What we hold to be True #2
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Introduction
Introduction
If you are just tuning in for the first time we have began a series of “What we hold to be true.” Each Sunday we are looking at a Big Idea that is discussed on Sunday morning. We then take this Big Idea and move through the week in our personal study, cord of three meetings and cluster groups to go deeper and apply this Big Idea in our lives.
We have been talking about taking the ideas from our Head, to our heart, then to our hands and feet.
The Big Idea should move us to be stronger disciples of Christ.
as we have learned, A disciple is one who
is seeking to know God, while being transformed into the image of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in the context of Community.
this should be a life long goal of every believer.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Let me speak to those of us, my self included, who have walked the road of faith for many years. We approach God’s word as routine and read verses that we have read, once, twice, even three times and we say. I know this truth.
Sometimes we can come to the point of believing we know everything, it is at that point, we are deceived.
I continue to seek God, discipleship is not for a beginning Christian. It is a life long goal. Continue to seek God
Second, we are to live a transformational life.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
What does a transformational life look like
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 825 Florence Nightingale at 30
Florence Nightingale at thirty wrote in her diary, “I am thirty years of age, the age at which Christ began His mission. Now no more childish things, no more vain things. Now, Lord, let me think only of Thy will.” Years later, near the end of her illustrious, heroic life she was asked for her life’s secret, and she replied, “Well, I can only give one explanation. That is, I have kept nothing back from God.”
—Paul Rees
keeping nothing back from God.
Before we look at this week’s Big Idea, Let’s pray
Prayer:
Lord this morning as we look into your Word may we approach you spoken Word as truth for our lives. May we not take for granted that we hold in our hands that it is the very voice of God. May we seek to know your word. Infuse our lives today, bring your Spirit this morning as we look into the Word so that we may know the truths within it and may we follow that words of scripture for our lives,
Amen.
Big Idea
Big Idea
This week’s Big Idea is all about God’s Word.
"Big Idea" 2: God’s gospel is authoritatively revealed in the Scriptures.
Once again as Gospel driven people we look at the Bible as our authority. It is this book that we hold so dear that is the truth.
This morning there are two things we want to discover in our Big Idea.
The first is the fact that it is God voice to us is written down for us to read and secondly what should our response be from reading His Word.
God’s written Word
God’s written Word
GOD’S written Word!
Last week, we have learned if we come to acknowledge that we serve an Almighty God, we must now look at the written Word of God.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
This is a key verse
When we were first married, we needed to get a car. A reliable car. The current car we had was purchased at a farm auction for $1000.00 and it had served us well.
We went to the dealer, purchased a beautiful Red Chevette. A standard. The car Heather successfully learned how to drive a standard.
That car came a part of our lives.
But that car, in time, needed attention.
You see we just didn’t buy the car and park it on the street for people to admire. We used it. But in working that car it needed attention.
I needed a book, off I went to the store, and purchased a car repair book. Today, if we were in the same place, we would most likely be watching youtube.
There were many times Heather sat on a chair reading the book out to me as I followed its instruction to fix our car.
If you are a follower of Christ and you are wanting to know how to live out your faith, this book, God’s written Word is what you need, what you follow.
How it came to be God’s Word
How it came to be God’s Word
Like the car repair manual, I trusted the source because they knew the car. IT was a trusted source.
We need to understand the source of this truth.
One of the dangers in today’s world is how we approach God’s Word.
Many of us at times turn to the digital world to read God’s word. I must admit, it is often the way I read the Bible.
I carry my Bible with me on my phone. I can turn to it, read it, meditate upon its Words whenever I have a moment.
This is good, but there is a danger.
We can lose the concept of God’s entire Word.
God’s Word is divided into Sixty Six books, Old and New Testament books.
We have come to recognize these books as the Cannon. The entire truth of God.
The Old Testament are the recognized Word held dear of the people of God, the Jewish nation.
Jesus himself when He walked this earth referred to the Old Testament as God’s word.
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The New Testament has around 350 citations of the Old Testament covering 27 of the 36 books. During the early church there was no doubt of the authority of God’s Word in the Old Testament.
It was the source of their reading.
Jesus, after arriving at this home town church to read the scriptures, opened up a passage from the Old Testament.
For those folks who refuse to read from the Old Testament as it is no longer relevant, Have missed the point that it was what Jesus spoke from, Paul, Peter, James and John studied.
We must hold onto that All Scripture is God’s Word. Does that infer that we must follow all practices outline in the Old Testament no,
but it is still the God’s written Word for His people.
The New testament books were considered “scripture” by a different process than that of the Old Testament.
The Gospel truths book writes,
“The canon (collection) of the New testament developed over time as the early church came to recognize the unique authority of those writings which came from the apostles, conformed in teaching to the established “Rule of Faith” and were used widely in the churches established in the context of Worship.” Gospel truths pg 52
The 27 Books of the New Testament are divided the following ways.
The Gospels which tell us the story of Christ’s walk and work while here on this earth.
The book of Acts or Actions of the Apostles as they and the church of Christ was beginning to be established.
The Pauline Epistles or letters written to the churches for teaching
The General Epistles written by other Apostles
and finally the Book of Revelation. A book that describes the end of the story.
The Bible starts with Genesis telling the story of God and finishes with God’s Revelation of the fulfillment of God’s Plan.
You see there were many teachings or writings written during the early time of the what we now have come to call the church.
Over time the early church became to believe that what we hold today were the authority of Scripture.
It wasn’t that they “created” the bible but they assembled the books and writings that where the writing was writings that exceeded the authority over others.
Divine Books
God Spoke through Man
God Spoke through Man
The next concept we need to understand about this Big Idea this morning is how God Speaks through man. How did the early church know these writings were
God Breathed.
To understand how God spoke through man we must recognize two things. First, that scripture supports other scripture and secondly that the entire message has a unified message.
Often you will see people pull one verse out of a passage and build an entire thinking on that verse. There is no evaluation of context, the intent of the writer or how it fits into other scripture. This can and does lead to a false understanding of scripture.
A good understanding of God’s Word comes with a study in comparison with other text.
Remember that Bible, God’s written Word, came to us from God through man, spoken to man for us, and finally is God’s verbally inspired Word of God
Verbally inspired Word of God
Verbally inspired Word of God
Verbally inspired.
If you have never heard that term before, let me explain what we have come to understand about this truth.
God didn’t take a Dictaphone and speak into it and then hand the file to the author who wrote down the words. Although some of scripture is the very words of God.
God divinely spoke through the authors telling them what to write.
I must admit, This sermon, was a struggle. All sermons I wrestle with on words that I say. I do not want to give the impression that what I say is right, rather that my words are a reflection of God’s Truth found in this book the Bible. I strive to reflect the truth’s of scripture.
I spend time reading God’s Word, praying that God would impress upon me the words that need to be spoken. I pray that God’s Spirit will open the ears of the listeners as they are directed to God’s Word and are moved and changed by those words.
This is the calling God has placed on my life and I approach it with great respect to God’s Word.
When God inspired the Words of scripture He worked through the writers.
Paul, a passionate man, full of truth and knowledge verbally called by God to be witnesses to the truths he presented.
If you want to see how Paul’s life was influenced by God, read his books chronologically.
Galatians 54 A.D.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
Words from a teacher giving the truth to the people who are not meeting up with God’s Standards
1 Corinthians 57 A.D.
2 Corinthians 57 A.D.
Books on instructions for the Church and how they are to live and work out their salvation
Romans 57 A.D.
A book on Doctrine. Setting the people straight on the truths that we are to live by
Colossians 62 A.D. Christ Centered
Ephesians 62 A.D. Christ is to Lord of our lives and the world
Philippians 62 A.D. Rejoicing in Christ for the church
Three years have passed and now he is writing letters to encourage people in their faith. The tone of the letters have changed from the writing of Galatians.
Philemon 63 A.D. A letter written with a heart for people
1 Timothy 64 A.D. A letters written with a heart for the next leaders
Titus 64 A.D.
2 Timothy 67 A.D.
God’s spoke through the apostle Paul in all stages of his life and the tone and description of the words changed as he grew in his knowledge of the word.
That is a living inspiration through Paul.
Holding onto the verbally inspired Word of God, we also need to hold to three things about this inspiration.
God Word is true
God Word is true
The first reason that we Know that God’s Word is true is how Christ viewed God’s Word
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Folks we must hold to this be true. God’s Word, written in its original language is without error.
For those folks who look at the scriptures and say it is full of error do not hold to the inherit truth of scripture. One author stated that if there is a error in scripture then God is with error.
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—
We must hold to that God’s entire Word is true. We can’t pick and choose. It’s either all false or all right. To hold to the fact that God spoke His word, we hold to this entire word is true
God’s Word is complete
God’s Word is complete
The second part of our understanding is that God’s Word is complete. His word is finished. We are not awaiting a new lost part to complete the Bible. It is complete.
The Christian’s word for this is called the sufficiency of Christ.
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
General revelation is the term for seeing God in His creation while His special Revelation is God’s complete Word, the Bible.
It leads us to Christ. The Word became flesh, It teaches us the way of Salvation. Nothing can be added to the Gospel story. It is the full story sufficient for our very lives.
Truth can come for other sources to help support the truth found in the Bible, but our believe in in the Completed sufficient word.
Everything needed to live a life of God’s calling on our lives is found in this Book.
God’s Word is authoritative
God’s Word is authoritative
The final part is that God’s Word is authoritative.
The early followers of Christ that brought the Evangelical free church held to the saying,
Where stands it written.
When I think of God’s word as authority, I think of lessons from Sunday School. There are many things we have been taught in Sunday School as children. Have they all be true or honestly were we taught lessons to make the message more palatable for the young minds.
A boy came home from Sunday School announcing to his parents, he now knows how to Pray. He told his parents that he was taught what Jesus teaches on prayer.
Excited, the parents asked what their son had learned.
The boy exclaimed loudly,
"And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."
we laugh, but their is a bit of truth. Are we filling our lives with God’s truth rather than man’s truth.
If we truly believe that God’s Word is the authority in our lives, do we start with God’s word.
I have been in many churches who hold onto traditions that although good, sometimes are held dearer than God’s word.
Ways to worship, ways to gather, ways to do church.
If Covid has taught me anything, it has made us look for new ways to be a church.
I am reminded of two children talking in church.
Six-year old Angie and her four-year old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church."
"Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked.
Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door?
They're hushers."
God’s Word, said let the children come to me, let them be with us.
Let’s get in the habit of looking to God’s Word as our authority in our lives.
Our response to the Word
Our response to the Word
This morning we have gone through head knowledge of God’s Word.
If you have been a believer for a long or short time, we have come to agree that the Gospel story is found in the pages of scripture. IT is true, complete and inspired by God.
That is our head knowledge. WE need to know move it to our hearts.
Moved to the heart
Moved to the heart
The first step of moving it to our hearts is that we must be marked by those who follow God’s Word.
Does God’s word make an impact on your hearts. As I have said before. Do we look at God’s Word like that of the JIff Peanut Butter commercial. “IT’s like discovering peanut butter for the first time every time”
Has it changed your heart.
At one church I served, I approached a man who was known to be grumpy. There wasn’t any evidence of Joy in his life.
One day I thought I would approach him with the passage
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
I asked him Do you believe that the Word of God is God speaking to us on how we should live. He said, yes,
He knew that in his head.
Then I asked, does your life show the fruit of the spirit. Has it moved from Head knowledge to heart knowledge.
Maybe it should was his response, but I am who I am and I’m not changing.
I think of the many times, I too am like this man, I look into God’s truth and am confronted with the truth. I believe that this truth is from God. But it needs to move to my heart and I must follow it.
Do we really believe
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I am calling up my friend Jim he had told me a story in his life and I would love for you fellow believers to hear part of his story. Some of his story is very personal, but it is one part of the story I want him to come up and share.
Jim
Be Doers of the Word
Be Doers of the Word
We need to be marked as Doers of the word.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Memorize the Word
Memorize the Word
AS the worship team comes forward to lead us in a song of response, I have one last challenge I leave you with this morning.
As good as the car manual was for me, it was the source I went to when I wanted to fix my car.
God’s word is our manual for our life and walk with God.
If we believe in our head, that it is the inspired word of God, and are changed by it in our hearts, should not our hands be that we begin to memorize it.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.