Discipleship Class #5 - Daily Living

Okay, this is Discipleship Class number 5, Daily Living. Hopefully you have the PDF or if you have a notebook to write some notes down, the PDF is available on the class if you can download it and print it. I'm going to read the first portion. Now that the new spiritual baby has breath, it also needs to eat. That's you. Lesson 5 teaches us how to read the Bible and worship God by ourselves daily. To know a person, you need to have regular contact with him or her along those same lines. If you want to have a close relationship with God, you need to set a time just for God every day. We would like to schedule a daily devotional time. You know, for those that are already in Christ for a long time, I pray that this will bring you back to a daily devotional if you don't have a daily devotional. If you're new in Christ, I'm so excited that you're taking this class now and not five or ten or fifteen years down the road. Because right now is the time to build a daily devotional time with God. Sunday service or Wednesday Bible study is not enough. Can you imagine what if you ate food only when you went to church? How would you feel on Sunday? You'd be starving to death. Daily devotional is something we need to have every day with God because that's how you're going to grow. You know, it says here on number one, the content of our devotional time. What should be a devotional time? What should be the content of it? And it's this. Talk with God through prayer and let God speak to me through reading the Bible. This is devotional time. This is what we need every single day. If you have a marriage, if you're married, can you imagine only talking to your spouse

once a week? No. You need a daily devotional time. You need a time and a moment to talk with God through prayer and let God speak to me through reading the Bible and also through prayer himself because he answers in our prayers. Number two, the purpose of our devotional time. So what's the purpose? We know the content. What's the purpose? To worship God because God welcomes me. To fellowship with God, we share concerns. And to be led by God because I welcome God into my life. So just to recap, we have a content of talking with God and him talking to us and the purpose is to worship, to fellowship, and so we can do life together. And that is the content and purpose of our devotional time. Number three, the attitude of our devotional time. So this is really important. What attitude does the psalmist have towards God? When we come into our devotional time, whether it's prayer, Bible study, reading your Bible, reading a book, journaling, meditating, all of these different things, what is our attitude? The word I like to use is heart posture. What is our heart posture? How are we perceiving that? So let's read a couple of examples that the psalmist wrote about that. In Psalms 42, verses one and two, it says this, as the deer pants for the water brook, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? So in your handout, there's a blank area. So this is what I want you to do.

I want you to take some time, read that, take the time, read that verse, pause the video, and then write it in what sticks out to you. And here's even another recommendation, and I've done this several times with many verses, where I will actually take that Bible verse. And if you have the luxury of having like a strongest concordance, and find the definitions, rewrite that verse without changing the meaning, but use your own words. Think through it. Meditate on the scriptures. As a deer pants for the water brook, so pants my soul for you, O God. Like an example, something like this. Myself in dry places my heart searches for you God The insides of me desires you My will my my being Lord God is thirsty for you For you are the only God so when I come before you and appear before you and The reason why I bow my knee to you is because you're God that would be an example of me Rewording that in the same way, but in my words But what I want you to do is take some time write it down. What stuck out to you in that verse of Psalms 42 1 and 2 Now the next verse now that you paused and replayed Psalms 119 verse 147 and verse 148 It says I rise before the dawning of the morning and cry for help. I hope in your word My eyes are awake through the night watches So what's happening here? What's going on? One the heart posture was the psalmist writing man. My my I desire for you so much

I I'm looking for you seeking for you in any moment The second side says in the dawning of the morning. I cry for help. I hope in your word My eyes are awake through the night watches that I may meditate on your word the word meditate Literally means chew the cud the way, you know the way a cow choosing he has the the hay in his mouth or the alfalfa and he just kind of Slowly grinds it away It's a slow grind that's what the psalmist is saying, what is he meditating on? That before the dawn of the morning I cry to God what is he meditating on hoping in God's Word That's what he's chewing on Then in the heart posture and the attitude of devotional time is you're taking the word You're journaling you're going through all of that and you're taking the time to chew on the word Think through the word Slow process through it and meditate on it and your heart posture in that moment and in that in that Situation, it's pretty simple. Don't rush through it Take your time pause write the scripture. Maybe you rewrite it in your lane in Something personal but meditate on it. So it gets on the inside and never leaves That is the attitude during your devotional time, that's what you're shooting for so part four examples from the Bible When we talk about daily devotional, we always want to start in the Word of God. How did they do it and How did these people from the Bible seek God and how did they know God? The first one is actually Abraham in Genesis And it says in Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord So I think that's important so we see here that he had a daily time a daily moment where Abraham would seek out God To that same spot where he would meet God So we see that he had a place to be and the time when he did it in Psalm 5 3 we read of King David and This is Oh

Lord in the morning you hear my voice in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and I watch So we see David coming in the morning to the place of sacrifice and what would he do? He would watch He went with the heart of preparedness you know and finally another example is Daniel chapter 6 verse 10 and this says When Daniel knew that the document had been signed he went to his house Where he had windows in the upper chamber open toward Jerusalem He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously So not only did he meet in the morning three times a day he would pray at his window Now we see this example from Abraham from King David from Daniel These are three great examples of their daily devotionals You know the one I want to point out what's interesting is Daniel If you read that whole chapter in the context, it was made illegal that he should pray. And we notice that he went to the window, opened the windows up and did it three times a day. He didn't do it just to fan the flames or throw gasoline on top of something that was smoldering already. That's why it says that he did it in the same way he always did it before. He didn't do it in spite of. This is what he always did. So when we look at all of these examples, these three at least, and there's many more in the Bible, we see that many times they would do it in the morning, sometimes three times a day. They would go to the same place, the place of sacrifice, the place of prayer. And this is how they did their daily devotional. And because of that, in Mark 1.35, I want to make this point here. In Mark 1.35, and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. That's not Mark talking about Mark.

This is the gospel of Mark talking about Jesus. So not only do we have an example of Abraham, David, and Daniel, mighty men of God, mighty men that were powerful in their own ways, but here we see Jesus rising early in the morning while it was still dark. And he went out to a desolate place, away from the noise, away from the crowds, away from all the things he needed to get away from, because he had to have his private time with the Father. And if Jesus isn't our example, I don't know what is. But we know this, Abraham walked with the Lord, David was a beloved of God, Daniel was a great prophet, and Jesus was the anointed one. And all of them, even Jesus being God, found time, a devotional time, a quiet place to have a devotional. And I pray that this class, as we continue on, encourages you to have a devotional time for the Lord. Part five, suggestions and tools for your spiritual life. This is so important, because it's not, a lot of the times we think of spiritual life and we just think of religious things. No, these are tools. What you need is your tool belt. If all you have is the tool belt with no tools, and you go on a construction site, you can't do anything other than be a gopher, and go get something for someone. But you'll never build anything. You'll never be fruitful, productive. So this study is to take, as far as the first one, welcome to house of rest, and the second one, as far as now that you're saved, and the third one, as far as now how to share the gospel, and then the fourth one, going through and how to pray. Now bring all of that in, and now with the personal tools, and now let's get to work. Here are some things to deepen your walk with God that are so vitally important. Things and tools for your spiritual life. A, here's probably the most important thing, and I don't know if you're going to guess

this one, but it's really, really important. Number one, a Bible. Go get a good Bible. You know, if you're a brand new Christian, and you're coming in, and here's my suggestion all day long, every single time, a thousand out of a thousand times that people ask me. What should I do? I'm a Christian. What kind of Bible should I get? You know, as far as we can talk about translations and everything, but here's my basic advice, is one, get a Bible that doesn't have all the footnotes, and don't go spend $150 on a Bible. Not in the beginning. I'm not saying that that's not a good thing. It is a good thing, but don't get the one that has all the commentaries. You'll get lost a little bit in that. Get a good Bible. It would be more important for me to ask the translation and the type of reading than it is the ones like the study Bible. Should I get a Schofield, a Thompson Chain, you know, reference Bible, study Bible, archeological Bible, apologetics Bible. Just get a Bible. Have God's word. Make sure God's word's in it. Everyone else's words are not as important. And so, write down the scriptures and references you read. Write down what you learned from the reading. Meditate on the verse and about the translation itself. And then when Pastor David comes on in the next section, I'll let him, if he has any thoughts on that end, when he comes in, I'll let him throw in his two cents as well. But I think we're in agreement with this.

If you want a good study Bible, and you're going to study with references and feel like, okay, what I'm reading is to the point, I would recommend all day long either the New King James or the ESV. That's my recommendation. On a personal level, when I do deep dive studies, I usually use King James version, not because I like to sound smart and old English, but because there's a lot more reference material because it's been around for so long. And a lot of times that's what I'll use to be able to connect with my young's analytical accordions and all these different things. But they're starting to update all of that more and more. If you're not a heavy reader, and maybe you have struggled reading, look for something more of like the Amplified Bible. If you're not a reader at all, and you're a brand new Christian, you're going, what should I get? Start with the message. Just get the word of God in you. That's my biggest suggestion. So going back to the Bible part, write down the scripture reference, read it, write what you learned from the reading. In other words, be a student. Always have a notepad and paper. If you're new and you're a Christian and you're wanting to grow, go to what used to be the dollar store, dollar 25 store. Go get a spiral notepad and go get a pack of pens or pencils, whatever. Get highlighters. Don't be afraid to highlight your Bible and write in it. It'll help you remember. You don't have to color the whole page and go crazy. I know Pastor David likes pencils, colored pencils. There's a lot of different ways.

But the point is, study to remember. Write what you've learned. Read. Meditate on the verse. Remember that you can't change what the Bible says. But you can change how it impacts your life. There are many good devotional books, but none can replace the scriptures. The Bible is the answer to humanity's four big questions. Where do I come from? Why do I exist? How should I live? Where will I go in the future? Get a Bible. Get a notepad. Pray before you read. Ask God's help. And read the story. Back in the day, we were growing up, they had called it Bread of Life. And it was a little thing and it had cards in it. You would pull out that card and it would be a verse for the day. It had verses on both sides. And that's good. That's cool. But really, you should be reading the Bible. And you should be making it a consistent, the whole book. Not just portions. The whole thing. Read it there. It'll answer those questions. B. Pen and notebook.

We covered that. But during your devotional time, write down your thoughts and what you sense God saying to you. And you shall remember all the ways which the Lord your God has led you. Deuteronomy 8 and 2. You can also write down the names and needs of those you are praying for. Also know answers to these prayers to encourage yourself. Write it down when you're reading the Bible. It is so vitally important. If you want a prayer life, have a Bible reading life. Reading the Bible will give you creativity and answers and oomph and energy and encouragement to pray. And it'll give you a heart for prayer. C. Place. Choose a place where you can meet with God without being disturbed. God wants you to concentrate when facing Him. My gosh, this is probably one of the most difficult. When you're wanting to study and pray. Because all of a sudden, you're going to start going, oh man, I left a couple dishes. Oh man, did I leave, did I clean, did I turn the oven off, did I leave it on, is the milk out on the counter, oh man, I need to go get a cup of coffee, oh man, did I leave the sprinklers on, oh man, is the dog loose, oh man. Go take 3, 4, 5 minutes, walk around, get all those stuff done. And then go and have your time. So you're not distracted. That way you can focus for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or whatever time you have. Time. Find the most appropriate time when you can constantly meet with God. Listen, I don't mind waking up in the morning.

I am not, I can't, I'm not a deep thinker late at night. If you get me in a late night conversation, unless you get me really enthused about the conversation, my brain is starting to come down. I'm pretty good in the morning, pretty good in the middle of the day. So when I choose my time according to me, and sometimes I just walk it out with God and faith, but I'll be honest with you, don't worry about that. Find a time that works for you. Is it the morning, midday, evening? Is it all three, is it a little bit, is it spread out, sporadic? I have a time with God that I, I'll be honest with you, I don't always wake up and just kneel down for 30 minutes with a timer. I think that's weird in a relationship. That would be like, okay honey, you and I are going to have scheduled 15 minute conversations. And then the rest of the day, maybe a text. No, you don't live life that way. If you're married or with kids, you don't live life that way. It's throughout the day. But we have family meetings, boys come downstairs, honey, we're going to meet. And those are the moments that we gather together, brainstorm and talk and everything else. Have a time, but make sure it's consistently in your life and talk to him daily. The last part, plan. Choose a Bible book to read at your own rate, meditate, record, pray and obey. Pick a book of the Bible. Really make this a staple in your life. Don't just take verses of the Bible, read the whole book. And here's a clue, especially in the New Testament. You know, it's pretty crazy, but the writers of the New Testament books actually tell us what they're writing about. If you take a little bit of time to read the beginning. They'll actually tell you, like Mark says, why did he write the book?

Oh, to prove that Jesus was the Messiah and to share the good news with you. So that means the book of Mark was written to show you he is the Messiah and the gospel good news. Every book has a reason. Luke says, oh, I put everything in order. Why? Oh, Theophilus. So there is a chronological record of what happened and transpired. He's actually telling us what he's writing. So read it that way. You'll get more out of it. So in conclusion, with all these points, get a Bible, get a notepad, get some highlighters, get some pens, get some time, get focused and dive in and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in that time. Part six, getting ready to meet with God, your devotional plan. Well, number one is, A, we want to pray. I never open the scriptures, even after being saved since 2004, I do not open the scriptures without praying, Lord, show me what you want to show me. So you want to start with prayer. Matter of fact, in Psalm 119.18, it says, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. B is to prepare. Now that you're going to do this devotional, you're going to find a time and a place and a way to do it. After you pray, you want to prepare, collect the things that you need. Same thing that Pastor Angel said. Find a quiet place, prepare your heart, wait on God, confess your sins and say, Lord, show me what you're going to show me. I'm here. I'm here for you.

I'm like David, seeking and watching. And C, seek God. Read a scripture portion. Meditate on how it relates to you. I often tell people, it's not about how much you read. It's not about, oh, I read three chapters a day. What good is that if it doesn't retain? You're better off reading one scripture and meditating on that and live it out. Make it a part of your life. Make it a part of who you are. So it's not so much how much you read. It's not about quantity. It's about quality. So you want to pray. You want to prepare. You want to seek God and meditate on how that relates to me. Here at House of What Rests, we truly get down into the context of scripture because before we apply scripture to our life, we want to teach the who, what, why, and where. Who is it written to? What was it written to? What was happening at the time? Then, once I understand that, how does this pertain to me today, right now? Talk to God about what you read. Talk to Him. And pray over each item listed on those things. When you start to realize these things, then finally, D is follow through. Obey what God revealed to you. Share with others what you have learned. Don't ever be that person that always goes to revivals and conferences to hear a word from God and need to get a word from God, but you never do what the word says.

It doesn't work that way. We want to follow through when God does reveal something to us. He's not bringing conviction because He just wants to show you, He's bringing conviction because He wants change. He's bringing revelation so we can learn. So we want to follow through. So we want to pray, prepare, seek God, follow through, and D is additional reading. In your devotional, take time in other times of the day, now or before bed, to read larger amounts of scripture. I often hear, at least in Modesto, there's a lot of commuters, and maybe where you're from also, there's a lot of people that you have to commute to work an hour, 45 minutes, two hours, and you say, I don't got time to read. You know, there's a such thing called Audible now. You can literally listen to the Bible. Can you imagine, instead of listening to your favorite radio show or your favorite songs, what if you filled your mind and your heart with the two-hour commute of the Bible to work and back from work? That's four hours of Word every day, five days a week. That's a lot of hours to just meditate on the Word, and there's nothing wrong with pausing and really just saying, wow, and thinking about what you just heard. So this is important. You want to find moments of basically filling yourself up with more Word. But if you're going to read, begin by reading two chapters from the Old Testament, one chapter from the New Testament. Often we tell our students, they actually make one-year Bibles. You can get on your phone and find an app that gives you a plan on reading your whole Bible in a year, and it'll give you some Old Testament chapter, a Psalm, and something in the New Testament. If you follow through with that, make it a daily, daily thing, and then, see, you can't say, well, I don't have that commitment.

I don't believe that's true. We're committed to the things that are important to us. For instance, are you committed to waking up to work every day? Are you committed to brushing your teeth every day? Are you committed to making sure you eat something every day? Are you committed to make sure your kids go to school every day? We all have commitments. It's just a matter of what commitments are important to you and which ones are not. If you make your daily devotional something that you're committed to, if we can be committed to things that are temporal, how much more for the things that are eternal? This is eternal. So there's no reason why we can't make this a habit of who we are. I have often talked to people that first sign up to a gym, and the first week, the first two weeks, they are in pain. They are sore. They're complaining. They can't move this way. They can't move that way. But get them going for a few weeks, and guess what? When they miss a day, they say, it feels weird. What? I didn't go to the gym today. I don't feel right. We want that feeling when we don't get in the Word, and that's the feeling that I'm praying for you to have. So that is the conclusion of part six of getting ready to meet with God, your devotional plan. All right guys, part seven. Be faithful to keep your devotional life. You know, if you had $100, would you leave it on the counter? If you had a wallet full of money, and it had cash in it, would you leave it on the

counter? Would you leave your wallet on the counter of McDonald's after you pay, and then go to the restroom and go, hey, hold on here real quick, I'll be right back? Would you put it somewhere safe? You'd probably put it somewhere secure. You'd probably not just throw $100. Now if you had $0.75, could you leave it on the counter? Yeah. If you went to McDonald's or a fast food restaurant, whatever, and AM, PM, gas station, and they're like, oh, well here's $0.23. No, it's okay, keep it. Why? Because the value wouldn't mean that much. But when something means that much to you, keep it. It means there's value to you and it's important. So be faithful and keep your devotional time. Keep it safe. Make sure that you were... Constantly in a place, and I'm not saying that daily you have to be locked away, you know, and pray in tongues for three hours. If you can, that's wonderful. If you have the ability to do that, that's great. But that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying make sure that you honor the moments with God as you're walking out your day daily with Him. Preserving keeping your daily devotions, make the time a part of your daily life. A. It is your decision to meet with God daily. It is. God is always available. Are we?

If you keep a daily devotional time with God, you will grow in your spiritual life. You know, I tell my wife, and this is our thing in our house. No eating before eight, no eating after five. Does that always happen? No. Is that consistent? No. Is it sometimes earlier? Yeah. Is it sometimes a little bit later? Sure. We try to avoid, though, the part of eating late. Why am I using that as an example? Is that we set that time frame and pattern of our life, but we don't feel condemnation if it goes out a little out of it. But it's the template of our schedule. Keep a schedule. Stay doing what you can. Don't get condemned and beat yourself up if it's outside of that box. Sometimes the alarm doesn't go off. Maybe you had a long night before. Maybe you woke up late. Okay. As long as it's not a habit, that's fine. Why? Make it a habit. Try to make a habit to be consistent. And in being consistent, you'll develop that, and it'll be there. Be. While Jesus was on earth, he said, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

Matthew 6.33. In everything you might encounter in this world, nothing is more important than being with God. Guys, there's nothing wrong with being successful. There's nothing wrong with working hard. There's nothing wrong with having ambition. There's nothing wrong with having a drive and wanting to do more things and wanting to see more things. Greed is wrong. Yes. But make sure that your heart and your feet are in the right place, in the right direction, and that everything's feeding towards God. You know, in my life, and I've had many different opportunities, now and in the past, and I've walked away from many, because none compare to him. Nobody's changed my life like Jesus. And don't get swayed in that. Make sure, guys, that you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. You know, it is more important that you have the stability of the word of God as your anchor than the stability of other people that are around you. As the scripture says, let all men be liars, but let God be true. Seek first the kingdom of God. First, be disciplined and keep that schedule to the best that you can. Number two, always keep him in focus and always keep him right in front of you. Right here. Right in your heart. And right here. Right in your mind. C. One of God's desires is for you to have fellowship with him and to know him. Your goal should be to praise and worship God.

Although devotions will bring you many good feelings, new insights, and blessings, their primary purpose is to know and worship God. Now I want to break down real quick these two different things. Praise and worship are not the same. We think of when I say worship, you know, we probably think of the band that's on stage when we're in the worship service and the colored lights are on and we're all in this posture like this, right, singing. Is that and can that be a part of worship? It's really more praise. Can it be worship? Yes. But here's kind of the difference. Praise is the acknowledgment of God in all that he does. Worship is unto who he is. But how do we worship? If you want to be, let's use this first A, B, and C. A was what? Structured time. B was. was what keeping your heart focused on the kingdom and third is what making sure that we are acknowledging his greatness while we live out his glory worship in your daily devotion is let me ask you this husband how do you speak to your wife or about her wife how do you speak about your husband or to him parents how do you speak about your children or to them how do you speak to them if you're a young man you're a young lady how do you speak to your parents or about them how do you speak about your boss how do you speak about all the you know how do you speak about all these different people in your life that's part of your worship when you go to work that's part of your worship this we're talking about every facet of your life it's part of your worship excellence unto God why because I want it to be perfect no because he's worthy

of it that's why we worship him because he's great he's big he's wonderful he's marvelous he gave me his best what did he give me his son and if he gave me his son what does that say of my value to him well I don't see myself in value you're looking through the wrong lens go get a new pair of glasses and see yourself through the value of Christ praise and worship structured heart head posture and the third one make sure it's in all of your life that's the part that we need to keep be faithful to it and have a devotional life unto him so now as we're concluding this part if you have the printout or not if you have a notebook I want you to write your commitment I'm gonna ask you a direct question after everything we've learned about having a daily devotion or the importance of it even some of the examples from the Bible are you you willing to commit to a daily devotion I love the way pastor angel said he's not talking about a structure that if you miss it or something you're just gonna beat yourself up but until we have a structure there will be no structure to follow so I ask again are you willing to commit to a daily devotion if so I want you to sign that I want you to sign it and today's date and maybe even put the time of day is in the morning and evening on my commute or whatever and what place in your in your house and your bike ride on your walk at the work site at the workplace whatever it may be the more detail you write this the more commitment you will make because if it's very to where there is it's very vague then your commitments gonna be vague and if this is something you do and what I want you to do is take a picture of it and post it post it on the community page on the school so we can all see so we can hold each other to accountability because ultimately we want you to have a daily devotional because we want you to grow in Christ we want you to get the richness of the things of God we want God to bless you we want God to bring you to a place where you are so close with him you're walking in his will you're spending time with him that you don't come to church to hear what God is telling the pastor you come to church to hear what the pastor is saying as confirmation of what God has been telling you all week long so with that we conclude God bless you thank you so much

for being part of lesson class number five daily living God bless