How to Study the Bible: Advanced Level - Impact Workshops

[Music] In the past, we have done

two videos on how to study the Bible. A beginner level

and an intermediate level. And this is the conclusion

to that series, the advanced level. So if you haven't watched the other

two videos, I highly recommend that you do because this video will assume that you already understand

the previous material covered. And you should watch it because

the content may be overwhelming for people who are still

beginners when studying the Bible. So in this video,

we'll cover the differences between the beginner,

intermediate, and advanced level. We'll give you a brief outline of the different advanced

level studies that you can do. And then we'll

give you an assessment that will tell you if

you're ready for this level. And then we'll talk about

the amount of time it normally takes. Afterwards, we'll go over an in-depth

process and how to complete these studies, as well as cover the

materials required for each of them. And to close, I will provide some

helpful tips that students of God's word should keep in mind

as they study at this level. And I would say the overall goal of this video is to help

set Christians on the path to greater Bible

learning and to encourage an even deeper walk

with God through His word. So if you were to look at the

beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and how they relate to each

other, I would say that the beginner level focuses more on building the

habit of reading the Bible correctly. And the intermediate level transitions students from reading

the Bible to studying the Bible. And then the advanced level uses the knowledge from the

beginner and intermediate levels to perform a more in-depth study. So note that when it

comes to the advanced level, it's not just us reading a certain

way like the beginner and intermediate level. It's more like

completing specific studies using the skills learned at the

beginner and intermediate level. So once you learn the five steps of

reading the Bible from the previous videos, which are context, observation,

interpretation, application, and visualization, you then use these tools to

complete these advanced studies. And in this video,

we're going to cover how you can perform

each one of these studies. So now for the assessment. How do you know if you're

ready to study at the advanced level? I would say you're

ready if you can naturally read the Bible using

the steps that we've covered. And that would look like you reading the Bible and

automatically using the five W's, tacked, reps, and

spectrum without really thinking. So once you're at a place where you naturally identify

adjectives, commands, repetitions, and you automatically start using

picture perspective and confined patterns, terms, while noticing character settings

and locations that I would say you're ready. That's just a suggestion though. I would say people at the

beginner level can do an advanced study. It just may take them a little bit

longer and they may not be able to go as deep. I should also note that it would be

very helpful if you read the entire Bible because once you do

that, you can decide where in the whole Bible you'd

like to do an advanced study. To cover the time it

takes to study at this level, I would say on average a complete

study would take bare minimum one hour. I think studies of this

depth normally take hours to complete. However, I don't think this

needs to all be done in one sitting. Sometimes advanced

studies progress little by little where you spend

maybe 15 to 30 minutes a day until the study is complete. And then once you're done, you can

decide on a different advanced study to work on. All right, so let's go ahead and

dive into our first study, passage studies. This advanced study

of the Bible attempts to dive deep into a

particular passage in the Bible. So here are the steps. Pick a passage, read

it quickly to get the big picture, read slowly to

identify and label all observations, figure out all question marks or gain a general

understanding of the entire passage, ask questions about the passage, answer those questions and

find the flow of the verses. So the first step you take when doing

a study like this is to decide on a passage. In the past, one of my mentors was

fascinated with Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. So for months, he would

reread Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7. In the past, I really

loved the parable of the sower and I dove deep into what

each of the four soils represented and read what multiple authors

said about this particular parable. And this is where it's important to have learned the five

W's, tact, reps and spectrum. Because you'll utilize these tools to uncover observations

that could be easy to miss. So once you decide on

a passage, I'd recommend you vary your reading speed

when reading through the passage. The first read

through, I suggest you read quickly to get the

big picture of the passage. And then afterwards,

you go back and read slowly. And as you read slowly, you try to

make every observation possible and to label them in some way

that you can remember them. If you have a Bible you can write on,

you can label certain marks with different symbols or highlight

them with different colors. For example, you can use an

underline to label a term or a double underline to label words that have to

do with the theme of the book. Or you can circle connectives. Another thing you can do is connect

circled words together to identify repetitions. And you can also use zigzag

lines, parentheses or boxes for labels also. And there's also

different Bible highlighters with different colors that you

can use to mark up your Bible. And then you can designate

different colors for different observations. And for all you technologically savvy

people, another option is for you to copy and paste your Bible passage from

BibleGateway.com to a Word document. And there you can

label all your observations, interpretations and

applications on the computer. To give you an

example of a topical passage study, you can watch

our video, "Are You Luke Warm?" In that video, I attempt to dive deep

into Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22. And if you notice, I take the time to

go through and give a thorough explanation for every verse as well as

point out multiple observations. And I bring this up

because the next step of completing a passage study is to try to

figure out every question mark. Or in other words, if there's any part of the passage that

doesn't make sense to you, you need to find an explanation for it so that you can

understand the whole passage. And one of the ways

you do this is by asking questions that you

have about your passage. For example, as I

studied the passage that talked about the Luke

Warm church, I asked myself, "What does it mean to be Luke Warm?" And "What does it mean to be cold?" And "What does it mean to be hot?" So I really spent a lot of time

answering those questions through my own reflection and by rereading that

passage over and over again. And then afterwards,

I used commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and

blueletterbible.org to find an answer. So as you read, do

your best to draw out as many questions as

you can about your passage. And once you do, the next step

is to try to answer all those questions. In some ways, you

answer them is by asking God for wisdom, by reading your

passage in different translations, by using other books, commentaries,

or study Bibles that talk about the passage, or by using the internet to see

what other people think about your passage. And one method that helps me

personally is by going on prayer walks, where I take the time to meditate on my passage and ask God

what He thinks about it. And the last thing to look for in a passage study is the

general flow between verses. For example, notice the

flow for the Luke Warm passage. In verses 14 to 15,

Jesus addresses the church, tells them who He is, and tells

them what they're doing wrong. In verses 16 to 17, Jesus tells

them the consequence of their wrongdoings. Verse 18 tells them how

to overcome their wrongdoings. And verses 19 to 22 is an

encouragement for them to do the right thing. So see how the sequence and

organization of this passage makes sense. To summarize, Jesus tells

them they're wrong, then He tells them the consequences of

the wrong things that they're doing, and then He tells them

how to do the right thing instead, and then He finishes by

encouraging them to do what's right. And please note that

looking for the flow and how each verse connects to

each other can be difficult, especially in books like James, where

it seems like He's jumping all over the place and He suddenly stops

talking about a particular topic and immediately talks about

something else completely different. So one question that you can ask is,

how do James chapter 2 verse 26, James chapter 3 verse 1, and James

chapter 3 verse 2 all connect? Because in these three consecutive

verses, James talks about three topics that seem like they have nothing

to do with each other at first. Like the last verse in James chapter

2 says that faith with that works as dead. And then in the next verse, James says

that there's greater judgment for teachers. And then in the next

verse, he says to control the tongue. So a passage study would try to find

out how and why those verses all connect into one cohesive idea as we

saw in the Lukewarm passage. And to wrap up, one of the ways that

you know you're done with the passage study is by having a

greater mastery of the passage. And you understand more of what's

being said, why it's being said, and how all the verses are related

and connected to each other. The next advanced study

you can perform is a word study. So instead of diving into a passage,

the next thing you can do is to choose a word in the Bible that

you want to go deeper in. So here are the steps

you take when doing a word study. First, you choose a word

that you want to learn about. Then you look at all the

times the word is used in the Bible. Then you look at

how they're used using the observation,

interpretation, and application steps. And then you use what you find to build a complete picture of what

that word means in the Bible. Some examples for word

studies would be faith, love, sin, righteousness,

justification, wisdom, and holy. An example of a word study

that I've done is one done on worship. And I recorded my findings on our

video called "How to Worship Correctly." And in all four

points of the video, I used different passages

that use the word "worship." And then I listed my observations,

interpretations, and applications in those passages to develop a

complete picture on what worship is. So if you decide to

try a word study, choose a word that interests you or a

word that you're passionate about. And once you pick a word, the next

step would be go to blueletterbible.org and to type in your word in the

search bar at the top of the webpage. And once you do this, choose the

translation you want to use and then hit search. And once you do

that, Blue Letter Bible shows all the times this

word is used in the Bible. And as you look at the list

of all the Bible passages, try to find out what's being said

about your word in every passage. And then piece together what you find

so you can determine what the definition of the word is and what the

full picture of the word looks like. For example, in my word

study of the word "worship," I was able to get the complete

definition for worship in four points. Worship is complete

surrender and willingness to serve. Worship can be empty. Worship must be done in spirit and truth. And worship belongs to God alone. So the goal for you in a

word study is to find all the components that make up

the word that you're studying. And this is where you need to

take the time and utilize the observation, interpretation, and application

steps in the inductive Bible study method. And while I was studying the word

"worship," my main focus was to carefully observe how worship was used in Scripture

and to keep doing so until I felt I fully understood what

worship was according to God. Another thing that can help you with

the word study is to look at the definition of the word in the original

language they were written in. For example, the Old

Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New

Testament was written in Greek. And one of the ways

you can look at the definitions is by searching the word

again on BlueLetterBible.org. So first search the word in the search

bar, then click on the passage, and in this case it's Genesis chapter 22

verse 5, and then click it again. Once you do that, you'll

see the verse in the original language, and you can

see how each word is translated. So scroll down until

you find the word you're looking for, and click on the

number associated with your word. So here the number is 7812. And now you can see

the definition here, and how the word means to bow

down and prostrate oneself. Also, another good

tool that you can use if you have the money

is the Logos Bible Software. And here you can use the library of

resources there and look at the Bible lexicons they have that provide the

definitions and meanings of biblical words. So click the link in the description

below if you're interested in their program. I use it, and I find it's very helpful. And to close, the way

you know you're done with the word study is if you

can define the word accurately, and generally know what the overall

meaning behind what the word is, because you see how the word has

been used throughout Scripture. Well, the back-to-school season is

almost upon us, and for all of you students in the Bible getting

ready for a new semester, there's no better way to study your

Bible than by using Logos Bible Software. Now, as Miles mentioned

earlier, Logos Bible Software is a great way to dive

deeper into your study of Scripture because it connects you to a massive library of books,

commentaries, and study tools. The Logos app is a great resource

for anyone, no matter where they are in their spiritual journey, who just

wants to learn more about God's Word. By clicking the link in the

description today, you can get up to 40% off your first purchase of the newest Logos 10 software. Plus, you'll receive

five digital books of your choosing for free

from Logos's Preset Library. Whether you're new to

reading the Bible or you're a seasoned veteran,

Logos has an option for you. So go to the link in the

description to visit Logos Bible Software and get up to

40% off your first purchase today. The next study to cover

is a book study, and in this study, you dive deep into

one of the 66 books of the Bible. And I'd say that the shorter the

book, the easier the study tends to be. So here are the steps to do a book study. First, decide on a book. Next, complete the context

of the book that you're reading. Then you read the

whole book until you piece together a theme, then

outline the individual chapters, provide sub-points that

describe the contents of each chapter. Then you find the flow that connects

each chapter, and then you finish by doing individual passage

studies on each of the chapters. So when you decide on a

book, you can either choose a book that really interests

you and want to learn more about, or you can choose a

book that's a weak point in your scripture knowledge and

don't really know much about. And if you haven't done

a book study before, I would suggest choosing a book

that is four to six chapters long. Ones I recommend

would be Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,

James, 1 and 2 Peter, or 1 John. And Old Testament books that I personally love are Joshua,

Ecclesiastes, and Nehemiah. The next step is to complete

the context of the book you're reading. And I covered this

pre-step in the "How to Study the Bible" intermediate level, 9

minutes and 55 seconds into that video. And during the

step, you identify the author, date, theme, purpose,

and background of the book. Once you complete the

context, the next step is to read the entire book to gain a

general understanding of the book. And I'd recommend that you keep

doing this until you piece together a theme. Note that the theme of the book is a

combination of two things, the main idea of the book and the overall

purpose on why it was written. And please note that while you

already got a theme from the context step, I would highly suggest that

you find one on your own. And if in the off

chance you agree with the theme that you read about, make

sure you have good reasons why. What I don't want you to do is to

just turn your brain off and to automatically believe in the

theme that someone gives you. And the reason why is because in my

studies of different books of the Bible, I found that many commentators

disagree on what the theme is for different books. James is one of those books where many Christians have different

opinions on what the theme is. Some say wisdom,

others say faith or action, and for me

personally, I disagree with those. And I believe the main theme is

maturity, and I have my reasons why I believe that. So for you, as you read a book, try

to wrestle with the passage to determine what the main theme of the book

is, and then know why you think that. And the theme is the overall idea

that affects the tone of the entire book. And note that while some themes for

books can be difficult and heavily debated, some books do have very

clear themes where most people agree. For example, I'd

say it's pretty clear that Romans has to do

with the righteousness of God. And if you look at every chapter of

Romans, you'd find that each chapter has to do with the

righteousness of God in some way. So as you read, try

to find and develop your own theme, and the next step

is to try to outline the chapters. And the way you do

that is by creating your own headlines for the

chapters of the book you're reading. Here's my personal

outline through 1 Thessalonians. Chapter 1, that

Thessalonians were a good example. Chapter 2, that

Thessalonians were witnesses of Paul's example. Chapter 3, that

Thessalonians were cared for by Paul. Chapter 4, that Thessalonians

were instructed to please God more. And Chapter 5, that Thessalonians

were encouraged to be sanctified completely. The idea is to encapsulate the

entire chapter into a single sentence. And as you do that, write sub-points

that describe what the chapter talks about. For 1 Thessalonians,

Chapter 1, I created 3 sub-points. Verses 1-3,

Christians should be in Christ. Verses 4-6,

Christians should receive God's Word. And Verses 7-10,

Christians should spread their faith. So for you, don't concentrate too

much on how I did my sub-points, because they don't need to all

sound the same like mine do. Because that's just how I like to do it. For you, just try to

look at a chapter and find all the major ideas that

are there, and then list them. And once you do that, the next

thing to do is to find the flow of the book. And you look to see how

Chapter 2 connects to Chapter 1, and how Chapter 3

connects to Chapter 2, and so on. Let's look at Ephesians. In Chapter 1, there's a

repetition of being in Christ or in Him. In Chapter 2, Verse 8, it says

that we're saved by grace through faith. Chapter 3 talks

about this idea of a mystery. Chapter 4 talks about how Christ

gave certain people to hold certain offices. Chapter 5 talks about

walking in love, in light, and in wisdom. And in Chapter 6,

it lists the armor of God. So if you were doing a book study on

Ephesians, one of the things that you'd try to do is to find out how all

of these things are connected. And to determine the reason why

Paul structured his letter this way. And doing this correctly may take hours. But this is one of

those things that should be done, especially if you're

teaching the Bible to an audience. Because books of the Bible aren't

just a random list of holy applications, they're organized

letters that were written a certain way to

accomplish a specific purpose. So a book study tries to unfold why

books are organized the way that they are. And honestly, there's

tons of ways to do book studies. So I'd encourage

you to try to develop your own way of studying

through particular books. And in your book study, once you're

done finding the context, developing the theme, outlining the chapters,

listing sub-points, and finding the flow, the next thing to do is to do individual passage studies on

every passage in your book. And I would call

this part extra credit if you want to take

your studies above and beyond. And the reason why

you do this is so you can really understand

the entirety of the book. Also, if you were to purchase a

commentary on a book of the Bible, that commentary is essentially the

author's own personal book study. And you can find a whole list of commentaries on

blueletterbible.org slash commentaries. And from this list, I

appreciate Matthew Henry and John MacArthur. So something else you

can do if you want to do a book study is for you

to write your own commentary by recording your findings and

your thoughts on specific passages. If book studies are something

that you want to do but struggle with, the Bible Project does a good

job at presenting good book overviews. So the goal would be to

develop a kind of study like theirs. On YouTube, you can find

their videos by searching "Bible Project" and then write

the book that you want to study. So to give you a reference,

you could watch one of their book overviews to give you an

idea of what a book study looks like. The Bible Project has completed a

book overview for every book of the Bible, and they focus

heavily on the background of the book, and then they

structure it based on their studies. However, for all you people who are

thinking, "Well, why should I do a book study since other people

have already done one?" One of the things that I've learned

as a junior high and high school teacher is that the ones who do

the work do the learning. So yeah, you could just watch these

studies, but you'd get a lot less out of it than if you were to try to

come up with your own book study. So note that the goal

for you watching one of these videos isn't for you to

just copy and paste all the answers, but for you to get an idea of what one

of these studies looks like so that you can draw closer to God

through your own personal deep study. The next advanced study is the topical study, and has a

lot to do with word studies. In this study, you take a topic and you dive deep into that

specific topic or question, and the steps of doing a

topical study are as follows. First, you decide on a topic

or question that you want to research. Next, you find all key

passages that talk about your topic. Afterwards, you utilize the

observation, interpretation, and application steps on the

passages that speak on your topic, and then you use your findings to determine what the

Bible has to say on that topic. So first step, decide on a topic. I would recommend

doing a topic that highly interests you or one

that you don't know much about. Some examples of

this study would be our videos on the unforgivable

sin and the mark of the beast. And in these videos, I did my

best to completely unpackage these topics. Other examples of topical

studies can include tithing, being made in the image of God,

or being a missionary, or cursing. Actually, I'd say most of our

whiteboard videos on our channel are topical studies. However, bear in mind

that topical studies don't need to be single-word

topics like fellowship or ministry. Topical studies

can also answer questions. Questions I did my best to

answer in previous videos would be, "Who created God?" "Why does God let bad things happen?" And "Do people who

don't hear the gospel go to hell?" Topical studies are good to do when

you really want answers to a specific question. So for you, I'd

suggest you thinking about a topic that you've

always wanted to dive deeper in. And once you've decided

on a topic, the next step is to find all the key

passages that talk about your topic. And you can do that either by using

the internet or by utilizing Blue Letter Bible to search for specific

words that have to do with your topic. Another tool that you

can use for this is ChatGPT. And you can ask it something along the

lines of, "List all Bible passages that have to do with church

leadership or the holiness of God." The goal of this step is to have a

full list of verses that speak about your topic. The next step is to utilize the

observation, interpretation, and application steps on the passages that speak on your topic. And this is the step that

will probably take the most time, and it involves you using the five

Ws, TAC, REPs, and Spectrum to help you comb through every single verse from your list so you can find out

what the Bible has to say. And once you apply the

Inductive Bible Study method to every verse, the final step is to

piece together your findings to determine what the

Bible has to say on that topic. The key for this step is organization

and to sort out what big ideas the Bible is communicating

regarding your specific topic. Also be aware that some

topics can be more difficult than others. One topic that I

struggled through was covered in our video, "Do People Have

Free Will If God Is All Knowing?" And in the video, I read

specific passages that had to do with the topic, recorded

my observations from those verses, consolidated those

observations into points, and then I tried to

connect all those points together. I would say that many Christian

books are actually just topical studies. For example,

"Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer really focuses

on the topic of theology. "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert Coleman focuses on

the topic of discipleship, and "Spiritual Leadership" by

Oswald Sanders has to do with leadership. So one thing you could do is maybe

write your own book on your findings of a topic that you've always

wanted to dive deeper in. And the last advanced study is a class study, and this can

be done in one of two ways. Either you take a

class or you teach a class. The steps for

taking a class are as follows. Research the class or program you wish to enroll in, identify

your motive for taking the class, balance your class with your life's

goals, and then be a good student in class. So when it comes to

taking a class that will grow your knowledge

with God, you have some options. You can enroll in a

program from a university, Bible college, seminary, your

local church, or a mission program. And before you take a

class, I would encourage you to be very careful when deciding which

school or program you enroll in. So don't think that

just because it's a class that teaches the

Bible, that it'll all be safe. I've heard of certain

seminaries that teach that the Bible cannot be trusted

because it was written by man. And one of my

mentors warned me that some Bible colleges actually made

Christians turn to atheists because of how

horrible their teachings were. So this first step to

research your class or program is essential because if

you're going to spend time, energy, and possibly money

on a spiritual investment, you need to make

sure it's biblically sound. So I'd recommend you communicating

with leaders from your church on what their thoughts are regarding

the class you're considering. Or you could talk to some people

that have taken a class from there before. The idea is to be careful

because no matter who you learn from, you always need to make sure that what you're learning is

coming from the Word of God. So once you do your

research, the next step is to identify your

motive for taking the class. You see, bad teaching isn't

the only danger when taking a class. The next danger to be

aware of is spiritual pride. I've met many

people who've attended Bible college who've

become spiritually puffed up. And because they have this

higher knowledge from the classes they take, they either look down on others or

they pride themselves in their own knowledge to the point where they aren't willing

to sit under the leadership of a church. I remember this one time I got done

with one of my Bible college classes and I met a student who was

in the program above mine. And as I spoke

with him, this guy was smart and he was well

versed in different languages and he started teaching me

about certain meanings of Bible passages. And I was impressed. And then I asked him where he went to

church and where he's serving in ministry. And then he told me he wasn't going anywhere and that he's

not serving in any capacity. And I encouraged him

to maybe join a Sunday school so he can share the

knowledge that he shared with me. And the reason why I

bring this up is because it's important for you to

remember why you're taking a Bible class. Don't lose sight of

the fact that you're there to learn about God and grow

in your relationship with him. And while this sounds really

simple, it's something worth mentioning. So when all you're learning, don't lose sight of God and be

humble in your learning. So quick summary, always be

careful when it comes to enrolling in a class. And make sure the content you learn

comes from trusted and solid Bible teachers. And if the teaching

is good, make sure you don't become puffed up and

spiritually proud due to your learning. The next step for taking a class is

to balance your class with your life's goals. So another thing I should add is to

be aware of the fact that you may not be able to make money off of a

Bible degree or Bible major. And I know that

sounds weird, but hear me out. I also met quite a few people who had

the ambition to work full time at a church. So they spent a lot of time, energy

and finances to get a Bible related degree. And the danger with that

is that a Bible degree doesn't necessarily give you a

skill that can help you make money. I'm someone who believes that

education is an investment that you can make that should help you take

care of yourself in the future. So my personal opinion is that if

people just want to go to Bible college so that they can learn about God in the higher

capacity for a season in their life to take classes part time

while they balance a full time job or by

getting a degree somewhere else. For me, I did go to Bible college, but

I also own the fact that my Bible degree was unaccredited and most

businesses would not acknowledge my degree. So while I went to Bible college, I

also went to a regular college and I received my degree in communication studies

with the focus on public speaking so that I can tell my employers

that I received my bachelor's. Now, don't get me wrong. I have a close

friend right now who's in a graduate program so

that he can become a pastor. And it's great that he's in college. The reason why I'm bringing up this

part time Bible college idea is because there may be some of you

who are thinking, I want to go to a Bible

college so I can learn about God. And that would be great. And if that's you, I would suggest

that you try taking one or two classes at a time and to not drop a job or a degree that

you're already pursuing because doing those other things may help

you get a career that you want. The reason why I say to balance your

class with your life schools is because I've known people who dropped all the responsibilities for two

years to attend a Bible college. But during those two

years, they didn't obtain any skills that can help them

get the career that they want. Now, could God be calling them

to attend that school for two years? Yeah, and I'm not against that. I only bring it up because I've found

that many people can feel pressured to go to these Bible colleges

in order to get closer to God. So again, my personal opinion, if you

feel like you want to take a class, be honest with your life's

goals and determine how you can balance your goals and

this class that you're considering. And now to the last step. Be a good student in class. And it's pretty straightforward. If you decide to take a class, understand that

you're submitting yourself to their authority. So pay your

tuition, get to class on time, do your homework, don't take shortcuts, be aware of your absences, and actively learn what

your teacher is telling you. All that to say, if

you're gonna do something that you feel God

may be calling you to do, do it right and dedicate

your time of learning to God. To close this topic,

note that while it is advantageous to go to a class

that'll teach you more about God, it is possible to learn

more about God at a secular college. From my college experience, I went to a secular community college and a four-year university. And I learned a lot

about God at those places too. And there I learned

the arguments of atheists and have learned to present

arguments for the Christian faith to evolutionists, Jehovah's

Witnesses, Muslims, and Mormons. However, all of this is just my opinion. So at the end of the day, take the things that I say as suggestions that come from my personal experience. So taking a class is the

first way to do a class study. The next way is to teach a class. And here's the steps. Find an opportunity to teach, fully understand the

topic you'll be teaching, format your teaching to your audience, know the audience

relevance, have learning objectives, utilize public speaking

techniques, and be open to learn. So the first step,

find an opportunity to teach. And you can either teach a

class as a Sunday school teacher or in another ministry. Now, please note that I'll probably cover how to teach a

Bible study in another video, but I'll give some short pointers here to help new or aspiring teachers. So start by looking for opportunities to share your faith or teach God's word. And once you have one, the next step is to

fully understand the topic that you'll be teaching. So utilize the steps that I

previously covered in this video and perform either a

passage study or a topical study based on what you're asked to do. In the off chance

that you're given a choice on what to teach, pray about it. And ask the person

who gave the opportunity what they feel would

be a good topic to teach. Once you fully

understand your passage and topic and have utilized the

observation, interpretation, and application steps, the next step is to pay close attention to who your audience is and to format your

teaching to your audience. So if your audience are

junior hires, high schoolers, college-age students, or men and women, try to put yourself in their shoes and think about

what they're struggling with and have those things in

mind as you prepare your study. The next step is to

know the audience relevance. Or in other words, know

why your teaching is relevant or useful to your audience. The audience relevance tells the audience why they should care to listen. So if you're

teaching about what the Bible says about fellowship,

your teaching should include an explicit

statement that sounds something along the lines of

the reason why it's important for you to know this

is because of this reason or that reason. Remember, no matter who your audience is, it's always important

to explain why it's important for them to listen. And another way you

can do this is by explaining what the

consequences are if they do not apply that specific

Bible passage to their life. The next step is to

have learning objectives. So before you teach, be

aware of what your goals are when you're teaching. So look at your

teaching, and I'd recommend you pay extra attention on

what you've written down during the

application step of your studies. So maybe your learning

objectives for the people you teach are, list three practical

steps to avoid sexual immorality, or list five practical

steps to pray more efficiently. The idea is to give

yourself goals on what you need to cover when you teach,

and that helps prevent rambling. After you do that,

utilize public speaking techniques. Now, while it is good

to place much of your attention to the actual Bible

study, if you're speaking God's word, you should also

learn how to communicate well. So I'd recommend that you look on YouTube how to public speak

and to learn how to form an attention getter and

how to utilize good body language and how to effectively tell a story. Sorry, I'm not covering

more, but I do plan on creating a series on how to teach and how to lead a Sunday school classroom in the future. The final step is to be open to learn. And the reason why I close with this one is because when it comes to teaching, there's always something to improve on. Excluding God, there is no

such thing as a perfect teacher. So no matter how long we've taught, we should always be

willing to learn and grow. So if you teach, be

open to constructive criticism and look for ways to

improve your skill to teach. To close this topic, I

have to say that teaching the Bible is one of the best

ways to learn the Bible. I've heard it said that

you learn 10% of what you hear, 50% of what you

discuss, and 90% of what you teach. And after teaching for

some years, I found this to be true. It was earlier last year in 2023 that I was asked

to teach a theology class. The class was made up of

five two and a half hour sessions with a total of 150

minutes of content per day with two 15 minute breaks. And I used my

knowledge of the attributes of God, created discussion

questions, and made PowerPoints and notes for my students to fill in. And all of that

preparation caused my head to be filled with the knowledge of

God in a deeper and greater way. So again, I'm not going to teach you how exactly to teach right now, but teaching either through a class or through another

ministry is another way that you can study the Bible. Because by doing so,

you'll be forcing yourself to learn your content to the point where you can

communicate it to an audience. And to close this

series, here are some steps that you should bear in

mind as you try to study the Bible at an advanced level. Step number one, pave your own road. The reason why these are

advanced studies of the Bible is because you kind of need

to learn and develop your own way of studying the Bible in a deeper way. Yeah, I can give you steps, but you need to be the one to dive deep. So if you feel like

you're doing a passage, word, book, or topical study wrong, that's okay. The reason why it may

feel wrong or uncomfortable is probably

because you're not used to it. So like all good habits, it

takes some time getting used to. Remember, I'm more like a coach that'll give you some tips and tricks that may or may not help you, but you're the one that has to play, put in the hours,

and study out on your own. So be okay with

figuring out things as you go. And pretty soon,

you'll develop your own style and unique way of

going deeper in Bible studies. Tip number two, God is your teacher. With the advanced level,

one of the most important steps is to regularly pray

and hear from God as you study. So ask God what he wants you to see and ask for help if

things don't make sense to you. In my studies, there's a lot of wrestling and feelings of

frustration with certain Bible passages. And one of the things

that helps with those feelings is by taking a step back and praying through a difficult passage to hear what God has to say about it. Tip number three,

space out the levels of study. Advanced levels of study do take time. And I'll tell you that I do not do an advanced level

study every single sitting. Sometimes I stay at the beginner level, and I often get to an

intermediate level of study, but an advanced level

study can take a lot of time and it can take a ton of energy. So if for some reason you

don't feel like reading the Bible because you feel like it's too much, go back to a beginner level of study and just read a chapter while looking for an application for the day. So all that to

say, if the thought of doing an advanced level Bible study causes you to lose motivation for

reading the Bible for the day, save the advanced study for another time when you have more time and strength. Tip number four, advanced

level studies are about creation. Either you create a little commentary or an outline or

answers to questions you had or a Bible study. Essentially, the beginner level focuses on making observations,

the intermediate level focuses on making deeper observations, and the advanced level

focuses on owning what you find so you can create a tool or resource that can help you in the future. So one big part of doing

an advanced level Bible study is to be a creative scholar, if you will. So as you begin an advanced level study, think of what you want to create that'll either help

you or the people around you. And tip number five, learn to marinate. One of the most important things to do when studying at this

level is to just read, reread, and meditate on the

passage that you wanna study. So don't rush when it comes to learning and be okay with taking your time. And as you take your time,

make little habits here and there to help you go deeper

and learn to enjoy the process. Studying the Bible in a deeper way should be a lifetime skill that you learn and develop over the years. So try to build

that little by little, okay? I know this is a lot, but it wouldn't be the

advanced level if it wasn't, right? So if you wanna

study at the advanced level, remember these five different studies, passage studies,

word studies, book studies, topical studies, and class studies. You know, learning to study at this level is still something

that I'm learning to master and my studies and

methods are constantly changing. So I hope you

enjoy the process like I do. And if you're

struggling to figure it out, good. This is one of those healthy struggles that will bless you

immensely in the long run. In closing this series, I hope and pray that

our videos bless your studies through God's word. And as you read and study, may you always

remember that Jesus loves you. All right guys, we

finally finished the How to Study the Bible

series, beginner, intermediate, and advanced

level. And it was definitely a team effort.

Joseph was the one who's like, "Come on, Miles, you

gotta write it, you gotta write it!" And I was

just like, "Do I have to?" So we're very glad

that we can finally release it. And again, guys, it

is a team effort, especially with this last one.

I don't even know how long it's gonna be, like,

what, 30, 40 minutes or so. And so a lot of drawing went involved. It actually helped my

OCD a little bit because I drew the beginner and

intermediate level. And so I was able to actually

draw the advanced level too. So it was a lot. And I just got off the phone with Nick,

who is editing it right now. Not when you guys

watch it, but it's... Oh my goodness, it was

difficult. But you know what? We all personally

believe that this video is just such a

valuable resource for Christians. Because just in my

time working as a teacher, a lot of young people,

and a lot of just people in general, it's hard to find a very straightforward way on how

to read the Bible. So when I went to Bible college,

like, I took inductive Bible study, hermeneutics,

homiletics, all these different Bible courses. And

in my time of ministry for the last, you know,

10 years or so, I was able to consolidate

everything into three videos, the beginner, the

intermediate, and advanced level. And honestly, I would

say out of all of the videos that I helped write

on impact, I would argue that these three videos,

for me personally, I can't speak for everybody

on the team, but I would say they're the most

valuable resource that I've contributed in my

lifetime. Yeah, sounds really dramatic, but I just

feel like if I were to die, which I don't want

to, but if I were to, I feel like this is a good

resource to give to people because it's not

just a teaching, it's a skill. It's a skill that

people can learn and, you know, for a time, and

then they can just run with the teaching and just

like, and then learn how to follow God on their

own. It's kind of like that, you know, that fish

analogy, you give a man a fish, he eats for a

day, but you teach a man a fish, he eats for a

lifetime, that sort of thing, you know, like, these

videos are intended to help people be

independent in their walk with God, not isolated, but to

be able to read God's word and go deeper on their

own. So all I have to say, I really hope they

bless you guys. Just a huge thanks to everybody

on the Impact team. Like, we all worked really,

really hard to bless our viewers. So we hope that it

encourages you guys. We hope it's used in, you

know, Bible studies or in small groups so that

people can know how to go deeper in their walk with

God. Okay. So we as a team just want to encourage

you. Thank you so much for your support and for all

the shares and the likes and the positive

comments. And thankful for all the negative comments

too, because they boost the algorithm. Next on

the list, I probably, I don't know, after finishing

this series, it makes me want to think like, "Ooh,

what's the next series?" Part of me really wants to

do the how to teach the Bible. So that might be a

good workshop series and it might even be longer

than this one. So I don't know. We'll see

though. Anyways, guys, thank you so much again for your

support and we'll see you guys next time. God bless.