today? Open up your word to me. Say yes before you even get started. Um, and and as you do that, remember the Bible is not just about information, it's about transformation. D. L. Moody said this: the Bible is not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives. Wow. And so don't be conform to the patterns of this world. Paul said it that way, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That is the goal. And so hopefully these five steps will uh arm you and give you the resources that you need uh to faithfully start applying uh scripture to your life and understanding it. And so um, Tim, I'm done. I'm gonna shut up and let people take all this stuff and go do something with it, unless you've got anything else you want to add.

SPEAKER_02: 44:50

No, I I'm with you. We can talk about it all the time and and all the things that the Lord has taught us. Um 2 Corinthians tells us that it's the Holy Spirit that teaches you the deep things of God, not your pastor.

unknown: 45:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 45:03

And uh when you're doing this with you and God, he's gonna speak to you, and that's exciting, and we want that to happen. So we're gonna let you go. Let me pray. Yeah, Father, I want to thank you, um, Ryan, putting this all together for us. This is so important. And Lord, I pray that um you'll teach people quickly how to do this as they read and as they apply uh the scripture to their lives. Um, Lord, we want to be faithful before we're creative. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 45:37

Thanks again for joining us for this episode of the Midweek Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know how God is using this resource in your life or send any podcast questions or topic ideas to podcast at a freshwind.org. If you would like to support this ministry financially and help us continue offering new resources that equip you to discover more in Christ, simply text any amount to the number 84321. We're so grateful for your support. Make sure to tune in next week for a brand new episode of the Midweek Podcast. Be blessed and have a great week.