Prayer Works Bible Study: January 5, 2025

"Understanding And Interpreting Scripture "

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All right few things as of next week. Next week, we're going to try not try, we're going to move the morning devotion from 6:00 PM No 6:00 AM. Uh Eastern standard to 7:00 AM. No Central 6:00 Central. 

8:00 is Eastern, right. Then the second thing is that in a week's time we're going to release a new format of how we're going to do morning devotion, so be on the lookout of an e-mail from Vee and then we'll talk about it some time during Bible study next week. 

That's what we're going to do then but between now and the month end I'm going to preach on how we can understand the Bible. How we can use it as the word of God, how we actually can use apply the word of God.  

And because I think it's necessary. Because of what's going on, what we are hearing and the number of people that, you know, releasing stuff out there that you like, no. Now while we are on that subject, guys let me tell you one of the responsibilities of a believer.  

Paul is writing a letter to the church in Thessalonians, and one of the things he was addressing in that letter to this church because remember he wrote 2 letters. So it's not because he liked the church in Thessalonians.  

He wrote 2 letters because they did not hear or understand well. So you don't write something to somebody who doesn't need it. So if you get a first letter from a father who's saying hey I need you to put your act together. 

Then, if you don't do it, you're going to get a second layer of say, hey,I wrote you a letter. So the second letter is not because he loves you, it's because you're still having some issues. So when you write to the church in Thessalonia, it says to them you are quenching the spirit. 

Don't quench the spirit. Then he makes an example of the church in. That's why there was never a letter written by Paul to the church in Berea. Because he uses them as an example, he says you all are ought to be like the church in Berea. 

They search scripture day and night and they make sure that what we are telling them is in line with the word of God, not with what we are saying, not with the word of God.

So it is fundamentally important as a believer that if you hear something a word was preached on Sunday or you hear somebody put out something on Internet or wherever it is.  

Don't just take it. Even if it's me. Don't just take it and say yeah, that was the word of God. Search this scripture to make sure that what we are saying is in line with God's word. Otherwise, that's why right now we have a whole lot of mess out there.  

That is called prophetic word and is not prophetic word. Now saying these two guys, I want you guys to understand that the word of God is not exclusive to an individual. Let me say that again.  

There's not one person who can stand and say, you know, I've been favored to hear the word of God more than anybody else. And no one should say my God, their revelation is so deep than anybody else.  

Because if we do that, this is what leads to cults. This is what leads to people following the wrong thing. Sorry David, it keeps moving back and forth. Don't know what's going on with him. 

So the word of God then becomes maligned. And we don't know what, what, what truth is anymore and we are living in it right now. Too many props on pulpits. This one has got a prop and this one is a prop and this one is a prop.  

And the reason why we have that and it's readily acceptable. It's not because people don't should not use examples, but it's because the word of God is being maligned in real time, and we as believers because we are not doing our job of searching the scripture and questioning the validity of the word.  

What ends up happening is that we end up just accepting these things. And once we accepted it, the rest is history. Nobody grows, everybody still faces the same challenges they were facing five years ago.  

And the end result is that this Kingdom does not grow. And it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. So what I want to teach between now and the end of this month. I know everybody right now we are all inspired. Want to have reading plans for the year, we are reading Scripture daily.  

We are doing numerous things as it pertains to the word of God. Now what we want to do is let's say you read Romans 1. How do you know that you actually heard what the scripture is actually saying?  

And you have interpreted it the right way so that you can use it properly. Because without that then we are just reading and we're just following through scriptures and sometimes our efforts can become futile.  

Yet we when we end up not getting the results that we want because number one, there is no proper understanding and to show you this Acts 8, there's a eunuch coming from a conference in Jerusalem on the way back to Africa.  

He's reading the book of Isaiah loudly while he's on his chariot. Then Philip approaches him and he says do you understand what you are reading? And the man says, how can I understand if no one has interpreted it for me? 

He's coming from a conference in Jerusalem where the apostles and disciples were, and now he's going back to Africa. And he has an encounter with Philip. And Philip then explains the scriptures.  

How does Philip explain the scriptures? Not by using his own words, but he quoted another verse. He quoted another book and that's when the man gets understanding. That's when he asks the question.  

Then what can stop me from being baptized today? Now. The key thing I want us to understand, this man is coming from a conference. On the way back to Africa, which means that while he was at this conference, nobody ministered to him.  

Nobody explain scripture to him. Whatever that was spoken of during that conference, he did not receive it. Hence, he was going home after making the long. I want you to imagine. You get on a chariot from Ethiopia to Israel.  

That's a long journey to come back empty handed. So we don't want to be like that, so very quickly. What is the Bible? The Bible what is it? It is a book of life. It's not a manual, it's a book of life.  

In it contains life as we know it. Spiritual life is contained in the scriptures. What the Bible is. What life? The life it contains is life for all people, everybody. If they want to live life, you have to go to the scriptures. 

That's the book God gave humanity to find themselves, nothing else. Now, are there any other books that were written of course. For example, if you follow the Catholic Church, they have different manuscript that are considered holy in their own.  

They have a book on Mary. Now everything that is outside of the canonized Bible always lead us to a wrong destination. This is why we have religions in the world. We don't have religions because people read the scriptures, we have religions is because of bad interpretation of scriptures.  

That's why the Jehovah's Witness they have their own understanding and it leads you somewhere. The Catholic it leads you somewhere wrong destination. You can tell the letter makes sense, the moments it all leaves you a different place.  

They are led to a different place, not because of Scripture. Because of bad interpretation that ended up formulating other doctrines that people follow now, if we all read the scriptures the way they are supposed to be read. 

They should all of us lead us to the same place, same destination, same wisdom, same everything. So there are books that are written that are considered holy in other religions, but they don't lead you to the same place. 

That's what makes the Bible different is that every person who dives into it pays attention to it. We are all going to find ourselves. At the same destination. And by that I don't just mean heaven, I also mean in the way we think in the way we do things in the way we walk. 

We're all going to end up doing the same thing. This is why when you talk to a believer who is into scripture, you say something. They get excited and tell you, Oh my God, I read that and this is what I got, I got the same thing, because that's what this is supposed to do.  

Lead us to the same destination. So the Bible is in its own class beside it, there is nothing else. Now the problem we have as believers reading is important. The problem that we have is that we have read all the other books and failed to master this one.  

And yet we are called to master this book. This why you could read the 7 books of highly effective people. Good to great. You could read all those other books. They are important in their own right.  

But they just don't lead you to the same place when you're done reading good to great you're gonna have to come back to scripture. Remember the book that was released a few years ago called the secret. 

Oprah and them were pushing it. Now people who read the book look at what it has done. The havoc it is caused in our society. But people now have so many different religions coupled with different things.  

Why because we were told if you just believe what you believe, if you take your truth and make it your truth. You're going to get to the same destination. Just 20 years later look at us.  

So who is the author of the book? God himself. Through the inspiration that he gave men, how do we know this John 1 explains it. It says in the very, very onset of our beginning the word was with God, and the word was God, the word was God, and the word was with God, and the word was God.  

So he essentially took what was in his mind put it in mankind, wrote it down and that became inspired. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and it is good for these things, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.  

Instruction in what? Not in other things in righteousness. So the scripture is God breathed inspired. What does the Bible do for all of us? 1. When you read it, you should be inspired. First thing that you get out of the Bible once you read it is inspiration.  

And profitable for doctrine and reproof, what is reproof, fixing errors, correction, instruction. That's why the book was given for these things. And let me show you why it was for that, what should we look for when we are reading the book?  

When we read Scripture what should you be looking for? It's not just reading. You have to be looking for something. And the things that you're looking for is this 12345 things. Instruction.  

What instructions? On how to live your life. Why do we need instructions to live our life? Because we don't know how to, we don't. How do we know that we don't know how to? Because all men fell through the scene of Adam in Genesis 3.  

So how God intended us to live? Life is no longer how we are living life. This is a whole different thing altogether because of what happened in Genesis 3 before that God used to come down.  

He says something we do and there was this unique relationship that existed. Where there was number error in it. We seen Genesis 3 and we begin a whole different life altogether of knowing good and bad and seeing all these things that were unknown to us.  

Now that we are living a whole different life altogether in that existence, there was nothing that we knew we didn't know. Sorry, we didn't know how to operate in that condition in that environment.  

Then God, in his infinite wisdom because he still desire to have a relationship with us, he then decided I'm going to give you a book that will help you to live the way I intended you to live before the fall. Hence the Bible was written.  

That's why it's a book of instruction on how to live a godly life that Adam messed up in Genesis 3. 2 to profit, in other words, benefits grow in doctrine, that's why the book was written to profit, to benefit us and to grow in doctrine. 

What is doctrine? It's a set of beliefs, principles or teachings That have been taught. Now they've been taught And they've been applied and it has been accepted As a way of doing things because it has been proven over time that if you do this thing, you arrive at the same destination.  

In other words, we all have recipes of Mac and cheese or something that's in the family that has been in there for 10 years from Grandma from Kansas. And they tell you that if you do exactly what grandma did you will get the same result over and over again, and that recipe has been passed on from one generation to the next to the next. 

And if anybody tries to alter it during Thanksgiving oh you have an issue with the whole family. You are messing up. What we know works. Quick story my brother-in-law makes Mac and cheese that's his thing.  

He's been doing it since he was 17. He has become a master of it. He works around different cheeses, you name it. One Thanksgiving Deborah says I want to make Mac and cheese I saw on Martha Stewart.  

He was like, oh, well, I don't have to do all this work go ahead and she ruined everybody's Thanksgiving. I remember somebody saying, hey, if you want to try these new recipe, try it on your family. Don't bring it over here.  

It’s the Super Bowl of eating don't bring new place. That's what scripture is tried, tested over and over again for 2000 years. And it has been proven that it works. Now we here in 2024, 2025 we somehow now decide this new, different kinds of pastors. 

Oh we going to change it? You telling me that you have become smarter than all the people that live for 2000 years? So it profits, its benefits, it set beliefs, principles, teachings that were taught and now are accepted in our faith in this case, Christians.  

3. The book was written to rebuke. Why? Because all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. So we need rebuke. Why do we need rebuke so we can get back in line to righteous what living?  

4. Correction, the book was written to correct. Why do we need correction? Because we make mistakes. We are not God. We are not. We are not perfect, so we going to make mistakes and God in accommodating of us, making mistakes.  

He even put the scriptures in place so that you and I, when we are in error, we can find correction. Then, of course, inspiration. Why do we need inspiration. Why? 1 Corinthians 2:9.  

This is what he says, but as it is written no eye has seen nor ear has heard neither as it entered into the heart of man. The things that God has prepared for them that love him so with you and I as we are sitting on this prayer called right on this Bible study right now.  

We don't know what we are going to eat for lunch on Friday. Friday even Tuesday, we don't know. Now, if we don't even know what we can control because you might, you know, always set meals. 

I want to eat this and all these. And then Tuesday comes you're like, I don't feel like eating that anymore. I want chic-fil-a. And then you end up eating that. To show you that we don't know what tomorrow has. 

That's why the scripture says tomorrow is not promised. Do today what you ought to do today. So if we have no concepts or idea of what's coming that means the only way we get any kind of idea of what's coming we have to have divine inspiration.  

And without it, you and I will never or we will never align ourselves spiritually to what's coming. This is why we are all sitting here as believers. You all know in your heart whether you know it or you have consciously paid attention to it or not.  

The fact of the matter is that you know something is coming right now as we are sitting here, you know, something good is coming. How do you know that? Because if you believe in God this same God who created, he says, your eyes and your ears have no idea what I've prepared for you.  

So it's already coming. Now we are talking here about how we can use Scripture. So Paul says no I have seen. Now, Paul says it is written that means he was quoting somebody. Who was he quoting? 

The Prophet, the great prophet Isaiah. That's who he was quoting. And it is written, no eye has seen, no ear heard it hasn't even entered your hearts what God has in store for you. This is why we need the Bible, these five things.  

Now Christianity is an old religion. It’s not 21st century. It's over 2000 years now. That means they are things that were done 100 years ago with those who are working in this faith.  

They followed the same principles. They lived their lives and left this earth and went on to heaven and you and I came and we found these statues in place that we are also following. We are doing Bible study just as the church in Berea did Bible study.  

There is no difference we are not unique. We are not endowed by whole new revelation that they had. It's all the same. So in our application, in our dealing with Scripture, we have to accommodate that fact that you can't come up with something and add to.  

Because you've found it here because somebody somewhere made sure that it was not changed so that you can find it in the right manner as they found it too. There’s a proverb in my country says before you tear down walls, ask yourself why were they erected in the first place?  

Because you might tear down a wall and realize this wall actually held the whole entire house. But we in 21st century, this is why we are in error. We are introducing all kinds of stuff in church and we are making it acceptable.  

The reason why it's being acceptable is because we have filled, the churches are filled with believers who don't know scripture. Who don't question scripture. Who don't ask questions where there is a need to ask question.  

This is why I enjoy being asked questions, because it also makes me get to reprove. I have to go and check some things. So if it's just one way that's how cults are made. So after the Bible was finished being written. It was what canonized?  

They brought it together, locked it, took the keys and throw them away, never to be found again. Which means that you can add to. You can't subtract. Remember, a few years ago I gave you about 54 scriptures that have been eliminated from the Bible.  

Just from the 1984 version of NIV, 54 that have been removed from the Bible. You can’t do that. You found it there. Now you telling me we've become so smart that everybody who lives back there.  

So based on the scripture that Paul quotes in the Book of Isaiah, 1Corinthians 2:9. It then tells you and I that we have to do something. That's why you can be a lazy Christian. You can be, it's just impossible.  

Because when you read this book, it inspires you to do something. Now I'm gonna give you about let's see 1,2,3,4. Now this is when we read scriptures and we're trying to understand the passage.  

And then help us understand how we take that and apply it. There are things that you have to pay attention to because if you don't pay attention to these things. It's going to be difficult for you to understand.  

You wrestle with this book that's why a lot of people tell you I don't understand, it’s  contradicting, it's not contradicting. So here we go. So we talked about number the first thing is what inspiration, right?  

When you read the Bible the first thing that has to happen is you have to feel inspired to do something, whatever it is that you've inspired to do, you have to feel like I have to do something.  

This is why I always say when the word of God is being preached the right way in any church as a pastor, you should do less counseling. When you find yourself doing a lot of counseling. 

It's because you're not teaching the word of God properly because the Scripture tells us that this word is so powerful. that it goes and divides even the souls and hearts of men. And penetrates the bone marrow of the human body and fix things that needs to be fixed.  

And the proof is in these guys. Every single one of us I know for a fact there is things you used to do. You no longer do and you don't know when you stopped, but you just know the desire to do those things is no longer there.  

It actually feels like it was a foreign time. The reason you no longer do that is because the word of God, the more you read it, the more it penetrates your soul, your heart, your mind and change some things.  

Even the things that you think are difficult to change. When you do it well, you will do less counseling as a minister, as a friend, as a pastor. So the first thing is inspiration, the second thing is revelation.  

Everybody here needs revelation. Because if we don't know what's going to happen on Friday. The only way we know what's going to happen on Friday before we get to Friday is through what revelation.  

Now how do we know God? We know God because he chose out of his own will and evolution and pleasure. Ephesians 2 that I'm going to make myself known to you. Why? Because he had separated himself in Genesis 3.  

Says you are on your own, I can't deal with this mess. Then after that, he says let me reveal myself to those who desire to hunger and thirsty after me. How did he now? The thing about God's revelation, guys Romans 1:19-20.  

This is what it says. Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities has eternal power and divine nature. Have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been what made. 

So that people are without excuse. The people, not Christians, people are without excuse. So how do we receive God's revelation. Firstly, conscience, the human mind and heart, bears witness to the existence of God.  

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not. Everybody in the world knows that God exists. They might call it a higher power. They might call it all kinds of stuff. Whatever they want to call it.  

The reality is that your heart, your conscience, know that there is a God. Belonging to him is a whole different matter altogether. Every single one of us, we are his. Whether you are an atheist, whether you are saved or not, you are his creation.  

Belonging to him takes an act on your part through Jesus Christ, to belong to him. So conscience will tell you and your mind in your heart will tell you there's a God now brothers and sisters there are two categories of revelation.  

You have the general revelation where everybody knows there's a God and that revelation comes because of what was created and your conscience. The second is specific revelation. 

Now specific revelation is found in two ways, and two things alone. It’s not exclusive to me or to Herod, or to Angela or Monica. It’s specific to a group of people who make an effort to follow it.  

And that revelation comes in the form of the Bible and Jesus. What you know about who God is is not the same thing that a person who has general revelation of who God is, no. 

A person who is not saved and their definition of revelation, of who God is not the same as your revelation who read the scriptures and will follow after Jesus.  

What you get is specific revelation of who God is. That specific revelation you get is not exclusive only to you. It's for everybody who is in the Kingdom. It's not just, Oh my God. Pastor Zee that was an incredible, revelatory word.  

That's not my revelation. That's God's revelation that he is choosing to make known to a specific group of people who are doing specific things for his Kingdom. That's why it's hard to talk to somebody who is not saved and you wonder why they don't hear you when they can hear what you're saying.  

Like man, this is so plain. The reason is plain to you is because it's specific to you. To them, they have general conscience of who God is. Jesus reveals the Father, as I say, when you see me, you have seen the Father.  

You are seeing the qualities of who God is through me. The third thing 3 right, Interpretation. So when you are reading your Bible, I'm giving you the sequence of how you get to application.  

The first thing you get is what inspiration. The second thing you get is what revelation, the third thing that you get is interpretation. Right here this is where we get in trouble. Because when we interpreted the wrong thing, we end up in the wrong place.  

Remember when they used to use MapQuest. Yeah, you'll be somebody will be driving and somebody be like hey turn left right, turn right, turn left. Then if you are thinking right and they say left.  

That's why a lot of husbands and wives used to fight through Mafia quest. Because, like you, don't to me. No, that's not what it is. It’s because your interpretation of what's being said is not correct.  

I heard you, but I interpreted it the wrong way. Why? Because my mind was in the way. This usually happens when we read Scripture trying to get to a destination. Rather than allowing the scripture to lead you to a destination, if you want to wake, reverse way, oh you are in trouble because you're going to get to a destination. 

Then you want to walk back and you realize no, this is not the road. So interpretation is this is why for us, the Scriptures are a mirror image to each other. They interpret themselves. I can take stuff that's not in the word and throw it in there.  

Because if I do that we now have wrong interpretation and wrong interpretation leads you to something. Now it's easy to interpret the. It's not complicated. The first thing you gotta ask is who is speaking.  

Because we forget that part because once you know who is speaking, if you say God, your reference and fear of God should automatically say ok. Let me pay close attention. Let me not add anything.  

Let me not subtract anything because this is God speaking. The second question is what is he saying? What is he saying? Once you ask that question, it prompts you to go to try to understand what's being said, right?  

Then following after that is what's the meaning of what's being said, not what do I think. What is the meaning of what's being said? Who is he talking to? What had happened? While we are in this neighborhood, let me address this here because I've heard it here in the South a lot.  

The scripture says women shall not teach or preach in the church. I've heard it here a lot. And at one point I started like my God questioning it too. Until I started doing a study. Now when you take this and you apply it right, the most coded scripture about women not preaching or doing anything in the church is in the book of Timothy, 2 Timothy.  

When Paul is writing a letter to Timothy. Now when you read the beginning of Timothy 2, Paul says I'm writing this letter to you, Timothy, because, son, you are struggling In the job, you are supposed to be doing as a pastor. 

You are negating your gifts and things that you should be doing. You're not paying attention to these things. The problems you have is that in the church what church is he talking about? The church in in Ephesus that Paul studied is like in the church you have people who are dressing all kinds of way. 

And the women in the church in Ephesus they're doing all kinds of stuff. Creating clicks and groups. That's why me Paul, he doesn't say Jesus or God he says that's why me, Paul. Because remember who started the church in Ephesus is Paul.  

So he says that's why me, Paul, I don't allow women to preach in church. What church is he talking about? Ephesus. When? That he started, when? When he was there.

When I was there because of the problems that you are having, I decided I'm not going to allow any woman to preach in this church because of the problems they were causing in the church in Ephesus. 

So I'm writing to you to remind you of the same thing that I did when I was there. And we took it and we ran with it, and now that created a whole different kind of problem for 21st century churches, even though there is examples of women in the scriptures that did some remarkable work.  

How did we get to that bad interpretation? Now what is God saying? Now do you guys I'm sure you know, you understand that there are certain scriptures that are specific to a group of people.  

When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonians says, don't quench this spirit. Was he writing to the church in Ephesus? No, he was writing to the church in Thessalonians. Now, after we understood that the question we then ask ourselves, what is the principle behind what being said?  

Because that's what belongs to us. So the principle is that if you do certain things and don't do them well, you're going to quench the spirit. So I'm gonna pay attention to how I do what I do so that I don't quench the spirit. 

Rather than to say, oh, you are all quenching this spirit bad. So we gotta pay attention to interpretation. Now here’s the beauty of this. If your desire to interpret the Scripture well. The fourth point is extremely important, but it does not happen without interpretation.  

Scriptures should illuminate, show you reveal how to do certain things. Illumination does not come from us. It belongs to the Holy Spirit. He illuminates what being said so that it's clear.  

But you can't get to illumination without revelation which is reading the scriptures and without interpretation. Without inspiration, you can get to illumination. That's why the scripture says the Holy Spirit will do what will remind you of things that you need to do. 

Now can you remind somebody who didn't read something? So our job is to read, find inspiration, then when we get inspiration, we're going to see God revealing himself after he reveals himself then we're going to see illumination interpretation.  

We seek interpretation. Now, now that we have, we have sought interpretation. The next thing is the Holy Spirit comes and illuminate what you are trying so you can get the proper context of what's being said, so you can get to the last point, application.  

Let's go to illumination 1 Corinthians 6:16 listen to this. Yet among the mature, we do not impact wisdom. Although it is not a wisdom of this age of the rulers of this age. Who are doomed to pass away. 

But we impart a secret and a hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages of our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, but as it is written no eye has seen no ear has heard nor the heart of men imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.  

These things God has revealed to us through the spirit for the spirit searches everything even the depths of God for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him.  

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit, who is from God. That we might understand the things that are freely given to us by God.  

We've been given the Holy Spirit so we can understand the things that were freely given to us so when you finally get illumination, that's when a clear understanding of what's being said by the scripture happens.  

It doesn't happen on inspiration. It doesn't happen when you get revelation, it doesn't happen when you interpret, it happens when the Holy Spirit give you illumination. That's why it's impossible to read the Bible without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  

He wrote it in the first place as the author. If you want to understand the manual of a thing or how a thing operates, you go to the manual. The holy He is the author. So he is able to illuminate you. This is what I meant when I was writing this to the church in Berea.  

When you get that, you then find wisdom to apply the very thing that needs to be applied, in other words let's say you are trying to fix your car and somehow you're trying to figure some stuff out how it works.

And all of a sudden a mechanic from Mercedes-Benz shows up and he stands beside you and he says no, that's not it.  

Take that, remove this first before you touch that. Your job becomes easy, why? Because you have instructions from the person who designed the thing. That's who the Holy Spirit is. The spirit without measure.  

But you can't access this illumination before you get revelation. Because revelation comes from inspiration. You can't have inspiration without reading the book that gives you inspiration in the first place.  

That's how you get to illumination. After that, you now have a clear understanding of how you can apply this scripture to your life. Application simply means this obedience in usage. Following now let's take that guy who's sitting standing behind me, remove that first.  

Then I choose to say no, that's not it, like well I meant the car even like no, I want to start over here since I'm already here. Says no, you gotta have it hard if you do that. That's what we do most of the time.  

Hence we come back and say Scripture does not work. No it does, you just decided to take the wrong path to get to the destination you want in the 1st place rather following these proper steps that have been designed in order for you to get the proper context of what is. 

Because guys, these scriptures were written over 2000 years ago. The challenge that we have is that between then and now, there are things that have taken place. Language has changed.  

We can change meaning. When I grew up if somebody says, oh, don't touch that thing, it's hot. It meant you will be burned. Nowadays, if somebody says, oh, that's a hot car. He's not say it’s hot, it’s burrning, he's saying, oh, you should take a look at it.  

Because this is just happening 20 years now. I want you to imagine 2000 years ago how languages changed. Time changes the way we see things, history changes the way we interpret things. 

Culture, don't get me started on culture. Isn't amazing how Republicans think that Jesus and the church belongs to them because it’s a culture. They make it so exclusive, like everybody isn't it amazing how every denomination things they are doing the right thing than the other?  

It's not because of interpretation is because of culture. A lot of things have taken place over a period of time. Now we think a certain way, and we tend to look at scripture the same way.  

That's when we run into trouble. So our job is to bridge the gap between when the scripture was written to now. And the way we bridge that gap is through these five things I've listed here.  

That's how you can come to proper context by bridging that gap. It's 7:00 PM and I did it. Now any questions?

This whole month we're talking about how next week we're going to look at how we interpret scriptures, things that we need to know first, because as we as we all have, like reading plans and reading scriptures throughout the year.  

We want to read and get the benefits of reading scripture. And have a full understanding of what this means so that you and I are not found in error. Titus 2 says the order must teach the younger to be sober, grave sounding faith, teach us at home.  

So that the word of God will not be blasphemed. Which means if you see the word of God being blasphemed anyway. Somebody forgot to teach. And somebody forgot to do the right thing.  

This is why we have so many people Pastors doing all kinds of gimmick because the older forgot to teach the proper things, that's why it says teach things that shall become sound doctrine.  

So I'm going to make these notes available because study them, check it. Don't just say, oh pasta Zee was right. Check this so that you can arrive at the same destination that I also arrive that Calvin will arrive, that Christina would arrive.  

So as we are making plans to read scriptures this year, don't forget these things. Otherwise, you could go from January to December and get to December confused. And we are not supposed to be confused at all.  

The first thing that we need to get is inspiration, revelation, interpretation, illumination. Then we apply, we don't just apply. Gotta follow the steps in order to get to application. Otherwise, if you just keep some steps, you're going to apply the wrong thing.  

Hence you won't get to the same destination. The scripture says without faith, it's impossible to please God. It does not say if I have a little bit, if I try. It says if you don't have faith it's impossible. It's not negotiable.  

So we need to understand some of these scriptures and what's being said so that you and I get the proper illumination from the Holy Spirit, then our application will be much easier.

If you find yourself trying to do something and is difficult, you probably have skipped the process. James says to us in 1:22 I’ll finished with this. Be ye do us of the word, not hearers only.

Otherwise you are deceiving yourself. For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out, is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror.  And after observing himself, he goes away immediately not next week, immediately.

He forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and continues to do so, not being a forgetful hearer but an effective doer. He will be blessed in what he does. 

Incredible scripture. Pay close attention to the words. Being used in there. Amen right, everybody happy, I'm happy. So tomorrow we continue with 6:00 AM until Friday, then the week after that, we go to 7:00 AM.  

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your people and I thank you, Lord, that as we desire to do what's right in this year. Bless us in our efforts to know you better as we read Scripture as we communicate with one another as we share ideas. 

As we read your word daily. Help us to have proper revelation that leads to great illumination and interpretation, so that as we try in our efforts to do the word, we are not found lacking.  

I thank you for being our Blessed Redeemer. Now as we yield to you help us in our endeavors and quest to do all that, you have called us to do and that you have prepared for us to do. We bless you and honor you in Jesus name, Amen.