I'm in the Word Everyday

Matthew Allen

Victorious Faith in Everyday Life • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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This lesson discusses the role of the word of God in our sanctification. It is a vital tool for our transformation … we will not be changed without it.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

1 John 5:4–5 CSB

4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 5 Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

What does Victorious Faith in Everyday Life look like?

This month we’re talking about day to day living where we are inviting the Spirit’s lead into our life and surrendering to His instruction through the Word.

Our aim is to become more like Jesus.

More and more every day … closer and closer … in our thoughts, words, and actions.

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

To help facilitate this this month we’re making our sermon series as practical as possible.

We want you to get excited about your spiritual life and know that when you begin and end each day you’re making progress toward the goal of being conformed to the image of Christ.

Last week

we were in Romans 12.1-2 and looking at how God is at work transforming us everyday as we resist the pressure the world places upon us to conform.

We get salvation from God … but what will we give in return?

These verses show us that the Christian life is primarily an act of worship in which we give ourselves.

We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice … as if we were priests placing ourselves on an altar.

We dedicate every aspect of our being to God: soul, mind, body, and will.

It is not only what we can give that God demands, he demands the giver.

Today, we’ll be in 2 Timothy 3.10-17 and discuss the role of the word of God in our sanctification. It is a vital tool for our transformation … we will not be changed without it. We’ll get to more of that in a moment.

Next week

we’ll continue our practical lessons on Victorious Faith in Everyday Life by talking about our need to be busy in prayer every day.

And finally, Cain will speak to us on the 22nd, and focus on living in thankfulness every day.

I’m in the Word Everyday

As I said a moment ago, today we want to focus on the word of God and it’s role in our transformation.

Just how vital is God’s word?

As God’s sons & daughters, we are a people of the book. We know God through the book. We meet Jesus in the book. We see the cross in the book. Our faith and love are kindled by the glorious truths of the book.

We are persuaded that the book is inspired and infallibly written.

We believe what the book teaches matters. We are committed to making it more and more a part of our life … because we know it leads us closer to God.

Psalm 119:105 CSB

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

Psalm 119:114 CSB

114 You are my shelter and my shield; I put my hope in your word.

Proverbs 6:23 CSB

23 For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light, and corrective discipline is the way to life.

This is how we view God’s word. We know our spiritual life will come to ruin without it.

The text we’ll dive into today describes the life that is saturated by Scripture.

In today’s lesson we will:

Look at the context leading up to the main verses we want to focus on in v. 15-17.

Discover two reasons why we need to be in the word.

Wrap up the lesson by discovering why the scriptures have power.

2 Timothy 3.10-14a - Understanding the Context

Biblical Teaching is Important for worship, life, and mission.

3.10-11 - Paul reminds Timothy about all his sufferings for Christ and how he was continually rescued … over and over again.

2 Timothy 3:10–11 CSB

10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

3.12 - Here’s a general statement about persecution. It’s meant to prepare Timothy, and every Christian for that matter, that suffering at the hand of others because of our relationship with Christ is a very real thing. If you pursue God in radical godliness, you will suffer.

3.13 - Don’t go the route of evil people and imposters. It is better to be persecuted for godliness than to back away and go the way of the world having been deceived by the devil.

3.14 - Don’t advance, ... remain.

3.14 - continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.

There is a contrast between 3.13 & 14 that we may miss in English.

3.13 - evil people and imposters will become worse.

“will become” means “to advance,” or “go forward,” or “to be on a trajectory.”

In this case it is speaking of going from bad to worse.

3.14 - continue ...

“continue” is the opposite of “advance,” or “go forward.”

The word hear means to “remain,” “abide,” or “stay.”

Remain in what? Stay with what? Abide in what?

3.14 - in what you have learned and firmly believed.

What’s that?

3.14b-15a - the Scriptures.

The admonition is not to leave these. Don’t advance from these. Don’t “go forward” from these. Instead, conserve them, continue in them, keep them.

And this is our charge as a congregation going forward. Continue in what you have learned and firmly believe.

Continue in the word of God. Don’t go forward. Don’t walk away from it. Continue in it. Stay in it. Remain in it.

It doesn’t matter if it makes us counter-cultural.

This is the course that will actually transform us into risk-takers who embrace the freedom found in Christ.

We do this because we know that if we walk away from the word, we know that it may feel freeing for a little while, but it will always lead to our becoming the slave of every passing way of the world.

So I want to urge all of us today to continue in your allegiance to the unchanging truth of God’s word.

This is the foundation for which we build everything upon … it’s in our mission statement we put together back in August when we moved in this building. Every ministry this congregation engages in … every marriage & family … every meeting of the leadership … everything we teach and preach.

Everything here and among us in our lives goes back to the Word of God.

2 Timothy 3.14b-15 - Two Reasons Why We are in the Word

3.14b-15a - The Integrity of Our Teachers

3.14b-15a: You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, ...

It wasn’t his father … but his mother and grandmother, who are identified in 2 Timothy 1.5 as Eunice and Lois.

Why should he fold fast? Because his mother and grandmother were the kind of believers whose lives gave strong credibility to what they taught him.

They lived it. It sustained them. It transformed them. They had experienced its power and were projecting the image of Christ more and more.

That’s our aim here.

We want to be the kind of church that builds these kind of parents and grandparents … who work to build that kind of young person .... you know...

The kind who has the moral fiber to stand firm for God no matter what.

The kind of kids and grandkids who will stay with the Bible and continue in it all their life.

Steadfastness in the word is the quality of faith and life that each family here should have, as well as the congregation itself.

3.15b - The Effect of the Word

3.15b - the sacred scriptures … are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Timothy is not to advance away from Scripture … because they lead us to salvation. See John 5.24.

There is no salvation from condemnation apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

Acts 4.12

Romans 10.13-17

There is no other authority besides Scripture who identifies Jesus Christ and provides His word.

The sacred scriptures are the greatest treasure we own. They alone make us wise unto salvation.

3.16-17 - Why the Scriptures Have Power

3.16a - The Scriptures are Inspired by God

They are “God breathed.”

When you speak, your word is “you-breathed.” Your breath, conditioned by your mind, pours forth in speech. You breath out your words.

God breathed his words out in Scripture.

2 Peter 1.20-21 - The words the apostles/prophets wrote are his words … and the meaning he intended is carried by them.

Scripture is not a collection of human wisdom and insight. It is God’s truth in His own words.

Psalm 119:89 CSB

89 Lord, your word is forever; it is firmly fixed in heaven.

3.16b - The Scriptures Provide us with Doctrine

3.16b - The first two things are connected to doctrine.

“teaching” is the positive side. Teaching can come from all scripture. The whole of both testaments. Not just the gospels, just the epistles, old testament history, or proverbs. All scripture is useful for teaching.

Teaching is the substance to be believed. It is the “doctrine” upon which every thought and action is to be built.

This is the foundation upon which we build our life. It’s comprehensive.

Every single thing you will ever deal with in your spiritual existence is covered one way or another in Scripture … it is instruction for life … life the way God has designed.

3.16c - “rebuking” is the negative side.

“reproof” is the word used in some translations. The word means “to confront someone with a view toward convicting them of misbehavior.”

So we see the word is not just a builder, it is also something that rips and tears and shreds what deserves to be torn.

Hebrews 4.12 - think of the word picture here, which is very vivid.

The word slices like a sword that cuts. It cuts deeply.

It lays us bare. (Note .... scriptures lay bare … not us.)

So both of these things have to do with content or doctrine.

3.16d-e - The Scriptures Impact Our Behavior

Now, note the last 2 parts of the verse.

“correcting” - to straighten out. “to stand straight,” “to set up again,” or “to put on its feet.”

This carries the idea of setting right, revision, or making improvement.

The word of God will cut us … expose our false beliefs… but it also picks us up / straightens us out / and sets us back on our feet.

God’s word has the power to thoroughly restore you to an upright position.

It doesn’t just split you up and leave you lying there .. it puts you back together again.

“training in righteousness.”

The word is able to bring you up, bring you to maturity.

It nurtures, raises, and grows you up in Christ.

It’s the idea presented in 1 Timothy 4.6. Your growth and training is based on the word of God.

Growth and training in righteousness.

holiness.

Right things; right behavior; right conduct; right thinking; right action; right words.

3.17 - This Makes us Complete

Remember what we said earlier … scripture is all sufficient.

Nothing has been left out.

We need no further revelations.

We need no additional writings of men … philosophies or psychology.

Let’s look at Luke 10.39:

Luke 10:39 CSB

39 She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said.

Will we be like the Bereans?

Acts 17:11 CSB

11 The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

For the Next 7 Days

Just like last week, you can go deeper in the Word by dedicating time to read one book in the bible each day this week.

If you already study each day, here’s a chance to add just a little more time for reading.

If you miss a day, it’s OK … you can jump right back in the next day.

As We Close

2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Some of you sitting here today need the Word for salvation. You’ve not yet come to know Christ.

Read the New Testament until it becomes clear to you what you what it means to be saved. Seek help. There’s a whole bunch of people sitting here with you who will be glad to show you the way to Christ.

Some of you sitting here need doctrine. You’re not yet living the Christian life to its fullest.

Some of you need the piercing sword of the word to reprove your sin … and then let it begin to let the word do its work of correction and instruction that will lead you to maturity in Christ.