The Disciplines of a Disciple: Filling Our Mind With God’s Word

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Success or failure in the Christian life is dependent on how much of the Bible you get into your heart and mind on a daily basis and how obedient you are to it.

I've never met a Christian who's failing spiritually who is also studying the Bible diligently. Pastor Greg Laurie points out God's Word gives us all the resources we need for spiritual success. There's just power in the Word of God and we want to fill our lives with it. Do you take a vitamin every day?

It's a good idea. Make sure your body is getting what it needs to thrive. Well, God has provided some spiritual vitamins in His Word.

In fact, it's more than vitamins. It's our spiritual food, our spiritual sustenance. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how a regular diet of God's Word is just what Christian disciples need. If you're not signed up to get a regular dose of God's Word through Pastor Greg's daily email devotions, sign up at Harvest.org.

All right. Well, let's grab our Bibles. We are going to turn to two passages today. We are going to turn to John chapter 8, the Gospel of John chapter 8, and also Psalm 19.

Psalm 19. And the title of my message is The Disciplines of a Disciple. Let's talk now about the things that a disciple does to stay strong spiritually. A disciple will carefully read, study, and live according to God's Word. A disciple will carefully read, study, and live according to God's Word.

What is that based on? Jesus said in John 8 31, He said these things to those who believed in Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now listen. He says, If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples. That means you study it. That means you memorize it.

And ultimately it means it affects your thinking and ultimately your living and everything that you do. I love how someone describes that man that walks with him and it says, His delight is in the Word of God and in it does He meditate day and night. The word meditate means to ponder. Actually in the root it means to chew. Chew your food. Chew. Think it over. See I think sometimes we read the Bible with no comprehension. We see it as a religious duty.

We do it mechanically. You read three chapters. Read three chapters. What were they about?

I have no idea. But I read three chapters and I can prove it. Yeah but if it doesn't affect your life, if you don't even understand what you read you would be better off reading three verses. I mean I would rather you read one chapter of the Bible slowly, carefully, with contemplation, asking the Lord how it applies to your life than read ten chapters so you have bragging rights. I need to understand that this is the very Word of God.

And I read it that way. I am now reading the words of God. I am reading the autobiography of God. And I believe that this book will speak to me.

I love what Martin Luther said in his paraphrase. He says, The Bible is alive. It has hands. It takes hold of me. It has feet. It chases after me.

It is alive and it is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. So we must approach it like that. You know I find that when I come to church if I bring a notebook and take notes it really helps me.

Because I forget things very quickly. And that is why we put notes on the screen. We put points on the screen. We put Scripture references on the screen to help you for further Bible study. Listen. We need to listen carefully because success or failure in the Christian life is dependent on how much of the Bible you get into your heart and mind on a daily basis and how obedient you are to it.

I want you to think about this. Success or failure in the Christian life is dependent on how much of the Bible you get into your heart and mind on a daily basis and how obedient you are to it. I have never met a Christian who is failing spiritually who is also studying the Bible diligently.

It is usually when there is a neglect in this area. Billy Sunday became one of the great evangelists of his generation. He was before Billy Graham. And someone once said to him as a young man, William if you do these three things no one will ever write the word backslider after your name. He said spend 15 minutes a day talking to God in prayer. Spend 15 minutes a day letting God talk to you through the Bible. And then spend 15 minutes a day talking to someone else about Jesus.

If you do these things you will never be called a backslider. That is pretty good information don't you think? So we need to approach the Word this way because you see the Bible doesn't just contain truth. The Bible is truth.

It is the yardstick by which we measure all other so-called truth. And if you are a hungry person spiritually you are a healthy person spiritually. Healthy people are hungry people. That is how I know I am in good health. Because right now I am hungry. But I am always hungry.

I am not hungry 20 minutes after I eat but I am hungry shortly after that. And so that is a good sign if you hunger for more of the Word of God. You know when we do our crusades I speak in a lot of churches. I have spoken in churches all around the world.

And could I ever tell you stories. Crazy things that have happened in church services. But I have spoken to every kind of congregation large and small. I have spoken at Calvary Chapels and Southern Baptist churches and assemblies of God churches and Anglican churches and you name it I have probably spoken there. And I can take the spiritual temperature of a congregation in under five minutes. I get a very real sense of where they are at in their relationship with the Bible.

Starting with having them bring their Bible to church. How many of you brought your Bible to church today? Let me see your Bible. Just hold it up.

That looks good to me. And I see some of you are holding up phones and tablets. I am going to give you credit for that because I know the Bible is in it. But having said that I think it is really great to carry an actual Bible as well. And mark up your Bible.

So I even like the fact that the Bible has symbolic power. You know what I am talking about. Sometimes I will be flying and you know I will get seated next to someone and we are chatting away and having a friendly conversation. And you know it may come out that I am a Christian somehow. I try to make it come out somewhere. And then before long I may reach into my briefcase and pull out a Bible. And I have seen people visibly recoil from my Bible. It is like you pull it out. It is like you pulled a rattlesnake out of a bag.

They are afraid it is going to like attack them or something. Here is my Bible. Sorry it is a living Bible. It gets very excited you know.

Keep it in a box with little air holes punched in. So the thing is there is just power in the Word of God. And we want to fill our lives with it.

And there are other things that can sort of pollute our minds so we miss what the Word of God says. Someone once came up to a great Bible teacher and said, sir I would give the world to know the Bible as you do. And the teacher looked at him and said, and that is exactly what it will cost you. I would give the world.

Yeah. Give up the world. Romans 12 says, don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. How is my mind going to be transformed? It is going to happen through study of the Word of God. I love the fact that in Acts 17 it talks about the believers in Berea. And they listened very carefully when the apostles showed up.

We read there, the people of Berea were more open minded than those in Thessalonica. They listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas to see if they were really teaching the truth. I love that they listened eagerly and also that they checked up on them. Checking out the apostle Paul.

The apostle Paul who wrote a good part of the New Testament. Yeah we are checking you out buddy. We will see if what you say lines up with Scripture. That is the right way to listen. In a moment Pastor Greg has some moving words about the preciousness of God's Word to disciples.

Be sure to stay tuned. You know sometimes we can't always make it to church but here is the good news. Church is coming to you.

It is coming to you on your TV screen or on your tablet or your computer or even your phone. We do it every weekend and it is called Harvest at Home. We have worship, we have a message from the Word of God. If you want to find out more just go to harvest.org and join us this weekend for Harvest at Home. Well Pastor Greg has been bringing us insights on the disciplines of a disciple including immersing ourselves regularly in the truth of God's Word.

And you can get an instant replay of today's study by going to harvest.org. All right with all of this in mind let's go to our second passage and we will conclude with this Psalm 19. Psalm 19. We will read just a few verses about the Word. We will read the phrase the law of the Lord. But that could just as easily be the Word of the Lord or the Word of God.

You could even put the words the Bible and it would still mean the same thing. Psalm 19 verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect. Or the Word of God is perfect.

Or the Bible is perfect. Converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise as simple. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold yes and much fine gold and sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover by them as your servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward. Did you notice the cadence of those words? It almost sounds like a song doesn't it? Like the lyrics of a song. That's because the Psalms were originally songs. So you are reading song lyrics in a way inspired by God. So what do we learn about the Word of God?

Number one the Word of God is perfect. A direct contrast of the flawed imperfect reasoning of humanity today. Things are always changing. Things are always shifting. Culture changes. Fashion changes. Technology changes.

You got the latest greatest whatever phone and then a new one comes and quickly replaces it. Oh man hairstyles change too. You know we all look back in our high school yearbook photo with shock right. We always think what was I thinking. Was the mullet really a good idea.

I took it even further. I was bald and I had a mullet. That's like the worst thing imaginable. But actually rock that look for a short time.

You don't want to do that ever. But even the newspaper is dated now. Because you know we have access to all this news that we can get at the drop of a hat. But God's Word in contrast is always fresh. It is always new.

It is as fresh as the morning dew. The Scripture says of God His mercies are new every morning. Number two the Word of God is a treasure. The Word of God is a treasure.

Look at verse 10. More to be desired are they than gold. Yes and much fine gold. And there is great reward for those who obey them. It is like gold. Here is a passage in Proverbs 2 speaking of searching Scripture as mining for gold from a modern translation and it says, If you make insight your priority and won't take no for an answer, searching for it like a prospect or panning for gold like an adventurer on a treasure hunt.

I love that translation. You don't open up the Bible and say, man I am like Indiana Jones. I am Dora the Explorer here if you are a kid right. I want to see what is in the Word of God for me today.

How God can speak to me from Scripture. That is the way to approach it. You know I lost my iPhone the other day. And that is kind of a big deal when you lose your phone isn't it. So I use the feature find my phone and you basically send out a signal and I have often found my phone with me. Like find my phone and it is like why is it at my house.

And then I hit the little chime. You know make this sound so I can find you. And it is like in my pocket. Or it is in the cushion of the chair that I am sitting in because I am too lazy to go looking for it. By the way I also use this feature find my phone to find my wife.

They should just call that an app. Find my wife. Because my wife. Her phone is always on mute because she said I had it turned down for church. And so I can't find her.

She won't answer her phone so I hit the find my phone feature and a loud chime goes out and then I will keep hitting it. Hitting it. Hitting it. Just kidding. What. I said just wanted to know where you were. How are you. Find my wife.

Great feature. You know how I feel when you leave your house and you forgot your phone. You are half way to work. Oh no. I forgot my phone. I must go back and get my phone. What if you felt that way about your Bible. Oh no. I forgot my Bible.

I need to go get it. You know in our film Steve McQueen American Icon we tell the story of his conversion. Steve came to Christ when he was at the peak of his career as the number one movie star in the world. But six months later after he had been growing in his faith and going to church every week and studying the Bible with his pastor for an hour each week Steve found out he had cancer. And it was in the advanced stages. And he was told by his doctors just get your affairs in order. You are going to die.

You only have months. Well Steve really wanted to live. And now he had something to really live for.

He wanted to tell others about what Christ had done for him. And he heard about you know doctors down in Mexico with all of these treatments that they could cure cancer. And in desperation he started getting those treatments. And he found a surgeon who would remove the cancerous tumors that at that point had filled his entire body.

So he chartered a plane to fly down there and get the surgery done. But he asked his pastor Leonard DeWitt if he could somehow meet Billy Graham. Steve had seen Billy on television and Billy was at the peak of his ministry at this point. And Billy came to visit Steve. And I know because I shared this story earlier and I found out that one of the pilots on that plane went to our church. His name is Mike. And he came up and said, Greg I was one of the pilots on that plane.

I will tell you exactly what happened. And so he said, we are out on the runway. We didn't know we were picking up Steve McQueen.

We just had another name he was flying under. And suddenly there is a knock at the door on the fuselage and we open it and there stands up for us Billy Graham. And he said, I am here to see Steve McQueen. And then Steve pulls up shortly afterwards and they are in the plane and Billy speaks with Steve and they have prayer together. And then Steve realizes he has lost his Bible. And he is sort of panicked about it and Billy says, it is ok Steve.

Here take mine. And he gives to Steve his personal Bible. And I have held this Bible in my hand. It has the name Billy Graham embossed on the cover. It is a very well worn Bible. A lot of notes in it from Billy's messages. And Billy inscribed it to my friend Steve McQueen.

May God bless and keep you always. And he wrote in the passage from Philippians, he who has begun a good work in you will keep you under the day of Jesus Christ. So Steve held onto that Bible Billy Graham gave him. And he went down to Juarez Mexico and checked into a little clinic. And the surgeon performed the surgery that lasted for hours.

The huge tumors were removed. In fact the surgeon collapsed in exhaustion from the surgery. And Steve survived the surgery and he was wheeled into a recovery room. And sadly a short time later Steve entered eternity after dying of a heart attack. They went into the room and they pulled the sheet back of Steve's bed and he was holding onto the Bible of Billy Graham.

This book is so precious. Because when you get to the last day of your life you are not going to care about a cool car. You are not going to care about how much money is in the bank.

You are not going to care about what house you lived in. You are not going to care about your next vacation or the new iPhone or the new Android phone or the new anything. But I will tell you what you are going to care about. You are going to care about what the Bible says. Because this is the book that tells you how to get to heaven. And this is the book that and this is the book that prepares you to know God. The Word of God. This is how He speaks to us.

One last point and I will close. Keeping the Word of God makes you happy. Keeping the Word of God makes you happy. Verse 8 of Psalm 19. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart. Listen. If you want peace, joy, meaning, and happiness it comes through knowing God's Word.

Luke 11 28 says, Happy are those that hear the Word of God and keep it. You can have a happy life without sin. Oh you hear it said, Oh no you need to get drunk and party to have fun. Or you need to do drugs. Or you need to have illicit sex.

Or you need to do this or do that. It is all a lie. You need a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and you will find the happiness you wanted in life.

And a relationship with Him. And I want to close this message by saying, do you have this relationship with God? See it is the Bible that tells me God loves me.

How would I know otherwise? It is the Bible that tells me God loved me so much He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross on my place. It is the Bible that tells me Christ rose from the dead three days after they crucified Him. It is the Bible that tells me Christ can come and take residence in my heart. It is the Bible that tells me I can be forgiven of all of my sin if I will believe in Him.

Again this is the autobiography of God. So have you asked Christ to forgive you of your sin? Do you know with certainty that you will go to heaven when you die? If not I wouldn't want to close this service without giving you an opportunity to believe. If you would like Him to come into your life. If you would like to find this happiness the Bible promises.

If you would like to know you will go to heaven when you die and have that confidence like Steve McQueen had. It can happen for you right now because Jesus says, I stand at the door and I knock and if you will hear my voice and open the door I will come in. Let's all bow our heads for a word of prayer please. Everybody praying with me. Heavenly Father I pray now for everybody here.

Everybody listening wherever they are. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will convict and convince them of their need for You. And I pray they will come to You and believe now. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important word of prayer. And if you'd like to make that kind of change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg would like to help you with that. And he'll do so before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes.

So stay with us. Now you may want to hear today's study again or let a friend or loved one listen along. Just go to harvest.org and stream the message called The Disciplines of a Disciple. And then Pastor Greg's wife Kathy is with us in studio today. She's joined by author and news anchor Shannon Bream. Maybe you've seen Shannon on Fox News at Night on the Fox News Channel. She's written a new book called The Women of the Bible Speak. The subtitle is The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today.

Here's Kathy. I love the idea whenever I'm studying characters from the Bible that I want to glean from and learn from and be brave-like and step out and do the things they did. Sometimes I find myself a little intimidated by them because I think, well, I'm not brave like Deborah. I'm not bold like Yael and others, but I want to know the source of their strength, the source of their bravery.

And to me, when I find myself looking at the person and thinking that all those attributes and characteristics are ones that they came up with on their own, that they were born and they were gifted, et cetera, you know, that discourages me. But when I think, wait a second, these women were ordinary women. They were wives. They were mothers. They lived in difficult times. But I believe that the secret to their strength had to be something deeper than their own personalities or their own intelligence. It had to be something more. Would you speak to that when you think about these women in Scripture is that, yes, we're inspired by them, but we have to be more than inspired by them.

We need something to change us, right? Exactly. And the women are all so different in the book. We do have people like Deborah, who was courageous. And immediately when God told her to go, she went. But we have other women who were hesitant or doubting. And that's very human.

We're all going to experience that. I think about Sarah, when she was told that Abraham would be the father and she would be the mother of many nations. And the older and older that she got, she took matters into her own hands, trying to fulfill that prophecy. And she laughed when she was told that she would have a child. And God even confronted her about laughing.

She's like, no, no, I wasn't laughing. Well, God knows what we're doing all the time. And he knew that Sarah laughed when he made that promise. So I think it's good to recognize, too, that there were women along the way who really did doubt and who were hesitant. Like I said, with Queen Esther, she didn't immediately charge into King Xerxes and say, I have a demand to make to save my people.

I mean, she was fearful about going and she asked for the protection and coverage of fasting before she went. So I think it's it's good to recognize that we all can be hesitant or fearful in our lives. But stepping out in faith and trusting God, what He's promised us, what He's told us, or calling upon that strength through fasting and prayer, those are all tools at our disposal. So no matter what we're born with, gifts we do or don't have, I think we can grow. We can certainly develop a closer relationship and walk with God and through that gain strength to move forward. We can become better equipped in putting on the full armor. And so I think there are so many ways for us to grow in our Christian life so that we can step up. The courage doesn't have to be our own. We have a source of strength that's far beyond our own. But just even understanding how we can call on that and rely on that and know it will be there.

Well, you'll find that kind of insight and more in Shannon Bream's new book called The Women of the Bible Speak. The subtitle is The Wisdom of Sixteen Women and Their Lessons for Today. Think of how this insight might encourage someone you know, a sister, a wife, a mother, grandmother. We'll be glad to send you this new book to thank you for your investment, your donation that helps keep Pastor Greg's studies coming your way each day. Write us today at a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514, or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime.

Again, dial 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, you spoke today about having a relationship with the Lord. Someone can enter into that kind of relationship with God right now, can't they? Yeah, they really can. That's the amazing thing. I think people are surprised that it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks. It doesn't take days.

It doesn't even take hours. You can believe on the spot. And I would like to lead you in a prayer where you can ask for His forgiveness, a prayer where you can receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Savior and Lord. So if you want Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want a second chance in life, if you want to go to heaven when you die, stop what you're doing and pray after me these words. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow You from this moment forward as Savior and Lord, as God and friend.

Thank you for loving me and calling me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed those words with Pastor Greg, the Lord has heard you and forgiven you of your sin.

The Bible assures us Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we'd like to send you some materials to help you begin to live this new life. We call it our New Believers' Growth Packet. Just ask for it and we'll send it to you free of charge if you prayed for the first time today with Pastor Greg. So write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us anytime 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go to Harvest.org and click on Know God. Well, next time Pastor Greg brings us some of the most practical insight yet from his series Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. It's the final message of the series next time on A New Beginning. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at Harvest.org.