Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, making the study of God's word a top priority in our lives.

Pastor Ed Taylor: For steady growth in Jesus, it's essential you follow the example of the early church. The habit of your life is to be a man or woman of God's word. Period, 100 percent. It needs to take the main place in our homes, it needs to take the main place in our churches, it needs to take the main place in our offices.

It needs to take center stage. There's just something that happens when we study the Bible and, like the early church, there's something special that happens when we study the Bible together.

Guest (Male): Hey thanks for joining us today for Abounding Grace online at aboundinggraceradio.com. Now today we return to Pastor Ed Taylor's series in Acts and now we're placing special emphasis on chapter two, verses 40 through 47.

We're uncovering what a healthy well-balanced church looks like using the acronym W-E-L-L. W stands for worshipping, E evangelizing, L learning, and the other L is loving. Today we're going to primarily focus on learning and see how that plays a huge part in us being spiritually healthy.

Pastor Ed Taylor: We study the Bible. That's how we apply it in our lives. We choose to make a habit of studying the Bible. And what's true for the church at large is true for the individual. If you are a spirit-filled Christian and you consider yourself that, then you are to be in the word of God. There is no other way for you to grow than God's word.

And if you have no interest in the Bible today—you call yourself a Christian, you say you're a believer in Christ, that you're born again, and you have no desire for the Bible, no interest in reading the Bible, you think Bible study is boring and reading the Bible is boring—then I am very concerned for you because those are not real marks of a believer.

A believer wants to hear and know from God. Now, it's different where you might say, "Well, you know what, I'm just not a reader." Okay, that's different. But the desire to learn about God, the desire to hunger and thirst for God, to learn about what he wants you to do and who he wants you to be and how he wants you to live and, "God, why is it here I am this little speck on this little speck of a planet and you love me?" and wanting to learn about that love—if you have no desire for that, I'm concerned for you.

I would even go one step further and say if you have no desire for the Bible and for reading the Bible, you are spiritually sick. That's signs of a sickness. You're not healthy. That's not a healthy place to be. Now let me speak to that boring part for a moment. The Bible is not boring. But I do need to ask for forgiveness in if in my teaching from time to time I make it boring or other pastors make it boring. That's our fault.

But the Bible is not boring. It is an amazing adventure. I mean, if you just consider just walking with Jesus for a while. He's walking around, some guy comes up to him blind, he spits in the mud, makes mud, heals him. That's not boring. The dude got his sight back. Or there's someone that comes to him and says, "No, you don't understand, I've been sick."

This woman comes, "I've been sick all this time, I've spent all my money, I've gone to everybody to help me." Boom, with just a touch of the hem of his garment, she's healed. To me, that's not boring when God's intervening in people's lives, changing them. You think of Zacchaeus, such a rip-off, he was such a thief, just taking advantage of his own people. Meets Jesus, his life is transformed forever. The Bible is not boring. It's not.

Listen, if you're spiritually sick, it's time to repent. That is the right response. And just admit to God, "You know, I've had no desire for your word, God. I don't know what is wrong, but I just want—give me a desire for your word." Start praying and asking God for a desire. Because if you want to be a Christian and part of a church that's going to impact this world, you've got to have the word of God in you.

You have the word of God in you, but you also are in God's word. It will fashion and shape your mind. The Bible says of itself that you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Faith comes by hearing and what? Hearing by the word of God. And I'm not merely speaking about hearing sermons and other men talk about the Bible. I'm talking about you and the Holy Spirit in God's word.

I'm not asking you to start listening to way more sermons. I'm asking you to start reading the Bible for yourself, praying over it, asking God how to live it out. Maybe reading ahead in Acts and letting the Holy Spirit teach you before I ever get the chance to teach you where you're living out his word. Here's the important distinction we need to make in our culture today.

You know, we as a church are committed to you. We're going to teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. That's how we were trained, that's how we were discipled, and that's what I'll hand down to anyone I get a chance to train and disciple. We're going to teach you the Bible so that one day I'll be able to stand before a congregation and say I have not shunned to give you the whole counsel of God from verse one of Genesis all the way to the end of Revelation.

Every word, every phrase, every section, and learn not only what does it say, but what does it mean and then how do you live it out? That's basic Bible teaching. You observe it, "What does it say?" We come to the interpretation, "What does it mean?" and then, "How do you live it out?" That's the application. And we're going to do that with the Bible, as simple as possible.

And we're committed to it. Why? Because in the world today and even in the church world today, the modern trend is to abandon the Bible altogether as if it's not needed anymore. I mean, there's popular pastors today, you can look it up for yourself, they're saying, "Oh, we don't need the Old Testament anymore. We're a new covenant church. We don't even need to look at the old."

Well, they just dismissed more than two-thirds of the Bible just with a simple phrase. I mean, how can you do that? You've got a church of like 25,000 people. You've got a worldwide impact and you're telling people to dismiss two-thirds of the Bible? What are you thinking? The Holy Spirit wrote the Old Testament just like he wrote the New Testament.

And they're applicable to your life and mine. But that's happening today. Not only that, but there's a distinct difference, church, from teaching the Bible and occasionally using the Bible. There is a big difference. So you happen to be in a church that's committed to teach the Bible and our methodology is verse by verse. We'll take you through.

There are other methodologies to teach the Bible, but we've chosen verse by verse in our attempt to serve you in our community. Using the Bible or teaching from the Bible usually involves some kind of text, some kind of scripture that the pastor will use and then go off and talk about things that have nothing to do with the scripture, nothing to do with the context, nothing to do with... but they just kind of go on and tickle ears or whatever it is they're choosing to do.

And that's a danger because there's a lot of churches that do that. Did you know—did you know that you can buy sermons on the internet? I just downloaded mine last night at one o'clock. Thank you for that courtesy laugh. You know, you can buy whole sermon series, you can buy whole packages, you can buy whole books, you can buy...

That's why when you're driving around town and you might see two churches and the artwork looks the same, they probably bought it from the same place. Same topic, same stuff, and they're all teaching someone else's stuff. And that's a travesty and a tragedy. And it's usually just a few of the same exact topics. Of course, at the end of the year, it's always a money topic, or the beginning of the year whenever they do their budget.

And then there's the marriage series, and then there's how to be a good life series, and then there's how to be married series. And then the real popular one in the last 10 years is: what are the five most top popular movies and let's watch the movies and then figure out if there's any morality in the movies and then maybe attach a scripture or two.

But they talk more about movies than they do the word of God. That is not healthy. That is not a healthy thing to do. And I don't sit—I'm not God, I don't sit in judgment on any of those guys—but I do need to tell you the truth. The truth is that is not healthy. That is not good for you. Any parent or grandparent would understand that.

That's the difference between a well-balanced meal and cotton candy. Like, yeah, you give your kids cotton candy every now and then if you allow them to have sweets like that, but they can't live on cotton candy. It'll make them sick to their stomach. If they keep eating cotton candy, they won't have the nourishment that they need.

They won't have the stamina or strength, their bodies will... their growth will stunt, and you'll be in trouble as a parent. They will take you to jail for abusing your kids by, "Well, how'd they get like this? Oh, they just said they wanted cotton candy so I gave it to them." No, you would never do that. But pastors and leaders today, that is the common trend.

I know it may not be something that you even recognize, but in the world, the church world that I'm in, the pastor world that I'm in, this is so common. I get emails all the time. It used to be stuff in the mail, now it's the email. "Pastor, pastor, pastor, here it is. Grow your church, grow your church, grow your budget, build more buildings if you just do this."

And "just do this" always includes $19.99. It always includes some number of what they want from us, how they want us to invest. I've never received an email that said, "Pastor, pastor, pastor, be faithful to God and teach the Bible. It costs nothing." And that's it. I've never received an email like that. But you're in a church that's committed to the word of God.

And hopefully God will bless it. I know I'll have to answer to God at the Bema seat for it. And so I'm not just merely doing it because it's a part of the family I'm a part of. I'm doing it because I think it's the right thing to do to teach the Bible, begin and end. And not go against all the different trends. I've been around here now long enough in our community, I've seen a lot of trends come and go.

And I've also seen a lot of churches come and go. And I've seen a lot of church plants come and go where, man, it's just so sad. If you're going to have a church, just teach them the Bible and love them. Teach them how to love God. Teach them how to love their neighbor. Have sermons. You're going to get a sermon here. I'm going to teach probably about 45 minutes or so.

I have a timer here, I don't pay much attention to it, but it's getting to the end here. I have a timer, I've got a clock on the back wall. But I'll tell you what I think about the most is we've got kiddos downstairs, we have Sunday school teachers down there. We don't want them there all that... I have that in my mind, but I'm committed in working with Pastor Ian to teach for a good 45 minutes.

That's our commitment. If I have longer, I'll use longer. But I want to teach in such a way where I'll give you the sense of the scripture and then help you walk away. I want you to live this out. And at least in the 90 minutes I have of a service, and as we pray over the order of service, the preeminence will be upon the teaching of God's word.

That will be the essence. That's what will change your life. We're not going to just have a talk and have a little dialogue or things that don't really give you the sum and substance. That's why the Bible says there's coming a day—and that's when you come back to verse 42—that word "doctrine" you could circle it, it just means "teaching".

So don't be afraid of that doctrine, it just means teaching. And then Paul would tell young Timothy later on that there's coming a day when there will be those that can't endure sound doctrine. Because when you teach through the Bible, you cover every topic. You cover everything—popular things, not so popular things, things that are happening in the culture, things that are uncomfortable.

"This is what the Bible says." And it reflects the culture. See, the culture thinks it looks like the culture is winning right now. That's not true. Culture never wins. It always has to submit itself to the word of God. And when you choose not to submit yourself to the word of God, you will pay the price for it. The consequences always come.

And that's why people, that's why our heart has to go for the lost because if they don't know, or they've never experienced real love before through another believer, or they've never experienced the love of God before, that's why the church has to be the church. Where else are they going to get it?

Where else will they possibly understand the love and character and nature of God if it isn't from the word of God in the hands of another believer? God uses people to reach people. That's his choice. So there's coming a day where you won't endure sound doctrine, but the Bible says they'll have itching ears. And so what will they do? They'll heap up for themselves teachers.

Why are these churches existing? Why are they so popular? Why do they get so full? It's predicted in the Bible. It's the same reason why when my ears are itching, I'm going to want to hear somebody that agrees with me. There will be times where I will avoid Marie on purpose because I know she won't agree with me. I won't talk to her first because I already know what she's going to say.

And so I've got a process. But people live that way with God. You could say, "I will avoid God because I already know what he thinks on that topic." I know. So now what are you going to do about it? You've got to eventually talk to him and eventually yield your life to him and trust him with your life. You don't want to heap up for yourselves teachers that always agree with you and your bad theology.

No, you want the sound doctrine because it will change your life. Like if you don't understand the character and nature of God, it'll be very hard for you to receive his comfort when you need his comfort. We think of it always as rebuke and teaching, but no, God is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation. So it's a full package.

God will tell you the truth, but he'll also tell you the truth when you're in pain. He'll also tell you the truth when you're afraid. He'll also tell you the truth when you're worried. And it's like not just the words but his presence. He's with you in his presence. So we don't want to make it up. We don't want to lean on our own opinions.

You don't need opinions. You need the truth of God's word. You don't need my opinion. The Bible is my authority. I get to stand here in the authority of God's word. And so the Bible's more important than me and more important than my words. That's why you take everything that I say and test it by the word of God. It's not my opinion that matters.

It's God's opinion that matters. And we need to learn what his opinion is from his word. So we as pastors, we've got to prepare well, pray well. I spend most of my week praying and preparing messages for this church. That's most of my week. Not all of it, but most of it. Because I think it was Alistair Begg said this, and I quote, "If there's a mist in the pulpit, there will be a fog in the pews."

I thought, man, that was good. There's got to be clarity from the pulpit so there's clarity in the pews. Clarity in your life. The Bible has answers for everything in life and we need to teach it without apology. I don't apologize for the Bible. It says what it says. And I love God for telling me the truth about my life and telling me the truth.

We don't need to apologize for the Bible. We teach it without hesitation. For steady growth in Jesus, it's essential you follow the example of the early church. The habit of your life is to be a man or woman of God's word. Period, 100 percent. It needs to take the main place in our homes, it needs to take the main place in our churches, it needs to take the main place in our offices.

I mean, I remember growing up we had a Bible. We had a Bible in our house. It had all the flowers my mom was drying out, all of our birth certificates, and it was under the TV. It was a huge thing with a 3D picture on the front. I remember it like it was yesterday. But it was never used. It was just, "Hey, Mom, I'm playing baseball, where's my birth certificate?" "In the Bible."

"All right, I'll go find the Bible and what am I looking for? My birth certificate." No, look, you pull out the Bible, it will really tell you where you came from. You're created in the image of God and it all starts and ends with him. It needs to take center stage. There's just something that happens when we study the Bible and, like the early church, there's something special that happens when we study the Bible together.

It's great to dig in alone, but it's also great to come together. Like right now, you are investing your time. You may not view church attendance or being in a church service as investing your time, but that's what it is. God has given you time, you're choosing what to do with it. And your investment in time, I take seriously.

And the time that I have you, I don't want to talk to you about the latest movie. I don't want to play all these clips up here. I don't want your attention anywhere else but God's word for your life. God's word for your life. That is one of the reasons, by the way, because I get asked from time to time, "Pastor Ed, the church we came from, they used to give us these little handouts where I could just fill in the blanks when you're teaching and here you just tell us to take notes and I have no idea what to write down."

And I'll tell you why we don't give you the little outlines. I'm not opposed to them, I get them. As a matter of fact, I'm kind of using that tool in this series, right? Giving you four things to write down in learning well. But the reason I don't give you those notes is because I don't want to train you to listen to me for the one word that goes in the blank.

Because once you get the word, then what else are you going to listen to? But rather, I want to train you, I want you to be trained to be in a church that says, "Bring your Bible, use your Bible, get a piece of paper out, get a pen. If you don't have one, we have them for you, and just write down what you hear and what you believe God's telling you."

Write down some significant thing. There's no right way to take notes. But I'll tell you this: when you do take notes, that's another way to retain something. Another way to learn something, another way to receive God's word. And I don't want you listening, "Okay, I see on the notes today there's five words. Did I get all five words? I don't know."

I don't even know from service to service if I would repeat the same five words all the time because the messages are different because the room's always different. Same notes, same text, different message. Why? Because the Spirit of God is moving differently in every service here. It's amazing what God does.

Be in the word, church. The first and important principle of the early church is that their habit was to be in the word of God. Preaching and teaching is God's primary way of reaching the lost and discipling the saved. Teaching and preaching are two different things. Just for a very simple definition, teaching is for believers where you're in a posture of learning about the character and nature of God.

Preaching is for unbelievers where they learn about the character and nature of their own life being separate from God. That's why the primary focus of this pulpit is not preach, preach, preach, because most people listening are already saved. People that are saved need to be taught. Ephesians chapter four: the pastor-teacher's responsibility is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Preaching is for the unsaved. Like today, if you're here and you've never given your life to Jesus, you need your sins forgiven. God loved you so much he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for you. And that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That is a preaching type of message. And preaching is for the unsaved and in a moment you'll have an opportunity to make that decision. In the church, we need anointed preaching and teaching with an emphasis upon teaching. The part of the believer is to receive. So the pastor teaches, but a healthy church listens.

The pastor speaks, a healthy church listens, and then the Holy Spirit brings growth. So use the Bible. As Greg Laurie said, we're to declare a known God to a world that does not know him. A known God to a world that does not know him. And it's from him that I got this acronym WELL. I love it. I'll remember it forever. Worship, evangelistic, learning, and loving. Those are the elements of a strong church. And as we go through this study together in the next three studies, we'll grow more and more in these elements of a healthy, well-balanced church.

Larry: So a church that's WELL is a church that's always learning, and we do that through the study of the word. Today on Abounding Grace, we listened in to part one of a mini-series from Pastor Ed Taylor called A Church That's WELL, part of a larger study in Acts. Hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here in the month of July, we've picked out an excellent book from David Wilkerson, The Jesus Person Promise Book. It contains over 800 promises from the word of God, helping you discover hope, grace, and healing for almost every spiritual and personal problem encountered today. It would make a meaningful gift for that special someone or a purse companion for you.

And we'll send it to you when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more today. Reach us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or go online to calvaryco.store. And thank you for your support. It helps us get the word out on stations like this one all across the nation. Large or small, God is using your gifts in great ways.

I wish I could share all the emails and phone calls that come in as evidence of that. To make a donation, just visit aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Aboundinggraceradio.com or 877-30-GRACE. Pastor Ed, in today's lesson, you showed us that a healthy church is a learning church and here at Abounding Grace, we want to help our listeners develop this commitment to studying God's word.

So would you speak for a moment about some of the available resources that we offer, from the pick of the month and other books to how they can access other teachings from you?

Pastor Ed Taylor: Yeah, Larry, we really like to resource here. So here, I want you to email me, as so many of you do when I ask, but email me and I will respond to that email with discipleship resources. So email me, ed@edtaylor.org, and ask for the discipleship resources list. There is a book list that we use here that is really the summary of our bookstore online and at our church.

And we have an online bookstore, you can get all these resources, calvarystore.com, and the net proceeds when you buy anything through the calvarystore.com, the net proceeds all go to our missionaries. That list is what we place in our bookstore. Almost everything on that list is available online at calvarystore.com.

It's important that you read. I think it was—I forget who said it exactly—Oswald Sanders said, "Readers are leaders and leaders are readers." So these resources, I mean, it is—it's a list that I developed, Larry, that when I was a new believer and I couldn't go to school, I couldn't go to Bible college, I just found out and searched out what books were being used in the classes and what books were being used to disciple, and I bought them and I made a list of them.

And this is a curated list where you can trust every book on the list. Just email me, I'll send it to you along with other discipleship resources, ed@edtaylor.org, or you can just scan through calvarystore.com and see the list there. It's not like the list isn't there, but all the books are and you can just kind of scan through.

But I'd love to help you, love to serve you. You are in the right place. We are a resourcing church, a resourcing ministry. We would love to serve you.

Larry: We hope you'll take advantage of these resources that have the aim of helping you grow in Christ. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.