(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you 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 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 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 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 Exodus 34 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. 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. Matthew 14 verse 22. 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. 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. 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. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.