It's a great honor and joy to be with you here this morning and these couple days

continuing to this evening and tomorrow night. I want to begin this morning by giving you a peak into where we're going at the end.

So I want us to know where we want this to be headed as we come to

scripture as we look at some big concepts and yet I want us to know where we're headed with this related to our own lives in some concrete ways.

So at the end, I want to set up a little grid, okay?

It's like quadrants.

I don't know if any guys did genetics and punnet squares or like a chart or a spreadsheet or whatever.

And we're going to have is four quadrants, four squares, and two of the columns are going to be direct and indirect engagement with

God's Word, and then columns on the side are going to be alone and together.

So I want to make some suggestions or help stir some ideas

about what it would be like to engage directly with God's word alone and together and then indirectly

with his word alone and together.

That's where we're headed.

And during the Sunday school hour this morning, we summarized God's means of grace for the

Christian life as threefold.

There is hearing his voice in his word, having his ear in prayer, and belonging to his body

in the fellowship of the local church.

And our focus in the message this morning

is on the first and foremost means of God's

grace in the soul, the soul of the means of God's grace.

Both prayer in the Christian life and fellowship in the local church

are secondary in a sense. We'll see that tonight and tomorrow night.

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