The Disciple Who Never Opens Their Bible

The Disciple Who Never Opens Their Bible | Ain't Quiet Podcast

You own a Bible. You might even own several. But owning it and being in it are two completely different things. Biblical illiteracy in the church is at an all time high — and this episode is a direct confrontation of the believer who claims to follow Jesus Christ but never opens the book He left behind.

In this episode of Ain't Quiet Podcast, Reformed Baptist pastor and host Pappy tackles one of the most overlooked crises in the modern church — biblical discipleship. This is not just a men's issue. It is a church issue. Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, grandparents, Sunday school teachers, and small group leaders are sitting in pews for decades calling themselves disciples and couldn't walk someone through the Gospel if they had to. We have traded depth for convenience and called it discipleship. That ends today.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why the church is producing the most biblically illiterate generation of Christians in modern history
• Why this is not just a men's problem — women, parents, and leaders are equally affected
• What happens spiritually to a person who does not know their Bible — and why they are dangerously vulnerable
• What hermeneutics is, why it matters to every believer, and how anyone can study the Bible better starting today
• Practical tools for studying Scripture correctly so you stop reading it like a fortune cookie
• How to point your children, grandchildren, and those you have influence over toward the Word at any age
• Why the leadership crisis in Christian homes starts with biblical illiteracy
• What real Bible engagement actually looks like — and why reading plans and streaks are not the same thing as discipleship
• A direct challenge to every listener to open the Book today

Scriptures Referenced in This Episode (ESV):

Hosea 4:6 | Acts 17:11 | Psalm 119:105 | Psalm 119:9 | Psalm 119:11 | Matthew 4:4, 4:7, 4:10 | 2 Timothy 2:15 | 2 Peter 1:20–21 | Hebrews 4:12 | Deuteronomy 6:6–7 | Proverbs 22:6 | 2 Timothy 1:5 | Psalm 1:1–2 | 2 Timothy 3:16–17 | James 1:22

Resources Mentioned:

• Blue Letter Bible — free online tool for studying original Hebrew and Greek words (blueletterbible.org)

Connect With Ain't Quiet:

🔗 Links, Resources & More: https://linktr.ee/pastordrewpap

👕 Merch: https://aintquietpodcast.dashery.com/

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Ain't Quiet Podcast — Faith that speaks when the world stays silent.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

You own a Bible. Maybe even you several Bibles, but you never open them. Owning a Bible and being in the Bible are two completely different things. And today we're going to talk about the disciple who never opens their Bible. And there's a real chance that this disciple is you. So buckle up. Here we go. See, here's the thing about the world today. We have more access to the Bible than any time in history. You're watching this maybe on podcast download, you're watching this on YouTube, you're seeing clips of this on Facebook, on Instagram, anywhere else that it might get shared. We have access to the Bible in more ways than people ever have. But access and opening are not the same thing. So how do we get this? What do we get out of this? Well, we get that people are illiterate. Not that they can't read. This isn't an attack on anyone's reading level or anything else. This is, or biblically illiterate. You've opened the Bible, you've got it on your phone, you check off a list. I opened up the notification of the daily Bible verse, but you've never let the word of God do what it's designed to do. Now, you've heard it, and maybe you can quote John 3.16 or your favorite Bible verse, you know, maybe in context, maybe, but you've never let the Word of God do what the Word of God's designed to do, what it was purposed to do, what it was commissioned to do, what God gave it to us for. It's alive, it's real, it's it's personal. It it shows us the design of our creator, it shows us the Savior that came and the life that he lived, it teaches us the commandments, it teaches us of of laws that thankfully we don't have to necessarily keep anymore because Jesus fulfilled them and how the world's gonna end and how end times is gonna come, and what it means to be a Christian, how to become a Christian, what that means for your sin, what that means for your life, what that means for your family, all these things. We've got all these people who might claim to follow him, who might say they're a Christian, they know Jesus, but at the end of the day, they're never in their Bible. You're never gonna meet a deep, faithful, walking Christian who's not in the Word of God following God, who's not all in as a Christian, a Christ-like follower, without listening to the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ. And where is all that? The Bible. So that's what we're hitting on today. That's what we're talking about. This is this is kind of a this is for the person, not really that's never heard of Jesus. If you've not, then I challenge you. If this is a podcast that got shared to you, go start in the gospels. Go up, get a Bible, download it, get a physical one, look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and just start reading. Read about Jesus, understand how he came, why he came, all the things, it'll all be explained in there. Start from there. This episode is not really for you. Okay, if if that if that's you, go ahead and hit stop and go to the next one. Go go listen to another episode, but open your Bible and start with the gospels. What this is, is hey, if you're truly gonna say you're a Christian, you're a Christ-like follower, are you really doing what you're supposed to be doing? Now that question could come to what are we supposed to be doing? Well, there could be a ton of things that could go to the answer. But if you're not in your Bible, 100% you will not know any of the things you're supposed to be doing. So we've got to start somewhere. Let's start with the word. So here we go. What do we believe today is? We believe that today is the most biblically illiterate generation of Christians in modern history. It's not a priority to go to church, it's not a priority to lead your family biblically, it's not a priority to be in devotionals and grow in the word of God and things like that. So what do we get? We get people who sum up their Christianity on a highlight reel. Okay. It's it's the highlights, it's the good things, it's the the prayers and the moments, or it's a three-minute devotional, it's the daily Bible verse comes up as a notification, you read it, you think that's cool, maybe it's a verse you've never heard, and that's it. And you do that. But no one's doing what the Word of God designs anymore. It's sitting down and wrestling with the text. Yes. If you open your Bible and commit, hey, God, for one year, I'm gonna read my Bible every day, and I'm gonna allow it to talk to me in the way that you allowed it to talk to me. I'm going to wrestle with it, I'm going to let it change me and transform me. You will not stay the same person a year from now. You cannot go into the Word of God and read all the things and say, okay, I'm perfect, I'm living my life how I am, everything's great, I need nothing to change. The Bible's gonna make you wrestle with something. It's gonna make you grip on, uh have a grip on either the word or the world. And so we get this illiterate group that says, hey, it's it's a symptom of things to go on. We've we've traded this where we get, I don't want depth, I want convenience. And and we say, well, that's great. We opened the Bible, we had a convenient little time, and it's discipleship. Well, then what are we getting out of this? Men are not leading their families in the Word. Women are are outsourcing, and and this is not just women, men do this too, okay, where you're outsourcing your theology, your doctrine, your growth to Instagram quotes and devotional books that don't even mention the Bible, that just speak spiritual language and feel good stuff. And then we get children that are growing up in homes that own fifteen Bibles and they're on the shelf and they're everywhere and they're used as decorative, but they're never opened. That's the problem that we're going to speak on today. Okay. Hosea 4, 6 says this, let me read this. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Notice at the end of this verse, not being in the word reaches the next generation. Being biblically illiterate, it's never just a personal problem. It always costs someone else. You not being biblically illiterate to go do what you're called to do will cause others to suffer by not hearing the gospel, by a whole mess of things. Okay. That's a rabbit hole. Uh that's another time. But I also want to say, as much as last episode was very, very much pointed at men, and if you're a man listening to this, catching this on YouTube or somewhere and you didn't hear last episode, maybe this is the first time you've seen Ain't Quiet Podcast on YouTube on this channel, go to the last one. Last episode about men and and the the lies that are killing men and discipleship, because I truly believe, got some feedback from that, that there's some people that are wrestling with that episode right now. Not because I'm a great speaker or anything. It's not that. It's not going to be that. Is it all still weird and awkward? It's it's because they realize, man, God's called me to lead my family, prepare to lead a family that's coming, lead in situations I'm in at work, at church, and different things. And I believe that men are stepping up right now because that episode called out people that have been lazy and just saying they're comfortable, and that's okay. But this specific problem that we're discussing today, back to today, is not just for men. There's women in the church that are vulnerable to this, and in some ways the pressure looks different. See, women who are normally, okay, great church volunteers, wonderful church volunteers. Yes, Pastor, I'll do that. I'll sign up for that, I'll help with that, I'll be in the kitchen, I'll help with the greeting, I'll do this, whatever you need me to do. And and women are deeply involved in the church and serve on the committees, yet they still never actually study scripture themselves. And if that's you, you may know what your favorite Bible teacher said about a passage. You know, you may know what what's the latest quote on Alibeth Stuckey or or whoever. I like Alibeth. So but you you you read your devotional, maybe you listen to her, you do these things. This is not a dig at her. Like I said, I'm a supporter of Alibeth Stuckey. But you can't open the Bible and understand what it's saying. You just can remember what Alibeth said, not what the Word of God said. Okay? And that's the backwards part of it. We're relying on people instead of the Word of God. So Acts 17 talks on this. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. See, these people didn't just take Paul's word for it. Paul, one of the greatest theologians ever, one of the greatest teachers ever, one of the best writers ever. And these people were like, hey, we can't take your word for it. We've got to go back, we've got to study scripture, we've got to, we've got to get to the root of it to make sure that if we're gonna get one thing right, it's the word of God, that we're staying in line with what God intended this commandment, this teaching, this uh passage to be. They didn't rely just on Paul. And if we can't uh rely on Paul, then you definitely can't rely on people today. And yes, that includes me. You can't rely on me and my illustrations of scripture and and teaching of it and breaking it down in the sermons that that you see that are on the channel. You can't depend on those. You have to get in the word. You have to have a personal walk, a personal relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, with the Word of God. Like this is not this, this is the standard for every believer. This is not just for pastors, it's not just for the theologians, it's not just for the men in the room. Here's what the Word of God says: your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalms 119, 105. Let me say this a lamp, especially in the context of this verse, never does anyone any good if it's never picked up, if it's never used. Okay. Your word, the Bible, is a lamp to shine light, to shine you to a path to where God's willed and called for you to go, to do all the things for your life to become. But if you never pick it up, how are you gonna know the next steps? Like we're just comfy with whatever. Well, what happens when you don't know your Bible? Well, you become very vulnerable, okay? You you're a person that doesn't know your word, you can't discern false teaching. Okay? So then uh all the false teachers that are out there, there's a whole list, and called them out on this channel before, called them out in videos and things before. You can't discern that, wow, that's really bad teaching. That's not in the Bible. That's twisting the word. Well, what else happens if you don't know your Bible? Well, you can't lead your family spiritually. Okay. Well, then you can't counsel a friend going through a crisis with anything more than your own opinion. Do you know that for the Word of God, it actually gives us answers to situations? Like, hey, you're going through a messed up marriage, you're going through a potential divorce, you're going through the loss of a child, the loss of a family member, the loss of a spouse or mother or father. You just lost your job. Financially, things just don't make sense right now. All of those can be answered in the word of God. But we don't, we trade it for easy answers, okay? We're much rather to believe the word of Google than to believe the word of God. And then we get in the mess we're in. Or, hey, uh, it must be okay, that must be right, there's no way Google's wrong, or there's no way chat GPT's wrong, or whatever AI search you use, and I'm gonna go with whatever answer it gives me and hope that it's right instead of the word of God, which is perfect and right. But that doesn't bother people. Like, like, dad dummit, guys, that should bother you. Like as a as just not even just as a pastor and not in podcast or anything else, just as a Christian man. Like it, it should, it hurts me to think there's people out there that are like, uh, the Bible's eh. Like, I've seen the Bible shape through addiction. I've seen the Bible shape through strengthening my marriage. I've seen the Bible and all of these things come through crisis and trauma and and situations and death and all these things. And the word of God's been there steadfast and true every time. So, like, I wonder why. What makes it the thing that people don't want to do? Why do people not want to just run to it? Okay. You know that some people just don't. So when they're illiterate of the word, what happens? They don't know their Bible. They're they fight temptation without knowing anything else besides willpower. And then you relapse. You say, Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna quit watching porn. I'm gonna quit the drugs, I'm gonna quit the the things I'm doing behind someone's back, I'm gonna quit the the the scheming and cheating at work or wherever else, whatever you've got going on, and then you're like, oh, I'm gonna try it, and I got willpower into this, and then you fail because we're depraved people, we're sinful people, and we don't make it, and you don't make it, and then you're like, oh, I'm back on drugs, I'm back doing this, this situation got worse, all these things. Well, willpower, your willpower, 100% will run out. It will run out, it will be done. Okay. Psalms 119.9 says this. How can a young man keep his way pure? Well, by guarding it against, by guard it according to your word. And then Psalms 119.11, two verses later, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So let's talk about this. Jesus himself got tempted. The devil came and tempted him, gave him, took him in the wilderness, went out in the wilderness and stuff, and tempted him. And Jesus didn't reply with feelings, he didn't reply with experiences, which he had experiences. Okay. He literally is the son of God. He'd already went through things, he'd seen, performed miraculous things. He all these things, and and he didn't quote a worship song or a lyric. How did he do it? And it's in Matthew, okay. He started with this phrase it is written. Every time the devil tried to attempt something, he came back with scripture. He fought temptations of the world and struggles of the world and everything. The three times Satan came at him and he responded with the word. So, fact. If the Son of God uses Scripture as a weapon against the enemy, you should use Scripture to fight the enemy. But you can't if you're not in Scripture. Okay? So what do you think you're gonna, how you're gonna fight your problems and your finances and your wrecked marriage and your situation and your kids aren't listening to you or your parents and problems or work or whatever? If that's what Jesus' immediate reaction was to defeat temptations, was the word, how are you gonna get through it if your Bible's collecting dust and hasn't been open in three weeks? Like, like, how do you expect to fight? Okay, what is it? So let me give you this. Can't see in the background? I've got two college degrees. I'm proud of them because I never was a great person to finish things I started, and those were really a great supportive point through my wife and my family and people to support me while I, at a later age than the normal college age, went and got my degrees. Very happy for those. In one of those, we took a class, we went over some things called hermeneutics. I want to talk about this for a second, okay? I want to tell you what it is, and I'm gonna tell you why it matters. Okay. That big old word just scares people because it sounds academic. Okay, hermeneutics is something that pastors study. This is up to pastors and and and people of certain things. No, actually, it applies to everyone, and it's super important, okay? This is super important. And when you get this right, it changes how you study, how you read the Bible, and what what jumps out from the text to you, okay? So, first, let me tell you this. Here's what it is it's asking the right questions of the text so that you understand what God actually meant, not just what you want it to mean or what feels good in the moment. Hermeneutics takes out all emotions. Hermeneutics takes out all perceived meanings, all twisted meanings. Hermeneutics measures and corrects against what the false teachers taught back in the day and what the prosperity and the false teachers teach today. Okay? Hermeneutics is the measurement that gets us back to everything. But bad hermeneutics is how you get prosperity gospel preachers taking Jeremiah 29, 11 out of context and telling you that God has a plan to make you wealthy. Okay. If God had a plan for every Christian to be wealthy, churches would be so full, and like on our church or any other church, they would be having to have so many services a day from people that would be all in on whatever they got to get through that service for. But bad hermeneutics is how people read the Bible like it's a fortune cookie, and they flip it to a random verse and apply it directly to their situation without understanding who wrote it, who it was written for, and what is the meaning of the original text. So I'm giving you that because here's three questions that good hermeneutics does ask that are foundational questions. And here it is. If you're listening to this, if you're not driving, okay, if you're driving, get this down later. If you're somewhere where you can write this down, these are the three questions that are most important when you go through text and a passage. Okay. What did it mean then? So you're asking that question to go to this. Who wrote it? Who was the audience? What was the historical and cultural context? Okay. That's why you'll understand at certain times you'll get to and be like, oh, so Jesus used the parable and was talking to farmers when he was in an agricultural area. Oh, that makes total sense. He's talking to people that that their lives, their livelihood, their whole system, their economic system right there depended on that. Then you get people who are built by the sea, and then you understand, oh, that's that's people that are on the coast by the water. Like, oh, we get to it it it changes, doesn't change the word, but it changes your understanding to be like, oh, that's what he meant by it. Okay. So the first question, what did it mean then? Next question, what does it mean always? This is a timeless principle or truth that the passage communicates regardless of time period. Okay. There are things that apply then in the biblical context of some examples that don't apply in the same meaning now. Now it's still a call to repentance, Jesus Christ, and the gospel message, but you know, there's there's things like, okay, that's that's a learning point to go through. Well then what does it mean always to get, okay, that truth doesn't matter if this is biblical time, 1400s, 1800s, or 2026, that applies today. Okay. So we've got our two questions so far. I'm about to get to third. What did it mean then? What does it mean always? And then the third one, what does it mean now? How does this truth apply to my specific life situation and decisions today? And it may not be, okay, God's calling me to do this and this and this, and I've got to twist scripture in this. It may just be, okay, this is pointing to the context of the verse and the passage to say, hey, this is calling for someone to repent and turn back and walk closer to Jesus Christ, walk in the will of God. Okay, that applies to my life today. I'm not in first century world, biblical world, but I still am called to repent and I'm still called to turn from my sin, I'm still called to follow Jesus Christ, I'm still called to worship a God who's a creator uh of all things and Jesus Christ who's a savior of the world for every believer. Okay, that applies to me today. All right. So, so uh how does that apply today? And you get that. So, how was it then? How does it mean always? What does it mean today? Okay, and here's the main one. Here's a big one for for this, okay? I'm gonna get this in a minute. Sorry, I'm I'm jumping ahead. 2 Timothy 2 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. I think some people don't even realize that they should be ashamed by how they handle the word of God. Like rightly handling the word The word of God is not an accident. It's work. It's a skill every believer is called to develop. Not just seminary students and not just pastors. Okay. That phrase rightly handling in the original Greek carries the idea of cutting a straight line. You cut crooked when you don't know what you're doing with the text. And the goal of hermeneutics is a big old word is to cut straight through the text, to cut straight into the purpose and reason for it. So you got your questions you should ask every time. You're reading passages and everything, but here's some practical tools that you can use right now for it. Okay. You got your questions. Here's the thing. Read the passage in its full context. I encourage you never to pull a single verse out without reading what comes before and what comes after. That's going to help you in context. That's going to help you in understanding. And that's going to help you get in the right mindset. Who's this talking to? What was the application then? What was the message then? What was the reason behind it? Okay. So don't just pull out John 3.16. Read, read John 3, really. But at least read, you know, a couple verses before and definitely read a couple verses after. Yeah, that's a VBS simple verse, but I most people don't ever read John 3.17. John 3.17 is powerful. Okay. And that's just one example. There's so many others. Okay. Next one you go. Practical tool, this you can use. Ask who's speaking and who they are speaking to. Know the area, know the things. The best way to do this, get a study Bible. Get a Bible that gives you, this is mine that I preach from. I'm going to show you right here. This is a Reformation study Bible. At the beginning of every book, it explains who is the author or who is thought to be the author, or if we don't know the context of who it's going to, gives background of it, background of the area, everything else to get you fully ready to read whatever book you're in of the Bible to understand all the things, the context, ask those questions to really get good at hermeneutics. Okay. So you can ask who's speaking and who they're speaking to. Then look at the same passage in two or three translations to get a clear picture of the language. Okay. Now not everyone's going to get convicted and say, okay, when I get done with the verse, I got to go back and see what that verse means and what does that verse translate back into Greek if it's New Testament, Hebrew, and Old Testament, things like that. But you can see as long as you've got two or three good translations, okay? And yes, there are bad translations of the Bible. I preach from an ESV. I recommend ESB, CSB, NIV. I love those. There's some others that I would recommend, but I'm those are the ones I highly, highly go with. My Bibles that I study, this one that I preach from is an ESV. Okay. Look at the context of good translations to get a clear picture of what the language is saying. Okay. You can find resources. There's another tool. Find a resource that does look at the original Hebrew or Greek words to teach you certain words. And like, oh, that means that's a call to action. That's not just a understand the verse and do this. That that literally means like I shouldn't just hear this word, I should go do it. That word literally means a verb, and I should take this verse and act on it. Okay? Find resources that do that. And then here's the other one. Ask what the rest of scripture says about the same topic. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. Now that's a big one. And a lot of people won't go to that one. That's something I actually got out of class and more in my personal walk is if I'm going through a situation, okay, I want to find all the places in the Bible that speak on that situation in the right context, asking all those questions, all those things, and then so I can fully know what the word of God says on it and let the word interpret itself to transform my life. Because that's what the word of God's for. Okay. So I ask what the rest of Scripture says about the same topic. Second Peter 1, 20 through 21, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. See, the word didn't come from man's interpretation. And it should not be received through man's interpretation alone either. Study it yourself, the Holy Spirit to reveal and work in you, and allow the Bible to interpret the Bible. Don't you you can't read the Bible through your emotions. You're going to find verses and take them out of context because it's going to make you feel empowered to what emotion you're feeling. And then what? The Bible's not interpreting it. You're interpreting it. We take it out of scripture. We have to study the Bible for itself. Okay, so you've gotten some tools. We've gone through this as saying the Bible, we're a biblically illiterate generation, even though we have more access to the Bible and resources than anyone in history. This isn't just a men's problem. And then talking about what happens if you don't know the Bible. Well, even using the example of Jesus and how he fought temptation, you quoting the word of God to the devil, saying, Well, you're not bigger than the word. And that's awesome. That's so awesome. I love to bring that up. And then we went through a big old fancy word of hermeneutics where you get to those questions. So you've got to this point in the episode. And now it's time for you to actually apply it. But then it's like, uh, I'm not going to do this. And maybe the listening retention rate on here, you've already some people have already checked out, and the viewer number at this point is very few. Well, the ones that aren't probably have made this excuse. I don't have time. I don't understand it. Oh, this is a this is a dangerous one. I get enough from Sunday sermons. I listen to sermons on my way to work. I do a quick read devotional or daily Bible verse every morning. None of these are discipleship. Some of them are very harmful. I don't have time, I don't understand it. I get enough from Sunday. I think that's super harmful and very dangerous. As a pastor, we only get so much time that we know your human little body and brain can focus long enough for sermons. We can't preach for eight hours. And even if we could, it's still not going to be enough. Okay? It's it's never going to be enough. So some of these are are are helpful. None of them replace the what? Person sitting down with text, reading the Bible in context, wrestling with it, letting it do its work. Hebrews 4 12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and any, and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. See the words described as a sword, a sword cutting through, and then it gets back to that hermeneutics word, cutting straight through the text, okay? The word of God is to cut straight through, to get to pierce right through with what the word's saying. So think of it like a sword, and then think of it like this. If the Bible is a sword designed to cut straight through, but a sword's left in a sheath, it's left in its case, then it does nothing. It can't do anything. Okay? And a person who owns his Bible but never opens it is carrying a weapon they've never learned to use and they've never learned to apply in their lives. And then hey, we talked about earlier, it gets you to a punishment of someone else. Someone else suffers when we're not taking the word seriously, when we're not growing in it, we're not walking in it. Well, you want to know who suffers? Your children. If you're a parent on this episode, you're listening, whether you're a parent, a grandparent, you're an aunt, you're an uncle, Sunday school teacher, youth leader, or simply someone that's got someone in your life you have influence over what you model and what you teach about the Bible will shape them for the rest of their lives. That's a fact. Now, children don't need you to be perfect little parents and fake it till you make it. Okay? That's not what children need. They need parents who open their Bibles in front of them. They need to see mom sitting at the kitchen table with coffee with her Bible before the day starts. They need to see dad reading scripture and talking about with his children what he's learned. They need to hear the word referenced in normal daily conversations, not just Sunday morning. You want to know a big one? Parents, let me give you an easy soft toss pitch here, okay, to go through. On Monday, Tuesday, after Sunday service. One, go to church, take your kids with you. Or this idea is not really going to work. But here's the next one. On Monday or Tuesday, go back to the text the preacher preached, or if you're if you've got a church that's in children's church or whatever, figure out what they went through. On Monday or Tuesday, go back through it. Make sure that they understand it, read it to them, read the before, read the after, ask the questions, teach them and whatever level they're at. Okay. You can't start with a four-year-old and have him start thinking or even pronouncing hermeneutics. Okay. Meet them where they're at and just say, hey, y'all studied on John 3.16. What does that mean to you? Well, well, here's the here's what the John 3 got to leading up to John 3.16. Here's what it said after. What do you think that means? You can go through things. So on Monday or Tuesday, just take the time and say, hey, here's what we're going to do. You went through this verse, you went through this passage that we all sat together in church, and the sermon was on, you know, Genesis 1.1. Okay, let's go through Genesis 1.1. Let's talk about it a little more. Take it deeper than just Sunday morning. Apply it and lead on through it as you're going through it. Don't have Sunday morning conversations, have daily conversations, have weekly conversations. Call them to more than that. See, God doesn't tell pastors to disciple your children. So it's on you. You're responsible for your child's biblical foundation that sits, the child that sits in your home first. They're in your home first before they ever step in a church building. So, parents, it's on you, you to disciple your child. Now, I want to give you some practical ways to point your child and or a young person, someone towards the Word. I gave answer one already. Let me just go through it a little deeper. Start simple and age appropriate. A child doesn't need, and I have this here, okay? I'm telling myself. Essentials of Reform Systematic Theology. Okay, this is a book I got recently, Joel Beake, and I love it. And I'm going through it and reading it in my own personal time some. This is not for a six-year-old, okay? This is not what a six-year-old is ready to go through yet. Okay? So take your time. They need to hear Bible stories told as real history with real people and a real God who shows up every time. Read it to them, let them ask questions, and find the answer together when you don't know it. Say, hey, I don't know what he means by drag net. Okay. Let's go through and see what the word of God might say on that. I don't know what this parable means. Hey, let's go through and teach this. Let's let's go through and read it to see if Jesus later on explains the parable that he taught. Because he did that in some of his passages, in some of his parables. For teenagers, okay, don't just this this is a big one, okay? So if you're a parent, I'm gonna clip this probably into something. If you're a parent with a teenage son or daughter, don't just tell them what to believe. Teach them how to read it for themselves. Get them thinking through the text themselves. Walk them through the passage. Show them how to ask questions of the text. Teach them the questions we went over earlier in this episode. Let them wrestle with hard things instead of just give them the easy answer. Because here's what's gonna happen. When they get to college, when they get into the real world, their faith's gonna be challenged and without a foundation of wrestling with the text and going through it and standing firm on it, they're gonna crumble. And that's why so many people that you raised and you did everything you could until they were 18, before they either went in the real world, went to college, trade school, uh, off to somewhere, whatever they could do, they've never wrestled with it. They don't have a foundation of the word, they have a foundation of you. And when you are not there, then they crumble. That's the reason that happens so much. We have to build a foundation. So for the, for them, just show them how to ask questions, let them wrestle with some hard things. Sometimes you're gonna have to be hands-off. You're gonna have to be close, but hands-off. Okay, instead of just giving them the easy answer. And then, you know, we talked about the young people, children, we've talked about teenagers, but what about if someone's new to the church or they're just coming to the faith? I told them at the beginning of the episode they could even clock out of this episode for a minute. Probably not what you know podcasts suggest to do, but in reality, start with the gospels. Let them read about Jesus first. Don't throw them into Leviticus and wonder why they never come back. Walk alongside them. Accountability to grow with someone, walk with someone, disciple someone comes from two things. One, you have to know the word to be willing to walk with someone else through the word. And two, you have to be walking with Jesus in a way that you're convicted to see the loss the way Jesus saw them. Not as dirty, rotten, sinful people, though they are, but as people that can be redeemed by a Savior who came into this world. So walk alongside of them, point them to the text over and over. Don't give them your opinion, just give them the word. Proverbs 22, 6 talks about this train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. It starts on you first, okay, before discipling anyone else. You cannot give what you do not have. If you don't have the word of God planted and this system in place, and you're really ready to study, and you have a good grasp of even if you don't even know the word hermeneutics, you have a good grasp of hermeneutics, then you can't pass that to someone else. You can't pass what you don't have, okay? So then it gets to this what's the leadership crisis that this is creating? Well, it's not just a personal problem, it's a household problem, and it's a church problem. People don't know their Bible, they can't lead their families spiritually. Then they outsource the responsibility to their pastor, if we're lucky, to the youth group, if you're fortunate, to a Christian school if you get into one of those. And then if not, their favorite YouTuber, TikTok, or the non-church going person they sit by at school. That's who gets to influence them. That's who goes. And then we wonder why our kids are walking away at 18, saying, I never really knew Jesus. That was just my mom and dad's thing, or my mom's thing, or that was my grandma's thing, and she drugged me every time they had anything, but it never really was anything for me. Okay. See, a mother who knows her Bible will raise children who respect the word. A father who leads his family raises children who see the Bible as something worth opening. A grandparent who prays scripture over their grandchildren, plant something in them that does not easily die. So, what's real Bible engagement actually look like? Now, this is not about reading plans or daily streaks where you check in, you read a verse, and you did it on the app. Woo-hoo, great job. That didn't really do diddly squat, okay? This is about how many it's not, it's not about how many chapters you knocked in out in the morning. It's about a person who takes the word of God so seriously that they sit with it, they chew with it, they slow it down, they ask what it means and how it can change their life. That's what real biblical engagement looks like is taking it from hearing to applying and hearing to doing. James talks about that in the Bible. Okay. So we have to get into where we're meditating on the word day and night. Okay, it talks about that in Psalms. But meditation doesn't just mean emptying your mind, it means filling it. Okay. Turning the word over and over, thinking about it, letting it settle to see how you see the world, how you make decisions through the lens of scripture. Okay, it's like I have my glasses here. Okay, I don't have them on because uh just didn't put them on. But here's what the Bible gets to us, okay? So here's my glasses, and and they're dirty and nasty. Ignore that part. Okay. You need to study and have the word of God so much in you that when you go out into the world, you're putting on the lens through scripture and looking around to see there's a lost person over there that I could help. There's a situation I could pray over. There's someone falsely proclaiming the word of God, and no one is doing anything, and they're preaching something that goes directly against the word of God. And so we're seeing these things happening, these things in the world, we're understanding how to look at the Middle East right now, we're understanding the world and all these things, and maybe you're not even understanding it to the complete depth, but you're seeing more and more through the lens of scripture instead of the world. Because, in essence of that analogy, you're going to put on a lens of something. Something's going to shape and shape you on how you see the world. So it's either scripture or it's not. Okay? And then you have the responsibility to pass that to others. 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Every word of 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17, every word of that verse matters. Profitable for teaching, that means the word of God instructs you. For reproof, it corrects you. It corrects wrong belief. For correction, it straightens out wrong behavior. For training in righteousness, it builds the kind of life God designed. And all of that is available to every person who opens the Bible. But the flip side of that coin is none of it is available to the person who doesn't open their Bible. So all these things, you want you want to know correction, you want your life to change, you want things to matter, you want things to happen in your life, and I'm not saying there's a promise that things are going to become prosper and perfect and great because they're not. Okay, there's no promise of that in the word of God on this side of heaven. But everyone looks to the world looking for an answer. They're trying to get their bank account to grow, they're trying to find influence, they're trying to find all these things, and the word of God answers all of it. It's the perfect book. But if you're not in your word, how are you gonna know that? So there's one real simple challenge to this, kind of the challenge to close this. You don't need a special reading plan, though there are some. And if you want to message into the show, I'd be happy to send you reading plans that I've used or I recommend to others. I don't have one I personally write, but I do have some that I when people come to me in certain situations or walks of life or they're new Christians, they're not Christians yet, or anything else, I will I will recommend certain ones based on where you're at. And you want to message in and get those, I'd be happy to share that with you. Okay, I'll send you a link to where they're available. But here it is the reading plan, program, the all the things don't fix the solution. Open your Bible starting today. Now, I challenge you really, as I've gotten a little older, of don't just open your Bible app and scroll between verses and sit down and just say you did it. Get a physical Bible, sit down with the text, read it, and slowly ask, hey God, show me something out of this today. Highlight it, mark in your Bible, write down what he showed you today, and then go through your day or go to sleep if you do it at night, and then wake up tomorrow and do it again. And the day after that, and the day after that. And then if you're a parent, do this in front of your kids. Talk about it at dinner. Reference when things, when hard things happen, how the word of God helped you through things. Let the people around you see that this book is not a decoration in your home. It's the foundation of it. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1 22. The word was never meant for us to just hear it, it was meant to be lived. So you've got to open your Bible. So if this convicted you today, and this is This is exactly what it was supposed to do. Don't argue with what convictions coming on you right now. I want you to respond to it. Go open your Bible. If you know someone that's going through this or anything else, share this episode with them or someone in your life who's been coasting spiritually. And it might be the most important thing you send to them today. Maybe it is. But hey, if it did, subscribe, leave a review, come back next episode because hey, this is the Ain't Quiet Podcast, faith that speaks when the world stays sound. I'm your host, Pastor Drew. I love y'all. God bless. And until next time, go get in the word.