you
King Darius lived forever
Now when Daniel knew
that the writing was signed
he went into his house and his windows
being opened his chamber toward Jerusalem
he annealed upon his knees three times a day
and prayed and gave thanks
before his God as he did it for
time. Bless the reading of
God's word let us pray.
For again in Heaven we thank you Lord for this day to be given to us
I pray that you would please give us good-bye Lord for this day
for our soul winning and our fellowship later on
I pray that you would please bless the preaching
and the preaching of your word Lord this day
I love you Jesus and we pray. Amen
Amen.
The biggest mistake people make is they don't read from
enough Bible versions
and so look if you're newly trying to read the Bible
and you're trying to get advice on Google
they're going to give you bad advice
okay? It's like
that's the exact opposite of the advice I'm going to give
I mean just read it at least for the English language
in the King James Bible don't read it from
other versions just read it
right from the word of God right?
And so let me just give you six
points in this sermon
number one the biggest mistake
I see when people first start reading the Bible
is they read
without a plan
they read and it's just
kind of a modulo system in their head where it's like
well let me just figure out what to do
I'll just read a little bit here or read there
they don't really have a plan
they don't have organization they don't have structure
and the problem with that is
you'll be excited to do it
some days and other days you're not
and then you're not going to do it when you're not excited
right? Notice what it says in
Daniel 6 verse 9
Wherefore King Darius signed the
writing and the decree. Now when Daniel
knew that the writing was signed he went into his house
and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem
he kneeled upon his knees three times
a day
and prayed and gave thanks before
his God. Now notice this next part
these next four words
as he did a
four time
what the Bible is saying is before this
was the decree
what did he do? He prayed three times
a day with his windows
being open
he had a set pattern of plan
of how he read the Bible
of course he's not talking about
praying to God I should say
this is not talking about Bible reading
but it's the same thing if you want to be successful
at anything you need to be structured
you need to be organized
look if you say well I should
I should pray every day but you don't know
when or where
you're not going to do it
that's the way it works
you have to have a plan and a structure
and an organization and when you see
great characters and great men and women
in the Bible they have a very planned out
structured way that they live their lives
turn to your Bible to Deuteronomy 17
Deuteronomy chapter 17
Deuteronomy 17
I mean imagine
if you just decided
you know what I'll just kind of go to work when I feel
like it rather than going at a
set time and just
a set pattern you're going to get fired
in a week because you're not going to feel like
going to work or you pick up a
new hobby or you're trying to get in
better shape or get better at something
you usually pick a time
and a place and structure
and organization to make it work
and so look I personally
the way I live my life is I have a set
list of things that I'm supposed to do every day
and I just start slowly checking them off
the list you say why do you do that brother Stuckey
because of the fact if I don't make a list
and I just do what I want I'm not going to get
the stuff done that I need to get done
and so when it comes to reading the Bible what
am I saying I'm saying pick a time
pick a place
right you need to have a structured
organized system not just well yeah
I'm going to start reading the Bible okay
what part of the Bible are you going to start in
how much are you going to read during the day
when are you going to do it where are you going to do it because if not
you're probably not going to read the Bible
Deuteronomy 17 verse 18
and it
shall be when he said it upon the throne of his
kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law
and a book out of that which is before the priest
the Levite so one of the commandments
for the king that led God's
nation was they had to write out the
word of God and I don't know if you've ever
tried doing this but it takes a long time
to write out one chapter
and make sure you don't make any mistakes
and that was a requirement for the person who led
the nation because obviously if you write something out
you're really going to kind of understand it
better right and it says
in verse 19
and it shall be with him and he shall read therein
all the days of
his life God says
you're supposed to read the word of God
how often?
Every single day.
Every single day. So here's the thing
I'm not telling you how much
to read the Bible in this sermon
I mean for you it might be 20 minutes
30, 40, 5 chapters, 10 chapters
5 pages, 10 pages
but you need to read it every single day
and that's also true on Sundays
right if you haven't read the Bible today
you know what you need to do before you go to sleep at night
you need to read the Bible
because the Bible says read therein all the days of
my life if you're trying to do something
and get better at it
you have to have structure and
organization or it's just not going to happen
I mean imagine if we said hey
we have soul winning but we have
no official times in our bulletin
how much soul winning are we going to get done?
Well we've got church on Sunday
with no official time
we're going to fail
you've got to be structured you've got to be organized
now I always advise people
that the best thing is first thing in the morning
once you wake up
read
but whenever you do it
wherever you do it
however you do it
you need to have a structure and a plan
or it's just not going to happen
now if you're in this room and you say brother Stuckey
I'm already reading the Bible a lot so I don't need that advice
it's like okay if it's working for you
if it's not broke then don't fix it
but for most people if you don't have a plan
you're not going to be that successful at it
and so look when I say a plan
what I literally mean is that
I have a Bible reading plan that tells me
what to read every single day
so I know today it's like okay
I'm starting lamentations today because
that's what my Bible reading plan says
right and so what I personally
recommend is having a Bible reading chart
that you print out or you put on your phone
and it's like alright it's July 30th
this is what I read today
you say why do that brother Stuckey
because here's why it helps
when you get to the end of the day
and you didn't read enough today
you're like okay I got to catch up tomorrow
because I'm two chapters behind
whereas otherwise you're probably
just going to let it go and not think twice about it
right and what I would say is
years that I've had a set and structured
Bible reading plan I've read the Bible a lot more
than years when I just kind of said well
I'll just kind of read it whenever
right so I would recommend as much
as possible a time
a place some of the
good things you could do is show up
to work early and read the Bible
before you start right that's what I
used to do on my old job where I'd be the first person
in the office I just sit down
and it's like well
just going to read the Bible they actually
asked me one time like why do you clock in
so early to work you know we were wondering
they're afraid I'm doing something I was like I just
show up and read the Bible
right so there's no distractions
they're thinking well that's strange right
but it's like you know show up early
or I know people that have done this you know husbands
that said I can't do it in the morning
and I get home there's all these distractions
they will literally pull over
to the side of the road somewhere the same
place and read the Bible for 30 minutes
and then go home because they want to make sure
they get their Bible reading done before they get home
where it's just not going to happen
right now I know people that like to read at night
and it's like hey if that works for you you can read
at night but you got to have a time
you got to have a plan
what are you going to read how much
are you going to read and if you don't you're just
probably not going to be that successful
turn your Bible to Isaiah 28
Isaiah 28
now I'll give you some examples of some
types of plans you could have a
plan of 30 minutes a day
or 20 minutes
or 40 minutes where okay I'm
going to read the Bible for this long and
basically set your phone
and then once you hear the alarm go off
it's like okay I'll just finish up
the chapter and I'm done for the day
that's not the way I do it but I think
it's a very valid way you could do it do it based on
the amount of time right
or you could do it based on pages
one thing I know people do they'll say well I
do it by pages so I read 10 pages
and when I get done I just
end there at that chapter and then I just
I would always advise to
end the chapter you know that's probably
a good idea but 10 pages
unless it's Psalm 119
it's like man I'm on I'm on 10 pages
but I got like another seven pages left
that might be an exception okay
or the book of Luke right
but what I'm saying is you can do it by number of
pages you could do it by minutes
I like to just use a plan
where it tells me these are the chapters that you
read you can find ones online
I like to just make my own but
whatever method you do come
up with something and so you've
got your plan now ask yourself
well when am I going to read the Bible
is it going to be in the morning is it
going to be on lunch break is it going to be when I get
home from work and depending
on what your work schedule is I mean
if you work a job like 8 to
5 you could probably do it in the morning
if your schedule is working through the night
obviously things are a little bit different so
not all advice is going to work for every single person
pick a time
pick a place and
just you know even just a place
in the house you say okay I'm going to read it at this time
pick the area of the house you can
take everything aside and just
sit down and read the Bible
so the biggest mistake I see people
make is they just don't have a plan
and I would advise you get a plan if
you need help with that I can send you
plans that we can print off or you can
just have the PDF copy on your phone
or whatever but I would suggest using
a Bible reading plan for your reading
number two
another big mistake people make
is they focus too much
on the things they do not
understand so someone
starts in you know Genesis
and then they get to verse I don't know
15 and they're like I
don't know what this is talking about and then
they spend 20 minutes trying to figure it out
they watch YouTube videos
like what's the firmament and then they
go on YouTube they go to Google
and then 30 minutes later they haven't
even finished Genesis 1 because
they're so obsessed with figuring out that
one word firmament right
this is literally what people do when they
read the Bible and what I say
is that's not the way you should
read the Bible the way you should read the
Bible is just read it
and I like to have a
piece of paper to take notes if I don't
understand something or there's a verse that's interesting
to me but don't just stop
and just spend forever trying to figure out
just keep reading and then
once you get done with your reading if you have extra time you
can think about it more but I would certainly
not advise you to go to Google or
YouTube to try to figure out the answer
right that's just not a good solution
nor would I advise you to listen to
your favorite preacher either what I would say
is just keep reading the Bible
take note of it consider it and realize you have
the best Holy Spirit or the best teacher
inside of you the Holy Spirit of God
and trust in that and if you don't
understand it now
maybe you're just not ready for it
right I mean there's things
Zachariah is like you know what's this
mean no it's not what these mean
and it's just like well you're just not ready
for it or Daniel it's like hey these things
are sealed up until the end don't worry about
it basically and so there's certain things
that you're just not ready for
right because what people do
they start reading the Bible and
they come to something that's a deep thing
or a complicated thing and they
stop because they don't understand it
look
when I first got saved for example
I immediately wanted to figure out how do I get
Mormon saved how do I get
Jehovah's Witnesses saved
it's like I don't even know the Bible at that point
right I mean I should just be reading the Bible and figure out
how to get a normal person saved and
I'm trying to figure out how do I get this cult member saved
or an atheist saved and
that's when you start watching the creation seminars
because you're trying to figure out how do I get this atheist
saved in reality you should just read
your Bible and just slowly
learn what the word of God says
the Bible says in Isaiah 28 verse 9
whom shall he teach knowledge
and whom shall he make to understand doctrine
them that are weaned from the milk
and drawn from the breasts
for precept must be upon precept
Isaiah 28 verse 10
for precept must be upon precept
precept upon precept
line upon line line upon line
here a little
and there a little and what the Bible
is essentially saying is
unti unti
little by little
you slowly learn
more and more and more
and more would it make
any sense because what's interesting
about this is it links it
to a child
a baby because it says them
that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the
breasts so you know the Bible's making
an example of a spiritual babe in Christ
but it wants you to understand a physical babe in Christ
or a physical
like a baby being born I should say
look when a baby's first
born they don't know how to do
anything
they don't know how to crawl
they don't know how to roll over
they don't know how to eat meat
they can't they can't hold a fork
they can't hold a cup
they can't do anything it starts
with you know you're completely
dependent on your mom and dad
look kids they want to figure
out how to do everything like my son Ezra
will just sit there and go like this for like
10 minutes trying to jump he's
like trying he sees us jumping and he's like
trying to jump but it's not happening
he's too young for it
here's the thing I mean
if you have a baby you say
I'm really worried about my son
because he's two months old
and he's not walking yet
what? he's not
jumping yet
he doesn't know how to write yet
it's like it's a baby what are you talking
about but then spiritually people think this
is completely different it's like you've been saved
for a month and you've got to be able to win a debate
with a Mormon what?
it doesn't make any sense
what you need to be doing is just
reading the Bible and slowly
learning unti unti
right look if you've been saved and
serving God for a long time in this room
you're going to have learned a lot of
knowledge but if you've been
saved for a couple months
then there's a lot you have left
to learn and there's nothing
wrong with that right
when I first got saved I didn't know anything
about the Bible I knew
salvation and that was it
there was not a single verse
in the Bible I could have quoted not even
John 3.16 but I knew salvation
was forever and it was only in Jesus
if you're saved you know that you know
that forever but if you're first
saved you probably can't prove
that in a debate against somebody because
there's a lot of verses you'd be like
I don't know and
that is okay as long
as you keep learning look I'm not worried
about Ezra jumping
as long as
he keeps making improvements
physically in his life then he's going to get there
right and if someone's
newly saved as long
as they're you know
slowly improving they're going to
reach that point where they know the Bible
very well and then eventually they
reach a point they can get people saved out soul
winning and they start really knowing their
Bible you're just not going to know that from day one
if you got saved a week ago
don't study the book of
Ezekiel because
you're not going to understand now read it because
read the entire Bible but you're going to say
I don't know do a lot of stuff you
say why because you learn little by
little you don't stick a
five-year-old in front of a
calculus teacher and expect them to figure
it out first you learn to
count then you learn to add
then you learn to subtract
then you learn to multiply then divide
then fractions
little by little
in all areas of life
you slowly learn
turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians 11
1 Corinthians chapter 11
so look if you're newly saved
you know or you're new at our church
sometimes you might feel like man
I'm never going to understand the Bible
I don't know any of this
look it's okay
it's okay to be new and you're slowly
learning everybody starts
there when I first started going to church
I knew nothing
I didn't know the characters of the Bible
other than Noah and Moses
you know a few characters here and there
it's like I didn't know them
you say well how did you learn brother Stuckey
I started going to church every week
started to read the Bible every day
started to memorize the Bible
later that year I started going
soul winning as I the one thing I started
to study was salvation to know a lot of
verses that is by faith alone and if there's
one thing you're going to study when you're newly saved
it's verses on salvation
memorize a lot of verses on salvation
understand John 3
16 look at those verses know where they are
and you start slowly learning there
and then you add other things
but if you newly got saved
it's like you don't need to worry about
studying the end times but that's what people want to
do if you're like me
when I first got saved I'm
studying Mormonism and Jehovah's
Witness how do I get them saved
how do I prove to them that we don't go
to this planet Kolob or whatever
and it's like really you should just be reading the
Bible okay I'll give you an example
of a verse
that a lot of people
are very confused on and
I hear a lot of different opinions a lot of pastors
that are good people are like I don't really know
and quite
honestly I'm not dogmatic on what this is referring
to but I'm going to use
it to prove a point
1 Corinthians 11 verse 10
for this cause ought the woman to have
power on her head because of the angels
now what does that mean
because of the angels I am not
a hundred percent for sure
you say well why aren't you showing it to me
because here's the thing the first half of
1 Corinthians 11 is about what
men having short hair
and women having long hair
and see you can read 1 Corinthians 11
do you understand all of it well no
but you know what you walk away with
hey men and women are different
men have short hair and women
have long hair and just because you don't
understand one of the verses
you're still learning from the word of God
do you understand what I'm saying
I mean there's a lot of chapters I read
where I'm like
I don't know
right I mean I just
got through cause I finished up Isaiah
recently and Jeremiah Lamentation
I'm going to be starting Ezekiel
it's like
I'm sure there's a lot of things I'm going to be like
I don't know
cause there's complicated and deep things
in the Bible you know what that is perfectly
okay because you're never going to know all of the Bible
but if you keep reading you're going to
learn a little bit more
each and every time so
even on things you don't understand you could still
read 1 Corinthians 11 and you could still
learn a lot or for example you know I preached
the Song of Solomon before and that to
a lot of people is a very cryptic book
but here's the thing even if there's some symbolism
you don't understand you can still read
the chapters and learn something
as I start Ezekiel
am I going to understand everything
no I'm not but you know what I'm going to understand
some things
as you read Daniel Daniel's after Ezekiel
do I understand everything in Daniel I preach
through Daniel and quite honestly
there's things I'm just like I'm not
really sure but here's the thing
as I read Daniel I do read
things I do understand so don't focus
so much on what you don't understand
and trying to learn the deepest most
complicated thing just focus on
reading the Bible and you learn a little bit
more each time and what I found
because when I first started reading the Bible I'd write down
questions and just
I had them in a notebook so when I
went back the next time I would have
those questions and a lot of them I'm like huh
I know that I know that
and then what I found is there was new questions
I had as I read right now I'm reading
through and other things are popping into my head
so what I'm saying is as you keep reading
the Bible you're going to learn more and more and a lot of
your questions get answered simply by
continuing to read the word of God
or another thing is this when you're
in church you're hearing a lot of
sermons a lot of questions you might
have when you're reading the Bible might get answered
in sermons we're like hey that's
a good point I never thought about that that makes
sense I never understood that verse
that still happens to me today
when I listen to sermons I hear things
and I'm like that's a good point
right I mean I never thought about that that
answers the question that I had so
little by little you'll learn more and more and more
and I'm still learning a lot of things
as I read the Bible as well because
you're never going to understand everything in the word of God so don't
focus on what you don't understand
focus on what you do understand
right turn your Bible to
Exodus 34
I mean people literally
they've never read through the Bible
and they'll just study every
topic under the sun
as they're going through their Bible reading
they started reading six months ago
they're reading for an hour a day and they're in like
Genesis 12 it's like Genesis 12
it's like
you know I would think you'd be but
the reason why is because they're stopping at everything they don't
understand and then they go to a
YouTube video like huh I got a Bible
that says the Nephilim in Genesis 6
and then they get confused and they're watching all
these videos and they're like
but what about this and then they're wasting
all their time you
just keep reading the Bible
and you know what you're going to find stuff you don't
understand but you're also going to find plenty of things
that you do understand in the
word of God
number one reading without a plan is a mistake
people make number two focusing too much
on what you do not understand
number three a big mistake
is reading with distractions
reading the Bible
but reading it while your cell phone's
going off every five minutes reading it in front of
a television man I'm so motivated
by this I need to start reading the Bible every day
it's like let me go to my living room
kick up my feet on my couch and turn on the
television and then you read a couple
verses goal
man that was awesome
what a goal that was yeah
and then all of a sudden wait it's the instant replay
I got to watch this and then all of a sudden
you go back to reading and everything
or this is how you do your reading during a
Manny Pacquiao fight where it's like
and you look up every minute when you know
the announcers go crazy or whatever
it's like you will fail at your Bible
reading is that how you study for school
when you're trying to get
an A on a test I mean
if you did that is a huge mistake
the way you study is you
set aside all distractions and
I mean if you're like me
when I was studying for my math exams
in school and even after school for
certifications exams and stuff
I would try to go to a place far away
from any distractions
where I didn't have to worry about anybody saying
anything just like the
darkest corner of the library or whatever
where no one's going to come over there
you say why because I'm trying to learn
and if you have distractions it's not
going to work well it's the same mentality
you should have when you read the Bible
get away from all distractions which is
one reason why I say wake up
early and there's less distractions
from family have a place
in the house or stop on
your way home from work to read somewhere
on the side of the road show up
early to work to read the Bible you say why
because otherwise you're not going to get
much Bible reading and what you're going to do is turn on
Alexander Scorby
in the background for a couple minutes while you're
doing something else and you're not going to get
anything out of the Bible
obviously as much as you try to do
these things sometimes it's not going to
work out and we get that but as much as it's possible
you want to read without
distractions. Exodus 34
notice what it says in verse 1
and the Lord said unto Moses hew thee two tables
of stone like unto the first and now write upon these
tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest
and be ready in the morning
and come up in the morning onto
Mount Sinai
and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount
and
no man shall come up
with thee neither let any
man be seen throughout all the mount
neither let the flocks nor the herds feed
before that mount. Now I go to Exodus 34
because I love this chapter
and the symbolism here
but if you remember at the end of the chapter
he wished not that the skin of his face
shown that he physically changed when he was
physically close to God and the example
to us is when you draw close to God
spiritually you're spiritually going to change
your character is going to change
your attitude, your anger, your
patience, all these things are going to change
as you draw close to God.
But the key is
God said to Moses
let no other man be with you.
Right? What does that say?
No distractions.
Now it could be a husband and wife could read the Bible
at the same table
and they're just like not talking but it's just something
they do together and I get that. That's the
smart and wise thing you could do. What I'm
saying is if you're reading with cell phones
and social media
and even if you just have your cell phone
on making noise it's like wait a minute
Instagram posts
right? Wait a minute
a Twitter post. Actually Twitter doesn't
exist now. It's X right?
I got an X post right?
It's a stupid
name. I guess I'm preaching against Elon Musk.
That's a dumb name in my opinion.
But anyways it's just like
once you get those distractions what
takes place is it's hard to get back
into what you were reading.
What's really frustrating is a distraction
happens and then you're like
where was I?
Right? Doesn't that happen to you sometimes?
Happens to me sometimes. And then it's
like what verse was I at?
And then sometimes you pick too early. Sometimes
you pick too late. You start reading. I already read
that. Right? You're just trying to figure out.
And so what I'm saying is as best as
possible no distractions. Go to Matthew 14.
Matthew 14. Let me show you another
example of this. We see this kind of understanding
with Jesus as well. Matthew 14.
Matthew 14.
Matthew 14 verse 22.
And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples
to get into a ship and to go before him on to the
other side while he sent the multitudes away.
And when he had sent the multitudes away he went
up into a mountain apart to pray.
Apart means
away from everybody else.
He sent them one direction. He goes
apart to pray to God the Father.
And when the evening was come he was there
alone. Now this is with
prayer. And of course people
speak about a prayer closet which one of the
ideas is you're away from distractions
and away from people. So
here's the thing. Whether it's prayer
or reading the Bible, when you're
trying to spend personal time with God
you should get away from other
distractions. And when I used
to live in my parents' house I kind of took
this as a template where I would wake up in the morning
and I'd walk five minutes which would
be toward the woods near my parents' house
and I would just spend 15 minutes
just talking to God and praying to God
and thinking about things. And I'll tell you my prayer
was, it felt a million times
better when I did that versus
when I was just praying in the house when you hear noise.
Because even if it's not a big deal
you start hearing a baby crying or whatever
it kind of distracts you.
And I know we cannot completely
avoid this. I get that.
But as much as is possible you want to read without
any distractions and it's going to help you draw
close to God. Turn your Bible to
Genesis 20.
And for sake of time I'll try to fly through
these last three points because we've spent
a lot of time. First sermon.
Just be thankful I didn't preach about Calvinism
because I'd still be going with the first sermon, right?
And so number one, reading without a plan is
a mistake. Number two, focusing too much on what you
don't understand. Number three, reading
with distractions. Number
four, a big mistake people make is
they assume the characters are always
right or always telling
the truth. That's a big mistake.
Now here's the thing. The narrator
of the Bible
is always
correct. Okay?
So if the narrator says, thus saith
the Lord, he's correct. The one that is just
telling you about the Bible. But
sometimes you'll see a narrator
will show you what a character
did. And the narrator's correct about
what the character did doesn't
necessarily mean that what the character
did was correct though. So you
could have Abraham saying something
or Moses. And of course they're great men.
It doesn't mean that everything they said
or did was correct.
Right? And we're in Genesis
20. For sake of time I'm not going to turn to these other places.
But some other examples are this.
Like in the book of Job, people will
quote from Job's friends.
Even though the end of the book of Job says
don't listen to anything they said.
What they said was incorrect.
And then they quote from the book of Job
to prove their point. But they don't quote from
Job. They quote from Eliphaz.
It's like, but
the Bible says don't listen
to what he said. So it's
recording what he said
doesn't mean what he said was correct
though. Right? You've got to be careful
about that to make sure that if
it's the narrator, then of course they are
correct. But when it's the character
is what they said or did
correct, you've got to check what the Bible
says to know that. You do not necessarily
know if it's correct or not.
Another example, people
will point to Abraham or Jacob
and say, well, you know what?
I think polygamy is okay.
What's their argument?
Well, I mean, Jacob had multiple wives.
Did you see what happened to Jacob's life?
Did you see
what happened to Abraham's life?
But here's the thing.
You don't have to guess about it because
the Bible says don't multiply wives
unto yourself. So when it
says don't multiply wives unto yourself,
well, there you go.
Don't get married to multiple people.
The Bible says leave father and mother and cleave
unto your wife and they shall be one flesh. I mean,
that doesn't make sense if you're married to multiple people.
So there's clear verses that say don't
marry multiple people. So just
because a character did it
doesn't mean that it's correct.
Right? I mean, characters
do things that are wrong all the time.
Even good characters.
Almost every character
in the Bible you can record them making
mistakes. Not every character,
but almost every character you see
them doing something wrong. Even the best of characters.
Even Job himself did not handle
everything perfectly. Much better than
probably any of us would, but not perfectly.
Joseph in Genesis,
you can see him committing sins and making
mistakes. Even though he handled it very well,
he did not handle it perfectly.
And here's the thing. Just because a character does something
doesn't mean it's okay.
I'll give you just one example of this.
Genesis 20, verse 1.
And Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the south country and dwelled between
Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar.
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife,
she is my sister.
And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took
Sarah. And so Abraham says, hey,
you know, Sarah's my sister.
And he's getting
Abimelech to think that we're not married.
And if you see other
parts of the Bible, Abraham says,
the kindness you're going to show me
is everywhere we go just say that you're my sister.
Now, I don't understand that at all.
I mean, Abraham was a great character,
but I really don't understand the mentality that
he has. And that sin passes on to his son
as well. But he's like, just say that we're
brother and sister. And here's
the thing. You can see Abraham saying this
and you could assume
that what he's saying is true
because he's a good man of God.
But was it true?
No. Now, here's the thing.
You might realize this. You might not.
But actually, we have no idea
if Abraham and Sarah were even half
brother and half sister. Because
the only recorded event or
statement in the Word of God that says that
is Abraham covering up a lie
by saying, I didn't really lie
because she's my sister, just not my full sister.
Well,
show me the verse where the narrator says they're brother and sister.
It's not in the Bible.
Maybe they were half brother and half sister.
I actually don't think they were. I think
he's just covering up a lie with a half lie
personally. I could be wrong.
But here's my point. We don't know.
Because we have a character
that lied about being brother and sister.
Yeah, but I didn't lie. She's my half sister.
I don't know. I mean, I think he's just lying
again. Just not quite as bad.
Now, I could be wrong, but here's my point.
We don't actually know.
You could assume other way.
Either way. Right? I mean, maybe you're right.
Maybe I'm right. I don't know. We don't really know.
What I'm saying is, if the narrator doesn't say it,
we don't know.
We're just taking one man's word for it
and you don't know whether it's true or not.
Right? And so you can look at the
context to figure things out, but look at
other parts of the Bible, compare spiritual things with
spiritual. What I'm saying is, just
because a character says something or does
something, it doesn't mean what they're saying is true.
We just read this story in our
scripture reading with Daniel in the
lion's den and the presidents
and the princes, they lie.
Right?
They say, all of us agreed about this.
Really? I mean, you didn't ask Daniel.
They lied about it.
And then people don't always realize that. It's like,
no, no, they just flat out lie. And people assume
they're telling the truth because we
just assume people are telling the truth. But that's not
always true.
And so when somebody says something or does
something, that does not
necessarily mean that what they said or did was correct.
I mean, characters
commit murder in the Bible.
I mean, it's like, oh, Cain killed Abel.
Right? So I guess it's
okay. But then people
look at good characters of the Bible,
and since Abel did it, or since
a good character does something, that must mean
it's okay. We would never do it
if Cain did it, but if a good guy did
it, we would do it.
Well, I mean, Eliza sends his
servant away, and then he says, I want to die.
Is that what you should do because
Eliza did it? Right? So what I'm
saying is when you read the Bible,
you have to pay attention if what they're
saying or doing is actually correct, because
sometimes you're just seeing characters that commit
sins and make mistakes.
You read about Samson in the Bible, I mean, there's
mistake after mistake. I mean, but
Samson did it. It must be okay.
Well, just because he did it doesn't
mean that it's okay.
Right? So turn in your Bible
to Philippians 4.
So one mistake people make
is reading without a plan. Number two,
focusing too much on what they don't understand.
Number three, reading with
distractions. Number four,
assuming the characters are
always telling the truth or doing
right in the Bible, which is not always true.
Number five, and we've got two more points,
five and six. Number five is reading
out of context. Reading
out of context.
I can't remember, in the first
sermon, what was that verse
that I said is complete? There's a verse I was talking
about that is completely out of context that people
take, but a lot of times
people take verses in the Bible
and they just take them out of context where it
has nothing to do with what they're trying to prove.
The one about a day
with the Lord is as a thousand years, a thousand years
as a day. Completely out of
context, right? When we looked at that chapter,
that has nothing to do with
the creation at all.
And so you can't apply that to Genesis
one. It has nothing to do with it.
It's out of context. You can
always find a
verse to support what
you believe.
Regardless of whether or not you're correct or not.
I mean, literally.
Any false doctrine you believe,
you can find something.
Catholics will pull out verses on purgatory.
Does that make it true?
You can always find something to
support what you already believe, and you make
a mistake if you're trying to read the Bible
to confirm what you already believe.
What you should be doing
is reading the Bible with an open mind
to learn new things.
I don't even suggest people
just automatically assume, well, I'm reading
this. This is what Brother Stuckey said. It must be correct.
That's not the way you're really supposed to read
the Bible. You're supposed to read those chapters
to search whether they are correct and search
what the Bible says about it.
Not just, well, you know what? I heard this pastor
say this. It must be true.
You realize every man is
valuable and makes mistakes.
And you realize the Holy Spirit's a better teacher
than me or anybody else is.
So read the Bible with an open
mind on what the Bible says for yourself.
But people read things out of context.
One of the most famous verses where people do this
is Philippians 4, verse 13.
I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Now, this is a great verse.
It's an awesome verse.
I love this verse.
I don't recommend people
watch the UFC and
fighting, but I used to watch the UFC.
And the most famous
verse that UFC
fighters use is Philippians 4, 13.
In fact, a lot of them have it tattooed on their chest.
It's like, you know,
how'd you win the world title tonight? I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
God helped you beat that person
unconscious? Is that what you're trying to say?
I mean, like, what are you trying to say?
I don't really think God
cares about a UFC fight or a Manny
Pacquiao fight or whatever.
He doesn't.
Right? I mean, there's things
that you can watch and enjoy for entertainment,
but I don't think God really cares who wins
the basketball game or the World Cup
or whatever. Now, we can find enjoyment
in some of those things, but what I'm saying is
it's like trying to say, well, I got
this because God strengthened me to
beat that guy up. It's like,
that's absurd. And the other one they quote is,
blessed be the Lord God, my strength
and that teacheth my hands to war
and my fingers to fight.
I don't really think that's in the context
of a paid fight
with naked ring girls
and their cursing and all this stuff. I don't really think
that was the intent of the verse.
Now, you could probably apply that to self-defense
or whatever. You know, God can help you out.
Obviously, in times of war
it's sort of the direct application.
But to try to apply that to a boxing fight
or a UFC fight,
what is the context?
Well, verse 11,
Not that I speak in respect of want,
for I have learned in whatsoever state
I am therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound
where everwhere and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
Now, it's interesting because Paul says, I have learned,
and if you learn something
it means it didn't come naturally.
And what Paul is saying
in how we can apply this is
regardless of the circumstances
you find yourself
in right now in life,
you can learn to be happy.
You can learn to be content
regardless of the mistakes you've made.
And look, I get it.
There's tragedies we go through.
There's storms of life.
There's difficulties.
There's grieving times.
I mean, all those things are true.
In a room this big with this many people,
I'm sure there's people that are going through a lot of things right now
that I have no idea about.
I have a monthly prayer meeting
to try to help people out as we pray through things.
What I'm saying is the Bible says
you can learn to be content.
You can learn to be happy.
Now, specifically this is applied to money,
but I also think it applies to other circumstances in life as well
where you can learn to be content
with the stage you are at in life.
And Paul says, I've learned.
So the thing is,
I'm not saying you're content right now,
but I'm saying you can learn to be content.
Is that what I'm saying?
You can do that.
You can do all things through Christ which strengthen a few.
That's a proper way to interpret.
It's a great verse.
Don't take that out of context
and say, that's why I beat people up.
That's why I'm the world champion.
That's not the intent of the verse.
Go in your Bible to Matthew 7.
Matthew 7.
I mean, I'm not going to do this.
It's not really my type of series,
but honestly, I could probably preach
a ten-part sermon series on
verses taken out of context
by most people.
And you would have a ton of verses.
And I'm showing you
very obvious verses taken out of context,
but let me just say this,
that I've been an independent Baptist for a long time,
and a lot of things that I thought were true,
it's like as I started to just read the Bible,
I started to realize,
actually, that's not really what that verse is talking about.
And honestly, if you read with an open mind,
you're going to come to that conclusion,
even about things that I preach,
where you just see it a little bit differently.
And I encourage you to read the Bible that way.
When you're reading the Bible,
if you're a saved person,
don't go to YouTube for your answer,
don't go to Google, but if you're reading the Bible
with the Holy Spirit of God inside of you,
you look at certain verses,
and you know what the Holy Spirit can teach you.
Read it with an open mind.
And that's easier said than done.
Because most people, before they start reading the Bible,
don't know what the Holy Spirit says.
Right?
But even after you get saved or start serving God,
you have a tendency to say,
well, my old pastor was wrong on stuff,
but my new one is right about stuff.
And he's a great man of God,
but that doesn't mean that they're always right.
And here's the thing.
If you listen to godly good preachers,
you know what you sometimes find?
Actually, they disagree on certain verses.
They don't have the same opinion.
And here's the thing.
I love and respect every single one of them.
I know things that I don't agree with them on.
And I'm not saying I'm right about all those things.
I doubt I am.
Now, I feel confident I am
because obviously everybody thinks they're right about stuff.
But what I'm saying is,
you be the judge by reading the Bible
and letting the Holy Spirit teach you.
And you make the decision.
Right?
Matthew 7,
we're just going to quote the first two verses,
because that's all anybody ever quotes
in Matthew 7, verse 1.
Judge not.
Did you know about ten years ago,
this replaced John 3.16 as the most quoted verse in the world?
Boy, if you want to have an understanding
of what's happening in our world,
that alone should tell you.
And I'm sure you have had people give this to you.
Well, the Bible says judge not.
I mean, the Bible says it's wrong to drink.
Yeah, but the Bible says judge not.
You just murdered someone.
The Bible says judge not.
You just committed adultery.
Judge not.
You just robbed that store.
Hey, judge not.
And they take these two words
to try to overhaul
every commandment in the Bible.
I mean, people
would criticize our church
because we're too judgmental.
Right?
We're too much of a hate church.
You're always judging.
You're always saying this is wrong and that's wrong
and telling us what to do.
Those are two words.
Not even the whole verse.
But two words.
There's a book in the Bible called
what is it called?
Judges.
Right?
God ordained
judges there in the Old Testament
for His nations to do what?
To judge!
It's ridiculous.
I mean, it's like you see it
all throughout the Bible.
Do this. Don't do this.
The Bible tells us what to do.
But what's the context?
Well, judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged
and with what measure ye meet
it shall be measured to you again.
And so here's the thing.
Let's say that you are a drunk.
Are you really in any position
to tell somebody to quit doing drugs
if you're a drunk?
No!
And you're going to tell people
it's like, man, I would never listen to the rock music.
Right?
You're not really in any position
to judge, my friends.
Nor would you be on the opposite side of that either
because you also have worldly music you listen to.
I get it. People are growing
and I'm sure there's plenty of people in this room that listen to worldly music.
Here's the thing. You're not really in a position
to preach about it or tell someone
they're doing wrong if you're guilty of the same thing.
Or guilty of something very similar.
Which is one reason
why it would be wrong to ordain a novice
to be a preacher because the reality is
they have a lot of changes they need to make in their life
and you need to have a life that you've proven.
Okay, I've worked past these things.
But the idea is this.
Don't judge someone if you're guilty of the same thing
or something similar.
Or something worse.
It says here in verse 3
And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye?
But considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
And people can have
a massive beam in their eye
where they can't see.
And it's like, oh man, that person didn't say thank you.
And it's like
you just got drunk.
And then you're saying, well I would always say thank you.
It's like you're not really in a position
to judge other people.
And so here's the thing about this.
When we preach against the homos
and they're living the most
sinful, decrepit life
that there is
yeah, I'm in a position to judge you.
I'm in a position to say
and here's the thing, I'm not even really judging at all.
I'm just saying, thus saith the Lord.
Right.
I mean, because it would be one thing if someone said
hey, I'm not a homo.
Don't accuse me.
Because yeah, I'd be judging whether I think they are
and they're denying it or whatever.
But if someone admits they're a homo,
yeah, I can preach against Vice Ponge
because he's admitted it and thus saith the Lord.
So I'm not even really doing the judging anyway.
But the idea is not
don't ever judge for any reason.
The idea is, well, make sure
that if you're going to be very strict
with other people
that you hold yourself to the same standard.
Because God is going to judge you
in the same way you judge others.
So it's not really in your benefit to be strict
if you are living a very sinful
and loose lifestyle.
Go to your Bible to Ephesians 5.
We'll close up.
Ephesians 5.
That in 2023
is the big excuse people always make.
Well, I just don't think you should judge people.
Well, I think
you should finish an entire
verse before you say anything about the Bible.
You've finished two words.
And look,
Matthew's the first book of the New Testament.
I mean, the Sermon on the Mouse
is the most famous
sermon ever.
I would assume if you're
acting like you know the Bible,
you've read Matthew 7, right?
But yet, and I don't know if these people
have or not, but they'll always say,
don't judge.
People like Joel Osteen, these megachurch pastors,
I'm just not really a judgmental preacher.
And they'll condemn us
for saying, thus saith the Lord.
And it's mind-boggling
how people will literally side with the
LGBT
against us.
Baptists will side
with the LGBT. Well, not all
of us Christians are like that. You know, we're not
a judgmental church. You are welcome here.
Yeah, you're welcome there.
Not here.
And they'll literally
side against men of God.
And here's the reality. It's like, you know, when you think
of people that you love and respect,
let me help you out with something. When you preach a lot
of sermons, you get excited, you get zealous.
Even myself, sometimes I say
things and I think to myself, well, I wish I hadn't
gone that strong on that.
It's like you're preaching for three hours a week, and yeah,
sometimes I hear pastors that I love and respect
and maybe they go a little bit past
what I would or do something that I wouldn't.
But I'm not going to criticize them.
Because they're a spirit-filled
man of God
that God is behind. And correct me
if I'm wrong, but even in the Bible, when Abraham
actually does wrong, God takes
Abraham's side.
Say why? Because he's the man of God.
And so, you know,
and look, don't be
just a snowflake during my sermons.
Wow, brother Stuggie said something,
I didn't really like that, I'm going to quit the church.
It's like, I mean, come on.
You stand up here and preach for three hours
a week and never
offend or make anybody mad.
And quite honestly, if you get
really offended, maybe it's because it hit a
chord too close to home that you need to change.
Right?
But lastly,
and there is a part
two next week, but lastly in today's
sermon, a big mistake people make is
they assume the end of the chapter
is the end of the thought.
And that is not always
the case. When our Bible was originally written,
there were no chapters and verses.
Now, I love the chapters, I love the verses,
I think they're very helpful.
I personally would not put the breaks
at the same place as they do
sometimes. I think it's kind of strange
that the first word of a new
chapter is therefore.
But if the first word of a new chapter is therefore,
you have the same context.
Right? I mean, the last chapter is tying into the next one.
And a lot of the books of the Bible,
they're meant to be read
together. I always
recommend when you're reading a book like
Ephesians, that's six chapters or less,
just read the whole thing.
Because the whole book is tying together.
Right? Or Galatians or
Philippians. Right? Sometimes
you get to longer books like 1 Corinthians or
Romans where you got to kind of take a break because
it's long. But it's just
like oftentimes the whole book ties
together. Like 1 Corinthians,
it all ties together in this
main idea.
And so you're making a mistake if you just
assume a new chapter is the end.
So, for example, in the
book of 1 Kings, oftentimes a
king dies and you're on
to something new. And it really is something new.
But it's not like that throughout the
entire word of God. It depends on the chapter,
it depends on the place. So you got to keep that in mind
when you're reading. And one famous example
is in Ephesians 5 and Ephesians
6.
Ephesians 5 verse 21.
Submitting yourselves one to
another in the fear of God.
So the Bible says submit yourselves one to another.
Okay? Then it says
in the next verse, wives submit yourselves
unto your own husbands as unto the Lord.
Now,
you could look at verse 21
and you might, because the rest of the
chapter is talking about what? Husbands
and wives. Christ
and the church, but husbands
and wives. Right?
So you might assume that Ephesians 5
21 is saying, well, husbands
and wives submit
one another to each other.
But that kind of contradicts
the next verse, doesn't it?
It wouldn't really make sense because there's nothing
else in the rest of the chapter that says husbands
submit to wives, is there?
I mean, we would say that, you know, husbands
are the head of their homes.
And so if you were to take verse 21
to say, well, you both submit to each other,
doesn't really seem to make
sense. But here's how you understand
verse 21. Verse 21
is giving you an example. Submit
yourselves one to another in the fear of God,
and it's going to give you three examples
of submission.
The first example
is wives submit to husbands.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
what's the second example?
First verse of Ephesians 6.
Children, obey
your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Do you see how that's the same idea?
Submission, obedience.
And what's the next example?
Verse 5,
servants being obedient, I'm misquoting
but onto your own masters,
right? So verse 21,
submitting yourselves one to another
in the fear of God, what's one example
of that? Wives submit to husbands.
What's another example of that?
Children, obey or submit to your parents.
Ephesians 6, verse 1. What's another
example? Ephesians 6, 5. Servants be
obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh.
Here's what I'm saying. The reason why
we can understand this is
because we're not assuming
chapter 6 is a new thought.
And that's what I'm saying. If you were
to read Ephesians and just assume chapter 6
is a new thought, that thought
is completely over, you'd kind of misinterpret
well, you would.
You'd be misinterpreting
Ephesians 5, 21. This is very easy
to do because honestly, probably
for the first 10 years,
I was saved. I didn't really understand
verse 21 and I would have given
an interpretation. And then once I
realized, oh, wait a minute.
Actually, I memorized the book of Ephesians
and I realized, oh, okay,
now I get it.
Submitting yourselves one to another,
wives to husbands,
children to parents, servants
to masters. And doesn't that
just make sense?
Rather than saying, well, submitting yourselves one to another,
husbands and wives both submit to each other.
That kind of contradicts
the next verse where it says wives submit to husbands.
So one mistake people make is
when they read the Bible,
they assume at the end of the chapter
it's a brand new thought.
Sometimes that's true.
Sometimes it's not true.
So our six thoughts, I'll just give you a conclusion.
Number one, reading without a
plan, big mistake. Number
two, focusing too much on what you do
not understand, big mistake.
Number three, reading with
distractions, big mistake.
On a side point, we'll probably do the prayer
meeting right after lunch.
Okay? Because it sounds like it's raining pretty
heavy. Okay?
Number four,
assume characters are always right or
telling the truth. That's a mistake.
Number five, reading out of context.
I just encourage you, be
very careful when you're reading not to try
to find verses to fit what you already
believe, but just read.
Because sometimes I can find
verses that fit something I believe,
but it doesn't necessarily mean that's what that
verse is really talking about.
Right? And so don't just read to try to
reaffirm what you believe, but
actually read with an open mind on what the Bible says.
Right?
And look, with that being said, obviously there's
certain things we know without a shadow of a
doubt, like salvation is by grace
through faith. I'm not saying question that.
The reason why we don't have to question
that is we have hundreds of verses
we already know.
But if it's just something maybe you've heard preached
and you don't really dogmatically know
it, it's like be very careful to
be 100% for
certain unless you've really looked at it yourself.
Okay? Number five, reading out
of context is a mistake. And number six, assuming
the end of the chapter equals the end of the
thought, that is also
a mistake. Let's close in with a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
and I ask you to help us to apply this sermon to our lives.
Help us to all try and strive
to read the Bible every single day, God.
Help us try to set aside distractions
and make sure we read in the proper
context. And just
follow these steps, God. Help all of us
not to grow weary and well-doing, but continue to do
what's right and continue to read your Word and grow every day.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.