So what's the plan??

The Year 2012
An intentional focus on Scripture

Now that Christmas is over, we should start looking toward the new year. I’m sure you did some planning for Christmas. Maybe you made a list of who to buy Christmas presents for. Maybe you planned some things to do. Maybe it was as simple as a packing list. We all did at least some planning for Christmas.

With all the planning and preparation we do for things, we shouldn’t neglect our spiritual lives. I want to encourage you to do some planning for your spiritual life in 2012. (click here for Rob’s sermon on “Getting Ready for 2012”)

There are many passages about holiness and sanctification. Here are a few to get things started:

1 Thessalonians 4:3a – For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
Hebrews 10:14 – For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Romans 6:22 – But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

What we all need for 2012 is a “Sanctification Strategy”
Scripture Input is 100% necessary to your life
(you should write this down somewhere)

Sanctification means: Holy - consecrated - dedicated to the service of God. The word indicates the process of sanctification. It’s something you are actively doing – something you are striving toward.

Hebrews 12:14 – Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord

We were saved for holiness, not just so that we have “fire insurance,” show up at church a couple of times a week, then do whatever the rest of the week.

Ephesians 1:4 & 2:10 – he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Colossians 1:22 – says that God saved us, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

You can’t expect to be holy and growing spiritually just because you show up at church. Just stopping in to the gym a few times a week won’t make you healthy and buff. You need to work at it. You need a plan.

Here’s my suggestion for a plan. This is the plan that I’m encouraging all of the high school students at Immanuel to put into place so that together we can grow in Christlikeness and encourage each other and “stir up one another to love and good works.”

My encouragement is to be intentional about these four things this year:

1. Hear the Bible
You need to regularly show up where you’ll hear the Bible read and taught. For high school students at Immanuel, this means SIX33, and Sunday mornings (both Bible Study and “Big Church”)
Romans 10:17 – So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13 – Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Paul instructed Pastors to read and teach God’s Word. If it’s important for Pastors to read and teach, then it’s important for Christians to hear and be taught God’s Word.

Practical steps to Hearing God’s Word:
- Show up ready to listen - Remove distractions
Think through and Remove distractions - is someone going to talk to
me? (sit somewhere else), turn off your cell phone, anything else?
- Engage your mind.
Come prepared - bring your Bible, a notebook, and a pen
Take notes. Ask “where is this going?” Follow the flow.
- Apply
Ask: What are you going to do with this? How are you going to apply
this? Don’t just sit, listen, then move on. Do something with what you
learned.

2. Read the Bible
Practical suggestions for consistent Bible Reading
- Make it an appointment
Schedule a time, and keep it. Consider it a vital appointment (because
it is) I’m convinced that in the morning is the best time.
- Find a plan
There are many good plans available.
--> Click here for our reading plan this year.

- Think deeply about one word, phrase, or verse
Really think it through. Think deeper.
A journal helps here - write your thoughts down.

Scripture is: Sharp. Penetrating. Dividing. Discerning
Allow it to be that in your life.

3. Study the Bible
Reading gives you the big picture. Studying gives you the details and the real depth of Scripture.

Acts 17:11 – they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
This is studying Scripture. These guys listened to the teaching, went home, and studied the Bible themselves.
The next verse says - Many of them therefore believed
People are studying Scripture - people are getting saved.
What a great pattern, right?

R.C. Sproul says that the reason we neglect studying God’s Word isn’t because it’s hard to understand or because it’s boring, but because we’re lazy & it takes work. It’s not that we’re not smart enough or not passionate about it - we’re just lazy.

The difference between reading and studying is a journal. Pen and paper.

--> Click here for a guide to studying Scripture.

4. Memorize the Bible
There are so many benefits to Scripture memory.
Proverbs 22:17-19 – Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, 18for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you.
If you were to memorize just one verse each week, by the end of the year, you’d have 52 verses memorized.
There are so many benefits to Scripture memory.

--> For our Scripture memory plan, click here
To hear what John Piper says about Scripture memory, click here.

A Final Question: If your spiritual growth were measured by the quality and quantity of your Bible intake, what would your “score” be?

If you’re thinking, or have ever thought, “Honestly, I’m really not growing spiritually like I know I should be and want to be...”
It’s very likely that it’s due to lack of Bible Input into your life. You have no shortage of worldly input into your life. TV, Movies, Magazines, internet, school, radio, iPod, spending time with people, shopping, billboards, etc.

Remember - our goal is sanctification holiness. How does that happen? In John 17:17, Jesus prayed: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John MacArthur says: True believers who make up the true church hunger for the Word of God
Pray and ask the Lord to place in you a hunger for His Word.
Then - put a plan into place.

Click here for Rob’s full sermon on “Getting Ready for 2012.”