Beyond Sunday | Episode 1: Are You Reading the Bible the Right Way?

The host Aaron Young shares a personal experience where reading the Bible exposed his actions and challenged him to reflect on how he lives out his faith. He emphasizes the transformative power of the Bible, urging listeners to move beyond gaining knowledge to allowing the Word to shape their hearts and actions. He highlights the living nature of the Bible, inviting a deeper encounter with God through scripture. The ultimate goal is to draw closer to Jesus and be transformed into his image through obedient engagement with the Word. The audience is encouraged to read the Bible slowly, asking specific questions to apply its teachings practically in their daily lives. Leaders are reminded to model vulnerability and growth in their own spiritual journeys. Welcome to beyond Sunday. I'm your host Aaron young. I'm genuinely grateful. You've given me this time today This is episode number one I want to start off with something that happened to me a few years ago a moment that still stings when I think about it Sitting in my living room in my favorite chair coffee in hand Bible open to the book of James. I've read this passage a dozen times before it was familiar I was comfortable in my head. I said, I'm about to breeze through this and check The box on my reading plan But then I hit chapter 3 verse 9 and 10 and James writes With the tongue we bless our lord and father and with it We curse people who are made in the likeness of god from the same mouth comes blessings and curses Brothers, these things ought not to be so and in that moment I mean right there in my chair. I felt exposed not informed read Because just earlier that day I had something cutting about I had said something cutting about a co-worker. It was clever He got a laugh and I hadn't thought twice about it But now the words on the page were holding up a mirror They showed me a man who sang worship songs on sunday and tore people down who are made in god's image on monday I didn't finish my reading plan that morning. I closed the book and I just sat in silence Because god wasn't trying to give me a lesson. He was trying to give me a heart transplant And that's the question. I want to sit with today When was the last time the bible changed you? Not when it informed you Not when it gave you a verse to post Not when it helped you in an argument, but when was the last time you opened god's word and it exposed something in your heart? Because here's the truth the bible wasn't just given to be read It was given to read us Today we're going to explore what that means And how we can stop treating scripture like a textbook and start encountering it as a living conversation with god Stay with me. One of the most important verses in the entire bible. It's found in the book of hebrews Hebrews 4 12 you might know it and it says for the word of god is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of a soul Of a spirit and joint end of marrow discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart Now notice what the writer doesn't say He doesn't say the bible is ancient. He doesn't say it's wise He says it's living That's a profound claim. Most words on the page are dead words. They convey information They don't act they can't reach into your chest and rearrange things But god's word does It's not static. It's not passive It has agency It discerns it exposes I love the that last phrase discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart in greek The word for discern is critical Where we get our word critic It means the word of god is the critic of our inner world It evaluates what's really going on beneath the surface So when you open a bible, you're not merely studying an ancient document You're stepping to a living encounter with a god who still speaks through his word And that encounter doesn't just reveal who god is It reveals who we are Here's where many of us get stuck and includes myself in this We've been trained to approach the bible like we approach any other book Hashtag information understand concepts follow the way and look Sound teaching matters doctrine matters. I'm not minimizing that But if our bible engagement stops at information, we've missed the point Information fills the mind formation shapes the heart And god is after our hearts Think about the questions we tend to bring to scripture things like what's the historical context? What's the greek word here? How does this fit into my theology? Those are good questions, but they're incomplete the better question The transforming question is Lord, what are you trying to change in me through this? Because you can know that james warns about the tongue and still gossip You can know that jesus calls us to forgive And still hold a grudge You can know that god loves the poor and still ignore them Knowledge without obedience isn't discipleship. It's just religious And that's why the bible exposes us It doesn't just give us truth to believe it gives us invitation to obey We love the verses about peace But what about the verses that confront our pride we love reading about grace, but what about What happens when god asks us to extend grace to someone who hurt us? We love god's promises But are we just willing to walk into god's command the word of god? Reads us it shines a light into the corners of our hearts. We'd rather keep dark And that can be uncomfortable, but it also provides a path to freedom Now I told you When I started this podcast that we'd regularly draw on jewish context of scripture And this idea of formation over information is deeply embedded in the way discipleship worked in the first century In the jewish world of jesus a student a disciple Didn't simply attend lectures. They didn't sit in a classroom take notes and go home They followed their rabbi everywhere The goal wasn't to just learn what the rabbi knew the goal was to become what the rabbi was There was an ancient blessing spoken over disciples May be covered in the dusts of your rabbis picture that the roads were unpaved the rabbis walked ahead and the disciples followed so closely Watching listening imitating that the dust kicked up by the rabbi's sandals would settle on his disciples clothes They literally wore the evidence of their proximity That's the kind of relationship we're invited into with jesus through scripture. We don't just read the facts About him we read to walk so close with him That his character begins to rub off on us that the dust of our rabbi. Jesus covers our lives And when you read the bible this way everything changes You're not just reading a verse about patience You're walking behind a rabbi who was patient with his fumbling disciples. You're not just reading a command about generosity You're following a master who gave everything he had You're not just studying a theology of love. You're covered in the dust of the one who laid down his life for enemies The word reads us and in the reading it reshapes us into the image of the rabbi we follow And this leads us to the centerpiece of the whole thing because the bible exists to point us to a person john's gospel Opens with a staggering statement In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god And in this verse 14 the word became flesh and dwelt among us Jesus is the living word. The word is written. These pages of scripture are always drawing us towards him That means every part of the bible has a christ connection the law Reveals our need for a perfect savior because we can't keep it on our own The prophets they announce his coming and describe his character hundreds of years before his birth The gospel display his life his teaching his death and his resurrection the epistles explain what is meant to live as he redeemed his people And revelation declares his final victory over sin death and darkness If your bible reading doesn't move you towards loving jesus More deeply loving people more faithfully. You've probably missed the point The pharisees knew the scripture backwards and forwards They could quote entire books and yet jesus said to them You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life And it is they that bear witness about me yet. You refuse to come to me that you may have life They had information, but they missed Formation they missed the person standing in front of them So when we open the bibles, we're not just looking for principles. We're looking for jesus And when they find him When we find them we find ourselves being chained not by willpower, but by proximity The word reads us and the living word transforms us Now let's make this practical Intangible for you because it's easy to hear this and think that sounds great But what do I actually do differently tomorrow morning? Here's my challenge for this week, and it's simple So simple you might be tempted to dismiss it, but don't Don't try to read five chapters just to check a box instead pick one paragraph Maybe the story of jesus calming the sea Maybe psalms 23 Maybe a chunk of jesus teaching from the sermon of the mount read it slowly Out loud if you can let the words hang in the air Then sit with these four questions. I'm going to say them slowly enough That you have a chance to write them down if you're in a place to do so What does this teach me about god number one number two? What does this reveal about the people? Number three How does this point me to jesus? And number four what is one act of obedience? Jesus is inviting me to to take today And then this is the crucial part actually do it If question four reveals to you you need to apologize to someone text them before your coffee gets cold If it shows you a promise to hold on to speak it out loud and thank god for it If it surfaces a lie you believe write the truth on a sticky note and put it where you'll see it every day Information doesn't change us faithful small immediate acts of obedience do You You can hear this entire episode not alone walk away unchanged or you can try this one thing tomorrow morning and let the word read you I'm asking you just to try it try for a week try for a day and see what god does For my leaders if you're a small group leader a pastor A parent just discipling your child. This is especially for you We often feel the pressure to have to answer all the questions To be the resident expert on what this verse means And that pressure can turn our own bible reading into sermon prep instead of soul care Here's my encouragement Model being read by the word in front of the people you lead Share a time A passage exposed you Tell your group your church your kids this verse convicted me this heart Let them see That you're also covered in the dust of the rabbi not standing at the front line of the classroom with all the notes Leaders who are being formed will always multiply further than leaders that are just informed Let us pray As we close today Let us pray Father, thank you for the gift of your word. Forgive us for the times. We've treated it as information instead of an invitation into relationship with you Forgive forgive us for the times. We've read a check box To win an argument or to feel spiritual without actually surrendering Give us humble hearts today attentive minds and willing spirits May your words shape our thoughts transform our character Lead us to become more like jesus. Let us not merely know the scripture. Let the scriptures know us And in knowing us remake us from the inside out We ask this in the name of jesus our rabbi our savior and our living word. Amen I truly appreciate you spending time with me today on beyond sunday This conversation challenged you or gave you a new way to approach. God's word. Would you share it with one person? Maybe a friend who's felt stuck in a dry reading routine. It's a simple way to help others move beyond information into formation and remember Don't just read the bible let the bible read you until next time keep pursuing jesus not just on sunday But every day of the week, this is aaron young and this has been beyond sunday